PicoBlog

Yang Zi and Xiao Zhan star as opposites at different stages in their professional trajectories in this recently released romance-centred drama from the mainland. Yang Zi plays Lin Zhixiao a university undergraduate studying music with a special focus on the cello. Xiao Zhan, on the other hand is Gu Wei, an established, respected gastroenterologist/ general surgeon who at the start of the drama finds no reason to remain in clinical practice.

In his 2017 TED Talk on givers & takers, Adam Grant covers a concept I can’t get out of my head. It’s called “pronoia”: “I believe that the most meaningful way to succeed is to help other people succeed. And if we can spread that belief, we can actually turn paranoia upside down. There's a name for that. It's called ‘pronoia.’ Pronoia is the delusional belief that other people are plotting your well-being.

Welcome to the newsiest All-Lefty Team in our history of compiling them! I've been fretting for weeks about how and when to unveil the 2023 edition of our annual assemblage of the NBA's best southpaws, because International Left-Handers Day actually fell on Sunday this year … on the same Sunday that I would be returning home from an emotional Basketball Hall of Fame induction weekend. So ... After making the executive decision to delay the latest All-Lefty reveal until the first Tuesday Newsletter Extravaganza after HoF weekend in Springfield, Mass.

I have been reading the writings of Gaius Musonius Rufus. Musonius, as he is often called, was a Roman Stoic and the teacher of Epictetus. I’ve been reading a translation of his writings by Cora Lutz, published under the title That One Should Disdain Hardships. Few of his writings survive. What we have is a collection of summaries of his lectures, most bearing the mark of having been written by a student of Musonius rather than by Musonius himself.

Cold Open Question of the Week: My wife shares a story of seeing Matchbox Twenty in concert, and Rob Thomas announcing the next song is one they wish they wrote, before playing “American Girl,” by Tom Petty. What’s a song that you wish you wrote? Our guest this week is bassist, musician, and writer, Murphy Karges. Murphy was a founding member of the ‘90s hit-makers, Sugar Ray, whose albums Floored, 14:59, and Sugar Ray, featured radio hits “Fly”, “When It’s Over”, and “Someday”, just to name a few.

Hey, I hope you’re doing well! Good to see you here. This week promises to be a busy one, so I figured I’d knock out my newsletter early-ish. First off, I want to remind you all of the exclusive Dick Tracy #1 page I debuted last week - art by the amazing Geraldo Borges. This is the first interior page we’ve shown, and it really paints the picture of what Michael Moreci, Geraldo, Chantelle Aimée Osman, and I are trying to do with this book at Mad Cave.

Hi, everyone! I don’t know about you, but the only ramen I ever had growing up was the instant kind. I grew up with Nong Shim Neoguri and Shin ramen (we Koreans call it ramyeon), and it took me well into my adulthood to realize that real ramen doesn’t come out of a package with broth powder. Late bloomer, I know. The term “akahoshi” roughly translates into “red star,” which is Mike’s nod to Sapporo, Japan (where red stars are affixed to city monuments), and Chicago, where we just so happen to have four red stars on our city flag.

Welcome back to The Onion: 20 Years Later, where we review the print issue from exactly 20 years ago, find out what’s still funny and examine the cultural impact. Today, we revisit Sept. 26, 2001. This is the 9/11 issue, The Onion’s first in 3 weeks and the first print issue ever distributed in New York City. That story’s been told by MEL Magazine in the past couple of years, by Yahoo 10 years ago, and countless other places.

As of today, it’s been exactly one year since I started this newsletter. And what a journey it’s been—we’ve talked about chiliburgers and child abuse and chip butties and the church. It marks a turning point, perhaps, and certainly the newsletter will look a bit different going forward—the“Ask A Banner Carrier” advice column is moving to paid-only subscribers, for one thing—and a moment to pause and reflect. In the Jewish calendar, it’s a time of reflection as well—the High Holiday season of penitence culminating in Yom Kippur.