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You Ought To Be In (19) Pictures

Many years ago, using the weekly TV guide that came with the Sunday Chicago Tribune, I started keeping track of all of the movies I had seen over the course of my lifetime.  The guide would list the two main stars for each movie, and that is a tradition that I’ve carried on in my database ever since.  Given those guidelines, it is time once again to look at the now 111 actors that have starred in at least 10 films that I have seen, as of August 1.

We continue today with the five actors that have starred in exactly 19 movies that I have seen, a decrease of one from three years ago.

Jennifer Aniston

The former Friends star first burst through onto my movie screen in 1997, with a double feature of She’s The One and Leprechaun.  In years since, she was a pretty steady contributor until 2014, with multiple films in 1997, 1998, 2006, 2009, 2010, and 2013, with a high-water mark in 1998, when I saw her in three starring roles.  Her most recent entry came in 2014, when I saw 2013’s We’re the Millers.

John Cusack

Local boy done good John Cusack entered my movie-watching consciousness in 1988 when he portrayed disgraced White Sox third baseman Buck Weaver in Eight Men Out.  After a nine-year dry spell, Cusack came back with a vengeance with three films in 1997 which started a run of eight films in four years.  Aside from 1997, he notched multiple films in 2000, 2004, and 2010.  His most recent film that I’ve seen remains 2012’s The Factory, which I watched in 2015.

Matt Damon

In 1994, Matt Damon made his first appearance on my personal movie screen with his role in 1992’s School Ties.  He disappeared for a while until reappearing in 1999 with three different films.  From that point on, he has been a pretty regular entrant in my watched films, including a four-year run from 2005-2008.  The last film of his I’ve seen was in 2019, when I saw 2017’s Downsizing.

Robert DeNiro

My first experience with Robert DeNiro was back in 1988, when I saw Angel Heart.  He then went quiet to me for eight years, coming back in 1996 with Sleepers.  2000 was my high-water mark with his work when I saw three of his films, while he showed up twice in 2004, 2011, and 2016.  My most recent experience with him was in 2020, when I saw 2008’s Righteous Kill.

Keanu Reeves

Keanu Reeves slinked on to my movie screens in 1988 in a small film called Permanent Record.  The following year, he became huge thanks to Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure.  2020 stands out as my best Reeves year, when I managed to see three of his films.  His most recent appearance came in 2022, when I watched the 2020 sequel Bill & Ted Face the Music.

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2026 Final Standings

The Cinderella story that was the 2026 White Sox turned back into a pumpkin last night as they dropped the fifth and decisive game of the ALDS to the Guardians, bringing the 2026 Chicago baseball season to a close.  The White Sox became the first team in MLB history to make the playoffs following two (let alone three) consecutive 100+ loss seasons, winning their first postseason series since 2005.  The Cubs, meanwhile, faltered down the stretch, dropping out of the top Wild Card spot and found themselves having to travel to San Diego, where they were quickly swept.  Overall, I managed to attend 44 games, my eleventh highest total, at four different stadiums, seeing 23 of the 30 teams along the way.

2026 Team Records

Team Name Won Loss Winning Pctg
Cincinnati Reds 2 0 1.000
Milwaukee Brewers 2 0 1.000
Washington Nationals 2 0 1.000
Los Angeles Dodgers 1 0 1.000
Atlanta Braves 1 0 1.000
Boston Red Sox 1 0 1.000
Chicago Cubs 10 5 0.667
Cleveland Guardians 2 1 0.667
Chicago White Sox 18 16 0.529
Houston Astros 1 1 0.500
Kansas City Royals 1 1 0.500
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Streaking Authors

Every other year or so, we take a fresh look at the authors I have read the most, dating back to high school.  I thought it would be interesting to mix it up a bit and, instead of looking at the overall total, to instead look at the authors I have read continuously for the longest period of time.  So, without further ado, it’s time to take a look at which authors have the longest streak of consecutive years read.

Ten

Jeffery Deaver – Thanks mostly to his Lincoln Rhyme series, Deaver put together a streak of ten years with at least one book read by me starting in 2015 with The Vanished Man and ending in 2024 with Fatal Intrusion, his first collaboration with Isabella Maldonado.  After a one-year absence, corresponding with my completing the Rhyme series, he returned in 2026 to hopefully start a new streak.

Nine

Riley Sager – Sager burst onto the scene in 2017 with his first novel, Final Girls.  Every year since, he has put out a new book and I have read it, continuing through last year’s With a Vengeance.  He can extend his streak and tie Deaver for the longest if the library can deliver his latest in the next two months or so.

Karin Slaughter – Another current streak, Slaughter first came across my notice in 2018 thanks to Pretty Girls.  Due in part to her Will Trent and Grant County series, she has showed up at least once every year since, including Girl, Forgotten, which I completed earlier this year.

Eight

Richard Castle – The ghost writer for Richard Castle, the character portrayed by Nathan Fillion in Castle, made appearances in eight straight years, thanks to the novels that were supposedly written in the show, starting in 2010 with Heat Wave and culminating in 2017 with A Bloody Storm.

Six

Sarah Pekkanen – Starting in 2020, with her writing partner Green Hendricks, Pekkanen started her streak with The Wife Between Us.  Her streak outlived the partnership, continuing through last year with The Locked Ward.

Five

Nancy Holder – Thanks to her television show tie-in work, Nancy Holder was able to string together a streak of five years, starting in 1998 with Halloween Rain, based on the adventures of Bully the Vampire Slayer, and finishing in 2002 with The Burning, a collaboration with Jeff Mariotte.

Stephen King – My history with King is long but contains many frequent breaks.  His longest streak, which is current through the end of the year, started in 2021 with Later and runs through last year, when I completed his latest, Never Flinch.

Mary Kubica – The local author first came to my attention in 2015 with The Good Girl.  She appeared at least once annually through 2019, when I completed When the Lights Go Out.

Rebecca Forster – Forster was a constant presence as I worked through her Witness series, beginning in 2021 with Silent Witness and completing last year with Lost Witness.

Alex Finlay – Finlay first landed on my Kindle in 2022, thanks to Every Last Fear.  His streak continues on, thank to this year’s The Anniversary.

Richard Osman – His Thursday Murder Club series has helped him put together a streak of five years, starting in 2022 with The Thursday Murder Club and continuing through 2026 with The Impossible Fortune.

Elin Hilderbrand – We wrap up with Hilderbrand, who also has a current five-year streak going into 2027.  She started in 2022 with The Hotel Nantucket and continued this year with Winter in Paradise.

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RIP Coach Ditka

Former Bears coach and Hall of Fame tight end Mike Ditka passed away this morning at the age of 86.  Ditka, who spent 17 seasons with the Bears, six as a player and eleven as head coach, is one of only two people to win a Super Bowl as both a player, assistant coach, and head coach and one of only four in the NFL’s modern era to win a championship coaching a team for which they played.

Born and raised in Pennsylvania, Ditka was drafted by the Bears in 1961, winning Rookie of the Year honors after becoming the first tight end in history to surpass 1,000 receiving yards.  He was a member of the franchise’s 1963 NFL Championship team before being traded to the Eagles due to a contract dispute with George Halas.  Inducted to Canton in 1988, he was the first tight end enshrined into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

After his playing career, he became an assistant coach with the Cowboys under Tom Landry.  Letting bygones be bygones, he was hired by Halas in 1982 to take the top spot with the Bears.  Ditka led the team to the playoffs seven times during his eleven-season run, reaching the NFC Championship Game on three occasions.  In 1985, the Bears cruised to a 15-1 regular season record before easily defeating the Patriots 46-10 in Super Bowl XX.

He became an icon in Chicago, opening several restaurants and endorsing a long list of products, including wine, cigars and sausages.  He starred in television commercials and appeared, as himself, in several television shows and in Will Ferrell’s 2005 comedy Kicking and Screaming.  He was immortalized on Saturday Night Live in their series of Superfans sketches that paid tribute to Ditka and “Da Bears.”

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Book 54 (of 52) – The Loop Files

The Loop Files: An Oral History of the Most Outrageous Radio Station Ever – Rick Kaempfer

The names are part of Chicago radio history.  Steve Dahl and Garry Meier.  Jonathon Brandmeier and Buzz Kilman.  Kevin Matthews.  Chet Coppock.  Danny Bonaduce. Wendy Snyder and Bill Leff.  Patti Haze, Bobby Skafish, and Bob Stroud.  They all worked to put The Loop, either at AM1000 or 97.9 FM, on the map as the hippest radio station in the world.  Starting in 1977, when the FM station first took on the call letters, through 1997, when it was sold to Bonneville International, The Loop took hold of Chicago, first with rock music and then with personality driven radio.  Of course, it was destined to blow up eventually and, by 1997, most of the talent had moved on, leaving behind a tremendous legacy of a station that would not happen today.

In The Loop Files: An Oral History of the Most Outrageous Radio Station Ever, former Loop producer and DJ Rick Kaempfer strings together the oral history of the station based on his interviews with the people who were there.  I started listening to the station in the mid-90s, starting with Danny Bonaduce at night and eventually moving through all of the other air shifts throughout the day. Towards the end, as personalities moved on to other stations, like Wendy and Bill to Q101, Kevin Matthews to CD94.7, and Steve Dahl to WCKG, I went with them and, by the end, the AM and FM stations were sold to different companies and the magic was gone.

 

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Fitbit 12 – Week 37

After years of disappointing results, things have started to turn around this year.  Sixteen weeks straight of more than 40,000 steps, 223 days over 4000 steps, all of it adding up so that this week, just 71% of the way through Year 12 using the Fitbit, I have already surpassed my totals from Year 9 and Year 10.  Assuming I keep up the pace, I should end up blowing by every year since the pandemic started.  The weeks got off to a decent start, scoring 5000 steps on Sunday thanks to the final regular season game of the season at Rate Field.  Things picked up on Monday, finishing 34 steps shy of 7800.   A small drop on Tuesday left me just 4 steps shy of 6600.  Wednesday was the low day of the week, ending with 4800 steps.  Things picked back up on Thursday as I jumped up to 6600 steps.  Dinner out on Friday left me 14 steps shy of 8300.  A long walk on Saturday finished the week with 7400 steps.

Total steps: 46,564

Daily average: 6652

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Book 53 (of 52) – Actually, Nevermind

Actually, Nevermind – Taylor Tomlinson

Comedian Taylor Tomlinson, the former host of @fter Midnight on CBS, released her first book, Actually, Nevermind, last week.  This collection of essays covers many of the same topics as her standup specials over the years, including the early death of her mother, her estrangement from her father, her complicated history with religion, and her acceptance of her sexuality, while also broaching new topics.

As part of the book launch, I attended an event at the Athenaeum Center for Thought & Culture, which I had honestly never heard of before, last week where Tomlinson talked about the book and what brought her to this point.  Included in the price of the event was an autographed hard cover, so that gets added to the collection.

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You Ought To Be In (18) Pictures

Many years ago, using the weekly TV guide that came with the Sunday Chicago Tribune, I started keeping track of all of the movies I had seen over the course of my lifetime.  The guide would list the two main stars for each movie, and that is a tradition that I’ve carried on in my database ever since.  Given those guidelines, it is time once again to look at the now 111 actors that have starred in at least 10 films that I have seen, as of August 1.

We continue today with the six actors that have starred in exactly 18 movies that I have seen, an increase of three from three years ago.

Anne Hathaway

Like most of America, I first saw Anne Hathaway on the silver screen back in 2003 in The Princess Diaries.  In the intervening years, she had been a steadfast presence on my movie (or television) screen, including three films in 2005, four in 2009, and two in 2025.  Her latest appearance came earlier this year in the long awaited The Devil Wears Prada 2.

Natalie Portman

The first starring roles of Natalie Portman’s that I saw were in 2001, when I watched a double feature of Where The Heart Is and Anywhere But Here.  Her appearances in the Star Wars prequel trilogy and the Thor franchise have accounted for over 31% of her overall total.  2011 was a big Portman year for me, as I saw a whopping four of her films.  My last experience with her work came in 2025, when she appeared in Fountain of Youth.

Paul Rudd

1998’s The Object of My Affection was my first exposure (in a starring role) to Paul Rudd.  He then put together a run of five films in four years from 2008-2011 and, after taking a year off, had another four in the following three years.  I last saw him last year, starring in Death of a Unicorn, his sixth appearance in the last four years.

Meg Ryan

My introduction to Meg Ryan was most likely in 1990, when I saw the previous year’s hit When Harry Met Sally.  She put together a nice six-year run starting in 1994 which accounted for ten movies.  Things have been quiet of late and the most recent film of hers I’ve seen remains 2009’s Serious Moonlight back in 2010.

Arnold Schwarzenegger

My initial introduction to the future governor of California was most likely 1987’s The Running Man.  2008 was my biggest collection of his films, with three, and was one of four years where I saw multiples.  The most such year was 2020, where I saw both The Last Stand and Terminator: Dark Fate.

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Book 52 (of 52) – The Woman In Suite 11

The Woman In Suite 11 – Ruth Ware

Ten years after her adventure on the Aurora, Lo Blacklock is happily married, living in New York with her husband and two kids.  Looking to get back to work, she is thrilled to be invited to the opening of a new luxury hotel in Switzerland.  While trying to get an exclusive interview with the hotel’s mysterious owner, she finds herself confronted with a ghost from her past: the woman who eventually helped her escape from the Aurora who now claims she is being held prisoner and needs Lo’s help to escape.  While they initially get away and retreat to England, a surprising murder lands Lo in trouble with the police.

The Woman in Suite 11, the latest from Ruth Ware, is her long-anticipated sequel to The Woman in Cabin 10.  While it has only been a couple of months between the two for me, the two were published nearly ten years apart.  I enjoyed this one a little more than its predecessor, although I did not have a recent Netflix adaptation to color my judgement this time around.

For the fifth straight year, I have completed my goal-reaching 52nd book.  Given that I am a couple of weeks ahead of last year’s pace, I should be able to give my personal record of 66 books, set last year, a run for its money.

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2026 Predictions Revisited

Way back in March, when the 2026 season was just about to get underway, I made my annual predictions as to who would win what. With the Division Series round kicking off this afternoon, it is time to revisit those predictions and see what, if anything, I got right.

American League

East: Blue Jays

Well, despite adding Dylan Cease to a team that nearly won the World Series last year, the Blue Jays could not put things together and the Rays re-took the top spot in the division.

Central: Tigers

The White Sox had a surprising, long run atop the Central but, in the end, the Guardians won out.

West: Mariners

The Astros ended up “winning” this division, becoming the worst playoff team by record in a full season in the history of the sport.

Wild Cards: Yankees, Red Sox, Astros

Two out of three ain’t bad, with the surprising White Sox taking the final spot.

AL Champion: Tigers

Well, that’s obviously not going to happen.  My guess is whoever wins the ALDS series between the Rays and the Yankees will take the pennant.

Cy Young: Tarik Skubal

Skubal got hurt and then was traded to the Dodgers, so it seems unlikely he will win his third in a row.  At this point, I’m going to guess Yankees hurler Cam Schlitter will win.

MVP: Julio Rodriguez

Despite the Astros struggles, it looks like Yordan Alvarez is the front runner to take home this award.

National League

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