Happy Sunday, everyone! Welcome to the Six.
We begin with a “this day in history…” June 1, 1980. From Atlanta, the Cable News Network came on the air. The network was an immediate hit, as founder Ted Turner understood there was an audience for news 24/7, not just at 6 am (when the morning shows typically came on) or 5:30 pm (nightly network news broadcasts). Soon, the term “CNN” became ubiquitous in the cultural bloodstream. I remember first watching it in college (my first cable access) when the Gulf War started. Later, the network became the go-to channel for major events unfolding in real time, most famously the O.J. Simpson murder case.
Competitors were bound to enter the space and steal market share, as Fox News and MSNBC did in the mid-to-late 90s. It’s a shame to see what CNN has become, adding little value in the marketplace other than being a politicized platform for anti-Trump rhetoric. It’s failed to evolve beyond that low-hanging fruit, and the ratings are a fraction of what they were in the 1990s and 2000s.
But CNN was the first news network. For anyone who grew up in the 1980s and 1990s, we recall what a go-to channel it was when major global events were unfolding. There were more than a few missed college classes thanks to CNN (and MTV!)
Let’s proceed with the Six.
TURNOUT DIDN’T TURN THE ELECTION FOR TRUMP
There are enough headwinds for a deeper analysis of the 2024 presidential election. According to analytics firm Catalist and reported on by Nate Silver, “turnout was probably a relatively modest part of the problem for Harris last year,” although a staggering 89 million people who could have voted did not. What the data suggests is that the decision to pair Kamala Harris with Tim Walz had much more to do with the results. The article states how almost 10 million voters the Dems were counting on either switched over to Trump, didn’t vote at all, or, if voting for the first time, chose Trump over Harris.
WNBA RACE HUSTLE: NO END IN SIGHT
I don’t typically follow women’s basketball and don’t watch the WNBA… except when Caitlin Clark plays. One would think fans of the sport—and sponsors—would do all they can to market and promote, inarguably, the greatest gift to the sport in its history. But instead, those in charge of the league and its workforce continue to play the race card. In this piece from Outkick, the author argues that “The WNBA community has fallen for the same Marxian concept behind Black Lives Matter and the pro-Palestine movement. These groups are believers in the idea that success is the result of exploitation… and view Clark's popularity as a rejection of black women.” The league simply can’t get out of its own way and will never reach its popularity potential when race is at the core of every cultural conversation.
FROM CADDYING TO COLLEGE
From the super cool story category… three Los Angeles-area students, none of whom had any golf experience, were recently awarded scholarships totaling hundreds of thousands of dollars by Chick Evans, the scholarship wing of the Western Golf Association. How did that happen? They picked up the bag and went to work. Not playing, but caddying. One of the students spent a summer looping at the Skokie Country Club. You’ll enjoy this one.
AN APPRECIATION OF BEDBUGS
We all can agree… while there are lots of problems in the world, clearly humanity has got some things going for it—technological achievements, medical breakthroughs, Tom Cruise, etc. So, I think it’s only fair that we pause from the daily rat race to give some love and appreciation to those comrades who have stuck with us from the beginning. I refer, of course, to bedbugs, which a new study argues may be strong contenders for the oldest urban pest ever. They made the initial jump from preying on bats to preying on humans 245,000 years ago. Remember, when judging a life worth living, it’s not the accomplishments that count, it’s the friends and terrifying parasites we make along the way.
I LOVE CHEESE BUT NOT THIS MUCH
While I’m writing this… I’m gnawing on a hunk of Wisconsin cheddar. A hearty snack! As much as I love my cheese, one thing I’d never do for a roll: sprint down a 200-yard hill. Every year in the U.K., there’s an event called the Gloucestershire cheese roll at Cooper's Hill. It’s turned into a bit of a festival, drawing massive crowds. This year’s roll took place recently, and well, you have to go to the videotape. A wild scene, to say the least. My idea of fun? As a captivated spectator, drinking a cold Pilsner while biting a tasty Gouda.
A GRADUATION SPEECH WORTH A REWATCH
And finally… more college graduation speeches are circulating as we close out the season. One that made the news this week was a bizarre, fear-mongering speech at Wake Forest University by the insufferable 60 Minutes reporter Scott Pelley. Imagine being an excited college graduate about to enter the workforce and having to listen to some old man drone on about how the world sucks? Thank you for the gift of YouTube where we can curate out the bad ones and find the good ones. One of the good ones is from the late Steve Jobs, who gave a fantastic talk to the Stanford graduates 20 years ago. Below is a Shorts version, but if interested in the entire speech, click here.
Enjoy the nuggets of wisdom. Have a great rest of your weekend.
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