Great British Baking Show Archives

It has been an eventful year. On top of the Covid pandemic, we’ve endured some personal losses but nothing that God will not redeem for great good. As usual we are closing out the year with summary remarks about good and bad stuff related to film, music, books, sports, food, and family.

Film Experiences

Jim: With Covid restrictions preventing us from going to the theaters, we watched all of our films this year at home, in many cases catching up on films from previous years. For me, the biggest disappointment was The Lighthouse, which is well acted (by Willem Dafoe and Robert Pattinson) with tremendous cinematography but ultimately an aimless, oppressive narrative. A more successful attempt at twisted horror is As Above So Below (2014), which could be described as American Treasure meets Blair Witch Project in the catacombs of Paris. Dante would be proud . . . maybe. I was mesmerized by the docudrama Wormwood (2017), which is another film that features a dark psychological trip of sorts, as the principle subject, Eric Olson, seeks to get to the bottom of the death of his father, Frank Olson, who supposedly committed suicide while working for the CIA in 1953. Whoa. Finally, I highly recommend the surprisingly profound My Octopus Teacher, which chronicles the relationship between filmmaker Craig Foster and an octopus off the coast of South Africa. Ever been moved to tears by a mollusk? I was.

Amy: This year has been predominantly about escape when it comes to my viewing habits. I find true crime and detective shows oddly comforting when stressed or sad, inspiring the idea of justice being achievable. Some of my faves this year were Criminal UK and Unbelievable. I also fell down the rabbit hole of The Crown: Season Four, going back and forth between watching and researching the true events. Social Dilemma was terrifying and nearly had me throwing all our phones and devices in the toilet. Emma and Rebecca were period piece highlight and disappointment, respectively. I fell in love with The Unicorn as one of the few shows set in the South I have ever enjoyed.

Food and Music

Amy’s Best Food Experiences of the Year: This year my favorite food experience was a two-parter. First, I loved watching the Great British Baking Show with Bailey and Andrew and then I enjoyed celebrating Andrew’s victory in our competition to predict the winner by going out with Andrew and Bailey at a local restaurant with a good friend as our server. Otherwise, our culinary experiences, like many others, were homebound. Sampling the variety of bakery creations the kids concocted was almost worth all of the clean-up. My traditional birthday meal at Chesapeake’s in Knoxville with Jim, my parents and sister and brother-in-law was especially meaningful this year’s challenges.

Jim’s Best Musical Experiences of the Year: I’ve continued to enjoy the recent spate of female singer-songwriters, including Mitski, Phoebe Bridgers, and Madison Cunningham. I appreciated the bold adventurousness of the new Morrissey album, I am Not a Dog on a Chain. The new Dylan album, Rough and Rowdy Ways, was a wonderful surprise. Even more surprising is the fact that the album’s 16-minute closer, “Murder Most Foul” became the first #1 song in the 80-year-old legend’s career. Like millions of others, I was thrilled with both of Taylor Swift’s studio albums released this year—Folklore and Evermore, which are really a time-released double album (a la Radiohead’s Kid A and Amnesiac). With these albums, Swift further cements her status as one of the best songwriters of our time, a fact that is sadly missed on many people, whether due to latent sexism or a simple failure to study the lyrics of her songs. But I digress . . . My most exciting musical discovery this year was the band MeWithoutYou. I regret to confess that I’m late to the party with these guys. But, man, has it been fun doing the deep dive into their seven albums . . . just in time for the band to announce they are calling it quits.

Sports

Jim’s Favorite Sports Moments of the Year: Watching two frustrated sports franchises finally break through to win championships in the NFL (Kansas City Chiefs) and Major League Baseball (Los Angeles Dodgers) was gratifying. Normally I wouldn’t pull for an L.A. team, but after knocking at the door for several years and being denied by the cheating Houston Astros a few years ago, it was good to see the Dodgers finally reach the mountain top, especially for Clayton Kershaw, who by all accounts is an admirable Christian guy.

Amy’s Favorite Sports Moments of the Year: Like so many things this year my favorite sports moment was bittersweet. Because of my work schedule I don’t often get to see my kids play, but I enjoyed cheering on Sam in his final soccer game of the year. Though it was heartbreaking to see Eastbrook lose in overtime in the sectional playoffs, Jim and I couldn’t be prouder and look forward to watching him play next year for our favorite college coach, Gary Ross.

Jim’s Most Disappointing Sports Moments of the Year: Seeing the Saints going down against the Vikings (again) in the post-season was tough to take last January. But far more painful than that was watching our son, Andrew, break his arm during a basketball game a few weeks ago. Happily, orthopedist Dr. Daniel Edwards at Marion General Hospital worked his magic on our young man, and Andrew is on the mend and will hit the courts again as soon as the cast is cut off.

Amy’s Most Painful Sports Moment of the Year: Because of Covid restrictions on the number of people who can attend kids’ games, I was not able to be at Andrew’s game when he fractured his arm. But seeing Andrew’s courageous response and the excellent care he received was a definite positive.

Good Reads

Jim: My most underwhelming read of the year was Frank Herbert’s classic sci-fi book Dune. Just couldn’t get into it, but I’m glad to have read it. I’ve benefitted from digging into Solzhenitsyn’s Gulag Archipelago, which is disturbingly apropos for our time. I also appreciated Rod Dreher’s Live Not by Lies, which was inspired by, and takes its title from, Solzhenitsyn’s Gulag. I’ve also enjoyed working through two classics—Thucydides’ Peloponnesian War and Dante’s Inferno.

Amy: The highlights of the year were James Clear’s Atomic Habits, Leadership in Turbulent Times by Doris Kearns Goodwin and The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*** by Mark Manson. The latter book was an especially refreshing read. Despite the crudeness of the title, the book spoke to me in a profound way, both as an individual and as a parent. I intend every one of my kids to read it and recommend that you do the same. And if you don’t care to take my recommendation, then frankly, my dear reader, I don’t give a #@%!

Best 2020 Family Memories

Jim: Our family retreat with my in-laws’ extended family in July was awesome. As always, we divided into teams and had some thrilling competition. I also enjoyed building a barn in Knoxville with my father-in-law and getting to know his mischievous cows, Lulu and Dottie.

Amy: Generally, the time we’ve spent together as a family, with Bailey home more than usual, was special. My niece Rachel’s wedding was definitely a highlight. And my supervisor’s traditional African wedding was a wonderful experience with Jim, Bailey, and Sam.

Best Kids’ Quotes of the Year

Maggie: “I have a zit on my soul.”
Andrew: “I think of our time on earth as a terrible sleepover where you just want to go home.”
Maggie: “Unlike humans, dogs deserve to be loved.”
Bailey: Regarding his initiation into the world of alcoholic beverages: “It’s like I’ve discovered a new primary color.”
Maggie: “I want my own guitar so I can get one of those straps and walk around with it in the woods and be one with nature. Wait . . . I hate nature.”

New Year’s Resolutions

Amy: This year has presented Jim and me with some of the most profound challenges of our lives. Next year my hope is that more of my challenges will come from within as I seek to grow in mind, body, and spirit.

Jim: To pray every morning on my knees.

Happy 2021 everyone!

December 30, 2019December 30, 2019

The Best and Worst of 2019

By Jim Spiegel

It’s been another exciting year, and we want to thank you all for reading and, if applicable, posting comments on our blog. Once again, we would like to close out the year with some summary remarks about good and bad stuff related to film, music, books, sports, food, and family.

Film Experiences

Jim: Most of the new films I saw this year were good. The biggest loser of the year was Joker. Yes, Joaquin Phoenix’s acting is superb, but the script is poor, the violence is gratuitously graphic, and the plot has more holes than a cheese grater. Ugh. But a big thumbs up for the film Us, which is freaky scary but somehow fun at the same time. From here on out, I’ll be seeing every Jordan Peele film as a matter of principle. I enjoyed Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker and consider it an appropriate finish to the nine-part saga that took four decades to complete. But the best film I saw this year was Rian Johnson’s Knives Out, a superbly written who-dunnit which isn’t impeded by its star-studded cast. A close runner-up was Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. Who can build a comical, poignant, and redemptive story around a despondent fading Hollywood star and the Manson murders in the ill-fated summer of 1969? Quentin Tarantino, that’s who.

Amy: Several of my best movie experiences were with Jim this year so we have quite a bit of overlap with Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, though I wasn’t as keen on it as Jim, Knives Out, which I thought was great, and Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. I did have some small screen experiences that were quite good: Unbelievable, Great British Baking Show, The Good Place, and Monk were a few of the shows I enjoyed this year.

Food and Music

Amy’s Best Food Experiences of the Year: Like most exceptionally delightful food experiences, the one that tops my list this year was a combination of delicious food, wonderful company, and conversation enjoyed in an ideal setting. Jim, some of the kids, and I were invited to join a graduating student and his family for dinner at Bluebeard in downtown Indianapolis. The food was simple but quirky in its creativity (roasted cauliflower and mint!) but one of my favorite parts of the evening was that rather than ordering individual meals, we got a few bites of everything. It was a night we won’t soon forget shared with people dear to our hearts. A close second was a breakfast shared with Sam while visiting him in Bolivia. A good croissant with homemade jam is hard to beat but throw in a son you haven’t seen in months who can’t wait to share with you all of his adventures and it’s a meal to remember.

Jim’s Best Musical Experiences of the Year: This was an exciting year for new album releases by many of my favorite artists, including the Black Keys’ solid but not ground-breaking Let’s Rock, the Avett Brothers’ sometimes preachy Closer Than Together, and Taylor Swift’s Lover, which I reviewed on this blog a few months back. My favorite album of the year was Vampire Weekend’s Father of the Bride. It is a rich, thoughtful, and memorable record—perhaps the band’s best, which is saying a lot. But the highlight of the year for me was seeing Bob Dylan in concert at Ball State’s Emens Auditorium in November. This is the sixth time I’ve seen Dylan in concert, and I continue to be amazed at his endless rearrangements and reinventions of his songs. Incredible.

Sports

Jim’s Favorite Sports Moments of the Year: I loved watching Drew Brees break two NFL records in the same game two weeks ago, as he eclipsed the all-time career touchdown passing mark and had the all-time highest completion percentage for a single game (29 for 30!) in the New Orleans Saints’ defeat of the Indianapolis Colts on Monday Night Football. Incredible.

Amy’s Favorite Sports Moments of the Year: I watched Andrew play a lot of basketball this past winter which is always a treat, especially when there is fresh popcorn involved. He also treated me to Buffalo Wild Wings to watch the NFL playoffs which was a pleasure.

Jim’s Most Disappointing Sports Moments of the Year: The New Orleans Saints were robbed of an NFC championship and Super Bowl appearance due to a blown pass interference call against the Los Angeles Rams last January (which did result in a league rule change, which I guess counts for something). This makes for the second consecutive year in which the Saints have finished their season in heartbreak fashion, as the 2017-18 season ended with the “Minneapolis Miracle.” Ugh. The retirement of Colts quarterback Andrew Luck was another disappointment, but hope was renewed by the emergence of Jacoby Brissett as a solid starting quarterback, only to be dashed by a rash of injuries to several Colts offensive players. Oh well.

Amy’s Most Painful Sports Moment of the Year: Seeing Joe Maddon dismissed as the Cubs manager was a knife to the heart. Andrew Luck’s retirement has seen my interest in the Colts fall to zero, having grandfathered him after Peyton.

Good Reads

Jim: As usual, most of my reading this year pertained either to classes I was teaching or publication projects I was working on. Regarding the latter, I read dozens of journal articles and book chapters on divine and human agency, in preparation for a book chapter I’ve nearly finished on George Berkeley’s view on the subject. As for new reads for classes, I enjoyed Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s Ethics, a work that is especially intriguing because it was written during the final years of Bonhoeffer’s life when he was wrestling with one of the most excruciating of moral issues, namely how to respond to a tyrannical national leader. Knowing that Bonhoeffer ultimately took part in a plot to kill the Nazi Führer casts a fascinating light on his discussion of the legitimacy of civil disobedience. My favorite book among those I read this year was James Waller’s Becoming Evil: How Ordinary People Commit Genocide and Mass Killing—a work that is as insightful as it is disturbing regarding human nature.

Amy: My reading this year is clearly delineated into two eras: pre-working and post. In the first category are some of my favorite reads in quite some time: The Great Divorce by C.S. Lewis, Life on the Mississippi by Mark Twain, The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt, The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry by Rachel Joyce and Rules of Civility by Amor Towles and several by P. D. Wodehouse. The post-working era is dominated by books on sales and business which I would never have predicted enjoying but which have taught me a great deal, both professionally and personally. A few favorites have been: Sell or Be Sold and Be Obsessed or Be Average by Grant Cardone, The Entitlement Cure by John Townsend, and The Top Ten Mistakes Leaders Make by Hans Finzel. I also listened to the entire Harry Potter series while driving for work and loved every magic filled minute of it despite the fact that J. K. Rowling uses the word “sniggered” entirely too often.

Best 2019 Family Memories

Jim: Like his older brother, Bailey, did a few years ago, our son Sam spent the Spring semester living in La Paz, Bolivia attending Highlands International School. It was fun to witness his personal development through this experience and especially thrilling to hear him speak Spanish fluently upon his return in June. Then this past Fall semester we hosted a friend that Sam made during his time in Bolivia. It was fun knowing that the experience here in the U.S. for Sam’s friend would be as life-changing as was Sam’s experience in Bolivia.

Amy: I got to visit Sam in Bolivia this spring which was a thrill. Being gone so much for work this fall has honestly made any time with the kids feel like a gift, except when I’m tired and they are being annoying—ha ha. Our Christmas felt special with Bailey home from college and watching the kids connect with one another more as adults than kids; their shared humor, conflicting opinions, and overall weather-beaten affection is something to behold.

Best Kids’ Quotes of the Year

As usual, most of the best quotes of the year come from Maggie:

Maggie: “What’s the difference between a Presbyterian and a normal person?”
Bailey: “I could spice up cardboard and make it taste better than anything you’ve ever eaten.”
Maggie: “If you don’t do anything wrong, then you won’t get caught doing it.”
Maggie (Regarding my giving her some spending money): “Dad, you’re like a young male grandma.”
Maggie (after my sugar-holic daughter hypocritically lectured me about the sugar content in a food product I was buying): “I don’t obey the rules, but I know the rules.”

New Year’s Resolutions

Amy: To continue to introduce more discipline into my time management. To figure out how to keep up my love of reading and cooking despite working full-time. To be ambitious in my Bible reading plan for this year.

Jim: To pray more, to fast more, and to remember that this world and our time in it is, as Kanye West puts it, a “God dream.”

Happy 2020 everyone!