Truvia Crime
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I had never heard of Walter Keane before, which I believe indicates the utility of the internet, while approaching zero, has not yet touched its inevitable asymptote.
All things being equal I prefer linking articles over twitter threads but in this case I'm going to give you both so you can choose your own adventure. Either one deftly captures the weirdness of this artist and the controversy around whether or not he was just faking being an artist all along. -B
Netflix recommended this movie to me relentlessly, but for some reason I was under the impression it was a documentary and wasn't interested. Anyone here watch it? -C
Substack has a comment section for their newsletters. Just putting that out there. Might be fun to have a comment section. -B
Issue 74
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The Confessions of Marcus Hutchins, the Hacker Who Saved the Internet
What a grubby, concerning rabbit hole. Yrugh. -B
This is probably one of the longer articles we've ever shared, but it's worth the read because it (in my opinion) ends on an incredibly redemptive note. The way the writer captures the courtroom scene is especially good. -C
Issue 73
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H/T Joe D for this weird story about a body discovered in Florida and one man's journey to track down their story. -B
Issue 70
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A Yacht, a Monet, a See-Through Piano: The U.S. Collects on a Fugitive’s Shopping Spree
You've probably heard of the 1MDB scandal but like me had no idea what it was. Basically Goldman Sachs (surprise) helped some Malaysian government and government-adjacent people raise over a billion dollars ostensibly to be invested in economic development and infrastructure projects. Which sounds good. But what sounds even better if you're those folks is just taking the money and buying yachts and jets and clear grand pianos and giant diamonds and apartments in NYC. -B
Issue 61
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No, Lori Laughlin Did Not "Choose Her Prison"
So apparently everyone with any sort of online following is using substack to monetize that support. The only one I've given money to so far is my spirit animal but I subscribe to the free portion of a number of them. Just wanted to explain that if you were wondering about the increasing presence of substack links in this newsletter. Calvin runs the product behind Mark As Read which probably could be thought of in some ways as a competitor to substack. If you ever see me on substack without Calvin you'll know that we've gone and Lennon/McCartney'd this junt.
At any rate, Ken White (akak Popehat) is a lawyer who appears on the KCRW podcast All the President's Lawyers with Josh Barro. Josh Barro also hosts the KCRW podcast Left, Right, and Center or as it should properly be called Extremely Left, Quite Left, and Slightly Left.
In podcast form I rarely agree with Josh Barro. On Twitter I love his tone and often agree with him.
In Twitter form Ken White is awful and mean and petty. In blog form he's incredibly intelligent, charitable, and as in this link often helpfully debunks stupid viral takes with concise legal analysis. -Brian
Issue 60
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End of an Era: Microsoft Word Now Flagging Two Spaces After Period as an Error
Generation X and prior (myself included) learned to type on typewriters. We were taught to hit the space bar twice after a period. That turned into a habit when computers replaced typewriters. Millennials and younger (Calvin included) learned to type on computers and are appalled at the idea of double spacing after a period. There's been a raging battle in this newsletter where I leave double spaces everywhere and Calvin edits them out and sends me nasty messages about them. Microsoft has now proven its complete surrender to all that is evil by siding with the kiddos and auto correct will start flagging my perfectly appropriate typing habits with auto correct underlines. I have nothing good to say about this. -Brian
Issue 53
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Was Jeanne Calment the Oldest Person Who Ever Lived—or a Fraud?
I was so intrigued by this lady who may or may not have lived a lie for 120 years that I added it to our link queue twice at different times. I’ll share it with you just this once though. -Brian
Issue 52
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The Secrets of the World's Greatest Art Thief
This is insane... dude was living that Versaille life for decades. -Brian
This guy is a criminal version of Ignatius J. Reilly from Confederacy of Dunces. - Calvin
Issue 51
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Overstock founder tried to squeeze short sellers, then sold out when the SEC cracked down
Honestly, I've never understood the obsession some CEOs have with "the shorts". A liquid free market is kind of an unstoppable thing and any artificial rocks or islands that you put into it have negative consequences. If people want to invest in the theory that a company is overvalued, that helps drive the price down to its true value. If you ban or crimp short selling, the value of the company will be skewed upwards. I guess at the end of the day that's what those CEOs are really trying to do.
Oh, and this dude is batcrap crazy and I like reading about batcrap crazy dudes. -Brian
Issue 49