Land Rovers and Expensive Shrimp Cocktails

The week in stuff I read

Friends…it’s hot. I read a bunch of things I liked this week mostly while sitting on my roof and also a park bench up the block from me. I’ve been trying to take more reading breaks. Mostly stuff off my phone, but these things I likely discovered or at least read on it.

I definitely read the news of what the new Safdie brothers film is shaping up to be while I was having lunch and I almost spit out whatever it was I had in my mouth when my eyes saw “Set in the world of high-end sports card collecting in the 1990s, a retired Baseball pitcher (Ben Affleck) attempts a comeback as a sports memorabilia agent (Adam Sandler) attempts to capitalize on his success. Megan Thee Stallion is said to play Affleck’s girlfriend.” And also that Steve Harvey is in it.

Read about it at World of Reel

There’s an absolute ripper by Dan O’Sullivan. I swear, every few years I read something by that guy and it instantly goes into the old mental library as an all-timer. This one, about the life and times of Chicago mobster Ken Eto aka Tokyo Joe, is easily one of the things I’d call a must-read this week, this month, and this year. You don’t get to see that many articles like this anymore, and that’s a damn shame. Usually, you’ll hear editors say “That book idea could be an article,” but this article should be a book and probably a movie.

Read: “The Last Gamble of Tokyo Joe” by Dan O’Sullivan at Chicago magazine.

It turns out that something MLK said about Malcolm X in a famous 1965 Playboy interview with Alex Haley wasn’t true. It wasn’t some little thing, either. It’s the part where King called X a “fiery, demagogic oratory,” that looks to have been fabricated. That’s…sort of a huge deal.

Read: “MLK’s famous criticism of Malcolm X was a ‘fraud,’ author finds” by Gillian Brockell at the Washington Post

Everything is getting expensive. The latest addition to the list? The shrimp cocktail. Ryan Sutton writes “As labor shortages, food costs, and other inflationary forces make dining out more expensive, shrimp cocktail is transforming into a proper splurge at steakhouses, brasseries, taverns, chic oyster bars, and elsewhere.”

Read: “Shrimp Cocktail Has Entered Its $30 Era” by Ryan Sutton at Bon Appetit

I’m a sucker for a Land Rover, and, sure, I think calling it Jaguar Land Rover sounds pretty dumb. But I especially appreciate this take on it because it’s from a British point of view and it’s some A+ British kvetching that my American ass can relate to. “The end of the road for Land Rover has been greeted with howls of protest louder and more poisonous than the exhaust and fumes at a scuffle for “Sorned” vehicles (for the uninitiated, that’s notifying DVLA that your car is off-road for tax purposes).”

Read: “Corporate Collision” by Rachel Johnson at Air Mail (subscription needed)