State of the union

The kids can call you S.O.T.U.!

Hi hello, reader.

It’s your friendly neighbourhood Dave here with some words just for you.

You may have noticed that we didn’t publish Oddball last week. Or this week.

Jonathan and I have worked very hard to put out a new issue every week for years, come hell or high water, and the credit for our Ripken-like consistency should go to him. Recently, though, the hell has been extra hot and the water has been extra high. Putting Oddball together hasn’t been as easy to do as it once was, and to be honest, it was never that easy to begin with.

Before you pick out a black suit, this is not an “unfortunately, we have decided to…” message or a goodbye of any sort. I’m just taking the opportunity to tell you that we’re going to mess around with what Oddball looks like over the next little while. You will most likely see some changes starting with our next issue.

Ideas we’re tinkering with include:

• multiple issues per week

• more questions per issue

• fewer questions per issue

• having the questions and answers in the same issue

• not having the intro/op-ed in every issue

• not having the intro/op-ed in the same issue as the trivia

• returning to our fascination with numbers

• returning to our absolutely bonkers original concept for Oddball

• opening the floor to other sports trivia buffs to contribute to issues

• referring to The Simpsons less often

One of our 2023 plans was to figure out what Oddball could be besides an email newsletter. We once talked about turning Oddball into an IRL experience of sorts, a regular quiz night at a bar or something similar online. This isn’t the only reason I moved back to Toronto last fall, but it was one of them.

Finding the bandwidth to do all the things you want to is one of the toughest parts about being a grown-up, and probably the main reason I didn’t become one until about fifteen minutes ago. Accordingly, Jonathan and I have to talk about how much time and energy we have to devote to Oddball, and what parts of our process (and product) we will need to adapt going forward.

If you have any ideas regarding features you’d like to see us add, or any other feedback, please let us know in the comments of the web post or by replying to the email issue. I can’t promise we’ll implement your suggestions, but I can promise that we’ll take anything you write seriously unless it’s “I KILL YOU SCUM!” in black ink on a piece of white paper, because I’m pretty sure neither of us tattooed anything on your butts.

Until next week, be the Ezequiel Carrera you wish to see in the world.

— DJ