Fifty-Fifty Shades of Hooray

This week reminded me of finals week; rather, my nightmares from the past week reminded me of those stress-and-exams-filled periods of my school years. I experienced two jolted-from-my-slumber moments of hyperventilation, the first being that I had forgotten to adequately prepare for my chemistry and Spanish exams. ¡Dios mío! The cause of such panic? Without a doubt—knowing that I had to cram in three books and ten movies during the final month of the yearlong FiftyFifty.me project.

I’m happy to report that I’ve emerged no worse for the night-terror. I crossed the finish line having made it through book number 50 last night and movie number 50 right before a New Year’s Eve dinner date. And so there’s much to celebrate: the ringing in of a new year, completing a yearlong goal, and being part of a community of dedicated readers and movie watchers.

Many thanks to Jon Yang and Lilly G. for the idea and sharing the challenge with all of us, congratulations to my mother-in-law for completing the task early in December, kudos to my daughter for being the youngest participant in the project (and who came pretty darn close to reaching the goal), and let’s-do-this-again-in-2013 wishes to my wife and sister-in-law.

Here’s the list of books and movies I completed in 2012. (I’ve bolded my favorites/recommendations.) 

Books:

1. SuperFreakonomics (Steven D. Levitt & Stephen J. Dubner)
2. Those Guys Have All the Fun: Inside the World of ESPN (James Andrew Miller & Tom Shales)
3. Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? And Other Concerns (Mindy Kaling)
4. Cinderella Ate My Daughter: Dispatches from the Front Lines of the New Girlie-Girl Culture (Peggy Orenstein)
5. The Geneva Connection (Martin Bodenham)
6. Following Ezra: What One Father Learned About Gumby, Otters, Autism, and Love from His Extraordinary Son (Tom Fields-Meyer)
7. How We Decide (Jonah Lehrer)
8. The Glamour of Grammar (Roy Peter Clark)
9. The Girls from Ames: A Story of Women and Friendship (Jeffrey Zaslow)
10. The Last Great Game: Duke vs. Kentucky and the 2.1 Seconds That Changed Basketball (Gene Wojciechowski)
11. Odd Girl Out: The Hidden Culture of Aggression in Girls (Rachel Simmons)
12. The Fortune Cookie Chronicles: Adventures in the World of Chinese Food (Jennifer 8 Lee)
13. Take the Cannoli (Sarah Vowell)
14. Some Assembly Required (Anne Lamott)
15. Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet (Jamie Ford)
16. Proust Was a Neuroscientist (Jonah Lehrer)
17. Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Coast Trail (Cheryl Strayed)
18. The Last American Man (Elizabeth Gilbert)
19. The Lover's Dictionary (David Levithan)
20. Cool, Calm & Contentious (Merrill Markoe)
21. The Journal of Best Practices: A Memoir of Marriage, Asperger Syndrome, and One Man's Quest to Be a Better Husband (David Finch)
22. A Visit from the Goon Squad (Jennifer Egan)
23. Wherever I Wind Up: My Quest for Truth, Authenticity and the Perfect Knuckleball (R.A. Dickey)
24. Finding the Game: Three Years, Twenty-Five Countries, and the Search for Pickup Soccer (Gwendolyn Oxenham)
25. The Pun Also Rises (John Pollack)
26. Soccer Men (Simon Kuper)
27. People Who Eat Darkness (Richard Lloyd Parry)
28. I Know I Am, But What Are You? (Samantha Bee)
29. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks (Rebecca Skloot)
30. In Defense of Food (Michael Pollan)
31. You Are Here (Thich Nhat Hanh)
32. Tiny Beautiful Things: Advice on Love and Life from Dear Sugar (Cheryl Strayed)
33. Drop Dead Healthy: One Man's Humble Quest for Bodily Perfection (A.J. Jacobs)
34. Gone Girl (Gillian Flynn)
35. What's the Matter with Kansas? (Thomas Frank)
36. The Devotion of Suspect X (Keigo Higashino)
37. Dream New Dream (Jai Pausch)
38. Lots of Candles, Plenty of Cake (Anna Quindlen)
39. Dark Place (Gillian Flynn)
40. Sharp Objects: A Novel (Gillian Flynn)
41. What the Dog Saw (Malcolm Gladwell)
42. Blasphemy (Sherman Alexie)
43. When You're Engulfed in Flames (David Sedaris)
44. Committed: A Skeptic Makes Peace with Marriage (Elizabeth Gilbert)
45. Salvation of a Saint (Keigo Higashino)
46. Reality is Broken: Why Games Make Us Better and How They Can Change the World (Jane McGonigal)
47. Lizz Free or Die: Essays (Lizz Winstead)
48. Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore (Robin Sloan)
49. Radio On: A Listener's Diary (Sarah Vowell)
50. Let's Pretend This Never Happened (Jenny Lawson)

Movies:

1. Step Brothers
2. The Best and the Brightest
3. Winged Migration
4. Beats, Rhymes & Life: The Travels of A Tribe Called Quest
5. 50/50
6. Tree of Life
7. Date Night
8. Once Brothers
9. Last Night
10. Being Elmo: A Puppeteer's Journey
11. Trust
12. Revenge of the Electric Car
13. Rabbit Hole
14. The Descendants
15. The Pirates! Band of Misfits
16. The Vow
17. Like Crazy
18. Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted
19. La Delicatesse
20. Jeff, Who Lives at Home
21. The Artist
22. 21 Jump Street
23. Jiro Dreams of Sushi
24. Pelada
25. Moonrise Kingdom
26. Submarine
27. Friends with Kids
28. Hugo
29. 127 Hours
30. Sound of Noise
31. Helvetica
32. Source Code
33. Puss in Boots
34. The Five-Year Engagement
35. Take This Waltz
36. Ruby Sparks
37. Safety Not Guaranteed
38. Life of Pi
39. The Ides of March
40. Pan's Labyrinth
41. Your Sister's Sister
42. First Position
43. That Damn United
44. Sleepwalk with Me
45. Step Up Revolution
46. The Secret World of Arrietty
47. Rise of the Guardians
48. Pride & Prejudice
49. Shut Up Little Man! An Audio Misadventure
50. Today's Special

Minding Their P and Q

Baby Pierre Michel—my brother and sister-in-law’s second child—entered the world this morning at 6:30. The angelic Pierre joins the adorable Quintin in brotherhood. We had the pleasure of visiting with the proud parents and cradling the newest addition this afternoon.

Dine Out

The kids gathered an herbivore’s special for me—all from items they found on the ground of a garden of the neighborhood elementary school. After serving my “meal,” the kids dashed to the adjacent playground while I continued my culinary adventure.

The Bee’s Knees

One-word review of comedian Samantha Bee’s hilarious collection of hilariously hilarious essays: buzzworthy.

Phone-y Explanation

Reed claimed he was researching the best app for organizing family chores, not playing his umpteenth game of Temple Run.

All Kid(s)-ding Aside

Movie Number 27: Friends with Kids

Quick review: Strong cast, many funny moments, and extremely poignant for those with kids (and for childless couples whose friends now have kids).

Dark Matter

One-word book description of People Who Eat Darkness: morbid

Exaltin’ Pepper

The fruit—singular, mind you—of our labor: We managed to grow one measly sweet pepper in our pepper pots—plural, mind you—this summer.

Men Among Books

As a man who reveres the game of soccer, I was inclined to enjoy a book titled Soccer Men. Simon Kuper’s anthology of player profiles was equal parts voyeuristic and fantastic, and this book is a commendable follow-up to his trophy-worthy Soccernomics.

The Corn Wasn't the Only Thing That Was Sweet on This Day

Cousin Quintin paid a visit with his dad and mom—she who’s carrying a growing ear of corn in her cob—for an afternoon of fun at the children’s museum and sweet-corn festival.

Lake Eerie

Reed and I hit the road in search of adventure. We stopped at a manmade lake just north of where we live. Our region has been beaten down by the oppressive summer heat, and this area was no exception. Its shores were made craggy, water levels dangerously low, and verdancy a relic of the past. To be honest, the time we spent there was the opposite of serene and pleasant, and so the two of us quietly retreated back to our sunbaked town.

Third Is the Word

Third grade, that is. And here’s a look back at Olivia’s other first days/weeks:

Second grade

First grade

Kindergarten

Make Hay While the Son Shines

Sub Standard

I must admit something: I’m writing this post about Submarine months after viewing it. Since I’m struggling to remember the premise of the movie, let alone a single detail of it, I’m thinking it sank toward the bottom my list of espied films for the year.

One(s) for the Books

The book buddies are constantly turning pages together.

Like Mother, Like Daughter

You can say that this is a case of the boba not trailing too far the lead tapioca pearl up the fat straw.

Pun-ditry

A wise man (Brandon) once quoted a wise man who said the following:

 “Puns are like children: you love your own, and can’t stand anyone else’s.”

John Pollack, a former speechwriter for President Clinton, has written a book on the history of puns. He’s an expert of humorous wordplay—he captured the 1995 O. Henry Pun-Off World Championships crown. He better hope that books on puns don’t follow the same logic as the quote above.

Hold the Feline

Olivia snuggled her tiger cub of a brother before he made his way to the face painter and grasslands.

Over the Moonrise

Four words: Directed by Wes Anderson.

Four more: Good enough for me.

Beyond the Pelada

This is the film version of Gwendolyn Oxenham’s book on pick-up soccer around the world, and so it kicked up my jealousies once again.

Fish Food

Food-themed movies are easy to review. Good ones can be called “delectable,” while “vomitous” might best describe the not-so-good ones. Jiro Dreams of Sushi, a documentary about a master sushi chef, his exact food-preparation techniques, and his understated three-Michelin-star restaurant located in the basement of a Japanese office building, can best be described as “exquisite” and “scrumptious."

Three Amigas

In the past week, Beni was able to visit with three of her close friends of yesteryear. Here they are, in order of appearance:

With Katie, friend from junior high

With Lilly, friend from college

With Sarah, roommate from college

What About Boba?

This pit stop was sponsored by a tea stand in Columbus’s North Market.

Missing Lincoln

A trip to D.C. would not be complete—at least for our family’s Lincoln Scholar—without a visit to the Ford’s Theatre. We stopped for the exhibits and presentation, just as we did two years ago, but this time we also headed across the street afterward for a tour of the Peterson House, where President Lincoln was taken after being shot in the theatre and ultimately died.

The Peterson House features a three-story cylindrical tower made up of approximately 7,000 books about the 16th president. I think Olivia’s read half—or 1.5 stories—of them.

On DC Street

Actually, several streets: We were in full-tourist mode, making our way from the Mall to several Smithsonians to the White House, before heading out for Georgetown in search of a cupcake place Liz saw featured on TV. Joining us in the sweltering fun were the aforementioned aunt and my mother-in-law.

Maryland = Land of Merry

It’d been two years since we’d seen Sarah—Beni’s good friend from college—and her family. They live in the greater Baltimore-D.C. metropolitan area, and they’ve been terrific hosts for our occasional excursions to the nation’s capital. Our kids were treated to a visit to the Maryland Science Center at Baltimore’s Inner Harbor, where they happily played paleontologist and magician’s assistant.

Enter Sandman

Pickup Artist

Gwendolyn Oxenham was a college soccer player of consequence: She was a starter and leading goal-scorer at Duke who had a stint playing professionally in Brazil before getting her MFA in writing at Notre Dame. She also wrote a book I would have loved to have written about experiences I would have loved to have experienced. 

Oxenham and her boyfriend—himself a former Division I soccer player—traveled to 25 countries over three years searching for pickup soccer games. Their search took them from Caribbean beaches to Bolivian prisons, from pavement games between Arabs and Jews in Jerusalem to rooftops in Tokyo, and from the slums of Nairobi to many other locations in between. They also filmed their excursions for a documentary, which I’ll later watch and review.

Fair-Weather Fans

The air temperature was positively kiln-like during the local art fair, and so we spent more time sampling cool treats than artistic creations.