Wednesday Walk: Boot Wax & Wrestling
Who will buy the WWE, induction cooking, and considering leather
Welcome to Willoughby Hills!
In case you missed it, I rebranded Quarantine Creatives to provide a bigger umbrella for writing that is no longer just about the pandemic.
As is typical every Wednesday, today I’m bring you a smattering of topics that I hope will make you a bit more curious about the world around you and give you something to think about later.
The End of Gas Stoves?
It was reported yesterday that the Consumer Product Safety Commission may be looking to ban gas cooking stoves in the U.S. Some communities have proposed and even passed bans on new natural gas hookups, but this is the first time I’ve heard of a possible nationwide ban.
The hazards of cooking with gas have been known for some time, with gas stoves being implicated in asthma and other respiratory conditions, especially in children. Last summer, I wrote about a study that showed gas stoves may also emit harmful chemicals even when turned off.
According to Bloomberg, this new potential ban was floated by a CPSC official in an interview:
“‘This is a hidden hazard,’ Richard Trumka Jr., an agency commissioner, said in an interview. ‘Any option is on the table. Products that can’t be made safe can be banned.’”
There are lots of reasons to transition from gas to electric, indoor air quality and climate change among them. But I have a hard time believing that an outright ban is the best solution.
Rather than see government spending go towards creating and enforcing a ban (and litigating that ban after the inevitable lawsuits), I would love to see that money used on public education on the hazards of gas and the benefits of electric induction cooking. New induction ranges cook faster and more evenly than gas, but that messaging has been largely lost on the average consumer.
Imagine a PR company working to outfit America’s Test Kitchen or the kitchens on Food Network shows with induction ranges. What if every cooking demo on Today or Good Morning America was done on induction?
I would also like to see an opportunity for people to test drive an induction range in person and see how they perform. This could be done at public events like fairs and farmers markets.
Beyond education, I think government money could be used to subsidize the purchase of an induction range if the majority of the country agreed that the technology would be a net benefit.
It seems that the days of the gas stove may be coming to an end. I think the only question is whether they go away because of a mandate or because people recognize that there’s a better substitute that exists. I hope it’s the latter.
For Sale
I was raised at a time when professional wrestling was at its peak. Although it was never a sport that I followed too closely, it was pretty hard to avoid during my childhood.
In the 1980s, nearly every boy I went to school with had Hulk Hogan action figures or T-shirts. By my middle and high school years in the 1990s, The Rock and Steve Austin were all the rage.
I never quite “got” the WWE, but I have still always been a little intrigued by the whole thing. Even as an adult, their headquarters has loomed over I-95 in Stamford, Connecticut and it was impossible to miss when driving between Boston and New York (although they are in the process of moving to a new location).
Alex Sherman recently published a piece for CNBC that the WWE is up for sale and former CEO Vince McMahon has returned to help with the sale process.
While the WWE is the central thrust of Sherman’s story, what really is of interest to me are who he thinks the potential buyers of the entertainment giant may be. His analysis gives a glimpse into potential strategies for media companies in 2023, especially around streaming.
According to Sherman, some potential buyers for the WWE may include:
Disney or Comcast: Both have streaming platforms and both operate theme parks (Comcast is the parent of NBC Universal). A WWE theme park presence may not quite fit the Disney brand, but it could probably find a home in a Universal park. They also both operate streaming platforms: Disney+ and Peacock, respectively.
Netflix, Warner Bros. Discovery, or Amazon: All may have an interest in bolstering their streaming platforms with an exclusive sports deal with WWE, although none jump to the top of the list of obvious potential buyers.
Fox: After selling his movie studio to Disney, Rupert Murdoch’s entertainment empire has shrunk significantly. According to Sherman, Fox may be interested primarily in a linear TV deal, not streaming.
Endeavor Group Holdings or Liberty Media: Endeavor is the parent company of talent agency WME, which represents many UFC fighters. Liberty Media owns Formula 1 and it’s controlling shareholder and CEO have acquired Sirius XM and Pandora.
The state of the media and entertainment businesses are especially fragile at the moment. With too many streaming platforms, it’s an interesting time to be shopping content, especially as many streamers downsize content.
There were unconfirmed rumors circulating last night that a sale may have already gone through to Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund.
WWE is an interesting proxy for other big brands that came of age in a different era and are grappling with a changing media landscape.
It reminds me a bit of my former employer This Old House, which started as show on public television, was sold to Time Inc (who published This Old House Magazine), was then sold to a private equity group in 2016, and was purchased in 2021 by streaming company Roku for $98 million.
#NoNewClothes- Week 12
It’s been a while since I’ve checked in on my No New Clothes challenge, inspired by a conversation with Amory Sivertson. I was able to make it successfully through the holidays without buying anything new as I didn’t feel like I really needed anything.
One theme that keeps coming up in these Wednesday Walks is preserving the items that you do have to make them last longer.
I mostly wear cowboy boots. In winter, I have a special pair of insulated, waterproof Justins that I’ve had for at least five years now.
I’ve been terrible at maintaining them, but now that I’ve been more conscious about keeping things in good shape for longer, I decided it was time to give my winter boots a little love.
My mom had bought me a leather care kit from Otter Wax a few years ago that I rarely used but had always meant to. I ended up breaking it out and oiling and waxing my winter boots this week.
The idea of leather needing maintaining came up because I have a sudden fascination with how leather goods are made. I will even confess to Googling how to tan leather at home and finding an interesting article with cartoon pictures of the process.
I think it’s easy to view a leather boot as just another commodity that can be purchased at the store. Being reminded that it’s actually the skin of a cow and it takes work to make it a useful product made me more appreciative of the boots and made me want to respect them a bit more.
Maybe the oiling and waxing will only gain me a few more months of use than if I’d done nothing, but I think that’s still worth it. If I’m lucky, I hope to get a few more years out of these boots.
Whether you’re tanning your own cow hides or just trying to keep the leather that you own lasting a little longer, I hope my thought process was useful in some way this week.
Thank you for reading! I always love hearing your thoughts, so please drop a line in the comments.
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Heath
My wife and I had to do some crazy electrical work to replace our propane stove in late 2021. It was not only a massive drain on propane, but it started leaking. I personally prefer electric but it will be interesting to see if the ban is going to be limited to sale and new hookups. If the ban is entirely on use a lot of people will have to switch to microwave cooking and hot plates, because I know some people like my parents simply don't have the electrical capacity for an electric oven or stove. This will be interesting to watch.