June 6, 2026
What I'm Watching, Reading, Listening to, and Rediscovering This Week
With the news breaking on Friday morning that the Chicago Bears Board of Directors have voted to move forward with securing a stadium in Hammond, Indiana…
Well, we thought we’d start out this newsletter by watching a blow-by-blow of another franchise relocation that rocked the sports world: The Seattle Supersonics leaving for Oklahoma City and becoming the Oklahoma City Thunder. That kicks off this week’s newsletter, our 31st consecutive edition of The Saturday List. (Right after the Subscribe button, of course. See below.)
Watching: Sonicsgate: Requiem for a Team
So Hammond is in Chicagoland — a broad term coined by Col. Robert McCormick to describe the region; sort of like Greater New York to include city and suburbs — but it’s still across state lines, so this is a blow.
But imagine the blow that Seattle residents felt when their beloved Supersonics departed for… Oklahoma? This is worth a watch in that it explains a lot about human nature.
Note that all hope is not lost for Seattle, which is supposedly on the NBA’s expansion shortlist for the next time the league adds teams. But, after watching this documentary, you can’t be blamed if you’re asking whether you can believe anyone in pro basketball.
Reading: Fluent Forever by Gabriel Wyner
I’ve got a confession to make: I wish I had picked up another language. There was the 2 1/2 years of high school French, followed by the 2 years of college French; but I never quite mastered that language.
Then there was the fact that my Dad and my Grandma used to speak Flemish to each other when they didn’t want us to know what they were talking about. Did I pick any of that up? NO.
Did I yell when The New York Times started talking about a Flemish singer named Pommelein Thijs and said that she was singing IN DUTCH when I saw that she is from Belgium and is singing in FLEMISH?!?!
I digress. (Here’s a non-NYT article on Flemish singers.)
Enter Gabriel Wyner whose book Fluent Forever might change the way you look at language-learning. (And if the book doesn’t, the app of the same name might.)
To wit, Wyner learned the hard way that there had to be a better way. Through a combination of memorization and understanding how the mind works — plus the power of things like flash cards and, if you use the app, the phone — Wyner has figured out how to learn a language fast.
Listening to: Arctic Monkeys…Including One of the Greatest Live Performances EVER
It’s not hyperbole, what I said above. We’ll get to that in a second, but imagine my surprise as I look back at the chart of all of the editions of The Saturday List and realize I have yet to mention one of the absolute coolest bands in rock history?
DAVE! What are you doing???
First, though, a primer. Arctic Monkeys literally burst onto the scene in 2006 with what was, at the time, the fastest-selling debut album in British music history.
Read that sentence again. Take some time to digest it. Realize what country they hail from.
The album, Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not, featured their breakout single, “I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor.” If the band looks like they were just kids it’s because they were: Lead singer Alex Turner just turned 40 this year. (Also, the stripped-down video served as foreshadowing of the band’s energy performing live.)
Their second album, Favourite Worst Nightmare, also went #1 on the UK Album chart — all but ONE of the band’s studio albums have gone #1 in the UK; the most-recent, The Car, only went to #2 — and here’s a live performance from one of the singles off of that disc, “Fluorescent Adolescent,” on Late Show with David Letterman.
It’s from that disc, Favourite Worst Nightmare, that we get the song “505.” Before setting up the live performance that may go down on the Mt. Rushmore of Live Performances, allow me to share the studio version.
The song, which is completely ambiguous about what or where “505” is, leaves no doubt that it is a love song.
“But I crumble completely when you cry
It seems like once again you have to greet me with goodbye.”
It took off on TikTok, a decade-plus later, and, while it only made it to #74 on the UK Singles chart when released in 2007, it reemerged on UK, US, and global charts in 2022; this was due in part to lines like the one above.
Bringing us to the live performance. Reading, 2022, closing out the concert, and the night. Audience knowing every single word. Alex Turner giving Frank Sinatra vibes — yes, I said it; The Chairman of The Board had impeccable timing and breath control and Alex has a similar jazz-singer sound here — and the crowd has been captured.
Rediscovering: The 1986 FIFA World Cup
Yes, the World Cup is coming back to (North) America. It’s the first time Canada will play (co-)host. It’s the second time the USA will host; the last World Cup in the USA was the first time it came to North America, in 1994.
BUT Mexico is also a co-host this year, and Mexico did host the tournament in 1986.
And 15-year-old Dave ate the whole thing up.
55-year-old Dave is waxing nostalgic about the 1986 World Cup, including the “Hand of God” and the insane performance by Argentina and its Diego Maradona — who will defend its 2022 title starting in just a few DAYS — so why not look at a BBC documentary on the 1986 World Cup?
Friends, it continues to be a pleasure to deliver this newsletter to you. Thanks for reading, and please don’t hesitate to share and subscribe.
Dave
he Oklahoma City Thunder. That kicks off this week’s newsletter, our 31st consecutive edition of The Saturday List. (Right after the Subscribe button, of course. See below.)
Watching: Sonicsgate: Requiem for a Team
So Hammond is in Chicagoland — a broad term coined by Col. Robert McCormick to describe the region; sort of like Greater New York to include city and suburbs — but it’s still across state lines, so this is a blow.
But imagine the blow that Seattle residents felt when their beloved Supersonics departed for… Oklahoma? This is worth a watch in that it explains a lot about human nature.
Note that all hope is not lost for Seattle, which is supposedly on the NBA’s expansion shortlist for the next time the league adds teams. But, after watching this documentary, you can’t be blamed if you’re asking whether you can believe anyone in pro basketball.
Reading: Fluent Forever by Gabriel Wyner
I’ve got a confession to make: I wish I had picked up another language. There was the 2 1/2 years of high school French, followed by the 2 years of college French; but I never quite mastered that language.
Then there was the fact that my Dad and my Grandma used to speak Flemish to each other when they didn’t want us to know what they were talking about. Did I pick any of that up? NO.
Did I yell when The New York Times started talking about a Flemish singer named Pommelein Thijs and said that she was singing IN DUTCH when I saw that she is from Belgium and is singing in FLEMISH?!?!
I digress. (Here’s a non-NYT article on Flemish singers.)
Enter Gabriel Wyner whose book Fluent Forever might change the way you look at language-learning. (And if the book doesn’t, the app of the same name might.)
To wit, Wyner learned the hard way that there had to be a better way. Through a combination of memorization and understanding how the mind works — plus the power of things like flash cards and, if you use the app, the phone — Wyner has figured out how to learn a language fast.
Listening to: Arctic Monkeys…Including One of the Greatest Live Performances EVER
It’s not hyperbole, what I said above. We’ll get to that in a second, but imagine my surprise as I look back at the chart of all of the editions of The Saturday List and realize I have yet to mention one of the absolute coolest bands in rock history?
DAVE! What are you doing???
First, though, a primer. Arctic Monkeys literally burst onto the scene in 2006 with what was, at the time, the fastest-selling debut album in British music history.
Read that sentence again. Take some time to digest it. Realize what country they hail from.
The album, Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not, featured their breakout single, “I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor.” If the band looks like they were just kids it’s because they were: Lead singer Alex Turner just turned 40 this year. (Also, the stripped-down video served as foreshadowing of the band’s energy performing live.)
Their second album, Favourite Worst Nightmare, also went #1 on the UK Album chart — all but ONE of the band’s studio albums have gone #1 in the UK; the most-recent, The Car, only went to #2 — and here’s a live performance from one of the singles off of that disc, “Fluorescent Adolescent,” on Late Show with David Letterman.
It’s from that disc, Favourite Worst Nightmare, that we get the song “505.” Before setting up the live performance that may go down on the Mt. Rushmore of Live Performances, allow me to share the studio version.
The song, which is completely ambiguous about what or where “505” is, leaves no doubt that it is a love song.
“But I crumble completely when you cry
It seems like once again you have to greet me with goodbye.”
It took off on TikTok, a decade-plus later, and, while it only made it to #74 on the UK Singles chart when released in 2007, it reemerged on UK, US, and global charts in 2022; this was due in part to lines like the one above.
Bringing us to the live performance. Reading, 2022, closing out the concert, and the night. Audience knowing every single word. Alex Turner giving Frank Sinatra vibes — yes, I said it; The Chairman of The Board had impeccable timing and breath control and Alex has a similar jazz-singer sound here — and the crowd has been captured.
Rediscovering: The 1986 FIFA World Cup
Yes, the World Cup is coming back to (North) America. It’s the first time Canada will play (co-)host. It’s the second time the USA will host; the last World Cup in the USA was the first time it came to North America, in 1994.
BUT Mexico is also a co-host this year, and Mexico did host the tournament in 1986.
And 15-year-old Dave ate the whole thing up.
55-year-old Dave is waxing nostalgic about the 1986 World Cup, including the “Hand of God” and the insane performance by Argentina and its Diego Maradona — who will defend its 2022 title starting in just a few DAYS — so why not look at a BBC documentary on the 1986 World Cup?
Friends, it continues to be a pleasure to deliver this newsletter to you. Thanks for reading, and please don’t hesitate to share and subscribe.
Dave