There are two entries about pumpkins in this week’s Dez Reads.
Phil Bogdan reports on the desecration of a Halloween tradition at the University of Montana, because nothing is sacred anymore, and Mike Bova establishes some diplomatic ties between New York and the Midwest, by shouting out my people’s critical contributions to the Jack-O-Lantern supply chain. Happy Halloween!
Our leader this week comes from Anne Marie, who deftly points out the impact of strategically timed public communications. Her analysis of the media’s role in high stakes WNBA labor relations is the perfect blend of culture and our work at Dez.
Katie Runkle joins my fledgling #PrintGang with a plea to read more books. Co-sign.
For my part, I was interested to read about the rise of a new unfortunate trend, in which economic pressures are causing young people to defraud and exploit their own elderly parents for inheritance money they can’t afford to pay. Sad, but predictable, with the generational complexity we are seeing in the modern economy.
Sorry to end on a sad note, but the Tigers, Wolverines, and Lions all lost last weekend, so now you can all share in the pain.
Thanks, as always, for reading along with us.
Here we go.
Full Off Court Press
NYT. She just called out the WNBA commissioner. Here’s what to know about Napheesa Collier.
Whether you are a full-season WNBA fan or just here for the Caitlin Clark effect, what is happening off the court right now is a masterclass in marketplace defense.
A week before the Las Vegas Aces swept the Phoenix Mercury for their third straight title, Minnesota Lynx forward and WNBPA vice president Napheesa Collier hijacked the narrative. After her team’s playoff exit, she read a six-minute statement that criticized Commissioner Cathy Engelbert over player health, safety, and leadership. It was not an emotional outburst. It was a coordinated offensive play.
Collier’s remarks flipped the story. Players became the victims, Engelbert the villain, and the league’s postseason spotlight turned into leverage ahead of collective bargaining. The WNBA’s collective bargaining agreement expires on October 31, and negotiations are not going well. Players want better pay, benefits, and a share of the league’s new multibillion-dollar media deal. The league, predictably, wants to protect its margins.
The timing was perfect and painful. As the WNBA’s most-watched Finals in 25 years drew record audiences, Collier’s comments put management on defense. Engelbert’s leadership now faces great scrutiny, and the players’ union seemingly has the backing of fans, cameras, and sponsors. This was not about optics but about operational pressure.
– Anne Marie Malecha
The Great Pumpkin Snitch
UPI. Pumpkin reappears on University of Montana spire in 30-year mystery
Each year since 1995, a pumpkin has been mysteriously set atop the spire of the University of Montana’s Main Hall building under the cover of night before homecoming. And for 30 years, it’s been a mystery as to who does this unsanctioned event and how it was done. Until now.
Part of the secret was just blabbed by an anonymous local member of Missoula’s climbing community who is a party to the tradition. He described the process in detail: the use of multiple climbers, spotters, radio, the works. He sang like a canary. He did the adult equivalent of describing exactly how those cookies for Santa really disappear on Christmas Day. “Spoiler alert, kids. Your mom and I eat them; and, by the way, your presents came from Wal-Mart.”
I don’t know about you, but I want a little childlike wonder in my life. I want some things to be a mystery. We don’t need our dreams and wonder to get smashed like pumpkins. For shame, anonymous climber. For shame.
– Phil Bogdan
The Inheritance Heist
Bloomberg. ‘I Want My Inheritance Now’: Older People are Losing Their Life Savings to Family Members.
There are bottlenecks throughout our economy for a variety of reasons right now. One of the most interesting is generational.
Baby Boomers have built up a ton of wealth for a lot of complex reasons. They also happen to be living longer and locking up savings that traditionally flow from older generations to younger family members via inheritances.
I feel like I’ve consumed a lot of content lately about the benefits of moving forward inheritance gifts, so that the giver can be around to watch the receiver accept, appreciate and deploy the inheritance, and share in the experience while still alive. But now Bloomberg informs us that a massive market for family exploitation is emerging in Australia as a result of this movement.
As with any new economic development, where a virtuous market is created, a dark and illicit one is soon to follow.
– Josh Culling
Read It and Weep
The Atlantic. America Is Sliding Toward Illiteracy
Enter: image of ominous desk in a dark classroom, and an even scarier article of education statistics to back it up.
Stanford Economist Eric Hanushek calculated that the GDP will be six percent lower for the rest of the 21st century due to the decreased academic performance. We are literally losing the country 90 trillion dollars of production value due to ill-performing schools and students.
Congress increased funding for under-performing schools, and for $190 billion, all they had to show for it were a few new HVAC systems and some professional development training. Maybe an electric bus if they were lucky. Jonathan Haidt pinned it on smartphones and anxiety, but it doesn’t quite capture why 40% of fourth graders have a “below basic” reading ability. 33% of eighth graders can’t follow a passage well enough to summarize its main idea.
Along with breaking the heart of my past self as an English Literature university student, this keeps me up at night, scared for the future mental capacity of our country.
Please read a book and teach your children to read like your life depends on it, because theirs may.
– Katie Runkle
The Orange Belt Economy
Axios. Where America’s pumpkins are grown
Congratulations to my Midwest colleagues for ascending to the mantle of Fall Royalty, particularly Chicago. This year Illinois grew an absurd number of pumpkins, 634 million pounds of pumpkins to be exact, making it a $200 million industry in the state. Each year, Illinois produces enough pumpkins to bake 48 million pies. Indiana grew the second most, with 161 million pounds.
Why Illinois? The soil is rich, the land is flat, and there are moderate temperatures in the summer when pumpkins grow. Farmers call this Midland region “the orange belt.”
A quick look at my front yard and social media feed quickly explains how this is a multimillion-dollar industry for the state. New York just barely made the top ten, but this diagram shows the sizeable difference, and superiority, between the orange belt and the rest of the country.
– Mike Bova
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Anne Marie's post about the WNBA is right on the money. A bravura performance by Ms. Collier. There's a long history of both sides to collective bargaining negotiation using public relations to advance their particular points of view. The union side usually gets the better of the argument in most of the media, in part because many employers stick to the 'no comment' strategy, an approach dictated by legal restrictions. I was particularly struck by the fact that Ms. Collier's statement prominently featured a personal attack on the WNBA rather than a presentation of the union's position on the substance.