I had two new posts for Insiders this week, one on the Futures Game rosters, which were announced on Friday; and a post of scouting notes on Orioles, Phillies, Rangers, White Sox, and Royals prospects I’ve seen in the last few weeks. That Futures Game column included Houston’s Forrest Whitley, but he was removed from his last start with “left oblique discomfort,” so I’m expecting him to be replaced on the roster before game day.
I have two book signings for Smart Baseball coming up this month. Next Saturday, July 14th, I’ll be at Politics & Prose in Washington, DC, signing books and talking baseball with Jay Jaffe; and I’ll be at the Silver Unicorn Bookstore in Acton, Massachusetts, on July 28th, hosted by store owner and former Fangraphs/Hardball Times writer Paul Swydan.
And now, the links…
- The best thing I read this week was this massive essay from author/comedian Sara Benincasa called Reading Joan Didion in California Restaurants, although it’s really a meandering set of observations on her life that is by turns funny and poignant. Her line about one of the joys of sharing one’s art with the world is spot on. I do wonder if her family’s name was Dahomeycasa before they changed it, though.
- From April 2017, the Atlantic predicted that plant proteins called lectins would be the next health boogeyman for idiots. I found this because a friend suggested a book that blames lectins, without real evidence, for a panoply of health problems.
- Henderson Island, an uninhabited island in the south Pacific with a raised coral atoll and a unique, diverse native ecosystem, is also covered with around 18 metric tons of trash, mostly plastic.
- Several locations on the planet set all-time heat records last week, more proof that the Chinese will stop at nothing to perpetrate this elaborate ‘climate change’ hoax.
- Progessives in the U.S. often point to Scandinavian economies as exemplars of their proposed policies, but Denmark is heading in the opposite direction, with strict laws aimed at forcing immigrants to assimilate into Danish society more quickly, including mandatory instruction for children in “Danish values.” The quotes from Danish natives sound an awful lot like those of white American voters who support Trump.
- Timothy Geithner served as Treasury Secretary under Obama, where he condemned predatory lenders who charged usurious interest rates on loans to the poor. Now he runs one via the private equity firm of which he’s President.
- Neshaminy High School in Langhorne, PA, a town between Philadelphia and Trenton, has a history of corruption and other controversies under Principal Rob McGee. The latest and most damning instance appeared in the student newspaper, which uncovered evidence that the school was deliberately hiding sexual harassment complaints against teachers and discouraging victims from reporting. The newspaper’s outgoing editor in chief also accused the administration of outing LGBTQ students who wrote critical articles in the paper. For all of this, McGee was recently promoted to an executive position that will pay him over $150,000 a year.
- Trump considered invading Venezuela. This seems like a terrible idea on so many levels, not least of which is that we’d end up with a lot of dead American soldiers in the process.
- Residents of an apartment complex in Riviera Beach, Florida, are organizing against their landlords over black mold and sewage leaks in their complex. The residents also accuse the city of failing to enforce fines for code violations.
- Conservative something-or-other Dinesh D’Souza tried the whole “Republicans are the party of civil rights!” argument on Twitter and got absolutely dunked on, repeatedly, by historians & writers.
- In North Carolina, an open white supremacist is running for the state legislature, and was running as a Republican until the party belatedly withdrew its support last week. (I don’t know how his name will appear on the ballot.)
- Daniel Radcliffe revealed in an interview recently that he has some very racist friends. So why wouldn’t he do something about it?
- The Phoenix New Times named its seven best new restaurants so far for 2018, of which I can vouch for three: Roland’s Market (a collaboration between Chris Bianco and the couple behind Tacos Chiwas), Starlite BBQ, and Taco Chelo. I’ll try to hit Osteria before an AFL game in Mesa this fall too.