You might have heard that mosquitos kill more people than anything else.  Not so.  More than any insect, but not serious enough make the top three.  I asked Google AI about how people most die: "Old age" indirectly kills the most people annually , as age-related non-communicable diseases (like heart disease, stroke, and cancer) cause over 70% of all global deaths . However, if we strictly evaluate biological pathogens, bacteria are the deadliest category , killing roughly 7.7 million people every year (excluding tuberculosis) . [ 1 , 2 ] "Old Age" (Age-Related Diseases) ~41–45+ million Ischemic heart disease (9.5M), Stroke (6.8M), Cancer (10M), Dementia. Bacteria ~9+ million Lower respiratory infections (pneumonia), neonatal sepsis, and Tuberculosis (~1.2M). Viruses ~2–4 million (highly variable) Seasonal influenza, HIV/AIDS (~830K), Hepatitis, and viral pneumonia. (Fluctuates during pandemics like COVID-19). Insects ~700,000 to 1 million Malaria (~670K, tran...

But I'll start with the New York Knicks.  According to the New York Times , the Knicks gave their city something new, IMPOSSIBLE JOY .   It is different because New York’s mass unifying events tend to imply unbearable tragedy: 9/11, Sandy, Covid. Their best player, Jalen Brunson, was small (for basketball), underestimated (by his last team), conditioned (by his father, a former Knick) to know that winning here would mean more than winning anywhere else. This place has cheated bankruptcy, built (and rebuilt) towers, raised Jay-Z and J. Lo and J-Seinfeld. It has been told to drop dead and refused. It has elected a billionaire and a socialist and a Bill de Blasio. It has processed Donald Trump as a 20-something curiosity, a chattering pooh-bah, a steak salesman, a defendant and a president whose attendance in Game 3 had Knicks maniacs of all political persuasions wondering about an executive curse. Then from Sports Illustrated : Some of the greatest athletes in sports history hav...