PicoBlog

“I've been following Vitalyi Katsenelson for years, and have saved a number of his articles. He writes with insight and humor about family, travel, chess, music (particularly classical but also Queen!), and so much more including, of course, investing. He shares paintings by his father, Naum; drawings by his brother Alex; favorite classical pieces; and wisdom derived from living curiously and joyfully. I highly recommend reading his work. I think you will enjoy it.

From the embers of Showtime Boxing with Raskin & Mulvaney emerges The Interim Champion Boxing Podcast with Raskin & Mulvaney, hosted by Eric Raskin and Kieran Mulvaney. Same great fight analysis, same heart and humor, different (temporary, probably) home. No thanksncG1vNJzZmian622r7PWoquhqpGouKq6zK6jr5memsZvv9Sbqq2Zk6B7pLvMaA%3D%3D

While the culture at large routinely fails child stars, the internet in particular has failed Millie Bobby Brown. Brown, for the uninitiated, is an 18 year old British actress who rose to fame following her appearance as Eleven in Stranger Things, a role she was cast in at the age of 11. Since then, she’s been subjected to continuous and ongoing sexual harassment online, which unfortunately isn’t uncommon for young women; what is unusual is the slew of memes framing her as a violent homophobe that have cropped up in recent years.

Apologies for coming in with nostalgia on a Thursday evening, but I miss how the Internet used to be. I'd sit at my desk-bookcase-stereo-unit (you know the one) and go on my little websites — Meg Cabot's author page, or IMDb, or the Miami-Dade County library’s online catalogue, from where I was constantly requesting cute inter-library loans with which t… ncG1vNJzZmibn6G8s7nEpaavnaKhxm%2B%2F1JuqrZmToHuku8xop2ismJp6qrrTnqmnnaRitrR506imZqWfo7K1tdmamaWdXaO8uA%3D%3D

Archie Rhind-Tutt does great work covering the Bundesliga (for ESPN) and Champions League, so I’ve been looking forward to interviewing him for a long time. Little did I know that his favorite player as a young Fulham fan was former USMNT stalwart Brian McBride! He tells that story and a lot more below. The entirety of the written interview below is reserved for paid subscribers. As always, you can still get the entire free audio version of my podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you like to go for your pods.

The LA Galaxy was a bad team during the first two years of The Beckham Experiment. I even wrote a book about it. But then two important things happened to turn things around: 1) Bruce Arena got hired to run the team in August 2008, and 2) Beckham persuaded Robbie Keane to sign with the Galaxy in 2011. With Keane, Beckham and Landon Donovan, LA became one of the best teams in league history, winning the MLS Cup title three times from 2011 to ‘14, with Keane taking home the league MVP trophy in 2014.

In this essay, Jason Lucarelli who does a commendable job turning a nearly inaccessible teaching into something understandable. But, after reading, I knew I needed to break it down a little more for my own writers at the Studio. Last year, I cobbled together a Consecution-For-Dummies method (though I didn’t call it that) as if felt important we all understand. Now it’s your turn here at Flight School. Let’s go.

This concept reminds me of an old Jane Addams passage which I like to quote: "Let us take the example of a timid child, who cries when he is put to bed because he is afraid of the dark. The "soft-hearted" parent stays with him, simply because he is sorry for him and wants to comfort him. The scientifically trained parent stays with him, because he realizes that the child is in a stage of development in which his imagination has the best of him, and in which it is impossible to reason him out of a belief in ghosts.

When covid hit, I left my apartment in New York City and spent the next few months  quarantining in my parents’ attic. I was no stranger to isolation: I spent much of my twenties in treatment for leukemia, unable to travel, eat out, see friends, even take a walk. Suddenly isolation was back—this time on a global scale. To turn that isolation into creative solitude and connection, I asked my favorite writers, artists, and community leaders to share some words of inspiration and a prompt, and I invited my community to journal along with me.