Greatest Hits (Volume 1)

I don't listen to a lot of music. I used to. In high school and college I would always have music playing in the car or even at home in my room when studying. I enjoyed it, and still enjoy it, though my music listening time has shifted to podcast listening time.

When I did listen to music, I wasn't one of those people who needed every album by an artist. Sure, there were (and are) bands I really like and have a lot of their releases, but for the most part, I was content being a "greatest hits" fan of bands. I didn't need the deep cut off their unreleased first studio recording. Just play the hits and I'll be good.

So at the end of every month, I'm going to release my Top 10 list, which is the 10 best articles I've linked to that month, in no particular order.

Here we go:

Football Killed Tyler Sash - Adam Jacobi does an amazing job of forcing us to decide if the sport is worth enjoying. Jacobi writes "Football's an easy sport to watch, but sometimes, it's awfully tough to enjoy."

Would He Disapprove of my Single Heathen Lifestyle - A woman takes in a Syrian refugee and writes about it... and the second half of the article is the refugee writing about his experience living with a British woman.

A Day In the Life of an Iowa Family Drowning in Campaign Ads - I think Dante left out a circle of Hell that is living in Iowa before the caucus (or living in a swing state during the election.)

This Guy Got Sir Mix-A-Lot's Old Phone Number - Not nearly important as the other things on this list, but it made me smile.

 Bill Cosby and his Enablers - Ta-Nehisi Coates on Bill Cosby and the culture of enabling.

Why Are Americans Ignoring Trevor Noah -  I've enjoyed The Daily Show under Noah for what it is, but it does lack the bite that it had under Jon Stewart. I hope we don't complain about what the show isn't that we miss what it is right now.

Dear Cam Newton: Please Don't Read This -  Dave Zirin examines the bizarre need some people have for Cam Newton to meet their standards of what a role model is.

Where Life is Cheap By Design -  Craig Calcaterra writes about Parkersburg and Beckley, West Virginia and Flint, Michigan. Three places that have seen failures of government to protect its citizens and also three places that he's lived.


Sunday Service in Charleston -  Charlie Pierce visits "Mother Emanuel" six months after nine members were killed by a gunman.


How I Lost My Love of Sports - On Purpose -  This one was published in 2015, but I didn't read it until 2016 so I'm counting it.

The Big Goodbye:

How am I supposed to explain Elmo to my kids? pic.twitter.com/X1qJj6z4AP

— Tom Pelissero (@TomPelissero) January 29, 2016

Where's the Midwest

So there were two things that took over the little corner of the internet I reside on Wednesday afternoon. The first was Kanye West's twitter beatdown of Wiz Khalifa over what turned out to be a misunderstanding about a slang term for marijuana. Being that I couldn't tell you who Wiz Khalifa is or any music he's released, I'm not going to write about it, though if you're interested, you can find out details here.

The other big thing to take over was a question on Vox.com that simply asked readers to identify what states were part of the midwest. I'd never really thought all that much about exactly what states made up that portion of the country and instead just had a general idea of "yeah, that's the midwest." But I quickly learned that it's not as easy as that. There are some states that everyone essentially agreed on. Wisconsin, Iowa, Minnesota, are obviously in the midwest. For me, the inclusion of Michigan, Ohio and Indiana were also no-brainers. 

But Nebraska? Kansas? The Dakotas? Are they midwest or are they great plains? Does Missouri fit and if not, does it count as the south? I didn't know. At times I'm sure I considered them a part of the region, but if you asked me to label the Great Plains region, I'd put Kansas, Nebraska and the Dakotas there. So I didn't know.

Neither did the rest of the internet. Debates were had. Arguments (mostly good-natured, I think) were had and at the end of the day, it seemed most people settled on "if the state had a Big 10 school in its state prior to 1992, then it was the midwest.

You can make your voice heard on this important issue here.

And if I spent that much time yesterday on those two things, you know I had a lot of time to read. Here's the best of what I read yesterday:

Ann Selzer is the Best Pollster in Politics - Polls drive so much of our political coverage and Ann Selzer is the gold standard in polling. 

Brazil in Peril: The World Cup, the Olympics and the Zika Virus - The World Cup and Olympics were supposed to showcase Brazil to the world stage. Instead, its legacy could be spreading an awful virus around the globe.

Football Killed Tyler Sash - I linked to a news story about this yesterday, but this by Adam Jacobi does an amazing job of forcing us to decide if the sport is worth enjoying. Jacobi writes "Football's an easy sport to watch, but sometimes, it's awfully tough to enjoy.

The Useless Agony of Going Offline - Like Matthew Malady, the author, I spend a lot of time online. Also like Malady, I like to think that most of that time is learning something new. This story is his account of going offline for 72 hours and why he feels that while it may work for some, cutting the online cord isn't for him.

What I Paid to be a Division I Athlete - Luke Bonner tells of his experiences dealing with the NCAA and what he wishes he had done differently.

Perspective in Sport

Earlier this week, Maria Sharapova lost a tennis match to Serena Williams.

Again.

It was the 18th straight time Williams has defeated Sharapova, which makes you think Sharapova might just not be very good at this whole tennis thing.

But she's actually. Good. Like really good. She's won five major titles in her career, which I don't have to tell you, is five more than anyone reading this. She's currently ranked fifth in the world. But when Sharapova plays Williams, you'll see a lot of "oh, Sharapova sucks. She's not any good" and other nonsense like that.

Sure, the goal is to win, but in the end, only one woman is going to win the tournament and for 21 times in major tournaments, that woman has been Serena Williams. She's one of, if not the, most dominant tennis players ever to play the sport. She's fantastic and, in all honesty, I should probably write about her sometime.

Today isn't that day. Today it's about Sharapova and perspective. Right now she's the fifth-best woman's tennis player in the world. But the storylines that surround her are that she's no good because she always loses to Williams. Think about it. Is there anything in your life that you're the fifth-best in the world at? I grew up in a family of five and there were times I had to settle for being the fifth-best in my family.

I know when we say a professional athlete isn't any good, we're saying it in the context of how they compare to the other athletes in their sport, but take a step back sometime and realize that the players you're watching on television are the best in the world. There's no shame in being ranked fifth, or fifteenth, or fiftieth. That is an accomplishment that should be marveled at more often.

CTE Is Found in an Ex-Giant Who Died at 27 - Football remains remarkably popular in American culture, which only means more and more stories like this are going to come out. Watch or don't watch, that's totally up to you, just know what you're watching.

A Day In The Life Of An Iowa Family Drowning In Campaign Ads - I think Dante left out a circle of Hell that is living in Iowa before the caucus (or living in a swing state during the election.)

Hillary Clinton Goes Back To The Dunning School - Ta-Nehisi Coates with a brief post about what Clinton got wrong during the town hall and why it's important.

The NCAA and Del Boca Vista

Georgia Southern's athletic compliance department sent out a tweet yesterday reminding boosters that they're not permitted to tweet, facebook message or otherwise contact any players being recruited by the school. Doing so would constitute an NCAA violation and jeopardize that student's eligibility as determined by the NCAA.

This is an incredibly absurd rule. But before we get to that, it's also absurd that people, particularly people over the age of 25, would spend their time tweeting or messaging high school kids encouraging them to go to their school. It's also kind of creepy. So from a simple non-creepiness factor, the rule makes sense.

But that's not why the rule is there. The NCAA doesn't care if you're some strange middle-aged man tweeting high school seniors to come to play sports at his school because it's creepy. They care because it's against their extensive rule book. The NCAA, you see, is a lot like how Seinfeld saw retirees who moved to Florida. They "work hard their entire lives just so they can move down there, sit in the heat, pretend it’s not hot, and enforce these rules."

So if you're a booster who wants to contact high school kids and convince them to go to your school, just make sure they're not an athlete.

However, if you really want to help you school, you need to become a member of the booster club of your rival. Then, when you start contacting their recruits they'll get in trouble and thus will help your school. Honestly, the fact this hasn't been done (that I could find) is among the most surprising things about college athletics.

And on to what I've been reading. One of these days I'll find a smoother transition to the links. Today is not that day.

How Nate Silver Missed Donald Trump - It's nice to know that even Nate Silver is wrong from time to time. Though I don't think even Donald Trump thought he'd be where he is now.

Accused Murderer Married the Only Witness, Now She Doesn't Have to Testify Against Him - A strange story that has a preacher questioning his role in inadvertently protecting a murderer.

Why Are Americans Ignoring Trevor Noah - I've enjoyed The Daily Show under Noah for what it is, but it does lack the bite that it had under Jon Stewart. I hope we don't complain about what the show isn't that we miss what it is right now.

A Shady Conservative Group Is Fundraising Off the Death of a Ben Carson Volunteer - Good for Ben Carson to call these people out. And what kind of person uses the death of a campaign volunteer to try to raise money?

(Spoiler Free) Making a Murderer Thoughts

There are very few shows, outside baseball games, that my wife and I watch together. Last baseball offseason I watched all of Breaking Bad, but only when my wife was in bed asleep as she refused to watch it. She, on the other hand, watched The Bachelor (or Bachelorette, whichever one it was) with her friend, usually at her house.

So when I told her I was ready to watch Making a Murderer and asked if she wanted to watch it with me, I was fully expecting a "no thanks" and would be able to watch when she went to bed. Well, much to my surprise, she said she'd give it a shot and was instantly hooked.

That was good and bad, I thought.

Good in the sense that it meant I'd get to watch a show with my wife.

Bad in the sense that she doesn't tend to watch shows as quickly as I do.

And with each show being an hour, I thought there was a decent chance I'd be able to finish the 10-episode series by late February. But much to my shock, she's been really good about wanting to watch. We watched two episodes on Friday, two more on Saturday and one and a half on Sunday (I really appreciate the Panthers blowing out the Cardinals so I didn't miss anything there.)

So with the understanding that I'm a little more than halfway through the show, here are two thoughts I've had about it.

First, I would be a terrible witness. Knowing I'd face the threat of perjury for potential misstatements, I'd be hedging everything I said.

Lawyer: "Mr. Martin, does 2+2 equal four?"

Me: "Well, I've been taught that and it seems to be the case, but not being a trained mathematician, I'm not sure I can say with certainty that is the case."

Lawyer: "You don't know if 2+2 equals four?"

Me: "I think I do, but I'm not willing to risk my freedom over something like that. There was a time if you asked me if Pluto was a planet and I said 'yes,' I'd be right, but then it changed and now it's not. How do I know what mathematical concepts are true and what might change? So I'm reasonably confident 2+2 equals four, but as I said, I can't say with certainty."

Lawyer: "You're excused."

The other aspect of the show that's caught my attention is the portrayal of the local television news media. They don't come out looking all that good in this case, at least through the 5.5 episodes I've seen. Not that I didn't already know that local television news can be sensational for the sake of viewers, but seeing all the different clips about this one case crystallizes just how bad it is.

I've got a couple friends who work in television news and I know they work hard at what they do. It's just that the format does not lend itself to hard-hitting analysis, especially when you're given 60 or 90 seconds.

And now the articles I found interesting over the weekend: 

Ted Cruz, Hillary Clinton and the New Dark Age: The fundamental trait of an advanced society is not the sophistication of the vehicles in which its citizens travel or the consumer products which are or are not readily available. Rather, it’s the ability for people to communicate and transfer knowledge and information to others in an efficient system.

 Who Poisoned Flint, Michigan? - Obviously this story has captivated me as I keep reading and linking to it, but it's important.

The National Review Makes Its Case Against The Republican Party - I, likewise, find the Trump candidacy fascinating.

Thanks for reading.