We are almost at the half way of point of what would be the 2020 baseball season.

The owners and the players are going back and forth, blah blah blah money, time, COVID-19 blah, blah, short season. They’re trying to reach an agreement on the money and the number of games to be played *in* a shortened season. Back and forth, back and forth. Before they play their shortened season, they’d have to do another spring training stint to get up to speed. This is tricky like everything else since it means physically getting together, but needing to be tested first. I guess five Phillies players just tested positive and they’re busting up that camp.

Honestly, I don’t see how they’re going to pull it together this season in any fashion. Guys like Mike Trout have newborns at home, so how many players are going to want to be in isolation from their families? Lot of little factors in there. Possibly too many to be realistic as far as anticipating they’ll actually make it happen. Jon Lester and Anthony Rizzo are cancer survivors. Some players are diabetic. Are they at more of a risk? 

Even if they hold all the games of the reduced season at their home parks or in Arizona and Florida spring training facilities, they’re probably not going to have fans in there. Or if they do, how do they handle spaced seating, and who will actually abide by it?

In a perfect world, let’s say we get a 60 game season. Evidently, Dr. Fauci is advising against baseball in October, possibly due to cooler weather, a second wave of COVID, etc. — ok, understandable. Since Commissioner Manfred and the gang are trying to expand the playoffs, adding more rounds and complexity, they’d have to start the playoffs weeks earlier, say early September, so that would probably reduce the “regular” season to 45 games or so. 

It gets to a point where if you have a 45 game season, then a 30 game series of playoffs and most teams are involved in them anyway, what’s the point?  Maybe….maybe they should just have the season be one of a playoff elimination gauntlet right out of the box. For instance: 

Cubs play the White sox, best of five, winner moves on. Red Sox and Yankees play best of five and winner moves on. Maybe make it real interesting with some match ups — Dodgers face Astros best of five. 

Go through the first round, and you end up with 15 winners. Odd number, so of the losing teams, the best performing team gets an extra shot, whether it was most runs, highest combined RBI’s etc. so now you have 16 teams. Best of five series. Down to 8 teams, best of five series.

Now you’re down to 4 teams– best of seven series and finally, two teams, best of seven: World Series.  

Since they’re talking about realigning all the teams and divisions anyway, screw American and National league distinctions. 

ALSO, you may as well screw all American and National League distinctions, because the stupid, lazy, good for nothing Designated Hitter rule is coming to the National League anyway. 

Yes, the DH, the main reason why I considered the American League to be closer to Little League than the Major Leagues.

When baseball *does* comes back, be it this year or next, there will be changes that are now on the table. These changes are mostly laughable and although they’re intended to speed up the game, I feel it’s mostly degrading the professional elements. 

In addition to the DH, whenever a game goes into extra innings, each team that comes up to bat will start the inning with a man already on second base, *in scoring position*. 

Yeah. 

Also, any guy a manager takes out of the game, he can bring back in later. Oh, and at a certain point in an extra inning game, if it goes to a certain length, they’ll just end in a tie. WTFF?

I don’t know if the pitchers will have the 20 second clock that’s been talked about but I do know that each reliever has to face a minimum of three batters in an inning. That one, I really don’t mind too much, because it’s gotten to the point where a manager changes up relievers with every batter in the later innings and half an inning often takes up to 30 minutes these days, what with warm ups with every change. 

I *thought* the 3 batter rule was the only new one they were adding but no. This is what it’s come to. Just because there are a lot of honyoks out there with a limited attention span.

Starting a runner at second in every extra inning sounds like the worst of these new rules and very very little league inspired. What’s next, every team and player gets a winners trophy even if they lose? ‘Cause we’re all WINNERS, YAY! Let’s go out for pizza, just social distance YAY!

Oh wait, there is one more bit. Not a rule but more of an error. Since the poor team owners are moaning about all their lost revenue, there are going to be corporate logos on each player’s jersey, –not kidding. We’re turning it into NASCAR now. I’m no fan of the Yankees but I really don’t think they’ll be making the sport better or more interesting by adding a Papa John’s logo to the familiar black and white pinstripes. The Cubs’ logo will not be enhanced by “Toyota” circling it.

But don’t worry, the powers that be say that any advertisement placement would be “temporary”.  

AH HAH HAH HAH HA

Tom Ricketts said the Toyota sign would be the only ad sign in all of Wrigley.

Oh, and we were told back in the ’70’s that all toll booths in Illinois were only going to be around temporarily.  AH HAH HAH HAH HAH HAHA

Sigh. Maybe we shouldn’t bother to play ball.

We are almost at the half way of point of what would be the 2020 baseball season.

The owners and the players are going back and forth, blah blah blah money, time, COVID-19 blah, blah, short season. They’re trying to reach an agreement on the money and the number of games to be played *in* a shortened season. Back and forth, back and forth. Before they play their shortened season, they’d have to do another spring training stint to get up to speed. This is tricky like everything else since it means physically getting together, but needing to be tested first. I guess five Phillies players just tested positive and they’re busting up that camp.

Honestly, I don’t see how they’re going to pull it together this season in any fashion. Guys like Mike Trout have newborns at home, so how many players are going to want to be in isolation from their families? Lot of little factors in there. Possibly too many to be realistic as far as anticipating they’ll actually make it happen. Jon Lester and Anthony Rizzo are cancer survivors. Some players are diabetic. Are they at more of a risk? 

Even if they hold all the games of the reduced season at their home parks or in Arizona and Florida spring training facilities, they’re probably not going to have fans in there. Or if they do, how do they handle spaced seating, and who will actually abide by it?

In a perfect world, let’s say we get a 60 game season. Evidently, Dr. Fauci is advising against baseball in October, possibly due to cooler weather, a second wave of COVID, etc. — ok, understandable. Since Commissioner Manfred and the gang are trying to expand the playoffs, adding more rounds and complexity, they’d have to start the playoffs weeks earlier, say early September, so that would probably reduce the “regular” season to 45 games or so. 

It gets to a point where if you have a 45 game season, then a 30 game series of playoffs and most teams are involved in them anyway, what’s the point?  Maybe….maybe they should just have the season be one of a playoff elimination gauntlet right out of the box. For instance: 

Cubs play the White sox, best of five, winner moves on. Red Sox and Yankees play best of five and winner moves on. Maybe make it real interesting with some match ups — Dodgers face Astros best of five. 

Go through the first round, and you end up with 15 winners. Odd number, so of the losing teams, the best performing team gets an extra shot, whether it was most runs, highest combined RBI’s etc. so now you have 16 teams. Best of five series. Down to 8 teams, best of five series.

Now you’re down to 4 teams– best of seven series and finally, two teams, best of seven: World Series.  

Since they’re talking about realigning all the teams and divisions anyway, screw American and National league distinctions. 

ALSO, you may as well screw all American and National League distinctions, because the stupid, lazy, good for nothing Designated Hitter rule is coming to the National League anyway. 

Yes, the DH, the main reason why I considered the American League to be closer to Little League than the Major Leagues.

When baseball *does* comes back, be it this year or next, there will be changes that are now on the table. These changes are mostly laughable and although they’re intended to speed up the game, I feel it’s mostly degrading the professional elements. 

In addition to the DH, whenever a game goes into extra innings, each team that comes up to bat will start the inning with a man already on second base, *in scoring position*. 

Yeah. 

Also, any guy a manager takes out of the game, he can bring back in later. Oh, and at a certain point in an extra inning game, if it goes to a certain length, they’ll just end in a tie. WTFF?

I don’t know if the pitchers will have the 20 second clock that’s been talked about but I do know that each reliever has to face a minimum of three batters in an inning. That one, I really don’t mind too much, because it’s gotten to the point where a manager changes up relievers with every batter in the later innings and half an inning often takes up to 30 minutes these days, what with warm ups with every change. 

I *thought* the 3 batter rule was the only new one they were adding but no. This is what it’s come to. Just because there are a lot of honyoks out there with a limited attention span.

Starting a runner at second in every extra inning sounds like the worst of these new rules and very very little league inspired. What’s next, every team and player gets a winners trophy even if they lose? ‘Cause we’re all WINNERS, YAY! Let’s go out for pizza, just social distance YAY!

Oh wait, there is one more bit. Not a rule but more of an error. Since the poor team owners are moaning about all their lost revenue, there are going to be corporate logos on each player’s jersey, –not kidding. We’re turning it into NASCAR now. I’m no fan of the Yankees but I really don’t think they’ll be making the sport better or more interesting by adding a Papa John’s logo to the familiar black and white pinstripes. The Cubs’ logo will not be enhanced by “Toyota” circling it.

But don’t worry, the powers that be say that any advertisement placement would be “temporary”.  

AH HAH HAH HAH HA

Tom Ricketts said the Toyota sign would be the only ad sign in all of Wrigley.

Oh, and we were told back in the ’70’s that all toll booths in Illinois were only going to be around temporarily.  AH HAH HAH HAH HAH HAHA

Sigh. Maybe we shouldn’t bother to play ball.

Although the ninth Doctor only appeared in one Series, there are some great episodes to recommend.

*Note: as a nod to relate-ability, producer Russel T Davies set the majority of the ninth Doctor’s adventures on present day earth or tied the show closely to Earth and mostly steered away from alien planets.

1)Rose is the story that brought Doctor Who back to our screens after many a year and it’s definitely worth watching to see how Russel T. Davies creates a new version but one that’s faithful to the classic series. It also establishes the new status quo with a new companion, Rose, through whose eyes we experience the adventure, much like Ian and Barbara all those years ago. 

2)The End of the World is set in the year 5,000,000,000, where the Doctor introduces Rose to various alien races on a space station as they wait to witness the inevitable destruction of earth from our sun going nova. A good primer for learning about this Doctor and the Tardis.

3)The Unquiet Dead. Set in Victorian London, the Doctor must contend with not only the walking dead, and the alien Gelth, but also Charles Dickens. Brilliantly performed, written and directed.

4)Dalek reintroduces a new generation to the metal killers by showing just how malevolent and powerful just one Dalek is, even when locked up in a subterranean bunker in Utah. Great stuff.

5)Father’s Day. An emotional tale as the Doctor breaks the rules, bringing Rose into the past to witness her father’s death in a hit and run. Rose then royally screws everything up by saving him. What follows is death, destruction and Reapers.

6)The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances. Gripping and unexpected horror surrounds a little boy asking for his mommy in WWII London during the blitz. Highly recommended.

Honorable mentions:

*Boomtown – Good character study and morality play when the Doctor has to deliver someone to their own execution.

I’ve mentioned before that Western Springs has a new garbage service that started this year. All in all, it seems to a better arrangement in general, as far as convenience of dumping stuff throughout the week into the two 65 gallon bins (1 regular, 1 recycling) in the garage. I’d say it’s a cheaper arrangement but thanks to all the Buckthorne plants/weeds in the backyard, we’re spending more money on stickers at this point– but that is not the point of this entry.

With the old service, each year we’d get a mailer well in advance about the date of that year’s spring cleaning event, usually held on a Saturday in May. This would be a big day where the Friday evening before, everyone would drag their extra garbage, furniture, you name it, out to the curb for the trucks to pick up. And of course you’d get the scavengers, who’d drive around, grabbing stuff and throwing it in their pick up trucks, usually leaving a mess all over the place because SCAVENGERS. On Saturday morning, it’s always interesting to see what/how many items had been snatched during the night.

Well THIS year, we hadn’t heard about any such planned spring clean up, so we figured the new place wasn’t going to do it. In fact, we threw out a giant rug and a mattress over the past couple weeks wasting stickers a plenty. Because evidently, no spring clean up. 

But then last night, Linda comes in and says it’s spring clean up weekend! Somebody saw a sign and that she saw another one by the church! And everyone is bringing out their stuff to the curb!

So now we had to as well, bringing out Matthew’s old mattress, other knick-knacks, a couple old dilapidated chairs that had been in the basement for years that Linda planned on rehabbing but the two she already HAD rehabbed fell apart (they were really old), so off they went. Everything had to be out there by early this morning.

At 7:30 THIS morning, Saturday, June 20th, 2020, the phone rings and it’s our neighbor Mimi calling to ask if I can bring their giant stone garden roller out to the street as it’s too heavy for them. I say sure, do so, and take the opportunity to go for a walk run since I’m up.

I have a history with the roller. Chris and Mimi have had the stone roller since we moved in almost 30 years ago. It looks a bit like the front wheel of the Flintstone mobile, only attached to a long bar with a handle on the end to pull it around. Its purpose is to roll it over your lumpy lawn sections to smooth it out. I’d used it in the past. It is a big, heavy, stone roller but I never thought it was that effective on my lawn. It’s easy enough to roll on a flat hard surface but I would not want to be the poor garbage man who has to lift it into his truck. But I would love to see a scavenger try it.

So the neighborhood is committed, the streets are fully lined with junk for spring clean up.

Because a couple people saw a couple lawn signs.

I really hope that the signs weren’t a gag, and that that’s what started the frenzy. If it is a gag, kudos to the perpetrator, for conning an entire village into shifting a sizable chunk of its crap.

I guess we’ll see if no trucks ever show up.

Oh man, I hope a scavenger tries to lift the stone roller.

That’d be awesome.

The 1960’s on tv. As a little kid, it was hog heaven. It seemed like everything was an explosion of color and dynamic action. Night time stuff like Batman was great but there were a bunch of cartoons I was addicted to on Saturday mornings during the second half of the decade. It was an odd mix of sci fi and superhero, which I’m sure shocks you. 

Hanna Barbara was just going nuts during the ’60’s in this regard. You had Space Ghost, a beefy do gooder who flew around the galaxy with power bands on his wrists and two young assistants, Jan and Jace, plus Blip the space monkey. Together, they battled all form of space tyrants, monsters and natural disasters. You had Birdman, you seemed to fly around screaming “CAAWWWW!” with his hawk friend, Avenger. You had the Herculoids, the most bizarre group of creatures– mutated dinosaurs, cave people and globs of sentient goop hanging out on some crazy planet and fought off invaders weekly. You had the Arabian Knights, a group of freedom fighters in old world Persia with various powers that would have fit right in with Aladdin himself. There was a strong guy, a donkey that could start bucking and spin into a tornado and a magician who, after shouting “Rosan Kobar!” could change shape, go invisible, animate carpets, turn to smoke, you name it. This was actually one of the animated segments in the old Banana Splits show, which…. yeah maybe another blog. But so many crazy cartoons from this studio.

Why did I love Space Ghost or any of these shows? You know, besides being in the very impressionable where it’s easy to be impressed, it was an interesting mix of dynamic action and a thrilling soundtrack. Hanna Barbara had a really excellent collection of in-house orchestral compositions, all done by Hoyt Curtin. He did all the distinctive music for over 250 cartoons throughout the decade, from The Flintstones, to Jonny Quest, to the Jetsons and everything in between. Every conceivable mood and theme for the sitcoms to the adventures. 

And the sound effects packed an even bigger wallop and they were all handled by one company, Sound Design, all throughout the ’60’s. Again, also very distinctive. It was mostly those SFX that made the impact, even more so than the visuals, which were usually fairly impressive, with character designs by Alex Toth, an illustrative giant in the world of comics. The shows also featured an incredibly talented cast of voice actors.

Decades later, Adult Swim, part of the Cartoon Network would turn some of these properties into comedies with various success. They had the animated Space Ghost, Coast to Coast, which transformed the superhero into a talk show host. Birdman became Harvey Birdman, attorney at law. Birdman, dressed in suit and tie with his mask and wings still in play, would tackle court cases against old animated enemies. They even took the old Sealab 2020 show, and utilizing existing art, turned into a sitcom called Sealab 2021. Usually pretty funny and honestly, probably more entertaining than the originals, which did have their charms. But the Hanna Barbara collection of cartoons was only half the story. Then you had Marvel.

Specifically, the Marvel superheroes show. This was an odd project. There were five mini series created, featuring Captain America, the Hulk, Iron man, Thor (sound familiar?) and the Sub Mariner. Most, with catchy theme songs. The animation was very limited, as original panels of artwork was taken from existing comics of the day, and *partially* animated. On one hand, it was great to see the artwork of Jack Kirby on display in this manner, seeing *his* Avengers battle the Masters of Evil on New York streets in an animated fashion. OTOH, what little animation there was, was often very crude and I’m sure Jack wasn’t getting any extra money for having his artwork used in a new medium. But again, some great voicework, SFX and music rounded out some great stories. 

My most memorable episode? Oh, I couldn’t tell you. The only thing I remember is the Cap theme song and parts I’d the other theme songs. That’s what was memorable, not any of the actual stories. Same with all the Hanna Barbara stuff. Great SFX, music, character design, great, love ’em. But the stories were not memorable. 

The ’60’s Spider-Man cartoon was another perfect example of that. The animation and stories were third rate at best. BUT, the insane, beautifully painted watercolor skies as a backdrop for his swinging around town over a jazzy soundtrack? Fantastic. And the theme song, well who *doesn’t* know it? One of the finest ever. But the episodes, forgettable. 

The next time you’re wandering around YouTube, check out some of the Herculoids, Space Ghost, Bird man, Arabian Knights, or other Hanna Barbara productions from the era.

OR maybe the old ’60’s Marvel Superhero shows, the old Spider-Man show, if only for the theme song. Definitely worth a few minutes of your lockdown time! 

Trilogies are a tricky breed of movie convention. So many things can go wrong–and they have. Some creators don’t know when to stop (hello Sly, hello George) and they flew right past the three film mark. The crazy up and down quality levels of Rocky, Rambo and Star Wars could probably be a whole other blog, but I digress.

Some, like Wachowski siblings, had an excellent film in the Matrix, only to then do two sequels that weren’t nearly as well received. I don’t know if they simply never intended to do more, but the studio backed up the money truck and if so, it’s hard to turn down the extra millions. Or maybe they *did* have a plan but the latter two thirds were simply not good parts of the plan. I’m not sure if the Wachowski’s really ever hit the same heights again with any of their films but they never got a chance to do any more trilogies (I don’t believe).

Two excellent examples of “should have stopped at two” are the Sam Raimi Spider-man films and the Chris Nolan Dark Knight films. 

Raimi’s Spider-man 1 and (especially) 2 are still regarded as the best Spider-films by most fans. The whole main Ock/Spidey train battle in 2 represents some of the best old school Marvel material including even the current MCU output. But then something happened. Raimi decided to co-write the next one with his brother, which resulted in MJ being depicted in the worst light possible, and Sandman being awkwardly wedged into the Uncle Ben death show, AND being a sobbing sad sack. And of course Peter and the dancing and the bangs. At least we got the lovely Gwen Stacy. Too bad it was in this film. Raimi *was* slated to film 4 & 5 together and being the old school fan he was, dollars to doughnuts, there’d be a Sinister Sixth movie to end on. But Sam found out the hard way that fans can be fickle. Maybe he just didn’t take 3 seriously? Maybe that was because the studio insisted on inserting a next gen villain like Venom in there? Don’t know.

Christopher Nolan did a great take on the caped crusader in Batman Begins and followed it up with the epic Dark Knight. He even publicly stated that he put everything he had into DK. The tank was empty. But siren call of “trilogy” rang out, perhaps again with the money truck. I bring up the money truck only because they had plenty of room to drive it through all the many plot holes and past the inanities and idiocy of Dark Knight Rises. At least we got the entertaining Bane. But yeah, Sam and Chris should have stopped while they were ahead.

I suppose we could also throw the Godfather in there. Shouldn’t have gone for three but they dragged ‘em back in!

Superman the movie led off a string of movies, but since Superman 1 and 2 was originally one script, one *could* say they ended up with a trilogy with 3 and 4. But the point is moot, because whether you count either as the third movie, there’s little quality in the former and none in the latter. 4 (The Quest for Peace) ranks down there near the bottom of all superhero films and is a cautionary tale regarding trilogies or quadralogies.

1989’s wonderful and successful Batman led off a very similar descent into crap, lowering standards a bit in Returns, sinking very low in Forever and plunging to the bottom area, nestled comfortably with Superman 4 and the Spirit. Again, the third movie was a bad idea, so it’s no wonder people would start to roll their eyes when there was talk of a third movie. 

Even the X-men franchise was vulnerable. I myself like The Last Stand, but many didn’t. Although some are changing their tune after the X-producers decided to do *another* trilogy on top of the old one and once again failed to produce a winner with Age of Apocalypse. Then they added Dark Phoenix to confuse and depress people. 

Sony tried the Amazing Spider-man but it only got to a second film as it tanked worst than the first. 

But then there are the successes. 

Toy Story’s maintained a solid quality across four movies. Men in Black arguably did as well for their first three films (international was the start of a new trilogy I believe and a very different one).

The Wolverine trilogy is the most uncommon of all. That rare breed that started off with an “so-so” film set in the past (X-men Origins: Wolverine), then did a better job on the second set in present day (Wolverine), and ended with a fantastic third film set in the future (Logan). That is rare.

In the MCU, they’ve done a great job on their trilogies so far. Captain America might be the gold standard with varying levels of excellence throughout. The Avengers simply just kept upping their game with Infinity War and Endgame. As a rule, you actually look forward to the third movie in the MCU.

Maybe it’s because when someone has a solid plan, backed up with solid creative talent, things tend to go well. 

When they don’t plan properly, you tend to get the latest Star Wars trilogy. Yeah, you’d *think* that with over 40 years of history on the line, they would have approached the last trilogy intelligently, creatively and professionally. You’d think. Ah well.

Myself, I’m looking forward to Deadpool 3. It can’t get here fast enough. So I hope they start planning soon…..

You never know how you’ll react when you’re facing imminent death.

I should point out that the following story is true. I have some fairly interesting stories from my past and in the course of this year, I will get to all of them. Half the time, it was me being an idiot, or drunk or both. And young. Yes, *that’s* a swell excuse. But sometimes, I’m put in a situation. The gator dog story I told a while back was another situation. This was worse. This time, it was very close to a no win scenario.

This was sometime around 1990, possibly shortly after Lin and I got married. I’m approximating a year because it was before we had Theresa in ’94 and yet I think I was still trying to win over Lin’s parents or at least make it seem feasible to them that their daughter married a guy with at least half a brain and was somewhat decent. 

I would not win them over this day, no.

Linda and I had traveled *with* her parents to the upper peninsula of Michigan to spend some time with Linda’s brother Mike and his family. We drove up there in Linda’s parent’s van. Got there, a good time was had by all, probably. Frankly, the trip home kind of blots out everything else. It was a six hour drive back from the UP and I volunteered to drive. Linda’s mom, Sylvia, sat in the passenger seat to keep an eagle eye on the speedometer. Linda was in the back seat, ready to take a six hour nap, seated next to her dad, Joe. He was perhaps the friendliest, most mild mannered guy you’d ever want to meet, with laid back sense of humor. Think Bob Newhart meets Winnie the Pooh. Joe also had a fondness for electronics, putting on headphones to listen to sports, books on tape, music, etc. So he was plugged in and would also be drifting off shortly, leaving me and Syl in the front seat. Me staring at the road, her staring at the speedometer, and occasionally having a smoke. I really got the distinct impression she was wary of me operating a vehicle. Up in the UP at the time, I don’t think we had any radio stations, or at least one that would suit both of us so it stayed off. The silence was thick.  

Conversely, the road was thin. A two lane country road, which was currently backed up about a dozen cars deep, all held at bay by an old station wagon out in front going maybe 40 in a 50 mph zone. In the oncoming lane, there were enough bends in the road combined with occasional cars to prevent anyone from passing the wagon. And so it went. We were only maybe 20 minutes into a six hour trip and this was threatening to turn it into double that. I kept my hands at ten and two. Syl cracked the window. The sleepers in the back seat had drawn the curtains on the windows. The van having *curtains* on the windows… there was something off about that that I couldn’t put my finger on. But it made it nice and dark back there for napping. And so it went. Twelve of us behind the wagon. Actually, eleven anxious people in front of me and who knows *how* many behind me?  I couldn’t tell and besides, the curtains were drawn. Beautiful country though. On both sides of the roads, before the decline to the ditches, were pretty little mailboxes up by the edge of the road, sentries made of tin and wood, lil red flags saluting! And so it went. The minutes ground by. 

Suddenly, an opportunity! We hit a nice, big, long, straightaway, with only an occasional car coming the other way. People saw their chance and took it. One by one by one, the cars were passing the station wagon! Children somewhere were singing! Six cars to go….five cars to go….four…three….two, one. MY TURN. Opposite lane was clear and we had a straightway. I wanted to make it as quick and smooth as possible, so I moved out and floored it. 

Several things happened then, or didn’t happen. I floored it but it was only at that moment that I realized the van had absolutely no pick up. AT ALL. Simultaneously, the driver of the station wagon must have been fed up with getting passed by so many cars, that the sight of a van with flowery curtains in the window was the straw that broke the camel’s back. HE SPED UP. Now I’m trapped in the left lane.

So I speed up, he speeds up. I’m pissed off but I can’t even call him a ********** or a ************ because my mother in law is next to me and my wife and father in law are asleep in the back and I hate waking people up. It’s rude.

Only about 20 seconds have passed since I started the maneuver but we’re still neck and neck and now, in the distance, I see a car coming towards us quite quickly. I have maybe 10 seconds to get out of the way. I let the A-hole in the wagon go ahead and drop back to get in behind him but –from what I can see in the small gaps between the curtains, there’s a solid line of another dozen cars right *behind* the wagon AND THEY WON’T LET ME IN. The oncoming car is now honking and closing in. I now have two seconds to get out of the left lane and I can’t go right, so I go left and off the road. 

So now… we are diagonal on the grass, going at what passes for top speed in this vehicle, as the street-facing mailboxes are whizzing by. Above us. On our right. 

And I am calm. 

I know, I know, I complain about this, stress about that, even the small stuff. Worry is my natural habitat. But at this moment, diagonal, going fast, believe it or not, I am calm and say nothing. I like to think of myself as efficient as far as getting a job done, so I employed that mindset here. I just considered my next move, because I have no idea how far I can off-road on this incline. So I move up closer to the street, and see that the last car in the caravan on my side of the road just went by, so I scooted across the now clear oncoming lane and back over into ours, behind 20 cars now. Worse off than before, but alive. 

There was a different kind of silence in the car now. Hard to put this one into words. Syl started to say something “Well…” then drifted off into a mumble. There were no comments from the back but I’m fairly certain they were now awake. Suddenly, I had a real bad urge to start laughing but I didn’t. At that point, we all kinda suddenly decided we should pull off the road to have some lunch. Why not? We were all awake, alive and it must have been nearly 10:30 in the morning. It was a quiet lunch, a very polite lunch. At one point, Syl casually said “I’m sure Joe wouldn’t mind driving the rest of the way.”  Ooohhhhhhhh, no. Nu uh.

“No, I’m good,” I insisted, “I’ll drive the rest of the way.” 

The *last* thing I wanted in the world was to get back behind the wheel of that damn van with that horse power and those curtains but of course you see, I had too. If I *didn’t* complete that horrible, dull, drive from hell, and prove that I could do it without killing the family, that’d be hanging over my head FOREVER. I *had* to finish that trip.

I drove the rest of the six hours. We turned on the radio. The rest of the trip went off without a hitch. You’d think that some day, we would have gotten to the point where we’d look back at that day and laugh. 

We didn’t. 

Sometimes, I take a look eBay for new, interesting, INEXPENSIVE Thing figures–some of which I’ve highlighted here on the blog. 

But yesterday, Lin saw something in a Target sales paper. She asked if it was something I already had and taking a look, I was about to say yes, I’d picked up one of those a while back– but then she noted the size of it. 

!

Stunned, I shifted away from my clase de Espana (I’m-a-learnin’ Spanish!) and said in a such a way as to convey the message that I’d very much like it if my wife would buy it for me:

“Oh no, I certainly do not have that!”

So she got me an early Father’s Day present. 

I present #153 in the Thing collection. The ten inch Funko Pop giant Thing Bobblehead. 

It is the stuff… of which dreams are made…

Well, you know, lockdown, things are slow, then a truly cool surprise, it’s just neat, because the Thing IS.

*side note: with any of these recommendations from any era, all the individual stories are available on DVD and some of the seasons are now available on Blu-ray as well. When going to Amazon, if you go to the TV/movie section and type in Doctor Who William Hartnell, then the name of a recommended story, it will usually pop up, etc.

This basically rounds up the best of the 1980’s and ’90’s, with Doctors 5, 6, 7 and 8.

Why did I not give each of these guys their own post? Because Doctor Who in the 1980’s was not that great. Under John Nathan Turner’s watch, the show was often over-lit, did a lot of stunt casting and bad casting and veered more toward bizarre costumes for the Doctors as opposed to simply clothes, BUT the decade did have some story gems! The Paul McGann movie wasn’t half bad in the ’90’s but the man himself did the part justice. 

Peter Davison:

1)The Visitation is grand story set during the time of the Black plague and the fifth Doctor acquits himself well, in confronting a small band of Teryleptil convicts seeking to accelerate the plague to kill all humanity.

2)Earthshock is a fast paced, four part thriller that sees the fifth Doctor facing off against the Cybermen and sees the death of a companion. 

3)Enlightenment is a wonderful four part story that features a race of incredibly advanced, eccentric beings who partake in galaxy spanning races in solar ships resembling sailing ships from past centuries. Highly recommended.

4)The Five Doctors is a special celebrating the show’s 20 years and brings most of the surviving Doctors back to face a threat from Gallifrey itself. Great fun.

5)Caves of Androzani. Davison’s swan song and easily his finest story, in fact, one of the best of the classic era. This stunning four parter was written by the magnificent Robert Holmes.

Colin Baker:

1)Vengeance on Varos is an excellent commentary regarding violence on tv and is a great primer for Colin but also introduces the delightfully evil and disgusting Sil. A scheming alien slug.

2)Mark of the Rani is a wonderfully atmospheric period piece in the 19th century as the sixth Doctor has to deal with not only the Master but also, the ruthless Time Lord renegade, the Rani.

3)The Two Doctors features the return of Patrick Troughton and Frazier Hines as Jamie McCrimmon and pits Doctors two and six against the Sontarans and the Androgums, dangerous omnivores. Wonderful, colorful characters in this Holmes’ script.

4)Revelation of the Daleks is a bizarre story, filled with interesting characters and dark humor that ended the 22nd season before the show went on hiatus.

5)Mindwarp is an even more bizarre story, with even more interesting characters! Highly recommended just for Brian Blessed! It IS the second story in the over all linked “Trial of a Time Lord” storyline of the 23rd season.

Sylvester McCoy:

1)Remembrance of the Daleks. A good outing for the seventh Doctor set in 1963 and a nicely done story. 

2)The Curse of Fenric takes place during WWII and features the Heamavores, vampiric aliens. Well done adventure. 

Paul McGann:

Although there’s not much to choose from…

1)The 1996 TV movie where the eighth Doctor debuts is worth watching for a few reasons. Although certain bits in the movie seemed crazy at the time (the kiss, the half human comment, the OTT Master) after all we’ve seen in the revival, these revelations are not so crazy. Also, McGann is wonderful as the Doctor and we even get to say goodbye to McCoy before he regenerates.

2)Night of the Doctor was a surprise. A brief, six minute video filmed in 2013 as an introduction to the War Doctor and a lead in to the show’s 50th anniversary. It was a wonderful, magnificent surprise and fandom went crazy with glee. (if you buy The Day of The Doctor on DVD–the 50th ann. special—, Night of the Doctor is included in the extras.)