Donald Trump, the car and letters
I’m glad Donald Trump has finally been indicted. That said, it should be really embarrassing to Joe Biden and Merrick Garland a Manhattan DA is doing this over a porn-star payment, rather than the federal government over Trump’s attempt at a fascist coup, or any number of more serious things.
We brought our second car back to the dealer. Maddeningly, they had no trouble starting the vehicle for the two weeks it was there. They did something called a drain test and found no issues. Next week is going to be pretty busy, and then we go out of town for a week, but assuming the car is still working after that, hopefully I can try to protest again.
So far, I’ve seen my last letter in a New Mexico paper. There’s some concerning news out of Italy about the government trying to ban cultivated meat. I’m a little hesitant to write about that, because I don’t want to give American conservatives any ideas. Does this contradict my earlier argument about the futility of trying to avoid culture-war politics? Maybe.
But it seems prudent, given banning cultivated meat isn’t a live policy idea yet in the United States. I don’t want to help introduce it. Anyway, I’ll probably make the environmental case for increased funding for cellular-agriculture research in my next submission. Give this a look if you’re thinking about writing your own letters:
It’s time for (Cell) Culture Talk. Here’s what I’ve been watching and reading lately.
TV — Lost. Sometimes, when I can’t decide what to watch, I enjoy a couple episodes of what is probably my favorite non-prestige show, Lost. I’ve written this elsewhere, but I like to think of the island as purgatory. That wasn’t what the creators intended, however I believe it adds another spiritual layer to the series and better ties up loose ends.
YouTube — Ten minute Tears of the Kingdom gameplay demonstration. I haven’t been overly impressed with what I’ve seen from TotK so far. The fusion ability looks interesting. Otherwise, it seems like more of Breath of the Wild. I think that would be okay if the game was released soon after BotW, but development has taken six years.
I enjoyed BotW quite a bit. Among the Zelda titles I’ve played, it’s probably my second favorite. I’ve done vanilla playthroughs of the game. I’ve done vegan playthroughs. I even did a playthrough in which I tried to grind all the handrails with the Hylian shield. That said, I don’t think the title was as revolutionary as it was made out to be.
A lot of the stuff the game introduced — an open world, spoken dialogue, etc — has been standard fare in other series for numerous console generations. It was a big step forward for the Zelda franchise, but not gaming as a whole. Part of the problem is the hardware these titles are operating on. I really wish Nintendo was a software company making Zelda for PlayStation, Xbox and PC.
One of my favorite games of the past decade was Fallout 4. I don’t think it will be the case, but I’d love if TotK took some inspiration from the Bethesda title. Character customization, settlement building and companions would be great additions to Hyrule, in my view. I also think Nintendo could learn something about filling an open world from Bethesda.
Book — The End of Sorrow by Eknath Easwaran. This is the first title in a three-volume commentary on the Bhagavad Gita. I figured I should read it while Easwaran’s translation of the scripture was still somewhat fresh in my mind. The more I learn, the more I realize a lot of the things I like about Easwaran come directly from Hinduism. Even when Easwaran is writing about Jesus or Saint Francis, he’s presenting a Hindu interpretation of those figures.
Sports — Knicks beat Rockets, 137-115. Immanuel Quickley scored a career-high 40 points. Jalen Brunson was on the bench. I assume New York is just being extra cautious with him in anticipation of the playoffs. Still, it’s a little concerning.
Sports — Knicks beat Heat, 101-92. Brunson was back, but Quickley stole the show. Give him the Sixth Man of the Year award! Julius Randle sprained his ankle. Hopefully, it wasn’t as bad as it looked.