Hello! It was exactly one year ago yesterday that two important things happened: Uni Watch celebrated its 25th anniversary, and I used that occasion to step away from the site and pass the baton to Phil. Phil has already shared his thoughts about how that year has gone, and now I’d like to do the same.
First and foremost, I want to say how happy I am that Uni Watch is still going strong a year after my departure from the site, and that Phil has made the transition so smooth and successful. I love that we’ve hit another uni-versary — now 26 years, and counting!
As for me, let’s shift into Q&A mode:
How are you?
I’m good! After stepping away from Uni Watch a year ago, I took a couple of months off and then kicked off my Inconspicuous Consumption site on Substack, which has been a blast. I really enjoy the work I’m doing there, and also the work’s pace and rhythm. I usually publish twice a week, but there’s no set schedule or deadlines — just my own sense of what feels right. In other words, I’m being productive because I want to be, not because I have to be, and that’s been really good for my state of mind.
Are you doing any other writing besides Inconspicuous Consumption and the handful of Uni Watch posts that you’ve done?
I’ve written a few record reviews for Qobuz, which is one of the “other” music streaming services that compete with Spotify. That’s it!
If I had a great story idea that I thought would be a good fit for a particular magazine or website, I’d pitch it. And if an editor approached me with an idea that sounded good, I’d consider it. But I don’t feel any pressure to do either of those things. I’m very comfortable in this post-career phase — doing what I want, when I want, because I want.
What do you do besides work? Do you have more free time? Do you sleep late?
I’ve never tried to measure how many hours I work. If I had to guess, I’d say I probably averaged about 60 hours a week on Uni Watch and do about half of that nowadays. So yeah, that leaves me with more time, which I’ve spent in various ways. I don’t wake up any later than I used to, but I do take more midday naps. I also visit my mom more often (she’ll still going strong — or at least strong-ish — at 101), spend more time with friends, and spend more time looking at art at various venues around NYC. I’ve also been doing volunteer work at a local listener-supported radio station (all behind the scenes, not on the air), which has been very rewarding.
There are also some things I thought I’d do but haven’t done. I thought I’d read more books, for example, but that hasn’t yet happened. I also thought I’d travel more, but that hasn’t happened either. And I had planned on learning to play the ukulele but haven’t gotten around to it. The books thing bothers me most — I worry that it has something to do with the internet diminishing my attention span. Hoping to address that soon by visiting my local Brooklyn Public Library outlet.
Do you have any plans to fully retire?
No. That two-month interregnum between Uni Watch and Inconspicuous Consumption was very instructive: It was good to take a quick breather, but after about a week I found that I missed being creative, missed expressing my thoughts and ideas, missed interacting with an audience. I doubt I’ll ever stop doing that entirely.
Do you miss Uni Watch?
Honestly, no. I gave this project everything I had for many years, had the good fortune to go out after reporting the biggest story of my career (the 2024 Nike/MLB fiasco), said everything I needed to say, left it all out on the field, blah-blah-blah, and was ready to move on to other things. Nothing that’s happened over the past year has made me second-guess that.
Do you still read the site?
Very rarely. For one thing, I don’t want Phil to feel like I’m looking over his shoulder. Moreover, after so many years of being immersed in the uni-verse, I’m finding that it’s fun to learn about a new uniform development just by turning on the TV and seeing a team wearing something that’s new to me. It’s oddly enjoyable to be uni-ignorant after spending so much time as the uni know-it-all!
What connection do you still have to the site?
I’m still the site’s primary owner (web developer John Ekdahl owns a minor share), so I track our daily traffic and revenue performance, manage our payroll, deal with legal issues that occasionally arise, consult with Phil on the rare occasions when he wants to pick my brain about something — stuff like that. I also contribute occasional Ticker items and write posts here and there if something catches my eye (like that post I did last week about the low-tech strike zone in the Mets’ bullpen).
I also ran the site for several days last month when Phil was busy dealing with his mother’s death. It was kinda like riding a bike — I could feel all my old breaking-news instincts clicking back into gear, that familiar mix of stress and adrenaline. I wouldn’t want to go back to that mindset full-time, but it was a fun pinch-hitting experience.
Lately you’ve been selling off your rare uniform style guides. Are you hard up for cash?
No, nothing like that. As Uni Watch’s owner, I still take a minor cut of our revenue, and I also make some coin from Inconspicuous Consumption subscriptions. That combined income is only about half as much as I used to make from doing Uni Watch full-time, but I had planned for that, and it’s enough to sustain me at this point in my life.
As for the style guides, I was doing some spring cleaning and realized that it had been nearly a year since I’d stopped doing Uni Watch, so I figured maybe it was time to put those up for sale and let someone else enjoy them. Some of them have sold; others haven’t (not entirely surprising, given that they’re pricey items). I have one more guide left to share with you — the 2004-05 NBA Style Guide, plus bonus updated sheets for 2005-06 — which is now up for bids. Full details here.
When you stepped away from the site, you said you were open to selling Uni Watch. Any action on that front?
We did have a few prospective buyers who inquired about acquiring the site last year, but nothing came of it. If anyone reading this is interested, feel free to get in touch.
Back in March you mentioned that your cat Waffles had been having some (mis)behavioral issues. Any updates on that?
About a month after that post, in mid-April, I reluctantly took the step of putting Waffles on Prozac. It worked like a dream for about four weeks — the drug really calmed him down — and then he suddenly decided that he no longer liked the pill pockets I’d been using to feed him the medicine. So I switched to a different pill pocket flavor, which worked great — for two days. Since then, I’ve tried nearly a dozen different pill-delivery products. He’s turned up his nose at most of them; when there’s one that he likes, he rejects it after a day or two. Forcing a pill down his throat manually is out of the question — he’s big, strong, and strong-willed. Sigh.
Without the steady dose of Prozac, his behavioral issues have resumed. It’s very frustrating, and definitely the biggest stressor in my life these days. (Yes, I realize that makes me pretty fortunate, considering what some people have to deal with in their lives.) Over the past few days I’ve tried crushing the pills and sprinkling the resulting powder in his food, but that means I have to feed him separately from his sister, Biscuit, which has turned out to be logistically challenging. I’ll keep trying, though.
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I think that’s it. If you have any additional questions, feel free to post them in the comments and I’ll do my best to respond.
Again, I’m very, very happy that Uni Watch is doing so well in this new phase of its existence. Big thanks to all of you for keeping the comm-uni-ty intact and going strong!
Paul see if your medicine can be compounded. My cat has asthma, stopped taking the pills in pill pockets, he’s now 14 years old. They compound it for me at a specialty pharmacy and I put the daily dose in his ear. Alternate the ear daily.
Thank you for the suggestion!
My cat has asthma too. The pills haven’t worked very well for her lately. What ear compound to you use? How well does it work?
My cat is on Prednisolone 5 mg, plus 1 ml Lipoderm compounded to make the cream of medicine that I put in ear flap near top.
It is working. Very few asthma attacks during the year.
Thank you Brad B
Thanks for the update, Paul. You’ve brought great joy to me and countless others over the years. Hmu if you are ever in Detroit and want to curl
Glad to hear that you are still keeping busy Paul.
I understand about the reading thing and, at the risk of using a hated catchphrase, just do it. Like any habit, you have to consciously do it for 4-6 weeks until the habit is formed. Fortunately/unfortunately I started reading every day during lockdown 5 years ago. I could see the writing on the wall and knew libraries were going to shut down any day, so I ran out and collected all the books from a couple of series I had always been meaning to read, then made reading time a priority. True, having nothing to do/nowhere to go made it easier, but 5 years later the habit is second nature.
Food for thought, YMMV.
A couple years ago I stepped away from Twitter. It was right before Musk acquired the site and changed the name, so I feel like I got out at a good time. I didn’t intend for this to happen, but around the same time I started reading more regularly. Downloading e-books from my local library has made it so easy, and I totally geeked out about a month ago when I realized I had access to both the Richmond city libraries and the Henrico County libraries.
I encourage you – and anybody else – to visit your local library.
Same here. I used Twitter to connect with authors I enjoyed and converted that to a library ‘For Later’ list. Now I use Substack in a similar fashion (without the fascist!)
Great to hear the update. I’ve been thoroughly enjoying both the new-management UW and the revived Inconspicuous Consumption. The latter is a particular treat, as I was a regular reader of IC in its original zine form when copies would show up at my neighborhood bookstore in Uptown Minneapolis.
As for the ukulele thing, I highly recommend diving in without regard to one’s perception of available time for practice. Once one has an instrument in hand, the small size of even a larger concert or tenor uke makes it easy to keep it at hand around the home or office, so a free moment at work or while streaming shows or whatever can be turned into a few minutes of practice. There are so many good instructors who post free videos on YouTube (Cynthia Lin, Bernadette Teaches Music, The Ukulele Instructor are channels I’ve relied on), and any populous area has one or more uke groups that meet regularly and welcome people of all skill levels. Given how easy it is to learn chords and chord transitions among the common keys of C and G, a raw newbie is only minutes away from competently playing thousands of three- and four-chord pop, country, rock, blues, and folk songs.
Also, ukuleles have had several periods of high popularity with concomitant surges in production numbers, such that quality vintage instruments, mostly in the smaller soprano size, are available to be hunted down, each era with distinctive styles, shapes, and graphics. Prohibition-era and Postwar-era ukes often had colors and graphics that would appeal to an Inconspicuous Consumer’s eye.
Thanks for the tips and encouragement, Scott!
Have you tried using a pill gun? My dog also has issues with pills and using that, while still a bit of a headache, was miles easier than any other way I tried. I put a little peanut butter on the end to get it in her mouth and was able to get any pills she needed to take in her mouth pretty easily from there.
Haven’t yet tried that, although it’s on my list of possible next steps. Thanks!
I’ve been wanting to read more for years and finally made a concerted effort to make it happen, and have been reading or “reading” consistently since the beginning of the year. I started by basically forcing myself to read a chapter or two a day, carving out 30 min- an hour each day to do so, and more on the weekends. I’ve also been listening to audiobooks if I don’t feel like I have the time to commit to sitting and reading without doing anything else. Not quite the same, but it still does the job for me.
Good luck with all your endeavors!
Sound advice, Tim. Thanks!
If your cats are chipped, there are feeders that are closed and will only open for the cat with that particular chip implanted. Check out SureFeed. It isn’t exactly cheap, but you could put the meds in the feeder for Waffles and the other cat won’t be able to get to it.
I celebrated Purple Amnesty Day again this year, but it wasn’t quite the same without you, Paul.
Amazing that your mother has reached 101 years young! Here’s to more good health for her and for you.
Thank you!
I’m happy you’re enjoying your post-Uni life, Paul. You may not miss Uni-Watch, but I do miss your voice on the site. The recipe detours, especially. Quite a few of those are staples in my kitchen!
Thanks, Drew. My voice is still very much intact over on Inconspicuous Consumption, FWIW!
The recipes and travelogs were always welcome.
As a sixty-something man myself, I can certainly sympathize with the mid-afternoon naps.
As a younger-than-sixty-something man, I too can attest to the awesomeness of naps. Take them whenever you can!
I have issues with book reading as well. Over the past two years, I’ve started three or four books. Then they get put to the side and by the time I pick them up again I need to start over. Very frustrating. I’ll keep trying, though.
Thanks for the update, Paul! Glad to hear things are going well. Cheers!
Paul, I am glad you are enjoying life. Are you still planning a big trip in August and if so where are you headed this time?
I don’t currently have any travel on the agenda. But hope to make some plans soon.
Thanks for the updates! Kudos again on cultivating this fine comm-UNI-ty!
Thanks for the cat updates!
Thanks for the updates, Paul. You’re honestly one of the most interesting people I’m familar with, so it’s fun to get a little inside baseball. Best wishes with Waffles and on everything.
Glad to see your doing good Paul!! As far as a trip goes, come on over to North Dakota…. Lots to see, lots to do and lots of great places to eat at.
I wrote a travel article about North Dakota back in 1999! link
Glad you’re doing well. I retired last year, and also thought I’d read more. What I’m going to do is start reading the same books as my wife and daughters so we can discuss. Except when they’re reading a fantasy book.
An in-family book club — nice!
Always great to hear from you Paul!
Will UW merch ever return? Or is that a Phil question?
Good to hear from you again, Paul. All the best and I am happy that you lead a full and fulfilling life after weekly 60 hours of UW.