Mitch's Blog logo Mitch's Blog

“It’s a not-so-wonderful life for George Bailey when a horde of flesh-eating ghouls come to town on Christmas Eve.” I love this. “It’s a Wonderful Night of the Living Dead.” youtu.be/AGsB9eJUr…

What John Goodman Knows About Fear (The New Yorker /Michael Schulman)

Goodman “discusses Tom Cruise, the Coen brothers, and his lifelong quest to feel at ease in his own skin.”

You were a Boy Scout? Did you pick up any kind of skills?

Smoking. How to hide it. Where to bury the cigarette butt. A pretty good slew of dirty jokes. Misconceived sexual information. And basic canoeing.

Also:

I was fifty-five years old when I got sober. I was really immature, and I just sustained that immaturity. I wanted to live in “Animal House” the whole time.

I am tempted by the new iPad mini, but I cannot justify the expense after all the money we’ve dropped for vet bills recently. So it’s appropriate that the dog is named Minnie.

My employer is rolling out a new HR system and they are asking us to provide selfies for the company directory. I couldn’t find a recent selfie that I like and I did not want to spend a lot of time looking so I just used this. I am entirely satisfied.

Auto-generated description: A dog with a black and tan coat is running toward the camera with a happy expression and wagging tail.

Here’s something I saw while walking. Isn’t this a nice house?

Currently reading: The Hunter by Donald E. Westlake 📚 I love his Dortmunder light comic crime novels. I’ve heard great things about the gritty, dark Parker series. I was skeptical but so far I’m enjoying it.

A new report from House Judiciary Committee Democrats contains new details about the Trump-Epstein relationship and an alleged cover-up.

Here’s something I often see when walking the dog: This cool futuristic off-the-road vehicle.

I prefer water at room temperature. Not for alleged health reasons — it’s just how I like it. It is my second favorite way to drink water.

My favorite way to drink water is hot and passed through ground coffee beans.

Neagley is a Lifetime miniseries if a Lifetime miniseries had a body count In the middle double digits.

Neagley is the heartwarming story of a psychologically damaged young woman who starts on the path to healing with the help of her loving father, friends and a great quantity of guns and explosives. It’s a spinoff of Reacher. It’s excellent, violent fun.

Three dog house

While walking the dog I passed a neighbor’s house with three very loud and energetic dogs. I almost never see any of these dogs, because they are in a fenced backyard, and I usually don’t hear all three at once, but the full orchestra was out then two barking loudly in different keys and tempos and one heartily going BAROO BAROO BAROO. It was like a modern jazz concert.

I stopped to record it and an older man came out of the house across the street from the Three Dog House. He was behind me. “I’m enjoying the music,” I said, and then I thought about hearing that every day. “Probably you don’t enjoy it.”

Because I was interrupted, I did not record the concert.

The man looked at Minnie and exclaimed, “The cone of shame!” Yes, Minnie is still wearing the cone. It’s been a month. We have an appointment at an eye specialist and are planning to switch vets.

A few minutes later I passed a parked car with a license plate frame that read something like, “CALIFORNIA — WHERE AMERICA’S DAY STARTS.” At least I think that’s what it said. But that does not make sense. As a longtime tech trade journalist, I am aware in my bones that the rest of America wakes up well before California does; when I hit my desk on a workday morning my Teams messages and emails are already full.

That sent me a down an Internet rabbit hole to find out where America’s day REALLY starts — in other words, what’s the furthest point east in either the continental US or territories. There are two possible answers, one of them a technicality.

The common-sense answer is a point in the U.S. Virgin Islands. I always forget the U.S. Virgin Islands exists.

The other answer, which will be great to know for a pub trivia quiz: A point on the Aleutian Islands of Alaska, which goes so far west that it crosses the 180th Meridian and becomes east.

I did not research this point, but I expect that this means the point in the US that is furthest west and the point that is furthest east are a single footstep apart from each other.