Stick to baseball, 11/11/17.

I have a new boardgame review at Paste, covering the card-drafting game Skyward. I also had two Insider posts go up earlier this week, one previewing some potential offseason trade targets, the other ranking the top 50 free agents this winter. And I held a Klawchat on Thursday.

Feel free to sign up for my free email newsletter, which I send out … I guess whenever I feel like it. I aim for once a week, although I’ve gone as long as two weeks between issues when I haven’t had much to say. You can see past issues at that link.

Also, don’t forget to buy copies of Smart Baseball for everyone on your Christmas list! Except for infants. They might eat the pages. Get them the audiobook instead.

And now, the links…

Comments

  1. I read most of the YouTube kids article. For starters, I think the writer didnhimself a disservice making ut as long as he did. He DEEPLY buried the lede and I initially gave up when it seemed he was focused on algorithm generated drek. Only when i went back at someone’s urging did I find the real issue.

    But I ultimately come down where you do: monitor your kids’ media consumption.

  2. At a faculty committee meeting this week, figures were shared that showed we are attracting more applicants and more qualified applicants. They never really discuss if such applicants are also “more qualified” economically, but it’s safe to assume that there’s not a huge number of low income, highly qualified applicants in a socioeconomic system that is completely biased against them.

    My school is a regional comprehensive public institution, so it’s fair to say that state schools are also contributing to an increase in inequality. All schools want and celebrate getting “better-prepared students,” though 1)it’s impossible for every school to always be getting better students and 2)I’d argue such a goal goes against the mission of public institutions, especially ones that aren’t premier research institutions. While many faculty problematically desire to work with “better students,” the real cause for this shift in student populations at 4-year state institutions is the large decrease in state funding for higher education. We don’t value paying taxes to fund opportunities for those less fortunate than we are, and this is what results.

    That’s not to give private institutions a pass on their contributions to inequality.

    • Malcolm Gladwell did several podcasts -Revisionist History- on this topic which should interest you. One of the main points I remembered is talented poor students don’t even make it to the application stage.

  3. Glad to see you post Mike Tanier’s column; I think he’s the best football writer in the country. My own team, the Denver Broncos, have probably hurt themselves the most by not bring Kaepernick in before the season. Unfortunately John Elway is a Trump supporter, so Kaepernick will never be called. Exacerbating the problem is that, for a Hall of Fame QB, Elway seems to possesses an untrained eye for drafting QBs.

  4. After reading the ProPublica article, I was wondering if you knew if TinyLetter had any protections against someone using your letter, and others it hosts, as part of a mass subscription email attack. Just a thought.

    • Tinyletter is run by Mailchimp, so I think the answer is no.

    • Huh? When you sign up, you have to confirm your e-mail address. So, the most that could be done would be to send one unwanted e-mail.

    • It’s not a problem with Keith’s email, it is with TinyLetter/Mailchimp. Someone could write a script to send confirmation emails from all TinyLetter subcription services to a single email address and potentially bringing down their email server. Keith’s letter would simply be one of thousands that would send the email.

  5. My 2 year 10 month old daughter just had a massive panic attack last night, and ended up throwing up it got so bad. She’s had a few panic attacks before, so pretty sure we are in for a lifetime of dealing with anxiety. Thank you for the link!

  6. A trailer for that CK movie played before The Florida Project, which I saw on Friday (it was excellent). I don’t think we’re missing much. It looks like a bad Woody Allen knockoff.

    • Florida Project is playing in our local art theatre in a few weeks. Can’t wait to see it.

    • It was really really excellent. A beautifully shot and emotionally challenging film.

    • I just saw The Florida Project today. Really wonderful film, great performance by Dafoe, and very surprised to hear that so many of the other actors weren’t really professionals, because they were all pretty terrific.

      The film also resonated with me because I just got back from Disney World last week, and so I was trying to imagine what it would be like to live in the shadow of that place. The last scene alone was pretty powerful, and would have been more so if I hadn’t let my recent visit take me out of the film for a moment by questioning the logistics. But I don’t want to say anymore lest I spoil it.

  7. One of my friends was studying chemistry at Dartmouth during the time of Dr. Wetterhahn’s illness and death; it was devastating to the department, and my friend spoke of her often. It’s awful that it takes a tragedy for people to revisit PPE.

  8. Jerry Skurnik

    The Trump “aide” who claimed they were going to take away the tax exemption is his former party planner. I doubt she & he had long discussions about tax policies when doing the seating arrangements. She probably just told a celebrity what she wanted to hear in order to get an autograph.

    • Unfortunately, in this administration that’s about as reliable a source as you can find. We truly are through the looking glass.

  9. Keith,

    Thank you as always for an interesting list of links. And thank you in particular for sharing Tom Colicchio’s open letter, which I otherwise would probably have missed. In a list full of the antics of Harvey Weinstein, Louis C.K., Mel Gibson, Roy Moore, the NFL owners and Wilbur Ross (and their enablers), it’s nice to read a piece which provides a small slimmer of sunshine in an otherwise dreary week.

  10. Might be a good time to remind people in Cincinnati that Paul Brown Stadium comprises of about 16% of Hamilton County’s operating costs each year.