2 min read

Friday, January 19, 2024

Good morning and welcome back. I hope everyone out there is having an incredible week. Although statistically that's pretty unlikely. Here's some stuff.

Remember when we talked about how Garth Brooks released his last album exclusively on CD, exclusively in Bass Pro Shops? Well, the review is in... it's not good! I'm thankful nonetheless that Jason Koebler inconvenienced his family to track it down and give it a listen. Maybe Garth will deign to release his next album (perhaps a full-length film soundtrack???) in a more accessible format.

Item 2: a list

US Federal Holidays, ranked

  1. New Year’s Day
  2. Birthday of Martin Luther King, Jr.
  3. Memorial Day
  4. Juneteenth National Independence Day
  5. Thanksgiving Day
  6. Labor Day
  7. Veterans Day
  8. Washington’s Birthday
  9. Independence Day
  10. Christmas Day
  11. Columbus Day

Item 3: a media recommendation

IRIS: A Space Opera by Justice

Item 4: word of the week

Splutter

"No you sit down! Last time I checked we still had free speech in this country. I can say whatever I want", he spluttered unwisely at the judge.

Item 5: a photograph

A Jayaram's Bush Frog, only slightly bigger than a coffee bean, sits perched deep within the rainforest of Valparai, Tamil Nadu. By Manasi Gopinath (2018)

See ya!

Before we go, here are some other things I read about this week:

An Idealistic Cop, a Forbidden Ticket and a Police Career on the Brink. The infuriating story of what happens when a police officer takes a tiny step in the ethically correct direction (hint: cops explicitly condone law-breaking from people they know personally).

The Quiet Death of Ello’s Big Dreams. Andy Baio kicks Ello while they're down with an all-time great "I told you so" blog post.

Speaking of "I told you so", let's check back in a year or so to see exactly how rabbit inc.'s cool new AI device has crashed and burned. I'm guessing some combination of shipping orders months late (if at all) and any successfully shipped devices getting bricked when rabbit runs out of money and can't pay its server bills. I do dig the industrial design, though. Brightly colored plastic is enjoying a well-deserved renaissance.

Coca-Cola hires director of The Bear for chaotic ad. I love The Bear but I didn't love this ad. But I guess I do love leveraging one's connection to good art for what I can only imagine is several suitcases of Coca-Cola cash.

Okay, thanks for reading. See you again next week.

Published by:

Jacob Wolman

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