We've been testing you, and you failed
Well, look at that. I managed to get this thing together for two straight weeks. I have a plan in place to be better about this newsletter. However, plans and I don’t really work well together. We seem to have some kind of adversarial relationship.
If you can, please forward this on to someone — anyone — you think might dig it.
I didn’t watch the UFC San Antonio card. I was away from the weekend helping a friend (yes, I have at least one of those) with his tattoo convention. What I learned from that time was that a decently stocked hotel gym beats the hell out of my unheated garage with a single light bulb.
Anyway, I don’t think I missed too much from skipping that UFC event other than maybe some weirdness from Holly Holm and Texas MMA judging. But one thing I saw was Michael Chandler getting mad at an Amazon commercial, and I found that weird — but on brand for him — and I would bet a sizable swath of the MMA community.
Anyway, what I saw in that commercial was a young woman dealing with young person issues, overlooking societal norms and just being herself with the help of capitalism, expendable income and an app.
What Chandler saw was “some gender-bending, confusing, mustache-wielding commercial…”
Like I said, weird — but not shocking.
Why language matters:
This story from the LA Times discusses why the paper will no longer use “interred” when discussing Japanese-Americans who were subject to mass incarceration during WWII.
“Instead, The Times will generally use “incarceration,” “imprisonment,” “detention” or their derivatives to describe this government action that shattered so many innocent lives.”
This is the right move.
A non-children’s short story from Roald Dahl
A young man comes across a bed and breakfast that has not had very many guests. From 1959. “The Landlady.”
A man and a wounded hawk
It’s Harry Crews and it’s good, “The Hawk is Flying” from 1977.
Andy Kaufman is going into the WWE Hall of Fame
An interview with an executioner
This Esquire story, “The Last Face You’ll Ever See” from August 1995 from Ivan Solotaroff, which was later turned into a book of the same title, is an excellent profile of Donald Hocutt, who was the executioner at the infamous Parchman State Penitentiary for 20 years.
A quote from William S. Burroughs
This isn’t exactly from Burroughs, it’s something someone once told him and it rings true, “Some people are shits, darling.”
My MMA writing from this week
UFC can’t remain quiet on Colby Covington’s threat toward Jon Anik