Your Mid-Week Experiment

Is it the evil you love, or the congested highway?

The week isn’t half over, and already this weekend’s essay, “Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil MoPac,” is one of the most-read we’ve ever published, and we’ve gained enough new subscribers to stage a decent-sized basketball tournament, though I can’t promise that any of them can play worth a darn.

Welcome to all the new folks, who are already starting to regret their decisions. No, we’re not going around the room to make brief introductions after an ice breaker. What we’re doing here today is taking our mid-week break to see what I’ve been reading, listening to, and watching. Definitely read the Chris Richard piece on nostalgia. Smart stuff.

Anyway, enough chit chat. Let’s get to it:

Follow these 19 rules for a better life (Ryan Holiday)

The plague hit three years ago. How has it changed us? (Scott Galloway)

“I Paid a Professional to Edit a ChatGPT-Written Article — Hilarity Ensued” (Zulie Rane) h/t BH

Building more roads doesn’t solve traffic, Moscow edition, 2010 (The New Yorker)

I wish I’d read this examination of pop culture nostalgia before I wrote my rebuttal to Larry Wright. Seriously, this is so smart: (Chris Richards)

This is the only thing about Scott Adams, AKA the Dilbert guy, you need to read. It’s not as simple as it seems. There’s a whole architecture of communication that I didn’t see. (Philip Bump)

I am a massive Marc Maron fan from his podcast first, his comedy a distant second. It’s not that I don’t think he’s funny, it’s that the parasocial relationship he and I are in is based on his podcast, and because I like him, I appreciate his comedy. This is kind of like how S appreciates my evolving plans to hug Adele Rutschman before bonding with him over our shared connection to Don Durdan. It’s a long story, kind of like a lot of Maron’s bits, but what makes From Bleak to Dark (ahem) special is his riffs on Jews. There’s a killer Auschwitz joke, people. [S, I would have watched his with you, but it’s on HBO, and we only get that in the gym. Yes, I listened to an Auschwitz joke whilst sweating to the oldie, and the oldie, of course, being me.]

I can tolerate Taylor Tomlinson’s comedy, by which I mean I laugh at it a lot and worry that I’ve become very old.

I can tolerate Nate Bargatze’s comedy, by which I mean I laugh at it a lot and worry that I’ve become very basic. I laughed at golf jokes, people. Dumb husband jokes, too.

The Menu doesn’t get nearly enough credit. It’s less a horror film than a classic Hollywood movie, though I wonder if future generations will understand it. I call balderdash on The Menu not getting any Oscar nominations. Ann Hornaday only gave it 2.5 stars, so maybe I’m off base.

I can’t decide if Blonde was exploitative or if it depicted how Marilyn Monroe was traumatized and exploited. Regardless, it was so unpleasant to watch I bailed after the scene where JFK kinda-sorta sexually assaults her. That said, Ana de Armas was terrific.

This movie didn’t land because it didn’t take off correctly and never found it’s altitude.

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Buy the book Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick banned from the Bullock Texas History Museum: Forget the Alamo: The Rise and Fall of the American Myth by Bryan Burrough, Chris Tomlinson, and myself is out from Penguin Random House. The New York Times bestseller is 44% off and the same price as a paperback now!