Tim DeRoche's Blog, page 8

Out of his piehole comes the word “shithole”

A few thoughts:

*My ancestors came to America from shithole places like 19th century Ireland and rural Canada.  My best guess is that they were uneducated, poor, rude, and smelly.  They were escaping their shitholes to make a better life in America for their families.  And they did.  They may even have endured a shithole existence in the US for a while.  But things got better.

*Presidents shouldn’t talk like this about other countries.

*That said, regular people talk like this all the time. ...

The Black Stallion

I shared this movie with Neve the other day. She was rapt for 2 hours (just as I was, watching it for the 6th or 7th time). This is the kind of movie I love sharing with kids — haunting, full of wonder, alternately frightening and eerily calm. The complete opposite of all this frenetic, winking garbage that is targeted at kids today.

Andrew Bird’s gorgeous new album inspired by the LA River

I can’t help but imagine this music as the soundtrack to Huck and Miguel’s escape down the river.

Happy 40th birthday to my car

Happy birthday! 40 years ago this Grand Prix SJ rolled off the assembly line in Detroit. The last car that my grandfather Earl Case ever owned. And — having launched a successful Pontiac and Buick dealership in rural Illinois — Grandpa loved his cars. I bought it from my grandmother 10 years ago (she cut me a deal), and it’s still running beautifully with only 63k miles. Grandpa’s dealership – once known as Case Motor Sales – exists to this day as Route 1 Chevy Buick in Momence.

Should health care operate more like public schools?

In the New Yorker, Atul Gawande implies that the problem with our health care system is that it isn’t like our K-12 education system:

During the next two centuries, we relied on government to establish a system of compulsory public education, infrastructure for everything from running water to the electric grid, and old-age pensions, along with tax systems to pay for it all. As in other countries, these programs were designed to be universal. For the most part, we didn’t divide families betwe...

What’s wrong with America? College rankings

My alma mater Pomona just got named by Forbes as the #1 “liberal arts university” in the country, ahead of Harvard, Stanford, and everyone else. I think I’m supposed to be feeling pride, but what I’m really feeling is COLLEGE RANKINGS ARE THE DUMBEST F’ING THING IN THE WORLD, NO MATTER WHO GETS FIRST PLACE.

And, yes, I loved Pomona. But I’d love it even more if they asked to be taken off this stupid-ass list.

No link!

The Ballad of Huck and Miguel is now available on Amazon

Four years of work, and my book is finally available!  This is a modern-day retelling of Huck Finn set in modern-day Los Angeles.  Huck Finn escapes down the LA River with his friend Miguel, an illegal immigrant who’s been accused of murder.  If you loved the original, you’ll love this book.

Includes 40+ gorgeous linocut illustrations by #printgonzalez.

Hal Holbrook calls it quits

I’m so bummed that I never got to see this show.  HT @markdawidziak, who wrote a wonderful blurb for my book #huckandmiguel.