Chris Rodell's Blog, page 95
September 26, 2014
I cry over commercials (farewell, Cap'n Jeter!)
(712 words)
Twice this week purported loved ones asked me word-for-word the exact same question.
“Are you crying?”
Read like that without any inflection, it’s a beautiful question. It’s what caring souls say to one another anytime someone’s in need of human understanding.
But my wife and daughter, 14, didn’t have compassion on their agendas.
Their intent was to mock.
My
Twice this week purported loved ones asked me word-for-word the exact same question.
“Are you crying?”
Read like that without any inflection, it’s a beautiful question. It’s what caring souls say to one another anytime someone’s in need of human understanding.
But my wife and daughter, 14, didn’t have compassion on their agendas.
Their intent was to mock.
My
September 24, 2014
Why do some many things suck so bad?
(1,001 words)
The visit to the pharmacy had been a model of efficiency. I’d stopped in while I was waiting for some take-out lunch Chinese a few doors down.
I’d bought a $4.69 anniversary card for my darling and for me one of those 59 cent pingpong ball-size blueberry creme swirl lollipops I get when I know I can enjoy one home alone and in peace without the little whiners complaining
The visit to the pharmacy had been a model of efficiency. I’d stopped in while I was waiting for some take-out lunch Chinese a few doors down.
I’d bought a $4.69 anniversary card for my darling and for me one of those 59 cent pingpong ball-size blueberry creme swirl lollipops I get when I know I can enjoy one home alone and in peace without the little whiners complaining
September 23, 2014
Who's Who in my new YouTube promo extravaganza!
(1,901 words)
The thing I like most about my new YouTube promotional extravaganza is it’s already turning out to be polarizing.
For instance, my family seems horrified. Not just that they’re in it, but that I’m really, really in it. Parts of it are way over the top, like the part when I lip synch “Bohemian Rhapsody.”
And there’s word that Sir Paul McCartney’s feathers are ruffled, too,
The thing I like most about my new YouTube promotional extravaganza is it’s already turning out to be polarizing.
For instance, my family seems horrified. Not just that they’re in it, but that I’m really, really in it. Parts of it are way over the top, like the part when I lip synch “Bohemian Rhapsody.”
And there’s word that Sir Paul McCartney’s feathers are ruffled, too,
September 22, 2014
The Pittsburgh Pirates & the KKK (not those ones)
(717 words)
Yesterday’s big Pirate victory over the hated Milwaukee Brewers differed from many past season finales in that I wasn’t there and neither was the KKK.
Instead, it was the KKKKK.
K is the baseball scoresheet designation for a strike out.
It’s been that way for about 165 years since pioneering scorekeeper Henry Chadwick developed the iconic box score, a minute marvel of
Yesterday’s big Pirate victory over the hated Milwaukee Brewers differed from many past season finales in that I wasn’t there and neither was the KKK.
Instead, it was the KKKKK.
K is the baseball scoresheet designation for a strike out.
It’s been that way for about 165 years since pioneering scorekeeper Henry Chadwick developed the iconic box score, a minute marvel of
September 19, 2014
Binge reading my blog in tree stand
(676 words)
Good morning, Dave A.! Had your breakfast yet? Seen any deer? And how’s the blog been lately?
I’m taking the unusual step today of directly addressing an individual reader because Dave, one of my more faithful blog constituents, informed me last week he’d given up cold turkey.
Why, pray tell? Had I become boring? Topics not to your liking? Have you found a blog that
Good morning, Dave A.! Had your breakfast yet? Seen any deer? And how’s the blog been lately?
I’m taking the unusual step today of directly addressing an individual reader because Dave, one of my more faithful blog constituents, informed me last week he’d given up cold turkey.
Why, pray tell? Had I become boring? Topics not to your liking? Have you found a blog that
September 18, 2014
Teaching my 13-year-old how to drive my car
(745 words)
Our oldest daughter turns 14 in two weeks. It’s an age of looming adolescence that makes some fathers quake.
Not me.
I understand now that every day she gets a day older she’s making some of my questionable parenting less and less newsworthy.
Like teaching her to drive.
My interest in her learning to drive dates back to ’11 when I read a spate of stories about a
Our oldest daughter turns 14 in two weeks. It’s an age of looming adolescence that makes some fathers quake.
Not me.
I understand now that every day she gets a day older she’s making some of my questionable parenting less and less newsworthy.
Like teaching her to drive.
My interest in her learning to drive dates back to ’11 when I read a spate of stories about a
September 17, 2014
Beating supporters need an attitudinal switch
(677 words)
The good news for the NFL this week is that for now feckless commissioner Roger Goodell is no longer the media whipping boy.
The bad news is the media are focusing on NFL star Adrian Peterson and the boy he whipped.
Peterson admitted to using a tree branch to whip his 4-year-old son so hard that it left open wounds all over the boy’s legs, butt and scrotum. You may have
The good news for the NFL this week is that for now feckless commissioner Roger Goodell is no longer the media whipping boy.
The bad news is the media are focusing on NFL star Adrian Peterson and the boy he whipped.
Peterson admitted to using a tree branch to whip his 4-year-old son so hard that it left open wounds all over the boy’s legs, butt and scrotum. You may have
September 14, 2014
RRS: Happy belated birthday Arnold Palmer!
Arnold Palmer turned 85 on Wednesday and the whole town was invited to the party. They held it at Greater Latrobe High School where, thanks to $1 million donated by Palmer, the district was dedicating the Arnold Palmer Field House at the new state-of-the-art practice facility. I missed it for a reason Palmer would surely appreciate: I was golfing with buddies. But I heard it was a wonderful
September 12, 2014
A celebration of food & death row last meals
(996 words)
I have no fear of dying as long as it doesn’t have to hurt. I want my demise to be so rapid I never even see it coming.
That’s why I contend it’s entirely possible to die peacefully in your sleep of multiple gunshot wounds.
And while I have no fear of death I absolutely dread the idea I might either die hungry or with a belly full of pedestrian crap.
I cherish good food
I have no fear of dying as long as it doesn’t have to hurt. I want my demise to be so rapid I never even see it coming.
That’s why I contend it’s entirely possible to die peacefully in your sleep of multiple gunshot wounds.
And while I have no fear of death I absolutely dread the idea I might either die hungry or with a belly full of pedestrian crap.
I cherish good food
September 11, 2014
Feeling nostalgic for printed pictures
(777 words)
I read the other day how last year the number of pictures we took exceeded the total number of pictures we’d taken in the entirety of man’s existence.
It’s my very favorite kind of fact because it’s dramatic, easy to remember and absolutely impossible to factually verify.
But it stands to reason.
George Eastman didn’t found Kodak until 1888. That’s when he began selling
I read the other day how last year the number of pictures we took exceeded the total number of pictures we’d taken in the entirety of man’s existence.
It’s my very favorite kind of fact because it’s dramatic, easy to remember and absolutely impossible to factually verify.
But it stands to reason.
George Eastman didn’t found Kodak until 1888. That’s when he began selling
