Stick to baseball, 1/8/22.

My latest game review for Paste covers the great, easy-to-learn Super Mega Lucky Box, from the designer of Silver & Gold and Sushi Go! It has elements of both games, and will remind non-gamers of bingo enough to get them started. We played this over the holidays with my family, and everyone liked it, from my 9-year-old niece to my mother, who generally does not like games.

My prospect rankings are still on track to start running on The Athletic on January 31^st, leading off with the top 100, with team-by-team rankings following afterwards. My podcast will also return this upcoming week.

And now, the links…

• The New Yorker has a piece from Ryan Katz on the decades-long aftermath of a murder in Texas, one of the victims of the so-called Donut Shop Murders.

• The Guardian hasan excerpt of Michael Pollan’s most recent book, This is Your Mind on Plants, asking whether we should be giving up caffeine. (The answer is “no,” whether Pollan knows it or not.)

• This Hidden Brain episode titled “Both Things Can Be True,” about dealing with the apparent contradictions we find in other people, is a remarkable and compelling story in its own right, and also feels especially apposite in the wake of the recent Hall of Fame vote. You can also find it on iTunes.

• Is there really enough taste difference among different varieties of rice to justify an annual rice-tasting competition? The mere question would be heretical in Japan.

• Climate change is coming for everyone and every industry, including pro sports. Hannah Keyser asks if MLB is ready for it.

• “America’s Frontline Doctors” are a giant fraud, as its members haven’t worked on the front lines against COVID-19 and profit off quack treatments like hydroxychloroquine.

• I wasn’t familiar with the company FeedFeed, but the Washington Post has an exposé on the company’s toxic workplace environment.

• A neuroscientist facing a terminal diagnosis discusses preparing for his impending death.

• A Deputy DA in California who was expected to run for the state Assembly this year has died of COVID-19 at age 46, just weeks after speaking an anti-vax/anti-mandate rally.

• The BBC spoke to QAnon adherents a year after the 1/6 terrorist attack on the Capitol.

• The AV Club has told Chicago-based staffers to move to Los Angeles or lose their jobs, without offering even a cost-of-living increase to their salaries. They also listed at least one of those writers’ jobs before their decisions were even due.

• Bodycam video shows a Houston cop speeding up to 100 mph and driving with one hand at the time that he hit and killed a 62-year-old pedestrian with his car.

• I don’t especially care that an Australian writer doesn’t like board game nights, but what possible aim is there to writing a piece that does nothing but shit on something thousands of people enjoy?

• The New York Times‘ David Streitfeld has a post mortem of sorts on the Theranos trial, with an eye on the people who failed to ask Elizabeth Holmes the obvious questions about her technology that didn’t work. John Carreyrou’s book Bad Blood has quite a bit more on this in its history of the con.

• Alec Karakatsanis, founder of the Civil Rights Corps, has been critical of mainstream media outlets’ slanted coverage of police shootings. He had a Twitter thread this week calling out the New York Times for its framing and for use of biased sources when covering a recent shooting in LA, pointing out that police unions and departments spend a lot of money to try to get this kind of positive coverage.

• What appeared to be a simple kidnapping case helped French authorities uncover a right-wing plot to overthrow France’s government.

• A new paper in Hepatology says that we should expect 8000 additional deaths in the U.S. due to increased alcohol consumption during the pandemic.

• Some board game news:  Blazon, a card-drafting, tableau-building game is up on Kickstarter.

• As is Dom Pierre, a game of wine-making in 17^th century France.

• Asmodee’s Unexpected Games division announced a new title, Voices in My Head, where players try to play aspects of a suspected thief’s persona against the one player who plays the prosecutor.