Red Carpet Rewards loses its luster for some Nationals fans - The Washington Post→

But with no pre-season heads up, the Nationals front office for the 2013 season significantly diluted the Red Carpet Rewards program. The number of points needed to buy extra benefits increased dramatically. For example, a Saturday game against the Philadelphia Phillies on May 25th would cost 1,000 Red Carpet points for a field MVP or club seat, which is 10 times what the cost would have been last year. The Nationals also shortened the window in which you can redeem tickets ahead of time to one month; last year you could use points to buy a ticket for any game in the season.

Nationals fans are crying foul.

“With no announcement or heads up, they upped the redemption levels to the point where your rewards were cut by about 80 percent,” said Tom Snedeker, a local businessman who has owned season tickets every year since the team arrived in Washington from Montreal in 2005. “It’s kind of a slap in the face for those of us who have had season tickets since day one and supported the team through all the lean years.”

The program was particularly loved by fans who would buy a full season and use points to buy tickets for friends and family, or to buy better seats to watch some games up close.

Over the winter I considered going in on season tickets with a friend, in significant part based on how great the Red Carpet Rewards program had been. Now I'm very glad I equivocated too long and missed out on the seats I was thinking about.

I won't attempt to guess what the team is thinking here (or with its change to the rainout ticket policy), but the net effect is that its most passionate fans bear the brunt, while casual fans benefit. That may be (probably is) smart business, but it's a bummer. And it'll keep me buying my tickets a la carte on Stubhub rather than a season at a time direct from the Nats.

UPDATE: Per Adam Kilgore, the Nats have reversed their rainout policy (presumably due to this post).

The Daily Show On Gun Control In Australia→

A fantastic three part series looks at what happened after Australia instituted strict gun control laws after a series of mass shootings. It's well worth your 20 minutes.

Sorry, but the NFL draft should be abolished.→

"Andrew Luck probably would have been given a $100 million contract if he was on the free market last year," Stuart says. "That's not an exaggeration. If he was a [free agent] tomorrow, he'd easily sign for something in excess of $20 million a year due to his age and skill level."

Instead, Luck's current salary is reportedly around $21.3 million over four years, artificially constrained by: (a) the draft nixing competition among potential employers; (b) a new, collectively-bargained NFL rookie wage scale that drives down salaries even further. While this might be legal, it's hardly fair. It might even qualify as un-American. Like amateurism, it's only something we accept in sports because we've been conditioned not to think about it, and instead train our collective focus on 40-yard dash times.

A great long column by Patrick Hruby sums up why the NFL should ditch the draft.

Here are three Arrested Development images to feed your appropriately measured expectations | TV | Newswire | The A.V. Club→

As the debut of 15 new Arrested Development episodes draws nearer, the time to set your expectations for the return of the Bluths is nigh. As the calendar pages fall off one by one, each cruelly revealing a day where there aren’t new Arrested Development episodes (until there are), keep in mind that these new installments can’t match your memories of the first three seasons. In fact, the actual first three seasons can’t match those memories; no matter how funny or life-changing the experience of watching them may have been, you remember it being a lot better.

Actually, that's not true - the first three seasons hold up! Especially the third season, which everyone seems to think wasn't great, but actually is really great! Anyway. Click through if you want to see three Arrested Development images.

On TV shows with unlikeable characters

Over at his blog, Ken Levine (former Cheers staff writer) dissects Mad Men's (and Girls's) central creative problem: who is left to care about?

Series creators are making their characters so hateful that I stop caring. 

GIRLS is a good example. Season one those girls were quirky and self-centered but sort of fun. And they liked each other. By season two I wanted to slap all of them. And they wanted to slap each other. The end result is ratings for year two have plummeted. 

And this season I’m starting to feel that way about MAD MEN.

My two cents: this is a tough problem for shows that start out with sympathetic (albeit flawed) characters, but at least in that case viewers can remember that these imaginary people have a core of humanity. In the end, the characters' journey, either toward redemption or damnation, can be all the more powerful - though not necessarily more enjoyable - than a straightforward virtuous path.

The bigger problem, which I see in shows of various quality (from Sopranos to Always Sunny in Philadelphia to Sons of Anarchy to Two Broke Girls to etc. etc.), is when the show starts out with unlikable  unredeemable characters. In that case, you need truly fantastic writing and direction - plot, dialogue, humor, cinematography - to keep the audience engaged. And even when it works, it's not nearly as resonant as a story that includes recognizably human characters with motivations we can recognize and root for.

(Link via Alan Sepinwall)

How Restaurants Can Deal With No-Show Diners→

Wylie Dufresne:

I'm constantly telling my friends, "did you cancel that reservation?" Because it's just wrong not to cancel. It's okay that you can't make it. I can live with that. I have two kids, I have a wife, I have two businesses, I understand. Life happens. But in this day and age to tell me that you couldn't get to the phone and tell me you're sorry you can't make it? I call foul.

Interesting behind-the-scenes look at what happens when you don't show up for your dinner reservation. If you take nothing else away from this, remember to cancel your reservations if you're not going to make it.

Motorola Plans Stock Android Phones, Sized 'Just Right' | PCMag.com→

"Certain people like a large screen," Wicks said. "But there's a sweet spot for consumers that we're currently exceeding in the market. There are some people that like a big display, but there's also a lot of people that want something that's just about right," he said. "I think 'just right' is important, and we're designing so we don't disappoint those people."

This is music to my tiny ears.