Ed Hochuli retiring as NFL referee

Kevin Seifert writing at ESPN:

NFL referee Ed Hochuli has retired, the league announced Tuesday, ending a colorful career that made him one of the most recognized game officials in American sports.

Kevin Smith Tweets He Suffered a ‘Massive Heart Attack’

The Hollywood Reporter at Billboard.com:

Kevin Smith (Clerks) in the early morning hours of Monday tweeted a selfie from a hospital bed, saying he had survived a “massive” heart attack.

The photo he posted on Twitter shortly after 3 a.m. ET/midnight PT showed him covered in tubes and wearing a hospital gown.

“After the first show this evening, I had a massive heart attack,” Smith tweeted. “The Doctor who saved my life told me I had 100% blockage of my LAD artery (aka “the Widow-Maker”).”

Holy shit! Wishing him a speedy recovery.

Prince on film: from humble MTV beginnings to camp masterpiece “Purple Rain”

Michaelangelo Matos writing at Salon:

With all due respect to “Dirty Mind,” “Purple Rain,” “Parade,” and “Sign O’ the Times,” “1999” remains the most widely imitated record of Prince’s career.

In Yoakam’s world, country is not like a vintage auto that’s too precious to drive…

Mark Demming reviewing the album “Swimmin’ Pools, Movie Stars…” at the All Music Guide:

One described as “the man who was too country for Nashville,” Dwight Yoakam has always been an artist who is passionate about the themes and variations of classic country, but he’s never treated his beloved Bakersfield sound as a museum piece. In Yoakam’s world, country is not like a vintage auto that’s too precious to drive, but a dinged-up but still powerful hot rod that has plenty of miles left in it, and he’s happy to prove it by taking it out on the highway and opening the throttle.

Well said.

Trump made it easier for the mentally ill to buy guns…

Annalisa Merelli and Heather Timmons writing at Quartz:

In a tweet early this morning, Trump framed the shooting it as he has done in the past, describing Cruz as a disturbed and “erratic” individual. The trouble is, Trump has made it much easier for mentally-disturbed Americans to buy guns in the United States.

What’s happening just offscreen of famous album covers?

Kottke:

On his Instagram account, Igor Lipchanskiy is imagining what’s happening just “offscreen” of musical album covers.

Hilarious.

What kind of restaurant is closed on Sundays?

Criminy! What kind of restaurant is closed on Sundays??? For fuck’s sake, it’s 2018, not 1818!

Well, to each their own, but if they don’t want my business–fuck ’em.

DxO Confirms: New Nik Collection Coming in 2018

Digital Photography Review:

The statement went out over Google Plus (go figure), where the DxO team welcomed the Nik community into the fold with the following announcement (emphasis added):

Dear Nik Collection users,

We at DxO are very pleased to welcome the Nik community! We wish you a very happy holiday season and a healthy and prosperous New Year: may you be inspired to take spectacular photos in 2018!

Like you, we are passionate about photography and image quality. That’s why we view this opportunity with Nik as a commitment to ensure that you — that all of us who enjoy taking photos — are guaranteed to have the very best solutions at our disposal.

You’ll be happy to know that our developers are enthusiastically working on a new version of the Nik Collection to be released in 2018!

For my money, an updated Silver Efex Pro would be worth almost any price they could reasonably ask!

Apple statement on ‘Meltdown’ and ‘Spectre’

Apple:

Security researchers have recently uncovered security issues known by two names, Meltdown and Spectre. These issues apply to all modern processors and affect nearly all computing devices and operating systems. All Mac systems and iOS devices are affected, but there are no known exploits impacting customers at this time. Since exploiting many of these issues requires a malicious app to be loaded on your Mac or iOS device, we recommend downloading software only from trusted sources such as the App Store. Apple has already released mitigations in iOS 11.2, macOS 10.13.2, and tvOS 11.2 to help defend against Meltdown. Apple Watch is not affected by either Meltdown or Spectre. In the coming days we plan to release mitigations in Safari to help defend against Spectre. We continue to develop and test further mitigations for these issues and will release them in upcoming updates of iOS, macOS, and tvOS.

ESPN NFL Playoffs Primer

Regarding the Tennessee Titans (9-7):

Reason for hope: Uhhh … they beat the Jaguars twice, which helps give them confidence they can beat the Jaguars. And hey, if DeMarco Murray can get back healthy, they have a 1-2 running back punch that can theoretically help them control games and maybe win ugly.

You know, if the Ravens had beaten the Bengals, we’d have been the sixth seed, played the Jaguars again next week, and probably beaten them for a third time this season and advanced to the Divisional round. Thanks Baltimore! Instead, we wind up the fifth seed, have to travel to Kansas City next week, and well, we have a spotty record against the Chiefs in recent years, so, who knows?