Every Friday
It's the Christmas pre-kend
We’re absolutely flying into a few of the best weeks of the year, folks. Yes, the holidays back home, or wherever you’re spending time this season, that we all look forward to are number one, but the unsung heroes of December are the few weeks prior to everyone leaving their city.
Work has slowed down, there’s a holiday party somewhere what feels like every other day, and everyone is trying to jam pack as much holiday spirit in as they can before their flight out.
Join us. It’s going to be good.
“The essence of the independent mind lies not in what it thinks, but in how it thinks.”
– Christopher Hitchens
“Taking a new step, uttering a new word, is what people fear most.”
– Fyodor Dostoevsky (in honor of our featured 40 classics below)
Top of Mind
Forget the mafia — NYC’s real turf battles are between cutthroat Christmas tree sellers, New York Post
Nash was in the wholesale business and doing well at the time, but he revealed in the documentary that he unknowingly encroached on mafia-fronted tree wholesalers. While he wasn’t threatened with cement shoes, he claims he was extorted and robbed — sending every seller a forceful message not to overstep.
My girlfriend and I (Zach) have now bought our Christmas tree two years running from a short, Eastern European woman on Hudson street, in the West Village; the juxtaposition between growing up cutting down my own is stark. This particular tree seller is a ball of Christmas energy and as long as she’s there, she’s earned our business. This year, we talked briefly about the journey our tree took from Canada, and the massive effort it takes to get a tree into the middle of Manhattan.
What I was not privy towards, was the relentless turf battle that occurs between the five core families who own the NYC Christmas Tree market. The story is hilariously “New York” and even has a rare mob twist. I won’t let it dampen my holiday cheer and oddly enough it comforts me to learn that even the Christmas tree vendors are wrapped up in the pressure cooker of NYC.
social signals 2025_v5, Matthew Stasoff
Ultimately though, this is a bit of a passion project of mine. Every year a ritual to take a look back (and sometimes further back than the year) and try to make sense of all the saves, bookmarks, screenshots, and notes I’ve collected in the year. And as much as this is called SOCIAL signals, to me this isn’t just for people in social. This is ideally for everyone interested in what’s happening online and offline.
Being online is a such a unique experience. We all have our own platforms and algorithms tailored exactly how we want them. Some of us post, others don’t. Some of us feel connected, others don’t. Regardless, in some version or another, we are all for the most part, online. And keeping up gets exhausting.
The Relay crew is less interested in keeping up but we can appreciate the trends that came across our feeds each year. I have no interest in playing back everything that happened online this year, but Matthew Stasoff does a really good job capturing it all.
Matt’s slide deck each year is ~400 slides which sounds insane, but I (Ian) can’t recommend it enough. Take 45 minutes this weekend to click your way through and thank me later.
ICYMI: Happy Hour Edition
Always on the path to building a better receiver. Over one month into the Youtube abstinence challenge. Skallas can’t miss.
Ramp AI Index shows AI adoption held flat at 45% of businesses in November, with slight declines in the finance and technology sectors. Adoption also didn’t change across small, medium, and large businesses.
Best of Substack this Week
What To Buy That Improves Quality of Life
– Ryan PetermanOn the ‘5 Stages of Fly Fishing’
– Mike IdellThe 40 Famous Classics You’re Allowed to Skip (And Why Everyone Secretly Agrees)
– Karen Rodriguez
This Week in Relay’s Shopping Cart
Cloudloom Cotton Wool Romeo Pant, (Jack)
I may have finally solved the pleated pants quest. Going to try to sniff these Buck Mason ones out at the Nashville location this week.
Sconset Tote, (Zach)
So I guess I’ve become a tote guy instead of backpack guy, re: me waging war against the tech bro backpack. I am eyeing this Hudson and Sutler classic tote to rotate with the fancy Italian leather one I recently acquired.
It’s Not That Deep, Randy
Thanks for reading—or for mega scrolling all the way down here.
The internet is an overwhelming mess of headlines, ads, and mid takes from the worst people you know. Big Tech owns our attention spans. Everything is content. Nothing makes sense.
We’re not here to “fix discourse” or “build a better internet.” Relay is just our attempt to riff on what we’re already talking about at happy hour without feeling like we’ve been hit by a content truck. Some analysis, some memes, call it a day.
You might like it. Tag along.
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me and my homies all say 🖕 to AI and 🖕🖕 to the 40 classics to skip piece
40 classics piece in here unironically fellas??