29 Sunset Missives

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Disarming Frankness, in Fiction and the Real World

January 19, 2026


January is hard. Find joy and hope where we can. LFG.

GO DIRECTLY TO:
- “Heated Rivalry” and “Heartstopper”
- Don’t Let Anyone Tell You MLB “Needs a Salary Cap”
- More of What I’ve Learned From Playing Immaculate Grid
- Compelling Darts
- How to Win at Monopoly and Lose All Your Friends
- You Should Talk to Friends
- In Case You Needed Another Reason to Watch “Taskmaster”
- Remember Martin Prince? He’s Back, in Tattoo Form
- Greenland
- Occupation of Minnesota
- An Example of Journalism That Doesn’t Call Things What They Are
- The Most Electric Movie Experiences
- My Next Book

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Do Not Mess With Calvin and Hobbes

December 21, 2025


I hope you’re having a safe and happy holiday season. For the last entry of 2025, I’m sharing some reflections on “Wake Up Dead Man,” Jeff Kent, cookies, books, tying shoes, Calvin and Hobbes, and more. It’s the most wonderful time of the year, and that means I’m only giving you the uncut best stuff I’ve got. Also, the first season of the Kids Popcorn Podcast is finished! Listen to all the episodes on the podcast site, or wherever you get your podcasts. LFG.

GO DIRECTLY TO:
Read My Novel for Free
“Wake Up Dead Man” Is an Intensely Catholic Movie
Chatbots Aren’t Your Friends
Seriously, the Jeff Kent “Survivor” Clip Is Hilarious
Step Up Your Cookie Game
Do Not Mess With Calvin and Hobbes
“Now That I’m Grown, I Eat Five Dozen Eggs”
“So This Is Christmas”
The Greatest TED Talk Ever
All the Books I’ve Read This Year

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Mamdani Beyond New York

November 23, 2025


We’re currently in the midst of the first season of the Kids Popcorn Podcast, my show in which I interview interesting people about the movies they watched as kids and kids movies they find interesting as adults. If you want to listen to Zach Geballe talk about toxic parental traits in “Tangled,” Maria Bustillos talking about watching “The Sound of Music” dubbed in Spanish, or Gabe Fernandez reflecting on why he watched so much “Bruce Almighty” as a child, and more, you can hear those episodes and find subscription links at the Kids Popcorn Podcast website.

In this post, I wrote about Zohran Mamdani, bagels, Victor Wembanyama, the World Series, “Our Town”, "Wicked", and more. LFG.

GO DIRECTLY TO:
- Mamdani Beyond New York
- Such a Great World Series
- Wemby
- “Our Town”
- NYC Bagels, SF Bagels, Las Vegas Bagels
- MrBeast Sucks
- A Great Expository Movie Scene
- Wicked For… Meh
- New Nightmare App Dropped
- Through 4 Episodes of “Pluribus”…

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