For ESPN+ subscribers, I had a long piece covering all the players I saw in the Arizona Fall League plus some other notes from instructs and games I saw in September. I held a Klawchat on Thursday and Periscope on Friday.
Over at Ars Technica, I ranked all 18 Ticket to Ride maps available on tabletop. I also reviewed the new strategy game Tapestry, from the designer of Scythe and Charterstone, over at Paste.
My second book, The Inside Game: Bad Calls, Strange Moves, and What Baseball Behavior Teaches Us About Ourselves, will be out from HarperCollins on April 21st, 2020. You can pre-order it now.
And now, the links…
- Longreads first: My colleague Mina Kimes wrote about Houston Texans receiver DeAndre Hopkins and his mother’s survival story; she was disfigured and blinded by one of her ex-boyfriend’s girlfriends, who attacked her with acid and bleach.
- The Guardian looks at the resurgence of traditional bread-baking methods in the UK, starting with naturally bred wheat strains and milling that retains more of the wheat’s germ and flavor characteristics. I don’t know that I agree with the author’s speculations on “gluten sensitivity,” but longer fermentations do make more nutrients in wheat available to our bodies.
- Host to the 2022 World Cup, Qatar is one of the fastest-warming areas of the world outside of the poles, but the country’s solution to the rising temperatures is to air-condition open-air spaces, contributing further to emissions that warm the planet. There are some positive lessons here from changes to architectural designs and new materials for buildings and roads, but the overall message is not positive. And what happens in Qatar is a harbinger for what may happen in Arizona.
- The Atlantic looks at the enduring appeal of children’s book author Sandra Boynton. My favorite of her books – one I’ve given many times as a gift – is Oh My Oh My Oh Dinosaurs!, mostly because of one specific panel.
- Eric Asimov of the New York Times lists five ways climate change is already altering the global wine industry. Many of these same factors will also apply to other highly climate-sensitive crops like coffee and cacao as well.
- Dan Wetzel of Yahoo! Sports says LeBron James whiffed with his ‘stick to sports’ comments on Daryl Morey. Longtime NBA player Etan Thomas uses James’ comments to talk about the hypocrisy of the player’s critics, nearly all of whom are right-wing pundits exploiting James’ fame to advance their own views.
- Warriors forward Draymond Green writes in the Washington Post that college athletes should be allowed to profit from their own names and images, calling the NCAA a “dictatorship” and arguing that players might stay in college longer if they didn’t have to go pro to earn money.
- The Philadelphia Inquirer‘s Craig Laban posted his ranking of the top 25 restaurants in the Philly area for 2019. I do need to update my own list; I’ve been to 9 of his 25, and I think he’s particularly remiss in omitting High Street on Market and The Love. I’m also kind of over seeing $200+ prix fixe places on these lists. So few readers can go there; the food may be wonderful, but if only a sliver of the 1% can try it, I’m not sure who is served by the restaurant’s inclusion on such a list.
- Jay Greeson wrote a gross, misogynistic tweet that trashed Daniel Hudson for leaving the Nationals to attend the birth of his third child; he was excoriated, and worse, for the comment. I can’t excuse the original statement but Greeson wrote a thoughtful mea culpa about his poor judgment.
- An Arizona policy adviser won her lawsuit alleging sex and race discrimination while she worked for state Senate Democrats, including lower pay based on her sex and unlawful termination. She’ll get $353,000 in back pay and damages, and will also get her job back. The main culprit, according to her lawsuit, is now the state’s Secretary of State, Katie Hobbs.
- It appears that Germany denied visas to board game industry visitors from Iran who wanted to attend SPIEL 2019, the world’s largest board game convention and trade show, held every October in Essen.
- Concerns about the addictive and deleterious nature of games go back thousands of years, from the Buddha to Fiorello LaGuardia to modern handwringers fretting over video games.
- The New Yorker speaks to Anthony Veneziale, a member of hip-hop improv collective Freestyle Love Supreme about freestyling and what it might tell us about our brains and creativity. FLS is probably better known for some of its other members, like Lin-Manuel Miranda and Daveed Diggs.
- A small Iowa newspaper reported on a local police officer’s inappropriate relationships with multiple girls aged 16 or 17, leading to the officer’s termination. He sued the paper and lost, but the paper’s costs to defend itself were substantial, so someone at the paper set up a GoFundMe to offset the expenses.
The Qatar article points to the addictive nature of games article.
ESPN has had an article about the bad sleep patterns NBA players have because of their travel schedule. This would also apply to NHL players.
https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/27767289/dirty-little-secret-everybody-knows-about
Also, some of Trump’s most ardent supporters think they can emulate him by not paying for things, like buses to DC. When the buses don’t arrive, it’s because of the “deep state” (and not because they probably tried to pay in their worthless Iraqi dinars).
https://www.thedailybeast.com/us-coachways-charter-bus-company-did-not-sabotage-the-march-for-trump
Fixed that link, thank you.
After seeing the last bullet checked to see if Iowa has any anti-slapp laws and it appears they do not: https://anti-slapp.org/iowa
I take your point on expensive restaurants not being accessible to the vast, vast majority of people. I’m not sure that should disqualify them from such a list though. Laban certainly does a lot of lists, and includes plenty of extremely affordable options. I’d say if you’re going to do a best of list, it should just be the best with price not a consideration. Mike Trout is the best baseball player and he gets paid a ton. Ronald Acuna is a much better value. Trout is still the best. It sounds like you want a best affordable or best value list (and that would be great too!)
I’m a big fan of High Street on Market. I like it much more than its more expensive neighbor Fork. I also like The Love, but ironically, I find it preposterously overpriced. It was billed as a neighborhood restaurant before it opened and I don’t know too many people who could afford to eat there on a regular basis. I’ve had some pretty darn good food there and Aimee Olexy is a terrific chef, but $30+ entrees are really expensive! 2 people can have a complete meal down the street at Amma’s South Indian Cuisine (highly recommended if you haven’t been) for not much more than the cost of one entree at The Love.
Palizzi Social Club seems like the most obvious missing entry though it’s not really a public restaurant, so I get it. If you ever have a chance to go there, though, do it, and get the raviolo.
Which panel in Oh my oh my oh dinosaurs? Its a go to for our kids, as are the rest of her books. Just curious. Thanks.
The elevator.