Bill
ucsu94.bsky.social
Bill
@ucsu94.bsky.social
I hear this is a cool place to hang out and cool people hang out here. I’m partial to the smart and funny ones.

Sometimes I write things. Here they are. https://billswritingplace.wordpress.com
Our first outing of the Christmas season was relaxed and peaceful. It was very nice.
Wonderful Christmas, Dec. 6 — To the village
Our first Wonderful Christmas activity that didn’t involve watching a Christmas special or baking — thumbs-up to Suzi’s gingerbread cake — was a roughly hour’s drive to Old Sturbridge Village. We d…
billswritingplace.wordpress.com
December 7, 2025 at 3:56 PM
Reposted by Bill
today on the blog:

i wrote about faith, karma, death, hope, and waiting for a final moment's peace michelecatblog.wordpress.com/2025/12/06/y...
you gotta have faith
or something resembling it (i wrote this a year ago on my defunct newsletter) I’ve written extensively about death and faith here and other places. I’ve written about my relationship with both thos…
michelecatblog.wordpress.com
December 6, 2025 at 9:53 AM
Reposted by Bill
I HAVE WRITTEN ABOUT “LOVE ACTUALLY”!

No, not the discourse about it … already did that. This is about something from the movie that may no longer be true, if it ever was.
Wonderful Christmas, Dec. 3 — Arrivals
We watched “Love Actually.” Even though I only watch it this time of year — and not every year, as it has bounced off and back on the schedule — I’ve probably seen it more than any movie other than…
billswritingplace.wordpress.com
December 4, 2025 at 5:08 PM
I HAVE WRITTEN ABOUT “LOVE ACTUALLY”!

No, not the discourse about it … already did that. This is about something from the movie that may no longer be true, if it ever was.
Wonderful Christmas, Dec. 3 — Arrivals
We watched “Love Actually.” Even though I only watch it this time of year — and not every year, as it has bounced off and back on the schedule — I’ve probably seen it more than any movie other than…
billswritingplace.wordpress.com
December 4, 2025 at 5:08 PM
The diners where I grew up in upstate New York weren’t 24 hours, but when you’ve been to a proper diner of any kind, nothing else matches up.
December 3, 2025 at 11:25 AM
Reposted by Bill
Perhaps you’ll learn how to make a great buche de Noel, and the only way you won’t enjoy saying “kransekake” is if you’re dead inside.

But there’s also a very important life lesson tucked in those Christmas masterclasses.
Wonderful Christmas, Dec. 1 — To the kitchen
If you watch the four episodes of “The Great British Bake Off” Christmas masterclasses, perhaps you’ll be inspired to try making one of the creations yourself. (I still think Suzi’s buche de Noel w…
billswritingplace.wordpress.com
December 2, 2025 at 5:29 PM
Perhaps you’ll learn how to make a great buche de Noel, and the only way you won’t enjoy saying “kransekake” is if you’re dead inside.

But there’s also a very important life lesson tucked in those Christmas masterclasses.
Wonderful Christmas, Dec. 1 — To the kitchen
If you watch the four episodes of “The Great British Bake Off” Christmas masterclasses, perhaps you’ll be inspired to try making one of the creations yourself. (I still think Suzi’s buche de Noel w…
billswritingplace.wordpress.com
December 2, 2025 at 5:29 PM
Reposted by Bill
I studied an old yearbook photo, gawked at how my school has changed … and did I stumble into a Hallmark Christmas movie?

It was an eventful day visiting my hometown. #Thanksgiving
Third grade
We stayed at my brother’s house when we came to New York for Thanksgiving weekend. It’s about five minutes up the hill from our parents — our grandparents’ old house that he and our father are remo…
billswritingplace.wordpress.com
November 30, 2025 at 2:26 PM
I studied an old yearbook photo, gawked at how my school has changed … and did I stumble into a Hallmark Christmas movie?

It was an eventful day visiting my hometown. #Thanksgiving
Third grade
We stayed at my brother’s house when we came to New York for Thanksgiving weekend. It’s about five minutes up the hill from our parents — our grandparents’ old house that he and our father are remo…
billswritingplace.wordpress.com
November 30, 2025 at 2:26 PM
What am I thankful for this year? A lot of things, starting with being here for it. #Thanksgiving
Present and thankful
I’m grateful to be here. There are a lot of things I could go on and on about that I’m grateful for on this Thanksgiving, but I’m going to go with that one. I’m not someone who will tell you I’m gr…
billswritingplace.wordpress.com
November 28, 2025 at 1:12 AM
Reposted by Bill
I may or may not have called meditation “hokum.” (I have.)

Have I been wrong all along?
What do you know? It actually worked
I had a little bit of anxiety to start with — the usual for trying something new where I wasn’t sure how it would work out. Then, another bit of stress jumped in on top of it. Worse yet…
billswritingplace.wordpress.com
November 25, 2025 at 10:26 PM
Reposted by Bill
hey 4am people, i wrote my annual thanksgiving newsletter, just me giving thanks to all the things in my life that make things just a little more tolerable michelecatblog.wordpress.com/2025/11/26/g...
giving thanks
my annual thanksgiving ritual I am incredibly thankful for the following things: My close-knit, loving, accepting extended family, from my kids and sisters and parents to my cousins and aunts and u…
michelecatblog.wordpress.com
November 26, 2025 at 9:01 AM
Reposted by Bill
next up is kaylee dunson writing about bill withers, a cracked record, and a saved thanksgiving

ihavethatonvinyl.com/essays/the-n...
The Needle and the Memory: How a Cracked Record Saved My Family Thanksgiving
Every Thanksgiving in my house used to sound like a kind of chaos only love could make sense of pots clanging in the kitchen, cousins yelling over each other about football, the smell of collard green...
ihavethatonvinyl.com
November 25, 2025 at 9:28 AM
Reposted by Bill
good morning. we are celebrating thanksgiving all week on IHTOV, and i've got two good ones for you today.

first up, tracy miller writes beautifully about thanksgiving and a nina simone record and the spirituality of music ihavethatonvinyl.com/essays/the-r...
The Record That Taught Me to Pray: How Nina Simone Became My Thanksgiving Religion
When I was a kid, Thanksgiving wasn’t about turkey or mashed potatoes. It wasn’t about the cranberry sauce or the football game on TV. Thanksgiving was about music. Every year, my aunt would pull out ...
ihavethatonvinyl.com
November 25, 2025 at 9:28 AM
I may or may not have called meditation “hokum.” (I have.)

Have I been wrong all along?
What do you know? It actually worked
I had a little bit of anxiety to start with — the usual for trying something new where I wasn’t sure how it would work out. Then, another bit of stress jumped in on top of it. Worse yet…
billswritingplace.wordpress.com
November 25, 2025 at 10:26 PM
Reposted by Bill
If you’re trying to build the ultimate movie trivia team … I’m basically the last guy you want to ask.

But if you’re cool and fun, I’ll still have a good time.
Happy with the small wins
I like that my job is fully remote, but one of the disadvantages of working at home full-time — as opposed to two days a week at my last job — is that I don’t see a ton of other people. It can get …
billswritingplace.wordpress.com
November 20, 2025 at 12:46 PM
If you’re trying to build the ultimate movie trivia team … I’m basically the last guy you want to ask.

But if you’re cool and fun, I’ll still have a good time.
Happy with the small wins
I like that my job is fully remote, but one of the disadvantages of working at home full-time — as opposed to two days a week at my last job — is that I don’t see a ton of other people. It can get …
billswritingplace.wordpress.com
November 20, 2025 at 12:46 PM
It was a question to which I’d surely have an answer.

Except I didn’t. billswritingplace.wordpress.com/2025/11/08/t...
The word escapes me
When the host of the dinner part wrote a teenage fan letter that turned into a lifelong friendship with the actress Olivia de Havilland … … and one of the guests was part of documentary about a gro…
billswritingplace.wordpress.com
November 8, 2025 at 4:11 PM
Reposted by Bill
i miss baseball but i miss it most of all when i am flipping through all the channels and apps on my tv looking for something to watch and i feel this void where baseball used to be. my companion has wandered off, again
November 7, 2025 at 1:15 AM
I just mentioned this to my wife, and she said, “He’s the guy on ‘W1A’ who was mean to Will.”

Me (repeatedly): “That guy?!?!? THAT GUY!?!?!?”

Also, “W1A” and “Crashing” (which he’s in and was Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s first show) are both terrific and you should watch them both.
i...don't know how jonathan bailey is?
People has named Jonathan Bailey the Sexiest Man Alive of 2025.
November 4, 2025 at 11:22 AM
Reposted by Bill
"Maybe it’s because every play, even the supposedly routine ones, crackled with “Wait, did that just happen?” energy. Yes, it did happen. Too much happened. The night was a blur. Trying to tell the story feels like trying to cage a wild tiger."
The Greatest Game I've Ever Seen?
Trying to make sense of Game Seven as I sit among the fog and ghosts in Cooperstown.
www.joeposnanski.com
November 2, 2025 at 9:43 PM
Reposted by Bill
today at IHTOV:

from me - i wrote about doo wop music and how listening to it soothes me and has saved my sanity by providing me with comfort and warmth, and just really good music ihavethatonvinyl.com/liner-notes/...
How Doo Wop Saved Me
Doo wop is Sunday evenings when I’m about 10 years old, WCBS-FM playing on the stereo in the kitchen (my dad built speakers into the kitchen walls) while we have our snack of waffles and ice cream bef...
ihavethatonvinyl.com
November 2, 2025 at 9:29 AM