I read the book. It's all downhill from here.

Vichy Democrats.

my thoughts on the MacKenzie Gore trade, which sent 2025 first-round pick Gavin Fien from Texas to Washington, for subscribers to @theathletic.com: www.nytimes.com/athletic/699...

while we wait for my Gore trade writeup to go live, here's my review at @avclub.com of Gingham, a game of ants invading a picnic that turns into a tense fight for area control as the game nears its end: www.avclub.com/gingham-boar...

F1? more like Ctrl-Z

I think the Brewers did pretty well in the Peralta deal, maybe even better than they did in the Burnes trade: www.nytimes.com/athletic/699...

Trump did say he removed tariffs on exports from Johnny Gill, however.

we have multiple major sports leagues heading for a huge hassle, at least, because they have teams on both sides of this border, all for no good reason whatsoever

just to be clear, it was also a 100 percent certainty before the Tucker signing, as the owners have pushed for one in every CBA negotiation for over 30 years

The BBWAA put the strikebreaker Bill Madden, who wrote this absolutely bonkers paragraph, in the Hall of Fame via the Career Excellence Award.

so when you see me come up, freeze or you’ll be one of those 7 MPs

A new study from the Kiel Institute finds that Americans have paid 96% of the costs of Trump's tariffs. They titled the report "America's Own Goal." www.kielinstitut.de/publications...

mad king moment from the PBS Newshour correspondent

I’m sorry the pundits told me this app was dead

Not just an influencer. He's a January 6th insurrectionist, made Nazi salutes and threw chocolate coins at AIPAC headquarters just two weeks ago, peddles Great Replacement Theory, and is running for Senate in Florida.

The inspiration for the Assassin's Creed games and one of the clans in Vampire: the Masquerade, Vladimir Bartol's novel Alamut draws on actual history for a story about fanaticism, manipulation, and martyrdom. My review: meadowparty.com/blog/2026/01...

I wrote up tonight’s big transaction - the three-team trade involving the Rays, Reds, and Angels, of course: www.nytimes.com/athletic/697...

the 'free speech' people aren't so much with the First Amendment after all

some thoughts on the Yankees-Marlins trade, a sort of Ryan Weathers forecast, you might say, for subscribers to @theathletic.com: www.nytimes.com/athletic/696...

the two-player game Iliad, from the master designer Reiner Knizia, was one of my top games of 2025, with a Samurai-ish vibe played on 6x6 board that is all about setting your endgame. my review for @avclub.com: www.avclub.com/iliad-board-...

obvious move is obvious

my notes on pitcher Jack Martinez, going to the Cardinals in the Arenado trade, are in this @katiejwoo.bsky.social story on the deal: www.nytimes.com/athletic/682...

the official app of sports™

every day, into college. Sports section, then comics. Bloom County, Far Side, later Calvin & Hobbes, Non Sequitur, and, yes, Dilbert.

Condé Nast forgot to renew the trademark for Gourmet and so a group of journalists grabbed it and are relaunching the food magazine as a worker-owned co-op. Love it. [gourmetmagazine.net]

no Democrat should vote to fund any of this ever again

fitting for the Eagles’ season to end with a profoundly stupid play call

my thoughts on the Cubs’ signing of Alex Bregman, their infield surplus, and what the Red Sox should do next are now up for subscribers to @theathletic.com: www.nytimes.com/athletic/696...

did the bears hire Tony La russa

Emily Oster is another victim of pundit brain and has never recovered

of course Matt Stafford has more fourth quarter game-winning drives than any other active QB, he's 57 years old

one of the architects of the Harper’s letter that was ostensibly about “free speech” now thinks some speech is bad.

i am SHOCKED that an MLB team President agrees with the MLB Commissioner about an idea that would help teams at the expense of the players. Utterly gobsmacked.

my roundups return today, with links to stories on the search for a school swatter, the heresies of JD Vance, labor abuses at a Nebraska factory, Presidential pardons for sale, the rising cost of anti-vaccine idiocy, the KC Chiefs' stadium scam, & more: meadowparty.com/blog/2026/01...

the author of that excellent editorial, John Grosso, is also here on Bluesky, the official app of sports™: @jtgrosso.bsky.social

went to my first Flyers game last night and was surprised to see that their power play tactics were designed by Kevin Patullo

Williams is 76 years old. He can scold the youths from a retirement home, not congress.

Job growth has stopped (and may even be in decline). It stopped right around "Liberation Day."

“A social media video shows a uniformed DHS officer kicking over a candle at a memorial set up for Renee Nicole Good, who was fatally shot by an ICE agent in Minneapolis.” "The officer in the video told a protester who confronted him, ‘I don't give a f—.’” people.com/dhs-officer-...

ESPN chose to make Smith their highest-paid employee at the cost of many talented journalists, editors, & others

First Class Letters is a new word-building party game where you're crafting one word per round, trying to avoid one letter while using three others as much as possible. I ultimately didn't think it was worth the price of the postage. My review: meadowparty.com/blog/2026/01...

my thoughts on the Cubs' trade for Edward Cabrera, with a modest package of prospects going back to the Marlins, for subscribers to @theathletic.com: www.nytimes.com/athletic/695...

amen to this.

shutting down a 100-year-old newspaper (with roots dating to the 1700s!) rather than pay fair wages and engage in fair labor practices

begging any elected Democrats to hire someone under the age of 70 to do their social media

beat me to it

"acquire?" wtf is this garbage headline?

my latest review for @avclub.com covers the bee-themed board game Propolis, a small-box engine-builder with lots of great ideas - and pieces called 'beeples' - but that might have too many workers for its hive: www.avclub.com/propolis-boa...

there are too many possible values for the variable "situation" in this equation