Summer sports, letters and more
I miss the Knicks. Ever since I started following the team, I’ve looked for a summer sport to tide me over. I’ve tried Major League Baseball, the Women’s National Basketball Association, Major League Lacrosse, the Premier Lacrosse League and others, but none stuck.
Except, that is, for Major League Soccer. For a couple of years I was following the New York City Football Club, then our TV package stopped carrying their games. Coincidentally, the team won the MLS championship that season. Go figure!
Anyway, so far I’ve only seen my last letter in a California newspaper, which is disappointing. My next one will make the public-health case for increased federal funding for cultivated-meat research. If you’d like to send your own letters, check this out: https://slaughterfreeamerica.substack.com/p/how-to-write-letters-to-newspapers?utm_source=substack&utm_campaign=post_embed&utm_medium=web
It’s time for (Cell) Culture Talk. Here’s what I’ve been reading, watching and listening to lately.
Book — Emma Goldman in Exile by Alice Wexler. Socialism was my first political love, so it’s hard not to get swept up in the romance and tragedy of 20th-century labor radicalism. This excellent nonfiction work follows the titular anarchist from her deportation in 1919 to her death in 1940.
Book — Travelers of the World Revolution by Brigitte Studer. The book is a fascinating history of the Communist International, told from the perspective of its employees, who crisscrossed the globe in the hope of spreading Soviet ideas. Many of these figures were killed in Stalinist purges.
Movie — Nobody. Bob Odenkirk plays a middle-aged father who’s family thinks he’s lame, but he’s actually some kind of secret agent, who single-handedly takes on the Russian mafia. I wasn’t a huge fan. I don’t know why. I may just have been in a weird mood.
Music — Dual Mono by The Greenhornes. When I was in high school, I was really into the garage-rock revival of the time. You know, The Strokes, The Yeah Yeah Yeahs, etc. This record was one of my favorites. I don’t think there’s a single skippable song. The final track, Gonna Get Me Someone, might be the highlight for me.
Meditation passage — You Must Forget Yourself in Prayer by Dov Baer of Mezhirech. I like this one, particularly the bit about praying “only for the sake of God.” Sometimes, I feel like I’m not doing that when I write about the passages I’m incorporating. That said, I’m not sure what the author means when writes that distinctions between good and evil “emerge only in the lower realms of God.”