Left to my own devices

Confession: I've never watched Game of Thrones . Well, that's not technically true. I watched the first episode a few years ago, found it mildly entertaining but not terribly gripping, and never watched another one. Life has been fine without it. Several people I know, however, love the show, and that's great, but something I've noticed is that folks really, really don't want episodes of the show spoiled for them. Like, really. Game of Thrones isn't the only program to elicit cries of 'Don't spoil it for me!' from its fans. LOST comes to mind. I actually had someone unfriend me on Facebook because I posted something about a LOST episode a few minutes after it aired. They hadn't watched it yet, and we even got into a discussion about time zones and what not. It was way more intense than it needed to be. On another occasion, a friend chastised me for openly discussing events of The Walking Dead that were six months old. He explained ho...

I'm a St. Louis Cardinals fan. For many who know me, this is not a surprise. Of course, I'm not really into sports all that much. Watching paint dry would be preferable to watching a football game. But I root for the Fighting Illini, the St. Louis Blues, and the St. Louis Cardinals. As of right now, you can -- temporarily -- add the Chicago Cubs to that small list. First, my familial roots in the St. Louis Cardinals. My mom and uncles have long been fans of the Cards. It seemed only natural to follow suit. Mom will tell me how, as a kid, she'd lay in bed with the radio next to her, listening to Cardinals games. Or how, in 1963, still a teenager, she traveled down to the old Sportsman's Park to watch Stan Musial play his final game. Besides, St. Louis is an overall awesome city. How could you not like a team from there? Then there are memories, of when I was growing up in the 1980s, of mom watching classic Cardinals players like Ozzie Smith and Willie McGee p...