First…
Golf - The Kids are Taking Over
The last three events of the PGA Tour regular season were all won by players 24 or younger — and it arrived right on time, because golf goes into next April without a single major champion under 30. The next wave isn't coming. It's here.
Jackson Koivun is the headliner. Weeks after leading Auburn to an NCAA title, the 21-year-old won the 3M Open in his third pro start — a tournament-record 25-under while Scottie Scheffler chased him with a 63.
Michael Thorbjornsen closed the book on Detroit — the 24-year-old Stanford grad drained a 26-footer on his final hole to win the last-ever Rocket Classic. Fun fact: he beat Akshay Bhatia to win the 2018 U.S. Junior Amateur.
Michael Brennan walked into the Wyndham at No. 105 in the FedEx Cup and needed a top-3 to keep his season alive. He birdied five straight on the front nine, tied the Sedgefield scoring record at 22-under, and jumped 58 spots — 30 miles from where he played college golf at Wake Forest.
The quiet one to watch is Alex Fitzpatrick. People assumed he rode Matt's coattails onto Tour after their Zurich win — then the rookie led the entire PGA Tour in Strokes Gained: Approach, ahead of Morikawa and his own brother.
Chris Gotterup proved last year's breakthrough was no fluke — three wins this season at the Sony, Phoenix and John Deere. That's not a hot streak. That's a résumé.
Rory's paying attention too — he singled out Koivun, Brennan and Thorbjornsen by name as exactly what the Tour needs. Learn the names now so you're not the guy Googling them at Augusta in April.
Turn it to …
Music - Sixty Years of Stones, Live
Start in December 1968 with Rock and Roll Circus — the first-ever live performance of "Sympathy for the Devil," restored in 4K. It's Brian Jones's last performance with the band, and Jagger is somewhere between possessed and unhinged.
March 1977: the Stones played two secret nights at Toronto's 300-capacity El Mocambo billed as "The Cockroaches" — opening for April Wine. The tapes sat in the vault for 45 years; hear the teasers here and here.
December 1989, Atlantic City: the Steel Wheels pay-per-view had Axl Rose and Izzy Stradlin, Eric Clapton and John Lee Hooker all on one stage. Peak late-'80s excess, in the best way.
December 2012, Newark — the 50th anniversary show that put Lady Gaga on "Gimme Shelter" and Springsteen on "Tumbling Dice", with Mick Taylor back for "Midnight Rambler." The guest list alone is worth the watch.
July 2013: back in Hyde Park 44 years after the legendary '69 free show, in front of 100,000+. Go read the night — "Sympathy" against a wall of flames with Keith tearing the solo apart.
March 2016, Havana: a free show for a crowd estimated anywhere from half a million to 1.2 million — the first major rock concert Cuba had allowed in decades. Watch "Out of Control", then the band's own Havana Moon stream.
End where they're still proving it — October 2023, a tiny NYC club called Racket, launching Hackney Diamonds with "Whole Wide World". Sixty years in and they still play a room like they need the gig.
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Opinionated. Proprietary. Traceable.
Time to Eat…
Food - Fire Up Before Kickoff
The whole game-day playbook is one setup: a two-zone fire. Hot side for searing, cool side for cooking through — master it on wings and everything else on this list gets easy.
Kickoff: a cast-iron skillet of smoked queso goes on the cool side at 275°F. Stir every 30 minutes and it'll be bubbling by the end of the first quarter.
First quarter: ABTs — jalapeños stuffed with cream cheese and cheddar, wrapped in bacon. Terrible name, undefeated snack.
Second quarter: brats, done the Cook's Country way. Sear them first, simmer in a foil pan of beer and onions, then back over the fire for one last crisp — no more gray, soggy sausages.
Halftime: Alabama white sauce chicken. Big Bob Gibson started dunking smoked birds in mayo and vinegar in Decatur back in 1925 — read the backstory while it rests.
Second half: a reverse-seared tri-tip. Smoke it low to 115°F, then sear it hard in cast iron — the most forgiving way to look like a pitmaster.
The real move is the rhythm, not the recipe. Something new comes off the grill every quarter, and nobody leaves before the fourth.
Tell your people you love them…
Relationships - The Season of Rituals
Fall moves life indoors, and indoors is where relationships get tested. The couples who hold up best tend to have what Gottman calls rituals of connection — small, predictable moments the other person can count on.
"Cuffing season" sounds like a meme, but there's something to it. One study found that physical cold actually makes people crave psychological warmth.
If you're single and suddenly feel the urge, ask why — now. A relationship psychologist's advice: think about what happens after winter before you start something in October.
Clocks fall back November 1, and the dark shows up before dinner. Plan your evenings now — the default for most guys in November is a couch and a phone.
Gottman's math is simple: about six intentional hours a week, built mostly from how you say goodbye in the morning and hello at night. Saturday games count if you're actually watching together.
Fall is when the invitations stack up — tailgates, weddings, holidays. Pay attention to who in that crowd will tell you a hard truth to your face, and spend the cold months closer to those people.
Nobody says the tree failed when the leaves fall. Letting go is part of the cycle — and the relationships that make it to spring are the ones you tended when it was cold.
OMAHA…
Football - Who’s Pretending?
Texas is still No. 1 in the AP poll, but survived Knoxville 20–17 and didn't look like it. Arch Manning got sacked six times and slid out of the Heisman top five.
Georgia and Notre Dame hold steady at 2 and 3, and both have winnable Saturdays — Vandy in Athens, the Irish at North Carolina. Unbeaten Miami heading to Clemson is the ACC trap game of the weekend.
Florida is the story nobody saw coming — a 52–28 demolition of Ole Miss vaulted the Gators 13 spots to No. 8, their first top-10 ranking since 2021.
Jeremiah Smith is the best player in the country, and it's not close — 12 catches, 217 yards and four touchdowns against Illinois, all career highs. He's now the Heisman favorite, which a receiver almost never gets to say.
Kamario Taylor is the breakout. Mississippi State's sophomore was a deep preseason long shot — now one Big Ten coach calls him the best QB he's seen in years, and the Bulldogs are 4–0.
That makes noon Saturday must-watch: No. 7 Alabama at No. 16 Mississippi State on ABC. Keelon Russell just threw for 365 and four scores against South Carolina — two rising quarterbacks, one Starkville crowd.
Down the poll: Indiana is quietly 4–0 at No. 6, UCLA jumped 14 spots after a 54–3 beatdown of Maryland, and Penn State and Michigan both fell out of the Top 25. Welcome to October.
On the road again…
Travel - Chasing Colors Across Alabama and Georgia
The one rule for fall in the Deep South: color moves downhill. Georgia's high parks peak mid-to-late October, while most of Alabama doesn't hit peak until early-to-mid November — two states, two separate weekends.
North Alabama's best-kept secret is Mentone, perched on Lookout Mountain. Base there, drive Little River Canyon's rim — one of the deepest canyons east of the Mississippi — and hit DeSoto Falls on the way back.
Cheaha is Alabama's rooftop. Stand on Bald Rock or Pulpit Rock and look out over the Talladega National Forest — then take the Talladega Scenic Byway home.
Want sand instead of leaves? The National Shrimp Festival takes over Gulf Shores Oct. 8–11 — free to get in, with Gulf shrimp done every way you can imagine and roughly 250,000 people for company.
In Georgia, Helen runs the longest-running Oktoberfest in America nightly through Nov. 1. Go on a weeknight, then burn off the bratwurst at nearby Unicoi or Anna Ruby Falls.
Tallulah Gorge — a thousand feet deep and two miles long — is the state's most dramatic fall view. Make it a loop: Black Rock Mountain at 3,640 feet, then Wolf Pen Gap Road past Vogel.
Finish on the coast, where Savannah does October right with Bonaventure Cemetery after dark. The best trips get built backwards from a single anchor — pick the peak, the festival or the game, and let everything else fall in around it.
Take care of yourself…
Exercise - The Saturday Kickstart
Step 1 — Wake up the engine (5 min): Brisk walk or easy jog, then 5 lunges with a reach to the sky on each side. Don't skip it — cold hips are how Saturday plans become Sunday regrets.
Step 2 — Goblet squats (3 × 12): Hold the weight at your chest and sit hips below knees. Slow down, fast up.
Step 3 — Push-ups (3 sets, 2 shy of failure): Elevate your hands on a bench if you need to. Perfect reps beat ugly ones.
Step 4 — Reverse lunge with rotation (3 × 8 per side): Step back, twist the weight over the front leg, come back to center. Legs, core and balance in one move.
Step 5 — One-arm rows (3 × 10 per side): Brace a hand on a bench and pull the weight to your hip. Your posture after a week at the desk will thank you.
Step 6 — The finisher (6 rounds, 30 on / 30 off): Burpees or kettlebell swings, your pick. This is the part you'll want to quit — don't.
Step 7 — Plank and walk it off: Three 30-second planks, then 10 easy minutes outside. Nobody posts this part of the workout, but it's what shows up in December when everyone else is starting over — browse the ACE exercise library if you want to swap any moves.


