Dave Out Loud Reads an excerpt from The Lincoln Highway by Amor Towles (...

Opening Day MLB 2024 White Sox

The White Sox open at the stadium FKA Comiskey Park  this afternoon at 3:10 p.m.  The Sox open against Al Central rival Detroit.  After losing over 100 games last year and a bit of house cleaning near the end of the season that continued over the winter not very much is expected in GM Chris Getz's first full season in his new position.  Pedro Grifol  is in his second season as manager for the southsiders and I believe he will be given a long leash this season to get the team back on the winning track.

Opening Day starting line up for the Sox.  (Players in Bold are making White Sox Debut)

1 Andrew Bentendi LF

2 Yoan Moncada 3 B

3 Luis Robert Jr CF

4,Eloy Jimenez DH

5. Andrew Vaughn 1B

6. Paul Dejong SS

7. Kevin Pillar RF

8. Martin Maldonado C

9. Nicky Lopez 2B

This is obviously the first starting line-up for the White Sox this year.

The starting pitcher for the White Sox is Garret Crochet.  This is Crochet's first major league start.  He is only the 2nd White Sox player to ever have their first major league start on Opening Day.  The first happened some 123 years ago when Roy Patterson pitched for the Chi Sox in the first ever American League opener.  Crochet has been converted into a starter and was named the opening day starter after Dylan Cease, who had already been assigned to start Opening Day was traded to the Padres earlier this month. 

T

Themes for the A to Z Challenge 2024 for Blogs featured on my Blog roll

 Many of the blogs that appear on my blogroll are blogs I discovered during the A to Z challenge.  Last year I put out a post right before the challenge featuring the themes for all the blogs on my blog roll that were in participating in that years challenge.  

This year I am putting them in order of who has posted most recently as of midnight 3/26/2024

Liz of Laws of Gravity is participating this year but has not specified a theme.  Like myself. Liz is a substitute teacher by trade and I am looking forward to see what She has fir us this year.

John Holton of The Sound of One Hand Typing is an epic blogger.  He has an epic theme this year in rhymes with "ale".  I wonder if S will be for Swale, the race horse that won 2 legs of the Triple Crown in 1984 and died 8 days after winning the Belmont Stakes.  

Our Next Stop is Wolf of Words . The Fan Fiction Master is back at it again this year, color me very excited. 

Rambling With A.M is a blog I added to my blog roll after last years challenge.  Her Theme this year;  Gardens, History, Art, and the Unexpected. Speaking of unexpected, this is just one of 3 blogs on my roll with rambling in the title.  

Janet's Smiles is an avid concert goer and is using that as this years theme.

One of my favorite blogs is Sue's Trifles.  Her theme this year is poetry.

We move from poetry to prose with  hdhstory.net, who is using the theme "Truth or Consequences" in his stories for April.

Last year I had 5 bloggers from my roll participating in the challenge.  I also want to do a special shout out to Helen  at Are We Nearly There Yet.  Helen started the 2021 A to Z challenge and got through J.  She added K and L in 2022, and got M through Q in 2023.She continues to plow through the challenge and her writing is honest and encouraging.  She is nearly there  and has only 9 letters to complete her journey.

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The A to Z Challenge starts this Monday! If you are thinking of participating you can sign up here.  

100th birthday of the inventor of liquid paper.

For my A to Z challenge in 2021, I posted about people who were living 100 years past in 1921. Today, I'd like to go back 100 years to the birthday

By NBC Television. The photo was also used to answer fan mail during the height of their popularity.  Link

12 New Movies 2024: #2 Sing

 In many of the Special Ed classes I sub in they have what is called Fun Friday, an enjoyable activity in the last couple of periods of the day.  Often this is a kids movie.  In February the class I was subbing for watched Sing, an animated film from 2016.  Because of my previous job at a local movie theatre, I had seen quite a bit of it's 2023 sequel Sing II.   But since I didn't work there until 2019 and did not end up taking my own children to it, I had never seen the original.

Matthew McConaughey at the premiere of Sing. 2016 Toronto Film Festival , 

CC BY-SA 2.0, Link

, CC BY-SA 2.0, Link

A Stagecoach West bus leaving Gloucester bus station on route 30 to Coleford. It is a Scania N230UD with Alexander Enviro400 body, registration mark MX08 GHY, fleet number 15451.

I would give Sing a rating somewhere between 2.75 and 3.25 stars.  Matthew McConaughey lends his voice to theatrical producer Buster Moon who is in fact a koala bear, (All of the characters are animals) in this film which is part Zootopia and part High School Musical.  Moon's theatre is about to be repossessed by the bank, and he needs to put  a successful show to avoid losing the theatre.  He decides to put on a singing contest, and the rest of the film centers on the contestants and Moon reevaluating and achieving their dreams.  Taron Egerton, Reese Witherspoon, and Scarlett Johansson all voice contestants.  I really liked the musical numbers in the film.  The animation and the music blend together beautifully. If  the film overachieves in it's musical numbers, it certainly underachieves when it comes to plot and overall direction of the film.  Sing II is a good film that could have been a great one, if the plot would travelled on a more interesting trajectory.  If you like musicals about musicals and movies with animated animals, Sing could well be your jam.

Attention All Poets: April A to Z Challenge is Coming.

As today is Poetry Friday and also the penultimate day for  the A to Z 2024 Theme Reveal, I thought I'd feed 2 birds with one feeder (I'm a feeder not a killer) in today's post.  

Not everyone participating in Poetry Friday may be familiar with the A to Z challenge.  It's an annual challenge where for 26 days in the month of April you write about something with another letter in the Alphabet.  In addition to that you can coordinate all your posts in a theme.  For example, a few years ago, my theme was the songs of the Sherman Brothers who wrote songs for movies like Charlotte's Web and Mary Poppins.  More recently in 2022 my posts featured a limerick from every letter of the alphabet.  Many people over the years have used the theme of forms of poetry.  One of the best things about the A to Z challenge is the community of bloggers who will read the entries and comment on them.  In that way it's very similar to the Poetry Friday community.  Poetry Friday makes Friday the best day of my blogging week and the A to Z challenge makes April the best month of my blogging year.  I thought today I would encourage you Poetry Friday folks to consider the challenge this year.

This year my theme is Holiday's to see my theme reveal click here. To see my poem inspired by the Holiday, Take A Poet to Lunch Day, click here. For more about the A to Z challenge and theme reveal click here.

Poetry Friday is hosted this week by Tanita S. Davis at Fiction, Instead of Lies . Check it out!

72 Reasons to celebrate Randy Stonehill's 72nd birthday.

Last year at this time I commemorated Sir Randy Stonehill's 71st birthday by sharing 71 of my favorite songs of his on this blog. As he is adding a candle on his birthday cake this year, I am upping my 71 song salute to a half gross.  I was able to see Randy at 2 concerts since he turned 71.  One with Phil Keaggy last Fall, and a few weeks ago I crossed the border into Missouri to catch an epic solo concert.

In tribute to that performance I am including every song I can find on the internet that he performed at that concert. All of the songs he perfformed on March 2nd in St. Louis are listed in Bold Letters (Just in case you don't know what Bold Letters look like, they look like this.)Many of his songs can be found on Spotify.  Songs I could not find on Spotify, I found on BandCamp.  Songs I could not find in either place I pulled from you-tube or Patreon.

1. Irresistable Future - Mystery Highway

 2. Faithful - Until We Have Wings 

   

 3. Get Me Out of Hollywood- Get me Out of Hollywood 

4. The Last Day - Not on Album Yet.  Video from Randy's Patreon Page 

 5. Christmas Song For All Year 'Round - Welcome To Paradise  

 6. I Love You - Born Twice  

 7. Norman's Kitchen - Born Twice 

8. Bad Fruit -The Sky Is Falling

   

 9. Still Small Voice - Celebrate This Heartbeat  

 10. Christine - Between The Glory And The Flame

 

 11. Can Hell Burn Hot Enough - Until We Have Wings

   

 12. Light Of The World - Equator

   

13. First Prayer - Welcome To Paradise

14. Keep Me Runnin' - Welcome To Paradise

  

15. Stop The World - Celebrate This Heartbeat  

  16. Sunday's Child - Mystery Highway

 17. Love Beyond Reason - Love Beyond Reason  18. Ramada Inn (Live) - Until We Have Wings  19. Everything But Love - Stonehill  20. Didn't It Rain - Until We Have Wings  21. One True Love - The Sky Is Falling  22. Until Your Love Broke Through- Love Beyond Reason  23. Celebrate This Heartbeat - Celebrate This Heartbeat  24. The Hope of Glory - The Wild Frontier  25. Modern Myth - Celebrate This Heartbeat  26. Can't Buy A Miracle - Can't Buy A Miracle  27. Leonard Has A Toaster - Lost Art Of Listening  28. Glory And The Flame - Between The Glory And The Flame  

 29. Stand Like Steel - Return To Paradise  30. Hand of God - Thirst

   

 31. Barbie Nation - Wonderama

 32. Old Clothes - Until We Have Wings

 33. Charlie The Weatherman - Stories 

 34. Try Havin' Some Faith - Spirit Walk

 35. Turning Thirty - Equator

36. Lazarus Heart - Lazarus Heart 

37. This Old Face - Lost Art Of Listening 

38. Baby Hates Clowns - Thirst 

39. Strong Hand Of Love - Welcome To Paradise 

40. Stormy Winds- Uncle Stonehill's Hat  

41. Die Young - Between The Glory And The Flame 

42. Who Will Save The Children - Celebrate This Heartbeat  

43. Arriving to Depart: Not yet on album 

(Pulled from You Tube video from Jan 24 concert, song begins at approximately 19:00)  

44. King Of Hearts: Welcome To Paradise 

45. That's The Way It Goes (Live) - Edge Of The World 

46. Shut De Do (Live) - Equator

  

47. Jesus - Breath Of God   

48. Big Ideas (In The Shrinking World) 49. Beginning Of The Living End - Lost Art of Listening

50. Broken Places - Spirit Walk  51. Hymn - Love Beyond Reason 

52. Billy Frank - The Lost Art Of Listening

 

53. Venezuela - The Sky Is Falling 

54. What Do You Want From Life? - The Wild Frontier 

55.Brighter Day - Can't Buy A Miracle  56. Get Together - The Wild Frontier 

57. Ready To Go - Welcome To Paradise 

58.Rachel Delevoryas - Wonderama  

59.In Jesus Name - Lazarus Heart  60.Last Time I Saw Eden - Spirit Walk  61. Everything You Know (Is Incorrect) - Thirst 

62.I've Got News For You (Paradise Sky Version) Welcome To Paradise - 

63. When I'm Afraid Lazarus Heart  

64.When I Look To The Mountains - Celebrate This Heartbeat 

65.Mercy In The Shadow Land - Lost Art Of Listening 

66. Backwards On Her Bike - Mystery Highway  67.Cosmetic Fixation - Equator 

68.A Promise Made Is A Promise Kept - Lazarus Heart 

69. The Keeper Of The Bear - Thirst

  

70. I Don't Ever Want To Live Without You - Return To Paradise 

71. One Last Song Before I Say Goodbye - Not yet recorded on an album

72. Life is Tough, God Is Good - Spirit Walk

 Happy Birthday Randy! I encourage anyone who spends time listening to these songs to buy some or all of them on Band  Camp.  Also you can sponsor Rand's ministry on his Patreon page.  

📚 Kids Read Aloud | INTERRUPTING CHICKEN by David Ezra Stein

Today at school was the readathon day. Instead of having core classes (Math, Social Sciences, ELA, & Science) are middle school students were able to read in those classes and have teachers and other staff read to them as well.  

As a building sub I don't usually know who I'm going to be that day.  Today I subbed for a paraprofessional in one of our SPED classes.  This particular class is rather low functioning so the books read to the students were geared for much younger children. There was one book the teacher read called Interrupting Chicken by David Ezra Stein. The title reminded me of the old knock knock joke:

A: Knock Knock

B: Who's There

A: Interrupting Cow

B: Interrup

A: Moo

I was able to find a read aloud version of the book on you tube.  This is not that difficult of a thing to do.  I have considered in the past having an A  to Z challenge of children's books being read aloud on you tube videos.  

Here is one of the versions I found on You Tube,

The "He Gets Us" Agenda No One is Talking About...

A to Z Challenge 2024 Theme Reveal

 March 10th is the official theme reveal for the 2024 iteration of the A to Z challenge.  Last year I actually announced my theme for 2024 here a year early while announcing my theme for 2023. In that post I stated, 

"The 2024 theme will be Narnian characters and creatures from A to Z. My working title is Narnia: From Aslan to Zardeenah."

Well it turns out, I lied.  Lied is a strong word.  I miscalculated.  Almost every year for the last 35 years I have reread each book in the Chronicles of Narnia.  Last year when I made the announcement, I had not yet started on my literary pilgrimage to Narnia and thought the idea of reading the books would help in making the alphabetical list of entries.  

I ended up reading a sum total of zero Narnia books in 2023.  While it's true that  I could easily journey from Archenland to Zalindreh, my heart was not in it.  I chose to abandon  delay my Narnian sojourn for another time (Although I would prefer to do all my blogging in Narnia, as no time would pass while I was writing).  

I then toyed with the idea of having no theme and simply blogging about something new from A to Z each day.  I liked that idea quite a bit, but then it occurred to me, I would have nothing to say at the theme reveal.  I then thought of having an overarching theme but leaving it wide enough to choose the individual topics the day they were due.  That also seemed a little problematic as I often suffer more from topic block than it's cousin writer's block.

Holidays by Nick Youngson CC BY-SA 3.0 Pix4free 

 Finally I thought of a topic that would give me both flexibility and stability.  I decided to blog about Holidays.  However instead of A is for Arbor day, C is for Casmir Pulaski Day (It's A Chicago Thing), I will be focusing on lesser holidays, the kind you would find at sites like the National Day Calendar or What is Today Holiday's like National Take A Poet to Lunch day which takes place on January 6th each year, the holiday that inspired this poem.

My process this year is each day of the challenge to post about a holiday that is taking place that day.  Some holidays like April Fools day on the 1st would match very well for the letter of the day.  Others will take a little pushing to make it fit the letter of the day.  April 2nd for example is Children's Book day. If I choose that holiday, I would have a title like B is for Books for Children. 

In addition to actual holidays, I am going to also create 5 new holidays as part of my list, including ways to celebrate these new festive occasions.   

Recent A to Z Challenges

2023 A Month At The Movies

2022 Limericks, Homeruns, & Wordles (Oh My!)

2021 A to Z People who were alive in 1921

2020 State (& Other) Capitals

Each year on Spotify I make an A to Z playlist for the year.  At the end of each post I will have a link to the song for  that day .

I am very excited about this Holiday edition of the A to Z challenge.  To learn more about The 2024 A to Z Theme Reveals click here, if you are ready to participate in said reveals click here, and finally if you are looking for a spreadsheet of who is already participating this year click here.