One Last Visit From Janus

 

Before closing the book on 2025, I thought that I would call on the ancient Roman god, Janus, one more time in order to look at the year that was.

In many ways, 2025 was a most unsettling year due to the political situation in which we find ourselves these days.  I'm personally quite upset with what our country has become, and I struggle with, as the great cartoon from the New Yorker puts it, the "desire to be well-informed with the desire to remain sane."

However, I will choose not to address THOSE issues in this monograph today.  This blog was never intended to be one to address such weighty and divisive issues.  I will resolve, however, to try to be a kinder person in the year(s) ahead and do what I can to help those who need it.

I will also continue on in The Grandstander with my thoughts on movies and television shows that I have seen, books that I have read, games that I have attended, bets that I have won (and lost), and trips that we have taken.  And celebrity obituaries.  And endless screeds about the Pittsburgh Pirates.

The Grandstander blog, by the way, turned 16 years old on January 8.  This post will be the 2,876th on this site.

On the topic of trips, Linda and I spent forty nights in 2025 where we were not at  home sleeping in our own bed.  These ranged from little one night getaways in downtown Pittsburgh and other western Pennsylvania spots, to our wonderful extended stays in Hilton Head, SC, Cooperstown, NY, and Nashville, TN, and the highlight of the year, our Viking cruise through Canada and the eastern seaboard.  We realize how fortunate we are to be able to have made these trips, and we take none of it for granted.  We made wonderful memories, made new friends, and saw some unforgettable sights.  We were, indeed, blessed in this regard.

Looking ahead, the only thing on our calendar is what we are hoping will become an annual trip to Hilton Head.  Maybe a trip to New York City at some point, but nothing is booked yet.

In the world of sports, I have three specific events that will stand out for me from 2025.  The first was our trip to Nashville to see the great Lionel Messi play for Inter Miami of Major League Soccer.  In an analogy that I have used many times, when you get a chance to see Willie Mays play, you take it.  Messi delivered for us by scoring three goals and assisting on two others that night.  Second, was our trip to Boston to see the Steelers play the Patriots in Foxboro with our new friends from our cruise, Patti and Barry Rowe.  Third, was the run of the Robert Morris University men's basketball team to both the Horizon League's regular season and conference tournament championships and a earn a trip to the NCAA Tournament.  And I'll throw in one more:  having Aaron Rodgers play a season at quarterback for the Steelers.  It didn't end up the way we had hoped, but we did get to see one of the all-time greats close out his career in Black and Gold.

I saw twenty-five movies in 2025.  I count among these some older movies that I had never seen before.  If it was a first for me, it goes on the list.  Here are my top five:

1. Nuremberg
2. September 5 (2024 release)
3. Song Sung Blue
4. Billy Joel And So It Goes (HBO Max)
5. Ninotchka (1939)

Of the twenty-five movies that I saw, only seven of them were in an honest-to-God movie theater.  The rest were seen via streaming or DVD in the comfort of my home.   We also saw two classic movies in theaters this year (Casablanca and Sunset Boulevard), so that means we made only nine visits to a movie theater.  Convenience, home comforts, and 65 inch HD flatscreens are great, but they come at the cost of us losing the "theater experience".  It is a slippery slope, as they say.

I read thirty-seven books in 2025.  If I had to give you a best list, I would say that the best non-fiction book I read was "Charlie Hustle", a biography of Pete Rose by Keith O'Brien, and the best fiction book was "Sunburn" by Laura Lippman.  As you can see, I've linked my original write-ups of these books in this post.  My goal for 2026 is to read thirty books.  I am already on my third book here in January.

Sadly, I only played 13 rounds of golf in 2025.  There were reasons and excuses for that, of course.  It is my sincere hope that I play more than that in this coming year.  Setting twenty rounds as my goal for 2026.

And, of course, I close out by thanking all of you Loyal Readers out there for sticking with this.  Please keep reading and commenting and tell your friends about The Grandstander.

I lost my Executive Assistant this year.

How we miss her. 😢