Matthew Budman, book guy

Shall we play a game? WARGAMES premiered 43 years ago tonight, and honestly, considering business, political, and military leaders' willingness to hand over decision-making to black-box AI systems, it's surprising that pundits don't cite the film—which holds up quite well, considering!—more often.

Perfect for Memorial Day! Always great to see Andrew Scott, there are tense moments, and Anthony Maras finds genuine drama in weather forecasting before a massive surprise attack. But fundamentally, PRESSURE feels like the C story in a film about D-Day preparation, expanded to feature length.

Hear me! In an unusual move,

Five years ago yesterday

the theme song of the Bad Place!

Five years ago, the Biden White House posted a video urging teenagers to stay healthy by getting COVID-19 vaccinations. Today, not only are Trump & RFK trying to kill vaccinations altogether—the CDC has no director, COO, principal deputy director, or chief medical officer. If people die, ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Remember how, before Trump, people who committed crimes usually didn't get away with it? THE POSTMAN ALWAYS RINGS TWICE premiered 80 years ago tonight, in New York. It's a cheap & dirty adaptation of James M. Cain's cheap & dirty 1934 novel, and pretty great. "We took a chance. We didn't make it."

Six years ago today: The nation tunes in to the daily White House COVID-19 briefing for information & guidance, and the president free-associates about curing it by injecting disinfectant or light or heat or something. The next day, he refuses to answer questions, and then cancels the briefings.

Forty years ago tonight, Geraldo Rivera held TV audiences spellbound for two hours, unveiling "The Mystery of Al Capone's Vaults." He had a medical examiner on hand—in case the vault contained bodies!—and IRS agents to handle the millions of Capone dollars that would surely be stacked in piles.

Based on this BROADCAST NEWS scene, I always assumed that there are, as Albert Brooks suggests, ten Cabinet members. But at the time, there were eighteen! Biden had twenty-five! And Trump has twenty-two. Still four women left. For now. He probably can't name them either.

It's almost that time! I was in it: The Pitt You were in it: The Pitt We all were in it: The Pitt