Letters, Knicks and Norah Jones
So far, my last letter has appeared in Colorado and New Mexico newspapers. My next one will probably make the animal-welfare case in favor of more government funding for cultivated-meat research. I’ve been remiss about localizing my letters by state recently. It takes a little extra time, but I think it helps. As always, if you want to write your own letters, give this a read:
Anyway, let’s do (Cell) Culture Talk. Here are some of the things I’ve been playing, watching, reading and listening to lately.
Game — Magic: The Gathering Arena. I got my Reinforced Ronin deck up to Platinum Tier 2 in the Standard rankings. I realize that sentence is basically gibberish, haha. I’ve been upgrading some cards on the margins, adding four copies each of Phyrexian Fleshgorger, Dollhouse of Horrors, and Mechtitan Core.
My rank has been slipping lately, though, because I’ve been experimenting with new decks. I use a green-artifact-creatures one the most. The central cards are Rootwire Amalgam, Clay Champion and Cityscape Leveler. There’s not really a strategy to it, aside from getting forests out fast enough to pay for the big robots.
Sports — Knicks beat Kings, 112-99. Julius Randle was having a monster game, but got himself thrown out in the third quarter. Unfortunately, Jalen Brunson had to leave due to injury. RJ Barrett held things together in their absence.
Sports — Knicks beat Bulls, 128-120. This would have been a tough loss. Fortunately, New York was able to pull it out in overtime. I don’t believe the front office is going to trade Randle, given how well he continues to play, but I think they might regret it when he inevitably falls back to Earth.
Sports — Knicks beat Bulls, 114-91. New York’s victory extended their win streak to six games, their best stretch since the season they made the playoffs. Quentin Grimes was fantastic. The stream I found was for the Bulls broadcast, and their commentators were doing impressions of Coach Tom Thibodeau singing Christmas carols, which was pretty funny.
Music — I Dream of Christmas (Deluxe) by Norah Jones. I’m enjoying this. I appreciate Jones has written a number of original songs. I’m not sure any will join the holiday canon, which, for whatever reason, hasn’t seen major additions since Mariah Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas Is You.” But time will tell.
Music — Christmas with Nat King Cole by Nat King Cole. I can’t remember which one of the singer’s holiday albums I grew up listening to, but this one does the trick. Every song, aside from “All I Want For Christmas (Is My Two Front Teeth),” which wasn’t in my family’s rotation, brings back warm memories.
Book — Jesus’ Alternative Plan by Richard Rohr. Interestingly, the Catholic priest makes some critical comments about meat-eating in this text, but they only seem to come from a place of environmental concern. I’d hoped Rohr’s panentheism might have inspired greater sensitivity to animal suffering. Then again, I believe this is an updated version of an older book, so maybe it doesn’t completely reflect his current thinking.