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 Times Company has reached an agreement to buy The Athletic, the online sports news outlet with 1.2 million subscriptions, in an all-cash deal valued at $550 million, The Times said on Thursday.

The deal brings The Times, which has more than eight million total subscriptions, quickly closer to its goal of having 10 million subscriptions by 2025, while also offering its audience more in-depth coverage of the more than 200 professional teams in North America, Britain and Europe that are closely followed by The Athletic’s journalists.

The Athletic is terrific. Good writers, good design, and a model that supports both national and local coverage. There’s no clickbait shit, no intrusive ads, and basically a clean, simple, and informative site.

They went through a spell where they had to let go of some writers. I hope they rehire them back. For example, Bernie Miklasz was fantastic at writing about the St. Louis Cardinals.

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 the trek to watch this ceremony.

DeMar came out to Ayo’s jersey retirement ceremony in Champaign. That’s love ❤️ pic.twitter.com/T5X68wmsMw

— Chicago Bulls (@chicagobulls) January 7, 2022

Jeremy Werner talked to DeRozan and got an impressive quote:

“It’s big. That’s my teammate,” DeRozan told Illini Inquirer in the bowels of State Farm Center. “We spend the majority of our days together. We go to work together. This moment is something special. It’s more of an intimate type of thing that you just want to experience. I know what it’s like. I had the honor to get my jersey retired in college. I know what that was like to have friends and close people that I respect and appreciate be there, it meant a lot. I just know what that moment means for him. …I didn’t care how far it was. I just wanted to come support my teammate.”

If I was an NBA player with basketball 24/7 and traveling all the time, I’d have a hard time spending a full evening traveling to watch some college basketball. It was really cool of DeRozan to make the trek.

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 interested.

1. On November 3, 2020, Joe Biden was elected president.

2. Donald Trump then spent months promoting lawsuits and other efforts designed to overturn the 2020 election, which he claimed Democrats had stolen. Fox News and the entire conservative press helped him along eagerly.

3. Nothing worked, so as a last ditch effort Trump tried to compel VP Mike Pence to renounce his constitutional duty to certify the electoral vote.

4. Pence did his best to figure out a way to comply, but in the end he couldn’t quite do it.

5. On January 6, the day the electoral vote was scheduled to be certified in Congress, Trump speaks to a rally of protesters.

6. After he leaves, a mob attacks the Capitol building, hoping to stop Pence from certifying the electoral vote and thereby keeping Trump in office.

7. Trump spends the entire time refusing to make any kind of public statement urging the mob to stand down.

8. In the immediate aftermath, Republicans denounce both Trump and the mob. However, as time goes by their criticism wanes. Today, most of them pretend that it was no big deal.

9. Two-thirds of Republican voters agree because they think Democrats stole the election in the first place. Fox News and the others continue to promote this idea.

10. If this happened in any other country, it would be called both an attempted insurrection and an attempted coup. Nothing like it has happened in American history.

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 time to rein in the overall COVID panic a bit, but this message is aimed more at the media than at ordinary people.

News coverage of COVID is just beyond belief these days. Newspapers, TV, and the internet are blanketed every day with stories about new COVID records; reports of new CDC recommendations; interviews with people who think the new CDC recommendations are stupid; feature stories about how COVID is affecting _______; op-eds accusing everyone else of being either too strict or too loose about COVID rules; essays about what we’ve all learned from COVID; news about how things are going in Israel; other news about why we should ignore how things are going in Israel; feelgood clickbait about people who braved COVID to see an old friend; stories about the latest antics from a red-state governor positioning himself for 2024; and of course all the latest statistics in an EZ-to-read dashboard format.

If you are vaxxed and boosted, your current odds of getting COVID are roughly 1 in 500 over the course of a month. If you’re under 65, your odds of a serious infection are about 1 in 5,000. Your odds of dying are 1 in 200,000. Calm down.

I can’t quite find the middle ground here. I have to pay attention, but do I have to spend a lot of attention? Strangers are still a danger, but what if they are all vaccinated or have vaccinated, boosted, and had COVID? Am I safe?

This is so hard.

CBS Minnesota reports the firing of hundreds of unvaccinated employees from the Mayo Clinic.

The dismissed employees make up about 1% of Mayo’s 73,000 workforce. Officials say while it’s sad to lose valuable employees, it’s essential to keep patients, the workforce, visitors and communities safe.

People released Tuesday can return to Mayo Clinic for future job openings if they get vaccinated.

More of this, please.

#TheKaijuPreservationSociety is @scalzi’s first standalone adventure since the conclusion of his @nytimes bestselling Interdependency trilogy. Download a FREE sneak peek today!https://t.co/XAyrZyA8BT

— Tor Books (@torbooks) January 4, 2022

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 narrative gets in the way of expressing what’s actually going on. Because we’re imagining all the blame and shame and scorn that the other person may or may not be feeling toward us, we bring those feelings into our words and actions, and end up making a mess.

And the problem with being offensive is that the person we’re offending can no longer hear what we’re saying.

Communication lives between the two. We do best when we can describe the actual, the same way we might talk about the weather. Here is what is. Simply that.

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 surprising.

Public health is no longer viewed as a collective endeavor, based on the principle of social solidarity and mutual obligation. People are conditioned to believe they’re on their own and responsible only for themselves. That means an important source of vaccine hesitancy is the erosion of the idea of a common good.

That’s the crux. People don’t give a shit about other people. Or… actually more relevant is people who believe in science and have empathy versus conspiracy theorists who don’t give a shit about anyone but themselves.

The vaccine-hesitant are mostly Republicans.

Daniel Politi, writing for Slate, reports on Marjorie Taylor Greene not understanding the First Amendment.

Twitter permanently suspended the personal account of Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene for repeatedly violating the company’s policy against publishing COVID-19 misinformation on the platform. 

More of this, please.

It's all about the cliiiimb 🗣 @MileyCyrus and @BrandiCarlile perform "The Story" and "The Climb" at #MileysNewYearsEveParty on NBC and @PeacockTV. pic.twitter.com/2Mxws9xwke

— NBC Entertainment (@nbc) January 1, 2022

The best part of the special. Easily.

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 eye in a freak accident.

My accident isn’t something I think about daily. I was only eight years old. When I do think about it, I only think of fleeting things like getting the wind knocked out of me, being carried to my back door, the stitches, and staying in a hospital for a bit.

I don’t think about blindness, mostly because I can see just fine out of my left.

It was a football accident, so my chance of ever playing football in high school was pretty much over. Because I lost depth perception, playing baseball was out of the question, especially when they started throwing curveballs. I found other interests and other sports.

Blindness in my right eye probably restricted my life in a few minor ways, but it wasn’t that big of a deal in reality. I certainly never allowed it to define my life. On the other hand, my mother certainly shaped me for the better.

She was of the stay-at-home variety, and I saw my Mom every day after school. She grew up as a latch-key kid, but I did not. She never wanted that for her children and didn’t go into the workforce until both of her kids were essentially out of the house.

When she married my father, she could hardly boil water. We would nearly always come down to eat at the dinner table as a family. Dinner time was family time. Over the decades, cooking became a passion, and she still loves to experiment and try new recipes.

I learned most from my mother that family is the most important thing. Your family is the one to rely on when you need help. When confronted with obstacles or realized successes, my family was there.

As I reflect on the lessons taught by accidents and mothers, my goal for 2022 is to keep these ideas alive in me, not as some resolution, but as a steadfast core belief in myself.

Hello, January 1, 2022, and goodbye to 2021. Goodbye to a year of doubt and fear. Goodbye to the need to be like others or worry about how others view me. Just be me. I may be overwhelmed by the sheer magnitude of what I want to accomplish, but I can’t be paralyzed by it. I can’t be fearful.

It’s hello to a restored sense of family. I will embrace what I have right in front of me and worry less about what I think I want or desire. This is the year I find my voice and quit letting the successes of others drive me or attempt to mimic their unique achievements. I’m the star of my own life, and I need to start acting like it.

The best motivator for me is me. Do better than before. Get better. Find the next level and keep at it, in my writing, with my family, and in how I approach this precious thing called life.

The adventure is just beginning.

Seth Godin on not wasting time with the wrong priorities.

If you’re feeling creative, do the errands tomorrow.

If you’re fit and healthy, take a day to go surfing.

When inspiration strikes, write it down.

The calendar belongs to everyone else. Their schedule isn’t your schedule unless it helps you get where you’re going.

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 this way/I don’t mind where I get taken/The road is callin’/Today is the day

While the song is probably more about the band on the road than embracing the new, the song seems pertinent to my creativity. It’s a bright horizon, and I’m awake now/Oh, I see myself in a brand new way.

I used to have a tremendous amount of regret. I’d obsess over paths taken and if I made the right choice. Today, I realize that was unhealthy. It would help if you never had any regrets in life. Look at the here and now. Be present. Look to the future.

And don’t look back.

I was trapped by past creative work. My writing output was ten times what it is now. I’m not writing every day. Life simply got in the way, or I got tired and turned to some other creative exercise. My creative writing became stagnant. The enthusiasm waned. Where did the passion go? I want to ignite it again. Start writing. Rewrite. Publish.

And don’t look back.

The best advice I ever got was to treat every day as a new opportunity to do good in the world. So, I’m going to try and be good, and along the way, I might try something new, do something different, and in the process, re-invent myself. Starting now.

Gene Simmons of KISS has said, “Every day above ground is a good day.” Each new dawn is a gift. It’s a blank slate.

Don’t look back.

The past can hold you back. I’m letting it go. The only thing that exists is the present, one breath into the future.

I’m not good at living each day like it’s my last, but it could be. So, I should be as creative as possible for as long as I can. I’m proud of my past, but I can’t let it define or cage me.

I’m starting new projects, dropping old ones, and looking at the past and how it can shape my future, but not for too long. I have to keep moving forward.

Don’t look back.

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 his assessment of the Affleck kerfuffle, but more importantly, why his explanation and description of the reports fall right in line with the dumbest shit, the media did and does with Trump.

Why would I waste this space on a salacious Hollywood story? Because this is the exact same pattern we’ve seen play out on much more important stories from the beginning of the Trump era through the present. A false statement gets made. The headlines feature that false statement. That statement spreads. Social media chimes in. The false statement is challenged. And the headlines change to account for that challenge. But the focus of the story, and the social media discussion around it, is still on the initial falsehood.

Clickbait headlines are only there for clicks. The real story is immaterial.

I want to be informed and pay attention to what is going on and ignore fake news and clickbait on the internet. Still, it is becoming increasingly impossible to vet reliable sources.

I think I’m going to start really culling my information intake. Wish me luck.

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 they host Mexico in Cincinnati: Beating our rivals in World Cup qualifiers in Ohio is a U.S. Soccer tradition I’m ready to return to. But can the country get behind this team the way it did back in 2014? Can the country, collectively, get behind anything anymore? I don’t know. I hope so. Because it sure would be nice to be able to scream “America, fuck yeah!” again, surrounded by patriots, hipster or otherwise.

I don’t think the toothpaste can go back into the tube. I hope I’m wrong.

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 what little I’ve seen it looks like the judge is biased, but ultimately it won’t matter what the jury decides.

It doesn’t matter if Rittenhouse is acquitted. I don’t think he should be but I’m not part of the jury. It’s not my say. If he is acquitted, however, it will send a message to right-wing extremists that shooting protestors is possible, just not the ones waving blue Trump flags, or the ones trying to kick down the doors of the U.S. Capitol. But it’s open season on the woke, otherwise.

It also doesn’t matter what the verdict is because this dumb kid’s life is ruined. He’s going to be used as a political prop by conservative white men drunk on hate for years. He may get to go TV! Make some money. He’ll be called a hero, and then, one day, he’ll be forgotten by the powerful and he’ll be left alone with his conscience. I hope the dead haunt him.

Not soon enough.

The killer medium is email. The killer service is the newsletter. Why? Because you have control. Dave Pell should know… he’s the Managing Editor of the Internet.

Thanks in part to humanity’s success against the scourge of spam, the inbox is one of the few places where you actually have control over an information feed. If you want a newsletter, subscribe. If you don’t want a newsletter, unsubscribe. Mark Zuckerberg doesn’t get to decide what’s more likely to appear in your email stream. The Russians are not setting up a disinformation campaign in your inbox. It is your inbox and your own private antisocial network. You are the algorithm. This is the core reason why the noisier the rest of the internet gets, the more popular the quiet, humble newsletter becomes. And it’s why, during the pandemic, the Black Lives Matter protests, the presidential election, the Big Lie, and the insurrection, when we were being pulverized by an unprecedented onslaught of information, newsletters felt like a welcome respite from the noise and were suddenly the biggest new (but far from the newest) thing in media.

Yup.

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 keyboard and pencil jottings in a notebook.

And habit makes that easier.

I really need to get into a better writing habit.

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 it’s fun to take in a game without a rooting interest. I do not have a favorite NFL team.

On Monday, I got sucked into the Steelers/Bears game and saw one of the worst calls by a referee ever. I’ll let Drew Magary explain:

The Steelers were up three facing third-and-8 from the Bears’ 47 when outside linebacker Cassius Marsh, fresh from the practice squad and seen here looking like a weary traveler who’s about to rest after a long journey across the Dragonlands, took advantage of excellent coverage on the backend and sacked Ben Roethlisberger to give Chicago the ball back and a chance to tie, or even take the lead.

But oh wait! None of that actually happened, because Marsh dared to talk shit to the Steelers sideline from a dangerous 20 yards away. Referee Tony Corrente spotted the infraction immediately. And by “immediately,” I mean well after the offenses and defenses had started to leave the field, and after Corrente pulled a 2020 Trae Young and did an ever-so-subtle jab step directly into Marsh’s path before throwing his flag as high and as conspicuously as he possibly could.

It was a horrible call. There were others in the game too, but that one was the worst. Again, I don’t have a rooting interest. Mostly, I just wanted to point out that the link Magary pulls describing Cassius Marsh is the funniest line I’ve read in days.

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 legends. The up and comers. Now, I’m out. Been out for a while.

And then my friend points me to this post about a wrestler I’ve never heard of before. A wrestler who has lived a life, man. A wrestler who came from nothing and had just a little bit above nothing for most of his career. A wrestler who needed a couple of breaks, just to pay his mortgage.

And like Michael Corleone, just when I thought I was out, I get pulled back in. Eddie Kingston has a story. I’m glad he told it. You should read it.