Isiah Whitlock Jr, best known for his role as Clay Davis on “The Wire,” has died. He was 71

Adults struggle with literacy…nothing wrong with asking for help or reading children’s books for confidence…I want people read..I will never judge..

“In the 1990s, after withdrawing from film sets, the star adopted those views and married Bernard d'Ormale, adviser to Jean-Marie Le Pen, founder of the far-right Front National (FN), the precursor to today’s Rassemblement National.”

Remember: When Tylenol was poisoned *by an outsider* and killed people, the company recalled all their products & redesigned them. When Intel’s Pentium had a bug so obscure it affected 1 in _9 billion_ long division calculations, they recalled their chips. ChatGPT was made deadly *by its team*.

damn. I just searched and the piece I wrote for them years ago about domestic violence and Title IX is gone

Ahem, and ahem.

I have often found, actually, that I can tell everything I need to know about whether or not a cis man is a real one by whether he maintains a juvenile mockery towards menstruation well into adulthood or whether he takes the many, many aspects of menstrual justice seriously

Watching the Call the Midwife Christmas special, and these Turner children already have me misty. Also, the more they say Trixie’s midwifery skills won’t likely be needed, the more I know she’s going to be in some life-or-death situation.

Look, I'm sure that Nolan's adaptation of "The Odyssey" will be fun, but I highly doubt it will be as good as the original.

I can acknowledge that I’m more fortunate than most, but 2025 still sorta sucked, and I definitely leaned into books, television and movies. I really appreciate all those artists. The thing is, I’m absolutely going to lose my shit if the Duffer brothers decided to kill Steve Harrington.

I’ve never managed to put this so succinctly, but totally agree.

I am once again reminding you that “serial comma” is by far the better term. doesn’t traffic in elitism and it actually identifies the grammatical function of the comma usage

Fascinating story from VA: the Confederacy on trial, with a microcosm of the national dynamic that brought us here: the George Floyd protests and racial reckoning, and the furious backlash. Gift link) www.nytimes.com/2025/12/23/u...

that the Whos celebrate Christmas suggests some knowledge of Christ, but whether this is our anthropic Christ or a distinctive Who-Christ remains obscure; some have argued Christianity was introduced to them during their refuge with Horton, which of course turns us to the matter of Elephant Religion

"Black people will not shop here for a generation, but at least I didn't do THAT" - the Target c-suite

Does anyone wanna see a really good Getty image of Rita Moreno and Sam The Eagle having dinner in 1979?

Mofo just announced the Hunger Games. I am done. people.com/trump-announ...

“Conflict of interest” for a black journalist is writing about police abuses when you have a cousin who served time. Meanwhile, for the white guys at the top of the ladder…

I know it is tough out there but I do hope Black woman take some tiny bit of comfort in realizing that you weren’t being overlooked, per se. You just wouldn’t be fun at the sex cult drug party.

This mess is unhinged. www.nbcnews.com/politics/whi...

The way this movie had us all in a chokehold. www.tiktok.com/t/ZP8y2ukMU/

What a time to decide to learn less about the world. dailytarheel.com/article/univ...

Picard management tip: The secret to garnering respect is courtesy, not bravado.

alright, here's me doing "holiday spirit": Christmas jazz playlist. heavy on Bill Evans, because ofc. tried to pick a few slightly less obvious choices, including some stuff that's a bit more fiery than your typical Xmas playlist. let me know what y'all think!

What a great piece! This just gets better and better as you read. prospect.org/2025/12/11/s...

ah yes, all workers should have the right to hurl racial slurs at black customers

MAGAZINER: How many veterans have you deported? NOEM: We haven't deported veterans MAGAZINER: We are now joined on Zoom by a combat veteran you deported to Korea

Don’t look away. sahanjournal.com/immigration/...

This right here. Also, incidentally, the folks who were also poets were some of the most brilliant people I met in grad school. The ability to marshal multiple meanings and definitions of words in concert with one another is intellectually and logistically complex.

Catholicism is WILD.

For the next two weeks we will be fundraising for our winter ministry project … consider partnering with our local ministry in providing grocery gift cards for the community venmo.com/u/solomon-MI...

you’ve definitely heard of elf on the shelf but are you ready for

#ICYMI: ProPublica obtained records from the Department of Agriculture that detailed the millions of pounds of food, down to the number of eggs, that never reached food banks because of the Trump administration’s cuts to an aid program. (Published Oct. 2025)

My teen, who had dreamt of being an astrophysicist, just told me he wants to go to law school because, “Science isn’t going to be a priority in the US in the future…I don’t want a job where I’ll be constantly worried my funding will be taken away.” Gutting. How many future scientists have we lost?

Such nasty pettiness. www.npr.org/sections/sho...

It me. Sigh.

NEWS: The Institute of Museum & Library Services has restored ALL previously canceled federal grants to libraries, following a ruling by a federal judge in Rhode Island last month. This is a massive win for libraries & communities in every state & territory! Learn more: www.ala.org/news/2025/12...

Next round of the box ‘o beans has arrived. Younger cheered, and older was glad but disappointed to hear that sea island red peas, which I get from a different source, were not included. (I promised to buy separately.)

Mackenzie Scott also trusts the people who run the organizations to be the best judge of where the money is most needed and how to spend it wisely, whereas other donors need to make themselves the main character and micromanage your spending

Abolitionist John Brown was executed by the state of Virginia on December 2, 1859.

One of my fundamental beliefs is that I should not have to talk to people who have been cruel to me. You might be surprised to learn how often -- and vociferously -- people disagree with me about that.

Anyone who thinks "em-dash = AI" either doesn't read much or doesn't know much about "AI" (probably both). 🤷‍♂️

Hateful bullshit. The real story is how much funding the administration has cut AIDS/HIV research. Gift link; no subscription required: Trump Administration Will No Longer Commemorate World AIDS Day www.nytimes.com/2025/11/26/h...

If you're new to cooking or don't trust yourself to recognize a bad AI recipe, for the love on god, do not just use random recipes from random profiles. Find trustworthy sites and creators (Serious Eats, NYT Cooking, J. Kenji Lopez-Alt, Alton Brown) and search their archives for what you need.

If you haven't read Inkface by Miles Grier you're missing the best treatments of Othello (and Shakespeare in general) in living memory bookshop.org/p/books/inkf...

Not at all a sneaker head, but I was very into the Nike Air Rift way back when. I was buying them on eBay for years after they stopped making them. But they’re back! And I while they’re boring colors, they totally like like middle aged person (ahem) office shoes now.

misleading headline from Reuters. farther down in the article there is mention of former “DOGE” officials being repurposed into other parts of the federal govt.

My little city has a lot of love. It’s nice to get some goodwill from folks elsewhere, too. I really appreciate someone so thoughtful—and I really mean thinks about people and place and love with attention and insight—thinking of us.