PicoBlog

iOS, Mac, Apple TV Free on Apple Arcade ($6.99/month) Episode XOXO is a lightly interactive story game where you choose how the main character looks, dresses, and behaves. As far as I can tell, all eighteen stories centre on romance, each containing fifteen 5-10 minute episodes, and each following well-worn genre conventions (e.g. you’re actually a princess, friends to lovers, etc.) The game looks like a bright, fun 2D cartoon. While the writing, settings, and even gameplay vary wildly between stories, some things remain the same.

I want to start this week’s issue by wishing readers a very merry Christmas, joyful holiday season and a happy New Year. Next month, I’ll have some more detailed projections, and investment themes for the year ahead. Today, however, I have just one prediction for you – trading bonds will be exciting in 2024 and, most likely, for years to come. The implications for the stock market are vast. Through the end of December I’m offering 90-day free trials to the paid tier of The Free Market Speculator, which includes our model portfolio recommendations and special subscriber-only content and alerts.

All physicians are trained to worry about dangerous headaches — from tumors, brain bleeding, occult carbon monoxide poisoning, or other life-threatening causes. If you’re concerned at all about a headache you have, please see a healthcare professional. Also: I have no financial interests in / disclosures regarding anything written below. The sad state of international affairs gives me головні бoлі (I’ll return to Ukraine shortly). And, as it happens, I recently wrote about headaches for Emergency Medicine News — in particular, about treating migraines with a generic anti-nausea medication, ondansetron (brand name Zofran®).

If you disliked my July 27 story about the Modern Era’s best shortstops, you will positively loathe today’s entry about the top left fielders. Many readers were unhappy that my 10-part formula established Alex Rodriguez as baseball’s preeminent shortstop during the period from 1961 through 2022. The same rating procedure has now proclaimed the No. 1 left fielder to be Barry Bonds, who (like Rodriguez) was widely accused of using performance-enhancing drugs.

Who was the greatest left-handed starting pitcher in baseball’s Modern Era? One name immediately flashes to mind — Sandy Koufax. The Los Angeles Dodgers ace seemed to be virtually unhittable throughout the era’s first six seasons. He fashioned a stunning 129-47 record with a stingy earned run average of 2.19 between 1961 and 1966. Koufax’s statistics are admittedly impressive (and sometimes breathtaking), yet he doesn’t hold first place in my new rankings of the top left-handed starters over the Modern Era’s 62 seasons (1961-2022).

After I resigned from the Chicago Tribune after nearly 35 years as a columnist, I decided to keep in touch with readers by creating a Substack that features the same mix of commentary, idle observations, tirades, interesting links and curated quips that was the hallmark of my “Change of Subject” blog from 2003 to 2014 at chicagotribune.com. It includes the Tweet of the Week poll, updates on my other endeavors, highlights from reader responses, information about the latest Mincing Rascal podcast as well as the usual mix of argle bargle and jiggery pokery.

When it comes to recipes, there is a tyranny of choice. Take chocolate chip cookies, an ongoing obsession in my household. A Google search for “best chocolate chip cookies” yields over 100,000 results. The Toll House chocolate chip cookie recipe on the bag is predictably good. But maybe there’s a better one. Or you want to make them with brown butter or oatmeal, or replicate the legendary Levain cookie at home.

When I came to the end of my PhD, I was offered a black and white choice: academia or industry. It’s a false dichotomy. The reality is that there are many different shapes and sizes of scientific projects, and they don’t all fit into the academia OR the industry box. There’s a burgeoning world out there of people creating a richer ecosystem of niches in which science can thrive.  There are many research projects that are not supported by the current ecosystem.

I was shocked and disgusted to discover that 1987’s Ernest Goes to Camp is not available legally through streaming in God’s own United States. I don’t want to say that this alone single-handedly invalidates streaming but any home video medium that cannot facilitate the easy and legal viewing of Ernest Goes to Camp is fatally flawed.  We as a society NEED free and easy access to Ernest Goes to Camp. It’s IMPORTANT.