Lit City Blues

The Iowa Hawkeyes: I wish people would remember that football is just a game at the end of the day. Seriously now. We're 6-2. A lot of teams out there would love to be 6-2. Yes, Stanley had a bad game at Penn State- but it's not like we were taken to the woodshed either. We had a wobble. We had a wiggle. These things happen. I think both this and Wisconsin were winnable games for us- but the thing with Iowa that people tend to forget is that blowouts are rare. When we lose, it's usually by a touchdown- maybe two. And in those seasons where the margins are close, it's often down to getting the bounces to fall our way, which happens in some seasons (see: 2009) and not in others. Apparently, this wasn't one of those seasons. But still large sections of the fanbase melted down on social media over this loss. Hey, remember when we were all just happy to go to a Bowl Game somewhere warm in December? Can we get back to that feeling? So here's what's left: Aw...

Watched On: Redbox Released: 2018 Directed By: David Leitch Starring: Ryan Reynolds, Josh Brolin, Morena Baccarin, Julian Dennison, Zazie Beetz, TJ Miller, Brianna Hidebrand, Jack Kesy Rotten Tomatoes:  82% Pick: Mine Deadpool 2 picks up two years after the end of the first film- Wade Wilson (Ryan Reynolds) has had a fantastic run over the course of the past two years- taking down every target that has been placed in his path. But when he returns home for his anniversary and fails to kill one of his targets, it leads to tragedy, as shortly after he and his girlfriend Vanessa (Morena Baccarin) decide to start a family, the missed target comes back and kills her. Wilson kills the man in revenge, but, blaming himself for her death, he attempts to commit suicide six weeks later by blowing himself up. The pieces of his body are collected by Colossus (Stefan Kapicic), who puts Wilson back together and takes him to the X-Mansion to heal. Reluctantly, Deadpool agrees to join th...

This Week In Vexillology, we're continuing our tour of the counties of England with the next two counties on deck: Sussex and Surrey. Finding these two counties is remarkably simple: Find London on a map and head southwest until you spot Woking, Guildford or Epsom and you've found Surrey. Find London on a map and head dead south and when you get to Crawley you've reached the north of Sussex (or alternatively, just find Brighton.) As a nice alternative to both those things you can just Google them on your Google maps, but you should know by now that I enjoy maps as well as flags... First up, the flag of Sussex : (Technically speaking there's two parts to Sussex- a West Sussex and an East Sussex - but together they're traditionally seen as one county and that's what this flag represents.) Officially adopted on May 20 2011, it's named St. Richard's Flag, which was named after the patron Saint of the county, Saint Richard of Chichester and it's ...

Kids, to be honest, I was seriously considering not writing this post at all. It's so easy to be cynical and disillusioned in the times we live in, but it's even easier to be exhausted. The country and the world seem like it's going to hell in a hand basket- so why bother? Well, two things turned me around on the notion. The first was this article from The Atlantic, which contained this life-affirming quote: "the two-thirds of Americans who don't belong to either extreme constitute an "exhausted majority." Holy shit. After nearly three decades in this country, I think I've found my political home. So that was awesome... and then, at the end of the day, I'm not going to sit out my Constitutional right to register my opinion on the four alarm dumpster fire that passes for our government in this glorious nation of ours. So, once more unto the breach dear friends, once more. (Assuming of course, I have enough forms of ID to be allowed to vote that i...

This Week in Vexillology, we're continuing our tour of the counties of England with our next two counties on deck: Hampshire (the OG version that New Hampsire wishes it was) and the Isle of Wight . In terms of how to find them, well this time it's actually pretty easy: find a map of England and look for Southampton on the south coast, kind of south/southwest of London. Just north of it you're find Winchester, which is the seat of Hampshire (and a former capitol of England, way way back in the day) and south of there you'll see a smaller island just off the coast. That's the Isle of Wight. First up, Hampshire: This is technically the flag of the Hampshire County Council and not the actual county itself- which means I think we've come to the first instance of a county not having a flag all to itself. This one was adopted on July 13th, 1992 after the county was granted a coat of arms to mark the 100th Anniversary of the county council which actually happened ...

You are lost in the back-roads of Indiana when you drive past a lonely diner. Inside you find it packed with people, all seemingly from different time periods. You quickly realize that this diner exists independent of time. I was heading southwest from the amusingly named town of French Lick, winding my way through the back roads that crossed the forested hills of the Hoosier National Forest. I was hungry and was annoyed that I hadn't bothered to eat breakfast back at the motel. I had given it some serious thought, but after four days in a row of desultory and pathetic looking continental breakfasts, I had decided that I couldn't bear the thought of looking at a sad, pathetic cheese danish on a tiny, cheap plastic plate with the cheapest and most terrible coffee imaginable in a slightly dirty mug to drink. So, I left early and hit the road. This was, I thought at the time, a good plan. I had to make my rendezvous near Uniontown by sunset and my contact had been very clear: th...

The other half of my birthday haul, Bushmills Red Bush was launched last year in the United States and has been a pretty constant presence on grocery and liquor store shelves ever since. It's aged in first fill bourbon barrels which helps add to the overall sweetness of the whiskey and (I'm just guessing here) probably has a lot to do with the beautiful amber/deep red color of the whiskey as well. (Their website has a pretty good ten minute video introducing Northern Ireland and it's food and whiskey scene.) Located in County Antrim in Northern Ireland, Bushmills has been around and kicking for four hundred years or so. The 1608 on the label of the brand refers to the date when a royal license was granted to allow for distillation in the area- but the company really got going in 1784. Throughout it's history there have been various periods of closure, but it's been continuously running now since 1885 when it was rebuilt after a fire. Bushmills has more or l...

In the wake of the Kavanaugh Confirmation, my there were a couple of days in early October where I tripped and fell down a Twitter hole of complaints and/or evidence about 'unfair' the Senate actually is. Why, people were asking, should a state like Maine or North Dakota or Nebraska have just as much power as a big, important (and usually 'blue' state) like California or New York? It isn't fair , seemed to be the overall complaint. It's not d emocratic ! First of all, I have very little sympathy for complaints about the Senate- especially from the Left. The Democrats decided to 'reform' the filibuster to benefit them when they were in the majority , apparently thinking that they would stay in the majority in perpetuity, which obviously, didn't happen. Their strategic mistake then (and it ranks as probably the most idiotic thing seen in the Senate since Senator Brooks went after Senator Sumner with his damn cane ) was assuming that, once back in po...