Pass the Torch, letters, and The Ronettes
I continue to believe if Joe Biden isn’t removed from the Democratic ticket, Donald Trump returning to the White House is a near certainty. Another nominee would at least give us a chance at winning. So I wanted to highlight a website which makes it easy to contact your political representatives and ask them to call on Biden to step aside: PassTheTorchBiden.com.
My next letter will argue the United States Department of Agriculture should have invested the $110 million it recently put toward expanding the nation’s slaughterhouse capacity toward cultivated-meat research. If you’d like to write your own letters, check this out: https://slaughterfreeamerica.substack.com/p/how-to-write-letters-to-newspapers-6eb
Anyway, let’s do (Cell) Culture Talk. Here’s what I’ve been listening to, watching, drinking and reading.
Music — Be My Baby: The Very Best of The Ronettes by The Ronettes. I wasn’t familiar with many of the songs here, besides the timeless and perfect title track. I enjoyed them all. The 1960s group was a huge inspiration for Amy Winehouse.
YouTube — Legendary Adventures. The fifth season of this video series is about The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, one of my favorite pieces of art in any medium. It features a bunch of smart analysis and interesting details about the making of the game.
YouTube — Roommates Show. I mostly consume the podcast in the form of short clips. Still, I enjoy the peek into what the New York Knicks are thinking and feeling. Jalen Brunson and Josh Hart have a great sense of humor. Matt Hillman helps keep things moving.
Food and drink — Barq’s. Our air conditioning has been broken during the recent heat wave, so I treated myself to a case of soda, which we don’t usually buy. I forget what the best root beer brand is. Mug, A&W or something else? This was delightful.
Sports — Brunson agrees to four-year, $156 million extension with Knicks. The point guard is taking what ESPN reporter Adrian Wojnarowski called a ‘largely unprecedented’ pay cut to give New York greater flexibility in team building. It’s impossible not to love Brunson.
Sports — Cameron Payne agrees to one-year, $3-million contract with Knicks. I don’t know a huge amount about this guy, aside from the fact he had some good moments in the playoffs against New York. I’ll be interested to see what, if anything, this means for Deuce McBride.
Meditation passage — Finding Unity by Lao Tzu. I’ve been feeling anxious about the state of the country and other stuff. Hopefully, this will help calm me down. I’ve added at least one passage from the semi-legendary Chinese sage before.