Tradeoffs

Marriage, as most of you know, is often an exercise in compromise. At the moment, my wife and I are negotiating a couple of reasonably big ticket expenses. She wants to go to on a cruise with a girlfriend. That'll cost around $1,000. I have no issue - I like her friend, I don't really want to go on a cruise, win win.

I do want something, though. I've had my eye on this artwork by Malcolm Bracken for some time:

Kinda hard to make it out in this low-fi photo, but it's a stylized and highly-textured Jackie Robinson jersey. Blacken is the former strength and conditioning coach for the Washington Commanders' previous iteration. His work is really unique. And a bit pricey - this particular work is going for $1,200.

My wife doesn't share my obsession with covering every inch of every wall in the house in the first place, and 12 hundred bucks strikes her as a bit much for art.

I may have found a place where we can meet in the middle.

Finally, after a year, Jerome Brouillet's photo of Gabriel Medina from the 2024 Summer Olympics is available for purchase. I can get a high-quality 16x24 print for a cool $450. Do I even need to ask permission for that kind of purchase.

Don't answer that.

Words For My Congressman

My home on a northeastern North Carolina sandbar sits in the state's 3rd Congressional District. My Congressman in the U.S. House of Representatives is a gent named Greg Murphy, a practicing urologist who was first elected to the House in 2019 after four years in the state House of Representatives. He is a reliable Republican in a mostly red district and supporter of President Trump. He chose not to certify results of the 2020 presidential election and questioned Joe Biden's fitness for office based on his own medical experience. 

Below is a copy of a letter I sent him recently. 

Dr. Murphy, Your office reached out to me a couple of months ago as part of an effort to connect with constituents. I ignored the messages at the time, as we agree on little politically. But several recent stories that crossed my path amid the present overhaul of government function and services prompted me to write. 

If you want my input, here goes: I urge you to reconsider support for and silence about the wholesale cuts and changes that have taken place since the Trump administration took office. Evidence grows that tens of thousands of people will not only be thrown out of work here and abroad, but that many of the cuts and changes will disproportionately affect the most vulnerable among us. 

You want to eliminate waste, fraud and abuse? You want government to operate more efficiently? Fine. Determine where the waste and inefficiencies are and make targeted cuts. You wouldn’t prescribe treatment for a patient without diagnosing their condition. Yet giving a ketamine-fueled mega-billionaire man-child and his team with no knowledge of how government agencies work carte blanche to cut and eliminate is somehow acceptable? His ready-fire-aim approach already has done serious damage across a wide range. 

You’re a smart, informed guy. You know that the lion’s share of government expenditures goes toward the programs of Social Security/Medicare/Medicaid, defense spending and paying down the national debt. Focusing elsewhere might be good P.R. but it’s kind of nibbling around the margins for real accountability and savings. 

Want to better scrutinize spending? How about auditing the Pentagon for a start. You were quoted recently about jacking up work requirements for Medicaid. You said that you didn’t think that several of your patients receiving Medicaid benefits should qualify. I don’t doubt that you have anecdotal or personal stories of people who have taken advantage of the system. I’m old enough to remember Ronald Reagan referencing a welfare queen driving a Cadillac as an indictment of the entire system. That also played well among those who want to gauge who does and does not merit assistance. But a U.S. Dept of Health and Human Services fact sheet about Medicaid from a couple years ago determined that more than 95 percent of enrollees met requirements for enrollment. Increasing work requirements and red tape and subsequent cuts to benefits and administrative staff tasked with oversight will affect millions of people who would qualify for assistance. 

I mentioned stories that had crossed my path. The NPR program “1A” ran an episode on June 11 about the spike in senior homelessness in recent years. Inflation and rising housing costs, coupled with proposed cuts to assistance programs, have and will stress seniors and leave them with no good options for the baseline condition of a roof over their heads. 

Another story was on “Fresh Air” this week, an interview with Washington Post reporter Hannah Natanson about DOGE’s ham-handed cuts and operations that didn’t approach the financial savings they forecast and have often produced anxiety and uncertainty. I don’t pretend to know your thoughts on the role of government and its obligations. I don’t know if you’re content with Russell Vought’s blueprint or if you want to go full Norquist (editor's note: Grover Norquist is a conservative political activist and founder of the group, Americans for Tax Reform; he said in a 2001 interview on NPR: "I don't want to abolish government. I simply want to reduce it to the size where I can drag it into the bathroom and drown it in the bathtub."). Regardless, I don’t believe that a man who won a presidential election with fewer than one-third of registered voters has a mandate to fundamentally overhaul government and to trample Congress and the Constitution. 

We both know that Donald Trump is a transactional figure who no more wants to govern than to ride rollercoasters. He wants to give orders and to make money. Anything else is an imposition. I’m also under no illusion that my thoughts will influence your thinking one iota. What I would ask is that you consider not just your donor class, but all the people you represent. The 3rd district encompasses a lot of rural areas, a lot of people with limited access to goods and services, for whom government can be a lifeline. Drastic cuts and reductions will be needlessly, even arrogantly, cruel. I don’t have answers for the best ways to improve people’s lives, though the Hippocratic Oath isn’t a bad place to start. Or more specifically, the line credited to Hippocrates from one of his other papers: First, do no harm. 

Sincerely, Dave Fairbank 

Kill Devil Hills NC

Another Pleasant Valley Saturday

I'll be spending my Saturday doing a lot of normal suburban cusp of Summer sorta stuff, and something that's of the moment yet completely out of the ordinary.

My wife is visiting with her recently widowed mother, and my kids don't live here any longer, so I'm on my own. Me and the dog, that is. We'll get up and go to the Farmer's Market, where I'll grab some good cheese, gourmet dog treats, and whatever I feel like making for dinner. Got some yardwork to do. Need to clean out the garage, too.

In the late afternoon, I'll pay my respects at one of my soccer kids' graduation party. Known her since she was 12 and I coached her in club soccer. Passage of time and all that.

Between those comfortable first-world bookends, I'll be at a No Kings rally at the courthouse in town. I expect it to be civilized and incident-free - our burg is far from the epicenter of ICE enforcement, and we're the sort of affluent (and white) folk that the administration seems not interested in punching down on. I kinda think it'd be good for the overall movement if a group like mine gets roughed up a little bit, because it'd show conclusively that the neo-Gestapo will come after anyone and wake up the still-slumbering-into-autocracy masses. 

I don't go to show that I'm some sort of unusually patriotic or political fella. I just go because in the final reckoning, I want people to know which side I'm on, and that I'm willing to do more than blog about it. Even if it's just a little more.

Bringing the spirit of this guy with me, too. This is poetry. Not loud, not braggadocios, just real in a way a big segment of American men used to be. My Dad wasn't a Southern man by any stretch, but I believe he'd see his sense of decency and right and wrong echoed here.

🧵 1/4 This video was too long & needed to be broken into 4 sections Despite that, this Southern man’s message to his fellow southern men & “not the politicians & bootlickers pretending to know bourbon from Boone’s Farm, the good ol’ boys that can bait a hook & throw a punch” is worth the listen!

[image or embed]

— Guardrails of Democracy (@demguardrails.bsky.social) June 13, 2025 at 7:01 PM

It ain't great right now, our Republic. It may never be the same. But as long as enough of us stand up and say no, it's got a chance to be.

Fuck the Troops

I'm a long-time lefty who happens to also have a soft spot for the men and women of the United States Armed Forces. The Venn Diagram where I fit isn't the most capacious of properties, but there are enough of us. I've banged on for years about the right's cynical and disgusting embrace of The Troops^TM as a useful prop nearly always accompanied by lack of vital funding for mental health, family issues, and post-service support. And so I return once again to the soapbox for your entertainment and edification, and my own cathartic yawping.

Support the Troops? If you're waving the flag at this fucking debacle of a parade through the streets of Washington, DC, a $45m (and counting) monument to raging leadership ego funded by the units themselves, and you're not screaming that the Department of Veterans Affairs be properly funded, you know what you're actually saying?

Fuck the Troops

Support the Troops? If you applaud Pete Hegseth's bullshit performative Omaha Beach PT stunt but don't concern yourself with potential impacts to readiness, you know what you're actually saying?

Fuck the Troops

Support the Troops? If you're cheerleading for a fascistic occupation of on an American city by United States Fucking Marines but not demanding answers about the lack of planning, supplies, food, shelter, and water for the very same Marines, you know what you're actually saying?

Fuck the Troops

It's okay to say "fuck this guy". Preening fascist.

Support the Troops? If you're rattling sabers and jonesing for combat (other people's combat, not your own, you Potemkin tough guy) but you're not willing to stand up while the Defense Department culls women and minorities from its senior leadership ranks, you know what you're actually saying?

Fuck the Troops

Doesn't play as well as a political slogan, but sure feels like a more accurate depiction of the reality on the ground. People are going to die because of this administration and the GOP more broadly care more about wrapping themselves in the flag than they do tackling the hard work of managing a massively complex organization facing real and ongoing challenges related to climate change, asymmetric combat, emerging threats, readiness, and a litany of others. 

Fuck the Troops doesn't have a great beat, and you can't dance to it, though Lee Greenwood's workshopping some new material. But it sure feels like the message being sent from Washington.

Foreign Flags!!

Markwayne Mullin is a US Senator from Oklahoma.  According to Wikipedia:

• Mullin is the first Native American U.S. senator since Ben Nighthorse Campbell retired in 2005.
• His first name is a tribute to two of his paternal uncles, Mark and Wayne; his mother put both names on his birth certificate, intending to later shorten his name to one of the two, but ultimately never did.
• He is the only currently serving senator without at least a bachelor's degree.
• At the end of 2021, Mullin's reported assets increased to a range of $31.6 million to $75.6 million, compared to a range of $7.3 million to $29.9 million at the end of 2020. The increase was from the sale of his plumbing-related companies to HomeTown Services, a multi-state residential heating, air conditioning, plumbing and electrical company.

That's all pretty cool.  Good for him.  Sen. Mullin is also a major Trumpist and not afraid to go on TV to say ridiculous things.  Like this, in support of Trump sending the National Guard to confront the LA protestors:

"A foreign flag, while you're attacking law enforcement?!  It's pretty bad."

Pretty bad indeed!  Who would dare fly a foreign flag while attacking law enforcement?

Oh that's right, MAGA would, like they did on January 6.  We worked through this previously.  In addition to the Canadian flag shown above, the January 6 insurrectionists flew flags of Cuba, Georgia, India, Israel, South Korea, and South Vietnam.  And, of course, the Confederate States of America.

I assume anyone arrested at the LA protests will get pardoned.  Free the 6/9ers!

How You Dune

Orville and Wilbur you know, the Ohio brothers and their flying machine having put a skinny North Carolina barrier island on the map at the beginning of the 20th Century. Seventy years later, a feisty, committed woman and a band of environmental advocates fought to preserve a section of the landscape that’s become a national treasure and signature attraction of the Outer Banks. 

Jockey’s Ridge State Park in Nags Head, N.C., is home to the tallest “living” sand dune on the East Coast, providing ocean-to-sound views and more than 400 acres of hiking areas and natural habitats. Locals this past weekend celebrated the 50th anniversary of the park, which owes its existence largely to a woman named Carolista Baum. 

Baum was a jewelry maker from central North Carolina, and she and her family set up shop on the Outer Banks every summer, her children playing on and exploring the giant dunes and maritime forests daily. One August day in 1973, her kids saw a bulldozer they hadn’t seen previously at work at the north end of their “playground.” They ran to tell Mom, who closed up shop and hustled to the work site. She stood in front of the bulldozer and told the operator and construction crew that she wasn’t moving. After a conversation with the crew, the operator stood down and left for the day. She later went back and removed the distributor cap and other pieces that disabled the ‘dozer. 

Thus began an unrelenting effort to preserve the habitat. Developers had bulldozed and built on portions of the Outer Banks in the late 1960s and early ‘70s, hoping that the sandbar would attract more tourists and visitors. Baum and others wanted to protect the Jockey’s Ridge tract but didn’t have the money to buy it from the owners. After the confrontation with the bulldozer crew, she organized a group to preserve Jockey’s Ridge. A petition drive attracted 25,000 signatures in just seven days, according to a recent piece in the Smithsonian magazine. She solicited nickels and dimes from kids and sold honorary dune space for $5 per square foot, all of which went into a kitty to promote preservation. She routinely traveled to the state capital in Raleigh to lobby legislators, among them then-Lieutenant Gov. and later Gov. Jim Hunt, to set aside funds for the land. Her group produced a documentary that aired statewide and hired a plane to fly over a North Carolina-Duke football game dragging a banner that read “Save Jockey’s Ridge.” She talked to anyone who would listen, and some who wouldn’t, about the value of preserving the land. She and her supporters spread bumper stickers that read "SOS" -- for Save Our Sand Dunes -- all over the island, according to multiple accounts. 

Baum’s efforts led to the U.S. Dept. of the Interior designating Jockey’s Ridge and nearby Nags Head Woods as National Natural Landmarks in 1974. She and fellow advocates persuaded nearby landowners to sell parcels to the Jockey’s Ridge group or to the state. One year later, the state used funds and a matching Federal grant, along with donations from the Nature Conservancy, to buy the land containing the largest dunes, according to the Smithsonian piece. The original park site of 152 acres has since grown to 426 acres, with a recently refurbished visitor center, boardwalk and designated nature trails. 

[If not for Ms. Baum, there's no this:]

Today, Jockey’s Ridge and the big dune are among the most visited parks in the state. Legend has it that the name comes from locals racing Spanish mustangs through the flat area, and dune slopes providing natural seating for spectators. Baum passed away in 1991, but her legacy lives on through her children and hundreds of stewards of the property. From personal experience, I can tell you that a hike to the top and the 360-degree panoramic views are good for the soul. It might not have turned out that way, but for one woman and a group of supporters who decided that sometimes nature should hold sway. Someone just has to draw a line in the sand.

The Big Dumper

It's oft a dangerous game to anoint a new Gheorghie, especially if he's a baseball player, given that demographic's predilection for thinking America needs somehow to be made great again. But we're going to take a few tentative steps in the direction, for reasons that'll soon be obvious.

Cal Raleigh (just a terrific American athlete name) is a catcher for the Seattle Mariners. He grew up rooting for the Boston Red Sox and idolizing Jason Varitek (a plus!) in Cullowhee, North Carolina (hmmm - it's a college town, but it's in the middle of nowhere. could be a push.). Played his college ball at Florida State University (meh, but not disqualifying) and on Cape Cod for the Harwich Mariners (auspicious!).

After being drafted by Seattle in 2018, he made his major league debut in 2021. He's been with the big club ever since. This season, he leads the American League in homeruns with 23. He's second in the circuit in slugging and OPS, behind Aaron Judge's outrageous numbers.

All of this is interesting, even excellent. But we don't bring Cal Raleigh to your attention for his baseballing exploits, at least not entirely. No, we're here to celebrate something else about the M's backstop. You see, Cal Raleigh has a giant rear end. A prodigious posterior. A ridiculous rump.

If you Google "the big dumper", you're directed to Cal Raleigh's smiling mug, because that's the nickname teammate Jerred Kelenic bestowed upon him in 2020. Get a load of the bobblehead Seattle honored him with earlier this season:

Raleigh's Instagram is all baseball and family, and we're not gonna dig any deeper looking for trouble. We'll just celebrate the man and his giant ass, and hope he's not a fan of an entirely different giant ass. 

Husky Gameday, Part the Third

If you'd told me the Huskies would win the district tournament and be eliminated in the first round of the Region 4C playoffs before the season, I'd have signed for it with few regrets. I knew we were in a rebuilding year, and I definitely knew that our coach had a lot to learn. But now that we're actually facing the prospect of going home if we lose tonight at 6:00 pm, I would very much not sign for that outcome any longer. (Technically, we're going home regardless of what happens, but I think you get my point.)

Our opponent this evening brings a gaudy 16-0-2 record to the match (against our 8-6-4, though we're 5-1-1 in our last seven). They've scored 71 goals and allowed 5 (30 and 28 for the Huskies). They have five freshman starters, all of whom play for the same elite club team and have a lot of familiarity. They are fast, technical, and smart, and they're in good form - they won their district tournament final, 5-0.

We played them in the first game of our regular season. Gave up a goal off of a corner kick scramble in the first minute, then an own goal in the 53rd. Held our own, though we didn't exactly threaten them. We had kids playing different positions than we do now, and we know each other better. 

So you're tellin' me there's a chance! Up the Huskies!

zdaughter's Definitive Ranking of All Eight Mission: Impossible Movies

Everyone knows it's hard for me to pass on a request, so zdaughter and I sat down (at Whitney's request) to rank all eight Mission: Impossible movies.  It went like this.

zman: My friend Whitney asked us to do something.

zdaughter: Cool, what does she want?

zman: Whitney is a man.

zdaughter: Oh Whitney, right, he has a bad tattoo doesn't he?

zman: Several of my friends do but yes, he does.  He asked us to rank all eight Mission: Impossibles.

zdaughter: Yes!  I'll get a pencil and paper!

You may recall that she thinks of herself as a Mandalorian but she's also very much Hermione Granger--she's the kid who always raises her hand for every question just to keep the class moving along because she's paying exceedingly close attention and gets bored when things bog down.  She only got one question wrong on a math test so far this year and she's still pissed about it.  This is all her mother.  Outside of class she doesn't take herself too seriously.  She gets this from me.  Here's her spring school photo, for example.

I'm telling you all this to help frame up her approach to the M:I ranking.  She loves cold blooded killers, strong female characters, fast pacing, perfectionism, and a dollop of silliness.  And she's a zperson so she has no time for schmaltz, cheese, or maudlinism.

With that, here are her rankings:

8. Mission: Impossible 2 - Remarkably, an action movie directed by John Woo with Thandie Newton as the leading lady and Dougray Scott as the main villain is a dud.  zdaughter's take: "This is so cheesy.  He has long hair and he's always tossing it around.  The fight scenes are ridiculous, he's always flipping and spinning for no reason.  It's like he's trying to fight like a Jedi but he doesn't have a lightsaber."  I agree with all of this, I'm amazed that the franchise survived this cornball schlock.

7. Mission: Impossible 3 - Remarkably, an action movie directed by J.J. Abrams with Michelle Monaghan as the leading lady and Philip Seymour Hoffman as the main villain is a dud.  I sense a trend.  zdaughter's take: "This one's corny too.  His hair is short but now he's retired?  There's no way Ethan Hunt would retire.  And of course he has to come out of retirement to save his girlfriend.  I wasn't worried when he died, I knew they would bring him back to life.  Tom Cruise isn't going to die."  I agree with all of this too.  Blowing up a Lamborghini added insult to injury.

6. Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning - This is the eighth episode, currently in theaters near you.  zdaughter's take: "It's a good movie but it's too long and it's stressful.  It's a long time to be that stressed out.  Gabriel wasn't a great bad guy and it's hard to understand how the Entity works.  But there is lots of action and Grace is cool.  I wish they didn't kill [redacted]."  Grace is a thief, fyi, and zdaughter's favorite character in the franchise.  They could've lopped 45 minutes off this beast and told the exact same story.  At one point Cruise narrowly survives a crazy situation that drags on for half an hour and then he explains all the other stuff they need to do to accomplish the mission and I looked at my watch and exclaimed "Jesus Christ, we've been here for 90 minutes and they have more to do?!"  It's just too long.

5. Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation - This is the fifth episode and the first one directed by Christopher McQuarrie, who directed all the subsequent episodes.  I'm surprised she has it this low but her top four are her top four and she isn't budging for anyone.  zdaughter's take: "It's a good movie but it isn't as good as the ones I like better.  I don't like the color filter."  I have to agree on the color issue.  I don't know if we had a streaming problem on Prime but the colors were way over-saturated and muddy.  But it introduces Ilsa Faust, a world-class assassin and zdaughter's second favorite character in the franchise.

4. Mission: Impossible - Fallout - This is the sixth episode and it's also surprisingly low but this is zdaughter's list and I'm not messing with it.  "This one is good.  It has Walker [Henry Cavill] and the White Widow [Vanessa Kirby] and Ethan Hunt is John Lark."  That all makes sense if you've seen the movie.  It's a banger--this would've been in my top two if I wrote the list.

3. Mission: Impossible - This is the one that started it all.  zdaughter's take: "This is the one where he drops down from the ceiling and he can't touch the floor and the rope slips and he stops an inch away from the floor.  And he jumps off a helicopter just as it explodes and it throws him onto a train."  In other words it has iconic scenes that everyone remembers.  It's the OG, the Sean Connery of the franchise.  Number three is where I would place it too.

2. Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol - This is the fourth episode, where the franchise turns away from the soft dreck of episodes 2 and 3 into hard espionage stories.  Sort of how the James Bond franchise did a complete tonal change when they moved from Pierce Brosnan's "Die Another Day" to Daniel Craig's "Casino Royale."  zdaughter's take: "Ethan Hunt climbs on the outside of a building like a budget Spider-Man, there's a crazy chase scene in a sandstorm, the Kremlin explodes, Hawkeye is in it too."  The Avengers crossover likely boosted this one in her eyes but I agree that it's a ton of fun.  It would've been in the top two on my list.

1. Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning - This is the seventh episode and a bit of a surprise for the top spot.  But it makes sense when you hear zdaughter's take: "It has Agent Carter [Grace is played by Hayley Atwell, who played Agent Carter which I encourage you to watch on Disney+, zdaughter highly endorses it too] but it's weird to see her not in the 1940s.  It also has Ilsa and Paris [Paris is a female killing machine].  The best part is when Agent Carter tries to drive the Fiat but can only go in circles and Paris is just sitting there like what the hell.  It's the funniest of all of them."  This is all true, this is the episode that takes itself the least seriously, that occasionally puts tongue in cheek and humanizes the characters.  For example, there's a scene where Tom Cruise kills a bunch of people (this happens often) and Hayley Atwell (who met him a few hours ago) is comically shocked speechless and Cruise has to convince her that it's all ok.  In another scene, Atwell and Cruise are handcuffed together and hilarity ensues.  Cruise later ends up staggering around Rome, handcuffed to a steering wheel.  It's the only movie where Ethan Hunt gets goofed on and it has three badass female characters who help save the world, so that's why it's zdaughter's #1.

Filler for Teedge

zdaughter and I like to watch movies together and we recently polished off the first seven Mission: Impossible movies so we could go see the eighth in the theater.  Tom Cruise looks a helluva lot better than me but he still looks old.  He is older in this movie (62) than Jon Voight was in the first one (58).  His character's date of birth is shown at least twice and they don't hide the fact that he's 61, but it's still hard to suspend my disbelief at all the shit this old man does over the course of 170 (!) minutes.  And they're a tense 170 minutes!  Remarkably, neither of us had to pee during the movie and we both enjoyed it, and we got to do a few don't-tell-Mommy turns on the way to and from the theater in glorious weather.

But that's not the purpose of this post.  We sat through something like 26.9 minutes of trailers, one of which really jumped out at me.  This is for Teedge (and anyone who, like me, is stunned that KRS-One is involved).

Husky Gameday, Part Deux

I am nothing if not a superstitious fellow. I threw away a school-logoed polo shirt earlier this season after we played our worst game of the District season. There are things that are non-negotiable about gameday. For example, we always warm up on the same side of the field, even though it's the furthest from our bench. My goalkeepers get high tens, versus the high fives all the other starters get as they're announced pregame. You get the point.

And so on this District Final Husky Gameday, I'm running back the blogtheme that undoubtedly contributed to our win on Tuesday. We've beaten our opponent tonight twice this season, but each match was scoreless at halftime. I think we're a bit more talented, but they did just knock off the unbeaten regular season champs (and were the only team to hold them to at least a draw during the district campaign). That's got our kids' attention. I don't expect we'll be as disinterested as the regular season champs were.

Pretty simple equation: we play like we're capable, I like our chances. Kick's at 6:00 pm. Up the Huskies.

Husky Gameday

Playoff beard engaged. Roster (mostly) healthy. Game at home tonight at 6:00. Win and we live to fight another day. Lose and the season ends. 

A (Not So) Small Request for the Shield

The National Football League didn’t become an American sports colossus by hibernating in the offseason. The Shield manipulates the calendar and turns even innocuous goings-on into events: player draft; scouting combine; schedule release; free agency window; owners’ meetings; rule changes; Jerry Jones eyelid tucks. Factor individual team issues into the mix, and hardly a week goes by without some tackle football news. 

Team Pro-Pigpile

The NFL’s latest intrusion on our attention spans came courtesy of the recent Spring owners’ meetings in Minnesota and word that the Philadelphia Eagles could continue to torment defenses in short-yardage situations with their Tush Push, or in Philly parlance, the Brotherly Shove. By extension, other teams may also attempt to duplicate what the Eagles routinely pull off. That they will almost certainly be less successful is likely to cement positions in the pro- and con- pigpile camps. 

The Green Bay Packers submitted the anti-TP proposal this go ‘round. Word was that the Eagles’ signature play was doomed, that there were enough owners sufficiently cheesed off to vote to ban the play (75 percent, or 24 of 32, is required to implement or change legislation). In the end, however, only 22 owners voted to ban. So, the majority of league owners remain against the play, but not enough to outlaw it.

Commissioner Roger Goodell reportedly is not a fan of the play, as well, but since he serves at the pleasure of the owners, he is in no position to go all Putin as it pertains to on-field activities. One argument from various corners of the league against the Tush Push is that it’s a threat to player safety, which is a big, steaming pile of disingenuous. 

First, the NFL admits there’s no data supporting that claim. Former Eagles All-Pro center-turned-media celebrity Jason Kelce, who advocated for the play at the Spring meetings, has said elsewhere he believes injuries are less likely to occur during the TP because a coordinated group shove among a small crowd of large humans fully aware of what’s coming is less violent than random full speed collisions. Frankly, any time league mouthpieces trot out player safety arguments, your antennae should start to twitch. 

Recall that the Shield fought for years against concussion and brain trauma findings, despite mounting evidence and a string of high-profile deaths to former players. The league finally agreed to financial settlements for victims only because courts ordered it to do so. Hurdles and obstacles existed for players to receive payments, including conditions related to race that made it more difficult for black players to qualify for certain levels of payouts, a swell look for a league with a majority African-American labor force. 

The league also is so concerned with player safety that it added a 17th game in 2021 and is likely on the way to an 18-game schedule, as Goodell floated to ESPN bleating tank top Pat McAfee last April. Adding two games means that in a span of four years, players will be subjected to an extra half-season of potential injury, related to the long-time 16-game schedule, not counting the additional wear and tear of playoff appearances. “The key thing for us is looking at making sure we continue to do the things that make our game safer,” Goodell said later in a May 2024 piece on NFL.com. “Seventeen games is a long season, so we want to make sure we look at that and make sure that we continue the safety efforts.” 

The NFL’s “safety efforts” apparently don’t include in-season scheduling, either. Twenty-six teams will play games on short rest and recovery. Twenty teams will play three games over the course of 11, 12 or 13 days. Cincinnati, Detroit, Kansas City, Miami, Minnesota and Seattle each have two stretches in which they will play three games in 12 days. The Baltimore Ravens have a 3-in-12 stretch and another in which they will play two games in five days, as do the LA Rams. Buffalo has two stretches where it will play two games in five days. The Eagles will play three games in 11 days from late September into early October. Dallas will play three games in 11 days in November, and two games in five days in late December. 

The league self-congratulates for updated concussion protocols and penalties against head-hunting and outlawing chop-blocks and crackback blocks and altering the execution of kickoffs, all while increasing the number of games and limiting recovery time in pursuit of more money and even greater exposure. 

Mmm, omelette

One counter to the injury concern is that football is a violent game and players are well compensated. Everyone knows the risks and is free to pursue and follow less brutal endeavors. Fair enough. However, would a little more honesty kill anyone? Wait, maybe re-phrase that. A little more transparency wouldn’t hurt and probably wouldn’t change anyone’s mind, either. Something along the lines of: Look, we made a hash of brain trauma and CTE and we haven’t always been sympathetic to player concerns, but we’re trying to do better. We intend to fill your weeks and months with football because all the numbers and interest say you want it. Unfortunately, that means stretching the limits of player health and conditioning in some cases and could mean adverse results for your favorite players and teams. Omelettes and breaking eggs, and all that. Thank you for your consideration. 

How hard was that?

Gheorghasbord: The Good, the Great, and the Ugly

I'm generally amped up on adrenaline on nights when I coach games. As a player, one gets to exert enough to counteract the elevated energy. Not so for coaches, and invariably, I get home and am all hopped up. So I drink a couple of beers and go to bed too late. Which means you get cobwebby-brained blogposts that wander all over creation.

The good takes us to Cannes to celebrate a dude who's fast becoming my favorite actor. I think Pedro Pascal first entered my conscious when he played Javier Peña the first season of Narcos. Others will have seen him as Oberyn Martell in Game of Thrones, but I still haven't seen it. He's a pretty terrific artist, no doubt, but I've come to praise him for his outspoken support for trans people (his sister Lux is a trans woman) and this week, for basic human kindness in the context of immigration.

Speaking of basic human kindness, some very great news from a corner of the entertainment multiverse close to our hearts. Earlier this year, Max announced that it would no longer air new episodes of Sesame Street, putting Bert, Ernie, Elmo, Big Bird, Snuffalupagus and their pals in some jeopardy. This week, Netflix stepped into the breach, releasing a message informing us that our puppet friends would have a streaming home on its platform. This year marks the Street's 56th. Glad to see there's a place in the world for this:

And finally, all the way from great to bad meaning bad not bad meaning good. The Colorado Rockies lost to Phillies last night, 9-3. The defeat takes the Rockies' record to 8-39, by some measure the worst mark in history at this point in a season. Colorado's run differential is -150, which is more than twice that of any other team in MLB, save the woeful Baltimore Orioles. The Rockies have a 5.85 ERA and 1.61 WHIP, both easily the bottom of the league. On offense, their OPS is 28th of 30 teams, and they've scored the second-least runs on the majors. Their .170 winning percentage played out over an entire season would yield 28 wins, by far the least in history. And god bless the good people of Denver, but the Rockies are still drawing nearly 26,000 fans per game. I guess good weed and a ballgame are still a great combo.

Recurring Series Recurs

When we last checked in on the gay sports bar scene, we were celebrating D.C. best sports bar, Nellie's. Eight years between recurring segments is still recurring.

Today, we return to the topic in plenty of time for you to book your tickets to St. Paul. On August 9 in that fair city, The Black Hart of Saint Paul is hosting a Dildo Derby to raise money for Southside Harm Reduction, a local non-profit serving those fighting drug addiction. 

Though it may sound like it, the Dildo Derby is not a soccer match between Stephen Miller and Russ Vought. In fact, the event seems engineered to create (faux) outrage in MAGAWorld. It combines something draped in Americana (the Cub Scouts' Pinewood Derby) and something naughty (um, dildos). Participants build wheeled dildos and race them down a slanted track.

The host venue bills itself as "a neighborhood, queer, and soccer bar in the Midway neighborhood of Saint Paul", going on to note American soccer's historical support of the LGBTQ+ community. As the pub's website says, "Soccer fandom through the US, but particularly in Minnesota has a long tradition of proactively supporting progressive beliefs of inclusion and advocating for queer visibility in sports."

Located just blocks from Allianz Field, home of MLS' Minnesota United, The Black Hart will likely be packed all day, as the FA Cup final between Crystal Palace and Manchester City is taking place as I type this and the Loons host St. Louis this evening. Sounds like a fun place to spend a day, dontchaknow.

Minny-summit in August? Get your dildos ready.

The Fall and Rise(?) of the Anti-Wrexham

If you're a sentient member of our society, you're undoubtedly aware of the truly fairytale story of Wrexham FC, the club from a down-on-its-luck Welsh* mining town that was purchased by a pair of American actors and subsequently went on a back-to-back-to-back run of promotions that's seen the club climb from the hinterlands of British football to the precipice of the world's most famous league. You're likely aware of all of it because the actors in question, Rob McIlhenny and Ryan Reynolds have parlayed their expertise in image-creation into a wildly successful documentary project that's followed Wrexham's rise.

* You will, undoubtedly, remember how fond the Welsh ladies are of your humble narrator.

You'd be forgiven if you were less familiar with the recent nightmare history of Sunderland AFC, a club based in a port city in the northeast of England. The Black Cats spent 2006-2017 in the Premier League, finishing a club-record 10th in 2011. They, too, were the subject of a well-made documentary, Sunderland 'Til I Die, which chronicled the club's relegation in 2017, and then again in 2018. The story arc took the team and the town from the lofty heights of the best league in Europe to England's third division, and introduced an increasingly sordid and incompetent band of owners and executives to the mix. 

Future Liverpool captain Jordan Henderson came up
through the Sunderland academy

Sunderland wallowed for a bit in League One, finally returning to the Championship (England's second division) in 2022. This season, they finished fourth in the division, which qualified them for the four-team tournament for the final spot in the 2025-26 Premier League (Burnley and Leeds qualified automatically by finishing in the top two).

The first round of the Championship promotion tournament is played over two legs. Sunderland won its first match on the road, defeating Coventry, 2-1. On Tuesday, they returned home to the Stadium of Light needing only a draw to advance to the one-match final at Wembley. They played like a team in search of that draw, and finally gave up a goal in the 76th minute.

The match went to extra time, with two 15-minute sessions to determine a winner, or failing that, a penalty shootout. Sunderland earned a corner at the 120+2 minutes, and on the last kick of the game, did this (go to the 6:45 mark).

Dan Bullard will never buy a drink on Tyneside again, as his header brought the Black Cats to the precipice of a return to Premier League glory. Sunderland will play Sheffield United on May 24 for a lot of marbles, and most people will root for them. Everyone but Marls.

Chrowdsourcing: On the Horns of a Coaching Dilemma

To try to win or not to try all that hard to win, that is the question. And it's a vexing one.

With a come-from-behind 2-1 win last night (the game-winner is posted below for your viewing pleasure - in both of our meetings against these guys, we've scored in the final three minutes to break their hearts) your Huskies clinched no worse than second place in the Dulles District and guaranteed at least one home playoff game. We have one more District game, against the team that's ahead of us in the standings, and which thumped us, 6-1, in our first meeting. 

That first contest was marked by a number of unsporting acts on the part of our opponent. In addition to near-constant chirping of the official by players (despite being warned about dissent during the coin toss), they celebrated a penalty kick goal (their fifth of the long-decided match) by doing the worm on the penalty spot. Their coach added insult to injury by leaving his starters in the match until five minutes remained. 

I would very much like to beat this team.

Here's where it gets weird. If we do beat them, it'll leave us in a flat-footed tie for the District title, with both teams on 6-1-1 records. The winner of the District regular season title automatically qualifies for the Regional tournament. If the winner of the regular season title makes the District tournament final, the other finalist also qualifies for Regionals.

In the event there's a tie for the District title, the tiebreaker is a playoff game. So if we beat the current first place team at their place, we'd be rewarded by having to play them again to earn the title. If we lose either game, we'd need to win a single home game to reach the Regional tournament - that game will likely be against the team we beat last night - we've beaten and tied them this season, though both games were taut affairs, and we had to come from behind in each to get a result.

Your Fightin' Huskies

To add some context, I think our opponent is slightly better than us. They've scored 27 and conceded seven in their six District games to date. We've scored 11 and conceded eight in seven games (only two in the six games against other schools). The 6-1 score was an anomaly, in my professional opinion, but beating them twice in a few days is a heavy lift.

So here's the question: do I push hard to try to win to set up a playoff for the regular season title, or do I let the chips fall where they may and conserve energy and focus the kids on the District tournament semifinal as our path to Regionals? 

What Would Emma Hayes Do?

Gheorghasbord: All the Filler That's Fit to Print

Howdy, Gheorghies. Trust you had a cromulent weekend. 'Twas a lovely weather pattern here in the National Capital Region and the wife and I checked out a new brewery/winery in the western part of our county. Overserving oneself on a Sunday seems fun at the time, less so in the cold light of day. Nevertheless, we move forward.

Some might say we range far and wide today in our pursuit of interesting content. Others would argue that we're all over the fucking place. The truth, as often, is somewhere in the middle. Closer to all over the fucking place, but still.

Careful observers of this space know that I took two lawnmowers to the landfill over the weekend. I haven't had a working mower for over a year. I've been outsourcing the trimming of my lawn to a neighbor kid who's inherited a mowing business from his older brother when the latter went to college. The younger kid is a good egg, but he's working a job, doing offseason training for football, and wrapping up his junior year. As a consequence, the lawn, she was a mess. 

So I went out and bought myself an electric mower yesterday, an EGO Power+ 600 series, complete with a 56w battery, a 21" deck, and a sporty look. Got her up and running this morning before I started the workday. She's a beauty.

Might have to reward myself by hitting the most unexpected source of great craft beer in the area. Hat tip to Mr. KQ for turning me on to The Filling Co., a hybrid gas station/convenience store/fast service restaurant with three locations in the DMV. In addition to having really excellent food (my kid goes there for top notch deep-fried Oreos), TFC has an incredible selection of terrific beers that I've never seen anywhere else in the area. I've purchased stuff from The Veil, Benchtop, Lawson's, The Other Half, and several really collaborations that are unavailable elsewhere. Keep your eyes peeled for one coming to your area.

And finally, a reunion tour that's got me a bit historically feeling. Rilo Kiley, fronted by the great Jenny Lewis, just announced their first tour since 2007, though they officially broke up in 2014. They're getting back together and hitting the road starting later this month. On August 30 they'll play the Summer Stage in Asbury Park, NJ, and they'll be at The Anthem in Washington, DC on September 10. Don't mind if I do.

Celebrate Mom

In honor of the day, here are some fun songs about moms. And a pair of terrible ones.

Empty Journalism

If it’s a truism that people are skittish about change that doesn’t put more coin in their pockets or more flattering mirrors in their parlors, it’s even less comfortable for institutions. Businesses, sports leagues, legislative bodies, the local PTA, you name it. Disrupt the status quo and expect reflexive pushback and the inability to adapt. 

Major newsgathering organizations and political media aren’t immune from the stasis, as evidenced by recent interviews with Donald Trump on the occasion of his second first 100 days in office. The Disruptor-in-Chief sat down with correspondents from ABC and NBC for “exclusive” conversations about his actions and what’s transpired on his watch. They were, as you might imagine, disjointed exchanges laced with fiction, bravado and enough batshit crazy soundbites to fuel several news cycles. 

Trump has been at the center of American political life for a decade, yet it’s apparent that major news media remains ill-equipped or unwilling to recognize or to deal with him and his enablers and supporters in a meaningful way. As the site’s Media Grump, it’s alternately discouraging and infuriating that legacy media often doesn’t use its platform to speak plainly about the man. 

I mean, if any institution is built to withstand the whiplash and commotion he causes, it should be the media. They pivot daily, sometimes hourly, from one story to the next. They’re trained to seek truth, if not always justice. They’re equipped to explore multiple facets of people and topics, though to be fair the strip-mining of journalism resources now makes that more difficult. Yet far too often, major political media trades truth for access and equivocates in the name of supposed fairness or objectivity. 

Media has gotten better about calling out Trump’s lies and false claims and extreme actions from his days as a political novelty and throughout his first term. Yet we still get descriptions of his “unpredictable governing style” (NPR) and headlines such as “Trump is pursuing a radical agenda. Does he have a strategy or is he winging it?” (The Washington Post). 

Christ on crutches, there is no agenda, there is no governing style. Trump no more wants to govern than to ride rollercoasters. He wants to be in charge, to give orders, to make others knuckle under, and to make money. That’s it. Full stop. He and his justice people arrest and deport immigrants because he thinks it makes him look tough. Likewise, his imposition of tariffs despite warnings about their effects. 

So, Trump sat down with ABC’s Terry Moran and, as usual, tried to buffalo his way through the conversation. The border with Mexico is 99.9 percent closed to illegal crossings now; the U.S. had a daily trade deficit of $3-5 billion that he’s stemmed; there was no inflation during his first term, compared to record inflation under Joe Biden. Trump also sat down with NBC’s Kristen Welker for a comparably choppy interview that aired on “Meet the Press.” This time, the border is 99.999 percent closed; gas is under $2 a gallon in some places (it’s not); auto manufacturers are moving plants to the U.S. (they’re not); the 2020 election was rigged (it wasn’t); Elon Musk and DOGE found $160 billion in waste, fraud and abuse (they didn’t). Oh, and Trump said he was responsible for good economic news and results, and Biden was responsible for poor news and performances. 

He could be lobotomized. You don't know.

Honestly, the transcripts, with the interruptions and fragments of thoughts and often talking past each other, read like lobotomized David Mamet. One of the illustrative parts of Trump’s conversation with Moran regarded illegal immigrant arrest and deportation in general and Kilmer Abrego Garcia specifically – the Salvadoran man in Maryland who was arrested and deported back to a notorious El Salvador prison, which was according to a judge and to Trump’s own justice people done illegally and without a hearing. Trump said that Garcia was a criminal and had gang script MS-13 tattoos on his hand. When Moran politely pushed back and said, no, he had symbols on his hand and the MS-13 was photoshopped and the photo circulated, Trump insisted that Garcia actually had MS-13 tattooed on his knuckles. Moran tried to re-direct and move to the next topic, but Trump wouldn’t let it go, finally saying, “… they’re giving you the big break of a lifetime. You know, you’re doin’ the interview. I picked you because – frankly, I never heard of you but that’s okay – but I picked you, Terry, and you’re not being very nice.” 

Never mind that Moran has been an ABC senior national correspondent for seven years and a national and foreign affairs reporter since the 1990s. Trump was doing him a favor by sitting down and talking to him, and he expected proper deference. Similarly with Welker, when she brought up inflation and price increases and the possibility of a recession due to tariffs and economic uncertainty, Trump called it a dishonest interview. He didn’t like the way she framed questions – not positively enough in his favor. 

That’s the thing about Trump. He gripes about unfair media, yet his ego craves the attention – Mussolini looking for a balcony, as it were. Interviews with him are journalistically and informationally worthless, because he constantly lies, deflects and blames. Reporters and network executives know that, but because he’s the President, there’s an entrenched desire for him to sit in front of their cameras and audio recorders. Clicks, eyeballs, ratings. Unfortunately, they crave the attention, as well, much to the detriment of the audience and population in general. 

The vacuousness of Trump appearances and interviews also distract from the important stuff. They cause reporters, and by extension, regular folks to focus on what he says and not what he and his circle do. Annex Canada as the 51st state. Take over Greenland. Rename the Gulf of Mexico. Bring back Columbus Day. Greatest economy ever. Third term. Whatever crosses his mind or just saw on Fox News or Newsmax or an aide handed him. 

It harkens back to the days when the President’s words mattered almost as much as his actions. Trump didn’t understand the presidency on his first go ‘round, but he’s always understood media and what draws attention. He doesn’t necessarily understand the presidency any better this time, but he learned enough to bend it to his will and to go full bootlick and put people in position to do his bidding while he plays the same toxic tune he always has. Too many continue to dance to it.

Emergency Fashion is...Something Post

Andre 3000, genius or megagenius? 

His Met Gala appearance came just minutes after the musical polyglot dropped a new 16-minute record called 7 piano sketches.

Cross-Promotion: A Very Special G:TB Episode

It was genuinely wonderful to have the opportunity to celebrate the life of Dave's father Guy this weekend in New Jersey. Those of you that have been given the honor of eulogizing a parent know that it's both fulfilling and emotionally draining. I'm here to tell you that Dave did a brilliant job capturing his larger-than-life Dad, from the intimate family moments to Guy's (literally) global impact on the corrections profession.

As Dave himself notes over at the Sentence, "...though it was something of a somber occasion, my college and high school buddies brought some joy to the weekend". We did, in fact, pack a lot of joy into a short period of time, and I'm once again reminded of the incredible gift of friendship I'm fortunate to receive every day.

Godspeed, Guy, and much love to all you you, my Gheorghie pals.

Change of Address

We’re pollen-coated ass-deep into Spring, which means the start of Major League Baseball and playoffs in the NBA and NHL. So of course we’re going to offer a few words about second-tier college football. Never say we can’t scratch a niche. 

William and Mary, at least the third-favorite college for many in the audience, recently announced that it would move its football program from its long-time home in the Coastal Athletic Association (formerly the Colonial) to the Patriot League, beginning in 2026. The move makes sense for both cultural and competitive reasons. 

The Tribe’s primary football rivals, Richmond, James Madison and Delaware, all departed for other locations; JMU and Delaware climbed upward to the Football Bowl Subdivision, Richmond moved laterally to W&M’s future home in the Patriot beginning this coming season. The CAA’s distended conglomeration that now includes the likes of Stony Brook, Hampton U., Monmouth, Albany, Campbell and North Carolina A&T doesn’t much move the needle for Team Tribe. 

The Patriot, meanwhile, is a collection of schools whose profiles more closely resemble W&M, in size and academic standing. It was also a relatively light lift, since W&M’s move is football only. The rest of the school’s athletic teams will continue to compete in the CAA. 

A segment of Team Tribe has pushed for years, with varying degrees of force, to join the Patriot. Again, like-minded schools, particularly as CAA expansion brought in colleges with little in common to replace the league’s better known programs. But that wasn’t and isn’t William and Mary’s call entirely. The Patriot is comprised of small, private schools – undergrad enrollments range from Lafayette’s 2,764 to Fordham’s 10,337 – that were and are justifiably concerned about getting Bigfooted by W&M’s broad-based athletic program. 

For many years, the Patriot also didn’t permit its schools to offer athletic scholarships, providing only what’s called need-based financial aid, a la the Ivy League. But more than a decade ago, conference Big Hats concluded that athletic grants weren’t a path to academic ruin and allowed their athletic programs to pony up. As a result, Patriot football is more competitive regionally and certainly with the CAA, which in its heyday was one of the nation’s best FCS conferences. 

William and Mary athletic director Brian Mann explained to a former colleague that the football move came about relatively quickly – in discussions over just a few weeks – and that football-only makes sense now and for the foreseeable future. CAA football is a separate entity from the rest of the conference. It has/had adjunct members Richmond, Villanova, Maine, New Hampshire and Rhode Island, schools whose entire programs compete in other conferences, and de-coupling was easier than a full move. He is quoted in the piece: “I don’t think anybody at this time is ready for a big decision like that. We’re happy with where we are in the CAA, and (the Patriot League is) happy with their full membership. And with all the changes coming to college athletics, any sort of a change like that right now feels premature.” 

“Premature” is an interesting word choice. College administrators – the more effective ones, anyway – are usually precise with language and can be as vague or specific as necessary. Given Mann’s entire thought, “premature” reads more like “not yet” rather than “not interested.” Indeed, former athletic director Terry Driscoll told my comrade in that same piece that W&M had discussions with the Patriot on three occasions during his tenure, without a move. 

Patriot League affiliation may be a single-sport endeavor for William and Mary, or it may be a wade into the shallow end of the pool for consideration of full membership down the line. In any case, it continues the Tribe’s historic rivalry with Richmond as a conference game. And rumblings that Villanova football will also move from the CAA to the Patriot would further enhance the league and give Coach Mike London’s program one more familiar foe. College power brokers sweat and fret over a shifting landscape with new seven- and eight-figure expenditures and legal taffy pulls. Meanwhile, schools down the food chain that simply want kids to be able to compete and to proudly represent the laundry can only hope to find their appropriate depth. Ain’t easy. Athletic officials all earn their keep these days.

zBouillabaise Returns

I have a few incomplete thoughts which I will stew together as zbouillabaise.

1. Fuck cancer.

My childhood BFF, whom several of you have met (including Danimal!), called me this week to share the good news that his mother appears to have beaten Stage 4 lung cancer through a combination of immunotherapy, chemotherapy, and surgery to remove 40% of her left lung.  Apparently she was cranky and bossing people around about an hour after she woke up from the procedure, which is to say she was fully back to normal.  She is an exceedingly tough person so her fortitude isn't a tremendous surprise, but still, fuck cancer.

2. Reading The Great Gatsby resulted in homework.

I recently read a post about a group of English professors who theorized that Jay Gatsby is Black.  I read The Great Gatsby in high school and saw Gatz about 14 years ago but I never heard this theory before, so I reread the book and I can see what they're getting at.  Alternatively, Gatsby is Jewish.  Or maybe both.  Also, I'm not convinced that Meyer Wolfsheim is really Jewish.  Anyway, I forgot that the book is only 150 pages long and that it's a damn good story.  And it's timely despite being 100 years old--the wealthy elite shit on the working man and blame his misfortune on the "others," and the working man gets violent at the others' expense.

I enjoyed the book (and the alternate theory of Gatsby's secret) so much that I contacted my high school English teacher (she's related to a friend) and we had a two and a half hour Z**m call about Gatsby, literature, and life in general.  She was my favorite teacher ever and it was great to reconnect.  She even gave me some reading assignments for our next call this afternoon.  So track down your favorite teacher and spend some quality time with them.

3. I am more optimistic about the Bills than ever before.

Or at least in a long time.  Going into the draft I told several Gheorghies that all I wanted to see them draft were cornerbacks and edge rushers.  My rationale is that it doesn't matter who the skill position players are on offense so long as they have Allen under center, and if you want to beat Mahomes you need to be able to get to him while only rushing four, and you need to cover everyone long enough for that four-man rush to get to him.  Beane largely listened to me, and they signed whatever is left of Joey Bosa (which I hope is significantly more than whatever was left of Von Miller over the past three seasons), so I am extremely optimistic going into the 2025 season.  Which means Allen gets hurt on the first snap.

4. Hell is other people.

I've said this here before.  This time it's less personal.  I've been plowing through Severance and pretty early on it reminded me of No Exit.  Then there's a scene in season 2 where a bizarre love triangle literally discusses who among them is going to hell.  Hopefully things will become clearer when I finish the season.  It's a great show, and you'll enjoy it even if you don't like existentialist references.  Check it out.