How Enthusiastic Are People About Politics, Really?

Over the weekend, Donald Trump and Kamala Harris both held big campaign rallies (Trump's, as you may have heard, was at Madison Square Garden).

The Garden was "sold out" (even though the tickets were free). It has a capacity of about 20,000.

Harris's rally claimed attendance of about 30,000.

The two of them combined, even with free tickets, didn't draw as many fans as the Kansas City Chiefs / Las Vegas Raiders (about 62,000) or Taylor Swift (about 65,000).

Between Harris and Trump, one of them will spend four years in the White House, becoming very difficult to see live, while the other will likely draw small crowds on the rubber chicken speaking circuit for the rest of his or her life. People who wanted to see them knew the best time to see them was now. About 50,000, total, showed up for their free shows.

The Chiefs and Raiders play each other twice a year, every year.

Taylor Swift has done six major concert tours and seems likely to do more in the future.

And 130,000 people paid big money to see them instead of Trump or Harris.

I think that's a good thing in terms of keeping life in perspective.

Hell, I'm a political junkie and even I am tired of those idiotic political ads during football games on TV.

I'm Considering An Auction or Dueling Fundraiser, But Want Opinions First

There's a phenomenon that seems to come in two parts pretty much every time, and which has transpired perhaps once a month for the last two years or so.

Part 1: Someone I haven't met before, or whom I haven't seen in a long time, compliments me on my mustache.

Part 2: Someone else whom I've known since before I've grown the mustache, but who hasn't seen it recently (or maybe at all), sees it and says I should get rid of it, that it "just doesn't look like" me.

I'm thinking about letting people vote with their dollars on whether I keep it or shave it off.

Two ways I could do that:

1. Set up an auction -- whoever bids the most gets to tell me whether the mustache comes off, or whether I keep it for some minimum time post-auction (with exceptions for medical emergencies, i.e. facial surgery or whatever); or
2. Just hold dueling fundraisers, with me doing the will of the team/side that donates the most (with the same exception for shaving it if medically required for some reason, even if the fundraising result is "keep it").

In either case, the money raised would be applied to Rational Review News Digest's year-end fundraiser total.

One personal benefit for me, either way, would be off-loading a difficult decision onto others.

I've been thinking about shaving it off for most of a year now. Once summer arrived and I was out in the sun a lot, I decided to put the decision off until at least autumn, when I'm not spending as much time out in the sun tanning the parts of my body not covered by hair.

What do you guys think? Any of you have a strong enough opinion on the subject to financially back an outcome? I don't want to bother with it if I'm going to end up bound by others' decision for, say, ten bucks.

Travis Kelce: Broken Down, Distracted, or Under-Utilized?

Yesterday (on National Tight Ends Day), Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce scored his 75th career touchdown. Among tight ends, he now places fifth in NFL history on the "most career touchdowns" statistic.

It was also his first touchdown of the season.

I've seen a lot of speculation that Kelce is finally worn out and at the end of his career, or distracted by his acting aspirations and famous relationship, or that the Chiefs are just "under-utilizing" him.

I'm not going to try to convince you that 35-year-old Kelce in functionally equivalent to 25-year-old Kelce. Yes, he is moving toward the end of his career. His job involves getting hit, hard and frequently, by very large muscular men. You can only do that for so long before your body rebels. And of course, age in general takes a toll on speed, reflexes, etc. But he's not broken down. He's still insanely capable.

I doubt a football player of his caliber lets movie ambitions or romantic involvements distract him very much when he's on the field. He's still showing he's insanely capable.

And no, he's not being "under-utilized." He's being fully utilized based on the team's situation.

When Travis Kelce is on the field, there are two possible team situations.

One is that he gets the full attention of at least two of the other team's defenders -- meaning that other Chiefs offensive players are less covered, more open, and able to get yards and scores.

The other is that he gets regular instead of intense coverage from defenders -- in which case he gets the ball and moves it for big yards and/or scores.

The Chiefs' play-callers -- coach Andy Reid, offensive coordinator Matt Nagy, and quarterback Patrick Mahomes -- keep a close eye on which situation is which. When they see Kelce getting a lot of attention, they seize the opportunity to target other players for better results. When their opponents start re-focusing away from Kelce, he gets the ball and does great things with it.

There's a third element that affects that balance:

The Chiefs are trying to (and look like they're in good position to -- they're the only undefeated NFL team at this point in the season) return to, and win, the Super Bowl for a third consecutive time. If they manage it, they'll be the first NFL team to ever do so.

They want Kelce healthy and un-injured for the post-season, so it makes sense right now to really lean into the "let them cover the hell out of him ... but make them tackle other people" side of things.

There's a non-trivial possibility that this will be Kelce's final season. I kind of doubt it, but it's possible. The Chiefs want that season to end with ol' Number 87 putting points on playoff and Super Bowl scoreboards, not sitting on the sidelines with a torn ACL from an October or November game that, win or lose, won't likely affect their chances of making the playoffs.