People always praise Jane Jacobs–style porch sitting for the primary effect of stronger casual community ties, but they forget the secondary effect: occupying 45 minutes of an otherwise fussy baby’s attention (now that it’s warm enough!)

from Eisenhower's April 1953 "Chance For Peace" speech

🚽 📦?

it’s my favorite holiday

I often wonder about how officers received my admissions essay, which was mostly about the rural Pennsylvania burial site of a sainted Lebanese bishop.

They beat a blind refugee who speaks no English for failing to obey police commands he could not understand. Then instead of apologizing, they charged him with possession of a “weapon”—HIS WALKING STICK. Then they dumped him miles from home without notifying anyone, after which he was found dead.

"The thought of holding thousands of families in warehouses should challenge the conscience of every American. Whatever their immigration status, these are human beings created in the image and likeness of God ... this is a moral inflection point for our country." www.usccb.org/news/2026/th...

BBC Model Linear B

Nancy 2/22/26… 🪱WOIMS🪱

*looks directly at camera in East Slavic*

The Trump administration has already killed hundreds of thousands of people, many of them children, through USAID cuts. This new move will likely leave millions more to sicken and starve to death.

Inside you there are two Russians

I read this right before going to bed last night then couldn’t sleep because I was staring at the ceiling thinking “Fozzie Bear is a Lebanese Christian and gets mistaken for Jewish like Ralph Nader or Tony Shaloub”

Sister Phoebe would like to chat with Rep. AOC.

my two favorite language family distributions

Note that Finland has produced terrific musicians because music education is part of the curriculum and free. A high percentage of Finns sing or play an instrument. Finland, a country with fewer than 6 million citizens, has three world;class orchestras & a ridiculous number of wonderful conductors.

my new mantra is “I am not registered to vote in the Texas Democratic primary”

@nogodsnomayors.com Mayor Wesley Dingus

We often talk about the vulnerability of immigrants, but we should also remember that many of them are people who have survived brutal conditions in their home countries, including autocracy. In fighting to free themselves, they are also trying to turn this country into a freer place for us all

Vladislaus II Jagiellon in 1471:

@lingthusiasm.com Is there a way to find out who sent me an unmarked piece of Lingthusiasm merch direct from Redbubble?

Via Rachel Laudan’s “Cuisine and Empire,” a terrific book. (Also, she is known to pop up online to claim credit for the map when it goes viral occasionally. Cheers and thanks to her!)

Good news alert: Just want to shout out Elana Meyers Taylor, the most decorated Black woman in the Winter Olympics, who won her sixth medal and first gold tonight, AND is also one of the only 8% of hearing parents who learn to sign for her deaf kid. Badass through and through.🥇

Provenance assertion from my pal at State:

Why is almost every robust healthy boy with a robust healthy soul in him, at some time or other crazy to go to sea?

This is an afront to family biking across #BIkeDC! Stay tuned for planned action. And tell your friends outside of DC to call their Senators offices on Tuesday to alert them to this action that will hurt everyone that visits the National Mall

My friend is becoming a nun tomorrow and, we being millennials, I just asked about a commemorative hashtag.

A fascinating story here about a very early instance of sign language being used in worship. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article... ✝️⚓️

The religious left is back, baby.

Stranded at a convent with the baby??

I’m hoping that the recent rise of anti-AI in healthcare pieces means we might finally be finished with this nonsensical (and harmful!!!!!) obsession

FYI for all my Prisencolinensinainciusolheads:

This @kingarthurbaking.bsky.social recipe is brilliant, and easily done as a weeknight meal with a little advance planning. Bonus points if you boil in the same wok you use for assembly www.kingarthurbaking.com/recipes/scis...

As others have noted, this is perfect except that the punchline ought to have been “Glen Burnie,” or perhaps “Arbutus.” (My mother-in-law is from Dundalk.)

Shame on @nature.com for publishing this ableist trash, and shame on the authors for writing it: Short 🧵>>

Stay up to date with the team behind Capital Weather Gang forms.gle/YR1hJPHth4Lk...

37 - House Cluster ** People will not feel comfortable in their houses unless a group of houses forms a cluster, with the public land between them jointly owned by all the householders.

en dashes, guys

Theatre Washington created a “rare opportunity to tell a story of the local theater industry in the language of dollars and cents,” writes contributor Jared Strange. Its report examines the economic impact of DMV theater and offers new insight. Strange breaks it down:

My wife’s ancestors come in two main varieties: Factory Pole and Very Minor, Very Ancient Colonist. Meanwhile I’m here because my mom got a job offer and I tagged along, being an infant.

It was always weird and stupid that a rich Californian with a massive diaper-delivery business wanted to own our medium-sized regional newspaper where people got baseball scores and opera reviews.

Moonstruck. Shut up

New DC resident just dropped

nunc dimittis groundhogum tuum, Domine

STEVIE NICKS: 🎶Colcannon is when you mash some potatoes / and then fold in some cabbage 🎵

Anne Frank died of typhus.

This story about David Brooks is one of the most brutal takedowns I’ve ever read. By the late Tony Judt

hope Jacques Pépin is having a great day