CULTURE

Footer Column 2

Footer Legal

Footer Main

Nav Bar

OTHER

SPORTS

Subscribe, at any level, to play

Thanks for your interest in Defector Crosswords!

Become a subscriber today to get unlimited access

Thanks for reading!

Plans start at $8/month.

Subscribers enjoy unlimited, ad-free browsing.

Register to continue

Or click here to subscribe for unlimited, ad-free access!

Our gift to you: This year's post is unlocked. Register your email to get even more free articles.

Welcome to the 2025 Hater's Guide!

Just register your email:

This blog is free to read.

This is Defector, a new sports blog and media company. We made this place together, we own it together, we run it together. Without access, without favor, without discretion, and without interference.

Defector


<p>charismatic megafauna (they/them)</p>


Sabrina Imbler

Beekeeper Matt Hilton removes a colony of bees that formed on the net behind home plate during a delay to the MLB game between the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Arizona Diamondbacks at Chase Field on April 30, 2024 in Phoenix, Arizona

Beefector

Can You Blame Bees For Loving The Great American Game Of Baseball?

Tom Ley

John Stewart attends the game between the Philadelphia 76ers and the New York Knicks during Round 1 Game 5 of the 2024 NBA Playoffs on April 30, 2024 at Madison Square Garden in New York City, New York.

Knicks-Sixers Is Going To Hurt Someone

Kelsey McKinney

This Is So Stupid

Unlike All The Archeologists, I Know What This Thingy Is For

LOS ANGELES, CA - MARCH 29: Bill Simmons is seen on March 29, 2018 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by gotpap/Bauer-Griffin/GC Images)

Defector Up All Night

Enter Bill Simmons’s No Flex Zone, If You Dare

Patrick Redford

NEW ORLEANS, LA - APRIL 29: The Oklahoma City Thunder talk to the media after the game against the New Orleans Pelicans during Round 1 Game 4 of the 2024 NBA Playoffs on April 29, 2024 at the Smoothie King Center in New Orleans, Louisiana. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this Photograph, user is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. Mandatory Copyright Notice: Copyright 2024 NBAE (Photo by Jeff Haynes/NBAE via Getty Images)

How Far Can The Thunder Take This?

A round stingray (Urolophus halleri) I photographed in shallow water at Bolsa Chica wetlands (Southern California). The clouds of sand around the eyes and and body were formed as the stingray flapped and positioned deeper in the sand, expelling water. You can see the spiracles behind the eyes.

Creaturefector

A Brief Investigation Into Whether Charlotte The Pregnant Ray Is Scamming Us All

<p>Columnist. Author of many <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Drew-Magary/e/B001JS8R52/ref=dp_byline_cont_pop_book_1">fine works of literature</a>, including <em>Point B</em>. Handsomest man in the world.</p>


Drew Magary

A Lebanese couple look through windows of a building displaying a giant advertisement of a deodorant in Beirut 01 December 1999. Sexy and erotic advertisement have become common across Beirut the most liberal Arab capital.

Science

Suddenly Every Deodorant Company Wants To Get In My Pants

Maitreyi Anantharaman

Candace Parker #3 of the Los Angeles Sparks reacts after receiving her fourth foul against the Minnesota Lynx during the second quarter of Game One of the WNBA finals at Williams Arena on September 24, 2017 in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

WNBA

Candace Parker Remade The Game In Her Image

Ray Ratto

Manchester City fans hold up a sign in protest of the charges brought against the club due to financial fair play during the Premier League match between Manchester City and Aston Villa at Etihad Stadium on February 12, 2023 in Manchester, United Kingdom.

Soccer

Mooted Salary Cap Threatens To Drag Premier League Further Into Hell, American Style

Meat with bread and cheese on chopping board

Funbag

We Don’t Need No Stinkin’ Plates

Lauren Theisen

Andrei Vasilevskiy and Aleksander Barkov shake hands after the Panthers win

There’s Nothing Special About The Lightning Anymore

Jamal Murray #27 of the Denver Nuggets makes the game winning shot during the game against the Los Angeles Lakers during Round One Game Five of the 2024 NBA Playoffs on April 29, 2024 at the Ball Arena in Denver, Colorado.

With King James Deposed, The Revolution In The West Has Only Just Begun

Barry Petchesky

The NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope has captured the sharpest infrared images to date of one of the most distinctive objects in our skies, the Horsehead Nebula. These observations show a part of the iconic nebula in a whole new light, capturing its complexity with unprecedented spatial resolution. Webb’s new images show part of the sky in the constellation Orion (The Hunter), in the western side of the Orion B molecular cloud. Rising from turbulent waves of dust and gas is the Horsehead Nebula, otherwise known as Barnard 33, which resides roughly 1300 light-years away.  The nebula formed from a collapsing interstellar cloud of material, and glows because it is illuminated by a nearby hot star. The gas clouds surrounding the Horsehead have already dissipated, but the jutting pillar is made of thick clumps of material that is harder to erode. Astronomers estimate that the Horsehead has about five million years left before it too disintegrates. Webb’s new view focuses on the illuminated edge of the top of the nebula’s distinctive dust and gas structure. The Horsehead Nebula is a well-known photon-dominated region, or PDR. In such a region ultraviolet light from young, massive stars creates a mostly neutral, warm area of gas and dust between the fully ionised gas surrounding the massive stars and the clouds in which they are born. This ultraviolet radiation strongly influences the gas chemistry of these regions and acts as the most important source of heat.  These regions occur where interstellar gas is dense enough to remain neutral, but not dense enough to prevent the penetration of far-ultraviolet light from massive stars. The light emitted from such PDRs provides a unique tool to study the physical and chemical processes that drive the evolution of interstellar matter in our galaxy, and throughout the Universe from the early era of vigorous star formation to the present day. Owing to its proximity and its nearly edge-on geometry, the Horsehead Nebula is an ideal target for astronomers to study the physical structures of PDRs and the evolution of the chemical characteristics of the gas and dust within their respective environments, and the transition regions between them. It is considered one of the best objects in the sky to study how radiation interacts with interstellar matter. This image was captured with Webb’s NIRCam (Near-InfraRed Camera) instrument. [Image description: At the bottom of the image a small portion of the Horsehead Nebula is seen close-in, as a curved wall of thick, smoky gas and dust. Above the nebula various distant stars and galaxies can be seen up to the top of the image. One star is very bright and large, with six long diffraction spikes that cross the image. The background fades from a dark red colour above the nebula to black.]

The Closer We Look The Smaller We Get

David Roth

A group of Columbia University students, advocating for Palestinians, access the iconic Hamilton Hall building as they gather to stage a demonstration at the campus in New York, United States on April 30, 2024. Protests are sweeping college campuses across the US following a police attempt to clear a pro-Palestinian encampment at Columbia University, resulting in the arrest of over 100 students. Columbia University asked students on Monday to 'voluntarily disperse' amid stalled talks, threatening the students with suspension.

Journalismism

They Are Insecure For A Reason

There Are NBA Players With Interesting Podcasts, And Then There’s Michael Porter Jr.

The Oilers Needed A Stuart Skinner Game

A large summer sausage in the Twins' dugout

The Eldritch Power Of The Twins’ Home Run Sausage Must Be Handled With Care

<div class="r43lxo-0 gqfcxx js_post-content">
<p class="sc-77igqf-0 bOfvBY">Vince Guerrieri is an award-winning journalist and author in the Cleveland area. He likes Lake Erie perch sandwiches, Jim Traficant and long walks on the field at League Park. His website is <a class="sc-1out364-0 hMndXN sc-145m8ut-0 kGbjEv js_link" href="http://vinceguerrieri.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-ga="[[&quot;Embedded Url&quot;,&quot;External link&quot;,&quot;http://vinceguerrieri.com/&quot;,{&quot;metric25&quot;:1}]]">vinceguerrieri.com</a>, and you can follow him on Twitter <a class="sc-1out364-0 hMndXN sc-145m8ut-0 kGbjEv js_link" href="https://twitter.com/vinceguerrieri" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-ga="[[&quot;Embedded Url&quot;,&quot;External link&quot;,&quot;https://twitter.com/vinceguerrieri&quot;,{&quot;metric25&quot;:1}]]">@vinceguerrieri</a>.</p>
</div>
<div class="sc-18b1b2r-5 eTUqHn">
<div></div>
</div>


Vince Guerrieri

Wally and a participant in Major League Memories.

The Therapeutic Value Of Remembering Some Guys

NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE - APRIL 28: Arturs Silovs #31 and Teddy Blueger #53 of the Vancouver Canucks celebrate after defeating the Nashville Predators during overtime of Game Four of the First Round of the 2024 Stanley Cup Playoffs at Bridgestone Arena on April 28, 2024 in Nashville, Tennessee. (Photo by Brett Carlsen/Getty Images) *** Local Caption *** Arturs Silovs; Teddy Blueger

The Canucks Never Win That Game

Runner participates during the 2023 TCS New York City Marathon on November 05, 2023 in New York City.

Crosswords

The Crossword, April 29: The 1,203 Club (Themeless)

The Timberwolves Are The Big Dogs Now

HOUSTON, TEXAS - MARCH 29: Carlos Rodon #55 of the New York Yankees pitches in the second inning against the Houston Astros at Minute Maid Park on March 29, 2024 in Houston, Texas. (Photo by Tim Warner/Getty Images)

Great News! MLB Is Getting Rid Of Its Shitty New Uniforms. Next Season.

Justin Ellis

Knickds guard Jalen Brunson shrugs as he reacts to the crowd during his team's game against the Philadelphia 76ers in game four of the NBA Eastern Conference First Round Playoffs at the Wells Fargo Center on April 28, 2024 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.