Columbus Day

My great-grandparents on my Mother's side were Italian immigrants. They ended up in Boston. Back then, there were no benefits for immigrants much less loads of freebies at taxpayer expense. Yet within one generation - their children - there was success. They also lost two sons in World War II. My Grandmother made the move to Southern California as an adult.

 

Because immigrants back then wanted to become Americans, not much about our Italian heritage was passed down to my generation. I had to ask what the family name was: Massino, Americanized to Masci (pronounced Massey) and when I expressed that it wasn't a difficult name that needed to be changed, I was advised that, "The long 'O' on the end was a dead giveaway," (that they were foreign).

 

This was posted by Italian Sons and Daughters of America on Facebook. I had no idea. You learn something new every day. Bet they aren't teaching this in public schools.

 

 

 

The return of Jonathan Quick?

You've got to feel for New York Rangers goaltender Igor Shesterkin. October 1 he was celebrating scoring a goalie goal as the Rangers beat the Tampa Bay Lightning 5-1. A little over a week later, he's out for the season with what sounds like a horrific leg injury. I found out about it when this popped up on my Facebook feed this morning:

 

 

This sucks not only for Shesterkin, but also for the Rangers. Shesterkin is a Vezina-winning goalie and losing him means this could be a long, miserable season for the Rags and their fans. According to the article linked above, their backup goalie is also currently injured. The hockey gods can be cruel.

Of course, when I saw this, after my initial reaction of how awful this is, was to think of Jonathan Quick. Kidding, of course. Then, a few hours after the Shesterkin news, this popped up:

 

 

Quick retired from the Rangers last season and is now NY's Director of Goaltender Development, but with all the team's injured netminders he may need to develop himself right back onto the ice. And of course I think that would be amazing, to see him back in net, even if it's not with the Kings. Probably not what the Rags wanted, but I'd love to see it. The improbability is what makes it so fascinating. Imagine if he went back into net and had a bang-up season. Crazier things have happened in this sport.

 

I do have a lot of sympathy for Shesterkin. The season isn't even two weeks old and his season is over. This is also devastating for the team and their fans. As a fan I can't imagine how crushed they are right now. 

 

Props to Complete Hockey News on Facebook for making my day a lot more interesting with this news.

 

86 years!

My Dad would be 86 years old today! He would have been an interesting old guy. Staggering to think he's been gone for so long (15 years).

 

The Ironman is going on in Dad's beloved Kailua-Kona this weekend. He would have been enjoying the heck out of it.

 

Aloha, Dad!

 

 

Happy autumn, sort of

Today is officially the first day of autumn. However, it doesn't feel like autumn as the weather doesn't seem to have gotten the memo about seasonal change:

 

 

High 70's - low 80's is considered hot for the beach, where our weather is generally milder than other parts of Southern California. Even if it is officially autumn, it looks like it's going to feel like summer for a while longer.

 

That's Captain Doughty to you

The Los Angeles Kings have named Drew Doughty as team captain, succeeding Anze Kopitar, who retired at the end of last season. Doughty becomes the franchise's 15th captain.

 

Love him, but this is why I never bothered to collect autographs.

 

Doughty is the last remaining player from the Kings' 2012 and 2014 Stanley Cup Champion teams. He had been vocal about wanting the captaincy and with his experience (both NHL and internationally) he's a good choice. The team also named three alternate captains: Mikey Anderson, Adrian Kempe, and Artemi Panarin.

 

This is the last year of Doughty's contract and could end up being his final NHL season, although I don't know if he feels that way about it. There's been talk he might take a "hometown discount" to stay on the team beyond the 2026-27 season. All I know is that it's going to be tough when he retires, whenever that is. He has been beyond entertaining to watch and was a huge part of the team's Stanley Cup successes.

 

Now if I can just figure out where the games are broadcast, I could actually watch them instead of just following them on NHL.com. It's like a play by play with no audio or video. But games (for various sports) are all over the place and hard to find these days. There's even a thread about it on LetsGoKings.com because even diehard fans are having difficulty finding where games are shown. The days of pretty much everything being on one channel (Prime Ticket and then Fox Sports West for the Kings over the years) seem to be over. 

 

So, congrats Drew, and I hope you have a great (and healthy!) season. 

 

Updated 9/19/26: Around the time I was writing this post, the Kings announced that their games will be carried on ABTV (previously Fan Duel). My first thought - what the heck is ABTV? Well, I found it on the Spectrum lineup and to my great surprise, it's the Angels' channel. It's where The Brother goes to watch the Angels lose. So I think I've finally found my Kings again! Between this and Doughty's excitement about being named captain, I actually feel like this could be a fun hockey season! The Kings' first regular season game is September 30 at Colorado.

 

News from Hollywood, and it isn't good

 

 

More runaway production: American Idol is leaving L.A. for Atlanta, Georgia. According to the linked article, The Masked Singer had previously left California for New Jersey. 

 

First the Oscars left broadcast TV for YouTube, now the Emmys are negotiating to air on Amazon streaming. Most recently, the broadcast networks have taken turns airing the ceremony, but in addition to less and less public interest in Hollywood awards shows, according to the article the networks interest has also waned "given that the number of awards that they win continue to dwindle..." which is understandable. The days of broadcast TV dominating the Emmys is long gone. The awards are now dominated by cable networks like HBO or streaming networks like Amazon and Netflix. Why promote your competition? It also probably didn't help that viewership was down 10% from last year.

 

Robert DeNiro in negotiations to play Tommy Lasorda. Having grown up as a Dodgers fan during Lasorda's time with the team (from third base coach to legendary manager) I have mixed feelings about this. Lasorda was a truly larger than life character and it would be great to see a well-done biopic. The concern is always whether or not the actor will be doing an impression of the real-life person, or if he will be able to make you feel like you're watching the real person, the suspension of disbelief. Helen Mirren did it with Queen Elizabeth and word is that Anthony Ippolito absolutely disappears into Sylvester Stallone in the upcoming I Play Rocky. Also, the project is titled Tommy & Me, and I wonder who the "Me" is who is telling Lasorda's story. Time will tell if this works or not.

 

And then there's the increasingly real possibility that Paramount may actually go with the nuclear option and leave L.A. I'm not even sure how to process it if this happens, but the idiots running our city and state have made the place so economically uninhabitable for business (not to mention standard of living) that it could happen. Our politicians are just stupid enough to drive away a historic Hollywood studio.

Foodie humor

 

 

 

I never noticed, but now that you mention it...yup.

 

Hat tip to im not right in the head.com on Facebook.

 

NEVER, EVER FORGET

I NEVER will. I will never, ever forget.

  

I just watched it on the news. Other people had to live it. 

 

From around the internet:

 

Michael Cammarata, the youngest firefighter lost on 9/11. He had been on the job nine weeks. We need more fine men like him, not less. Imagine the life he was robbed of.

 

Drone show in NYC recreates the Twin Towers. 

 

A memorial from Fullerton, CA (Orange County). You can watch the video here.

 

I remember reading about this years ago, and it's just as devastating now as it was then: 9/11 Search and Rescue dogs became depressed over not finding survivors, so "fake" survivor discoveries were staged to keep their morale up.

 

Also on the subject of 9/11 search and rescue dogs, the legacy of Bretagne, the last surviving 9/11 search dog. She would later work in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

 

Twice.

 

One of the bodies actually found:

 

 

This is a fantastic article about the famous "Falling Man" photograph and the photographer who took it.

 

Make yourself watch this video.

 

Various images snicked from the internets over the years:

 

 

 

In addition to American Airlines Flight 11 and United Airlines Flight 175, which were hijacked and flown into the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center, American 77 was flown into the Pentagon and United 77 was heading for Washington DC when passengers fought back, resulting in the plane crashing into a field in Pennsylvania. 

 

 

Getty Images

Two members of the Los Angeles Kings scouting staff, Ace Bailey and Mark Bavis, were onboard Flight 175. The Kings mascot, Bailey, is named for Ace. This article about them was published on the 20th anniversary of 9/11.

 

The Budweiser tribute commercial that only ran once because the company didn't want to be perceived as benefiting from the tragedy. It's probably been viewed millions of times on YouTube.

 

 

Updating (some more from today):

 

I don't think I've ever seen this one before: "They did it on purpose."  

 

Hell has prepared a special place for these non-humans:

 

Because 9/11 memorials are apparently hilarious to some people.

See the video here.

 

Recent reading: "The Rose and the Yew Tree"

 

 The Rose and the Yew Tree by Agatha Christie (Writing as Mary Westmacott)

 

I am way behind in #ReadChristie2026. I haven't finished The Labours of Hercules stories yet, but I did just finish my first Mary Westmacott novel: July's entry (Best-Kept Secret), The Rose and the Yew Tree. 

 

Westmacott was a pseudonym Christie used to write six non-crime novels. The book jacket describes this as "A captivating psychological tale of politics, intrigue, and love..." It also looks at the separation of the classes in 1940's England and is described as a favorite of Christie and her daughter Rosalind.

 

For me, the story started out really spectacularly. The narrator, Hugh Norreys, is summoned to the deathbed of John Gabriel, a man he hasn't seen in decades and initially has no interest in seeing again. Norreys then goes back to tell how he met Gabriel, along with a number of other residents of St Loo, including the mysterious, aristocratic Isabella, whose fate will affect both men for years after. Norreys falls in love, while Gabriel, who carries a large working-class chip on his shoulder, seems to despise the upper-class Isabella and her family, but also finds himself fascinated by her. 

 

The political aspect of the story is Gabriel being recruited to run for political office, which he plans on using to advance himself in life, and a lot of the book is devoted to British politics, which goes on quite a bit, and that's where it dragged for me. There's also the psychological aspects of the seemingly unflappable Isabella, the bitter Norreys (who has been crippled in a car accident) and calculating Gabriel. Norreys sets up the story by indicating something terrible had happened to Isabella and I got to the point where I wanted to get past Gabriel's election and get to the tragic fate that was so pivotal in both these men's lives.

 

The next two novels (for August and September) are By the Pricking of My Thumbs (Tommy and Tuppence) and Endless Night (a standalone). 

 

Unhappy Birthday

Today is Sophie's birthday. She would be 21 years old if she was still here. 

 

 

The past few years on her birthday, I would wonder if she would be around for the next one since she was getting up there in years. My previous cat, Wilma, made it to 18 years old, so that was the benchmark. Once Sophie got near that and surpassed it, I kind of felt like she was on borrowed time. But up until April I felt like she felt good, she was herself, and she had a good quality of life. Mid-April is when she really started to go downhill in a way that made it clear she'd reached the end of the road.

 

I realize I was lucky to have Sophie as long as I did. A 20 year old cat is equivalent to a person in their mid to late nineties. But I still miss her terribly. It still feels weird that she's not here. I wish I was writing yet another blog post marveling at her longevity. But today, 19 weeks to the day after she died, it's a sad birthday.

 

 

In addition to great food, In-N-Out has some really crazy and awesome products

I'd love to be a fly on the wall when the people at In-N-Out marketing start tossing around ideas for new products.

 

There's the burger mug I mentioned in a previous post:

 

This attention-grabbing beach towel:

 

Your dog can dress just like an In-N-Out associate (they don't call them employees):

 

 

Even if you're not the kind of person who dresses up your dog, your furry buddy can still sport some In-N-Out accoutrements:

Can't lie, I really like these bags:

 

 

 

All these and more can be yours at the In-N-Out Burger Company Store.

 

For once, a positive customer service story

This just popped up on my social media, although when I checked to see if it's a true story (it is!) it turned out to be from 2022. But it's such a heartwarmer that it warrants revisiting, especially after losing Sophie earlier this year.

 

Apparently this isn't unusual. Chewy does this stuff all the time. In fact, in the linked article, there's a shelter worker confirming that they get many donations from orders that originated from Chewy that normally would be returned.

 

I can confirm how much genuine compassion is helpful after the loss of a pet. As I mentioned in this post, Hearts and Halos and Dr. Sarah (Sophie's in-home euthanasia) were beyond compassionate and helped make an awful experience that much less traumatic.

 

Then there was the reaction from Sophie's long-time vet. One of the services Hearts and Halos offers is to notify the vet of the death, so that I didn't have to make that call. A few days later I got a card in the mail from the animal hospital, with a message scrawled by some random employee (not from her vet or the hospital as a whole) and that was it. Never heard from them again, in spite of the fact that Sophie had been in there less than a week before her death and had been a patient for over a decade. It wasn't that I was expecting something as much as I was shocked that this otherwise well-run animal hospital didn't do. Given her age and how recently she'd been in there, I was surprised the vet didn't call. Maybe they were concerned I'd give them grief about not realizing Sophie was nearing the end and recommending more meds and labs (expensive meds and labs) but honestly, Sophie had bounced back so many times I was willing to give it a shot, plus that shouldn't be a reason not to hear from them. To this day I'm shocked they went so silent.

 

So props to Chewy for taking the time and making the effort to acknowledge a customer they never actually met. Class move and something that I can vouch made the loss a little less painful.