Author: Scott Duvall
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Book Club 2025
Thank you to everyone who contributed to this list, and for the gifts of great books and classic stories. As always, each entry is linked to an Amazon page, but I urge you to support your local bookshops whenever possible. This year we had 2 contributors add suggestions from authors they know personally, these are…
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2025 Reading Recap
20 titles, totaling 7,236 pages. Shown below in order from smallest to largest. Scroll down for the reviews. Rules of Civility and Table for Two are both worth reading, in that order. The first follows a year in the life of a young Katey Kontent as she navigates New York City in 1938, and the…
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Bah! Humbug!
The Muppet Christmas Carol (1992) is a faithful adaptation of Charles Dickens’ traditional Christmas story. With Puppets. The film works because of Michael Caine’s faithfulness to the part of Ebenezer Scrooge, playing the role with all drama and no comedy, anchoring the story and never once giving a wink and nod to the viewer that…
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Gee, Officer Krupke!
From the musical West Side Story, “Gee, Officer Krupke” is an ensemble piece for the Jets, lampooning the aforementioned Officer Krupke and the other adults who don’t get the kids and their lifestyle. Its message holds up, perhaps the kids today aren’t quite all that different from the kids of the past. The number has…
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Nobody passes on the outside of turn four!
Sometimes a good leader just has to be a bit….’inspiring’. Days of Thunder (1990). It’s actually a terribly formulaic movie based around NASCAR. It’s now old enough and nostalgic enough to be considered good. This marks its second appearance in SignPosts.
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Didn’t any of you guys ever go to Sunday School?
Steven Spielberg and George Lucas teamed up in 1980 to create Indiana Jones, a modern take on the old 1930’s serial stories. Released in 1981, Raiders of the Lost Ark became the highest-grossing movie of the year, and earned a place not only in pop-culture history but also film history via it’s selection by the…
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RIP Left-Eye
“Waterfalls” from TLC’s 1994 landmark album CrazySexyCool. It became TLC’s most successful single from the album, and along with “Creep” it ruled the airwaves and charts throughout 1995. Trust us kids, the song was everywhere. Youtube Link to the Official Music Video.
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Papaya Rules
If you’ve watched Formula 1 as a US fan; you can hear David Croft in your head at the start of every race. With F1 coverage moving to Apple TV next year, it’s unknown what the US broadcasts will look like. ESPN’s pickup of the Sky Sports feed was a cost-effective solution, and unknowingly made…
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Squirrel!
John Hughes wrote and produced some of the most classic 1980’s “Slice of Life” movies, telling the stories of teenage dreams and angst in generic suburbia. He’s also the writer behind National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, basing the screenplay around his short story Christmas ’59. It’s probably deserving of its own longer essay, but we’ll save…
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It is a Christmas Movie.
There is no debate. Die Hard (1988) is a Christmas Movie. I will not be taking any questions.