Regular readers will know how much I love animals. One of the more surprising changes as I approached middle-age is that I went from being aloof towards the animal kingdom to adoring animals. I’m not sure what changed or what clicked, but getting my dog Murphy was definitely a big step in that process.
Regardless, this Friday I have a couple of cute animal videos from below and above the waves:
2025 was quite a year! Dr. Wife and I often talk about how long the year felt, for good and for ill.
It was a year with many ups and downs. Dr. Wife’s third year of residency has been brutal, but she is doing well as the co-chief resident. My work schedule has been far more manageable, but financing and buying a house—as well as planning a wedding!—took up a good deal of my time in the latter half of the year (to Dr. Wife’s immense credit, most of the latter-stage wedding planning fell to her—she really nailed the fun details, things I would have neglected or not thought of). My maternal grandfather passed away; several of her close friends and family have had personal and medical crises.
But we also got married—woooooot!—and bought a house. We have great dogs and even better families. We have immensely enjoyed spending so much time together over the Christmas holiday, even if we’ve been rocketing all over the Carolinas moving furniture. We are excited for 2026!
What are your hopes and dreams for 2026, dear readers? Leave a comment and let me know. I think Dr. Wife and I primarily want to get moved into our house completely—and get her through residency!
With that, here is 1 January 2025’s “Happy New Year from TPP!“:
Dr. Wife and I continue our gradual moving process today with another big load. This time, we’re heading from her current residence in North Carolina to our new house in South Carolina.
As part of this stage in our moving process, we stayed overnight at her parents’ new house in another part of North Carolina to dog-sit their precious pug:
Her parents gave us an[other] awesome recliner, so I decided to rent another U-Haul in their town to take advantage of our visit.
However, we ran into a bit of a logistical problem: how do we get two cars and a moving truck down to South Carolina? Alternatively, how do we get vehicles where they need to be without necessitating a six-hour-roundtrip drive to and from Dr. Wife’s place?
Christmastime is pretty busy for yours portly, which means my shaving routine tends to get disrupted. I usually find myself nearing beard capacity by the time Christmas approaches, so I always take the time to do a thorough shave before the big day.
That being the case, I made up a little song, “Clean-Shaven at Christmas,” some years ago. My nephews in particular love it, and will sing it—unprompted!—as Christmas approaches (I also taught them to wake up on Christmas morning shouting, “It’s Christmas! It’s Christmas!”).
So it was that I decided to piece together a YouTube Short of the phases of my shaving with my voice accompanying. There’s even a gross closeup of where I cut myself while shaving—gasp!
In late 2022 through early 2023, Ponty and I did an exhaustive rundown of our Top Ten Favorite Films. His was very thoughtful and deliberate; mine was more or less picking through flicks I had in my DVD collection.
That said, I did put some thought into my Top Three, and this flick definitely deserves its slot.
Another note: I know I’ve been recycling movie reviews a lot this month, so thanks for bearing with me. Dr. Wife and I have been moving and taking care of all sorts of other tasks while we have some precious time off together, so the blog has—as it so often does—fallen onto the backburner. She and I watched 1984’s Gremlins last week, however, so I’m looking forward to reviewing that soon.
But I digress. With that, here is 30 January 2023’s “Monday Morning Movie Review: Portly’s Top Ten Best Films: #3: The Thing (1982)“:
Well, Christmas has passed, but I choose to believe that the Christmas season lasts until Epiphany, so we’re going to keep the good times rolling with a look back at some pieces from this recently-expired Christmas week:
Merry Christmas!
—TPP
I’ll have some classic SubscribeStar Saturday content up soon-ish, but Dr. Wife and I just got back from the first of what will likely be several days of moving furniture and such from our respective houses to our new home. We managed to get all of the furniture her parents gifted us this summer, as well as some furniture I already had. Additionally, we managed to unload some items at Goodwill.
We’re taking a minute to catch our breaths before indulging in some much-needed protein at the steakhouse.
Stay tuned for more!
—TPP
P.S.—We had a nice Christmas card from regular contributor Ponty and his significant other waiting for us at our new home! It’s now festooning the mantle in our new living room.
I’ve been going through a bunch of my old stuff in preparation for moving items to the new house. In doing so, I’ve come across quite a few Star Wars action figures and collectibles.
I was a huge Star Wars kid. I loved the original trilogy and tolerated the prequel trilogy (indeed, I was super excited for the latter). I particularly loved the miniatures. I’ve sold most of the action figures in the following videos to a colleague of mine—he will take excellent care of them—but I am keeping the miniatures. They are so cool!
So, here are some recent videos featuring these fun figurines:
It’s Christmas! It’s Christmas! And it’s a Thursday, so yours portly is TBT’ing to a classic of yesterchristmas.
Back in 2019, I wrote this piece about Napoleon. It took off because it gained some traction on WhatFinger News, which came along after Matthew Drudge inexplicably went woke. The name of this alternative news aggregator always strikes me as vaguely inappropriate, but they ran my link and it got tons of views at a time when I was getting discouraged with the blog (a perennial issue, it seems—perseverance is a virtue for a reason).
Napoleon is a complex and intriguing figure. Whatever his personal and professional attributes, he indelibly changed Europe and the world. It’s hard for us to understand today, fixated as we are on the failed Austrian painter with the Charlie Chaplin mustache, but Napoleon’s impact was still being discussed actively in the early twentieth century. He totally upended the gameboard of Europe—for good or for ill—and the fear and/or hope of another Napoleon endured for quite awhile.
YouTube philosopher Agora made a great video linking the two figures—and warning about why those links miss some key differences:
The important thing to remember, however, is that humanity’s conception of “greatness” is false. Remember, Christ Was Born today as a simple baby in the most humble of circumstances—literally bedding down in a feeding trough for barnyard animals. He Died a humiliating Death on the Cross. He Rose from the dead and Conquered Death, and Will Return again!
No Napoleon could ever achieve what He Did.
With that, here is 26 December 2024’s “TBT^2: Napoleonic Christmas“:
It’s Christmas Eve! In looking back at past posts from this season, I realized that this year, Dr. Wife and I will be creating more of our traditions. Last night, for example, we watched 1984’s Gremlins while wrapping Christmas presents. I’m not sure if we’ll watch the same flick every year, but wrapping gifts together was fun (there is also a marked difference in quality between the gifts she wrapped and the ones I wrapped; I’ll let you guess who did a better job).
What are some of your favorite Christmas/Christmas Eve traditions, dear readers? Leave a comment below.
With that, here is 24 December 2019’s “Christmas Eve“:
The Portly Politico 