Not much to say about Thanksgiving. Avoided the worst of the travel delays. Relatives are fine. Good to see the DeVeaus. Kenmore Square is...well, if I was a prospective BU freshman with the same interests I had in 1988, the cleaned-up Kenmore would have far less allure. I guess it all depends on what I was able to unearth at Nuggets.



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Then again, the younger me would have new music avenues. Like the iTunes Music Store; the waters of which I finally waded into this weekend. First purchase: Joe Strummer's cover of "Redemption Song," after seeing the almost-made-me-cry video over the holidays. The track was intended to be a duet with Johnny Cash, and said duet made it onto the posthumous Cash box set. I like the Cash Rick Rubin-era stuff, so I bought that version as well. Ehh...not so good. Strummer can pull off a Bob Marley cover; the Clash dabbled in reggae on and off since the first album. But despite Johnny and June maintaining a residence in Jamaica for decades, I wasn't feeling the rastamon vibration from the Man in Black.



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Is it fair or even appropriate to comment on the end of the KJ era when the only episode I watched in its entirety was his finale? Did he tank? Probably not. Those Double Jeopardy questions were ass-hard. On the other hand, having not watched the show with any regularity in years, maybe I'm off here, but he seemed to be running down the clock. Took a while selecting categories. The silence on the Sports Venues category was just strange. I think he'll hear about "Joe Louis Arena" from particular NAQT staff more than he'll hear about tax preparers.



And if he did decide to hang it up in a somewhat graceful manner, so what? This isn't his job. If I'm not mistaken he was on the hook for his own expenses all along, though that investment...has been recouped. He doesn't owe the viewers or other contestants anything.