Legends of the Fall

The Friday Newsletter wakes you up when September ends.

Put away the kiddie pool, drag the sweaters out of storage, and wake up the guy from Green Day. It’s October 1st.

Allow me to strain a sports analogy to its breaking point, won’t you?

You see, we’re entering the fourth quarter of 2021, and unlike 2020—a blowout loss on the level of Rutgers-Michigan 2016—the outcome of this game is still very much in doubt. The first quarter of the year? Well, it didn’t go so great. We gave up a touchdown on the opening kickoff, and quickly fell behind 14-0. Things came together in the second quarter, and we went into halftime with a narrow lead and all the momentum. The wheels came back off in the third quarter, though, and now we’re facing a four-point deficit. It hasn’t been our finest showing, that’s for sure, but we can still leave town with a win, and that’s no small thing when you’re facing the long odds we came in with.

We may not have a Peyton Manning, John Elway or Tom Brady to rally us to victory, but—here in the Northern Hemisphere, at least—…