As the title notes, this year marks the 30th annual installment of the Texas Times. Crazy. I started putting these things together the year that Reagan was born, which means that he turned 30 this year (see how good I am at math?) ... which of course further means that Paige and I are closing in on 45. Time flies.
Kids
Reagan and Hunter are still doing their bachelor-brothers-sharing-a-house-but-living-totally-separate-lives thing in Austin. Reagan's company has been pounded by higher interest rates and he is looking for new and better software engineering opportunities. Meanwhile, Hunter continues to enjoy his work as a back-end developer at Televet. They hosted the family's Thanksgiving celebration this year, and it was great to be able to hang out with everybody for a few days.
Hadley is still working for Jeff Hamilton - State Farm in College Station and injuring herself in every way imaginable playing rec sports (including dislocating her shoulder while swinging a bat). We helped her move into a new apartment ... on the third floor ... in July ... so that was as much fun as it sounds. Hollis is finishing up his undergrad at A&M a year early and will continue into the final year of the PPA program (Master's degree in Accounting) next fall. No clue what he'll end up doing work-wise but he's hoping it will be something tax / consulting-oriented.
Us
Paige is halfway through her seventh year as Dean at KU. The big news is that she secured a $50 million gift for the Business School this summer - the 10th largest gift to a public School of Business ever. Dang, girl. She continues to refine her skills at administrative Whack-a-Mole and has firmly convinced me that no story involving Higher Ed should ever begin with the phrase, "You're not going to believe this, but ..." As for me, I enjoyed my time with the MAcc and PhD students and made the world a little safer through the magic and mystery of accounting research, and the Senior Editor gig at the Auditing journal hasn't been as bad as I'd feared (knock on wood). I would love it if Paige and I both could change gears entirely, but I'm not sure what that might look like. I've tried to convince her that we should become crofters in the Orkney islands, but she's skeptical about my grasp of sheep husbandry and her ability to find stores that sell 44-ounce beverages. I would quite literally clear out my desk and get on a plane tomorrow, but until I can get more buy-in I guess I'll keep the fire lit in my ivory tower (while hoping, as always, that no one climbs the spiral staircase and demands that I defend my existence).
Travel
I gave a couple of talks in the Netherlands and Greece and was supposed to do the same in Saudi Arabia last week, but that one got canceled as a result of the Palestinian terrorist activity in Gaza. Paige and I made a 10-day vacation out of the Netherlands gig, made countless runs to Texas, did a few quick trips to other places in the States (including seeing Fritz and Fiona), and we're capping off our 34th anniversary celebration with five days in Curacao right after New Year's. Should be a nice break from early winter in the Midwest. I have invitations for Belgium and Sicily for 2024, but my interest in work-related travel has nose-dived (nose-dove??) recently so we'll see how things play out.
Books
As usual, I'll bypass the considerable stack of old stuff I read this year and make my recommendations from more modern titles. My #1 recommendation is A Gentleman in Moscow, by Amor Towles (who wrote Rules of Civility, which I recommended a couple years ago). You should also consider The Shadow of the Wind (Carlos Ruiz Zaffon), Cloud Cuckoo Land (Anthony Doerr, who wrote All the Light We Cannot See), The Secret History (Donna Tartt, who wrote The Goldfinch), We Must Not Think of Ourselves (Lauren Grodstein), The Dean's Watch (Elizabeth Goudge), and On the Marble Cliffs (Ernst Junger). The last two books were published in 1960 and 1939, respectively, but that's recent enough for me to think of them as not being "old." I'll also do you the favor of suggesting that you stay Very Far Away from The Narrow Road Between Desires (Patrick Rothfuss). It took Mr. Rothfuss 10 years to put together the most recent entry in the Kingkiller Chronicles (which is an outstanding series), and his muse appears to have left for greener pastures.
Music
There's an album for many different tastes in this year's music list. No R&B, no Taylor Swift (!!!), no whiny boys trying to be the next Bon Iver, and no indie girls sitting cross-legged on their beds playing the ukulele and breathily lamenting their relationship problems ... but if you're looking for high-quality obscurity, you've come to the right place.
- Matteo Mancuso - The Journey ... Mind-bending and genre-defying rock / jazz / fusion guitar (all instrumental), somewhat reminiscent of Eric Johnson but better and plays with bare fingers like a classical guitarist. Here's a representative track.
- Mighty Poplar - Mighty Poplar ... Americana / Bluegrass goodness featuring at least two of the original players from Punch Brothers plus Andrew Marlin from Watchhouse (formerly Mandolin Orange). Here's a live performance of my favorite track from the album.
- Colter Wall - Little Songs ... Not quite as good as his previous albums but still good. Try this one.
- Christopher Tin - The Lost Birds (full set) and To Shiver the Sky (full set) ... Similar to Colter Wall being what Johnny Cash would be like if Johnny Cash were actually talented, Christopher Tin is like Eric Whitacre sans pretense.
- Dylan Leblanc - Coyote ... Singer-songwriter stuff with frequently moody and well-considered orchestration. Paige heard me listening to him a few nights ago and was like "who is that??" So that's a thumbs-up from The Boss. Try this one.
- Dirty Honey - Can't Find the Brakes ... Think early Black Crowes, sort of. Best comment is from a friend who simply said "Yeah, that does not sound like it was made in 2023." Correct. Try this one.
Video
All recommendations are from Across the Pond, as is my custom. We tried watching a much heralded U.S. show last week -- A Murder at the End of the World -- and 10 minutes in I'd found it unbearable. Wait, we actually liked Outer Range quite a bit, and that is a U.S. show (Amazon Prime original) from this year. So I stand semi-corrected. Other than that, my top recommendations are Payback; the new season of Dalgliesh; the new season of Shetland (Tosh is doing just fine as temporary DCI, thank you very much); The Thief, His Wife, and the Canoe; Neboa; The Dublin Murders; Holding; Karen Pirie; Spies of Warsaw (made in 2013 but we didn't watch it until this year); and all of the seasons of C.B. Strike.
Food
After much deliberation, I decided this week that I would share my chili recipe. You can find it here. It has been a work-in-process for many years, but I've stopped fiddling and it's now ready to blow your mind.
Words
I have two entries in the Prohibited Words list this year. The first and most important entry is "perfect." My momentum for banning this word has been building for the last couple of years, but the following actual conversation with Coffee Shop Girl (CSG) in mid-2023 pushed me over the edge:
Me: I'd like a medium Americano, please
CSG: PurrrrFECt! (jumping about 3 whole steps between the Purrrr and the FECt)
CSG: Hot or cold?
Me: Hot, please (rolls eyes because no man almost 45 years old drinks cold coffee)
CSG: PurrrrrrrrrrFECt!
CSG: Cream?
Me: Nope
CSG: PurrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrFECt!
CSG: That'll be $4.00
Me: [taps card ... hears beep]
CSG: PurrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrFECt!
No joke.
Next, we have "space." Universities love to refer to themselves as "spaces" ... like spaces that allow people to be their "authentic selves" (no, I don't know what that means either) or ensure that people feel like they "belong" or whatever other pandering wordplay seems proper as we continue to encourage fragility and navel-gazing among young people instead of preparing them to be productive, independent adults. Henceforth, my rules say that "space" may only be used when referring to the zone above our planet, the bar at the bottom of your computer keyboard, or politicians (as in a "waste of ...").
On the plus side of the ledger, I saw something today that referred to "phubbing," so of course I had to look that up. The Cambridge Dictionary indicates that phubbing is "the act of ignoring someone you are with and giving attention to your cell phone instead." While I've often stated that if I could eradicate one invention in the History of Mankind it would be the cell phone (shakes fist at cloud), I'll also note that those of you who are phubbing someone as you read my blog are totally good.
Whatever the case, I hope all of you have a wonderful Christmas / New Year / & Etc. Our kids have begun arriving and will be here for varying lengths of time. I am ready to embrace the chaos.
God Bless,
Mike (& Paige)
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