With 2017 drawing to a close and 2018 about to begin, I decided to take a look back at 2016 and spotlight the best (or most significant) blog post of each month.<\/p>\n
John Hurt, a Reminisence<\/a> – Sir John Hurt died, aged 77, of pancreatic cancer. I can’t say that what I wrote was profound, as it wasn’t. It was hard to take.<\/span> January<\/em><\/p>\n Frank Delaney, A Reminiscence<\/a> – The Irish writer and broadcaster Frank Delaney died, aged 74, of a stroke at his home in Connecticut. I was introduced to Delaney through an interview with Scott Simon on NPR’s Weekend Edition<\/i> (I wrote about their radio friendship here<\/a>), and I read several of his books and listened to his podcast on James Joyce’s Ulysses<\/i>, Re:Joyce<\/i>. I was as gutted by Delaney’s passing as I was by Hurt’s.<\/span> February<\/em><\/p>\n The Fourth Doctor and the Curator: What\u2019s the Connection?<\/a> – Who is The Curator, seen in Doctor Who<\/i>‘s fiftieth-anniversary special? A radical theory, inspired by Lance Parkin and Lars Pearson’s chronology of the apocrphyal Doctor Who<\/i>, UnHistory<\/i>.<\/span> March<\/em><\/p>\n The Sights and Sounds of Wrigley Field<\/a> – In April I attended Diamond’s Retailer Summit and (for a day) the C2E2 convention. While there, I also visited Wrigley Field for the first time in my life.<\/span> April<\/em><\/p>\n Reflections on Ten Years<\/a> – I celebrated my tenth anniversary with Diamond Comic Distributors<\/a> in mid-May, and I took a few moments to reflect on that milestone.<\/span> May<\/em><\/p>\n Things I\u2019ve Been Reading: James Bond: Service<\/a> – A review of Kieron Gillen’s James Bond comic book.<\/span> June<\/em><\/p>\n (Mostly) Spontaneous Baseball Road-Tripping<\/a> – A friend’s birthday party in Virginia led to a road trip into the Shenandoah Valley to see a baseball game in New Market. It was a lovely weekend.<\/span> July<\/em><\/p>\n A Distant Family Tragedy<\/a> – I discovered the strange and tragic circumstances of the death of my great-great-grandmother, Susan Gardner — in July 1902 she was struck and killed by her “demented” sister, Laura, in a fit of rage or insanity.<\/span> August<\/em><\/p>\n Adventures in Off-Brand LEGO: Olaf\u2019s Biplane<\/a> – LiteBrix made some LEGO-compatible building sets for The Peanuts Movie<\/i>. I built, and later modified with real LEGO, the Olaf’s Biplane set.<\/span> September<\/em><\/p>\n A Vacation Day in the District<\/a> – I took a vacation day, went to Washington, DC, explored Congressional Cemetery some more, had a nice lunch at a Mexican restaurant on Pennsylvania Avenue SE, and went to a meaningless Nationals game, as I’d been unable to acquire tickets for the Nats\/Cubs NLDS.<\/span> October<\/em><\/p>\n Life In Yoe<\/a> – I didn’t expect to find a picture of the town where I live splashed across Facebook, thanks to a Boston Globe<\/i> article on racial tensions in York County. As I’ve said, I may live north of the Mason-Dixon Line, but, culturally, this is the most southern place I’ve ever lived.<\/span> November<\/em><\/p>\n A Christmas Song I Love<\/a> – “O Holy Night.” Sadly, though beautiful and moving, the song is bereft dragons<\/a>.<\/span> December<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" With 2017 drawing to a close and 2018 about to begin, I decided to take a look back at 2016 and spotlight the best (or most significant) blog post of each month. John Hurt, a Reminisence – Sir John Hurt died, aged 77, of pancreatic cancer. I can’t say that what I wrote was profound,Continue reading “On the Year That Was, 2017”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":31123,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[52],"tags":[170,64,4192,4082,202,4578,855,38,4103,3971,3921,24,4574],"class_list":["post-31124","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-life","tag-chicago-cubs","tag-christmas","tag-congressional-cemetery","tag-doctor-who","tag-frank-delaney","tag-genealogy","tag-james-bond","tag-john-hurt","tag-lego","tag-new-market-rebels","tag-pennsylvania","tag-washington-nationals","tag-wrigley-field","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31124","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=31124"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31124\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/31123"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=31124"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=31124"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=31124"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}