I went with my daughter to pick up my granddaughter at her preschool a few times recently, and I’m certain that I would be up on an assault charge if I’d encountered these asshats.

Nitro Pub Ale at Civil Life Brewing, a thing of beauty.

Just want to mention that Prime Suspect is playing on Prime now.

STL version: my condo neighbor is the Great One’s SIL. One day, I’d brought her a loaf of bread that I’d made, and the next day, she told me that Wayne really enjoyed the bread.

2025 recapped

Hybrid work schedule and changing professional dress code has resulted in a yearly dry cleaning savings of about $2K. I also have about $5K in neck ties collecting dust in the closet.

Fleetwood Mac cover band called Stevia Nicks. Is that anything?

In late 80s, I ski bummed in Park City. A roomie worked at Wasatch Brewing. Utah laws required brewers to sell product in a certain time. Rather than dump it, the owner gave the beer to employees. So we always had 2 or 3 kegs of beer sitting in the snow on our porch. A magical time.

Up late drinking with my sister and BIL, in from out of town, next thing you know, we bought tix for Margo Price in Chicago, late February. Woot!

In terms of food, I way over-bought, -prepared for the holidays. Have been debating buying a small chest freezer, and I think I’ve finally arrived at the answer.

“The SS were present in force in the aisles to ensure that audience members were displaying the proper degree of enthusiasm. . . It sounds like a school field trip where the teachers are armed.” —Lee Sandlin, about Hitler’s Bayreuth, in his essay, Losing the War

How I’m walking out of 2025

Pop Tarts Bowl has jumped the shark.

There are some pretty cool things in downtown Orlando (an actual place), like their cool, Brutalist library, some interesting art galleries and solid restos nearby.

Sunny and 65 yesterday in STL’s Forest Park, still a few debris piles around and stumps from these massive trees uprooted by the tornado, near the Grand Basin-climbing kid for scale.

This one was #10, so free!

I was really good at blue book exams—just set the timer at 2 hrs and let me cook. Hated “take home” exams.

Parents of a HS pal had a Christmas tree farm, so we’d pick up extra cash working there around the holidays. They were also the tree vendor for the Battle Creek Meijer’s where I worked one brittle cold Christmas Eve, 1982, selling the scraggly remaining Charlie Brown trees until 9:00P.

I’m not always great at presents, but about 4 yrs ago, these red boots were my Christmas present to my partner, and buddy, a tall woman in red cowboy boots is a marvelous sight.

Sister coming in town. Looking forward to taking her to my (so awesome) gym. She’s a bigger gym rat than I am.

Luring the Chiefs would cost Kansas taxpayers more than $3B, the second most costly stadium project in history, behind only the off-the-charts insane Washington Commanders deal. (That sound you just heard is of Royals owner John Sherman drooling audibly.)

It is your civic duty to freedom of the press to Streisand the heck out of this 60 minutes report about CECOT so here's another place you can watch it and pass it around www.thereset.news/p/breaking-h...

Nicki Minaj Kid Rock dalliance when?

He’s, like, some kind of Euro Porch Pot, if you know what I mean.

Holiday grocery shopping. 100% booze and junk food. Not a single life sustaining item.

You do everything in your power to get every relevant voice in a story. But as one of my former colleagues told a local official who thought his silence would kill a piece: “I’d like to have you. But the story is being written with or without you.”

Bari Weiss doesn’t want us to see even the promo for the 60 Minutes CECOT story, so definitely don’t share this far and wide.

Authentic expertise is another thing that is excruciating to find online. GearLab performs intense real world tests on outdoor gear. Whether you’re looking for a good rain jacket for walking the dog, or you’re back country winter ski trekking, GearLab has you covered.

With much of the internet transformed into a steaming dung heap, a few gleaming examples of excellence stand out. One of my faves: King Arthur Baking. No scammy subscription, no pop-ups, tons of recipes, novice to pros, succinct how-to vids, a blog.

Strongly recommend following the Wyoming Department of Transportation

Unibroue does not distribute this beer in the US—except as part of a winter holiday gift pack. I absolutely love this beer but have struck out so far in tracking it down this year.

I have cheesed out of work early to begin holiday food prep, a chore for some, but kind of a zen practice for me, totally unlike dinner prep during the weekdays. 5 lbs of meatballs on deck.

The #1 movie when you were 10 years old is how your 2026 is going to go.

welcome home to your parents’ house, the channels are Yellowstone, masterpiece mystery, and Jimmy fallon, btw someone from your high school died in a real weird way

You only get one great dentist in a lifetime, and mine just retired. Prince of a guy and a great dentist. Almost as bad, one of the hygienists told me that my endodontist is also beginning to walk into the sunset.

Junta when?

One of my favorite killing time activities is trying to remember why I Shazamed that song. New to me artists are easy, but then there’s “who’s singing with Nancy Griffith?” Or “is that Mott the Hoople or T. Rex?” Or “who is singing this Guy Clark song?”

Nope. Mfer hasn’t said a new thing in 10 yrs.

Roasted sweet potato wedges dusted in ancho chili, a transcendent combo

One the other end of the leftovers continuum from chili, which improves with fridge time, are homemade sweet potato fries, whose 2nd acts are so sad by comparison to just out of the oven.

That’s the kind of bluff that calls for a “kiss my ass on the Skyway” response.

Dersh still ripped he couldn’t get a pierogi from that Yinzer they airlifted to Martha’s Vineyard.

2026 is gonna be my year

Don't steal pies this Christmas.

“Automation severs ends from means. It makes getting what we want easier, but it distances us from the work of knowing.” —Nicholas Carr

I also recommend the Emily Dickinson approach. Write your skeets on little scraps of paper and put them in a box under your bed.

Give me a break on that Henny Penny bullshit about “we don’t even know what the jobs of the future will be!” Sure we do. The job of the future is slop editor, and schools should do everything they can to help students avoid it.

If you’re wondering what was up at Fox News today after Trump outdid himself in his Reiner tweet, it was 24 hours of Charlie Kirk.

The Christmas season is a time for ghost stories. Kate Russell’s The Prospectors is one of my favorites.