Day 1,777, Quasi-Quarantine: NYC Dreams, Calculations Of Self-Worth Not Enough To Propel Highly Awaited "Entitlement"

 

“Matthew said, often, that most jobs were just sending email. The pay was good, and there were sometimes free martinis. What more could you want?”

As a follow-up to "Leave the World Behind," this book struggles to find its flow, ultimately leaving readers to wonder where the plot was left behind. Rumaan Alam goes all in on a narrator with no interiority, creating a surface-level perspective you're not sure you can trust.

“She would not allow that there was something unnatural in being her own first priority.”

“The thing that makes life interesting is that it ends. The thing that makes love worthwhile is that it’s all we’ve got.”

"Entitlement" is often confusing in what feels like an intentional way, relying on incidents that may or may not have happened and dialog that may or may not have been spoken. Alam has his moments, as Brooke casts about for meaning and worth, but the novel ultimately fades under its own weight and the one-dimensionality of its main characters.

“This is what is happening. This is what people are doing. There are men with this much money and it’s not that they control the world. They’ve defeated it. They’ve left it. They live somewhere above the rest of us and we spend our days not knowing this because if we did we would all lose our minds.”

Day 1,775, Quasi-Quarantine: Remote Scottish Island Provides Moody Backdrop For Unexpected Hope That Marks The Beautiful "Clear"

 

“I have the cliffs and the skerries and the birds. I have the white hill and the round hill and the peaked hill. I have the clear spring water and the rich good pasture that covers the tilted top of the island like a blanket. I have the old black cow and the sweet grass that grows between the rocks, I have my great chair and my sturdy house. I have my spinning wheel and I have the teapot and I have Pegi, and now, amazingly, I have John Ferguson too.”

A stark and beautiful exploration of solitude, repression, and religion, "Clear" is a masterpiece of understated intensity. Carys Davies channels inner emotion and turmoil with little to no reliance on dialogue, employing the Scottish isle as another character.

“In the old days, the minister had read to them from the Bible in a language they didn’t understand, and then shouted at them in a terrible approximation of their own tongue.”

The travails of John Ferguson, his wife, and island hermit Ivar are absorbing, ushered along by Davies's mastery of flow and rhythm. The cloistered atmosphere becomes nearly claustrophobic, as the emotional tension becomes nearly unbearable at times.

“He wanted urgently, suddenly, to know the answer, to be able to describe things as they were instead of only guessing at them.”

I will admit that I did find myself wondering why John never went back to the Barries house for supplies, food, or clues. Outside of that nit, this book was one of my top reads of the year, even though much of it took place while waiting at my son's soccer practice.

"Clear" uses few words to pack an emotional punch you'll feel for a long time after reading.

“It was as if all three were carrying inside themselves the delicate balance of what they were doing, and were afraid to disturb it in any way.”

Day 1,771, Quasi-Quarantine: "Loudermilk" Accurately Captures Writer Culture And Authenticity

“You have to have something that no one can take away from you, that you can do even if you are in prison. That’s what poetry is.”

Lucy Ives has created a hysterical tale that evokes David Foster Wallace in the competitive world of writing workshops. "Loudermilk" features memorable characters, rampant hijinks, smooth dialogue, and enough of the ridiculous to keep the pages turning.

“Not only is it too hot in this room, it also stinks of something all kinds of rank that Harry peevishly identifies as pizza farts plus Vagisil.”

Some readers may find themselves wishing for more insight into Loudermilk's motivations, and others may find Clare's narrative a bit unnerving, but much of the novel seems to revolve around intentional disorientation. Read through that lens and without the need to think too hard, "Loudermilk" is an absorbing, hilarious adventure.

“Writing cannot be taught, and here is the reason why: You write, not to address the world as it is, but to create the world all over again. Truly great writing does that.”

Day 1,769, Quasi-Quarantine: Incredible Lego Typewriter Struck The Right Holiday Chord

 

Having received the Lego Typewriter (#21327) as a Christmas present nearly a year beforehand, I finally got around to building this memorable set.

Checking in at 2,079 pieces, this build was intricate, enabling movable type and an authentic touch and feel. Derived from a fan idea, this set evoked a lot of nostalgia for my college days ... I could almost taste the Vivarin and mild panic of the night before a term paper was due.

All in all, this was a challenging build, with a few difficult-to-manipulate steps. But the end result was stunning, lending a welcome addition to the office decor.

You've done it again, Lego. Damn you.

Day 1,768, Quasi-Quarantine: "Steal Like An Artist" Is Mostly A Lengthy Motivational Poster, But Manages To Stick

 

Long on inspiration, "Steal Like an Artist" is more a daily affirmation than a blueprint for creativity. Austin Kleon's whimsical, visual approach lends itself to an easy, quick read.

While some readers may be looking for more concrete and actionable guidance, those who embrace Kleon's message will find important pearls about impostor syndrome, time management, and a number of other topics.

"Steal Like an Artist" hits hardest when it nails the many reasons why we say we can't -- when the focus should always be on just seeing what happens when we try.

Limerick Friday #629: "Star Wars" Finds Balance In The Dramedy Force-- Day 1,767

"Skeleton Crew" was a delight

Livening up Tuesday night

It's "Goonies" in space

We all did embrace

I miss it already, all right

Sloppy and one-dimensional play

Crushing losses the order of the day

Injuries and missed shots every night

This is NC State's plight

The Final Four feels so far away

"Severance" back tonight

"Silo" is trying with might

It all seems must-see

Across Apple TV

Bringing great stories to light

A playoff fantasy team

Trying to hold together at the seam

Tricky to navigate

Difficult to speculate

Enter that Galfianakis math meme

Fantasies bordering the absurd

Thought you could quit with a word

But the curves didn't quit

A hold that doesn't diminish a bit

Powerless against the Jaybird

Last time ...

Day 1,766, Quasi-Quarantine: "Rules Of Civility" Mesmerizes As Coming-Of-Age Tale Set In 1930s NYC

 

“We launched ourselves into the evening like satellites and orbited the city two miles above the Earth, powered by failing foreign currencies and finely filtered spirits.”

Amor Towles's stunning debut novel (to be followed by instant classics like "A Gentleman in Moscow," "Lincoln Highway," and "Table for Two") beautiful renders a Manhattan poised between the end of the Depression and the start of the Second World War.

Katherine Kontent finds herself carried into new social stratospheres, juggling the demands of a career and struggling to find her romantic place in an unfamiliar caste.

“He looked like a man who had gained confidence through exposure to a hostile environment; like one who no longer owed anything to anyone.”

To keep the reader on their toes, the protagonist sleeps with at least three dudes in under a year, then, for good measure, had an intense lesbian encounter with an older woman who had pimped out her love -- all in the conservative year of 1938!

“One must be prepared to fight for one’s simple pleasures and to defend them against elegance and erudition and all manner of glamorous enticements.”

In important ways, the novel also works as a love letter to New York, despite its precarious situation: poised at the edge of a massive depression and unspeakable loss by so many. Towles's beautiful imagery and rhythmic pacing are perhaps never on better display than in his descriptions of the city.

“For however inhospitable the wind, from this vantage point Manhattan was simply so improbable, so wonderful, so obviously full of promise – that you wanted to approach it for the rest of your life without ever quite arriving.”

“--That’s the problem with being born in New York, the old newsman observed a little sadly. You’ve got no New York to run away to.”

“Most New Yorkers spent their lives somewhere between the fruit cart and the fifth floor. To see the city from a few hundred feet above the riffraff was pretty celestial. We gave the moment its due.”

"Rules of Civility" somehow demonstrates Towles at his fully formed best, wielding elegant prose in service of vivid characters, an unerring sense of time and setting, and a chronology that unceasingly builds. 

Beautifully wrapped by a stellar ending, the novel is both transporting and engrossing, capturing elements of melancholy, love, and carpe diem in equal measure.

“As a quick aside, let me observe that in moments of high emotion – whether they’re triggered by anger or envy, humiliation or resentment – if the next thing you’re going to say makes you feel better, it’s probably the wrong thing to say. This is one of the finer maxims that I’ve discovered in life. And you can have it, since it’s been of no use to me.”

Day 1,765, Quasi-Quarantine: The Scooters Make A Triumphant Return To Fantasy Football Land

 

My first experience in fantasy football in a few years was a reminder of how much I missed league play. Spending 20 years in an incredibly competitive 14-team league could be really demanding and intense, so joining a relegation league on one side of a 12-team slate was a welcome re-entry to the game.

Powered by a draft-day steal (Baker Mayfield in the ninth round), a shrewd trade (picking up Sam Darnold for Tony Pollard), and a straight-up freak (Ja'Marr Chase), the Scooters won the championship. I used the cash prize to upgrade my vinyl system 👌

Continuing the season, I accepted an invitation to join a playoff fantasy football league, which is a new challenge for me. We used a spreadsheet draft (thanks, Microsoft Teams) to build a roster out of playoff teams, with the approach being that you only accrue points cumulatively from players who are still active throughout the postseason.

So we'll see how that goes, as I acquired a co-GM in my son. No matter what happens, this has been a really fun and entertaining re-introduction to fantasy football, bringing back some cool memories (and yes, a little cursing of bad luck) along the way.

Go Scooters! 🏆

Day 1,764, Quasi-Quarantine: "Among The Thugs" Stunningly Depicts Football Hooliganism

“What principle governed the British sporting event? It appeared that, in exchange for a few pounds, you received one hour and forty-five minutes characterized by the greatest possible exposure to the worst possible weather, the greatest number of people in the smallest possible space, and the greatest number of obstacles – unreliable transportation, no parking, an intensely dangerous crush at the only exit, a repellent polio pond to pee into, last minute changes of the starting time – to keep you from ever attending a match again.

“And yet, here they all were, having their Saturday.”

"Among the Thugs" progressed from a little hilarious to sort of scary to a lot sad, and Bill Buford's experience with football "supporters" in England seemed to mirror those stages.

“This was a mouth through which a great deal of life had passed at, it would appear, an uncompromising speed.”

“This bored, empty, decadent generation consists of nothing more than what it appears to be. It is a lad culture without mystery, so deadened that it uses violence to wake itself up. It pricks itself so that it has feeling, burns its flesh so that it has smell.”

Buford struggles to articulate the disenfranchisement that propels and informs the mob mentality required to lose control in so many different fashions.

“What social mutation had resulted in these bored ugly boys of the Union Jack believing they are entitled to inflict this pain, this fright?” 

Evocative of Hunter S. Thompson's "gonzo journalism," the author finds himself in the middle of the action and part of the story as he's involved in attacks, melees, brawls, and crimes. Though Buford occasionally gets perhaps a little too existential, the story was utterly captivating.

“In the vernacular of the supporters, it had now ‘gone off.’ With that first violent exchange, some kind of threshold had been crossed, some notional boundary: on one side of that boundary had been a sense of limits, an ordinary understanding – even among this lot – of what you didn’t do; we were now someplace where there would be few limits, where the sense that there were things you didn’t do had ceased to exist. It became very violent.”

By the end of the book, he is frustrated, angry, and more than a little bored with the "little shits" he encounters as part of the hooligan lad culture. Attacked by Sardinian police as part of a match march, Buford finally comes to terms with his addiction to the mob mentality and is able to end his eight-year obsession with it as this stunning -- and brave -- book ends.

“It was, I see now on reflection, not unlike alcohol or tobacco: disgusting, at first; pleasurable, with effort; addictive, over time. And perhaps, in the end, a little self-destroying.”

Day 1,763, Quasi-Quarantine: The "12 Days Of IPA" Closes With Recognizable But Smooth Reveals

 

The first, second, and third weeks detailed the roller-coaster ride of the "12 Days of IPA" advent-calendar experience, and the final week kept to that theme, with the following reveals:

Lagunitas Brewing Beast of Both Worlds IPA

Dogfish Head 60-Minute IPA

Cycle Brewing Crank IPA

Beer aficianados will certainly recognize Lagunitas and Dogfish Head, the breweries based in northern California and Delaware, respectively. 

Beast of Both Worlds is a limited-release "bi-coastal IPA" that combines west and east coast hops in an enjoyable 8% ABV banger, while the 60-Minute IPA builds off the classic 90-Minute IPA at a drinkable 6% ABV.

Cycle Brewing is another Florida-based brewery, and the Crank IPA is an ultra-fruity 7-percenter that has a pale, hazy color and a reliance on citra hops. This was a really nice pour.

Overall, I was slightly disappointed at the lack of geographical diversity and the reliance on mainstream-ish breweries, but there were enough newcomers mixed in to make the effort worthwhile.

Here's to 2025, folks ... cheers.

Limerick Friday #628: Yellowjackets, Dolphins, And Overblown Lambs, Oh My-- Day 1,760

"Yellowjackets" had me hooked quick

A good balance of relatable and sick

Clever timeline meld

Good writing to see how they jelled

This is a show that could stick

Another lost season

Mediocrity beyond reason

But Grier remains

And Ross stains

Committing franchise treason

Season 2 came off a little poor

But "Yellowjackets" will never bore

A little neurotic

And a lot chaotic

This was not the season I hoped for

Tyreek can't play in the cold

Half the passes, he can't hold

"Cheetah," they call his loser ass

Not for his speed on the grass

But for how quick he does fold

Delusions on repeat

UNC shotguns its feet

To seem, rather than to be

Is the Tar Hole mentality

A fitting spot for Belicheat

Last time ...

Day 1,759, Quasi-Quarantine: The Holidays Mean A Puzzling Time In More Ways Than One

 

The 500-piece "Toy Workshop" from Galison was not too stressful and had some delightful images. Measuring 20 x 20 and created by Michael Storrings, this puzzle had just enough difficulty to allow for everyone to make a contribution while still making it challenging.

8.1 out of 10, would piece together while listening to Christmas music again

Day 1,757, Quasi-Quarantine: "Good Girl, Bad Blood" Is Back, With A Shift In Country And Secrets

Teen-crime aficianado Pippa Fitz-Amobi is back in the sequel to "A Good Girl's Guide to Murder," with the events of the first book propelling her into a renowned true-crime podcaster. Fortunately, living in the unluckiest and coincidental small town ever is a boon to Pip, as the disappearance of her best friend's brother gives her ripe material for new episodes and another calling toward detective work.

My edition of the book randomly moved the events from England to the United States, which was slightly jarring. But Holly Jackson's customary pacing travels well and is in full effect, as Pip, Ravi Singh, and Connor Reynolds explore their town's dark secrets and slew of shady characters. 

Suspension of disbelief is certainly required on occasion, but "Good Girl, Bad Blood" is full of fun twists and turns if you allow yourself to indulge.

Day 1,753, Quasi-Quarantine: In Surprising Twist, Scam Advent Calendar Wraps Up In Non-Terrible Fashion

 

As we know from weeks one, two, three, and four of the scam National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation advent calendar, bemused ridiculousness has been the dominant theme.

I'm happy to report that the final week of the calendar was perhaps the most coherent, revealing the following:

Day 21: Pool

Day 22: Rusty

Day 23: Moose mug

Day 24: Uncle Lewis

For the first time this month, I found these reveals to be immediately identifiable, which feels like a win.

Despite the mild uptick at the end, I still found myself missing the Star Wars Lego advent calendar. Instead of overthinking things next holiday season, I think I'll go back to the ol' standby.

Holy shit. Happy New Year. Where's the Tylenol?