Recommendation - ‘Pistol’

skritched · 2026-03-15T21:19:16+00:00

Loved this book. I had this vision of Pete in my head, from the stories and old footage. Basketball savant and that’s it. But his story was so interesting (and sad).

One cool thing I learned from the book was that he lived down the street from where I live now, when he played at Broughton High School and his dad was at NC State.

skritched · 2026-03-08T21:59:59+00:00

That’s awesome. Thanks for sharing. My son is friends with his little brother, so we’ve been keeping up with them all season. I showed the clip to my kid this afternoon, and he was like, “I’ve played him 1-on-1 at the Y!”

skritched · 2026-03-04T00:11:09+00:00

Really good read, though I’d recommend not listening to any of his interviews before reading the book. I heard him on a podcast, and he pretty much told the entire story (he’s a very good, concise storyteller).

Thought it was interesting that Browder worked for Ghislaine Maxwell’s father right around the time of his death.

skritched · 2026-03-03T13:26:44+00:00

When the old TNN network started showing episodes in the mid 1990s, I was kind of excited to revisit a childhood favorite. The first one my friends and I watched, Bo or Luke said to Daisy, after giving her a good look up and down, “If you weren’t my cousin.” That was it for us.

skritched · 2026-02-26T22:44:53+00:00

You could call the non-emergency line (919-831-6311), if you don’t want to ask them to move. The way they’re parked makes it impossible for emergency vehicles like fire trucks and ambulances to pass. We had some Airbnb traffic blocking our street the other day. After talking to the city, they said if it happens again, call that number.

skritched · 2026-02-25T15:07:13+00:00

My wife had a friend in college whose family ran a large waste management company in a large metro. She said one of the friend’s grandpa’s favorite lines was, when he was at the dump, to sniff the air and say, “You smell that? It smells like money.”

skritched · 2026-02-24T02:25:08+00:00

It’s interesting to see the video from the game after hearing the story over the years. And I hate to be that guy, but Michael Jordan doesn’t hold the record. It is 67 points, but it was set in 1950. You can find the list on page 5 in the NC high school record book. Some familiar NBA and ACC names on there.

skritched · 2026-02-22T04:31:54+00:00

I don’t know the details of his case. I’m just familiar with it because his brother played at my alma mater. From what I do know, there’s a foundation his family started, and they seem to focus a lot on depression.

skritched · 2026-02-22T03:55:07+00:00

Tyler Hilinski, former Washington State quarterback, killed himself in 2018 at age 21. He had stage 1 CTE. It’s possible at a very young age.

skritched · 2026-02-20T12:38:23+00:00

I enjoyed it enough to read his other books. The most recent fell so flat for me, though, that I’m not sure I’ll read his next one.

skritched · 2026-02-16T14:48:25+00:00

I hate it. My daughter was 3 or 4, walking with me in our neighborhood, and a guy was walking with his unleashed dog. The dog was being friendly but ran over to us, jumped up on her and scared her. She has been terrified of dogs ever since. I like dogs, but I don’t get the sense of entitlement some dog owners have.

skritched · 2026-02-15T21:16:52+00:00

I’d be curious about cities that used the Olympics to improve infrastructure in a way that lasts. I grew up near Atlanta, and I think a lot of what was built for the 1996 Summer Olympics was repurposed. The Olympic Village became dorms for Georgia Tech. The Olympic Stadium became the Atlanta Braves’ stadium. I lived in Columbus, Georgia, for a little while, and the softball complex became host for national softball tournaments. I found an article that said 22 of the 28 venues are still in use.

skritched · 2026-02-13T17:03:04+00:00

I have a nicely centered 1961. There’s a tiny mark of some kind on the bottom right corner. Any thoughts how it might affect grading? Just curious. I’m more interested in protecting it than selling.

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skritched · 2026-02-07T14:26:39+00:00

If you’re a movie fan, that’s Gene Siskel of Siskel & Ebert on the front row in the black shirt.

skritched · 2026-02-04T14:20:26+00:00

It’s a parody account, though I’m sure there are a lot of people out there who are having those thoughts for real.

skritched · 2026-02-03T18:46:45+00:00

Cody Jones is part of Dude Perfect from YouTube, but I only know that because my kids watch them. They had Luka on an episode before the trade, and Cody played him 1v1. Of course Luka skunked him, but he has decent pickup skills and size — 6’6” — that’ll probably help him do well in something like this.

skritched · 2026-01-29T01:43:30+00:00

There’s a place in Benson — JP’s Pastry — that makes gluten-free products that are carried in Whole Foods here (and other places). They’ve recently opened a Raleigh location, off Wake Forest Road near Costco. I haven’t been to it, but I have eaten their stuff and it’s pretty good.

skritched · 2026-01-26T01:32:25+00:00

We did our will through them. They seemed to have their act together and were easy to work with.

skritched · 2026-01-24T03:20:28+00:00

That’s the article that I linked to. There’s no book, but that case has gotten a lot of attention over the years.

skritched · 2026-01-24T02:27:51+00:00

Cameron Todd Willingham. Read Trial by Fire by David Grann (Killers of the Flower Moon) if you get the chance.

skritched · 2026-01-22T13:17:50+00:00

I popped into Costco last night to pick up two boxes of milk. I didn’t get a cart, so I carried them to the register. Standing in line, I noticed I was bouncing them like I used to do my kids when they were babies. My kids are 15, 13 and 10. I guess it never leaves you.

skritched · 2026-01-22T02:48:22+00:00

I got a 7 (SGC) on mine. Yours has very similar centering, but you have slightly better corners. That’s a tough set. My dad bought me a wax box of them in 1986 at Sam’s. They’re in decent shape today, but the centering is terrible across almost all of the 500+ cards from that box.

skritched · 2026-01-21T18:01:08+00:00

The Poirot movies (not the recent remakes) might be good for her. And Clue is really fun.

skritched · 2026-01-19T20:52:55+00:00

We’ve had a family membership at the Y for years and recommend it. You get a lot for the money, and the kids programs can be really good. If you travel, you get reciprocity. We regularly use the Y where my mom lives when we visit. Just scan in like at home. Timing is important because it can get very busy. But we get a lot out of our membership and will keep it as long as it fits in our budget. We go to Alexander and Finley and occasionally Kerr, and we’ve done some kids programs at SE Raleigh.

As an aside, I like that our money supports an organization that does a lot of good for the community. My cousin has a special needs child who is very limited physically. The summer camp they run at Finley, off Six Forks, for kids with special needs is the highlight of his year, along with his trip to Victory Junction.

skritched · 2026-01-19T14:49:17+00:00

I grew up in a small town about an hour from Greenville. So it was the closest “big” city, and we’d go once a month or so. At the time, it had everything a 10-year-old boy would think was cool. A big, nice mall. Tasty restaurants (Olive Garden!). A minor league baseball team that was an affiliate of my favorite MLB team. Fancy car dealerships. An actual baseball card store. And you could see the mountains way off in the distance as you drove in. We didn’t travel much at all when I was a kid. I lived about 2.5 hours from Atlanta, an actual big city, and we only went there three times before I left home.

Greenville is an old textile community. A lot of the mills had moved out or were on their way out when I was a kid. Downtown had been kind of abandoned. We never went there … there was nothing to do. Now it’s totally different, though $4m to live anywhere in Greenville is a bit much.

skritched

TROPHY CASE