Back in the 90’s Nike had this shoe return program that was exceptionally lenient. We’re talking Costco returns lenient. You could basically buy a pair of shoes, wear them for as long as you like and if/when they got damaged, as long as you had the original box, you could ship them back to Nike in the box and Nike would send you a new pair of the same shoes or another pair of equal or greater value.

At the time, one of my favourite athletes was Deion Sanders. From grade 6 to grade 8 my back-to-school shoe was whatever was the latest pair of Deion Sanders shoes. And so that year I went back to school with the Nike Air DT Max 4’s (below) and within weeks the air bubble popped. We all had known about this Nike return program but it felt more so like a myth - there was no way Nike was just going to send a new pair of shoes!

But they did.

I sent the above shoes back to Nike and they sent me the below shoes.

If memory serves me correct, people started abusing this return policy and it somewhat faded away for a brief moment. But upon further research they still have basically the same policy in effect:

I’m going to try this shoe return again and I’ll see what actually ends up happening. My Nike shoe obsession aside, Deion Sanders just won Sports Illustrated’s Sportsperson of the Year. That’s basically what I wanted to tell you all along 😅 Primetime is back!

This week's issue is a 4 minute read:

🇨🇦 Canadians can still find news on Google

🦑 Squid who??

🎵 The yearly reminder that Spotify eerily knows you 

Canada did a deal that didn’t suck

If you’re Canadian there is a decent chance you aren’t the biggest fan of the Federal government. One of the latest reasons is bill C-18, which effectively requires internet platforms such as Facebook and Google to revenue share with Canadian publishers around the news content that is posted on their platforms. As all Canadians are aware, Facebook was not down to pay anybody for ensuring Canadian news stayed on Facebook or Instagram in Canada and so you get the fun message telling you that the news is not available on said social media sites.

The bigger fear for Canadians, in my opinion, was if Google pulled out of Canada and disabled news from its search engine. Imagine living in a major city in Canada and you end up having to get your news through some sort of foreign proxy newsite in North Dakota (no offense North Dakotans). Frankly, I wasn’t really getting my news off of any of Meta’s apps anyway but Google search is essentially the unconscious daily tool we seemingly can’t live without.

The issue that companies like Meta and Google had with the bill was that there was ambiguity around how much they might have to pay publishers yearly and the Feds really didn’t give clear concise answers to instill confidence for the tech giants on what to expect. That all said, this past week they reached a deal with Google where Google will pay $100M per year to publishers in Canada and will continue to surface Canadian news and content the same way it always has.

As much as I’m a little shocked that Google agreed to pay publishers and ensure their content is still surfaced within search in Canada, there’s most likely more to this story than we’re being fed. I wouldn’t be surprised if we saw headlines around a Google deal and the Feds in the near future 🤔 

The show no one is talking about

I’m not going to lie to you, I don’t pay for the Netflix account that I use. And as a result, I don’t really think to go on it very often. The other reason why I don’t think to go on it very often is because it’s a MISSION to try to find something to watch. I don’t know about you but I find it very hard to try to get into a show when I see that the first episode is 59 minutes long.  

YouTube has molded my ability to pay attention to content now

If I see something that is 15-20 minutes long then sign me up, I love me a good 20 minute video. With Netflix, the show needs to be talked about by both my friends and the internet, even when I’m not looking for it. Or it needs to have a brand of some sorts that I’m familiar with and that I have a sense will ultimately be good. Otherwise it does not and probably never will exist to me.

Obviously when I saw an actual Squid Game reality show I had to check it out. And I was actually somewhat excited…until they started doing the corny interviews with the contestants. You know the ones where you’re supposed to get to know who they really are: “This money will be life changing for me.” “I come from a poor family, we’ll never have to worry about money again” “I know I can win this blah blah BLAH”.

I made it through Red Light Green Light before I said, THIS IS NOT HOW MRBEAST WOULD’VE DONE IT, and turned it off.

Squid Game: The Challenge is like the ride at the carnival you rode last year that sucked but this year they repainted it with shiney paint hoping you’d think it was a fun new ride you’ve never seen before. But I know better, I know they just rename The Gravitron to Starship 2000!

The 🍒 on top: Contestants of the show are also threatening a lawsuit against it - why didn’t they just let MrBeast do the show like he politely asked?

This is your reminder that Squid Game season 2, the one you actually want to watch, comes out in roughly winter of 2024.

Wrap us up, Spotify

It’s that time of year again: Mariah Carey is awakened from her 11 month slumber to serenade the masses over and over again about what she wants for Christmas. And Spotify releases their yearly wrap up of what you listened to all year.  

Every year Spotify adds a little bit more to your life’s music story.  I remember the first year they did it, it seemed pretty cool but also left me with the feeling of, that was it?  A couple years ago it became more so a question of how much did Drake show up in the stats for you. 

This year they’ve added more including what character you’ve become based on the music you listen to.  Depending on my mood I go from high school emo student to ghetto hoodlum, to Disney Princess.  Spotify thought otherwise though...

I think an early New Years resolution for me will be to try and NOT have Drake or Taylor Swift show up in my top artists lists for the year. Not to mention it’s far too common for me to wake up with Blackpink in my head and then it gets requested in the car ride to school. One day my Spotify wrapped up thing will be an actual reflection of MY musical taste.

Fun fact: Mariah Carey makes about $2.5-$3M every Christmas from her music.