One thing Angus Young taught me:

"It's not the size of dog in the in the fight, it's the size of fight in the dog. "

"I've also taught a lot of lads to play guitar."

In fact someone said that about Angus Young (Vince Neal, Mötley Crüe? Can't recall.) Dementia must be pretty scrappy because his older brother Malcolm taught Angus how to fight — and play guitar. 

Vintage Whisky 2021

 2021 is the year Larry McMurtry died, and I was promptly felled by a hemorrhagic stroke. I disappeared,but not without blogging first (it was "a Pandemic Year," after all). 

Books

• The Year Of Our Lord 1943: Christian Humanism In An Age Of Crisis by Alan Jacobs reviewed here. 
• The Index Of Self-Destructive Acts by Christopher Beha, reviewed here. 
• Note to self -- read this book on Hannah Arendt.
• Leonard Cohen, Untold Stories: The Early Years by Michael Posner reviewed 

Movies

• Prime Cut -- that is one bonkers movie.
• My wife now subscribes to Disney+ and I have seen all of The Mandalorian. It is not as good as Star Wars: Rebels and I much prefer the LEGO Star Wars video games. But Gina Carano gave me something to talk about. 

Music 

• The concert meme. 
• I still listen to Songs For The Apocalypse by Jason Bieler. 
  
• Treasure of the Broken Land: The Songs of Mark Heard reviewed. 

Mennonites 

• Kristoff-fa-Pluma-moos and the quilte explained. 

Miscellaneous 

• Remembering a balcony. 
• "In which JEH Smith TOTALLY OWNS Peter Thiel and his Girardian frat-boys — possibly not my final word on Rene Girard but probably my final word on Jordan Peterson
• Fitness: my pre-stroke routine. If I have any regrets I wish I'd done more with the curl-bar. Light weights of course. There came a day when I was punctured for blood, and I simply did not have the veins for it. 
• Late-night radio: CFNY and my buddy's tapes explained. 

The last thing I remember from this blog.

Too high?

PSA: 

Drink lots of good, clean water. Nibble on some peppercorns. And talk to a trusted friend. I cannot stress this last point too much. 

Don's Photo/Independent Photography

A good friend once worked at Don's Photo. He later worked at Independent Photography which shared floorspace with the Mennonite jeweler's. He took me to the "Trophy Room" upstairs once. I saw one endangered species after the next stuffed and mounted. Apparently the Old Man introduced a young reporter to the room, figuring it would be a conversation starter. Little did he know! He simply could not understand the horrified look on her face. Another era had passed into the next, to be sure.

"Ya wouldn't shoot me -- would ya?"

Links:  Uncut Gems with Adam Sandler is now streaming. I recommend it. 

Ugliest buildings in the world?

 Oh, Canada has a few of those. Edinburgh is nice and all, but geez-Louise! Do these really compete? 

Source

Medical cannabis — it’s “high” time I practice what I preach

Cannabis — I used to water and harvest the stuff.

The plants looked nothing like this. 

Today I would rather get needles to my forearm, my neck, and my face to manage the pain than take cannabis at all.

I suspect those of us who have enjoyed marijuana recreationally might fall into the exact same trap as those who have avoided cannabis their whole lives. We think we’re so cool, but rather than see the cannabis state as an alternative (and very temporary) state of being we do not see it as helpful in any way at all. My mother must be spinning.

Stay tuned! Plus: here's the Wiki for Billy Sunday, a man quite literally after my own heart. 

He looked like this -- ALL the time. 

BATMAN: THE ANIMATED SERIES

You will get weary of the opening. 

I am watching Batman: The Animated Series (BTAS) — the one that Bruce Timm and Mark Hammil cut their teeth on. 

You say you only recognize one of those names? I know Bruce Timm has been around but Mark Hammil is, in fact, an accomplished actor (and director and producer). 

BTAS is family-friendly, so the bad guys never die but land on bushes or in the water. But BTAS is also grown-up entertainment. There is a lot of punching — most of it off-screen, but still. And the animation is reminiscent of WW2-era Disney or Tom and Jerry which adults will, uh, remember.

I found and ripped the Complete BTAS DVDs when the set was a screaming deal and I actually started watching the video files before I got sick and disappeared. But I started over again, and now I am almost done Season 2. I fully expect I will watch the whole show, including the two movies, which I had to get (but the movies were cheap. Maybe Blu-Ray and the current scene are different — I don't know). 

Other links: over at the Roger Ebert website Matt Sigur remembers when the animated Batman was the only Batman that mattered. And I am a big fan of The LEGO Batman Movie — I shilled for Spider-Verse, I should have squawked about LEGO Batman. too. Hey, better late than never!