I don’t have much interest in the British royal family, but I do love a good corgi, so I can get on board with a parade of corgis in honor of the late Queen Elizabeth II.
Previous “Links” posts
Seafood Is Expensive ∞
Also, koi remain overpriced.
Friday, September 1st, 2023
Over in England, at the Grosvenor Pulford Hotel, one hungry otter has managed to eat $125,000 worth of koi.
Mr Nelson said it was “definitely a surprise to find that an otter was the culprit for our huge loss of fish”.
It would not a surprise long-time readers of this site. At this point, koi ponds are basically just otter buffets.
Can Fat Do That? ∞
Or more likely, are the machines just not very good?
Wednesday, August 30th, 2023
A few years back, Major League Baseball mandated that all stadiums have metal detectors to prevent attendees from bringing in weapons. After a recent shooting at a Chicago White Sox game, their effectiveness must surely come into question. It would seem they might need some work.
On Tuesday, ESPN Chicago reporter Peggy Kusinski said that the gun was snuck into the stadium by one of the women who was hit. The shooting was “an accidental discharge” by the woman whose injury was previously identified as “a graze wound.”
“She reportedly snuck the gun in past metal detectors hiding it in the folds of her belly fat,” Kusinski said in a post on X.
On the one hand, that might seem difficult to believe. On the other hand, I attended a baseball game just last night where I was instructed to keep my keys and full-of-metal cell phone in my pocket as I went through the clearly-not-very-sensitive metal detector.
Update (September 5, 2023): When I wrote about this, I made it a particular point to not convey anything here as established fact. Over a week later, there’s still a lack of clarity. One of the women involved denies bringing in a gun, and police have merely said they’re still investigating:
Chicago police earlier Tuesday issued a statement saying the claim that a woman had brought in a gun and suffered a self-inflicted wound was “not released or confirmed by the Chicago Police Department.” Police said the investigation was “still active and ongoing.”
Meanwhile, White Sox sources believe the shots came from outside the park, but of course they’re incentivized to think that.
Hopefully the mystery will be solved eventually.
Close to 100, Without Going Over ∞
For the record, however, Price is Right rules for general guessing/estimating are terrible and should not be used.
Monday, August 28th, 2023
Bob Barker almost made it to 100. He died this past weekend, just a few months shy of becoming a centenarian. In addition to being the host of beloved sick day classic “The Price Is Right”, Barker had a tremendous cameo in Adam Sandler’s “Happy Gilmore”. The Washington Post has a great piece on how that ridiculousness came to be.
When [Ed] McMahon’s manager said he was too busy, Sandler and Herlihy homed in on Barker, although they doubted they could persuade him to participate, Sandler said in an interview with entertainment news site Collider. Still, they pitched the idea to him.
What they didn’t know is that Barker’s next door neighbor was Chuck Norris, who had been teaching Barker how to fight, Sandler and Herlihy said in 2021 on the podcast “That Scene with Dan Patrick.” Fed up with losing to Norris, Barker was eager to do the fight scene but had one condition: He had to win.
He did indeed win, and so did the world.
Turning on the Pressure ∞
Hopefully the spigot of creativity isn’t clogged.
Friday, August 25th, 2023
Does it matter where one writes? Around the country, house museums related to famous writers are selling authors the ability to write in the same place as literary greats.
That [$300] rental fee is part of Arrowhead’s new program called Musing With Melville. If someone wants two hours, the museum charges $500, marketing it as an experience that “is sure to jumpstart your creative endeavor.”
…
Arrowhead is not the first historic house museum to do this.
Ernest Hemingway’s house in Key West Florida charges $1,500 for two people to spend a few hours in the house, gardens and writing studio, after a tour. Mark Twain’s house in Hartford charges $50 to spend three hours in Twain’s library with other writers.
The Emily Dickinson Museum in Amherst rents out the poet’s bedroom where she wrote. Brooke Steinhauser, the museum’s program director started the Studio Sessions, which also costs $300 for one hour.
It’s nice that these museums have found a way to keep their doors open. However, I can’t stop laughing at the idea of someone paying hundreds of dollars to work in such illustrious digs, only to find themselves completely and utterly blocked.
What An Incredible Concidence ∞
“I’m shocked, shocked! Well, not that shocked.”
Thursday, August 24th, 2023
In news that is not-at-all surprising, yet still shocking, it seems Yevgeny Prigozhin has died in a plane crash. This is much more comprehensible to me than last month’s meeting, or the original aborted mutiny in June. Prigozhin was surely on extremely borrowed time since that aggression, and now the clock has apparently run out. That’s almost certainly due to the machinations of Vladimir Putin, who just eulogized Prigozhin:
Vladimir Putin has said that the Wagner mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin had a “complicated fate” in his first remarks about the plane crash said to have killed him.
That’s quite a phrase from the man who surely ordered his death.
White Noise Podcasts ∞
This is probably a very poor platform for ads.
Tuesday, August 22nd, 2023
Back in 2014, a band called Vulfpack earned $20,000 with silence. In 2018, a random Bulgarian playlist might have scammed Spotify for millions. Now, “white noise podcasts” are apparently the hot new Spotify moneymaker.
The worst part of this story, however, is this correction:
Correction August 18th 10:25AM ET: An earlier version of this story said white noise podcasters could make $18,000 per year. It’s actually $18,000 per month. We regret the error.
$18,000 a year would be a nice little side hustle. $18,000 a month is a heck of a nice job if you can get it.
“Icon of the Seas” Sure Is Something ∞
Specifically, something monstrous.
Monday, August 21st, 2023
I’ve never found the idea of a cruise ship vacation appealing. Whether its norovirus or COVID-19, there’s probably some kind of virus on board, and it just doesn’t seem like a way I’d like to travel.1 Obviously, however, millions of other people in the world feel differently. With that in mind, Royal Caribbean is assembling the biggest cruise ship ever built, the “Icon of the Seas”. Look upon their works, and despair:
Yuck.
Gazing at this grotesquerie, I can’t help but be horrified, but it holds a certain fascination too. How on earth does one even design something like that? Slate spoke to Royal Caribbean’s chief product innovation officer Jay Schneider to learn more, and the interview is a very interesting read.
Footnotes:
That CDC link for “Facts About Noroviruses on Cruise Ships” starts with this text:
People often associate cruise ships with acute gastrointestinal illnesses such as norovirus, but acute gastrointestinal illness is relatively infrequent on cruise ships.
“Relatively infrequent” is quite a phrase! ↩︎
A Vacation Without the Suitcase ∞
Plenty of grease, though.
Friday, August 18th, 2023
Just remember, if they don’t call you “Hon”, it’s not a real diner.
