More Calling Nerds - Xmas 2025

 We did all the wonderfully mundane things a family is expected to do at Christmas - we opened our gifts and stockings as a group:

...we enjoyed a massive dinner together on Christmas day:

 ...and in fact, we are still enjoying the leftovers from what I called Merry Briskmas four days later (even better than turkey!):

... and maybe overdid it a little on the potatoes:

Photo, caption and potatoes: G. F.

We drank a significant number of Tom & Jerrys too, both here and at Auntie Betty's.

And I feel we earned all those indulgences fivefold (at least) since there was a non-zero chance of Fenya or Bobby being stranded in Toronto.

Oh why? Because there was no one available to look after their dog Skye, who has anxiety issues and cannot be left alone, and you are not permitted to check animals at this time of year because the baggage area is not heated. 

They got the largest under-seat kennel they could find and Skye (who could quite possibly be passed off as a large stoat) could turn around in it easily enough, but not fully stand up, as is required. They reconnoitered Pearson Airport the night before their flight and were told by the gate manager that he would allow it, but at the end of the day, it is the agents at check-in and the gate who would make the call, and can indeed turn a person away.

Which means if that individual is having a bad day, it is highly likely that you are going to have a bad day.

When the lady at check in said to Skye, "oh, you poor crushed thing," there were a fair number of dismayed expressions passing between my daughter and her husband. Without prompting, the dog demonstrated her ability to turn around within the carrier, and after some consideration, the agent begrudgingly allowed them to proceed. But not before needlessly reminding them that they could still be turned away at the gate.

So they kept their distance from the other passengers and vluntarily checked a carry-on when the agents asked for volunteers. This was in hopes of ingratiating themselves, but it also allowed them to board earlier than expected, and perhaps because the flight was so busy, nothing at all was said as they boarded and stuffed Skye's carrier beneath the seat in front of them. Of course, no real relief was had until they pushed away from the gate - unless you count the dog relieving herself in the carrier while perched on Bobby's lap and saturating the both of them.

Regardless, though, we were so grateful to have them both with us (Bobby had planned to stay in TO with Skye if it had come to that) that an unscheduled dog bath and shower for my son-in-law felt like a small price to pay.

The nerdiness truly began when they (all three, actually) were both able to join us in Rocky Mountain House where the three cousins played a Christmas D&D one-shot with my nephew Mark using some old characters of theirs. It is a dandy called "In the Black Midwinter" and features a ton of goofy references as well as a showdown with both the Krampus and Jülbocken!

But it really peaked for me when we arranged to play a session of our ongoing family campaign (or "fampaign", if you will) two nights ago with all eight players in a chapter-concluding boss fight!

Family time is obivously pretty crucial to me at Christmas, but playing D&D, in person, with my wife, two daughters, son-in-law, my wife's son as well as his own wife, sister and sister's fiance? From a scheduling perspective alone this was truly a mighty undertaking, and I am amazed and grateful we could pull it off!

We play the fampaign online around twice a month on average, across three (sometimes four!) timezones, but being together in the same kitchen for dinner and same basement for snacks and clickety clack math rocks and laughs was simply the best. We laughed more often and harder than we ever do over Google Meet, especially after I gave players the option of eating a random pull from the Jelly Belly "Fiery Five" collection to earn a re-roll. 

Two players drew the dreaded Carolina Reaper, which was almost debilitating. Poor Glory drew a habanero (the second hottest) to save her clerid Anja Stormdottir after rolling a 1 on her Death Save - only to have the reroll turn up as a 1 as well! 

Eherleschkeit kommt wieder I suppose...luckily the other cleric, Armida Plum, correctly assessed the seriousness of the mission and had thoughtfully prepared a Revivify spell which got her back on her feet.

At any rate, it was a tough battle that took several hours to play through and weapped up a little after one in the morning, but with no player casualties, and a lot of fun.

Sure, I also got a tremendous assortment of nerdy gifts, but the peak Christmas moment for me was playing a game I have loved for most of my life with people I love, at a time of year that our four households love.

Super, Man - Best Teaser Ever?

So let me explain why this Beaverton article totally applies to me and I don’t even care.

First off, if you haven’t seen it, you need to see the teaser trailer for James Gunn’s Superman movie, due in theatres this July.

All right? So you watched it and you’re good?

No, don’t read this and then watch it, the rest of the post explicitly references it! Spoilers abound, man.

So if you’ve actually watched it, we can proceed.

All right, to begin with, the first superhero movie I ever saw in a theater was Richard Donner’s Superman, starring Christopher Reeve. I had read a few Superman comics by this point, but that brilliant portrayal cemented itself in my mind forever. The electrified homage to John Williams’ epic score is a pretty good way to get me sentimentalized.

Making the first image of Superman a vulnerable one, battered and bleeding, is a real counterpoint to more recent depictions of this character, which I thought was a bold choice in some ways. In some ways, not so much; it’s not like people watching this are going ‘who is this guy in the tights?’, so this is a great way to establish the level of threat he must be facing.

And then the close up, and seeing that the Last Son of Krypton bleeds red blood, just like us.

When he starts to whistle, it took me a split second to key in to what he must be doing, so I was expecting Krypto the Super Dog, but not for him to show up and have Kal-El desperately ask him to take him home. So when this goodest boy just grabs the cape in his mouth and does it, I honestly started to well up and I don’t care who knows it.

But the biggest thing for me was that the first bit of superhero action we see is not an enormous punch, or an astounding feat of strength, but someone being saved as Superman places his body between an innocent person and disastrous harm.

Because this is what sets him and Spider-Man apart from most of the other comic heroes; if there was no crime, they would still spend their days saving people.

The rest of the teaser races by, and each rewatch rewards me with another tidbit or Easter egg: Hawkgirl! Mr. Terrific! Nathan Fillion as Guy Gardner! Nicholas Hoult as Lex Luthor!

And though out the entire teaser, I didn’t see the title character punch a single other character. there is some wrestling, sure, and his state at the beginning suggests a significant physical alteration is indeed in store for him.

The flag being raised, the chanting of his name rising in volume near the end, and other scenes all give a palpable sense of decency and hope, which suits me right down for the ground,

That optimism doesn’t make everyone happy, unsurprisingly, but even that response just reinforces for me that James Gunn is going about this in precisely the right way.

I mean, there are still plenty of ways to screw this up, but solid comics trilogies are few and far between (Chris Nolan’s Batman and Captain America come to mind, and few others), and since Guardians of the Galaxy is in that club, James Gunn can count on my ticket purchase on opening weekend in July.

And yes, I will bring some tissues. Wanna make something out of it?

Can You Handel This? (Our First Time at The Messiah)

As the holiday season shifts into a higher gear, this weekend featured multiple excellent visits with dear friends and family, but we kicked it off with an elegant night out.

Yet another friend was able to gift us tickets to Handel's Messiah at my favourite music Venue, The Winspear, but we decided to extend the experience by dining out at Continental Treat Bistro.

I love my family and appreciate children, and enjoy a fun casual night out where the food is good, but I can't remember the last time we dressed up for dinner in an almost child-free space. The bistro is on the corner of Jasper Avenue and 97th street (where Hardware Grill used to be) but the flagship location has been on Whyte Ave since 1982. 

In addition to a diverse menu featuring a lot of German and Czech dishes, they also have a creative cocktail menu and stellar beer list (including Westvleteren XII, 'the world's rarest beer'!). Our server was wonderful and we enjoyed escargots, a shrimp salad and rouladen for dinner, and added tiramisu, streudel and a maple whiskey coffee simply because it was too early to walk to the venue.

A jazz trio serenaded us and it was only afterwards that we realized the entire menu is gluten-free; we will have to come back and try their schnitzel, which they claim is best in the city...

After a short walk to the Winspear, we picked up our tix from the box office, checked our coats and made our way to the third floor gallery. I maintain that there are no bad seats in this place, and even two rows back on the highest level, we could still see and hear everything clearly.

'Everything' in this case includes a 27-piece orchestra, The Richard Eaton Singers (a 90+ voice choir), 4 vocal soloists and the enormous Davis Concert Organ.

Now, like most people, I am familiar enough with the famous Hallelujah chorus from The Messiah, and recognized another piece from Audrey's extensive collection of Christmas music, but neither of us had ever heard it all the way through before, and it is spectacular.

I wish I had thought to bring a libretto or whatever you call the lyrics and liner notes for an oratorio because despite being sung in English, I could discern very little, but can tell you it all sounded marvelous. Handel was born in Germany but composed the Messiah 15 years after becoming a naturalized British citizen, but I honestly thought I had heard at least two other languages on Friday night.

My lack of understanding did nothing to hamper my appreciation though; just watching the conductor weave together so much instrumentation and so many voices was completely spellbinding to me as a layman, and the beauty of the performance spoke for itself.

I don't know that I would go every year, as I know some people do, but I am confident we will return!

The Paper Telly

A couple of weekends ago I finally decluttered and dusted the top of the hutch over the liquor cabinet. Most of the items on top of it needed cleaning, the space itself required rearranging and some items, well, it was just time for them to go.

I finally parted with the bottle that contained 40-year-old port that my dear friends gifted me back when I turned 40. I decanted the bottle caps that had been accumulating in the pewter mug Dad got as a member of the CFB Gimli "Corporal's Club." And I realized that a paper keepsake had become too dusty to clean or salvage, and needed to be recycled.

It was a tiny paper replica of a television Fenya had made when she was eight or nine years old. The 5" screen depicted a hockey game in a packed arena, with the words "Go Lemons Go!" displayed on one of the concourses, presumably referring to the team in yellow. Such was the attention to detail that the set even has a triangular antenna affixed to the top of it, something I don't think Fenya had ever seen in real life.

I don't remember the circumstances clearly, but she had made it for me out of scrap paper with tape and crayons when I worked at GE Money. It was not a job I relished going to, and I think she made it to cheer me up, which it did.

The paper tv had a prominent spot on my desk until I left the job about a year and a half after starting (to take a position where still I work today). I didn't have the heart to simply 86 it at the time, so atop the hutch it went. 

When I took it down, some of the structural integrity of the cube was lost due to the adhesive on the tape drying out over a decade and half. It was tragically dusty and unlikely to survive a cleaning, and I admitted it was time to say goodbye to this keepsake - but not before doing three things.

First I took a picture of it, no longer trusting my memory to maintain such things.

Next I called Fenya, and sent her the picture. I related the story as I remembered it, and she corroborated parts of it, not remembering many more details than I. I told her how happy the little tv had made me at work, the whimsy it would provoke when my glance fell upon it, the gratitude for having such a creative and thoughtful child (two of them, in fact). It got a little misty.

Lastly, I vowed to write about it here, to affix it a little more firmly in my memory, and give me a place to re-visit it periodically.

Surreal Estate - Re-watching "The Wizard of Oz"

"Transported to a surreal landscape, a young girl kills the first person she meets and then teams up with three strangers to kill again." -  Rick Polito's summary of The Wizard of Oz for the Marin Independent Journal

I had no interest in joining Audrey and Glory at Wicked last week, but was only too happy to watch The Wizard of Oz with them tonight, and I am glad I did.

There are those (including the American Library of Congress) who feel it may be the most "seen" movie of all time, what with the decades of holiday season television screenings piled on top of all the VHS/DVD/BluRay/4K/ad infinitum home releases.

It has to be over a decade since I last watched it, and with younger kids I around, I was probably doing something else at the same time, or leaving to pop corn or some such. Sitting down and soaking in it as an adult and a movie buff is a genuine treat. 

First, it is a well crafted adventure musical, that clips along at a ridiculous pace like any fairy story should and veers effortlessly from silly to sweet to genuinely terrifying without missing a beat. And if it comes off as excessively coy or genteel, well, it is a prodcut of its time, after all.

But before the majority of North Americans had ever heard of Gandalf the Grey of Middle Earth, this adaptation of L. Frank Baum's book was pop culture's very first iteration of a fantasy realm with borders, factions, wondrous creatures, inscrutable and powerful rulers and an epic quest.

From the moment Dorothy opens the door to Munchkinland, exposing everyone to the Technicolor brilliance of Oz, I kept thinking of just how mind-blowing this must have been to those initial audiences in the 1940s. How many midwesterners quailed sympathetically at the sight of the Kansas cyclone? Who in the audience gasped, like I did tonight, and the amazing entrance of the Wicked Witch of the West in a plume of flame and densely coloured smoke? 

The costumes and makeup of the Scarecrow, Tin Woodsman and Cowardly Lion (whose outfit weighted 90 lbs!) hold up tremendously well even in high definition. The production numbers, particularly in Munchkinland, are intricate and enormous. When they say, "they don't make 'em like they used to," I am starting to think they are talking about The Wizard of Oz.

If you are looking for a family movie to screen over the holidays this year, don't pass up an opportunity to show this 85-year-old marvel to new eyes. It is available with a Crave subscription and reantable on many digital platforms (but not Cineplex unless you havce a 4K tv, grr...).