Wearing this historical artifact while watching another: Casablanca on KCET

Seen at the Bernie/AOC rally in DTLA: sign says TRUMP IS THE ANTICHRIST Back side is a bill of particulars This tracks

Morning coffee

The spelling bee @nytimes.com - the iPhone app - just erased the 62 words I had found. Why don’t they have any quality control?

Just checked the sky: I won't see the Starlink launch from Vandenberg tonight. Too cloudy.

Last Sunday I walked up to the vacant lot overlooking the reservoir. The dirt parts of the old driveway were dry enough a week after the New Year’s rains.

The @nytimes.com spelling bee is not properly recording progress again

Saw the SpaceX launch from Vandenberg this AM. It was too early to get sunlight on the exhaust trail so just the rocket flames. Second stage on the left, booster doing boost back burn on right. This carried the Pandora mission in the Pioneer program of NASA plus many other satellites.

Toes in the Pacific 2026 Also another green flash

Happy New years Eastern time!

UCLA's campus is closed Dec 24 thru Jan 4, so my accomplishments lie elsewhere: rewatched The Santa Clause cooked food for 11 guests who all canceled due to rain on 12/24 rewatched The Muppet Christmas Carol saw the green flash on 12/27

Not a foggy Xmas eve but a very rainy one here in LA. Our Noche Buena dinner for 15 collapsed to only the folks staying in our house - 4 in all.

Donald J Trump is the child of an immigrant and is definitely a problem so I agree with Stephen Goering Miller?

Here in LA the solstice came at 7 AM on 21 Dec 2025. The Sun reached the southernmost part of its path around the ecliptic, so in the Northern Hemisphere days will start to to lengthen. While today is the shortest day, the earliest sunset was 4 Dec 2025 & the latest sunrise will be 7 Jan 2026.

Tire poppers I took off the boulevard on my morning walk Saturday

Found at the side of the boulevard yesterday and today. Spilled nails and a very experienced penny.

Belated post of a post Thanksgiving panorama from a vacant lot at the end of the next street up. Great view of the reservoir. It’s for sale for millions but you’ll need millions more for engineering.

Up early to see the ISS moving through the sky from SW to NE. I noticed Mercury was up in the ESE so I looked at it too. As usual Mercury is pretty bright compared to most stars but seen against a bright sky close to the Sun. Left pic is ISS, right pic is Mercury.

My @nytimes.com troubles continue: words found in the spelling bee on the iPhone app are not recorded but at least the webpage works OK. Stories on the athletic disappear in less than a second on the iPhone app and do't appear at all on the webpage. The app has been borked for more than a week.

Sunrise before the earliest sunset of the year at the latitude of LA.

Space-X launch of Starlink’s 12/1/2025 from Vandenberg as seen from my house. Booster in first picture, staging behind tree, then second stage in second picture.

Happy Thanksgiving! No big dinner for us today but I cooked and carved a 22 lb turkey for the UUSM.org potluck last Sunday. So we have leftovers! Turkey soup, turkey pot pie, turkey quesadillas, and canned cranberry sauce!

The @nytimes.com app on the iphone is screwed up again. The spelling bee fails to record progress. The sports stories show up on the screen for a fraction of a second before the screen goes blank. The webpage is OK on a browser.

So @ladwp.com staged an 18 minute power outage for Thanksgiving eve but the electricity is back on now

It's a good thing LA has a warm climate. We finally get the heat back on in late November.

The @nytimes spelling bee on the iphone app is broken again, now for three straight days. It doesn't record your progress or accomplishments. Looks like they pushed an update, didn't test it, and then left for Thanksgiving. Use the webpage in a browser if you want to get credit.

Very inept fake field goal attempt by UCLA football.

Mail truck got stuck trying to make the turn up to my house. Finally getting towed away 4 hours later.

Just got a LOUD and annoying emergency message from South Pasadena which is 25 miles away. The message: “never mind”! Probably annoyed everyone in LA county, all 10 million of us.

In SLO for the 19th JDMFF (James Dean Memorial Film Festival, where we just go see movies in theaters). I saw Predator: Badlands - 85% on the tomatometer Bugonia - 87% " If I Had Legs I Would Kick You - 93% " I thought these were all TERRIBLE movies. Scandalous grade inflation on Rotten Tomatoes.

To @padilla.senate.gov - please do not cave to the GOP without extending the ACA tax credits. And see if you can fstiffen a few backbones in the Senate.

To @schiff.senate.gov - please do not cave to the Rs regarding the ACA tax credit extension. And stiffen your colleagues' backbones!

The @nytimes.com spelling bee screwed up again today, casually throwing away my progress: 43/45 words and 215/226 points on the NYT iPhone app. Do they even do quality control?

CA Prop 50 has passed, capping an election night where (almost?) every result went against Trump. I grew up in VA where the Dems won the races for governor, lieutenant governor, attorney general and gained 12 seats in the 100 seat House of Delegates.

The scale height of trick or treaters being only about 5 meters, I don’t expect any. But we are ready.

I voted early! Yes on Prop 50!

I would like to read the @nytimes.com coverage of the 18 inning World Series game last night but as often happens the Athletic won't talk to either the iphone nytimes app or the nytimes.com web page. Would the newspaper of record please go back to in-house sports reporting?

The @nytimes.com obituary for George Smoot is live on the Web since yesterday and in print today, 10/22/2025. They wrote a new one.

My wife reports Sunset Blvd is closed at the stub of Westwood going into the UCLA Wooden center garage. Vance was at Camp Pendleton today. Could there be a fundraiser in Bel Air tonight?

Yes on CA Prop 50! Imagine if LA and Bay area assembly districts were set by a non-partisan commission while the rest of the state was gerrymandered at will by politicians. That would be absurd. But that's the current US House system. California must fight back against Texas. Yes on 50!

Californians! Vote YES on Prop 50. Prop 50 keeps the non-partisan redistricting for the state assembly and Senate seats, where these good rules apply to everybody. But the CA rules don't apply to the whole US House, so Texas can cheat All the big $$$ No on 50 ads should be running in Texas.

Today (9/25/25) the Spelling Bee on the @nytimes.com iPhone app threw away all my progress [genius, both pangrams] when I went to check on the news. Obviously terrible quality control when updating their code.

Happy September equinox!

Lots of TV ad money bragging about @t-mobile.bsky.social having great coverage but they have no coverage at my house a block off Beverly Glen between Mulholland and Sunset in LA Cheaper to talk a big game than deliver service I guess

Billionaires spending big to stop California from countering the outrageous Texas gerrymander. But nonpartisan redistricting has to apply to every district to work and that means all 435 house districts. Including Texas! Our corrupt Supreme Court hasn’t acted and won’t unless the GOP is hurt. 1/

Last day of August and there is a definite end of summer vibe Here’s a panorama of the Eel Pond at sunset

Strong Death of Stalin vibe on BlueSky but nothing in the NYT or Wapo.

Ship news: the Lynx and the Neil Armstrong went out on Saturday the 23rd perhaps because Hurricane Erin was gone. Woods Hole got 25-30 mph steady winds as Erin passed by. But the Corwith Cramer returned to Dyers Dock on Sunday.

A new tall ship in Woods Hole- the Lynx based in Nantucket. At first I thought the Corwith Cramer was back. But the Neil Armstrong is back.

Nice weather for watching the road race but probably a bit warm for the runners. Views from the bike path: