Stranger Things Season 4

I finished watching Season 4 of Stranger Things last night. Season 4 didn't disappoint, and I continue to be grateful for tuning in and getting invested in these characters when the show first premiered. 

That's not to say the season was perfect. For every hint of a Steve/Nancy Rekindling there was a Wil crying and moping, and for every Eddie Munson there was the ridiculous Russian smuggler. 

You take the good with the bad, what can I say.  SPOILERS AHEAD

The Good: I enjoyed Steve's continued renaissance, my only issue with it being that he's become so dang close to mature and wise that they HAVE to be setting him up to die miserably, right? 

The Bad: Seriously - when did the Robin of Season 3 become an intelligent but scatterbrained comic foil? 

The Good: pretty much every scene set in and around Hawkins

The Bad: The California expedition seemed bleh, minus the shootout, anytime Eleven wasn't around.  

The Good: Nice revelation as to the identity of Vecna. I didn't see it coming. 

The Bad: I like Hopper. But he should have stayed dead at the end of season 3. Resurrecting a character cheats the audience out of the emotional impact of the death and plays with their trust.  

The Good: the scenes with Papa

The bad: Eddie dies for, essentially nothing. Which, in the real world, of course, is what most deaths amount to. But to "buy time?" To "not run away."?  The gang had already been captured. What a waste. 

The Good: how neatly the three divergent storylines merged to take on Vecna, even when separated by continents.

The Bad:  Max dies, but doesn't, and may awaken, or may not. Bah. Another Hopper. She opened the fourth gate, she should have remained lost to the group. 

I eagerly look forward to season 5. I imagine the grand finale will be quite the doozy. 

 

Gregory Itzin

 Familiar character actor Gregory Itzin has died at 74. RIP. 

Shinzo Abe assasinated

Whatever the reason, whatever the rationalization: it's wrong, and it's an affront against the democratic process. 

James Caan

Godfather, Misery, and Alien Nation star James Caan has died at 82. Like Luca Brassi, he sleeps with the fishes now. May he RIP.  

Happy Birthday Dad and Grandma

Tommorow would have been my Dad's 76th birthday,  and today is my Grandma K's bday. She always said my Dad was her bday present. - Lisa

Unless

Solid marriage advice:

Your wife won’t start a fight with you if you are folding the laundry.
#youarewelcome  - Me

Unless you're not folding towels the right way. - Lisa

Happy 4th of July!

Happy Birthday America! I love you very much!

The Indiana Jones doll

I saw this Indiana Jones doll at a thrift shop on Hwy 100. For Christmas 1981 I desperately wanted one, and in fact accidentally saw that my parents had granted me my wish. Yes, accidentally; then and now I prefer my gifts to be surprises. 

But on Christmas morning there was NO Indiana Jones figure, and I was visibly confused. Then, from behind the living room chair in our second floor flat, they pulled out one last gift.  My parents saved the best for last, and I had my Indy:)

That was one of the best Christmas presents I've ever gotten. 

The Big Ten expands - again

So the Big Ten is expanding again. In this day and age, the playoffs have rendered the Bowl system and inter-conference contests superfluous, so here come the super conferences. I admit they are quality schools, and I'm proud the conference is now coast-to-coast, BUT...

I do miss the days of the Big Ten being synonymous with the Midwest and corn-fed linemen who return to the farm each summer. 

Now, it stands for . . .  well, not much of anything in particular. 

Happy Fourth!

I know many feel like America doesn't deserve a birthday party this year but I love my country and love this holiday. WE WILL RIGHT THIS WRONG. I'm going to remain disgusted with the lawmakers, but not my country. 

I hope everyone has a safe and fantastic holiday weekend! I'm very excited for ours! 

- Lisa

Running up the Hill

There’s a kids bop cover of running up the hill playing rn [at the 3rd St Market] - Smiley - Kate Bush's 1980's release has found a new life with Season 4 of Stranger Things

56 Pitches of Shame

 

Now normally, I'd love to see a score like this, so long as we're on the winning end of it. And I thoroughly enjoyed watching the game .  . . until the 8th inning. 

In that inning, this happened:

Now, it's fine, when the game is long past rescue, to leave a pitcher on the mound, even when he's getting rung up, and spare the rest of the bullpen. Except . . 

56 pitches in a single inning. 

Vieaux didn't just "not have it" tonight, he was woefully lost at sea. And yet he was kept out there. 56 pitches on a reliever's arm in a single inning. 

Oh, I know he was well rested. I know he *used* to be a starting pitcher. And I know Fletcher, the Pirates manager, was trying to save his bullpen. 

But F' Vieaux I guess. Risk his arm, and while you're at it risk his head, as a new big leaguer, by humiliating him. 

I know what you're going to say: "Back in the day, they threw that many pitches EVERY inning."

Eh, back in the day they smoked between innings and wore wool uniforms all summer. 

Times change. 

This was, at least in my opinion, ridiculous. 

Smiley's Car

The Glenn Miller Orchestra

I was pleased as punch to drive down to Waukegan, Illinois with Junie and take it a performance by the Glenn Miller Orchestra. This was our second time seeing the band live, and it was better this time, because they finally got around to performing Don't Sit Under the Apple Tree. That song is far and away Junie's favorite Miller piece, and she was super excited to hear the song start. 

The theater, by the way, was of course in Jack Benny's hometown and was quite proud to still showcase that fact!

On the Overturning of Roe

Note: I honestly don't know who wrote this, other than it was someone in Team Slap. The writing *sounds* like mine, but gender clues in the text say it was a woman. So??? Did I ghostwrite it for a family member? Did someone else compose it and forget it? I don't know. 

I am emotional about this, and I don't understand why more people, especially women, aren't.  There was a great hubbub when the decision to overturn Roe came down,  but that faded in the face of gas prices and mass shootings. Now it's relegated to a few angry memes impotent posted on Facebook and just add quickly ignored. 

And you know what really should make people angry? That the same politicians who secured our votes for 50 years on the promise of securing Roe never made an effort to codify it into law,  and even more unbelievably, made no effort to do so *even when given a two month warning by the SCOTUS leak*.

So you'll forgive me if your blithe "just change the laws" doesn't inspire confidence.  Yes,  we can elect new stare legislator's, hoping they're more competent than a half century worth of their predecessors.  Maybe.  But that still leaves me wondering why I need to battle, scratch and claw, over numerous election cycles, to secure a basic right that was law all my life - the right to my own body. 

Not everything should be left up to states. I thought that was largely settled 150 years ago,  but I guess not.  If every right was decided at the local level how many states in the South would have  allowed integration? Interracial marriage? Or, from a different direction,  how many states right now would allow you your 2nd Amendment rights if they had a choice? Not California or Hawaii.

So it HAS to be a federal law.  As for amending the Constitution,  good luck getting2/3rds of all state legislatures (or  Congress) to sign off on calling a convention. We're too divided for that,  and in the meantime,  women suffer. 

That's why I'm emotional, and I don't think it's anything to mock or change. 

We SHOULD be mad. 

Singles turns 30

.  

Today marks 30 years – THIRTY YEARS – since the release of the Singles soundtrack. 

Putting aside the impossibility of such a statement, it’s hard to find words to describe the importance of this album to me. 

It is one of the ten records I’d take with me on a deserted island. Other than Nirvana, it features all the major players of the grunge era, and more. It was one of the first group of CD’s I bought with my “introductory offer” at Columbia House Records and Tape. Most importantly, for a young fan eager to prove the band he was passionate about wasn’t a one and done fluke, there were two mighty, glorious new Pearl Jam songs. 

Hearing Breathe and State of Love and Trust was all the proof I needed. 

Happy Birthday Singles soundtrack. May you be played forever.  

They Did

my report cards really said “she needs to stop reading her own books in class” for years. - YaYa

Burnham Playfield

Couldn't happen for a better neighborhood!  So happy for them. The negativity in the comments of this article makes me sick. I lived in different 3 houses on a block off Burnham nearby spanning the 80s, 90's and even into the 2000's and have countless good memories....and many lifelong friendships. - Lisa

Obi-Wan Kenobi

I finally finished watching the last episodes of Obi-Wan Kenobi, and my opinion is mixed. There were certainly highlights - heck, just seeing Ewan McGregor back playing Kenobi was a highlight - but I thought it was a bit too ramshackle a storyline overall. Too many ideas all tied together with a bit of shellac and a gum wrapper, and few of them even original. [spoiler] Even the much ballyhooed fight between Vader and Kenobi - which I thought was great - was just a remake of the Ahsoka duel from Rebels. [end spoiler]

This isn't a bad show, and all six episodes are fun. But Kenobi is the greatest Jedi of all time, IMO - bruh, he beat Maul 2x, Grievous, Anakin, etc. 

He deserved far better.

RIP Maria's Pizza

Maria's Pizza, a South Side staple for 65 years, closed their doors forever today (at least until someone buys it and claims to have the original recipe. They'll be lying.) 

This inspired a number of mournful posts on Facebook today, and a long line of regulars looking for a final fix. And I mean a loooooong line. Check out these pics:

Here's a secret, just between you and me: I didn't like the place. Paper plates, plastic tablecloths, limp pizza thin enough to be mistaken for a sheet of paper? Nah. Not for me.  

But to each their own. 

Congrats to Ole Miss!

Congratulations to Ole Miss on their first ever College World Series title!! National Champions in Oxford!

Today In History

13 years since MJ  passed,  72 years since North Korea invaded the South, starting the Korean War,  27 years since Chief Justice Burger died, and 146 years since Little Bighorn. Pretty busy day in history.

On Roe

To celebrate the overturning of Roe V wade is disgusting. Anyone with half of a brain should be able to realize what a step back this is. Anyone with half of a brain should be able to understand just how monumental this decision is. This doesn't ban the right to have access to abortions. This bans the right to have SAFE access. - Junie

Wow.

Tony Siragusa

If I knew of Goose during his time as a Baltimore Raven, I've long since forgotten. But I do remember him as a Fox Sports commentator, and to see him pass at 55 is a shock. RIP