Full Post List

Oct 15, 2024: Trump sways and bops to music for 39 minutes in bizarre town hall episode Heather Cox Richardson, writing on her Substack newsletter Letters from an American, describes Trump at his most recent campaign stop. In Oaks, …

Oct 14, 2024: Monday Move Mood 7 Nicholas Bate — Move from your chair, your desk, your screen. Move in all three dimensions. Move on your own two feet. Move in the outside for as …

Oct 14, 2024: If Ghost wrote 'Like a Prayer' by Madonna His Tobias impression is spot on.

Oct 13, 2024: Warren Ellis on Megalopolis Warren Ellis on Megalopolis – My first thought on leaving the cinema was: this was the cinema that made Coppola. The bones of the film come …

Oct 13, 2024: Kamala Harris’s Hundred-Day Campaign Evan Osnos, writing in The New Yorker, on what has been, win or lose, one of the more remarkable rises in American politics. By gaining the …

Oct 10, 2024: Tropicana Field Shredded By Hurricane Milton Barry Petchesky, writing for Defector, has a small story on the aftermath of Hurricane Milton. The image of the destruction of Tropicana Field’s …

Oct 10, 2024: Vice President Kamala Harris on the Howard Stern Show I hoped the Howard Stern Show would post the entire interview. It's well worth your time to watch. She's natural, conversational, and touched upon the …

Oct 9, 2024: Trump’s Speeches, Increasingly Angry and Rambling, Reignite the Question of Age Peter Baker and Dylan Freedman, reporting for The New York Times, have finally noticed Donald Trump is a rambling, incoherent mess. Former President …

Oct 9, 2024: The Hurricane That Scientists Were Dreading Zoë Schlanger, writing in The Atlantic, explains how incredibly powerful and potentially dangerous Hurricane Milton is going to be on Florida’s Gulf …

Oct 8, 2024: The Diplomat: Season 2 | Official Trailer Netflix has released a trailer for the next season of The Diplomat, and I’m reasonably excited. It’s definitely one of the finer original …

Oct 8, 2024: Tuesday Zero to Possible Seven Nicholas Bate – Zero soda; maximum water. Zero in-box; maximum filed to category OR action list. Zero lifts/escalator; maximum stairs. Zero …

Oct 8, 2024: Forever ✱ Notes After learning about the organizational system of Forever ✱ Notes, I implemented it with my Apple Notes on my phone and iMac. I have the initial setup …

Oct 7, 2024: On Writing, 122 Nicholas Bate – Momentum is certainly your assistant. Write daily to train the mind and body, write daily for quantity, write daily for …

Oct 6, 2024: Rick Beato Interviews Rick Rubin Rick Beato spends some time with Rick Rubin, and it’s well worth watching. In this interview, legendary producer Rick Rubin shares insights …

Oct 6, 2024: State of the Race Daily Kos examines the state of the presidential race with 30 days to go. It’s remarkably steady. The polling won’t perfectly predict this year’s …

Oct 5, 2024: James Bond Day October 5 is “James Bond Day,” because it celebrates the release of Dr. No in 1962. If this date inspires you to want to have a movie marathon of …

Oct 5, 2024: The Fuck Around And Find Out Queen Former Colorado county clerk, conspiracy monger, and election denier Tina Peters has been sentenced to 9 years incarceration for providing pillow and …

Oct 4, 2024: Batting Helmet Bilboards Since the St. Louis Cardinals did not make the baseball postseason (again), I have not been making any effort to watch any games. Yesterday, I …

Oct 4, 2024: Van Halen's Last Show - Hollywood Bowl 10/4/15 Nine years ago today.

Oct 3, 2024: Bruce Springsteen Endorses Harris/Walz View this post on Instagram A post shared by Bruce Springsteen (@springsteen) “Donald Trump is the most dangerous candidate for president …

Oct 3, 2024: Is Disney Bad at Star Wars? An Analysis James Hibberd, writing for The Hollywood Reporter, examines Disney-fied Star Wars and finds it lacking. Disney gave Star Wars fans what they wanted …

Oct 2, 2024: The Boring Debate Dan Pfeiffer, writing at his Substack The Message Box, said JD Vance didn’t win the debate. JD Vance is a slick debater. He has the natural …

Oct 2, 2024: Sometimes, You Don’t Take the Photo Warren Ellis – I finally saw The Milky Way, the other week. A bit of it. I’d never seen it before — never actually seen that many stars at one …

Oct 2, 2024: Ranking Big Ten basketball programs: Tournament teams abound, but is anyone elite? Brendan Marks and CJ Moore, writing for The Athletic, do a deep dive into the state of Big Ten Basketball and provide some real insight into the teams …

Oct 1, 2024: Pete Rose, All-American Ray Ratto, writing for Defector, has the definitive take on the passing of Pete Rose. He wasn’t complicated as a player, a manager, or in the …

Oct 1, 2024: The Future of the St. Louis Cardinals Katie Woo, Writing for The Athletic, has the post-press-conference story regarding the future of the St. Louis Cardinals. …a lengthy …

Oct 1, 2024: Happy 100th Birthday, President Jimmy Carter Happy 100th birthday, President Carter! Thank you for your friendship, your fundamental decency, and your incredible acts of service through the …

Sep 30, 2024: Blank Space (Donald's Version) - A Randy Rainbow Song Parody This is one of his all-time best. I usually link out videos, but this one needs to be seen.

Sep 30, 2024: Kris Kristofferson, Songwriter Whose Poetic Lyrics Transcended Genre, Dead at 88 Kris Kristofferson—actor, songwriter, and outlaw country star—has died. Stephen Betts, writing for Rolling Stone, described him as a musical …

Sep 30, 2024: Drake Hogestyn, RIP Best known for playing the slippery John Black and his myriad personalities for nearly 40 years on Days of Our Lives, Drake Hogestyn has died. In an …

Sep 30, 2024: Marvel and DC Lose Trademark for ‘Superhero’ Isaiah Colbert, writing in Gizmodo, has the story about Marvel and DC losing their joint trademark for “super hero.” According to …

Sep 29, 2024: Coppola’s ‘Megalopolis’ Plays to Near-Empty Theaters Brooks Barnes, writing for The New York Times, describes the failure of Megalopolis. There is no kind way to put it: Francis Ford Coppola’s …

Sep 28, 2024: Songs of a Lost World Sixteen years after their last album, five years after Robert Smith said “I feel intent on it being a 2019 release and would be extremely bitter …

Sep 27, 2024: Broken Man Aptly named “Broken Man,” the Lincoln Project’s latest video mercilessly trolls Donald Trump for being what he fears most: an old, …

Sep 27, 2024: Maggie Smith, RIP Dame Maggie Smith, latterly famed for the cantankerous matriarchs she played so well but long-recognized for a lifetime of acting excellence, is dead …

Sep 27, 2024: Stop scrolling. Start reading. Nicholas Bate – AI… Wants you to stop reading so that it becomes smarter than you, more rapidly. Don’t fall for the trap. Build a book …

Sep 27, 2024: No Idea I really love writing on my blog, having no comments, and having no idea how many people read it — Austin Kleon (@austinkleon) September 27, 2024 Me …

Sep 27, 2024: Wait to Fill Up Again Warren Ellis – I sat outside for a bit around half past five. Watched sparrows bouncing around one of the holly trees, the one that’s berried …

Sep 27, 2024: The St. Louis Cardinals have lost their way. Now they must fix their failure Katie Woo, writing for The Athletic, has a story on what the St. Louis Cardinals off-season moves might potentially be. The Cardinals have lost their …

Sep 26, 2024: Guided by Vices Nick Heer on the ever-increasing user-hostile demand for your attention from the biggest social platforms. When I open any of the official clients …

Sep 25, 2024: David Sedaris On Undecided Voter​s On Undecided Voters: “To put them in perspective, I think of being on an airplane. The flight attendant comes down the aisle with her food cart …

Sep 25, 2024: As the Light Leaves Warren Ellis – Nights drawing in. Dark already. A damp warmth: damp already, damp like those days in March and April when it feels like winter …

Sep 24, 2024: The Beauty of the White Sox’s Historically Abysmal Season Will Leitch in New York Magazine – It’s natural to focus on successful teams: Winning is, after all, the point of every game, the reason we …

Sep 24, 2024: Illinois vs Nebraska Cinematic Recap Illini Football. Being talked about.

Sep 23, 2024: Walking Around the Neighborhood Patrick Rhone – One of my favorite things is walking around my neighborhood. Especially with my wife. We live in such a lovely place with …

Sep 23, 2024: Thunderbolts* Teaser Trailer Marvel Studios has released the latest teaser trailer for the upcoming Thunderbolts*. It’s practically a full trailer. The big tease is Bob, who …

Sep 22, 2024: Civilization Seth Godin – A poignant definition of civilization is all the conveniences, courtesies, standards, insulation and tools that we hardly notice …

Sep 21, 2024: The Neighborhood Optimism of the Lawn Sign Will Leitch, writing at his Medium account, outlines his version of civic engagement. There is something charming, even endearing, to me about a …

Sep 20, 2024: Josh Whitman: Ready for the Win #WeWillWin

Sep 20, 2024: Elon Owes You $100 Cards Against Humanity is suing Elon Musk for 15 million dollars. Why do we need to do this? Even if Musk un-fucks our land, that doesn’t un-fuck the …

Sep 20, 2024: The 50-50 Club Los Angeles Dodgers DH Shohei Ohtani entered last night’s game in Miami with 49 stolen bases and 48 home runs for the season. Only five other players …

Sep 20, 2024: You Make Me Feel Like Stayin' a Rocket Queen Bill McClintock’s latest mashup is titled “You Make Me Feel Like Stayin' a Rocket Queen." It combines the Guns N' Roses song …

Sep 19, 2024: Harris Landslide? Writing in AlterNet, Carl Gibson has an incredible story about a data scientist who has successfully predicted the last few elections. Data scientist …

Sep 19, 2024: The Cardinals Should Embrace a Rebuild J.P. Hill, writing at Viva El Birdos, has a decent breakdown of how he thinks the St. Louis Cardinals should handle the upcoming off-season. Entering …

Sep 19, 2024: Lunchables Have Lead in Them View this post on Instagram A post shared by Mikey on Drums (@mikepetroff) This made me laugh so hard.

Sep 18, 2024: KISS Unmasking - September 18, 1983 Over 40 years ago today, KISS had a special on MTV where they appeared for the first time without makeup. I did not see it live. However, I did leave …

Sep 17, 2024: Veribify Austin Kleon – Your word of the week is “verbify.”

Sep 17, 2024: Reboot Your Personal Compass Nicholas Bate – 1. Your career. What are you doing this week to make it sustainable, enjoyable, and still viable 2 years from now? 2. Your …

Sep 17, 2024: Smart Women “To all the guys out there, here’s my life hack. Surround yourself with smart women and listen to them and you’ll do just fine.” — Tim …

Sep 16, 2024: Grifter Keeps on Grifting World Liberty Financial is the name the Trump family has given to an obvious cryptocurrency scam. Trump himself doesn’t have any idea how it works. …

Sep 16, 2024: Eye in the Sky Drone Awards 2024 – in pictures.

Sep 16, 2024: What A Lie Is For Writing at Defector, David Roth has a brilliant takedown of all the lies Trump and Vance are espousing all campaign season. The whole article is …

Sep 16, 2024: Shōgun The only thing I learned after not watching the Emmy’s last night is that I should watch Shōgun.

Sep 16, 2024: Miami Vice Forty years ago today, Miami Vice premiered on NBC. Born out of writer-producer Anthony Yerkovich growing awareness of the practice of asset …

Sep 15, 2024: Never Can Say Goodbye Tito Jackson, along with brothers Michael, Jermaine, Jackie, and Marlon, was a founding member of the iconic family group the Jackson 5. He died …

Sep 15, 2024: Bad Blood Donald Trump told his supporters how he felt about Kamala Harris' most famous booster on his stupid Twitter clone. He wrote, “I HATE TAYLOR …

Sep 14, 2024: Friends for 16 Years. Lovers for One Night. This story by Elizabeth Laura Nelson in the Modern Love section of The New York Times wrecked me. Read it via RemovePaywall and prepare to cry. Also, …

Sep 14, 2024: Exploration or Persistence James Clear: Exploration is how you discover what works. Persistence is how you make the most of what already works. What does your situation …

Sep 13, 2024: Friday Seven Nicholas Bate – Choose: Love Effectiveness Reading Wellness Creativity Music Mountains & Coast and things can only get better.

Sep 13, 2024: A Debate Recap With Song, Dance and Joseph Gordon-Levitt Obviously, we need a good debate recap right about now. And who better to moderate it than Joseph Gordon-Levitt? Joe really comitts to this bit and …

Sep 12, 2024: "Childless cat lady" Makes Her Endorsement Signing her post as “Childless Cat Lady,” music megastar Taylor Swift endorsed Kamala Harris and Tim Walz. I was impressed with her …

Sep 12, 2024: Post Debate Kamala Harris beat the shit out of Donald Trump in their first (and likely last) debate. She destroyed him. She broke him. She killed it. She …

Sep 11, 2024: Tycho’s Burning Man Sunrise Set 2024 I’m a huge fan of Tycho and his electronic ambient instrumental style. The artist uploaded his annual Burning Man Sunrise Set 2024 to Soundcloud. If …

Sep 11, 2024: How to Write a Book… Patrick Rhone – How to write a book… Think very, very deeply about something for a very long time. Write it down once your head gets too full …

Sep 10, 2024: Comic Artist John Cassaday Has Died John Cassady, multiple Eisner award-winning comics artist, has passed away at the age of 52. I loved his work on Astonishing X-Men. However, his work …

Sep 10, 2024: You Might Be Old I keep seeing this image online, so I thought I’d take a minute to make some checkmarks. I’ve used a rotary phone, a floppy disk, a …

Sep 9, 2024: James Earl Jones Dead at 93 James Earl Jones, famed for his deep, powerful voice and commanding screen presence, is dead at 93. Deadline reports that he died at his home in …

Sep 8, 2024: Every "Now That's What I Call Music" Compilation abundantmusic has compiled a track listing for all 114 volumes of Now That’s What I Call Music! and turned them into a single, …

Sep 7, 2024: How Presidents Shape Pop Culture While guesting on the podcast “Park and Recollection,” about the TV show Parks and Recreation, Patton Oswalt discussed how he thinks each …

Sep 6, 2024: From Zero Linkin Park is reunited with two new members: Emily Armstrong as co-vocalist and Colin Brittain as drummer for the first time in seven years. Their …

Sep 5, 2024: The Keys According to his keys to the White House model, American University professor Allan Lichtman calls the 2024 election. Here’s the video. Spoiler …

Sep 5, 2024: Francis Ford Coppola’s Megalopolis Here’s the latest trailer for Megalopolis and it’s visually interesting, but I have no idea what’s going on. Karsten Runquist has seen the movie, and …

Sep 4, 2024: Sort Our Your Life Emma Beddington, writing for The Guardian, has written a fantastic piece with tips and tricks on how to sort out one’s life. All of these ideas are …

Sep 4, 2024: Compared to Perfect Seth Godin – Perfect is useful. It’s an absolute measure, a north star, a chance to improve our work. But it’s also a shortcut to persistent …

Sep 3, 2024: John Denver meets Black Sabbath There I Ruined It provides a fantastic mashup of John Denver singing a Country Roads/War Pigs rendition. What a perfect mash-up.

Sep 2, 2024: Why A.I. Isn’t Going to Make Art Ted Chiang with a thought-provoking essay on “Why A.I. Isn’t Going to Make Art:” It is very easy to get ChatGPT to emit a series of words …

Sep 2, 2024: The 100 Best TV Episodes of All Time Rolling Stone has published a list of the 100 best television episodes ever, and of course, there are all kinds of things to nick pick about it. …

Sep 1, 2024: Your Audiobook Seth Godin – Here’s a useful habit that’s more than a hack… The next time things are going well, when a project is about to launch, when a …

Sep 1, 2024: Why TV Is Wrong for Tolkien Evan Puschak, at Nerdwriter1, hypothesizes that, unlike movies, TV is not the right medium to tell Tolkien’s stories. He makes some interesting …

Aug 30, 2024: "Same old, tired playbook" An excellent response. I’m tired of the news organizations asking her response to Trump’s race-baiting, misogynistic, and quite frankly …

Aug 30, 2024: On Writing, 118 Nicholas Bate: 1. Write every day. 2. Write fast. 3. Write when you do want to. 4. Write when you don't want to. 5. Write a lot. Edit a lot. From …

Aug 30, 2024: Interpolation? Rick Beato outlines the latest practice in popular music…interpolation. It’s all bullshit, though. It’s just a term that lawyers came up with for …

Aug 29, 2024: Memorial Stadium It’s time for some football.

Aug 29, 2024: House of Ideas Marvel celebrates its 85th year in 2024, a kinda-sorta anniversary the company has marked with some special comics and merchandise — and now a YouTube …

Aug 29, 2024: Lazy and Gullible Patrick Rhone – The problem with our modern press is not just that they are lazy, it’s also that, because they are lazy, they are gullible.

Aug 29, 2024: Just Use Paper Andy Bell – I’ve tried Notion, Obsidian, Things, Apple Reminders, Apple Notes, Jotter and endless other tools to keep me organised and sure, …

Aug 28, 2024: Good Boy Dodgers fans are notorious for arriving late to games. But not when there’s a Shohei Ohtani bobblehead to be had. Shohei Ohtani bobblehead night: …

Aug 28, 2024: DeWitt Killed the Golden Goose Bernie Miklasz on the state of the St. Louis Cardinals. When Bill DeWitt Jr. purchased the St. Louis Cardinals before the 1996 season, the franchise …

Aug 28, 2024: Write for Someone Seth Godin: It’s so tempting to write for everyone. But everyone isn’t going to read your work, someone is. Can you tell me who? Precisely? What did …

Aug 27, 2024: Sycho Sid, RIP Wrestler Sid Eudy has died. The WCW and WWE champion wrestler, who went by Sid Justice, Sid Vicious, and Sycho Sid throughout a three-decade career, …

Aug 27, 2024: Jessie's Girl Ryan Cook says sometimes you just gotta play Rick Springfield.

Aug 25, 2024: 21 Minutes with Pete Buttigieg Mark Leibovich spends time in the Pete Buttigieg bubble and learns a few things. The next day, in the final hours of the convention, I was granted …

Aug 24, 2024: How Star Trek: Picard Ruins Star Trek Dr Angela Collier, a Star Trek fan, eviscerates Star Trek: Picard for nearly four hours. This is a long runtime, but it seems to fly by much faster …

Aug 24, 2024: The Fundamental Belief Will Leitch on the Harris-Walz ticket, the DNC, and most importantly, the legacy of Barack Obama. There are many reasons the Harris-Walz campaign has …

Aug 23, 2024: The Last Word On Pete Rose Is Deeply Unpleasant Ray Ratto, writing for Defector, has a column about the new Pete Rose documentary and Rose himself. Up front, Rose was banned from baseball and the …

Aug 23, 2024: "War Machine" by Bryan Adams Bryan Adams has unveiled a video for his new song, “War Machine.” Except it isn’t a new song. He wrote it with Gene Simmons and Jim …

Aug 17, 2024: Stump Dump This tree stump has been vexing me for years. It took me a while, but I dug the son of a bitch up.

Aug 14, 2024: Country Road Take me home.

Jul 27, 2024: Why Call the Film Joker? Then, you know, why call the film Joker? https://t.co/S2sZ3cY9Jw — Sean McDevitt (@sean_mcdevitt) July 27, 2024

Jul 16, 2024: Chill White Guy Hate to bring this up in the middle of a heist but when I said I was a safe cracker I meant I'm a chill white guy — Hanch Tarchup Jr. (@misharipov) …

Jun 25, 2024: Illinois Basketball Phonetics And while we're on the subject, let's all practice some more. Repeat after me. yah-koo-CHOH-nis. yah-koo-CHOH-nis. EE-vee-sitch. EE-vee-sitch. …

Jun 24, 2024: In the Evening in Ephraim

Jun 24, 2024: On the Beach in Ephraim

Jun 23, 2024: Star Trek The Next Generation and AI

May 30, 2024: After Golf Uncle Ed, Uncle John, Katie, and Dad

Feb 10, 2024: Katie and Me

Jan 16, 2024: Hello from Cypress Harbour Villas

Dec 26, 2023: Boxing Day

Dec 25, 2023: Keenan and Katie

Dec 24, 2023: Christmas Eve

Nov 11, 2023: Ryan and me, Memorial Stadium

Oct 29, 2023: Illinois vs Kansas

Oct 21, 2023: Reinventing Bond in a post-Craig Era Producer Barbara Broccoli explained to The Guardian that the James Bond franchise’s executives are still deciding what to do with him for the next set …

Oct 18, 2023: Burt Young, Dies at 83 Burt Young—the actor known for playing tough guys in films like Chinatown, Once Upon A Time In America, and most notably, the Rocky franchise—has …

Oct 16, 2023: Travis Kelce Is the NFL’s Taylor Swift Will Leitch accurately describes the ridiculousness of Aaron Rodgers and the Kelce-Swift “relationship.”

Oct 16, 2023: Behind the Scenes Kimberly Nelson shares in Chicago Magazine her forays into the movie extra gig, along with the ups and downs, challenges, disappointments, and moments …

Oct 15, 2023: Social Internet Is Dead. Get Over It. Om Malik believes the Social Internet Is Dead. The internet, as we have known it, has evolved from a quaint, quirky place to a social utopia, and …

Oct 15, 2023: Suzanne Somers, RIP RIP Suzanne Somers, dead at 76 from breast cancer. Actress, entrepreneur, Thighmaster spokesperson. She will forever be known as Chrissy Snow and for …

Oct 13, 2023: The Mandoverse Needs a Writers Room Ben Lindbergh, writing at The Ringer, thinks Star Wars on TV needs more writers. Dave Filoni and Jon Favreau deserve plenty of praise as the primary …

Oct 12, 2023: My Delirious Trip to the Heart of Swiftiedom Taffy Brodesser-Akner, writing for New York Magazine, has a great story about Taylor Swift. Our only proof that she was actually in the stadium was …

Oct 11, 2023: Keith Giffen, RIP According to a post on his official Facebook page that was reposted on his Twitter/X account, legendary comic book artist Keith Giffen—co-creator of …

Oct 8, 2023: Country Road at Dusk

Oct 5, 2023: The Nones The Nones. In many countries around the world, there has been a dramatic increase in the number of people who are nonbelievers or unaffiliated with …

Oct 5, 2023: Dick Butkus, Hall of Fame linebacker for Chicago Bears, dies Dick Butkus has died. He was 80. So many great remembrances: Josh Whitman, Chicago Bears, Illinois Athletics. For me, the two best things to watch …

Oct 3, 2023: 18 Life Lessons I’d Give My 18-Year-Old Self Scott Young wrote a blog post detailing the advice he would give his 18-year-old self. Lessons include cooking and traveling more, embracing one’s …

Oct 1, 2023: 100 Food Hacks I Learned In Restaurants Joshua Weissman has spent countless hours honing his cooking craft, first in professional kitchens and then at home, for his millions of YouTube fans. …

Sep 29, 2023: Songs That Stop on the Word "STOP" Supercut A compilation of my favorite cliche in music.

Sep 28, 2023: Angel Hernandez, Terrible At His Job Bryce Harper flips out on Angel Hernandez, the absolute worst major league umpire, for calling a ball a strike. As usual, Jomboy has some fun with it. …

Sep 27, 2023: Top 10 Arcades Games Every Year From 1980-1989 Here’s a trip down memory lane. Top 10 Arcades Games Every Year From 1980-1989 (100 Games)

Sep 26, 2023: The Writer’s Strike is Over Jennifer Maas, writing in Variety, has the scoop on the writer’s strike. On the 148th day of the work stoppage, the board of the WGA West and council …

Sep 26, 2023: Science Fiction Star Systems The Overview Effect YouTube channel has an interesting video focusing on the scientifically accurate depiction of where a select few sci-fi star …

Sep 26, 2023: Nolan to Write Bond According to a rumor from World of Reel, Christopher Nolan is allegedly in talks to write and direct the next two James Bond movies for EON. The …

Sep 21, 2023: Why Scalpers Can Get Olivia Rodrigo Tickets and You Can't Jason Koebler, writing for 404 Media, looks into the shady world of Ticketmaster. Olivia Rodrigo is using a system very similar to the one used by …

Sep 20, 2023: Authors Sue OpenAI for Piracy Ashley Belanger, writing for Ars Technica, has the story of popular authors joining together to sue OpenAI, alleging the company trained its large …

Sep 20, 2023: It’s Decorative Gourd Season It’s Decorative Gourd Season, Motherfuckers. I don’t know about you, but I can’t wait to get my hands on some fucking gourds and …

Sep 16, 2023: Kurt and Me, Memorial Stadium

Sep 15, 2023: Strike Force Five Late-night hosts Stephen Colbert, Jimmy Fallon, Jimmy Kimmel, Seth Meyers, and John Oliver have joined forces for a new joint podcast called Strike …

Sep 13, 2023: Deion Sanders and Colorado Football Jordan Ritter Conn, writing for The Ringer, has the scoop on Deion Sanders and Colorado football. For a brief moment, on Saturday afternoon in …

Sep 12, 2023: Popular Nasal Decongestant Doesn’t Actually Relieve Congestion AP News – The leading decongestant used by millions of Americans looking for relief from a stuffy nose is likely no better than a dummy pill, …

Sep 12, 2023: Aaron Rodgers Tore his Achilles Joseph Salvador, writing for Sports Illustrated, has the story on Aaron Rodgers and his torn Achilles. The 39-year-old played just four snaps before …

Sep 11, 2023: This is a Post This is a link. This is another link Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, et has odio adversarium, cu cum omnes insolens voluptatum. His in quis recusabo …

Sep 8, 2023: Layout Testing Too Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, et has odio adversarium, cu cum omnes insolens voluptatum. His in quis recusabo reprimique, modus dignissim eum in. …

Sep 7, 2023: Danny Masterson Gets Prison AP News – A judge sentenced ‘That ’70s Show’ show star Danny Masterson to 30 years to life in prison Thursday for raping two women, …

Sep 6, 2023: The Decomposition of Rotten Tomatoes Lane Brown, writing for Vulture, outlines the overrated metric of Rotten Tomatoes. Another problem — and where the trickery often begins — is that …

Sep 6, 2023: Angry The Stones just released their first new song in 18 years.

Sep 5, 2023: How Democracy Fell So Far Behind In The Atlantic, Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt cover the state of American democracy. Since 2016, America has experienced what political …

Sep 5, 2023: Layout Testing Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, et has odio adversarium, cu cum omnes insolens voluptatum. His in quis recusabo reprimique, modus dignissim eum in. …

Sep 4, 2023: Embed Testing Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, et has odio adversarium, cu cum omnes insolens voluptatum. His in quis recusabo reprimique, modus dignissim eum in. …

Sep 3, 2023: Jimmy Buffett Found Paradise on Earth Rob Harvilla, writing for The Ringer, remembers the endless summer of Jimmy Buffett. His job was just beach. His art, his science, his philosophy, …

Sep 1, 2023: Shoes Jillian Willson, writing for Huffington Post, says Read This If You Never Take Your Shoes Off When You Go Into Your House. It’s worth noting that …

Sep 1, 2023: Back to the Water Below There aren’t many bass/drummer duos in the world, but Royal Blood is one of them. They have such a unique sound. They are out with a new album, and it …

Aug 27, 2023: Arleen Sorkin, RIP Arleen Sorkin, noted stage and television actress who was the inspiration and first voice actress for Batman: The Animated Series and DC …

Aug 26, 2023: Bob Barker, RIP Bob Barker, legendary The Price Is Right host, has died at the age of 99, confirmed by his publicist Roger Neal. Bob, thanks for encouraging the world …

Aug 26, 2023: Murdered By My Replica Margaret Atwood, writing in The Atlantic about the news an AI is being trained on her work without permission, thinks it’s mostly crap. At least for …

Aug 26, 2023: My Dumb Little Book David Roth, writing at Defector, has a simple essay about the joys of writing things down in a notebook. My little diary of all the art I looked at …

Aug 25, 2023: How many religions do you not believe in? Kevin Drum – This is going to sound weird, but hear me out. There are upwards of 4,300 religions in the world, and even faithful churchgoers don’t …

Aug 24, 2023: Dune Part 2 Pushed in 2024 Pamela McClintock and Aaron Couch, writing for The Hollywood Reporter, has the story that Denis Villeneuve’s sequel to the Frank Herbert adaptation …

Aug 24, 2023: The Harsh Glare of Justice Susan B. Glasser, writing for The New Yorker, talks about the surrender, the mug shot, and what this all means. There was no real news in this, of …

Aug 24, 2023: Threads on the web is here Jay Peters, writing for The Verge, has the story about the long-awaited web version of Threads. The new desktop web interface looks a lot like the …

Aug 23, 2023: Mugging Mark Evanier – I hope Donald Trump takes a good mug shot tomorrow…because we’re going to be seeing that photo everywhere and forever. He and people …

Aug 23, 2023: Scatter Jason Fried – Scatter. Scatter is the silent killer at work. Scatter is tools siloed by teams. Scatter is multiple apps to do one thing. Scatter is …

Aug 22, 2023: Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap by Chevy Metal featuring DaveGrohl and Chad Smith Dave Grohl of Foo Fighters and Chad Smith of Red Hot Chili Peppers joined the late Taylor Hawkins‘ side band Chevy Metal to perform the classic AC/DC …

Aug 22, 2023: Don’t Arraign on His Parade! - A Randy Rainbow SongParody Randy Rainbow is a genius. Here’s his latest, “Don’t Arraign on His Parade!” One of his best.

Aug 21, 2023: Silence, Exile and Cunning “I will try to express myself in some mode of life or art as freely as I can and as wholly as I can, using for my defense the only arms I allow myself …

Aug 18, 2023: How Metallica Hard-Wires a Different Set List Every Night Austin Considine, writing for The New York Times, has a story about how Metallica puts together setlists for their current tour. There’s a lot that …

Aug 14, 2023: The Most Powerful Productivity Tips, 60 Nicholas Bate – Plan your week as a timetable: days and subjects. Plan your day as a timeline: what and when. Choose your attention by your compass, …

Aug 14, 2023: Trump, 18 Others Indicted for Trying to Overthrow 2020 Georgia Election Tamar Hallerman and Bill Rankin, reporting for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, has the story on indictment number four. Former President Donald …

Aug 10, 2023: First or Last? James Clear – Sometimes the first move is the most important. The first set in the gym. Now you’re working out. The first sentence. Now you’re …

Aug 10, 2023: One Thing “There will be one thing you do today that would have been difficult or impossible twenty years ago, impossible or unimaginable forty years ago, and …

Aug 7, 2023: What We Don’t Know Annie Mueller – You don’t know how it’s going to work out, if it’s going to work out. Sometimes it becomes obvious that it’s not going to work out, …

Aug 5, 2023: Oregon, Washington to join Big Ten in 2024 as Pac-12 stumbles further Nicole Auerbach and Scott Dochterman, writing for The Athletic, detail the crazy story of The Big Ten officially approving Oregon and Washington as …

Aug 4, 2023: Optimize for delight Annie Mueller thinks we should take the well-meaning optimization for efficiency and turn it into optimizing for delight. Less escaping, more …

Aug 3, 2023: Hopemine Shawn Blanc – When you get a dopamine hit from the false first step of simply buying a product or watching a video that you hope will help you, but …

Aug 2, 2023: Call You As A Witness Dave Pell, writing at his site Nextdraft, has a great summation of the latest Trump indictment If you hadn’t seen it with your own eyes, you’d accuse …

Aug 1, 2023: Trump Indicted… Again The New York Times began its coverage of Trump’s third indictment thusly: Former President Donald J. Trump was indicted on Tuesday in connection with …

Jul 31, 2023: Be Creative, 7 Nicholas Bate – It all starts with believing that you are creative: ‘I am creative’. As we all are. It’s just some have had more practice and some …

Jul 31, 2023: Paul Reubens, RIP Ethan Shanfeld, writing for Variety, reports Paul Reubens, best known for performing as Pee Wee Herman, died Sunday night. He was 70 years old. …

Jul 29, 2023: Incredible Video Made from Wikimedia Commons Connor Griffith made this incredible video using images from Wikimedia Commons. The video is a montage of many different awe-inspiring images that …

Jul 28, 2023: Classic arcade game Discs of Tron left out for garbage collection Tony Temple, writing at The Arcade Blogger, tells the story of his friend Tim Lapetino who miraculously came across an environmental cabinet of the …

Jul 27, 2023: The Freeze Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell was escorted away from the cameras during a news conference yesterday after he froze and appeared unable to …

Jul 27, 2023: We Are What Musk Paid For Ryan Broderick, writing on his Substack Garbage Day, has some intriguing thoughts on WeChat, Musk and Twitter. The most recent version of the Twitter …

Jul 26, 2023: Focus vs Unfocus Shawn Blanc – A few symptoms of an unfocused life include things like: reacting to daily fires; feeling unsure about the future; lacking any margin / …

Jul 26, 2023: Non-Human Whistleblower David Grusch, a former representative on the U.S. Defense Department’s Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAP) Task Force, testified under …

Jul 26, 2023: Sinéad O’Connor, Fiery and Uncompromising Singer, Dead at 56 Irish singer Sinéad O’Connor has died at the age of 56, her family announced. It hasn’t been announced as a suicide, but I’m sure that’s the case. …

Jul 26, 2023: The @X handle on Twitter is so valuable that Elon Musk just took it Matt Schimkowitz, writing for the AVClub, has the latest story about how Elon Musk is just the worst. Ah, Elon Musk, the patron saint of being …

Jul 25, 2023: If Not Now, When? Wil Wheaton, writing on his blog, presents his point-of-view regarding the SAG-AFTRA and WGA strikes. To give some sense of what is at stake: There …

Jul 25, 2023: Jonathan Frakes Looks Back at His ‘Star Trek’ TV Directing Career Adam B. Vary, writing for Variety, has a fun story about William T. Riker himself Jonathan Frakes, looking back at his directing career. He’s such a …

Jul 25, 2023: Threads Now Has A Chronological Timeline The @threadsapp account has announced a chronological tab. The For you feed includes a mix of posts from profiles you follow and recommended …

Jul 24, 2023: Bizzaro Twitter Ryan Mac and Tiffany Hsu, reporting for The New York Times, has one of the craziest stories regarding Twitter, so far. The tech billionaire, who …

Jul 24, 2023: With X, it is Twitter R.I.P! Om Malik, writing at his site, has what I think is the definitive take on Twitter, the rebranding, and Elon Musk. When you pay billions to buy …

Jul 23, 2023: Bulls bringing back Ayo Dosunmu on 3-year deal Restricted free agent G Ayo Dosunmu has agreed on a three-year, $21 million deal to stay with the Chicago Bulls, agent Mike Lindeman of …

Jul 19, 2023: Do Less and Achieve More Nicholas Bate – Just as an over-stuffed washing machine doesn’t do its job, an over-full day causes its owner to become stressed, fatigued and to …

Jul 18, 2023: Eleven Reasons for Stories Nicholas Bate – Stories will transform your presentation from a list of bullets to something which engages heart and soul. Stories embed values and …

Jul 17, 2023: Five reasons Threads could still go the distance Casey Newton, writing on his Substack Platformer, does a quick rundown of Threads after a couple of weeks and why he still thinks it will supplant …

Jul 14, 2023: Two Strikes Against You Dave Pell – Even with the widening and ever-damaging economic divide, Americans haven’t seemed to be willing to get behind workers. But things could …

Jul 13, 2023: Personal Effectiveness Nicholas Bate – Always have a plan; But understand that the reason for a plan is it allows more flexibility in a world of surprises. Always know …

Jul 12, 2023: Inside the college newspaper investigation that got a football coach fired Laura Wagner, writing for The Washington Post, has an eye-opening look at the Northwestern allegation, the aftermath, and the student newspaper that …

Jul 12, 2023: Routine Routine | The Most Advanced Calendar for Productive People Unify your calendars, centralize your work, plan your days and focus on what matters now! …

Jul 11, 2023: Ahsoka | Official Trailer Watch the brand-new trailer for Ahsoka. August 23 can’t get here fast enough.

Jul 11, 2023: Blue Beetle Trailer #2 and Wonka Trailer Warner Brothers has dropped a new trailer for the Blue Beetle. I’m definitely getting Iron Man mixed with Spider-Man with a dash of Shazam’s family …

Jul 11, 2023: Please Let Shohei Ohtani Play for a Team That Doesn’t Suck Will Leitch, writing for New York Magazine, writes a piece where he pleads for the Baseball Gods to find a better landing place for phenom Shohei …

Jul 11, 2023: The stunning wreck of Pat Fitzgerald and the ’Cats Jeremy Werner, writing for the Illini Inquirer, weighs in on the damage happening at Northwestern and the subsequent firing of head coach Pat …

Jul 10, 2023: Elon Musk goes low against Zuckerberg as Twitter-Threads spat intensifies Martin Pengelly, writing for The Guardian, reports on the latest “news” regarding a couple of billionaires with nothing better to do. Twitter owner …

Jul 10, 2023: If You’re Looking To Blame Someone For 2023, Start At The Top With Chairman Bill DeWitt Jr. Bernie Miklasz, writing for Scoops with Danny Mac, explains in no uncertain terms who has the power to fix the St. Louis Cardinals. DeWitt controls …

Jul 10, 2023: Journey To Ahsoka What a great two-minute video showcasing Rosario Dawson’s journey to becoming Ahsoka. I have a feeling I’m going to love this series.

Jul 10, 2023: Napoleon — Official Trailer Joaquin Phoenix and Vanessa Kirby star as Napoleon and Josephine Bonaparte in Ridley Scott’s forthcoming film about the French dictator. Here’s the …

Jul 10, 2023: Things That Will Destroy Your Goal Shawn Blanc – In order to accomplish your goals you need: (1) a clear goal; (2) a winning action plan; and (3) consistency. Take away or invert any …

Jul 9, 2023: An 11-year-old superfan meets her 1970s soft rock idol Eleven-year-old Paisley Gardner, of Des Moines, Iowa, isn’t your typical tween music fan. Her favorite singer isn’t Taylor Swift or Justin Bieber or …

Jul 8, 2023: Elly De La Cruz stole THREE BASES in the span of two pitches! Watch Elly De La Cruz steal second base, third base, and home. Easily the most exciting two minutes I’ve seen in sports in a long time. “He just stole …

Jul 8, 2023: Former NU football player details hazing allegations after coach suspension Nicole Markus, Alyce Brown, Cole Reynolds, and Divya Bhardwaj, writing for The Daily Northwestern, have written a story that is incredibly damning of …

Jul 8, 2023: Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s Great ‘Indiana Jones’ Adventure David Marchese, writing for New York Times Magazine, has a wonderful profile on Phoebe Waller-Bridge that’s worth reading. This bit stood out to me – …

Jul 7, 2023: Friday Percentages Nicholas Bate – 1%: be 1% better than you were this time last month. 100%: move 100% every day. 2%: invest 2% of your income in your personal …

Jul 7, 2023: Jack Quaid, Champion of the Nerds Josh Rosenberg, writing for Esquire, has a cool profile on Jack Quaid. He’s definitely becoming the go-to guy for comic book stuff. Lovely bit here – …

Jul 6, 2023: Don’t let “opportunity” steal your focus Shawn Blanc – When your attention goes to many things, no real progress is ever made. Not all opportunities are worth pursuing — especially if it …

Jul 6, 2023: Foundation — Season 2 Official Trailer 2 Apple TV has posted a new trailer for the upcoming season of Foundation. It looks gorgeous. I just wish the writing was a little bit better.

Jul 6, 2023: Mad Men Meets Severance for Fight Club in the Corner Office Lionsgate has just dropped a new trailer for an interesting film, Corner Office, and I feel like it will be playing behind my eyeballs for a while. …

Jul 6, 2023: Suck It, Kirk and Picard: The Best ‘Star Trek’ Captain Is Pike Geoffrey Bunting, writing at The Daily Beast, has taken it upon himself to anoint the erstwhile captain of the Enterprise, Christopher Pike, as the …

Jul 6, 2023: Threads Meta has finally launched their Twitter rival, Threads. My quick thoughts: The killer feature is that signing in was exceptionally easy using my …

Jul 5, 2023: 100 Words — Get On With It Nicholas Bate – Get on with it. Less victim, more volunteer. There are some for whom life has not been fair: we need to support them in whatever way …

Jul 5, 2023: 101 Tiny Philosophies for a Better Life Tim Denning, writing on Medium, made a long list of potentially life-changing thoughts, ideas, and philosophies. Here are a couple of my favorites: …

Jul 5, 2023: David Zaslav kills everything he touches, including GQ Drew Magary, writing for SFGATE, eviscerates David Zaslav and the handling of an article in GQ magazine. Personally, I liked how he ended the piece. …

Jul 5, 2023: Gizmodo’s io9 Published an AI-Generated Star Wars Article That Was Filled With Errors Todd Spangler, writing for Variety, has the story about an article that appeared on io9. The byline “Gizmodo Bot” wrote one of the worst listicle …

Jul 5, 2023: The MSG Sphere The MSG Sphere, the World’s Largest LED screen, lit up for the first time in Las Vegas on the 4th of July 2023. This $2.3 Billion Entertainment Venue …

Jul 5, 2023: The real problem with Twitter Kevin Drum – I know this is obvious, but . . . Everybody seems to have forgotten what Elon Musk’s real problem with Twitter is. The wellspring of …

Jul 4, 2023: On Writing, 77 Nicholas Bate – Write for quantity. Then edit for quality. Write to the stopwatch with zero distractions. Accept no excuses: fingers to keyboard …

Jul 4, 2023: Sky Elements Drone Shows Makes Guinness World Record From Sky Elements Drone Shows YouTube Page – This Fourth of July, history was made. Sky Elements Drone Shows achieved the GUINNESS WORLD RECORDS™ …

Jul 4, 2023: Tweetdeck is Going to Live Behind a Paywall Twitter is officially launching its “new” version of TweetDeck to everyone, according to a tweet from Twitter’s support account, which is a step that …

Jul 3, 2023: So where are we all supposed to go now? David Pierce, writing for The Verge, is lamenting the end, so to speak, of Twitter and social media. He wants someplace else to go. …the social web …

Jul 3, 2023: TweetDeck suffers as Musk enforces read limits on Twitter Ivan Mehta, reporting for TechCrunch, explains the new Musk Twitter changes and how they completely broke the site. Over the weekend, Elon Musk …

Jul 2, 2023: On the State of the Web Manuel Morale – You can still set up your tiny quiet corner on the web, do your own things, and connect slowly with other people. You can still set …

Jun 30, 2023: Dave Grohl’s Monument to Mortality Jeffrey Goldberg, writing in The Atlantic, has one of the best reviews of the latest album by the Foo Fighters and about Dave Grohl. The latest Foo …

Jun 30, 2023: When Georgia Football Players Are Accused Of Crimes, This Fixer Shows Up Diana Moskovitz, writing for Defector, has an interesting story about Georgia Football and a guy on the football staff with an interesting set of …

Jun 29, 2023: Katie and Me, Fish Creek, Door County, WI

Jun 29, 2023: Domingo Germán Throws the 24th Perfect Game in MLB History Lindsey Adler, reporting for The Wall Street Journal: Before the season began, New York Yankees pitcher Domingo Germán changed his jersey number from …

Jun 29, 2023: Dune: Part 2 It’s time for Paul Atreides to fulfill his destiny. Dune: Part Two opens November 3 and it just released a new trailer that’s leaps and bounds more …

Jun 29, 2023: Sci-Fi Prophet Ted Chiang on How to Best Think About AI Delia Cai, writing for Vanity Fair, has an interview with Ted Chiang about AI and what the future holds. I think this is the kicker of the piece – …

Jun 29, 2023: Stay Young Nicholas Bate – Ignore chronological age: hang on to a child-like curiosity. Ignore physiological age: hang on to physical flexibility. Scribble …

Jun 27, 2023: Elvis Presley Sings “Baby Got Back” The always creative Dustin Ballard of There I Ruined It quite hilariously reimagined the late, great Elvis Presley singing the lyrics from the 1991 …

Jun 27, 2023: How Long Will Trump Go to Jail? You’ve undoubtedly already heard the audio recording of Donald J. Trump allegedly committing one of the offenses for which he is accused. This shifts …

Jun 26, 2023: You Have Six Areas of Life Shawn Blanc: They are your health, your relationships, your inner-personal life, your work, your finances, and your rest and recreation. Each area of …

Jun 25, 2023: Good Things Holly Hein, writing on her blog, found a “good” list. I found a list of good things, written in purple ink in an old notebook in 2021. chocolate …

Jun 24, 2023: Rick Astley’s “Highway to Hell” Rick Astley shocked and delighted the crowd at the Glastonbury Festival by not only doing a genre 180° to classic heavy metal, covering AC/DC’s …

Jun 23, 2023: Why the right is so terrified of “woke?” There are truths it just can't face Kirk Swearingen, writing for Salon, has a commentary about the word “woke” and about what conservatives hear when it is used and what they refuse to …

Jun 22, 2023: The State of Illini FamILLy is Strong

Jun 22, 2023: 5 Best Personal Traits for Life Mark Manson lists out five personal traits that everyone should master to get through life. They are spot on. SELF-AWARENESS: THE ULTIMATE OPERATING …

Jun 21, 2023: Barack Obama Sets The Record Straight On Those Year-End Lists Hasan Minhaj tries to sus out if those “best of the year” lists President Obama puts out are actually made by him or done by his staff. But he does, …

Jun 21, 2023: There is No Debate John DeVore, writing on Medium, takes us through the kind of discourse pouring through right-wing media. I’m not saying it’s impossible for two …

Jun 21, 2023: Trump Seems to Be Afraid, Very Afraid Tom Nichols, writing for The Atlantic, has some astute observations regarding Donald J. Trump and the ringing in his ears about the level of trouble …

Jun 20, 2023: When Work Didn’t Follow You Home Cal Newport, writing at his site, has a post about work-life balance. He cites an article by Slate write, Dan Kois. “The very idea that, once work …

Jun 19, 2023: The Story We’ve Been Told About Juneteenth is Wrong Penial Joseph, writing in Texas Monthly, has a story about Juneteenth. It’s fitting as today is Juneteenth. It is fascinating.

Jun 18, 2023: I Was Made for Boogie Wonderland Earth, Kiss, and Fire - “I Was Made for Boogie Wonderland” Bill McClintock has combined the iconic KISS song “I Was Made for Lovin’ You” with Earth …

Jun 18, 2023: Fabled Super Powers Nicholas Bate – Everyday simple courtesies. Stop & Think. Encouragement. Agree something. And keep to the agreement. Appreciation. Enthusiasm to …

Jun 18, 2023: The Cardinals are not the Cardinals David Roth, over at Defector, wrote a couple of paragraphs about David Freese. It is tempting, and not entirely incorrect, to sum up David Freese’s …

Jun 18, 2023: You’re Getting Old You’re Getting Old! Is a website that reminds you of just how old you are. If you’re in the mood to ponder the fleeting nature of time, enter your …

Jun 17, 2023: A Terminal Case Olivia Nuzzi, writing for New York Magazine, has the story about Trump’s second arraignment. It is a giant spectacle. On the eve of his 77th …

Jun 16, 2023: 2023: Still Every Chance of It Being Your Best Year Yet Nicholas Bate – You’ve already got a plan. You created it in January. Re-fresh it. Every day refine it, hone it and ensure it’s a winner.  You are …

Jun 16, 2023: AI Will Not Replace You Manuel Moreale – AI will not replace who you are. It will not replace what you mean for the people around you. It will not replace your importance …

Jun 15, 2023: Babylon 5: The Road Home Babylon 5 was one of my favorite shows in the 1990s. It eschewed the stand-alone model of television episodes and instead had a compelling five-year …

Jun 14, 2023: The Beatles are releasing one last song—with the help of A.I. Mary Kate Carr, writing at the AVClub, has the story about The Beatles having a new song in the works thanks to modern technology. Who would’ve …

Jun 14, 2023: The Orange Man is Bad Matthew Yglesias, writing on his Substack Slow Boring, has a tremendous breakdown of Trump, the latest indictment, and what the Republican party needs …

Jun 13, 2023: Cormac McCarthy, RIP Cormac McCarthy, a critically acclaimed author, has died. McCarthy was awarded a Pulitzer Prize for The Road. I tried to read The Road and gave up. …

Jun 13, 2023: Foundation — Season 2 Official Trailer The official trailer for Foundation Season 2 is finally here, and it’s clear the Second Crisis is imminent. I love this adaptation for what it is… …

Jun 13, 2023: John Romita, Sr., RIP John Romita Sr., the groundbreaking comic book artist who co-created some of the most influential characters in Marvel Comics history and drew some of …

Jun 13, 2023: On Writing Nicholas Bate – Once you have started your novel and written the first few chapters, ensure you write the final chapter. You’ll have noticed from …

Jun 13, 2023: The Music Explosion of 1978 Rick Beato, on his YouTube channel, talks about all the releases of 1978 and asks if it was the greatest year for rock music ever? It’s definitely up …

Jun 13, 2023: Trump Indictment Day II: Electric Boogaloo Very busy today…but I took some time out to read a few things about Trump’s legal troubles. He sure has a lot of them and I don’t think “You can’t …

Jun 12, 2023: Read the First Chapter of Starter Villain John Scalzi has a new book coming out entitled Starter Villain. His publisher, Tor, has kindly put the first chapter up on their blog. I’m looking …

Jun 12, 2023: Yes, The Cardinals Make Too Many Mistakes. When Will Marmol and Mozeliak Do Something About It? Bernie Miklasz, writing at the Scoops with Danny Mac website, has been, shall we say, critical of the St. Louis Cardinals organization. He leads his …

Jun 10, 2023: Saturday Walking 7 Nicholas Bate – Walk tall. Walk free: no phone, no plan, no concern. Walk in all weathers. Walk barefoot whenever the surface allows it. Walk by …

Jun 9, 2023: 4 takeaways from Trump’s federal indictment Aaron Blake, writing for The Washington Post, has some reporting on what might be actually happening regarding this latest indictment. Of course, …

Jun 9, 2023: College Basketball Players Can Wear Digits Above ‘5’ Again Dan McQuade, writing at Defector, has the story on some new college basketball rules with one of them being players can wear digits above five. The …

Jun 9, 2023: The Flash Was on Life Support—Then the Muschietti Siblings Stepped In David Sims, writing for The Atlantic, has a great story on how The Flash was saved from cinematic limbo. I haven’t seen the film yet, but I’m anxious …

Jun 9, 2023: Trump indicted on 37 counts in Mar-a-Lago case On Thursday night, twice-impeached, criminally indicted, and liable-for-sexual-abuse former President Donald Trump was indicted once again, for taking …

Jun 8, 2023: All the Ways ChatGPT Can Help You Land a Job David Nield, writing for Wired, has an interesting story about using ChatGPT to help you with your job hunting. I think the preparing for the …

Jun 8, 2023: Donald Trump charged in classified docs probe J.D. Capelouto, Diego Mendoza, and David Weigel, writing for Semafor, have one of the thousands of stories about Donald Trump getting indicted. Again. …

Jun 8, 2023: Pat Robertson is Dead Ben Finley, writing for the AP and picked up by USAToday, tells us Pat Robertson is dead. Pat Robertson, a religious broadcaster who turned a tiny …

Jun 7, 2023: Cardinals’ John Mozeliak on his last-place team: ‘We have to figure this out’ Katie Woo, writing for The Athletic, has a Q and A with St. Louis Cardinals’ president of baseball operations John Mozeliak on just how terrible the …

Jun 7, 2023: Charlie Brooker Got ChatGPT To Write A Black Mirror Episode, But It Was ‘Shit’ Owen Williams, writing for Empire Magazine, has a story about how Black Mirror creator Charlie Brooker recently enlisted the help of AI chatbot …

Jun 7, 2023: CNN fires CEO Chris Licht Daniel Arkin, writing for NBC News, has one of the hundreds of stories about the firing of CNN CEO Chris Licht. When Licht took over CNN, he sought …

Jun 7, 2023: How streaming caused the TV writers strike Vox has an incredible video about the writer’s strike. The way scripted television gets made today has transformed the careers of writers. Warren …

Jun 7, 2023: The Iron Sheik Will Never Die Hossein Khosrow Ali Vaziri, a.k.a. The Iron Sheik, one of the most hated villains in professional wrestling history, has died at the age of 81 …

Jun 6, 2023: Blogging Myths Julia Evans, writing on her site, has compiled a list of blogging myths, including “writing boring posts is bad” and “more material is always better.” …

Jun 6, 2023: Can Bret Bielema lead Illinois football out of its 30-year slumber? Scott Dochterman, writing for The Athletic, has an in-depth feature on the University of Illinois football team. I was really impressed with the level …

Jun 6, 2023: Two Visions of the Future Jason Fried, writing in his newsletter, sees an interesting moment on the horizon. We’re staring at two distinctly different visions of the future. …

Jun 6, 2023: Why Is Everyone Watching TV With the Subtitles On? Devin Gordon, writing for The Atlantic, has a story on something I’ve been noticing as well. What is it with watching TV with the subtitles on? The …

Jun 5, 2023: Life Life is less about what happens to you, it’s more about what you do about it.

Jun 5, 2023: Monday Productivity Boosters, 7 Nicholas Bate – Every 45 minutes, take 5 minutes. Stretch, walk, sip water, look out of a window at the horizon and ask what’s really important at …

Jun 5, 2023: NIL & Transfer Portal Force an Evolving Coaching Paradigm Mike Cagley, writing at IlliniGuys, has a good look at how NIL and the transfer portal has changed and challenged head coaches at Power Five schools. …

Jun 4, 2023: Healthy Mechanisms 90% of being a successful adult is learning how to identify stress and having healthy coping mechanisms to deal with them.

Jun 3, 2023: My Date for the Wedding

Jun 3, 2023: Devolved The internet has devolved from a platform for the exchange of information and ideas, to an exchange of opinions and insults.

Jun 3, 2023: Inside The Meltdown At CNN Tim Alberta, writing for The Atlantic, has a profile on Chris Licht. I’m not sure if this is going to be true or not, but this reads like a Licht just …

Jun 2, 2023: A.I. Sees Classic KISS Albums in a New Way KISS Asylum was playing around with Adobe’s A.I. Generative Fill and asked it what the bigger picture would be out of tightly cropped classic KISS …

Jun 2, 2023: Succession Scripts The complete scripts for all four seasons of Succession are coming out in book form. Collected here for the first time, the complete scripts of …

Jun 2, 2023: Utah School District Bans the Bible for “Vulgarity” and “Violence” Tori Otten, writing for The New Republic, has the story about a Utah school district that banned the Bible for younger students after someone …

Jun 1, 2023: Headbanger’s Ball — The Complete Collection I used to live for Headbanger’s Ball on MTV. If I wanted to watch the videos that I cared about, this was the show. Now, one dedicated fan has put …

Jun 1, 2023: Milky Way Photographer of the Year Capture the Atlas announced their picks for the 2023 Milky Way Photographer of the Year competition. These are all amazing. My favorites include The …

May 31, 2023: Black Mirror Season 6 Netflix just dropped a trailer for the latest season of Black Mirror with five episodes that explore the dark side of technology and its impact on …

May 31, 2023: Breaking the Fourth Wall Filippo Ulivieri, writing on his twitter account, has made an interesting observation about The Shining: Jack Nicholson breaks the fourth wall by …

May 31, 2023: Month Notes CJ Chilvers, writing at this site, outlines a practice he’s being doing called Month Notes. Basically, he has section on his Notes app that’s about …

May 31, 2023: Terrence Shannon Jr., Coleman Hawkins withdrawing from NBA Draft Sam Vecenie and The Athletic staff, writing for The Athletic, has the story on the return of two important pieces on the Men’s Basketball team at the …

May 31, 2023: Who Cares? Seth Godin: A question we don’t ask ourselves very often, but a choice we make every day. It’s tempting to not care. If you choose to not care, …

May 30, 2023: Lost Illusions: The Untold Story of the Hit Show’s Poisonous Culture Maureen Ryan blows the roof off with a behind the scenes story on the toxic culture of the hit show Lost. Vanity Fair posts an excerpt from her new …

May 30, 2023: The Company Where Every Employee Earns the Same Megan Carnegie, writing at Wired, has a story about location-based pay. Paying employees equally no matter where they live is a reflection of today’s …

May 30, 2023: The Last Good Website Danny Furst, writing for Columbia Journalism Review, has a great story on the creation of Defector out of the ashes of Deadspin. They have come a long …

May 30, 2023: Tuesday Sometimes Nicholas Bate: You get it wrong. Take notes and learn. You are lost. Try a different map. You are too fatigued. Rest deep and long. You can’t be …

May 29, 2023: FASCISM! Heather Cox Richardson highlights a pamphlet distributed by the US War Department to Army soldiers during World War II on the topic of fascism: what …

May 29, 2023: Indiana Jones and the Treasure of the Peacock's Eye What’s the story of the diamond from Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom’s opening scene? Well according to a licensed Indiana Jones reference book, …

May 29, 2023: The Nuno Bettencourt Interview Rick Beato interviews legendary rock guitar icon Nuno Bettencourt from the band Extreme. The influence of Eddie Van Halen on Nuno is way more than I …

May 28, 2023: The Odd Appeal of Absurdly Long YouTube Videos that Play Nothing on Purpose David Pierce, writing at The Verge, has a post about weirdly long “nothing: videos on YouTube. In a way, I’ve come to see “24 hours + of pure black …

May 27, 2023: “We’ve figured it out.” Pedro Pascal has shown his face three times on The Mandalorian. Once, briefly, in season one; twice, more extensively, in season two; and then not at …

May 26, 2023: Here’s How Bad CNN’s Post-Trump Town Hall Ratings Have Been Justin Baragona writing at The Daily Beast: More than a week after CNN’s disastrous town hall with former President Donald Trump, the negative impact …

May 26, 2023: In Defense of Choosing a Musical Era and Living In It Forever Dave Holmes, writing in Esquire, has a piece on, what else, music. There is something in the air about that medium-mope, wounded-dude mid-’90s music …

May 25, 2023: DeSantis Blows Up on the Launch Pad Taegan Goddard, writing at Political Wire on Ron DeSantis’s much-ballyhooed campaign launch on Twitter Spaces yesterday: In the end, the event had …

May 25, 2023: Intermittent Fasting Matt D’Avella tries intermittent fasting for 30 days. It sort of worked for him. Of course, he’s pretty lean already. I need to make it part of my …

May 24, 2023: Generative Fill Rands in Repose has a post all about the latest beta for Photoshop called “Generative Fill.” His example is pretty wild. It drew the goddamn bike. …

May 24, 2023: Simply the Best Tina Turner, the ’Queen of Rock ‘n’ Roll’ noted for a multi-genre mastery that propelled her to massive pop hits in the 80s, is dead at 83. Her …

May 24, 2023: Star Trek: Strange New Worlds | Season 2 Official Trailer Paramount Plus just dropped the official trailer for Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 2. I don’t know about you but I am really excited to see …

May 24, 2023: The Books of No Excuses CJ Chilvers, writing at his site, dropped a bomb. The truth is: we all have books that are already written…somewhere. They live in our blogs, social …

May 23, 2023: The Flash — Final Trailer The Flash dropped its final trailer and it looks amazing.

May 23, 2023: Twitter Is a Far-Right Social Network Charlie Warzel, writing for The Atlantic, has a story that most everyone with half a brain already knows. Twitter has evolved into a platform that is …

May 21, 2023: Foo Fighters Reveal New Drummer Josh Freese Charu Sinha, writing for Vulture, has the story on the newest Foo Fighter, Josh Freese. The band announced the news during the Foo Fighters: Preparing …

May 21, 2023: Sunday Compass, 7 Nicholas Bate: Head in the direction of… Love Effectiveness Profitability Wellness Creativity Music Mountains & Coast And things will improve.

May 20, 2023: Five Reasons Why Fringe Was a Dark Warning For Our Future I was a big fan of Fringe when it was on. I haven’t watched any episodes since they aired, but I know I can drop in on them anytime. This …

May 20, 2023: More is More Seth Godin: More hope. More health. More security. More innovation. More breakthroughs. More connection. More creation. More joy. Read the rest.

May 19, 2023: Joaquin's First School Shooting This is one of the most biting commentary on school shootings I’ve ever seen. Patricia Oliver lost her son, 17-year-old Joaquin Oliver, in a …

May 19, 2023: Willson Contreras Against Kenley Jansen Jomboy breaks down a fun moment between St. Louis Cardinals catcher Wilson Contreras and Boston Red Sox pitcher Kenley Jansen. Contreras messed with …

May 19, 2023: The Four Freedoms, According to Republicans Jamelle Bouie, writing for The New York Times, takes a look at the legislation that Republicans around the country are pushing and, in the style of …

May 18, 2023: The Final “Voyage” of the Galactic Starcruiser The Galactic Starcruiser hotel never made sense to me. Obviously, it didn’t connect with enough people. I’d do a Star Wars hotel if it was just …

May 18, 2023: Killers of the Flower Moon — Official Teaser Trailer AppleTV dropped a teaser trailer for the next great Scorsese film, Killers of the Flower Moon. Martin Scorsese has a long history with Robert De Niro …

May 18, 2023: Neil Gaiman New College Alt-Grad Speech 2023 Neil Gaiman, Author and Professor of the Arts at Bard, addresses New College of Florida Students, who organized their own Alt-Graduation Ceremony in …

May 17, 2023: Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One | Official Trailer This trailer looks great. According to the official plot synopsis, Tom Cruise’s Ethan Hunt and the IMF crew are tasked with “track[ing] down a …

May 17, 2023: The Creator - Official Teaser The synopsis for The Creator illuminates more of the plot we see in the trailer. Apparently the movie is about the following: Amidst a future war …

May 16, 2023: The Importance of Religion in the Lives of Americans is Shrinking Religion’s importance is shrinking. Good. The report, titled "Religion and Congregations in a Time of Social Upheaval," surveyed more than 6,600 …

May 15, 2023: What will replace the International Space Station? It will be a sad day when the ISS heads to Point Nemo. What’s the replacement?

May 15, 2023: Ryuichi Last Playlist In preparation for his demise, the great composer and musician Ryuichi Sakamoto—who died of cancer in March at age 71—prepared a playlist for his own …

May 14, 2023: Burning Down the House David Roth, writing at Defector, has been thinking about Twitter. Because Twitter is so big and open-ended, and because it is a product of the …

May 14, 2023: Sunday, 7 Nicholas Bate – Know when enough is enough. Of anything: salted caramel and chocolate tart, push-ups and ‘success’. Sometimes you can ignore the …

May 13, 2023: Doctor Who in 2023 Doctor Who returns later this year for its 60th anniversary with three special episodes. Special One: THE STAR BEAST Special Two: WILD BLUE YONDER …

May 13, 2023: Saturday, 4 Nicholas Bate – Coffee brewed. Pencil paused. Sun rose. Thoughts tumbled.

May 11, 2023: Foundation — Season 2 Official Teaser I was generally pleased with the first season of Foundation. It helps to lean into the “adaptation” part of the adapted from Isaac …

May 10, 2023: Dooce, RIP Sad news. “The pioneering mommy blogger Heather Armstrong, who laid bare her struggles as a mother and her battles with depression and alcoholism on …

May 9, 2023: Alice Cooper

May 9, 2023: Donald Trump liable for sexual abuse and defamation in E. Jean Carroll case In the civil case brought by E. Jean Carroll, a jury took only 2.5 hours to find that Donald Trump sexually abused Carroll and later publicly defamed …

May 9, 2023: There is No Middle Wil Wheaton, writing on his site, has a long essay about our current political climate. Remember how much fun it was to harmlessly TP your friends’ …

May 8, 2023: Oppenheimer | New Trailer Finally: a full-length trailer for Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer. Definitely one of the summer movies I’m interested in seeing this summer.

May 7, 2023: Happy Mother's Day

May 6, 2023: If Rammstein wrote ‘Every Breath You Take’ Moonic Productions puts out some amazing videos. I like a lot of his stuff (such as this one, this one, and, of course, this one), but the If …

May 4, 2023: Illinois to Become First State to Ban Book Bans Book Riot has the story. The Illinois Senate has passed HB 2789, a bill whose terms dictate that state funding from public or school libraries that …

May 3, 2023: Dune Part Two Here’s the first trailer for the second part of Denis Villeneuve’s Dune. The delivery of “May thy knife chip then shatter” is perfection. I am looking …

May 2, 2023: Magic A group of real-life scientists at the RIKEN Interdisciplinary Theoretical and Mathematical Sciences in Japan have identified a new quantum property …

May 2, 2023: The Hollywood Writers’ Strike Explained After weeks of negotiations, for the first time in 15 years, the Writers Guild of America has officially gone on strike. Dan Casey breaks down …

May 1, 2023: ‘Collectively, really bad baseball’ Katie Woo, writing for The Athletic, outlines just how bad the St Louis Cardinals were in April. Lots of quotes from players and managers, but this is …

Apr 30, 2023: Mike Shannon, RIP Simply one of the voices in my head when I think about St. Louis Cardinals baseball. A sad day.

Apr 30, 2023: Andor Scripts Journalist Jeff Goldsmith, who attended the Disney+ series’ Emmy FYC event, is reporting that Tony Gilroy, the Andor creator, showrunner, and …

Apr 27, 2023: All the Enterprises John de Lancie, the incredible actor behind the mischievous character Q in Star Trek and Picard, offered a wonderful tour inside the bridge of every …

Apr 19, 2023: Foo Fighters - "Rescued" One of the most important Foo Fighters’ songs in a long time. Massive. Plus, the announcement of a new album, But Here We Are.

Apr 18, 2023: Fox News Lost the Lawsuit but Won the War David A. Graham, writing for The Atlantic, has the story regarding the Dominion Voting Systems lawsuit, and it’s a big one. Fox News has agreed …

Apr 14, 2023: My High-Flying Life as a Corporate Spy Who Lied His Way to the Top This story should be a movie.

Apr 11, 2023: Substack reportedly in financial trouble I had a Substack email for a bit. It was easy to use but lacked a lot of the functionality I wanted. It also looked so restrictive—everybody’s …

Apr 10, 2023: Is the GOP becoming the American fascist party? The whole piece is good, but this is the main point: We are witnessing the logical culmination of win-at-any-cost Trump Republican politics — …

Apr 9, 2023: Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny - Official Trailer #2 Here’s official trailer #2 for Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny. I have high hopes. Probably misguided.

Apr 8, 2023: Mötley Crüe Guitarist’s Lawsuit Says He Was Kicked Out Mötley Crüe guitarist Mick Mars has filed a lawsuit against his former bandmates, accusing them of forcing him out of the band and keeping him from …

Apr 6, 2023: We Finally Know the Case Against Trump, and It Is Strong From the article: Whatever happens next, one thing is clear: Mr. Trump cannot persuasively argue he is being singled out for some unprecedented theory …

Apr 5, 2023: Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse - Official Trailer #2 Here’s official trailer #2 for Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse. This will be the movie that gets me to go to an actual theater to see it.

Apr 4, 2023: A Return to the Presence of Love What a wonderful post from Chaz Ebert.

Apr 3, 2023: Let's Go For A Walk 4k POV walks , no commentary. Tokyo. London. New York. Paris. Sydney. Mumbai. Hong Kong. Bangkok. Rome. Vienna. Seoul. Buenos Aires. Santiago. …

Apr 2, 2023: Escape Nicholas Bate: Into a book. A novel of a different world. An explanation of something new. Escape from the busyness for a while. Good advice.

Apr 1, 2023: GPT-4 is not AI. Stop calling it that. Kevin Drum: For all the good it will do, I would like to remind everyone yet again that GPT-4 is not artificial intelligence. Neither is anything …

Mar 31, 2023: Ron DeSantis Got Played by Disney Disney did all of this out in the open after published notices and at public hearings. The Florida GOP is sloppy and incompetent. The people who run …

Mar 29, 2023: Welcome to Brandon Sanderson's Fantasy Empire I have never read a Sanderson book, but I admire what he’s accomplished. The piece also casually mentions that he wrote twelve novels before one …

Mar 28, 2023: Giving Up the Ghostwriter Not much of a ghost if she sucked this bad at stealing passages for books. Also, I can’t believe the publishers of these books did not find this …

Mar 27, 2023: Flowful Flowful is a wonderful site that plays procedurally generated (everlasting) ambient music in your browser while you work, surf the web, or simply …

Mar 25, 2023: The Age of Average Cars, coffee shops, book covers, cosmetics — everything embraces the same Instagram aesthetic.

Mar 24, 2023: Brie Larson Refuses to Stick to Hollywood’s Script I’ve always found her to be super interesting.

Mar 23, 2023: KISS Biopic Chronicling Band’s Early Years Coming to Netflix in 2024 Apparently, there’s a KISS biopic on the horizon. If it’s as good as the silly Motley Crue one, it should do well and probably bump up the …

Mar 22, 2023: Everything is a Remix Kirby Ferguson has released the final and “definitive” full-length version of his fantastic Everything is a Remix video series. Memes are remixing. …

Mar 21, 2023: Milton Catch vs. Bradley Connor Milton making plays in left!

Mar 20, 2023: Focus Rebecca Toh: Our brain craves focus. When it is focused, it is happy, still, powerful. But a focused brain is a rarity in today’s world. What do you …

Mar 18, 2023: Bono and The Edge: Tiny Desk Concert The most recognizable half of U2 made the trip to the NPR offices to perform a Tiny Desk Concert recently. Accompanied by the Duke Ellington School of …

Mar 17, 2023: The Nuno Bettencourt Solo Everyone is Talking About Rick Beato reviews Nuno Bettencourt’s INSANE solo from Extreme’s new single “Rise.” It’s incredible. The best solo …

Mar 16, 2023: Ben Affleck on ‘Air,’ New CEO Gig and Those Memes: “I Am Who I Am” Lexy Perez writes a profile of Ben Affleck. It’s not bad. So if DC came to you now and said, “Do you want to direct something?” I would not …

Mar 15, 2023: The Brandon Miller Situation Is Completely Grotesque Writing for New York Magazine, Will Leitch has a take on the Brandon Miller situation. At the risk of sounding histrionic, it is downright ghastly …

Mar 14, 2023: Aaron Judge and Paul Goldschmidt and the day they spent together Chris Kirschner, Andy McCullough and Brendan Kuty, writing for The Athletic, has a cool story about Aaron Judge and Paul Goldschmidt hanging out in …

Mar 11, 2023: The Hierarchy of Productivity Shawn Blanc: Least Important: Tips and tricks and hacks and shortcuts. Very Important: Habits and routines. Your daily actions and behavior. Your …

Mar 10, 2023: What Makes Poker Face a Triumph Spencer Kornaber, writing for The Atlantic, has a great in-depth story on the success of Poker Face. The brutality contained in Poker Face’s 10 …

Mar 9, 2023: Just a Reminder... For any who believe anything Fox news or any of their hosts tell or show them, the hosts themselves are now on public record not only telling you it’s …

Mar 7, 2023: How Shaquille O'Neal Made Himself Bigger Than Ever Will Leitch, writing for Inc magazine, has a business oriented profile of Shaquille O’Neal. And to be sure, O'Neal's approach to business, at …

Mar 6, 2023: Rooted in the Game My friend Joe created the graphic and photography for this profile of Illinois Basketball player Coleman Hawkins. I know Coleman wants to play in the …

Mar 6, 2023: A Powerful Message Arnold Schwarzenegger has a powerful message for those who have gone down a path of hate.

Mar 5, 2023: Watch Jon Stewart's epic takedown of Second Amendment absolutist Rep. Nathan Dahm Is it epic? Well, yes. Sort of. Stewart does what most Americans want done to our politicians and leaders who have stupid ideas–call them out on …

Mar 2, 2023: ICON Collective launches to strengthen Illini NIL effort Jeremy Warner, writing for Illini Inquirer, has the story about the brand new NIL collective for Illinois Athletics, ICON. ICON Collective is Illinois …

Mar 1, 2023: KISS Announces Their Final Concert Ever Will Be in 2023 KISS was on The Howard Stern Show and announced their final concert. There’s one more show in November in Rosemont that I kind of want to go to, …

Feb 28, 2023: The Baseball Clock Is Good Will Leitch, writing for New York Magazine, has a story about how great the pitch clock has been for MLB. This year, pitchers have 15 seconds to …

Feb 27, 2023: A Chatbot Is Secretly Doing My Job Ryan Bradley, writing for The Atlantic, outlines how he’s using AI to generate copy for work. I have a part-time job that is quite good, except …

Feb 26, 2023: The Case For Shunning This is one of the best articles I’ve read on this subject.

Feb 25, 2023: Paul Stanley and His Paintings Jim Ryan, writing for Forbes, has an interesting story on Paul Stanley and why he started painting. I really like his abstracts. I really hate his …

Feb 22, 2023: This Is What You'll Pay For Jaime Brooks has an incredibly in-depth look at music today, what it will become tomorrow, and how we will consume it. I don’t like his …

Feb 17, 2023: John Wick: Chapter 4 Here’s the final trailer for John Wick: Chapter 4. Looks as amazing as the previous three installments. What a cool world.

Feb 16, 2023: World Series champion, TV analyst Tim McCarver dies at 81 Tim McCarver has died. I will miss hearing his voice and his insight.

Feb 14, 2023: America’s unique, enduring gun problem, explained Li Zhou, Nicole Narea, Ian Millhiser, and Cameron Peters, writing for Vox, has a story on the gun problem in America. Call me cynical, but nothing is …

Feb 13, 2023: Future Letter Future Letter is a website that allows users to write a letter to their future selves. The website has a simple design. Just type your message, select …

Feb 13, 2023: Gods and Monsters James Gunn shares his vision for the future of the DC Universe and the upcoming slate from DC Studios. I wish him all the luck in the world.

Feb 12, 2023: Just Checks Shawn Blanc with some good ideas: Here are a few alternatives to what I call the “Just Checks”. Scroll through your Day One timeline and read a …

Feb 12, 2023: The Flash - Official Trailer The Flash – Official Trailer is here. It looks good. Even though Ezra Miller is problematic, I’m pretty hyped for this one. The Flash is all …

Feb 9, 2023: ChatGPT is a Blurry JPEG of the Web Ted Chiang explains how ChatGPT is better understood as a lossy compression algorithm: Imagine what it would look like if ChatGPT were a lossless …

Feb 9, 2023: Burt Bacharach, visionary pop composer, has died at 94 Elizabeth Blair, writing for NPR, has the obituary of Burt Bacharach. So many songs. What a body of work. My favorite is “What the World Needs …

Feb 8, 2023: Behind the Essence of Matthew Mayer Joey Wagner, writing for the Illini Inquirer, has a well-written profile on one of the most interesting dudes in college basketball and one heck of a …

Feb 7, 2023: Critical Ignoring Ralph Hertwig, Stephan Lewandowsky, Anastasia Kozyreva, and Sam Wineburg have an interesting article in The Conversation. I’d never heard of …

Feb 5, 2023: 54 Small, Nice Things To Do for Yourself The editors at Fatherly made a list of things every father should do for themselves. It’s important to spend a little time every day attending to …

Feb 4, 2023: The Big Hollywood Quiz This Saturday Night Live sketch was on point. Everybody remembers the finale of _MAS*H _and All About Eve, but we don’t share those experiences …

Feb 3, 2023: The Multi-Faceted Genius of Drummer Stewart Copeland Brandon Toews of Drumeo took a deep dive into the incredible, multi-faceted genius of legendary drummer [Stewart Copeland](The Genius Of Stewart …

Feb 1, 2023: The GOP is Just Obnoxious David Frum, writing in The Atlantic, thinks the GOP is obnoxious. I believe Frum is spot-on here. It will take a transformative candidate to really …

Jan 28, 2023: De-Aging for the Super Wealthy Ashlee Vance, writing for Bloomberg, has a story about Bryan Johnson (no, not the one from AC/DC), who made $800 million in cash by selling his …

Jan 27, 2023: Happy Birthday, Katie

Jan 25, 2023: The Best Time to Own a Domain Was 20 Years Ago; The Second Best Time Is Today Jim Nielsen on the best time to own a domain. That is why owning a domain (and publishing your content there) is like planting a tree: it’s value that …

Jan 23, 2023: Chip Caray, New Cardinals Broadcaster Katie Woo and David O’Brien, writing in The Athletic, has the story on Chip Caray joining the announcing team for the St. Louis Cardinals. …

Jan 22, 2023: David Sedaris on Word Choice Humorist/National Treasure David Sedaris went on CBS Sunday Morning to share his thoughts on “irritating word choices” like being called …

Jan 20, 2023: Happy Birthday, Paul Stanley Still a legend.

Jan 14, 2023: Record-Setting Daredevil Robbie Knievel Dead at 60 Robbie Knievel has died. I grew up idolizing Evel Knievel and always thought Robbie was the best extension of what I loved as a kid. My favorite jump …

Jan 12, 2023: Is This The End for Third-Party Twitter Clients? Twitter’s API, the data interface that allows third-party apps and websites to fetch tweets and post new ones, died mysteriously right before I …

Jan 6, 2023: The Republican Clown Show is Scary, not Funny. I wish I could muster much energy to write about the clown show currently happening and has been happening for several days now in the United States …

Jan 5, 2023: My Homescreen 2023 I always find it fascinating how others set up their iPhones. Do they use widgets? Are they minimalist, or do they just have a springboard of icons in …

Jan 4, 2023: Foundation — Official Season 2 Sneak Peek Here’s a sneak peek at season two of Foundation. I generally liked the first season even though I don’t think it uses it’s source …

Jan 3, 2023: The Reaction to Damar Hamlin’s Collapse Represents Progress I didn’t see it live. My brother texted me to let me know something happened. I flipped over to the coverage and eventually watched a replay of …

Jan 2, 2023: The Expanding Dark Forest and Generative AI This essay by Maggie Appleton foresees AI such as ChatGPT and others will consume the internet with “content” that no one will be able to …

Dec 31, 2022: Bring Back Personal Blogging Monique Judge has a few interesting ideas about bringing back blogging. Watching the demise of Twitter under the helm of Elon Musk has made me …

Dec 30, 2022: Sting Rounds the Bases Cameron Hawkins, writing for The Ringer, takes a nice look back at Sting’s wrestling career. A well-written piece.

Dec 29, 2022: Brazilian soccer legend Pelé dies at 82 Pelé has sadly passed away. I have never been much of a soccer/football fan. However, growing up I loved the movie Escape to Victory. I have no idea …

Dec 28, 2022: Life Lessons for 2023 Jason Kottke pointed me to Yung Pueblo’s list of life lessons from 2022 that he’s bringing into the new year. So good.

Dec 27, 2022: 2022 in 7 Minutes This video, which lasts just seven minutes, examines the good, bad, and ugly that defined 2022.

Dec 25, 2022: Merry Christmas, 2022 The most difficult part of life isn’t getting what you want, it’s wanting what you already have.

Dec 22, 2022: How do you survive in college basketball these days? Think like an ex-juco coach Brian Hamilton, writing for The Athletic, has a great story on Brad Underwood and the advantages of being a former JUCO coach in the NIL era. It’s …

Dec 21, 2022: Make Fewer Small Decisions Shawn Blanc on decision fatigue: You and I only have so much willpower, decision-making ability, and/or creative imagination throughout the day. Try …

Dec 17, 2022: Doctor Who's Stylish Fifteenth Doctor Introducing the Doctor and Ruby Sunday, played by Ncuti Gatwa and Millie Gibson ❤️❤️➕🟦 #DoctorWho pic.twitter.com/x1pUBGAPPN — Doctor Who …

Dec 16, 2022: Weirdest Sports Moments of 2022 The weirdest sports moments of 2022. Hilarious. Across the board.

Dec 15, 2022: Trump Selling NFTs Molly White of Web3 Is Going Just Great had the right take on Trump's "major" announcement" Trump supporters got all excited when Trump posted on …

Dec 13, 2022: Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse Official Trailer Here’s the trailer for Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse. They just nailed the tone and aesthetic with these Spider-Verse movies. The first …

Dec 12, 2022: Every Star Wars movie and TV show, ranked Joshua Rivera, Pete Volk, and the Polygon Staff, writing for, you guessed it, Polygon, created a ranking of the best Star Wars movies and TV. I …

Dec 11, 2022: In The Long Run, We Are All Dead David Roth has an extended essay about Major League Baseball’s free agency. There are three types of Major League Baseball teams where free …

Dec 10, 2022: Good Stories Seth Godin on stories and how they relate to facts. The thing is that facts almost never get in the way of a good story. Because a good story feels …

Dec 10, 2022: The Choice The Choice is a three-minute video from Project Better Self. Small choices become actions, actions become habits, and habits become our way of life. …

Dec 9, 2022: The Game’s Afoot Ken White, writing for The Atlantic sums up your weekend read: The president said on Twitter that Friday’s news “totally clears the President. Thank …

Dec 8, 2022: Ain't Talkin' 'bout Feliz Navidad José Van Haliano - “Ain’t Talkin' ‘bout Feliz Navidad” So good. The best mashups on the internet. That last …

Dec 5, 2022: Start Small Shawn Blanc on creating habits. When you begin a new habit and you’ve started taking action, only commit to it for 30 days or so. And then commit for …

Dec 3, 2022: Santa visits Horizon Hobby Headquarters I wrote this for Horizon Hobby, and I can be seen in a couple of shots.

Dec 2, 2022: Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny Here’s the teaser trailer for Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny. Honestly, I wasn’t sure about this movie and now color me excited. My …

Dec 1, 2022: See You On The Other Side I’m taking a sabbatical from posting on Twitter for December. I still like using and reading Twitter, but I’m not sure I want to remain …

Nov 30, 2022: Christine McVie, Hitmaker for Fleetwood Mac, Is Dead at 79 Christine McVie has sadly passed away. She leaves a legacy of amazing songs. I love so much of her writing, but “Songbird” is my favorite …

Nov 30, 2022: The Mystery of the Vanishing Blockbuster Jamie Lauren Keiles, writing for The New York Times, has a piece on Avatar. A franchise is an ecosystem oriented toward an infinite horizon, in which …

Nov 28, 2022: Lux Æterna Metallica’s official music video for “Lux Æterna,” from the album 72 Seasons available April 14th, 2023. I’m not a massive Metallica fan, …

Nov 26, 2022: The Liquid Death Story I love this marketing masterclass video that CNBC has put together. Liquid Death founder and CEO Mike Cessario spent years figuring out how to make …

Nov 21, 2022: Twitter and Me I was never on MySpace. I barely use Facebook. I was on Tumblr, but deleted before the takeover. My Instagram has eight posts. I am never going to …

Nov 20, 2022: The Lovable Douche Anne Victoria Clark, writing for Vulture, has a great profile of AEW wrestler, Maxwell Jacob Friedman (a.k.a. MJF). In the world of professional …

Nov 18, 2022: Detonation by Design Ian Douglass, writing for The Ringer, has a great profile on Tony Khan and AEW. I was lucky enough to interview Mr. Khan several years ago, right when …

Nov 16, 2022: Back to the Moon Writing for The Atlantic, Marina Koren wonders where the fanfare has gone for the first uncrewed trip to the moon. She has a point, but I’m …

Nov 14, 2022: Action Brings Clarity Shawn Blanc on action: Clarity comes through action and experience. Thus, you should focus on getting started and taking action more than you focus on …

Nov 12, 2022: John Lewis & Partners | Christmas Ad 2022 British department store John Lewis, known for its wonderfully creative annual Christmas advertisements, shared their heartwarming video for Christmas …

Nov 11, 2022: Kevin Conroy, RIP Kevin Conroy, known for his iconic performance as the Caped Crusader over a range of media starting with Batman: The Animated Series, has passed away …

Nov 10, 2022: Inside the Twitter Meltdown Casey Newton and Zoë Schiffer, writing on Platformer: Musk’s whim-based approach to product development, his rapidly depleting executive ranks, and …

Nov 10, 2022: Ranking the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Inductees Bill Wyman (not the one from The Rolling Stones) has ranked all 240 artists in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame for Vulture. He’s wrong, of course. …

Nov 9, 2022: Normal Candidates Writing for New York Magazine Intelligencer, Jonathan Chiat has a few thoughts on the midterm elections. Republicans have been trying to create an …

Nov 3, 2022: Quantity and Quality Nicholas Bate has a thought about writing that I love: Write, write, write. Then edit, edit, edit. Out of quantity you can produce quality.

Nov 2, 2022: Jony Ive on Life After Apple I have always found Jony Ive among the more exciting creatives working today. It is his vision that catapulted Apple to the level it enjoys. This Wall …

Nov 1, 2022: Tweet, Tweet I can tell already that Elon Musk owning Twitter and trying to use it to make money is going to be a real thing that people will talk about online for …

Oct 27, 2022: Musky Twitter The CEO of SpaceX and Tesla, who previously criticized Twitter for restricting free speech, outlined his motivations for buying the company in a …

Oct 26, 2022: The New DC Studios Borys Kit and Aaron Couch, writing for The Hollywood Reporter, has the scoop on the new DC Studios. Gunn will focus on the creative side of things, …

Oct 25, 2022: Stillness Before the Storm I apologize to Rod Stewart, but it’s late October, and I should be back in school. And when I say “back in school,” I totally mean back writing on …

Oct 23, 2022: The Disgust Is The Product A paragraph in David Roth’s Defector piece encapsulates this moment in time and describes what is happening right now in crystal clear imagery. …

Oct 22, 2022: KISS Performs Secret Philip Morris Concert In Austin, Texas According to Robert Moseley, who was in attendance, on October 22, 2022, KISS played a secret show for Philip Morris International, the largest …

Oct 14, 2022: Puddles Pity Party - WAR PIGS Puddles Pity Party sings “WAR PIGS.” What an incredible rendition.

Oct 12, 2022: Josh Whitman's Tour of Ubben Basketball Complex Illinois athletics director Josh Whitman gives the media a tour of the almost-complete renovation of the Ubben Basketball Complex.

Oct 9, 2022: 1-15 Writing for The Athletic, Katie Woo explains how the Cardinals were eliminated. Their best two position players and two top National League MVP …

Oct 2, 2022: The Battery and the Bat pic.twitter.com/mkgtgHa3yM — St. Louis Cardinals (@Cardinals) October 2, 2022 We will likely never see something like this again.

Sep 29, 2022: The Friendly Confines To the best fans in baseball, You make Wrigley Field the Friendly Confines. pic.twitter.com/Gtdr3boTXH — Chicago Cubs (@Cubs) September 30, 2022 This …

Sep 26, 2022: Batman Speaking with Bruce Wayne Every Batman actor should have to audition with this scene. pic.twitter.com/jzqKqVo9QO — Bob Cesca (@bobcesca_go) September 26, 2022 I don’t …

Sep 24, 2022: Prairie Fire

Sep 10, 2022: How "Spider-Verse" Forced Animation to Evolve The look of Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse was like nothing before it. It certainly broke away from the Pixar style. Vox breaks down the evolution …

Sep 2, 2022: Mountaintop Will Leitch, writing in his newsletter, had a profound paragraph about sports. One of the best things about sports is that it gives us simplicity and …

Sep 2, 2022: Sky Fire

Sep 2, 2022: The Last Minute Seth Godin: If you do anything at the last minute that takes more than a minute, you’re not organizing your project properly. The last minute is not …

Sep 1, 2022: Barney Depending on when you grew up, Barney was either a caveman, a dinosaur, an alcoholic, or a womanizer.

Aug 31, 2022: Republicans in key races scrap online references to Trump, abortion Colby Itkowitz writing in The Washington Post, outlines how Republicans in swing districts are freaking out. At least nine Republican congressional …

Aug 30, 2022: Do Less Shawn Blanc on doing less. You don’t have to take action on every idea. You can make a decision without knowing every last detail and option. It’s …

Aug 30, 2022: J.K. Rowling’s New Book Just So Happens to Feature a Character Persecuted Over Transphobia Cheyenne Roundtree, writing in Rolling Stone, talks about the new book by J. K. Rowling and the interesting premise it features. Rowling’s new novel …

Aug 30, 2022: Mikhail Gorbachev, dead at 91 Mikhail Gorbachev, whose efforts to reform the Soviet Union only hastened its political collapse, is dead at 91. At least he tried.

Aug 29, 2022: It Happened on Medium: The First 10 Years The Medium staff looks back at the first ten years of the platform. Medium turned 10 this month. A decade ago, we built a place on the internet for …

Aug 29, 2022: WEIRD: The Al Yankovic Story Trailer WEIRD: The Al Yankovic Story trailer. I had no idea the Weird Al Yankovic movie was a parody of biopic movies. I mean, I should have known, but after …

Aug 27, 2022: Bad Defenses and Worse Lawyering Legal Eagle Devin Stone explains in language that everyone can understand how much trouble Donald Trump is in and what his lawyers are doing wrong. I …

Aug 26, 2022: Sunset Over the Pond

Aug 25, 2022: 10-Minute Head Start Niklas Göke woke up early and then blogged about it. It’s kind of genius.

Aug 22, 2022: The Ongoing Influence of QAnon and Its Self-Made Mythologies Mike Rothschild, writing for Lithub, has a deep dive into conspiracy theories and the creation of QAnon. In the post-Trump world, the QAnon movement …

Aug 21, 2022: Styx "Renegade" - But the Lyrics are AI Generated Images This video is interesting. Not great. Not amaze-balls. Just interesting. Like a thought experiment. Great song, though.

Aug 20, 2022: Will Sandman Get a Second Season? Because Sandman is a really expensive show. And for Netflix to release the money to let us make another season we have to perform incredibly well. So …

Aug 19, 2022: Republicans Are America’s Problem Charles M. Blow, writing an opinion piece in The New York Times, has an interesting premise: Republicans are a problem. He starts by lamenting Liz …

Aug 17, 2022: The “Real” Home-Run Record Is 73, Not 61 Will Leitch, writing for New York Magazine Intelligencer, has a strong opinion on performance-enhancing drugs and Major League Baseball. He invokes …

Aug 15, 2022: Breaking Down My Favorite Journey Song Rick Beato is just the best at explaining why particular songs are amazing.

Aug 13, 2022: Quentin Tarantino’s 40 Favorite Films Few people love movies like Quentin Tarantino loves movies. So, it’s a lot of fun to peruse the list of his favorite 40 films put together by …

Aug 13, 2022: Trump Took Top Secret (and higher) Files from the White House The Wall Street Journal outlined the contents of the boxes the FBI took from Mar-a-Lago on August 8: The Federal Bureau of Investigation agents took …

Aug 10, 2022: Where Is Donald Trump Going to Be in Five Years? Will Leitch asks the question: Where is Donald Trump going to be in five years? I find myself fascinated with that central question: Where will Donald …

Aug 8, 2022: Olivia Newton-John, RIP Olivia Newton-John has sadly passed away. She was one of my childhood crushes. Sad. What better way to celebrate her life and career than to revisit …

Aug 7, 2022: Making Meatloaf

Aug 3, 2022: Vin Scully, RIP Richard Goldstein, writing for The New York Times, had this to say about one of the greatest to have ever done it. Vin Scully, who was celebrated for …

Aug 2, 2022: Countdown with Keith Olbermann Keith Olbermann is back, again, this time with a version of his old MSNBC show “Countdown,” in podcast form. He’s calling …

Jul 31, 2022: Nichelle Nichols, Trailblazing ‘Star Trek’ Actress, Dead at 89 Nichelle Nichols has died. My only encounter with Nichelle Nichols involved standing in line to get a few autographs from Star Trek actors at a comic …

Jul 28, 2022: Ephraim Beach, Door County, WI

Jul 19, 2022: Quadball Quadball is the new name of the sport formerly known as Quidditch. If you are a muggle, Quidditch is the magical game played by witches and wizards in …

Jul 19, 2022: What Happened When A Young Traveler Bumped Into David Bowie Teenager Brad Miele spent the summer of 1984 exploring Europe by rail. One night in London, Miele says he unexpectedly crossed paths with cult …

Jul 10, 2022: The Future of Star Wars FilmJoy is awesome.

Jul 7, 2022: James Caan, RIP James Caan has passed away. From The Godfather to Elf. What an amazing career.

Jun 30, 2022: Go to Jail It’s a good day for bad people to go to jail.. R. Kelly has been sentenced to 30 years in prison for federal racketeering and sex …

Jun 30, 2022: Robot Umpires Buried in an ESPN story on Major League Baseball commissioner Rob Manfred is something I’ve been screaming about for years—robot …

Jun 30, 2022: USC and UCLA Join the Big Ten The Big Ten announced today that the University of Southern California and the University of California, Los Angeles will become conference members …

Jun 29, 2022: Interesting CJ Chilvers believes you are more interesting than you think. He longs for the “generalist” era of blogging and yearns to bring it …

Jun 27, 2022: Instagram and Facebook remove posts offering abortion pills Amanda Seitz, writing for the Associated Press, has the scoop on Meta’s haphazard enforcement of it’s policies regarding abortion pills, …

Jun 25, 2022: Blade Runner at 40 Tom Ward, writing for Esquire, does a deep dive into the movie as it celebrates 40 years. Visually and sonically assured, intelligent and moody, there …

Jun 23, 2022: Patient Number 9 I’m glad Ozzy is still making music. Also, yes that’s Jeff Beck.

Jun 23, 2022: The Great Divergence Ronald Brownstein, writing in The Atlantic, believes it might be time to start considering, in the wake of Roe v. Wade being overturned, America as …

Jun 22, 2022: Writing Essays Here’s a good quote I found that I wanted to keep: The best way to write an essay is to sit with a blank piece of paper and a pencil. Then set …

Jun 22, 2022: A Lesser Minimalism CJ Chilvers writes about a lesser minimalism. Mainly focused on the “why” behind our clutter and dealing with it before it’s too late. Our attachment …

Jun 22, 2022: Cardinals vs Brewers at American Family Field Eddie caught a Nolan Arenado ball, which he threw into the stands between innings.

Jun 19, 2022: Homelander is Just Donald Trump Justin Carter, writing at Gizmodo, has a story I can’t quite believe. You can say a lot of things about Amazon’sThe Boys, but you can’t exactly …

Jun 16, 2022: Prince of the House

Jun 15, 2022: Biden Is Too Old to Run for President Mark Leibovich, writing in The Atlantic, outlines why President Biden shouldn’t run in 2024. Let me put this bluntly: Joe Biden should not run for …

Jun 12, 2022: Line Rider Race #2 DoodleChaos brings us a video in which eight Line Riders compete in a race set to the tune of Wagner’s “Ride of the Valkyries.” …

Jun 7, 2022: Black Adam — Official Trailer The latest DC movie, Black Adam, now has an Official Trailer. I’m looking forward to this. It may not be obvious now, but I’m 100% positive this movie …

Jun 6, 2022: Illinois is Finally Recruiting like a Power 5 Program Drew Pastorek, writing for The Champaign Room, noticed something significant. It’s only been about 18 months since Bret Bielema replaced Lovie Smith …

Jun 6, 2022: John Cena is Amazing John Cena meets Misha, a teenager with Down syndrome who fled Ukraine after his home was destroyed. To motivate Misha on their journey to safety, his …

Jun 5, 2022: The To-Do List Will Leitch is one of the most productive people I know. In his Medium column, he outlines what he does in a typical week and how he achieves the …

Jun 4, 2022: Yanks figure out pitcher is tipping his pitches, a breakdown Jomboy is pretty great at these.

Jun 3, 2022: The Other Kind of Dead Time Via Niklas Göke: Robert Greene once told Ryan Holiday that there are two kinds of time: Alive time and dead time. Dead time is when you wait for life …

May 31, 2022: Star Wars: X-Wing Really amazing work.

May 27, 2022: Society I don’t wish to sound apocalyptic about this, but one has the sense that at present our society is simultaneously characterized by wildly …

May 27, 2022: West Coast Eats

May 26, 2022: “Obi-Wan” by John Williams “Obi-Wan” by John Williams. This is glorious. Having John Williams come back to create this theme is just incredible. It is melancholy and …

May 25, 2022: A Culture That Kills Its Children Has No Future Elizabeth Bruenig, writing for The Atlantic, makes an excellent point about gun violence. Then there are some who say that every terrible …

May 25, 2022: Raging Against the Insanity of Guns in America Writing at The Message Box, Dan Pfeiffer thinks there is a path forward after continued deaths by guns. He thinks there must be a continued push to …

May 24, 2022: The Real Reason America Doesn’t Have Gun Control Ronald Brownstein wrote a whole story about gun control for The Atlantic explaining why there’s not really any gun control in this country. …

May 24, 2022: Why We Keep Letting This Happen Ross Barkan, writing for New York Magazine, echoes President Biden’s question, “When in God’s name are we going to stand up to …

May 23, 2022: Pink Glasses Randy Rainbow is a genius.

May 23, 2022: Unfair in my Favor

May 22, 2022: Yadier Molina Pitches the Entire 9th inning for the Cardinals The Pirates are really bad, but this was fun.

May 22, 2022: Zander Moricz Grad Speech This Florida High Schooler was told he couldn’t say gay in his Graduation Speech, so he found a clever workaround. You see, he has curly hair.

May 21, 2022: Pujols Breaks Down His Pitching Performance Hall of Fame… Pitcher?@PujolsFive breaks down his epic performance out of the ‘pen! pic.twitter.com/lHnLTvNHZj — St. Louis Cardinals (@Cardinals) May …

May 21, 2022: The Smallest Viable Audience Seth Godin with some smart insight. The strategy of the smallest viable audience doesn’t let you off the hook-it does the opposite. You don’t get to …

May 17, 2022: Yadier Molina knows what the other team is going to do, a breakdown I could not care less about Shady Rays sunglasses, but the rest of the analysis is spot on.

May 16, 2022: Maximum Clarity Shawn Blanc on focus and decision making. One definition of Focus is “Maximum Clarity”. But, in life, having maximum clarity doesn’t always mean …

May 16, 2022: Misinformation

May 15, 2022: In The Blink Of An Eye: A James Bond Fan Film I can’t believe something like this exists. The George Lazenby bit was incredible. Everyone was having a good time here.

May 15, 2022: Taking a Break from Social Media is Good for You Results of a study that asked participants to take a week-long break from social media find positive effects on well-being depression, and anxiety. …

May 13, 2022: Proof of Life - May 2022

May 12, 2022: Three Steps to Being More Productive Identify what you want to do. Plan a time you will do it. Celebrate that you followed through. (And then, repeat.)

May 11, 2022: This Is Spinal Tap 2 Jordan Moreau, writing for Variety, has the scoop on the sequel to one of the greatest movies of all time, This is Spinal Tap. A sequel is in the …

May 10, 2022: Thinking About Friendships Patrick Rhone has a few thoughts about friendship. This bit got me. Even worse, messaging a friend to get together for no reason at all often doesn’t …

May 7, 2022: Ncuti Gatwa is the Doctor The future is here! Ncuti Gatwa is the Doctor. ❤️❤️➕🟦 #DoctorWho Read more here ➡️ https://t.co/KoxPmoNAdL pic.twitter.com/peKsH6gCjI — Doctor Who …

May 7, 2022: The Puzzle-Box Sci-Fi of Severance Kevin Townsend, Sophie Gilbert, David Sims, and Spencer Kornhaber, writing for The Atlantic, outline what’s great about Severance. It’s …

May 6, 2022: George Pérez My all-time favorite comic book artist has died. George Perez, comic book artist and cornerstone of the industry, has died aged 67. George was …

May 4, 2022: Obi-Wan Kenobi Official Trailer Here’s the official trailer for Obi-Wan Kenobi. This continues to look amazing. May 27 can’t get her fast enough.

May 4, 2022: Wesley Crusher, Time Lord I kinda like the idea of Wesley Crusher as a Time Lord. Imagine if they took the Ben Templesmith and Pia Guerra version of the 13th Doctor and copy …

May 3, 2022: The Story Behind Star Wars Day A simple pun somehow turned into a worldwide celebration of all things Star Wars. It’s futile to try to pinpoint who first made the joke, but …

May 1, 2022: The Quality of your Questions Matter Shawn Blanc reminds us the quality of our questions matter. Perhaps, like me, you grew up being taught that there are no stupid questions, only …

Apr 30, 2022: Brandi Carlile Singing “Love Can Build a Bridge” View this post on Instagram A post shared by Brandi Carlile (@brandicarlile) RIP Naomi Judd

Apr 30, 2022: How to Plan Your Week Per Shawn Blanc’s Twitter: Every Monday I start with this template: • Top 3 projects  • Events or themes each day  …

Apr 30, 2022: Neal Adams, RIP One of the most influential comic book artists of the 20th century, Neal Adams, died at 80. Along with Mike Grell, Carmine Infantino, and Curt Swan, …

Apr 28, 2022: You Don’t Have to Clap Warren Ellis pointed me to this breakdown by Robin Sloan of recent developments with Twitter. It’s a good read, but this bit is the kicker: …

Apr 27, 2022: Mystery Incorporated Mystery Incorporated is the gritty live-action reboot of a beloved children’s animated show that we all deserve.

Apr 26, 2022: Memories of Things Nobody Cares About Will Leitch, in his newsletter, spent most of it focused on his favorite movie of last year, The Worst Person in the World. The movie is about Aksel, …

Apr 25, 2022: Instapaper Triage In a post about a lot of different things, Alan Jacobs slips in a bit about how he uses Instapaper. Whenever I see something online that I think I …

Apr 24, 2022: Elon Musk to Acquire Twitter As it turns out, I was wrong. Elon Musk did, in fact, buy Twitter. I’m still not sure why. Per a press release from Twitter, Elon Musk is in the final …

Apr 23, 2022: Kyle Schwarber Explodes And Gets Ejected Kyle Schwarber, the Phillies, and the Brewers are fed up with Angel Hernandez. This is a really bad call. For a long time, my hot baseball take was …

Apr 22, 2022: Non-Zero Every Day Matt Gemmell has some good advice for writers. It’s a three-step process to eliminate zero days. I have yet to implement it, but I think …

Apr 21, 2022: Corrective Measures Trailer I can’t wait for everyone to meet Payback, Warden Devlin, Officer Brody, and the rest of the inhabitants of San Tiburon.

Apr 20, 2022: The Onion Has Been Permanently Banned from Twitter This is an elite level of satire from The Onion as first reported by Metafilter. I laughed and laughed… Just hours ago, in a sudden, …

Apr 19, 2022: Holoportation According to a recent release from NASA, a NASA doctor appeared as a hologram at the International Space Station for a telemedicine visit with an …

Apr 18, 2022: Sacred Space The Morning News pointed me over to this post by Nick Cave. I liked this bit right here: I came to understand that the sacred space is the …

Apr 17, 2022: Slap bass with Synth Pedal The very talented musician Charles Berthoud hooked up his bass guitar to a synth pedal and proceeded to perform a slap bass-forward heavy metal …

Apr 17, 2022: Thor: Love and Thunder - Official Teaser Here’s the official teaser for Thor: Love and Thunder. Cool reveal at the end.

Apr 17, 2022: Wrod as a Wlohe

Apr 15, 2022: Overhauling DC Entertainment According to Brent Lang, writing at Variety, David Zaslav, the new CEO of the combined Warner Bros. Discovery, is reportedly looking for his version …

Apr 14, 2022: Corrective Measures on Tubi April 29 It's official!!! The @Tubi original Arcana production film "Corrective Measures is releasing on April 29th! 🌟 Who's ready to watch? • • …

Apr 14, 2022: The Strange (but True) History of Easter Stephen Johnson, writing for Lifehacker, has an amusing look into the origins of Easter. Easter is weird. To religious people, it’s the most …

Apr 13, 2022: Elon Musk Offers to Buy Twitter According to a report from Reuters, Elon Musk has offered to buy Twitter for $41.39 billion. Musk, who calls himself a free-speech absolutist, has …

Apr 12, 2022: Movies and Streaming Peter Kafka, writing for Vox, peers into a crystal ball and sees where movie theater experiences and streaming are headed. Going to the movies — with …

Apr 12, 2022: Star Trek: The Next Generation: The Animated Series What if Star Trek: The Next Generation was animated in the 70s instead of produced as live-action a decade later? How fun is this? The attention to …

Apr 11, 2022: Gilbert Gottfried Dead at 67 Gilbert Gottfried, whose amazingly grating voice so perfectly illustrated his abrasive brand of comedy, is dead at 67. “In addition to being …

Apr 11, 2022: Start From Quiet I loved this post from Niklas Göke. How often do you sit in a quiet room, by yourself, before you take the next step? It could be any step: buying …

Apr 10, 2022: They Think Their Hate Makes Them Special John DeVore, writing at his site Humungus, explains the mind of the current Republican Party simply and without any pretension. It is obvious that …

Apr 9, 2022: WATCHTOWER Warren Ellis wrote a new short story entitled WATCHTOWER, and it’s a fun read. Here’s how Ellis pitched it to potential readers: I was …

Apr 6, 2022: Alternate Universes Nicholas Bate on writing: Incredibly, there are whole new alternate universes hidden deep in your brain. Unique to you. Writing will access them. …

Apr 5, 2022: Transforming in the Here and Now Rebecca Toh, writing on her site, explains where she’s at with self-improvement. There is simply no imaginary day in the bright future ahead …

Apr 4, 2022: Now is the New Niklas Goke wrote something worthwhile about “newness” and “nowness.” In Effortless, Greg McKeown muses that …

Apr 4, 2022: Star Trek: The Next Generation Season 8 Honestly, this is what everyone really wanted at the start.

Apr 3, 2022: Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Damn it. I’m going to have to break down and get Paramount+ aren’t I?

Mar 30, 2022: In the Shadow of the Star Wars Kid In 2002, a 15-year-old Quebec boy named Ghyslain Raza filmed himself swinging a golf ball retriever in imitation of Darth Maul’s double-bladed …

Mar 29, 2022: The Slap Trap Clap Dave Pell, the managing editor of the Internet, has had enough: A request from the managing editor to the internet I cover: Stop. Seriously, stop …

Mar 28, 2022: Belo Andre Curbelo has entered the transfer portal. I am not surprised, but I am a little sad. He had one of the best freshman seasons last year and one of …

Mar 27, 2022: Welcome Home pic.twitter.com/Q1CoB8REUW — St. Louis Cardinals (@Cardinals) March 28, 2022 I still can’t quite believe it.

Mar 26, 2022: Will Smith Smacks Chris Rock, a Breakdown Here’s the Jomboy breakdown you didn’t think you needed but will give you all the necessary context for the slap heard ‘round the world at the 2022 …

Mar 25, 2022: Foo Fighters Drummer Taylor Hawkins Dead at 50 Kat Bouza has the story for Rolling Stone: Taylor Hawkins, the jovial, ferocious drummer for Foo Fighters for more than two decades, has died at the …

Mar 23, 2022: The Japanese Sword as the Soul of the Samurai This documentary on the making of Japanese swords, narrated by George Takei, offers a fascinating look at the exhaustive process of forging samurai …

Mar 22, 2022: Jackassery Nebraska Senator Ben Sasse (R), during today’s confirmation hearing for Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson: I think we should …

Mar 21, 2022: Digital Dust Rick Beato plays the demo he made with a country duo, Muddy Magnolia, that was lost to the sands of time, and it sounds like something you should’ve …

Mar 18, 2022: If We’re Back to ‘Normal,’ Why Am I Still So Exhausted All the Time? Dan Sinker, writing for Esquire, wonders what is normal after two years of the pandemic. Going back to normal is the wrong direction anyway. We need …

Mar 17, 2022: Joe Buck and Troy Aikman Become New Voices of Monday Night Football From Derek Volner in the ESPN Press Room: ESPN has signed acclaimed play-by-play commentator Joe Buck and leading football analyst Troy Aikman to …

Mar 16, 2022: Online Roland Synthesizer This is a time killer. In celebration of 50 years, Roland has collaborated with sound designer Yuri Suzuki to create Roland50 Studio, a digital …

Mar 15, 2022: I Need A New Butt I have never heard of I Need a New Butt, but it sounds hilarious and perfectly appropriate for second graders. A young boy suddenly notices a big …

Mar 14, 2022: Scott Hall, RIP Hey…yo. Scott Hall, WWE Hall of Famer and co-founder of pro wrestling’s legendary New World Order faction, died on Monday after being …

Mar 12, 2022: Cardinals Maybe Interested in Albert Pujols Do you want to get Cardinals fans excited? Tell them Pujols is returning to St. Louis to join the Wainwright/Molina farewell tour. At the very least, …

Mar 11, 2022: 3x5 The 3 x 5 life of Patrick Rhone. This is an interesting approach to task management. I’ve always thought his Dash/Plus system was cool. I …

Mar 11, 2022: Friday Night Baseball Somehow, I missed this news from Apple entirely. The Verge outlines the new way for people to watch baseball: During the company’s Peek …

Mar 11, 2022: There Will Be Baseball Let the fun begin! pic.twitter.com/c7KQKSj618 — MLB (@MLB) March 11, 2022 Baseball is back! After 99 days of a lockout on the players, the MLB owners …

Mar 9, 2022: Emilio Delgado, Luis on Sesame Street for 45 Years, Dead at 81 Emilio Delgado, who portrayed singing shop owner Luis Rodriguez on Sesame Street, died in New York. He spent more than half of his life on the show, …

Mar 9, 2022: Star Trek/Wars Teasers New Star Trek and Star Wars television series are coming soon, and their first real teasers have hit the interwebs. Both shows hit their respective …

Mar 8, 2022: Heardle I watched someone else play Wordle and thought a.) This seems like fun and b.) I would suck at this, like really suck. However, I found Heardle which …

Mar 7, 2022: How Did This Many Deaths Become Normal? Ed Yong, writing for The Atlantic, examines the distinct lack of societal change that is occurring after millions have died and nearly a million alone …

Mar 6, 2022: Did Dua Lipa ACTUALLY Plagiarize Levitating? I’m sure you’ve heard Dua Lipa’s song, “Levitating.” It’s super catchy and set some Billboard records. You may have heard a band called …

Mar 6, 2022: Illinois Basketball - Big Ten Champs

Mar 5, 2022: Marketing Designer for Publishing This is a really interesting and useful article: the job of a marketing designer at a book publishing house. It is not book cover design. It is …

Mar 3, 2022: Death Don’t Wait Chris Farren has put together a (mostly) instrumental soundtrack for a Bond-esque spy movie that exists entirely in his head. I love everything about …

Mar 2, 2022: Ted Chiang Last year during the pandemic, I read the two collections by Ted Chiang, Stories of Your Life and Others and Exhalation: Stories. He’s easily one of …

Mar 1, 2022: Falling Asleep to Fake Baseball It looks like there isn’t going to be any Major League Baseball in the foreseeable future, but if you are old enough to remember staying up late with …

Feb 28, 2022: Why Russia Invaded Ukraine RealLifeLore and Open Culture have made a tremendous video explaining everything leading up to the invasion of Ukraine by Russia. Why did Russia …

Feb 27, 2022: Musical Jenga Musical jenga is when strangers on the Internet take turns adding another level of music to each other’s creations. Sometimes they sing …

Feb 26, 2022: Zero to Possible Nicholas Bate gifts us all with a new list: Zero soda; maximum water. Zero in-box; maximum filed to category and action list. Zero lifts/escalator; …

Feb 26, 2022: Rocco in Repose

Feb 24, 2022: Hard Truths Casey Newton wrote a lengthy piece about Donald Trump’s new social media app, Truth Social. It’s really good. What else is there to say …

Feb 24, 2022: Pressure I don’t know about you, but I have a general feeling of helplessness right now, and I don’t like it. I imagine we are all experiencing that same …

Feb 24, 2022: The Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser To be crystal clear, I would never pay $6,000 to pretend to be an inhabitant of the Star Wars universe for two days. Maybe in 1978, but not …

Feb 23, 2022: Hanlon’s Razor From Patrick Rhone: These days, Hanlon’s razor is about the only way I can make sense of the world. Unfortunately, I share this …

Feb 23, 2022: Russia Begins Large-scale Invasion of Ukraine Russia has invaded Ukraine. So far, this has been a conventional war with shelling and missile strikes. I think this is the first major European war …

Feb 23, 2022: Sally Kellerman Dies at 84 Sally Kellerman, best known for her role as Margaret “Hot Lips” Houlihan in M.A.S.H. and Dr. Elizabeth Dehner in the Star Trek episode, “Where No Man …

Feb 22, 2022: The Anti-Trilogy Star Wars YouTube scholar So Uncivilized dives into the sins of the sequel series from The Force Awakens devolving Han Solo into …

Feb 21, 2022: TWOsday It’s TWOsday! Today (February 22, 2022) is both a palindrome and an ambigram in some formats, which is cool. I’m also afraid, 2/22/22 will be …

Feb 20, 2022: A Full Hall of Fame Career Player Away Kevin Wildes has an ice-cold take that should settle the Michael Jordan versus LeBron James GOAT debate once for all. It’s just brilliant. …

Feb 20, 2022: Nightbirde has Passed Nightbirde, who went viral after her performance on America’s Got Talent has died after a cancer battle. Her story and performance of her original …

Feb 20, 2022: The Madison Punchslap Chris Branch, writing The Athletic Pulse newsletter, outlines the mess at the end of the Wisconsin versus Michigan basketball game. In the final …

Feb 19, 2022: If NFTs Were Honest Cracked’s “Roger” is a real straight shooter known for telling it like it is in their Honest Ads series. ​So, …

Feb 18, 2022: Lockout Timing The Athletic has everything the casual professional baseball fan might need to know about the lockout they might have only just started noticing. MLB …

Feb 17, 2022: In the Dark Eliza Strickland and Mark Harris, writing at IEEE Spectrum, outline a trend I never would have thought possible. Hundreds of recipients of retinal …

Feb 17, 2022: Our Country is Filled with Problems; Reading Too Many Books Isn’t One of Them Ryan Holiday has an essay that speaks directly to me personally even though it was written for everyone. America has many problems. Reading too …

Feb 17, 2022: You Need to Be Watching Ayo Dosunmu Kevin O’Connor breaks down why the Bulls rookie’s game is advanced beyond his years, how he fits on this team, and what he needs to do to become a …

Feb 16, 2022: Joel Coen’s The Tragedy of Macbeth, Reviewed by Ethan Coen Jeff Maurer has a fun Substack called I Might Be Wrong, writing humorous essays. He was a former Senior Writer for Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, …

Feb 16, 2022: Thinking About the DH Bernie Miklasz, on his Bern Baby Bern column for Scoops With Danny Mac, has a few smart thoughts about the DH coming to the National League Pitching …

Feb 15, 2022: The Fourth Star Trek Movie is Coming Soon JJ Abrams says a new Star Trek film “with the original cast” will start shooting by the end of the year. — Jason Lynch 🇺🇦 (@jasonlynch) February 15, …

Feb 14, 2022: Metamates Mike Isaac and Sheera Frenkel, reporting for The New York Times, has the most important story of our time: What employees of Meta will now be called …

Feb 14, 2022: Pulling Back the NIL Curtain David Ubben, writing for The Athletic, published a fantastic story about what’s going on behind the scenes at Tennessee, where an in-house …

Feb 13, 2022: Ivan Reitman Dies at 75 Ivan Reitman, director of comedies such as Animal House and Ghostbusters, is dead at 75. Known for bawdy comedies that caught the spirit of their …

Feb 13, 2022: Will He Stay or Will He Go? I don’t really care too much about Sean McVay or the Los Angeles Rams. However, the story about McVay considering retiring at age 36 is …

Feb 12, 2022: It’s the Sweet One I was today years old when I learned Season 1 American Idol runner-up Justin Guarini plays and sings as Lil’ Sweet, the Dr. Pepper commercial …

Feb 11, 2022: Can Rams-Bengals Give the NFL’s TV Ratings a Hollywood Ending? It seems the Super Bowl has not been getting tremendous ratings these last few games. If you’ve been following along this year you might know …

Feb 10, 2022: Star Trek vs Star Wars in the New York Times Crossword Puzzle Caitlin Lovinger, writing for The New York Times, has a breakdown of last Sunday’s New York Times crossword puzzle. The constructor, Stephen …

Feb 9, 2022: My Personality Transplant Olga Khazan, writing in The Atlantic, gave herself three months to change her personality.   I’ve never really liked my personality, …

Feb 9, 2022: The Ultimate Minimalist Phone Greg Morris, writing at his site, thinks he’s figured out the ultimate minimalist phone. SPOILER: it’s a cellular version of the Apple …

Feb 8, 2022: Explaining Russia and Ukraine Here’s what seems like a good “explainer” about what’s going on with Russia and Ukraine. Like you, I have no …

Feb 8, 2022: Obi-Wan Kenobi Release Date The long-awaited Obi-Wan Kenobi series has finally set a release date, one Star Wars fans will recognize. Obi-Wan Kenobi, …

Feb 7, 2022: Douglas Trumbull, Dead at 79 Douglas Trumbull, visual effects visionary, has died at 79. Legendary for his work on 2001: A Space Odyssey (including the Star Gate …

Feb 6, 2022: Why Denmark Is Done With COVID Derek Thompson, writing for The Atlantic, explains Denmark’s decision to lift all COVID restrictions. The author spoke with Michael Bang …

Feb 5, 2022: Nandi Bushell Playing Tom Sawyer Nandi Bushell is a drum prodigy with the most incredible drum covers. This one is for you Professor Peart. I wanted to try a @rush song that would …

Feb 4, 2022: Hot Toddy Since the big snow fall, I’ve shoveled the driveway three times and have finally finished. Each time, I’ve come inside and my amazing …

Feb 3, 2022: The End of the Pandemic is Here M. G. Siegler, writing on his site 500ish, outlines his feeling that we are on the other side of the pandemic. He makes a lot of good points and comes …

Feb 2, 2022: Ayo Dosunmu’s impact on Illinois Basketball Michael Bales, writing for Smile Politely, has a nice retrospective on Dosunmu’s Fighting Illini Basketball career. The whole thing is a nice …

Feb 2, 2022: Ignore Them People sometimes ask me, “Hank, how do you stay hopeful when many people you deeply disagree with are powerful, whiny, and intolerably annoying?” …

Feb 2, 2022: The Worst Day of Mark Zuckerberg’s Reign Kevin T. Dugan, writing for New York Magazine Intelligencer, explains the slide of Facebook. At times, an earnings report causes a stock’s …

Feb 1, 2022: Donald Trump is practically daring prosecutors to indict him Kevin Drum, writing on his site Jabberwoking, marvels at how Donald Trump is out there just incriminating himself. I haven’t written about the …

Feb 1, 2022: The Washington Commanders One legacy. One unified future. We are the Washington Commanders #TakeCommand pic.twitter.com/Eav9NOV5Mm — Washington Commanders (@Commanders) …

Jan 31, 2022: Illinois and the problem with extremely weird circumstances Eamonn Brennan, in The Athletic, has a fascinating look at how the NCAA Tournament committee will look at the resume of the Fighting Illini …

Jan 31, 2022: Tom Brady Retires In a post on Instagram, Brady formally announced his retirement. He’s hanging up his cleats to focus his time and energy on his family, …

Jan 30, 2022: Mondays Nicholas Bate, offering up more ideas about Monday. Have no fear. Stare it straight in the eyes. Choose the play-list carefully. Monday: a …

Jan 29, 2022: Howard Hessman, RIP J. Kim Murphy, writing for Variety, has the news. Howard Hesseman, a prolific character actor who became a beloved TV mainstay through his roles on …

Jan 29, 2022: Reboot Nicholas Bate on productivity. Use the time-period change to re-focus. At the end of the day, consider tomorrow. At the end of the week, consider …

Jan 29, 2022: Roses are red… When you hear a rhyme which goes: Roses are Red, Violets are ‘Blue’… You need to prepare yourself to hear something which is at …

Jan 28, 2022: Tennessee School Board Removes Holocaust Graphic Novel Maus From Its Curriculum Rob Bricken, writing for Gizmodo, outlines the short-sighted school board's decision to remove Maus from its middle-school curriculum. As reports, the …

Jan 27, 2022: 10 Things College Doesn’t Teach You Matt D’Avella made a cool video about college and after. His videos are always smart and entertaining. College rarely prepares you with practical …

Jan 26, 2022: Getting it Back Peter Jackson’s Get Back has, rightfully, been much-discussed. This essay by Ian Leslie, for his site The Ruffian, is one of my …

Jan 25, 2022: Searching for Suzy Thunder A really entertaining and interesting piece by Claire Evans about Susan Thunder aka Susan Headley, a pioneering phone phreaker and computer …

Jan 25, 2022: This is Joe Rogan? This is the worst rendition of “Who’s on First?” I’ve ever seen pic.twitter.com/YneZcoOmQU — Robin Tran 🏳️‍⚧️ (@robintran04) January 26, 2022 I don’t …

Jan 24, 2022: Behind the Scenes of DeMar DeRozan and Ayo Dosunmu When Ayo had his Illinois jersey retired, DeMar had to be there to support 🙌@AyoDos_11 | @IlliniMBB pic.twitter.com/UZELryl7Az — …

Jan 24, 2022: The Important Thing The important thing to remember about the VR Metaverse is that it’s not going to happen. — Hank Green (@hankgreen) January 26, 2022

Jan 21, 2022: “We have jetpacks and we do not care.” Dave Eggers, writing for The Guardian, explains that we have jetpacks and do not care. Not one bit. Jet packs meant the future. It’s here, and most of …

Jan 20, 2022: A Non-Zero Life From Shawn Blanc – As anyone who knows about building habits, long-term consistency is everything. There is an idea with habits and routines …

Jan 16, 2022: The Unvaccinated Are the Extreme Fringe Will Leitch on how finally the unvaccinated are the extreme fringe. People like Djokovic — and Aaron Rodgers, and Kyrie Irving, and Joe Rogan, …

Jan 15, 2022: Dumb I can’t stop thinking about how dumb the Cowboys-49ers game was. I don’t watch much NFL football, but I did have this …

Jan 10, 2022: Mini-Golf in Gerrymandered Districts The Washington Post has an interactive game that’s smart and fun. Play a 9-hole course of mini-golf where each hole is shaped like a …

Jan 8, 2022: Carl Sagan Predicting the Future

Jan 7, 2022: The New York Times to Buy The Athletic for $550 Million in Cash Lauren Hirsch, Kevin Draper, and Katherine Rosman, writing for The New York Times, tell the story of their acquisition of The Athletic. The New York …

Jan 6, 2022: Ayo Dosunmu Jersey Raising Just an incredible honor. What a great ceremony. It also speaks volumes that DeMar DeRozan, his Bulls teammate, NBA All-Star, and MVP Candidate made …

Jan 5, 2022: The Big Lie Kevin Drum lays the basics of what happened a year ago today. Here are the basics. Gruesome details are available everywhere for anyone who’s …

Jan 4, 2022: Mayo Clinic Fires 700 Unvaccinated Employees CBS Minnesota reports the firing of hundreds of unvaccinated employees from the Mayo Clinic. The dismissed employees make up about 1% of …

Jan 4, 2022: Rein in the Panic Kevin Drum, on his blog, has a few ideas about COVID panic. I think it’s time to rein in the testing panic a bit. It’s probably also …

Jan 3, 2022: Defensive/offensive/actual Seth Godin somehow has found a way to describe me perfectly. I don’t like it. The problem with becoming defensive is that our internal …

Jan 3, 2022: Preview the Kaiju Preservation Society #TheKaijuPreservationSociety is @scalzi’s first standalone adventure since the conclusion of his @nytimes bestselling Interdependency trilogy. …

Jan 2, 2022: Behind Low Vaccination Rates Lurks a More Profound Social Weakness Anita Sreedhar and Anand Gopal writing in The New York Times about vaccine hesitancy in the US hits on an idea that is disappointing, but not …

Jan 1, 2022: Twitter Permanently Suspends Marjorie Taylor Greene’s Personal Account Daniel Politi, writing for Slate, reports on Marjorie Taylor Greene not understanding the First Amendment. Twitter permanently suspended the personal …

Dec 31, 2021: January 1 December 31 means a great deal to me. It’s the last day of the year, of course. However, it’s also my mother’s birthday and the day I lost my right …

Dec 31, 2021: The Story and The Climb It's all about the cliiiimb 🗣 @MileyCyrus and @BrandiCarlile perform "The Story" and "The Climb" at …

Dec 30, 2021: Don’t waste the good days Seth Godin on not wasting time with the wrong priorities. If you’re feeling creative, do the errands tomorrow. If you’re fit and …

Dec 17, 2021: Don’t Look Back Boston’s second album is called Don’t Look Back. The title track’s lyrics are inspirational — A new day is breakin’/It’s been too long since I felt …

Dec 15, 2021: The Pattern Dave Pell took a story about Ben Affleck, his marriage, and drinking and turned it into a treatise on how the media screws up stories. You should read …

Nov 11, 2021: Can the U.S. Men’s Soccer Team Unite the Divided States of America? Will Leitch would like to turn back the clock on sports and politics. I, for one, cannot wait to root hard for the USMNT tomorrow night, when …

Nov 10, 2021: Kyle Rittenhouse Is A Dumb Kid Who Killed Two People And Is Adored By Angry White Men This headline by John DeVore is troubling, a little shocking, and sadly all too true. I have only seen the odd clips of this trial, but from …

Nov 9, 2021: How Newsletters Survived Technology The killer medium is email. The killer service is the newsletter. Why? Because you have control. Dave Pell should know… he’s …

Nov 8, 2021: Eddie Kingston Got No Business F***ing Being Here I’m not up on the current events of professional wrestling. I used to be. I used to know it all inside and out. The shoots. The bookers. The …

Nov 8, 2021: Football Will Never Stop Coming Up With New Ways To Ruin Football I have found, late in life, that I kinda sorta enjoy watching games when they are on my television. I don’t go out of my way to watch, but sometimes …

Nov 8, 2021: Turn It Up Nicholas Bate on turning up. Turn up at the page rain or shine, good mood or bad mood, inspired or not. Much writing is the mechanics of fingers on …

Nov 7, 2021: The Real Benefits Of Staying Off Social Media Ivaylo Durmonsky has a very well-written article exploring social media's deeper aspects. Yes, quitting social media or doing a social media detox …

Nov 2, 2021: Aaron Rodgers sucks and has always sucked Drew Magary on the tired act of Aaron Rodgers: If you still wanna call Aaron Rodgers the greatest quarterback of all time, whether it’s …

Nov 1, 2021: How Stupid is the Metaverse? I’d say pretty stupid. I mean, it’s a science-fictional idea that may or may not happen in my lifetime. In the short term, it’s …

Nov 1, 2021: Seriously, You Can Still Ignore Trump It’s still racist.   Will Leitch on Trump: I’ve enjoyed the last 10 months of not having Trump barge his way into every conversation I’ve had …

Oct 31, 2021: Stories For Imaginary Friends is an emotional journey through the dark night of the soul Zed Snyder, writing for Smile Politely, has a nice write-up for Dan Wild’s new collection. Stories For Imaginary Friends guides you into …

Oct 30, 2021: Bloodshed A ton of reporters contributed to this Washington Post feature today about how the insurrection of January 6 played out. It starts off with …

Oct 30, 2021: The Halloween Song Tim Curry explains why Halloween is great in “The Halloween Song” from the 1986 film adaptation of The Worst Witch. …

Oct 28, 2021: Let it fly: Andre Curbelo, Kofi Cockburn lead an Illinois team ready to run and shoot I’ve been waiting forever for The Athletic to do a feature on the Fighting Illini Men’s Basketball team since I saw the first of their “The Program” …

Oct 26, 2021: Beggin’ So, I was today years old when I learned that the big international hit “Beggin’” by Måneskin is actually a cover of a …

Oct 25, 2021: Dune: Part Two This is only the beginning... Thank you to those who have experienced @dunemovie so far, and those who are going in the days and weeks ahead. …

Oct 24, 2021: Facebook Papers: ‘History Will Not Judge Us Kindly’ Here it is. Facebook is bad. You already knew this, but whatever. Over the weekend, we learned even more about what Facebook has known about its …

Oct 24, 2021: Oliver Marmol Is A Manager Made For These Times. Bernie Miklasz with the inside story. I can’t say that Oliver Marmol was born to manage the Cardinals. But this is true: he was raised to …

Oct 20, 2021: Truth Social In case you were wondering whatever happened to that one guy who used to occupy the Oval Office, he tried to start a blog. It failed. Now, he’s …

Oct 19, 2021: NHL player suspended for 21 games after trying to submit a fake Covid vaccination card Evander Kane, a forward with the San Jose Sharks, is out for 21 games after turning in a fake Covid vaccination card to his team and the …

Oct 18, 2021: Facebook is planning to rebrand the company with a new name Alex Heath, writing for The Verge, has the scoop. Facebook is planning to change its company name next week to reflect its focus on building the …

Oct 18, 2021: Paul McCartney tells the story of writing Eleanor Rigby In the New Yorker, Paul McCartney wrote down the story behind all the lonely people. The song itself was consciously written to evoke the subject of …

Oct 18, 2021: The Key Art Edition Key art, if you don’t know, are the images that identify shows in streaming menus. I am old enough to remember TV listings in the newspaper and …

Oct 17, 2021: Productivity for a Monday Nicholas Bate with some advice to add a bit more productivity to your life… by subtraction Just when you are being seduced into adding more to …

Oct 13, 2021: Mike Shildt Fired The Cardinals have agreed to part ways with Manager Mike Shildt. — St. Louis Cardinals (@Cardinals) October 14, 2021 Shildt has been in the …

Oct 12, 2021: Big Deal

Oct 12, 2021: Cleartones Josh Ginter pitches the wonderfulness of Cleartones. Cleartones are awesome. They’re simple notification tones and ringtones made with simple …

Oct 11, 2021: Illinois’ message to the rest of the Big Ten? Stay mad So, a whole article about fans and their interaction and loyalty to a program. What the hell is this? Illinois is going to be ranked in the top ten …

Oct 10, 2021: Superman loves Louis Lane A+ typo, can’t be beat pic.twitter.com/N5pPIO9wHj — andy™ (@andylevy) October 11, 2021

Oct 10, 2021: The Bill Maher Prediction Bill Maher on his program, Real Time, said the following: “Here’s the easiest three predictions in the world. Trump will run in 2024. He will get the …

Oct 9, 2021: A COVID Serenity Prayer Lucy McBride, writing in The Atlantic, has a few thoughts on moving forward in this world with COVID. Acceptance is not about agreeing with or …

Oct 9, 2021: Facebook is Too Big, Fail M. G. Siegler, writing on his 500ish site, explains the problems with Facebook. He’s been doing it for years, but I really like these …

Oct 9, 2021: Pick Good Stories Seth Godin, writing on his blog, has some smart insight about changing one’s mind. What evidence would you need to see to change your mind? …

Oct 8, 2021: High School principal who enjoys Iron Maiden subject of dueling petitions I hate people sometimes. Apparently, there are petitions for and against a principal in Canada over Iron Maiden. The website LoadedRadio.com has more: …

Oct 7, 2021: Every James Bond Movie, Ranked Bilge Ebiri, writing for Vulture, takes some low hanging fruit and writes a listicle that will get all the fanboys up in arms: ranking the Bond …

Oct 7, 2021: Interstellar on Pipe Organ Music filmmaker Michael Bártek captured the wonderful sight of musician Antonino Buschiazzo performing his own haunting rendition of …

Oct 7, 2021: The Daniel Craig James Bond movies were always about Vesper Lynd Tim Grierson examines the impact of Vesper Lynd on James Bond through all of Daniel Craig’s time as 007. It’s fair to say that James …

Oct 6, 2021: Foundation Renewed Foundation has been renewed for a second season on Apple TV Plus, Apple announced today, ahead of the release of the fourth episode of the …

Oct 6, 2021: The Real Conspiracies Are Staring Us Right in The Face Jessica Wildfire, writing on Medium, throws down some truth bombs. The world isn’t run by lizard people. It’s run by a bunch of greedy, …

Oct 3, 2021: You Are What You Consume Mark Manson always has interesting insights into culture and psychology. This time his focus revolves around the information you take in and the …

Oct 1, 2021: To Instruct Myself Over and Over in Joy I’m not sure where I found it originally as I had simply saved the link and recently found it as I was going through items to add to the blog, …

Sep 29, 2021: The Problem with Jon Stewart I watched the first episode of The Problem with Jon Stewart. At first blush, I think this is a fine show, but not super newsy and not super funny. …

Sep 28, 2021: Contribute Joy A quote from Roger Ebert that I found surfing the interwebs is universally true for all intent and purpose.

Sep 28, 2021: The Danger of Writing Rebecca Toh on writing: Writing or words not backed up by action will end up ringing hollow. Similarly, a person who only talks but does not practise …

Sep 24, 2021: 3-2-5-4-2-8-6 This is, by far, the craziest double play you will ever see.

Sep 21, 2021: Media ignore a monster story — the brainwashing of Covid zombies Eric Boehlert writes about how the press keeps describing such people as “vaccine hesitant,” which he thinks (and I think) …

Sep 16, 2021: What Newsom’s Landslide Victory Says About National Politics Gabriel Debenedetti and Benjamin Hart, in New York Magazine Intelligencer, wonder in a back and forth story what it means for national politics …

Sep 14, 2021: Norm Macdonald would hate this obituary for Norm Macdonald Drew Magary, writing for SFGATE, has a brilliant obit for the eternally funny Norm Macdonald. The whole thing is quite good, but I really like this …

Sep 13, 2021: Religious Exemption Letter from The Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster The Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster has been made aware of religious exemptions for COVID-19 vaccines. However, recognizing that it’s …

Sep 11, 2021: Unvaccinated are 5X more likely to catch delta, 11X more likely to die Beth Mole, reporting for Ars Technica, lays out the facts. COVID-19 vaccines are largely holding up against the hyper-transmissible delta coronavirus …

Sep 4, 2021: Instead Seth Godin on thinking about alternatives. A simple substitute might change a habit. Instead of a snack, brush your teeth. Instead of a nap, go …

Sep 2, 2021: Apples, Ranked Leanne Butkovic, writing for Thrillest, bit into 20 varieties of eating apples, ranking them from worst (Red Delicious) to best (Braeburn). My go-to …

Aug 31, 2021: Texas Republicans Think Masks Are Tyranny And Wombs Are Property John DeVore has a few thoughts on Texas Republicans. Texas abortion law banning most abortions after six weeks, as well as allowing random …

Aug 30, 2021: Joseph Mazzello III I was today years old when I learned that Joseph Mazzello III, the young actor who played Tim in Jurassic Park, also played Queen bass player John …

Aug 29, 2021: Did Olivia Rodrigo steal from Paramore? Did Olivia Rodrigo steal from Paramore? Adam Neely makes the best argument for plagiarism, then shows all the problems with it. Well, he explains that …

Aug 28, 2021: TikTok, Reddit, and Facebook are Struggling with Ivermectin Misinformation Kait Sanchez, in her story on The Verge, highlights a big problem on social media: misinformation and lies. On TikTok, Rolling Stone found …

Aug 25, 2021: The Definitive Guide to Protecting your Private Information Online Mikael Thalen, writing for The Daily Dot, has several good ideas to help protect the private information you have online. It is far too easy for …

Aug 24, 2021: Charlie Watts, RIP pic.twitter.com/wi6333F6QF — The Rolling Stones (@RollingStones) August 24, 2021 You can’t deny Charlie Watts was one of the most iconic drummers in …

Aug 22, 2021: Covid-19 Updates: F.D.A.’s Vaccine Approval Leads Pentagon and Others to Add Requirements Daniel E. Slotnik and Helene Cooper, writing for The New York Times, have a short article regarding the mandates that will be coming down now …

Aug 21, 2021: Parents Are Not Okay Dan Sinker, writing for The Atlantic, focuses on how everything about Covid-19, politics and the public school systems have broken parents all across …

Aug 17, 2021: Time Dilation This post by Seth Godin is fascinating to me. I’m going to drop the whole thing here: You can read this post in six minutes. It took me more than an …

Aug 12, 2021: Type the Alphabet Type the Alphabet is an online game that challenges the player to type the English alphabet to see how fast they can type. The timer starts when …

Aug 11, 2021: “A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky dangerous animals and you know it.” I had a thought at the start of summer 2021 that now seems ridiculous. I thought people would get the free, safe, and effective vaccine and our …

Aug 10, 2021: Nestflix Launch day! Are you like me and love a fake movie within a movie? Or show within a show? Check out Nestflix: the only platform for your favorite …

Aug 6, 2021: Not What You Asked For, but Just What You Needed Seth Godin on leadership: Not what you asked for, but just what you needed That doesn’t happen very often. When someone combines …

Aug 5, 2021: Wil Wheaton’s Guidelines Over on Instagram, Wil Wheaton posted what he calls guidelines to help you live your life. I thought I’d share.

Aug 4, 2021: CNN Fires Three Employees For Going Into Office Without Covid Vaccinations Ted Johnson, reporting for Deadline: CNN head Jeff Zucker said that the network has fired three employees for going into the office without …

Aug 2, 2021: Unvaccinated People Need to Bear the Burden Juliette Kayyem, assistant secretary for homeland security under President Obama, writing for The Atlantic: The White House has rejected a …

Jul 31, 2021: The First Two Hours Of MTV Where were you on August 1, 1981? The video starts off with a Space Shuttle countdown, the iconic launch of Apollo 11, and the planting of the MTV …

Jul 28, 2021: A Crisis for the Unvaccinated Aaron E. Carroll, the chief health officer for Indiana University, echoes a lot of my thoughts about mandates in a guest column for The New York …

Jul 27, 2021: “The only people who are not vaccinated are just assholes.” Jade Scipioni, writing at CNBC, reports on the comments from Charles Barkley, a guy who famously said he wasn’t a role model. …

Jul 26, 2021: Defining Domestic Terrorism "I can see why someone would take issue with the title of terrorist, it's gained a lot of notoriety in our vocabulary in the past few …

Jul 25, 2021: The Cleveland Guardians When I first saw it, I didn’t love it. After a bit, it’s growing on me more and more, especially after learning its origins. I have never been to …

Jul 24, 2021: Randy Arozarena with a Little League Homerun Randy Arozarena hits a single and then comes around to score because of two errors by the third baseman fielding a throw and then making a bad throw …

Jul 22, 2021: Anti-vaccine groups changing into ‘dance parties’ on Facebook to avoid detection Ben Collins and Brandy Zadrozny, reporting for NBC News: Some anti-vaccination groups on Facebook are changing their names to euphemisms like …

Jul 22, 2021: Back to the Future with RSS Nicky Case explains RSS and why it was so damn good: Imagine an open version of Twitter or Facebook News Feed, with no psy-op ads, owned by no …

Jul 20, 2021: “I’m sorry, but it’s too late” Dennis Pillion, writing at AL.com: Dr. Brytney Cobia said Monday that all but one of her COVID patients in Alabama did not receive the vaccine. The …

Jul 19, 2021: Level 99% Honestly, if you can just show up around when you said you were going to and do some approximation of what you said you were going to do and be half …

Jul 18, 2021: If I Were a Billionaire… Kevin Drum has a good idea on what a billionaire should do with their wealth. If I were a multi-billionaire, what would I do with my money? …

Jul 12, 2021: Stephen A. Smith’s Racist Take on Shohei Ohtani Drew Magary, writing on Defector, has a few choice words regarding Stephen A. Smith’s racist take on Shohei Ohtani. I have never, ever been a fan of …

Jul 8, 2021: How Sad, No One Wants To F**k Trump Supporters John DeVore, writing on his site Humungus, mentions how college-age women don’t want to date Republicans. Apparently, a think-tank writer named Eric …

Jul 5, 2021: Richard Donner, The People’s Choice (1930-2021) Glenn Kenny, writing on the Decider, has a fantastic piece about Richard Donner. It starts off this way: If a filmmaker’s critical stock were …

Jun 29, 2021: Donald Rumsfeld On The Bus To Hell John DeVore, on Humungus, wrote a little something about the passing of Donald Rumsfeld. Under Rumsfeld’s watch, the U.S. tortured and abused …

Jun 26, 2021: Inside William Barr’s Breakup With Trump Jonathan D. Karl, writing for The Atlantic, has an article about William Barr and his refusal to go along with the big lie — that Donald …

Jun 20, 2021: The Alston Case In a unanimous ruling, the Supreme Court has upheld the the Ninth Circuit’s ruling that the NCAA’s restrictions on paid educational …

Jun 17, 2021: How Roku used the Netflix playbook to beat bigger players and rule streaming video Alex Sherman, writing for CNBC, has a great story regarding Anthony Wood, the founder and CEO of Roku and how he had his finger pressed firmly on the …

Jun 16, 2021: Will Leitch’s Annual Father’s Day Story Will Leitch has been posting this piece every Father’s Day since 2003. It isn’t the best thing he’s written, but it is one …

Jun 14, 2021: No Lockdowns Anymore As COVID-19 statistics improve thanks to vaccination efforts, Ariana Grande, Marissa Jaret Winokur and James Corden celebrate the end of mass …

Jun 13, 2021: Mondays Nicholas Bate is trying to get me to like Mondays. Are merely a date, a bolder punctuation point, a shift, an association. Mondays no longer …

Jun 10, 2021: KISS in Battery Park At the A&E KISSTORY World Premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival KISS performed a short set. It wasn’t perfect. It was rock and roll. …

Jun 9, 2021: The Fundamental Question of the Pandemic is Shifting Ed Yong, writing in The Atlantic, does not have good things to say about “rugged individualism” and deadly viruses. From its …

Jun 8, 2021: Homemade Disneyland Star Tours Attraction Dad Of The Year recreates Disneyland Star Tours attraction in the garage for daughter’s birthday. The finished outcome is mind-blowing.

Jun 7, 2021: Classic Music Mashup Musician Grant Woolard composed a brilliant classical music mashup in 2016 that featured 57 Popular Songs by 33 Composers, followed by …

Jun 6, 2021: You Should Learn the Truth About the Tulsa Race Massacre Tom Hanks, writing for The New York Times, thinks everyone should know more about the Tusla Race Massacre. Until recently, the Tulsa Race …

Jun 5, 2021: Have you ever changed your mind? I like to think I have an open mind. I also like to think if I read something that fundamentally challenged my point of view on a topic, I would …

Jun 3, 2021: Welcome to the Internet Bo Burnam has a Netflix special out. This song is unreal “Apathy’s a tragedy, and boredom is a crime” This is fantastic.

Jun 2, 2021: Delusional Thinking Recently,Maggie Haberman, reporting for The New York Times, said Donald Trump believes he will be reinstated as President of the United States in …

May 31, 2021: Helpful Reminders Nicholas Bate with a couple of helpful reminders Remembering the past need not dictate the future. Your genes are just one factor in your …

May 29, 2021: U.F.O.’s Don’t Impress Me Adam Frank, who is a professor of astrophysics at the University of Rochester, writes a few thoughts on the uptick in UFOs in  The New York …

May 27, 2021: Kintsugi Kintsugi is the Japanese art of putting broken pottery pieces back together with gold — built on the idea that in embracing flaws and imperfections, …

May 26, 2021: When It’s Critical to Have a Plan Adam Chitwood, writing for Collider, has an article that has Star Wars fans in an uproar. Chitwood simply asked if the last Star Wars trilogy would …

May 25, 2021: Write it Down Have you ever had a good idea, and you say to yourself, “That’s good. I’ll remember it.” What happens next? You forget it, right. The solution is …

May 17, 2021: Faith vs. Facts vs. Fear [Patrick Rhone](a href=“https://www.patrickrhone.net/faith-vs-facts-vs-fear/) wrote something on facts, faith, and fear that I fundamentally …

May 15, 2021: “You’ve Got Mail!” For years, I would walk into the local Barnes and Noble and buy a book or two. The employee checking me out always asked for my email address. I …

May 11, 2021: Library Literacy vs. Street Sign Literacy Dave Perell, in his Monday Musings newsletter, described something I was also thinking about in the back of my head. I’ve long believed that …

May 9, 2021: Pearl Jam Announces ‘Deep’ Daniel Kreps, writing for Rolling Stone, has the story on this new Pearl Jam archive. Pearl Jam are offering fans an immersive plunge …

May 6, 2021: A Beautiful Life Rebecca Toh answers what it means to live a beautiful life. A beautiful picture of your life isn’t the same as a beautiful life. A …

May 5, 2021: Los Angeles Angels Releasing Albert Pujols The Los Angeles Angels are releasing future Hall of Famer Albert Pujols today, per sources. Pujols is in the final year of his 10-year, $253 million …

May 4, 2021: Stupid is as Stupid Does Writing for The Atlantic, Derek Thompson wondered about all these batshit crazy people refusing to get the vaccine. What are they thinking, these …

May 3, 2021: The Complete Star Wars Timeline It’s Star Wars Day! Alex Damon and Mollie Damon of Star Wars Explained have updated their Complete Canon Timeline for the Star Wars saga for 2021, …

May 2, 2021: Marvel Studios Celebrates The Movies I’m surprised how much this video gave me chills. Excellent work.

May 1, 2021: Focus Sunday, for me, means preparing for the upcoming week. Sometimes it’s simply mentally preparing. Sometimes it’s listing out everything that needs to …

Apr 27, 2021: Joe Biden’s Popularity Alex Roarty and Adam Wollner, reporting for McClatchy on Joe Biden’s popularity: Sarah Longwell, a former GOP operative and founder …

Apr 24, 2021: What Do I Want? On his blog, Greg Morris asks a pretty important question about upgrading and wanting more. Upgraded my phone, tablet, computer, and …

Apr 22, 2021: Illini Basketball | Season Highlights All the season highlights of a year like no other. What an incredible basketball program. I think this is just the beginning.

Apr 19, 2021: Seasonal IKEA Employee with the Responses He’d Like to Say toCustomers Scott Seiss made me laugh pretty hard with his honest answers to inane questions from customers as a seasonal employee of IKEA. I think this one is my …

Apr 18, 2021: Languishing Adam Grant, writing for The New York Times, explains the not quite post-pandemic feeling we are all experiencing.  At first, I …

Apr 14, 2021: I Tried to Recreate the Original Four Loko to Prepare for a Summer of Chaos Katie Way had a fun assignment from Vice: try and recreate the banned Four Loko drink and write about her attempts. To be totally …

Apr 12, 2021: THE INTERNET K-HOLE The INTERNET -K-HOLE is a vast amount of very amateur snapshots taken from the mid-1970s to mid-1990s, with absolutely no other context …

Apr 11, 2021: The Hotel Bathroom Principle Dave Perell, in his weekly Monday Musings email, made a smart observation. Whenever I’m in a city and I need to use the bathroom, I walk into …

Apr 10, 2021: 100 Day Plan Seth Godin wants you to make a plan. What do you want to be doing 100 days from now? What change do you seek to be making? With which …

Apr 7, 2021: Welcome 2 America The first new song from Prince. “Come on in… sit right down.” Ahead of his time. I’ve been waiting for new Prince music …

Apr 6, 2021: Will it Be the Roaring ’20s Again? Rebecca Onion (What a great name…), writing for Slate, reviews the expert opinions on if the 2020s might copy and paste from the …

Apr 5, 2021: Private Choices Have Public Consequences David Roth, writing for Defector, explains the stupidity of anti-vaxxers. That minority’s inability to take anything in stride, or to sublimate even …

Apr 4, 2021: Just Blog Gabz wrote a little something that made sense to me. It doesn’t matter what app you use, what system, or where you host your site. …

Mar 31, 2021: In the Dark Sarah Morrison, writing at Vox, explains the concept of apps and websites using dark patterns to trick users into doing what they want you …

Mar 30, 2021: We Are Idiots Kevin Drum explains that people are idiots because they can’t understand a few simple facts about COVID-19. We know this relationship. …

Mar 27, 2021: Escape the Zoom Zoo and Mobilise the Metabolism Nicholas Bate with some advice All days are special. Monday: fresh start. Friday: whooopeee!. Wednesday: almost there……But …

Mar 3, 2021: We’re in a Time Loop of Time-Loop Movies Miles Surrey, writing for The Ringer, has some thoughts on the recent run of time-loop movies. Whether or not you currently have the mental fortitude …

Mar 1, 2021: Dr. Seuss Enterprises Will Shelve 6 Books, Citing ‘Hurtful’ Portrayals NPR reports that several Dr. Seuss books are actively going out of print. On purpose. Dr. Seuss Enterprises will cease publishing six of the …

Feb 21, 2021: Kill the Newsletter Kill The Newsletter is a website that converts email newsletters into Atom feeds. It is glorious. By eliminating so much email from my life and …

Feb 20, 2021: Literary Collective Nouns Tom Gauld suggests some literary collective nouns. My favorite by far is “a gruop of proofreaders.”

Feb 18, 2021: Tending the Garden I am not a gardener, but as I understand it, if you don’t tend to the garden, it will get overgrown and cumbersome. Weeds will kill the real plants …

Feb 17, 2021: Ayo Dosunmu’s Moment Is Now Pat Forde, writing in Sports Illustrated, has an in-depth profile on Ayo Dosunmu that gets to the core of who he is and how his family and …

Feb 15, 2021: Thank You, St. Louis Kolton Wong penned a heartfelt goodbye to St. Louis with The Players’ Tribune. This was home. You guys are family. And I just really hope that you …

Feb 13, 2021: I Sure Hope You’re Happy, Gina Carano John DeVore sure hopes Gina Carano is happy with her anti-semitic social media posts and anti-mask wearing social media posts, and the rest of …

Feb 13, 2021: The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Makes No Sense This will not be a hot take or even an original take. I don’t understand the criteria for what constitutes “rock and roll” in the eyes of the Rock and …

Feb 11, 2021: The Spectacular Fall of the Lincoln Project Alex Shepherd, writing for The New Republic, outlines the downfall of Election 2020’s social media darlings-The Lincoln Project. In the days leading …

Feb 9, 2021: Never Forget Will Leitch, writing on his Medium account, asks us to do one thing. This week, former President Donald Trump will face impeachment for the second …

Feb 8, 2021: Tom Brady I really don’t watch much NFL and I do have a soft spot for the Super Bowl, but Tom Brady’s dominating presence for so many years …

Feb 7, 2021: It Was A Good Day Tyler Cottingham likes fun. Whoever said history isn’t fun? Ayo Dosunmu messing around for just the third triple double (21–12–12) in school history? …

Feb 6, 2021: Why Fleetwood Mac’s “Rumors” Needs a TV Show Lindsey Romain, writing at Nerdist, has an interesting article about the making of Fleetwood Mac’s Rumors album. Buckingham and …

Feb 4, 2021: The Vision of Speed Racer Movies with Mickey has a video love letter to the film. I thought for a long time I was the only person who loved this film. Speed Racer was …

Feb 3, 2021: The March Of The American Kooks David Roth, writing for Defector, matches old-school dumbshits to the new era dumbshits. Here is the synchronicity that binds old-fashioned American …

Feb 1, 2021: Foo Fighters Wanted to Rule Rock. 25 Years Later, They’re Still Roaring. Jeremy Gordon has a terrific profile of arguably the best rock band working today, the Foo Fighters. “I just want to stay alive and play …

Jan 31, 2021: Nolan Arenado, St. Louis Cardinals Third Baseman The St. Louis Cardinals have acquired five-time All-Star third baseman Nolan Arenado from the Rockies. I can’t believe it. Seriously, I can’t believe …

Jan 28, 2021: Your Big Idea Seth Godin on big ideas: It’s probably not completely original. It’s probably not breathtaking in scope. It’s probably not …

Jan 27, 2021: No one Elected to Baseball Hall of Fame Bradford Doolittle, reporting for ESPN: No player on the Hall’s 2021 Baseball Writers’ Association of America ballot reached the 75 …

Jan 25, 2021: Doomscrolling at Scale Michael Lopp, writing at his site Rands in Repose, had an interesting experience with real-time news. He was trying to follow the storming of the …

Jan 24, 2021: Apple Watch Series 7 Rumored to Feature Blood Glucose Monitoring MacRumors has posted, well, a rumor that the next Apple Watch will have a blood glucose monitor that eliminates the need for fingersticks, …

Jan 23, 2021: The Enemy Isn’t Republicans. It’s Liars. William Saletan, writing in Slate, has some smart insight on “right vs. left.” He says it doesn’t exist anymore. …

Jan 22, 2021: Meet the Ansel Adams of Liquor Store Photography You’ve probably heard of Patton Oswalt. He’s an actor, stand-up comic, and voice actor. His brother, Matt, is a writer and photographer. …

Jan 21, 2021: The Hill We Climb Amanda Gorman read her poem, “The Hill We Climb,” at the Inauguration, and I couldn’t take my eyes off her. The words were wonderful. Her eloquence …

Jan 20, 2021: Onward Donald Trump was the worst president this country has ever had. You may disagree, but you’d be wrong. Who do you suggest is worse? I guess James …

Jan 20, 2021: The Unlamented Man John Scalzi, on his personal site, has a few words about the ex-president. He starts off hard and doesn’t let up. First and always, a liar. …

Jan 18, 2021: Paul Stanley’s Soul Station I’m not sure how I feel about Paul Stanley covering “ O-O-H Child.” The idea of Stanley turning into Rod Stewart-doing-the-American-songbook era of …

Jan 16, 2021: Wake Up Call for Republicans This video from Matthew Cooke is an excellent and succinct plea for Republicans and Trump supporters to come back to reality. It …

Jan 14, 2021: Illini manager Bobby Gikas brings ‘juice’ from the bench Joey Wagner, writing for the Illini Inquirer, has a fantastic story on Bobby Gikas, one of the basketball managers for this year’s Fighting Illini …

Jan 13, 2021: The Future of Superhero Movies Is the Multiverse Miles Surrey, writing for The Ringer, has a few thoughts on the recent trend of multiversal superheroes showing up. The biggest issue with DC and …

Jan 11, 2021: Don’t Prosecute Gotham’s Supervillains for Their Latest Scheme This is some pretty good satire from Slate. Here’s the brilliant opening written by, ahem, the Joker: It’s been a traumatizing couple of weeks in …

Jan 10, 2021: We Need a New Media System Matt Taibbi is one of those writers that makes me think about things in a new way. I don’t always agree with his ideas, but I admire his …

Jan 9, 2021: The Atlantic Stole My Work On his personal site, freelancer Dean Sterling Jones, accuses The Atlantic of stealing his work and denying him credit and compensation …

Jan 8, 2021: The Innocence of Youth When I was a kid, I watched my favorite shows just like any other kid my age. If you grew up in the 70s, you probably watched the same programs I did, …

Jan 7, 2021: The Assault On The Capitol Wasn’t A Coup, It Was A Warning John DeVore, writing on his site on Medium, echoes a lot of what I think about the event at the Capitol. It wasn’t a coup. It was more like a “fuck …

Jan 6, 2021: When the President of Mediocrity Incites an Insurrection Rebecca Solnit, writing in the Literary Hub, has one of the better truth bombs I’ve seen lately. One of the indigestible facts of this country …

Jan 4, 2021: Declutter Your Devices to Reduce Security Risks David Murphy at Lifehacker has a good idea I’m going to try and implement: a digital declutter of my digital devices. Everyone should set …

Jan 3, 2021: Star Wars — Everything Coming in 2021! Star Wars Explained has a video outlining everything Star Wars for 2021. As you may already know, we are going to see more Star Wars …

Dec 31, 2020: How We Will Talk About 2020 In the Future Will Leitch contemplates how we will reconcile 2020. We will be dealing with the ramifications of 2020 for as long as we live. We’ve lost …

Dec 28, 2020: KISS Alive-streamed “Wearing more makeup than your Mommy” I’m a massive KISS fan. In fact, for Christmas, my wife bought me a new turntable and a …

Dec 20, 2020: One Lie Shattered lives Last Sunday morning, Jimmy Collins died at the age of 74. Will Leitch, in his weekly newsletter, discusses the life and the lies …

Dec 18, 2020: Tenet “Don’t try to understand it” Joshua Rivera, writing for The Verge, has the best review of Tenet I’ve read. …

Dec 15, 2020: There Is No Such Thing as Normal— So Stop Waiting for It Time is a flat circle Ryan Holiday, writing on his site, has some excellent advice for everyone about how the world should react to the “new …

Dec 7, 2020: The Force is With Them This is the way Star Wars is an important touchstone in my life. I saw the first movie in 1977 in a crowded theater in Florida on vacation. Just shy …

Nov 25, 2020: Thanksgiving 2020 Surprisingly, I did not eat too much This is the first Thanksgiving I have not celebrated with my Mom and Dad and my brother and his family. My wife …

Nov 2, 2020: Election Day 2020 I don’t know what’s going to happen today and the rest of the week and, frankly, neither do you. The not-knowing is not fun. The anticipation, one way …

Nov 2, 2020: Scar Remember when Tiger King was a thing? Will Leitch, in his weekly newsletter, talks about time and 2020. It is clear that we will be talking about …

Oct 31, 2020: Nobody Did It Better You’re the man now, Dog Sean Connery is gone. He was 90. He died peacefully in his sleep. My father loved Ian Fleming novels and, of …

Oct 18, 2020: I Voted I’m currently in line to vote early. I have never experienced a line to vote early before. I don’t know for sure what this means, but my gut tells me …

Oct 7, 2020: Eddie Van Halen, 1955 — 2020 Andy Greene, writing for Rolling Stone, has the story that has just gutted me. Eddie Van Halen has passed away at 65. When I heard the news, I cried. …

Oct 6, 2020: All 131 Van Halen Songs Ranked Chuck Klosterman is a writer I admire. I think his books are fantastic. Here he is doing a massive list post for Vulture and really knocking it out of …

Oct 5, 2020: Move Forward Will Leitch, writing in his weekly newsletter, had a paragraph that spoke to me directly about this day and age we are living in: When you are at …

Oct 4, 2020: A New Covenant I’m a writer. Most of the time, I write sales copy for product boxes and websites. I’m a writer and editor of a couple of publications for my company …

Oct 2, 2020: Careless People There’s a tendency to think of crime families in terms of cinematic ones. We call Donald Trump, Jr. “Fredo” as a comparison to the dumbest, most inept …

Sep 23, 2020: The Election That Could Break America Barton Gellman, writing in The Atlantic, has the scariest piece on the 2020 Election I’ve read. Entitled, The Election That Could Break America, it …

Sep 9, 2020: Never Know WASTED OPPORTUNITY I’ve never read a Bob Woodward book. I haven’t seen All the President’s Men. However, I do know you …

Sep 3, 2020: Star Wars Meets Rock and Roll In the summer of 1981, I turned 13. My life revolved around comic books, Star Wars, and KISS. I’m pretty sure my brain would have exploded if I had …

Sep 1, 2020: Frustration I am beyond frustrated with the willfully ignorant. Those who don’t want to understand the reasons for protests highlighting grave injustices always …

Aug 27, 2020: The NBA Strike Is Jarring. That’s the Point. Will Leitch, writing for New York Magazine, would like to talk about how unprecedented it was for NBA players to simply go on strike. What was so …

Aug 24, 2020: Rationalizing Seth Godin is on a roll. This time he’s explaining, in simple terms, no matter what you say or think or make up, the virus doesn’t give a shit about …

Aug 20, 2020: Spit Takes Anti-science is no way to go through life, son Here’s how the United States is going to beat COVID-19–Coronavirus saliva …

Aug 1, 2020: Ayo #LETSMAKEHISTORY I am shocked that Ayo Dosunmu is coming back to Illinois Basketball for his junior season. It is a dream come true for Illini fans. …

Jul 31, 2020: Eulogy for Congressman John Lewis Barack Obama’s eulogy for John Lewis might be one of the greatest speeches he’s ever given. It was political in a way that honored the civil rights …

Jun 29, 2020: Baseball Men Keep your eye on the ball Here’s a guest post by my friend Grant Chastain. While not really a direct response to The Asterisk Season, it …

Jun 27, 2020: The Asterisk Season Jeff Passan and Jesse Rogers, writing at ESPN, start their baseball story like this: Major League Baseball plans to hold a 60-game season that will …

Jun 25, 2020: The 2020 Season Baseball during the time of COVID-19 Mark Feinsand, writing for MLB.com, has outlined the Major League Baseball official announcement of a 60-game …

Jun 19, 2020: Juneteenth Seth Godin on Juneteenth — Today is Juneteenth, a holiday that should be more widely observed. It doesn’t mark the date of Lincoln’s proclamation …

Jun 6, 2020: Get to Work The other day, in a phone call with my parents about my weekend, I said, “I was enjoying my white privilege painting my front porch.” I was trying to …

Jun 2, 2020: Anger is a Gift I won’t do what you tell me My friend Grant Chastain is on a roll and unleashing his honest emotion. I’m reprinting his Facebook post …

May 28, 2020: Mentally Unhinged The pathology is the point Never once have I spent my time going over and reading the tweets Donald Trump puts out on his account. The ones that have …

May 26, 2020: Newsletter vs Blog Email is still the killer app Robin Rendle on newsletters versus blog posts: I think the weird thing about newsletters is that they’re …

May 21, 2020: Fear Mongering Michael Moore was not the only person who predicted Trump would win in 2016, but he gets so much credit for going on Real Time With Bill Maher and …

May 16, 2020: Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Finally, we will have a Star Trek show that sounds like what I’ve been hoping we’d get for quite some time. CBS All Access has ordered a full series …

May 12, 2020: No Shame Will Wheaton, writing on his site, presents a gentle reminder to everyone who isn’t lazy or selfish out there. This whole thing we are living through …

May 10, 2020: A Good Night’s Sleep Photographer, writer, editor, and publisher, Rick LePage , wrote an essay a few days ago that I’m just getting around to reading. He starts off this …

May 5, 2020: Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist One of the best things to come out of this crazy time is the ability to try something new. Of course, everyone can try something new at any time-no …

May 3, 2020: The Cancer in the Camera Lens David Roth, writing for The New Republic, is just at the top of his game. The descriptions here are delightful. In close up, on television, at a …

Apr 25, 2020: Happy Place Some call it the happiest place on earth My friend Grant has posted another fantastic Facebook post about losing his happy place, at least …

Apr 24, 2020: Don’t Inject Disinfectant At a press conference on Thursday, Trump pondered out loud in a sort of free associative way that bringing “light inside the body” and injecting or …

Apr 22, 2020: Happy Birthday, Rocco This is an occasion where we might’ve had a party, found some appropriate treats, and baked a cake (for the humans). As it stands with this cursed …

Apr 18, 2020: Worry In 2013, my wife Maria was diagnosed with ankylosing spondylitis, which, if you don’t know, is a chronic inflammatory disease where the bones in the …

Apr 9, 2020: Marking Down the Moments My family left for a Florida vacation on Friday, March 13. When we came back a few days later, the world turned upside down, and we were all working …

Apr 5, 2020: This Is What Happens When a Narcissist Runs a Crisis Jennifer Senior, writing for The New York Times, explains what everyone with a brain knew before 2016. And most relevant, as far as history is …

Apr 4, 2020: Thank God for the Internet Josh Topolsky, writing at Input, has some smart thoughts on how the internet has completely made a difference during our new Work from Home situation. …

Apr 3, 2020: Art in the Middle of a Pandemic It occurs to me that one of the most important aspects of staying home is the ability to access and create art. I’m seeing it every day. The joke is …

Apr 2, 2020: Adam Schlesinger, RIP Adam Schlesinger passed away from coronavirus-related issues, and I’m shaken. You may not know the name, but you know the songs. So many perfect pop …

Mar 30, 2020: One Day at a Time I’m so drained. Of course, I’m not alone. My family is safe. My extended family is safe. My wife and I can work from home and have been doing as best …

Mar 17, 2020: Looking Out for One Another Below was a Facebook post by my friend, Grant Chastain. It is heartbreaking and inspiring all at the same time. I’ve reprinted it here for those who …

Jan 27, 2020: Kobe Bryant On Sunday, Kobe Bryant died in a helicopter crash. Eight other people also died, including his 13-year-old daughter Gianna “Gigi.” When I heard the …

Jan 16, 2020: Who Can Beat Trump? I barely watched the last Democratic debate. I did not watch much of the earlier ones either. The reason is simple: I’m voting for whomever the …

Jan 5, 2020: Pink Sky

Dec 5, 2019: Rudy Giuliani Should Delete His Account Cory Doctorow at Boing Boing tells the story of fatfingered Rudy Giuliani: Rudy Giuliani fatfingered a tweet last week and inadvertently referenced a …

Oct 19, 2019: Wisconsin 23 Illinois 24

Oct 13, 2019: The NCAA Will Never Fix Itself Jemele Hill, writing for The Atlantic, has an interesting story on what’s wrong with college sports and why Congress needs to step in and fix …

Oct 13, 2019: The Wounded Vet with the Penis Transplant Andrew Zaleski, writing for MIT Technology Review, has an inspiring and remarkable story about a veteran with a horrific injury and what it took to …

Oct 12, 2019: David Freese Retires pic.twitter.com/czVJztm9iY — David Freese (@DavidFreese) October 12, 2019 He provided one of the greatest moments in St. Louis Cardinals history and …

Oct 12, 2019: Football Vibes

Oct 11, 2019: Nobody’s Above the Law Mark Frauendfelder, writing at Boing Boing, points us to a video by Jonathan Coulton that appeared at the end of The Good Fight episode “Day …

Oct 10, 2019: 5 Tenants of a Negative Self-Help Mark Manson, writing at this site, has coined a new term, “Negative Self-Help.” Whereas positive self-help believes that we’re …

Oct 9, 2019: Cardinals Manager Mike Fucking Shildt Gets All Fucking Riled Up After Beating The Fucking Braves Bill Haisley, writing for Deadspin, recounts a social media post by St. Louis Cardinal player Randy Arozarena that, undoubtedly, was not for public …

Oct 9, 2019: Impeachment Record Dana Blanton, reporting for Fox News, has a story the White House won’t like. A new high of 51 percent wants Trump impeached and removed from …

Oct 8, 2019: Beating the Odds Anne Rogers, writing for mlb.com, has an excellent profile of St. Louis Cardinals manager Mike Shildt. “Believing in individuals and teams …

Oct 8, 2019: Kenny Loggins and Richard Marx I’ve been friends with @kennyloggins for thirty years and every time we’ve had dinner somewhere and the server asks if he’d like anything else and he …

Oct 8, 2019: Projects vs Tasks Seth Godin on understanding the difference between projects and tasks. This is the kind of observations I love that Seth does. It’s all about …

Oct 8, 2019: The Right Book Austin Kleon on recognizing a good book. If a book makes me want to keep reading, it’s the right book. If a book makes me want to start …

Oct 7, 2019: Black Sorcery One of the most interesting subreddits is r/blackmagicfuckery. Here are the best clips of all time. Here is the regular flow of posts. H/T: …

Oct 7, 2019: Mid-Day News Shirley Li, writing in The Atlantic, highlighted one of the better sketches from the most recent episode of Saturday Night Live. The racial …

Oct 7, 2019: The Outsized Importance of Stan Lee’s Origins of Marvel Comics Jim McLauchlin, writing for Newsarama, has a great story on the importance of a book that came out in 1974 — Origins of Marvel Comics by Stan Lee. …

Oct 7, 2019: Who else? WHO ELSE?! 🐐 pic.twitter.com/zKq8msNJer — St. Louis Cardinals (@Cardinals) October 7, 2019 #THATSAWINNER and #THATSAWALKOFF!!! …

Oct 6, 2019: Old Friends and New Secrets James Whitbrook, writing for Gizmodo, takes a deep dive in “Breaking Down the Old Friends and New Secrets of Star Trek: …

Oct 6, 2019: “Obviously, we got punched in the mouth.” Kolten Wong: “It’s postseason baseball. If you need any fucking build-up or anything, then you don’t belong here. Obviously we …

Oct 5, 2019: Hairdoo

Oct 3, 2019: Puddles Covers Crazy Train What a totally cool version, however the end mash-up was genius.

Oct 3, 2019: The Scandal Has Spiraled Out of Trump’s Control David Graham, writing in The Atlantic, outlines what we know so far in the Ukraine scandal and how it has ballooned into something that involves …

Oct 1, 2019: 52 Things I Know at 52 Patrick Rhone has put together a pretty cool list of a bunch of posts of his. I need to do something similar. Love this concept.

Oct 1, 2019: KISS Cover Band Guitarist Leaves To Start Vinnie Vincent Invasion Tribute Band KISS fan website KISS Asylum pointed me to an old Onion article that made me laugh. AKRON, OH—Citing growing tensions between bandmates, …

Sep 30, 2019: In the Dark I just updated my phone to iOS 13.1 and experimented with dark mode. Overall, it’s kind of meh for me. M.G. Siegler, in his 5ish newsletter, …

Sep 30, 2019: Joker Is One Unpleasant Note Played Louder and Louder David Edelstein, writing for Vulture, tells me everything I need to know about the movie Joker, starring Joaquin Phoenix, in one simple sentence. The …

Sep 30, 2019: The Murder of Jamal Khashoggi Evan Ratliff, writing for Insider, has an incredible long-read on the disappearance and murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. It’s a good …

Sep 30, 2019: This is the Moment Rachel Maddow has Been Waiting For Amanda Hess, writing for The New York Times, has an incredible profile of Rachel Maddow. Maddow has hosted “The Rachel Maddow Show” on …

Sep 29, 2019: Cardinals Manager Predicts Popping Champagne Mike Shildt: "We don't have any team meetings, but we do have three more left: When we pop champagne after the Division Series, When we pop champagne …

Sep 29, 2019: Remember Kevin Drum wants us all to remember what this whole Ukraine business is all about. Ukrainegate is about Donald Trump holding military assistance …

Sep 29, 2019: Zero Nicholas Bate with some zero basics. Zero In-box Zero, Coke Zero Zero Netflix Monday to Thursday.  Read. Zero taking the …

Sep 28, 2019: Apple Picking Easily the best sketch from Saturday Night Live last night. Really funny. “For just $45 you call bring home $10 worth of apples…”

Sep 28, 2019: Go Force Yourself You misspelled "Fraud."#GoForceYourself https://t.co/ORY6eeyGgj — Mark Hamill (@MarkHamill) September 29, 2019 "Force"? Doubtful. Your son is dressed …

Sep 28, 2019: Maddon’s Out Jordan Bastian, writing for MLB, says Joe Maddon is meeting with Theo Epstein. Entering Saturday’s game, Maddon had guided the Cubs to 470 …

Sep 27, 2019: Eurythmics + White Stripes Mashup | Pomplamoose ft. Sarah Dugas Pomplamoose is know for doing really cool and interesting mashups. This one is great. Eurythmics’ Sweet Dreams are Made of This and …

Sep 27, 2019: Richly Deserved Jonathan Chait, writing for New York Magazine, predicts this whole Ukraine scandal just might be Trump’s downfall. Trump responded to the …

Sep 27, 2019: The Whistle-Blower’s Guide to Writing The director of the Writing Center at Harvard University, Jane Rosenzweig, writing for The New York Times, says the whistle-blower’s writing is …

Sep 27, 2019: There’s a Horse Loose in a Hospital This might be my favorite bit ever by a stand-up comedian.

Sep 26, 2019: He Has No Idea What He’s Talking About David Roth, writing for The Concourse in Deadspin, believes it’s a problem that the president can’t talk or think. It is a problem for President …

Sep 26, 2019: Kingdom Come Superman Look, up in the sky ... it's @BrandonJRouth as Superman! Take flight in the #DCTV Crisis on Infinite Earths crossover, starting December on …

Sep 26, 2019: The Most Dangerous Divide Patrick Rhone speaking the truth. Increasingly, I feel the most dangerous divide in our nation is between those who read and those who don’t. …

Sep 26, 2019: Whistleblower Complaint Mark Frauenfelder, writing in Boing Boing, points to a cool bit audio. Saskia Maarleveld is an audiobook narrator and voiceover actress. If you …

Sep 25, 2019: Here Comes the Sun Today is the 50th anniversary of The Beatles’ “Abbey Road” album and to celebrate, Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr and their …

Sep 25, 2019: Impeachment is Bad for the Image? So, the White House released a memo of a conversation Trump had with the Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. I’m not sure what the purpose of …

Sep 24, 2019: Albums I Wish Existed Albums I Wish Existed features albums that could have been made, perhaps should have been made, and now they are made, by a …

Sep 24, 2019: The Three Basics for Individuals Michael Wade with the three basics: Mindfulness. Watch your drift. Pay attention to the small things. Get the “incrementals” going in …

Sep 23, 2019: Yellow Submarine This is one of the better Classroom Instruments bits from Fallon’s Tonight Show.

Sep 22, 2019: 40 Sentences David Leonhardt, writing in The New York Times, outlines Donald J. Trump in forty sentences. I deem it worthwhile enough to repost here. Sometimes …

Sep 22, 2019: The Growing Threat of Journalism Around the World A. G. Sulzberger, publisher of The New York Times, printed the contents of a speech he made at Brown University. In it, he told an astounding story. …

Sep 22, 2019: Three Months Of Prep Made Our Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge Trip Amazing Dan Amrich, writing in kotaku, tells the tale of him and his wife preparing to visit Disneyland’s Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge. They spent a …

Sep 21, 2019: Aron Eisenberg, RIP Aron Eisenberg, the actor responsible for bringing the Ferengi Nog to life on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, has died. Far too young.

Sep 21, 2019: Just Impeach Him Already Ellen Nakashima, Shane Harris, Greg Miller, and Carol D. Leonnig, writing in The Washington Post, tells the familiar tale of someone thinking the …

Sep 21, 2019: RIG Nicholas Bate on RIG (Random Idea Generator) During showers, in synaptic gaps and on walks along the beach with an excited dog, ideas are formed. The …

Sep 20, 2019: 2019 Illinois Athletics Hall of Fame Induction Program Here’s the full program from the 2019 Fighting Illini Hall of Fame Induction ceremony, hosted by Dave Revsine, at State Farm Center honoring …

Sep 19, 2019: A Night at the Opera Bernie Miklasz, writing for 101ESPN, called the Cardinals versus the Cubs game last night operatic. Just when you thought that the Cubs owned all of …

Sep 19, 2019: Every Mac Wallpaper Recreated Josh Gitner, at his site, pointed me to a cool video. My friends and I visited and recreated every default Apple wallpaper on a one week road trip. …

Sep 19, 2019: I Wanna Go Back I’m listening to a compilation of Eddie Money tunes on Spotify as I’m thinking back to 1983 when his videos for Shakin’” and “Think I’m In Love” were …

Sep 19, 2019: Matt Carpenter 🤫 pic.twitter.com/feFUkBSSyr — St. Louis Cardinals (@Cardinals) September 20, 2019 When the Cubs tied it in the 10th, I turned the TV off I was so …

Sep 19, 2019: Promises, Promises Ellen Nakashima, Shane Harris, Greg Miller and Carol D. Leonnig, writing in The Washington Post, tells the familiar tale of someone thinking the …

Sep 18, 2019: Creative People Seth Godin on becoming a creative person: There’s just one way to become one: Do something creative. It’s a little bit like leaders. …

Sep 17, 2019: Let’s Have a Good Show Jeremy Werner, writing at his Illini Inquirer site, has one of the best behind-the-scenes stories on what it takes to be the lead broadcasters on a …

Sep 17, 2019: No America, It’s Not Gonna Be Okay John Pavolvitz, writing on his site, has some strong opinions on the state of the American experiment. The only way things are going to be …

Sep 17, 2019: Powerful Survive the school year with these must-have #BackToSchool essentials. https://t.co/9KgxAQ0KGz This PSA contains graphic content related to school …

Sep 17, 2019: The Age of the Athlete-Politician Almost Upon Us? Will Leitch, writing for New York Magazine, posits and interesting premise: Is it time for superstar athletes to become politicians? It would seem …

Sep 16, 2019: It’s Greta’s World David Wallace-Wells, writing in New York Magazine, has an incredible story on Greta Thunberg. She was the Joan of Arc of climate change, commanding a …

Sep 16, 2019: Obama 2020 The 22nd Amendment says a person can only be elected to be president two times for a total of eight years. But Trump’s GOP never follows rules, …

Sep 14, 2019: Pugwash I’m a huge fan of power pop. I usually like a bit more crunch a la Cheap Trick, but the Romantics, Gin Blossoms, Honeymoon Suite, the Knack, …

Sep 14, 2019: Tennessee Offers Scholarship to Bullied Young Man Adam Rittenberg, writing for ESPN, has a positive sports story that I definitely needed. Tennessee announced Thursday that it has extended an offer …

Sep 13, 2019: The Decline and Fall of the Modern Nerd Rob Bricken, writing his Nerd Processor column on Medium, has decided fandom has been transformed from being about love and diversity into hate and …

Sep 12, 2019: The Final 16 Bernie Miklasz, writing for 101ESPN, tries to ease Cardinals fans fears as meaningful September baseball is about to be played. I like his way of …

Sep 11, 2019: A Glimpse of Freedom, in Glittery Heels Sara Luterman, writing in Slate, has an uplifting story about people with Down Syndrome dressing in drag and putting on a show. The obvious villain of …

Sep 11, 2019: The Best Gift Patrick Rhone on plans - The best gift one can give to any plan is time. The more time given, the more sure the plan. The more sure the plan, the …

Sep 11, 2019: The Resentment of Joker After reading David Edlestein’s review in Vulture of Joker, I’m even surer I’m going to hate everything about this film. It tells me everything I need …

Sep 10, 2019: Are Cubs at Risk of Becoming MLBs ’85 Bears? Will Leitch, writing for mlb.com, outlines a fear I think most Cubs fans have-the 2016 Cubs are basically the 1985 Bears. It is possible that the most …

Sep 10, 2019: Denied The AP has a report out today outlining why the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office denied Ohio State University’s trademark filing on the word …

Sep 10, 2019: The Falling Man Today I was reminded of a story that resonated with me ever since I read it. I remember the image. It haunts me each year. I will not post it, but I …

Sep 10, 2019: The First Game of the Rest of Our Lives Nate Jackson, writing for Deadspin, has a 9/11 story I’ve never heard before. It would make an excellent movie.

Sep 9, 2019: I Was Caroline Calloway Natalie Beach, writing The Cut, has an extraordinary story to tell. When I was a sophomore in college, I took a creative-nonfiction workshop and met …

Sep 9, 2019: The Scale of Corruption Heather Digby Parton, writing for Salon, has a story beginning to outline the full extent of the lies and corruption at the heart of the Trump …

Sep 9, 2019: Trump is Not Well Peter Wehner, writing in The Atlantic, states the obvious. Trump is not well. Donald Trump’s disordered personality—his unhealthy …

Sep 8, 2019: How to Be More Intelligent Nicholas Bate has a cheatsheet to be more intelligent. How many of these have you done or currently do?

Sep 8, 2019: Who Is Your #GUNSAFETYPRESIDENT? 2020 candidates agree: We must do more to protect our kids from gun violence. Watch the first video in our new #GunSafetyPresident series with …

Sep 7, 2019: Sick Warren Ellis is sick. I am sick. But I won’t be sick forever. This too will pass, and I’ll be left with just the usual medical issues …

Sep 6, 2019: All 11 Star Wars Movies Ranked Nahila Bonfiglio, writing for The Daily Dot, needed a story to file so she remembered there’s one of them Star Wars movies coming out in …

Sep 6, 2019: How M.I.T. Concealed Its Relationship with Jeffrey Epstein Ronan Farrow, writing in The New Yorker, has a damning expose on Jeffrey Epstein, Joi Ito of M.I.T., and Bill Gates. Perhaps most notably, Epstein …

Sep 6, 2019: NOAA Staff Warned Against Contradicting Trump Andrew Freedman, writing in The Washington Post, outlines a story that should make everyone mad. “This is the first time I’ve felt …

Sep 6, 2019: Typewriter and Publisher M. G. Siegler, writing at his site 500ish, takes us through his experience with iPad OS and in particular Safari. Now that this Safari is just like …

Sep 5, 2019: The F-Word is Going the Way of Hell John McWhorter, writing in The Atlantic, argues slurs are the real profanity and using “fuck” to describe a mass shooting sounds about …

Sep 4, 2019: Harry Potter Books Banned at Nashville School to Avoid ‘Conjuring Evil Spirits’ Want to get me pissed off? Tell me a book of fiction for young readers that extols the virtues of friends, family, and love is evil. A Catholic school …

Sep 4, 2019: The Big Show Never Ends Bryan Curtis, writing for The Ringer, looks back at the beginnings of ESPN’s SportsCenter. The interviews with Dan Patrick and Keith Olbermann …

Sep 4, 2019: The Room Where It Happens Seth Godin on making things happen. The best way to be in the room where it happens is to be the person who called the meeting. Things rarely happen …

Sep 4, 2019: We’re All Fake Fans Now Will Leitch, writing in New York Magazine, explains the complicated relationship between fan and athlete. His focus is on the recently retired Andrew …

Sep 3, 2019: How an Ex-CIA Officer Became the World’s Hottest Comic Book Writer Melissa Leon, writing for The Daily Beast, has a tremendous profile of comic book writer Tom King. I had no idea of his past and this article really …

Sep 3, 2019: Parliament of Cowards Kevin Drum, writing at Mother Jones, calls Boris Johnson and the British Parliament out. If Boris Johnson weren’t such a blithering jackass …

Sep 2, 2019: Linda Hamilton Fled Hollywood, but Terminator Still Found Her Kyle Buchanan, writing in The New York Times, has an incredible profile of Linda Hamilton. This bit was super telling: No romantic sparks had been …

Sep 2, 2019: On Becoming Batman Ramin Setoodeh, writing in Variety, has a great interview with Robert Pattinson about his latest film, The Lighthouse, and, of course, becoming the …

Sep 1, 2019: 4 wins in 5 games squeezed into 3 days Mark Saxon, writing in The Athletic, talks about the mental and physical demands of professional baseball. Specifically, the St. Louis Cardinals who …

Sep 1, 2019: Hard Work Nicholas Bate on hard work – 1.What you seek will take hard work. 2. There is no quick fix for health, publication nor financial security. 3. …

Sep 1, 2019: Separately Matt Gemmell, writing on his site, describes a concert experience with his family and the estrangement of his brother. The writing is melancholy in …

Aug 30, 2019: Everything Else Seth Godin on everything else: Everyone else also thinks it’s about them. Everyone else is in a hurry. Everyone else is afraid. Everyone else …

Aug 30, 2019: Hyphens To the horror of decent writers everywhere, The Associated Press has issued new guidance on the use of hyphens, upending the normal order of …

Aug 29, 2019: 10 Things We Learned From 2019’s Summer Movie Season Tim Grierson, writing in Rolling Stone, bemoans the state of the movie industry with his ten hot takes on Summer 2019 at the movies. He’s …

Aug 29, 2019: Cheeto Christ Stupid-Czar Randy Rainbow has done it again with this video.

Aug 28, 2019: Football Doesn’t Let You Leave Nate Jackson, writing for Deadspin, tells his own tale of professional football—“the cycle of injury, pain and rehab.” While …

Aug 28, 2019: No Offense For some reason, the internet has suddenly caught on to this hilarious video. Madilyn Bailey wrote a song only using hate comments from …

Aug 27, 2019: How to Disarm America Jack Crosbie, writing in Splinter, has a thoughtful, well-researched piece about what to do about guns in these United States of America. I have no …

Aug 27, 2019: Let’s Meet Again in Five Years What a wonderful, romantic story Karen B. Kaplan shared in The New York Times Modern Love section. It is ripe to be snagged for a movie.

Aug 27, 2019: Vicious Circle Mark Evanier, writing on his personal blog, makes a really interesting observation about Trump. So I’m thinking Trump’s trapped in a …

Aug 26, 2019: Dungeons and Deceptions Ceclia D’Anastasio, writing for Kotaku, has an in-depth story on the origins of Dungeons & Dragons. It is a fascinating read. Of course, I …

Aug 26, 2019: Truth Seth Godin, writing at his site, is wrong. It happens. He conflates truth and the acceptance of truth. Truth is truth. In every fourth-grade …

Aug 25, 2019: Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker Teaser Poster Check out the new poster for Star Wars: #TheRiseOfSkywalker that debuted at #D23Expo. See the film in theaters December 20. pic.twitter.com/FUSZaGQZE6 …

Aug 25, 2019: The Henry Dale and Betty Smith Football Center In this video, University of Illinois Athletic Director Josh Whitman takes members of the media through the brand new Henry Dale and Betty Smith …

Aug 25, 2019: Me and the Girls

Aug 23, 2019: Inside the Twisted, Worldwide Hunt for a $7 Million Stolen Car Stayton Bonner, writing in Esquire, has a fun story about a private investigator who specializes in “a niche of a niche of a niche.” Joe …

Aug 22, 2019: Absurd Andrew Sullivan, writing in New York Magazine, writes poor Donald Trump’s trigger word, “absurd,” is emblematic of his entire …

Aug 22, 2019: If Trump Were an Airline Pilot James Fallows, writing in The Atlantic, has an interesting take on Donald Trump’s interesting week of verbal vomit. He thinks “a flat …

Aug 22, 2019: Yadi Knew Yep, this is the coolest thing you'll see tonight. Yadi knew Dex hit that out of the yard before he even swung the bat. #TimeToFly …

Aug 21, 2019: The Greatest Baseball Card Ever Who cares about the T-206 Wagner or the 1952 Topps Mantle? For my money, Keith Comstock has the greatest baseball card ever. Thirty years after his …

Aug 21, 2019: Uncomfortable Conversations A person’s success in life can usually be measured by the number of uncomfortable conversations he or she is willing to have. - Tim Ferriss

Aug 21, 2019: XFL I was vaguely aware that WWE’s Vince McMahon and others were relaunching the XFL. Apparently, this “league” starts up in 2020 and …

Aug 20, 2019: The Popeye’s Chicken Sandwich is Here to Save America Helen Rosner, writing in The New Yorker, has a strange story about fast food chicken sandwiches. There are dozens of fast-food chains in …

Aug 20, 2019: The Subtle Politics of Graphic Design Kate Wagner, writing in The New Republic, reminds us of Barack Obama’s iconic logo and then goes over the branding of the current Democrat …

Aug 20, 2019: The Widespread Suspicion of Opposite-Sex Friendships Ashley Fetters, writing in The Atlantic, talks about if it’s possible for men and women to be friends. In 1989, When Harry Met …

Aug 19, 2019: Make a Habit/Break a Habit Seth Godin, writing on his site, has a few ideas about habits (but that isn’t anything new) If you’re trying to help yourself (or those …

Aug 19, 2019: Structure Leo Babauta, writing at his site Zen Habits, outlines why we should attempt to create structure in our lives. I agree with everything here and fail …

Aug 19, 2019: Time Michael Wade, writing on his site, asks a few questions regarding time. Is time linear or circular, an hour-glass, or ocean waves? Can time be …

Aug 18, 2019: Early Polling Dana Blanton, writing on the Fox News website, reviews a new Fox News Poll showing Donald Trump is in a world of hurt come next November. He’s …

Aug 16, 2019: Pen and Paper Om Malik, writing on his blog, explains why pen and paper are good for you. …here are my top reasons for sticking with pen and paper: Paper and pen …

Aug 16, 2019: The Decision I spent a day with my parents driving to a birthday party. We talked about sports, family, and, of course, politics. They are in their 70s and …

Aug 16, 2019: Wedding Day, Game Day

Aug 15, 2019: Illinois Football: 2020 College Football Playoff Champions Matt O’Neall, writing for The Champaign Room, has obviously drunk all the Orange Koolaid. In this piece that rivals The Song of Fire and Ice …

Aug 15, 2019: The Athletic on Illinois Eamonn Brennan, writing in The Athletic, have a few words about this upcoming season of Illinois Basketball. There’s a lot to like about …

Aug 14, 2019: That True Detective Scene with Alexandra Daddario Luke Winkie, writing for MEL Magazine, shines a light on a highly specific subreddit on Reddit named r/TTDSWAD an acronym for That True Detective …

Aug 14, 2019: The Californication of America’s Restaurants Nick Mancall-Bitel, writing in Eater, has an interesting story on the concept of “California cuisine.” …even without a clear …

Aug 14, 2019: The Secrets of Success Nicholas Bate’s secrets of success in handy PDF form. Four pages of brilliance.

Aug 13, 2019: The White of the Plate Jayson Stark, writing in The Athletic, has the most recent take on the upcoming robot apocalypse i.e. computerized ball-strike calls via TrackMan. …

Aug 12, 2019: Surrogate Angels of Death Rhonda Garelick, writing at The Cut, tries to wrap her mind around the photo of Melania Trump holding a newly orphaned baby while her husband grins …

Aug 12, 2019: The Truth About Jeffrey Epstein Is Far Uglier Than the Conspiracy Theories Surrounding Him Eddie Kim, writing for MEL Magazine, outlines all the crazy conspiracy theories, memes, and social media posts involving the apparent suicide of …

Aug 12, 2019: WordPress Buying Tumblr Madison Malone Kircher, writing in Vulture, takes the Wall Street Journal story that Automaticc, the owner of WordPress, has purchased Tumblr from …

Aug 11, 2019: A Circle of Words Om Malik, writing on his site, talks about the cycle of emails to blogs to newsletters basically created by Dave Winer. Dave Winer, the godfather of …

Aug 11, 2019: Peak Wellness Brad Stulberg, writing in Outside Online, takes the whole wellness industry to task. The problem is that so much of what’s sold in the name of …

Aug 11, 2019: The Plan to Save Barnes and Noble Justin Bariso, writing for Inc., deduces the short, smart plan of new Barnes and Noble CEO James Daunt to save the retail operation. It’s …

Aug 11, 2019: The Texas Blue Wave Bob Moser, writing in The New Republic, has a story on the gradual blue-ing of Texas. The wave is starting to get some kinetic energy and it’s …

Aug 10, 2019: Into the Personal-Website-Verse Chris Bower, in his The Weekly Review newsletter, pointed to a piece by Matthias Ott about ditching social media and publishing platforms like Medium …

Aug 9, 2019: Damon Sheehy-Guiseppi Scored A Return Touchdown In His NFL Debut Four months ago, Damon Sheehy-Guiseppi was sleeping outside because he couldn't afford a hotel. He talked his way into a contract with the @Browns and …

Aug 9, 2019: Words That Matter Seth Godin makes a list of important words. Discipline, rigor, patience, self-control, dignity, respect, knowledge, curiosity, wisdom, ethics, honor, …

Aug 8, 2019: A Story About Kevin Smith Warren Ellis, writing on his site, tells a tale about filmmaker Kevin Smith. It’s a brief account, but says a lot about Smith.

Aug 7, 2019: Giorgi Bezhanishvili on going home, being an Illini fan favorite and getting to the NCAA tourney Brian Hamilton, writing in The Athletic, has fun interview with University of Illinois sophomore forward Giorgi Bezhanishvili. What a wonderful …

Aug 7, 2019: In the Present “The sum total of my existence is being written in the present by the choices I make and the priorities I live for. Right now.” …

Aug 7, 2019: Streaks Seth Godin, writing at this blog, talks about streaks versus habits. Streaks require commitment at first, but then the commitment turns into a …

Aug 6, 2019: The Mystery of the Old Stars David Machese, writing in The New York Times, has wonderfully quirky interview with Nicholas Cage. I’ve taken risks. But there has been a …

Aug 6, 2019: The Secret Sauce Emma Baccellieri, writing for Sports Illustrated, tells the story about how Major League Baseball requires every ball to be rubbed with special mud …

Aug 5, 2019: Here is the Best Three Minutes You Will Watch About Trump and Racism "It’s easy for us to place it all on Donald Trump’s shoulders... This is us. And if we’re going to get past this we can’t blame it on him. He's a …

Aug 5, 2019: Uncertain and Afraid I haven’t really read any of John Green’s books, but I probably should. Occasionally, I see a video post and I remember that his vlog is …

Aug 4, 2019: It Me. Look, up in the sky! It's a bird, it's a plane.... it me. — Superman (@Superman) August 5, 2019

Aug 4, 2019: Obama on the Recent Mass Shootings pic.twitter.com/nNOVtQ50O4 — Barack Obama (@BarackObama) August 5, 2019

Aug 4, 2019: The Hierarchy of Importance Often, too often, I need to be reminded of what’s really important in my life. I easily get sidetracked selfishly focusing on the next shiny …

Aug 4, 2019: “DID WE JUST HOMER OFF DEGROM?!” "DID WE JUST HOMER OFF DEGROM?!" @diaz_isan's PUMPED-UP dad was mid-interview when his guy took a Cy Young winner DEEP for his 1st hit …

Aug 3, 2019: Space Helmet Poster I need all of Ocean’s 11 to get their own space helmet poster pic.twitter.com/EattJf5pnL — Kqcn (@academyframe) August 4, 2019

Aug 3, 2019: The United States of Guns Jason Kottke, writing at his site, has put up a new version of the same article. Like many of you, I read the news of a single …

Aug 2, 2019: The Remarkable Healing Power Nicholas Bate with a list of seven things with remarkable healing powers – A good night’s sleep. Fresh, local and perfectly steamed …

Aug 2, 2019: Unpopular Opinion Easy pick for me: Speed Racer (2008, 40% Rotten Tomatoes). Unapologetically corny, occasionally strangely affecting, and beautiful in an unreal, …

Aug 2, 2019: Kaenan and Cresynthia

Aug 1, 2019: Be In The Moment It is far too easy to bite back boredom with a smartphone. Of course, is that the way you want to live your life? Constantly immersed in your social …

Aug 1, 2019: Froze in the Headlights John LaRue, writing for Viva El Birdos, outlines what happened or more accurately what did not happen at the trade deadline. Not trading Bader or …

Aug 1, 2019: The Speculative Review Rob Bricken, writing his Nerd Processor column in the OneZero publication on Medium, thinks the new Star Wars-themed Galaxy’s Edge amusement park is …

Jul 31, 2019: Questions For A Better Future I’m at a crossroads. I need to change some hard entrenched habits. While I’m aware of what I need to do, sometimes I still need to …

Jul 31, 2019: The Stroop Effect This is fun. The Stroop Effect is a well-known psychological phenomenon that challenges how we name physical colours when they are used to spell the …

Jul 30, 2019: Handy Equations I’ve never been very good with math or equations, but this post from Nicholas Bate certainly makes a lot of sense to me. innovation=creativity + …

Jul 30, 2019: Join the Fight JOIN THE FIGHT 😤#Illini x #JointheFight 🔶🔷 pic.twitter.com/hK2jHAAn8B — Illinois Football (@IlliniFootball) July 30, 2019 What a great design.

Jul 30, 2019: There Are No Alternate Universes If there is an alternate universe for every possibility, then there is a universe where alternate universes don’t exist. And we exist so we …

Jul 30, 2019: Time to Get Rid of the Lottery Leah Muncy, writing in The Outline, has an in-depth story on state lotteries. She calls it a scam that predominately targets poor people. …

Jul 29, 2019: All 180 Rush Songs, Ranked Jordan Hoffman, writing for Thrillist, has put together a ranking of all of the Rush catalog. While I’m certainly not a Rush aficionado, …

Jul 29, 2019: I Played Trump in Hillary Clinton’s 2016 Debate Prep. Here’s What It Takes to Beat Him. Philippe Reines, writing in Politico, presents several suggestions on how to beat Trump in a debate. He should know, he played him during Hillary …

Jul 29, 2019: “Lost in You” by Childish Gambino Like A Version is a segment on Australian radio station triple j. Every week a musician or band comes into the studio to play one of their own songs …

Jul 28, 2019: Mondays Nicholas Bate with some start-of-the-week advice. Still there until you get the hang of them. It’s you or them. Decide. Sometimes, attitude is all.

Jul 27, 2019: Cable for Streamers M. G. Siegler, writing at his site 500ish.com, says piracy is coming back in full force not for music but for television shows and movies. He thinks …

Jul 27, 2019: Rats In case you missed it, the President of the United States is a racist. Over the weekend, he decided to go after Rep. Elijah Cummings and the city of …

Jul 26, 2019: How My Daughter and I Connect Over Our Favorite Pastime Elizabeth McCracken, writing for Real Simple, has a charming story about her and her daughter bonded over going to the movies last summer. It made me …

Jul 25, 2019: “I Was Cyber-Blackmailed Over a Consensual Dick Pic” Adam Elder, writing in MEL Magazine, has a horrifying story about cyber-blackmail. It made my skin crawl.

Jul 24, 2019: Easy Watercolor Shibasaki is an elderly Japanese watercolor artist with a YouTube channel in which he teaches you to paint a rainy day in a village, figures on a …

Jul 24, 2019: The Ways Time to pave the way. There’s the hard way and the easy way. The better way and my way. Any way you want it and anyway you slice it, but not in a …

Jul 23, 2019: Customs Fifty years ago, the Apollo 11 astronauts had to go through customs after landing. Basically, they left Florida, took a detour to the Moon, and landed …

Jul 23, 2019: Daily Productivity Nicholas Bate with your productivity list Address true priorities for the day (set by Personal Compass, not urgency nor ease. More here.) …

Jul 23, 2019: The Only Thing That Matters Lieu: "The reason again that you did not indict Donald Trump is because of OLC opinion stating you cannot indict a sitting president, correct?" …

Jul 23, 2019: Time to Die Rutger Hauer, best known for his performance as replicant Roy Batty in Blade Runner, has died at 75. Blade Runner is not my all-time favorite film, …

Jul 22, 2019: Racist-In-Chief A couple of days ago, Xeni Jardin, writing at Boing Boing, criticized national reporting for not calling Trump’s racist twitter tirade what it was: …

Jul 22, 2019: The Mueller Report The Mueller Report, originally released as a scanned image PDF, is now available via the Digital Public Library of America as a text-based EPUB …

Jul 21, 2019: David Tennant Cursing for One Minute y'all dirty bitches here's david tennant cursing for one minute straight nsfw, obviously kskdkdk pic.twitter.com/hU0mD9iypU — charlie vickers …

Jul 21, 2019: The Secular Church Faith Hill (not that one), writing for The Atlantic, has a fascinating story about the rise and fall of secular churches. I’ve often thought a …

Jul 20, 2019: The Gentlest of Rain Nicholas Bate with 100 words – The gentlest of rain on the oldest of pebbles on that most misty of mornings. A Saturday, a thermos of …

Jul 20, 2019: Unhittable This pitch might have broken physics. pic.twitter.com/9M62Y5gzRt — MLB (@MLB) July 21, 2019 We need to call Montgomery Scott because I think …

Jul 19, 2019: One Giant Leap The Atlantic has 50 photos from 50 years ago in honor of the 50th anniversary of Apollo 11 landing on the Moon. Worth taking a long look.

Jul 19, 2019: Tailgating Seth Godin on finding your own lane. It doesn’t make you go any faster. It doesn’t make the leader go any faster. Tailgating creates …

Jul 19, 2019: Chicago

Jul 18, 2019: The Process I’m terrible at meeting my goals. I set monstrous goals and always fall short. What I should do is take the time to figure out the process of …

Jul 17, 2019: Apple Moving in on Podcasts Jason Snell, writing for Macworld, has a few thought on the news that Apple plans to fund original podcasts: The great thing about …

Jul 16, 2019: Carve Out the Clutter I want to simplify my life. This is difficult for me. One of the best things I can do is a self-evaluation to clear out the chaos. However, being …

Jul 15, 2019: Are You Paying Attention? It’s hard to walk the line of being informed, being outraged at the news, and not caring. I don’t get on Facebook much anymore because …

Jul 14, 2019: I Don’t Care How Successful You Are Jamie Varon, in an Instagram post, tries to redefine what a good life looks and feels like. I kinda sorta love this.

Jul 14, 2019: Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr Ringo joined Paul on stage. It was magic. They played “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” and “Helter Skelter” …

Jul 13, 2019: Chuck Klosterman is Here for the Weirdness Bryan Walsh, in the new GEN publication on Medium, has a fascinating interview with Chuck Klosterman ostensibly about his new book of short …

Jul 12, 2019: Binge Watching to Appointment Viewing M. G. Siegler has an idea for Netflix. What if a show like Stranger Things started as a binge show, but then morphed into weekly, …

Jul 12, 2019: My Cousin the Major Leaguer Donnie Kwak, writing in The Ringer, has a fun, inspirational story about the newest St. Louis Cardinal, Tommy Edman. In short: Tommy is a rookie with …

Jul 11, 2019: A Virus Brent Simmons: Social media is a virus from outer space. I’m increasingly thinking the same thing.

Jul 11, 2019: Robot Umpires Johnny Flores Jr., reporting for Yahoo Sports, has a story about the future of baseball. On Wednesday, the independent Atlantic League, which is a …

Jul 11, 2019: You Can’t Make A Person Change Mark Manson with another of his long essays. This time it’s about change and how you can’t make anyone change. This is profoundly …

Jul 10, 2019: Distractions to Manage Nicholas Bate lists the distractions we all need to manage – Wonderful drugs distract us from basic self-care. Screens from conversation. …

Jul 10, 2019: Rip Torn, RIP Ross O. Lincoln, writing for The Wrap, has a glowing obiturary for the late, great Rip Torn. Known for his gravely drawl and sinister-looking smile, …

Jul 9, 2019: Hack Brent Simmons has a simple calendar hack. My calendar hack is that I add two alerts for each thing. One ten minutes before, so I have plenty of time …

Jul 9, 2019: Remembering Chris Gaines Tarpley Hitt, writing for The Daily Beast, has a fun story taking you back to the crazy days of 1999 when the best-selling solo artist of all time …

Jul 9, 2019: The Jeffrey Epstein Case Is Like Nothing I’ve Seen Before Ken White, writing in The Atlantic, outlines the crimes of Jeffrey Epstein and they are horrifying. What Epstein’s legal team managed to get …

Jul 8, 2019: The Music of 1985 Was a Perfect Mixtape Elizabeth Nelson, writing in The Ringer, takes us on a musical journey of that faraway time of 1985. Inspired by season three of Stranger Things, she …

Jul 8, 2019: “I Did Not Die. I Did Not Go to Heaven.” Ruth Graham, writing in Slate, has the definitive story on the bullshit of The Boy Who Came Back From Heaven. Of course it wasn’t true, but so …

Jul 7, 2019: Broken Things Daniel Nesbit is here for the broken things. I am here for the broken things. The daily struggle to just make ends meet. The harsh unfairness of dumb …

Jul 7, 2019: Default Mode Michael Wade asks a good question What is your default mode? Is it positive or negative? Does it tend to blame others or does it foster personal …

Jul 7, 2019: Role Models Will Leitch, writing in New York Magazine, makes the point that the political activism of the USWNT means their win was all the sweeter. They spoke …

Jul 6, 2019: Frank Chimero and Good Trouble Writing in Creative Boom, Katy Cowan has a fantastic interview with creator Frank Chimero. I love this concept. Good trouble is questioning and …

Jul 5, 2019: The Truth About Phenibut Isabelle Kohn, in MEL magazine, has an in-depth story on the latest wonder drug, Phenibut. I admit, I had no idea about this drug, but the story is …

Jul 4, 2019: Stuff, stuff and more stuff Nicholas Bate with just a 100 words for us. Stuff, stuff and more stuff. Pings and mails and requests. One walk along a deserted beach at dawn …

Jul 2, 2019: Wanderers Chuck Wendig has a new novel out titled Wanderers. I’m four chapters in and hooked beyond much of anything I’ve ever read in the last few years. I’ve …

Jul 1, 2019: Remembering Action Park Every summer we end up getting a rewrite of the “Action Park was American’s Most Dangerous Amusement Park” story. This time …

Jul 1, 2019: So the President F*cking Hates My Girlfriend Sue Bird, writing in The Player’s Tribune, has one of the most delightful and jubilant stories all about how Donald Trump, the real …

Jun 30, 2019: A Presidential Prediction At this point on July 1, the Democrat nominee for President will be Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, Elizabeth Warren, or Bernie Sanders. Warren, Sanders, …

Jun 30, 2019: For Shame Heather Timmons, writing in Quartz, has a harrowing account of a dozen lawmakers visiting the detention centers in Texas. CBP officers were …

Jun 29, 2019: Self-Discipline Michael Wade has some good advice - We need self-discipline far more than motivation. Restrict your exposure to life’s never-ending …

Jun 28, 2019: Jony Ive is Leaving Apple So apparently Jony Ive, Apple’s chief design officer for many, many years is leaving the company. The only person’s take on this …

Jun 27, 2019: Long Form Content Mark Manson has some good thoughts about ones attention diet - Long form content should be your bread and butter for news content and the majority of …

Jun 25, 2019: Ten Stories Seth Godin has an interesting idea for presenters, “memorize your stories.” Watch a great performance and you’ll see no …

Jun 24, 2019: Things Things happen in seconds. We react to them in minutes. We talk about them for hours. They mess up our days. We tell people for weeks. We think about …

Jun 23, 2019: The Jock-ification of Data Jack Hamilton, writing in The Atlantic, has a review of a book by Ben Lindbergh and Travis Sawchik called The MVP Machine: How Baseball’s …

Jun 23, 2019: Foreigner

Jun 21, 2019: He Raped Her Elle advice columnist E. Jean Carroll has accused President Donald Trump of raping her in her new book, What Do We Need Men For? A Modest Proposal. …

Jun 21, 2019: The Unsolved Mystery of the Malibu Creek Murder Zach Baron has a tremendous story in GQ that you should take some time and read this weekend. The opening is just great. When a man was killed in …

Jun 20, 2019: Small and Memorable Michael Wade on small acts - No matter how small an act may be, if it is kind or cruel and needlessly done, there is a good chance that it will be …

Jun 20, 2019: Summer Solstice Today is the summer solstice, the longest day of the year. My wife reminded me this morning. Today, we get the most sunshine out of any other day …

Jun 19, 2019: Bodies in Seats Casey Newton, writing at The Verge, has one of the most upsetting stories in a while. The working conditions of these content moderators for Facebook …

Jun 19, 2019: Five Minutes Right this second, you are reading a post that will more than likely be forgotten in five minutes.

Jun 18, 2019: Bunt Double Matt Carpenter just bunted for a double... yes, you read that correctly! pic.twitter.com/mtJUNpG4ji — St. Louis Cardinals (@Cardinals) June 18, 2019 …

Jun 18, 2019: Not Trump The Orlando-Sentinel, which leans far more Republican than Democrat, is already out with an editorial endorsement for the next …

Jun 17, 2019: Time for a New Plan Nicholas Bate reminds us that there is always time for a new plan. There can always be a new plan. You just need a fresh page and a sharpened pencil. …

Jun 16, 2019: Gloria Vanderbilt, RIP Today I learned the late, great Gloria Vanderbilt was Anderson Cooper’s mother. I had no idea.

Jun 16, 2019: Lyrics Site Accuses Google of Lifting Its Content Robert McMillan, writing in The Wall Street Journal, has an interesting story about theft. “Over the last two years, we’ve shown …

Jun 15, 2019: The Appropriate Medium I very much liked Seth Godin’s post today – We spend all day communicating, and we’ve invented myriad ways to do it. You can buy …

Jun 15, 2019: The Art of the Lie Andrew Sullivan, in his weekly column for New York Magazine, talks at length about how brazen, breezy, and ridiculous Donald Trump’s lies are. For …

Jun 14, 2019: The Little Things Michael Wade with some wisdom – You know the answer to this:  Which makes a greater impression on a person: assistance on a major project …

Jun 13, 2019: Every Member of Team Trump Is Now Enabling Treason Rick Wilson, writing at The Daily Beast, has a pretty strong opinion about the recent interview Trump had with George Stephanopoulos. We live in a …

Jun 13, 2019: The St. Louis Blues are Stanley Cup Champions I really don’t follow hockey, but I did watch Game 7 of the Stanley Cup playoffs and rejoiced when the Blues won the whole thing. I have a …

Jun 12, 2019: Post Death Internet Service Warren Ellis has a modest proposal that made me laugh. What I need is a post-death internet service. This is something people have been talking about …

Jun 12, 2019: The Coming Apocalypse David Brooks, in his column in The New York Times, describes an impending disaster for Republicans. But it’s hard to look at the generational …

Jun 12, 2019: What Happens When Our Lives End Jack Gronsky, writing at Viva El Birdos, paints a picture of what it’s like to be at the end of a career and trying to figure out what’s …

Jun 11, 2019: 25 Episodes that Changed Television Writer Emily Todd VanDerWerff and designer Amanda Northrop, in Vox, have put together a fantastic overview of the episodes that pushed the envelope of …

Jun 11, 2019: Blog Posts can be Questions Brent Simmons, regarding the web ― The web is a conversation. Blog posts can be questions.

Jun 11, 2019: Jon Stewart’s Plea Jon Stewart, former host of The Daily Show, spoke on Capitol Hill today about continued funding for health care and benefits for 9/11 first …

Jun 10, 2019: Your Future Self In many ways, right here is where I write daily. Sometimes it’s just a quick snippet or commentary on someone else’s piece of writing …

Jun 9, 2019: A Baseball Win Here’s video of Paul DeJong warming up with a young #Cubs fan, wearing a Rizzo shirt, before Sunday’s game. #Cardinals #MLB …

Jun 8, 2019: We Only Do the Good Shit Warren Ellis, writing in his newsletter Orbital Operations, commented on what he wants to talk about. Here’s a thing that came up in an email …

Jun 7, 2019: In Praise of Sleep Andrew Sullivan, in his weekly column for New York Magazine, had an awesome section on sleep. His whole column is great, but this part made a lot of …

Jun 7, 2019: Paul Darrow, RIP Actor Paul Darrow died at age 78. I remember him as one of my favorite characters, Kerr Avon in Blake’s 7. If you’ve never seen the show, it was a …

Jun 6, 2019: Digital Privacy I’m generally okay with giving away a bit of privacy to use tools that treat me as the product. Google and Facebook are pretty notorious for gathering …

Jun 6, 2019: Trump Wants This Writing for The Concourse, David Roth is killing it these days. His diatribes against President Trump have been nothing but glorious take-downs. His …

Jun 5, 2019: 50 Years Ago Not enough people are talking about the fact that 2019 is the 50 year anniversary of the moon landing and it makes me sad. Over the last few weeks, …

Jun 5, 2019: Exercise Tiger Today is the 75th anniversary of D-Day. Dan Lewis, in his Now I Know newsletter, re-shares a story written in 2012 about the failed D-Day dry run. I …

Jun 4, 2019: What Do I Want? Every few months, I start having passionate debates with myself about what I want to do creatively. A newsletter may inspire me to restart my …

Jun 3, 2019: Ranking Every Black Mirror Episode In anticipation of the latest Netflix episodes, The Ringer staff has made a ranking of the first 20 installments of Black Mirror. I’d flip …

Jun 2, 2019: Patio Vibes

Jun 1, 2019: Currently Currently, you’re wasting your time.

Jun 1, 2019: Tuning Online I came across this old post from Warren Ellis on his (I think) defunct site, Longwave. You don’t have to live in public on the internet if you don’t …

May 31, 2019: Navy Pilots Report Unexplained Flying Objects Helene Cooper, Ralph Blumenthal, and Leslie Kean, writing in The New York Times, has a story regarding several Navy pilots encountering unidentified …

May 31, 2019: Not Enough Time While I was not disappointed with the last season of Game of Thrones, there was something just a bit off. I said to my friends that I think they …

May 31, 2019: Prayer Praying for something implies that, despite My omniscience, I don't already know what you want. Prayer insults Me. — God (Not a Parody, …

May 31, 2019: Questions Michael Wade with a whole bunch of questions managers ought to be asking themselves. As someone who is terrible at this, I find this list totally …

May 30, 2019: A Plan to Win the Impeachment Fight Dan Pfeiffer, writing at his site crooked.com, outlines what he sees as the way Democrats can win what looks like an impending impeachment battle. …

May 30, 2019: Petrichor My all-time favorite scent is the smell of rain on soil after warm, dry weather. If I could bottle it up I would.

May 30, 2019: Write More, Do Other Stuff Less As we fast approach the middle of the year, I’ve been working on tweaking my focus for my creative output. I’m reminded of a quote from writer Brian K …

May 29, 2019: Fakebook Kara Swisher, writing at The New York Times, has called out Facebook for not doing anything to stop the proliferation of a doctored video of Nancy …

May 29, 2019: Jack of all Trades, Master of None I’ve been thinking about my own personal focus for several weeks now. I’m trying to be more focused on my family, focused on my job(s), and focused on …

May 29, 2019: Randy Rainbow Profile Margaret Engel, writing in The Washington Post, has a tremendous profile of political satirist Randy Rainbow. He’s great and this gushing piece …

May 28, 2019: Make a Decision and Focus As much as I’d like to, it is impossible to change the past. Unless I get into a souped-up DeLorean, the past will always be the past. However, …

May 28, 2019: Read the Report David Frum, writing in The Atlantic, reported on Robert Mueller’s first public address since his report landed echoes what Mr. Mueller wants …

May 28, 2019: The Last Gift The last gift the three-day weekend gives us is the four-day week. — Jason L Blair (@jasonlblair) May 28, 2019 So true.

May 27, 2019: Check-Lists Nicholas Bate on making check-lists… There are fewer mistakes with accurate, easily-accessible check-lists. Ask your pilot. Your surgeon. …

May 26, 2019: Veterans Day versus Memorial Day Just a small reminder, Veterans Day celebrates the service of all U.S. military veterans. Memorial Day honors those who died while in military …

May 25, 2019: Men Need to Make Friends Melanie Hamlett, writing in Harper’s Bazaar, has a story that I had saved to Instapaper a while back and then saw again recently. I read this bit, and …

May 24, 2019: Intentional Habits Jason Fried, writing in his company’s blog Signal v. Noise, has a smart post about advice for young people about to graduate. His advice makes …

May 23, 2019: 1% Better It’s easy to feel overwhelmed. Time is finite, but there’s always too much to do. I’ve found that I only operate well when I focus. I have to focus on …

May 23, 2019: The 25 Best Star Trek: The Next Generation Episodes Mike Bloom, writing for The Hollywood Reporter, pulls ye olde chestnut out ranking the episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation in honor of the 25th …

May 22, 2019: The Dark Forest Jason Kottke pointed me to an essay on Medium from Yancey Strickler linking the rise of advertising, tracking, and trolling of the mainstream internet …

May 21, 2019: Puzzle Peace Patrick Rhone, writing in his email newsletter, tells the story of minimalists and maximalists, puzzles and preconceptions. It is smart and exactly …

May 21, 2019: The Rise of Skywalker in Vanity Fair Lev Grossman wrote some words and Annie Leibovitz took some pictures previewing Star Wars Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker. Of course, everything …

May 20, 2019: Our Guys Robert Rosenthal, writing on his IlliniBoard.com site, talks about what it’s like to root for Illinois athletics and to root for the players. …

May 19, 2019: The Memory Book This story is amazing. Emily Buder, writing in The Atlantic, tells the tale of Byron Levy and his grandson Colin in a video that stunned me when I …

May 18, 2019: Bittersweet Taste More thought required. But I liked the #GameofThrones finale. I did not love the majority of this last season, but I thought they ended it in a …

May 18, 2019: The Trauma of Daenerys Targaryen Jonathan Michael Erickson has put together an in-depth study of the Daenerys Targaryen character arc. Erickson has his doctorate in depth psychology …

May 17, 2019: The Big Bang Theory Theory Todd VanDerWerff, writing in Vox, explains in perfect detail the rise of The Big Bang Theory and why it endured for as long as it did at the top of …

May 16, 2019: Brick Mode There’s a new idea that’s been floating around lately regarding productivity and dealing with the distractions of owing a device that is …

May 16, 2019: The End of the Great Game I’ve watched every episode of Game of Thrones. I haven’t read any of the books. The anticipation of this season and the upcoming series finale is …

May 15, 2019: 100 Words: Write Nicholas Bate wrote 100 words on writing and it’s delightful. Take a sheet of paper. Blank, unlined is good and just write. But what? Well, …

May 15, 2019: Worry Monsters Do you know those Pom Wonderful TV commercials where a giant “worry monster” complains about not being able to keep their human counterparts from …

May 14, 2019: All Other Noise is Cancelled Olga Khazan, writing in The Atlantic, has a great piece that’s superficially about noise-cancelling headphones, but does a bit of a deep dive …

May 14, 2019: Can’t Do Attitude Here’s a question I saw recently, “Would you rather believe you can’t achieve something you haven’t but that others have, or that you chose not to?” I …

May 13, 2019: No Need to Impeach? William Saletan, writing for Slate, outlines recent polls showing there are smarter ways to hold Trump accountable before the 2020 election. His …

May 13, 2019: Tim Conway, RIP Tim Conway passed away today. He was 85. I remember watching the Carol Burnett Show and hoping I would catch a sketch where Conway made everyone break …

May 12, 2019: What Is Writing and Does This Count as It? [Mia Mercado](https://www.newyorker.com/humor/daily-shouts/what-is-writing-and-does-this-count-as-it), writing for The New Yorker, set up a “helpful” …

May 11, 2019: One-Handed Dudes Luke Skywalker and Jaime Lannister are both one-handed dudes who’ve made out with their twin sisters.

May 10, 2019: From Chicago, with Love Steve Greenberg, writing for the Chicago Sun-Times, has full-color, cover feature on Illinois basketball soon-to-be-a-sophomore star, Ayo Dosunmu. …

May 10, 2019: Illinois Nazi Patrick Redford, writing for Deadspin, outlines a report and the result of a racist fan using the OK gesture behind Doug Glanville, an …

May 9, 2019: The Art of Not Having an Opinion Philip Ellis, writing for Man Repeller, has some thoughts regarding having an opinion about the political news of the day. The urgency to be …

May 8, 2019: Beating Yourself Up The best thing about beating yourself up is that you never fight back.

May 7, 2019: Large and Small Microscopes show us how large we are and telescopes showed us how small we are.

May 7, 2019: Legal Opinion Zachary Basu, writing for Axios, reports on an interesting development into the Mueller Report. More than 650 former federal prosecutors …

May 7, 2019: Make Them Brian Beutler, writing for Crooked Media, pens an essay lambasting the Deomocrats response to the Mueller Report. Their dithering about the Mueller …

May 7, 2019: Scene 38 Reimagined Christopher Clements has recreated the lightsaber duel from Star Wars IV: A New Hope making it longer, more action-oriented and smartly …

May 7, 2019: Since He Was in Kindergarten Jack Healy and Liam Stack, writing for The New York Times, report on another school shooting that left one student dead and eight injured. The money …

May 6, 2019: Teenage Pricks Alex Pareene, writing for The Baffler, has an incredible long read about Trumpism, young boys, and race. He opens with this perfect paragraph. A bit …

May 5, 2019: Adam Wainwright Deserves Better A blogger named bgh, writing on his Cardinals site On The Cardinals, wrote an inspiring piece about St. Louis Cardinals pitcher Adam Wainwright. It …

May 5, 2019: Seven Minutes Ago The sun could have blown up seven minutes ago and that would really ruin the rest of your day.

May 5, 2019: The Story of the Queen of the Mommy Bloggers Chavie Leiber, writing for Vox, has an incredible profile on Dooce.com founder Heather Armstrong. I admit, I had not heard of her prior to reading the …

May 4, 2019: Science Fiction Daydream If I would have read the following sentence as a kid, I’m sure I would have thought it was a science fiction …

May 4, 2019: Steak and Shake Date

May 3, 2019: Star Wars Day I just fished two tennis balls from under the basement couch with an old lightsaber so I could play with the dog. So, happy Star Wars Day.

May 2, 2019: Consider the Value Patrick Rhone with some thoughtful insight - Consider the value of doing nothing when there is nothing of value to be done. Consider the value of …

May 2, 2019: Selling Tumblr I used to have a site on Tumblr. It was kind of a commonplace book of quotes, images, and videos. It took up loads of time to no one’s benefit, so I …

May 2, 2019: Ulysses, Bear, or Apple Notes? Curtis McHale, writing for The Sweet Setup, has an in-depth comparison between three of the most well-known note-taking, writing, and research apps: …

May 1, 2019: Sign of our Times Michael Wade writes about how people view major events now through a prism of a political point of view. There are moments when it seems that a sign …

May 1, 2019: “Have you ever had a job where you did nothing for years and nobody found out?” The story of Bob is amusing to me. H/T: Laura Olin

Apr 30, 2019: Mario Speedwagon I bought the latest Mario Kart game for my nephew’s birthday a couple of weeks ago. I had a fleeting thought that Nintendo clearly missed an …

Apr 30, 2019: Peter Mayhew, RIP It saddens me to note Star Wars actor Peter Mayhew, forever known as Chewbacca, has passed away. He died on April 30 at the age of 74. For …

Apr 29, 2019: The Five Conclusions Benjamin Wittes, editor in chief at Lawfare and writing for The Atlantic, outlines in simple terms his conclusions after reading the Mueller Report. …

Apr 29, 2019: The Paradox of Progress and The Uncomfortable Truth Mark Manson has a new book coming out May 14th called Everything is F*cked: A Book About Hope. He gives us a sneak peak with two posts to his blog, …

Apr 28, 2019: Declined The University of Virginia’s NCAA championship-winning men’s basketball team has declined an invitation to visit the White House. …

Apr 28, 2019: Ka-Blooey It’s fun to imagine 50-year-old me time-traveling to visit 15-year-old me just to tell him I’d seen the latest Star Wars movie trailer and that I’d …

Apr 27, 2019: A Starter Guide for Going iPad Pro Only Ben Brooks, writing at his site The Brooks Review, has one of the better outlines to help you turn an iPad Pro into your everyday computer. I’m …

Apr 27, 2019: The Magical Productivity Commitment Seth Godin has some thought on the snooze button. The snooze button is a trap. It’s a trap because not only do you have to decide later, but …

Apr 26, 2019: Appeasement Andrew Sullivan continues to impart a careful study of where the United States of America currently finds itself in with Donald Trump as President. …

Apr 26, 2019: The Rise of Skywalker Speculation M. G. Siegler, over at his 500ish Words Medium site, spent a bit over 600 words to discuss a few personal theories on the next Star Wars movie, …

Apr 26, 2019: Why I’m Leaving Marvel Universe’s New York Sam Weiner, writing for McSweeney’s, made me laugh out loud with his take on why he’s moving from Marvel Universe’s New York. It …

Apr 26, 2019: ‘If You Want to Kill Someone, We Are the Right Guys’ Mara Hvistendahl, writing in Wired, has one of the most interesting stories I’ve read in a long time. Weaving in and around the dark web, bit …

Apr 25, 2019: Twitter and the Problem of White Supremacists Jason Koebler, writing at Motherboard, explains in no uncertain terms why Jack Dorsey and the rest of the Twitter higher-ups can’t ban Nazis and white …

Apr 24, 2019: A New Culture War in Sports Will Leitch, in his weekly New York Magazine column, talks about how Sports now has its very own “Confederate Monuments” controversy. …

Apr 24, 2019: Collective Soul “Right as Rain” I’m really digging this new song by Collective Soul. Sounds a lot like classic Collective Soul. Unfortunately, all I hear is the …

Apr 23, 2019: An Ode to Adam Wainwright Will Leitch, writing for mlb.com, compares St. Louis Cardinals pitcher Adam Wainwright to Billy Chapel, the main character in the book and movie For …

Apr 23, 2019: How Mortal Kombat Set the Bar for 30 Years of Fighting Games Don Nero, writing in Esquire, has a great story on Ed Boon, co-creator of Mortal Kombat. In the 90s, there weren’t many arcades of my high …

Apr 23, 2019: In The Future 9 More from Nicholas Bate – We’ll be very pleased to go back to work after the long holiday. As in the World of the …

Apr 22, 2019: Bittersweet Game of Thrones, the Marvel Cinematic Universe Phase 3, and the Skywalker Saga ending this year is a bittersweet end to this decade.

Apr 22, 2019: Finite Energy Curtis McHale has a good thought experiment. If you had a finite amount of energy to use up and when it was gone you died, what would you not bother …

Apr 22, 2019: The Gamble Mima M, writing for Discussing Film, takes us on an incredible journey chronicling the creation of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. It’s a fun …

Apr 20, 2019: Enough Money Carl Kinsella, writing on the Irish website Joe, sees the fact that hundreds of millions were immediately pledged to help rebuild Notre Dame after the …

Apr 20, 2019: Keanu Alex Pappademas writes an incredible profile of Keanu Reeeves in GQ magazine and while I know it exists mostly to promote John Wick: Chapter …

Apr 20, 2019: What If Everything Mueller Told Us Had Been New? David A. Graham, writing in The Atlantic, posits and interesting theory. What if everything in the Mueller Report had been new? … it …

Apr 19, 2019: In The Future 8 More from Nicholas Bate – “Alexa, handle my e-mail and stand in for me during today’s conference calls’, will allow more …

Apr 19, 2019: Unfinished Business #NewProfilePic pic.twitter.com/7q2lwBUEGa — Dos (@AyoDos_11) April 19, 2019

Apr 17, 2019: Facebook and Medium Two articles did incredible deep dives into companies that have been at the forefront of my mind for a few years: Facebook and Medium. Laura Hazard …

Apr 17, 2019: OBSIDIAN NOMAD Nick Turse and Sean D. Naylor, writing for Yahoo! News, have put together a list of all the code-names of the 36 operations happening in Africa and …

Apr 17, 2019: The Graphical Branding of Pete Buttigieg I’m a sucker for brand guides. I love the breakdowns designers put together regarding fonts, colors, logo usage, and all of that stuff. How a brand is …

Apr 16, 2019: Just the Beginning Seth Abramson, writing an opinion column for Newsweek, outlines what he sees as what’s going to happen tomorrow when the redacted Mueller …

Apr 15, 2019: Game of Screens M. G. Siegler, writing in his newsletter First Draught, presented an interesting idea on how HBO left millions, potentially billions, on the table …

Apr 15, 2019: Notre Dame Cathedral I’m saddened to watch the coverage of the fire at the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, France. Admittedly, I’m not big on organized …

Apr 15, 2019: Now Patrick Rhone reminds us the best time is always now. When is the best time to see something? Right now. When is the best time to say something? …

Apr 14, 2019: How the SNL Portrait Became Its Own Art Form Devon Ivie, writing at Vulture, profiled the longtime official photographer of Saturday Night Live, Mary Ellen Matthews. She’s the one who …

Apr 13, 2019: Wonder Boy Olivia Nuzzi, writing in New York Magazine, has one of the best paragraphs I’ve ever read describing Pete Buttigieg. Sick of old people? He looks like …

Apr 12, 2019: Irish Guacamole Mashed potatoes are just Irish guacamole.

Apr 11, 2019: Hustle Porn Narrative Warren Ellis talking about how he works is fascinating to me. The concern in writing about work, writing this sort of …

Apr 11, 2019: Star Wars Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker And now the trailer for Star Wars Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker My title was so close.

Apr 10, 2019: The Moral Peril of Meritocracy David Brooks, writing for the New York Times, has put together an important essay of our times. You should read it.

Apr 9, 2019: Eye of Sauron Dennis Overbye, writing for The New York Times, described the first photo of a supermassive black hole in quite the pop culture way. The image, of a …

Apr 8, 2019: A Championship Game Only College-Basketball Fans Could Love Will Leitch, writing for New York Magazine, explains why yesterday’s NCAA Men’s Basketball final game was great and those who wanted to bash college …

Apr 8, 2019: My Star Wars Episode IX Predictions Star Wars has dominated my life since I was nine years old. The only other “thing” that impactful was probably hearing KISS Alive! at my friend Mark’s …

Apr 8, 2019: Over and Over Again Neil Gaiman on the Tim Ferriss podcast: Part of what I discovered, particularly about being a novelist, is writing a novel works best if you can …

Apr 8, 2019: Play Golf and Screw Porn Stars Cody Fenwick, writing in Salon, says, “Donald Trump still doesn’t really know how to be president.” Sigh. Are we just now …

Apr 7, 2019: Privileged Kyle Korver, writing at theplayerstribune.com, put together a pretty powerful piece on him understanding his racial blindspots and the difference …

Apr 6, 2019: Contrast Andrew Sullivan, in his article in New York Magazine, outlines the striking contrast between Donald Trump and Pete Buttigieg. Trump would be the …

Apr 6, 2019: Recommended for You I’m a big fan of Twilight Zone/Black Mirror-type anthology shows, so when I come across a really great short video with that same kind of vibe …

Apr 6, 2019: Technically True I have been jokingly introducing my wife as my “ex-girlfriend” because it’s technically true and funny. And now @Little_kg76 has started to introduce …

Apr 5, 2019: In the Future 7 More from Nicholas Bate – …we will consider: how could we ever have been too busy for music, cooking or conversation?

Apr 4, 2019: The Real Burger King Every few years a variation of this story comes up into the blogosphere. This time Elizabeth Atkinson, writing for Eater, has just discovered the …

Apr 3, 2019: Shocking Report from Neptune So, Nicholas Fandos, Michael S. Schmidt and Mark Mazzetti, writing for The New York Times, has a report that investigators for Mueller’s team …

Apr 1, 2019: Join the Battle Dan Pfeiffer, writing at his Crooked Media site, implores Democrats and their Super PACs to start joining the real battle for the 2020 election right …

Apr 1, 2019: The Importance of Comics Science fiction writer Jack McDevitt, in his most recent blog post, waxed poetically about newspaper comic strips and comic books of his youth. How do …

Mar 31, 2019: The Inside Story How the Ricketts Family Purchased the Cubs Tom Ley, writing for Deadspin, has an in-depth story about how the Ricketts family purchased a 95% ownership stake in the Chicago Cubs in 2009. It is …

Mar 29, 2019: RSS is Better Than Twitter Patrick Howell O’Neill, writing for Gizmodo, sings the praises of Real Simple Syndication. He calls it an “ancient and unsexy alternative to Twitter,” …

Mar 27, 2019: In the Future 6 More from Nicholas Bate – …we will realise that we got the core school curriculum wrong. It should never have been the three Rs, but …

Mar 27, 2019: Kelly Sue DeConnick and Matt Fraction Susana Polo, writing for Polygon, has a wonderful interview with comic book power couple Kelly Sue DeConnick and Matt Fraction. They touch upon their …

Mar 27, 2019: Streaming Packages MG Siegler, writing on his 500ish Words site, presents a full review of “Apple’s truly bizzare ‘It’s Showtime’ …

Mar 26, 2019: Good as Gold Bernie Miklasz, writing in The Athletic, has the right approach to the Paul Goldschmidt signing a five-year contract extension with the St. Louis …

Mar 26, 2019: In Whitman We Trust Matt Fortuna, writing for The Athletic, has a great profile on University of Illinois Athletics Director Josh Whitman. Having been around the program …

Mar 25, 2019: In the Future 5 More from Nicholas Bate: In the future, we will realise that the Whole Brexit Debacle was simple a long-needed deep spiritual cleansing. …

Mar 24, 2019: The Voice Beneath the Surface Dan Pedersen writes about a better way of thinking. It’s a common habit to dwell on whatever thoughts pop into our mind. We dwell on our …

Mar 24, 2019: We Know Nothing So. That was super disappointing. Mueller filed his report. Barr sent out a summary. Mueller couldn’t find sufficient evidence to convict anyone in …

Mar 21, 2019: Extinction-Level Event Andrew Sullivan seems quite put out by Donald Trump. In this post-truth world, where Trump has allied with social media to create an alternate …

Mar 20, 2019: Alia My step-daughter Alia is 23 today. She has been thinking and talking about her birthday since March 22, 2018. Today is also World Down Syndrome Day, …

Mar 19, 2019: Leadership "Every semi-automatic weapon used in the [Christchurch] terrorist attack will be banned in this country." New Zealand PM @JacindaArdern moves to ban …

Mar 19, 2019: The Greatest Baseball Player Nobody Knows Will Leitch, writing in New York Magazine, tells the story of one Mike Trout, unquestionably the greatest baseball player of all time, and now nobody …

Mar 19, 2019: The Myth of Quality Time Luke Leighfield’s newsletter linked to a New York Times article from 2015 by Frank Bruni about spending time together. After spending a long weekend …

Mar 19, 2019: Indy Lights

Mar 18, 2019: The Rise of White Nationalism Judd Legum, in his newsletter Popular Information, takes “an unsparing look at the rise of white nationalism in the United States. It details …

Mar 18, 2019: The “New” Social Network Mike Isaac, in The New York Times, has a story advocating email newsletters are better “social network” than Facebook and Twitter. For …

Mar 16, 2019: In the Future 4 More from Nicholas Bate: We will realise that it would have helped tremendously if we hadn’t been in so much of a hurry.

Mar 15, 2019: Bel-Air Actor and filmmaker Jerry Madison stars in this fan trailer of a 21st century version of The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air made by cinematographer …

Mar 15, 2019: The Egg When I read something like what Andy Weir has written, I get super jealous because it’s literally just under a thousand words of pure …

Mar 15, 2019: Vacation Drinks

Mar 14, 2019: We Can’t Destroy Planet Earth Author Hugh Howey wrote an essay on his website about the definition of existential threats. It is smart with lots of observations that make a lot of …

Mar 13, 2019: Pi Day For lunch, I spent $3.14 at Blaze Pizza and then bought a slice of apple pie at work with the money going to a worthy cause. I think that’s …

Mar 11, 2019: Good Things Come to Those Who Write Nathan Barry wrote an essay about writing and attention and, from there, getting freedom and money. The reason is simple. Writing is how you get …

Mar 11, 2019: Where is Illinois Headed? This excellent piece by Brian Hamilton in The Athletic about the current state of Illinois Basketball highlights the good, the not-so-good, and the …

Mar 10, 2019: An Open Letter to the Ignored Hugh MacLeod has penned an open letter to the ignored. It’s brilliant. Dear Ignored, I call you that because you’re like me, you see. …

Mar 10, 2019: Zero to 60 Edward-Isaac Dovere, in The Atlantic, has an interesting profile of Beto O’Rourke and his “will he or won’t he” run …

Mar 9, 2019: What the Hell is Going on? Dave Perell probably has my favorite essay I’ve read of 2019. The opening is incredible. Let’s play a game. I’m going to describe your least favorite …

Mar 7, 2019: Dispatches from Plateau Point Elyssa Shalla, a national park ranger at The Grand Canyon National Park, had an idea. What would happen if visitors encountered something different at …

Mar 7, 2019: Solid Piece of Art Warren Ellis recently wrote about his collection of watches and, ultimately, how he feels about wearing one. I’m at the point where I’m okay with …

Mar 7, 2019: The Venmo MasterCard This story by Joseph Longo in MEL Magazine is incredibly insightful about a product I had no idea existed. Then again, I’m not a drug dealer, …

Mar 6, 2019: How Obama Made Decisions Lila MacLellan, writing in Quartz, has a story on Barack Obama’s appearance at the 2019 Qualtrics X4 Experience Management Summit. The crux of …

Mar 6, 2019: In the Future 3 More from Nicholas Bate – We’ll realise that we talked too much.

Mar 6, 2019: The Kindest Thing I occasionally get a kick out of the “Prompt Twitter” trend where people ask questions looking for answers in the form of quote replies. …

Mar 4, 2019: Unfair and Unbalanced Jane Mayer, has a big piece in The New Yorker on the relationship between the Trump administration and Fox News. Hannity was treated in Texas …

Mar 3, 2019: In the Future 2 Nicholas Bate: We’ll realise that so many of the things we were craving to make our life better were actually making our life worse.

Mar 3, 2019: Luke Perry, RIP After suffering a massive stroke last week Luke Perry passed away today his publicist confirmed. He was only 52. I liked him on Beverly Hills 90210 …

Mar 3, 2019: Why Goldschmidt Over Harper? A.E. Schafer, writing for Viva El Birdos, has a long essay trying to come to grips with the thought process of St. Louis Cardinals management in …

Mar 1, 2019: My Favorite View

Feb 28, 2019: Half Full or Half Empty? The answer to the age old question, “Is the glass half full or half empty?” depends entirely on the action it takes to get the glass in …

Feb 28, 2019: In the Future 1 Nicholas Bate: The future and care and development of society will be managed by perfectly tuned AI robots. Perfectly tuned to ethics, logistics, …

Feb 27, 2019: The Sleeping Giant Michael Baumann has a great overview of the St. Louis Cardinals in 2019. The piece is one of best I’ve read outlining the problems of last …

Feb 26, 2019: Unbreaking America Our government is broken, and we have to fix it. In this video, RepresentUs board member Jennifer Lawrence and Director of RepresentUs Josh Silver, …

Feb 26, 2019: Uncontradicted David Frum, writing in The Atlantic, explains eloquently how nothing Michael Cohen said in his testimony to the House Oversight Committee was …

Feb 25, 2019: Star Wars: Always Take all 10 Star Wars films, edit them all into one gigantic trailer, and you have another Topher Grace masterpiece: Star Wars: Always. A decade ago, …

Feb 24, 2019: The Secret Lives of Facebook Moderators Casey Newton, writing in The Verge, has a horrifying account of what a typical “process executive” faces each day at work as they …

Feb 23, 2019: Flyin’ Illini Players See Illinois Basketball on the Up Isaac Trotter, writing for the Illini Inquirer, has story about how members of the Flyin’ Illini basketball squad see the current team. …

Feb 22, 2019: Don’t Be a Prick Dave Pell on bubbles: I believe that climate change is happening. I think science is important and facts matter. My moral compass tells me that …

Feb 21, 2019: There’s No Time for Anything Else Keanu Reeves with your inspirational moment. None of us are getting out of here alive, so please stop treating yourself like an after-thought. Eat …

Feb 20, 2019: Living in a Bubble Emma Green, writing for The Atlantic, has a fascinating story about the bubbles Americans live in and why. You should read the whole thing, but the …

Feb 20, 2019: Walk-On Joey Wagner, writing in the Herald & Review, has a story about the University of Illinois Basketball walk-on players. I certainly had an idea …

Feb 19, 2019: Conversational Shortcuts Austin Kleon has a great post about what to say when you don’t know what to say. He has several suggestions, but by far the best one is when …

Feb 18, 2019: Think You Can Do Better Than That Bum MLB Player? Nope. Eno Sarris, writing for The Athletic, has an entertaining story about average joes going up against professional baseball players in several drills. …

Feb 16, 2019: Then & Now Ard Gelinck photoshops celebrities posing with their younger selves and posts the results on Instagram. Some of the photos are surreal.

Feb 15, 2019: Every Best Picture Oscar Winner Ranked Will Leitch and Tim Grierson, writing for Vulture, undoubtedly spent far too many hours attempting to rank all 90 Best Picture winners. You can …

Feb 14, 2019: A Blueprint I really like Andrew Sullivan’s approach to writing about the political ramifications of what’s happening in the world today. Each …

Feb 14, 2019: The Rude Awakening James Vincent, writing for The Verge, highlights a website that is the tip of the iceberg of a technology war that I think will be the leading issue …

Feb 13, 2019: The Luckiest Guy I’m sharing the note I gave my wife this morning. Happy Valentine’s Day, everyone. I know you didn’t want any flowers, cards, or other trappings of …

Feb 13, 2019: The Weirdest Logos in the History of Each MLB Team Chris Landers, writing for mlb.com, has a fun story about weird logos for Major League Baseball teams. I was certainly familiar with many of these …

Feb 12, 2019: Rest in Peace, Opportunity 2004-2019 After turning 90 days into 15 years, NASA’s Mars Opportunity rover mission is officially over. Marina Koren, writing for The Atlantic, has an …

Feb 11, 2019: Yesterday A movie is hitting the theaters on my birthday that, frankly, I’m mad about because it is the perfect premise, and I’m insanely jealous I did not come …

Feb 10, 2019: EGOT Malorie McCall, writing for The Hollywood Reporter, asks the question: fifteen people have won an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar, and a Tony Award. Can you …

Feb 10, 2019: Full Frontal Assault To paraphrase Lucius Fox (as played by Morgan Freeman) in The Dark Knight: Let me get this straight, you think just because you have a dick pick, one …

Feb 10, 2019: Go Slow Michael Wade on going slow. There is an odd prejudice in favor of speed. The idea that faster is better makes no sense in many situations, especially …

Feb 10, 2019: Note Taking Apps If you are in the market for a note taking app (I’m not), CJ Chilvers has a deep dive into a variety of notes/writing apps. It’s really …

Feb 9, 2019: Run Against Pence My 2019 would be officially made if one of the Democratic candidates spent their whole primary campaign campaigning against Mike Pence on the …

Feb 8, 2019: Sleeping Well Matthew Walker, writing for The Guardian, says if you want to be healthy getting less than six hours of sleep a night should be avoided. Routinely …

Feb 8, 2019: The Second Book A couple of days ago Matt Gemmell wrote a lengthy blog post about the creation of his second book. I just got around to reading it. For anyone wanting …

Feb 7, 2019: Friday and Monday Nicholas Bate on planning ahead. Friday isn’t just about Friday. With a bit of prep, a bit of thought and a bit of anticipation it’ll …

Feb 7, 2019: Offseason Looks Bernie Miklasz, writing for The Athletic, is starting a series of questions and answers for the upcoming St. Louis Cardinals season. First up: Did the …

Feb 6, 2019: A Loose Manifesto on Building Websites Patrick Rhone has written a “loose manifesto” on how he builds websites. In general, he likes “simple, clean, fast, purpose built …

Feb 6, 2019: The Beginning of the End of Free Podcasts Alan Jacobs believes we are on the precipice of losing one of the coolest free entertainment values out there: podcasts. For the last couple of years …

Feb 5, 2019: Life Lessons Here’s an Instagram post by ledbyheart that stuck with me – 1. Everything is temporary. 2. Life is not fair. 3. Others treat you the …

Feb 4, 2019: Embrace the Silence Julian Summerhayes writes we need more silence. The closest thing I have to this is walking the dog and I’ve been deliberate in doing so. …

Feb 3, 2019: Lessons From a Very, Very Bad Super Bowl Will Leitch, writing for New York magazine, details the Super Bowl that was. The whole thing is a breezy read, but I liked his three takeaways at the …

Feb 3, 2019: Trail of Deceptions Ian Parker, writing for The New Yorker, has a fascinating study of author Dan Mallory. Using the pseudonym A. J. Finn, he wrote the novel, The Woman …

Feb 2, 2019: St. Louis Rams Fans Are Pissed Off Rodger Sherman, writing for The Ringer, outlines how many people in St. Louis are going to “watch” the Super Bowl. Most folks in St. …

Feb 1, 2019: Cue Cards I always knew Saturday Night Live used cue cards, but watching cue card supervisor, Wally Feresten, show the behind the scenes process and creation of …

Jan 31, 2019: Middle School Students Surprise Their Chorus Teacher During His Wedding Rehearsal A chorus teacher’s students coming to his wedding rehearsal and singing The Beatles “All You Need Is Love” is the heartwarming …

Jan 31, 2019: The Next Indictment Lucian K. Truscott IV, writing for Salon, believes after the Roger Stone indictment, the next indictment will finally tie the Trump campaign to …

Jan 30, 2019: Locking Up Paul Goldschmidt Viva El Birdos has an article about how John Mozeliak might keep Paul Goldschmidt a St. Louis Cardinal. The bottom line imaginary offer is six years, …

Jan 29, 2019: It’s So Cold Out! Where’s the Global Warming?! Jason Kottke is really tired of nit-wit Republican climate change-deniers. Jimmy Kimmel invited some grade schoolers to help explain it to the …

Jan 29, 2019: The Last Gig It was 50 years ago today, The Beatles played their last gig on the rooftop of their Apple Corps headquarters. They didn’t announce it or promote it …

Jan 27, 2019: Biohacking Rachel Monrow, in Men’s Health, details the process the Bulletproof Coffee founder has done to live to be 180. Here’s a taste – …

Jan 27, 2019: Imagination People talk about imagination as if it’s only the domain of “creative” people. No. Imagination is an essential human skill. It allows us to form …

Jan 27, 2019: Happy Birthday

Jan 26, 2019: 24 My weekend was spent with my daughter for her birthday, and it was wonderful. I’m so proud of the young woman she has become and the life she has …

Jan 26, 2019: Living in Crazy Times Nicholas Bate has more Basics 7. This time focused on handling these trying times. Manage that which is under your control: your effort, your …

Jan 26, 2019: Resilient Warren Ellis on the new year - It might be a long year. But I know you’re resilient - you’ve had to be, to live this long.  Look …

Jan 25, 2019: All Sorts of Magic Michael Wade on writing. The beauty of putting some thoughts on paper is that the process often elicits other thoughts as well as dissent and …

Jan 25, 2019: Crusher of Sacred Cows Matt Taibbi, writing in Rolling Stone, has turned his political attention to the latest darling of the Democrats: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. He …

Jan 25, 2019: Unanimous Kristie Ackert, writing for The New York Daily News: Mariano Rivera thought he might have “a good shot of being a Hall of Famer” after his 19-year …

Jan 25, 2019: You Can’t Get There From Here David Roth is on fire. Writing for The Concourse, he eviscerates Donald Trump with such eloquent words I wanted to immediately read it again after …

Jan 24, 2019: BREAKING NEWS: Trump is Terrible at the Politics So, the shutdown has ended temporarily and Trump and the Republicans got nothing. Jonathan Chait, writing in New York Magazine, nails it. Trump is …

Jan 24, 2019: One Reason to Get Out of Bed in the Morning “Every morning, I have woken up knowing that I will never run out of books to read. That has been my life." — Kenzaburo Oe

Jan 24, 2019: Red Hats, Black Israelites I didn’t watch the video, the short viral one or the 100 minute one, of the event that happened at the National Mall. I’m tired of the …

Jan 23, 2019: In the Grip of Some Manic Compulsion Alan Jacobs wrote this in his newsletter yesterday: On Tuesday morning, January 22, I read a David Brooks columnabout a confrontation that happened …

Jan 23, 2019: My Favorite YouTube Genre Casey Newton on Twitter – Recently I decided my favorite YouTube genre is “teenagers getting pulled on stage to perform with their …

Jan 23, 2019: Road Trip I love these series of posts from Beto O’Rourke on the road as he contemplates running for President in 2020. They come across as genuine and …

Jan 22, 2019: John Scalzi’s Oscar Predictions In the last few years, my ability to find the time to watch all the Oscar nominated films from the past year has gone up in a cloud of smoke. So, I …

Jan 21, 2019: Super Bowl (of Chicken) My friend Grant Chastain shared his thoughts about the Super Bowl. Unsurprisingly, they echo mine. This year’s Super Bowl will feature that …

Jan 21, 2019: What-Now Patrick Rhone with a tiny bit of sage advice. Don’t concern yourself with the what-if. Focus instead on the what-now.

Jan 21, 2019: You Should be Watching The Magicians There is a handful of television that is a must-watch for me. Game of Thrones, Westworld, Doctor Who, The Expanse, Titans, Star Trek Discovery, and …

Jan 20, 2019: Using Google Docs I use Google Docs for a lot of my writing. It’s the service that allows me to write in a way that works the best for me. I use Word mostly at …

Jan 19, 2019: George Pérez Retires My favorite comics penciller of all time, George Pérez, announced his retirement from comics work. With respect to future published work in …

Jan 19, 2019: The Making of a KISS Show Today is Paul Stanley’s birthday, so I went down a small little rabbit hole of YouTube videos and found one of the first times I ever saw any live …

Jan 18, 2019: What American Hears When the Press Makes Fun of the Way the President Eats Annaliese Griffin, writing for Quartz, makes an interesting case regarding the whole “feed the Clemson Tigers room temperature fast food” fiasco. She …

Jan 17, 2019: Seven Career Viruses Michael Wade lists out seven career killers. I’ve been guilty of all of them although I’m definitely better at 5-7. Number 1 is my …

Jan 17, 2019: The Best A Man Can Get Michael Wade chimes in with the same point I was going to make about the Gillette Toxic Masculinity spot. As Gillette’s “toxic …

Jan 17, 2019: The Case for Impeaching Donald Trump Yoni Appelbaum, in The Atlantic, lays out the case for starting impeachment proceedings against President Donald J. Trump. I’m a bit surprised this is …

Jan 17, 2019: Raisins or Chocolate Chips Hearing the “Under Pressure” bassline, not knowing if it’s going to be “Ice Ice Baby” or “Under Pressure” is like biting into a cookie not knowing if …

Jan 17, 2019: Anticipate and Adapt to Thrive Brian Clark of Further has a few thoughts about change that spoke to me. Change is unsettling, and plenty of people hate it. But odds are you’re not …

Jan 16, 2019: All the Small Things Michael Wade asks everyone to do all the small things today and not worry about the big things. Pretty good advice.

Jan 16, 2019: Daily Investments Nicholas Bate is back at it with seven more basics. This time he’s focused on daily investments. In your wellness: walk everywhere …

Jan 16, 2019: I’m Only 9, And I’m Already In College. Here’s What Life Is Like For Me. Kairan Quazi is nine-years old and wrote an essay in the Huffington Post about what’s it’s like to profoundly gifted. I was a 3-year-old preschooler …

Jan 16, 2019: Trump is Compromised and is a Useful Idiot Garrett Graff in Wired doesn’t mince words― In short, we’ve reached a point in the Mueller probe where there are only two scenarios left: Either the …

Jan 16, 2019: The First Real Season Bernie Miklasz, writing in The Athletic, has a full review of the challenges St. Louis Cardinals skipper Mike Shildt is going to be facing in his …

Jan 16, 2019: Signal v Noise Exits Medium Basecamp co-founder David Heinemeier Hansson on the reasons Signal V Noise has left Medium and created a new Wordpress site. These days Medium is …

Jan 16, 2019: If You Could Play Any Sport, Which One Should You Choose? Will Leitch, in his New York Magazine column, advances an interesting question. If we accept that the world will no longer allow for multiple-sport …

Jan 16, 2019: Not Normal Tom Nichols has a pretty damning piece in USA Today about all the recent news regarding Trump and Russia. This is not normal, in any way. As things …

Jan 15, 2019: The Surreal Nostalgia of Arcade Longplays Steve Rousseau, in Digg, writes about a unique thing to a certain age group: the nostalgia of playing arcade games. It’s amazing how the internet has …

Jan 15, 2019: The Expected Unexpected Michael Wade on being prepared. The day is planned. Time is blocked out. You finally have the chance to catch up on things and then, well, you know …

Jan 15, 2019: Big Slip Stepping out this morning to walk the dog, I took one step onto what looked like a wet driveway and did a full cartoon slip, and landed straight on my …

Jan 14, 2019: On the Necessity of Rest and Relaxation Greg McKeown, from his book, Essentialism: If you believe being overly busy and overextended is evidence of productivity, then you probably …

Jan 14, 2019: Reading Nicholas Bate on finding more time for reading: 1. Always read for 30 minutes before any Netflix viewing. Get some in audio format and listen on the …

Jan 14, 2019: Nothing Like a Wall Another parody by Randy Rainbow has hit the interwebs. With this one, I’m ashamed to admit, I had no idea what musical song was being parodied. Doing …

Jan 14, 2019: Anti-Social Media Nabil “Nadreck” Maynard recently had a post about going on a social media diet. This concept fascinates me. In his post, he links to videos by John …

Jan 13, 2019: Socially Accepted Disassociation Reading is socially accepted disassociation. You flip a switch and you’re not there anymore. It’s better than heroin. More effective and …

Jan 12, 2019: 7 Things Successful People Ignore I’m a sucker for listicles about what successful people do every day. Josh Spector has a good one. Successful people share a common ability, but it’s …

Jan 11, 2019: Ulysses and Markdown I want to use the word processing app Ulysses more. It’s just not quite working out. Distraction-free writing is all the rage with sheets and groups …

Jan 10, 2019: Quoting Alan Moore It’s super amusing to me to watch how newly elected Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez understands pop culture and social media. Apparently, some …

Jan 9, 2019: The Role of the Deceased Mouse Roger Sherman, writing for The Ringer, had this visually entertaining bit of writing in his story on Clemson throttling Alabama in the College …

Jan 8, 2019: Stumbling Off Alone JK Rowling on writing. I haven’t got ten rules that guarantee success, although I promise I’d share them if I did. The truth is that I …

Jan 8, 2019: Routine Annaliese Griffin, writing in Quartz, extols the virtues of getting back into a routine post-holidays. Sure, January is cold, and dark. You have to …

Jan 8, 2019: Peter and His Heckler This Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon skit is the funniest thing I’ve seen all week.

Jan 8, 2019: The Incredible, Untold Story of the 1975 KISS Concert in Hartland Buddy Moorehouse has a story for you. Apparently, in 1975, an up-and-coming rock band from New York City played a concert in Hartland, MI, causing …

Jan 7, 2019: Coolest Things I Learned in 2018 David Perell writes a weekly email called the Monday Musings. He says the most popular part of the newsletter is a section called “Coolest …

Jan 7, 2019: Trump Doesn’t Understand Consequences Jonathan Chait, writing in New York Magazine, outlines what everyone who’s paying attention already sees―Trump bumbled his way to a …

Jan 6, 2019: Neil Gaiman’s New Year’s Wishes I don’t follow Neil Gaiman online, but I am a huge fan of his New Year’s wishes for everyone. This year’s is especially wonderful. Be kind to yourself …

Jan 6, 2019: Reboot 2019 Nicholas Bate has finished his seven days of rebooting for 2019. They are pretty great.

Jan 5, 2019: Power and Responsibility Seth Godin dips his toe in the comic book waters by mentioning one of the most iconic bits of writing ever in the medium, “With great power comes …

Jan 5, 2019: Super Dave Osborne and “Mean” Gene Okerland I find it odd that Super Dave Osborne, the alter-ego of Bob Einstein, and “Mean” Gene Okerlund both passed away at the age of 76 within days of each …

Jan 5, 2019: Seven Chores Michael Wade gives us all a chore list. Rank relationships higher than projects. Focus. Focus. Focus. Prevent drift by carefully scrutinizing the …

Jan 4, 2019: The Greatest Superhero Movie Ever Made I wanted to watch SPIDER-MAN: INTO THE SPIDER-VERSE one more time before writing a little something about it, but its just too good not to comment …

Jan 4, 2019: The Beautiful Minimalism of a Blank Slate Leo Babauta has a wonderful take on the new year. Ask yourself: Do you want to fill it with distractions, or keep only the most important work, …

Jan 4, 2019: Handmade Jukebox of the Future Designer Chris Patty took on a Christmas challenge and inadvertently created a business. His family issued a challenge asking all Christmas gifts be …

Jan 3, 2019: How to Pick a President Judd Legum asked some incredibly smart people a smart question. With a likely large and diverse field of Democrat contenders vying for the Presidency …

Jan 2, 2019: A Prediction Mark Frauenfelder at Boing Boing presents a prediction by Fred Wilson found in his email newsletter, A VC. Wilson is a venture capitalist who …

Jan 2, 2019: A Simple Way to Manage Your Health Dan Pedersen has a couple of good ideas on managing health in the new year, something I’m sure plenty of us are starting to do. Here’s a list of …

Jan 1, 2019: The Best Judge I’m not sure why he hasn’t been asked yet, but Stevie Wonder would be the best judge on The Voice.

Jan 1, 2019: The Cable Gal Lauren Hough, writing for The Huffington Post, has one of those great pieces that could easily be turned into a fun little TV series. So much material …

Jan 1, 2019: Reflections As 2018 comes to a close, I have to say… it’s been a year of remarkable change in my life. I’ve been given incredible opportunities, hit some …

Jan 1, 2019: 13 Months a Year Someday, in the far future, the world will realize it makes far more sense to have thirteen months constitute a full year. 365 days divided by 13 …

Dec 30, 2018: The Word Nicholas Bate asks his readers to choose a word for 2019 and lists 101 ideas. Choose a word. Any word. One word. Make it yours. Whiteboard it. Write …

Dec 29, 2018: 83 Things That Blew Our Minds in 2018 Here is a fun list of the most extreme, most sobering, and zaniest facts The Atlantic’s science, technology, and health reporters learned this …

Dec 29, 2018: Any Deaths of the Children I’ve Kidnapped Are Strictly the Fault of Parents Who Didn’t Pay the Ransom In Slate, this essay by Matthew Dessem is an eye-opening satire. I can’t even find a good pull quote to illustrate its point. The whole thing is so …

Dec 29, 2018: A Nostalgic Look Back at Digital Music Piracy in the 2000s Abhimanyu Ghoshal, writing in The Next Web, looks back at digital music piracy in the early 2000s. I had forgotten a couple of the sites listed. My …

Dec 27, 2018: Deep Focusing Matthew Lang is getting set for 2019. I’m clearing the desk, sorting out notebooks, reviewing app subscriptions, getting a list of books to …

Dec 27, 2018: Digital Tickets Kelsey McKinney, in Deadspin, writes an incredible screed about digital tickets. In short, she hates them. I love her reason why.

Dec 27, 2018: The Wall Matt Yglesias, writing for Vox, has an idea why the government shutdown is not likely to get resolved anytime soon. You should read the whole thing, …

Dec 27, 2018: You Can Only Grieve So Much Will Leitch basically created Deadspin. He left several years back, and once a year since 2011, he gets back to writing a piece for the site as a …

Dec 27, 2018: Bandersnatch One of the better things that happened in the last couple of years is the continued existence of Black Mirror on Netflix. It’s by far one of my …

Dec 27, 2018: 50 Wonderful Things of 2018 Linda Holmes, of Pop Culture Happy Hour, adds to her annual end-of-year lists. I always find something I need to see, read, or hear.

Dec 26, 2018: How Much of the Internet is Fake? Apparently, you shouldn’t believe anything on the internet. Who knew? Max Read explains in NY Mag, there’s a good chance …

Dec 26, 2018: Survival Instinct Will Cockrell and Peter Frick-Wright, at Outside Online, collect several harrowing stories of survival. They are short stories of incredible …

Dec 26, 2018: Thank You Notes from Josh Whitman With apologies to The Tonight Show starring Jimmy Fallon, University of Illinois Athletic Director Josh Whitman gives us a sneak peek of him catching …

Dec 26, 2018: The Giorgi Bezhanishvili Story Shannon Ryan, writing for the Chicago Tribune, has an excellent feature on Fighting Illini Basketball’s freshman Giorgi Bezhanishvili. He’s certainly …

Dec 25, 2018: Every Word Counts Seth Godin with a Christmas message ― Poets use words (and silence) to change things. They care about form and function and most of all, about making …

Dec 24, 2018: How to Write a Hallmark Christmas Movie My family adores Hallmark Christmas movies. My wife and step-daughter start watching as soon as they start hitting the airwaves, which I believe is …

Dec 24, 2018: Your 2019 KPIs Nicholas Bate is back with your key performance indicators for 2019. In-Box. Goal: 0. Hours sleep per night. Goal: 8. Classic books read per week. …

Dec 23, 2018: Home On Christmas Eve 1968, NASA astronaut Bill Anders took the now-famous Earthrise photograph while aboard Apollo 8. Additionally, there was the famous …

Dec 23, 2018: The Distraction Free iPhone Curtis McHale posted a review of a Medium article by Jake Knapp on going six years with a distraction free iPhone. I think the most important bit from …

Dec 23, 2018: More Josh Spector with the only way to get more next year – More curiosity. More confidence. More commitment. More connecting. More focus. More optimism. …

Dec 23, 2018: A General Theory of Facebook M. G. Siegler has a general theory of Facebook and it isn’t pretty. Basically, he believes it won’t be a mass exodus that kills Facebook, but the next …

Dec 22, 2018: The Comic Book Movie Illusion Tim Grierson, in his review of Aquaman in MEL magazine, has an interesting take on super-hero films But ultimately, this is what’s so hard about silly …

Dec 22, 2018: I Ain’t Braggin’ Michael Berns at The Champaign Room has a superb look back at the last five years of the annual Illinois versus Missouri Braggin’ Rights games. …

Dec 21, 2018: The Complicated Relationships in Love Actually Visualized Amanda Shendruk at Quartz did a nice deep dive into Love Actually with a wonderful diagram of all the relationships in the movie from family, friends, …

Dec 21, 2018: Happiness is a Choice Hugh MacLeod and Gaping Void have a great newsletter. Occasionally, he drops some good stuff. This is a great one linking to a study about happiness …

Dec 20, 2018: Home Alone Again Macauley Culkin is certainly having some fun these days. Here he is as a grown up Kevin McCallister, but not quite alone anymore since Google …

Dec 20, 2018: The 10 Best Saturday Night Live Sketches of 2018 Matthew Love writing in Vulture outlines his picks for the ten best Saturday Night Live sketches of 2018. I watched nearly every episode this past …

Dec 20, 2018: The Return of the Light One can’t go wrong subscribing to The Mission’s newsletter. I appreciate the stories most of all. The one below is from their last one of 2018. Happy …

Dec 20, 2018: The Most 2018 Photos Ever Alan Taylor, in The Atlantic, has curated 32 photos designed to capture… Not necessarily the top photos of the year, nor the most heart-wrenching or …

Dec 20, 2018: A Long Talk with Lin-Manuel Miranda I really enjoyed Chris Smith’s interview in Vulture with Lin-Manuel Miranda. His comments on Trump, Hamilton, and his future creative endeavors …

Dec 19, 2018: Remove.bg This is a pretty cool online tool I learned about on Laughing Squid. Remove.bg is a free service that removes background images from photos in …

Dec 18, 2018: The Unseen and the Unspoken “The unseen and the unspoken may be some of the most powerful forces in your life. See if you can sense them.” – Michael Wade

Dec 18, 2018: What Do You Know? Alan Jacobs wrote an incredible post about the state of our politics. He echoes a lot of what I believe to be not only the failings of our political …

Dec 18, 2018: What Does the 2018 Vote Say About 2020? Kevin Drum was wondering what the 2018 vote totals might mean in 2020. Luckily, Nate Silver had a similar thought and created a pretty cool map of the …

Dec 18, 2018: Penny Marshall, RIP Dave Pell has my favorite short bio of Penny Marshall, who passed away today at 75. She directed Big and Awakenings. She “was the first woman to …

Dec 18, 2018: Glitter Bomb Mark Rober is a former NASA engineer. Someone stole a package from me. Police wouldn’t do anything about it so I spent the last 6 months engineering …

Dec 18, 2018: Adam Sandler Tribute to Chris Farley December 18, 2018, marks the anniversary of the late, great comedian Chris Farley’s death. I know this because Adam Sandler paid tribute to his friend …

Dec 17, 2018: The Agnew Way Out Chris Matthews on Hardball suggested a way Trump could save himself and his family. His idea is for Donald Trump to resign the presidency in exchange …

Dec 17, 2018: Ugly Sweater Party It would suck if you got invited to an ugly sweater party and it turned out it was only for people who are ugly and sweat a lot.

Dec 17, 2018: Pop Culture Multiverses Salim Lamelle writer/producer for MEL Magazine has created video that speaks directly to me―an examination of all the multiverses that litter the pop …

Dec 16, 2018: All In or All Out Josh Spector in his For the Interested newsletter opened with something that spoke to me. If you want a certain result, you have to be willing to do …

Dec 15, 2018: The 25 Best Baseball Movies of All Time Will Leitch wrote his definitive list of the 25 best baseball movies of all time for the official World Series program. He said he’s happy with …

Dec 15, 2018: The Wexford Carol I’m afraid I was unfamiliar with the Wexford Carol when I ran across Michael Wade linking to a video of Yo-Yo Ma and Alison Krauss recording it. What …

Dec 15, 2018: The Next Great Hope Brian Hamilton in The Athletic has a pretty great profile of Fighting Illini freshman guard Ayo Dosunmu. I do not entirely believe the premise that …

Dec 13, 2018: Red Angel Redemption So, the latest trailer for the upcoming second season of Star Trek: Discovery has hit the internet. Apparently, the big bad this season is something …

Dec 13, 2018: What Happened Today? Kevin Drum is finding it hard to keep up. Isn’t everyone not a member of either Mueller’s or the Southern District of New York’s team? I can barely …

Dec 13, 2018: Sports Moments of 2018 The Ringer has a great roundup of favorite sports moments of 2018. 2018 will go down as the year when Nick Foles beat Tom Brady in the Super Bowl. It …

Dec 13, 2018: A Long Talk with David Lee Roth Lane Brown, writing in Vulture, has a great interview with David Lee Roth. What a fascinating individual. There are so many things I never knew.

Dec 12, 2018: Love in the Modern Age Via Jason Kottke, I read about a new feature in the New York Times called Tiny Love Stories. They are short little vignettes of modern love in 100 …

Dec 11, 2018: The Confetti Flies This story in The St. Louis Post-Dispatch from Benjamin Hochman about when the St. Louis College of Pharmacy ended a 107-game losing streak is a …

Dec 11, 2018: Officially Entering Interstellar Space Voyager 2 has officially entered interstellar space joining its twin, Voyager 1, to become the two furthest objects from home. Basically, they are …

Dec 10, 2018: More Like a Deadline Dec 25 feels more like a deadline than a holiday.

Dec 9, 2018: The Choice The Choice is a three-minute video from Project Better Self. Small choices become actions, actions become habits, and habits become our way of life. …

Dec 9, 2018: The Arnel Pineda Story Mike Fleming Jr at Deadline is reporting Jon M. Chu, director of Crazy Rich Asians, has his sights on telling the story of how Arnel Pineda joined the …

Dec 9, 2018: A More Deliberate Way of Living Leo Babauta has done it again with his thoughtful breakdown on living a more deliberate life. Here are few of my favorites Set intentions at the …

Dec 8, 2018: The Game’s Afoot Ken White, writing for The Atlantic sums up your weekend read: The president said on Twitter that Friday’s news “totally clears the …

Dec 8, 2018: Time Better Spent Michael Wade has some suggestions for you to spend your time better. Take a nap ~ Read a good book ~ Write a thank-you note ~ Call an old friend ~ …

Dec 8, 2018: Their Satanic Majesties Request Here’s something you don’t see every day. Madeline Holcombe, writing for CNN, has a story about the Illinois State Capitol and the Satanic Temple of …

Dec 8, 2018: The Crime and the Cover-up Natasha Bertrand in The Atlantic has the full account of Friday’s sentencing memos for Trump’s longtime personal lawyer Michael Cohen and former …

Dec 7, 2018: Go Your Own Way I am a fan of the concept of the Song Exploder podcast. Unfortunately, I’m an old and could not care less about 90% of the song breakdowns Hrishikesh …

Dec 7, 2018: Avengers: Endgame Trailer Just a few days after dropping the Captain Marvel trailer, we get the new Avengers movie trailer. It’s suitably bleak, dark and sad. Except for the …

Dec 6, 2018: Gene Simmons and His Mother Apparently, the KISS press kit circa 1975 mentioned Gene Simmons being hatched from a dinosaur egg. As you might imagine, that wasn’t true. In fact, …

Dec 6, 2018: What Me Worry? Dave Pell, master of the NextDraft email newsletter, linked to an article on Motherboard about “what worried you most about the future?” He decided to …

Dec 5, 2018: The Golden Goose In a move that probably made a lot of St. Louis Cardinals fans happy (I know I made a little squeal), the club acquired six-time All-Star Paul …

Dec 5, 2018: The Quiet Departure Rodger Sherman, writing for The Ringer, outlines succinctly the flawed reasoning for allowing Ohio State University football coach Urban Meyer to walk …

Dec 5, 2018: Bounce Back? Bernie Miklasz in The Athletic talks about last year’s performance of one Dexter Fowler. If you didn’t follow St. Louis Cardinals baseball, Fowler had …

Dec 4, 2018: President George H. W. Bush Dies at 94 The first President Bush has passed away at age 94. Adam Nagourney has the story for The New York Times. I wish I had a few more positive things to …

Dec 4, 2018: Rudy Giuliani Should Delete His Account Cory Doctorow at Boing Boing tells the story of fatfingered Rudy Giuliani: Rudy Giuliani fatfingered a tweet last week and inadvertently referenced a …

Dec 4, 2018: Captain Marvel Trailer Hey, there’s a new Captain Marvel trailer. It looks like great fun with a bit of mystery and intergalactic war. The best part? Nick Fury being all …

Dec 3, 2018: Running Recently, through one of my newsletters, I found a link to Beto O’Rourke’s Medium collection. He has a couple of essays up, but the first one about …

Dec 3, 2018: The End of Tumblr There was a time when Tumblr was mentioned in the same sentence as Facebook and Twitter. That day has long since passed. Tumblr announced the end of …

Dec 3, 2018: Two Weeks John Scalzi over on his blog just confessed to writing his latest novel, The Consuming Fire, in two weeks. Two. Weeks. That’s crazy. It certainly took …

Dec 2, 2018: Goal Setting Nicholas Bate adds to his basics list with seven ideas regarding goals. Good ideas. A goal can be set anytime, not just new year. A goal needs a …

Dec 1, 2018: Galaxy of Adventures In May 1977, I was eight years old about to turn nine a month later. I walked into an air-conditioned movie theater while on a Florida vacation and …

Dec 1, 2018: Play Like a Girl Eben Novy-Williams has your feel good story of the weekend. Earlier this week, a 9-year-old California girl named Riley Morrison wrote an open letter …

Nov 30, 2018: The Spectrum of Possibilities Rob Bricken, in his weekly Medium column Nerd Processor, talks about the upcoming final season of Game of Thrones, how it’s likely to disappoint, and …

Nov 30, 2018: Love is a Gift Just about a week before Halloween, I saw the first holiday television ad. I’m sure it was selling me something. The deluge hasn’t really stopped. So, …

Nov 30, 2018: Doing the Day Michael Wade designs your To Do list: “Urgent and Important” tasks? Easy choice. Those get tackled first. “Not Urgent But Important?” Spend as much as …

Nov 29, 2018: Kind of Like Thursday November is kind of like Thursday.

Nov 29, 2018: Today is the First Day CNN analyst Jeffrey Toobin: “Today is the first day I thought Donald Trump might not finish his term in office.” “When do Republicans start to turn on …

Nov 29, 2018: The Inimitable Creativity of Stephen Hillenburg The story of Stephen Hillenburg by David Sims in The Atlantic is a wonderful look at a creator and his creation. I certainly watched my share of …

Nov 29, 2018: Star Wars MegaMix Darren Tibbles‘ entry in the Star Wars Fan Awards is a tour de force of animation. His “showreel” is fast-paced and fun with all sorts of Star Wars …

Nov 29, 2018: Slow Down Nicholas Bate on slowing down: Slow down to the speed of thought. There is no such thing as hurry-up thinking. You’ll just get a headache and get …

Nov 28, 2018: Three Kinds of Corporate Mediocrity Seth Godin does a deep dive into corporate culture and the scourge of mediocracy. Uncaring mediocrity, in which employees have given up trying to …

Nov 28, 2018: The Art of the Spectacle Matt Ford in The New Republic writes of Donald Trump’s one skill―marketing himself and, in turn, defining himself in the context of a made-up reality. …

Nov 28, 2018: The Miseducation of Sheryl Sandberg Reading this incredible story about Facebook’s COO, Sheryl Sandberg by Duff McDonald in Vanity Fair makes me want to delete my Facebook account. It …

Nov 28, 2018: Every Single Video Prince Ever Made Recently, Prince’s estate released his whole video catalog in high resolution. With this incredible collection available, Prince super fan Anil Dash …

Nov 27, 2018: The Case for Beto O’Rourke Dan Pfeiffer of Crooked Media advocates in an essay that failed Senate hopeful Beto O’Rourke should be considered as a legitimate presidential …

Nov 26, 2018: The Consuming Fire I finished John Scalzi’s latest novel, The Consuming Fire, and was in the process of writing a short little review when I see that Warren Ellis has …

Nov 26, 2018: Why Illinois Gave Lovie Smith a Two-Year Extension Matt Fortuna, writing at The Athletic, explains why a head coach who has gone 9-27 in three years is getting a contract extension. It is foolish to …

Nov 26, 2018: The Simple Joy of “No Phones Allowed” David Cain at Rapitude wrote a thousand words about his experience at a concert that was set up as a “No Phones” experience. Our phones drain the life …

Nov 25, 2018: Deceptive Practices Ricky Jay passed away. I’m not sure when I first started to recognize him. It might have been Deadwood or Mystery Men. I had forgotten he was in …

Nov 25, 2018: The Alternative to Thinking All the Time I overthink everything. This is a known problem for me. Sometimes I can’t enjoy an experience because I’m thinking about it too much. Or I’m thinking …

Nov 24, 2018: Share Your Gifts Apple has made a sweet holiday commercial this season. It looks like a Pixar short and, I think, captures what many creative do all day, every day. …

Nov 24, 2018: Grinch Burns Drew Magary, writing for The Concourse, has come up with the official ranking of Grinch burns. His top two are spot on. 1. Your soul is an appalling …

Nov 22, 2018: Black Friday Black Friday - where people will literally fight others for materialistic items just one day after they’ve given thanks for what they already …

Nov 22, 2018: Reduce Friction I need to simplify the creative workflow. My solution is to attempt to reduce all the friction I have. What are the reasons I don’t do something? …

Nov 22, 2018: Save 100% You can save 100% by staying home on Black Friday.

Nov 22, 2018: Turkey’s Away is the Best Thanksgiving Episode Ever Jen Chaney, writing in Vulture, posits the Thanksgiving episode of WKRP in Cincinnati is the best of all TV land. I haven’t watched it in years, but …

Nov 22, 2018: Katie and Me

Nov 21, 2018: Giving Thanks On Thanksgiving this year, we pulled out videos taken more than twenty years ago of Thanksgiving’s of old. I knew I’d see a few people who have left …

Nov 19, 2018: Politifact’s 2018 Thanksgiving Dinner Guide While talking about politics is usually considered bad form at Thanksgiving, you know and I know that it’s going to happen. Why not come …

Nov 19, 2018: Nothing on the Page is Real There are a lot of stories about fake news. Eli Saslow writing for The Washington Post has one worth your time. Christopher Blair created a Facebook …

Nov 19, 2018: You’re A Mean One, Mr. Grinch - Lindsey Stirling ft. Sabrina Carpenter Your manic pixie girlfriend, Lindsey Stirling, and the other girl from Girl Meets World, Sabrina Carpenter, put together a rip-roaring rendition of …

Nov 18, 2018: Powder Blue Belongs in the 80s The St. Louis Cardinals unveiled new/retro powder blue alternate away uniforms for the upcoming season. I hate them with the heat of a thousand suns. …

Nov 18, 2018: Something Special Shannon Ryan has a fantastic article on Illinois Basketball’s Freshman phenom Ayo Dosunmu. Not since Dee Brown — another charismatic, supremely …

Nov 17, 2018: Getting Out of the Social Media Mess Manton Reece, founder of Micro.blog, has some smart thoughts about social media and owning your own digital presence. Having your own domain name for …

Nov 17, 2018: New John Williams Music It doesn’t quite sound like Star Wars without John Williams. So, I was pleased to hear new music from Williams in preparation for the …

Nov 17, 2018: Sated Just in time for Thanksgiving! Sated is a keto-based, ready-to-drink meal replacement shake that’s high in fiber, high in protein and low in …

Nov 16, 2018: Love is the Path to Excellence Hugh MacLeod of Gapingvoid dropped something profound in today’s email. Reposting it here for remembrance. When you love what you do, the world can …

Nov 15, 2018: Collaborating with William Goldman With the passing of the amazingly talented writer William Goldman, there have been many collaborators sharing their stories of working on projects of …

Nov 15, 2018: I Found the Best Burger Place in America. And Then I Killed It. Kevin Alexander’s story in Thrillist is a wonderful bit of writing. It’s so much more than a story about a story. It’s about blame, personal …

Nov 14, 2018: The Pullout Method I’ve gotten into many arguments regarding the proper removal of USB flash drives from computers. I say you have to click to eject, others say just …

Nov 14, 2018: The Urgent Goes Away Seth Godin on emergencies: Those emergencies from a year ago (and a month ago), they’re gone. Either they were solved, or they became things to live …

Nov 13, 2018: The Value of Bryce Harper Ben Godar of Viva El Birdos outlines the immense value “off the field” of Bryce Harper joining the St. Louis Cardinals. It’s an …

Nov 13, 2018: The Power-Idea Gap Michael Wade often drops smart thoughts. This one is freaking brilliant. Significant power brings greater responsibilities and greater …

Nov 13, 2018: Salt Rob Savage’s Salt is a two-minute roller coaster ride of tense visuals and suspense. It features a mother and daughter and demons. And, of course, the …

Nov 13, 2018: Daily Shutdown Routines Curtis McHale uses Things 3 as his productivity system. He has created checklists to help him be mindful of what needs to be done so he doesn’t skip …

Nov 12, 2018: Ten Reasons Why Bryce Harper Isn’t Worth the Money Bernie Miklasz, writing for The Athletic, provides ten excellent reasons why the St. Louis Cardinals should avoid the Bryce Harper bonanza. I think …

Nov 12, 2018: The Big iPad Matt Gemmell provides a thorough and deep dive into his tech choices as an author. This time, it’s the new iPad Pro. I want one, but I …

Nov 12, 2018: RIP Excelsior! The avuncular, controversial longtime writer and publisher of Marvel Comics died on Monday in Los Angeles. Stan Lee was the Walt Disney of my …

Nov 12, 2018: Dangerous Precedent Andy Borowitz in The New Yorker pretty much nails what I think most Americans feel about this past election and getting it right. It’s too bad it has …

Nov 11, 2018: The Never-Ending Story Amanda Hess in The New York Times has a piece that examines how nothing ever ends anymore in regards to intellectual property. Movies go on forever in …

Nov 10, 2018: Post-Election In the days after the 2016 election, I was mentally and physically exhausted. I was about two rungs above being curled up in a corner in the fetal …

Nov 10, 2018: Stop Watching the News When you completely stop watching the news for a substantial period of time, the world becomes a much better place.

Nov 10, 2018: The Walls Have Crumbled Political scientist and journalist David Rothkopf says Trump’s days in the White House are numbered. Here are a few of the points he made in his …

Nov 9, 2018: First Impressions of the New 12.9 iPad Pro Over at The Sweet Setup, Shawn Blanc writes his first impressions about the new 12.9″ iPad Pro as it relates to his personal …

Nov 9, 2018: The Curse of the Honeycrisp Apple After my dental surgery (I had loose congenital teeth replaced), I can now truly eat an apple the way it was meant to be, biting right into it instead …

Nov 8, 2018: Do the Verb Austin Kleon talks about titles versus doing the work. So many people think you have to first call yourself an artist, know who you are and what …

Nov 8, 2018: Reggie Corbin: The Journey Illinois Football running back Reggie Corbin was featured on the Big Ten Network The Journey. What a great story about facing adversity losing his mom …

Nov 7, 2018: Why the Cardinals Need Bryce Harper And so it begins. Fans screaming for the Cardinals to acquire Harper is right on the cusp of reaching a fever pitch. This breakdown by Will Leitch …

Nov 5, 2018: The Future You The future you is watching the present you through your memories.

Nov 5, 2018: Go Vote Inspiring piece by Roger Angell in The New Yorker. What we can all do at this moment is vote — get up, brush our teeth, go to the polling place, and …

Nov 4, 2018: A Note from 2030 Seth Godin drops some good advice. Twelve years from now, your future self is going to thank you for something you did today, for an asset you began …

Nov 2, 2018: Saturday Nicholas Bate drops 100 words every once in a while. I liked this one. Deep and long sleep, slow coffee and some reflection. Rapid unpacking and …

Nov 2, 2018: Subtract Nicholas Bate asks what can we subtract to relive the pressure? I love the question, no idea about the answer.

Nov 2, 2018: Productivity Hack I have an unhealthy addiction to finding the perfect productivity system and failing miserably at it. I used productivity apps, tried bullet …

Oct 31, 2018: Daily Intentions I’m being bombarded with news, notifications, and other assorted miscellany, and it’s hurting my head. I can’t wait for this election to end. I’m …

Oct 31, 2018: How to Configure Your iPhone to Work for You, Not Against You This is the longest article on Medium I’ve ever seen, clocking in as a 74-minute read. It’s awesome and easily navigable. The iPhone could be an …

Oct 31, 2018: The Time Bandits of Southern California Amy Wallace in GQ has a truly bonkers long read about thieves who stole luxury watches and the special agent who caught them. On a quiet Monday around …

Oct 30, 2018: One of the Best Teams of All Time The Boston Red Sox just dominated major league baseball this past season. Zach Kram argues at The Ringer the team is one of the best of all time. …

Oct 28, 2018: Monster Mash You’ve never heard the Monster Mash. You’ve only heard a song about the Monster Mash.

Oct 27, 2018: The Monday Blues Have you heard? The Monday Blues exist. Anxiety! Sadness! Stress! Some even start feeling it Sunday night. The dreaded Monday morning happens every …

Oct 27, 2018: The Main Problem My main problem with the song “The Devil Went Down to Georgia” is that the Devil’s section is invariably better than Johnny’s in any version I’ve …

Oct 26, 2018: Time Traveler Ever wonder which words first appeared in print the year you were born? Merriam-Webster’s Time Traveler page lets you find out. It’s a good way to …

Oct 25, 2018: What the Hell Happened to Darius Miles? Darius Miles on going straight from high school to the L.A. Clippers in 2000. Remarkable, compelling read, capturing his life’s joy and tragedy. …

Oct 18, 2018: Paul Simon: Bridge Over Troubled Water Paul Simon performs “Bridge Over Troubled Water” on Saturday Night Live. Exquisite.

Oct 18, 2018: Lest we Forget A catalog of Trump’s worst cruelties, collusions, corruptions and crimes. The first in a series.

Oct 17, 2018: Caroll Spinney Retires Do you know who Caroll Spinney is? I bet you know the characters he’s inhabited for decades. The friendly, bearded face of Caroll …

Oct 16, 2018: The Choose-Your-Own-Adventure Guide to Solving Relationship Problems Mark Manson has a lengthy essay going over all the ways to solve relationship problems. He does it in his unique style. His decision tree exercise is …

Oct 16, 2018: Never Work a Day in Your Life Dream J. Westenberg hates being a writer: They say that if you do what you love, you’ll never work a day in your life. It’s bullshit. It’s not true. It’s a …

Oct 12, 2018: "Fall" On Monday and Tuesday, it was in the mid-80s. I attended an outdoor cookout. Wednesday it was 73. Thursday, it was 53. Today it’s 41, and it’s …

Oct 10, 2018: The Best Songs in the (Fictional) Universe The Ringer has compiled a list of the best songs from fictional characters in movies. The debate between the writers is marvelous. I totally got Shea …

Oct 10, 2018: Private Audience This story from Olivia Nuzzi about her experience in the Oval Office is the very definition of cray-cray. I just don’t know what to think.

Oct 9, 2018: A Hidden Source of Power Leo Babauta, at his Zen Habits blog, writes about one’s state of mind and how controlling it is a hidden source of power. Let me give you an example. …

Oct 6, 2018: Randy Rainbow Dana Kennedy, writing for The Daily Beast, has a great story on internet sensation, Randy Rainbow. If you haven’t found his videos yet, please take …

Oct 5, 2018: The Value of Minimalism Dan Pederson on Minimalism - The less you own, the less you have to take care of. The less you own, the less you have to replace. The less you own, …

Oct 5, 2018: The Very Definition of Overwhelm Shawn Blanc writes about feeling overwhelmed. If you’re feeling overwhelmed, then perhaps you feel as though you have been given too much. In fact, …

Oct 2, 2018: A Life Less Ordinary Cian Traynor in Huck Magazine has a fantastic profile on Chilly Gonzales. He’s a musician I found only a year or so ago and have been fascinated by …

Sep 30, 2018: Fine Tuning Warren Ellis talking about fine tuning his social media: On Saturday at 1201am I turned off my social media. I have a private IG account for looking …

Sep 23, 2018: Why This Athletic Director Runs with Fans Before Every Home Football Game Danielle Zickl, writing for Runner’s World, tells the tale of University of Illinois Athletic Director Josh Whitman’s home football tradition―the Game …

Sep 20, 2018: Cary Fukunaga to Direct Bond 25 Alex Ritman, writing for The Hollywood Reporter, on the future of James Bond. Cary Fukunaga has been named director for the 25th installment of the …

Sep 13, 2018: Why Being an Asshole Can Be a Valuable Life Skill Mark Manson is back with more insight into human behavior. He equates being an asshole to totally committing to being disliked. Of course, his caveat …

Sep 11, 2018: The Only Good Online Fandom Left is Dune Sean T. Collins at The Outline explains the difference between Dune and the Extended Cinematic Universes of both television and film. There are no …

Sep 4, 2018: All 131 Van Halen Songs Ranked Chuck Klosterman is a writer I admire. I think his books are fantastic. Here he is doing a massive list post for Vulture and really knocking it out of …

Sep 2, 2018: Deuces are Wild

Aug 23, 2018: The Echo Chamber Isaac Butler at Slate has a decent examination of Crooked Media. Since the 2016 election, the media company, formed by the podcast hosts of Pod Save …

Aug 23, 2018: Apple and Foundation Benjamin Frisch in Slate has one of the best opening paragraphs I’ve read in a long time. Apple, a secretive organization staffed by technological …

Aug 22, 2018: The Glenn Brummer Story Rick Hummel in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch relives the story of third-string catcher Glenn Brummer stealing home to pull off one of the most memorable …

Aug 21, 2018: Is it Time to Kill James Bond? Joshua Rivera writing for GQ makes an interesting argument. Kill Bond. It’s never been done before, and it would be the perfect way to end the Craig …

Aug 19, 2018: Some Regrets Katrina Brooker of Vanity Fair profiled Tim-Berners Lee, the father of the internet. He’s been having some Oppenheimer-esque feelings about his …

Aug 18, 2018: The Art of Writing Short Emails Frankie Rain on Medium lists a bunch of techniques to write shorter emails. In short, writing short emails is a win-win. Now that you know how to do …

Aug 9, 2018: What Seven Dave Grohls Have to Say Spencer Kornhaber in The Atlantic has a story about Dave Grohl’s new project―Play. Dave Grohl walks into the studio. Dave Grohl walks in behind him. …

Aug 8, 2018: Paste and Match Style My workflow includes a lot of copy and pasting of texts into documents. Alas, the formatting often comes with and I have to adjust and rearrange. You …

Aug 2, 2018: The End of the Monday Night Wars I remember when the end of the Monday Night Wars happened. I was watching WCW Nitro and Vince McMahon showed up at the top of the show telling …

Jul 30, 2018: I Can’t Hear You Julia Belluz at Vox does a deep dive into the increasingly high decibel levels of restaurants. Being exposed to noise levels above 70 and 80 decibels …

Jul 28, 2018: How an Ex-Cop Rigged McDonald’s Monopoly Game and Stole Millions Jeff Maysh in The Daily Beast has one of the summer’s most engrossing stories. Jerome Jacobson and his network of mobsters, psychics, strip-club …

Jul 27, 2018: Mom and Dad in Fish Creek

Jul 19, 2018: Stop Trying to Change Yourself Mark Manson on change: You can’t change yourself, so don’t even try. I know that’s not what the infomercials and self-help seminars tell you. But fuck …

Jul 17, 2018: Ten Years Later, “The Dark Knight” and Its Vision of Guilt Still Resonate The Village Voice does a deep dive into The Dark Knight on its ten year anniversary. I haven’t watched it in a good long while, so I wonder …

Jul 17, 2018: How to Make Your Presentations Better Seth Godin on making your presentation better. Good advice all around. Make it shorter. No extra points for filling your time. Be really clear …

Jul 14, 2018: Mike Matheny Finally Fired Chris Thompson at Deadspin pretty much sums up my feelings on this half-season St. Louis Cardinals baseball. It finally culminated in a firing I …

Jul 12, 2018: The Bizzare Story of the Seattle Mystery Vending Machine Karl Smallwood writes about a strange vending machine with a mysterious history in Today I Found Out. It’s a great read about a truly odd tourist …

Jul 8, 2018: A Welcome Addition A new member of the family arrived in our household a little over a week ago. He has completely upended our idyllic life. His name is Rocco and this …

Jul 4, 2018: Jacob Fitton is Captain America

Jul 4, 2018: Like a Rolling Stone I’m a sucker for redesigns and reimaginings of products and brands. This one from Rolling Stone is huge. The old logo’s drop-shadowed, …

Jul 2, 2018: Portrait of a Dog

Jun 27, 2018: Simple and Low Key Milestone birthdays are supposed to be remembered and cherished. On my 16th birthday, I drove to the mall by myself. On my 21st birthday, I have no …

Jun 15, 2018: How Heisler Became the Most Popular Fake Beer Writing for Thrillist, Shannon Carlin tells the story of Heisler. You know Heisler, the Bud Light of fake beers.

May 28, 2018: Full of Marks I think this story of grifter and con artist Anna Delvey by Jessica Pressler in The Cut has got to be one of the most jaw-dropping exposés I’ve ever …

May 27, 2018: First Family Jeremy Werner covers the University of Illinois sports at his site, Illini Inquirer. His story on Athletic Director Josh Whitman and his family is a …

May 24, 2018: I Got You

May 11, 2018: Not Your Father’s Avengers This story speculating on the future of the Marvel Cinematic Universe offers us an idea that I’ve had ever since the Black Panther movie was so well …

May 9, 2018: An Oral History of Action Park Jake Rossen and Mental Floss go down the Cannonball Loop of danger in this fascinating story about an amusement park that was literally insane. If …

May 8, 2018: The Right Way to Revisit Properties That Can Sell I can’t emphasize enough how much I enjoyed the latest installment in the Karate Kid franchise. Cobra Kai is well-written with fun nods to our …

May 1, 2018: Ranking the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Inductees Bill Wyman (not that Bill Wyman) has ranked all 214 artists in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame for Vulture. He’s wrong, of course. First off, …

May 1, 2018: The Great High School Imposter Daniel Riley writing in GQ details the story of Artur Samarin, who pulled off one of the most amazing hoaxes of all time. This story is going to be a …

Apr 16, 2018: Taxes “Taxes” should be a mandatory high school class before graduation.

Apr 12, 2018: Go Speed Racer Justin Westbrook over at Jalopnik outlines why the Speed Racer movie was way ahead of its time. I couldn’t agree more.

Apr 6, 2018: This is Why You Should Hold Fast to Childish Things John P. Weiss writes and illustrates his thoughts on leaving things undone and reacquaint ourselves with wonder. What do you call people who love good …

Apr 1, 2018: Fooled What if April Fool’s Day is actually on April 2 and we’ve been fooled this whole time?

Apr 1, 2018: Sometimes it Snows in April

Mar 31, 2018: The Actual News Today, The Onion should report the actual news.

Mar 29, 2018: Use the Force Does anyone else find it odd that all Jedi and Sith don’t simply use the Force to turn their opponents lightsaber off when fighting?

Mar 28, 2018: 10 Second Video Does anyone else find it weird that Luke Skywalker joined the Rebellion because he saw a 10 second video and thought his sister was hot.

Mar 28, 2018: Deep Space Nine Innings Corbin Smith at Deadspin combines two of my passions into one exciting article. Star Trek Deep Space Nine is fascinated with baseball, and his article …

Mar 26, 2018: Thank the Maker Does anyone else find it weird that when C-3PO says “Thank the maker!” he is praising and thanking Darth Vader?

Mar 25, 2018: So Wizard Does anyone else finding it weird that Darth Vader used to say “Yippie!” and “So, wizard!”

Mar 5, 2018: How to Raise a Boy Will Leitch has written one of his signature pieces. It’s an in-depth look at his own upbringing and how he raised his own sons in the age of the …

Mar 1, 2018: How to Grow the Fuck Up: A Guide to Humans Mark Manson is obviously working on new book. I’m guessing this is going to be the title. When you are in the mood for a good, long read take some …

Feb 27, 2018: Trent Rising The University of Illinois has an online magazine called Storied. It features various stories about people and places all over campus. Kim Schmidt …

Feb 19, 2018: Do Better Than Us Dave Pell, of NextDraft fame, writes a marvelous treatise on Emma Gonzalez and the aftermath of gun violence. Emma and her classmates have called out …

Feb 14, 2018: Happy Valentine’s Day Never laugh at your significant other’s choices. You’re one of them. Happy Valentine’s Day!

Jan 30, 2018: Monday of the Year January is the Monday of the year.

Jan 19, 2018: Be Where Your Feet Are Alan Stein, a leadership and basketball performance coach who’s worked with players like Kevin Durant and Steph Curry, did a TED talk on something I …

Jan 15, 2018: The Right Questions Darius Foroux shares the 21 most important questions of your life across a variety of categories including life, career, and productivity. “The right …

Jan 11, 2018: Why You Should be Watching The Magicians I really enjoyed the first two seasons of The Magicians. Chaim Gartenberg writing for The Verge explains better than I why you should watch season …

Jan 1, 2018: A Goal Without a Plan is a Wish A goal without a plan is a wish. Time to quit wishing and start planning. Today is as good a day to start.