It’s from Saturday night at Backyard Ale House in Scranton, a truly great bar/restaurant. We’re seated by the front window, and he’s outside having a smoke. We can see out, but he can’t see in. Result: magic! One of my all-time favorites.
Here’s the legendary Mr. Funnelpants, who is also a fave.
I’m not sure when the Pulitzer people are going to call, but it’s way past due. Right?
We were hammered with some kind of seven-layer dip of winter precipitation on Sunday/Monday: ice, snow, ice, rain, snow, etc. etc. It’s bullshit, and I’m ready to pull up stakes for somewhere else to dislike. Indeed, none of us had left the house since Saturday… until Monday night when three of us went to the ER. Oh, it was quite the coming-out party. The younger boy spent hours on Monday cleaning up the driveway and sidewalk and getting our cars semi-drivable. Then the city plow came through and shoved a mountain of heavy snow in front of our driveway. Grrr… The older boy said he’d clean it up, went out there, and promptly fell on the ice. Yep, broke his left arm in two places. Awesome!
While waiting in the Emergency Room holding pen we encountered at least four other people who had fallen and hurt themselves, because of the seven-layer dip. We also encountered a 12-year old girl who was coughing like a 47-year-old longshoreman in the throes of a Pall Mall seizure. Good god! I thought for sure we would all be infected with SARS or something, but so far so good. Not sure about the incubation period, though.
Here’s a vibrant color photo I took of a tree in our front yard yesterday. The colors just leap off the screen, don’t they? Oh, it’s lovely. As I type this Spring Training is only 70 days away, though. It gives me something to cling to.
I recorded a new episode of the podcast yesterday and posted it last night when we returned from the hospital. It’s basically about the weekend — my big birthday weekend (ha!) — before the seven-layer commenced. Among other things, I discuss:
- Veronica Mars
- Kareem Abdul Jabbar
- the Yin-Yang of Facebook
- Primanti Bros.
- Backyard Ale House
- Jack Ryan
- The Devil Next Door
- my Cyber Monday purchases
- a local celebrity sighting at the beer store
You can listen wherever you get podcasts, or right here:
Unfortunately, I’m pretty much done with my days off at work now. At least for 2019. I’m not sure how I’ll handle big honkin’ five days weeks again. It’s been a while. Ugh. Oh well.
For a Question, I’d like to know which streaming services you currently subscribe to. It feels like there are dozens of them now. I’m on Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon. It already feels excessive, yet they keep coming and coming. Also, do you pay for any website subscriptions? Apps or sites you pay for yearly or monthly? I just took advantage of a Cyber Monday sale and signed up for The Athletic, a sports site. I also pay for MLB At Bat, at $2.99 per month. And there’s Spotify and Sirius/XM… Shit! It’s gotten out of hand. What do you have on this subject? Share it, won’t you? You know, if you feel comfortable doing so.
And I’m calling it a day, my friends. I need to prepare for work. Physically… emotionally… and spiritually.
Have a great day!
I’ll be back soon.
Support us with a monthly $4 donation at Patreon, and get an extra podcast episode every week! We’re also at Venmo (@thewvsr) and PayPal ([email protected]). Thank you, guys!
Love the photo!
We subscribe to…
YouTube TV for our immediate television addictions
Netflix
Amazon Prime
and soon I’ll be pulling the trigger on HBO Now
The HBO app will be the official rotating app. Once done with certain series, it’ll be on to the next app in the rotation.
As for music… It’s Spotify. We’ve tried the Amazon Prime streaming, but it just doesn’t meet our needs. So we got the family plan on Spotify and everyone is pleased.
I’m subscribed to:
Amazon Prime
HBO (for Curb Your Enthusiasm strictly)
Disney+ (came free with my Verizon account)
I have the Netflix DVD subscription, but not instant streaming. I’ve either seen most of the movies on streaming or it’s flaming garbage. People are shocked that they still offer DVD’s and Blu Rays.
That’s an album cover.
Hilarious!
I’ve often wondered what Mr. Duke was seeing out that window.
That tree photo is actually quite beautiful.
I’ve had Amazon Prime since the days when it was only about free shipping. Now that I have a fast enough internet connection to use the video – and a TV that knows what to do with it – I’m not sure *I* know what to do with it. Last year I wanted to watch Star Trek Discovery, so I got the 30 day free trial for CBS Whatever It’s Called. Watched the entire season, then cancelled before the free period ended.
It sounds like Secret Two might be out for the season; I hope it’s not too painful in any sense of the word. Best to all of you.
Looks like the movie poster for a new biopic about the notorious Lido “Lee” Iacocca, developer of the famed Ford Pinto.
He also developed the Mustang, so there’s that.
…and old Lido would be horrified to see what the new “Mustang” is.
“We also encountered a 12-year old girl who was coughing like a 47-year-old longshoreman in the throes of a Pall Mall seizure. ” — pure comedic gold!
What kind of place of business is the Mr. Funnelpants in? It’s part office, part bank, part restaurant and part Dollar Store. I can’t stop staring at it.
Sorry about the Secret’s injury.
The Smoker looks like he’s thinking some very dark thoughts like what to write in his suicide note. The Smoker needs a hug, Jeff.
Pretty sure that’s a banking kiosk in the grocery store (Weis Markets). That’s the seasonal display in the background.
Not very interested in digital streaming services, but a related question is what’s your favorite moving body of water. When I was young, I favored rivers — floated them in intertubes with a bottle of wine tied to the tube and submerged for cooling. In middle age, I grew fonder of streams. They are more musical and easier to ford on backwoods treks. In late middle age, I came to favor creeks (or cricks), for both their ever changing tunes and for their accessibility: one can jump from rock to rock and cross them dry with luck. Now in old age, I’ve come to favor brooks, both for their melodious tinkling (frequently accompanied by birdsong) and for their transience, appearing in fall, winter and spring, and sometimes vanishing in summer.
John
This is Robert Frost’s short poem about his favorite brook . . .
HYLA BROOK
By June our brook’s run out of song and speed.
Sought for much after that, it will be found
Either to have gone groping underground
(And taken with it all the Hyla breed
That shouted in the mist a month ago,
Like ghost of sleigh bells in a ghost of snow)—
Or flourished and come up in jewelweed,
Weak foliage that is blown upon and bent,
Even against the way its waters went.
Its bed is left a faded paper sheet
Of dead leaves stuck together by the heat—
A brook to none but who remember long.
This as it will be seen is other far
Than with brooks taken otherwhere in song.
We love the things we love for what they are.
Robert Frost
Jeff- Pulitzer won’t call. I learned that to be considered you must be nominated by a member organization. So all the little boys and girls dig through their stories and photos looking for submission worthy material. Then you pay to submit. It’s kind of a scam IMHO
Maybe it’s just me, but that picture has an Eraserhead vibe to it.
Whoa!
The Army isn’t blocking this website anymore.
Nice.
Now I have months/years to catch up on.
WHAT DID I MISS!!!??
Hi Ice.
Jeff has gone from daily to thrice-monthly posts.
There’s a madman in the White House.
Life is still short.
There might be other stuff you missed, but that pretty much hits the high points.
John
I signed up with Hulu on Black Friday – $1.99/mo for one year (there are ads, but, oh well). I only want to watch Lodge 49 again, but I see a few more shows on there that seem right up my alley.
I like the ripe peach overlaid on white color theme, which I just noticed, but my inexplicable first reaction was that I really miss the original smoking fish. What I miss just less than that are the surf reporter traveling fish sightings/selfies.
Smoking is really bad for you, especially if you’re a fish, but I value my smoking fish t-shirt as a memory of seriously funny writing from the past. After smoking has killed me, I plan to get roasted in my smoking fish t-shirt, but, with my hands off the steering wheel at that point, cooler heads might prevail. Please, just no fucking suits.
John