Introducing the Friday Mix

Every Friday, I'll take a break from South Carolina sports stuff and share some entertainments that have recently brought me joy.

Hello. I’m trying out a new thing.

Sometimes I derive profound enjoyment from watching, reading, or listening to things completely unrelated to South Carolina athletics. When that happens, I am going to share them here — in The Friday Mix.

As the title implies, sometimes what I share will literally be a playlist. (I have some Mother’s Day bangers teed up for next week.) Other times, it will be a figurative playlist.

This week it’s the latter.

Deep Space Nine: “Rules of Engagement”

I always assumed that the question of whether or not you are A Star Trek Person was settled, once and for all, sometime during adolescence. As a teenager, my thinking went, you approach a fork in the road and decide to either take the path of being cool and fitting in, or you take the path of social isolation and knowing far too much about the specifications of Klingon warships. (Somehow I rejected the Star Trek path but got saddled with social isolation anyway. Go figure.)

But on reflection, I have concluded that my understanding of this issue derived entirely from John Cusack’s character in Sixteen Candles. A mistake. Now, at age 36, I have come to a new understanding: Star Trek whips ass.