TBT^65,536: Back to the Grind 202[6]

6 August 20263 August 2026 The Portly PoliticoLeave a comment

Teachers at my school reported back this past Tuesday. While I am no longer teaching full time, I also had to go in for a day of professional development and training. Unlike my full-time colleagues, I am not present for the various registration days, when kids come in to get their textbooks and what-not.

It’s a tad surreal, but I’m not complaining; I rather like working from home most days. I’ll soon be sharing my weekly chapel sermons/devotionals here, so stay tuned.

One thing that will be an adjustment is not putting together tests, quizzes, handouts, slides, and the like. I was compiling all of my materials for World History for the teacher who is taking that class on this year, and it was a massive folder. The sweet lady who is taking over my Music Ensembles—she is an accomplished singer-songwriter and will do a great job—and I have been coordinating on how to prepare for concerts, etc. I created a Google Drive folder for her with lead sheets and tabs and what-not from the past fifteen years, and it ran to 800+ files. Granted, some of those are *.doc files that I then converted to PDFs, but that still comes out to around 400+ unique files—quite a bit of music.

It’s kind of wild to consider how much sheer content a teacher, especially a history (and, apparently, music) teacher produces. One of my former colleagues and friends once compared us to content creators: we’re basically churning out multiple fifty-five-ish-minute podcasts or YouTube videos every day. I’ve likened it to being an overworked cruise ship entertainer without access to the buffet: you’re giving several performances a day. In education, though, the cruisers are more weekenders out of Orlando with Carnival, not a five-night voyagers on a classier line like Royal Caribbean.

Well, here’s to seeing what this new role and school year hold. Classes resume on 12 August 2026—in six days—and then we’re off!

With that, here is 7 August 2025’s “TBT^256: Back to the Grind 202[5]“:

Memorable Monday: Daybreak in America: Trump’s Inauguration, MLK Day, and a New Hope

19 January 202617 January 2026 The Portly Politico16 Comments

Today is Martin Luther King, Jr. Day in America, and tomorrow will mark one year since President Trump’s Inauguration.

It seemed fitting that Trump would be inaugurated for his second non-consecutive term on the day set aside to commemorate King, a man who very likely would have descended into grifter status had he lived much longer. Trump election also continued the rollback of the affirmative action racialist system that King’s successors endorsed.

Most importantly for yours portly, it’s a day off—and a cold one! I’m looking forward to a quiet morning with Dr. Wife before Murphy and I make the frosty trek back to the South Carolina.

With that, here is 20 January 2025’s “Daybreak in America: Trump’s Inauguration, MLK Day, and a New Hope“:

TBT: Happy New Year from TPP!

1 January 202630 December 2025 The Portly Politico14 Comments

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!“:

Open Mic Adventures CLXI: “Clean-Shaven at Christmas”

30 December 202529 December 2025 The Portly Politico8 Comments

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!

Open Mic Adventures CLX: Church Attempts “From Greenland’s Icy Mountains”

23 December 202523 December 2025 The Portly PoliticoLeave a comment

Way back in January I featured the missionary hymn “From Greenland’s Icy Mountains” as part of “Open Mic Adventures CXV: ‘From Greenland’s Icy Mountains’” as a jingoistic tribute to the then-recent inauguration of President Trump, who had designs on annexing Greenland. Instead of singing the piece—a very old missionary tune by composer Lowell Mason, with words by Reginald Heber—I played it a few times as a bit of instrumental prelude music.

There this obscure piece of music sat until my September, when my pastor had the idea to pull out some lesser-known hymns for our church to sing during our fall revival services. My pastor shares something of my absurdist sense of humor, so when he stumbled upon “From Greenland’s Icy Mountains,” he half-jokingly proposed we sing it one night as our congregational piece. I enthusiastically agreed to play it, and so it became reality.

I took the opportunity to record a little bit of it and upload it to YouTube. Below is the church’s valiant attempt at singing a song that virtually no one in the congregation knew:

Lazy Sunday CCCXLV: 2025 Elections Recap

16 November 202515 November 2025 The Portly PoliticoLeave a comment

Just a couple of quick post-election posts this Lazy Sunday, looking back the off-cycle elections:

“SubscribeStar Saturday: Off-Cycle Post-Election Analysis 2025” (SubscribeStar) – my detailed analysis of why the results of the 2025 elections, while not great, are not exactly a bellwether of doom.
“Mamdani Analysis” – an extrapolation from the last post about how a woke Islamist became the Mayor of New York City.

Happy Sunday!

—TPP

Other Lazy Sunday Installments:

TBT^16: Resist the Black Pill

13 November 202510 November 2025 The Portly Politico8 Comments

The 2025 off-cycle elections were not exactly a great source of joy and celebration for the Right. They’re not reason to panic, but they are definitely a warning that we can’t let our enthusiasm wane—and that we need to make sure we’re actively attempting to address the concerns of American voters.

It’s easy to swallow the black pill. Yours portly has been very overwhelmed lately between work, planning a wedding, and buying a house. Dr. Fiancée is exhausted from a series of heavy, hard rotations. We’re both ready to get to the wedding and the cruise ship, and just unplug for a week.

In such times, it’s hard to do what I need to do most—submit it all to God. That’s what I’m trying to do, but prayers are appreciated.

That said, I have not taken the black pill. All of these stressful life events will have quite obvious and immediate positive outcomes. It’s just getting through them that’s the challenge!

With that, here is 14 November 2024’s “TBT^4: Resist the Black Pill“:

Mamdani Analysis

12 November 202510 November 2025 The Portly PoliticoLeave a comment

On Saturday I wrote a detailed analysis of the 2025 off-cycle elections. I don’t think they’re quite as dire as everyone makes them out to be—at least, not dire for conservatives’ electoral prospects in 2026. If you’re living in New York City, the outcome is pretty bad.

Regular reader and contributor Ponty asked me my thoughts about the election of Zohran Mamdani, the Socialist Islamic Mayor-Elect of New York City. He voiced a view he and I have both seen circulating: the disbelief that New York City could elect an openly Muslim mayor a mere twenty-four years after 9/11.

I offered up my “back-of-the-envelope analysis” for him, which I’m reproducing here today.

I boiled down Mamdani’s election to five factors (and I am sure there are more): massive immigration, identity politics, socialism’s current appeal, Americans’ short memories, and large-scale demographic shifts. Really, it’s little different from why Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez got elected the first time: she is Hispanic in a district that is overwhelmingly Hispanic and Left-leaning. That shouldn’t shock us.

With that, here is my take on the Mamdani situation:

SubscribeStar Saturday: Off-Cycle Post-Election Analysis 2025

8 November 20257 November 2025 The Portly Politico8 Comments

Today’s post is a SubscribeStar Saturday exclusive. To read the full post, subscribe to my SubscribeStar page for $1 a month or more. For a full rundown of everything your subscription gets, click here.

Call me Portlyanna-ish, but I don’t think the off-season elections were the dire warning to Trump and Republicans that much of the media—both mainstream and alternative—have made them out to be. I think there is some cause for concern in the enthusiasm department, but the trumpeting of these elections being a massive victory for the Democrats—and a huge blow to Trump—are more overblown that Michael Moore.

Consider the big three elections that captured most of the media’s focus: Zohran Mamdani in the New York City mayoral race; Abigail Spanberger and the violent Jay Jones in the Virginia gubernatorial and State attorney general races, respectively; and that lady with a man’s name in the New Jersey gubernatorial race. None of these races were a real surprise:

Mamdani appealed to the base of NYC voters: recent immigrants, ethnic minorities, and white socialists;
Virginia is very blue in a cycle where Trump is not on the ballot and tens of thousands of federal workers—who vote Democratic anyway—are sitting at home, unpaid, who are highly motivated to get back at Trump;
and New Jersey is… New Jersey. It always looks like a State that might fulfill our wildest hopes that, “this year, it’s finally going to happen”—the refrain of every University of South Carolina Gamecocks football fan since time immemorial (I write—painfully—as a Gamecock myself).

Democrats are naturally going to distort—their favorite pastime, it seems—these results as a clear sign that momentum is on their side and that Trump is losing support. Conservatives should not be amplifying this message if it’s not true.

At best, I think it’s incomplete.

To read the rest of this post, subscribe to my SubscribeStar page for $1 a month or more.

Phone it in Friday CIX: YouTube Roundup CLXIX: 31 Days of Halloween, Part IV

7 November 20254 November 2025 The Portly Politico8 Comments

Halloween is a week past, but I still have some episodes of 31 Days of Halloween to share! By now, most interested readers have sought these final videos out on their own, but in case you missed any of the later episodes, I wanted to share them today.

On 1 October 2025 I launched a YouTube Shorts series, 31 Days of Halloween. The concept is simple: one, one-minute (or shorter) Halloween/horror movie review every day for the month of October. These reviews are super lo-fi—just yours portly recording on a phone, sitting at a desk. No frills, no fancy editing, just me giving my impressions of the films in an unscripted, fast way.

A quick note: most of the links below are Amazon Affiliate links, typically linking to the movie on DVD or Blu-Ray, as well as the books they’re based upon (or the novelizations of the films). I receive a portion of any purchases made through those links, at no additional cost to you.