The destruction doesn't make for a photo-op like tearing down the East Wing of the White House or bulldozing the Rose Garden, but it's every bit as bad. Generations of American children learned to spell and count, learned the Preamble to the Constitution, from watching shows produced by the CPB.

Incredibly recondite fan theory: "Universal Dynamics" in THE WILD ROBOT is Aperture Labs doing business under another name. #StillAlive

Avoiding my geopolitical anxiety by reading the Harvard Magazine obits, and damn this issue starts off with a banger

“A new home and a new school? It is a bit scary.” “I think I can handle it.” — “Spirited Away,” last lines.

NPR’s Jan. 6 archive brings together reporting, video, documents and testimony to show what really happened during the Capitol riot. Explore the timeline, cases and evidence behind the attack.

Reposting, but only endorsing the reference to the magnetic boots prison from Face/Off

Let’s say you knew someone whose favorite TV shows of the last year were ANDOR and PLURIBUS. What would recommend this person watch next?

Sad but true

[whispers to self, “If your Naomi be Klein…]

Interesting but ultimately (to me) frustrating column by Thomas Edsall. He offers so many answers to an important question that it seems none of them are quite right. (Gift link) www.nytimes.com/2025/12/30/o...

Because my priorities are straight, I’ve spent the first day of the brand new year reading/watching the Jack Smith deposition. Some observations: It would have been very different as a public hearing, but I’m not sure to whose advantage.

still writing MISTER POLICE YOU COULD HAVE SAVED HER I GAVE YOU ALL THE CLUES on my checks

In which the President decides to call and chat on the record with a newspaper he’s suing for a billion dollars, for libel. (gift link) www.wsj.com/us-news/as-s...

Many interesting statements have been falsely attributed to Winston Churchill, and I used one of them as an epigraph of my book, “The Incomplete Book of Running:” “When you’re going through hell… keep going.” Keep going, everyone. And Happy New Year!

Gonna head outside at midnight because I want my face to be the last thing 2025 sees before it dies.

Responding to Chris here but in general to many: I came up with this description of the problem about two years ago: Covering Trump is like asking Herbert Morrison to broadcast the Hindenburg disaster every day. “Once again, Phil, I have to go with ‘oh, the humanity.‘ Back to you.”

I heard him give a (very brief, there was a 2 minute time limit, as per @me3dia.bsky.social) talk about this in early Jan, and it stayed with me all year. Give it a read.

Seeing an argument about whether President Trump (personally, not his Administration) is “interesting,” with scorn for someone saying he’s not. Here’s a challenge: think of something to say about him that a) isn’t obvious, b) hasn’t already been said, and c) your audience doesn’t already know.

Three resolutions: 1. More rock. 2. Less talk. 3. Change name to Hot 106 FM.

Purchased solely because in his newsletter, @vermontgmg.bsky.social said he’d been buying other books just chasing the high of reading this one

Me, to my almost 3 year old: “Is there poop in your pants? Him: “Not yet!”

There was a liberal court for a few years in the mid 20th century and the right wing response was to delegitimize for DECADES right up to the point they had a supermajority, at which point it became Wrong to do so. These people think you are stupid bsky.app/profile/chri...

Who talks on the phone to ANYONE for two hours?

I know everybody’s going WTF with the weird wave stuff but as a Chicagoan, that aside about Obama is just bananas. Why would anybody ever *pretend* to be a White Sox fan?

As a last minute type person, this seems EXTREMELY important.

LA supermarket, circa 1987. A disheveled little old man is in front of me in line. I recognize him as an actor in "One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest." He sees me looking and hands me a photo business card showing him in his role in "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest." www.imdb.com/name/nm04898...

I have a lot of boring end of the year paperwork to do and while doing it I will listen to the first record or Apple Music playlist (not Spotify) that shows up in the responses. No pranks, please.

As others point out, if you go to the remarkably moving and interesting Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge, MA this aspect of his thought is well documented.

Great little thread about Die Hard. The single greatest stage performance I've ever seen live was Alan Rickman in "Les Liasions Dangereuse" on B'way. and it turns out Joel Silver saw it too, which is how Rickman was cast.

Got you on the latter, having already generated one for others: www.nytimes.com/2025/12/28/m...

Two fantastic profiles from the NYT this last weekend: A portrait of MTG by Robert Draper, the best journalist currently covering the American Right which confirms the most likely explanation for her turn against Trump: she is a True Believer, and he is not. www.nytimes.com/2025/12/29/m...

One thing I genuinely miss about Twitter vs Bluesky is you could practically follow every play of a Bears game just by the WOWs and UGHs and KILL ME NOWS etc

Wonder how many AI companies running ads during this football game just had their AI write them.

Hey there’s just a few days left in the year and I would love if you helped me get over a big milestone on signups to get my writing in your inbox by signing up today. It’s free, fun, and you get something every couple weeks: dansinker.com/follow/

whatever 2026 holds i don't think anything next year will be funnier than Chicago Pope. 2025 was overall a huge stinker but Chicago Pope was an all time great B-plot

Any Kalamazoots want to chime in?

Kalamazooers, or ites, go meet Mary, lovely in every meaning of the word

I look forward to “The Lives They Lived” collection of obits every year, a beautiful and often inspirational series of memorials. This is the first time I read one about a friend, Jill Sobule, and it made me newly sad at her inexplicable death. www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

Presumably, some Fox viewers are small-business owners, or those who know them, and their reaction to this would be, “What??” Right?

After the private equity firm Alden Capital purchased the Chicago Tribune some years ago, many of its best people left or were pushed out, diminishing the paper and its importance. But those who remained do great work, like Mr Pratt, here. The first draft of a terrible history.

Hey, Ann Telnaes, the brilliant cartoonist late of the late WP Op-Ed page, is on Here!

The week between Christmas and New Years is the calendar’s perineum.

Here’s a gift link:

In this Op-Ed by the now fired DOJ Pardon Attorney criticizing Trump’s numerous pardons of donors etc, she also criticizes Biden’s pre-emotive pardons of family and prominent Trump targets before leaving office. www.nytimes.com/2025/12/26/o...

I recommend this book to anyone who owns a Lakhovsky Multiple Wave Oscillator

Much like my successful strategy of suing people who refused to date me in HS.

This 20 years ago: My then (and now) producer Mike Danforth and I were talking about “The Golden Compass,” and I wondered what my daemon would be. He said, “A small hairless dog that wishes it was Ira Glass’ daemon.”