Saturday 9

 OLD ME

1) In this song, the lead singer thanks his younger self for everything he learned from past experience. What's something you learned in 2023? I learned a lot as I made my way through my self-assigned reading project. I picked four people I've heard about my entire life but really knew little about -- Winston Churchill, Dwight Eisenhower, Aristotle Onassis and Babe Ruth -- and read biographies of them. These men are fascinating and consequential and while I'm certainly no expert, I have a better understanding of why they became legends.

 

2) He admits he did some things he wished he hadn't. Did you do anything in 2023 you wish you could take back? I was too free and frank when I pushed back against the input my new boss, Ceecee, shared with me. The feedback was from Katie from Corporate, and it was irrelevant and annoying, which I made clear. I still believe I was right, but I overreacted. I wasn't responding just to Ceecee, but to more than 40 years of irrelevant and annoying "Katies." I apologized to Ceecee and she was very gracious.

3) This music video consists of old photographs. Do you have many photos lingering on your phone or camera? Or are you prompt about downloading them? Some I download right away, but yes, some are lingering on my phone.

4) This week's featured artist is 5 Seconds of Summer, a band from Australia. Have you ever been to the land down under? If not, would you like to go? No and no. I have nothing against Australia. I'm sure it's lovely. There are just places closer to home I'd like to see, or see again.

 
5) In 2020, when this song was popular, "murder hornets," aka the giant Asian hornet, were spotted for the first time in the United States. Are you afraid of bugs? Nope. I have to be careful around bees and red ants because I'm allergic, but that's just commonsense.

6) Enough about 2020! Let's look back on 2023. Did you travel this past year? I went to Tampa to see Anthony Rizzo and the Yankees in spring training (and visit my Cousin Rose) and to the TCM Classic Film Festival in Los Angeles. Elaine and I went to New Salem, just outside outside of Springfield, for an overnight trip to tour the Lincoln sites.

 

The fall colors were a nice backdrop for Mr. Lincoln

7) What was the biggest purchase that you made in 2023? Does dental work count as "a purchase?" I spent a shit ton on my teeth this year.

8) What was your favorite book of 2023? This is hard to answer because the book that has stayed with me, that I keep thinking about long after I put it down, was The Big Fella, the Babe Ruth biography I mentioned in #1. But I think that's because Ruth's saga is so compelling, not because this particular biography is especially well written. (It jumps around a lot.) Still, Babe was a good and supremely talented man who overcame more than anyone should and went on to have a lasting impact on American culture so I'm glad I read it.

9) What are you looking forward to most in 2024? No one specific thing, but I'm optimistic about the upcoming year.