- The paradox of horror: How scary films can soothe your anxiety
- Matt Berninger, lead singer of The National, traded his notebook for a baseball. And the words kept coming.
- I didn’t realize until reading a recap at The Athletic that on Saturday night Will Smith hit the first extra-inning Game 7 homer in the history of the World Series. Oh, and the nail-biter peaked at 33.1M viewers and beat the last Game 7 (in 2019) by 10%, making it the most-watched MLB game since 2017.
- The New England Aquarium built a geriatric island for aging penguins to live in safety and dignity.
- Take a walk! A modest increase in physical activity can delay cognitive decline by three years or more, and Alzheimer’s symptoms decrease with just a few thousand steps a day. And new research shows exercise could help reduce anxiety as effectively as traditional talk therapy in as little as 8 to 12 weeks.
- This is pretty wild: [M]ost Americans in 1790 consumed an average [of] 5.8 gallons of pure alcohol a year. (Today the average is closer to “just” 2 gallons per year.)
- Adults ruined “6-7” for Halloween – via my wife
- The University of Florida Gators 7-foot-9 Olivier Rioux became the tallest college basketball player ever.
- I’ve long loved The Point, but never knew the full story of the brilliant, baffling rise and fall of Harry Nilsson. – via my dad
Things Can Only Get Better:
- Federal agents drive off with 1-year-old girl after arresting her father in Los Angeles
- Louisiana officials waited months to warn public of whooping cough outbreak – via @elizabethjacobs
- One analytical model shows that the dismantling of U.S.A.I.D. has already caused the deaths of 600,000 people, two-thirds of them children. – via @newyorker.com
- The United States of America continues to extrajudicially murder people.
- A Food and Drug Administration official who resigned on Sunday was sued by a Canadian pharmaceutical company, which accused him of soliciting a bribe and tanking its stock with false statements as part of a revenge campaign against a former colleague.
- Employees at The Washington Post uploaded a fake video to 8 social apps. Only one told users it wasn’t real.
- East Wing ballroom donations by corporate owners create awkward moments for news outlets
Posts tagged “World Series”
The Timeless Beauty of National Geographic is a wonderful article examining the stability of a famous brand aesthetic. (I used to love reading NG in my elementary school library when I was a kid and just last year decided to get my very own subscription. Every article in every issue is fabulous, just as they always have been.)- “The most well-known use of Spencerian script is, arguably, the Coca-Cola logo. The logo was designed in the 1880s by the company’s bookkeeper, Frank Robinson.”
- Repeat after me: Taking Photos In Public Places Is Not A Crime
- National Public Radio is changing its name to NPR. (I guess that’s better than Dweezil.)
- Finally! More photos of kitties in wigs!
- “Losing friends is inevitable. Making enemies is not.” — from 35 Lessons in 35 Years
- “This year is the 30th anniversary of The Empire Strikes Back, the Star Wars sequel that many fans consider the pinnacle moment in a franchise that has pulled in $16 billion in box office and merchandising. But 1980 was also the year that Kurtz and Lucas realized the Jedi universe wasn’t big enough for the both of them.”
- Technology is great, for sure, but you’ll never pick up your iPad and find a perfectly preserved, century-old press pass to a World Series game in its digital pages.
- “Resizing my browser window to make sure it fills up my entire screen will not make me focus on your pretty pictures or admire your wicked design.”
- If you’re looking for seriously advanced computer knowledge — like how to determine the size of an image of Robocop riding a unicorn — take a look at Unicorn Tips.
Eight Memorable Moments
Core memories for 1973ers
Curt Shilling Will Kick Your Ass
In which I defend a sports hero
You can win the World Series every year. You only have one chance to destroy the Yanks. As my friend Mike (a Tigers fan) wrote me last night, “Everyone outside of Yankee brats are celebrating quietly with you guys. It’s like you killed Michael Myers, Jason, Freddie Kreueger and Hannibal Lecter in one night.”

