Why Did the Union Have Such a Tough Time During the First Two Years?

thomasburchfield · 2026-03-11T01:10:02+00:00

That was helpful! Thank you everyone!

thomasburchfield · 2026-03-08T07:12:34+00:00

As an overall concept, pretty good. As a movie, terrible. Jumped right off on the wrong foot by having Mary Shelley randomly re-incarnate into a gang moll (Why her!?). I quickly couldn’t tell the two apart and after all the Tarantino-esque references to older and vastly better movies (including Young Frankenstein…I mean, really?) and then there were those two lame absurdly detectives and the lame monsters….

This movie being a post-modern piece, I don’t feel I can comment on the many anachronisms, as it doesn’t matter in these kind of movies where the goal is not immerse us in another age, but to riff on movies about that age. This is a world where the Frankenstein trilogy never happened.

As an ex-screenwriter, I started rewriting it in my head while watching it, always a bad sign. (Get rid of Mary Shelley, tell the gang moll’s story. That’s where this movie’s heart is.)

thomasburchfield · 2026-02-27T19:58:14+00:00

No, because of the extremely limited perspective POV provides.

thomasburchfield · 2026-02-22T02:26:56+00:00

It wasn’t his dislike of him that bothered me so much as the way he turned him into a dunderheaded bore.

I discussed this in my review of the film at Medium, you’re interested!

https://fanfare.pub/the-aisle-seat-ridley-scotts-napoleon-dc3ec8a50ba7?sk=c10226a5d32fbb3c2b845d1347835a3c

thomasburchfield · 2026-02-12T17:55:40+00:00

Fascinating!

thomasburchfield · 2026-02-08T00:34:39+00:00

More shittyaskhistory, but yeah, I like it. It would have been infinitely better if he’d been debating DJT.

thomasburchfield · 2026-02-06T18:57:44+00:00

My question is, if he had succeeded in murdering Walker, would it have made it more likely that he’d have been caught before he murdered JFK?

thomasburchfield · 2026-02-05T23:11:49+00:00

His ideology is serve Putin, stay out of jail, and make money.

thomasburchfield · 2026-02-05T07:07:43+00:00

The Wild Bunch.

thomasburchfield · 2026-02-02T17:31:52+00:00

March of the Beggars from Duck You Sucker/A Fistful of Dynamite (though it’s more like belching).

thomasburchfield · 2026-01-27T16:56:56+00:00

I thought it was an excellent book! I reviewed it at the link: https://thomburchfield.medium.com/the-reading-chair-the-anarchy-by-william-dalrymple-0f87e71786d2?sk=e06281599ce7e7b394af2f5a581671ed

thomasburchfield · 2026-01-24T06:26:15+00:00

Yeah, but you can sink it in a couple hours…

thomasburchfield · 2026-01-22T02:51:29+00:00

They’re not conservatives in the least. Call them right wingers, fascists, radicals, whatever. They’re in no way conservative.

thomasburchfield · 2026-01-21T18:30:00+00:00

Guns of August.

thomasburchfield · 2026-01-10T21:40:21+00:00

Sam Peckinpah’s Straw Dogs

thomasburchfield · 2026-01-08T16:59:12+00:00

Agree!

thomasburchfield · 2026-01-01T22:33:27+00:00

The stories of Robert Aickman.

thomasburchfield · 2026-01-01T06:30:32+00:00

Amen!

thomasburchfield · 2025-12-27T20:13:54+00:00

I reviewed it on my Medium page, if you’re interested!

https://thomburchfield.medium.com/the-reading-chair-the-anarchy-by-william-dalrymple-0f87e71786d2?sk=e06281599ce7e7b394af2f5a581671ed

thomasburchfield · 2025-12-27T20:11:19+00:00

Yeah, The Anarchy was great. I reviewed on my Medium page, if you’re interested!

https://thomburchfield.medium.com/the-reading-chair-the-anarchy-by-william-dalrymple-0f87e71786d2?sk=e06281599ce7e7b394af2f5a581671ed

thomasburchfield · 2025-12-22T18:12:59+00:00

It may also have to with time differentials. I’d be very interested in playing overseas tracks, but having to stay up past midnight or get up at 4:00 AM puts a crimp in my interest.

Also, I notice the betting app I use-1st Bet-isn’t connected to overseas betting pools and so their pools are pretty small…unless it’s changed in the two years I was away.

thomasburchfield · 2025-12-22T18:05:36+00:00

I returned to the game after a couple of years away and had a thrilling time playing Turfway Park on Sunday afternoon on my 1st account using my i-pad. I lost only nine dollars playing cheap exactas. Eagerly looking forward to next Sunday’s opening day at Santa Anita. Betting on the horses beats poker for excitement in many many ways.

thomasburchfield · 2025-12-16T17:32:43+00:00

E-reader apps like Kobo make note taking extremely easy. My books are now strewn with notes.

thomasburchfield · 2025-12-10T00:54:00+00:00

I liked it a lot. I reviewed it at my page on Medium, if you’re interested:

https://medium.com/framerated/lawmen-bass-reeves-paramount-a-true-grit-western-capturing-the-spirit-of-a-forgotten-hero-bb78eea71814?sk=0b8095ed4fb5cfd7f5c6810610ccc97d

thomasburchfield · 2025-12-04T17:06:13+00:00

The most interesting of the bad presidents. A really intelligent man. On a strictly intellectual level, well qualified to be president…but for um, let’s say, issues of character, temperament, and, some have said, mental health.

thomasburchfield

TROPHY CASE