#trivia An oil baron in Pennsylvania asked chemist Bob Cheesebrough if he could prevent buildup of a sticky pale jelly slowing the drilling. Bob heard from workers how great the jelly was as an ointment. So he patented & sold it instead. What brand name did he give that product?

Living in NYC means people you know expect you to know of some secret affordable hotel at about $150 a night that you can point them to. No such place exists. So I have a draft email that I just slightly edit and send out. Whenever I get these requests every other week.

I'm already quite impressed and intimated by students who submit their essay assignments a week before they're due. And then there are students who will also send you a draft 10 days before for feedback & suggestions. Which is already perfect. They impress & intimidate most!

As a primary voter, I'm willing to hear out Jack Schlossberg but this is such a blah generic AI-ish announcement! Doesn't address a single current #NY12 issue. We have the best hospitals, but Beth Israel closed leaving a huge vacuum. Cool you rode a school bus but nothing about 34th st busway? /1

NYT: are any of them trans or not

he's basically delusional, Trump's whole life is him saying a lie and insisting its true and no one having the balls to tell him he's lying so Trump honestly believes he can reshape reality by just saying things.

The most bizarre thing about this all is that Trump was president when Epstein died in jail and Trump as president was the one who kicked this hornet's nest on Twitter. And kept kicking it through the Biden years. So I thought there really was nothing on him in the files. He's so stupid!

Todd Blanche would have had these emails before interviewing Maxwell. Why didn’t he question her directly about her exchanges? Why did he not follow up when she said things that were onviously a lie?? This shows that was a performance intended to dupe the public and benefit her (and Trump)

TV conspiracies: we’ve hacked their computers but they’ve perfectly cleaned up the evidence! Real conspiracies: To: conspirator From: famous person Attachment: evidence.png

When there’s documented evidence of both you committing sexual assault and creeping on young girls, it’s hard to have your administration claim you didn’t also commit sexual assault against young girls

#trivia Cleaning up after visiting family left, I came across this shopping bag from an iconic NYC store we took them to. Which store? Clue - the bag represents the BIG attraction in the store. Figuratively and literally.

If @jackschlossberg.bsky.social is serious about #NY12, he shouldn't run a social media only campaign like Suraj Patel did in our district, but go out in person and press the flesh too like Zohran. Or how Nadler used to do. Ours is a high expectations district. Social Media isn't enough.

My district #NY12 tends to have interesting primaries in recent cycles. Now we have Jack Schlossberg, Kennedy grandson. And also, most likely, Andrew Cuomo, Kennedy son-in-law. I don't expect either of them to get far in the primaries. This is one district that won't be swayed by "pedigree".

"How is your basmati rice SO GOOD in terms of texture & grain separation? What's your secret?" I'm often asked when I host dinners. I don't believe in kitchen secrets. I show em. Aged rice. Youngest basmati I use, bought in 2021. Most sparingly used, my precious, 2013.

I hear Cuomo wants to run to be my next Congressman. It's my fault really. Just because I voted for him in 2 governor elections, he assumes that I will always want him. Even after I've said NO twice, he's like "but you were into me in '14 & '18, honey". Maybe it is my fault for leading him on. 😭

When pin oaks and Northern red oaks shed, you notice!

Recently the chief minister of Uttarakhand declared that the "paper leak scandal in the state has been promoted by urban naxals seeking to encourage a jihadi mentality." Now, those are words, and put together they make a sentence! But that sentence... MAKES NO SENSE

The GOP civil war over Nick Fuentes is like watching an episode of Hell's kitchen. A bunch of bad people who are not good at much else just yelling and fighting.

I first heard of @zohrankmamdani.bsky.social briefly and in passing when he won the assembly seat but I really started to pay attention when he said he's going to run for NYC Mayor and his main policy position was free buses @gauravsabnis.bsky.social gauravsabnis.blogspot.com/2025/11/my-l...

My Long Personal Essay on Zohran Mamdani. Part 1 of 2. gauravsabnis.blogspot.com/2025/11/my-l...

What the fuck is a Jihadi Communist exactly? Leonid Brezhnev would like to meet a few thousand of them. There exist people who believe in both "there is no god but Allah and Muhammad is his prophet" and "religion is the opiate of the masses"? 🤔

I'm writing a long personal essay on Zohran Mamdani. Very long. Very rambling. These are a few snippets. Will post the link when finished.

My favorite moment of this campaign.

I would very much like @aoc.bsky.social & @bradlander.bsky.social to be my two senators after the terms of Schumer & Gillibrand end.

Those are legitimate investments in people over profits!

The thing that many people don't get about free buses is that free buses are FASTER and keep traffic flowing at a good clip to the advantage of everyone. I'm pretty sure that all regular bus riders get this.

The new Communist government will seize control of the steel making industry, force you to pay more for everything you need, use masked secret police to kidnap and brutalize "undesirables" and protestors, and drape buildings with giant banners of their Communist Party leader's face... Hey wait a sec

"Do you have NYPost from Nov 5?" Guy ahead of me at my bodega asked. Clerk said no, sold out that day. Guy left. Clerk said this is 10th such customer today, wonder why. Showed him eBay listings & he understood why. So the copy I bought that morning is my best $2 investment ever!😂

To the "NYC is doomed now" folks, My neighbor Mary worked in WTC. She walked down dozens of floors & lived. "Hon, they say every 5-8 years, the city is finished. 9/11 was supposed to finish us. Then 08 crash. Then Sandy. Then de Blasio. Then Trump. Then COVID. Now Zohran. Yawn"

I was in India last week and happened to catch NDTV, the host started a segment with "noted Hindu hater and communist Zohran" ... so bizarre

If you think free buses that cost 0.6% of the city budget, rent freeze on city subsidized homes after a corrupt Adams hike, free childcare for employed people, and 5 city run grocery stores in grocery deserts is communism, you're in for a real surprise when you encounter actual communism.

People least bothered by Zohran's victory - New Yorkers who voted for Cuomo or Sliwa People moderately bothered by Zohran's victory - MAGA People most bothered by Zohran's victory - random privileged UC or UC-adjacent uncles in India, especially from tech or finance

Woke up early to be 1st in our booth to vote for @zohrankmamdani.bsky.social at 6 AM. But 2 Boomers were ahead of us. Entering the site. However I'm happy to report that we finished filling out the ballot fast. And were the first 2 votes recorded in Stuy Town. 😁

When Trump won again, they said "Cope!" My way of coping was, minutes before Trump was re-inaugurated, sending money to a long shot candidate I thought could, should, and would be my next Mayor. Tonight, that long shot @zohrankmamdani.bsky.social is the favorite to be my Mayor. Make it so!

Weirdest thing this NYC mayor race has been seeing Hindutva accounts join in on misspelling or mangling Mamdani's surname in solidarity with Cuomo, Trump, Musk. Worshippers of Adani, Ambani think making a Gujarati -ani surname sound dangerous is a smart move! 🤷🏽

I can't believe that a mere 24 years after 9/11, NYC is about elect a Muslim man mayor 🥰. It's a testament to the solid character of the city and its people. And the biggest repudiation in history of anyone who uses being victims of terrorism as a justification for prejudice.

The way this dead tree is at 45° due to extremely strong dead native wildgrape vines holding it up is so cool! #OurWawar It's fun owning wild land that you leave wild. Fun fact. Nordic name Vinland for America is believed to come from how they saw it's trees covered in vines.

This NYC mayor race just keeps reminding me how lucky Andrew Cuomo was to never face a real challenger the last 3 times he won the Governorship. All due respect to Cynthia Nixon. Even this late in the game, Cuomo sounds so unprepared! www.youtube.com/live/133Gqfx...

Future historians will start many books about the 2020s with the fact that George Floyd and Charlie Kirk both shared the same birthday.

मी हवं तेंव्हा बॉम्बे म्हणेन मुंबई म्हणेन बंबई म्हणेन. तू कोण रे भोचक?

Here's a Democrat who's actually good at messaging. www.cnn.com/2025/10/15/p...

When a good student does badly on a multiple choice test that was otherwise high scoring, I immediately send an email like this. Some people seriously are just not good MCQ test takers. He said after class he really appreciated it. He was feeling very down about the grade.

I miss pre-AI Google search so much. Also, humanity is so fucked! Wanted to check a line from Zombie. Throws up Linger lyrics as Zombie. I Google the most memorable Linger line. It still says Zombie. I know the songs. But imagine if I didn't. Imagine a young music student.

Was craving Bombay Street Chinese style egg fried rice and Chicken Manchurian. So made and ate. One of my favorite cooking skills of mine is how well I can recreate childhood favorite meals. 😋

The success of multi-ethnic liberal cities violates the belief that racially homogenous, conservative places with white people (however they choose to define that) at the top are the best. That's why they're trying to destroy those places.

Me: Hey (neighbor) Molly, how are you? "Gaurav! I've been meaning to ask you! Where are the hurricanes?" Me: Raleigh I think. "Who?" Me: Carolina Hurricanes "What are you talking about? I mean it's been a lean hurricane season. Why? You usually know such stuff." Me: 😂

This qn shows how little people outside NYC understand the rent freeze. New construction has nothing to do with rent freeze. His rent freeze only applies to a million or so units that are mostly 50+ yrs old & taxpayer funds help maintain. So mayor gets a say. It's not a broad rent freeze.

We'll see. Hopefully most of it. Rent freeze is completely in his control. More busways, bus lanes is doable. Free buses need Albany but Hochul is up for reelection next year. She can't win without the city voting for her in big numbers. In 2022, the city saved her. So Zohran will have leverage too.

An ice breaker question I like to ask students in orientation sessions is, tell us your name and the story behind why your parents chose the name. Memorable one today. "My mom's favorite movie is Sixteen Candles and that's why I'm named Jake." Jake truly is that one hero who holds up.

Buckley, Jr. got skewered by James Baldwin. bsky.app/profile/crys...