Good afternoon, everyone.
Unlike the decision makers on New York magazine’s Approval Matrix desk, I think it’s perfectly reasonable for stores to start playing Christmas music on November 1. The Christmas lights are hung at Pete’s Tavern. The Met and MoMA have absolutely outdone themselves on holiday cards this year. It’s a matter of hours before your Google Calendar becomes a collage of party invites…
Today’s newsletter includes: Why fitness studios are investing in caffeine, 2027 internships, Jack Mankiewicz on The Sports Equinox, Charlotte Klein’s profile of OpenAI’s celebrity whisperer Charles Porch, North Korea’s $6.3 billion crypto heist, an Upper East Side movie theater closed, and the likelihood of your friend’s Chanel bag being rented has officially gone up.
🇺🇸 2026 MIDTERM NEWS 🇺🇸
Private equity and money managers have donated more to Republican candidates and committees than Democrats this year.
The New York Times published a list of the biggest 2026 midterm donors. Elon Musk tops the list, having donated $445.6 million to super PACs supporting Republican candidates, including an estimated $150+ million directed toward Ken Paxton’s Senate campaign in Texas.
The Democratic Party has created a clip library for social media users to easily download and share videos and transcripts of important moments from the campaign trail. To learn more, I reached out to Matt Rein, Director of Influencer and Creative Partnerships for the DNC. “We started our creator clip library in July 2025,” Rein told me. “Our main creator clips library has around 700 creators and partners, where they get daily clips from our team and directly from the campaigns!”
In a shocking move against her party, Michigan Democratic House member Haley Stevens, who lost Michigan’s Democratic Senate primary to Abdul El-Sayed, endorsed Republican Mike Rogers yesterday. The result of the Michigan race could determine whether Democrats or Republicans control the Senate in the final two years of Donald Trump’s second term as president. Anderson Cooper attempted to get to the bottom of Stevens’s decision last night on CNN, which resulted in an overwhelmingly frustrating 15-minute interview.
Bruce Blakeman, the New York Republican nominee for governor, is running against Democratic incumbent governor Kathy Hochul on a platform of being tough on crime, working closely with ICE, using fossil fuels and nuclear energy to bring down utility bills, and eliminating state income tax on the first $50,000 of income ($100,000 for couples). More notably: His ex-wife, Nancy Shevell, had the level-up of the century: she’s married to Paul McCartney.
Last month, Texas voters started getting mysterious texts and mailers that looked like they came from trans advocacy groups. They offered guides to “bathrooms and beyond for trans kids at school” and answers about gender-affirming care, just ahead of the Talarico–Paxton Senate race. Many suspected a GOP ploy to rile up voters. Last week, a judge forced the texting company to reveal who paid for the messages. According to its deposition, the clients were the Republican Women’s Caucus Fund and a man named John Braun. The Fund says it had “absolutely no involvement.” If the deposition holds up, this is a pretty literal attempt to manufacture trans panic. Great reporting by the Texas Observer here.
The Sports Equinox: “Like mainlining heroin while riding a rollercoaster on the moon.”
Jack Mankiewicz is a writer from Los Angeles who lives in Brooklyn. He also used to be my roommate. He contributes to Feed Me occasionally, writing about sports and gambling.
Monday, October 26, 6:22 PM: I am walking through Brooklyn Bridge Park as a gorgeous Mets Sunset (blue and orange) paints itself over New Jersey. I look at the leaves fluttering in the cool autumn breeze, and ponder some of life’s eternal questions. Why must beauty be so ephemeral? What is a tree without its leaves? Can the Wizards beat the Hornets on the road?
I ask myself these kinds of questions often, but right now they carry a special significance, for it is the greatest night of the holiday season – the Sports Equinox.
If you’re a sports fan (and gambler) like me, the Sports Equinox makes Christmas look like Arbor Day and Thanksgiving look like Pearl Harbor. If you’re not, you’ve probably never heard of it. Usually, each sport has its own season. But for one magical October night every year, the NBA, NHL, NFL, and MLB all overlap. Basketball and hockey are just starting, football is in its prime, and baseball is playing the World Series. This year is even more special because we also have Game 5 of the WNBA Finals. That’s five sports and five beautiful opportunities to have fun and lose money. What could be better?
6:37: Feeling lucky, I watch the sun drop behind the horizon, turning the sky from Mets Orange to a velvety Ravens Purple. I bet 10 bucks on the Wizards and head home for the festivities.
6:58: Football, baseball, WNBA, and hockey don’t start until after 8, so we have to begin our night with basketball before we get to the full smorgasbord. If the Sports Equinox is a decadent meal at the Cheesecake Factory, then the 7 PM Wizards-Hornets game is the Avocado Egg Rolls. A boring and weird matchup that shouldn’t be exciting but somehow works. Anthony Davis tips the ball to Trae Young and we are off.
7:38: I am sweating. Metaphorically because the Wizards are losing to the Hornets by 10, and literally due to the heavy machinery that I am moving. Nobody tells you about the manual labor involved in the Sports Equinox, but when you have to set up five screens, and bend into several Yogic positions in order to plug the power cords into the wall behind your TV, you realize that gambling and watching sports can also be like a sport. After several labored minutes, I get my first win of the night. The screens are set up (two computer monitors, one iPad, one laptop, and one TV) and I sit down to make the rest of my bets.
7:52 PM: The big games tonight are Eagles-Cowboys, Rays-Brewers in Game 3 of the World Series, and the Atlanta Dream vs. the Golden State Valkyries in Game 5 of the WNBA Finals. If you’re a Jack Mankiewicz completionist, like I am, then you’ll have read my gambling guide, and know that my #1 rule is to bet with your heart, not with your head.
I’m not going to lie – it’s slim pickings for my heart tonight. The Eagles are not the most lovable bunch. Their fans are boorish louts who almost killed Santa Claus and, a couple weeks ago, their coach almost killed their starting quarterback. But they are underdogs, and while they may not put much of a value on human life, at least they’re not the Cowboys. I’m taking Philadelphia +4.5 points.