How is it that when I search for a Catholic book about self-esteem, the first book to show up is something titled “Ask Your Husband”? 😕

Another very fortuitous guess on the third try.

Wordle 242 3/6

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I can’t believe I missed this “point/counterpoint” period on “60 Minutes” with P.J. O’Rourke and Molly Ivins, another favorite humorist of mine. I only hope it was as good as it sounds.

P.J. O’Rourke wrote about death in 2008, after he was diagnosed with a different kind of cancer than the one that apparently killed him this morning. The piece is at once surprisingly reverent and typically irreverent.

Death is so important that God visited death upon his own son, thereby helping us learn right from wrong well enough that we may escape death forever and live eternally in God’s grace. (Although this option is not usually open to reporters.) …

Thus, the next time I glimpse death … well, I’m not going over and introducing myself. I’m not giving the grim reaper fist daps. But I’ll remind myself to try, at least, to thank God for death. And then I’ll thank God, with all my heart, for whiskey.

Upsetting to hear that P.J. O’Rourke has died. My copies of “Holidays in Hell” and the National Lampoon Sunday Newspaper Parody – which I had to repurchase on eBay years ago after a friend in high school never returned my first copy – are among my most treasured possessions. (Even if I somehow can’t find the latter here at the house.)

I know a lot of my friends probably hated his politics, but he was one of the few conservative libertarian types I knew of who was legitimately hilarious. Just a terrific writer and one of my favorite “Wait Wait … Don’t Tell Me” panelists. (I still miss hearing him and Charlie Pierce loudly crack jokes on NPR with those bellowing Irish guffaws of theirs.)

One of my early Chicago memories was seeing him on a panel at the Printer’s Row Book Fair not long after I moved here. I had had a crush on him for years, and the opportunity to see him speak was thrilling. There was something invigorating about the fact that I could simply cross the street from my condo and see one of my favorite writers live and in person.

But I digress. I don’t drink much these days, but I’ll need to knock back a shot of whiskey tonight in P.J.’s honor. Requiescat in pace, sir.

Startled that my wild and very lucky guess succeeded. Otherwise this was a tough one that could have broken my streak.

Wordle 241 3/6

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Up late taking care of some editing work as I stream the Winter Olympics. There’s an awful lot of yelling in curling.

The New York Times says KF94s, made in South Korea, are “one of the best options” for masks. I assumed that a couple of months ago, when I bought a few on a hunch that the quality control in that country was more trustworthy than that in China for KN95s.

Pro tip: If there’s one near you, go to a Korean supermarket like H Mart to find them. They’re often pretty well stocked with KF94s.

I’m embarrassed to say that I don’t remember F’s first baby steps. Yet I squealed with amazement (and maybe a little horror) when we discovered over the weekend that our 13-year-old now wears size 9 shoes.

The latest Wordle debate: Has the New York Times takeover made the game harder?

The Guardian reports that many players say yes. The Verge, however, disputes that Wordle is harder.

Wordle 240 4/6

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Begrudgingly have the Big Game on. I grew up in San Diego reflexively hating anything related to L.A., and that compulsive recoiling from Los Angeles teams remains.

So, as much as I appreciate Matt Stanford finally getting a chance at a Super Bowl, I just can’t bring myself to pull for the Rams.

Having said that, I wonder if my rooting for Cincinnati is another sign of how much of a Midwesterner I’ve become.

I probably should have a set starting word.

Wordle 239 4/6

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The Onion: “Biden Vows That If Russia Invades Ukraine, U.S. Will Invade One Country Of Equivalent Value”

This may be my new favorite Winter Olympic sport: the monobob.

I shouldn’t care. And the number is small potatoes in the grand scheme of things. But damn, 150+ likes on one of my tweets is startling. (Strategic callouts to the Twitter feeds of the show and the host helped. And both accounts responded, which delights me no end.)

My weekend is complete.

Things I wish I had learned in J-school: “Nietzsche’s 10 Rules for Writing With Style.”

One reason I love “Wait Wait … Don’t Tell Me": The show can book Patti Smith and quiz her about burger patties, only to have her respond with a reminder that it’s Bertolt Brecht’s birthday.

Crossing my fingers that this doesn’t happen to me anytime soon: “The zen of snapping a Wordle streak.”

Spent a good 10-15 minutes between the third and fourth tries.

Wordle 238 4/6

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My practice of avoiding as much political news as possible means I’m the last to know about Fascist Barbie’s “gazpacho police” gaffe.

This is the kind of Winter Olympic coverage I need: “What is Ice Dancing and is It Different From Figure Skating?”

My broadcasting life

C and I have talked often about blogging, tweeting, and generally how we use the Internet. He likes to comment a lot, usually on Reddit or Facebook these days. I like to post about stuff I’m thinking or reading or listening to; I like to think I’m ambivalent about if or how people react, though I probably care more than I want to admit. Either way, I’m less inclined to engage a whole lot online – partly out of laziness, mainly because my sense of introversion often extends beyond real life to virtual platforms.

“So you’re a broadcaster,” C tells me.

I never though of myself that way, but yeah, I guess I am. I prefer to produce stuff, package it a little, and throw it out there – and if people want to read it, great. If not, whatever. That was kind of my career for almost 30 years. That has generally been how I prefer to play on the Internet.

So, I’ve created a “Broadcast” category for this site, which is what I choose to share on the Micro.blog timeline and on Twitter. Much of it will overlap with what I linkblog; some of it will incorporate random short takes (which almost function as an online variant of the one-sentence journal concept).

(Facebook cross-posting isn’t an option on Micro.blog, but maybe that’s just as well. I don’t post a ton these days on FB.)

Hoping this can finally realize the one-stop-shop “indieweb” idea of posting to one place where I own the content and syndicating it to other platforms – without having to roll out everything I write here to the social media masses.

Update: I’ve turned off the crossposting until a glitch resurfaced this afternoon (Friday 2/11) that posts EVERYTHING I write here to the Micro.blog timeline. I do not want everything here posted to the Micro.blog timeline. Waiting to see if it can be fixed.

Here’s a fascinating explainer of how Spam became such a big deal among my people – part of an Atlantic podcast series that, in essence, opens a whole Spam can of worms about its cultural impact.

Wordle saves lives, people: “Family was concerned woman didn’t text her daily score.”