On my way to the office on Thursdays I regularly encounter a group of families — all dressed up, posing for photos, usually corralling a kid or two — who are on their way to their Canadian citizenship ceremony, and it’s always such a nice way to start the day.

Be careful on the sidewalks this morning, #Halisky. It’s just cold and misty enough that everything is slippery.

The Good Place and Friday Night Lights both ended really well. But FWIW, I thought the Stranger Things finale was fine! It had the usual Stranger Things issues (length, excessive talking), but the final scene in the basement was perfect.

If you’re a real human being trying to get in touch with an author these days, introduce yourself, add a social media link immediately after the intro, don’t shower the author with compliments, mention money if you’re offering a paid gig, and include as many contact details as possible.

I’ve received three emails this week that are variations on “I love your books and want them to reach more readers,” and it’s increasingly hard to tell what’s sincere and what’s an AI-assisted attempt to rope authors into a marketing scheme. It’s so frustrating that this is where we’re at.

Ever relevant, this poem by Mary Oliver, especially today.

billy woods dropped a great solo album and a great Armand Hammer album in 2025. On Mercy he said “I’m old and slow but I can still get you 14 and 6 / a couple assists” and on Golliwog he rapped “money comes slow like publishing” and those are my 2 most relatable rap lyrics in this stage of my life

I don’t think that polarization is a “both sides are equally as bad” problem as it is sometimes framed, but I do think that Carney supporters who react to even the mildest criticism with this level of unhinged fury are absolutely a problem.

The Chris Rock political satire Head of State (2003) was not great, but I regularly think about how the president’s over-the-top racist slogan in that movie — “God bless America, and no place else” — is now the standard public position of multiple US politicians and media outlets.

A lot of people should make it their New Year's Resolution to stop posting like "Did you know Twitter is bad? Here's a screencap of the worst tweet I saw today. Isn't this bad? Here's one more. No one should use that site. I'll post another screencap tomorrow so you how bad it is."

Thursday is the perfect day for Christmas (Boxing Day is Friday, natural four-day weekend) and the worst day for New Year’s Day, at least for those of us who didn’t book a vacation day tomorrow.

This entire story is wildly funny but this is where I lost it. I have been to churches with white people who tambourine on the 1s and 3s and it is an experience

Our holiday traditions have evolved as the kids get older, and one of our more recent additions is doing a murder mystery game together. We solved the case!

I would love to see us lend considerably less oxygen to rage bait in 2026. Like just say no.

FACT

I will never hear a loon the same way again after the season finale of Heated Rivalry. That scene made me laugh so hard

Boxing Day is for waffles (and bacon)

“I know we’re facing mortal peril but I want to air all my grievances about our relationship right now.” “Yes, even though any sensible person with a functional survival instinct would try to be quiet in this situation, let’s scream at each other.” -Literally every couple on Stranger Things

I’ve been haphazardly assembling a gym in the basement laundry room, and my 16-year-old (with some help from S) built me a weight rack for Christmas

I watched last night's Spurs-Thunder game on the exercise bike this morning, and as a San Antonio fan I have fully progressed this season from "not going to overreact to this hot start" to "hmm, maybe this team is actually legit already" to "WE ARE SO BACK"

This might become my personal motto for 2026.

Tonight S teased our recently vegan kid that they’re getting coal for Christmas and I immediately added “but it’s vegan coal, made with zero dinosaurs” and my kid cracked up Put me in the Dad Joke Hall of Fame already

Got called an “establishmentarian” tonight because the kids want ham for Christmas and we’ve insisted on a turkey (We did a ham for Thanksgiving, that was our act of compromise)

genAI is STOLEN WORK. Using genAI in *any* capacity is trafficking in stolen work, supporting the plunder. Period. These facts aren't even denied by the AI companies, they just find ways to make that plunder seem benevolent. Using their product enables that lie. Stop enabling the theft of our work.

Tonight’s the night I put on Sufjan Stevens Christmas music and hang Scottie Pippen on the tree

If you write with AI or pillage your ideas from AI you will simply never become a writer of thinker of any kind. You will not learn how to write or think. Tell your students.

The man who usually drives my morning bus route is the loveliest person, so warm and friendly. It’s a snowy Monday morning and the roads are gross but he still has his usual smile.

This is exactly right. Force of nature characters are often better without a full backstory, like Anton Chigurh, or Willy Wonka. (The 70s Willy Wonka film is the only good adaptation for precisely this reason. Gene Wilder understood who he was playing.)

Kid 2 came home from residence last night and all 6 of us watched Wake Up Dead Man, probably the first time we’ve all seen a movie together since last December. It’s a terrific movie, the best Benoit Blanc mystery yet.

I understand that a lot of folks have been misled by fear-mongering and powerful regressive voices but it’s still astonishing to me that so many have fallen for the idea that oppressively policing other people’s gender identity and expression could in any way be part of an enlightened future.

We as a society must move beyond “here, smell this” content

A Man on the Inside is such a delightful show. The mysteries are fun but at heart it’s about how we all need community. It’s warm and funny and season 2 adds David Strathairn to an already fantastic cast. I want many more seasons.

"I'm not in denial, I'm in open rebellion" damn that quote goes hard

It’s hard to be surprised by the depths of pettiness anymore but “sans serif fonts are too woke” truly got me. I had to look at the source of this for a full 30 seconds before my brain finally accepted that it wasn’t from The Onion.

Part of the problem of the Jays/Dodgers showdown this year is that while, systematically, the Dodgers are CLEAR villains... on a player-by-player level few of them are remotely hate-able. Freddie Freeman, in particular? The best. This is great. www.youtube.com/watch?v=_iG5...

Solidarity to all the other parents who suggested to their teenagers this morning that maybe, on a day with -20 wind chill, it wouldn’t ruin their lives to wear a coat. We tried!

There’s a distressing amount of energy going toward a terrible book, so here’s a thread of some great books I’ve read recently. OTHER WORLDS by Andre Alexis is full of clever and sometimes harrowing stories about knowledge, belief, and the influences that shape how we see the world.

Discovering new albums, books, etc. is exactly the best part of year-end lists.

A few years ago the British public voted “All I Want for Christmas is You” the most annoying festive song and didn’t even rank Paul McCartney’s musical crime against Christmas in the top 10, so maybe the British public just shouldn’t be trusted on Christmas topics.

Five animals I’ve seen in the wild* Deer Skunk Porcupine An entire family of raccoons Groundhog squad *I’ve had all these literally in my yard, plus rabbits. The raccoons took up residence in the shed and that was a whole saga that lives on in family lore

Aside from the obvious car-brained garbage take here, this is a microcosm of the constant disrespect that Lucasville faces. It’s a historic African Nova Scotian community and people treat it as a drive-through with zero thought for the residents who live there.

My grand unified theory of suburbia is that camera doorbells are like SUVs, they provide an illusion of security while making you more paranoid

The kid who told me at the start of the season that he wanted to work on his confidence came off the bench this morning, missed his first shot, and then swished four perfect three-pointers in a row. Whole team went wild for him. Those good vibes might sustain me for days.

I understand the diplomatic reasons why we don’t just send this man home, but surely we can stop inviting him to public events or reporting every time he scolds and gaslights us.

On my way to the office this morning I watched a Subaru driver blow through the red light at the new crosswalk lights by Scotia Square, and on my lunchtime walk I saw a guy in a Ford F150 texting and driving. Bonus: he had a parking ticket tucked under his wiper 🫠 #Halisky

This is very well-written, and I am firmly on Team Hater.

I need "Stats are down but he played great" to make it into the lexicon.

i think online gambling is a cancer that is spreading throughout our society, it was a horrible mistake to de-regulate it, and we desperately need to crack down on it again

I don't know if men in trucks are actually the worst offenders at blowing through crosswalks or if it just feels that way, but they're definitely the least likely to be sorry about it. No "whoops" nod or wave, just a dead-eyed stare emphasizing that you don't matter to them at all

I knew really young that I wanted to be a writer, but reading Alistair MacLeod's short story "The Boat" at 15 is the first time I remember being absolutely gutted by the power of perfect sentences and thinking, "I need to figure out how to do that."