Happy FriYAY y’all,
I’m coming at you from the draft room (my apartment). For football fans, this week is what we salivate over, with fantasy drafts galore (I will be doing my third momentarily) and the first full week of the college football season. For Boston College fans, Alumni Stadium will host Fordham to kick off the Dylan Lonergan era, with Michigan State on the horizon next week. Being me, I foolishly scheduled two apartment tours that split kickoff, at 1 and 3 p.m., so maybe my 3 p.m. tour guide will understand me having an earbud in my left ear as I plan to pay them thousands of dollars in rent.
As I started and got sidetracked, it’s the first week of the real football season. I’m writing this with Boise State vs. USF on in the background, a quick peach-fig jam on the stove with frozen fruit I’d like to use up, and Micah Parsons highlights appearing at every convenient break in the game (sidebar: classic ESPN move, but still, that trade is bonkers). I’m halfway through my fantasy drafts — one each on Monday and Tuesday, one on Saturday and Sunday to go — and already practically in shambles, engaged in trade talks with each squad I’m currently managing. It can’t get much better than this, folks, with fall ever so close.
Last weekend, I was up in NYC with Lindsay and her family, taking a trip to the Met Cloisters and the Met, a stroll through Central Park Zoo, and a seat to see Mamma Mia! on Broadway, all of which were amazing. I’ll let the photos do the talking, because I found some pretty cool angles over the few days I was up there. All in all, it was a real blessing to see both my family and Lindsay’s family in back-to-back weekends.
The economy is really suffering
Mini-rant here. Pun not intended at first, but later acknowledged. I’m pissed.
I’ve been playing the New York Times Games near-daily for probably years at this point, with a hiatus in between. Whether it’s trying to beat my record time on the mini crossword (about 14 seconds, if I remember correctly), or guessing the Wordle in as few guesses as possible, the Games are an outlet for brain activity during the lulls of the day, and crafty at that. Once Strands was introduced, I was immediately hooked.
But now, that gets cut in half.
Gone is the NYT Mini behind a paywall. Gamers on Twitter (yeah, I’m not using its new name) are furious with the decision. Not just that, but the most slept-on game — Letter Boxed, a game tucked at the bottom of the app where you connect letters to form words — is also paywalled. So the game I would start my morning Games on, as well as the one I would go to when stuck on the Connections or Strands. But now? Nope. I guess not.
So what does this mean for the New York Times? Are they doing that poorly in revenue? Is this a fatal mistake for the Mini Empire? Or are they just weeding out their supporters to get an extra $50 a year?
Of course, I don’t know the answer to these questions. I'm just a disgruntled 24-year-old with a tiny platform on this app called Substack. But I’m sure there are a lot of other disgruntled Gen-Zers and millennials who are equally up in arms as I am.
What’s Cookin’: Swordfish
At Oceana in Manhattan, there was quite a variety of seafood on the menu, as suggested by the restaurant's name. The northeast oysters were delightful — the ones from Maine being my favorite, followed by PEI and New York — but what really took the cake for me was something I can’t say I’ve ever had before: swordfish. Maybe it’s how it was prepared, but the “fishy” taste was exceptional, not overpowering, and complemented by clams and mussels atop a tomato broth. To top it all off, the grilled garlic toast made for a perfect vehicle for the cioppino (new word unlocked — called the “seafood lover’s dream stew” by How To Feed a Lion) broth. Maybe it won’t be swordfish, but for a day that I’m looking to ball out on dinner, this will certainly be an option; just one that requires a trip to the wharf for some fresh seafood.
Song of the Week: “Let Nas Down” by J. Cole
With storytelling songs as the theme of my music league next week, I found a storytelling rap playlist with a quick search, and it’s been unbelievable. While this isn’t going to be my submission — I can’t reveal that with my current readership — Cole chronicles how Nas was disappointed with his radio hit “Work Out” due to its lack of lyrical excellence. A few days following the release of the album Born Sinner, Nas tweeted out “#MadeNasProud” nine times, accompanied by a remix of J. Cole’s version. That’s what I call a torch passing.