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Daniel Moran's avatar

Happy birthday. Great goals. Deleting Netflix etc. is a great idea—but you may want to delete all and just get Criterion if you’re really into movies. Small item: you’re too good of a writer to use a phrase like “pretentious prick.”

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J. M. Terry's avatar

Thanks for the note Daniel. And thanks for the gentle admonishment, you should have been an abbot. Perhaps you are one for all I know. I edited it out since you didn’t care for it. Did you find phrase redundant or do you just not care for potty mouthed language?

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Daniel Moran's avatar

I’m no abbot for sure, and I have nothing against cussing. It just looked ugly on the screen and you do the job anyway by just saying, “I won’t be pretentious.”

When people drop the F bombs into their notes, I automatically mute them— not because I’m a prude — nothing wrong with some F bombs – but because they’re always lame attempt to intensify a word. (I saw an album review the other day and the headline for the notes was that the album had “fucking balls.”)

They just look bad on a screen in a way that they don’t when they come out of Scarface’s mouth. Anyway, that’s my two cents. Dreaming of the Rood is a great substack.

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Mary Catelli's avatar

Many happy returns of the day.

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Timothy McCarthy's avatar

Getting on the bike is always good. I used to travel through iffy hoods - you’ll be surprised to find who hasn’t gone to bed yet despite the early hours - and weather. Get real lights (front and back - you can pop them off to take with you) and a good helmet, even for a short commute. Learn from my mistakes. Enjoy the ride!

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