Saturday, July 21, 2007

Smorgasbord Saturday

It has been nearly a month (two days short of a month) since my last Smorgasbord Saturday post. My apologies. This particular Smorgasbord Saturday is full of random news I have been compiling for some time.

First, and most importantly, let me air my complaint with Newsweek magazine. For as long as I have been a regular reader of Newsweek I have been a fan of the My Life In Books column. For those of you unfamiliar with it, it is a small column that asks one person for their five favorite books as well as a book they haven't read despite its importance and one book that they would read to their children. Long story short, the July 23rd edition is without my favorite column!! If it doesn't return in next week's issue I can say without hesitation that I will not be a subscriber next year.

Awhile back, perhaps a week or two ago, Chipper Jones made Atlanta Braves franchise history. I may have already mentioned that he holds the record for career doubles (with 403), but also, with homerun numbers 371 and 372 he tied, then passed Dale Murphy to become the record holder for most career homeruns in franchise history. Don't ask me why the numbers in baseball don't confuse me, but unlike algebra, I can handle baseball stats...

Last night I rented and watched The History Boys. With the same cast and quite similar script as the British play, The History Boys wasn't quite a surprise. Very close to the original script and awfully British, it was still enjoyable and the story was as I remembered it. If you haven't read or seen The History Boys, I would highly recommend it.

Is it just me or does Montgomery County, Maryland get a whole lot of press? Mostly bad, but still a lot of press. Maybe it's just me, but it is increasingly looking like Montgomery County is becoming the new Modesto, California in terms of loads of bad press. Maybe there are just a lot of people in both places. Maybe there are a lot of criminals in both places. Or maybe the judicial system in both places is severely flawed. Who knows.

The new Harry Potter book came out today. Did you all go out and buy it? I was at ShopKo purchasing a book shelf and noticed that they still had a large supply of books. Did it not sell as well (or quickly) as the others? I wouldn't know having never read a Harry Potter book. I'll have to ask my brother--he is a big fan of Harry Potter books on tape.

Speaking of my little brother, this may not be nearly as exciting to you all (or surprising), but last Saturday night I discovered that my very athletic, cool, unnerdy brother can play chess. Yes, chess. The brain game. He can play chess. And let me just say he's good. Good enough to beat me in our first match. Bizarre. Other than being completely baffled to this skill of his, I am quite happy for someone to play chess with. It's just not as much fun online.

Lots of progress with the new Bright Tomorrows facility. I have been watching closely the last few days as the new Bright Tomorrows facility next door has been sided. Very nice looking siding with rock half way up. It's really gorgeous. It looks like from the outside windows (and from a distance) that the inside is also sheetrocked. Lots of progress going on over there. The ramp that comes down the side of the house toward our house is unusually long. It will be interesting to see why that is. I am also interested to see if the City of Pocatello puts back up the basketball hoops they tore down when they started construction. They promised the neighborhood they would. We'll see.

I am sure there are many other things I could add to this post, but seven items should be enough reading for today! ;) But before I leave you to keep cool on this beautiful, hot Saturday, my best wishes to d2 at 43rd State Blues for a speedy recovery!

3 comments :

Jessica said...

Sometimes i wonder if i am the only one who has never read harry potter and i can say for certain i will never read harry potter.

Jared said...

I have never read the books either because largely I'm disinterested in fantasy generally, but mainly because I read a wonderful op-ed by Harold Bloom, a man whose intellect I highly respect, and remarkably I was able to find it on the internet today and re-enjoy his brilliance, so I thought I’d share. Some who know my limited dabblings in literature may remember that my respect for Bloom was not instantaneous, but I hold him and his ideas in high esteem now.

http://wrt-brooke.syr.edu/courses/205.03/bloom.html

Jessica said...

Ha! That was a great op-ed, Jared. Thanks.
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