“I unwittingly bought a 1980s racist horror at a garage sale”.
“Back in 1894, North American whaling crews — marooned up near the Yukon Territory’s Herschel Island in Pauline Cove, awaiting the ice to thaw out so they could get back out on the sea — started up the world’s coldest baseball league. A way to keep them from fighting each other, drinking too much and, well, simply being bored out of their minds.”
Casting for the Golden Bachelorette is now happening.
RIP, Dr. David Mills, inventor of Network Time Protocol (NTP), the reason your mobile phone and other devices are now able to update their own time as needed.
RIP, Mary Weiss, former lead singer of the 1960s pop girl group The Shangri-Las, best known for the song “Leader of the Pack”.
Canada has better streaming bundles than we do.
“Really the whole 2024 Republican primary cycle was the billionaires and the Republican professional class getting together to see if it might be possible to nudge Trump out of the way. But it became clear before it even began that it was impossible. Most of the last year was just rushing through a novel you’d already watched to the end in its movie version.”
“But I wonder if there is more behind the fury over the Dobbs decision than just access to abortion, huge though that is.”
“[C]orporate profits drove 53 percent of inflation during the second and third quarters of 2023 and more than one-third since the start of the pandemic.”
“An anti-voting robocall that seems to use an artificially generated version of President Joe Biden’s voice is being investigated by the New Hampshire Attorney General’s office. The calls sent on Sunday told Democrats to avoid voting in the Presidential Primary on January 23.”
“The 10 Most Emmy-Nominated Shows Without Any Wins”.
ALERT! New Billy Joel single set to drop this week. We are excited.
Major congratulations to Tara VanDerveer, now the winningest coach in college basketball history.
This story about Soupy Sales made me want to look up and reread this story about Soupy Sales. It was a good decision. I think you will enjoy reading (or rereading) it as well.
“[Republican State Rep. Richard Holtorf, a candidate for Colorado’s 4th Congressional District,] did not appear to recognize the disconnect between his statement lauding the benefits of abortion access for his pregnant girlfriend and his staunch opposition to abortion rights, which led him to call abortion rights supporters “godless heathens” last year.”
“I realize I am painting a pretty dismal picture of the 2024 crawfish crop. But this is what I’m seeing.”
“Turns out, isn’t meant for 10-12 people. But it IS six sandwiches, stacked on top of each other. And it is 3 feet tall.” More, because I know you want more, here. Not all heroes wear capes.
RIP, Dexter Scott King, civil rights activist and youngest son of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
RIP, Norman Jewison, Oscar-nominated director and producer whose movies included In the Heat of the Night, Moonstruck, and many others.
RIP, Mark Stephen Wicks, co-founder and co-owner of Houston’s iconic Hot Bagel Shop, one of my personal faves since I first found it in the 90s. For many years it was on my preferred route to work, and let’s just say I’ve had my share of breakfasts there. Some combination of Mark, his brother Donald, their mother in the early days and their daughters now, were always there cheerfully slinging bagels. Houston’s food scene has grown and diversified and matured a lot since those days but there’s still no one that does bagels better than they do. My sincere condolences to the Wicks family.
“Although state transportation agencies put resources into quests for traffic puns, research suggests that their efforts are pointless. The federal recommendation against witty messaging boards—it’s not an outright ban—is overdue and welcome. In fact, it doesn’t go far enough.”
RIP, Charles Osgood, journalist and Emmy-winning anchor of CBS Sunday Morning.
“You are not a victim. You are not the object of a political prosecution. These are circumstances of your own making.”
“As Donald Trump and his campaign spend millions to try and win back the White House, some of his staunchest supporters are selling off property and pleading for money on the internet to defend themselves against charges that they broke the law to help him the last time he ran.” You know that picture of Grumpy Cat that has “GOOD!” for a caption? That’s me right now.
“Specificity means credibility. It makes things concrete. It proposes a straightforward transactional commitment, a specific, actionable promise. No vagueness. The specificity also allows constant messaging over the course of the election year as each senator lines up to pledge to do it. The Biden campaign’s new push is a big step in the right direction. But more specificity, a more concrete promise, is necessary to fully mobilize lopsided public opinion on this issue in favor of holding the White House and Congress.”
Jewison’s oeuvre also includes the movie version of Fiddler on the Roof. And the early-career classic campy comedy The Russians are Coming, which, a la Orson Welles in 1938, might be accepted as serious, not farce, today.