[Norwegian commentator voice:] “Taylor Swift, Walt Disney, Abraham Lincoln, John Foster Dulles, Mike Tyson, your boys took a hell of a beating”

That could happen in a couple
of days so….

USA in jeopardy at World Baseball Classic after stunning loss to Italy Pete Crow-Armstrong hits two homers for the Americans but late rally falls short as Italy’s upset leaves quarterfinal fate hinging on Mexico clash

lol Italy beating the US at baseball is like … Italy beating England at cricket www.theguardian.com/sport/2026/m...

Waiting outside Keble College and a fox wanders out of the porters’ lodge and crosses Parks Road. “He was studying,” someone says. 🦊

In the episode I’m watching, Jeb Bartlet is wearing a University of London tie (because he attended the LSE when it was part of the University of London).

Reboot of the West Wing, but it’s just members of the Bartlet administration testifying about their appearances in the Epstein files.

Daily Walkoff
Orioles #530

🟢🟢🟢🟢🚀

mlb.com/dailywalkoff

The Pokémon Snorlax on a sign reading “Quiet Room”

A screenshot of the New York Times’ Wordle game showing that I have completed 1001 games with a 100% win rate.

I forgot to post yesterday when I got to 1000 so anyway: woohoo 1001 Wordles 🥳

Ridiculously hard NYT Connections - only 5% of players made no mistakes but one of them was me, phew.

Can your ‘ChatGPT’ do this, huh? (Ok yes it probably can, fine)

This is in hard mode btw. Wordle Bot only averages 4 and it cheats! (It uses words that it knows or thinks can’t be an answer.)

An info graphic showing that my last 14 Wordles average 3.6 attempts. The NYT average is 4.

Recently results. It’s really hard to get below 3.5 attempts without blowing out the luck rating.

For Wordle I only got in the top 40% with an average of 3.55 guesses. I find that disappointing because I would have thought 3.55 was pretty good but obviously not. I wonder what the distribution is.

A New York Times graphic generated by its “your year in puzzles” round-up, showing that I solved its Connections game without mistakes 261 times this year which apparently is in the top 1% of all players. Nice.

Ok I’m showing off.

Mets all-time home run leader Pete Alonso reportedly agrees $155m deal with Orioles For the second day in a row, the New York Mets have seen a beloved star agree to terms with another team

www.theguardian.com/sport/2025/d...

There’s a long story to this and it’s not a good one. (I like the congestion charge but it’s only temporary.)

Actual Arsenal metrics

I was at a hotel recently that had a cutout in the glass shower pane so you could reach in and turn it on without being in the shower proper. It felt like the first real societal progress in decades.

But I also need to go to work so let’s wrap this up please.

Great to get up at 6am and watch live baseball, please stop
complaining.

And US sports teams.

Skip NYT’s Connections today unless you are familiar with a certain type of US confectionary.

any of them (except maybe not Mitch Keller) tbh

The NYT Spelling Bee game rejects an otherwise valid Old English vulgar expression for ‘nonsense’

Very disappointing by the NYT Spelling Bee here

Photo of interior the V&A Storehouse in Stratford, east London, showing several floors of exhibits.

The whole V&A storehouse has a “final scene of Raiders of the Lost Ark” vibe, of massive amounts of stuff randomly displayed.

On a visit to the fabulous V&A Storehouse in east London, saw this technological marvel from 1980 - France’s Minitel, a precursor to the internet and way ahead of its time.

Love this advice from the NYT about staying safe if your hotel catches fire: “When you check in, ask the front desk if the fire alarms are functioning”.

Totally normal question.

Sammy Basallo! We’re so back, baby.

Congratulations!
Please can the London Series come back, with the Orioles playing whoever.