PicoBlog

An attempt to end bear hunting in California failed last week. Regardless of how you feel about bear hunting, whether you hunt bears, or whether you live in California, some really important things happened during deliberations at the California Fish and Game Commission, and I think it’s worth your time to hear about them. If you want to see my source ma… ncG1vNJzZmisn6m1pq7Op5xnq6WXwLWtwqRlnKedZL1wrsSaqWagpaPBbq7Ap2Ssm5mau6SxjLCgp6tdl8K1edWao66dow%3D%3D

In April of 2001 I began my monthly Skeptic column at Scientific American, the longest continuously published magazine in the country dating back to 1845. With Stephen Jay Gould as my role model (and subsequent friend), it was my dream to match his 300 consecutive columns that he achieved at Natural History magazine, which would have taken me to April, 2026. Alas, my streak ended in January of 2019 after a run of 214 essays.

When I last met my friend Ning from Taiyuan, Shanxi, she talked about a noodle dish called ti jian (剔尖): her mom would make a bowl of wet dough and swiftly scrape thin strips directly into the boiling water using a pair of chopsticks—a skill that she still marvels at today. Even though I've never tasted it, I imagined it to be something similar to German spätzle. I’ve long been a fan of another Shanxi classic, knife-scraped noodles (dao xiao mian, 刀削面).

When I feel embarrassed or out of place, I think of the scotcheroo.  The scotcheroo was an essential part of my Iowa upbringing—the concession-stand reward at every basketball game or band competition. Its charms were obvious, if unsophisticated. Who could quibble with a chewy, peanut-butter-y Rice Krispies bar bound with corn syrup and topped with a 1:1 blend of melted butterscotch and semi-sweet chocolate chips?  The scotcheroo had a name to match its topping, so sweet it hurt my teeth.

We knew this day was coming, and now it’s here: The top free agent hitter still on the market has signed a contract to play major league baseball this season and will report to spring training immediately as, uh, the games have already started. It’s no surprise that Cody Bellinger returned to the Cubs. No other team was ever seriously linked to the star centerfielder (at least publicly). And even the fabled “mystery team” a certain scribe close to Bellinger’s agent, Scott Boras, tends to float to the market to add intrigue/confusion/drive up bidding never materialized.

Scott HortonDirector Libertarian Institute, editorial director Antiwar.com, host Antiwar Radio and Scott Horton Show podcast, author Fool's Errand and Enough Already, editor The Great Ron Paul and Hotter Than the Sun. Working on Provoked with Martyrmade now. ncG1vNJzZmirpZfAta3CpGWcp51kjbSvzq2roaeiqbyvv8eorg%3D%3D

The Outside Scoop By Scott Mendelson A legacy sequel to The Ticket Booth at Forbes.com and (especially) Mendelson's Memos. Pure, unfiltered and less formal pontification about the movie business and the entertainment industry for those who desire such a thing. ncG1vNJzZmirpZfAta3CpGWcp51kjbSvzq2rpp2embKtv86n

Skeletons are often associated with darkness and death in folklore. That’s why the skull and crossbones doubles as a common symbol warning for everything from poison to pirates. If you live in England, or pay a visit there, you’ll soon discover skulls also play a prominent role in poltergeist folklore. Tales concerning screaming skulls date back many centuries in England. Screaming skulls earned their name because they are said to cause all sorts of poltergeist activity — with emitting unearthly blood-curdling screams being their chief claim to fame.

When I landed my first manager — a man who insisted on wearing tracksuit pants to every meeting—he sent me a great spec script called GALAHAD to check out. It was by another newbie screenwriter client of his named Ryan J. Condal who, like me, was relatively new to Hollywood and focused on writing period action-adventures. The significant difference between the two of us was that Ryan had already sold his spec and was suddenly hot shit around town while I was still six-or-so months away from making a similar splash.