Extra Evil - The West Wing: SVU
Today's Fortune: You've driven the gods mad.
Newsreel
Physicians for Human Rights had thoughts on Gaza.
Turns out my portfolio, column, and subway system are on Cloudflare.
MBS could've picked a better advocate.
The "Don & Jeff vs. Forty Children" screenplay leaked.
Japan and China had their first diplomatic row.
Alphabet suspects Alphabet investment has been irrational.
You Need This
I've been trying to be looser with these. Write, read, print. I think it's a good dojo exercise.
A Photo
War Journal
Overheard on Coffee Mountain.
Clocking In: The new password's "It's out there" with one t.
Clocking Out: You mean, "It's out here."
Clocking In: What? No, "It's out there" with one t.
Clocking Out: I...yeah. Nevermind.
Akira Toriyama shaped a wave of nerds' fantasies. Flight. Invincibility. Kicking wayward heads of state to death. I'm no exception, but a smaller plot device gets my wish.
I'd commit atrocities for the Hyperbolic Time Chamber.
That's a room where time moves more slowly. It seems bigger on the inside, a-la Doctor Who. In Dragon Ball Z, they use it to practice saving the world. Respectable. I'd use it to make deadlines human. To read email twice before answering. To grab five solid hours every night. To think for five minutes/months/years before cosigning marriage fraud schemes. The hyperbolic life has appeal.
In short, I'm a little tired. But the semester's winding down, so I may level out soon. Or replace pontificating with editing. You know how it goes. Water takes its container's shape.
Okay, I'd take kicking wayward heads of state to death first. But I'm still reaching for the zen thing.
Does anyone know Megyn Kelly's agent? Her adventures would make a great Veep-style downward spiral, and filing her name off feels hacky. If we work together, we can both win.
My Pomera draws a few questions. A lot. More than I'm used to getting outside of a book launch. But I struggle with one question:
"Do you recommend it?"
It's the most overpriced object I own. You could probably rebuild it for forty dollars with one YouTube search. The arrow keys are perfectly placed to drive my blood pressure to the brink. I use it every day. It might be my lich's phylactery. I wrote this on it.
I recommend the genre of device.
A dedicated music player's probably next. Photos already have me dragging files between SD drives. Guitar solos deserve that attention too.
It's odd having few real feedback mechanisms. I could be burning my world down or on the streak of my life, and not learn either for two years. If it's the first, tell me the second anyway. I might as well enjoy the ride down.
The fog of war explains a certain genre of public, slow motion breakdown. They're not avoiding the mirror. There is no mirror. Every gentle note saying they've snapped is buried under forty fake podcast invites.
A Screenshot
The Present
- Reading my new book gives you wings. [How to Dodge a Cannonball]
- Could mercury be the cure? [Exclusive Evil]
- This one's free! And insane. [1900HOTDOG]
- You still need this. [You Need This]
- I give it a week. [McSweeney's Internet Tendency]
- Reading my old book teaches you to surf. [My Previous Book]
The Past
My Ghost relaunch feels like yesterday.
The Future
Fiction and collaboration. The wheels are turning, just slowly.
Dead Sun Theory
Pitching.
Not Brought to You By
Wehrmacht promo review, round two. We'll go a bit shorter this time.
Migrants want to steal autumn. Prepare for eternal, hellish summer. Sounds like a decent deal.
Someone in the cabinet should really pay for Midjourney. Slop doesn't have to look like you left it in the oven. Hell, the worst startups don't look like that.
I should acknowledge the basic gap here. Not the moral one. Or literacy. Or putting photos through the washer. Rather, a gap in theory.
Branding is, for better or worse, trying to buy space in your brain. A free square to plant an original, profitable idea. Jedi think that idea's creative. For the Sith, that idea's tactical. Fan-favorite antiheroes hold both ideas. But for Mussolini's grandkids, idea is a big word. They make posters because you make posters.
The Hitler Youth swim in a mental leftovers. They inhale and exhale cliches. Which makes Perplexity & Co. paradise.
Anyway, this poster bites dicks.
Creativity: F- | Persuasion: F- | Sanity: F-
One Sentence Reviews
Acquire the Fire - For Girls Only: Much closer to hell than anything it targets. (Bad Madness/5)
Omnium Gatherum - May The Bridges We Burn Light The Way: You know what you came to Burger Heaven for. (3/5)
New Moon: A shirtless fever dream. (Dumb Madness/5)
The God-Damned Vol. 2: I forgot this was a reread, but liked it more this time. (4/5)
AEW Blood & Guts 2K25: Khorne's a simple god. (Good Madness/5)
A Question
Signing off
Thanks for reading Extra Evil, the newsletter watching the train derail. Share it for a ticket refund.
