big week for the humble gavia* in popular culture *loon cry sound effect in Heated Rivalry finale

if you head over to the main Overinvested feed, you can find a new episode on Stanley Kubrick's The Shining! merry christmas one and all, a very festive choice for midwinter viewing.

*at a christmas party* oh Rudolph is your favorite reindeer? That’s cool yeah yeah he’s pretty great *in reindeer chat* BlitzenBoy92: at the work thinh. take a guess DonnerTime: buncha dolphies? VixenLover: fuckin lame bro just keep ur cool change the subject The Dasher Enjoyer: thinh

if you head over to the main Overinvested feed, you can find a new episode on Stanley Kubrick's The Shining! merry christmas one and all, a very festive choice for midwinter viewing.

not to pile on here, but to my knowledge no actual NHL players have publicly acknowledged Heated Rivalry, and the NHL itself only namechecked it this week because the show has noticeably led new fans to buy tickets. I kind of doubt it's moving the needle in terms of ingrained cultural homophobia.

Every six months some guy says he’s figured out who the Zodiac Killer was and the answer is always the same: he was some guy

Overinvested's latest Patreon episode is up now! Morgan and I recommend a diverse array of books we've enjoyed this year: www.patreon.com/posts/correc...

as a note for anyone currently buying last-minute Christmas gifts: I have you beat because I forgot and/or delayed getting birthday presents for all but one of my closest friends this year, so they're all just getting them at once on January 1st 2026.

so sleep deprived that I just thought to myself "i'm plumbing new vistas of sleep deprivation." how tha fuck do u plumb a vista.

as the person at the centre of the experimental music/heated rivalry venn diagram i have to interview connor storrie about his industrial electronic music in 2026 i am so so serious

Overinvested's latest Patreon episode is up now! Morgan and I recommend a diverse array of books we've enjoyed this year: www.patreon.com/posts/correc...

happy solstice from our family to yours

Merry Christmas to the two high vis clad lads sitting in their work van, blasting Wonderful Christmas time & passing a whole huge panettone back & forth, taking bites out of it as if it was a big burger

As told by the late dancer and choreographer Agnes DeMille.

Heated Rivalry really did arrive at the best possible time, both for the culture in general (the world is miserable and we all need some love and joy in our lives) and for me in particular (irl hockey team careening down the standings in a seven-game losing streak).

when I watched this week's Heated Rivalry, I levitated three feet in the air and my eyes glowed gold and my veins were coursing with liquid fire.

committing a monstrous crime (sending work emails to strangers on the friday before christmas)

one thing that is important to know is that BIRTH OF A NATION is so racist that people at the *time*, in 1915, were like, “holy shit this is racist”

when I watched this week's Heated Rivalry, I levitated three feet in the air and my eyes glowed gold and my veins were coursing with liquid fire.

ICYMI:

the whole "our politics are so DIVIDED because left and right-wing people don't talk to each other!!" thing is obviously a bunch of bullshit, but it's also tellingly predicated on a total ignorance of Normal Jobs, the #1 place where you have to chat every day with people who don't share your views.

as I said to gav literally what is the point of overinvested if we don’t do a heated rivalry ep

For generations people “cut off” parents by moving away and mailing them a card once a year. Travel and long distance phone calls were expensive; distance effectively cut people off w/o being so explicit. The difference now is that communication is cheap so cutting them off requires being explicit.

okay, ignore the Overinvested schedule I posted a minute ago, because Claire and I have decided it is ABSOLUTELY IMPERATIVE that we record an episode on Heated Rivalry.

late to the party, but The People's Joker is SO funny and clever and original. idk the international streaming situation, but in the UK you can rent it straight from the the distributor's website. watch.eventive.org/matchboxcine

listening to a podcast interview with a canadian hockey player, one of the most inexpressive and monotone-voiced demographics on earth, and recalling again the absurdity of this complaint.

For @jezebeldotcom.bsky.social, on the event of her birthday, I wrote about why Jane Austen has endured so long and so strongly: www.jezebel.com/happy-birthd...

Amazing how many articles are just “I’m a white guy who didn’t get the promotion I wanted and the only answer to this problem that concerns every single one of us is to re-segregate the workplace”

It is 2025, and there are 3 fan culture stories you can write in the mainstream media: 1. Politics Kinda *Is* Fandom, Amirite??? 2. 101 Reasons I 🖤 Dramione 3. Why Do "Straight Women" Love This Gay Show? We Asked The Showrunner, The Actors, and Someone Who Works at a Dating App to Take a Guess

Any publisher that does not see the value of human translation and localisation should do the world a favour and get out of the publishing business.

Hey romancelandia and fandom peeps! If you live in the U.S. right now you should know that KOSA (along with a slew of censorship bills) are advancing through congress right now. If you care about spicy books and/or fanfiction you should contact your reps right now and tell them to vote NO on KOSA!

Merriam-Webster’s human editors have chosen ‘slop’ as the 2025 Word of the Year.

Marty Supreme ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Rob Reiner was a good guy. He made a lot of movies about good guys, in worlds where not everyone was good and you didn’t have to be good. He made movies about people trying. He was angry, as many hopeful people are. He knew the world could be better and he wanted it to be. His death is devastating.

The cultural impact of Rob Reiner cannot be understated. Legend isn't big enough a word. It goes to 11. You can't handle the truth. As you wish. I'll have what she's having. I'm your number one fan. You guys wanna see a dead body? The very idea of a bucket list. The West Wing. All from his movies.

insanely good thing to say when you enter a room

Out now on Overinvested: Our very enthusiastic review of PREDATOR: BADLANDS, a crowd-pleasing adventure story that revamps the Predator formula and offers a masterclass in practical/CGI hybrid effects. www.overinvestedpodcast.com/episodes/pre...

my favorite thing about the benoit blanc movies is that they aren't really about benoit blanc. he is not grappling with demons from his past. we are not getting flashbacks to the husband whose murder he never solved. he just shows up and does his job like mary poppins for homicides

"pent up demand for rail options" also explains much of the success of Heated Rivalry

I wrote about the narrative importance of the sex scenes in Heated Rivalry, how this reflects the magic of romance novel storytelling, and how the plot is fuelled by a genuinely bleak view of homophobia in hockey culture. (Spoilers for ep 4!)

okay I guess I will grudgingly accept this because they just swapped him for another statistically unstable goalie

Some excellent close reading here by Gav — I often wonder how much of the insidious cultural homophobia portrayed in HR escapes viewers who are straight and/or have minimal knowledge of the insular world of elite ice hockey, especially in North America.

the NYC team’s logo is just a big vertical protruding Empire State Building

oh my god HOW did I fail to notice the logos

After weeks of work and life conspiring against me, I finally wrote about #HeatedRivalry Episode 4, what criticisms of the show's sex scenes are overlooking, and why one moment in particular is more about what goes unspoken between Shane and Ilya. Call it a scene analysis!

I wrote about the narrative importance of the sex scenes in Heated Rivalry, how this reflects the magic of romance novel storytelling, and how the plot is fuelled by a genuinely bleak view of homophobia in hockey culture. (Spoilers for ep 4!)

Kilmar Abrego Garcia, an ordinary man, has defeated the great might of the US Government

just checked the timeline on this: prince andrew was permitted to visit the HP set *the same week* that natalie dormer, horrified by the epstein emails, donated her entire salary from playing prince andrew's ex-wife fergie. like, this was a peak period for the scandal.

Man i love how crazy this is like this is the extreme absurd answer to who would be the worst person to invite to the set of your kids show just chefs kiss no sense allowed on the production under jkr a whole show made in a reality warped bubble