Musings, including those on Weird Billionaires

Some things on my mind.

Welcome to the musings of a bored Substacker. There is no logic between what is below, it’s whatever occurred to me at the time. Enjoy!

Except for the fans of the Chiefs and Eagles, we are now officially in the NFL off-season. I’m buoyed by the fact that almost everyone in the country has gotten on-board with hating on the Chiefs (while still acknowledging how great coach Andy Reid and QB Patrick Mahomes are, as well as DL Chris Jones and others.) The fact that folks have just now noticed the Chiefs get favorable calls is long overdue. This play haunts my dreams from the 2020 Super Bowl.

How could that be considered holding? One wonders.

An exploration of the utter weirdness of most billionaires

On the one hand, if I had literal billions of dollars, I’d like to think I was living my best life and doing whatever made me happy. On the other hand, I’d like to think sucking up to politicians so I could make MORE billions of dollars and choosing between these two looks would be whatever made me happy.

Are Mark Zuckerberg’s only real choices between looking like a wedding DJ or a sociopathic bond trader? Remember, Zuck has always been an odd looking guy but he used to - not so long ago! - look like this.

Seems like it’s a bit of a trend. And it begs the question - what happens to a person when they make sums that make the term “generational wealth” so woefully inadequate? Here’s the transformation of Jeff Bezos from “adorable neighborhood bookseller” to Lex Fucking Luthor:

Here’s Elon Musk:

(Note this isn’t even referencing his gesture at the inauguration. This isn’t meant to be political, but just to point out how fucking WEIRD this guy is.)

It doesn’t have to be this way. Look at Bill Gates - this seems like natural aging.

Look at Mark Cuban. You don’t have to turn into a complete weirdo.

I will let you all do the math of what is different between all these folks, none of who are allergic to making more money.

We just finished up watching a show that I don’t think got nearly enough attention last year - Interior Chinatown.

The premise - if you will - is that Willis Wu (played by Jimmy O. Yang on the right) sees himself as a background character in a show (think Law and Order) called “Black and White” - starring a black man and white woman, naturally - while working at The Golden Palace with his best friend Fatty, played by Ronnie Chieng, also shown above.

The show is relentlessly creative, poking fun at procedural shows, stereotypes (watching the guys at the Chinese restaurant try to decide if Lana Lee (Chloe Bennett) is Thai or Korean and having one of them scream “Dude, know your Asians!” is good stuff) , and even the channel it’s aired on.

There’s a TON of content out there, and this show isn’t for everyone but it’s incredibly creative, takes a lot of risks and pokes fun across the board. That’s a win in my book.