Friday Links!
Eli 25.0 has a birthday today!
Leading off this week, what an adventure: The Boys Who Ran Away to New York: How Two Dublin Kids Fooled the World in 1985.
This is an incredible, bizarre, tragic story: https://wThe mystery of why Sonia Exelby paid a man to kill her.
An even-handed article on what AI can and can't do in a specific use case: What happens when you put AI to work deciphering lost languages?
From the Texas Monthly archives, and it's terrifically witty: The Hog Chronicles.
Incredibly, it still lives: Nudists, peaceniks and freeloading travellers: the people keeping the Esperanto dream alive.
Strawberries have this problem, too: Gassed Up: Tomato ripening rooms reveal the growing costs of the produce industry’s massive consolidation.
From Wally, and some of these are fantastic: 10 Biggest Lord of the Rings LEGO Sets, Ranked by Piece Count. This next includes two famous science fiction authors and a toaster: The Brave Little Toaster. An interesting read: Who Were the Sea Peoples? Exploring references in Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey.
From David G., and it will never get old: Lawyer Reacts to the Insane Waterpark That Killed 6 People.
From Chris M., and it's an excellent read: We used to be able to buy things in this country: Locking up toothpaste was a warning sign that our executive class was crazy.
Unspeakable
I will tell the tale.
A few weeks ago, C brought out a pile of screwdrivers. "Something leaked all over them," she said. She cleaned the screwdrivers and put them in a wire basket.
On Sunday, I went looking for a screwdriver.
The purple one, the one in the photograph, was the perfect size. I picked it up and recoiled because it was covered in some kind of oily liquid, and there were purple tears of something along its spines.
I checked the other screwdrivers. They were clean and dry.
Odd, I thought. I washed the purple screwdriver--thoroughly--and used it without incident. Afterwards, it went into the wire basket.
Today, I needed it again. I pulled it out of the wire basket and IT WAS FULL OF PURPLE TEARS again.
The other screwdrivers, once again, were clean and dry. I could draw only one conclusion: the purple screwdriver is weeping.
What unspeakable hell is this screwdriver enduring? Will it ever be free? Or will it weep unto eternity?
I for one, am not encouraged.
Project 56, Starting With a Random Note About Yesterday
I originally called the Skipper "Captain" in yesterday's post. I've lost all credibility.
We have dozens of sports records in our family, all held by myself or Eli 24.11. He's surpassed me in most things by now, but my running records, particularly for shorter distances, are holding.
Mostly because he hasn't tried to beat them, but still. I'll take what I can get.
Last week he announced Project 56, his very brief training period to beat my 440 record (57). That's not fast, for a track runner, but it's not a pushover, either.
Also, the project name. Every attempt to beat a record has to have a cool project name. It's essential.
He has a few advantages. One, he's wearing spikes and I wore regular running shoes (heavy ones back then, too). Two, he's on a synthetic surface while I was running on a red dirt track. Three, the fastest 800 meter runner in Oxford history is helping him train, and is going to pace him during his attempt.
He's become the ultimate "guy who knows a guy" (or girl) for every conceivable situation.
Plus he's running on the same track where Roger Bannister first broke four minutes in the mile. Not cinders anymore, of course, but the same physical location. Epic.
He messaged me last weekend and said he'd done a test at 300 meters in 41.8 seconds. That translates to a 400-meter (440 yards, or very close) time of anywhere from 56.7 to 58.4, depending on his ability to hold form for the last 100 meters.
In other words, it doesn't appear to be a route.
He still has 3+ weeks of speed training to do, so I may be cooked. But he promised to have video of the record, at least, so I can enjoy watching him run that fast.
It's a great feeling when you're running as fast as you can. Nothing like it.
A Three-Hour tour
I've been consumed by a fiendishly difficult exercise this morning: how to map the Beatles to the characters on Gilligan's Island.
I know. It's an intellectual powerhouse of a problem. I'm ambitious.
Paul is easy. He was always far more interested in the business end of music than the other three, so he's Mr. Howell.
John was considered the intellectual of the group, so he's the Professor.
Ringo is the easiest of all. Gilligan, clearly.
Then it gets sticky. Who's George?
The Skipper doesn't really fit. He was gruff but lovable, which isn't George's vibe. Ginger or Marianne? Nope.
George also had a wicked sense of humor (he was involved in The Rutles, This is Spinal Tap, Life of Brian, and Withnail and I, among others). It's impossible to reduce him to a stereotype (although the mystic probably comes closes).
I'm at an impasse, unless we use the Bob Denver Adjacency Factor to consider another series Bob Denver was in. The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis, to be exact, and Denver's character Maynard G. Krebs. Wikipedia says "Maynard plays the piano and bongos, collects tinfoil and petrified frogs..."
If any of the Beatles collected tinfoil and petrified frogs, it would definitely be George. And the character is musical. If you want to consider beatniks (like Krebs) philosophical or spiritual, there's another connection.
I think that's as close as I'm going to get, unless one of you has a better idea. Or do they map better to another series entirely?
The Cool Shit Vortex
There's an entire genre of videos on YouTube that should be be titled Cool Shit Happening in New York.
An example is
this guy, who straps an entire DJ setup to himself and wanders around the city doing incredible things (and if you want to see two unbelievable moments, check out the violin player at 3:01:00 and the singer at 3:20:00).
It's incredible.
The last half hour of that stream takes place at an entrance to Central Park, which I've walked past many times.
There are hundreds of other Cool Shit Happening in New York videos. Rappers, singers, subway musicians, all performing in Manhattan in places I walk past all the time.
I've lived here almost a year now and walked many, many miles in Manhattan. And, to be entirely clear, I HAVE NEVER SEEN ANY OF THIS COOL SHIT HAPPENING.
All of this must be happening in a parallel universe.
I exist in the THIS IS REASONABLY COOL BUT ALSO PLEASE CURB YOUR DOG MADAM universe, which is quite fun but doesn't have hip hop violinists and street DJs and nurses with Grammy level voices wandering the streets.
It does, however, have me.
The Music Spreadsheet
You may remember that I discussed creating a spreadsheet with the release dates for albums by the Beatles, Rolling Stones, and Beach Boys, and listening to them in chronological order with the same gap between them as occurred historically.
That's a mouthful. I think I need a nap.
This was going to be historically accurate, but not terribly fun because it was going to take 12 years to complete the listening (1963-1974 release dates).
Changing the format to have one month represent each year of releases works much better, and in only a year, Eli 24.11 and I will have listened to all releases by the three groups.
This is all to say that I'm happy to share the spreadsheet if any of you are interested. Just email me.
They Say It's Your Birthday
C's birthday, in this case.
She's like me in that she doesn't want a big fuss. I've tried.
For my birthday, though, all I wanted to do was go to the Jimmy John's in NYC I hadn't visited to see if I could find S-tier Dr. Pepper. We went to four, it took hours, and she didn't mind.
I remembered that and realized her birthday should be exactly what she wants, like she did for me.
A small bundle of flowers. One simple gift. A card. And we're walking to lunch soon.
Surprisingly compatible, her and I.
Have a good day and I'll see you tomorrow.
The Post Office Benefit
An unnamed friend of the program started working temp as a driver for USPS a few weeks ago.
He was a well-respected tech guy who got bludgeoned because of his company and likely his age. Far easier to get someone half his age to do his job 70% as well for 50% of the money, or something like that.
He settled on a job at the post office, as a route driver. A rural route driver.
Since playing organization games already gave him enormous satisfaction, it seemed like a good fit. The pay wasn't great, but it wasn't bad, and he could get plenty of hours.
Surprisingly, there's been an added benefit.
He sent me data from his fitness watch today. His resting pulse has dropped from 61 to 51 at night. He's burning almost 3,000 calories a day from exercise.
It's a stunning leap in his fitness level. When I see him next time he'll look like Thor, only his hammer will be tubs of mail.
A Support Puzzler
Like I mentioned, I've been playing Dungeons of Dredmor quite a lot on the beta branch because it has the latest version.
Tonight, I finished playing for a few minutes with no problem, then had a meeting rescheduled, so I hopped back in a few minutes later. This time, though, the program didn't start because Windows Defender said it detected malware in the .exe and here was the message:
Trojan:HTML/Redirector.PAN!MTB
I know the PAN!MTB just means Windows caught it (I think), but how exactly does that happen when I'd only finished playing a few minutes earlier? I think the program might have had a small update before I tried to launch, but it happened so quickly I honestly can't be sure.
Any ideas are appreciated. Thanks.
Random Notes
1. Fifa is deeply corrupt, Infantino is a goon, and Argentina disgraced themselves in a legitimately terrible final, but the World Cup was great. For an American, it comes at the perfect time: after basketball season and before football season. Every four years, it's fantastic.
2. The reason the stock market refuses to go down, even though it's deeply overvalued, the economy is turning, and we're in a war, is because no one on Wall Street wants it to end. Bonuses are huge, the perks are enormous, and no one wants to lose any of it, which is why bull markets go on so long after they should rationally be over. It's a bit of a con game, really, when the market no longer has any relation to its true valuation.
3. I forgot to mention in the gaming abundance last week that eBaseball: Pro Spirit 2026 was released last week for PC and PS5, and with English translations. I can't remember a Japanese baseball game being released in the U.S. (with English translations) ever. I bought a modded or imported Saturn (can't remember which) in order to play the Japanese version of World Series Baseball '98. Over 25 years later, I can finally buy one on Steam, have English text in the menus, but Japanese commentary. Tremendous.
Friday Links!
Enjoy the World Cup Final, everyone.
A fascinating read: ‘I can sense Sinatra enter my body and exit my lungs’: aboard the celebrity impersonators’ cruise.
Dystopian and interesting: Inside America’s Shoplifting Lab: In the war on “shrink,” big retailers are turning to one Florida outfit to study shoppers and prevent them from stealing. I went there—and saw far too much.
A terrific read: The anguish of choice: In the shattered aftermath of war, Sartre delivered a formidable lecture on freedom and meaning. Its urgency remains.
From Chris M., and it's amazing: Venetian Bridge Brawls in 17th and 18th Century Art.
From D.G.F., a fabulous essay: Has America Crossed the Asshole Threshold?
From Wally, and it's superb: Ayn Rand Reviews Children’s Movies. I don't need to do this, but I can see how some people would: I Regret To Say That GMail is Now a Spam Farm, or, Why You Should Really Get That Dedicated Email Address Now. A strong analysis: How Superhero Movies Lost Their Power. Is it? I kid! ‘It’s more than just fairy smut’: Inside the UK’s first romantasy bookshop. Excellent: The ‘big durian’: one day in Jakarta, the world’s largest city. A long and excellent read: The Grocery Store Where Produce Meets Politics: The legendary Park Slope Food Co-op carries sustainable food, low prices, and New Yorkers’ opinions in bulk.
An Interesting Future
For a long time, weight has been represented in this country as some kind of morality play. Thin is virtue. Fat is shameful. It's a narrative that's been around for a long time.
Much of it probably came from commercial interests who sold products to help people lose weight. Diet plans and workout equipment and whatnot. I'm sure religion was in there somewhere, too.
Now there are GLP-1 drugs available for people who struggle with their weight.
Weight control is no longer a struggle of "good versus evil." It's an injection, or a pill.
I wonder how all those people feel now. A lifetime of good versus evil judgments wiped out with a prescription. Now they can't tell who has willpower and who just takes a pill.
And it really doesn't matter. Who cares? Why did anyone ever care?
I'm sure there's a movement out there proclaiming these drugs as evil or somehow immoral as they see their belief system circling the drain.
Quite a Gaming Week
For me, at least.
On Monday, EA backed off from microtransactions for their college football game.
On Tuesday, I played The Beatles: Rock Band during halftime of the World Cup semifinals and stared in amazement at the charts on expert. I Saw Her Standing There has a note chart so fast and complex I can't play it at 70% speed. It's an amazing chart, though, and I can get better.
This morning I found out that Dungeons of Dredmor, long dead, has been resurrected and is being actively developed. One of the funniest games I've ever played, with great gameplay and music to boot, and it's alive.
I played for an hour or so and it still holds up incredibly well. Right now, the dev work is on bug fixes and infrastructure bits and bobs, but hopefully they'll soon add features like support for 4k monitors. It's from 2011, after all, so there's definitely some modernization needed. What a game, though.
Tomorrow there's a patch for the college football game to fix some of the bugs in dynasty mode (the only mode I play).
Seriously, what a great time.
Thousands Have Lived Without Love, Not One Without Diarrhea
I sincerely apologize to W.H. Auden.
All right, let's get to it.
Here's a Defector gift article: Why The Explosive Diarrhea Parasite Is Way Worse Than Regular Diarrhea Parasites.
Diarrhea is bad enough that it's hard to believe there are separate tiers, the top tier certainly being "explosive."
There's lots of good advice in the article, including basic information (cyclospora can only be spread through human feces, and the most likely home for the parasite is in "knobby berries" and "delicate herbs." Oh, and lettuce, of course, because lettuce is always near the center of these outbreaks).
Importantly, if you get this, don't suffer instead of going to the doctor. A course of antibiotics lasting 10 days will usually resolve the symptoms within a week, which is good news for those of us who don't want to be running to the bathroom for a month.
The Defector article linked to an interesting crop scientist on Bluesky named Sarah Taber, who has some interesting theories. She's here. Notably, that Minnesota is the pristine standard for things like this, and regional produce farms often don't ship to Minnesota because their regulations are so strict. Minnesota also isn't having any outbreaks, unlike Michigan, which is jam-packed with them right now.
Good luck out there.
What a (Not) Revoltin' Development This Is
To everyone's astonishment, they backed off.
First, a correction. Last week I said microtransactions in EA Sports College Football 27 were added to both online and offline dynasty as well as Road to Glory mode. After additional research, I believe I was in error regarding offline dynasty. Only online dynasty and RTG mode were affected.
The points I made still stand. Or, at least they did until EA announced they were taking these specific microtransactions out of the game.
To say I'm shocked would be an understatement.
Sure, it's a temporary win. In EA's carefully worded statement, they talked about "valuable features and content with greater transparency and communication" with CFB 28, which clearly means these microtransactions will be present next year but clearly signposted early on.
That's okay. We get one last version without them. For once, consumers win.
What happened? As best I can piece together, a number of highly-followed influencers--who work closely with EA in promoting the game--rebelled and threatened to stop working with EA entirely. There was online outrage from us Regular Joes as well, but I believe the influencers were the leverage point.
Now the wait for patches begins, but with a hopeful attitude instead of a sour one.
Friday Links!
If I'd know it was like this, I would have watched it: Masked men to morphine addiction: The original TV Little House on the Prairie was a true American horror story.
This is brilliantly written and incredibly tragic: The Extremist in the Family: The Parents Who Chose Their Faith Over Their Daughter's Life.
Absolutely tremendous: America’s Last Bookie Goes Down: Tim Pughsley built a sports-betting website that moved billions, then the I.R.S. got involved. In the age of FanDuel and DraftKings, where is the line between legal and illegal gambling?
I didn't write anything about Graham Platner (I was too pissed), but McSweeney's nails it: If Only There Had Been a Sign That the Face-Melting Nazi from Indiana Jones Wouldn’t Make a Good Senator.
From Wally, and I guess it's political, too: From ‘heat panic’ to ‘sacrificed at the altar’: Europe’s air conditioning culture wars heat up. Honestly, there's no food (or quality) on Earth I'd pay this much for: What It Costs To Eat At Every 3-Star Michelin Restaurant In The US . These always bring back excellent memories: JAPAN - Spring 2026: Miscellaneous Food Pics and Ramblings. A single block of marble. Astounding! 18th-Century Sculpture Has a Delicate Net Carved Out of a Single Block of Marble.
From Chris M., and this is definitely a trend: The Fun Shortage Is Real, and It’s Making America Miserable.
From Meg M., and it's some emblematic of everything those people do: The Wet And Wild Freedom Day Catastrophe.
"Soccer"
Even though it took 50 years after the launch of the North American Soccer League (NASL) in the 1970s, soccer is now the #4 team sport in America.
It can't go any further, though, and it's because of the American way.
In professional American team sports, only the privileged are allowed to be privileged. If soccer set up a promotion/relegation system similar to the rest of the world, I could see (over many years) soccer rising all the way to #2 behind football.
Once you buy a major professional team in this country, though, you never have to leave, no matter how incompetent, tightfisted, or repugnant you are.
There have been a tiny number of exceptions for repugnant. The other two, though? Never a problem. The entire structure disincentivizes owners from investing in their team for any reason other than to make more money. If the team is terrible because they're so cheap they can always move to another city after holding them hostage for tax incentives and handouts.
It's entirely predatory, and it's a shame. It was also the only way for soccer to firmly differentiate themselves from the other major team sports and offer something better.
Too bad they never will.
I guess this is predatory week here at DQ, what with the EA post yesterday. We'll move on next week.
Microtransactions
Microtransactions are like our President: as soon as they get involved, they ruin everything.
EA Sports College Football 27 is the third iteration in the revival of a long-beloved series, and the first two installments have been pleasant surprises.
Better than that, actually. I played 26 all the way into March. A few things were wrong, but so many more were right.
I had high hopes for this year. Then the early trail started last Tuesday and the bullshit started dropping.
Basically, EA has put microtransactions into both online and offline dynasty. By itself, this is stupid, but what's worse is they took away the two faster coach progressions speeds entirely.
Why? To gate progression behind microtransactions. Even worse, they didn't mention the addition of these microtransactions. No one knew about them until the early access period (which began nine days before the wide release this Thursday) began. It's just sleazy.
I shouldn't be surprised, really. EA ruins every sports game they put out by the third iteration.
This game, though, felt different, and the development team had been incredibly impressive for the initial two versions. I still have nothing but the highest respect for them because they clearly understand what makes college football unique and so enjoyable. I'm sure none of them are pleased about microtransactions being added because it clearly wasn't their choise.
The blowback about this has become relatively significant, enough so that EA put out a statement for damage control. In it, they lied.
I'm seeing a pattern here.
A Thoughtful Excerpt
This is an excerpt from an interview at The Athletic with the coach of Marta Kostyuk.
Kostyuk is a young, rising tennis star, and her coach is remarkably thoughtful. Here's the excerpt:
"A coach can be right and still be unhelpful,” Zaniewska wrote.
“You can be completely right about what is happening — you can understand the tactical problem, the emotional pattern, the moment where the player is losing connection. And still, if you say it at the wrong time, in the wrong way, or from the wrong place, it might not land. It might make the player more confused, more dependent, more irritated, or more aware of something they were already trying to manage.
“I think a lot of good coaching lives in that uncomfortable space. Not in the dramatic intervention, but in the restraint before it.”
The reason I'm using this is because it applies to more than tennis or even athletics in general. Every relationship in our lives involves "helpful" suggestions flowing back and forth between us. We all instinctively know that what Zaniewska says is true, but this was a precise encapsulation of how it works.
Um, Yeah
I have a colonoscopy, so this is probably the only post today.
Coincidentally, after watching France vs Paraguay in the World Cup, I've now learned what "shithousery" means.
Still finding new words, after all these years.
Friday Links!
Leading off this week, a beautifully written story about Mike Love, the Beach Boy's asshole: The Beach Boy: My uncanny night watching one of the legendary group’s last-ever shows.
In praise of savage diction: Dead County Fair.
I totally blew out my ankle on one of these when I was in my twenties: The Quirky History of the Osage Orange, Texas’s Ugliest Fruit.
A terrific story: How Mexico's World Cup run brought a small Oregon town to life.
Fascinating: The Brits panning for gold: In remote rivers, prospectors still hunt for treasure.
From Wally, and it's a fantastic article: What Is on Voyager’s Golden Record? LOTR nerds, it's your moment: Every LOTR and Hobbit Movie Ranked By Book Accuracy. A thoughtful defense, even though I'm not usually a fan: On Slashers, Summer Flics, and Moving Beyond Typecasting. Extremely sleazy: Hasbro’s TV Contracts Allegedly Ask Child Voice Actors to Sign Rights Away for AI Use.
From D.G.F, the first of two connected stories: The Seeds of Prairieland. The second: ‘This is injustice’: how leftist zines were used to sentence anti-ICE protesters to decades in prison. The sentences are a heinous injustice and should be overturned on appeal. If not, then the next Democratic president should commute their sentences.
Wedged
Sony announced they'll stop producing physical discs for Playstation games in January 2028.
It's been a long time coming.
Remember back in 2007, when Microsoft tried an extraordinarily convoluted version of this? It was the original Xbox One announcement, and there were so many levels of cluster**** that I won't review them all. The point being that the big console manufacturers, excluding Nintendo, have wanted to kill the used game market for a long time.
The future happens slowly, then all at once, as the saying goes.
It's terrible for consumers, but when has anything ever been announced that's actually better for consumers?
Will game prices drop because the resale market dies? No. Is there any benefit whatsoever to consumes? Absolutely not.
I honestly wonder if Microsoft and Sony--the gaming divisions, at least--will survive. The BOM for the Playstation 6 is allegedly almost $1,000 now. AI and tariffs have inflated component pricing to such an insane degree that new hardware is almost guaranteed to fail.
So here's the conundrum for Sony/Microsoft. You desperately want to kill the resale market. You release a console to do that, but it's so overpriced that sales are lousy. The only base you have left is last-gen consumers who refuse to upgrade because physical discs aren't available anymore. Do you go ahead and stop producing physical discs in 2028 and risk alienating them further?
Maybe it doesn't matter as much as I think it does. Sony and Microsoft already have digital-only versions of their consoles out, and they sell well. This just feels like an inflection point for the industry, and not a good one.
It's also hard to see another game with the budget of GTA VI ever being made (no, don't mention Star Citizen lol).
Meanwhile, Nintendo must be thrilled. The Switch 2, even with the price increases, is still significantly cheaper. They'll still produce physical media. They occupy a unique niche in gaming, and they'll be around long after Sony and Microsoft have moved on.
The Book Which Dare Not Speak Its Name...
...because I don't have one yet.
If you're lucky, really lucky, you work every day on a creative project, sometimes for years, and every once in a while you have a moment. It might be more than a moment; it might be a week, or even two. And in those moments, you suddenly have the creativity you'd been looking for day after day.
In a funny way, it resembles exercising. I used to run because it was good for me, and it was, but it was all workmanlike. Because I ran all those times, though, I occasionally had one of those transcendent runs where I entered a deep flow state and time passed without me thinking about it.
That's a long-winded way of saying that in the last ten days I've had one of those moments. I had a list of outstanding issues, as well as stretch goals, for the book, and every single one has been checked off. It all fits into the existing work, it reads well, and it makes the book complete.
I feel very fortunate.
I respect the grind, but those moments when the grind disappears are both wonderful and a relief. It's hard to write a book. At least, it's hard for me.
The book with no name will make it by the holidays. It might even be sooner.
