Hey, Mom! The Explanation.

Here's the permanent dedicated link to my first Hey, Mom! post and the explanation of the feature it contains.

Also,

Thursday, January 1, 2026

A Sense of Doubt blog post #3971 - Letter to Dad #17 - New Year's Day - Why Everybody Loves Raymond is so special


A Sense of Doubt blog post #3971 - Letter to Dad #17 - New Year's Day - Why Everybody Loves Raymond is so special

Hi Dad, 

Because I can't count, all the posts were off by one. Luckily, I caught it right away so it just affects the planned posts that are set up in draft form ahead of time.

This is not going to be a long post because I really invested a lot of time in yesterday's post examining 2025 through my blogging for the year both in views and what was viewed but also in what I posted about.

Holidays were good, though like with Thanksgiving, I seemed to miss you and Mom more than usual.

One experience that provoked a swell of grief was watching the 30th reunion program for Everybody Loves Raymond. I have not yet watched the second part that they put out a week or two after the first.

If you recall, I convinced you and Mom to watch this show after watching some of it while visiting Tom. And you two fell in love with it. We had so much fun, so many laughs, watching this show, sometimes watching multiple episodes in a row.

So many lines, jokes, elements of that show became part of our family lexicon, like the "and I think it's been longer" line from All in the Family that I mentioned back in Letter Fifteen.

I laughed, I cried laughing, and I just cried watching that reunion show. So many great memories with you and Mom. And we're not the only ones. So many families had similar experiences with that show. It's a blessing. It truly is.

That's all I want to share today, really. I am kind of spent from yesterday's HUGE post that took three days to write!

I love you, Dad.

More next week.

I hope there's episodes of Everybody Loves Raymond where you are.

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- Bloggery committed by chris tower - 2601.01 - 10:10

- Days ago: MOM = 3835 days ago & DAD = 490 days ago

- New note - On 1807.06, I ceased daily transmission of my Hey Mom feature after three years of daily conversations. I post Hey Mom blog entries on special occasions. I post the days since ("Days Ago") count on my blog each day, and now I have a second count for Days since my Dad died on August 28, 2024. I am now in the same time zone as Google! So, when I post at 10:10 a.m. PDT to coincide with the time of Mom's death, I am now actually posting late, so it's really 1:10 p.m. EDT. But I will continue to use the time stamp of 10:10 a.m. to remember the time of her death and sometimes 13:40 EDT for the time of Dad's death. The blog entry numbering in the title has changed to reflect total Sense of Doubt posts since I began the blog on 0705.04, which include Hey Mom posts, Daily Bowie posts, and Sense of Doubt posts. Hey Mom posts will still be numbered sequentially. New Hey Mom posts will use the same format as all the other Hey Mom posts; all other posts will feature this format seen here.
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Wednesday, December 31, 2025

A Sense of Doubt blog post #3970 - New Year's Eve 2025 - Year in Review


A Sense of Doubt blog post #3970 - New Year's Eve 2025 - Year in Review

This is a big one, but I think it does the job.

Thanks for tuning in.

Since I have this picture, then this is now a tradition to wear this shirt on New Year's Eve:

https://sensedoubt.blogspot.com/2022/12/a-sense-of-doubt-blog-post-2874-new.html

Generally, it was a very good year. I am succeeding well in graduate school (maintaining a 4.0). I spend time with friends and family. I love my dogs and have weathered their health issues. I am healthy, maybe healthier than I have been in some time, as stretch every day and do tai chi several times a week. I have security in various aspects of my life.

I am very grateful for my life.

This year marked TEN years since my Mom died, and so ten years of this daily blog work that started on July 6th, 2015 with the first ever HEY MOM post.


Monday, July 7, 2025


I also observed in 2025 the one year "anniversary" of my Dad's death on August 28th.

Though this happened late last year, I want to count it: my step-son got married.

And just about a month ago, my step-daughter got engaged.

I did not take any significant trips this year, but that's okay, I was able to stay home with the dogs when others took trips.

I exceeded my goal of reading 80 books and have read 88 books this year, counting the one I will finish later today. That's a substantial increase from 75 books last year. Granted, I focused on many short books to reach my goal. And I met my goal as early as December Fourth:


FINAL TOTAL


I just won a football league: 



And my Zombie Death March team jumped from fifth to first in a fantasy basketball league this month:



AND...

I am happy, healthy, and accomplishing many of the things I want to accomplish.

I have been writing fiction throughout the year and making some progress with that work.

Onward.

The above image with the grid of nine well known celebrity deaths lacks Rob Reiner and his wife Michelle.


Here's a great still from All in the Family:


I also really like this picture of Diane Keaton from the New York Times Magazine: 


MY BLOG

As of today, for the life of the blog, I am at 1,645,584 views. That's a lot. I have never been clear as to whether my own views are in that total, though I suspect they are. And yes, they are. I am getting better at asking these questions to the Google AI. I could turn off the tracking, but it may not work and would have to be done for each browser.

TODAY my views are 670, and yesterday they were 526.

For the month of December 2025, my view total is 14,483, and in November, it was 24,053.

Looking at the numbers for 2025, according to the Blogger stats, I logged 779,000 some views in 2025, which is a fairly large share of the supposed all time 1,645,584 number of views. Given that I have posted daily for 10 years, and intermittently before that after making my first post in 2007, I have a feeling that these numbers are not accurate.


According to the Blogger stats, my blog saw high activity in number of views on May 28th, 2025 with 67,914 views, on August 26th 2025 with 79,546 views, and on September 18th, 2025 with 48,897 views.

I know some (a lot?) of my views are bots and weird marketers. For instance, look at this list of activity from the last week:


About half of these are the recent posts all of which have views in the 30s and 40s, which I consider mostly real people. The other, older posts are definitely more or all bots and weird marketers, who leave advertising comments on my blog, which I try to delete. I have probably missed some.

Still, if 42 real people looked at Letter to Dad #16, post #3964, if even just to look at the pictures, I am happy and fulfilled in my blog work.

As for posts this year, here's a list of the most popular:


Even though I stopped teaching the Laziness content in March of 2025 and before that had fewer than ten students to direct to that post (even though I had stopped directing students to my blog a couple of years ago), it seems that the Laziness article and my commentary has been very popular this year. Even though it's not among the most popular all time (that list next).

I am happy to see one of the Dad letters make the top ten views for the year, which may have as much to do as Ellory's illness motivating people to click through. One of my anti-RFK Jr posts logged a lot of views as did my Sly Stone RIP post (also missing from the RIP grid above) and my Lou Reed Tai Chi post garnered a lot of views.

I suspect that most if not all of the logged views on the other older posts, not from 2025, are bots and weird marketers. For instance, my very first post about misogyny in the Heroes TV show is always highly viewed, possibly just because it's the first post for the blog when I started in 2007. However, I wonder if the 286 views this year on the rhetoric post represent actual students researching rhetoric. I like to think so.

As for all-time...


None of this year's posts (which go from # 3606 to this one, #3971) made the top ten all time list; however, I am pleased to see the Laziness post in this list as well as the Tomb of Dracula post.

I am not surprised and also very happy to see the first HEY MOM post, the Explanation, in the top ten.

I find it surprising that my t-shirt reprint for Buffy is in this list as well as the racist comic book post, though I am pleased to see those and hope they feature lots of actual readers.

The only music post of the 460 Music Monday posts I have made that has logged enough views to be in this list (3.27K!!!) is the music mix featuring Culture Jam (which I used to teach) and a mix with a great deal of hip hop from Calvin Harris, Childish Gambino, Thundercat, and Tyler the Creator but also a lot of non-hip hop tracks, like Gary Numan, PJ Harvey, and LCD Soundsystem.

I last did a recap in 2024, and this list was somewhat different.

THE JUNE 2024 LIST OF ALL TIME VIEWS

Some of the same posts as a year and a half ago, but a few others have fallen out of the top ten all time.
Interesting.

As away to review this year, I am going to feature key post from my year, which in many ways charts what I am thinking about.

FEATURED POSTS FROM 2025

Reviewing my blog, here's some posts that are notable either in full listing form like the one below or linked in a commentary.


Wednesday, January 1, 2025

I started the year with the fact that I do not make New Year's resolutions, and I still feel that way. Though I do plan to create new habits and put myself on a spending freeze.

Though this happened in 2024, I didn't share it until 2025 -- Rickey Henderson died. I posted a REVIEW of my YEAR IN BOOKS the next day, which I will do another sometime in January. of course, January is always DAVID BOWIE MONTH on my blog celebrating his BIRTHDAY and the anniversary of his death, which are two days apart.

I reviewed a self-published book that I really enjoyed:


Saturday, January 11, 2025


SELF-CARE and PSYCHOLOGY

I wrote a lot about self care this year. I wrote on the power of empathy, repairing trust, and the downside of revenge.


AND


I wrote a lot (or rather shared already written work) from my graduate studies in Clinical Mental Health Counseling, like are people powerless to change? (Answer: NO.) An assignment on Bullying. and what may be my new favorite theory (unexpected): gestalt therapy.

I learned that Eliza Dushku has also finished the same degree program as I am doing, which made me happy. I like her very much even though I do not know her personally (though I think I saw her in person at a concert once in Battle Creek).

I started doing tai chi and reviewed Lou Reed's book about it.

I need to finish watching these Laurie Anderson lectures.

I went on a hike with my friend Paul along the Wilson River: 20,000 steps!!

Also, after years of delay, I finally published my post on Shelley's "On Life."

AFTER not playing Ultimate for over a year, I PLAYED in October at a tournament for Palestine, which an ex-girlfriend decided to castigate me for supporting.

Since I am trying to get more employment, BAN GHOST JOBS is the first of many posts I may make on the topic.

I visited the Dharma Rain Zen Buddhism Center in Portland for an assignment and have gone back a few time, though not as often as I wish.

I bought a second pair of Pride shoes as indoor shoes though I have now worn the old pair around town a bit.



And there was lots of bad news, such as how Neil Gaiman let us all down by not being the paragon of virtue in a progressive man we all thought he was. There's grief and loss in the accusations made against Gaiman, which, given what they are, they are likely true, even though I wish they were not.

And I continued to write about grief in losing my parents:

and... a very pivotal book that I have shared with many people since reading it:

AND...

Saturday, February 8, 2025
Another death, this time, Rick Buckler of the Jam.

SNL hit 50 years old.

And I made a music mix post-election and post inauguration that seems to sum up my feelings: 

And then a month later I did another MIX that is like a part two to the one above.



And, just because I checked, I learned that Leonard Peltier had been released from prison by Biden.

Abandoning chronology for categories...



MORE DEATHS

Even though I had not spoken to her in sixteen years, I had to post about my friend Dean Hauck's (owner of the Michigan news) passing a few months late in APRIL. I learned of her death during the Super Bowl.

Great comic book writers Peter David and Jim Shooter died.

Great comic book artists died in 2025, too, like Butch Guice.

Music greats Sly Stone, Ozzy Osbourne, and Chuck Mangione died.

Not a death but A LOT OF THEM: the EDMUND FITZGERELD 50 years ago.

And I made my Rob Reiner tribute in a letter to Dad post.



SPORTS

I always write a lot about sports, like the Detroit Lions and their historic season and the Detroit Pistons. The Pistons win their first playoff game in years.

Baseball is back on April First! (I often celebrate this, though I wait for the regular season to begin).
There were lots of DETROIT TIGERS posts because of their very successful season as they surged out to a 37-20 record and the best record in the MLB by May 29th. And again when the Tigers clinched a Playoff berth.

My other favorite team, the Cubs, also made the post-season.

Both Tigers and Cubs lost in the division series.

I disagreed with many choices in ESPN's top 100 greatest Baseball players list.

My change of heart about Jimmy Butler now that he's a Dub.

And though not one of my three favorite NBA basketball teams (Pistons, Warriors, and Trailblazers), I was very happy to see the Oklahoma City Thunder win the championship because I have been watching this team come together for several years. If none of my teams can win, then GO THUNDER!!

A post on a little known but possibly the greatest Baseball player ever: Oscar Charleston.



REPRINTS

When I get busy, I have to go into reprint mode, which is the easiest feature of my low power mode, like this one:


1972

There were lots of reprints in 2025, and I don't feel like counting them. But with nearly 4000 posts, I have many I can reprint.

Notables include how books sell better when censored, God is an Iron, So You're Reading Comics Again?, that time when I fell off the house roof as a kid, The Great Gig in the Sky (FOR DAD at seven months), my post on the Phantom Stranger, my pendant for Mom's ashes, TAKING A BREAK, SQUONK that was again brought to my attention by music (Steely Dan).


SPACE AND SCIENCE

I post a lot about science, especially space, like this one on an interstellar tunnel and how Dark Energy is stranger than we thought.

Other notables include: Life on Another Planet, a Colossal Squid, the legacy of Lucy, we're living in a giant void, and a comet that could be a space ship (but isn't, sadly). Sometimes, I just post about spiral galaxies because they're cool.


STATE OF THE HATE NATION

There was probably fewer political posts than usual, but the immigrant situation was one of the few that galvanized my action. like the danger of anti-trans laws.

The conservative war on science has me especially angry especially RFK Jr's idiocy, especially is monumentally STUPID cancelling of grants for MRNA research for vaccines.

Patriotism is not a religion (though people have made of it a cult).

And I finally published my FOX NEWS IS DANGEROUS post. Though many FOX NEWS viewers would say the same thing about CNN, MSNBC, and the New York Times.

I dropped my RING OF FIRE subscription and subscribed to Farron Balanced as Farron announced he was leaving RING OF FIRE.

Had to share the new primer for the new rules for Freedom of Speech when Trump pressured ABC to take Jimmy Kimmel off the air, and they caved, and then millions of us cancelled our Disney+ subscriptions and suddenly Kimmel was back on the air.

Not so fortunate was the writer of Red Hood that DC fired and cancelled the book after comments she made online following the murder of Charlie Kirk because we will suffer consequences for unpopular speech.



I finally posted about the AGAINST AUTHORITY book by John Twelve Hawks, which is even more relevant today than when I first read it in 2014.


AND this: 

Are we returning to this world?




COMIC BOOKS

I started early excited about two superhero movies: The Fantastic Four and Superman. I first posted on Fantastic Four: First Steps on March 23rd and again in April, and finally in October.

I started reviewing the HUSH2 series about Batman as I was under-whelmed. starting on March 30th, and dragging out all year as it is still not wrapped. DC actually started another Batman run because of the delays with this series. So again in June, August, and October.

I also reviewed DC's K.O., which is okay not great.

I commemorated Dad being gone 200 days with a review of TMNT's The Last Ronin in March, which was an impulse buy based mainly on the cover art (above), and I do not regret it.

I don't post these often but in April, I posted a review of the January 2025 comics on my COMIC BOOK SUNDAY weekly feature.

I tried to articulate why I still read comic books at my age knowing that I would only scratch the surface of the topic, and there were many more parts to complete in the future. The title is a bit of a joke as I do not have 828 posts planned.

I am rather proud of this post:

Short answer? Because reading them is who I am; it's part of my identity. Comic books still bring me joy. Do I need any other reasons?

FINALLY, I finished watching the TITANS live action series. I also finally reviewed SUPERMAN YEAR ONE by Frank Miller and John Romita Jr.

I collected my OLDEST comics posts in preparation to do more, which I still have not done.

I wrote about THE MORTAL THOR, though I have not yet published my IMMORTAL THOR post.

I shared the entire issue of Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons' "For the Man Who Has Everything,"
Superman Annual 11.

I reminisced about THE GREATEST AMERICAN HERO.

I reveled in my adoration of the comic book series about Krypto the super dog.

SUPERGIRL MOVIE IS COMING!!




MUSIC


I published some new soul or neo-soul music mixes in March and April.

I made a new Partridge Family mix in July.

On September First, I published another music mix in reaction to the GOP/MAGA take over the United States: 


Given that I post weekly about music on Mondays (at least), there's a wide array of various posts, such as The Cramps performing at a mental hospital, David Cassidy's nude Rolling Stone cover, that time Sinéad O'Connor tore the Pope's picture on SNL, reviewing Rickie Lee Jones' memoir The Last Chance Texaco, during which I learned the origin of one of my favorite lines: "A dime in this juke box fury," AND I finally completed a roundup of materials and music for a favorite band: Martha and the Muffins.
And I finally posted Kieron Gillen's top 50 singles of all time.

Some times my song selections have hidden meanings that some people who see the post may get, like this one:

That post was a big FU to some people, one person in particular.


I started using brain.fm, which is a very cool app.

I finally finished my Peter Gabriel Full Moon series post in May and Solsbury Hill.

I found an Afro Fiesta version of Pink Floyd's "Wish You Were Here."

I needed to remind myself to make a BRAND NEW START in August. Thank you Paul Weller.




Sometime in the fall, I realized I had never posted about one of my all-time favorite albums and one that may have the most listens with the exception of the one I have played at bed time every night for over two years:



WRITING and BOOKS

I wrote about the Protocols of the Elders of Zion after reading one of Nicholas Meyers' Sherlock Holmes books that I read several of this year. Not exactly a book review but sort of. I did review John Scalzi's When the Moon Hits Your Eye, which is an unusual book that at first I did not like.

I reported my audio book stats for 2024 finally in May.

In May, I started a WRITING WEDNESDAY FEATURE with the first post about being FEARLESS, which I need to remember every day. I learned about THE WRITING BOX.

I didn't declare OFFICIAL WRITING WEDNESDAY when I started regular posts by declaring it in the title, but I posted 12 rules of writing and then the great TURKEY CITY LEXICON.

Writing Wednesday officially began as part of the title as a feature on September Tenth with one of my best pieces of advice about stopping writing for the day knowing what you will write next.


And I learn things from reading great books as I explain in my review of V.E.Schwab's SHADES OF MAGIC series that caught hold of me in September and forced me to read all three in quick succession. AMAZING!!

I read two Tanith Lee books this year and wrote about them along with a reprint of ON THUD AND PLUNDER for a Writing Wednesday in November.

My annual reading of "A Christmas Carol."

MOM and DAD




And one year since Dad's death:

Thursday, August 28, 2025

Friday, August 29, 2025

and how I solved a household problem that I would have relied on Dad to help solve (or just solve for me):

Saturday, August 30, 2025



In September, I started a new feature of the LETTER TO DAD, which sometimes has a feature and sometimes is just a whatever post (there's one tomorrow).

The first one shared one of my favorite pictures of me and Dad.


I remarked on the importance of the Paul Weller pilgrimage the year before.

I am not going to link them all, but I am proud of this one:

and

and one of the most viewed posts of the year:

I slowly started using Dad's stuff. Though not this hat (left).



PUPPIES

And of course, the most important people in my life: my dogs. They probably do not get nearly enough posts.


Satchel turned 13, but I didn't do a post for her.



Shortly after her birthday, Ellory stopped eating and drinking, and I feared she was dying. Turns our she had a vitamin B12 deficiency.

I also celebrated Essel's adoption day.

The picture below is from when I took Essel to the emergency vet in 2024. She was not happy.


2510.03

No Satchel posts this year but she deserves an image. She's old but she's still here and doing well.


VARIOUS SAVED IMAGES FROM THE YEAR












































Posted in March:





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- Bloggery committed by chris tower - 2512.31 - 10:10

- Days ago: MOM = 3834 days ago & DAD = 489 days ago

- New note - On 1807.06, I ceased daily transmission of my Hey Mom feature after three years of daily conversations. I post Hey Mom blog entries on special occasions. I post the days since ("Days Ago") count on my blog each day, and now I have a second count for Days since my Dad died on August 28, 2024. I am now in the same time zone as Google! So, when I post at 10:10 a.m. PDT to coincide with the time of Mom's death, I am now actually posting late, so it's really 1:10 p.m. EDT. But I will continue to use the time stamp of 10:10 a.m. to remember the time of her death and sometimes 13:40 EDT for the time of Dad's death. The blog entry numbering in the title has changed to reflect total Sense of Doubt posts since I began the blog on 0705.04, which include Hey Mom posts, Daily Bowie posts, and Sense of Doubt posts. Hey Mom posts will still be numbered sequentially. New Hey Mom posts will use the same format as all the other Hey Mom posts; all other posts will feature this format seen here.
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