Limerick Friday #651: The Soccer Manages To Overcome The Most Blatant Of Favoritism -- Day 2,319

The competition was heady

The excitement was steady

Despite FIFA's incessant corruption

And every water-break disruption

I miss the World Cup already

Despite toil and strife

Some signs of life

Won a series from the hated Braves

Can the Mets make playoff waves?

Not if the injured list says rife

"Idiocracy" looks normal in compare

To this admin's depravity laid bare

The world's laughingstock

Nothing can be seen as a shock

When these bitches show how little they care

Another year, another infraction

Lombardi getting in on the Cheaters action

A laughingstock is Chapel Bill

The Holes want to die on that hill

More ammo for the sell-your-soul faction

Training camp has begun

Another low-expectations one

For the struggling 'Fins

The rebuilds outnumber the wins

But still ready for that football fun

Last time ...

Day 2,318, Quasi-Quarantine: The Bells Toll For The Irreplaceable Glen Hansard

 

"That's another day over

Go to sleep now, my son

It's a full-blown solid gold

Miracle you've come

"And your mother's a beauty

Your dad's a fortunate man

And he'll be back to hold you

Just as soon as he can"

Like many lovers of Ireland and music and Irish music, I was gutted yesterday when news of the passing of Glen Hansard reached me.

So many of us fell in love with Glen and Marketa Irglova in the stunning, raw movie "Once," and I'll never forget watching the duo perform as Swell Season at Maymandi Music Hall in Raleigh on the heels of that film. The complicated relationship between the two was explored in a heart-wrenching movie, aptly called "Swell Season."

The two would go on to perform together in a strictly professional relationship, with Glen's rough approach blending beautifully with Marketa's grace. We would go on to see Glen perform five other times, including in 2008, 2010, and 2023. 

Every person who was touched by Glen's music has a different story that describes that impression. I will always remember his covers of Van Morrison's "Into the Mystic" and Pixies' "Cactus." I will always remember his audience participation, including allowing a fan to sing a verse on stage at the North Carolina Museum of Art. I will always remember seeing him last fall at the Durham Performing Arts Center and his rendition of "Parting Glass," which has taken on an even more poignant meaning today.

I will always remember his description of the origin story of "Factory Street Bells," which he wrote as part of the process of explaining to his toddler son why his father need to leave him and go on tour. I'll certainly never be able to hear that song again without crying.

Glen had a way of making you feel like you'd joined an impromptu jam at an intimate gathering of friends or stumbled across his appearance at a trad session at a pub in Doolin. 

He was a storyteller, a bard, a troubadour in the true Irish fashion. He meant a lot to me and the best part of me.

I'll miss him dearly.

Ar dheis De' go raibh a anam

Day 2,315, Quasi-Quarantine: Corruption And Ineptitude Still Manage To Shock In "The Cadaver King And The Country Dentist"

 

“‘The Mississippi system was run by the triumvirate for years,’ says one long-serving former coroner. ‘Imagine that. A pathologist, a small-town dentist, and a funeral director … The state provided an audience of adoring idiots.’”

In "The Cadaver King and the Country Dentist," Radley Balko and Tucker Carrington have painstakingly researched and compiled a searing indictment of the entire criminal justice system of the state of Mississippi and beyond. The idea that Steven Hayne, Michael West, and Forrest Allgood were never imprisoned -- or worse -- for their actions, is an absolute travesty. The fact that two of the three are already dead somehow isn't enough.

The reality that racism, politics, and ignorance are running amok in Mississippi won't surprise anyone with the ability to read. The sheer lack of repercussions might, despite our better instincts.

“Coroners were incompetent. State law at the time required just two qualifications for the job: candidates had to be registered to vote and ‘must never have denied the existence of a Supreme being.’”

While focusing on two specific cases of wrongful incarceration, the book unveils an entire system predicated on targeting those unable to defend themselves and the many individuals who both turned their backs on them and actively lied to end their lives as free persons.

Make no mistake: this is an infuriating read, perhaps made even more so by the fact that the work is a slow burn, with the feel of a textbook in many areas. However, the act of reading feels more essential now than ever, as the concepts of truth and accountability are constantly under siege.

“But I ain’t mad at any of them anymore. The system’s gonna do what the system’s gonna do.”

~Kennedy Brewer

Day 2,311, Quasi-Quarantine: Watching A Predictable Mets Loss While Going Back To Cali

Earlier this year, we spent our spring break visiting California. As part of our journeys, we ended up at Oracle Park to watch our Mets lose 7-2. We saw the only contest of the four-game series that New York lost, which is sort of par for the course for our fandom.

Checking another ballpark off the list was tremendous, as in recent years I've seen the Mets play the Red Sox at Fenway and the Giants and Rockies square off at Coors Field, in addition to catching a game at Citi Field. Oracle Park was beautiful and well situated, though the late-game arrival of the seagulls was straight-up Hitchcockian.

Seeing David Peterson get shelled and the Mets mostly flounder around the stadium was strong foreshadowing for a disastrous season. A few months later, Peterson would be relegated to the bullpen and then traded, while New York would be posting one of the worst records in the majors.

On the more notable side, I did have a $50 crab standwich -- the "Crazy Crab'z" -- and my son did eat a baseball helmets full of nachos.

Those were certainly the highlights of our entire Mets experience for 2026.

Day 2,309, Quasi-Quarantine: "Red Sky In Morning" Details Cross-Globe Manhunt As Loss And Vengeance Compete

 

“Night sky was black and then there was blood, morning crack of light on the edge of the earth. The crimson spill sent the bright stars to fade, hills stepping out of shadow and clouds finding flash. First rain of day from a soundless sky and music it made of the land. The trees let slip the mantle of darkness, stretched themselves, fingers of leaves shivering in the breeze, red then goldening rays of light catching. The rain stopped and he heard the birds wake. They blinked and shook their heads and scattered song upon the sky. The land, old and tremulous, turned slowly towards the rising sun.”

Starting in the remote reaches of Ireland and ending up in early 19th-century America, "Red Sky in Morning" follows the journey of Coll Coyle as he navigates the balance between escaping and returning.

Coyle committed a rash, rage-spurred act of violence, triggering a manhunt and a headlong game of hide-and-seek with an almost supernaturally gifted tracker, James Faller. As the two tangle, Coyle finds support and resistance in the unlikeliest of places, all while never letting go of a desire to return to his homeland and his growing family.

“In the boy he recognized the face of his own child, saw the hands of his daughter testing the shapes of stones, heard the small bundle of her voice, and he turned towards the great void of the sea, his breath held in his chest and he looked out into the distance where time and movement seemed to hold still, where nothing seemed to happen at all, a void bereft of love and pain, a great wash of unmemory held in its ceaseless eternity.”

I've been mesmerized by some of Lynch's other works, with "Prophet Song" having won the Scooties in 2024 and "Beyond the Sea" being an early standout this year. 

In his debut, Lynch displays an affinity for Cormac McCarthy, both in his prose and his antagonist, Faller, who evokes the legendary Judge Holden from McCarthy's "Blood Meridian." Faller is prone to existential soliloquies that seemed designed to justify or obfuscate his pure evil.

“To be the last thing a man sees before he dies, Faller said. Nothing will make you feel more alive.

“It’s quite a moment, said Faller. To be the sole judge of that person on earth. You meet his eyes and there’s an understanding quite like no other.”

"Red Sky in Morning" shies away from nothing, exploring themes like incest, torture, cholera, and racism, with Lynch's rhythmic prose lending an aesthetic that clashes with and complements the material. Coyle's morbid stint in America as part of a dig in Pennsylvania is based on a true story, lending a deeper horror to the tale.

If there was a quibble, it would be that Lynch's decision to occasionally shift perspectives between characters can lead to some minor confusion. However, the overall work is sublime, with a clever effort by the author to have the opening and closing language mirror one another.

Lynch has gone on to become one of our most accomplished novelists, but it's refreshing to see the raw talent apparent in his origin story.

“Oh the small place left behind unfolding into a universe. His ear cocked to the absence of it.”

Day 2,287, Quasi-Quarantine: Understated Prose Dominates Elegant Short Stories Of "The News From Dublin"

“It struck her afterwards that what he did in those few years when he was a fighter pilot was merely an exaggerated version of what we all do as we live: we swagger, we are full of pretense there is no real danger coming towards us, we talk as though the enemy is in flight, or under control. As time moves, however, it drags us with it until the time for pretending ends and the body lies spent.”

~“The Journey to Galway”

The settings and chronologies vary in this collection of short stories from Colm Toibin, but the themes of isolation and identity are consistent. "The News from Dublin" is marked by the author's trademark sparse prose and quiet restraint, permeating these tales with hints of melancholy and desperation.

The standouts were the title story, a shattering look at the effects of tuberculosis; "The Journey to Galway," a stark and powerful commentary on loss and war; "Free Man," a compelling view of sexual abuse and identity; and "Five Bridges," a moving and contemporary exploration of immigration status in the age of ICE.

"Sleep," "A Sum of Money," and "Barton Springs" were promising, but felt incomplete, while "The Catalan Girls" was incredibly long in relation to the other stories. With the emotional abuse and neglect at its core, it was rather difficult to read.

Toibin captures the fraught nature of family dynamics, the role of perception in finding one's place in the world, and how nature and nurture can alter the path of any individual. "The News from Dublin" lays it all bare for the reader's consideration and enjoyment.

“ … He would not grow old or live to regret anything at all or be forgiven. Action had given him a strange freedom, as it must have done for others, an avoidance of having to deal with his own complexity. Death, on the other hand, would give him nothing at all. From now on, it would be all absence.”

~“The Journey to Galway”

Day 2,282, Quasi-Quarantine: A Teen Navigates Grief, Neglect, And Family Dissolution In South Jersey's "Ghost Town"

 

“Maybe all that stuff catches up to you in the end, the demons you think you’ve outrun, the bad memories you locked away in a metal box, and then you hid the box in a dark corner of the basement under a heap of dirty blankets, and then you moved far away and did your best to pretend you were someone else. But that box is always right there, right where you left it.”

When a mid-tier author is asked to speak at the dedication of a building in his father's name in the hometown he's estranged from, memories of grief and identity flood in. "Ghost Town" captures the wistful, melancholy nature of bittersweet recollection almost perfectly, interspersed with the summery vibes that permeate many coming-of-age stories.

“ … His mind empty, his body glowing with that peaceful, washed-out feeling you get after a really good day at the beach.”

This book was purchased during an anniversary-celebration trip to beautiful Duck, NC, and it jumped out based on my previous experience with "The Leftovers," which was based on another Tom Perrotta novel. The Jersey Shore -- another old haunt of mine -- was the ideal setting for this quick, relatable read.

The prose is incredibly wry, leaving you to wonder where and whether Perrotta meant to joke or examine at times. His exploration of big teenage feelings is subtle, resulting in the book feeling like a potential coming-out tale in places.

“I used to tell people that I had two writing careers, one for love and one for money, but I don't believe that anymore. The truth is, it’s all been one thing, just a bunch of variations on the only themes that have ever mattered to me.

“Ghosts and Orphans.

“Orphans and Ghosts.

“The ways we’re abandoned and never left alone.”

Much like the overall theme, "Ghost Town" was short and fleeting -- like an adolescent summer that you wished there was more of.

“It was beautiful but a little unreal, almost like he was pedaling through a good memory, a summer that had already come and gone.”