🎮 Yada Yada Yada

A job too insane to be true, a teen skateboarding phenom, and so much more.

Andrew Nusca

Eric Alt

, and

Marques Edge

Jul 05, 2023

Mornin’. Welcome back to The Edit.

While getting dressed this morning, I felt some change in the small pocket of my jeans. For a moment I was excited. Found money!

But not this time. It was just a couple of carnival tokens left over from playing (and losing) that tricky ring toss game.

Ever wonder why that small pocket is there? For change? Somewhere to put your thumb when trying to snap a selfie?

None of the above.

I was today years old when I found out that when Levi Strauss first produced jeans in 1879, the tiny pocket’s original purpose was for the wearer to store their pocket watch.

Pocket. Pocket watch. Ahhhhh.

—Marques Edge, Eric Alt, Andrew Nusca

Buffed/Nerfed

What’s up and down in the world rn.

Buffed: Formula 1. Hollywood actors Ryan Reynolds, Rob McElhenney, and Michael B. Jordan join forces in a $218 million deal to buy stake in F1 Team Alpine Racing. Anyone ready for the Welcome to Wrexham sequel?

Nerfed: Roman holidays. A tourist faces a huge fine for carving his and his girlfriend’s name into the walls of the almost 2,000-year-old Colosseum in Rome. With apologies to J.Lo, love does cost a thing—24,550 of them.

Buffed: Robotic rescues. A Colorado teen flying his drone saved a couple trapped in an overturned Jeep in a flooded sinkhole. Just a typical day for your friendly neighborhood…drone?

Nerfed: Millions of peaches. Georgia is known as the Peach State for its abundance of said crop, but this year will be a bit different as 90% of the state’s crops will be lost thanks to changing weather conditions. Just…peachy 😒

Buffed: The DIY life. To celebrate their anniversary, a do-it-yourself enthusiast created a replica Birkin handbag for his girlfriend. So amazed, she fumbles the bag, sigh! —ME

Burning Questions: So what is a loremaster, exactly?

Asked and answered.

Image courtesy of Blizzard Entertainment

There are a lot of cool jobs in the gaming industry, but none of them quite have the same aura of mystery about them as the loremaster.

Who are these shadowy figures cataloging and curating the deepest secrets and long-forgotten tales of your favorite in-game universes? Glad you asked.

Executive editor Eric Alt braved the depths of Blizzard HQ to gain audience with senior manager of lore Sean Copeland in a quest for answers.

Here’s what he discovered.

Speed Run: We want to be Sky Brown when we grow up

Two-minute talks with today’s movers and shakers.

Sky Brown is the reigning world champion of park skateboarding, an Olympic bronze medalist, and just 14 years old.

She's also cooler than we'll ever be.

And if doing world-class aerials, 540s, and ollies in front of massive crowds were not challenging enough, Brown has decided to also start competing in surfing, with sights set on the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris.

Contributing writer Michelle Bruton caught up with the teenage phenom to chat about her career ambitions and her role as a seasoned (!) veteran and model for young skateboarders.

Here’s what she had to say.

Wayback Wednesday

“Spongeworthy.” “Re-gifter.” “Bit of a close talker.” “The lesser babka.” “No soup for you!” “You double-dipped the chip.” “A Festivus for the rest of us.” “Master of your domain.” “Serenity now!” “Yada, yada, yada.”

How successful and influential was Seinfeld? Don’t just ask yourself if you remember these phrases from the sitcom’s original run; ask yourself how much you still use them 25 years after the final episode aired.

As it so happens, Seinfeld made its debut on this very day in 1989. It ran for nine seasons.

Seinfeld was, of course, the brainchild of comedian Jerry Seinfeld and TV producer Larry David and focused on the lives of a made-for-TV Jerry and his three friends—Elaine Benes, George Constanza, and the one-and-only Kramer—who all lived in an apartment building in New York City.

Today it’s a perpetual cultural reference. Happy to see friends or family? A ready-made meme awaits. Got a secret? Keep it in the vault. Something good transpire? Giddyup.

Seinfeld references go so deep that when a former New York Yankees pitcher signed with the Houston Astros in 2004, fans simply couldn’t resist reviving this classic George moment.

We could go on, but you know…yada yada yada. —ME