The Delicious Itch

The Delicious Itch

The Cast

By The Fillerbuster

08/16/2026

No spoilers, except for the end, which you should already know if you read it like the teacher told you to…

I am inspired.  This is going to be some excellent shit.

I have seen The Odyssey four times in the theater thus far.  One in IMAX.  Why?  One, because I love Matt Damon.  Two, because I loved reading it.  Three, because it literally describes what I am going through right now.  I had a great life, made some questionable decisions, got lost, still kind of kept on course but it took a long time, and now am presently disguising myself and settling everything on MY terms.  Which Odysseus did in the movie and I will in life…

Let’s start with my notes from The Odyssey from my four movie trips and just start there.  I want to baby step you.   Bill Murray.  What About Bob.  Baby steps to the elevator, folks.  Notes from my the four viewings, as is, unedited:

The Odyssey Scenes

The Bow scene first-this is important, we have a feeling

Opening bum thunder saves

Training Scene, very Troy-like

The Bow, pinging bow before to kill boar, because that is a fair fight

Hunting is fighting with stealth

The dog-sort of John Wick like. The dog’s only master is Damon.

People from the sea-the myth

The Tapestry

Zeus’s law-there are actually a lot of laws, brought up constantly during movie

The power of sacrifice, cool line, cool scene

Athena-token to carry, this is important too

The bow trick, VERY important, kind of a cool bar trick

The dog again…man starting to love this dog

The trusted servant

The quest to find him, or at least find someone who knows if he is dead or alive

Dude has been gone for 8 years. Anne just allows like 50 suitors to chill out in her palace, right outside of her room

Calypso-well, hello, Charlize

Thunder again-it apparently saves Damon a lot

The token by grave

Agamemnon split

1st stop burned town, don’t keep going south

2nd stop giant and sheep, WHY did he shoot him when they had already escaped

Odysses shoots giant at end, weird, didn’t know this giant was son of Poseidon

this movie is investigating uncertainty in leadership, not wanting home

trip to menalaus

mentions of Ajax, Athena, Achilles

The Trojan horse on the beach, I mean, HOW could you NOT love this presentation

the background music, unique

sacking of Troy, brutal war stuff, movie starts examining how mean people are

storm pissed off Poseidon, not going well for the boats now, people getting mad at Damon

The child, and the giants wiping out two ships, those were really big dudes, and they need to stop popping up at random islands

goes port, need food

mutiny, forces Damon to watch ship

The lion, panther, and tiger…just chilling

The witch, turning mens into pigs, very weird scene

Damon figures out there is a problem when he kills a deer and it ends up being a man-this is a weird island

The crow, Cersi

How didn’t they notice the armor out back

Did not notice first time when Cersi had knife to his throat, he had the crow, which was her sister

Examines how…well, men ARE pigs

Damon-bow, deer

Tiresius-Hades

Sacrifice, and pissed off dead people rising from ground

Sinon/Damon first real talk

Agamemnon died too. arrived home early, but walked into a mess-wife killed him like a Dateline show my wife watches

Warned Damon not to do the same

The prophesy-six men will die in channel, everyone will die in the whirlpool

Unraveling, the secret

Skeet shooting with the king, lots of background info

The sirens, damon doesn’t plug his ears, one other guy takes his plugs out, bad idea

Delicious itch-love that line

The whirlpool, the channel decision

Need to count the number of men, a lot die

Damon knew, his right hand man was pissed

Another shore. The god’s herd. Don’t eat them, per the prediction

Wind didn’t change, they ran out of food

They ate the herd-whoops

Wind changed, time to go

The storm of all storms

The story with Calypso, lotus flowers cloud the mind, but Damon loved them

Athena pops up again

Then, the statue makes him remember Penelope

You have to give to Poseidon to survive, builds a raft that even Tom Hanks wouldn’t approve of in Castaway

Damon, back home suddenly because of that chick again

Suitors going to kill Telemechus

The Plan. The feast. She will remarry. She doesn’t know, and somehow doesn’t recognize his voice-weird

People from the sea ARE Damon, how ironic

Damon beautiful monologue, pretty moving

The DOG!!!!!! Almost dead dogs wgs his tail, son realizes this guy IS his dad

The bowl, and giving of that thing to the asshole

Sinon, honoring him by pretending to be him

Jackass beats up beggar

Then, the SCENE

Anne is going to remarry. Guess what the challenge is???? Stringing that badass bow

Men try, fail. That beggar wants a shot at it.

The Bow, Bourne like ass whipping-the scene I will be watching over and over and over

He is the only one with a weapon…for a while…definitely looks like he practiced that bow and arrow

Suddenly, everyone realizes that Damon is…Damon.

He lives, all good.

Adds third time

Shooting Poseidon’s son-why?

Do you talk to ants?

Come in disguise

Delicious Itch

Lotus-reference to addiction in general

The pin-Penelope-so cool

Bringing it ALL-didn’t notice first time

Clearest view of a man is from below

Feet wash-the boar scar-so cool

the monologue moves me more each time

Credits i see a face. there is a blah blah. awesome.

Units in Italy, Morocco, Scotland, Greece, Iceland

Zeus’s law

Treating strangers well throughou

Athena was Agamemnon’s sacrifice-didn’t catch first time

Prelim of leaving on a ship is tough

Thunder and Zeus’s law prominent throughout

Didn’t overload on Troy’s provisions when they left

I noticed Menalaus this time-he went with Agamemnon

The sea people

Haven’t figured out: his voice is so distinct, no one recognizes

Haven’t figured out: thought she knew beggar was him when she set the challenge, but then acted surprised after

Why he split going home-OHHH-because of the sacking of Troy

Didn’t notice early bows during final fight-one by one

Didn’t put together that the final boat ride was the beginning of the movie

Forgot that he promised that he would head west to honor dead-makes him even better at end

Our mistakes will once again be forgetten

Odyssey pee breaks

Calypso-Charlize showing-nothing to learn that you won’t learn later

right after Menalaus dinner-very quick one, #1 only

Post cersi prediction-you have time, but WAIT until AFTER the prediction

As he builds raft and actually sales-he gathers parts in several scenes-wait until she says what to do at sea

FOURTH TIME

Starts SO fast

Gods in disguise

Thunder, over and over, saves everyone

Structure is nothing without belief

The power of the sacrifice

We’ve taken enough from Troy, what’s another stop or two

We are honoring him by escaping

I think we’re past that

Can’t live by omens or gods

Didn’t notice the moving trees on the giant warrior island until the fourth viewing

Athena-didn’t catch why she kept popping up until second time

Didn’t notice “give me the dagger until the second time”

I didn’t notice that Damon noticed oddity of bird immediately until the third time

You’re too lost-yup, I feel that

River of fire meets river of ice is in my tattoo that I created

Feel free to add some stuff

Missedthe whole Cinon -Odysseus Cinon confession the first time

Go in disguise-like the half hour quote in Rounders- poker face

Don’t walk in the front door

That’s why it is a good idea-I’ll be the first

Sirens and concerts-wear ear plugs

The delicious itch becomes unbearable

Sirens are all of the promises I don’t want to keep

I wanted you to live

Bringing it ALL

What if the Odysseus you knew lost his way?

Step up and show me who you are

Scary, isn’t it.  Took those notes in a dark movie theater.  No notes on the second one, as I wanted to enjoy it in IMAX.

Let’s get to it.  Let’s dive in.  This is a sports blog website.  I will EVENTUALLY bring you back to sports.

I am taking the long way around in life.  I am a very young and immature 53 years old.  I am incredible at sales.  I have not been so good at life.  I have a wife who has dealt with everything from me sucking at life while sucking at sales, to me sucking at life still while excelling at sales, to me still learning in life and being an expert in sales.  You could say that I am the Odysseus of sales.  Instead of me being away for 9 years, like Odysseus, I have just been subpar in life for nine years.  But, I am aware of my shortcomings AND expertise, and that what makes me, as Maverick would say to Iceman, DANGEROUS.  And that ALL changes after releasing this blog.

Again, I will keep in mind that this is a sports blog, but, please remember, this is MY website, somehow my readership went from 10 to 120 a day in like a month, so whether you are reading this as robots or humans, I have a lot to say, and apparently a lot of robots or humans are suddenly reading my shit.  Hello, robots and people from China, I appreciate you so much.

But, in the end, I always have a lot to say.

Is your life perfect?  Yes?  Congrats.  Stop reading.  Go away.  Mine is not, mostly because of me.  But, I am still here and breathing.  And, like Odysseus, I have taken MANY wrong stops in my life.  Those stops were bad, but were educational.  I have learned (kind of weird, I have Matrix going on in the background when he learns Kung Fu, and that would be a whole other tangent).  But, I digress.

Have I mentioned that whatever I write I just clean up grammatically, but I never delete my dangerous AND constructive thoughts?

But, I am stronger, just as Damon was stronger after every bad stop he made.  And, there were a lot of them.  I am a better leader.  I am much smarter.  And, I fear nothing (still wasps a little, but not as much as 20 years ago).  But, I digress.  I have taken the different wind.  I have diverged from the easy path.  I might have not shot an arrow into the son of Poseidon, but that is neither here nor there.

Some more takeaways from the movie:

• Structure is nothing without belief
• I think we’re past that
• WHY did he shoot cyclops?  WHY did I do a lot of stuff?
• What if the Odysseus/Mark you knew lost his way?
• What if he knew exactly what he had done?
• Don’t Walk In The Front Door
• What If He Knew Exactly What He Had Done?
• Leadership is hard.
• If you turn your men from pigs to men again, then probably don’t call a mutiny.

Let’s get back to sports.  This is a sports blog.  Look at ALL of these folks who took the Odysseus route…

• Sam Darnold:
  • Star in high school and college, a high draft pick, and then bounced around for years in the NFL.  Just won a Super Bowl.  Nuff said.
• Baker Mayfield:
  • Got to include our house favorite.  Eternal chip on his shoulder, #1 draft pick, failed in the NFL (except for one painful win against my Steelers), and now doing pretty well and  ready to explode for the Bucs this year.  Still has a chip on his shoulder (I FELL you, Baker)
• Tiger Woods:
  • Too many words and sentences needed to explain his obstacles before the second greatest golfer ever (come on, Jack) won the 2019 Masters.
• Kurt Warner:
  • You are thinking about how he was a shopping center employee and ended up leading the Great Show on Turf.  I am talking about how he then bounced around AFTER he won the Super Bowl and THEN lead the Cardinals to the Super Bowl (but lost).  Great journey.
• Michael Jordan:
  • Come on, haters.  If any of you EVER want to talk about the greatest NBA player ever, LeBron never quit to play a DIFFERENT professional sport, almost succeeded, and then came back to win three more…without losing one of any of his Finals.
• George Foreman:
  • Who is over 40 and using his grill?  He only quit the sport in 1977, became an ordained minister, and then regained the title at age 45.  Instead of hanging out with Calypso and eating lotus flowers, he just preached for a while.
• Drew Brees:
  • What’s up, San Diego Chargers?  You let this guy go?  Then, a hurricane happened, the city of New Orleans was lost, and he won a Super Bowl for them?  Now in the Hall of Fame.
• Muhammad Ali
  • I don’t think I need to explain this one.  If you think I do, then Google it.  He refused to go into the armed forces and LOST his prime years, 25-28.  And he STILL is regarded as the best.
• Mario Lemieux:
  • Had a disease that kills people, and then won titles after he had it?  Here were his ailments while he was destroying his competition.  Spinal disc herniation, Hoghkin’s lymphoma, chronic tendinitis, hip flexor muscle problem, and chronic back pain. Bad. Ass.
• Andre Agassi:
  • He liked meth.  A lot of people do.  But instead of sticking with that habit after being one of the best young players ever initially, he fought his way through the “other” tour, without excuses or blame, and then won a bunch of titles.  Wait, that sounds EXACTLY like The Odyssey.  He then married the greatest women’s tennis player ever (my opinion, as her run was more brief but more badass (and I also patterned my entire tennis game off her and it panned out pretty well for me)), and we are still waiting on what THOSE two will reproduce. 
• Monica Seles:
  • She got STABBED.  Not at her house.  But, at a MATCH.  Then, she won more titles.  If The Odyssey had a boat person stab Odysseus, and then he rocked the last 45 minutes like he did, well then, come on.
• Ted Williams:
  • Hmmm.  Tough one.  Best batter in baseball.  He served his country.  Then, he came back and surprisingly was again the best batter in baseball.  Very similar to Michael Jordan with subbing war in for the Houston minor league team.
• Ben Hogan:
  • Two Words.  Greyhound Bus.  Everything still in golf is based on him.
• Josh Hamilton:
  • This one might be tougher for non-sports fans (not sure why you are reading this then, but thanks).  He had an addiction.  He literally got found on the side of the road after a bender (hey, me too!).  Won an AL MVP a couple of years later (not me, but I became pretty successful).  Odysseus would be proud.  Not of the addiction, but of the comeback.  Well, Odysseus DID have a little lotus flower problem, so everyone is in the same boat.  Actually, whether you think you are in the same boat or not, you ARE to some point.  You are addicted to something.
• Nancy Kerrigan:
  • I don’t need to explain this one to you, right?  Dismantled by Tonya Harding, and wins a silver medal a couple of years later.  They made a movie, I believe.  That is ice, ice, baby.  See what I did there?
• Lots more, and I could go on and on, but those examples support my thesis.

Don’t get bothered by going off the course.  Don’t get bothered about a lack of success.  I have this random workout song.  It is not my #1.  But, it connects with this me and this thesis on this day.  It is by this very unpopular band called 10 Years.

The song is called Fix me.

Here is the key part.

“I’m fine in the fire
I feed on the friction
I’m right where I should be
Don’t try and fix me”

That is probably what Odysseus thought at some point.  That is what I feel like a lot.  And that is what, I think, everyone should think at every point in their life.  We are right where we should be…

Don’t be sad.  If something is out of your control, it is nothing to get upset about.  If something is in your control, then do something about it…calmly.  If nothing is out of your control, then congrats, and you life is not only perfect, but so perfect, that it is probably worse than the latter two folks.

The Odyssey not only resonated with me, but made me better.  All four times in the theater.  If you are going through a tough time, it is a must-see movie.  If you aren’t going through a tough time, then just pretend that you don’t need to see the movie.  You are too cool for school.

Regardless, me, you, and some very famous athletes have fought the cyclops, pissed off some gods, fought this very large army, had their team turned into pigs, went to Hades, chosen between a whirlpool and losing six people, and gone as a beggar into a sketchy situation.  All of the people above have been there.  So can we.  I hope this blog inspires you in some way, if you are still reading it.  I am still writing it, so whatever.

Come in disguise, and the best way to see a man is from below.

You do you, but here is what I am doing.  In the words of the lyrics from that song from Spirited:

“So can we do a little good?
Maybe give a little more?
Work a little harder than we did the day before
It only takes a little good
And some doin’ what you can
Takin’ every chance to make the choice to be a better man
So do a little good”

I feel great today.  So should you.  And, the me I am about to create, even at 53 years old and way late, is going to be freaking epic.  It is never too late, folks.

OH! The delicious itch.  Almost forgot.  The sirens, folks.  I don’t think I need to say much more, but will quote the movie.  Damon makes his men put wax in their ears.  He makes them tie him to a post so he can be the first one to hear them and not submit.  Talk about sounding like me…

One guy DID tear out his wax and jump overboard, so no system is foolproof.

“All the things you wanted to be… then all the things you wish you never wished for. It was a delicious itch you go to scratch… then find it is under the skin and can’t reach it. So the delicious itch becomes unbearable. It told you what you most want is what you most can’t have… and what you most can’t have is what you already had and lost.”

And, as always MY final thoughts:

Remember, if you can’t spot the sucker in the first half hour at the table, then you are the sucker.  And, what did one shepherd say to the other shepherd?  Let’s get the flock out of here.  Peace.

No.  That would be wrong, as to how and WHY this blog was written.  Let’s end with a quote from The Odyssey.

“Bringing it ALL”…which, if you ask me what I am doing on any day of the week in the near or distant future, I will respond as such.

I feel like going to string a bow right now…