Michael Lester

@mattyglesias Marrying someone who laughs is more important than someone who always jokes

Clearly the smart play is to zag and try to find an unfunny spouse. Is this really so important? You need a stand-up show at home?

@ClaireMax Everyone has the same progression Book 1. I don't really like this but it's fun and easy so I'll keep reading Book 2. The flaws are still here but gosh this is entertaining Book 3. Wait do I just like this? Book 4. I must know what happens next. I need to know.

I am on book 3, and I have changed my mind about Dungeon Crawler Carl

@JeremiahDJohns My family is paycheck to paycheck because we are maxing out three retirement accounts.

What's the most "oh no, my steak too juicy, my lobster too buttery" complaint you see people make?

@ClaireMax You will get about half way through the third book when you realize that you will be finishing the rest of the series as soon as possible. It's insidious like that.

I have finished Dungeon Crawler Carl book one. It’s basically Hunger Games/Squid Game with RPG rules and a dash of Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy thrown in. I still feel like the writing lacks depth and the rules of the world are very inconsistent (for example, I thought they mentioned early on that you couldn’t enter a safe room if mobs were outside, or while in active combat with them, but doing exactly that kind of becomes a big plot point) It is not my favorite thing I’ve ever read, and I have a lot of gripes with it, but it is a better choice than doomscrolling before bed so I will probably continue

@jazayerli You are right but we're all scarred by terrible April baseball for the last 25 years and that makes it harder to recognize when the issues actually get turned around and resolved early enough to still have a fun season

Two years ago the Royals, coming off a 106-loss season, started 17-10 (and 34-19) and were the biggest surprise in baseball. Last year they were 8-14 - and also 24-16. This "every damn year" narrative is nonsense.

@Broad_STweet Is this not a Pirates Yankees world series from the 1960s?

hypothetical series game 1: team A wins by 30 game 2: team B wins by 1 game 3: team B wins by 2 game 4: team A wins by 27 game 5: team A wins by 18 game 6: team B wins by 3 game 7: team B wins by 1 Who’s better?

@HiddenYorkshire His best and only friend shoots him in the back of the head. How much more punishment do you think he deserves?

I've just read Of Mice and Men for the first time since high school and I'm going to be very woke for a moment because my reading of it has changed quite significantly since then. Yes, Lennie is just big and friendly and doesn't know his own strength and wouldn't hurt a fly etc etc but the whole plot - and audience sympathy - hinges on a physically intimidating, mentally disabled man repeatedly grabbing and holding onto women's clothes. Yes, we know he doesn't mean anything by it, he just wants to touch the purty clothing; but the women don't know that, and the audience is conditioned to sympathise with Lennie and not the women who are terrified by him. Curley's Wife doesn't even get a name, and she's a whore with red lipstick anyway. And it's not an isolated incident. Lennie did it at Weeds, which is what got him and George kicked out of there, and he did again to Curley's Wife. Now imagine that you're one of the women suddenly cornered by a hulking creature of a man who grabs you and doesn't let go and tells you how he loves your red dress, and there's nothing you can do to stop it. That's terrifying. That is where my locus of sympathy sits. Of Mice and Men is a complex book, but I find myself increasingly uncomfortable with the way the audience is conditioned to sympathise and associate with Lennie.

@IBRice101 @ldbahr @Srirachachau There are three other posts in the chain that explain the rest of the story

Josh O’Connor on a great note from Spielberg

@peaceful_bully It lets them know when they can send in housekeeping to clean it for the next guest, and helps future guests who arrive before check in time.

Do you actually have to check out of hotels these days are do they just accept your check outs to not offend you for being old? it seems unclear

@PhthalateSoup @GarrettPetersen Do you know a single child? Are you willing to kill them?

There is a black button. Everyone in the world gets a chance to press the button or walk away. If at least half of people decide to press the button, nothing happens. If fewer than half of people press the button, everyone who pressed it dies. Do you press the black button?

@Awwrnold Imagine the damage the next trump will do without the filibuster

when democrats get a 3 seat majority in the senate after the midterms would it be more advantageous to end the fillibuster during that session or wait til theres a democratic president?

@SonnyBunch You sure a three year old will press red?

So if everyone presses red the survival rate is 100%?

@prerat If everyone on earth is given the option, the only way to save children who do not understand what is happening is to pick blue

blue voters probably dont realize how jarring it is to intuitively think "everyone red is safe" and then press red and then see a bunch of blue votes basically two reactions: 1. wtf was i thinking wrong? 2. wtf is everyone ELSE thinking wrong? i get it bc i also voted red

something interesting i havent seen discussed so much is that pressing red is at least naively moral in the Kantian sense "press red" is a universalizable policy with a good outcome in the original poll, i took the red pill, fully expecting to see like 98% red (and 2% lizards)

@TigersJUK Thats the tradeoff for 15 teams in both leagues

Anyone else think MLB has overdone it with the Interleague stuff? We’re over 15% through the season already & we haven’t played the Guardians or White Sox yet, but we’ve played the Padres, Brewers, Diamondbacks, Cardinals, Marlins - with the Reds & Braves coming up… I mean come on?

@SaffronOlive What a hilarious match up.

Next up for Best Standard Deck Ever it's the influential The Deck from 1995 up against an archetype that still shows up in current Standard, Dimir Midrange from 2024! What's your pick? The Deck (1995): #paper" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">mtggoldfish.com/deck/7586530#p… Dimir Mid (1994): #paper" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">mtggoldfish.com/deck/7586524#p…

@ednguyen13 @LeFeverSax While it might be objectively true, I'm sad that sentences like this exist.

@LeFeverSax It's not about needing, it's about owning an asset that appreciates in value over time. David has owned these for a long time and identified the value will outpace most traditional investment vehicles and inflation.

I am friends with both the consignor and consignee and this is one of the most significant Old School collections to hit the auction block in quite some time. Many blue chip MTG assets are available and this will be a good indicator of FMV and the trajectory of the Magic market.

@conorsen @JBSDC Are you going to take the bet your kids figured it out and pressed red? What about a 5 year old?

@JBSDC If everyone presses red then everyone survives, right?

Curious what happens if you add in financial outcomes to this (eg the people who press red also get $5 or $500). I bet if you ran this poll more than a few times, eventually you’d get a sense of how much respondents value human life per capita.

@mattyglesias They chose to own the news and Hollywood instead of sports.

@dissproportion Notes from the Underground

I just thought of the word "neurotica" and I give you permission to use it to describe the literary genre. Please list your (least) favorite examples below:

@kendallbaker It can be better for the players while being worse for fans. I'm not mad they are following the money and the best options for themselves. It just means I'm less interested in the sport. If I want to simply watch the best players play in high stakes games, I'll watch the NBA

“NIL killed Cinderella” is really just nostalgia for a system where players couldn’t get paid and had no mobility. Of course mid-major stars stayed put back then… they had no choice. Now they do… and suddenly March Madness is “ruined”? It’s far more nuanced than that.