California in December is amazing.
Trump welcomed me into the USA — then had me attacked by wild horses. 😀
California is a great place to visit in winter. I’ll be doing plenty of cycling and hiking.
For 2025, it’s Christmas here with my brother Rob and his wife Yvonne. And their dog Charlie.
We’ll have our official Christmas dinner in Calgary on January 11th. The Great White North.
Ho. Ho. Ho.
My Berlin Koffer – Blissful Memories (2025) is the 2nd of my friend Michèle’s series of lifetime retrospectives.
It’s available on Amazon.
Michèle reads the audio version.
Her first autobiography is Crossing Borders and Cultural Divides (published 2022) which ends 1975.
This book is focused on Michèle’s 10 years in West Berlin — one of the most unique and interesting cities of the world. She lived there 1976 to 1986. Moving only to marry her husband Garth.
If it wasn’t for Garth, she might still be living in Berlin. 😀
Formally controlled by the Western Allies (England, France, USA), West Berlin was surrounded by the Berlin Wall, built in 1961, and bleak East Germany.
German students going to school there could avoid military service. The counter-culture was artistic freedom and living life to the fullest. Nightclubs had no closing. A haven for hippies, punks, musicians (like David Bowie & Iggy Pop), Michèle, and her friends.
My Berlin Koffer is a time capsule of West Berlin between 1976 and 1986, a time when the city was literally an island of freedom in the middle of Eastern Europe, restricted by the Iron Curtain and the Berlin Wall.
After a few years of teaching in England and in France, Mimi is looking for a change in her life.
West Berlin in the 1970s offers affordable rents, a good university, part-time jobs, and an abundance of cultural events.
For a young, educated woman with plenty of room in her suitcase, the island of freedom seems to be the ideal place in which to settle.
It’s a long and winding road to learning German, studying for a master’s, and finding an interesting job, while enjoying cinema, theatre, music, art, as well as socializing with cosmopolitan friends and adapting to a new culture.
Will this extraordinary city which never sleeps enable Mimi to find what she wants and eventually fill her suitcase?
And if it ever overflows, will she ever be able to leave?
I’d been waiting for Michèle’s Berlin book because my first flight to Europe (1974, I believe) landed West Berlin. I recall that trip vividly. It was a really BIG deal for me. Checkpoint Charlie.
A Gymnastics tour organized by Hajo Elsholtz.
I’m wondering if German boyfriend Alex has a copy of this book. 😀
I got hooked on the first season.
It includes some excellent dialogue. Kudos to the writers.
Always been a fan of Billy Bob Thornton.
Cast is great. Paulina Chávez is very believable in her role. Jacob Lofland, too, as her love interest.
Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones made a memorable cameo as himself in episode 9 where he shared a powerful, emotional monologue about how his early oil and gas ventures. His genuine emotion, including tears, made the scene incredibly impactful, with many feeling he stole the show from the main cast.
I understand there’s some truth to the depressing environment of the PetroToxin industry down there.
Landman is set within the world of oilfields in West Texas, where “roughnecks and wildcat billionaires are fueling a boom so big it’s reshaping our climate, our economy, and our geopolitics.”
The lead character, Tommy Norris (Thornton), can be abrasive, as is the out-of-town lawyer Rebecca Falcone investigating a fatal accident early in the season.
Rotten Tomatoes approval 78% based on 37 critic reviews. That sounds about right.
I can see why some wouldn’t like this show. The only positive role model for women is Paulina Chávez.
On the other hand, the men are pretty much all disreputable and/or immoral, as well.
Colm Feore as Nathan, an oil company attorney, is about the only man you can cheer for — aside from Billy Bob Thornton.
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
Returning from 4 months in Asia, I landed for 3 nights in Vancouver.
Ron and Kate hosting. As usual … 😀
Kate had organized a surprise birthday weekend celebration for Rocco.
I jumped out of a Lonsdale Quay coffee shop to surprise him and Maureen.
We enjoyed a meal at the lively JÄGERHOF restaurant near the Quay. Schnitzel, spaetzle, and bratwurst in a cozy, alpine-themed setting.
Though I was quite jet lagged, and just getting over a cold, we still packed the weekend with laughs, golf, great food, Christmas celebration, …
Ron played around with A.I. photo editing app Nano Banana. Some hilarious results.
December is BUSY month at Chez Shewchuk. All the important people have birthdays — AND Christmas, New Years.
Thanks to all.
An excellent first novel.
I’d never heard of Allen Eskens until this book was recommended to me.
He has a journalism degree from the University of Minnesota and a law degree from Hamline University.
The Life We Bury (2014) won awards.
First it was rejected by 150 agents.
… a mystery/coming-of-age novel about college student Joe Talbert, who, for a class assignment, interviews Carl Iverson, a dying, incarcerated Vietnam vet convicted of murder
… only to uncover a complex, decades-old crime, all while juggling his own volatile family life and guilt over his autistic brother, Jeremy, leading to shocking truths about justice, lies, and heroism. …
AI
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube. Eskens is an interesting guy.
The Last Frontier is worth watching — but not for the plot which is absurd.
Dominic Cooper as Levi Taylor ‘Havlock’ Hartman, a CIA asset who escapes from custody, would have died for sure 4 times? 5 times?
Falling hundreds of feet from a cliff, for example.
I mainly watched for the Alaska scenery.
Jason Clarke as Frank Remnick is good.
Haley Bennett as Sidney Scofield is not so much good, as mysterious. Which makes sense for this role.
Some of the side stories are interesting.
The excessively sentimental drama Frank’s family is going through is one of the weaker aspects for me.
Apple TV+ Thriller “The Last Frontier” Gets Snowed Under In Pulpy Action and Cheap Melodrama
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
A Guardian and a Thief (2025) by Megha Majumdar is getting a lot of hype.
Enjoying many Indian authors in the past, I gave it a go.
Good, not great, is my review.
It’s climate change dystopia.
In a near-future Kolkata (Calcutta), Ma, her two-year-old daughter, and her elderly father are just days from leaving the collapsing city behind to join Ma’s husband in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
After procuring long-awaited visas from the consulate, they pack their bags for the flight to America.
But in the morning they awaken to discover that Ma’s purse, containing their treasured immigration documents, has been stolen.
Set over the course of one week, A Guardian and a Thief tells two stories: the story of Ma’s frantic search for the thief while keeping hunger at bay during a worsening food shortage; and the story of Boomba, the thief, whose desperation to care for his family drives him to commit a series of escalating crimes whose consequences he cannot fathom.
My first full-time job out of High School was milkman. I started at age-17 … when the minimum age to drive a milk truck for Palm Dairies was 25. 😀
In 1975-76 I was saving money to join pals on a gap year trip to Europe.
Great job. 4-days / week. Good pay.
We laughed at the letter carriers who worked 5 days / week. We laughed from our heated trucks.
I only had one fender bender accident over many months. Palm Dairies did the repair. Insurance company not notified.
At that time we were still doing home delivery of glass bottles. Using milk chutes. Accepting cash or milk tokens.
Drivers understood that there was no real reason to continue home delivery — other than inertia. Old folks still believed the milk was fresher if delivered direct to the house. It wasn’t.
… perhaps the single biggest detriment to the milkman was the proliferation of refrigeration in households. Refrigerators were first introduced in the 1910s, and just 30 years later, more than half of American homes had one.
By the 1960s, just about every home had a fridge, and families were able to store perishable items, including milk, easily and reliably — all but eliminating the need for daily deliveries.
What Ever Happened to the Milkman?
I did make the best of the past 4 months in Asia — but not likely to return.
I traveled Indonesia, Vietnam, Singapore, Philippines, and Taiwan (which is actually in Asia, not S.E. Asia).
S.E. Asia is ideal for young party animals without much money — who want to ride a crappy rented motorcycle in a thong bikini while drinking cheap beer on the way to the beach.
It’s not great for me as multi-day hiking and cycling cultures are near non-existent.
MOST of the outdoor activities are water related. 🐟
I believe the ocean should be avoided due to box jellyfish and sea monsters.
I’d only gone to S.E. Asia because two Gymnastics competitions were scheduled there. Both excellent. I was happy to be at both with a media credential.
If offered a private jet to fly back to just one destination ➙ perhaps the Gili Islands, Indonesia.
Click PLAY or watch Vietnam highlights on YouTube.
I hate personal motor vehicles. But it’s literally the only way to get around.
S.E. Asian cities are polluted, littered, and mostly should be avoided.
Even in Manila, public transit is too lined-up to be time efficient.
Super keen to finally get to Taiwan, ultimately I was disappointed as a tourist.
I got used to the heat and humidity of S.E. Asia. NOT my favourite climate, however.
On the upside, I saw very few mosquitoes. Only one cockroach. Second hand smoke is not nearly as bad as Europe.
MANY rats. Most in public parks eating garbage litter and around outdoor street food kiosks.
Many would list food as a highlight of S.E. Asia. Personally, I quickly tired of rice based meals. Most of my cravings were for western comfort foods. Toast, in particular. I ended up in McDonalds often as it’s clean, fast, and you can pay by credit card in a machine.
One pet peeve is trying to check-out of any grocery or convenience store. I can’t recall Canada EVER being so slow. Philippines has dozens of people in a grocery store doing something, but still makes customers. spend 20 minutes in a check-out line.
Cash based economies seem so backwards to me now.
S.E. Asia, in general is super inefficient. I do love Singapore, however, exactly the opposite. Everything is fast and well organized.
Many things are closed. Nobody knows why. Nobody knows if and when they will ever reopen.
What Asian nations will I likely visit in coming years?
Mongolia. I’m planning an adventure there in the next year or two.
Pakistan too.
Oman.
Nepal, of course.
I’ve only been to South Korea once. Would love to get back.
Remain (film) will be released 2026, written, directed, and produced by M. Night Shyamalan.
He wanted a change from his usual genre, this time a love story.
New York architect Tate Donovan heads to Cape Cod to design a summer home for his best friend, seeking a fresh start after being treated for acute depression.
Still mourning his sister’s death, he meets Wren, a young woman who disrupts his carefully ordered world.
I lust for dead people, might be the tag line. 😀
Unique in this project is how the story was written.
It was developed simultaneously with author Nicholas Sparks, who separately wrote the novel version of the same story.
The book — Remain: A Supernatural Love Story — published 2025 — I found an OK read. Good, not great.
Rick McCharles 