My old blogging buddy Greg Burgas, who I’ve been following since late 2005, writes about what he “bought, read, watched, or otherwise consumed.”
In that spirit, here’s what I bought recently.
I mention this while, at the same time, I keep saying I’m not going to buy ANYTHING except consumables: food, dish detergent, et al. So if I purchase something, it should bring me joy, in the word of Maria Kondo.
Jeopardy Contestant Season 1-38 Alumni Tee Shirt. I was on Season 15. I recently went to an ’80s trivia night with several local Jeopardy alums. It was in honor of the birthday of Jay, who was wearing one of those T-shirts. As one customer who bought one from the Etsy site wrote, “It was the perfect example of ‘I didn’t know I needed that until I saw it.’”
Incidentally, we led through the competition but lost when we muffed the final question about the first CD pressed in Japan in 1982.
PBS
Making Black America: Through the Grapevine. I recorded this on the DVR in the fall of 2022, but it remained unwatched. I waited for my wife to view it with me until July 2023. It’s “a four-part series hosted by Henry Louis Gates, Jr., that chronicles the vast social networks and organizations created by and for Black people.”
While it addressed discrimination issues, it also lifted the sources of “Black joy,” from art, music, and literature to HBCU Greek organizations, barbershops, and beauty shops.
I was so taken by it that I bought the DVD so my wife and/or daughter could watch it at leisure.
African-Americans in the Wyoming Valley, 1778-1990 (paperback, 1992) by Emerson I Moss. I bought it solely because it mentioned my great-great-grandfather, Samuel Patterson, thrice, albeit briefly. He was a very impressive man, and I will write about him in due course.
I’ve also purchased many other books, none of which I have read to date. I got the new Paul Simon album, Seven Psalms, which is very good.
The fun facts in our household this season: