No new ESPN+ content this past week, since the NFL draft sort of took center stage, but I’ll have a fresh draft ranking this upcoming week and my first projection for the MLB draft shortly after, either later this week or at the start of the next. Klawchat will also return this week.
My latest board game review for Paste covers Solenia from Pearl Games, a light strategy title that offers more depth of strategy than most gateway games do without sacrificing playability or making turns too long. I also recently reviewed the app version of the game Castles of Burgundy for Ars Technica.
You may also enjoy more of my words by signing up for my free email newsletter, which I send out when the muse speaks to me.
And now, the links…
- Longreads first: Sterling Jewelers, which operates most of the major mall jewelry store brands you know (Kay, Belden, Jared, Zales, and others), has allowed a culture of wage discrimination, sexual harassment, and outright assault to flourish even as a lawsuit first filed in 2005 continues to crawl through the courts. This lengthy expose by the New York Times‘ Taffy Brodesser-Akner has many triggering details of rape and sexual assaults, and explains how these problems became endemic to the company across brands and regions.
- The New Yorker‘s Jia Tolentino explores what it takes to put your phone away and reduce the time we all waste on our devices.
- Vox looks at the rise of the online ‘incel’ community and how it has spawned real-world violence. The worship of mass murderers like Elliott Rodger and Marc Lépine should tell you all you need to know about these atavists.
- A new paper in the Hofstra Law Review looks at amateur baseball coaches who overuse their pitchers (PDF), exploring why a lawsuit against an offending coach on behalf of an injured pitcher would be extremely unlikely to succeed and thus arguing for a consistent scheme of pitch count regulations. (The piece mentions me in passing and incorrectly identifies my role with the Blue Jays.)
- Also in the New Yorker: the story of a Jewish jazz musician who survived the genocide in part by playing in a jazz band for the Nazis.
- The Cut interviewed Eula Biss, the author of On Immunity, about how “anti-vaxxers” are too heterogenous a group to be lumped under that single term. That’s one reason I would prefer that we call them ‘deniers,’ because that is something they all have in common – they deny the incontrovertible evidence that vaccines are safe and effective, even though they have diverse rationalizations for doing so.
- The United States worked to dilute a UN resolution against the use of rape in war. You read that right: The UN tried to condemn rape as a war crime, and the U.S. fought to water it down.
- Several women at Google have accused the company of retaliating against them for organizing a walkout to protest the company’s poor treatment of women.
- NPR looks back at the immediate, effusive reaction when Nirvana released “Smells Like Teen Spirit,” which became an anthem for disaffected youth of its time despite lyrical content that itself is anti-anthemic.
- A 30-year-old man came down with measles … which is how he learned he wasn’t vaccinated. I would never speak to my parents again if I found out they had skipped vaccinating me. (I’ve seen my records, so I know this isn’t the case.)
- Meanwhile, measles cases in the U.S. have spiked to nearly 700, even though the disease was eliminated from our hemisphere in 2000. This is entirely the fault of vaccine deniers, and they should be forced to bear the cost of their decisions.
- A New York Supreme Court Judge rejected a challenge to a city vaccine mandate, which is good news, if temporary, in the fight against measles. One of the lawyers who brought the challenge? Conspiracy theorist Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.
- Washington State Representative Matt Shea (guess) was caught discussing violent attacks with far-right figures, according to a Guardian investigation. The Seattle Times‘ editorial board has called for the state GOP to oust him.
- A cognitive scientist explains why we are so susceptible to fake news and distorted memories. I definitely thought the Evil Queen’s quote was “Mirror, mirror, on the wall.”
- Several Ohio lawmakers (guess) are pushing legislation in response to a mother who let her 9-year-old son dance in drag at a local bar, in a transparent attack on LGBTQ children.
- Chely Wright responded to the bigot Franklin Graham’s claims that you can’t be gay and Christian.
- President Trump continues to defend white nationalists and the slave-owning general Robert E. Lee in response to attacks from Joe Biden over the very issue of Trump’s support of white nationalism.
- McSweeney’s gives us a rough transcript of every interview with Pete Buttigieg.
- Bosk, the new game from the co-designer of Sagrada, is available for pre-order on Floodgate’s site.
There is a really clever Invisibilia episode that just came out called the end of empathy. It explores uncle culture to a degree and how their rise is related to empathy. Worth an hour listen
In regards to the article on the 9yr old at the bar, LGBTQ issues aside, you support that mother, any parent actually, taking their child who is in the single digits into a bar with adults drinking and whooping it up? That alone seems like a terrible parenting decision. Several years ago that was grounds for calling child protective services, now it’s an empowering move to show that she loves her son? You can clearly see adults drinking beer bottles in the youtube video in the article.
So what’s the line? Can you bring children into a restaurant where alcohol is served? A gastropub? A brewery that serves food? Are you asking the government to designate which public houses are appropriate for children and which aren’t?
This legislation wouldn’t exist if the kid had been filmed wearing a Joey Votto shirt while singing Take Me Out To The Ballgame in a bar. It’s only because he was in drag.
Counterpoint: Marty Brennamen would absolutely be pushing legislation if a mother filmed her child wearing a Joey Votto jersey
I have to admit, that degree of pearl clutching was unexpected from someone sporting the user name DaHurricane…
Have to agree with you Addoeh on the Votto jersey Addoeh, though a Buckeyes jersey may have sufficed.
My original thought was to use a “Muck Fichigan” shirt in place the Joey Votto shirt.
Keith – I am bringing this to your attention because I know we both agree how wrong it is that Coaches far and away exceed pitch counts to win games. I coach in this local area and read a recent article from a game that took place on Saturday – weather was around 40-50 degrees and very miserable. Hard day to pitch in general, can’t imagine what this kid went through. But to him he thinks he’s doing a great thing. I am sharing this in hoping you can put it out there and shine a light on this negative situation. Again, I coach so I don’t feel comfortable sharing with you on twitter (we have interacted a few times and would maybe notice my handle. Here’s the quote from the online paper — Austin Prep put runners on base in every inning, but couldn’t break through against the tireless Sullivan (131 pitches). The Cougars left two runners on base in both the first and seventh, but their best chance came in the fourth. —- 131 pitches is ridiculous! Would love to engage further. But figured you were best to share with.