Friday Fun

Oh, we have fun here every day! But especially Friday.

It’s time for my weekly roundup of stuff I found interesting or amusing during the week but didn’t necessitate a post of their own.

• We spent a preposterous amount of money this week replacing our refrigerator and our hot water heater, and also fixing the hinges on our oven. These are all, of course, things we bought with our house. I started thinking of what I’d rather spend that money on (literally, almost anything). It’s a lot easier to think of what I would NOT want to spend that money on. Like, thousands of dollars worth of olives. Or a gigantic ball of dryer lint. Or, a broken boat that would sit in my driveway. It’s not great.

  

• Speaking of appliances, my wife - who is always correct - insists that even though she knows modern dishwashers do a good job of (usually) cleaning food off of plates and such, that we still need to rinse them first because the food doesn’t magically disappear. It has to go somewhere. While that is true, this video blew my mind.

• The Los Angeles Rams, reeling and moribund after winning the Super Bowl just a season ago, have decided that the cure to their ills is … Baker Mayfield. I’m personally someone who thinks he has gotten a raw deal ON the field - he took the Browns to the playoffs, injured his shoulder and was horrible, and was immediately replaced by DeShaun Watson. The fact he’s gotten no better in Carolina is troubling, and the reports of how much his teammates dislike him is even more troubling. I can only imagine the Rams are concerned that Matthew Stafford might retire and - because they have no real draft picks - are willing to take the gamble. I honestly don’t think it will work, but I’m not opposed to the risk. The season is already lost, why not?

  

• After legitimate hype and promise that slugger Aaron Judge was going to sign with the Giants - including a tweet by sports journalist Jon Heyman saying it was done, followed by a hasty retreat - the Giants once again merely helped a slugger negotiate with other teams by providing a baseline huge offer someone else had to meet or beat. And so he did, re-signing with the Yankees.

  

  Judge pointing in the direction he negotiated his salary by using the Giants.

  It’s what Bryce Harper and Giancarlo Stanton (among others) did in prior years and it’s time for the organization to realize power hitters don’t want to sign here - it’s a pitchers ballpark and if they are a HR hitter, it’s harder to rack up those stats here. Instead, they should actually do the work and learn how to draft and develop a power hitter. (I know - what a shocking idea!) I think the last guy they did that with was Matt Williams (and no, Brandon Belt and Buster Posey aren’t power hitters). Get it together, guys.

• This weekend the season finale of The White Lotus airs. I have completely enjoyed it (and also think Mike White unlocked a huge hack by creating a TV series filmed at luxury resorts that he can stay at for a few months for work). I also have NO idea what’s actually happened this season, nor where all the bodies we saw in the opening scene of Episode 1 came from. That’s usually the kind of thing that infuriates me, but I kind of love the feeling that everyone, in some way, is running a scam here. Really looking forward to it. I’m fairly sick of Jennifer Coolidge, but I do need to admit she’s nailing this character. (Oddly, also worth noting that all the actors in the post-episode snippets say that of all the guests at the hotel, they’d MOST want to travel with Tanya, her character. Boy oh boy, do I not get that.)

  

• In other TV news, I’m happy that Slow Horses has returned, as has the final season of His Dark Materials. Those shows are NOT similar in any way, but should make some good December viewing. Any other shows I should be looking out for?