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This year will be full of surprises

Chinatown restaurants

The below took place before our cocktail party, as we were planning out what food to have for it.

Sara works with various schools around Manhattan, one of which is in Chinatown, which means that we have a good excuse to eat down there alla time.

Me: I gotta tell you something.
Her: What?
Me: I’ve never been to Wo Hop.
Her: Really?! Me neither, let’s go then!

There are all these really classic dives down there that I’ve gone to like Big Wong‘s and Noodletown – I practically lived there as a teen – but some I’ve missed, like Wo Hop, so off we went.

It’s a NYC institution – if you go to YouTube, you’ll see all these people trying it out.

Now, when I was a kid, the only people that went there were Chinese.

But when we went there, I was literally the only Chinese person (that didn’t work there) there – there were hipsters and all other races, just no Chinese.

Plus, the menu was entirely in English with no pictures, so I had no idea what to order, so I just pointed at three things.

All were carb-y and delicious.


Oddly, later on that week, we went to the local bistro (above a supermarket) and Sara said…

Her: Hey, did you see that they’re selling food from Nom Wah?
Me: Wait, what?

Nom Wah is another Chinatown institution; it’s reportedly the oldest continuingly operating dim sum restaurant in New York City, having opened in 1920.

Sara and I went for a date night there a little over a year ago.

A younger generation of cousins went in and revamped a lot of things to make it more Instagram friendly while keeping the same classic menu and recipes.

Unfortunately, the scuttlebutt is that the cousins had a massive falling out and now the business is in jeopardy, so we’ll see how that plays out.

But, getting back to the bistro, we’d both already had a full meal…

…but I couldn’t say no to some classic Nom Wah dim sum so I ordered some dumplings that were really good, actually.

I told you once years ago that a companion is someone you sit and eat with, and I’m grateful for Sara’s companionship.

I think that’s why I write about food so much – in addition to the fact that, deep down, I’m still a fatty-fat-fat – because food and family are so intertwined.

Shame about Nom Wah and alla that family drama.

Here’s hoping that its got another hundred years in it.

Her: Look how happy you are!
Me: I’m gonna regret this in the morning, but…yeah.

Mood: still potentially sick
Music: nuthin looks better than old school vibe (Spotify)
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Logan on Dad Bod

On being a dad in the city

Doing something a little different today.

Last month, I told you that I ran into a fella named Shawn that does a podcast called The Dad Bod, which isn’t actually about, well, dad bods per se but, rather, is about being a dad here in NYC.

In any case, we recorded an episode the other day and it just went up this past weekend so I thought you might like a little listen.

In it, I talk about raising the kid in the city, a lot more details about what happened that awful night in December of 2015 when Alison went to the ICU that I never told you about, the first several months after she and my dad died, and about this new life I’m trying to build with Sara and the kid.

It’s a little over an hour but I think that Shawn did a really great job here, maybe give it a go?

Location: home, recovering from the weekend, I’ll tell you about it in the next entry
Mood: enervated
Music: think that I could make it there someday (Spotify)
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You don’t know what you’re up against

China (and Russia) will win

In season seven of the Game of Thrones, John Snow begs all the sides of the Seven Kingdoms to put away their differences to prepare for the coming war with the White Walkers.

He knows that humanity is doomed if they don’t unite because they’re unprepared for the war about to happen.

Hold that thought.

Many historians don’t consider World War I and World War II as two separate things – at least not in Europe.

For them, it was one long war of modernization and ethno-racial underpinnings, with Germany at the center:

    • In WW1, because the Second Reich of Germany came about as the result of the breakdown of the old-world order of empires (German, Austro‑Hungarian, Ottoman, Russian), while…
    • In WW2, just 21 years later, Germany was still smarting over its defeat in WW1 and the subsequent humiliation of The Treaty of Versailles, and it was a chance to show the world that WW1 was just fluke – that didn’t work out.

It’s only by seeing the big picture that you realize what is really happening.

Me at the Jannowitzbrücke station in Berlin 21 years ago.

While most of sane people in the world, and here in the US, see the downfall of the American Empire under Trump, which is accurate, I see that but it’s more than that.

A lot more.

If the US and the EU/NATO do become adversaries, then China – and, to a lesser extent, Russia – wins.

It might not happen tomorrow, but it’s definitely gonna happen.

That’s the last thing anyone wants.

I said it before: I love being Chinese but hate the government of China.

It was and is evil.

And a war is coming, in one form or another, hot or cold. But it’s coming if it’s not here already.

Yes, Russia is evil and dangerous but it’s not the danger that China is.

You have no idea how dangerous China is.

Because China is dangerous in ways you couldn’t imagine.

100 years ago, in 1926, China was…nuthin.

It was in the middle of (multiple) civil wars, called the Warlord Era (1916–1928). This was after the Opium War and the downfall of the Qing dynasty.

There was no unified national army, no cohesive economic strategy, no real industry of any sort, outside of large agrarian areas predominantly used to feed their own people.

It was a whole lotta, well, like I said, nuthin.

The Western powers – plus fucking Japan – controlled all the ports, legal, banking, customs, and tariffs – everything was in the hands of someone else.

100 years later, in 2026, China has the largest trade surplus in the world, reaching roughly $1.2 trillion in 2025 — the largest number EVER in human history, recorded by any country.

Think about that.

To go from a backward nuthin nation of warlords under the thumbs of everyone to a the nuclear-powered creditor nation in four generations.

That’s mindboggling.

In fact, just 24 years after the warlord period of China, China was already showing the world how quickly it learned how to use soft power in Korea – essentially handing the US the first of many defeats in Asia.

China did it again, just four years later with the Vietnam War.

Then the USSR/Russia attacked a weakened China in 1969 and should have destroyed them, but it didn’t, even with superior firepower and tech.

Culturally, the Chinese are quiet – we watch and learn. And we think.

If it wasn’t for the fact that the Chinese government is absolutely brutal against its own people and regularly threaten Taiwan, a country I love deeply, I’d admire and be proud of these facts.

But, just like here, the country is in the hands of the selfishly evil and the populous is too brainwashed or too fettered to do anything about it.

That’s what the West is up against.

But with Trump pissing off all its allies to line his own pockets so, because half of my countrymen are imbeciles, there is no unified front against China.

The united west lost the first two rounds when it was fighting China by proxy.

Fractured? The West is screwed.

If there’s a true cold war against China – and really, that’s the only war that’s possible between two nuclear empires – Donny’s barely able to play checkers against some chess grandmasters and we’ve got zero friends to help us.

That’s not good. None of this is good.

Now, I hate China because of how it treats its people. Which is to say, I hate China because of how it treats the Chinese.

Then again, the US isn’t treating its people all that well either, lately, now that I think about it.

Me: Congrats on becoming a parent! It’s tough but awesome.
Him: Any advice?
Me: Yeah, have her learn how to fight, learn how to manage her money, and learn how to speak Mandarin.
Him: (laughing) Why Mandarin?
Me: OK, so in 1926…

Location: my lightly flooded apartment, yay…
Mood: still pretty fucking upset
Music: an enemy to all mankind, the thought of war blows my mind (Spotify)
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Unkindness, Pt 1

Reliably unreliable

Was supposed to see A-SIL our in NJ today, but the weather was just gross so we just all stayed in, although my brother did come by because he’s in town from Cali.

It’s just as well, we’re all feeling run down around here.

Me: Are you sick?
Her: I dunno. I just feel like I’m fighting off something.
Me: Same. I don’t feel sick per se, I just feel…rough.

Think I said a dozen times just in this blog that the trait that I find the most attractive is kindness.

So, it logically follows that unkindness is the most unattractive quality, at least to me.

Before Alison, I once briefly dated a wealthy lawyer. She was attractive and very nice to me.

Just…not to everyone else.

She was rude and curt to waitstaff, always late to everything, and never – ever – did what she promised she’d do. Not for me or anyone else.

She was reliably unreliable.

One day, a rude event on an escalator followed by another one to a waiter in a restaurant was enough.

When we broke up, I remember Cappy asked me why and I remember saying, “Attractive is temporary, douchebag is forever. She was a douchebag.”

When we broke up, her sister – a successful lawyer in her own right and whose personality I liked more than hers, actually – told me that she and her husband would buy me a new Porsche if I reconsidered.

Remember telling them, “I’d rather have a Metrocard and be alone, than have a Porsche and be with her.”

Because, at some point, you just tired of making excuses – to yourself and others – for someone’s poor behaviour. It’s exhausting.

It was with her that I came up with the term, “Something a lot like love.” Cause, at one point, I really thought I loved her as she was attractive, smart, successful, and nice – but only to me, which wasn’t enough.

But I obviously didn’t love her, because I left her.

And I never once regretted it.

Bring this up for two reasons:

The first is that I’m so regularly pleasantly surprised with just how kind Sara is, along with all of her other good points.

I honestly don’t think that character trait can be overstated enough when it comes to just having a life partner.

Because looks and so many things can go away and, in the end, you’re stuck with who they are deep down inside.

Who Sara is is just as nice on the inside as she is on the outside.

There’s a second reason, though, which is that a whole raft of people from my past have been making reappearances in some fashion in my life and I’m reminded about how much I value this trait because some of the reappearances were very kind while others were less so.

But this is already a longer entry than I had expected it to be, so I’ll wrap it up in the next one.

Location: wet and gross NYC
Mood: cough cough
Music: all over everybody seems unkind (Spotify)

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Fat Logan and the Bouba–Kiki Effect

The shape of our lives

Her: I can’t imagine you as a fat kid.
Me: Oh, trust me, I was.
Her: I just can’t picture it.
My mom: Do you want to see pictures of him when he was chubby?
Her: Yes!
Me: Oh god…

If I said the words: Spike, Crack, Snip, or Kick and asked you to imagine that the sounds the words made had a shape, what shape would they be?

What if I said the words: Gooey, Balloon, Smooth, or Marshmallow?

If you’re like most people, the former comes across feeling kinda hard and pointy while the latter comes across as soft and rounded.

This is called the bouba–kiki effect.

Basically, words give us a certain feeling and have a “shape” to them in our heads.

Thought about this the other day because I’ve been telling everyone for years that I was fat at 14 but I only recently realized that was inaccurate.

I was fat in 5th grade so I would have been 10 then.

That was the most traumatic time of my childhood.

Childhood traumas stay with us for so long because of how time works relative to our age.

Case-in-point: I was fat for four years, from 10 to 14.

For a 52-year-old, that’s not that big a deal – after all, it only comprises approximately 8% of my life (4/52=0.08).

Unfortunately, when you’re 14 years old, those four years comprise almost a 1/3 of my entire life up to that point (4/14=0.29).

But it’s more than that, isn’t it?

Like, you don’t really remember much before you’re eight years old.

So, when I was 14 years old, I only remembered six years of my life, really.

This is actually the THINNER version of me.

That means that, those four years of my life – ages 10 to 14 – felt like most of my life, about 67% of it, to be exact (4/6=0.67).

My point is, if words have a shape and feeling, so too do periods of our lives.

I submit that periods of our lives have a weight and shape to them as well, and only we can see and feel them.

When people say, “Just get over it,” or, “That was ages ago,” they’re not being honest with how everyone processes their youth differently from everyone else.

For me, my fat years feel soft, heavy, slow, and oversized – everything was a drag and depressing.

Even now, if I had to describe my overweight years, despite their only occupying 8% of my total life, it FEELS closer to 33% of my life.

And this is why I try to remember that the kid is processing the world very differently than I am.

Yes, he’s 10, but he really only remembers stuff and people from when he was about seven or eight, so he’s really only lived maybe three years or so?

He doesn’t truly remember much beyond that, although he has a sense of things, like the bouba–kiki effect.

Like he has a sense of loving being in NJ with his grandparents and Queens with his cousins.

He just knows they make him feel good in one way or another.

That’s why, even some 40 years later, I still know exactly what it feels like to be a fat, friendless, kid.

It’s always why I’m always obsessed with food and being fit.

Because even though it was (several) lifetimes ago, deep down – well, probably not even that deep down – I’m terrified that I’ll wake up trapped in that fat kid’s body once more.

Which, let’s be honest, is only a few poor carbohydrate decisions away.

Me: Hit a new milestone today.
Her: What’s that?
Me: Welp…somehow, I’ve eaten four pounds of peanut butter in five weeks.
Her: You’re kidding.
Me: If only. (thinking) Now I gotta go out and pick up more peanut butter.

Location: my dry-as-a-bone room
Mood: stressed
Music: I paint a picture of the days gone by (Spotify)

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I despise Disney

They never shoulda taken off Kimmel

I’ve owned stock in Disney since I was 23.

“Owned” being the operative word as I sold alla it back in September when they took Kimmel off the air.

Still, that doesn’t stop me from despising them.

From a legal standpoint, they are probably one of the most evil companies on the planet from an intellectual property attorney standpoint but that’s a wholly different conversation.

I have a tattered and torn copy of The Brothers Grimm, read every story there at least twice.

And The Little Mermaid was one of a million books I read as a kid.

Girls I dated in high school and college always wanted to watch Disney films for some reason and I remember watching The Little Mermaid and its saccharine plot and being so pissed off.

But the film I find most offensive is The Hunchback of Notre Dame.

See, I read that book when I was like…13? Way too young.

I think my dad had a copy, so I read it exactly once. But, holy shit, that book fucked me up.

It was the first time that I understood the cruelty of people to other people.

Never really got that before reading that book.

Seeing how Disney sanitized it and made it into a completely different thing upset me, so much that I never did see the end of it – probably never will.

Later that same year when I read the book, I learned about the holocaust, like really learned about it.

I get why people deny it even happened; the cruelty of it all seems unbelievable.

And yet, that’s exactly why people need to know about it. So that we can steel ourselves against ever allowing such a thing to happen again.

Even though it does, indeed, keep happening.

In today’s news cycle, the cruelty of people to other people is just sickening.

Can’t help but think that maybe it’s because companies like Disney spend all their time feeding all these syrupy stories of nonsense when life is poor, nasty, brutish, and short.

There are ways, I think, to entertain but also let the truth of things settle and change people.

 

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Location: my apartment, which smelled like freshly baked bread
Mood: dry
Music: At least I know what I make-believe (Spotify)
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Worth keeping around

Just show them a great first date

Me: Wait, you have how many unread messages from guys?
Her: (checking phone) Hmmm, 1,021?
Sara: (laughs) That sounds about right.
Me: Man, it pays to be an attractive blonde female.

When Sara and I met up with Amanda the other day, we – like always – asked about her dating life.

Because now that Sara and I were married, it’s nice to live vicariously through her, the ABFF, A-SIL, and others.

Us: So…what’s the latest?

On a related note, the other day, I posted the above image on Facebook that someone sent me from rando reddit post (which I’ve since lost).

Didn’t think much of it – four friends of mine commented and I went to bed.

When I woke up the next morning, I had several hundred comments and, a few days later, over 400 comments.

Some were fine, with many of my female friends commenting how bad it is out there for them.

But the number of questionable – and I do mean questionable – responses from men really floored me.

They ranged from whiney and excuse-filled – somehow, a short, old, arthritic, minority widower is anything but average…

…to angry and…jealous?

I’m not sure how to understand this fella below, who seemed to be upset that I even went on 180 dates in 18 months, which is about 10 dates a month, or 2-3 dates a week – something I told you is totally doable if you just…do it.

It’s all so profoundly sad because men want to meet women and women want to meet men, but they are clearly speaking very different languages.

And what I found most shocking is that so many men were offended by the demonstrably true things I said: Which is that whenever a man goes on a date with a woman, he runs the risk of wasting his time and/or money.

But whenever a woman goes on a date with a man, she runs the risk of wasting her time and/or getting assaulted, raped, or worse.

And yet, men will say this kinda stuff without a hint of irony:

Did you know that ladies? That “men are assaulted at a much higher rate than women?”

It’s news to me – and, I’m sure, news to you as well.

In any case, he obviously doesn’t know that I met Alison after I got robbed of all my money, or that I met Sara after I gave up most of my clients and got robbed (again).

It *MUST* be because of money or something else that women like about me but not actually me – not because I’m actually a decent human being who can talk to a woman because that would mean, well, maybe it’s you, dude.

The funniest thing about that guy’s statement is that my oldest readers know that my fave thing to do while out and about was to see how many women I could get to buy me a drink in a night.

One night, I even got a girl to get guys to buy her a drink to give to me. That, my friends, is how you afford to go on a ton of dates without going broke.

No one ever dated me for my money.

Honestly, I’m not that good-looking, I’m old as dirt, I talk a lot with my hands, my back is just crap and the rest of my body isn’t far behind, I’m overly pedantic, etc.

And yet, I have zero problem meeting and dating women, probably because of two major reasons:

    1. When I was single, I put in the time. I got shot down, repeatedly. I most likely got turned down 2-3X more than I succeeded.
      • But when I failed (beyond her having a boyfriend), it was always my fault: I was too nervous, I was too forward, I was too hesitant, something.
        • That’s how you get better at anything – by not blaming someone or something else but by fixing the only thing you can control and change, yourself.
        • Do you remember when Alison rejected me? I accepted it and told her I hoped she’d reconsider…and then I immediately picked up three other women, two within the hour. It’s never the other person’s fault.
    2. The other reason? I respected the fact that women take a chance every time they went out on a date with me or anyone else.
      • That meant that when a woman did go on a date with me, I was always grateful they took a chance, and I rewarded them for taking that chance by being a decent human being and showing them a great time.

That’s it.

That’s the big secret, fellas:

Stop complaining, put in the time, and be a decent human being.

Being interesting and non-needy helps.

This singer named Craig David had a line in a song that I always told myself whenever I felt like whining: Instead of me feelin’ sorry for myself, gonna get me somethin’ tonight.

Because you can’t whine or anger your way into someone’s contact list.

Show someone a great first date, and they’ll come back for great second date.

You’d think this would be pretty easy.

You would, clearly, be mistaken.

Women have to go through thousands – thousands – of men to find one worth keeping around.

You gotta be worth keeping around to be worth keeping around, man.

Location: the gym, trying to survive against 20-somethings
Mood: annoyed and embarrassed
Music: it’s so late, yet, I’m so up for it (Spotify)
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Breaking Sourdough Bread

Our sourdough adventures

Her: Do you wanna watch something?
Me: Sure, what were you thinking of?
Her: I dunno. (thinking) Hey, Tony Shalhoub has that new show, Breaking Bread.
Me: He’s great, but the only issue with that is that it’s gonna make me wanna eat carbs.

We ended up watching the first episode and were pleasantly surprised to see that we’d gone to several of the places that he mentioned, since the first episode took place in the UWS.

In fact, one of the places that he went to was right across the street from Sara’s old Manhattan pad.

It got me thinking about how we could incorporate homemade bread into our diets and still keep it relatively low carb.

Ergo, I turned to ChatGPT/CoPilot and here’s what I found:

So, I figured that if made our own sourdough bread and also did it with partial whole wheat bread, and froze it, it should be relatively low(ish)-carb.

Obviously, we’d have to start by making some sourdough starter.

This took me about three days: I just left some 1/2 cup of flour and 1/4 cup of water on my countertop overnight and, each morning, tossed half of it, and put in the same amount of flour and water.

After three days, it was bubbly and looked like this.

Now, some fifteen years ago, I tried to make sourdough bread for the second time in my life.

It was a disaster because I tried to make it with 100% whole wheat bread but this time around, we did 1/3 whole wheat and 2/3 APF.

Plus, I made sure the starter was super active, which it was, as you can see.

The whole time the kids were away, the house smelled amazeballs.

Her: How do you want them?
Me: Remember when we were in Vienna and we had those cute little sammies? Like that.

And that’s exactly what she did.

Her: What do you think?
Me: My god, this is delicious. This is exactly what I was hoping it would look, smell, and taste like.
Her: So, you approve then?
Me: (mouth full of food, nodding)

She didn’t just stop there, though.

She also made some regular loaf bread as well, which were perfect (tasting – we’re still working on making them look nicer).

This was, honestly, the most carbs I’ve eaten at home in a while, so if I end up blowing up like a whale, you’ll know why.

But I’m hoping that I’m right.

That by :

    1. making it at home with only three ingredients – water, salt, and flour,
    2. using homemade sourdough starter,
    3. using 1/3 whole wheat flour, and
    4. freezing it and then reheating it

it’ll be less impactful on our glycemic index.

We were so serious about this whole endeavor that we even bought a bread slicer contraption, which is what you see below, and an electric knife.

If I start looking like my 13 year-old self again – which is to say a fatty-fat-fat – then you’ll know that this was a complete disaster.

But I’ve been enjoying homemade bread every single day this past week and it’s been glorious.

Me: What do you think of Sara’s bread?
Son: It’s so good!
Me: I was thinking that we could get some of the “Everything Bagel” stuff from Trader Joe’s and add that to the next batch.
Him: Yes!

So far, so good…

Location: the back room, trying to make some hard apple cider
Mood: so. cold.
Music: I’ve been there, done that once or twice (Spotify)
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Rob and me throughout the years

A Good Man

Firecracker: I’ve never seen “A Few Good Men.”
Me: Oh man, that’s probably my favourite of alla his films. Have you ever seen “Better off Dead” or “The Sure thing?” Both starring John Cusack?
Her: Neither.
Me: You wanna watch it?
Her: Sure.

I was only six when Rob Reiner last played Michael “Meathead” Stivic in All in the Family (1971–1979), but that’s how I first heard of him.

He looked like what I pictured an adult to look like – mustache, balding, etc.

His character was always referred to as “Meathead” by his dad on the show, but I thought it was “Meatball,” for years until I was at least a teen.

I never thought I’d ever think of him beyond that.

But I did.

And it was during my teen years that I really got to know what mattered him, at least as a director.

This Is Spinal Tap came out in 1984, when I was 11 but I didn’t see it until at least the 1986 with my two friends Dan and Greg.

They thought it was hilarious, but I didn’t really get it at the time.

I saw it again years later in college – I think with my buddy Crawford or Buckley but I’m not sure.

I got more of it then, but even so, a lotta it went over my head.

The Sure Thing, though, was a huge film in my life.

That came out in 1985, but I didn’t see it until it was on TV one late night – I had to have been at least 13 when I saw it or at least 1986 or 87.

Remember thinking that I didn’t think I’d ever know what it was like to be able to choose between TWO women; the idea that two women might like me at the same time – being the fatty-fat-fat I was – was as realistic as me spouting wings and flying.

Still, it was nice to wonder.

It was also the first time I’d seen anything with John Cusack, and I thought he was great – I think I’ve seen pretty much most things he was in from then until about 2000.

Stand by Me (1986) was another one of Reiner’s films that I didn’t see when it came out as I was only in 9th grade then and it wasn’t really something I’d watch at that age.

Saw it myself in college when I was still in the dorms because it was on TV/cable, so sometime between 1990 and 1991.

I remember that I wondered if I’d ever have friends like that.

Lived in a dorm called Dickson Hall and I remember that it was the first time I lived somewhere with co-ed bathrooms – which was a super weird concept for me for about a week.

Then I got over it. I think that’s how it’d be for most people.

In any case, I remember that I was reluctant to watch it because I wasn’t into scary films at all and I heard that Stephen King wrote it.

But I think it was Buckley that told me it wasn’t scary at all and that I should give it a try.

I did and thought it was amazing.

Probably saw that film two more times in my life after that.

The Princess Bride came out in 1987, but I watched that and When Harry Met Sally… (1989) with either my second girlfriend, May, or my third girlfriend, Martha.

I’m pretty sure I saw the former on VHS or DVD, but the latter was the very first of Reiner’s films that I saw in the theatres.

WHMS was actually my least favorite of Meg Ryan’s rom-coms during that time – I was always more of a You’ve Got Mail fan.

Plus, I’ve always detested the idea that men and women can’t be friends and specifically mentioned that film.

But the Princess Bride…man, that was like a perfect film, especially for a kid like me that always loved fencing and swordplay.

Firecracker: We should watch that with the kids.
Me: That’s a great idea. Absolutely.

Suppose that deserves a full entry of its own when/if it happens.

Misery (1990) I saw myself because it was on TV years after it was in theatres and – man – Kathy Bates really scared the crap outta me, mainly because she seemed so believable as both a complete harmless nobody and insane stalker.

Rob really knocked the casting outta the park with that one.

A Few Good Men (1992) I saw with my then girlfriend Martha in college and in the theatres.

By that time, my dad had fully ingrained in me that I was to be a lawyer at some point and, watching that film, I remember thinking, “This wouldn’t be so bad.”

Martha and I broke up a little after college but we, totally by coincidence, ended up in the same law school.

She never spoke to me during that time, and I don’t really blame her. I always wanted to ask her, though, if this film influenced her at all.

Outta all Rob’s films, it’s probably the one that impacted me the most, even more so than The Princess Bride.

I remember I thought about it when I represented myself during the first theft in court, way back when.

I saw The American President (1995) with my girlfriend Elaine in the theatres; she and I both liked it, but I remember I felt it was a bit too preachy.

I think I was already beginning to become my current cynical self.

But it’s good that people like Bob existed, to balance out cynical people like me.

That was the last of his films that I saw but Alison and I watched the New Girl from the first season until Alison got sick (2012–2015).

I always liked when Rob was on the show – he played the father of the main character, Jessica.

I kept recording the New Girl for Alison thinking, “When she gets better, we can watch it together and find out if Jess and her boyfriend Nick ever got together and if Schmidt and Cece also ended up happily ever after.”

Alison and I were always rooting for people to get their happily ever after.

But, because Alison never got better, I never saw those episodes and never found out, which is probably for the best.

I digress…

The point of this entry is that I never really realized how much of my life was shaped by Rob Reiner until I looked back at his filmography and television appearances.

He was an outsized influence on what I considered romance and good vs. evil.

Anywho, thanks for all the great stories and memories, Rob.

You deserved a lot better than this.

But you’re at peace and, in the end, I suppose that’s something.

Location: the kitchen, making chix soup for everyone
Mood: ruminative
Music: We were so in phase, in our dance hall days (Spotify)
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Categories
personal

A time and place to come through

A million subs!

Him: What are you gonna do with yours?
Me: I’m gonna drill a hole on top and wear it around my neck like Flava Flav.

Speaking of Scenic Fights, we did – indeed – hit a million subscribers recently.

I got that fancy gold plaque you see me strutting around with above.

NEW YORK, NY – MAY 28: Musician Flavor Flav promotes the new book “Flavor Flav: The Icon the Memoir” at Hue-Man Bookstore & Cafe on May 28, 2011, in New York City. (Photo by Marc Stamas/Getty Images)

It’s funny, but I didn’t really think much of it when I first did it – I did it as a favour to the producer, who had a vision that I now see.

I mentioned the first time I filmed anything for them in passing in what is probably one of my most quoted entries, Hitting the Button.

[T]here was something I had to do on Saturday morning (which I’ll tell you about some other time).

Well, that something was Scenic Fights.

Had no idea that we’d come this far but here we are.

And I wonder how far we can go…

Him: It’s tomorrow.
Me: Do I have to go?
Him: Oh…it’s ok, you don’t have to come.
Me: (laughing) I’m kidding, man. I’ve never missed any of your things, have I? I’ll be there, don’t you worry.

Went to the kid’s school the other day because there was a “publishing party,” which just basically means the parents come in and see how their kids are doing in school and what they’re working on.

I showed up five minutes late because I had some stuff to do first and I think he was worried that I wouldn’t show.

Man, if I could bottle and sell that kid’s smile when he saw me, alla my money problems’d be over.

Him: You came!
Me: (scoffing) Dude, just give me a time and place and I’ll be there.
Him: Here, look what I wrote…

Like I said, so much of parenting seems to be just showing up.

Location: freezing in my gym
Mood: brrrrrrrrrrrrrr
Music: I just need a time and place to come through. Send me your location (Spotify)
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