The Dice — 023

As we get closer to November 5th it becomes harder to focus. Work is a welcome distraction and there is plenty of it to do, but the barrage of news, updates, emails, and text messages is nearing onslaught levels. It’s made me wonder how much daily news we really need. There’s nothing about my work and life that will be dictated by a conflict in the Middle East or Ukraine. I don’t need to know if the market was up or down or closed at another record high. There’s very little going on right now that necessitates that I get a daily update. I let my subscription to The Economist expire last month and I haven’t missed it. Makes me wonder what else can go.

Time to roll...

In an unusual and what appears to me to be a bold move the Washington Post told their editorial board to sit this one out, leaving an opening for the paper’s lone humor columnist to make their official endorsement for Kamala Harris. Alexandra Petri stood tall in her satirical response to Jeff Bezos’ quiet decision that has been turned into headline news. Though she may write satire for a living, I found her column to be a scathing rebuke of the paper’s editorial leadership as she reminds them of the impact of their cowardice inaction. “To be fragile is not the same as to be perishable, as G.K. Chesterton wrote. Simply do not break a glass, and it will last a thousand years. Smash it, and it will not last an instant. Democracy is like that: fragile, but only if you shatter it. Trust is like that, too, as newspapers know.” During a time when newspapers scramble to just exist, trust is the last thing they can afford to lose. Dark times indeed.

Somewhat clairvoyantly, Rolling Stone magazine published  Amazon Alternatives: 11 Places to Shop Online Aside From Amazon a few weeks ago. Since most folks don’t subscribe to the Post, here is another, perhaps more impactful way of sticking it to Bezos.

While on the topic of the ongoing disruption and change in the world of print journalism is this little nugget: Costco’s magazine for members, blandly named Costco Connections, is “delivered to more households across the United States than Better Homes & Gardens, The New Yorker, and The Atlantic combined. Its reach is so vast that Costco Connectionis now the nation’s third-largest magazine by print circulation, behind AARP: The Magazine and The AARP Bulletin.” The magazine distributes a staggering 15.7M issue a month through mail and in stores. Many news companies like the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal have their own specialized service for creating branded publications. Costco built those capabilities in-house and I wonder if we'll see other retailers follow suit.

Designer, author, and blogger from days gone by, Kelli Anderson, has re-appeared with a Kickstarter for her next book, Alphabet in Motion. 

The book is her third popup after This Book is a Camera and This Book is a Planetarium. “Alphabet in Motion leverages tactile, interactive features, to help clarify how letters have transformed alongside technological upheavals and shifting aesthetic moods.” There is so much about this book that I look forward to experiencing, especially the essays. The book has already more than doubled the threshold for a successful project with twenty-five days to go. Now would be a great time to secure your copy.

Though she has and continues to create compelling work, I will always remember Kelli for her stand-up desk Ikea hack.

During the pandemic, Storeyhouse did not horde toiletries, but we may or may not have stocked up—apocalypse prepper style—on cases of Shin Black Instant Ramen Noodles. Somehow I don’t think we were alone as “the US instant noodles market has grown 36% in the past five years and was a $2.7 billion market in 2023. The US sits sixth on the World Instant Noodle Association’s demand rankings table, which measures the number of servings consumed per country.” America’s instant carb consumption is in good company though behind China, Indonesia, India, Vietnam, and Japan. We’ve come a long way from the days of Cup O’ Noodles. Last weekend I made my first trip to H Mart and I was in awe of their double-wide isle of instant carbs. I asked a clerk restocking packages like a madman how many varieties they carried. He replied with a look of tired surrender, “Hundreds.”

Sportsball is not everyone’s favorite topic, but for those on this list whom I know avoid anything to do with field-based competition, I implore you to appreciate the historical significance and classic match-up of this year’s World Series. Especially the last minutes of game one with the first-ever walk-off grand slam homerun. This is akin to a moon landing in this sport so even if you don’t know what’s going on, at least appreciate the moment for what it is—the first of its kind in the history of the sport. I wish I could bring my two friends—lifelong Yankees man Gruber and devoted Dodgers man Caver—together to watch a game in this series and not say a thing, just sip a beer and listen.

If you’re gonna hate the World Series, that’s fine, but at least read The Hater’s Guide to the 2024 World Series.

In the world’s epicenter of technology the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency announced this week they will spend $212 million dollars on upgrading their systems that including ending the use of 5 1/4-inch floppy disks to run the local light rail system. I don’t know about you, but I haven’t touched or seen a disk of that size since 1988. “The floppies have been part of Muni Metro's Automatic Train Control System (ATCS) since its installation in the Market Street subway stop in 1998.” I’m scratching my head wondering how is that even possible because that’s the same year Apple debuted the iMac noticeably without a “floppy” disk drive. Planning for this upgrade began in 2018 and was expected to take ten years, but will likely go till 2030. Which means their plans and designs are already years behind the curve. Innovation, innovation everywhere and not one for the train.

Published in Tacoma, Washington while listening to Cocteau Twins: Heaven or Las Vegas.