Spying

 This cabin really is one extended cat playground, and on one level it pains me to think of taking Mollie and Cici away from it. However, in the end, they'll be happy wherever we are - or at least wherever our laps are (and we'd be miserable without them). I'm always amazed when someone asks, "When you move overseas are you taking the cats?" It would be better to ask if they're taking us.

Here's a picture of Master Spy Mollie, keeping me company in my loft office while keeping an eye on Janet at the same time.

2025 Readings 104

 Last night I finished reading James Cain's Mildred Pierce, which I picked up at the Montpelier Library for $3 as I was returning books one day. For such a big film noir fan, I haven't read as much roman noir as you might imagine. Overall I liked the story quite a bit, although I struggled at the beginning because I think I was trapped inside the narrative confines of the 1945 Joan Crawford original. The actual novel contains the same characters but a very different central narrative plot point. Essentially, I kept waiting for the murder and the backstory, which never happened. I believe the Kate Winslet remake is much closer to the novel. Once I freed myself from that expected story arc I enjoyed it quite a bit, and the ending is definitely better than the movie. Recommended.

CFL Playoff Excellence

 Somehow, in the couple dozen CFL games I've dragged people to, I'd never actually attended a playoff game. It's not as if I hadn't suggested it, but the timing was never right - and with my impending and fast-approaching deadline of leaving the country the emotional weight that I could bring to bear was too much for my friends to ignore. With that in mind, Cyndi, Kevin, Craig and I attended the East Division Semi-Finals, which was a Crossover game (another reason why the CFL is better than the NFL) with the Winnipeg Blue Bombers heading east for the game. It played out like it always does: I rashly buy tickets, and then begin the process of leaning on my friends.

It may look like the cover of a Beatles album, but it's the crew scurrying back from the Kouign Amann Bakery with treats.

Stopping at the Fromagerie Fritz Kaiser (the cheeseshop hidden in a cornfield right across the border), while providing us with some wonderful cheese, also made us arrive a little later at Schwartz's Deli. The wait was worth it.

Noted CFL and smoked meat fans, Cyndi and Kevin.

I always somehow forget that Schwartz's is located in the Little Portugal neighborhood in Montreal.

So what you want about attending an Alouettes game (they have the worst food in the CFL and pretty lame corporate tailgating) the place is always packed and it was rocking for the playoff game.

Despite Kevin's feigned grumpiness, an excellent time was had by all.

Craig had not attended a CFL game with me for over a decade, so he definitely enjoyed the day (and proved himself heroic by topping off the air in the tires of our car).

The halftime highlight was the local band, whose name I sadly did not catch, featured a pink haired leader singer belting out some AC/DC songs. There seems to be more classic rock played at CFL games than NFL games, but that's another dissertation topic.

A big win for the Alouettes, in a game that wasn't really this close. The Blue Bombers string of appearing in five straight Grey Cups was snapped (too bad, because the game was in Winnipeg this year).

And, of course, the trip ended with a stop at Tim Hortons on the way home.

The only two failures were 1) somehow not taking pictures of our stop at the Fromagerie Fitz Kaiser (the first stop of the day, where we picked up some amazing cheese), and 2) being unable to convince the crew to head to Hamilton the following weekend for the East Division Finals, where the favored Tiger-Cats lost a heartbreaking game to the Alouettes (although we did gather at Kevin's to watch the game).

2025 Readings 103

 I talked recently about pre-purchasing a Craig Johnson Longmire novel, First Frost, and then forgetting about it so long that not only was it published, but another one came out as well. Return to Sender. Last night I finished the latter. I liked it, although it seems that he's lost touch with his main characters a bit. When discussing First Frost, I suggested that when he sets the story someplace other than Wyoming the beautiful balance and authenticity of the stories seems to fall apart. On the one hand Return to Sender is closer to home, but it still felt like he was struggling to bring everything together. I'm happy I read it, and I'll purchase and read whatever he puts out, but he seems to be struggling to both find new things to say while still remaining true to his characters. Return to Sender starts out pretty true to his earlier stories, but then jumps the shark pretty dramatically, and the last third felt like he was padding out to reach an acceptable page limit. Beloved characters such as Vic or Henry disappeared altogether in this one. Maybe next year I'll cycle back and reread them from the beginning. If you are a Longmire fan, obviously, you need to read Return to Sender, if you're new to the series definitely don't start here, because you probably won't read another one (which would be a pity).

34

 And here's number 34, although, as I've stated recently, this number is getting ready to either jump up by about fifty percent or maybe drop down rather dramatically. 

Here's a great picture of George Reed and his family. Reed played for the Saskatchewan Roughriders for all thirteen years of his career, and is on the short list for greatest CFL running back of all-time. He finished with over 16,000 yard, averaging 5.0 yards a carry. Even in his last year he rushed for over 1400 yards, so he had an almost unmatched (if not actually unmatched) career. While born in Mississippi, he died a few years ago in Regina, so he clearly made Canada his home.

2025 Readings 102

 In this year of reading I've mentioned those books which somehow existed parallel to me, sometimes for decades, that I somehow never got around to reading. That is, there are those books that you seem to have always known about, and sometimes even considered reading, but somehow never got around to it for any number of reasons. Yesterday I finished one of those books: Frank Herbert's Dune.  Why had I never read Dune?  I'm not actually a big science fiction reader, so it's not that strange all things considered. However, I know that at various times over the last four decades I've owned at least one copy of Dune, which stared at me forlornly from a bookcase while I ignored it, before it somehow disappeared, shrapnel from some relationship breakup.  Recently my son encouraged me to give it a look, although in this case a listen, as he sung the praises of an audiobook version he had just finished. We were having lunch at the Langdon Street Pub, and I think I looked it up on the spot and purchased it. I liked it a lot, both the recording and the story itself. The Islamic/Arabic subtext, both its role in the novels and its disappearance in the films, was something I had heard about, but I was still surprised by the number of instances that these concepts shaped the text. These ranged from borrowing a book title from Ibn Khaldun to concepts such as jihad. I was somewhat disappointed in his portrayal of jihad, because he definitely falls back upon the idea of the "lesser jihad" while mainly ignoring the more idea of the "greater jihad." That is, he made greater use of the concept of jihad as conquest while ignoring the much more essential aspect of the internal personal struggle to do the right thing. Still, it made for a very interesting reading, and made me more than a bit appalled that the film versions always duck it altogether and rely upon stereotypical portrayals of Arabs. The religion he creates is a combination of Islam and Buddhism, which, as I've discussed in other places on this blog, I don't actually find that strange of a concept. Anyway, I enjoyed Dune, and have already uploaded Dune Messiah, the second volume. I can't imagine that I'll make my way through all six of the Dune novels that Herbert himself wrote, let alone the mountain of related books that his son produced, but I'm looking forward to at least one more.

35

 I don't know why I'm continuing in this countdown since my spring schedule has been destroyed, and thus I'll have to start over again, but, as I've pointed out earlier, if nothing else we can always learn more about the CFL Anyway, if my schedule had not been destroyed I'd have 35 total days that I have to be on campus at Champlain until my retirement.

And number 35 is a very worthy selection: Tyrone Jones of the Winnipeg Blue Bombers. He won two Grey Cups with the Bombers, and is still the franchise's all-time sacks leader.