Ryan Lawler

Chotiner: And when you engraved "One Ring to rule them all" on the—
Sauron: I don't understand why everyone keeps taking that out of context.
Chotiner: Well, do you mean to rule us all?
Sauron: I'm here to talk about Gondor's illegal encroachment in Ithilien, Isaac.

Season 4 was great, but... if we're being honest, if they stopped at Season 3, the season and series finale would have been perfect, an all-timer.

It me

Tolkien only mentions this in the appendices but

the Elves left for the Undying Lands because they owed everyone a lot of money

Americans Are Leaving the U.S. in Record Numbers More citizens are replanting overseas, drawn by a quality of life made easily affordable by the U.S.’s enviable salaries.

This is such a well done piece that reports out, with hard data and interviews, something profound about what's gone wrong in this country.

www.wsj.com/us-news/amer...

Having Taryn Hatcher interacting with people in the stands, promoting some of the food vendors, and providing some “sideline” reporting added a ton of value to watching Phillies games on NBC Sports Philly AND made me want to be at the ballpark more. Dumb decision to not renew.

Tired: Ban sports gambling
Wired: Nationalize DraftKings

People love curling because it's a sport they earnestly believe they could compete in if given enough practice

Inside ‘The Simpsons’ last-minute addition of late writer Dan McQuade’s likeness to its Philadelphia episode Just 18 days after the beloved writer's death, the venerable show found a way to pay animated tribute to McQuade.

www.inquirer.com/sports/dan-m...

"This stuff just flies through the air. They send this information "beamed" out all over the fucking place. You just got to know how to grab it, see. I know how to grab it."

RIP Tom Noonan

When the WSJ publishes something like this...

Ryan, We see you have credibility in [topic]

I am, in fact, an expert in [topic]

Me embracing another year of Philadelphia Phillies baseball

But to the salary cap -- not saying do away with it completely, but as constructed it's way too complicated. Also I think there should be certain exemptions for drafted and home-grown talent, so that teams like OKC don't have to start losing players to free agency just because they drafted TOO well.

Would you believe that since 2019, the worst team in the league has had the #1 pick exactly zero times?

They're literally making it harder for the worst teams to get better, while giving other teams, especially in the messy middle (let's say 5th worst through 10th worst), an incentive to be bad.

The problem isn't that the absolute worst teams tank, that's true in every sport. The problem is that under the current lottery system, there's an incentive for literally half the league to try to get better odds at a #1 pick.

I'd argue it does the opposite, esp. in the flattened post-2019 structure.

If you're sitting at #10 and 3 games behind #8, but you can go from 3% odds for #1 to 6% odds... And from 14% for top-4 to 26%, wouldn't it behoove you to lose more games?

If you want to get rid of tanking in the NBA, you should just get rid of the lottery. The 10th worst team in the league shouldn't ever win the #1 pick. The worst team in the league shouldn't ever be stuck with the #5 pick. This isn't rocket science.

I love the gold coin economy of the John Wick series.

* Discarding a dead body: 1 gold coin
* One night at 5-star hotel: 1 gold coin
* Custom, Kevlar-lined suit: 1 gold coin
* One bourbon, neat: 1 gold coin

Hitmen get paid in USD, yet no one ever talks about the conversion rate.

A photo of a cat under a bed with a rotisserie chicken with the caption: This is Beans. Beans stole a while rotisserie chicken off the counter. Not a piece. The whole chicken. Beans dragged it under the bed and growled at us for forty minutes. Beans is 9 pounds.

Become ungovernable

Regarding Nick Castellanos - you do not, under any circumstances, have to hand it to him

I can't believe this is real

Guy's Entire Job Just Asking People If They Have Time For A Quick Chat

Guy's Entire Job Just Asking People If They Have Time For A Quick Chat https://theonion.com/guys-entire-job-just-asking-people-if-they-have-time-fo-1819574667/

The 2026 Phillies becoming Mutter Museum weirdos could be their ticket to the World Series - my column

Happy Pitchers and Catchers day to all who celebrate!

hitch route, hitch route, go ball, punt