Sophie Mudd Shows Off Her Christmas Tree While In A Bikini, Michael Penix Is Team Costco & Nana On Cousins
Toot toot
"OutKick delivered back-to-back months with double digit year over year growth in November 2024 with 7.7 million total desktop and mobile unique visitors, up 21% versus November 2023, 34 million total multiplatform views, up 39% versus the prior year, and 32 million total multiplatform minutes, up 38% versus November 2023, according to Comscore."
It's worth noting that OutKick is doing these numbers as AI continues to chip away at worldwide website traffic by the day.
What's going to be the key moving forward as we battle against the AI bots who have been deployed by Google?
Direct interaction with our readers will be key. AI, as of today, cannot communicate on a level with you like I can or Clay can. AI cannot share its emotions from coaching 12U rec baseball. AI cannot express feelings associated with drinking a beer in a special place. AI has never been on a golf trip with the boys.
It's not by coincidence that I've been talking more and more about human interaction and the role it's going to play over the next decade. I'm convinced that humans will eventually seek out more and more human interaction after decades of being told by society that the computers will take care of us and Uber Eats will deliver food at the touch of a button.
I firmly believe websites that are building true communities right now will be the websites still standing in a decade.
How do we continue to build that community? We invest in human interaction.
It's not a coincidence that OutKick has invested in columns like Screencaps, Nightcaps, Pit Stop, The Gripe Report, Womansplaining, NFL Mailbag, CFB Mailbag, and more to come.
Please interact with those columns and those writers. No, those columns aren't taking my job. They're helping grow this website and when this website grows, I have more leverage to go negotiate a raise.
This mission moving forward is clear:
Speak with the reader like we're in a bar having a conversation. AI doesn't have a big enough brain to do that.
Email: joekinsey@gmail.com
Candidates for 2024 Gifts of the Year: the BBQ Caddy?
- Reed in Minnesota has an idea:
Answering the call on "potential" gift ideas…my wife attended her teams Christmas work lunch with white elephant gifts a few weeks back. I came home to the Barbeque Caddy sitting on the work bench in the garage.
For me, this is a winner. I keep the grill in the garage to allow for year-long use in Minnesota winters (quick roll out). This is proving to be very handy for transport and having varied items at the ready dependent on what I am cooking. Apparently, a lot of "caddy" options out there:
https://www.amazon.com/barbecue-caddy/s?k=barbecue+caddy
Procured the Battery Daddy way back when this column introduced it. Now I have the wife and kids refer to the Battery Daddy all the time when in need for batteries. So funny.
Also, picked-up and emptied Kirkland Lager 12-pack, $13.99 here in Minneapolis west side. Solid. Will reload.
Kinsey:
#notsponsored
Reed might be onto something here.
- Greg in Nebraska has an idea for those who need last-minute ideas:
Great work daily. Regarding the Christmas gift of the year, unless I am way late to the party, I am going to say a heated vest. My wife’s friend was wearing one the last high school football game of the year and my wife went full on heavy hint mode for a good 4 weeks. My daughters and I went to Scheels last Saturday and got her one. I can take a hint as long as she makes it obvious and for a few weeks.
- JD in Wichita writes:
My college aged kids each got the Leatherman Wingman last year.
The response initially was a standard thanks. But since receiving them, they have commented many times on how often they use it and appreciate that gift.
- Video Game Tyler in Kennesaw, GA has ideas:
Hey Joe, three inexpensive things i bought this year that are game changers:
1 - Hands down the best electric screwdriver I have ever owned. Perfect size and storage, all the bits you need (including some that are for small electronics), great battery. Bought multiple for Xmas gifts for family - https://www.costco.com/fanttik-s1-pro-16-in-1-multi-bit-cordless-electric-screwdriver.product.4000251471.html
2 - Same company also makes fantastic tire inflators. Use this on all my cars and neighbors borrow it constantly - https://www.costco.com/fanttik-s100-apex-powerful-portable-air-pump-%2526-tire-inflator-with-power-bank%2C-black.product.4000230430.html
3 - Swapped out my old 50" HDTV with two side-by-side 55" in one of my basement rooms. Old TV was hung traditionally, mounted on studs. The two new ones were hung via the hangsmart device here. Super easy to use and install by yourself. Constant recommending these to folks - https://hangsmart.com/
Kinsey:
I took Tyler's advice and jumped on the Fanttik items as Christmas gifts. The kids needed a new air pump, so they're getting one. Enjoy, kids.
Otis tells me to stop buying tires at Costco and shop local, which I do to the tune of thousands and thousands of dollars each year
- Otis in Mobile writes:
So about the Costco = Spirit Airlines and then mentioning that you bought your tires from Costco, I would like to comment. First, I am very much a "live your life how you want" guy, so let me try to change your thought process some.
I was on X the other day (I do not know why I do this to myself) and I saw a post that essentially says, "The same dummies that voted for Trump and his tariffs are going to see their prices go up and he wants to cut taxes for corporations to 15%!!" I say good. To people who don't think (over 99% of X) they see Trump giving tax breaks to Amazon, Health Insurance Companies, Pharmaceutical companies, etc. and that may be true, but he is also giving a tax break to small businesses.
That demographic includes the following:
- The woman with the Shirt Company that makes the school shirts your kids wear
- The local farmers that you get those great peaches from
- The AC guy that came at 9 on that night it got really cold and your heater didn't work
- The small mechanic shop that you always take your car to for repairs
and a myriad of other small businesses in your town. These are your friends, your neighbors, the parents of your kids' friends. When you go to the highschool football game, look at the sponsor signs on the scoreboard and on the fences. I know what I see. The same companies mentioned above. I do NOT see Amazon, Pfizer, or Costco.
So to the guy who made the post on X, I say this. "You're upset that the t-shirt you buy at the box store for $10 will now cost you $15 and also mad that the local company who's $15 dollar t-shirt you won't buy is getting some tax relief?
Get Bent.
So I encourage you to do this. Stop with Costco. Stop with Amazon. Look, I get it, we all have limited time and money and I used to do a ton of online and big box shopping. Sometimes I need something and the only local place that has it is Walmart so I go. But over the past few years I have been trying to shop locally and be more aware of where my money is going. Is it a little more? Usually, but those dollars are going right back into my community and not to some corporate overlord in another place. If you think about it, you are really helping yourself by making the place you live have a thriving small business community. So I will get off my soapbox and drop some stats that will maybe encourage you to try what I am suggesting.
99.9% of businesses in the US are small businesses (under 250 employees)
(SBA 2023 Small Business Profile)
Only .01% of businesses within America are not considered small businesses. Of the majority, 98% have fewer than 100 employees and 89% have fewer than 20 workers. These small businesses give jobs to more than 61.2M Americans. This accounts for 46.8% of the total workers nationwide.
Kinsey:
- I've spent 10s of thousands of dollars with local mechanic shops over the years. Mrs. Screencaps' first cousin was a AAA mechanic for 30 years. He worked on our cars for years. We paid AAA thousands which were then funneled into Ted's paycheck. He's now retired and spends his time fishing.
- I spend thousands of dollars each year at Churchill's grocery store, a family grocer that has been in operation since 1917. Walt Churchill Sr. ended up being awarded the Gold Star and was a Major General in the Marines. Walt Jr. spent 30 years in the Marines.This is Walt Jr.
- I spend thousands at the other local grocer in town, Kazmaier's, which is also a family-run business with deep local roots.
- We buy acai bowls from Screencaps reader Ballystar's wife's juice shop.
- We bought our new AC unit from the local AC shop that my father-in-law also uses.
- We hire a guy down the road to clean our gutters because I'm not getting up on the second story.
- We went out to Swanton, OH in October and bought a van load of pumpkins from a local farmer. We buy our apples from MacQueen's, one of the largest apple producers in Ohio; We buy our flowers from Bench's Greenhouse in Elmore, OH to the tune of several hundred dollars each year. We also buy flowers from the local vocational school kids. We also buy flowers from another big greenhouse in SE Michigan.
- We use maple syrup from Screencaps reader Tom in Fort Wayne, who drops off a couple of bottles each year.
- We have a favorite local Mexican restaurant owner who went from operating out of a run-down old Wendy's to owning multiple locations. In the early years, we would be his only customers on a Saturday night.
- We use Perrysburg Plumbing and Heating to work on plumbing projects. They're expensive, but they do a great job and I know it's going to be done right.
- Our tile guy is Jeff, who is about 60 and lectures Mrs. Screencaps on which dog biscuits to give our dog. We've paid him thousands of dollars to do amazing work in our house.
I hope all of that makes up for buying tires at Costco. Trust me, we're trying to be the best citizens possible here.
The Best Place You've Ever Sucked Down A Cold Beer, which is something that AI CANNOT and WILL NEVER experience in its sad life
- Tony S. appreciates the human interaction from this column:
Excellent articles you guys write, I enjoy OutKick, the highlight of many-a-day!
I’d like to add my .02 worth on the best time/place to have or had a beer…
My memory is of my first legal beer (18 in Florida in 1980) was at the CPO Club at Saufley Field in Pensacola with my dad who was a Senior Chief Petty Officer.
It was a Miller High Life-Champagne of Beers! Still one of my favorites!
- John W. shares:
SC best beer conversation brought a smile to my face with a memory. Years back (16 maybe) we took son (5) daughter(3) to Disney World.
Wife had talked it up and said she wanted to schedule Disney trip every year or two moving forward. Early flight, check in to timeshare pitching hotel, head to park and deal with the kids joy and disappointments then back to hotel. Sitting on hotel balcony overlooking a golf course we sat down to have a beer….each took a deep swig…she looked at me and said ‘maybe we visit every 5 years…at most ….’ My smile and laugh was as close as I got to saying ‘I told you so’
The only thing better than that first beer was the second beer.
How do I know this community is STRONG? I lost count of how many of you tagged me on Penix learning he's the new starter while at Costco
Am I the only one who had a grandfather who would watch the Local on the 8s religiously for hours and hours just to hear the music?
I can remember opening his sliding door and yelling in asking him if he was up for a visitor.
He would grumble. That meant 10-4.
And then we might sit there watching the Local on the 8s for an hour or so.
European Christmas markets & catching rivalry CFB games
- Ted K. checks in:
Catching up after being out of the country the past few weeks…Mrs EgginDawg and I went to the Christmas markets throughout Europe…bucket list item I’d highly recommend!
Couldn’t agree more, our fans need to be better. As the photo shows, my buddy and I stayed till the end. Froze our tails off, but it was worth it. Unfortunately my son and his wife took off with 5 minutes left. Reminded him, it ain’t over until it is! Told him, hope listening to it on the radio, hope it was worth it.
Thanks for what you do, Merry Christmas!
Seeing a Coors tap in an English pub is like "seeing Paige Spiranac with a tattoo of a Hamas flag'
- The great Steve B. in Colorado of Hallmark fame wrote that line:
Those photos from Mike and Cindy T's trip make those little English pubs seem so cozy and inviting. I'm Colorado Coors guy, but what's with the Coors light tap at the bar? It's a little off-putting and ruins the vibe, like seeing Paige Spiranic with a tattoo of a Hamas flag.
The tap reminds me of when my mother-in-law was on vacation in the Carribean. A waiter asked her for her drink order. Wanting some local flavor, she says, "Just bring me an import beer." He brings her a Budweiser. Hey, it's an import there.
Best beer: after an unbearably hot and muggy day in the hills of Costa Rican hillside, we stop at a little grocery store, mostly for the air-conditioning. I grab a can of their local brew, Imperial. I notice a guy nearby sipping one, so I ask the cashier, "Can I drink this in the store?"
He gives me a strange look, "Why wouldn't you?" So I guzzle that down, savoring every drop, knowing that if I did that back home in say, the produce isle at Kroger, I'd have ten people dialing 911 on me.
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That's it for this final Thursday before Christmas. Let's go have a great one. I know it feels like Friday. Let's survive and advance. Finish strong!
Email: joekinsey@gmail.com