Kimberly Meza Is America's Next Great Weather Forecaster, John Daly's New Booze & MACtion Has A Big Night
Who wants to go to the Bengals-Steelers game this Sunday at 4:25 ET?
That's right, I'm holding one extra to Sunday's game thanks to huge Steelers fan Tom H. in Fort Wayne who offered me a couple of tickets -- he'll be there with his childhood buddies -- to create a mini-Screencaps summit in Pittsburgh.
I asked around here and all these married guys couldn't commit to a Sunday bender in Pittsburgh. I heard all the excuses about how Thanksgiving week is coming up and how they just can't be away Sunday because they have to clean the house or some other lame excuse.
So now I need someone in the Pittsburgh area -- or outside, I don't care -- who actually wants to go to the game, maybe have a beer or two, talk Screencaps, talk football, talk beer, talk mowing, talk maple syrup (Tom has a massive maple syrup operation on his Indiana property), talk life.
Is that you?
I don't care if you're a Bengals fan or a Steelers fan. In fact, it might be funny if I'm the only Bengals fan out of the six people going.
Here's the prerequisite: You love football and want to have a fun day at the Bengals-Steelers game, which is a must-win for MY Bengals. And you 100% can be in Pittsburgh for the game. No flaking out like my friends around here with their excuses.
The offer: one club-level ticket, and I'll buy the first beer.
Let me know if you're in.
Email: joekinsey@gmail.com
Speaking of Pennsylvania
• Caleb from Pennsylvania writes:
Greetings from Pennsylvania! If you wake up tomorrow and notice that you’re short a Twitter follower, it was me getting off Twitter for a while. As amusing and informative as Twitter can be, it’s also equally insane and vile. Maybe it would be for the best if Elon Musk drives it into the ground.
By comparison, Screencaps certainly has its share of heated debates and opinions (beans in chili, Hildee’s belly button, tattoos…), but without most of the vitriol. It reminds me, in some ways, of the days when I’d watch ESPN News every morning, in that while it’s impossible to ignore the “real world,” sometimes, it’s nice to just shut out all the craziness for a few minutes. Whether it’s sports memes, random pop culture references, or, yes, Instagram ladies, there’s this small (but growing!) corner of the Internet you’ve created for us to simply…enjoy.
As always, keep up the great work!
Caleb makes great points in his final few lines, but I definitely have to push back a little bit on using "small" to describe Screencaps these days. The reason it feels "small" is because of how you (the reader) and I have been able to format this column.
Stop and think of how many newsletters exist (Axios, The Huddle, The Hustle, etc.) out there that all have the same format. The editor writes a bunch of stuff he/she thinks you need to know and that's the newsletter. He/she pushes send and that's it. Their job is done for the day.
There aren't any reader dispatches from the field. There aren't any moments like Tom H. in Indiana offering up Steelers tickets for a mini Screencaps summit. There aren't any Beau in Toledos telling you how to use jet fuel for your mowers.
Screencaps feels small because the reader has a voice. It's like a bunch of people sitting around a table at a VFW suckin' down 75-cent drafts and talking life. And because I can see the OutKick site traffic numbers, I know 100% this is what a huge swath of America wants.
Put it this way, Caleb, there are HUGE blue checkmarks out there who wish they had this audience.
I don't take any of this for granted. This remains a dream come true career scenario.
By the way, Caleb still intimidates me when I see his LinkedIn title.
We'll be getting Screencaps updates from the World Cup
I was at the Bowling Green-Toledo tailgate last night and spent some time talking to a veteran Screencaps content provider, Yoder, who leaves the 27th for Qatar to see four World Cup matches including one Team USA match.
Of course, I joked with him about how wild it would be if the Qatar government murdered him while he was there or if Iran sent a missile through the billion-dollar cruise ship he's staying on in the Persian Gulf.
He just laughed.
Here's the cost breakdown of his trip for those who didn't pull the trigger:
It feels great to have boots on the ground and I encourage any of you who know people going over to share content with Screencaps. I'm sure many of you are interested in how this all goes down, especially from ground level.
The Ts are on the move in Spain
It appears the Ts are back on the run from Interpol as they have moved locations yet again. Now they're in Malaga, Spain on the Mediterranean Sea.
And because Mike T. is always thinking about Screencaps and mowing, he took notice of the Spainaird trimming palms with a chainsaw in a cherry picker. It feels like someone in Spain is going to take notice of the Thursday Night Mowing League sticker on Mike T's rental car. It just feels like Spain is a neighborhood that would get TNML.
Battery Daddy in the wild
• Mike L. stopped by Home Depot and there they were...the Daddy! But notice that price. It's $2 cheaper at Costco, if you have a membership.
Thanksgiving Eve bar night memories
• Jake in Oregon writes:
Joe: your question on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving made me laugh. For many years my buddies and I had a "wild turkey" night on Wednesday, which of course included too many shots of that liquid gold. The bars are hopping that night. After a couple of hung over Thanksgiving days (stuffing is not a hangover cure!) We have moved our celebration to Tuesdays (with fewer shots). Anyway fun night but don't overdo it.
Have found that Wednesday night is one of the busiest nights for Chinese restaurants- who knew?
P.s. don't know about LG TVs but avoid Hisense; mine takes longer to warmup than a 1920s tube radio.
Keep up the good work.
• Patrick C. right here in Perrysburg, OH writes:
I still recall many a fine evening coming home to Clawson, Michigan from Central Michigan University on Thanksgiving Eve many moons ago.
Going to the traditional Red Wings game before the holiday, and even looking forward to the Lions game the next day. The bars would be packed with old friends and new, and the feeling was an abundance of being thankful and blessed!
Only one holiday can do all that, and that’s Thanksgiving! It’s been some time since I ventured out on Thanksgiving Eve, but today I look more forward to my home being full once again and the kids safely back under one roof. Try as they might, but they can’t commercialize Thanksgiving. It’s a wonderful holiday that seems to come at the right time each and every year.
And that's it this morning. We woke up to the power being out in the neighborhood, so I'm running behind.
Fire up those emails. Who wants to go to that Bengals-Steelers game? I'm all ears.
Email: joekinsey@gmail.com