‘Tis the season to hang your Xmas lights—and, for many people, to hang one strand backwards and instead of pulling it down, head to the hardware store in search of an “adapter” that is colloquially referred to as a “suicide cable.”
DO NOT DO THIS!
I’m not kidding around. If you don’t kill yourself with such a arrangment, you can easily kill some hapless person who stumbles across your work later.
I wrote this essay a few years back, as a little bonus for the folks kind enough to have subscribed to my newsletter. A good friend, Chris Salzman, was gracious enough to make something pretty of it. I relish the opportunity to reshare it each year, and I’m doing so once again. Every word here is both true and factual—which is a harder trick than you’d think.
You’ll be 15 minutes into that Lesser Family Feast in Michigan when your mother-in-law will turn to you and ask:
“What do Jews do on Thanksgiving?”
You should be prepared for this sort of thing in Michigan. But even though I’m warning you in advance, you still won’t be prepared.…
(read more: IN MICHIGAN: A PRIMER, A TRAVELOGUE)
THANKSGIVING TURKEY GIVEAWAY! (WKRP in Cincinnati) from Tony DeSanto on Vimeo.
I repost this every year, because I love this gag, and because watching this on TV—and rehashing it with my mom and sisters each year—is one of my fondest holiday memories. But it is, in my humble, a damn-near perfect gag. That’s saying something, because I find single-camera laugh-track situation comedies almost entirely unbearable to watch. If you wanna read more of my thoughts on this specific gag and what it can teach writers, you can do so here.)
I’m a child of the 1980s, so most of my nostalgic holiday memories are TV-related. 🤷♀️
I hope your T-day is good and sweet. Gobblegobble! 🦃💀
These aren’t always great and I don’t agree with everyone he features (in fact, I super-duper disagree with ever listening to some of these nutbags). But Rubin is a always a wonderful and honest interviewer, so the episodes are often quite revelatory about art and human thinking (at the very least).
This one with Rory Sutherland is quite good and worth your time (even at 3 hours!)
I also really like the two-parter with Tyler Cowen. The first half is also on YouTube (embedded below) while the second isn’t (maybe because of copyright? It’s dedicated to Cowen talking about and offering samples of music he finds interesting and is available here):
VERDICT: Extremely interesting, and honestly worth the time, despite extreme length.
We are facing a lot of terrifying problems right now: climate disaster, civil unrest, labor injustice, opioid abuse, the profusion of hate and extremism.
Most problems cannot be solved by throwing money at them. Medical debt is one that can.
I’m collaborating on a project to erase $1 million of medical debt in Michigan.
Fortunately, because of the way this debt is bundled, it’s possible to buy it extremely cheaply on the open market, for just a penny on the dollar (i.e., $1 buys $100 of bundled medical debt). If bill collectors buy that debt, they will hound the debtor for the full value of the debt, even though they only paid 1/100th of that.
But if we buy the debt, we can just forgive it and clear the books for someone who had some bad luck and didn’t have the insurance to cover it.
Incidentally, in Michigan this burden hits Black communities especially hard; buying and erasing debt here is thus a “Good Deed twofer”: one donation relieves a family’s economic woes AND strikes a blow for racial and economic justice.
A bunch of you have already given (we’re over 76% of the way to our goal!), and that’s amaaaaazing! The more you give, the more we can forgive. THANK YOU!
Washington Post: “Play it again, Sam: Inside Bankman-Fried’s last year in the crypto game” by Michael Lewis (gift link 🎁)
Before I listened to this, I had no opinion of SBF, apart from the assumption he was yet another contemptibly oblivious man-child “genius” (and mild embarrassment that he’s a Jew, like me).
When I started listening to this, my contempt was swiftly confirmed. But man, by the end, I was goddamned compelled. Fuck you, Michael Lewis; you win again.
I’ve always loved this “jargon” gag (is that Chris Hanson‽)
… but never knew it was actually a cover! (BONUS: The original has a fun Detroit connect—as does Chris Hanson!!!) Here’s the original:
From the original creator:
I shot this in the late 70’s at Regan Studios in Detroit on 16mm film. The narrator and writer is Bud Haggert. He was the top voice-over talent on technical films. He wrote the script because he rarely understood the technical copy he was asked to read and felt he shouldn’t be alone. We had just finished a production for GMC Trucks and Bud asked since this was the perfect setting could we film his Turbo Encabulator script. He was using an audio prompter referred to as “the ear”. He was actually the pioneer of the ear. He was to deliver a live speech without a prompter. After struggling in his hotel room trying to commit to memory he went to plan B. He recorded it to a large Wollensak reel to reel recorder and placed it in the bottom of the podium. With a wired earplug he used it for the speech and the “ear” was invented. Today every on-camera spokesperson uses a variation of Bud’s innovation. Dave Rondot (me) was the director and John Choate was the DP on this production. The first laugh at the end is mine. My hat’s off to Bud a true talent.
Incidentally, I’m not 100% convinced that the infamous EPCM PSP “Turnaround” video is not simply an ornate “jargon” gag. Straight talk: she is waaaaay too amused by scheduled off-stream events in industrial processing plants. Feels like a set-up.
Full and uncut, courtesy of our friends at the Internet Archive!
Incidentally, nothing profound here, but I’d totally forgotten what a Jewish movie this is (I sorta love Jack more than anything else in this movie).
(More on Jews and werewolves.)
An American Werewolf In London : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming
Another fun one from Full Body Chills: https://overcast.fm/+UwDdJvRpE
“Projection” by David Flowers
This is a fun one, worth a listen: https://overcast.fm/+UwDcDCP0M
“Delivery” by John Reiner
This is basically what you’d get if Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s “The Red-Headed League” had been an [Adult Swim] infomercial.
