I’ve been on Flashes since February of this year and I have really enjoyed it.
When I left Instagram (and all the Meta-universe apps/communities) I wanted to find someplace similar where I could share my photos and enjoy those of others without being subject to Meta’s algorithms telling me what they thought I should see.
Flashes is that app/community.
Built on the Bluesky platform, which is the Twitter/X alternative (and I left THAT platform as soon as Musk took over), Flashes is the alternative that photo enthusiasts have been looking for. YOU decide whose feed you want to see, not the platform.
With Flashes you can:
Upload up to four photos or three-minute videos per post
Sync your posts and comments between Flashes and Bluesky
Use the same feeds as your Bluesky account, but with an emphasis on visual content
I have a Bluesky account under my name, but created a Flashes account under our travel website, The Wandering Wetheringtons, so I could feature photos from our travels.
But you can use it for completely different things as well.
For instance, here’s a fun set of posts I did back in May. Every day I would post this text:
Choose 25 TV SHOWS that have stayed with you or influenced you. One TV SHOW per day for 25 days, in no particular order. No explanations, no reviews, just magazine covers.
And on each of those 25 days I posted a single magazine covers that featured the TV show I was highlighting that day. At the end of 25 days, these were the TV shows I had posted magazine covers of and at the end I created a collage of the 25 as one large photo.
The Adventures of Superman. May 7
Batman. May 8
Star Trek. May 9
Lost in Space May 10
WKRP May 11
The Big Bang Theory May 12
Star Trek The Next Generation May 13
The West Wing May 14
Star Trek Voyager May 15
The Outer Limits May 16
The Twilight Zone May 17
Wonder Woman May 18
The Incredible Hulk May 19
Battlestar Galactica May 20
Firefly May 21
Star Trek Deep Space Nine May 22
Buck Rogers in the 25th Century May 23
The Mod Squad May 24
Lou Grant May 25
Moonlighting May 26
The Fall Guy May 27
The Greatest American Hero May 28
Hill Street Blues May 29
Beauty and the Beast May 30
Babylon 5 May 31
Flashes doesn’t yet have all the tools and features that Instagram has, but they are in the works. Here’s a graphic showing how they currently compare.
On Friday, July 11, 2025, Cindy and I took our two youngest grandchildren, Jade and Maxwell, to see the opening day showing of the new Superman movie from James Gunn and the DC Universe while we were visiting their home in Redmond, Washington. This is my review.
Lifelong Fan
If you know me, you know what a huge Superman fan I have been all of my life. I grew up on Superman comic books, The Adventures of Superman TV show in the late 50’s and early 60’s, and was thrilled when the first Superman: The Movie motion picture was released in 1978. And those just scratch the surface of my experiences with The Man of Steel.
Here’s the bottom line of my review; I haven’t walked out of a theater at the conclusion of a Superman movie feeling this good since the 1978 Superman: The Movie film starring Christopher Reeve.
And I’ve seen them all.
Spoiler Alert – If you haven’t seen the film yet, you might not want to read any further.
Gunn’s Superman
Gunn brings us a Superman who is as good and kind and helpful as Reeve was in that original movie. No creepy stalker like Routh’s portrayal by Singer, no dark and brooding murderer like Cavill’s by Snyder.
James Gunn’s Superman is a bold redefinition of the character from those portrayals–less mythic (yet still the “Big Blue Boy Scout” we’ve known and loved for years) and more human than Kryptonian, more helpful, more kind, more colorful and more earnest. This movie soars on performance and emotion and introduces a new DC Universe that feels like it will be much more optimistic than recent films.
Gunn frames kindness and goodness, not cynicism, as the hero’s real power in a polarized age .
The official movie description reads; “Superman follows the titular superhero as he reconciles his Kryptonian heritage with his human upbringing. He is the embodiment of truth, justice and the American way in a world that views this as old-fashioned.”
Those last 8 words might be truer in our real world than they are in the fictional world of Superman.
For instance; Dean Cain. Cain portrayed Superman/Clark Kent on the “Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman” TV series in the mid-90’s. In recent years Cain has expressed his right-wing, Trumpian views to all who would listen. It’s one reason I didn’t even try to schedule our visit to the Superman Celebration in Metropolis, Illinois this year, since he was going to be a guest of honor. And it’s why I have no interest in re-watching this particular Superman TV show.
Cain blasted Gunn’s comments calling it “a mistake to politicize” the iconic superhero and, “For James Gunn to say it’s an immigrant thing…I think it’s going to hurt the numbers on the movie.”
News alert to Mr. Cain: as of today, the movie has already brought in $426 million in box office receipts! After less than two weeks in theaters!
Another news alert for those ignorant of the hero’s origin: Jerry Siegel and artist Joe Shuster, who created Superman, were both born to Jewish immigrants! And they portrayed Superman as an immigrant that came to Earth from another planet. Mr. Cain played the character and yet doesn’t even know or accept his history.
All I can do is shake my head at these kinds of comments.
So yes, those last 8 words might be truer in our real world than they are in the fictional world of Superman.
Krypto!
For the very first time in a film, Superman is joined by Krypto, the superdog. Comic book readers have known and loved Krypto since he first appeared in 1955’s Adventure Comics #210. Krypto was originally Kal-El’s (Superman) childhood pet on Krypton. Sent into space in a test rocketship by Kal-El’s father Jor-El before Kal-El’s own escape, Krypto eventually reunites with his then teenage master on Earth as a full-blown superdog, complete with cape and all the powers that Kal-El possessed.
Now, filmgoers get to enjoy Krypto as well. Except this time it turns out he’s Supergirl’s (yes, she’s here too) pet, not Superman’s.
By the way, as we were having lunch later, I asked Jade who her favorite character in the movie was and she said, “Krypto!” I asked Maxwell the same question and he said, “Krypto!” I think that was the case for a lot of people.
Other Points
One other big change is that we DON’T get an origin story of Superman. In this film he’s already been around for years and, at this point, Lois Lane even knows that Clark Kent and Superman are one and the same. AND they’re involved romantically. Their chemistry is electric and may be the best romance in a Superman movie yet .
The performances in this film are awesome. I took it as a bit of hyperbole when Gunn gushed in pre-release interviews about how true to the character David Corenswet was as Superman and Rachel Brosnahan was as Lois Lane and Nicholas Hoult was as Lex Luthor, but he wasn’t exaggerating! They, and the rest of the cast gave excellent performances as their characters.
It was almost like watching a Superman comic book come to life.
The Fortress of Solitude scenes are awesome, mostly because we also get to see Superman’s robots. And we get to see how his heart is broken when Luthor invades the Fortress and destroys the robots.
Speaking of Luthor; he’s a modern-day villain using modern-day technology to try and defeat the man of steel. As a tech tycoon using misinformation and fear to undermine trust…well it feels eerily timely and compelling. Did I detect a hint of Elon Musk in Hoult’s portrayal? Maybe not. But despite all that he does to try and kill Superman, the Last Son of Krypton STILL tries to talk Luthor into being a better person.
I mean, how woke can you be?
Two Complaints
Is this a perfect movie? No, but it’s a far sight better than what we’ve been offered in the past 20 years as far as Superman is concerned.
I had two complaints, but they are small ones in the whole scheme of things.
Very disappointed that in this version Jor-El and Lara sent their baby Kal-El to Earth in order to subjugate its people. We’re told multiple times in the movie that there was no mistranslation and no doctoring of the message. I had hoped that there might be a clarification in whatever upcoming sequel there may be, but James Gunn made it clear in a recent interview that there was no mistake and no misunderstanding of what Kal-El’s parents said to their son in the message.
I would have liked for there to have been more than one scene with Clark Kent in it. I know, I know, he’s Clark in the scenes in Lois’ apartment, but come on, no glasses no nebbish hair, it was like Superman in street clothes, and that was great. However, it would have been fun to see at least one more bumbling Clark or changing from Clark to Superman scene, just for laughs.
The movie stars David Corenswet as Clark Kent/Superman, Rachel Brosnahan as Lois Lane, Nicholas Hoult as Lex Luthor, Nathan Fillion as Green Lantern, Isabela Merced as Hawkgirl, Edi Gathegi as Mr. Terrific and many others.
I highly recommend this movie to Superman fans and non-fans alike.
I don’t remember exactly when I first fell in love with onion rings, though it was most assuredly during my misspent youth.
The earliest recollection I have of enjoying a chain restaurant’s onion rings was back in my mid-teens at a chain known as Lum’s, which has been out of business for the past 40 years. I used to love Popeye’s onion rings, but they stopped serving them in Orlando-area stores 20 years ago. Never really cared for Popeye’s chicken, so their onion rings were the only reason I patronized their establishments. When I wrote to tell them that, some flunky in the office wrote back, “Sorry to see you go” so that further cemented my non-desire for their food.
Cheddar’s restaurants used to serve a delicious tower of onion rings, but they also stopped doing so several years ago much to my disappointment.
While traveling, both when I worked and now that I’m retired, if eating at a new (to me) restaurant that offers onion rings I’ll always try them. Most of the time, I wish I hadn’t. Most places only serve frozen, mass-produced onion rings that are on the level of Burger King’s onion rings, which is to say they are horrible.
So, if you’ve had any of the onion rings at the above-mentioned places that I liked, you’ll see that I prefer the buttermilk, flour-battered variety (preferably double-dipped) over the breaded style. To me, those types allow the flavor of the onions to meld quite nicely with the flour batter.
And of course, the crispier the better! Mushy onion rings are the worst.
Other than homemade, where have you found your favorite onion rings?
In the silent movie era, Buster Keaton, Harold Lloyd and Charlie Chaplin were physical comedy giants who specialized in performing some amazing stunts long before CGI or special effects were utilized.
This short video shows how they were able to pull off some of their famous scenes with ingenuity instead of green screens or computers.
A little over 14 years ago Cindy and I were rescued by Bella when she came into our lives via a rescue dog service in Asheville, North Carolina. We could never have imagined all the love, beauty and wonder she would bring to us just by her presence.
After we suddenly and tragically lost “Wolf” in 2010 I did want not another dog in my life. Wolf was the first living thing that Cindy and I had in our lives that neither of us had brought to our marriage from our previous lives. His unexpected death had torn both of our hearts to shreds and I did not want to even entertain the idea of opening mine to another chance of such pain. But Cindy was alone at the cabin while I travelled for my job and she wanted the comfort and presence of a dog.
And because, for me, the pain of loss I knew would come one day was not as great as the pain of not making my wife happy in the here and now, we began searching local rescue organizations to find another dog for her so she could have some companionship while alone at the cabin.
When we finally found the little puppy who we would name “Bella” we both knew it. She was so cute, and loving and full of energy. Once she became part of our family we discovered how incredibly smart she was. Smart enough, in fact, to try to make us believe she wasn’t smart when in fact she was, lol.
Through the past 14 years, she has brought so much love, happiness and yes, companionship to both of us. If you have a furry family member, you know what I’m talking about.
We are especially grateful to have her with us to celebrate National Rescue Dog Day this year because a little over a year ago we were told by a vet that she is suffering from Stage Three Kidney Failure and would not be with us much longer. Thankfully, that was not the case. She remains in Stage Three but is still enjoying life with us as we travel. For that we are SO happy and we hope to have her with us for as long as possible.
I hope you can find a way to celebrate National Rescue Dog Day, either with your own rescue dog or by volunteering with or donating to a rescue organization.
