Friday Links!
In case you're trapped in a bad family situation, links are being posted early (and no post on Friday). Happy (hopefully) holidays, everyone!
A wonderful read: The Fish That Climbed a Mountain: The wild tale of a small fishing club, a national park, and an epic battle over alien trout.
An incredible story, and even more incredible police ineptitude: The House on West Clay Street: Tabatha Pope thought she’d finally found an affordable place to live. It was the beginning of a nightmare.
This is fantastic: If a Tree Falls: The Trial of the Sycamore Gap Killers.
An excellent read: The Dead Mall Society.
A phenomenal bit of both reporting and writing: ‘Haunted and cursed’: Lake Lanier has a deadly reputation. A darker tale hides beneath the surface.
From Tom S. and the legendary Digital Antiquarian: Mr. Roberts Goes to Hollywood, Part 2: The Producer.
This is touching and heartbreaking: Beloved Bother: A typo in my great-uncle’s obituary held the key to understanding him.
From Wally, and it's McSweeney's at its finest: The Deleted Sex Scene from Pride and Prejudice. The least-likely thing I'd ever do: A $600 Suckling Pig? Wagyu for All? On Menus, It’s a New Gilded Age. This is definitely not good: Five states have 'very high' flu activity. See what it's like in your state. This is on the nose: New Felapton Towers Contract for Authors. I have no explanation: Cats adjust their communication strategy by meowing more when greeting men.
From D.G.F., and no one seems to be able to stop anything in this country: 104 murders in 107 days.
From Chris M., and The Onion nailed it: American Classmates Having Difficulty Understanding Better Educated Foreign Exchange Student.
Never Changes
Eli 24.4 and I compete in every way. Happily.
Quite a few are past me now, particularly the physical ones, but we still have the reading challenges and videogames to compete on equal footing.
Today we played College Football 26, both picking bad, bad teams.
I scored on fourth down in the last minute of regulation, making it into the end zone by (at most) an inch. He had a field goal on the last play to win--and I blocked it. I scored on a screen pass on fourth down in overtime after weaving my way through four defenders. Eli had a two-point conversion later to win, but his receiver was stopped cold an inch (again) from the goal line.
In quadruple overtime, my receiver fumbled (stupid CPU player). Eli celebrated because he only needed a field goal to win. On his second play, he forgot the play he called (and you don't see the play art when you're playing another human player).
That was his first mistake the entire game.
Oh, wait, he was about to score in the third quarter and started high-stepping--and went out of bounds at the two. We both laughed so hard we couldn't breathe.
All right, back to overtime. He starts fading back to buy time so he can figure out what his receivers are doing. One of my defensive linemen--who have been absolutely useless all game--hits him right when he throws the ball, and it sails into the air like a wounded duck.
One of my players catches it.
Not one of my fast players. My team is so bad there aren't any fast players, but this guy is a turtle. He's not as fast as the tight end chasing him, but just fast enough to return the interception for two points to end the game.
39-37 in quadruple overtime.
The only thing we've ever done in videogames that's better is the NHL 09 championship where we swapped off playing as Sidney Crosby. Old heads will remember that series of posts.
It's what made Eli interested in playing hockey.
The View of Art
There was a digital installation in the MOMA that was composed of multiple screens. The primary screen, though, took up most of a sizable wall (in a room with high ceilings), and the image changed over time. There was also a bank of floor beanbags in a line where you could lie down and watch the image.
The beanbags put your in much more of a horizontal position, and I was beat, so I got into one and relaxed. About thirty seconds later, I noticed a curious effect. When I'm looking at a painting, I'm not moving, but I am standing.
If I'm lying down, though, I'm still. My eyes are still, and my body is still.
My brain started processing every single minor detail in the image, many of which I'd missed when I was standing. A charcoal grill. A trash can, with pieces of trash around it. Tiny flares from gas rigs in the distance.
Being still made the viewing experience entirely different in a way I never expected. Eli 24.4 talks about ideal viewing distances for art, but this was ideal orientation.
Calder's Circus
We went to the MOMA and the Whitney today and I'm completely beat.
We did see some very special work, though, including something I'd never heard of before: Calder's Circus. Seeing this in person was astonishing. It was like stepping into a magical little world you didn't know existed.
I'll have more tomorrow. Right now, I need a long gather step.
Just a Quick Question at Halftime of the Miami-A&M Game
If neither of these teams scores before December 31st, when the next round of the playoffs starts, then who plays Ohio St.?
Friday Links!
A stunning story: Katie’s story: Frontotemporal dementia is rare and ruthless. When it robbed Katie of her husband at 33, his story became her life’s work.
Fascinating: A life in Zen: Growing up in countercultural California, ‘enlightenment’ had real glamour. But decades of practice have changed my mind.
This driving test has been infamous for decades: He Wants a New Start. So He Is Taking the Hardest Driving Test: in the World. In a world of GPS and car-hailing apps, some Londoners still want to drive a traditional black cab. First, they must memorize thousands of city streets.
Excellent: The Strange Fate of Flight 2069.
An excellent explanation. Lost Vegas: Everyone inside America’s most flailing destination city has a theory for what’s wrong. Now I have my own.
From Chris M., and it's not easy being fashion forward: Chimps are sticking grass and sticks in their butts, seemingly as a fashion trend.
From Wally, and how on earth is Facebook still up so high? Google retains spot as world's most popular internet service, but AI is growing fast. This will come in handy: The Ultimate Best Books of 2025 List. Bizarre (Claude did decently, though): “AI”: A Dedicated Fact-Failing Machine, or, Yet Another Reason Not to Trust It For Anything. Wait, why isn't Die Hard on this list? The 8 Most Expensive Christmas Movies Of All Time. Still relatively sharp, too: Dick Van Dyke at 100: His Iconic Career In Photos From ‘Mary Poppins,’ ‘Chitty Chitty Bang Bang,’ and ‘Bye Bye Birdie’. This is terrific: Shelfies #66: James Logan. Somewhere out there is a parallel universe where I never bought that book, and my life probably looks very different. Certainly less fantastical.
Out of Gas
Me, that is.
I edited for 3+ hours today (almost 50 pages), walked seven miles, and swam 1,000 yards. The tank if officially empty.
Eli 24.4 is coming one day early (Saturday), and I'm scrambling to get the house ready. Oh, and after he comes to see us, he'll (in the next 4 weeks) be in Morocco (college roommate + family), Portugal (college roommate), and Switzerland (hockey pre-season training camp, even though they've been playing for two months). He comes back from Switzerland on a Sunday and term starts the next day.
No need to rest or anything. I'm tired just writing it down.
An Exchange
C was quite an academic during her career, and after she moved to Grand Rapids, she worked at Michigan St. (in a capacity I won't disclose). During her time there, she became increasingly disillusioned over the administration. She left because of this, and now (as her hype man) I slag on Michigan St. every chance I get.
We were talking about Eli 24.4s college experience.
"Oh yeah, Michigan has to be a top-five campus environment experience," I said. "Michigan St. is NOT in the top five."
"What is with lists?" she asked. "You have a weird obsession with lists."
"That's one of the ten worst things anyone has ever said to me," I replied.
That Statue, Explained
Thanks to Philip Y., who sent me a link: "Good Defeats Evil" (St. George and the Dragon) - Zurab Tsereteli (USSR - 1990).
If you think the dragon looks strange, it's because it's made from "shards" of two dismantled nuclear missiles, one from the U.S. and one from the former USSR.
We're in a less hopeful era now, but it's a beautiful and moving piece of art.
Pictures From Queens/NYC
You see all kinds of things around here. Like this:
I don't know if it's an old ambulance, or a delivery truck, but it's been around a long time.
Here's the holiday spirit but not too exuberant, given the location:
This next picture is the only one not from Queens--it was taken close to the United Nations building, I think. I can't remember who it represents and it's almost better that I don't because it's so bizarre:
This was on the back of a truck parked outside a Catholic church on my back from the grocery store.
C said it might be for
Las Posadas. It's hard to overstate how gleaming and beautiful it was in person (the photo doesn't do it justice).
[AI] DIsney
Well, this was inevitable: Disney strikes deal with OpenAI to let Sora generate AI videos of its characters.
The Walt Disney Co. announced Thursday that it had reached a three-year agreement with OpenAI to bring its popular characters to the company's Sora artificial intelligence video generator.
Disney will also make a $1 billion investment in the ChatGPT owner. The company said it will become a “major customer” of OpenAI, using its services to develop new products and experiences, including for its Disney+ streaming service.
“Under the agreement, Disney and OpenAI are affirming a shared commitment to the responsible use of AI that protects user safety and the rights of creators,” the companies said in a statement.
This might not be for the reasons you think. And I seriously doubt that Disney gives a damn about anything mentioned in the last paragraph. They just wanted to get paid.
AI companies have bottomless amounts of cash right now. They'll make the worst deal in the hopes that it will give them more momentum or market share. What Disney received in return wasn't disclosed, but I guarantee it was far, far too much.
This is the continuance of a cycle where AI companies massively overpay for everything and other companies let them. It's so strikingly similar to the late nineties when Internet commerce were bottomless wells of cash and paid massive amounts of money for everything.
Every non-AI company will siphon off as much money as they can before the bubble bursts, and when it does, it will be spectacular. This is not to say that companies the size of Google and Amazon won't emerge in the AI space, because they absolutely will. But there will be a massive reduction in the number of companies when they money starts to run out. And it will.
I Mean, This Is Everything You Need to Know
Even cats like the Golden Girls.
Zimbabwe (2)
These are Eli 24.4s post-race souvenirs:
That race number, in particular, is special.
Here's another souvenir:
These aren't so good, at least for now. And that 10-mile downhill to the finish cost him several toenails.
I sent him this:
That's supposed to be a dog. It was unsuccessful. But mine look pretty great in comparison.
Zimbabwe, Manhattan, and the Great Adventure
"Dad, I have good news and bad news." The connection is terrible. All kinds of chaos in the background. Happy chaos.
I start laughing. "I already know the bad news."
"The good news is I finished ninth and I was the first non-Zimbabwean. The bad news is I only got 59,000 steps. I'm sure I'll get another thousand, but I need you to do 40,000."
"Not a team player," I said. He laughed.
Earlier in the week, he sent me this picture from a training run:
Just your totally normal normal giraffe encounter. He also sent a short video of zebras running across the trail in front of him.
Zimbabwe was familiar--at least in terrain--because he'd spent so much time in Zambia. And the weather was perfect--low sixties, which was incredibly cool for this time of year.
Climbing up the tallest mountain in the country, though, about five hours in, it started pouring.
He climbed for the first twenty-five miles of the race, then got it all back in the last ten, but at such a steep angle that he said it was the worst part of the race, by far.
C and I had walked about 15,000 steps already when I got his call. I'd been mentally preparing myself for the possibility, though, so I wasn't entirely surprised by his number.
We'd already walked around Central Park, so we kept going.
The first 30,000 steps weren't bad at all. And C stayed with me for 17.5 miles, which was genuinely incredible. She already had more than 40,000 steps at that point because she's almost a foot shorter than I am. I was only at about 35,000, though.
Those last two and half miles were very very tough. It's easy to say, "All I need to do is keep walking," but it still gets hard.
His kids will have come catching up to do. More tomorrow.
The SkyRun 56k
Everything's a go in Zimbabwe. And here.
Eli 24.4 starts at 4 a.m. Saturday morning. All the races of various distance start at the same time, which is great, because he'll have fewer stretches by himself. He'll be greeted by excellent weather except for a significant chance of rain. He'll already have been running for eight hours (at least) by the time I start, and I got lucky. The weather here will be cold but entirely tolerable.
I don't really know how this will go. If he doesn't get the 70,000 steps he expects, I may be in big trouble, because I'm not sure I can put in more than 30,000.
It's just walking, though. All I have to do is keep walking.
The Headington Shark: Late-Breaking News
David Gloier let me know that the shark has actually been in that house since 1986. Incredible!
The
Wikipedia entry has lots of interesting information. Oh, and its length? 25 feet.
Oxford (3): The Headington Shark
You find the funniest things in the strangest places, sometimes.
We had a long discussion at a pub on graduation night about the Headington Shark. In Headington (only a few miles from Oxford), a man decided--for unknown reasons--to put a fake gigantic shark through his roof.
None of that was a typo.
The city council fought him on it for 5+ years and finally gave up. Which is how the shark now has a permanent residence in Headington.
The discussion (with three of Eli's friends) was long and complex. The neighbors must all hate it, we agreed, but what could they do about it? I suggested they put animals through their own roofs (a giraffe, for example) in hopes of driving down the shark's novelty. We went into such detail that it almost approached Shaq v Gorilla complexity.
The next morning, Eli 24.4 was running 30k as part of his Zimbabwe training program. I felt quite ill, but couldn't stand the thought of being in the room for hours while he was running, so I decided to go see the shark. About six miles, round trip.
Less than a quarter mile from Nuffield, I passed a prison nearly a thousand years old, which had tours prominently advertised. In fact, I could go in and see one in ten minutes.
Let's see. Thousand year old prison, full of history and unforgettable lore? Or a shark through a roof?
It was an easy choice. Off to Headington.
What they don't tell you about Headington, though, is there's not much else to see in Headington. Not the part I was in, at least. And once you've walked nearly three miles to see a shark, and you look at it for thirty seconds, there isn't much to do except turn around and go back.
That thirty seconds, though, was glorious:
That's not a small shark, as you can clearly see. I both felt awe at the sheer zany stupidity of it all and tremendous empathy for the neighbors who have to put up with it.
Greatness, as always, has its costs.
Oxford (2)
Oxford is a remarkable place, particularly on or near campus. You're in the company of so many highly intelligent, hilarious people, and every conversation is interesting (a detailed discussion of the Headington Shark--which I'll tell you about tomorrow--followed by a deeply philosophical discussion of advanced directives, for example). It's totally unique.
The Harry Potter tourists that blanket the shops around campus are neither amazing nor unique. That part isn't so great, and Eli 24.4 said it was a light time for tourists (who were absolutely everywhere). He said you can't even walk on the sidewalks in summer.
One of the things that consistently happens near campus is seeing something that you'd literally never see anywhere else. Like this:
The person on the right is walking down the street holding a scepter. Business as usual here.
Plus, there's the architecture:
The buildings are centuries old and look like something out of the seventeenth century (or sooner) because many of them are. It's utterly memorable.
Everywhere we went, Eli was welcomed as a friend. Teachers, administrators, friends, even places like coffee shops or retail shops he frequents. He's filled his life with healthy, friendly, warm people. It made me so happy to see. He said once that Oxford was the place where he felt like he most belonged, and I understand why now.
Oxford (1)
Sorry, it took me a while to get to this because I've been sick.
I can hardly keep up with Eli 24.4--he sent me pictures yesterday from a trail run where there were giraffes and zebras--but let's go back to Oxford first.
I've shown this before, but this is the theatre (the Sheldonian, designed by Christopher Wren, built 1664-1669) where the ceremony was held:
Waiting in line, seeing all the people in line to celebrate their kids (now adults), I started tearing up. Everyone seemed to have two parents and grandparents and siblings, and Eli had...me. I felt so bad that Gloria wasn't there, too. She deserved to be there.
This is the inside of The Sheldonian:
It's shockingly beautiful. Hard to comprehend, really.
Eli walked in, saw me, and waved with a big smile on his face.
This graduation ceremony was first performed over eight centuries ago, and the only change has been the addition of a presenter explaining why most of the ceremony is in Latin and why there's so much doffing of caps (it's done as a sign of respect).
I did everything I could to not start crying, even though I was tearing up quite a bit (later, Eli told me he'd been doing the same). The arc of his life is hard for me to fathom in moments like this. He's so young, but what a life he's already had.
Here we are after the ceremony.
I don't think either one of us could have been any happier.
