But it's not a silver record

Meanwhile in a Portland basement…

---

Shoutout to Brandon, who smoked me in most every game last night at Ground Kontrol, leaving me to feel like a total mom. Sample exchange from my future:

ME: Did you kids have fun playing your Froggie?

MY NONEXISTANT KID WHO WAS BORN IN 1971: It’s FrogGER, mom

Anyway, I love a good story. Brandon worked at a place where I interned once a week for a semester, so while I did my best to get to know people I didn’t end up getting that much face time, all told. One day I got in early on a rainy day after taking the bus and sat in the break room. Brandon comes in, groggy as the rest of us and makes his tea, after which I asked if he could start the kettle for my own tea. He refills it and starts it and turns around and I realize that the sniffling sound I’d been tuning out had been him sobbing—SOBBING!—and I had just asked him to do a little chore for me. I was too stunned and lost for words to do anything as he left.

I decided to follow up with an email to give him time to process, which said like “hey, sorry to see you’re having such a hard time. I’m always around if you need to talk about it!” or some such.

He responded with “well thanks! Though I’m feeling pretty good today!” and pretty much immediately after that the guy who is NOT Brandon, who looks a lot less like Brandon when you’re fully awake walked by and it sank in that I could never apologize or even look at that guy without laughing which is the opposite of helpful and compassionate. I got it so wrong and it got too convoluted to do anything. I never spoke to him or learned his name and he will forever be The Guy Who Cried, whose tragedy became too funny for me to help. My favorite kind of Greek myth.

---

---

---

Don't listen to the haters paid off by Big Favreau—this absolutely happened! The man who brushed off a mid-interview bullet wound as “not significant” said of the wee baby Yode “I have seen it on the set. I’ve seen it on the set. And it’s heartbreaking! It’s heartbreakingly beautiful” and saved it from the certain ruination of cgi.

(The only Star Wars I will entertain are baby Yoda memes.)

---

*Enhance*

---

---

From a Buzzfeed roundup of parenting horrors:

"This parent got their penguin-loving daughter a penguin to track for Christmas, but it turned out the penguin was, uh"

Uh…living on an uncharted island. Or something.

---

Are you all having fun with Meta AI? Because I……….broke it

I just wanted to learn how to ski from a robot :(

---

ENHANCE

---

Just realized I posted a football tweet on Super Bowl weekend. Yay me!

---

Title gif. It’s a “LaserDisc,” said in a thick German accent.

---

Mary Kate Korner

Honestly, most of this newsletter is things I’ve already texted her. We DID just learn about Mojo Nixon (rip) beyond the Milkmen song. It's a guy not a band!

---

So long!

(enhance)