Issue No. 58

Sunday, June 11, 2023

I realize that Wordle probably isn't as popular as it used to be. However, the game is still fun and I'm looking at it as better than social media for a way to stave off that interstitial boredom that creeps up in between real activities. The New York Times is promoting playing Wordle Golf as a way to keep things interesting.

I'm making plans to play Wordle Golf with my lady friend. When I played Wordle previously, I was already keeping my playboards and my score in my bullet journal. Now that I've got legit golf-style scorecards, I can get behind a little competition.

via Adam Wood

Speaking of golf...

The PGA Tour is in talks to merge with the Saudi Arabian LIV Tour, which they've been characterizing as immoral since its inception, even linking it to 911 and castigating the players who signed up for the rival tour.

At least the PGA Commissioner has the self-awareness to recognize his appalling level of hypocrisy in seeking to merge the two tours.

Monahan struggled to explain his flip-flop. “I recognize that people are going to call me a hypocrite. Anytime I said anything, I said it with the information that I had at that moment, and I said it based on someone that’s trying to compete for the PGA Tour and our players. I accept those criticisms,” he said during a conference call. “But circumstances do change. I think that in looking at the big picture and looking at it this way, that’s what got us to this point.”

One interesting angle to this story is that the Republicans who loudly spoke out against the NBA making concessions to China have been silent on the proposed merger.

I used to pay attention to golf when it was a way for me to bond with my dad. Since his death 16 years ago, I haven't been keeping up. After the controversy with the LIV tour, how many already-wealthy golfers sold their integrity for a bigger slice of pie, and now this cynical and disgusting move, I'm glad I no longer have any emotional investment in the sport.

Scott Galloway gives his take on the new Vision Pro virtual reality headset that Apple announced at the Worldwide Developers Conference last week. He sees biological preferences as dooming the headset to failure.

The obstacles are seeded deep in our DNA. We’re highly discerning about what we put on our face, as it must enhance, not impair our ability to assert dominance, attract mates, and make connections. Jewelry signals wealth and strength. The $250 billion cosmetics industry helps us mimic visual cues for health and reproductive fertility. There is no version of a headset or goggles that makes us seem more appealing. None.

What seems to frustrate Galloway most about the new product, though, is that it ushers in new forms of isolation.

Real grief, rejection, joy, eroticism, victory, and love are experienced in the presence of others. Headsets render us nauseous, uncomfortable, and alone. Worse, they make us less human.

I've seen these sorts of concerns expressed in other opinions about the announcement, and I think it's going to be difficult to refute some of them.

Dave Davies writes for NPR about an increase in allergies. There is a shift in thinking around allergies, and it goes along with something I've long believed we are too protected, too clean, so we become hypersensitive.

Prior to 2016, when the advice changed, we were, as just normal best practices, telling parents to not only avoid certain allergenic foods like peanuts, strawberries, eggs, milk when they were pregnant, but also to avoid giving them to their younger children until after the age of 3 — and it turns out that was exactly the wrong advice. And the way we figured that out is there is a researcher from Israel [who] actually noticed that in places that supplemented their young children's diet with ... peanut paste, they actually had incredibly lower rates of allergy to peanuts.

So, it turns out early exposure to all sorts of different allergens may have a protective effect. Beware of avoidance when it comes to nature.

The Atlantic also recently featured a piece of grim portent called There Is No Stopping The Allergy Apocalypse. One of the main theories that the article focuses on is the effect of climate change on intensifying allergies.

Nick Catucci interviews the editor-in-chief of The Verge, Nilay Patel. The interview is a fascinating look at internet culture and services from one of the most plugged in and knowledgable sources. Patel, like many others, is souring on the Twitter experience and cutting back his usage.

It’s also amazing how tiny and unimportant Twitter drama seems when you drop out of the platform and only check in once or twice a day—you can really see why Twitter was always the smallest and least lucrative social platform. It’s just not fun unless you’re committed to letting it eat your life.

Patel also speaks about TikTok, Tumblr and other services and does so with wit and clarity.

One of my favorite working bands, Small Black, is rereleasing their 2013 album Limits Of Desire as a coke bottle clear 2xLP for its tenth anniversary. This record is the closest you will probably come to documentation of how late aughts chillwave morphed into the new sophistipop. This is even more true given that the reissue comes with the Real People EP, which contains a pitch-perfect cover of the Blue Nile sophistipop standard, "Downtown Lights," from the much revered Hats LP.

Limits of Desire 2xLP Reissue

            <div class="kg-product-card-description"><p><span>Small Black - Limits of Desire</span></p></div>
            
                <a href="https://www.secretlystore.com/small-black-limits-of-desire-deluxe" class="kg-product-card-button kg-product-card-btn-accent" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><span>Pre-Order</span></a>
            
        </div>
    </div><p>Small Black is also touring to support the reissue. I saw them play before they put this album out, but would love to hear these tunes live, so I'm disappointed they aren't playing anywhere in NC.</p>