We finished reading Tolkien’s The Hobbit this week – the first full-length book I’ve read to the kids. It was a the obvious choice, as this was also the first book my Mom read to me. It’s been a while since I’ve read that book and several things stand out after so many years. Tolkien wrote in long, descriptive, balanced sentences. Very nice to read aloud. The sense of place and history, the sheer amount of description is palpable in The Hobbit. Of course this has become one of the prevailing themes of fantasy fiction, so no surprise there. Finally, Bilbo is just a great character. And now onto the girls’ thoughts as recorded be me with a few questions here and there…
One favorite part is when Bilbo went to talk to Smaug. He saw the weak spot by getting Smaug to roll over by telling riddles. Bilbo was pretty brave there. I was afraid Bilbo might be found by Smaug, and he’d attack him and eat him. I thought this was the scariest part. Instead he just got a little burnt. Read more »

Major League Soccer has survived the contraction of the early aughts to emerge as a league with 15 teams. This goes to 16 teams next year with two more expansion teams waiting in the wings. In the bad old days, 75% of the teams made the playoffs, but nowadays a playoff berth is actually an achievement so the final 8 are pretty solid teams. And the fact that going into the last two weekend’s of league play only two teams were eliminated from playoff contention made for a highly competitive and exciting finish. While the Eurosnobs would like to mimic the Old Country and do away with the playoffs, let me add to the chorus and assure everyone that our way is better.
Any month is a good month for the fiction of horror master H.P. Lovecraft, but October provides an added aura of foreboding. Not that many of Lovecraft’s stories are particularly Halloweenish, and he was more apt to include ageless alien demi-gods in his fiction than ghosts or witches or the like, but there’s something about a gray stormy evening with a cold autumn wind blowing that makes passages of nameless horror especially tasty. For this reason I’ve been re-reading at least one classic Lovecraft story each October the last few years. (Having read virtually all of them the first time back in college.) 

Columbus, it turns out, is the kind of young guy with a lengthy list of phobias and a penchant for World of Warcraft. This actually serves him well, because he’s so cautious and paranoid he’s managed to avoid most of the mistakes that seem to have befallen the rest of the populace. When he meets up with Tallahassee (Harrelson), he find a complete opposite in nearly every trait. Tallahassee is fearless, somewhat careless, and an absolute zombie-crushing machine. It’s your standard end-of-days odd couple, and fortunately for the viewer, the two actors have a good sense of timing and chemistry.