I do Semantle. It’s sort of like a hot or cold kind of game where there is a word of the day and you guess words and they are scored as to how close they are semantically. You have an unlimited number of guesses and also a seemingly unlimited number of hints. Even with the hints it sometimes takes me 60 guesses, but sometimes it’s 5 or 6. There is a link to the paper where they discuss the relativity model they use. I find it challenging.

Like they said in the article, Homicide Life on the Street is where I remember him from. Lots of good actors and performances in that show, but he was a standout. RIP.

I misgendered a woman who was already very irate. This was probably 30 years ago, before trangenderism was as common as it is now (or at least as publicly presented). It did NOT go over well, to say the least. Other customers were smirking and giggling, and even a coworker was having trouble keeping a straight face. In my defense, she was heavyset, had shaved hair and a raspy voice. Luckily I didn’t say any of this to her. I just got my manager and let her yell at me (and him) for 10 minutes. I learned the value of keeping your mouth shut until you’re certain that day.

I think it has to be EA because Atari as I think of it was just a company that launched the success of home gaming but mismanaged themselves into bankruptcy, putting a pretty big dent in the north American video game industry in the process, but a dent that Nintendo very easily fixed with the NES only a few years later. The subsequent uses of the Atari name and IP by successive owners doesn’t really do anything but make me sad - I can’t really attribute anything that Atari does these days to the company that did all the good (and bad) stuff in the 80s. More like Bernie from Weekend at Bernie’s, being trotted out by companies hoping to capitalize on long-dead goodwill.

EA, on the other hand is the same company that started back in the 80s; they have an unbroken bloodline from the scrappy company making good quality computer games that hit the jackpot with their sports titles to the behemoth they are today with all the shitty practices we all know and hate. They are the company that lived long enough to see themselves become the villain.

Your location matters. Some US states, for example, have laws that require the company to provide you with a salary range if you ask for one. Some EU locations have similar requirements. Google pay transparency laws in your location to see if the company has to tell you or not. But as others have said, it’s generally best to have the company make the first move.