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.

12 New Movies 2024 Film #1 In The Good Old Summer Time

 When It comes to placing content on this blog I continually am reminded of the Peanuts comic strip.  Lucy would hold the football for Charlie Brown to kick it and then pull it away from him at the last second .  He would fly through the air and land on his back.  Lucy always seems to be able to convince Charlie Brown that this time it will be different and each time it ends exactly the same.

In my blog I have these ideas for recurring posts and quite often I start them but then never get to finishing them.  One of these actually predates my blogs and that is the idea of watching 12 movies I have not seen before in a year.  Of course I complicate this simple plan by stating that the films must be from different eras.  Each year by April or May I have forgotten which new movies I've seen and I don't meet my goal.  I thought blogging about them might help me keep track, but it only ends up documenting my failure .  In some ways I am both like Lucy luring me to try again each year and like Charlie Brown convincing myself that this time I'll be different  falling flat on my back when the football is metaphorically pulled from my path.

My wife likes to say that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and expecting different results.  But that same wife once co wrote a song with me entitled I'm insane, you're insane, who's gonna win.  So since I already am (I won) sanity challenged, trying again this year isn't that bad of an idea.  Maybe this time I'll at least make it to AAUGHust. 

As I said I try to split the films up so they are not all from the same era. I try to choose 4 films that are older than me and 8 that have come out in my life time 

This year I plan to see 2 new to me films from each of these 6 eras

I. 2009 to 2023

II. 1994 to 2008

III. 1979 to 1993

IV. 1964 to 1978

V. 1949 to 1963

VI. before and including 1934 to 1948

I have already watched 2 new movies this year.  

The first was the 1949 film In The Good Old Summer Time.  I have wanted to watch this one for a while, and actually was reminded of it when I shared a YouTube video here  earlier this month.

By IMDb, Fair use, Link

I would give this movie a rating between 2 1/2 and 3 stars out of 5.  The film takes place in the early years of 20th century Chicago featuring  Judy Garland and Van Johnson  as two music  music store workers  who are also engaging in a mail correspondence not realizing that they know each other in what will be called " IRL" more than a century later. This musical is based on the  1936 Hungarian play Parfumerie by Miklos Laszlo which has spawned 2 other movies and one Broadway musical. One theme from the film is that circumstances can effect the way we view the world especially how we  evaluate people. I really enjoyed the performances by Buster Keaton (Sherlock Holmes, Jr.) , and S.Z. Sakall  (Casablanca) as the shopkeepers nephew  and the shopkeeper, respectively.  Their presence helps bring out much of the films comedic elements.  One aspect of the film I did not enjoy was that many of the musical numbers, although entertaining on their own merit, did not really go with the story that was being told.  This led to kind of an uneven feel to the film, which led to my mediocre rating.  I would definitely recommend this film to fans of Garland and to those who like to watch different adaptations of the same source material.  

Jesse Chavez lists All The MLB teammates he's been on.

 Jesse Chavez the most traded player in the history of Major League Baseball has made his way to White Sox Spring training by signing a minor league contract with the Chicago American League team,  While not officially with the Sox yet, the 40 year old pitcher talked about all his former teams in this video.

Tim Anderson Signs With Miami Marlins

On June 10th 2016 Tim Anderson made his Major League Debut for the Chicago White Sox. Last year On As of September 30th 2023 TA batted .288 with a .317 while playing home games for the  South Siders.  On the road he batted .276 with a .308 OBA. For his career so far Anderson has a .282 Batting average, an OBA of .312 and a slugging percentage of .422. 

2023 was a regrettable/forgettable year for bot the White Sox and Anderson in particular. Anderson In 123 games Anderson hit only.245 lowering his career batting average 6 points from the end of 2022.  Anderson only hit 21 extra base hits last year with only 1 home run, dropping his career slugging percentage 20 points in the process.

At The end of the dismal season the White Sox, declined on Anderson's 14 million dollar contract option for the 2024 season, buying it out instead for $1,000,000.00. After becoming a free agent in November of 2023 Anderson was signed in February by The Miami Marlins and have agreed on a 5 million dollar contract for the season.   

Do What I Did - Valentine's Day Advice

Poetry Friday is upon us once again. It is at Reflections On The Teche this week. I am entering this post from Valentines Day.

 

If You Want Your Love Story

To Have A Happy End

Do What I Did

Marry Your Best Friend

 

If A Diamond

Isn’t Really Her Thing

Do What I Did

Buy An Emerald Ring

 

If Your Fiancée

Doesn’t Need A Lot of Folks

To See Her Wed

Don’t Do What I Did

Just Elope Instead

 

26 Years Ago This Valentine’s Day

We Got Our Marriage License

And I’m Here To Say

I’m So Glad I Married My Best Friend

I Did What I Did

And I’d Do It Again

I wrote this earlier this month based on a prompt at my poetry group.  I gave it to Amy on Valentine's day.  Each time I read it I'm reminded of the work OF P.D. Eastman.  This is probably because I think MY NEST IS BEST because of the bird I share it with.

For More Poetry Friday click here.