Mark Maddrey

Seriously. And I think he is recording himself. Watch the damn game dude!

I can't believe they didn't give Washington a foul for sticking his nose in Ngongba's elbow.

This team...

📚💙 “Libraries existed to satisfy people’s thirst for knowledge. No matter what they want to do with it.” This line from "The City and Its Uncertain Walls" really spoke to me. Libraries are wonderful and need to exist for everyone, not just those who figure out how to wrest power from the people.

💙📚 From Haruki Muakami’s latest “he seemed fond of longer books. Thinner books might be unsatisfying.” This one is short by Mirakami standards but still long. I laughed at this possibly self-referential line. And it is very satisfying, as his books always are.

Hello!

Laura Lippman says it so cleanly in “Prom Mom”, “Paradoxically, her parents’ kitchen, which had not changed for thirty years, had aged better.” The mania for trendy is so out of hand. Trendy will become "un-trendy." Give me time tested and useful any day! I also love the deftness of the writing. 💙📚

The fetishism of "free-DUMB" over having a civil space where everyone feels welcome just mystifies me. Saying free-DUMB over and over isn't an answer. Just to refresh, the 1st Amendment says "Congress shall make no law ... abridging the freedom of speech." CONGRESS, not Bluesky. Sigh.

Charles Kuralt was my graduation speaker in 1985 and he told the story about how Jesse Helms said they should put a fence around Chapel Hill and call it the NC Zoo he was so offended by the free thinking. It was funny then. Now the GOP is successfully ruining it. So sad. We need to stop it.

Make Oceans Deadly Again! MODA!

“Going Zero” is a page turning thriller AND a wake up call. As a character notes, “the real present and future threat is manipulation...” The book creates fully formed characters and puts them through actions that show the power, and danger, of that manipulation. A good and important read.  📚💙

I had a Ragdoll Cat who was so chill the Capitals mascot, a giant eagle, picked him up at a party and pretended to eat him. Then he put him down and Ted just walked away. This was a party with around 35 people and a giant flightless eagle in a townhouse. Chill!

I'm reading "SPQR-A History of Ancient Rome" by Mary Beard. Today I read about Sulla, who in 82 BCE named himself Dictator with “no time limit placed on it” and “unchecked powers to make or repeal any laws, with guaranteed immunity from prosecution.” How I wish SC justices read more widely. 💙📚

I really found a lot to like in "Welcome Home, Stranger" by Kate Christensen, a slim but full book about late middle age, dealing with one's past, and moving on from toxicity. I very much identified with Rachel, the protagonist, and found her journey to be moving. A very good read. 💙📚

Fantastic insight and analysis. I loved you taking on the idea "that the realest Americans can only be found in small-town diners." I am so tired of that crap. I hope that this album will push the rock a little and allow Black country artists that follow a slightly easier path. I am not confident.

I'm so with you. I don't enjoy practical jokes at all, it seems like the humor is the discomfort of the victim, and these days it really brings no laughter.

Actually, read everything she has ever written, it is all fantastic. But these two work best together.

Just read "The Hunter" by Tana French and I'm simply in awe of her ability to create complete and nuanced characters and then put them in real feeling situations. I felt like I was reading a non-fiction account of events in a small Irish village. Read "The Searcher" and it. You'll thank me. 💙📚

[Immediately starts playing "Exile In Guyville"] Thanks for this story, it made my day!

The turnover by Roach was a definite "ball don't lie" moment for the non-call on the foul.

My wife (Princeton grad) said this right before you did. Cooper Flagg IV would be better.

I remember it so well. What a tease. Even Tops got in on the action.

So I suspect I have finished my last book for the year. Another great year of reading. I love being able to borrow books electronically from my local libraries. I find it a bit funny that the least read book on my shelf is by Richard Ford. I guess times passes everyone by! 💙📚