Pretty sure “Plur1bus” is a metaphor for AI. (It’s also excellent.)

When you understand the assignment very well: www.nytimes.com/2025/11/07/u...

Sheer chaos.

Armed with a coffee cup and assisted by the short, overweight, and bespectacled spy George Smiley, I attempt entrance by using tactically self-deprecating remarks. I am promptly impaled.

“After Adolphe Sax, of Belgium invented the saxophone in 1842, there were three attempts on his life by rival instrument makers who feared a loss of popularity for their horns.” “Gosh, they certainly had bad alto-tudes. I mean, that’s the work of tenor-ists!” “…” “Too bas-soon?”

“Wildlife rehabilitators often wrap owls so they can be weighed and fed.” @owlsintowels.org

MUSEUM GUIDE (dramatically): Behold the emotional gravity of Goya's painting, "Colossus." This titan is barely contained by the canvas. We feel the tension radiating from his body as he clenches his huge fist. Below him, chaos reigns as people flee, scattering like startled birds— ME: why no undies

• acersecomic: one whose hair was never cut • artolatry: the worship of bread • groak: to watch people silently while they’re eating, hoping they will ask you to join them • ucalegon: a neighbor whose house is on fire • zumbooruk: a cannon fired from the back of a camel archive.org/details/isbn...

I'm losing my mind over how many reviewers are like "GDT's Frankenstein makes you wonder who the real monster is." THAT'S THE STORY! That's the story Shelley wrote!

Tomorrow night (11/8), I’ll join Oregon Book Award-winner Lisa Gerlits and author Joshua Blackwood for a hangout, nosh, and panel discussion in Silverton, Oregon. Details at the link! www.atlasbookshopsilverton.com/events/silve...

Shoutout to the Buffalo Soldiers of the 25th Infantry Regiment Bicycle Corps, posing here on Minerva Terrace at Mammoth Hot Springs in Yellowstone National Park in 1896.

Amazing. Just last night, I told my wife I felt isolated. And she said, “Honey, it’s lonely when you are close to the edge of imagination— when you have a deep belief in your own power to create new realities. This is *exactly* where real change begins.”

Separated at Birth: Emotional vampire Colin Robinson and Director of the National Economic Council Kevin Hassett?

10 out of 10, sheer genius, no notes.

*record scratch* *freeze frame* Yep, that’s me. You’re probably wondering how I got here—and why I brought gingerbread tortilla chips to this party.

My autumnal friend! (This fall recliner and I go way back.)

I didn't comprehend the outsized role that Oregon plays in hosting data centers. 🎁 link: www.wsj.com/us-news/what...

Spoonerism Alert (bard edition) bit.ly/4hDHfia

He’s reading about flipping houses.

I love activity books that encourage kids to work together on a project. What could go wrong?

A Comedy in Two Acts

I mean, how could you not love a story with details like this? “The herd now includes a kid, Gilligan, so named because he was conceived on the island.” 🎁 link: www.nytimes.com/2025/09/22/c...

GOVERNMENT OFFICIAL: Oh, and remember that our new flag of Bosnia and Herzegovina has to include stars. FLAG DESIGNER: Fine, but how many? G.O.: An *infinite* number of them. F.D.: okaaay ...

Oh, you’re having a “hard time” adjusting to DST? Well, Mexico City’s National Museum of Anthropology, a curator was charged with resetting the time on the Aztec Calendar Stone (from the reign of Moctezuma II). The massive basalt disc broke free of its mounts and fell upon the hapless curator, so…

New roots-rock album dropped.

<driving past a church> “Hey kids, look! It’s some of our cherished Christians!“

“Allegedly pushing someone into a bioswale using an umbrella” is peak Portland rambunctiousness. ☂️

Don’t forget to “fall back” in a terrified retreat from reality as you reset clocks this weekend.

I love it when kids give a play-by-play of their choices: “Take three? OK, I’ll get a Dots, which I actually don’t like very much, but I don’t have any yet. And a Reese‘s, because of course. And what’s this, a Charleston Chew Vanilla? Interesting, but no. Come to me, Junior Mints!”

Tonight, I salute my all-time favorite trick-or-treater: A girl who dressed as Valentina Tereshkova, the first woman to travel into space.

Dude, I hope that YOU convert to Christianity someday. www.washingtonpost.com/politics/202...

Today, I learned that SCOTUS Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson has to answer the door of the justices’ private conference room if someone knocks because of “hazing.” So the institution charged with ensuring equal justice under law has the same rules as … an undergrad frat house?!

Oh, you have an unfinished novel? That's nice, but you haven't *really* excelled at not finishing things until you make this list. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Categor...

"Kaputnik! Get in here! Did you paint this Halloween card of a pumpkin driving a melon?" "Y-y-yes sir." "Great work! Now go make another car-themed card."

When I see an old barn, I wonder what it looked like in its hay-day.

Ron Charles referred to the “slavish panegyrics of Karoline Leavitt,” and I’m here for it.

Shoutout to Charles Willson Peale for giving off serious cryptkeeper vibes in his 1822 self-portrait.

I got a Charmin Forever Roll—and the 1,700-sheet paper tire will come in handy once I manage to roll it out of the car and into the house.

ISWYDT

After JFK's assassination in 1963, Dallas County Hospital chief CJ Price wrote to his staff. He asked what enabled them to take historic events in stride, and concluded: "Our pride is not that we were swept up by the whirlwind of tragic history, but that when we were, we were not found wanting."

[at the museum] CLERK: Brochure? ME: Sure, bro. GUARD: I’m going to have to ask you to leave.

I just visited the Legacy Museum in Montgomery, Alabama, where I found myself educated, outraged, and deeply moved. Their collection is superbly curated, weaving primary sources, media, and art; I can’t recommend it more highly! Please go if you’re able, or visit the website: legacysites.eji.org

“The Louvre got robbed but I still need a manager to unlock the toothpaste at CVS.”

When one monocle loves another monocle very much, they get together and make a spectacle of themselves.

What did the revenue man take? The answer may surprise you.

Worst children’s book ever.

Imagine, a whole room devoted to gift-wrapping bundles of cash.

A great sign in war-ravaged Portland today. #NoKings

Shoutout to the very funny and civic-minded @markremy.bsky.social: “No one can do everything, but everyone can do something.” 👏 www.npr.org/2025/10/22/n...