Double dribble

Welcome to Tuesday.

What happened to the Twitter poison pill? Apparently there was a $44 billion dollar antidote.

Herkimer, New York, is claiming that it’s the birthplace of basketball. Springfield and James Naismith may have something to say about that. And—it’s called basketball, not crateball.

Even with full coffers, the Massachusetts legislature is resisting calls for tax relief in the face of inflation and high gas prices. Meanwhile, on the federal side

Ry Cooder and Taj Mahal have teamed up again. Even better, they’re paying tribute to two other greats, Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee.

And Vietnamese food drive-through restaurants? Yes, please.

Assumed knowledge

Friday. Today’s word is simulacrum.

Universal Hub highlights a million dollar listing for a house in Hyde Park. The interior shots are… interesting.

Today’s Globe beef: a story about scientists pushing for more focus on the role of T cells in the fight against Covid. Interesting. But what are T cells? Strangely you won’t find out from reading the article. I found the answer in the comments, of all places.

The Twitter board told Elon Musk to come back when he was serious about financing. He’s back.

British lawmakers may be getting ahead of themselves with a new law that would allow the operators of self-driving cars to watch TV while behind the wheel. Unfortunately, there are no self-driving cars (yet).

And Ron DeSantis says math should be about getting the right answer, not about how you feel. For Florida residents, the math for the Disney dispute will add up to an extra billion dollars in taxes. I wonder how they’ll feel about that.

Hostile takeover

Wednesday, 4/20. The high point of the week.

The Wirecutter reviews… snacks.

I have to admit that I didn’t get the joke when Elon Musk tweeted “Love Me Tender” last week. But reading Matt Levine’s latest on the Musk Twitter takeover, I now get it. There’s so much that I didn’t know about the M&A world. A must read. As Levine points out, there are a lot of obstacles ahead for Musk if he wants to buy Twitter. But John Cassidy wouldn’t bet against him.

Joan Vennochi is scratching her head over Charlie Baker’s tacit endorsement of Tom Hodgson for Sheriff in Bristol County. File under: Politics. Strange bedfellows.

Midnight Train to Georgia is still one of the best songs ever recorded. Danyel Smith, with an homage. Whoo whoo.

And Delta is looking at Starlink for in-flight connectivity. Another Musk company. Every day is 4/20.

We can make it happen

Saturday. Today’s album is Daryl Hall’s Before After.

David Hume Kennerly on photography and war.

Last night I ran across this excellent studio performance by a band from Moscow doing a cover of Chicago’s ironic protest song Dialogue (Part I & II). In this case the two singers going back and forth are from Russia and Ukraine. The video is from 2019 but resonates strongly today, especially since one of the two singers, Serge Tiagnyriadno, is now on the ground defending Kyiv.

Gambling is doing well in Massachusetts.

Elon Musk is not going to buy Twitter. Benjamin Powers and Maggie Severns think he’ll regret even trying. Kara Swisher isn’t so sure about that.

And how did the Chick-fil-A cross the road? This is how.

Cash flow

Thursday. The word of the day is opportune.

Elon Musk wants to buy Twitter outright, now.

It’s budget season in these parts. Boston’s budget is pretty practical. Lots of necessary facility and infrastructure upgrades. Personnel costs dominate. Status quo. That’s not a bad thing. At the State House, despite overflowing coffers, the Governor’s plan for tax relief for for seniors, low earners, renters, and parents of dependent children was put off by legislators. Speaker Ron Mariano told Commonwealth Magazine that those tax cuts “weren’t necessary.”

There were lots of allegations of voting shenanigans investigated after the last presidential election and some were actually found to be legitimate.

Russia is blustering over Sweden and Finland joining NATO, throwing out the threat of moving nuclear weapons closer to the border. As if close to the border is worse.

And here are the winners of Apple’s ‘Shot on iPhone’ macro photography contest. Wow.

Reasons to be cheerful, part 4

Rain, rain, rain. A snarky and cynical Wednesday.

All the adults were up in space.

On the economic front: “Consumers are spending, businesses are investing, and wages are rising at their fastest pace in decades.” So run for the hills.

Just like with public records, the Legislature doesn’t play by the same rules as most of the rest of state and local government when it comes to unionization. That’s probably because they make the rules.

This Worldcoin thing seemed to have potential. Just scan everyone’s eyeballs and pass out money. What could go wrong?

And Elon Musk is on the board of Twitter. Yup.

Brush fires

Sunday. Stalin became leader of the USSR one hundred years ago, today.

If you thought the Oscars were fun, just wait for the Grammys.

Pakistan is in crisis. The Prime Minister has dissolved Parliament and the Supreme Court may be next. Oh, and then there’s this. Just what we need.

Nabil Ayers singles out a few guitar solos for consideration. It’s not even close to a definitive list. But no matter. The guitar solo is over. These days I’d rather listen to Cory Wong play funk rhythm.

No more knocking on doors. Kyle Chayka writes about how to sell a vacuum cleaner on social media. Design is key. Marketing needs to be next level: “It’s not a vacuum, it’s a meditation on dust.” Aspirational. Whether it picks up dirt is besides the point.

And the Cybertruck is dead. It never seemed real to begin with.

Contingency planning

Today is Wednesday, March 30th; the anniversary of Steward’s Folly.

Dan Primack at Axios scooped the John Henry-owned Globe on a story about Fenway going carbon neutral. How did that happen?

Finland and Taiwan are taking their lessons from Ukraine.

It’s always helpful to consider the contrarian view. In this case, Bret Stephens entertains that Putin may be miscalculating like a fox.

As you might recall, Trump launched his social media site in February. But he still hasn’t yet made a post on it. It’s looking more and more like this whole thing was a scam from the get go.

And American astronaut Mark Vande Hei has landed safely, coming down in Kazakhstan after hitching a ride on a Russian spacecraft. It’s a crazy world.

Who, what, where, when and why

It’s Thursday, a stormy late-March day.

I guess Arnold must have hit a nerve.

A Globe story highlights the fallout after removing police from Boston schools. The author’s take is that evidence suggests removing city police from the schools was a mistake. Strangely conspicuous by its absence in the story was any mention of the Mayor’s longstanding position on the subject.

As Putin is backed into a corner, Peter Rosen, a professor of national security and military affairs at Harvard, plays out a few nuclear scenarios. Terrifying stuff.

Doom-scrolling is a hard habit to break. But at least there are rest stops along the way.

And rich people are getting worried about the economy. Good. Maybe now something will be done about it.

Having your cake

Welcome to Tuesday. It’s International Women’s Day.

Murder hornets are so last year. Make way for the giant, palm-sized flying spiders.

Over 70% of Americans support banning Russian oil, so that would be the politically smart thing to do. And yet

I was an early Twitter user. A big early Twitter user. In the week after the Marathon bombing, when people were looking for information about what was going on, I could reach into my pocket, take out my phone, and engage with a half million people around the world in real time, something that had been impossible to do up until that point. That was the potential of social media as a transformative tool. But transformation works both ways and in the following years Twitter became toxic, a victim of its own success as a platform. I had enough. And apparently I’m not alone.

First, the irrepressible fishermen of County Cork took on the Russian navy and now an Irish truck driver has struck a blow against the Russian embassy by knocking down the gate with his truck. “I’ve done my bit, lads,” he said as he was led away by police.

And thanks to ‘Conservapedia’ we can read about the cons and pros of E=mc². And we thought all the relativists were on the left.