(Episode 11: A High They Have to Have: A Retelling)

In this episode, I update my original Sports Illustrated piece from 2015, in which I described what suffering a concussion in a football game is like and the day many years later when I finally faced the truth that I…

A listener of my podcast Welcome to the Machine recently posited an interesting question: “Why do you think it is that people in their thirties to sixties place so much emotional energy on the outcome of a game played by 18 to 22-year-old young men?” Once you’ve moved beyond this…

This dispatch is dedicated to John Underwood, who called it way back in 1979 before anyone else saw it coming.

A few years ago, it was reported that veteran and highly-respected broadcaster Bob Costas would soon be leaving NBC after almost four decades with the network. Costas had filled almost…

History tells us that a monk named Saint Telemachus traveled to Rome in 391 (A.D.) and was martyred by stoning after trying to stop a gladiator fight in a Roman arena. The Christian Emperor Honorius was so affected by the monk’s martyrdom that he issued a permanent ban on all…

For the listener to begin to understand where I am coming from, you need to know how I arrived at this point, the place I am today. But in order for you to be able to do that, I must necessarily begin at the end with the most recent events…

“Welcome my son,

Welcome to the machine.

Where have you been?

It’s alright, we know where you’ve been.

You’ve been in the pipeline.

And you didn’t like school,

And we know you’re nobody’s fool.

So welcome to the machine.

Welcome my son,

Welcome to the machine.

What did you dream?

…

The Breakthrough

Neil Dalton of Atlantic Beach, North Carolina, experienced the breakthrough event of his second professional career on an otherwise pedestrian day in early July. It was the day he got the call from his literary agent, Jan McPhee, delivering news he never really thought he’d hear.

“They want…

A stream of consciousness perhaps. But bear with me for a few minutes.

John Kennedy famously observed, “Washington is a city of southern efficiency and northern charm.”

Consider it.

He flipped it.

Typically, people think of southern cities as being charming, if inefficient.

Ever been to Savannah, Charleston, New Orleans…