We Investigate Anything

Monday 12/16/24

I watched some of Son of Lassie last night. That's a good dog to have on your side, same as his mother. Those Nazis didn't stand a chance.

An interesting book would be on the origins and lineage of punk. The ethos, aesthetics, attitude. This would cover music, art, film, literature.

My mother was seeing the kids last night--I think for some sort of Christmas dinner--so I instructed her again to give my buddy Amelia the two messages that Grammie was supposed to deliver the Sunday before but failed to do so. The first one was from me: Ho ho ho. The second was from the Little Ghost Girl: Hooooooooo Hooooooooo Hooooooooo.

Been listening to Christmas episodes of Boston Blackie, Broadway Is My Beat, and Richard Diamond.

Wrote a piece yesterday on 1936's The Devil-Doll, which was Tod Browning's penultimate film and features Lionel Barrymore in drag. This is from the piece:

Barrymore threw himself into the part. It’s surprising how good he is with all of his elderly-lady mannerisms and touches. Lionel Barrymore could be your grandmother—who knew? Sure, there’s some collateral damage—sometimes in order to clear your name, you have to commit some actual crimes—and Malita gets both used and blown up, but there’s a certain improbable sweetness to all of it. Barrymore is seen and heard as the kindly doll maker more often than not—and when he’s using his natural voice, he still wears a dress and sports earrings—and really he just wants his daughter to know he loves her and he does what he can to help her be happy, which means he won’t see her again.

The film represents Browning at his most sensitive. Horror films of this vintage can have a certain arthritic creak to them, but The Devil-Doll is a spry offering. You want everyone to come out okay in the end. That they will is the longest of long shots in a horror movie, but the batting average is pretty high here, considering. Paul is a fatalist, but someone who believes that a person can work with fate in a sort of partnership, up until a given point. Rarely is a character in a horror film so level-headed and clear-eyed, never mind that he’s fulfilled his apparent promise as an accused criminal.

It is my late sister Kerrin's birthday today. She would have been forty-four. I will call my mother later, obviously, to check on her. The other day she was telling me she misses Kerrin so much all the time. My heart breaks for her and for Kerrin not getting to live her life. She was dealt a very hard hand that she didn't deserve.

Work both today and yesterday on "Thank You, Human."

I find that people who get up earlier tend to get a lot more done than people who stay up late. They take a more active role in their own lives.

Almost everyone now is a taker. Constant takers. All they do is take and seek to take. Very few people are givers. Very few people give anything.

Most people expend more energy attempting to siphon energy--but only so as to take it away from someone else--than they do putting their energy into useful practice which includes building back up their stores of energy so that they may be useful to themselves and others.

A lot of what people post reads as an attempt to get themselves to believe things they would like to believe--for they would like them to be true--that they don't really believe, as if by saying these things repeatedly, they will believe them because they have come true. To me, it's very obvious that that's what they're doing. But you get the sense that they have no inkling at all. And not have an inkling at all is part of the problem. You need the inkling and much more.

When I got to the Monument yesterday shortly after one o'clock--which is when it opens--in order to run stairs, there was a line. That tends to happen on weekends, so you want to get there a bit early so you don't have to wait, which I failed to do.

In front of me were these four women in their mid-forties, I'd say. One of them was fit. When we finally got to the front of the line--they only allow twenty or so people in the Monument at once (I say "or so," because they lose count, and sometimes the rangers ask me, when I come down, how many people would I say are in there)--the four women and I were given the go-ahead at the same time.

The fit one turned around and asked, "Do you want to go ahead of us since you'll be running up and down?" I said "Oh, thanks, that'd be great," but I don't know how she knew this. Anyway, I passed them quite a few times, with one of them saying in each instance, "It's that guy again! He's putting us to shame!" but it was not the woman who invited me to pass before we got started. The basic five circuits for me yesterday, but as I said earlier, I needed to get back in there.

The Monument opening at one is mystifying and frustrating (albeit for selfish reasons). What opens at one? Why would some historical/tourist stop kind of operation open at one? If you went to such a place at noon and it was closed, you'd assume it wasn't opening later, right? The hours are 1 to 4. They should be 10 to 1 if it's only going to be open for three hours.

The Patriots were thwacked yesterday 30-17 by the mediocre Arizona Cardinals. This is what you want right now if you're a Patriots fan: for them to lose all of these last few games and lose them badly. Why? Because the longer they go with Jerod Mayo as head coach, the longer it will be until they're good, and a run of end-of-the-year thwackings means this mistake of a hire is more likely to be blotted out sooner rather than later. Barney Fife would advise nipping Mayo's coaching tenure in the bud.

Robert Kraft had said, "Behold, Jerod, I grant you my taint for the licking," and Mayo responded, "Thank you, sir, I am honored to lick your Hall of Fame-worthy taint, it was you more than Tom and Bill," and then Kraft replied after the licking was done, "You have licked my taint well, you may be the head coach of the football team I own despite having no qualifications or experience or a clue, but you are a like a son to me--a son who licked my taint and lapped lustily."

And this is what you get with that.

They need to move on from this guy. He's not a part of the solution. He has no aptitude for this. You need new people in charge. You need a roster overhaul. You need to help the quarterback survive this period with your team and see what he can do with something better around him. He's made good with what is there, but remember: That doesn't mean he'll make good--as in better--with something else.

I don't know that yet. I like what I see. Yes, there are a lot of turnovers. There is no pressure right now. They are expected to lose. I'm still not sure what Drake Maye is. Everyone else is saying he's legit. I'm not ready to commit to that. Sometimes a player is apt for a given situation, but not other situations. I need to see more. I feel good when he drops back--as in, good things may be about to happen here--but only to a degree. There's nothing around this player, though, roster-wise. He can play relatively loose right now because the interceptions don't matter--a loss is forthcoming anyway. But knowing that if you throw that pick that the result of the game likely changes can alter how you play, the plays you try to make, how well you play. Right now, Maye can play loose. But what if he loses playmaking ability when he can't play so loose? Be careful not to anoint too soon is all I'm saying.

The Bills are so many people's pick now for the Super Bowl winner. Will they get over the hump? I'd like to see them win, but I still see the Chiefs finding a way to do what no other team has ever done and win three Super Bowls in a row. They'll put some tape over this, bandage that, paste it together, and be right there. As of right now, they have home field.

Back to dogs: A book I would recommend for this time of year--or right after Christmas--is the Three Investigators novel, The Mystery of the Invisible Dog. It takes place in that slack time the week after Christmas when the boys are kind of between things, as many people are. Christmas has come and gone, but the decorations are still up. Mary Virginia Carey wrote this particular entry. She tended to play up a supernatural element more than other writers in the series.