On May 18, 1997, I graduated from Purdue University. Today, nearly 27 years later, Danny will do the same. It has been a quick four years, with a freshman year impacted by COVID, three years of football games, a trip to Florida for a bowl game, two trips to watch men’s NCAA tournament games, women’s basketball games in Mackey, and the ever-present band concerts both on and off campus. I could not be prouder of him and look forward to seeing what comes next.
Book 18 (of 52) – Murder Road
Murder Road – Simone St. James
In July of 1995, a young couple gets lost on the way to their honeymoon vacation spot and come across a woman walking alone on an abandoned road. When they try to give her a ride, they quickly realize she has been stabbed, so they rush her to the hospital. Unfortunately, they quickly become the chief suspects once she dies, both for her murder and many that have come before on the same stretch of road. With the police unwilling to dig deeper to find the actual culprit, the couple starts their own investigation, leading them to an unknown woman killed 20 years earlier and her links to what is happening today.
After a two-year absence. Simone St. James returns with her latest, Murder Road. Once again, she weaves the supernatural into an otherwise normal suspense plot, with some characters more accepting of it than others. One of these days, I will have to dive into her back catalog, as she’s quickly becoming a favorite.
FB10: Week 15
A pretty decent week, at least what passes for one these days. An afternoon at Guaranteed Rate Field to see the White Sox actually win a game on Sunday got the week off to a good start, finishing with 5400 steps. Things fell a little shorter on Monday, but still managed to end with 4500 steps. Things fell off a bit more on Tuesday, as I finished with 3500 steps. A nice increase on Wednesday pushed me back up to 4800 steps. Thursday fell off once again, coming 32 steps shy of 3700. Another increase on Friday, helped in part by a trip out for dinner to the Patio, left me with 4200 steps. A trip to Lowes on Saturday pushed me up again, ending the week on a high note with 4600 steps.
Total steps: 30,780
Daily average: 4397.1
Fifty Years Of Music – 1990
Fifty years ago, I made my first appeared on the Earth. In celebration, we are going to take a look at the year-end Billboard Hot 100 singles chart for each year of my life and see what songs resonated with me at the time and if they continue to do so to this day.
We continue our look back at the music of my lifetime with 1990, the year I finished my sophomore year of high school, started my junior year, turned 16 and got my driver’s license, and, oh yeah, found myself with my first girlfriend. These songs formed the soundtrack of my high school years and continue to be some of my favorites. A full 70 of the Hot 100 are still familiar to me now, with a whopping 50 of them appearing in my collection in one way or another.
#99: Mellow Man Ace – Mentirosa
iTunes stats: 17 plays
The lone single from the Cuban rapper, it spent 24 weeks on the chart, peaking at #14.
#96: Mötley Crüe – Without You
iTunes stats: 24 plays
Reaching #8 on the Hot 100, the song is said to be about drummer Tommy Lee’s relationship with Heather Locklear.
#94: Biz Markie – Just A Friend
iTunes stats: 39 plays
Markie’s highest charting single, it topped out at #9.
#91: Aerosmith – What It Takes
iTunes stats: 18 plays
Written with Desmond Child, it peaked at #9.
#88: Michael Bolton – When I’m Back on My Feet Again
iTunes stats: N/A
Reaching #7 in August, the song was Bolton’s third top ten hit.
#86: Paula Abdul – (It’s Just) The Way That You Love Me
iTunes stats: 15 plays
Originally released as the second single from Abdul’s debut album in 1988 to little success, it was re-released in the fall of 1989 and rose to #3.
#85: D Mob with Cathy Dennis – C’mon and Get My Love
iTunes stats: 21 plays
The song that introduced Cathy Dennis to the public, it just cracked the top ten.
#82: Billy Joel – I Go to Extremes
iTunes stats: N/A
The second single from Joel’s eleventh studio album, the song just missed the top five, peaking at #6
#81: Black Box – Everybody Everybody
iTunes stats: N/A
Featuring uncredited vocals by Martha Wash, the song reached #8 on the Hot 100.
#78: The B-52’s – Love Shack
iTunes stats: 22 plays
Making the year-end charts for the second consecutive year, the 47th biggest hit of 1989 spent 27 total weeks on the chart.
#76: Mariah Carey – Love Takes Time
iTunes stats: N/A
Spending three weeks at #1 in November, the second single from Carey was her second straight chart topper.
#75: Faith No More – Epic
iTunes stats: 26 plays
Ranked as the 30th greatest metal song of all time by VH1, it was the band’s breakthrough hit, reaching #9.
#73: Technotronic featuring Ya Kid K – Get Up! (Before the Night Is Over)
iTunes stats: 16 plays
Released in January of 1990, it rose to #7.
#72: Skid Row – I Remember You
iTunes stats: 19 plays
The New Jersey band’s second and final top ten hits, peaking at #6.
#70: Go West – King of Wishful Thinking
iTunes stats: 17 plays
Featured on the Pretty Woman soundtrack, the track reached #8 on the Hot 100.
#66: Depeche Mode – Enjoy the Silence
iTunes stats: 22 plays
Released in February, the song became the group’s highest charting single in the US, topping out at #8 in July.
#64: Tom Petty – Free Fallin’
iTunes stats: 34 plays
The highest and longest charting hit of Petty’s career, it peaked at #7, becoming his third and final top ten hit.
#63: Taylor Dayne – I’ll Be Your Shelter
iTunes stats: 6 plays
Reaching #4 on the Hot 100, the song, released in March, was written by Diane Warren and remains Dayne’s final top ten hit.
#62: Digital Underground – The Humpty Dance
iTunes stats: 43 plays
The group’s first Top 40 hit, it topped out at #11.
#61: Aerosmith – Janie’s Got a Gun
iTunes stats: 37 plays
Hitting #4 on the Hot 100, the song earned the group a Grammy award for Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal.
#59: Janet Jackson – Black Cat
iTunes stats: 12 plays
The sixth single from Jackson’s fourth studio album spent a single week atop the Hot 100 at the end of October.
#56: Phil Collins – I Wish It Would Rain Down
iTunes stats: N/A
Featuring guitar work from Eric Clapton, Collins reached #3 on the Hot 100 with this track.
#55: MC Hammer – U Can’t Touch This
iTunes stats: 18 plays
The first rap song to be nominated for Record of the Year at the Grammys, it peaked at #8 on the Hot 100.
#52: Michael Bolton – How Can We Be Lovers
iTunes stats: N/A
Reaching #3, Bolton co-wrote this tune with both Diane Warren and Desmond Child.
Setting A New Standard
Don’t download that Stadium app just yet. A little over two weeks ago, news broke that the White Sox, Bulls, and Blackhawks were expected to announce they were moving their game broadcasts from NBC Sports Chicago to Stadium, a multi-platform sports network controlled by Jerry Reinsdorf. Turns out that was a bit premature. Yesterday, news broke again that the three teams would instead partner with Standard Media Group to create the new television broadcast home for all three teams, starting in October. The currently unnamed network is expected to be available across multiple platforms, including over-the-air and carriage agreements with cable and streaming providers.
Based in Nashville, Standard Media Group is a local broadcast and digital media company that, according to its website which looks to have not been updated since 2022, operates television stations in Kentucky, Missouri, Nebraska and Rhode Island. Compared to them, Stadium, owned by a digital and media investment subsidiary of the White Sox with offices and studios at the United Center, looks like a major player.
Why the change? Maybe Reinsdorf is looking to start greasing the wheels in Nashville ahead of a potential move. Maybe the thought of spending money, even if the majority of it was coming back to him, offends the chairman to his core. Maybe the White Sox, Bulls, and Blackhawks draw better in Rhode Island than anybody realizes. We may never know the truth.
Book 17 (of 52) – Blindsighted
Blindsighted – Karin Slaughter
The sleepy community of Grant County, Georgia is rocked when a blind woman, the sister of a police detective, is found raped and mutilated. After a second woman, a local college student, is found after having been crucified and raped, the local pediatrician/coroner tells her ex-husband. police chief Jeffrey Tolliver, about her own attack years prior in Atlanta. When a third woman goes missing, the clues start to come together, but is there still enough time to stop the rapist before he moves on to another victim?
Blindsighted is the first entry in Karin Slaughter’s older Grant County series, which I am once again reading out of order, both within itself and in relation to the Will Trent series. Because of this, some of the reveals play a little differently. For one, the reveal of Sarah’s rape is completely blunted, as this is already known information. On the opposite side, the initial murder of Sibyl Adams cuts much deeper, having more familiarity with her character and with Lena from future stories. With four more books to go in this series and a new Will Trent entry coming later this summer, there will be plenty of Slaughter to go around for the foreseeable future.
School’s Out Forever
With a busy month of graduations ahead, Angelina getting her PhD from Boston University and Danny earning his BS from Purdue, we celebrate with this shot of Angelina and her house skeleton from my trip to Boston last October to celebrate our birthdays.
FB10: Week 14
An up and down week, starting strong and then building back up after work got in the way. A trip to Purdue on Sunday for Danny’s last band concert got the week off to a good start, finishing with 5000 steps. Things kept pace on Monday, coming just 39 steps shy of 5000. A midday escape down to Wrigley Field for a photo op with Cody Bellinger on Tuesday left me with 4500 steps. A dramatic crash occurred on Wednesday, as I needed 29 steps just to reach 3500. Things improved on Thursday, rising above 3800 steps. Friday continued the upward swing, finishing over 4100 steps, despite rainy weather which caused me to skip the White Sox game. Saturday jumped up again, ending the week on a high note with just 36 additional steps needed to get to 4500.
Total steps: 30,442
Daily average: 4348.9
Fifty Years Of Music – 1989
Fifty years ago, I made my first appeared on the Earth. In celebration, we are going to take a look at the year-end Billboard Hot 100 singles chart for each year of my life and see what songs resonated with me at the time and if they continue to do so to this day.
We continue our look back at the music of my lifetime with 1989, the year I finished my freshman year of high school and started my sophomore year. Z95 and B96 continued to be the hit stations in Chicago and provided the majority of the soundtrack of that year. At 68 songs, we are nearing 70% of the Hot 100 that remain familiar to me today, with 44 of them appearing in my collection in one way or another.
#99 Don Henley – The End of the Innocence
iTunes stats: N/A
The Eagles drummer and sometimes singer reached #8 with the title track from his third solo album.
#93 Michael Jackson – Smooth Criminal
iTunes stats: N/A
The sixth top-ten single from Jackson’s Bad album, this track peaked at #7.
#91 Alice Cooper – Poison
iTunes stats: 18 plays
Hitting #7, it was Cooper’s fist top ten hit in a dozen years.
#88 Rick Astley – She Wants to Dance with Me
iTunes stats: N/A
The lead single from Astley’s sophomore effort, it became his fourth consecutive top ten hit, peaking at #6.
#87 Samantha Fox – I Wanna Have Some Fun
iTunes stats: 24 plays
Reaching #8, the title track for the former Page 3 model was her third, and final, US top ten hit.
#86 Guns N’ Roses – Paradise City
iTunes stats: 14 plays
Ranked by VH1 as the 21st greatest metal song of all time, the final single from the group’s debut album rose to #5 on the Hot 100.
#84: Edie Brickell & New Bohemians – What I Am
iTunes stats: 15 plays
The group’s only Top 40 hit, it reached #7.
#82: Bon Jovi – Lay Your Hands on Me
iTunes stats: 11 plays
The fourth and final top ten hit from New Jersey, it peaked #7.
#81: Aerosmith – Love in an Elevator
iTunes stats: 18 plays
The band reached #5 on the Hot 100 and #1 on the Hot Mainstream Rock Tracks chart with their lead single from Pump, their tenth studio album.
#77: Lita Ford & Ozzy Osbourne – Close My Eyes Forever
iTunes stats: 25 plays
The highest-charting solo single for both Ford and Osbourne, it peaked at #8.
#76: REM – Stand
iTunes stats: 33 plays
The future theme song of the Chris Elliot vehicle Get a Life, the song hit #6, giving the band their second top ten hit.
#74: Guns N’ Roses – Welcome to the Jungle
iTunes stats: 17 plays
Named the second greatest metal song by VH1 in 2008, it peaked at #7 on the Hot 100.
#71: Guns N’ Roses – Patience
iTunes stats: 26 plays
Reaching #4, the song is thought to be about the troubled relationship between singer Axl Rose and his ex-wife.
#68: The Cure – Lovesong
iTunes stats: N/A
The group’s only top ten hit on the Hot 100, it rose to #2 In October of 1989.
#66: Bangles – In Your Room
iTunes stats: 19 plays
The lead single from the band’s third album, it peaked at #5 in January of 1989.
#65: Tone Loc – Funky Cold Medina
iTunes stats: 20 plays
The second and final Top 40 hit for the rapper and producer, it reached #3 and became just the second ever platinum-certified rap single.
#61: Skid Row – 18 and Life
iTunes stats: 8 plays
The band’s biggest hit, it reached #4 on the Hot 100 and #11 on the Album Rock Tracks chart.
#60: White Lion – When the Children Cry
iTunes stats: 18 plays
Written by the group’s lead singer about his childhood with a single mother, it made it to #3 on the Hot 100.
#59: Madonna – Cherish
iTunes stats: N/A
Peaking at #2, it gave Madonna the record for the most consecutive top-five singles with 16.
#58: Tears For Fears – Sowing the Seeds of Love
iTunes stats: N/A
The lead single from the group’s third studio album, it reached #2, becoming their fourth and final top ten hit.
#57: Donny Osmond – Soldier of Love
iTunes stats: N/A
Originally unreleased in the US since Osmond didn’t have a record deal, it eventually topped out at #2, becoming Osmond’s sixth and last top ten hit.
#55: Madonna – Express Yourself
iTunes stats: 17 plays
Accompanied by a music video directed by David Fincher, it peaked at #2.
#54: Richard Marx – Satisfied
iTunes stats: N/A
The lead single from his second album, it became the second of three consecutive #1 singles for Marx.
#53: Def Leppard – Armageddon It
iTunes stats: 29 plays
The sixth single released off of Hysteria, it went to #3, becoming the band’s third top ten hit.
#52: New Kids on the Block – You Got It (The Right Stuff)
iTunes stats: N/A
Peaking at #3 in March, it was the second single released from the group’s second album.
#51: Love and Rockets – So Alive
iTunes stats: 16 plays
Easily the band’s biggest US hit, it reached #3 on the Hot 100 and spent five weeks at #1 on the Modern Rock Tracks chart.
Book 16 (of 52) – Just Another Missing Person
Just Another Missing Person – Gillian McAllister
When a young woman goes missing, the detective assigned to the case is blackmailed into framing a seemingly innocent young man. While she is trying to solve the case in order to protect herself, the “missing” woman shows up alive and well, with no idea of what’s been going on. This leads the police to reinvestigate an earlier missing person’s case, which breaks the case wide open, too wide for comfort.
Just Another Missing Person is the latest from Gillian McAllister, who first came across my radar last winter. She once again uses time to upend the reader’s expectations, though in a more straightforward way. I still have to dive into her back catalog, assuming I remember to do so.