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I was in middle of going through the remaining fifteen albums on The Backlog list. As a big and buzzy mainstream release, Whitsitt Chapel was obviously in the list. Most of my thoughts were crystallized earlier this year when I first heard it, but as I found myself giving it another spin, the paragraphs quickly began piling up. After eight hundred words and no end in sight, I decided that it needed a solo post.

Carlos Alcaraz dethroned defending champion Novak Djokovic 1/6 7/6 6/1 3/6 6/4 to claim his first Wimbledon title and second grand slam (US Open 2022). In a match with several swings of momentum, the Spanish phenom stayed the course for 4 hours and 42 minutes in blustery conditions, sealing the famous victory on his first match point. While the computer rankings had Alcaraz at 1, Djokovic was eager to dismiss any notions that he isn’t the world’s best player.

Hi Hugh, Great analysis, as always. Hope the final steps of your thesis go smoothly. While Alcaraz’s genius and mentality was in full display in that 5th set, I think part of it is just that he is an ever so slightly better player, with a margin that, with a margin in those slower conditions that would have needed Zverev to overperform / hit a purple patch, which is just so hard to do in the moment of truth of a slam final .

Hello! I’m officially on break from graduate school and excited to get back into some writing this summer. Look for more regular newsletters, upcoming pieces for Vice and Eater, and more. Today, I want to talk about bitters. There appear to be some misconceptions about which brands are and are not alcoholic, and for whom that does and does not matter. The latter is, of course, up to you, the drinker, but it’s important to have all of the information in order to make that decision, and I continue to find that many people simply don’t have that information.

Aldous Huxley and George Orwell wrote arguably the two most popular novels portending the West’s dystopian future.  For decades, thinkers have opined on which of the two starkly distinct totalitarian nightmares–that of Huxley’s Brave New World or Orwell’s 1984–was more likely to come to pass (or, as some contend, had come to pass).  What has garnered rather little attention is the fact that Huxley himself actually chimed in on the subject. Shortly after the release of 1984 in 1949, Huxley penned a letter to his former student.

In a bonus episode, Grant has two revealing interviews. Alejandro Irarragorri is the chair of Orlegi Sports, which owns Santos Laguna and Atlas of Liga MX. He discusses his successful strategies for his Mexican clubs and shares his thoughts on a potential MLS-Liga MX competition, his near-miss (so far) on buying Newcastle United and much more. Then Grant speaks to Jeff Barger (33:28), the communications director for the Columbus Crew's Nordecke supporters group, about the drama in recent weeks over the club's controversial rebrand and ownership's decision this week to restore "

Kia ora e te whānau Sometimes inspiration strikes just when you need it. I knew I had to write a post before Christmas so that I could remind you all to send in your Best of the Decade mega-post contribution before the 26th December (in retrospect, what a bizarrely high-pressure due date! I’m giving you all an extension ‘til the 28th December). But what to write about? I started and deleted about ten different posts - one about Hot Prince Charles (for God’s sake, please click the link for context), one about the boys of Star Wars (‘til the dreaded Online Discourse sucked all the fun out of talking about it), one about all the bad things about Christmas, one about all the good things about Christmas, Seinfeld (getting desperate), Jenny Lewis, Baby Yoda, you name it, I tried to write about it!

School of Trivia By Alex Jacob I write about a trivia topic that leads into a themed 5-question quiz for paid subscribers (20 quiz newsletters/month). Join the league and play along or just read it like any other newsletter — either way you'll learn a lot! ncG1vNJzZmirpZfAta3CpGWcp51kjbSvx6impaeWqb%2Bqwsia

Welcome to Creator’s Digest! This article was supposed to be sent out over this past weekend but I took a mental health day break for myself over the weekend. Anyway, expect two articles today: this one in the morning and the usual Wednesday Creator news roundup later in the day. Anyway, let’s just jump into it. Meet Alexandra Cooper, the 26 year old host of the massively popular podcast Call Her Daddy.