Soon I'll be attending my 4th and 5th memorials/celebration of life from the past 9 months. All of the people were in the "longterm friendly but not close" or "very close 20 years ago, but not recently" categories. So I have not been dealt meaningful personal grief, but there's been a sense that it all is pretty sad.

Two of the people were in their 40s, two in their 50s, and one mid-60s. Four of them died of cancer, and one aneurysm. Four men, and one woman.

Is this what getting older is like?! Accelerating rate of eliminations from the ultimate reality show? Is there a degree of acclimation? Do you follow a learning curve and become less rattled by it eventually? (I'm not talking about losing people you're close with. I don't think that would become easier. I'm talking about people of whom you're fond but not close.)

Also, have memorials largely replaced funerals?

Tariffs, Cory Booker, latest lay-offs, election outcomes, Luigi Mangione: let's just throw it all in the mush pot here.

I wish this were a longform piece, but it's still pretty cute: 'The food is bad, everything is bad': what it feels like to be on a hopeless NBA team

"When you lose," says former NBA All-Star Xavier McDaniel, "it's like getting a life sentence. I knew for me, losing, it started me to drink beer. Losing created a lot of bad habits. Losing can be a disease. We were losing so much [my rookie season] that by January I was drinking beer!"

My theory on sports is that a game is basically a playful little laboratory, bounded by what people often crave in real life that doesn't exist: clear rules that govern all situations, where you get to do just the fun parts. (For people that find jumping and running fun.) It's not for everyone, obviously.

Mossy character sends in this link without comment.

Religious switching into and out of Judaism is rare in Israel, the only country where Jews are a majority of the population. Fewer than 1% of Israelis who were raised Jewish say they belong to a different religion today, or to no religion at all, according to a 2024 Pew Research Center survey. This includes, for example, Israelis who were Jewish as children and have since become Christian, or those who grew up Jewish and are now unaffiliated (i.e., they identify religiously as atheist, agnostic or "nothing in particular"). And only about 1% of Israelis who identify as Jewish today were raised in a different religion or no religion at all.

But switching groups within Judaism is far more common. Some switch to a group that is more religiously observant - for example, someone who was raised "religious" (Dati in Hebrew) becoming "ultra-Orthodox" (Haredi). Others switch to a group that is less observant - for example, someone raised "traditional" (Masorti) who becomes "secular" (Hiloni) later in life.

A college boyfriend of mine once remarked, "Everyone thinks they're the exact right amount of Jewish. The crazy starts just past wherever you are." I think this applies to all sorts of things.

Key graphic under the jump.