Posted Thursday afternoon, May 23, 2019. One of the best opening sentences in the history of magazine journalism: To keep the rest of the county happy, New York maintains an ever-normal granary of acrobats in hotels in cross-streets off Eighth Avenue. ---from "Handspring Hall" by A.J. Liebling. Continue reading

Posted Thursday morning, May 23, 2019. Woke up before dawn this morning feeling lost and depressed, so I spent the hour before sunrise trying to find my way with the Way. Had some success… Kitchen table, bunkhouse mess hall, the Mannionville Ranch, four-thirty, Thursday morning, May 23, 2019. Good works are trackless, good words are flawless, good planning isn't calculating. What is well closed has no bolt locking it, but cannot be opened. What is well bound has no rope confining it, but cannot be untied. Therefore sages always consider it good to save people, so that there are no... Continue reading

Mined from the notebooks Monday, May 13, 2019. Posted Tuesday afternoon, May 21. Took Mrs M and Ken up to mass yesterday morning [Mother’s Day] for my weekly dose of contact holiness. I didn’t go into the church, of course. While Mrs M and Ken kept the sabbath by going to church, I made a pilgrimage to McDonald’s for a sacramental cup of coffee and to make use of the WiFi. Oliver stayed home. He and I are the house heathens. Ken is questing and mass gives him an hour to contemplate and meditate on existential questions in familiar surroundings.... Continue reading

Posted Tuesday morning, May 21, 2019. “Moonlight” by Winslow Homer, 1874. Via Wikimedia. Tuesday. 5:30 a.m. 45 degrees. Wind out of the north, 6 mph. It’s not August. It’s not the middle of the night. It’s five-thirty. Just after dawn. It was raining, softly, but it’s stopped. I’m not out on a deck. I was on the front porch with my coffee, not tea, but it got too chilly. But this poem by Sam Hamill describes my morning so far perfectly, at least the mood and the physical feel of it. So at the moment I love every line of... Continue reading

Adapted from the Facebook feed, Sunday morning, May 19, 2019. Posted Monday morning, May 20. Heaven isn’t a place where nothing ever happens. They serve coffee there! Good coffee! A little bit of heaven in Schenectady. Denny’s, downtown, after mass, Sunday, May 19, 2019. We're up at the old Mannion Homestead, visiting Mom Mannion. We took her to mass and then out to brunch as a belated Mother's Day and birthday celebration---her birthday was Tuesday, her first without Pop Mannion. Coincidentally, the message on the mug is what Father Bob said heaven is in his sermon this morning. So, according... Continue reading

Posted Saturday morning, May 18, 2019. Golden State Warriors Superstar and superhero Stephan Curry showing off his poor attitude during warm-ups before a game against the Los Angeles Lakers, February 2, 2019. Photo by Santiago Mejia, courtesy of the San Francisco Chronicle. Steph Curry has been playing like the Steph Curry of old since Kevin Durant went down during Game Five of the Western Conference semifinals against the Houston Rockets, and I mean since Durant went down, like that minute. Durant had to limp off to the locker room near the end of the third quarter. Curry, who hadn’t been... Continue reading

Posted Friday morning, May 17, 2019. Not the Hon Kee Grocery: Simon Cheung (center), co-owner of Hing Lung Co. meat shop in San Francisco’s Chinatown preparing a pig at the business he and his brother Eric inherited from their father. Photo by Gabrielle Lurie, November 2017, courtesy of The Chronicle. Since I mentioned it... He gossips like my grandmother, this man with my face, and I could stand amused all afternoon in the Hon Kee Grocery, amid hanging meats he chops: roast pork cut from a hog hung by nose and shoulders, her entire skin burnt crisp, flesh I know... Continue reading

Posted Thursday morning, May 16. 2019. “A boy looks through the slats of the US-Mexico border fence at Friendship Park in Tijuana, Mexico.” Shannon Stapleton/Reuters, January 27, 2019. Via Public Radio International. I’ve been on one of my periodic kicks to avoid reading about politics first thing in the morning. It’s also a periodic kick to stay offline until I’ve had at least a fifth cup of coffee. This isn’t just to spare myself heartburn, headaches, and nausea both digestive and existential. It’s to force myself to begin the day living in the physical world instead of the virtual one... Continue reading

Posted Wednesday afternoon, May 15, 2019. “I like the sentiment but I’m not sue I like the wording. Too cutesy. Maybe with a little punching up it’ll catch on.”: Trump holding a sign that caught his eye on the campaign trail in 2016. AP Photo by Jae C. Hong. Via Business Insider. [Editor’s note: This is the second of a series of posts. Part One, “Hillary for Prison: Fresh Eggs!”, is here.] Sometimes I think… They know. They’ve got to know. They don’t want to know. But they know. At least it must be beginning to sink in. They’re just... Continue reading

Posted Tuesday evening, May 14, 2019. New posts below, but before scrolling down, please read... Well, now it's the car... Thank you to all who helped us over the weekend hump. I'm sorry I have to ask for your help again so soon. We have to come up with dough to keep the car on the road. About $200. 20 donations of $10 should do it, but every little bit helps. So, once again... If you like what goes on around here and you can swing it, please consider making a donation. You can do it through PayPal using this... Continue reading

Taken Sunday morning, December 30, 2018. Found on my phone and posted Tuesday morning, May 14, 2019. “Still Life: Blogger at work even on his vacation”: Window table at McDonald’s with world’s best coffee. Eight in the morning, Sunday, December 30, 2018 Continue reading

Posted Sunday morning, May 12, 2019. While Thor (Chris Hemsworth) and his brother Loki (Tom Hiddleston) recover from another family squabble, astrophysicist Jane Foster (Natalie Portman) does that thing she does that makes her the heroine of "Thor: The Dark World" and the only true leading lady in the Marvel’s Avengers series of movies---think for herself. [Note from your mighty blogger and critic: Continuing posting my reviews of previous movies in the Avengers series while I dither about writing a formal review of "Endgame". Oliver Mannion tells me that in his own online explorations regarding the Avengers and Disney's future... Continue reading

Posted Saturday morning, May 11, 2019. Ran into one of Mrs M’s old newspaper colleagues at B&N yesterday. He told us that he had been in Mannionville the night before covering a fire in our little business district. Wasn’t a bad fire. No one was hurt. The building, a former bodega which is undergoing renovation to begin a new life as a Mexican restaurant, didn’t sustain much damage and the little it did was to the back of the building an mostly a scorching inside and out. With luck, it’s probably only going to set back the opening a few... Continue reading

Posted Friday afternoon, May 10, 2019. My ever-vigilant brother Luke has just let me know that some villain is sending out spam email with my name on it. It contains a link that of course you shouldn't click on. I don't send random emails. If there's something on the web I think you would like to see I would do it by dm or pm on Twitter or Facebook or post it in one of my timelines and tag you. If I email you it will be obviously personalized. So delete anything that's even marginally suspicious. And please let me... Continue reading

Thursday, February 21, 2019. Photo courtesy of the Franklin D. Roosevelt Library and Museum. From the Department of Ideas in Search of a Post: [Editor's note: I have no idea what inspired this notebook entry. Given the date, which was around the time Buttigieg and Kobluchar entered the race while Bernie was being touted as the irresistible front-runner, I'm guessing it had something to do with the pundits swooning over Kobluchar and Mayor Pete as the pragmatic centrists who know how to get things done---that is, compromise with conservatives---and Bernie's and Warren's online supporters pushback against that.] Idealism & pragmatism... Continue reading

Thursday, February 21, 2019. “Democratic Sen. Amy Klobuchar addresses a snowy rally where she announced she is entering the race for president Sunday, Feb. 10, 2019, at Boom Island Park in Minneapolis.” Photo by Jim Mone, AP via USA Today. More from the Department of Ideas in Search of a Post: [Editor’s note: This notebook entry is the beginning of a tangent I decided not to go off on in what became my post “Even Bernie”. That post was in response to a Twitter challenge to say something nice about one of the Democratic candidates who wasn't your favorite, which... Continue reading

Mined from the notebooks, Thursday, February 21, 2019. Typed up Friday morning, May 10. “Democratic Sen. Amy Klobuchar addresses a snowy rally where she announced she is entering the race for president Sunday, Feb. 10, 2019, at Boom Island Park in Minneapolis.” Photo by Jim Mone, AP via USA Today. More from the Department of Ideas in Search of a Post: [Editor’s note: This is the beginning of a tangent I decided not to go off on in what became my post “Even Bernie”. That post was in response to a Twitter challenge to say something nice about one of... Continue reading

Mined from the notebooks, Thursday, February 21, 2019. Posted Friday morning, May 10. Photo courtesy of the Franklin D. Roosevelt Library and Museum. From the Department of Ideas in Search of a Post: [Editor's note: I have no idea what inspired this notebook entry. Given the date, which was around the time Buttigieg and Kobluchar entered the race while Bernie was being touted as the irresistible front-runner, I'm guessing it had something to do with the pundits swooning over Kobluchar and Mayor Pete as the pragmatic centrists who know how to get things done---that is, compromise with conservatives---and Bernie's and... Continue reading

Posted Thursday night, May 9, 2019. Frankenstein and his monster: Robert Downey Jr as Tony Stark (Iron Man), begins to doubt he’s done the right thing in trying to bring about “Peace in our time” by creating the artificial intelligence software Ultron in Iron Man 4. Wait. I’m sorry. I meant Avengers: Age of Ultron. [Apology from the critic: Still trying to decide how to go about writing a formal review of "Avengers: Endgame" and if i even want to. Meanwhile: G.K. Chesterton put together an essay collection popularly known as "Chesterton on Dickens". I think I've written enough posts... Continue reading

Thursday, May 9, 2019. Second “Hillary for Prison” sign I’ve seen around here in two days. I got a kick out of this one because of the sign on top of it. “Fresh Eggs,” it says. Maybe you can’t read it because of how washed out it is. Notice the “Hillary for Prison” sign isn’t washed out. Looks almost as bright and untouched by the weather as it did the day it was planted in 2016. The first time it was planted. My bet is it hasn’t been standing out there in the wind and the rain and snow and... Continue reading

Posted Wednesday morning, May 8, 2019. Iron Man beside himself: Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark feels less than invincible as he contemplates what else he is without his suit of armor besides a genius, billionaire, playboy, and philanthropist, and wonders if he’s up to that job in Iron Man 3. [Editor's note: Still working my way toward a formal review of "Avengers: Endgame". Part of the work is re-reading my reviews of the previous movies in the series. It's making for curious reading. For instance, here's my review of "Iron Man 3" from June 2013. I remember liking it... Continue reading

Posted Wednesday morning, May 8, 2019. New posts below, but before scrolling down, please read... Thank you to all who helped Ken out with his tuition. He's extremely grateful and sends his thanks too. It means so much to him to know he'll be back in school come the fall. I'm sorry, though, that I have to ask for your help again so soon. Once again we've reached the bottom of the barrel and need some help getting through the week and the weekend. Our biggest expenses are gas and groceries and the phone bill, with a few other bills... Continue reading

Thor, Iron Man, and Captain America square off in The Avengers in accordance with the rule that no superheroes can meet for the first time without getting into a fight so that fans have more fuel for their endless debates over who would win in a matchup. This is what you get when you let a former English professor write movie reviews. Within the cycle of movies of which The Avengers is the latest installment, Tony Stark---Iron Man---fills the role Lancelot fills in the King Arthur stories. I warned you. The Avengers isn’t a retelling of the Knights of the... Continue reading