I have nothing of value to add
So I’m sending you elsewhere
Kris Kringle understood customer relations. In Miracle on 34th Street, the man who [spoiler alert] Judge Henry Harper declared to be Santa Claus informed a pre-West Wing Allison Janney that she could purchase a Christmas present for her son1 at a rival department store, for much less money (with batteries included).
Initially, management was furious, until Janney declared (with a curious take on a New York accent):
You tell your Santa Claus that he made a Cole's shopper out of me. I'm coming here for everything but toilet paper and bananas. Any store that puts the parent ahead of the almighty buck at Christmas deserves my business."
This swiftly becomes the fictitious Cole’s (Macy’s, which featured in the 1947 original, declined permission for use of their name in the remake) new promise: “If we don’t have what you’re looking for, we’ll find it for you.”
The internet was once like this. Google’s entire business model was to send users away from Google. X, formerly Twitter, was effectively a landing page for interesting links, while Facebook a place where you interacted with friends. Today, Google prioritises AI summaries and sponsored results, X suppresses posts with links and Facebook is… whatever this is.
In the spirit of Kris Kringle, and on the basis that I have nothing of value to add today, I thought I’d share some recent stuff I’ve read, watched and stumbled across that you may enjoy:
The Institute for Government’s Alice Lilly on the inexorable rise in casework that is preventing MPs from fulfilling their other roles
This YouTube channel, which is entirely comprised of highlights from the 2002 Queen's Speech (Mover, Seconder, LOTO, PM) and then one video about his trip to Mainz for Oktoberfest
This chart, featured in Aziz Sunderji’s newsletter, Home Economics. Prepare to zoom.
Donald Trump (a gentile), is scapegoating Somali immigrants (almost all of whom are Muslims) in Minnesota (where hardly any Jews live). Phoebe Maltz Bovy wants to know if non-Jews could find ways to discuss it without analogies to Jews.
This short documentary on Britain’s journey to colour television.
Traffic: Genius, Rivalry, and Delusion in the Billion-Dollar Race to Go Viral by Ben Smith, which chronicles the rise of digital media and how the pursuit of online traffic fuelled the modern internet and the world of today
This remarkable bit of reporting in The Economist on the last open crossing through which Ukrainians can flee Russian-occupied territories.
