Specialist

Monday 9/29/25

You have to spell Edgar Allan Poe's name correctly. People are like, "I'm so impressive, I reference Poe," but those people have never read Poe. If you can't spell something, you know nothing about that thing. I love all of the self-proclaimed Patriots and football experts who couldn't spell Bill Belichick's name right if you gave them a decade to just sit there and try and do so or even know that Super Bowl is two words. You instantly discredit yourself and anything you might say.

If You [ ] has a story about the ghosts of Edgar Allan Poe and Abraham Lincoln. They're friends in the afterlife with both suffering from depression, and share what is a giant masturbatory device. I guess you could say it's different.

Started a story Saturday. Started a story today. Wrote an op-ed today--not finished yet but about to be. [Edit: This is done now]

Isn't it wonderful when you're reading online comments, and someone makes their dumb, witless joke, and then fifty other people try and make a joke too, and each one of those jokes is every bit as dumb and witless? What a people we are!

Or how about when you see a post that stands out as interesting--not so much because of what anyone said, but the topic. For instance, the other day I saw a post with a link to a Jimi Hendrix bootleg. I clicked on the comments, thinking--or hoping, I guess--that people would be talking about the music, what made it special, the circumstances of the gig, the recording, this special solo on this particular number.

Do you think there was any of that? Or do you think it was just people posting five thumb's up emojis or ten flame emojis? You know. I knew going in. I don't know why I clicked. There's never anything intelligent from anyone. It's just not a thing anymore. It's not totally not out there at all, but we're getting there.

There hasn't been a day this September when it wasn't shorts weather. Comfortably shorts weather, not tough-it-out shorts weather. Unless on a very few occasions if you were outside at three in the morning. That's worrisome. We just mess up everything. Humans. Ourselves, society, culture, government, relationships. And the planet. At this rate, I expect to be wearing shorts come mid-October.

In the 1950s, Americans were asked to watch the skies. Keep an eye out for invading or spying forces. Now it's like you can apply that same concept to American government itself. Watch what these people are up to. You need to watch what everyone is up to now, because rarely is anyone up to something that's not bad.

Downloaded a nice-sounding set of The Price of Fear, which was a radio show starring Vincent Price, comprised of twenty-one programs, some of which were from 1973, some of which were from 1975, and the last of which were from 1983. These are really good. Some of the stories are by the likes of Bram Stoker, A.M. Burrage, and Robert Arthur (same fellow who created the Three Investigators series), with actors like Mervyn Johns (Bob Cratchit from 1951's Scrooge, of course) and Peter Cushing.

Price excelled at radio, which you'd expect. When you read about the show, many accounts make it sound as if Price isn't that involved, like he just sets up the stories (as with Orson Welles's and The Black Museum), but that's not the case at all. He's fully on board, and is either in the stories or narrates them. Some of it is pretty shocking. Like the end of the "Cat's Cradle" episode (based on Stoker's "The Squaw"), which has about as much gore as you'll ever encounter anywhere in classic radio. It's three harrowing blastings of gore. I find it rather unsettling--I don't like to listen to when I'm going to bed because it keeps me up. Really well done.

Downloaded a box set of American rhythm and blues that had a big impact on mid-century Jamaican music. Sort of specialist.

What a caving in by the New York Mets. They even got the loss they needed by the Reds yesterday, and not only couldn't they manage a win, they couldn't muster a run. All of the money that team spends and they couldn't make these expanded, padded playoffs, when all they had to do was finish a few games over .500.

Thus, the Reds get in at 83-79. Do you like that? This isn't the 1980s NHL. I don't like that. At the same time, I'd like if a team like that went on a run, but not too much of a run, because you'll see a team that's not very good have their run, and then they get annihilated in the championship series. Cinderella teams eventually become a pumpkin again. It's like a law of sport, with very few exceptions.

The Patriots obliterated the Panthers yesterday by a score of 42-13. I'd advise caution. I know--what a (Waltz for) Debby Downer. Sorry. I just think the Panthers are quite bad, so there's that. And I look at this box score, and I don't see anything from the Patriots that impresses me. I see pedestrian numbers for the most part. When you score that much, and nearly everyone has pedestrian numbers, that's usually because you got breaks and bounces--very favorable field position--rather than you were so awesome.

There's a fluky aspect to the score. The quarterback threw for 200 yards. It's not like he put up 378 and four touchdowns. The Patriots didn't run the ball well. Short fields. We will see how they fare next week against the Buffalo Bills. The Patriots don't need to win for me to be encouraged. Playing well and hanging in the game with the Bills also playing well--which I didn't think they did in their game against Miami--will be what shows me something.

Having said that: It's not like Buffalo is going to finish 17-0 and they could have a trip up coming. Even when you play in a bad division, it's rare that you run the table in your division. Are the Jets beating the Bills? The Dolphins? Law of averages-wise, you almost figure the Patriots will do it once.