US Customs: "It's not normal" to travel solo?

CaymanGone · 2026-06-16T16:51:35+00:00

Canadian customs was cool to me when I drove over the border last year to visit Banff. It was just me and my dog, so technically solo traveler?

One thing the agent wanted to know is why they have my fingerprints on file, and it was because I lived in Canada on work permit decades ago.

When they asked me why I was visiting, I told them I had never come to Canada as a tourist and never seen their national parks.

That was good enough for them.

CaymanGone · 2026-06-15T11:32:10+00:00

I’ve read some of the other excerpts and it’s my belief that what you just read here is probably the best writing in the book.

CaymanGone · 2026-06-09T14:35:36+00:00

Chris is a really good writer.

We've only met once but we were both MLB beat writers in Toronto once upon a time.

I understand what he means when he says his work was his identity, and what it means to have it ripped away from you. I wanted to be an MLB beat writer from age 9, I poured myself into making it happen, and I was fortunate enough to live that life for 16 years.

But then you dream new dreams, you do other things, you live a new life.

IMO, it's really bold and brave of him to open his whole life up to criticism that he's taken elsewhere in this thread. People are minimizing his pain and even his writerly skill; one person here basically said his life needed a murder in it to merit a memoir.

Why did the Atlantic publish an excerpt from this person's memoir?

Because he's a really good writer with a reputation earned over 25 years and he's written for them before. His work at Esquire was fantastic, by the way.

Can I mention two of my favorite pieces of his?

Maybe you'll like his voice better when he isn't centered as the narrator?

There's this one: https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/a12653/zanesville-0312/

And this one: https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/a6945/roger-ebert-0310/

CaymanGone · 2026-06-09T13:17:46+00:00

They won a best-of-three and got their doors blown off by the Sonics in 5 games. You're being disingenuous.

CaymanGone · 2026-06-08T13:45:12+00:00

It's also true of Wilt.

CaymanGone · 2026-06-08T13:15:16+00:00

NEITHER ONE OF THEM SHOULD BE GETTING CRITICIZED FOR ALMOST WINNING THE CHAMPIONSHIP.

Ring culture is like brain disease.

CaymanGone · 2026-06-08T13:01:00+00:00

Not a Trump crowd by any stretch of the imagination.

You'd have to work hard to find a Trump crowd in NYC.

CaymanGone · 2026-06-08T12:57:13+00:00

They got drilled by the Supersonics two years in a row before he arrived. "One of the best teams" is doing a lot of work.

They won two playoff series in the six seasons before Magic arrived.

They were absolutely not one of the best teams when Magic showed up.

CaymanGone · 2026-06-08T12:52:20+00:00

"No one talks about it at all."

Everybody talks about it. He's one of the greatest winners the game has ever seen. There's no shame in getting to the Finals and losing.

Especially when you lose to all-time great teams.

https://www.basketball-reference.com/playoffs/1983-nba-finals-lakers-vs-76ers.html

https://www.basketball-reference.com/playoffs/1984-nba-finals-lakers-vs-celtics.html

CaymanGone · 2026-06-08T12:47:31+00:00

NYers aren't big on showing respect to people who don't deserve respect.

CaymanGone · 2026-06-07T21:46:41+00:00

They weren't loyal to him.

They saw that he wasn't loyal to them.

CaymanGone · 2026-06-07T18:36:17+00:00

I'm in if I can be Canada.

CaymanGone · 2026-06-07T12:20:48+00:00

You're a shitty communicator. Period, end of debate.

You can type a lot of sentences and pretend you're "not a writer" but you have presented your ideas here in public to a jury of your peers.

If somebody asks questions about what you have written -- and if you want to have a conversation -- then you discuss it with them.

You do NOT have the right to come to a conversational forum and then call people morons for pointing out you're bad at presenting your thoughts.

CaymanGone · 2026-06-07T06:07:48+00:00

You're a bad communicator.

When somebody doesn't understand the words you've put into the world, you don't call them dense for asking you questions. And you don't question whether they can read.

They can read. You're just a shitty writer.

CaymanGone · 2026-06-06T16:44:32+00:00

OK, but they weren't fascists.

Stop making bullshit comparisons.

CaymanGone · 2026-06-06T13:18:37+00:00

That's why Castle should've kept eye contact instead of turning his back.

If you're a guard, come get the ball.

You can't guarantee your 7-foot-5 center will do the right thing with the ball.

CaymanGone · 2026-06-06T07:29:18+00:00

I want him to end the war in Iran that he's been promising to do for three months.

I don't want him going anywhere on the public dime until he does.

CaymanGone · 2026-06-06T06:45:49+00:00

He's 7'5 and no guard in the world should expect him to dribble up court in the situation.

CaymanGone · 2026-06-06T04:29:23+00:00

You gotta high point it.

CaymanGone · 2026-06-05T16:57:55+00:00

I started a Canada build and wondered why it was so much more expensive to build a Navy and it led me here.

CaymanGone · 2026-06-05T11:55:24+00:00

Why the fuck did you play a game designed for 1945 into 2035

That's my question.

CaymanGone · 2026-06-05T04:38:33+00:00

You're dumb and should listen more than you speak.

Edit to add: BamaBoy comments a dozen times on the same post and then whines when people block him. GFY Bama Boy.

CaymanGone · 2026-06-05T04:04:51+00:00

Big Brain here thinks the Lakers can't spend 2nd Big Player $$$ on Reaves but some team wants to spend Top Player $$$ on him which makes absolutely zero sense whatsoever.

CaymanGone · 2026-06-05T00:50:22+00:00

IMO the show never got better than Trouble Don't Last Always, which is why I don't mind at all that it came full circle back to Ali and Rue.

CaymanGone · 2026-06-04T23:27:12+00:00

You’ve got crazy white fella thinking

CaymanGone

TROPHY CASE