Goooooooood morning, fam. Yr pal al here, hohoho-ing my way thru the end of 2024 and ready to kiss 2025 right on the goddamn mouth. Merry Christmas, happy New Year, all that jazz! Read to the end to see how big our fav hippo Moo Deng is getting.
NOTE: We have a longer episode this week, then we’re taking a break for two weeks for Christmas/New Year’s. We’ll record (and be live on Youtube) again on the 8th and you’ll have a new episode on all the audio platforms on the 13th.
ALSO NOTE: I’m taking next week off the newsletter too since I’m gonna be offline. Newsletter to resume January 6th! Godspeed!
{My friend beat me to the punch with this pic at a party this weekend.}
It would rule if you’d forward this along to anyone who might dig our podcast. New episodes are out every Monday, plus Untethered minisodes on (most) Wednesdays, and we’re on all the podcast platforms like Apple Podcasts + Spotify + Castbox + Google Podcasts.
If you have any feedback or ideas you want to hear us cover, or if you just want to say hi, you can reply to this email and it’ll come straight to us. We’re also on:
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This week’s sources:
Wanted posters appear in NYC listing healthcare CEOs after shooting | Pix11
Charges against Mangione, explained | NYTimes (unpaywalled)
Access bets people will pay thousands of dollars a year for guaranteed restaurant reservations | Tech Crunch
Walmart is experimenting with body cameras for employees—like the ones used by cops—as the retail industry fends off ‘unprecedented levels’ of shopper violence | Yahoo
A New Zealander studied for a year to win the Spanish world Scrabble title. He doesn’t speak Spanish | AP News
Man’s penis turns to bone — docs want to use shockwaves to break it down | NY Post
AITA for calling someone out of their white-elephant gift, that was significantly under the spending criteria? | Reddit
Women are getting ‘designer nipple’ filler for perkier bosoms: ‘Not something to hide anymore’ | NY Post
AITA for unknowingly being the neighborhood exhibitionist and ruining my neighbor’s marriage? | Reddit
Weird tattoo argument advice letter | Slate: Dear Prudence
Other things:
If you want a couple book recs, I just binged The Good One by A.R. Torre on Kindle Unlimited (I did the audio) and it was a great shorter thriller.
And now I’ve started The Most Wonderful Crime of the Year by Ally Carter, and so far it’s a fun lighthearted romcom-mystery. It’s $2.99 on Kindle at the moment.
Good roundup of critter clips from the Oregon Zoo.
Gisèle Pelicot’s mass rape trial resulted in 51 guilty verdicts. She is incredible and I’m so glad to see these verdicts handed down. Heavy story for sure; super fucking strong woman.
She barely fits any more! They grow up so fast! {Via Twitter}
Thanks for reading & listening! Love u mean it!
🖤
#hailtether