Hold this

I’m going to state right up top here that I’ve had this list in drafts for, like, three weeks while I waited for the time/inspiration to really write something substantial but let us face the fact that isn’t going to happen in the next 48 hours. Therefore, you get a sorta rough draft of some stuff and things that might keep you amused.

Will do better¹ in the new year.

Opening thought:

Dr. Theresa MacPhail posted this on Threads…

… and ooof. The publishing industry has been Going Through Some Stuff² and a lot of the writers you’ve enjoyed cannot possibly be successful enough to sell their next project, even if we only want little tiny sums of money for them.³ MacPhail’s conclusion is the only (healthy) one to draw from how fucked up the industry is. And as many-times over bestseller Victoria Schwab explains, sometimes doing your own work leads to wonderful surprises.

Some links to take you into the new year:

• This Defector piece on Tesla: The reason Tesla hasn't “worked all the bugs out yet" is that the company is run by people who hold established best practice in ideological contempt, and is defined by a tech-industry culture that fetishizes innovation and regards product quality as a third-order concern.

• If you need a pick-me-up, this list might bring joy.

• Robert Caro’s The Power Broker is one of those books that I’ve always thought I should read but never actually got around to reading. But this year is the year! And I will have company, like Conan O’Brien and Roman Mars.

• Even if you’re not a fan of F1, this GQ story about the Las Vegas Grand Prix is *chef’s kiss.*

• This send-off for Shane MacGowan was absolutely perfect. Related: as is George Saunders explainer on one of my favorite songs.⁴

• I’ll be in NYC in January and can’t wait to see this exhibition.

• This is a local (to me)⁵ story about a newspaper and the First Amendment but it’s likely to go national.

• The news about climate change isn’t all bad,⁶ there have been some wins - and part of making social change over the long term is celebrating the good when you see it.

• In high school and early college I worked in the Waldenbooks in Ross Park Mall.⁷ We frequently had folks bring in fabric swatches so that they would find books that matched their decor. Little did I know that I could leverage that skill in the future.

• I didn’t realize that the Invisible Pumpkin Pie story was written by the same person who wrote this review of …. well … it’s hard to call it a restaurant. I’m now a fan of the Everywhereist.

• Who doesn’t love a random wire?

• “For opponents of trans athletic inclusion, however, even a single successful trans woman threatens to break the dam and destroy women’s sports as we know them. It is no good to point out that American tennis has been open to trans women since 1977, the Olympics since 2003, and the N.C.A.A. since 2010; that not a single trans girl is known to have been awarded a college athletic scholarship at the expense of a cis girl; or that the first American to make an Olympic team consistent with their gender identity after transitioning was actually a trans man, the triathlete Chris Moser.”

  — “Who Gets to Play in Women’s Leagues” by S.C. Cornell is definitely worth a read (if you have access⁸ to The New Yorker).

  And with that, I send you into 2024. Hydrate. Wash your hands. Embrace life’s rich pageant.

1. (for loose definitions of better)

2. for decades, mind, but the pandemic kick it into high gear.

3. Hi. It’s me.

4. I cry at the same spot.

5. I’m on the County Board in Otsego County, which is right next door to Delaware County. I frequently use them as an example of what not to do.

6. just mostly bad

7. right next to the food court

8. I have an online-only subscription because I just can’t keep up with the physical copies and the piles of them only trigger guilt, even though I find several stories in every issue that are knock-outs.