Regarding Rob Reiner: Not cool, Mister President

By now everyone knows what happened yesterday.  Actor and filmmaker Rob Reiner, and his wife Michele, were found stabbed to death in their mansion in California.  It seems that it was none other than Reiner's son who was the murderer.

It was a horrific thing by any measure.  And today President Donald Trump, who had long been a target of Reiner's ire, released a statement about the deaths of the couple.  I won't post it all here, Lord knows it's all over the place tonight.  But to put it short: Trump blamed Reiner's "Trump Derangement Syndrome" for causing his murder.

Rob Reiner and Donald Trump (photo credit: MSNBC)

The more I think about what President Trump said about Rob Reiner, the more it disgusts me.  I understand that Reiner hated Trump's guts but that's no excuse whatsoever for what the sitting President of the United States said.  Trump should have taken the high ground.  I'm thinking of what happened when Prince passed away.  "Weird Al" Yankovic paid him a very beautiful tribute, even though Prince had long dissed Weird Al at every turn.  Some things are much bigger than what are really very petty disagreements in the grander scheme of things.  Trump had a great opportunity to be a good man, the better man even, in this.  And he pissed it away with his childish immature statement.

Now, in large part I've been a supporter of Trump.  He is doing things that have been needed accomplishing for a very long time, like addressing the issue of America's porous border.  Nobody will ever spot me wearing a red "Make America Great Again" hat, I usually don't go for fads like that.  But I've liked him.

But this, what Trump posted earlier today?  Not cool.  Not cool at all.  It was crass, classless, and completely without redeeming value.

I didn't care for Reiner's politics either.  But he was a fellow human being, and what happened to him and his wife is an absolute tragedy.  I am willing to look past his beliefs and his weaknesses and appreciate the gifts he shared with the world.

Tonight I am going to watch Misery, probably my favorite Rob Reiner movie, in his memory.  I'll honor him if the President won't.

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"It is time": Stranger Things Season 5 Volume 2 has a trailer!

Since Thanksgiving night I have watched the first volume of the final season of Stranger Things twice.  The shock still hasn't faded.  Dang it I want to talk openly about what's been streamed so far!!!  But there are still so many who haven't watched the latest episodes yet.  I'm going to be considerate of them.

But if you have seen the first four episodes of season five already, here is the new trailer that dropped earlier today:

I'll share an interesting theory I've heard, though.  It's being posited that Vecna, for all his malevolence and power, is not the ultimate villain of Stranger Things.  That there is some one or some thing over him that is the true monster behind everything that has happened.  I've heard it suggested that in keeping with the Dungeons & Dragons motif that's rife through this show, this final entity could be code-named Tiamat.  I kind of like that idea, though I don't know if there's going to be enough time to elaborate on that in the four final episodes.  Still a neat notion.

I'll go ahead and share my personal theory for the big finale.  Stranger Things's very last scene is going to be fifteen or twenty years later.  We get to see our heroes all grown up and happy and long past all the trauma and heartbreak that they went through together.  Among other things, Dustin and Suzie are married and have a son named Eddie.  That would be a happy ending for Dustin, who I've been cheering for since I first saw this show in a hotel room in Phoenix years ago.

Ten days to go.

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Why churches using the Nativity to protest immigration enforcement are wrong.

I'm reading a number of stories regarding churches turning their nativity scenes into political statements about immigration agents enforcing the laws.  Namely, these churches are replacing Mary, Joseph and the infant Jesus with signs saying "ICE was here".  At least one church went all the way and has ICE agents surrounding the crèche with zip ties and weapons drawn.

Photo credit: Matthew McDonald

I would not want to visit these churches, because they are demonstrating that they have no grasp of scripture at all.

Here's the truth of the matter: Jesus and his parents were never refugees or immigrants.  Joseph took his wife to Bethlehem because that was their hometown, and they had to take part in a census that had been ordered by Caesar.  They may not have been fully citizens of Rome (few in Roman territory were) but they were certainly 100% legal residents of the empire.  There was nothing wrong about that at all.

So already, to depict Mary, Joseph and Jesus hauled off by immigration enforcement is ridiculous.  More  than that, it's blasphemous.

And so far as the holy family being in Egypt to escape from Herod goes, Egypt had fully been a part of the Roman Empire since the end of the Ptolemaic dynasty a few decades earlier.  Joseph brought his family there to escape from Herod, a puppet king ruling Judea on behalf of Rome.  The family of Joseph were escaping a wicked provincial ruler who Rome pretty much let do whatever he wanted so long as he kept the local Jews in line.  But Herod's jurisdiction went no further than that.  People were still free to travel within the empire, across provincial boundaries.  So it is that to go from Judea to Egypt was no more big a deal than if I were to drive a car from the upstate of South Carolina across the border and into Georgia.  To claim that Joseph and his family were going to a foreign land and that made them refugees is... well... dumb.

This hatred of all things Donald Trump is begetting some truly mad behavior.  It says more about the people hating, than it does about the man they are targeting with their spite and bitterness.  For a church to ignore basic scripture, as these places of worship are doing, absolutely reeks of ignorance.  And they need to be called out about it.

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Happy Sixtieth Anniversary to A Charlie Brown Christmas!

 

Premiered on CBS on December 9th, 1965.

No matter how many times I've seen this, I always take time to watch it again every Christmas season.  A few years ago I bought the Blu-ray containing A Charlie Brown Christmas along with the Halloween and Thanksgiving specials.

I can barely remember it, but when I was two or three years old CBS had scheduled the Christmas special for broadcast.  But a football game went over long and completely pre-empted A Charlie Brown Christmas.  I was furious!  Mom said I was really crying about not getting to see Charlie Brown.  It bothered Mom too.  Enough so that she called CBS affiliate WFMY in neighboring Greensboro to complain about it.  I don't know what she said to them but they gave her the home phone number of the station's general manager!  Mom let him have it, telling him it was wrong to advertise Charlie Brown and then yank it away from all the children because of a football game.  The way Mom put it, I get the feeling that she wasn't the only irate parent calling the station that night.  And parents across America were probably calling their own local CBS affiliates too.  In the end the network rescheduled A Charlie Brown Christmas to an airdate ideal for viewers of all ages and the kiddies got to see it after all.

I treasure knowing that.  For all that happened between my mother and I (something I explore at length in my book Keeping the Tryst), there are anecdotes scattered here and there which prove that Mom wasn't the bad person I went so long believing that she was.  A parent doesn't do something like that if there wasn't love for his or her child.  I very much appreciate that.

Well, happy anniversary Charlie Brown.  Someone said during your special's production that they'll be watching this for a hundred years.  You're well on your way to reaching that goal.  I hope to be around to see it when it comes :-) 

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Pennrose Mall will live again! Worst shopping center in North Carolina is getting an extreme makeover (Plus: Reidsville is getting a new bookstore!)

I first heard about this about a week ago and it didn't seem possible.  There were photos though that proved it was true: Pennrose Mall, what might be the worst shopping establishment in the southeastern United States - it's definitely the worst in the state of North Carolina - is getting some much-needed cosmetic attention.

Here is a pic of what Pennrose Mall has looked like for the past few decades:

The blog Sky City: Retail History has many other photos of Pennrose.  Those are from circa 2011 though.  I paid a brief visit inside the mall in 2017 and it was MUCH worse by that point.

Pennrose Mall used to be a happenin' place.  It had many good retailers, some big-name anchors but also quite a few small businesses that brought real local charm to the downtown area.  But the last time it was anything like that was perhaps thirty years ago.  I think the town's economic downturn when American Tobacco Company was sold in 1994 was one hammer that hit Pennrose.  And then Walmart came in 2005 and that wrought a lot of devastation to the business scene in Reidsville.

Like I noted above, I went into Pennrose Mall in 2017.  There were only three stores that were still there: Belk, Rose's, and Strader's Shoe Store.  There was only one other "business" there: a fly by night Internet sweepstakes place that looked like it had gone completely under the radar of local law enforcement.  Strader's closed this past spring, leaving only Belk and Rose's to dominate an empty shell of a shopping center.  There was extensive water damage from leaky ceilings.  Trash throughout the complex.  Weeds growing throughout the empty parking lot.  I'm sure vagrants have been hanging around.  No doubt some drug deals have happened there too.

Put succinctly, Pennrose Mall has been the blight of Reidsville, North Carolina.  But its owner never cared about fixing up the place.  The interests owning Pennrose, apparently up in New York State, found the mall to be more profitable if it was just sitting there derelict.

Well folks, apparently things are finally going to be looking up for Pennrose Mall.

On the podcast today at Mike Moore Media, the plans for Pennrose Mall were finally revealed.  Here's what was posted on the podcast's Facebook page earlier...

Pennrose Mall in Reidsville has been bought by local developer Tom Holderby, a Reidsville native.  Renovations have started, a dozen new businesses have already signed leases, including retail, restaurants, trampoline park, coffee shop, and Peanut Shack is returning.  Holderby is also building 168 apartments on the property.  Plans will be announced for the old Hardee’s and China Grill.  Winn-Dixie will be torn down.  Pennrose, one of the first malls in the state was built in 1968.

WOW!!  All of that, and the return of Peanut Shack, too!  New businesses set to fill the empty spaces.  Restaurants coming.  A coffee shop and a trampoline park, which sounds like a lot of fun.

This really could be the thing that revitalizes downtown Reidsville.  Something that it has needed for a full generation now.

I have high hopes for this and I wish Mr. Holderby all the best.

But that's not all!

When I commented on the original post on Facebook, I lamented that Reidsville needs a bookstore.  Pennrose Mall used to have News & Novels, an awesome bookstore that I bought many a volume (and quite a few comic books) from.  News & Novels closed down in 1988.  Richard Moore (who I've written about a few times on this blog) had KC Books and then The Bookstore and that lasted for awhile until it closed in 2008.  There hasn't been a single bookstore in Rockingham County since then.

Well friends, I have been informed by trusted associates that a new bookstore is coming to Reidsville!  Coming spring of 2026 is Ink & Ivy Bookshop and it sounds like it's going to be the perfect lil' addition to the city of Reidsville.  I'm definitely looking forward to visiting Reidsville again soon, just to check Ink & Ivy out.  Hey who knows, maybe we'll have a signing for my book there.

Seriously though, this news warms the cockles of my heart and I'm very glad to hear that my old hometown is getting some good things after too long a time in the wilderness.

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The ORIGINAL Star Wars: A New Hope is coming to theaters in February 2027!

This is something that a LOT of us have waited almost thirty years for!  It was reported a few days ago that the original cut of Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope is coming back to theaters in February 2027!  This is going to be the first Star Wars movie as it existed before the "Special Editions" came out in 1997.  From an age when the special effects of the saga were done without benefit of computer-generated imagery.   This is the movie that shattered the bar for what practical effects could do and it set the platinum standard for every blockbuster since.  And now in time for the film's fiftieth anniversary we're going to behold it again in its original glory.

(I'm going to assume that "original 1977 Star Wars" actually means the print that was released prior to the premiere of The Empire Strikes Back.  That version was the 1977 cut but with the "Episode IV: A New Hope" added to the opening crawl.  That is how it was most widely known as in the years after its original release.  That's my assumption anyway.  It's still going to be the material circa 1977.)

It's a real wonder that it is coming out though!  Ever since 1997 the official line from Lucasfilm is that the footage that was cleaned up and restored prior to getting enhanced effects for the Special Editions, had been irreparably damaged during that process.  George Lucas insisted that A New Hope as had first come out in theaters no longer existed.  He further stated that the Special Editions were in his mind the definitive Star Wars trilogy and that there was no real need or perhaps even desire for the original cuts.

Disney many have done a few things wrong since taking over the franchise in 2012, but this is not one off those.  Because many of us have been wanting the classic A New Hope - the version that won awards out the wazoo and was one of the very first movies inducted into the National Film Registry - to be made available to us.  The A New Hope cut that many if not most of us still remember from between 1977 and 1996 is, I prefer to believe anyway, a priceless historical artifact of its time.  It deserves to be forever honored and esteemed.  And the people who have come after deserve to see it for themselves: a cut of the first Star Wars movie that really does have Han shooting first.

I don't know how they did it but apparently there was a pristine print of that first version of Episode IV out there and now it's been restored and being made ready for its golden anniversary.  I hope this does a zillion dollars at the box office.  Maybe then Disney and Lucasfilm will not only release the original versions of The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi also, but make them on sale for home release.  I would certainly love to have the first trilogy as originally enjoyed in my personal library.

Think I'm going to wear my lucky Star Wars cap, that I've had since being at Elon, when I go see this in the theater.

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Just saw this Christmas-themed Publix commercial and I love it!

Whoever came up with this ad deserves an award.  This spot is brilliant, tragicomic, heart-tugging, funny, and beautiful.  Publix has a long history of having great commercials and this is one of their best.

Growing up I thought that people whose birthdays fell on Christmas must be so lucky, because it meant that they got more toys.  Watching poor Isabelle suffer from being a Christmas baby makes me greatly regret having that notion.  May all who were born on Christmas have a birthday just as wonderful as this young lady's :-) 

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Detroit finally gets its statue of RoboCop

Way, waaaaay back in 2011, I posted about how a bunch of good-hearted geeks pitched in more than $50,000 to crowdfund a statue of RoboCop for the city of Detroit.  I've wondered about this project at various times over the years (mostly whenever I've watched RoboCop, which hasn't been too many occasions) and I certainly did wish them well.  But it still seemed like one of those great ideas that linger around but ultimately get nowhere.

Leave it to nerd-dom to prove this cynic wrong.

Behold the brand new $60,000 bronze statue of electric fuzz in stainless steel:

Click to enlarge.  Photo credit: Lee DeVito

Detroit Metro Times has more here about the RoboCop statue.  Maybe they should invite Paul Verhoeven and Peter Weller for the official dedication?  I'd buy that for a dollar!

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Hair-raising true story of Yours Truly and manic depression

So, TWO people have asked me the same question in private message on Facebook.  Having seen my new photo, they're wondering if I've colored my hair.

Okay, sure, why not?  It might be a little fun to answer this...

NO!  I am not currently coloring my hair.  What you see is all natural brown, honest.

HOWEVER, for awhile I did color my hair.

I was afraid that I was going gray prematurely.  So I turned to Just For Men...  with tragicomic results.  One more thing that I did while deep in the throes of mania.

The complete story - which really is pretty hilarious - is in chapter 56 of my book Keeping the Tryst.  Along with what I did when I thought my hair was falling out.  Not one of my prouder moments, but the tale is there if anyone wants to be a little entertained 😮

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Haven't posted a selfie in a long time...

The other week I got a haircut.  I tend to like how these things look after they've grown out a bit.  And I've lost some weight lately.  Been trying to take better care of myself than I had been, so among other things I'm eating a lot more fresh veggies.  I definitely think that working on the book took a stressful toll.  There were a lot of things in that which were a real struggle to write.  But I did it and I think I picked up the visage of a real author in the process.

Anyhow, this is how I'm looking lately:

Not bad for a guy in his early fifties!  Every so often I get asked how old am I.  It's become a lot of fun making people guess.  I've been told that I look everything from 45 to 23!

Well, we'll see how long it lasts.  Maybe when I hit 70 I'll be getting mistaken for a person in his forties :-) 

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Forsaking one happiness for another, or: "Why don't you have a girlfriend Chris?"

Every so often someone asks me the question: "Chris, why don't you have someone special in your life?"

It's not a bad question, not really.  There are a lot of reasons why I don't have a woman to love.  One of the biggest is that I just haven't found her yet.  It seems that the prospects of that happening are dim.  But my expectations are high. The woman who God might bring into my life has to love and serve Him first, more than she would me.  That is not easy to find in any person, it seems.

She also has to be able to love me for who I am, lumps and all.  That means accepting that I have a condition that will at times make life difficult for both of us, and I'm speaking of my having bipolar disorder.  Now, that is something which has become MUCH more controlled in the past few years.  It's not the monster looming over me like it has been for most of my life.  But even so, it's there, and though I'm better at knowing when it's about to strike the symptoms still come.

I also know what kind of person she needs to be outwardly.  I desire someone who cares about the impression she makes. And by that I mean I do NOT care for someone with tattoos and metal in inappropriate places on her body, especially on her face.  I want a girl who looks natural.  With symmetry.  Sorry, not sorry, but tattoos on a woman are a major turn-off for me.  I don't find that appealing, at all.  It seems that many if not most people, including the females, are getting inked these days.  That is something I'm not interested in a woman having.

My standards are high.  Maybe unapproachably so.  But I know what I'm looking for.  A real diamond in the rough.  If and when I find her, I'm going to be very thankful for her.

But even so, all of those things don't zero in on the real reason why I'm unattached.  There are others. And one of then is something that I am actually very joyful about.

Something that struck me a few days ago.  I told this to my friends yesterday during our belated Thanksgiving dinner together, and they thought I was right, too...

A lot of people know that one of the things I've most wanted in life is someone to share it with.  I've longed for God to bring a woman into my world, who I can cherish and honor and love.  Someone who can truly love me, imperfections and all, and never abandon me because of my frailties.

What's happened to that?  I talk about that desire a bit in my book Keeping the Tryst.  It's important enough to merit mentioning.  But I haven't lamented not having a lady in my life as I used to, in quite awhile now.  Though time has seen that desire magnify, not diminish.

So, what's happened?

In a word, Tammy.  My dog happened.

It hit me right between the eyes this past week, the discovery that I've been so focused on giving Tammy a good life, I've been ignoring the desires I have had for my own.

I do not believe at all that that's been a bad thing.

I promised Dad, on the night before he passed away, that I would look after Tammy and take care of her.  As best that I possibly could.  Dad and I had gotten Tammy together but I never harbored anything more than the sense that Tammy was his dog first and foremost.  He was "Daddy " to her.  He was her person.  The one she most followed and looked to for comfort and attention.  I was just... well, I guess I was "the other guy" in the house.  The spare.  The one to get attention from when Daddy was too busy making dinner or something.

Tammy was Dad's dog and on his next-to-final night with us he came to enough to ask about her.  And I told him that he didn't have to worry.  I told Dad that I would watch over her and see to it that she was taken care of.

That was eleven years ago.  Quite a while.

My promise to my father, to look after someone we both loved, has been the central mission of my life all this time.  It's been the most important aspect of my being, second only to my relationship with God.

Tammy is more than a dog to me.  She is family.  She is the last living connection I have to my father.  I cherish her especially because of that.

And she has absolutely been worth setting aside my desires for my own happiness for.

She IS happiness for me.  Every day that ends with the two of us together, is something I am thankful for.  It's that much more time that I can feel like I've made Dad proud of me, for taking care of his dog.

I don't count having my own desires set aside for her sake as a loss.  Not at all.

I'm doing what I said that I would do.  I'm fulfilling a promise.  I'm being honorable.  I'm doing the right thing, no matter how it looks to the world.  If you've read or are reading Keeping the Tryst then you know how much my honor means to me and this, is in keeping with that.

I cannot do otherwise.

Some day, it will sadly end.  I'm a realist.  I know that Tammy isn't as young as she used to be.  But she's still here.  She's still with me.  And every day that we have together is a victory to celebrate and be thankful for.  Every day that we have is a gift from God.  And that is never something to be regretful about.

I don't count the decade and more I've had without a woman in my life as being lost.  Not at all.  When you love someone enough you can very easily set aside your own needs and wants for sake of that person.  And that is what Tammy is to me: a person.  Dear family, and family looks after each other no matter the cost.  Just one of many things that my little dog has taught me.

It may not be as big a deal as having a spouse and kids.  But this is the hand that God dealt me.  And I am absolutely making the very most of it.  I can be grateful for that.

And who knows?  Maybe someday, sooner than later, God will bring a woman into my life.  I think Tammy has enough love in her for another person, too 🙂

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Just finished watching Stranger Things season five, volume one. Aaaaaand...

Good GOOGLY MOOOGLY!!  Holy HECK!!  Good LORD!!  Jeebus cripes crispies with milk!!!

I mean, did I just watch that?  I watched that.  That just happened.  That was much better television than we possibly deserve to have.  This is at least the greatest show since Lost.

And the kids do not too terribly old either considering it's been over three years since season four.  They all appear pretty consistent with their characters's on-screen ages.  Even Erica - who I was concerned about most, because I love that character - looks great!  The crew did an amazing job with makeup.  I totally bought that these were still teenagers.

I totally called it on the title of episode two, which was being called "The Vanishing Of..." ever since the titles reveal last year.  The foreshadowing was there all the way back in season one.  Can't believe I nailed that one :-)

It was a real delight to see that the copy of A Wrinkle in Time that Holly is reading is the very same edition of my own copy, that I got as fourth grader in 1984.  That became one of my favorite books from childhood and it was really something seeing how that classic tale got referenced in these episodes.

I'm just... wow.  The past five hours were amazing.  Definitely time well spent away from real world concerns.  That can be a good thing, in moderation.  I've neglected having some leisure time for my own enjoyment for much too long.  Tonight I got to have that again.

Today is officially Thanksgiving.  I'm going to be joining some friends for a late celebration tomorrow, so I have today pretty much to myself.  I'm going to spend it playing with my dog, for fun I'm going to make the dinner that Snoopy cooked in A Charlie  Brown Thanksgiving (complete with toast and pretzels), and I might watch these first four episodes again.  I'll certainly watch them again before volume two comes out on Christmas Day.

Okay well, go watch the new Stranger Things.  It gets my highest recommendation.  And if you've never watched it before, what are you waiting for??  You're missing a heck of a story, with an amazing cast of characters.  I hope this comes to Blu-ray eventually, because I would be very happy to have the series in my collection.  But you don't have to wait.  Get Netflix now, just for Stranger Things.  Trust me it's worth it.

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Thanksgiving 2025: What I am thankful for

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving here in the United States.  And though it has been adopted by a few other countries, the American observation of the holiday remains a unique one.  Thanksgiving has been part of America's identity since the early seventeenth century, most notably by the Pilgrims of the Plymouth colony in 1621.  The notion of the American people giving thanks to God for the blessings He had bestowed was further ingrained by the Continental Congress in 1777.

And then in 1789 President George Washington famously proclaimed a day of national thanksgiving.  That pretty much sealed the deal.  Thanksgiving would forever be a sacred time for the American people.

My experiences with Thanksgiving have been varied.  Some of them have been good.  Others, not so much.  I don't want to dwell on the latter though.  I like to believe that recent years, months actually, have brought deliverance from much of that pain.  Yet Thanksgiving will forever be something that I approach with trepidation.  It's the entire month of November, actually.  While writing my book it struck me how so much has happened in my life during the various months of November... and not all of that very good.  There has been a lot of family heartbreak during November and now that I realize it, that has cast a pall on this month, maybe from now on.

But in spite of that, there are enough good things that have been in my life that I cannot but have a grateful heart about.  And I can definitely honor God by remarking upon those.

So here, as part of what has at various times been a holiday tradition (though it's been five years since the last time I did this), are what I am thankful for right now...

I am thankful for my relationship with God, that has grown so much over the course of the past few years.  I think part of that is because I have made it a prerogative to choose to be thankful, in spite of how circumstances have sometimes gone.

I am thankful for the work that I have right now.  That was definitely an answered prayer.

I am thankful for the many wonderful people who are in my life, who have been there for me when I needed that most.

I am especially thankful for my "inner circle", my closest friends who really are precious family.

I am thankful that I have a roof over my head and a working vehicle.

I am very thankful for my dog Tammy.  I thank God for her each morning and evening, and I pray that He might let us have many more wonderful years together.

I am thankful that this year I got to see my book Keeping the Tryst published after a decade of on and off work upon it.  And it seems that others are enjoying reading it.  I am very happy about that.  Maybe the new year will see it discovered by even more people, too.

I am thankful for some opportunities that have opened up, and I am looking forward to seeing what happens with them.

I am thankful for my overall health.  And especially my mental health.  After half a lifetime of dealing with bipolar disorder, I can truthfully testify that my mind is at last my own.  Are there moments where things could be better?  Yes, there are.  Those will always be a threat to live with.  But manic depression no longer looms over me like a monster.  That is a beast that has in greatest part been brought to ground.

I am thankful that I have lately begun reading for pleasure again, more than I had been.  I suppose I've been so fixated on my own book, that I'd forgotten how much fun it is to read the classics.  In the past month or so I've been re-reading the Harry Potter series.  It's almost like a spark of childhood has been re-ignited in me and I want to nurture that.

I am thankful for my iPad Pro: my most indispensable tool.  Although I'm now on the second keyboard for it (cranking out 142,023 words of my book took a toll on the first keyboard, especially the "t" key).

I am thankful that I did not require surgery in September (long story)!

That's what comes pretty much comes most to mind for this occasion.  And I shall pray that YOU, Dear Reader, will have even more things to list that you are grateful for this Thanksgiving :-)

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Weird News: Man disguises himself as dead mother to get her government pension checks

Y'know, I really need to post more crazy stuff.  I used to do it all the time.  It adds some variety to this place.  But I don't want to over do it.  In the past few years The Knight Shift has become more an intimate thing for me.  Although I need to post more "from the heart and mind" pieces too.  Just something I've noticed.

But back to weird stuff...

From Italy comes this story of a "youthful whippersnapper" who did a bad bad thing.  A man in Italy, 56 and an unemployed nurse, has been found to have been dressing up as his three-years dead mother in order to impersonate her and get her pension checks.  It's as bizarre a story as has come about lately.

From the article at Daily Mail:

An Italian son has been accused of dressing up as his dead mother in an effort to claim her pension while her body was hidden at home.

The 56-year-old man, an unemployed nurse from Mantua, reportedly managed to claim thousands of euros before his act was exposed.

He had also allegedly hidden the dead body of his mother, Graziella Dall'Oglio, at the family home until it had become mummified.

  The 56-year-old man, an unemployed nurse from Mantua, reportedly managed to claim thousands of euros before his act was exposed.

He had also allegedly hidden the dead body of his mother, Graziella Dall'Oglio, at the family home until it had become mummified.

Ms Dall'Oglio passed away around three years ago at the age of 82, according to Italy's Corriere della Sera newspaper.

But her son failed to officially report her death and instead wrapped her body in a sheet, stuffed it into a sleeping bag and hid it in the house.

He then allegedly dressed up as his mother, complete with lipstick, foundation and a pearl necklace, before setting out to renew her identity card in a government office in the suburb of Borgo Virgilio.

The son had reportedly cut his hair so it would fall in a similar style to his late mother's. 

He underwent a 'Mrs Doubtfire-style transformation', the paper said, referring to the 1993 movie starring Robin Williams.

The man arrived at the government office on the outskirts of Mantua earlier this month, where he presented himself as Ms Dall'Oglio.

But his blatant deception raised the suspicions of one employee, who realised there was something peculiar about the 'woman' - including their thick neck and deep voice.

The member of staff quickly reported the incident to police and even alerted the local mayor.

Authorities compared official photographs of the real Ms Dall'Oglio to those of her son and realised they had been duped.

The son had been reeling in an annual income of around €53,000 (£47,000) thanks to his mother's pension as well as a property portfolio of three houses, as per the paper.

As for what gave this poor sap away...

'He came into the council offices wearing a long skirt, he was wearing lipstick and nail varnish, a necklace and old-style earrings,' Francesco Aporti, the mayor of Borgo Virgilio, told the newspaper.

'But up close his neck was too thick and his wrinkles were strange, the skin on his hands did not seem to be that of an 85-year-old woman. 

'His voice was feminine but every so often it dipped and sounded masculine. But I might not have noticed these strange features had they not been pointed out.'

Here is a photo of the late Miss Dall'Oglio:

And here is the photo of her son in his devious disguise:

This doesn't remind me of Mrs. Doubtfire nearly as much as it does of Norman Bates...

And now I'm suddenly tempted to watch Psycho.

 

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It's five days until Thanksgiving 2025

 Remember...

A bit of classic humor from good friend of this blog Lee Shelton who first created this pic in 2009 :-) 

(In case anyone's wondering, I will sadly not be deep frying a Thanksgiving turkey this year.  Maybe for Christmas though...)

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A new question about Keeping the Tryst: What happened in the cafeteria at Elon

My book Keeping the Tryst has been out for a little over a month and a half now.  It's been doing pretty well sales-wise.  Okay it's NOT a bestseller by any stretch.  But enough people have been buying and reading it to make me pretty happy so far.  Maybe there will come to be some word of mouth and knowledge about it will spread around.

People are reading it.  And their comments have been rather kind.  One of my friends said that it's a real page-turner that he's barely been able to put down.  A number of people have praised its readability, saying that it doesn't come across as a 500-some page volume.  I've also gotten good word about the design: it's page color, the font size... so it's something comfortable on the eyes.  Considering that I had to design everything about this book, hearing those things makes me smile.

There have been a number of questions from those who have been reading Keeping the Tryst.  I've been doing my best to answer them as well as is possible.  Here's the latest question that's been asked.  I suppose it's a good one, because I didn't expound on it very much in the book...

"What happened in the cafeteria in chapter 19?"

Harden Cafeteria, Elon College, circa 2000

The answer is: I don't know.

I have vivid and troubling memories about what happened a few hours earlier, then a week and a half following my salvation experience in November of 1996.  I remember being in my bedroom at our apartment, sometime after midnight.  There is the memory of calling someone.  What took place between going to the cafeteria and winding up back home, that's gone.  Just... gone.

When dawn came, I didn't get ready to go to class.  I was too torn to pieces, too wiped out.  My mind was a wreck.  I skipped school that day.  And the next.  Friends called me, wanting to come over.  But I turned them down.  I wasn't ready to see anyone.

My friend Gary was the one who suggested that something very horrible had happened that evening in the cafeteria.  And over the course of the next few days, a number of friends from what was a close-knit community of Christian students intimated also that a terrible occurrence had transpired and that I had been at the center of it.

There are some mysteries in my life.  Things that I can't explain or have ever fully grasped.  What happened that night in Harden Cafeteria at Elon College is one of those.  It's among the biggest enigmas that have come about in my time on this earth.

What  I wrote about in chapter 19 of Keeping the Tryst is whatever it is.  Something terrible, that I've never had a solid answer about.  But I believe that God has brought me a long way from that.  It doesn't cast a shadow over my life as it had.  In fact, in the grander scheme of things it's really something pretty minor.  I came through it, God is good, and that's all that matters.

But maybe someday, though it's already been almost thirty years, there will come to be a clear understanding of what happened.  And who knows, but maybe I'll write about it.

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