In The Zone

New Year's Day has taken on a special meaning for me in the last decade or so. At least two channels, SyFy and H & I, run Twilight Zone marathons. I catch up on as much as I can.

I almost hate to talk about specifics, though. If you've seen the great episodes you already get them. But if you haven't, I'll won't spoil them for you. That just wouldn't be right. So I'll drop names and offer show titles, and you'll either shake your head knowingly or, maybe, look for that episode. I'll just keep things vague.

Billy Mumy could act as a kid, couldn't he? He was in three great episodes. He and Jack Klugman starred in In Praise of Pip. That one tugged at the heartstrings.

Donald Pleasance, something of a hero among ham actors, is solid in The Changing of the Guard. It has A Christmas Carol vibe working for it.

Charles Bronson and Elizabeth Montgomery absolutely nail their roles in Two.

You gotta see The Hunt. It's a lesser known episode, but man, it leaves a lump in your throat. Trust your dog, friends. They know.

I could go on and on, and I know I'm excluding a lot, but you get the point. New Years Day is Twilight Zone time anymore. That's what makes the day for me.

But I do hope that 2026 itself isn't a kind of Twilight Zone, though. 

Lawyerball

I've been good. I haven't went on any kind of anti-football rant for a long time now. But I gotta tell you, fans, y'all ought to change the name of that game to Lawyerball.

I haven't watched much football in recent years. Indeed I'm slowly growing sour on sports in general, yet that is a rant for another day. Don't fret over it, valued readers. You'll be delivered that fascinating screed soon enough.

The past week I've fought a nasty cold, and consequently have spent a lot of time in bed. As such, with it being bowl season and all, I've drifted into several college and professional football games on TV. Lord knows there's enough of them.

It seems to me that the guys in the stripes, and in the replay booth, and at the various home offices of the various leagues, sure make a helluva lot of decisions about what actually happens in the matches.

There's often an insane amount of discussion about whatever just occurred right in front of everyone's faces and by millions through TV and streaming. Is it a catch? The refs have to figure that out. Was that a penalty? The officials have to conference over it. Did the player fumble? Did he break the plane of the goal? Was he outside the tackle box? Was the player's knee, or elbow, or some other common part of the human anatomy, on the ground before the ball became loose? All this requires analysis, emphasis on...the first two syllables, with an important change of inflection. Then there's my very favorite inquiry of all: Did the player make a football move?

Did he make a football move? What kind of a question is that? He's a football player on a football field running a football play in a football game. By definition every move every player makes during the course of the action is a football move. What is a football move? What is not a football move?

One of the reasons I like baseball better than football is that we know what a catch is without explanation. Safe or out? It's one or the other regardless of what of any umpires caucus may assert. If football officials have to tell me what I just saw, I'd rather watch The Twilight Zone. At least Rod Serling admits he's playing mind games.

With a Hitch

April 17. Another day, another dollar. So they say.

The Tigers are doing all right. 10-7, with good pitching. Could stand to score a few more runs though.

Alfred Hitchcock is on the telly. I call it that because Hitch was English and that's their slang for television.

The Twilight Zone just had an episode where two people, a man and a woman, both astronauts, were stranded on a distant planet. He was named Adam, she Eve. I suppose it was clever at the time.

In a couple of days it'll be April 19. If my math is right.

You know, stream of consciousness isn't so easy as it seems.

New Year's Day 2017

I honestly enjoy the Christmas season. But New Year's Day has a certain charm of its own, and not the least of which is that it signals the end of the Christmas season.

It's a no commitment holiday for starters. All the pomp and, admit it, aggravation and pressure of Christmas are over and you're happy for it. On New Year's, you can just enjoy the day. In my case that involves eating a big meal with the immediate family, watching as many Twilight Zone episodes on Syfy as I am able, and paying scant attention to the too many football games which have already become so many as to be meaningless. Hey, if everyone with a .500 record or better can go to a bowl game while the few playing for a supposed national championship are elected to play for it, I have to wonder if the whole process is flawed. Either way, there are too many bowl games for the majority of them to actually matter.

But I digress. New Year's also celebrates that we are about back to normalcy, and normalcy has a charm of its own. Think what you want to think, but routine has its advantages: no surprises, no overindulgence and, you'll forgive the overemphasis, less aggravation and pressure. By and large, with New Year's you are less concerned over everything being 'just right'. I think that's better than anything special which the holidays seem to demand of us; you can enjoy company simply to enjoy it.

I really don't mean to be a stick in the mud. I did enjoy the Christmas season. But I am more looking forward to 2017, and yes, hoping to cap it off well during Christmas 2017. But for today, Happy New Year to all. And let's hope we don't miss the Bill Shatner gremlin episode on Twilight Zone.