PicoBlog

So I paid my friend MDZ twice on Venmo. Those of you who know Venmo also know that your transactions are semi public. Why on Earth they decided to do that is beyond me - probably catering to those who expect to micromanage their friends and who feel stood up, catfished, ghosted and all other sorts of violations of instant gratification. He paid me back, but not without giving me shit.

[Warning: The following essay will contain spoilers for Warrior Nun seasons 1 and 2.] Who is Adriel, really? At the end of Warrior Nun Episode 10, Ava discovers that what everyone believed to be bones underneath the Vatican was actually an imprisoned, and very much still alive, Adriel. The same Adriel who, in the legends passed down through the Order of the Cruciform Sword (OCS), gave his halo to the first Warrior Nun, Areala, during the time of the Crusades.

The purportedly self-inflicted gunshot death of Boeing whistleblower John Barnett on March 9, 2024 is extremely suspicious. Just reviewing a report from a local, Charleston S.C. news station, I noted the following: Barnett’s attorneys, Law Office of Robert M. Turkewitz, LLC and Brian Knowles of Knowles Law Firm, PC, released the following statement Tuesday afternoon: John was a brave, honest man of the highest integrity. He cared dearly about his family, his friends, the Boeing company, his Boeing co-workers, and the pilots and people who flew on Boeing aircraft.

On February 13, 2024, National Geographic Press published a book I wrote called, TELL ME WHEN IT’S OVER: AN INSIDER’S GUIDE TO DECIPHERING COVID MYTHS AND NAVIGATING A POST-PANDEMIC WORLD. During the next few months, I will be writing about issues described in the book. (Links to the original sources are provided throughout this post.) On February 29, 2020, a man in his 50’s died from pneumonia in Washington State—the first known COVID death in the United States.

The news is reporting that Jimmy Buffet died from Merkel Cell Carcinoma (MCC), an aggressive form of skin cancer, which he was diagnosed with in 2019. According to the Skin Cancer Foundation, MCC is a particularly aggressive type of skin cancer, estimated to be 40 times rarer than melanoma. MCC has a high rate of recurrence and metastasis, “often within two to three years after initial diagnosis.” Five year survival rates vary vastly depending on multiple contributing factors.

Share If you want a hipster breakfast* in any large city, anywhere in this great land of ours, chances are you’re going to end up in a region called “midtown,” at a place with lots of ironic 1980s lunchboxes, ironic black velvet paintings, ironic VCRs, and all manner of other vintage/retro kitsch from decades gone by.  *By “hipster breakfast” I mean menu items of a more interesting nature than, like, plain eggs/bacon/pancakes.

Early in my pastoral career (2007ish), I preached through the Gospel of Mark—a delightful challenge, I must say! As I did so, I was struck by the role of the hemorrhaging woman in the narrative that also included a synagogue leader named Jairus and the raising of his daughter from death (Mark 5:21–43). Who was share? Where did she come from? Why do Mark and Luke include her story? Some 13 years later, I got around to writing a journal article on the topic that was published in Bulletin for Biblical Research 30.

I’m obsessed with a podcast called A History Of Rock Music In 500 Songs. Being a history podcast, it has an understandable interest in firsts, from the arcane (first Theremin on a pop record) to the momentous (first rock ‘n’ roll song). But it always, always, issues a disclaimer: There are no firsts. As host Andrew Hickey put it this week, in a comment on the so-called first ever rock bootleg album: “As with all these things, it depends on how you define many of those words.

“I’ve Never Heard of Him” – Too many people I don't like false equivalencies. In 2007, when I was doing my weekly column on the official Liverpool FC website, someone emailed me, irate that the Reds were going to waste money on another Fernando. FFS, hadn't we learnt from Morientes? Torres was going to fail. So yeah, Wataru Endo is not Arthur Melo. The lateness in the transfer window should not see this excellent player lumped in with some late hell-Marys.