Two years ago, my father-in-law passed away just before Christmas Day. A few weeks into that new year, my wife and I helped her mother go through some of his belongings.

When I was in Senior Primary school, I had a friend named Vaughn. And once or twice a month, I'd take the short walk to his place. Vaughn and his family would record movies from Mnet, a pay TV channel that was in its infancy, and kindly lend them to friends who didn't have Mnet. Those were still the days of VHS tapes....

Now and then, I watch an episode of Black Mirror. While I've enjoyed a few episodes over the years, I'm usually indifferent to the series. I might not like a cynical or over-cynical tone to an episode. Or an episode might be good to a degree, but the main character unlikeable or illogical.

Since I was small, I've heard the term Homer's Odyssey as well as the alternative term The Odyssey by Homer. It's always sounded interesting, yet I've never wanted to read it. Other than It Couldn't Be Done by Edgar Albert Guest and some other poems I've enjoyed over the years, such as aspects of If by Rudyard Kipling, I'm not one for poetry....

Over the Christmas season, my wife watched the latest season of Virgin River. It's not really my cup of tea. I prefer series like The Midnight Club and Monk. So while she relaxed on our one couch watching the show, I relaxed on our other paging through a large non-fiction book called Unsolved Mysteries of Southern Africa. I settled...