LOS ANGELES – Former American football star turned actor turned guy who was found liable for killings but not convicted criminally OJ Simpson has succumbed to a battle with cancer, surrounded by the remaining family members who did not die at his hand. While much of Simpson’s life was surrounded by controversy, one thing observers […]
LAS VEGAS—With onlookers gasping as the former football star made a big show of being too big for the casket, O.J. Simpson was reportedly allowed to remain alive Thursday after his coffin didn’t fit. “If the coffin doesn’t fit, you must let him live a bit.” said O.J. eulogizer Tommie Lochran, who advocated for Simpson…
The Arizona Supreme Court ruled that a 160-year-old law banning all abortions from the time of conception with no allowances for cases of rape or incest can be enforced, usurping the state’s previous 15-week abortion ban from 2022. What do you think?
ASHGABAT, TURKMENISTAN—Putting her aspirations on the back burner for now, new mother Akja Charyeva told reporters Friday that she was forced to put her dream of becoming a Central Asian dictator on hold. “However much I want to bring the Turkmen people under the rule of my iron first, I have to prioritize taking care…
BANGOR, ME—Tearing away the pall of shadow and misery that had once cloaked his whole existence, an extra egg roll mistakenly thrown into a takeout order at local Chinese restaurant Panda Palace reportedly became Allen Russo’s sole reason for living this week. “There is hope in this bleak world after all,” said…
ITHACA, NY—Describing the environment as inadequate for the cognitive development of children, parenting experts at Cornell University warned Wednesday that sealing a newborn for years inside a chamber made entirely of glowing screens could have potentially negative effects. “Studies have produced very concerning data…
Starting today, home Internet and mobile broadband providers in the US are required to display consumer labels with information on prices, speeds, and data allowances.
"Today's nationwide launch of the Broadband Consumer Labels means internet service providers are now required to display consumer-friendly labels at the point of sale," the Federal Communications Commission said. "Labels are required for all standalone home or fixed Internet service or mobile broadband plans. Providers must display the label—not simply an icon or link to the label—in close proximity to an associated plan's advertisement."
The labels are required now for providers with at least 100,000 subscribers, while ISPs with fewer customers have until October 10, 2024, to comply. "If a provider is not displaying their labels or has posted inaccurate information about its fees or service plans, consumers can file a complaint with the FCC Consumer Complaint Center," an agency webpage says.
About one hundred years ago, a scientist and statistician named Francis Galston came upon an opportunity to test how well regular people were at answering a question. He was at a fair where lots of people were guessing the weight of an ox, so he decided to take the average of all their guesses and compare it to the correct answer.
What he found shocked him. The average of their guesses was almost exactly accurate. The crowd was off by just one pound.
This eerie phenomenon—this idea that the crowd is right—drives everything from the stock market to the price of orange juice.
So, we decided to test it for ourselves. We asked Planet Money listeners to guess the weight of a cow.
This episode was hosted by David Kestenbaum and Jacob Goldstein. It was produced by Nadia Wilson and edited by Bryant Urstadt. Alex Goldmark is Planet Money's executive producer.
I am the letter writer who runs a board games group and used Alison’s excellent advice about communication to deal with a problematic member of the games group and the issues their behavior was causing.
We had a twist in the tale recently when Q, the member who was asked to leave the group because their behavior was negatively impacting others, asked if they could come back.
For four weeks every year, we use a different venue as another group needs our normal venue. One one of the four weeks, I went for a walk before the session and noticed what looked like Q in the park. When the session started, Q appeared, just “passing by,” and we had a quick chat about this and that before they asked if they could come back to the group, saying they were in a better place now. They then left without ordering anything, which makes me think they dropped in just to see us.
I said I would send a message, and gave it due consideration. I also asked a friend who knows Q and used to be in the group, but has now moved, for their more objective input.
The decision was no: the group is working well as it is, with high numbers and between 11 and 20 people per session, and Q coming back would lead to awkwardness and possible animosity from a few people, some of whom would speak their mind. We would also lose a lot of members, and the group would slowly decline. For what it’s worth, one person who had some very negative interactions with Q, when they heard why Q was there ( they were round the corner), exclaimed “No!” to Q coming back, and this person is one of the nicest people you’ll meet. Similar reactions were given from others.
I sent Q a message explaining the decision, and I was as fair and kind as possible given the circumstances. Q has found another games group, albeit one that only plays light games, (not heavy games, Q’s preference), and I mentioned that and said it sounds like a nice group (which it does).
Q was perfectly pleasant when we chatted, but that was for about eight minutes, and they knew what was coming. They also said that they weren’t often doing the things I’d mentioned anymore (moving other people’s pieces, and a couple of other examples I gave), and that although their new group likes light games, they are helping some people progress up to heavier games. It wasn’t clear if the people wanted to progress (one of the issues we had was Q assuming that everyone wanted to progress).
The games group continues to do well, with enough surplus each year to give everyone free sessions every January, and we receive frequent feedback that the atmosphere is friendly and welcoming and that people feel at home and confident to bring and teach their games there. Our annual Christmas potluck dinner and session with a Secret Santa also continues. We also have a Google sheet with people’s games collections, if they want to add them, thanks to one of our members who likes spreadsheets.
For myself, Ask a Manager continues to help me out at work! I recently applied for a job which would be a step up income wise and I used Alison’s tips, and I use the communication tips in daily life as well as at work. I was actually used as a bargaining chip in recent negotiations at work over a type of meeting that needs minuting (for my minuting skills), so I will take that as a compliment!
Summary: Today will be breezy as more dry air filters into the area, but winds will settle down later this afternoon. We’ll see a couple of cooler days and nights, with low humidity, before the onshore flow returns and our temperatures begin to ramp up into the 80s. Rain chances look low to nil for at least the next week.
Thursday
We’re continuing to see a pronounced breeze from the northwest this morning in the wake of Wednesday’s cool front. With clear skies and appreciably drier air today, highs will reach about 80 degrees. But we’ll cool off nicely tonight as winds subside, with lows dropping into the mid-50s in Houston, and even further for inland areas. This will be a fine, chilly night. I am really going to miss spring when it’s gone.
Friday morning will dawn chilly for much of Houston. (Weather Bell)
Friday
Another sunny day with dry air. Highs again will be in the vicinity of 80 degrees. However winds will begin to shift, first from the east, and then the southeast overnight. Initially they’ll be pretty light, but this is the beginnings of the onshore flow. Even so, lows on Friday night should drop into the upper 50s in Houston.
Saturday
The first half of the weekend will bring more nice weather, with temperatures of about 80 degrees, and only a few more clouds. We will also start to feel an uptick in humidity, but with dewpoints still in the 50s, it will still feel quite nice. If you’re planning to attend any of the Art Car Parade festivities this weekend, you can be confidence in pleasant weather, albeit with a bit of a southerly breeze. Lows on Saturday night will be warmer, dropping perhaps only into the mid-60s.
Sunday
We’ll still see some sunshine on Sunday, but there will be more clouds mixed in, and humidity will be on the rise. Look for highs in the low- to mid-80s. Sunday night temperatures may not drop below 70 degrees for much of the area.
Next week looks warm for Texas and the eastern United States. (Pivotal Weather)
Next week
Much of next week looks partly to mostly cloudy, with warm days in the mid- to upper-80s and nights in the 70s. It won’t be absolutely sultry, but it will feel more like summer than we’ve felt in awhile. There is a signal for some kind of front by around the end of the week, which should cool us down a bit, and may (or may not) be accompanied by some showers. But that part of the forecast is best written in pencil.
This post was written by Alison Green and published on Ask a Manager.
It’s five answers to five questions. Here we go…
1. Is the kiss emoji appropriate at work?
This is a low-stakes question, but I keep wondering: Is the kiss emoji 😘 ever appropriate in work communication?
Most of our team are in our thirties and forties. Our work environment is fairly informal — few emails, but lots of Slack messages, so of course emojis are everywhere. I enjoy using them, we even have silly traditions among coworkers. (Think: one of them writes that a famous llama groomer from France will be visiting next week, and instead of 👍🏼 or ✅, people will react with 🥖 and 🍷.)
It’s a lighthearted way of joking around, but for some reason, when people use the kiss emoji, it rubs me the wrong way. I helped a coworker out with something the other day and they wrote back, “Thank you so much! 😘” I like them well enough, but this felt odd. A different coworker recently put a kiss emoji underneath a Slack post in which one of our grandbosses announced a small perk (think additional parking spaces for our team in the company lot).
Obviously I would never say something, I’m not the emoji police. But just so I know whether my gut feeling is right or I‘m being overly literal: This is weird, right?
You’re taking it too literally. People aren’t using it to mean “imagine me kissing you.” They’re using it to mean “you’re awesome” or “this is great” or “I like this.” I can see why you’d be weirded out by it if you considered it in a vacuum … but you’ve got to take it in the cultural context, where it’s just a more effusive version of the thumbs-up.
To put it in much more old-fashioned terms, think of opening a letter with “dear” — you’re not really saying the stranger you are writing to is dear to you. Language, and now emojis, evolve in strange, non-literal ways.
(Only slightly related to this, I recently came across this old post and what.)
2. I misspelled the company’s name throughout my cover letter
I spent the last hour putting together a detailed cover letter and tailored resume for a job that I thought was a great fit for my skill set. Right after sending it, I realized that I’d consistently misspelled the name of the company throughout my application materials. To give myself a little credit, it is a kind of weird name, and my brain is pretty fried with applications, so somehow I didn’t notice the error in the many times I proofread my materials and checked them against the job description. Of course I noticed right after sending instead, and now I can’t stop cringing.
This is a fatal error and I should just write off the possibility I’ll ever hear from this job, right?
Well … it doesn’t look great. If it’s a job where attention to detail is important, it’s probably going to take you out of the running, or at least move you down the list. That said, it’s not going to put you on a do-not-hire list there or anything like that, and you can try again in the future without it being held against you.
3. My job wants me to find coverage after I quit
I put in my two weeks at work (food service job) because I’m going to be moving for the summer. After I did, I got an email back from my manager saying I needed to find someone to cover my shifts for the week after I quit because they’re “going to be really busy.” Are they allowed to do that? Isn’t that their responsibility?
I’m literally going to be moving and I don’t want to deal with the stress of finding someone to cover me for a whole week after I QUIT.
Haha, nice try, manager. They can propose anything they want — they can ask you to find coverage for the entire next year if they want to — but they have no way to make you comply.
I suspect what you’re worried about is less “can they make me do this?” (they can’t) and more “will I be violating some kind of professional convention if I refuse?” And the answer to that is also no. Finding coverage for after you’re gone is not your responsibility. (To be clear, if they want you to spend some of your time on-the-clock searching for shift coverage for dates after you’ll be gone, they can assign that as a work task. But it sounds like they’re expecting you to do it on your own time and … no.)
Respond with, “That’s not something I can do, but you can certainly schedule me through the 24th” (or whatever your last day is).
4. My friend applied for a job reporting to me and I don’t want to hire her
I’ve recently accepted a new job where I’ll have a small team reporting to me. I’m due to start next week. The organization is growing and this week my boss advertised a role that I’ll take over the hiring for once I start, and that will report to me.
Not knowing this role reported to me, a close friend of mine applied for it. She sent me a message saying she was applying at (company) and it was only when she told me the job I knew it was the one in my team.
The problem is, I don’t want to hire her. I’ve worked with her before — it’s actually how we know each other — and she’s a good worker. She gets stuff done, is pragmatic, and people tend to enjoy working with her. She’s also incredibly emotional, has very few boundaries, and has struggled a lot over the years with work stress, which I think is often created because of those boundary issues. While we used to share a lot of “work chat,” like sending funny memes or venting about our bosses, since we last worked together (~2 years ago) I’ve really worked on myself to have a better experience at work. I got a promotion into people leadership and had a massive perspective change about what it means to be the boss, having so much more appreciation for what my ex-bosses would have likely been struggling with. I’m excited to go into this new company with that perspective change and am actively trying to stop the cynical humor that I used to think was just a bit of a laugh, and I now see can sometimes be uncomfortable for colleagues. The old memes don’t really resonate anymore, but she sends them still. And to be honest, I don’t want someone reporting to me who complains about their job all day long. How should I handle this?
A talent acquisition team will do first round screening, and I’m concerned she’ll ask me why I didn’t tell them I want her to interview.
Even without the issues with her work style, it’s smarter not to manage a close friend. Would you be comfortable being up-front with her about that? You could say, “I know you do great work, but I don’t feel equipped to manage a close friend, and I especially don’t feel comfortable hiring a friend as one of my first moves there.”
If you don’t think she’ll get it, it could be easier to simply explain that the applicant pool was highly competitive and a lot of really qualified people didn’t get interviews. (It’s also quite reasonable that you wouldn’t want one of your first moves to be overruling the talent team to secure an interview for a friend.)
5. I’m grossed out by our potlucks
Our director has made potlucks an office tradition. The last one we had, I found multiple dishes with hair in them. I’m choosing not to participate in the next one and not consuming any dishes. I’m bringing my own lunch. Am I wrong?
SILVER SPRING, MD—Urging all 340 million Americans to avoid filling up in order to better enjoy the evening’s meal, the Food and Drug Administration issued a warning Thursday that if the U.S. populace ate now, it wouldn’t be hungry for supper. “Our findings suggest that if you have a snack right now, you’ll just…
While pleasuring oneself can be fun, sometimes it can be beneficial to remove your hand from your pants and give your overworked genitals a break. Here are all the hidden health benefits of refusing to masturbate.
NEW YORK—Earning widespread acclaim from romance readers, a dildo embossed with the text “He’s a famous hockey player” had shot to the top of The New York Times’ paperback trade fiction bestsellers list this week. “Once you start, it’s impossible to put it down,” said 27-year-old Sofia Rasing, who described the…
According to an announcement on its website, the Chechen Ministry of Culture banned all music with a tempo below 80 or above 116 beats per minute to “conform to the Chechen mentality and sense of rhythm,” thereby criminalizing many genres. What do you think?
NAPLES, FL—Claiming they had to do what was best for themselves and their families, a group of local residents confirmed Thursday they had established a more exclusive gated community within the already-gated Crestwood Estates development. “To protect our property values from the undesirable element now moving into…
EVERYWHERE—Wondering when the unending barrage of content from The Onion’s Click Drive might finally give way, the nation was informed by insiders at the media outlet Wednesday that they would not stop pestering people until they gave in and engaged with the fucking thing. “Rest assured, the Click Drive will continue…
CHICAGO—As a capstone to a record-breaking day for the internationally recognized brand’s views and advertising revenue, The Onion released a statement Wednesday confirming that it had used all of the funds raised from its annual Click Drive to purchase a Yamaha WaveRunner VX series. “Following a massive haul that…
A woman in Florida was sentenced to jail time for stealing President Joe Biden’s daughter’s journal and selling it to the conservative group Project Veritas for $20,000. What do you think?
Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez of Spain announced plans to scrap a so-called “golden visa” law that allows wealthy non-E.U. residents to live in Spain if they buy real estate there. What do you think?
YOUR DATA- OR WIFI-ENABLED DEVICE—Feeling crushed under the oppressive demands to click and click and click on TheOnion.com, the nation was informed by experts from The Onion’s Click Drive Wednesday that this could all be made to stop for just 25 clicks. “For a mere 25 clicks on The Onion’s website, you could end all…
Back when it was a great, respected, and profitable business, journalism employed thousands of reporters who worked tirelessly to cover interesting and important stories from around the globe. But now, after years of neglect, an overreliance on programmatic advertising, and predation by private equity firms, the…
ATLANTA—Saying that when it came to manual strength and dexterity the only options were to “use it or lose it,” the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued a new set of health guidelines Wednesday that recommended a minimum of six hours of daily clicking for healthy fingers. “To ensure that your fingers…
A 2023 Column Contest grand-prize winner, Laurence Pevsner’s Sorry Not Sorry investigates why we’re sick of everyone apologizing all the time—and how the collapse of the public apology leaves little room for forgiveness and grace in our politics and culture.
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Late last month, Stephen Colbert made an unusual statement on The Late Show. It wasn’t quite an apology—more like sorry’s mysterious cousin.
Colbert offered a short preamble about how he tells a lot of jokes—mostly whatever’s in the public discourse. Then he got into it: “For the past six weeks to two months, everybody has been talking about the mystery of Kate Middleton’s disappearance from public life,” Colbert said. “Two weeks ago, we did some jokes about that mystery, and all the attendant froo-frah in the reporting about that.”
This looked like the start of an apology—it’s the kind of descriptive elocution that’s necessary at the start, where you lay out the facts and make it clear exactly what you’ve done. The wonderful phrase “froo-frah” even casts some judgment, implying Colbert doesn’t think much of the reporting or its seriousness, creating some useful distance from his own actions to those of the tabloids.
Then Colbert zoomed out: “When I made those jokes, that upset some people—even before her diagnosis was revealed. And I can understand that. A lot of my jokes have upset people in the past, and I’m sure some of my jokes will upset people in the future.”
This was less apology territory and more like the classic comedian line, what you might call the Ricky Gervais school of thought: Comedy is going to offend people! It’s just part of the business, so this way of thinking goes, and sometimes even the point. Notice the passive voice—as if to say, “I tell the jokes; it’s not my fault if people get upset.”
Colbert, though, is smarter than the “offending is the point” crowd, and harder to pin down, as his zigzagging shows. What came next was the key line of his statement: “But there’s a standard that I try to hold myself to: I do not make light of somebody else’s tragedy.”
Outraged royalists had been calling on Colbert to apologize. The Marchioness of Cholmondeley (yes, really) had even threatened him with legal action. I’m not a lawyer, but my understanding is that such a lawsuit would never fly here—we fought a war to ensure that random marchionesses can’t invoke the UK’s onerous libel laws in the US of A.
And yet, despite all this froo-frah, Colbert wanted us to know he is making this statement because of his personal standards. He interrupted his humorous show to make a serious point: that he doesn’t care so much about whether other people are offended as he does about whether he has crossed his own moral line.
Had he crossed that line though? That’s when it got particularly interesting, because the rest of his statement carefully elided Colbert’s views on the matter.
“Now, I don’t know whether her prognosis is a tragic one. She’s the future queen of England, and I assume she’s going to get the best possible medical care, but regardless of what it is… any cancer diagnosis of any kind is harrowing for the patient and for their family,” he said. “I and everyone here at The Late Show would like to extend our well wishes and heartfelt hope that her recovery is swift, and thorough.” Colbert’s argument, not quite stated, seemed to be: I didn’t cross a line before, but I’m not going to make any more jokes now that we know her situation has the potential for tragedy.
Colbert walked a tightrope here. She’s the future queen of England, he reminded us, implying correctly that Middleton isn’t the worst-off person in the world. But he also delivered this conclusion and his well wishes with genuine pathos. Colbert is, of course, no stranger to tragedy, having lost his father and two brothers in a plane crash when he was ten. More recently, Colbert was overcome with emotion at the end of a show last week before a black title card acknowledged the passing of his longtime executive assistant Amy Cole, who herself had been battling cancer. His authenticity when it comes to tragedy has, unfortunately, been earned.
The media did not know what to make of Colbert’s statement. The Hollywood Reporter’s headline read: “Stephen Colbert Sorry for His Kate Middleton Jokes.” ABC and Fox News went with similar angles. But UK outlets often claimed the opposite. “TV Host Stephen Colbert Refuses to Apologise for Kate Middleton Jokes Despite backlash,” read The Mirror. Meanwhile, Piers Morgan went on an unhinged screed about Colbert’s hypocrisy in the New York Post.
When I went back to view the actual jokes Colbert made about Middleton, I was struck not by hypocrisy but by consistency. He never actually poked fun at Middleton—the jokes were always pointed at the powerful and the pot-stirrers. Or he was just being goofy.
For example, after noting the tabloids were speculating that Kate Middleton may be dead or divorced, Colbert invented a headline where both were true for The Sun: “Zombie Kate Spotted Getting Her Groove Back with Pete Davidson.” The butts of the joke were the sensationalist rags and Pete Davidson’s ability to pull. The same was true the next day when Colbert made fun of the “internet sleuths” who suspected an affair. His main punchlines were drinking from a fancy tea set to pun on the phrase “spilling the tea” and the surprising pronunciation of “Cholmondeley” (Chumley). Hardly targeted shots at Kate.
What’s more, Colbert happened to demonstrate his commitment to his belief that not everything should be made fun of earlier in the same monologue as The Sun joke. Colbert got indignant at Trump (no surprise) for mocking Biden’s childhood stutter (no surprise). Another line, in Colbert’s mind, that ought not to be crossed in comedy.
In an era where so many public figures are either apologizing constantly in hopes of getting a quick hit of forgiveness, or else refusing to apologize and stubbornly insisting they are above reproach, Colbert’s move—a kind of in-between, liminal statement—might offer one way forward. We don’t need to apologize for everything. Sometimes, genuine sympathy will do.
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