The future is here, sort of. Hope to comment on these stories in an upcoming newsletter.

First, Mahindra racing “fired” (?) their AI-generated reporter.

Also, we’re playing polo on cloned horses.

Here’s a really nice recap–with a ton of data–of a historic year in women’s sports. As Katie Lever demonstrates here, the important numbers (e.g., viewership, dollars) all suggest that female athletes are beginning to get their due. 

Key paragraph:

It’s no wonder Deloitte projects women’s elite sports to generate $1.28 billion worldwide in 2024–over 300% higher than their projections in 2020. And this is all happening as 2023 reports indicated that college and professional women’s sports receive a paltry 15% of total coverage across popular sports networks, nearly triple the coverage they’ve historically received according to longitudinal data from 1989-2019.

And that there is the biggest number: 15% of media coverage is a MASSIVE increase. In past years, it’s ranged from about 2% to 5%, with that higher end only coming in Olympic or Women’s World Cup years. Here’s to more growth for women’s sports in 2024!

I’m reasonably confident that Michigan was the best college football team in the country this year. I think they deserve their title, as much as anyone can. But…it seems a little off that we just collectively decided that the cheating scandal from earlier this year just…doesn’t matter?

Here are some things:

• They probably could have won all those games without cheating. This was some Nixon-assed Watergate paranoia. They seem to have won the meaningful games without cheating.
• It doesn’t matter if “everyone does it,” because here’s a useful definition: cheating is an intentional violation of a public system of rules, for one’s benefit. (paraphrasing the late Bernard Gert there.)
• So, they’re cheaters.

I’m not losing sleep over this, but if you’re wondering why the average American student doesn’t take cheating/plagiarism seriously, why I deal with a litany of ChatGPT bullshit….look no further. 

What a fantastic place this is.

Another lovely day in San Miguel. I walked around, sat around, and read. Pretty much a perfect day. 

I promise I do more than drink, but I’ll add another alcohol endorsement: Casa Murciélago Mezcaleria, a few steps off the square. My kind of place: tucked away in the back of a restaurant, tiny, and focused. 2 beers on tap and at least 50 mezcals in this 10 person bar. I have some notes somewhere on what exactly I drank, but they are not very scientific. Mostly along the lines of “THISISGOOD!!11!!” Just stop by and have the barman take care of you. 

And because it would be foolish not to visit the best bar in the world a second time, here’s tonight’s view from Bekeb.

Another 24 hours in San Miguel de Allende and I remain thoroughly charmed. I’m sure some folks would find this place too touristy and I’m sure I would find those folks exhausting. I’m coming to terms that my perfect places are urban and small scale: narrow streets, tiny shops, bars and cafes with a few stools. 

I don’t claim much authority here, but I’ve had a few drinks in quite a few places, so I’ll nominate SMA’s Bekeb as the greatest cocktail bar in the world. We have suffered much in the 2 decades of the “craft cocktail revival”: signature drinks at the Cheesecake Factory and lectures from waxed-moustache 22 year olds about Prohibition-era barware (all those guys are now 37 and into Tiki or Mezcal now).*

BUT. This whole business allowed for places like Bekeb to flourish. Drinks are insane and the view (below) is beyond insane. Attention is paid to every detail, from staff to food to music…and of course, the cocktails (and mocktails.) If you are ever in this part of the world, just go. If you’ve been to a better bar, send me the address.

*I’m 40 now and very much into Tiki and Mezcal. I just try to keep the lectures to myself.

Some places just open strong. Six or so hours into my first visit here and San Miguel is definitely a strong opener. The vibes abound.

Like many, I have no satisfying resolution to the question of transgender athlete participation at the elite/professional level. (At lower levels: everyone plays. Next.) Here’s a gross oversimplification of two things that are both true: sports should be as inclusive as possible and athletes born physically male have physical advantages over athletes born physically female in most sports.

Most sport organizations have struggled to reconcile these two positions in their policies regarding trans athletes. The resolution seldom satisfies. Case in point: the IOC has ruled that male-to-female trans athletes competing in Paris 2024 must have completed their transition by the age of 12. I’m not saying a child can’t know that they are trans by that age, I’m sure they can. But requiring a transition by 12? I gather this is a cynical approach to keep trans athletes out of women’s competition, but it also seems to set a hell of perverse standard and incentive for subjecting children to incredibly intense–at times risky–medical procedures at an insanely early age. I am not an expert on the medical side of this, but I don’t think I need to be in this case. 

We caught Sean Durkin’s The Iron Claw a few days back: totally good movie, do recommend. The film tells the (relatively) historically accurate story of the Von Erich family of professional wrestlers, a clan who had great success and suffered much greater tragedy. It’s a heavy, well-made film, perhaps most notable for elevating Zac Efron into Serious Actor territory. Some critics bemoaned a lack of character development, but I give it a pass in this regard: there’s too many characters to develop in a sufficient manner. I would have enjoyed some more historical nerdery on the early days of professional wrestling, some context on how the sport worked before the big WWF consolidation in the 1980s, but I can’t really make a case that the film (or the average viewer) needed this element. 

I came home wanting a bit more…I’d known a very basic version of the family story before going to the theatre, but I needed to dig deeper. Enter this absolutely wonderful article from Dallas Magazine, by Skip Hollandsworth. It’s from 1988, so there would somehow be more tragedy to come for the family, but it’s some good journalism. Read it before or after the movie, read it apart from the movie, but probably just read it. Worth it.