Friday Links!
Happy New Year, everyone!
Continuing to amaze over five centuries later: Leonardo’s wood charring method predates Japanese practice.
Many of these are particularly fine: The Best Sentences of 2025.
These people have always had a strange, grifty vibe about them: ‘They didn’t de-extinct anything’: can Colossal’s genetically engineered animals ever be the real thing?
From D.G.F., and it's thoughtful: Thin Desires Are Eating Your Life. This is both bleak and very important to read: Trump’s Immigration Nightmare: It Is Happening Here.
From Wally, and I forgot to post it last week: When Christmas is a little too bright ... look to Krampus. No, ten times: Steam, stodge – and so much suet: I made 10 endangered British puddings. Are any actually worth saving? Here's one of the best annual articles: Public Domain Day 2026. A retrospective of 1940s artist Hannes Bok, whose images are both interesting and wildly eccentric: Hannes Bok. This is both beautiful and tragic: Why I Keep Returning to Middle-Earth.
My Favorite Games of 2025
These are three games that have given me so much pleasure over the last year.
3. NCAA Football (PS5, Series X/S)
I was playing in the quarterfinals of the national championship. My All-American running back wasn't playing in the game because he was hurt. My second-string back was hurt in the second quarter. Late in the fourth quarter, my third-string running back was so exhausted he had to come out of the game. 1:23 left, behind by four, on Alabama's seven yard line, my redshirt running back has to come into the game for the first carry in his college career.
He broke two tackles and scored.
Alabama came all the way back down the field (I let the CPU control all aspects of defense and watch from the broadcast view). I was helpless as they marched down the field. With ten seconds left, a running back caught a pass in the end zone, but my cornerback hit him so hard he dropped the ball.
Five seconds left.
The quarterback scrambles, buying time. A receiver breaks loose in the end zone. I'm cooked. I see it happening.
He overthrows the receiver. Game over.
This game generates so many unforgettable stories. It has flaws, but none of them are major. What it uniquely does is capture the atmosphere and gameplay of college football far better anyone else ever has.
2. Promise Mascot Agency (PC, Switch, PS, Xbox)
What a joyful game. Wacky and incredibly funny, with excellent gameplay to boot. Every time I finished a session, I felt happy. It would have been #1 in almost any other year than this one.
1. Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
What a ridiculously brilliant game. It was incredible in every way. A staggering achievement, and one of the best games I've ever played. It was also the closest I've ever seen to a perfect game.
I used to drink an embarrassing amount of Dublin Dr. Pepper (cane sugar) at the local P. Terry's in Austin while I was working on Gridiron Solitaire and waiting for Eli to get out of school. That version of Dr. Pepper was litigated out of existence over a decade ago, and I still think about it. Often. Clair Obscur, for me, is the gaming equivalent.
Zimbabwe (part two)
The elephants in Gonarezhou National Park are known for being particularly aggressive.
There's a good reason, Two of them, actually.
One is poaching. The other is a cull of elephants performed almost two decades ago because their population was unsustainable.
The elephants remember, and are unusually aggressive toward humans as a result. They also constitute one of the heaviest concentrations of elephants in the world. Eli 24.4 and his travel partner only had a few tense encounters, but trying to drive away on narrow, rutted, steep roads is not easy.
On to the pictures. As you can see, most of them were taken through binoculars. He said the second and third photographs, of all he's ever taken, are two of his favorites.
The elephant in the last photo didn't charge them, but they wound up too close because he was hanging out at the intersection (the photograph is deceptive--they were closer than it looks). Eli said that was a particularly good stretch of road in the park. Most of them were very difficult to drive.
After Zimbabwe, he came here. Now he's in Morocco.
Zimbabwe (part one)
Here are some pictures from the race. Eli 24.4 also sent pictures from the isolated national park they went to (Gonarezhou), which I'll share tomorrow.
These are all pictures from along the race course, to the best of my knowledge.
That course is stunningly beautiful and also absolute nightmare fuel. I'd break my ankle in the first two hundred yards.
This is the AFL
Eli 24.4 and I do lots of goofy things while we're together.
One of those goofy things is playing paper football, which is one of the happiest games in the world. No one can be in a bad mood playing paper football.
We've had some legendary games over the years (I know I wrote about one when we were at Freddie's many years ago), but this time, he trounced me. We were playing on the counter, and I looked over at the dining room table.
This is what I saw:
"Look at that table," I said. "Are you thinking what I'm thinking?"
"Probably not," he said, laughing.
"We're playing the wrong game," I said. "We're playing paper football. We should be playing Australian Rules paper football."
The field is much more of an oval than an American football field or a soccer pitch. When I realized the table mimicked its shape pretty well, I got to work.
Within a day, I had a very simple prototype (after much arguing about the rules, which is both required and highly enjoyable). Of course, I did the proper goal signal when El scored (which is one of the best parts of an AFL game):
Australian Rules Football Refs.
Monty Python could have designed that goal signal. Actually, maybe they did.
I already have ideas for rules revisions. Version 2.0 will be filled with extra mayhem.
Life as It Changes
Eli 24.4 left today. I almost cried.
I've never been like this before. I think I just have a stronger sense of time passing now, and I know that each time he leaves, I've used up one of my chances to see him before the day when I'm not here anymore.
His work can be dangerous, too. He does everything he can to minimize the risk, but there's no way to eliminate it. I know when he leaves me that--though it's unlikely--it might be for the last time.
I guess what I'm saying is I grieve a little each time he goes.
Friday Links!
In case you're trapped in a bad family situation, links are being posted early (and no post on Friday). Happy (hopefully) holidays, everyone!
A wonderful read: The Fish That Climbed a Mountain: The wild tale of a small fishing club, a national park, and an epic battle over alien trout.
An incredible story, and even more incredible police ineptitude: The House on West Clay Street: Tabatha Pope thought she’d finally found an affordable place to live. It was the beginning of a nightmare.
This is fantastic: If a Tree Falls: The Trial of the Sycamore Gap Killers.
An excellent read: The Dead Mall Society.
A phenomenal bit of both reporting and writing: ‘Haunted and cursed’: Lake Lanier has a deadly reputation. A darker tale hides beneath the surface.
From Tom S. and the legendary Digital Antiquarian: Mr. Roberts Goes to Hollywood, Part 2: The Producer.
This is touching and heartbreaking: Beloved Bother: A typo in my great-uncle’s obituary held the key to understanding him.
From Wally, and it's McSweeney's at its finest: The Deleted Sex Scene from Pride and Prejudice. The least-likely thing I'd ever do: A $600 Suckling Pig? Wagyu for All? On Menus, It’s a New Gilded Age. This is definitely not good: Five states have 'very high' flu activity. See what it's like in your state. This is on the nose: New Felapton Towers Contract for Authors. I have no explanation: Cats adjust their communication strategy by meowing more when greeting men.
From D.G.F., and no one seems to be able to stop anything in this country: 104 murders in 107 days.
From Chris M., and The Onion nailed it: American Classmates Having Difficulty Understanding Better Educated Foreign Exchange Student.
Never Changes
Eli 24.4 and I compete in every way. Happily.
Quite a few are past me now, particularly the physical ones, but we still have the reading challenges and videogames to compete on equal footing.
Today we played College Football 26, both picking bad, bad teams.
I scored on fourth down in the last minute of regulation, making it into the end zone by (at most) an inch. He had a field goal on the last play to win--and I blocked it. I scored on a screen pass on fourth down in overtime after weaving my way through four defenders. Eli had a two-point conversion later to win, but his receiver was stopped cold an inch (again) from the goal line.
In quadruple overtime, my receiver fumbled (stupid CPU player). Eli celebrated because he only needed a field goal to win. On his second play, he forgot the play he called (and you don't see the play art when you're playing another human player).
That was his first mistake the entire game.
Oh, wait, he was about to score in the third quarter and started high-stepping--and went out of bounds at the two. We both laughed so hard we couldn't breathe.
All right, back to overtime. He starts fading back to buy time so he can figure out what his receivers are doing. One of my defensive linemen--who have been absolutely useless all game--hits him right when he throws the ball, and it sails into the air like a wounded duck.
One of my players catches it.
Not one of my fast players. My team is so bad there aren't any fast players, but this guy is a turtle. He's not as fast as the tight end chasing him, but just fast enough to return the interception for two points to end the game.
39-37 in quadruple overtime.
The only thing we've ever done in videogames that's better is the NHL 09 championship where we swapped off playing as Sidney Crosby. Old heads will remember that series of posts.
It's what made Eli interested in playing hockey.
The View of Art
There was a digital installation in the MOMA that was composed of multiple screens. The primary screen, though, took up most of a sizable wall (in a room with high ceilings), and the image changed over time. There was also a bank of floor beanbags in a line where you could lie down and watch the image.
The beanbags put your in much more of a horizontal position, and I was beat, so I got into one and relaxed. About thirty seconds later, I noticed a curious effect. When I'm looking at a painting, I'm not moving, but I am standing.
If I'm lying down, though, I'm still. My eyes are still, and my body is still.
My brain started processing every single minor detail in the image, many of which I'd missed when I was standing. A charcoal grill. A trash can, with pieces of trash around it. Tiny flares from gas rigs in the distance.
Being still made the viewing experience entirely different in a way I never expected. Eli 24.4 talks about ideal viewing distances for art, but this was ideal orientation.
Calder's Circus
We went to the MOMA and the Whitney today and I'm completely beat.
We did see some very special work, though, including something I'd never heard of before: Calder's Circus. Seeing this in person was astonishing. It was like stepping into a magical little world you didn't know existed.
I'll have more tomorrow. Right now, I need a long gather step.
Just a Quick Question at Halftime of the Miami-A&M Game
If neither of these teams scores before December 31st, when the next round of the playoffs starts, then who plays Ohio St.?
Friday Links!
A stunning story: Katie’s story: Frontotemporal dementia is rare and ruthless. When it robbed Katie of her husband at 33, his story became her life’s work.
Fascinating: A life in Zen: Growing up in countercultural California, ‘enlightenment’ had real glamour. But decades of practice have changed my mind.
This driving test has been infamous for decades: He Wants a New Start. So He Is Taking the Hardest Driving Test: in the World. In a world of GPS and car-hailing apps, some Londoners still want to drive a traditional black cab. First, they must memorize thousands of city streets.
Excellent: The Strange Fate of Flight 2069.
An excellent explanation. Lost Vegas: Everyone inside America’s most flailing destination city has a theory for what’s wrong. Now I have my own.
From Chris M., and it's not easy being fashion forward: Chimps are sticking grass and sticks in their butts, seemingly as a fashion trend.
From Wally, and how on earth is Facebook still up so high? Google retains spot as world's most popular internet service, but AI is growing fast. This will come in handy: The Ultimate Best Books of 2025 List. Bizarre (Claude did decently, though): “AI”: A Dedicated Fact-Failing Machine, or, Yet Another Reason Not to Trust It For Anything. Wait, why isn't Die Hard on this list? The 8 Most Expensive Christmas Movies Of All Time. Still relatively sharp, too: Dick Van Dyke at 100: His Iconic Career In Photos From ‘Mary Poppins,’ ‘Chitty Chitty Bang Bang,’ and ‘Bye Bye Birdie’. This is terrific: Shelfies #66: James Logan. Somewhere out there is a parallel universe where I never bought that book, and my life probably looks very different. Certainly less fantastical.
Out of Gas
Me, that is.
I edited for 3+ hours today (almost 50 pages), walked seven miles, and swam 1,000 yards. The tank if officially empty.
Eli 24.4 is coming one day early (Saturday), and I'm scrambling to get the house ready. Oh, and after he comes to see us, he'll (in the next 4 weeks) be in Morocco (college roommate + family), Portugal (college roommate), and Switzerland (hockey pre-season training camp, even though they've been playing for two months). He comes back from Switzerland on a Sunday and term starts the next day.
No need to rest or anything. I'm tired just writing it down.
