Just joshing you a little. I also lost big time on the Bengals in the Super Bowl last year, so instead of being up $600 I’m at square one to start the new season.
I've disageed - how much depends on when you ask me - with much of Barbara Ehrenreich's positions, but I will always celebrate writers and thinkers who are clear and transparent in what they believe and articulate in explaining it to others. We need so much more of her kind of activism.
Hey Freddie, would you consider doing an explainer piece about sport betting, odds, and what the different numbers mean? I've never followed any sports but have been curious what the various terms mean when they're peppered into writing and conversations. Over. Under. Spread. Points. What does Buffalo Bills (-2.5) tell me?
There's a new YouTube channel called American Resiliency, essentially doing predictions by a climate scientist for how various parts of the US will change over the next few decades. I watched her take on Nevada recently, and she advised residents to leave if at all possible, because there just isn't going to be enough water.
Cadillac Desert is epic history. If more Americans- particularly those in corridors of power, influence and high status- read books like this one in the years after it was first published and heeded its lessons, perhaps they would have taken the measures to ward off of the inertial consequences of just rolling on heedlessly down the same road. And- to name one possible consequence of exercising some foresight in this realm of public policy, the states of California, Nevada, Colorado, and Arizona wouldn't be in the jam they're in right now. (After all, Reisner was telling anyone who would listen about the eventual fate of Lake Mead thirty-six years ago. But the "listening" part is the other half of that equation.)
I've just been reading a book that works neatly as a complement to Cadillac Desert. Legacy Of Conquest, by Patricia Nelson Limerick, published the year after Cadillac Desert came out, in 1987. (Thirty-five years ago.) Not quite the sweep of Marc Reisner's book, but the scholarship is formidable. Chapter Three, "Denial And Dependency", is worth the price of the book all by itself. There's some serious historical perspective to be obtained in that content; it's a myth-buster.
You might also want to go back in time and read Wallace Stegner "Beyond the 100th Meridian" (1953). Initially about the exploits of John Wesley Powell, but ultimately an indictment of the way the West was developed as it was just beginning.
I've been a relative latecomer to your corpus, Freddie, so the "From The Archives" posts in the Digests continue to be first-experience delights. Can see what all the hype was about. I wish I'd subscribed sooner; reading stuff from you, and other highly-talented writers like Matthew Yglesias, makes me feel pretty bad about so many years of my life pissed away reading __The New Republic__-grade garbage. Opportunity costs: one doesn't know how bad the bad shit is, until after experiencing the good shit. Thank you for brightening my reading-life.
To be fair - you did see the loss in subscribers coming. It's the result of your tack towards more censorship not too long ago. You were not strong enough to maintain the integrity of your initial goal of protecting free expression, and you are too paranoid about the professional consequences of being perceived by losers on twitter as someone who associates with transphobes.
You had the best argument possible at the beginning - censoring these things only makes others blind to the reality that there are many people who really, truly hold such views. I hope one day you remember the strength of that argument and relent a bit on your censorship, but I'll remain a subscriber regardless due to the quality of your writing.
Meh. It was one topic that Freddie said he didn't want to explore but kept coming up in the comments, regardless of the original topic. One can absolutely get their fix on it by reading Rod Dreher or Abigail Shrier.
I'm not interested in any such fix. It's just become clear that I'm not the only one who mourns the arrival of a more censorious approach to this blog.
I know Freddie mourns it too, as his comments from when he started that new approach and the vulnerable "you don't know me dad!!!" energy of his comment above both show. I have sympathy for his position but I still think he made the wrong choice for reasons I've already stated.
Given that he's essentially persona non grata in traditional media (unfortunately but hopefully only for now) and actively disparages many of those `losers on twitter', I interpreted his response as being directed towards your accusation that he's not allowing discussion on the topic because he's `paranoid about the professional consequences of being perceived by losers on twitter as someone who associates with transphobes' and not some vulnerable energy.
I know I'm supposed to read everything plus all the comments, as soon as possible, but I don't, and so would like the comments of the weeks to come with the names of the posts they commented on.
Welcome back, NFL picks! My annual league is doing its fantasy draft tonight. Also, I think this is the year the Bills break through and win it all.
Also, your interview with Coleman Hughes was great! Highly recommend.
Didn't even know it was out!
It is for CH sibscribers. Don't wanna brag, but I am one. You two are my only paid subs, so this interview was a magical moment.
😯 I don’t sub CH so no access for me yet but excited to listen once it goes public!
Not sure if I’m excited now that I also have the Bills -2.5 or worried.
Hey, like I said, I made $600 last year, mostly on $25 or $50 bets. I'm not comically bad at this or anything.
Just joshing you a little. I also lost big time on the Bengals in the Super Bowl last year, so instead of being up $600 I’m at square one to start the new season.
I've disageed - how much depends on when you ask me - with much of Barbara Ehrenreich's positions, but I will always celebrate writers and thinkers who are clear and transparent in what they believe and articulate in explaining it to others. We need so much more of her kind of activism.
Hey Freddie, would you consider doing an explainer piece about sport betting, odds, and what the different numbers mean? I've never followed any sports but have been curious what the various terms mean when they're peppered into writing and conversations. Over. Under. Spread. Points. What does Buffalo Bills (-2.5) tell me?
I will!
(If the Bills win by three points or more, I win. If the win by two or one or lose the game, I lose.)
So sad to see Ehrenreich go. RIP. That is all.
There's a new YouTube channel called American Resiliency, essentially doing predictions by a climate scientist for how various parts of the US will change over the next few decades. I watched her take on Nevada recently, and she advised residents to leave if at all possible, because there just isn't going to be enough water.
That Kishi Bashi cover is unbelievable, so lovely, and was nice to be reminded of Byrne's genius.
"Hi yo we drift in and out
Hi yo sing into my mouth
Out of all those kinds of people
You got a face with a view."
"Sing into my mouth" and "Face with a view" -- the playful romance there, the love.
Cadillac Desert is epic history. If more Americans- particularly those in corridors of power, influence and high status- read books like this one in the years after it was first published and heeded its lessons, perhaps they would have taken the measures to ward off of the inertial consequences of just rolling on heedlessly down the same road. And- to name one possible consequence of exercising some foresight in this realm of public policy, the states of California, Nevada, Colorado, and Arizona wouldn't be in the jam they're in right now. (After all, Reisner was telling anyone who would listen about the eventual fate of Lake Mead thirty-six years ago. But the "listening" part is the other half of that equation.)
I've just been reading a book that works neatly as a complement to Cadillac Desert. Legacy Of Conquest, by Patricia Nelson Limerick, published the year after Cadillac Desert came out, in 1987. (Thirty-five years ago.) Not quite the sweep of Marc Reisner's book, but the scholarship is formidable. Chapter Three, "Denial And Dependency", is worth the price of the book all by itself. There's some serious historical perspective to be obtained in that content; it's a myth-buster.
You might also want to go back in time and read Wallace Stegner "Beyond the 100th Meridian" (1953). Initially about the exploits of John Wesley Powell, but ultimately an indictment of the way the West was developed as it was just beginning.
I've been a relative latecomer to your corpus, Freddie, so the "From The Archives" posts in the Digests continue to be first-experience delights. Can see what all the hype was about. I wish I'd subscribed sooner; reading stuff from you, and other highly-talented writers like Matthew Yglesias, makes me feel pretty bad about so many years of my life pissed away reading __The New Republic__-grade garbage. Opportunity costs: one doesn't know how bad the bad shit is, until after experiencing the good shit. Thank you for brightening my reading-life.
To be fair - you did see the loss in subscribers coming. It's the result of your tack towards more censorship not too long ago. You were not strong enough to maintain the integrity of your initial goal of protecting free expression, and you are too paranoid about the professional consequences of being perceived by losers on twitter as someone who associates with transphobes.
You had the best argument possible at the beginning - censoring these things only makes others blind to the reality that there are many people who really, truly hold such views. I hope one day you remember the strength of that argument and relent a bit on your censorship, but I'll remain a subscriber regardless due to the quality of your writing.
You know nothing about me
Meh. It was one topic that Freddie said he didn't want to explore but kept coming up in the comments, regardless of the original topic. One can absolutely get their fix on it by reading Rod Dreher or Abigail Shrier.
I'm not interested in any such fix. It's just become clear that I'm not the only one who mourns the arrival of a more censorious approach to this blog.
I know Freddie mourns it too, as his comments from when he started that new approach and the vulnerable "you don't know me dad!!!" energy of his comment above both show. I have sympathy for his position but I still think he made the wrong choice for reasons I've already stated.
Given that he's essentially persona non grata in traditional media (unfortunately but hopefully only for now) and actively disparages many of those `losers on twitter', I interpreted his response as being directed towards your accusation that he's not allowing discussion on the topic because he's `paranoid about the professional consequences of being perceived by losers on twitter as someone who associates with transphobes' and not some vulnerable energy.
I know I'm supposed to read everything plus all the comments, as soon as possible, but I don't, and so would like the comments of the weeks to come with the names of the posts they commented on.
If you click the link it takes you to the comment and thus the post