Movie Review: Reagan (2024)

Reagan (2024) directed by Sean McNamara

This bio-pic of President Ronald Reagan (Dennis Quaid) covers his whole life, from small-town middle-America to the White House and beyond. The story is framed as the reminiscences of a modern-day former KGB agent (Jon Voigt) who tells one of his Russian juniors how the Soviet Union fell. Almost all the credit goes to Reagan, though they do mention contributions from Pope Saint John Paul II (who is only seen in stock footage) and Margaret Thatcher (played by Leslie-Anne Down). The main focus is on Reagan's political conflict with the Soviets, arguably his largest contribution to history.

Quaid gives a very good performance as Reagan. He shows the integrity and strength of character through all his years for his involvement in the Screen Actors Guild to California politics and the presidency. The movie rushes a bit, trying to cover too many things in too little time. His complicated, evolving relationship with unions in California could make its own interesting film, or his years as governor of California, righting the economy while dealing in tough ways with civil unrest. The drama of his campaigns could make their own compelling narrative, as could the Iran-Contra scandal or his negotiations with Mikhail Gorbachev. This movie is more like highlights of what happened without digging deeper into the rich details. The film is just okay when it could have been great.

Mildly recommended--this is a good overview of Reagan's life and impact without getting into the depths of the man.

Frederick Douglass Geocaching Trail, Easton, Maryland

During our Easton trip in June 2026, I got up early Saturday morning, before everyone else, to find all the caches for the Frederick Douglass Geocaching Trail (see info about the kick-off event here). Douglass spent a lot of time in town, since he was born a slave in Talbot County in 1818. The town is proud of his influence, as is seen by Douglass's statue in front of the town courthouse. 

Frederick and me

I started the trail at the Easton Point docks, the original port for the town. Douglass arrived at this port in November 1878. He was a celebrated public figure and had a state room on the ship. He stayed at the Avon Hotel (more about that below). Both were precedents for a black man who had fled the area in the mid-1800s as a slave. Douglass may have taken a boat from here to go north to Baltimore on his way up the Underground Railroad. Now he was back with honor and respect.

The docks are a launching point for local sailors. They don't look like anything special.

Approaching the port

The main launch area

In town is a mural dedicated to the life and influence of Douglass. He is shown with his wife Anna Murray. The mural represents Douglass's impact through educational and military service. He encouraged President Lincoln to have a United States Colored Troop to fight in the Civil War. Many of Douglass's descendants served in the military.

The mural was created in 2021 by Michael Rosato who also made a mural of Harriet Tubman in Cambridge.

Douglass mural

The mural is on a rails-to-trails trail, so a nearby building commemorates that.

A nearby mural

The Avon Hotel in town was replaced with the Tidewater Inn. Douglass's last stay in Talbot County was in 1893, where the newspapers followed him around, reporting his every move. He also received visitors in the hotel's dining room and was generally treated as a celebrity.

Tidewater Inn, former site of Avon Hotel

Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church is the oldest A.M.E. church on the Eastern Shore and was rebuilt in 1878, celebrating its 60th year. That same year, Frederick Douglass also turned 60 and was present to dedicate the church. They still have the same pulpit that he used almost 150 years ago. I was unable to go inside since it was before 7 a.m. on a Saturday.

Bethel A.M.E. Church

During his 1893 visit, Douglass went to the Easton Colored School where he told the students of an orphan boy who had to sleep on cold floors but he taught himself to read and speak, eventually holding public offices and gaining some wealth. That young boy was Douglas and those children had the same opportunities to improve themselves. Afterwards, the building became the Moton High School and is now an apartment building.

Original Easton Colored School

Back by the courthouse is the site where Douglass was jailed in 1836 for attempting to escape slavery. Two years later he successfully escaped. The building was torn down and a new jail built in the same spot in 1881.

Former Talbot Jail

Not far away is the Talbot County Free Library. This branch of the library has a Frederick Douglass Room with paintings of the man and many of his writings and other artifacts. I visited later in the day but the room was closed.

Talbot County Free Library

The library is one of the places that geocachers can pick up the commemorative coin for finding all the caches. I chatted with the librarians while they went and fetched my coin!

Frederick Douglass Geocaching Trail coin obverse

Frederick Douglass Geocaching Trail coin reverse

Book Review: All the Beauty in the World by Patrick Bringley

All the Beauty in the World: The Metropolitan Museum of Art and Me by Patrick Bringley

Patrick Bringley was an up-and-coming worker in NewYork City publishing when his older brother died of cancer. Patrick reevaluated his life and wound up taking a job as a security guard at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. This book tells the story of his life as a security guard, admiring and engaging with the art, the visitors, and his own sense of mortality. 

After the initial set-up, Bringley mostly focuses on the art and his job as a guard. He has a lot of time to appreciate the art. He also becomes familiar with the sorts of people who come and how best to help them. The descriptions of the background work (organizing the various shifts and locations for the guards and other workers setting up the new or rearranged exhibits) is a fun "inside baseball" look at the machinations of a museum and art gallery. It's interesting and entertaining but his personal life is mostly set aside until the end of the book.

Toward the end of his ten-year tenure at the museum, he and his wife have two children. He talks a little bit about them and they seem to be the unacknowledged catalyst for Bringley moving on from the guard job. He applies for a position as a walking tour guide in Lower Manhattan, which he is excited about for the educational and research opportunities, especially for interaction with the public in a more direct way. He's come to some closure or acceptance with his brother Tom's death, though he does not get into the details of that either.

The text is enjoyable and Bringley is an entertaining narrator. I wanted a bit more out of the book, some more depth. I don't mind having read it but probably won't read it again.

This book is reviewed on A Good Story is Hard to Find podcast #382. Check it out!

Random Bits of Easton 2026 Trip

Here's some stuff from our trip out to Easton, Maryland, that did not make its own post...

On the way out to Easton, we hit heavy traffic crossing the Bay Bridge and decided to stop for some ice cream and a bathroom break on Kent Island. We went to Sugar Doodles, which has some delightful custom flavors. I had Cow Cream, which was a delightful blend of vanilla ice cream with chocolate and peanut butter ribbons and some peanut butter cup chunks. 

Yay, ice cream!

In Easton, we went to Bonheur Ice Cream and Pie. Since we had ice cream earlier in the day, we got some slices of pie for dessert--pecan and cherry.

The slices were the same size, despite the above optical illusion

The local library was a pick-up location for a geocoin that I qualified for on the trip. The library also has a seed library, so we took some home. It also had a cool fountain.

Talbot County Library

Cool like an avacado!

The next morning I got up early to do some geocaching and got breakfast from the Bagery. The bagels were fresh and delicious and eaten before a picture could be taken!

Here's the store, at least

Part of geocaching was finding this statue of Frederick Douglass

Across from our Airbnb is Idlewild Park. It has a huge playground where our kids played for a short time. The heat was already getting to be too much at 9 on a June morning!

Playground gates

Play village?

Forts and slides

We were in town just before Flag Day and saw tons of flags up in the park.

A patriotic town

After kayaking in the morning, we got lunch back at Bonheur Ice Cream and Pie. I had the ham and potato crepe, which came with a salad. I was surprised to see the salad served on top of the crepe.

Crepe and salad

Book Review: Nathan Hale's Hazardous Tales #13 by Nathan Hale

Nathan Hale's Hazardous Tales: Bones and Berserkers by Nathan Hale 

This anthology of thirteen tales runs the gamut from strict history (like the insane butler killing everyone at Taliesin in 1914) to complete fiction (Edgar Allan Poe's Hop-Frog). The framing story with American patriot Nathan Hale, his executioner, the British officer, and the African American slave, provides comedy for what turns out to be some very grim stories. The jokes take the edge off, as does the graphic novel format. Cartoon drawings of chopped off limbs or rotting corpses are a lot less graphic than photos or realistic drawings. That said, this book is really for older kids, not the very young. There's even a joke about that, explain that if you are a second-grader reading way above your level, you probably shouldn't be reading this book. I did learn a lot about a bunch of different stories and found it interesting throughout.

Recommended, but only if you can handle it!

Movie Review: The Man in the White Suit (1951)

The Man in the White Suit (1951) co-written and directed by Alexander Mackendrick

Sidney Stratton (Alec Guinness) has been fired from six or seven different jobs at textile factories. He keeps sneaking in to the experimental labs and working on some concoction. His chemical ambitions are seemingly crazy--he wants to make a fabric that won't tear or wear down and it also repels dirt. He finds one factory that will back his research, with the owner Alan Birnley (Cecil Parker) being convinced by his daughter Daphne (Joan Greenwood) to give Stratton a chance. Things go well until word leaks out. Now other manufacturers and Brinley's own employees object, because once people have clothes made from this miracle fabric, they won't ever need new clothes again (or even to wash their clothes). Economic chaos will ensue, they are sure. So they want to stop him, either by buying out his rights or by some other means.

The movie is an interesting satire of a bunch of different subjects. First is the labor versus capital, which morphs over the story. At first, Stratton can only get jobs as a menial worker, so the average workers, who have fought hard to unionize, are on his side. Then Stratton gets chummy with the resident capitalist, Birnley. Once everyone realizes the consequences that are coming, labor and capital work together (or at least they try) to stop Stratton's invention. Another target of satire is the scientific community. Stratton's experiments are very expensive (getting him fired because who wants to foot the bill?) and very destructive. Stratton is a bit clueless about his impact. His ambition to create is too strong to let him see where his creation will lead. The movie also makes fun of the desire to create perfection in this life. Nothing every works out like people initially imagine.

Guinness gives a great performance, mixing a mild-mannered exterior with a intractable devotion to his vision. He's wily enough to see some problems but does not have enough foresight to beat every obstacle. The rest of the cast is good too, giving their stock roles a bit more humanity than they could have had. The comedy is good if not laugh-out-loud funny. The jokes are more subtle and situational. There's some pratfalls and physical comedy but the cleverest humor here is the ideas and whimsical twists on situations.

Recommended.

Kayaking on San Domingo Creek, Saint Michaels, Maryland

While visiting the Eastern Shore of Maryland, we rented some kayaks from Shore Pedal & Paddle and explored San Domingo Creek, a waterway on the south side of Saint Michaels. We met with the guy at Waterfront Park. He had us quickly launched after a standard safety overview and recommendations for areas to see and to avoid.

We had two tandem kayaks. The kids decided they did not want to have their own kayak, so Mom went with our youngest while I went with our daughter. 

Getting used to the oars

Just off the dock is a small boat anchored in place. It has a bunch of vegetables growing on it in pots, as if it were a floating garden. 

No humans on board

We paddled out further into the creek, exploring the variety of side ways and their waterfront properties.

Choosing where to go

Fancy, older-looking house

Moving on

We only saw a bit of wild life. Most birds were streaking through the air, making them hard to photograph. We stopped for a break in the shade by one shoreline and saw a bunch of unoccupied shells.

Bird on the wing

Shell-ters for mollusks!

Another fancy house

We were surprised to see a ship out in the middle of the creek. There was no sign of life onboard. It was 10 in the morning, so either the crew was sleeping in or they had already gone off in a smaller boat.

Looks majestic

Is it really from Juneau, Alaska?

Maybe they could have parked over here

One of the things I like to do kayaking is going underneath structures. Most personal docks are very low to the water and even a kayak couldn't fit under. We did find a taller dock.

Going under, in the good way

Just past our passageway

Passing another property

Yet another house

Pilings are out in the middle of the creek for some reason. A few of them had nests built on top. This nest looks like it is still under construction.

Needs more work

Another bird that was moving too quick

I couldn't decide if this was a better shot, so I included both

The other kayak got into the "go under the dock" routine.

Almost like going under a bridge

We knew we were back to start when we saw the veg ship again.

Back at base

I spotted a bridge not too far away, so we went for one more adventure. 

St. Michaels Nature Trail Covered Bridge

While underneath

Houses on the other side of the bridge

Going back

Since we visited over Flag Day weekend, a lot of patriotic decorations were up. It was a fun area for kayaking.