"We're supposed to be for each other! We're supposed to be for each other! No! No! No!"

Game of Dodgeball in Antifastan, Seattle. The game ended in confusion and frustration as players were told to continue playing even after getting hit by a ball to prevent hurt feelings. pic.twitter.com/bMzXhnurYD

— John Henry Cash (@fake_news_u_r) June 13, 2020

"Republican legislative leaders lashed out Wednesday at Democratic Gov. Tony Evers after his staff secretly recorded a May 14 phone conversation..."

"... over how to respond to the coronavirus pandemic the day after the state Supreme Court struck down the state's stay-at-home order. The recording and the reaction to it all but ensures a permanently broken relationship between Evers and Republicans who control the Legislature.... Evers' spokeswoman, Melissa Baldauff, said... 'This was not intended for release to the media or anyone else, however, we were obligated to comply with the open records law to release these records once they were requested.'...  Bill Lueders, president of the Wisconsin Freedom of Information Council, said recording a conversation without alerting the other parties isn't illegal in this state, but is in bad form — and that the nature of the meeting should have pushed the three to talk publicly instead of privately.... Evers at one stage said he was frustrated the state wasn't able to open up in a uniform, phased way.... Fitzgerald repeatedly told Evers the reopening of the state's businesses was now behind them and urged him to develop plans for dealing with large crowds at Brewers games and the eventual resumption of schools. Evers asked Vos and Fitzgerald what they wanted to do if there was a catastrophic increase in cases, expressing frustration with their hands-off approach. 'Do we just say the hell with it?' Evers asked. 'No. Someone should call Barry Alvarez and say is there going to be football in Camp Randall in August,' Fitzgerald said, referring to the University of Wisconsin athletic director."

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports. You can listen to the recordings at the link.

ADDED:

Someone is the admin must have tipped off the media to Evers’ Nixon tapes right? But why? He comes across as clueless while the Speaker sounds reasonable and Fitz is in command of the meeting. How does this help him?

— Eric Bott (@BottAFP) June 11, 2020

"I was trying to stick it to the [Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation] for their invalidated models resulting in needless, economy-wrecking, life-wrecking lockdown..."

"... and when I saw they were announcing modeling a solution to our racial crisis, I was incredulous, angry, and overly emotional. Involving George Floyd's name in that effort was wrong."

Tweeted Greg Glassman, the founder of CrossFit who's now given up his position as CEO, quoted in "CEO steps down after inflammatory George Floyd comments/A major sponsor and affiliated gyms dropped their partnerships after Greg Glassman invoked Floyd's name when complaining about coronavirus restrictions" (NBC).

The Institute had tweeted "Racism and discrimination are critical public health issues that demand an urgent response. #BlackLivesMatter." Glassman's response was, first, the disastrously curt: "It's FLOYD-19." A few hours later, he expanded his idea:

Your failed model quarantined us and now you're going to model a solution to racism? George Floyd's brutal murder sparked riots nationally. Quarantine alone is "accompanied in every age and under all political regimes by an undercurrent of suspicion, distrust, and riots." Thanks!

Glassman had also said some things behind the scenes that made his problem worse. BuzzFeed reports that — in a Zoom call with gym owners — Glassman was asked why Crossfit's website didn't have a statement addressing the death of George Floyd. Glassman was recorded saying: “We're not mourning for George Floyd — I don't think me or any of my staff are.... Can you tell me why I should mourn for him? Other than that it’s the white thing to do — other than that, give me another reason.”

It’s the white thing to do... Who talks like that? To my ear, it sounds like left-wing critique of of white people — that white people are making these pious statements of empathy and support, and it's not really enough, it's fake and shallow, and he's the one who wants a real revolution. But it could also be someone who wants to stay out of politics and resists pressure to do what everyone else is doing. He might be using "white" in the sarcastic sense of the phrase "That's mighty white of you." In that light, it might be a way to say: Putting up those statements is virtue signaling.

In any case, Glassman was hurting his business, which was a brand that other businesses needed to want to pay to adopt as their own. That leaves little room for adamant self-defense.

"People are kind of freaking out. They feel like all of the hard work they’ve been putting in for so long is at risk of going to waste."

Said Jahkeen Washington, co-owner of boutique gym in Central Harlem, quoted in "New York City’s Kettlebell Shortage: ‘People Are Kind of Freaking Out’/After fitness enthusiasts were forced to reimagine how they could keep in shape, demand led to a shortage of workout equipment" (NYT). Apparently, it's impossible to buy a kettleball in NYC.

“It’s pandemonium,” said Ed Pryst, the chief sales officer of Gym Source, a New Jersey-based workout equipment retailer with several offices in New York....

The shortage is a problem, factory workers said, that could have been prevented were the U.S. not so reliant on foreign manufacturing and iron production.... There are more than 3,000 foundries that work with the iron needed to create kettlebells, but their efforts almost wholly go to larger industrial items like car parts or iron gates.... The process of equipping a foundry to make a new product is expensive and time consuming. In the case of a kettlebell, a design mold of the equipment has to be created, which can sometimes cost up to $100,000. Then a foundry must equip itself with the necessary materials (for a kettlebell, gray cast iron) and possibly, special machinery....

But people have only wanted kettleballs now, in the lockdown, because they can't get to the gym, so there's little reason for U.S. foundries to adapt to this demand, which is, presumably, transitory.

Why kettlebells? When did that become the home exercise equipment of choice? Here's Joe Rogan last December:

Unfit.

"A tweet Saturday from CrossFit founder Greg Glassman that appeared to make light of both the death of George Floyd and the novel coronavirus pandemic resulted in a widespread backlash within the CrossFit community. On Sunday, Reebok announced it was ending its corporate partnership with the popular fitness company, and after some gyms said they were cutting ties to the CrossFit brand, and others said they’re considering doing so, Glassman issued an apology. Glassman was responding Saturday to a tweet posted by the University of Washington’s Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME), in which the research center declared, 'Racism is a public health issue.' 'It’s FLOYD-19,' replied Glassman, 63. That sparked outrage among some owners of CrossFit gyms, or 'boxes,' as they’re called, that pay fees of several thousands of dollars annually to license the brand."

From "CrossFit founder jokes about George Floyd as Reebok, gyms drop the brand" (WaPo).

If what you're selling is branding, you'd better maintain that product. You're asking other people to put your reputation on themselves! You're not a solo, roving comedian. Even if it had been a great joke — which it wasn't — Glassman was an idiot to tweet it.

The NYT is so hard up for sports news, that it's got a story about a man running a lot of miles on his treadmill.

The headline tries to jazz it up, but come on, this is just a man on his treadmill: "Run 100 Miles, 100 Times, in 100 Weeks. Now in a Brooklyn Apartment/With ultramarathons across the country canceled, Michael Ortiz has continued his quest to run 100 100-mile races in 100 consecutive weeks — on a treadmill."

Quest! It's a quest! A quest is just "A search or pursuit in order to find something; the action of searching" (OED). What is the something here? If you run 100 miles instead of 10 miles, have you found anything?

"Quest" is also a grand word because in chivalric or Arthurian romance it is "an expedition or search undertaken by a knight or group of knights to obtain some thing or achieve some exploit."

▸ a1470 T. Malory Morte Darthur (Winch. Coll.) 966 They supposed that he was one of the knyghtes of the Rounde Table that was in the queste of the Sankegreall.

Is the logging of 100 miles a hundred times within a 100-day time frame anything like the Holy Grail?