It’s early December, which means 2022 is almost over … thinking back on this year it feels like it both rushed through and took forever, which I think isn’t uncommon but always catches me by surprise. Here’s some stuff on my mind.
I am not sure if you could come up with a cleaner way of describing the United States than by pointing out how - as a country - we are utterly disinterested in soccer at all times UNTIL the World Cup…at which point we are absolutely disgusted that we are getting beaten by teams who eat, drink and sleep soccer 24/7. Good times.
Over the years, I’ve grown less and less into Bill Simmons who started as a great writer combining sports and pop culture and now just seems like an angry old fraternity pledge chairman. That said, The Ringer continues to have an excellent group of writers and podcasts. One - which is Spotify only, regrettably - is The Hottest Take. It’s always about six to nine minutes where someone shows up to make a bold claim and then try to defend it. Some aren’t that hot, some are. Chris Ryan recently said that most sports stadiums should be much smaller, others have said that live music stinks and no one wants to admit it, etc. It’s fun stuff even - especially? - when the takes are really bad.
Another thing December brings is year-end lists. The best movies of the year, the best books, etc. And yeah, I’m gonna join in where I can - I’ve read a bunch of books this year and there are some absolute winners out there. Same with TV, and of course I’ll be doing a review of my year in golf. It’s kind of funny how I can’t really do that about movies - I’ve really not seen THAT many. Though I will say, without any cheekiness, that I’m not sure anything gets much better than Top Gun: Maverick. (Note: If you missed it before, it’s returning to theaters starting today for two weeks. Go see it!)
I’ve now been off Twitter for a few weeks, and I honestly don’t miss it - but I will say it’s harder to avoid than Facebook was. The amount of tweets that are embedded in articles or posts on Reddit, etc. - and yeah, I know I do this too - are so voluminous I can’t really totally avoid them. And therefore it was impossible for me to miss this:
Folks have noticed that this gun is NOT an actual revolver, but a video game gun, though what’s in the box is apparently a historical pistol that almost certainly doesn’t fire. And there are four cans of caffeine-free Diet Coke which is just the weirdest thing ever to share. And in the lower left hand corner is … I mean, I do not know. The fact that he wanted to show this is so bizarre, he deserves all the clapbacks he’s getting. What a fucking weirdo.
A lot of firms are now asking workers to return to office. One can debate the merits of this or not, but given that these same workers at larger companies are still on Zoom/Teams calls a LOT, what’s been “hilarious” to me is that now, when someone joins such a call from the office, the background noise of other folks in the office talking is INSANELY distracting. It’s for sure made the calls worse and what’s more, people can’t handle it. Conversations sort of go like this:
Person A: “So, I’ve been working on —-”
Person B: “Excuse me, sorry, sorry … I’m hearing some background noise, can folks mute themselves if they aren’t talking?”
Person A: “OK, anyway I’ve been working on this code and —”
Person B: “Again, sorry but it’s SO loud. Can folks mute themselves?”
Person A: “Sorry, that’s me - or the folks in the office. I can’t mute myself and still talk?”
Rinse, repeat. I feel pretty strongly that if you work in an office where you can physically be in the same space as your co-workers, congregate in a conference room and whiteboard, etc., it makes sense and should happen with some frequency. But if not? It literally makes NO sense.
Think we could bring back Davey Johnson's "weird wuss" to apply to Elon.
And, yes, Maverick RULES.
I absolutely love "The Hottest Take." Agree that it's a bummer that it's only on Spotify. (I don't like listening to podcasts on there.) I was thrilled when it came back after a 2 plus year hiatus. This is embarrassing, but I actually emailed The Ringer a couple of times over the hiatus begging them to bring it back. It's such a great format and the short episodes are good for short drives. I only wish they had them come out more often.