trainwreck
I can fix Robert Pattinson
first off
I’m sleepy and I’m tired and I have nothing to say as I’m starting this at, uh, 4:45pm on the very day I’m sending this. But in pursuit of continuing to send a newsletter every Tuesday, I’m going to write something because then I will have written something.
Last weekend, I attended the National Collegiate Women’s Wrestling Championships (which will officially be the NCAA Women’s Wrestling Championships next year! Exciting) in Iowa. Pretty much anytime I’m back in Iowa these days, it’s for a University of Iowa sporting event, including more women’s wrestling back in January.
Iowa’s women’s wrestling team has officially existed for two seasons now (and competed for three, but all wrestlers were “unattached” that first season — they trained at Iowa, but did not compete for Iowa). And after this weekend, wouldn’t you know it, they’ve won two team national championships. All 15 wrestlers who qualified for the national championships finished in the top 7, and three were national champions in their weight class.
Iowa’s status as a men’s wrestling school is a storied part of its history, so it’s been phenomenal to see the women’s team hit the ground running in these initial years. Since all NCAA-affiliated women’s wrestling programs compete together — i.e., the national championship includes all NCAA schools, not just Division I — some of the powerhouses like McKendree University and North Central College compete in Division II and III. But they’ve always attracted some of the best talent in the country, so Iowa’s first task was to attract talent on the strength of its name (and the name of head coach-slash-Olympic bronze medalist Clarissa Chun [who I saw wrestle at the 2012 Olympic Trials, just so you know]). And, well, they did.
The atmosphere at this tournament was a lot — 360 degrees of screams, cheers, and yelling at referees. Of course, most fans were rooting for Iowa thanks to the tournament taking place a few minutes from campus, but the most prolific section was the North Central fans: a few dozen people wearing matching red shirts, coordinating chants, egging on fans of other schools to root against Iowa whenever possible. They were so annoying, but in a respectable way — they’ve been at this longer than Iowa has, after all.
My connection to women’s wrestling has certainly been strengthened by Iowa having a team. I first saw women’s wrestling in person as its own sport at the 2012 Olympic trials, and I’ve watched wrestling at every Olympics since — including Iowa junior Kennedy Blades earning silver in 2024. I also wish it was more accessible if you don’t live near a school that has it or a location that hosts tournaments. This weekend’s tournament was shown on FloWrestling, an expensive wrestling-only streaming service. (You might know its affiliate, FloHoops, from how it attracts the ire of fans every fall as those who purchase it attempt — attempt — to watch their teams play at holiday tournaments that are exclusively streamed there.) I am just not in a place where I can or want to purchase a wrestling-only streaming service, so I try my best to go in person. Change is always painfully slow in women’s sports — the days when ESPN chose not to show every NCAA women’s basketball tournament game in full are so, so recent — but as the sport grows, I’m hoping coverage will, too.
one rec
Mickey 17 (2025)
Continuing in the vein of this week’s newsletter being a trainwreck, please note that I haven’t seen this movie yet. But if you get at me after about 9pm CT, I’ll tell you about how I liked it because it’s Robert Pattinson playing a weird guy I can fix if he’ll just let me.
wholesome scroll
It’s the final items of a list I wrote in 2010 called “100 Things That Make Me Happy”! Commentary, as ever, was written in 2025. (1-25) (26-50) (51-75)
Being able to help those less fortunate
Mindfuck! (www.shitbrix.com)
I’m more surprised this website still exists? And yes, I did include a URL in my original handwritten list.Dancing the Macarena to Kool & the Gang
Based on a true story.Singing melismas
lol so many of these are about having recently sung Handel’s Messiah. One/two are the melismas I’m referring to.Breathtaking photography
Emerging from the darkness
Knowing someone who likes the obscure things you like…and becoming friends
Overcoming fears
Herbie Hancock
My hometown had a jazz festival and they enlisted local music students to volunteer at it. For Herbie Hancock’s first visit, I was showing rich people where to park. But the second time he came, I was in jazz band and we opened for him (on a different stage) (it still counts).Nailing a musical solo
Being Haitian!
EPIC WINS.
Paying slightly more for MUCH better floss
Still true.Peter Jackson
Keeping busy enough not to worry
Living in earthquake country - as opposed to hurricane/tornado/tsunami…
Seven months after writing this I moved to tornado country, so.Sunsets
Being chosen for something prestigious
Middle English
“Oh, yeah, I do happen to know the prologue of Canterbury Tales, did you want to hear —”University of Iowa football
This is so funny because I guess they’d just won the Orange Bowl or whatever but then I never, ever went to a game as a student (or since).Learning more about myself from a book
Sigur Rós
Reykjavík, Iceland
I was an insufferable teenager. (No, I’ve never been to Iceland.)Powell’s Books
Being myself, not anyone else