Benjamin Hoffman

Actual conversation I once had in the editing process of a story

Them: "You can't say 'Jay Jaffe's JAWS system' because our readers won't know who Jay Jaffe is."

Me: "They will if I keep mentioning him in stories."

California Passes Law Banning Loud Commercials on Streaming Services Starting July 1 of next year, Netflix and Co. will need to keep the audio levels consistent from movie and TV shows to advertisements.

(Guy who did a lot of radio and music production in college here. The way around this is you redline the recording of the commercials, losing a little quality but resulting in something that feels far louder at the same volume.) www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/bus...

The happiness I got from spending three years telling people, with a straight face, that there was absolutely nothing unusual or bad about KD joining the Warriors is something @thefarmerjones.bsky.social can never take away from me

I'm not saying Metallica and some others didn't come off very poorly in the Napster era, but the internet has always believed everything should be free (music, movies, news, books) and has never had anything resembling a plan for how the people who create that stuff will get money for food or rent.

I'd like to think LeBron doesn't need the money. Though that would lead to the hard-to-fathom belief that he found the ad, and its rollout, compelling or clever.

So I actually kinda hope this was to cover gambling debts or something.

Judge’s team is better. He’s as big of a bigger reason for their success than Raleigh is for Seattle. He has wildly, comically, better numbers in everything but homers. I sincerely do not understand how it’s a debate and it will be one of the weirder years to look back if he doesn’t end up as MVP.

It's always fun to describe my Humboldt experience to people who think they went to a "super liberal" school. By the end of the chat they're always like "oh, I think I am actually a Republican?"

Saw this as a subject line in an email from SFGate and immediately knew they were talking about @calpolyhumboldt.bsky.social.

I remember The Super being pretty bad and I'd guess it has aged very poorly in terms of urban stereotypes. That being said, his performance was exactly what they were going for and that's all an actor can control.

This is how I felt every time people gave LeBron a hard time about books. Yes, it didn’t look like he’d gotten very far into “Roots.” But maybe some people who saw those pictures went and bought a copy of that book, and maybe some of those people read the book.

The cynics got to it first and somehow missed that she was well aware of it being a big chain (she quite literally spelled that out toward the end of the column) and couldn't handle her ... liking it. The second wave of people defending her was great. Bourdain in particular.

North Dakota newspaper columnist whose Olive Garden review went viral dies at 99 Marilyn Hagerty, the North Dakota newspaper columnist whose earnest review of her local Olive Garden became a social media sensation, has died. She was 99.

Sad to see that Marilyn Hagerty, the woman who wrote a review of her local Olive Garden, died. It still baffles me that anyone had an issue with that column, which was earnest, accurate and made no attempt to be anything it wasn't.

Also she spelled ambience correctly. apnews.com/article/mari...

That’s me with every motorcycle I’ve seen since I moved to Connecticut

As someone who deals with a LOT of deer these days (my house backs up against the woods) I would advise that they can be almost shockingly dumb, they travel with ticks and they leave a pile of crap everywhere they go. So they're more like humans than people think.

Wait! Correction! Losin Again was the one that became this. Erik Yee was on the same 7” though. And it’s delightful.

Have you heard the original cut of this song where it was making fun of a guy who works for Rasputin Records? It’s hilarious.

Coming out that centerfield gate for a Little League parade around the stadium is the coolest an East Bay kid in the 80s could feel

Pearlman wrote a fun thing on that at the time where he talked about the difference between a 4:03 and a 2:50 and how no one could ever legitimately make that mistake.

I think Kilian is what Ryan thought he was lol.

He Wants to Climb Nearly All of America’s Tallest Peaks. In a Month.

Remember when Paul Ryan got mocked for claiming he'd summited 40 of the 14ers?

Kilian Jornet is about to climb 60-plus of them, connecting each by foot or bicycle. And he plans to do it in about a month.

Seriously. www.nytimes.com/2025/08/31/s...

I saw Fugazi a dozen times (or more), was at the Eddie Vedder walkout show during the Ticketmaster mess, was at the second to last Ramones show, etc. But I’ve never seen a crowd more locked in than when I saw Laurie Berkner play to hundreds of toddlers.

Atlanta Journal-Constitution to Quit Print Cold Turkey

Context, for those who haven’t heard about the decision (free link): www.nytimes.com/2025/08/28/b...

Atlanta Journal-Constitution to Quit Print Cold Turkey

Sad, but true www.nytimes.com/2025/08/28/b...

With the AJC dropping its print edition, I feel compelled to share one of the greatest moments in print design history

Yes, the millionaire NFL superstar and future Hall of Famer who is 6-5, hosts a wildly popular podcast and is dating one of the world’s most famous women (who is a billionaire) has a real masculinity problem. Hard to figure out how he can recover from this.

Sadly nothing cool. NYT just doesn’t allow us to vote on … anything.

Wild to think that he’s quite likely a HOFer even though injuries will have cost him how many homers? 150? 200? He’d have my vote if I wasn’t still barred from voting.

Take away the event and you eliminate a lot of really bad stuff that happened after though. Declaring yourself pro Big Bang with no reservations is basically saying you think it’s good the Crocodile Hunter got killed

When I was a kid, the only things I was told I couldn't watch were WWF and You Can't Do That on Television. Naturally I watched both constantly.

Hulk Hogan was a big reason I started watching. I immediately realized he was the least interesting of all the wrestlers, but, hey, thanks for the intro?

Correct take. I'll go a step beyond that. They are fun in person if you're in the lower deck infield. Up close it's a GREAT experience. The farther away from them you are, the more it becomes just a confusing baseball game.