NYE Tabs
"2023 Lists" Edition
Steven L. Taylor
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Sunday, December 31, 2023
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24 comments
- A Top Ten list for 2023 via Politico: The George Santos Saga, Kevin McCarthy Implosion and Marjorie Taylor Greene Circus. I would note that 9 of the 10 are GOP antics and the one Dem entry pales in comparison to the others (but would be its own quirky story in a normal year).
- Via CNN: From pastina pasta to Sierra Mist, here are 8 food and drinks we lost in 2023.
- Via the NYT: 2023, The Year in Pictures.
- Via The Atlantic: The 15 Best TV Shows of 2023. I have seen several (Succession, For All Mankind, Abbott Elementary, and Poker Face) and concur with their inclusion. Three are on my list to watch (Fargo, Beef, and The Bear) and I am also curious about Reservation Dogs and Slow Horses (I have heard good things about both). But, seriously, The Golden Bachelor?
- Via The Atlantic: The 10 Best Films of 2023, which just reminds me how little I watch movies (but there are several on there I want to see). We are “will watch 2 or even three episodes of a TV drama but a movie seems like too much of a commitment” people (my wife in particular).
- Via the NYT: What Went Wrong for Ron DeSantis in 2023
About Steven L. Taylor
Steven L. Taylor is a retired Professor of Political Science and former College of Arts and Sciences Dean. His main areas of expertise include parties, elections, and the institutional design of democracies. His most recent book is the co-authored
A Different Democracy: American Government in a 31-Country Perspective. He earned his Ph.D. from the University of Texas and his BA from the University of California, Irvine. He has been blogging since 2003 (originally at the now defunct Poliblog).
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Slow Horses is delightful. Gary Oldman is absolutely perfect in it, and Kristen Scott Thomas is wonderful too.
My husband and I watched a few episodes of Beef, and I just don’t understand the allure. Watching palpable anger and barely contained rage isn’t my idea of entertainment, but YMMV.
Wendy’s grilled chicken sandwich crossed the road into oblivion here in Sleepytown along with the square hamburgers (mustard, pickles and onions only please) and Wendy’s blue hair bows and red freckles when the restaurant shut down last month. Now the place is as quiet as the Civil War cemetery just north of the parking lot.
Anchor Steam was likely the first micro-brew that I ever had. Problem was it was so hard to find wherever I was living. When we were in StL, the small restaurant/grocery up the street had it occasionally, though less often than a 3 Stooges branded beer.
@Sleeping Dog:
I learned to drink beer in Germany, in 1981-3.
I then came back to the pre-microbrew USA.
https://www.theatlantic.com/newsletters/archive/2023/12/the-years-best-movies-tv-shows-and-books/676982/
Your link to 15 TV shows does not work.
https://www.theatlantic.com/culture/archive/2023/12/best-tv-shows-2023-succession-the-bear-beef/676352/
Thanx for the links, Steven.
@Barry: The horror!
@Jen:
I watched about 2 Beef episodes and bailed.
Slow Horses is excellent and I just can’t say enough good things about Reservation Dogs.
It is that rare coming of age story where the young actors perfectly nail adolescence in all its awkward wonderfulness, and as the series progresses, the adult characters go from minor background pieces to fully developed people with backstories, letting the audience grow along with the young people who slowly come to see their parents and family members in a different light.
@Chip Daniels: +1 for Reservation Dogs. I can’t recommend it enough. It can be wickedly humorous one minute and deeply touching the next, and the writing and acting are top-notch.
@Barry:
In the early 70’s, because it wasn’t distributed east of the Mississippi, Coors, despite being fornicating close to water, was considered a ‘status’ beer among a certain segment of the northeast ski community.
When I was in the hospital, I was served diet shasta as a beverage sometimes. I didn’t even know that soft drink was still made.
@Jen:
At one time or another in his career, Oldman has portrayed Winston Churchill, Beethoven, and Lee Harvey Oswald. Then there his turns as George Smiley* and the villain in Air Force One. Oldman really chewed the scenery in that movie.
*- Though I prefer Alec Guiness in the role.
@Bill Jempty: Who can forget Oldman as Jean-Baptiste Emanuel Zorg in The Fifth Element? The movie is spectacular and Oldman’s performance is superb.
@charontwo: Thanks for catching that.
@Bill Jempty: He’s also played Sid Vicious, from the Sex Pistols. Very versatile and interesting actor.
@Barry: Wikipedia tells me the Widmer Brothers started their brewery in 1984. Anyway, beer is just beer, no matter what Nero Wolfe says or Justice Boof moans about at Senate hearings.
@Bill Jempty: I buy Shasta sometimes. Grew up drinking it when we couldn’t afford Honey Dew.
@just nutha:
I’m familiar with honeydew melon, but not a drink called Honey Dew.
@Chip Daniels: @Mikey:
Slow Horses is excellent TV, very well-written, very Mick Herron which is to say very Le Carré.
Have not watched Reservation Dogs despite basically every critic listing it as a Top Ten. All things adolescent feel like work to me. I don’t tend to enjoy consuming media which relates too closely to my job. I read/consume almost no YA. See also: The Bear, though that’s a different sort of work trauma.
@CSK: It was from California, IIRC, and came in about 20 flavors. People usually bought racks of 24/8 oz. bottles in 6 or 8 assorted flavors. Inexpensive, but buying the quantity and paying the bottle deposit made it a kind of special purchase item.
@Mikey: “You’re a monster.”
“I know.”
@Michael Reynolds:
I haven’t read any of the LGBT fiction type I write either in a very long time. Most of the niche I’m in is erotica. I stay away from that. There are some good authors who write non-erotica but I have no inclination to read them. Sorry Katie* and Tanya.
*- Also RIP.
@Bill Jempty:
So I am so curious, have you listened to “My dad wrote a porno”?
Because I consider you the OTB equivalent of “Rocky Flintstone”… And for the record I am here for it