Big D Energy
LA's Blue Wave, America's U-haul Pass
The headline for this SF Giants fan should be that it's finally next season. But even watching a dreaded matchup between the Dodgers and Yankees provided a much-needed respite from election related stress. So I'm sorry to see the World Series end. But not as sorry as Yankees fans who saw their team on the verge of sending the series back to Chavez Ravine until a disastrous three mistake five run fifth inning in which they blew a 5-0 lead. Is there a silver lining to a Dodgers championship? Well, maybe. It's worth noting that the last time the Dodgers clinched a World Series was during the pandemic. Trump lost the election a week later. This gives new meaning to a blue wave.
+ "By overcoming a five-run deficit against one of the best pitchers on the planet. By using seven relievers -- one of them Buehler, a starter making his first relief appearance in six years -- to record 23 outs. By scratching and clawing and using every aspect of the roster to solidify a title that seemed inevitable in January and felt impossible at the start of October. 'Crazy,' Mookie Betts said after the 7-6 come-from-behind victory over the New York Yankees in Game 5. 'That's the definition of the 2024 Dodgers.'" (Not the word I'd use, but ok...) Dodgers defeat Yankees in World Series after Game 5 comeback.
+ "'It felt like nothing. I was just floating,' he said when asked to describe the sensation of hitting the first walk-off grand slam the World Series had ever seen." And he still hasn't come down. After setting a home-run record, the Dodgers' Freddie Freeman named World Series MVP.
+ This probably shouldn't come as a surprise given the meteoric rise of the WNBA and other women's sports. New women's professional baseball league set to launch in 2026.
+ And what's the point of a victory if it's not accompanied by a some looting and a burning bus. Pitchers and catchers report in February.
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Uhaul Pass
It's a lot easier to hate other people when you only have to interact with their caricatures. That's why our physical segregation is so brutal. And it's only getting worse. NYT Upshot(Gift Article) with some stats that could move one to tears: Millions of Movers Reveal American Polarization in Action. "These estimates, based on a New York Times analysis of detailed public voter registration records of more than 3.5 million Americans who moved since the last presidential election, offer a new and extraordinarily detailed glimpse into one of the ways that we segregate from each other — down to the street level."
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Drive Me Crazy
"Guns. Knives. Bats. Hammers. Hatchets. Spears." That's a pretty hardcore intro to an article about road rage. WaPo looks at the rage behind the rage. As incidents of road rage escalate across the country, aggressive drivers in Texas try to understand what triggers anger.
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Don't Sweat It
"If you suddenly feel as if you’re being inundated with ads for something called 'whole body deodorant,' you’re not alone. The personal care product, which is being advertised as a solution to sweat and body odor that can’t be controlled by traditional underarm deodorants, has exploded in popularity in 2024." Jessica Roy in the NYT (Gift Article) with "the answer to a problem people didn’t even know they have." Wait, Does Your Whole Body Need Deodorant? (Oddly, I have zero body odor even in places where I'm supposed to. The key is almost never moving.)
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Extra, Extra
Judicial Overhauling: "Eight justices of Mexico’s Supreme Court have said they will leave the court rather than stand for election as required by a controversial judicial overhaul passed last month." 8 of 11 members of Mexico’s Supreme Court to resign in protest of controversial judicial overhaul.
+ Hez Been: "People often voice fatigue in private, where they aren’t worried about being accused of siding with the enemy. But I even saw it on a few highway billboards. It’s Enough—We’re Tired, one of them read. Everyone in Lebanon knows what that means." The Atlantic (Gift Article): Hezbollah’s losses have led some in Lebanon to imagine a future without it. At the moment, it seems impossible to even imagine a ceasefire in the region. Hamas rejects proposal for 30-day Gaza ceasefire.
+ Hannibal Protector: Donald Trump vows to be protector of women 'whether they like it or not.' (Please, keep offending women for a few more days.)
+ Spain Floods: "The damage recalled the aftermath of a tsunami, with survivors left to pick up the pieces as they mourn their loved ones." Unprecedented flooding in Spain kills at least 158 people.
+ Let's Light This Up: Halloween could be even more lit than usual this year as it coincides with Diwali, the festival of lights and one of the most important events in the Hindu calendar.
+ Poll Positions: "The state polls are showing not just an astonishingly tight race, but also an improbably tight race. Even in a truly tied election, the randomness inherent in polling would generate more varied and less clustered results — unless the state polls and the polling averages are artificially close because of decisions pollsters are making." A lot of state poll results show ties. So are they tied because of voters — or pollsters?
+ A Blank Canvasser: This is probably the least dark element of Musk's campaign trickery. Musk’s get-out-the-vote workers didn’t know they were canvassing for Trump.
+ Fine Lines: "Not only does the figure eclipse Google’s $2 trillion market value, but it’s also far larger than the size of the entire global economy, which the International Monetary Fund puts at around $110 trillion — a figure with a mere 13 zeros." Russia fines Google more than the world's entire GDP. (Hopefully they can pay in installments.)
+ Croc Tuah: We're depending on the next generation to solve political polarization and climate change. But they can't even run in Crocs.
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Bottom of the News
A candy engineer explains the science behind the Snickers bar. (This could be the last science all Americans believe in.)
+ Outside: This Man Just Paddled 46 Miles in a Gigantic Pumpkin. (Don't lose faith. We can still find joy in stories about oversized orange things.)
The NY Times article about people moving to more politically similar places was very interesting. All those Californians moving to Texas and Arizona? Yeah, they’re not making it bluer.