Protesting racism & fascism in solidarity with Minneapolis with hundreds of mostly young people in downtown Sacramento’s Cesar Chavez Park. It’s loud in the best possible way here with music & chanting & honking cars driving by

Lady Gaga has put out a gorgeous anthem for Minneapolis. youtu.be/e3o5FIXoK84?...

Today’s Silly Pangram: HURLONG, obs., the length of field a team of oxen could plow in an hour. Not, as is sometimes believed, the length that could be plowed when a woman led the oxen. See, related, furlong. #NYTSpellingBee

Begun annual Oscar-nominated films binge-watching. Saw two yesterday: 1. Train Dreams, nominated for Best Picture, Adapted Screenplay, Cinematography. Wish I’d seen it on big screen. Deserves that spaciousness. Loved the gentle melancholy of its focus on passage of time & ordinary person’s life. 1/2

REP. OMAR after being attacked with liquid: “We will continue! These fucking assholes are not gonna get away with this! Here is the reality people like this ugly man don’t understand — we are Minnesota Strong. We’ll stay resilient in the face of whatever they might throw at us.”

This fucking broke my heart

Good news for Sacramento. Go Dr. Flo! @flojaune.bsky.social

Duh. Tax the rich

Proud of the way Sacramento is showing up Sacramento ICE protesters ‘stand in solidarity’ after attack, Minneapolis killings

@padilla.senate.gov and @schiff.senate.gov, your turn to step up.

This is the single funniest excuse he could have come up with for not wanting to be booed in public

Multiple videos show the cold-blooded murder of Alex Pretti by Trump’s weaponized and untrained federal immigration agents in Minneapolis. Get ICE out of our communities. Impeach Kristi Noem. No funding for Trump’s cruel, authoritarian attacks on our neighborhoods.

I first read about these isolationist Old Believers, discovered in the 70s by scientists in a remote part of Russia, years ago. Cannot believe one of them is still alive. Fascinating story by Sophie Pinkham; I read every word

This is really really not okay. There have been regular, peaceful, if vocal, protests behind that building, which houses a local ICE office, for weeks.

My son saw this yesterday driving back to Sac from Bay Area. "Paid for by Americans for Octogenarians" LMAO

Here's something it would never have crossed my mind till recently to worry about: Writers, if you share your work-in-progress with people, let them know that they do not have your consent to share your work with ChatGPT or their ilk. Unless, you know, you'd be into that, in which case, go ahead?

Today in Silly Pangrams: CONELAW, the obscure body of law that governs the use of cones, be they traffic cones, cones of silence, cone cells in the eye, or ice cream cones. #NYTSpellingBee

Hey, @awpwriter.org, I can't imagine I'm the first person to ask about this, but all the times listed in the schedule are EDT, but daylight savings doesn't start till Sun 3/8, after the conference, so did you mean EST?

This is really restful to watch. (And she’s not biking *that* slowly, to my elderly mind, at least.)

"The assassination of Japan’s longest-serving prime minister in a country where gun crimes are extremely rare not only shocked the world but also set off intense criticism of the financial and psychological exploitation of followers by religious groups and lawmakers’ ties to such groups."

Today’s Silly Pangram: AWKLORD, someone who’s shamelessly, sometimes defiantly, awkward. “The high school’s awklords brought home state robotics championships year after year.”

Today’s Silly Pangram: DINGCAT, n., a dingbat, only a cat instead of a bat.

Today’s Silly Pangram, brought to you by dense fog in Central Valley that’s trapped me at Sacramento Airport for *hours*: LAPTOPARY, a collection of laptops, many of them old & obsolete but probably containing documents you now have no access to

Holy hell, what an obituary

Wrenching story about families of kids with pediatric brain cancer & effects of Trump 2.0. But some of these parents voted for him & now regret it. To which I say: I’m so sorry for your suffering. Truly. But also: your lack of empathy in the voting booth got us here

Haven’t been in a particularly playfully-posting mood recently, but here are some recent Silly Pangrams I didn’t share. Definitions & examples left to the viewer’s imagination.

Today’s Silly Pangram: MORGUING, pronounced MORE-gew-ing. Like arguing, only worse.

In case you missed it, Renee Nicole Good's award-winning poem. Brought back my own high school memories of being an AP Bio student & evangelical creationist. The closing lines are gold: life is merely to ovum and sperm and where those two meet and how often and how well and what dies there.

WITAF

Today’s Silly Pangram: OBVIATOR, n., that which obviates something. Often mistaken to mean that which makes something obvious. Correct: Indeed, the plot’s main obviator was the despot’s sudden death. Incorrect: The plot’s obviator was the conspirators’ lax security.

Today’s Silly Pangram: OAKYING, the process of making something “oaky,” usually said of wine. One version of “A Visit from St Nicholas” includes the lines: “The red wine was oakying up in their barrels/While choristers wandered the streets singing carols.” #FakePangrams #NYTSpellingBee

Today’s Silly Pangram: AFFIRMILY, one of those unnecessary adverbs (some would say this is true of most adverbs) much loved by lazy or insecure writers. “He nodded his head AFFIRMILY. ‘Yes,’ he said. ‘That is correct.’” #FakePangrams #SpellingBee

Today’s Silly Pangram: IRONCURL, n., (a) the kind of curl you get when you use a … curling iron; (b) (usually in plural) what the Medusa ended up with after she met Perseus. #NYTSpellingBee #FakePangram

Today’s Silly Pangram: ONEHUBBY, adj., pejorative reference to monogamy, especially sham monogamy. “Her popular ‘onehubby’ social media presence notwithstanding, the pro-family influencer was discovered to have been carrying on for years with her accountant.” #FakePangrams #NYTSpellingBee

This happened in my neighborhood. So sad & angry about the outcome. He was attacked in front of his own daughter

And the New Year’s Day Silly Pangram: INANILLICITY, when something is both stupid & unlawful.

2026 movie #2 an oldie but still funny: Buckaroo Banzai. I think it was my third time seeing it. First time was in theater in Cambridge, MA, fall of 1984 with my now-spouse. Still waiting to learn why that watermelon’s there lol

Wow, newly sworn-in public advocate Juumane Williams’s moving, passionate speech completely undid me 😭

Here’s what I really came for: the poetry reading by Cornelius Eady

This NYC mayoral inauguration makes me wish Sacramento could vote in a slate of similarly progressive leaders. We have such tepid Democrats beholden to monied interests 😕

I think maybe Mandy Patinkin is Santa? #ZohranMamdaniInauguration

Watching inauguration of @zohrankmamdani.bsky.social on YouTube feels like a nice way to start new year in Sacramento

Saw off the old year & rang in the new watching Yorgos Lanthimos’s “Bugonia.” Grim, weird, compelling. Not sure it entirely holds together, though. Great acting by both Plemons & Stone. That’s movie #1 for 2026.

I really tried to keep an open mind about cooking & baking with aquafaba on account of my vegan spouse. But after many more failures than successes, my mind is now closed. I will be taking no questions at this time.

Today’s #NYTConnections puzzle & the supposed difficulty ordering thereof is a sad commentary on Americans’ familiarity with non-motorized transport

Today’s Silly Pangram: GODPILE, n., the items on your to-do list that will never happen without divine intervention.

An impressive list of some of the work done by @propublica.org this year. I watched their film on stillbirths. So moved by the stories of the families & especially the women who experienced child loss through stillbirth, which happens at unconscionably high rates in U.S.

Saw “Marty Supreme” yesterday with family. Funny, fast, irreverent. Chalamet’s manipulative overconfident ping-pong player somehow manages never to completely lose audience’s sympathy. Gwyneth Paltrow also perfectly cast. Highly entertaining.

Today’s Silly Pangram: BADGALLING. Refusing to behave in conventionally approved ways, said primarily of women. “After being a ‘good girl’ for most of her life, she started indulging in some ‘badgalling’ in her sixties.” #FakePangram #NYTSpellingBee