Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooo! This is a travesty.

<whispering> if i thought you would be able to lower your cholesterol through diet and lifestyle changes, i would not have recommended the cholesterol medication </whispering>

Columbia Journalism School professor Sam Friedman praises @andrewhickey.500songs.com as a model of journalistic ethics, and rightly so ethics.sjmc.wisc.edu/2026/01/15/e...

Ah yes the clear visual language of the good guys.

I spent all afternoon putting together a soul jazz playlist while doing stuff around the house. Not bad at all.

Every time I see a marketing promotion based on the phrase “six seven” I say to myself, “Do these advertisers think 14-year-old boys have a lot of purchasing power?”

It just occurred to me that I’ve been at this for 90 days and I’m only up to “D.”

Patient: My questions fall into the following categories: “Guilty Confessions,” “Things I’ve Diagnosed Myself With,” “General Complaints,” and “Things You Probably Can’t Do Anything About.” Me: It’s Primary Care Jeopardy! I’ll take “Things I’ve Diagnosed Myself With” for $300. (Shared w consent)

Listening to all these jazz records sequentially (and reviewing them), has given me some new perspectives. A thread, with two examples: 1/x

On this, the final day of 2025, I wish to make known that I am thoroughly sick and tired of people saying “welcome in” when I enter a place of business. “Welcome to _____” is fine. “Welcome” is fine. But “welcome in” needs to go.

ruin two bands by combining them: P!NK Floyd

Alastair Sim as Scrooge in Scrooge (1951). The meme daddy. So you *can* do it. Film & TV producers have made enough adaptions of Scrooge at the window to fill a whole advent calendar. They can do anything they like. Of course they can. You there boy! What day is this? To-day! Why, CHRISTMAS DAY!

Ok. I’m going to try this, just to see if it’s possible. A different Scrooge at the window everyday during advent: George C Scott in A Christmas Carol (1984) You there boy! What day is this? It’s 1st December

Has anyone made an advent calendar where every window is a Scrooge from a different Christmas Carol adaptation leaning out asking what day it is? Alastair Sim for Christmas Day, obvs

This is an almost shockingly wise essay. I'm glad I've finally read it.

Charlie Parker - “White Christmas” (1948) Accompanied by Max Roach on drums, Kenny Dorham on trumpet, Al Haig on piano, and Tommy Potter on bass. youtu.be/sDDsGdzXSqA?...

Last leftover Thanksgiving turkey sandwich. Always a sad day.

Accidentally switched my GPS to Roger McGuinn mode

For years I’ve been trying to get someone at DC or Marvel to create an art book titled “Lichtenstein in Context” reprinting the stories he plagiarized as RL would have seen them (no modern recoloring) and giving the proceeds to the artists or their families. Sell it in museum gift shops.

I re-subscribed to AppleTV so I could watch Pluribus (and Severance, which I started last year but didn’t finish)*, but while I have the chance I’m also rewatching Ted Lasso, and it’s still delightful. * and also Spirited, which just might be my new favorite Christmas comedy

A thread about Christmas customs, as portrayed Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol: 🧵

Instead of being the BEGINNING of an extended festival, Christmas Day now marks the CONCLUSION of a prolonged period of celebration. In modern American culture, Christmastime is a season in which we ANTICIPATE the coming of Christmas Day, not a season FOLLOWING Christmas Day. 29/x

But as @nadijarieser.bsky.social recently demonstrated, it should be noted that Dickens might be guilty of creating false impressions of Victorian customs. Modern readers (like me!) who extrapolate too much from a work of fiction may be drawing erroneous conclusions. 6/x

I can hear this photo: “Hallway down the stairs is the stair where I sit…” By A.A. Milne, if I recall correctly.

It’s time.

See also: taking collagen to help up your hair and nails grow

Shout out to headbanger Jeff Kezy, who gave an oral presentation about Randy Rhoads in my 9th grade speech class.

“Build a bridge. Shine your light. Peace and love.”

The second worst summer job I ever had was doing cold-call telemarketing for an air duct cleaning company. They literally handed us a phone book and said “Go down the list. Dial the number, read the script.”

This is an excellent holiday album. I threw it on tonight, given the news.

Oh no, that's really terrible news. If you like soul music at all, you've loved something that Steve Cropper was intimately involved in at Stax

RIP Steve Cropper, you might not know his name* but you know a lot of his music. youtu.be/iFQEsUjI0U8 *yes, I know lots of you do know his name.

RIP — Cropper was responsible for some of the sweetest electric guitar playing ever committed to tape. variety.com/2025/music/n...

I’ll be super glad when I don’t have to read the word “narco terrorist” any more.

We need to normalize talking about death as part of life, because NOT talking about it is why we see so many drawn-out, painful deaths. It’s not giving up and it’s not losing, it’s just the end of a time period.

Can you guess this album? (Imagine lots of pink.)

Nine years ago Mike Fitzgerald wrote up an extraordinarily fascinating breakdown of the differences between the Tom Stoppard shooting script and the original Jeffrey Boam draft of Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade. It's well worth your time: www.creativescreenwriting.com/indiana-jone...

Time for the annual “am I old or are the celebrities at the Macy’s parade fairly obscure”

✔️ Planes, Trains, and Automobiles ✔️ Alice’s Restaurant Also, my wife is watching the Macy’s parade, which always makes me feel hopelessly, hopelessly out of touch with American pop culture.

Retcon: For Good

Just listen to what Brubeck’s left hand is doing on “Blue Rondo a la Turk” on the 4th time through the main riff (right before Paul Desmond comes in on alto at 0:45). Fascinating! It’s much more harmonically complex than is immediately apparent. It reminds me of Thelonious Monk.

My wife is prepared for tomorrow

I’ve been saying it for years: recent seasons of The Simpsons have good episodes, but it’s about one out of four (3-5 good episodes per season) rather than 20+ good episodes per season.

My mom shared a recipe that called for 4 teaspoons of butter… but she told us to include 4 CUPS of butter

Brother, you have no idea.

“I’m tired. Is this what getting old is like?” — my 21-year-old son