by John Walters
Are NFT’s Nifty?
Yesterday, before our class final exam, one of my students (who happens to be quarterback Craig Morton’s granddaughter) asked me what an NFT is. I should know that but I only kinda know what it is.
If there’s one thing that teaching teaches you, it’s that if you cannot explain it with clarity, you don’t know it. So I sent her to that renowned financial wizard (Randy Economy? No, not him) Pete Davidson, who with the help of Chris Redd, Kate McKinnon, Kyle Mooney and that week’s musical guest, Jack Harlow, explained it as well as anyone else can in under three minutes.
This is Schoolhouse Rap. It’s the updated, live-action version of how people my age learned about bills and laws and conjunctions (“Conjunction Junction, what’s your function?”) when we were kids.
The Debbies
I missed this from last Friday night, but Bill Maher (or, he and his writers) have barely been as on target as they were about Hollywood, film-making in the past decade and the Oscars.
There are as many great lines in this bit as there were in All About Eve, a few favorites being “and she was so close to joining the Black Panthers” and “it’s traffic school at the Holocaust Museum.” Stick around for the kicker line, though.
Sold!
There is one and only one home perched on tiny Patience Island in the midst of lovely Narragansett Bay, Rhode Island (we’ve kayaked here a few times). And it is up for sale for just $399,900.
That asking price is not at all steep and maybe the folks who posted it have never shopped for homes in California or Arizona. Here’s what The Chicago Sun-Times had to say about it:
“…is off the electrical grid but includes a decent amount of land — just under half an acre — but only about 600 square feet of living area that includes two bedrooms, a kitchenette, a half bath and what’s described as a ‘picturesque front porch.’”
A single solar panel provides some electricity.
Haven’t we all wanted to be Gilligan at some point? Or a guy who lives with only a volleyball as a friend?
Eight Is Enough
Free advice for college football playoff expansion peeps who are now floating idea of a dozen playoff teams: take it from Tom Bradford, eight is enough… to fill our lives with love.
Having A Balls
Precisely one decade ago today—April 28, 2011—a British bloke with a mirthful name tweeted no more than that. His name. And it went viral.
Mr. Balls, then a member of Parliament, had simply tweeted his name as a way to search for it. He was new to Twitter and did not realize that he was sending out a tweet as opposed to using the Google search bar. Thousands retweeted it and now every year on April 28 tweeps near and far—but mostly in Great Britain—pay tribute to Ed Balls Day.
And you thought Earth Day was the only contrived holiday in the second half of April.
NFTs, like art, are just a modern way to launder money.
Or in the case of NBA Top Shot, take your money and never give it back (maybe I’m slightly bitter).