Extra Evil - New Bat-Channel

Today’s Fortune: Bring an extra batarang.

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Newsreel

Maduro put on bigger jackboots.

Yuto’s winning medals until the ramps are underwater.

Fans/critics/blood enemies workshopped Harris material.

U.S. native boarding schools followed the Canadian model.

Forced retirement gave Biden an idea.

5G’s coming to cheap devices, toasters, and rocks.

Today's Mood

War Journal

Educational idea: auto-filter the word data to teeth. “Do you consent to share your teeth?” rings differently. “We may share your teeth with our partners,” is a non-starter. The change might terrify a few children, but most parents do that anyway.

I’m halfway through a jaunt to Oklahoma. Pre-planned for different reasons, but I needed it. Otherwise, I’d have changed. In the best case, into a burnout. In the worst, an art monster. I like this version of the world.

Granted, my mood has nothing to do with the city. For once. For all my jokes, the mayor’s more of an abstract insult than a direct force in my life.

I just believe in flipping the table when you’re losing the game. I was a few points behind last week, and now I feel less like an early Reznor. The change in tone helps. People in Stillwater smile quickly and walk slowly, which gets you banished from my neighborhood.

The flags are off-putting. And offer a wonderful fight-or-flight boost to cardio.

Loitering in a college town off-semester is great. Everything’s built around a tailgate that doesn’t exist yet. It feels like the Rapture afterparty.

CNN keeps a Climate Solutions section up. It updates about once a month. There’s a lot of skimmed studies and research pledges, and very little change in behavior. I love it. We couldn’t beam a better final punchline into space.

The Present

The Herculoids don’t do restraint. [1900HOTDOG]

I explore comics’ greatest question. [1900HOTDOG]

It’s Prayin’ Time! [1900HOTDOG]

I've got opinions on everything, and told Meg ten percent of them. [Talk Fiction]

Everything Abridged is the light in the darkness. [My Book]

The Past

I get email about this every now and then.

The Future

Next spring might have a stunt with external encouragement/funding/legal human shields. Fingers crossed.

Not Brought to You By

Here’s one they were proud of. Imagine the following interrupting a fake loading bar:

Semi-paid Fedex workers, filling the bar by hand. It’s 15 seconds long. The only words are “Fedex offers fast reliable delivery.”

I actually dig it. For 2010. Since then, every video portal’s ditched loading bars for wheels or nothing. Multiple people involved knew this, and chose peace and failure instead.

Perhaps forgivable, for a fast and reliable brand. FedEx is swimming upstream. It’s a miracle if your package arrives in the same century. While many ads flip off reality, the challenge is keeping audiences from returning the gesture.

Creativity: B+ in 2002, C+ last year
Persuasion: D+
Sanity: C-

One Sentence Reviews

Fear Factory - Obsolete: Angry strings. (3/5)

Oklahoma Pork: Worth half the weird looks. (5/5)

Lady Gaga & Tony Bennett — Love For Sale: Once, I wrote an uncredited article about her flying dress. (3.5/5)

Batman Ninja: What?! (2/5)

Open Question

Tournament Time. Winners go to finals next week, alongside a wild card.

Signing off

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