PicoBlog

On February 3rd, 2016 a cartoon was published on Facebook featuring one person clamping another person’s mouth shut and saying, “Let people enjoy things.” This phrase has since become a wide-ranging rallying call that at its best urges people to be less snarky and at its worst tries to erase any and all criticism. When “Let people enjoy things” refers to innocuous things like drinking pumpkin spice lattes or doing Fortnite dances it’s doing good.

For those who love (and fear!) living in the in-between. We’re chipping away at the very-human mind clutter, transforming it into action, into the body, and into these weekly letters. Poems, lists, audio, musings on food, pleasure, pain, and seasons. No thanksncG1vNJzZmijka65prXGoamupJyav2%2B%2F1JuqrZmToHuku8xo

Online speculation surrounding the Shriver - Schwarzenegger family has been mounting due to a viral TikTok series detailing claims of a cover-up stemming from a 2015 crime. The felonies — violent acts committed by the long-term partner of Arnold and Maria's youngest daughter, Christina Schwarzenegger, are resurfacing after a failure to pay the victims their court-appointed payout of nearly $40 million.  Allegations of nepotism and corruption have continued to build, with Christina skipping her most recent deposition just last week, seemingly without penalty.

This Miami Dolphins regime sure loves turning over stones. Some come via the waiver wire; such as defensive lineman Zach Sieler. Others come via the undrafted free agency frenzy. Miami has successfully nailed down a few successful defensive backs in Kader Kohou and Nik Needham in such a fashion. Special teams standout Elijah Campbell? Waivers. Promising young offensive tackle Kion Smith? Waivers. Second-year tight end Julian Hill was one of three undrafted players to make Miami’s opening day roster in 2023; joining DL Brandon Pili and RB Chris Brooks.

Get 60 day free trial “There are no unsacred places; there are only sacred places and desecrated places.” — Wendell Berry Regular readers of this newsletter know that I sometimes post travel essays, under the heading “Spirit of Place” (a phrase I stole from Lawrence Durrell’s great collection of travel pieces with that title.) Generally they are about places where people might want to go. This post introduces a new category, “Dispirited Place,” where people probably don’t want to go.

Dear Readers, I found  this post on another RV group page and thought it was an important reminder…. I went to winterize the trailer (sadness) and decided to get a jump on draining the hot water tank before I even hooked the power. Well, you guessed it. I didn’t follow my normal winterizing routine and simply flip the little on/off switch to off in the hot water tank. The switch was left on in the trailer, which I usually always turn off at the end of any trip.

Dogs can’t talk In Hallucinating Your Inner Trans-Reptile, I talked about how brains can trick us when they try to create a coherent reality out of random sensory information. One of those tricks is ‘hearing’ voices in ambiguous sounds. If you’ve ever watched those ‘talking’ dog videos on YouTube, you know what I mean. Of course, there’s no harm in thinking that your dog can talk. It’s kind of fun. But, when scientists hear voices, it can get a little weird… and change a lot of people’s lives… forever.

Georgetown junior wing Dontrez Styles has decided to enter the transfer portal, according to Joe Tipton of On3 Sports. After transferring from North Carolina, Styles averaged 12.8 points and 5.8 rebounds per game in his lone season at Georgetown. The 6-foot-6 junior will have one year of eligibility remaining. Styles got off to a strong start last season as a Hoya, scoring 20+ points in three of his first six games.

It would’ve felt unnatural to review these books separately. While the stories are different and they’re not formally related, they go hand in hand. Naturally, Asajj Ventress being Count Dooku’s apprentice makes for an easy connection between the two. Dooku: Jedi Lost is a fun, easy read. The script format of the book ends up better than expected. For better and worse, it doesn’t allow the descriptive world building that other Star Wars novels include.