I had two ESPN+ posts this week, both scouting blogs: one on Clarke Schmidt, Matt Manning, Julio Rodriguez, and other Tigers/Nationals/Mariners/Royals/Blue Jays prospects; and one on Spencer Howard and other Phillies & Orioles prospects. I held a Klawchat on Wednesday.
I’m selling off some of my board games, and once again I’m donating all proceeds to the Food Bank of Delaware. You can see the games I’m selling here; I’m going to continue to add titles over the weekend and next week as I go through my collection. In case you missed it, I also went through all the games I saw and tried at Gen Con 2019 over at Paste.
Also, this was kind of fun – I got a mention in roast magazine’s Daily Coffee News, which used my review of Coffee Roaster to cover the game’s upcoming second edition.
I sent out my free email newsletter again on Friday night, but you can still sign up for free and get more personal writing from me.
And now, the links…
- Longreads first: “I see this as part of a larger war against science-based reality.” The New Yorker goes very long on how the return of the measles is a sign of a war against science, and how authorities must combat the dangerous ideas that threaten our species.
- The Washington Post spoke to Caitlan Coleman, who was held by the Taleban for five years with her husband, giving birth to three kids while there. She’s since revealed that her husband brought her into Afghanistan, against her wishes, only to see them kidnapped and held hostage, where he became physically and psychologically abusive.
- Sesame Street is about to begin its 50th season; the New York Times looks at how the show uses music – and celebrity musicians – to teach viewers and create iconic moments. Recently, I introduced my girlfriend’s children to “Me Lost Me Cookie At the Disco;” they introduced me to “Me Want It (But Me Wait).”
- The Guardian looks at how air conditioning is heating the planet as it cools our homes, which in turn requires more energy in a vicious cycle. Oddly absent is a mention of powering it via energy sources that do not contribute to climate change.
- The Guardian‘s Lizzie Cernik looks at why some people cut off all ties to their parents, usually the result of toxic relationships that date back decades.
- Garrett Martin, my editor at Paste, called out Dave Chappelle for his sensitivity and entitlement, as well as his transphobia and derision of the men Michael Jackson molested.
- A deranged man, radicalized by anti-vaxxers preaching hate and violence online, assaulted California Sen. Richard Pan, the doctor who pushed through the state’s essential, life-saving law that ended nonmedical exemptions to childhood vaccinations.
- Two Washington Post editorials worth reading: Why a primary challenger to Trump is a good thing, and why white evangelical leaders should be panicking over the demographic demise of their movement. I can’t think of a worse way to market religion than the way the evangelical movement has acted in the last two decades.
- Indonesia is moving its capital to Borneo as Jakarta is sinking into the ground at a faster rate than any other city in the world.
- My friend Eric Longenhagen looked at the most interesting position player-to-pitcher conversion projects in the minors right now, starting with San Diego’s Javier Guerra.
- This story of a few fifth grade boys in Minnesota who took a bullied kid with special needs under their wing is the sweetest thing I saw in this week of terrible news.
- Another story of kindness, although the route there goes right through hate and ignorance, comes from Ferial Pearson, who was targeted for being Muslim and for being queer while speaking to schools in Mullen, Nebraska.
- One Night Ultimate Werewolf fans may be interested in pre-ordering the new expansion containing all bonus roles and tokens from smaller expansion packs released in the last few years.