PicoBlog

I’ve pondered for a long time why female authors were so insistent on creating a childhood friend character who was always there for their self-insert protagonist from the birth of dawn, only to emasculate the hell out of him until he became a miserable, hopeless mess. And then have him pitifully lose to the cool guy who decided to show up at the beginning of the story. This is a viewpoint I will never be able to relate to, and I’ve cut ties with all of my narcissistic friends and I can’t ask them what they think.

THIRD post this week, can you believe, and this is me two weeks into no longer drinking coffee.I am the Stephen A. Smith of watching Survivor: I never know what I’m talking about, I prefer chaos, and I love fussing. More than one person has called my preferred way of watching Survivor seasons — jumping around at my own whim, and wit… ncG1vNJzZmigpaPBpr7HmqmroaNjwLau0q2YnKNemLyue89orpqsk516tbTEZqSio5VixKm1055krJ2RqLyvec6fZKytoqu2t7vR

Photo Credit: KA Fullmore | Richmond Flying SquirrelsPreviously, on Way Too Early Roster Previews: A lot goes into making the “Way Too Early Roster Previews” live up to their names of being, in fact, way too early. It would make much more sense to go through this exercise in the spring, when I’m in Arizona seeing who’s playing in which groups, who’s mysteriously absent from play altogether, and who’s performing particularly well.

Photo Credit: Sacramento River CatsPreviously, on Way Too Early Roster Previews: Perhaps I hallucinated this in some sort of fever dream, but I would swear that at some point last season, the River Cats fielded an all-Giants’ prospects lineup. Maybe not quite an all “originally signed or drafted” lineup, perhaps Will Wilson’s brief time in Anaheim could interfere with that, or maybe a Michael Gigliotti appearance could have snuck into the “nine former Flying Squirrels” category.

Thanks for reading the Her Hoop Stats Newsletter. If you like our work, be sure to check out our stats site, our podcast, and our social media accounts on Twitter, YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram. You can also buy Her Hoop Stats gear, such as laptop stickers, mugs, and shirts! Haven’t subscribed to the Her Hoop Stats Newsletter yet? The 2023-24 women’s college basketball season is behind us and the South Carolina Gamecocks are the champions.

Wayne Hsiung is a lawyer and leading animal rights activist, co-founder of Direct Action Everywhere (DxE) and the Simple Heart Initiative. He writes on Substack as at . Mr. Hsiung is known for pioneering “open rescue” operations, such as rescuing Oliver the dog from China’s Yulin Dog Meat Festival in China, Rain the sick goat in North Carolina, Lily the pig from a slaughterhouse in Iowa, and many others.

Happy Friday, Happy Summer! I’m going to assume that you have other sources for your political anxiety, so I’ll refrain from commenting on such matters, for now. Instead I bring you the latest installment of Take Five, a monthly(ish) digest of new and notable music that I’m actively enjoying. In case you haven’t been following along, here are the previous installments: April | May | June. We’ll go ahead and call this one our July edition, even though we aren’t quite done with June yet.

Twitter tongues were wagging this week over an article in New York magazine titled, “The Fleishman Effect” by Caitlin Moscatello. The title is referring to Fleishman Is in Trouble, the 2019 novel by Taffy Brodesser-Akner, adapted by Brodesser-Akner into a Hulu series starring Jesse Eisenberg, Claire Danes and Lizzy Caplan last year. Fleishman Is in Trouble was one of my favorite novels of 2019. It’s the story of Toby Fleishman, married father of two, a highly regarded specialist at a New York hospital whose wife, a powerful theatrical agent, from whom he’s been separated and living apart, drops of their kids at his apartment, and disappears.

This episode of The Culture Journalist is free for all our listeners. For the full version of every episode — plus essays, monthly culture recommendations, and more — sign up for a paid subscription.  If you were alive in the late ’90s, chances are there was an entire chapter of your life that was soundtracked by Eve 6’s “Inside Out” — you know, that insanely catchy, angst-filled “heart in a blender” song that, starting in 1998, was ubiquitous on the radio and during Saturday trips to the mall.