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Pokémon Ruby & Pokémon Sapphire: The Hoenn Fever Dream That Wouldn’t Die

By Tony Hicks
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There are regions in the Pokémon universe that feel like settings. And then there’s Hoenn. Hoenn feels like someone at Game Freak looked at a weather app mid-meltdown and said, “Yes. This. But with lizards.” When Pokémon Ruby and Pokémon Sapphire dropped in 2002, they weren’t just sequels. They were a soft reboot wrapped in tropical humidity. New region. New Pokédex. New hardware leap to the Game Boy Advance . And, most importantly, new stakes: the planet was apparently one bad mood swing away from becoming either a desert or an aquarium. Subtle? No. Memorable? Absolutely. Fast forward two decades, and we’re now being told—very earnestly—that this era inspired Pokémon’s biggest-ever spin-off. Not just another side quest. Not a cute puzzle game. Not “what if Pikachu cooks.” No. The big one. The kind of spin-off that makes the mainline games glance over nervously like, “Wait… are we still the favorite?” So let’s talk about how Hoenn—land of trumpets, torrential rain, and morally confu...
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Carry-On Courage: Samantha Brown’s No-Drama Guide to Beating Travel Anxiety (Without Pretending You’re Chill)

By Tony Hicks
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There are two kinds of travelers in this world: The ones who say, “Let’s just see what happens.” The ones who have already seen what happens in their mind, and it ends with them sleeping in an airport next to a broken vending machine while their suitcase vacations in Lisbon without them. If you are in group two, welcome. We’ve been expecting you. You probably refreshed your boarding pass three times before opening this article. And then there’s Samantha Brown —the human embodiment of “It’ll be fine.” She’s been to more countries than most of us have been to grocery stores, and somehow she still approaches travel like it’s a delightful dinner party instead of a logistical Hunger Games. So when she talks about overcoming travel anxiety, you lean in. Not because she’s dismissive. Not because she says “just relax.” But because she’s seen the chaos—and still packs cute shoes. Let’s break down her vibe, her practical advice, and why it works—even for those of us whose fight-or-flight respons...
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This Drama Changed Television and Beat Stranger Things by Nearly 1 Billion Minutes — And Yes, That’s Wild

By Tony Hicks
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Let’s begin with the obvious: we were all emotionally preparing to crown Stranger Things the undisputed streaming monarch of 2025. Final season. Three-year hiatus. The Upside Down’s last hurrah. Dustin’s graduation speech in the epilogue. Max Mayfield’s reaction that probably launched a thousand TikTok edits. It had all the makings of a Nielsen bloodbath. And yet. The show that actually beat it — by nearly a billion streaming minutes — is a 22-season medical drama that has been emotionally terrorizing viewers since George O’Malley still had a face. Yes. It’s Grey’s Anatomy . Clocking in at 40.9 billion minutes streamed versus Stranger Things’ 40 billion, Grey’s did what it has done for two decades: survived, thrived, and quietly reminded everyone that while monsters from alternate dimensions are cool, nothing competes with a hallway breakdown at Seattle Grace. Let’s unpack this because this isn’t just a numbers story. This is a cultural reckoning. The Billion-Minute Realit...
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Canada’s Race to Rebuild Military Triggers a Defense-Tech Gold Rush

By Tony Hicks
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There are two kinds of national awakenings. The first is the slow, responsible kind—white papers, committees, polite applause, a bilingual press conference where everyone agrees to “continue the dialogue.” The second is the moment when someone in Ottawa looks at the global news cycle, exhales sharply, and says, “Oh. We need to fix this. Like… yesterday.” Canada has entered Phase Two. After decades of treating defense spending like that gym membership you technically still have but try not to think about, the country is suddenly sprinting toward military modernization with the energy of someone who just realized winter is not optional. And in the background? Venture capitalists are doing what venture capitalists do best: sniffing opportunity. Welcome to Canada’s defense-tech gold rush. The Polite Superpower Problem For years, Canada has cultivated a global brand somewhere between “reliable peacekeeper” and “the world’s calmest neighbor.” It worked. It still works—until it doesn’t. The w...
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Rocky’s, Retail Darwinism, and the Great American “Everything Must Go” Era

By Tony Hicks
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Nothing says late-stage capitalism with a side of melancholy quite like a liquidation banner sandwiched between a subscription pitch and a dividend king teaser. And yet here we are. After 54 years in business, Rocky’s Great Outdoors — a Burton, Michigan institution — is closing its doors. Not bankrupt. Not imploding in scandal. Just… done. A family business that started in 1971 selling motorcycle parts, evolved into a 50,000-square-foot temple of boots and bait, and now joins the ever-growing Hall of Retail Ghosts. Let’s talk about what this actually means — beyond the press release language and the “macro pressures” greatest hits playlist. The Retail Hunger Games Dick’s Sporting Goods didn’t just survive the retail apocalypse — it thrived. Academy Sports + Outdoors ? Also fine. Meanwhile, the list of fallen names reads like a mall directory from 2008: Modell’s Sporting Goods Bob’s Stores Moosejaw Orvis Eastern Mountain Sports The Sports Authority And now...
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