Merry Christmas! Now off to work on my putting.

Thanks to NPR's excerpts from the Vatican's Christmas Mass, I now know what Latin sounds like with a Chicago accent.

Merry Christmas exclusively to the two guys on a ladder hanging lights at the drive through liquor store at 9 pm on Xmas Eve.

This bookstore has disorganized piles, literal cat fights, and one customer loudly demanding information about ham radios. Five stars.

Window seating in St. Louis provides the perfect opportunity to work on my research into the correlation between parallel parking difficulties and temp tag expiredness.

We go to St. Louis for a week every December. I always have Dan make a list of places he wants to go, including his old favorites and any new finds that have caught his eye. This year he added 50 places, so I'm looking forward to eating seven meals a day.

Okay, there is literally nothing about my sensibilities, tastes, or interactions with the world that reflects an age of 20. My only suspicion is that listening to recent recordings of Yuja Wang playing Rachmaninoff or Hillary Hahn playing Bach is being credited as a new release?

Peak St. Louis menu warning.

I missed the beginning of the Science Friday story about immigration to Chicago and the three minutes before I realized they were talking about carp, not people, were a wild ride.

Dan rushes out the door, proclaiming the neighbor texted and needs urgent help. What is the one emergency Dan is qualified to deal with on a Sunday night? TELESCOPE ALIGNMENT.

Rapid City is undefeated for interactive statues.

Had a few beers and took a self-guided tour of the president statues in Rapid City.

I planned to reread The Stand this October, but we only had this dime store “now a tv miniseries” edition with Gary Sinise on the cover so I made Dan go to the library and get a newer paperback version.

Relieved to finally get notice that our office is doing the usual flu shot clinic this year, rather than switching to the HHS preferred prevention method of raw milk enemas and push ups.

Soon the only entertainment I consume will be "physical books published before 2022."

Discussing Ditka vs the National Guard.

If we're doing random personal experiences in place of data for City Discourse: in the past year, I've been to the downtowns of Detroit, Seattle, Phoenix, Minneapolis, and Louisville and more unsettling than all of them combined was Peoria, Illinois.

Okay I ran into this creepy guy last time I was in DC - can’t be too careful!

Just logged a better than average run despite the terrible AQI, which makes me think I would have been a pretty good smoker.

Is there a map of Minneapolis that shows which public territory has been ceded to the geese? I think I crossed an invisible line this morning and briefly feared for my life.

First order of business upon arriving in Minneapolis: google "how to pronounce Bde Maka Ska"

Basically the Kentucky Fried Chicken Space Simulator from Community at the Louisville history museum.

We’re at a space-themed brewery and Dan is DETERMINED to guess the WiFi password.

Malört is the new blood of Christ.

Think I've got my last $10 on a winner.

Zuck: The average American has three friends.

The Ninja Turtle trap is set.

The first automobile ever sold in Detroit. You can see the primordial steps as cars began the evolution towards their perfect form: the 2010 Toyota Corolla.

Sorting by unread in 1901.

“Unattended cheese fire” is the leading cause of death in Detroit.

The sales bros at work are laser focused on important events: what was Hunter Biden was doing in China in 2019?

Apropos of nothing, my favorite professional email I ever sent was to an annoying coworker who always wanted documentation for vanishingly unlikely scenarios. In this case, he wanted a chart listing whether our company’s products were available in various US states and territories.

How exciting to be present at the birth of a new insecurity. See you all at the clavicle-shortening clinic.

Dan is LIVIDLY fact-checking the "name that dog" halftime segment.

I enjoy fantasy novels for some pleasant escapism, but also the mildly absurd ways the female narrators describe themselves.

Kind of concerned that the Irish bar near our house is quiet today - normally by St. Patrick's afternoon we'd have already endured eight hours of the Dropkick Murphys played loud enough to hear on the space station.

Reaching "British Aristocrat" levels of tea consumption during this string of sub-zero days.

During the four years of relative calm, I had forgotten how much the human eye can twitch. (Not a metaphor - my eye restarted twitching this month, which I now remember happening regularly from 2017 - 2021.)

I assume hard liquor sales are UP.

The youth now that TikTok is banned.

Dan’s longest-lingering St. Louis trait is announcing when we’ve climbed one Arch on any hike with elevation changes.

My midwestern mind initially recoiled in horror, before I remembered other cultures use the word “ranch” to refer to something other than dressing.

Dan spots the elusive Cleavage Moon. @bookowl.bsky.social

Me, every afternoon of this St. Louis trip.

When you interrupt bath time.

Made the mistake of referring to Under Siege as a "not great" movie to @bookowl.bsky.social, which led to a detailed, full-throated cinematic defense, complete with video clips.

Disney's Hercules ends with Zeus telling Herc that being a hero isn't about strength or deeds, but what's in your heart, which is "a stranger's just a friend you haven't met" levels of source material accuracy.

Congrats to our new Surgeon General.