Guilty Pleasures
By Associated Press
Trump victory renews interest in ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ and other fictional dystopias
NEW YORK | “The Handmaid’s Tale” is selling again.
Since President-elect Donald Trump clinched his return to the White House, Margaret Atwood’s dystopian classic about a country in which women are brutally repressed has been high on the Amazon.com best seller list. “The Handmaid’s Tale” was popular throughout Trump’s first term, along with such dark futuristic narratives as George Orwell’s “1984” and Ray Bradbury’s “Fahrenheit 451,” both of which were in the Amazon top 40 as of Thursday afternoon. Another best-seller from Trump’s previous time in office, Timothy Snyder’s “On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century,” was in the top 10.
Pro-Trump books also were selling well. Former first lady Melania Trump’s memoir, “Melania,” was No. 1 on the Amazon list, and Vice President-elect JD Vance’s “Hillbilly Elegy” was in the top 10. Donald Trump’s photo book “Save America” was in the top 30.
At Barnes & Noble, “Fiction and non-fiction books that feature fascism, feminism, dystopian worlds and both right-and-left leaning politics rocketed up our sales charts with the election results,” according to Shannon DeVito, the chain’s director of books. She cited “Melania,” “On Tyranny” and Bob Woodward’s latest, “War,” which covers the responses of Trump and President Joe Biden to the conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East.
DeVito also cited “a massive bump in dystopian fiction,” notably for “The Handmaid’s Tale” and “1984.”
Election night television viewership drops sharply from 2020 and 2016
The idea of grabbing some popcorn and watching television to see who America has chosen for its next president was far less appealing this year than in the past.
The Nielsen company said that 42.3 million people watched election night returns between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump pour in Tuesday night. That’s down sharply from the 56.9 million who watched in 2020, when Trump competed against Joe Biden, and the 71.4 million who tuned in on election night 2016, Nielsen said.
Election night is often known as the Super Bowl for TV news, but this year even the NFL’s conference championship games were watched by more people.
Television viewership in general has slipped over the past decade with people cutting cable and satellite subscriptions, so it’s hard to know how much this downturn reflects people turning elsewhere for news that night, or simply less interest in following the results.
The three largest cable news networks — CNN, Fox News Channel and MSNBC — accounted for just over 10 million of the lost audience.
Fox News Channel was the most-watched network on Tuesday, with 9.8 million people watching the returns between 7 p.m. and 11 p.m. Eastern, Nielsen said. News outlets didn’t begin calling the race until after 1 a.m. on Wednesday, but the likelihood of Trump’s victory was becoming apparent much earlier.
Fox had 13.7 million viewers on election night 2020, when it was also the most popular outlet.
CNN had 4.7 million viewers this year, essentially half of the 9.1 million who watched four years earlier. MSNBC had 5.5 million viewers, down from 7.3 million in 2020, Nielsen said.
Of the broadcast networks, ABC had 5.7 million viewers this year, NBC had 5.3 million and CBS had 3.5 million, Nielsen said.
Nintendo Chief insists the Switch momentum will keep going, even after its successor
TOKYO | Japanese video game maker Nintendo’s chief said Wednesday that Switch console sales were still going strong, while he promised its successor is coming.
“The momentum of the Nintendo Switch hasn’t stopped,” President Shuntaro Furukawa told reporters.
His comments come a day after Nintendo reported a 60% drop in its fiscal first half profit, largely because of declining sales of the Switch, which now is in its eighth year, as well as Switch games.
Furukawa did not give details on the greatly anticipated upcoming machine but stressed all current game software will be playable on the next Switch.
People may want to keep playing the offerings from the rich lineup already on sale, as well as the games they own, he added, insisting the Kyoto-based maker behind the Super Mario franchise wasn’t hemmed in by the idea of a console’s “life cycle.”
Nintendo is investing in both hardware and software development research, as well as movies, merchandising, amusement parks and music, Furukawa said.
Another Mario movie is set to be released in April 2026, a sequel to last year’s hit film, and a Zelda movie is also being planned, although a date wasn’t given. Movies boost game and machine sales, and the absence of a movie this year was one reason sales faltered, according to Nintendo.
Theme park Super Nintendo World is opening in Orlando next year, and another is set to open in Singapore. They’re already open in Japan and Los Angeles.
Official stores also help boost Nintendo fans, and a new one is opening in San Francisco next year. Nintendo stores are already open in New York, Osaka, Tokyo and Kyoto, in addition to the temporary pop-ups in various cities.
More than 100 million people around the world are playing the Switch, including those of all ages, according to the company.
Nintendo’s shares, which have risen over the last year, had added 3.3% by midday Wednesday.
Influencer is banned from future NYC marathons for bringing a camera crew to last weekend’s race
NEW YORK | A social media influencer from Texas was disqualified from last weekend’s New York City Marathon and banned from future competitions after he ran the race with a camera crew on e-bikes in tow.
New York Road Runners, which organizes the venerable race, said in a statement Tuesday that Matthew Choi violated the group’s code of conduct and competition rules, not to mention those of World Athletics, running’s international governing body.
“One of the incidents brought to NYRR’s attention was that Choi ran with the assistance of two unauthorized people riding the course on electric bicycles, obstructing runners,” the group said.
Choi, 29, finished the 26.2-mile course with a time of 2:57:15, or about 50 minutes behind Abdi Nageeye, the winner of the men’s race.
The former football player for Monmouth University in New Jersey posted several videos of him running the marathon on his social media accounts that immediately drew scorn.
“As a runner, seeing him was amazing. Gave me extra motivation to pass him and make sure I never had to see him and his dumb crew for the rest of the race,” wrote one user on Reddit.
Choi, of Austin, Texas, didn’t immediately respond to an email seeking comment Tuesday. He was apologetic on his Instagram account, where he posts videos about running and fitness to his more than 400,000 followers.
Choi acknowledged that the filming endangered other competitors, prevented some from possibly reaching personal best race times, and even blocked some from getting a drink at designated water stations. More than 55,000 runners completed the race, which wound through all five of New York City’s boroughs.
“I have no excuses, full-stop,” Choi said on camera in the Tuesday post. “I was selfish on Sunday to have my brother and my videographer follow me around on e-bikes, and it had serious consequences.”
“With the New York City Marathon being about everyone else and the community, I made it about myself,” he continued. “And for anyone I impacted, I’m sorry. To be clear, this was 100% on me.”
New York Road Runners said Choi has the right to appeal, but the influencer said he is resigned to his fate.
“I made my bed, so I’m gonna lay in it,” Choi said, acknowledging he’s been criticized before for using e-bike film crews to shoot content during major competitions. “It won’t happen again. My word is my bond.”
—From AP reports
