Monday, January 19, 2026

Monday, Monday

 


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10 comments:

Jerry House said...

Happy California, Patti! Also, Happy Martin Luther King, Jr. Day while it lasts (**sigh**).

By now you have heard via television, radio, print media, and the internet of the Great Florida Panhandle Blizzard of '26, which froze this part of the nation, causes significant damage to property and human treasure, left millions of gibbering Floridians without heat, water, food, and basic necessities, turned our streets into icy runways of death, opened temporary shelters, filled our hospitals beyond capacity, left the National guard on wedge wondering when they would be called up, brought news reporters and camera crew into the frozen hellscape to report on this phenomena, had South Florida drug kingpins fantasizing when they saw on the news little white powder descending from the skies, and caused Donald Trump to restock the shrimp bar at Mar-a-Lago. Fear not: we at Jerry's House of Joy and Confusion are unscathed. As far as I can figure out, we got a "dusting" (Florida Weatherspeak for Apocalypse) late Saturday. It almost covered the roads in Pensacola, there is a photo of perhaps half a dozen flakes falling in Gulf Breeze proper (a couple of miles west of us), absolutely nothing on our street, and= a flimsy covering on Walt Senior's truck a couple of miles east of us. Yet, I'm sure, people will be talking about this for decades.

Christina and Walt braved the incipient storm on Saturday to attend their Wildlife Rescue training session. They are now fully authorized to rescue squirrels, chipmunks, bears, and wallabies in Florida. (Perhaps not wallabies. I'm told they are from Australia and not Florida. Any wallabies here would have to be on a tourist visa or a green card, which means Homeland Security will deport them,) With all the froohaha going on in the country, Christina and Walt wanted to do something that might make a difference. Ern got a start on them; she's been a volunteer at the local sea turtle rescue shelter for some time. I am very proud of all three.

On TV I watched SEVEN DIALS, the latest Agatha Christie miniseries, coincidently airing the same month that the copyright expired on the source novel. Great cast, good acting, dismal plot based on one of Dame Agatha's weakest novels. Speaking of Agatha, I read THE LAST DEATH OF THE YEAR, the sixth continuation of the Hercule Poirot series by Sophie Hannah. Hannah's previous five Poirots were readable and somewhat entertaining. Not so this mumbled mess: unbelievable plot, unlikable characters, aa heavy dosing of unlikely psychology, a messy solution, and a severe case of Coincidence Theatre sank this one.

Luckily, my palate was cleansed by Carmen Marino-Garcia's THE BEWTITCHING, the best -- and most accessible -- of her books that I read. This one was definitely in my wheelhouse with references to writers of the macabre in the past, easter eggs, and several Tuckerizations. Add to that Mexican folklore about witches and I was sold. Recommended even if you are not a fanboy. I also read Stephen Graham Jones's MAPPING THE INTERIOR, about a twelve-year-old boy who sees the ghost of his father. Jones also happens to be one of the authors Tuckerized in THE BEWITCHING. Much of reading week was spend on Internet Archive, which now has seven volumes of the 1930's British anthology series NOT AT NIGHT available. I read them all: SWITCH ON THE LIGHT, BY DAYLIGHT ONLY, GRIM DEATH, THE "NOT AT NIGHT" OMNIBUS, and three reprint collections from 1961 -- NOT AT NIGHT, MORE -- NOT AT NIGHT, and STILL NOT AT NIGHT. I then switched gears and read an anthology from "Creeps" a rival British series, SHIVERS, as well as a collection included in the "Creeps Library," Tod Robbins' WHO WANTS A GREEN BOTTLE? This coming week my reading will head back to the present with the latest Thursday Murder Club novel and Max Allan Collins' THE RETURN OF THE MALTESE FALCON.

Continue enjoying California, Patti, and hope you don't encounter a Snowpocalypse as I did. Stay safe.

8:03 AM
George said...

Western NY is under a Weather Advisory as Snow and Arctic Cold swoop down from Canada. Our weather-guessers are predicting 12 inches of snow and temperatures in the single digits. Yikes!

The Buffalo Bills lost to Denver in the Divisional Round and the Bills fired their Head Coach, Sean McDermott. After nine years under McDermott, the Bills failed to make it to the Super Bowl so...the axe just fell.

Diane and I plan to hunker down this week and stay off the icy roads. Enjoy sunny California!

9:56 AM
Jerry House said...

George, I was going to ask if you could bring Big Orange down to the Florida Panhandle but I won't disturb you if you are hunkered down. Also, it ,looks like we may not need it.

12:06 PM
Gerard Saylor said...

I watched part of the Buffalo Bills game and rooted for them, George.
I gave up on a couple books. STRATA:STORIES FROM DEEP TIME about geology. I think I gave it a fair shot. Geology just bores me. THE STARSEEKERS by Nicole Glover is of a series and the novel trying to cram everything into one book: magic, math, murder mystery, romance, 1960s space exploration, racism, raising teenagers, producing a television show, etc.

Meanwhile, I started THE MURDER AT THE WORLD'S END by Ross Montgomery which is a locked room mystery set in a remote estate home on a tidal island in 1910 England. Nice sense of humor and an UPSTAIRS DOWNSTAIRS theme. I'm enjoying the narration quite a bit.

Weather is cold today with a high of 1 degree and windy. I'm walking back to work after lunch and will wear by snow bibs.

1:05 PM
Todd Mason said...

Dusting of snow on King Day here in Camden County. Crisis amounts for the Florida panhandle, to be sure. Drumpf making noises that he wants Greenland because the Nobel folk snubbed him for Stopping Wars That Weren't Happening, so he'll show them.

4:29 PM
Todd Mason said...

Robert Kagan: “America vs. the World - The Atlantic” [Gift link]: theatlantic.com/magazine/2026/03/trump-national-security-greenland-spheres-of-interest/685673/?gift=B65VRQjMMsZQilGgdT7IHG0GfnUp2fteCP1KaSrd7OU&utm_source=copy-link&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=share

4:39 PM
Anonymous said...

Sorry, Jeff. If you send it to me I will post it.

10:28 AM
Todd Mason said...

Elaine Godfrey on "The War Among MAGA Women": "Sex and the City" "conservatives" (the one featured in the essay is a Canadian "movement" party-planner) vs. "TradWives": from THE ATLANTIC: https://archive.ph/BbYL5

2:44 PM
Todd Mason said...

I suspect King day will vastly outlive Drumpf or his memory...

7:38 PM
TracyK said...

Sorry that I did not stop by on Monday. Monday morning I went to Urgent Care with a bad cough and runny nose, and congestion and I found that I did not have Covid, which is good, but I do have bronchitis. Today we went to Costco to get a prescription for Ambuterol which I would rather not use. I think I feel better today, not sure.

3:40 PM

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