Letters, The Wild Robot and other stuff
My next letter is going to make the animal-welfare case for increased public funding for cultivated-meat research. If you’d like to send out your own, give this a look: https://slaughterfreeamerica.substack.com/p/how-to-write-letters-to-newspapers-6eb
Anyway, it’s time for (Cell) Culture Talk. Here’s what I’ve been reading, watching and playing.
Book — Reds by Maurice Isserman. The text provides a nuanced history of the Communist Party of the United States of America. Isserman chronicles the group’s successes, while highlighting its deep capacity for self-deception about the nature of the Soviet Union.
Book — Greenwitch by Susan Cooper. The Drew siblings, protagonists of the first novel in the series, team up with Will Stanton, hero of the second, to confront a malevolent, magical force. I was glad the Drew kids returned. They’re significantly more relatable than Stanton.
Movie — The Wild Robot. This is a sweet, beautifully-animated film about parenthood, starring Lupita Nyong'o as a robot who crashlands onto a wooded island where she raises an orphaned baby goose. Apparently, it’s based on a book series and a sequel is in development.
TV — It’s in the Game. Sign me up for more documentaries about the video game industry. I enjoyed the miniseries, even though I don’t have much of a connection to the Madden franchise. The only football title I had back in the day was NFL Quarterback Club ‘98.
Game — Alto’s Odyssey. I loved the original entry in the endless-runner series, but am only just now getting around to its 2018 sequel. The title swaps snowboarding for sandboarding, but is otherwise a similar, relaxing experience, which I appreciate. I’m playing on iOS.
Game — Overboard! This is a lighthearted mobile title, in which you play as a woman who tries to get away with the murder of her husband on a passenger ship in 1935. It’s a brief, entertaining game, which doesn’t have quite as much replay value as some reviews suggest.
Sports — Knicks beat Spurs, 117-114. That was a very fun Christmas thriller. Mikal Bridges led New York with 41 points, the most he’s had as a member of the team. It must have felt good, given all the talk about whether his acquisition was worth the price.
Sports — Knicks beat Magic, 108-85. It was a close, hard-fought match until late in the third quarter, when Orlando’s fouling started to catch up with them. Jalen Brunson dropped 26 points. Josh Hart, who is known more as a hustle guy than a scorer, was close behind.
Sports — Knicks beat Wizards, 136-132. On the second night of a back to back, New York couldn’t seem to get stops against a bad Washington team. Thankfully, Brunson had a monster game, putting up a season-high 55 points, steering the Knicks to an overtime victory.
Sports — Knicks beat Wizards, 126-106. Washington didn’t have quite as much fight in them as they had in the prior match. Karl-Anthony Town scored 32 points. New York continues to stack up wins, but I don’t think many of them have come against elite squads.
Meditation passage — Prayer for the Peace of the World by Hazrat Inayat Khan. The author helped introduce the West to Sufism, the mystical branch of Islam. Unfortunately, the plea to ‘dispel the mists of illusion’ from ‘the hearts of the nations’ is always relevant.