Day #160: United States Postal Service (1969)

It’s clear when the paper’s Politics Knowers think something is important, journalistic standards are no obstacle. They find a way to get that thing on the front page nonstop, whether it’s “reporting the controversy,” repeating right-wing info dumps, or meta-coverage of how it’s affecting politics

The American people aren't interested in boring process stories like "was the world's most notorious sex trafficker providing underage girls to the President?", they wanted to know more about whether Claudine Gay followed best citation practices for her dissertation.

The American people aren't interested in boring process stories like "was the world's most notorious sex trafficker providing underage girls to the President?", they wanted to know more about whether Claudine Gay followed best citation practices for her dissertation.

The Magnificent Mile is in Chicago. Miracle Mile is in Los Angeles. Miracle Mile (1988) is a surprisingly good no-budget thriller with Denise Richards and Anthony Edwards that freaked me out as a kid.

IfIHadAHiFi hold nothing back on their "Night Vision Creeps," which is part of a three-EP collection on CD. This five-track segment of the CD feels like the soundtrack to a low-budget sci-fi thriller in all the best ways. Check it out today:

Actress Grace Kelly riding on the Paramount lot during the filming of 1954's The Country Girl. When not starring in films, Kelly was apparently also available for Brisses, Bar Mitzvahs, and Shenanigans. Happy #BicycleBirthday, Grace! November 2 (1929-1982)

Home is the sailor, home from sea, and the hunter home from the hill. 🫡

Tatsuya Nakadai (1932–2025)

"Harakiri" is my pick for best samurai movie ever made that doesn't star Toshiro Mifune. (That's a dumb hedge so I don't have to choose between "Harakiri" and "Samurai Rebellion".) Insanely good.

A subtle one that's easy to miss, but the fact that Andreesen and Musk both use "alpha" as slang for "information advantage" is a clear tell that their mental world is finance, not technology. They try to talk otherwise but they are investors not inventors.

My latest at @comicsjournal.bsky.social: I talked to @oglaf.bsky.social! Not the character, but rather, the people who create it. They don't do many interviews, so this was a real treat. They're funny people! Turns out they're not super private, just...really bad at PR? www.tcj.com/talking-ogla...

Having watched the two Ortiz pitches in question, man, I do not think he is beating the allegations on that second one.

Loving today's news that the mysterious "fedora man" outside the Louvre heist was actually a 15-year-old museum visitor who dresses like a 1940s French detective all the time, just because. apnews.com/article/louv...

it is confusing to be annoyed at this because 1) obviously it will not work except to reinforce racial bias, it's bullshit and 2) I fucking already did this ten years ago building on other peoples' work and we KNOW it's bullshit. Like in addition to being pernicious there is zero that's novel

This is a wonderful story. (Gift link.) defector.com/wilbur-huckl...

WIP: that gum you like is coming back in style (January 5th)

This may interest some of you: The first space opera by a Black Author, John P. Moore's THE MARTIAN TRILOGY, is now available, thanks to the work of Dr. Lisa P. Yaszek and others. Originally published in THE ILLUSTRATED FEATURE SECTION in 1930. www.amazon.com/Martian-Tril...

Here's one for the internet olds: looking back at the curious case of Kaycee Nicole, the 1999-2001 internet hoax that duped a bunch of protobloggers. www.switchboardmagazine.com/monthly/the-...

Imagine describing Smithereens (“What if Desperately Seeking Susan was realist and an enormous bummer?”) as “pop-y”.

People are focused on youth, socialism, Islam, and social media, but the thing that got me to pay attention to the Mamdani campaign was the carefully constructed wholesomeness.

if there was a rich person with the will, you could build the most incredible news organization that has ever existed just from the wreckage of this year alone.

Celine et Julie vont en bateau (1974)

Hey, Kids, Stories! Clarkesworld # 230. Features my science fiction novella THE APOLOGISTS. Also stories by @kashinggiwa.bsky.social and @izom-chisom.bsky.social and others!

When i met the great Sandy Koufax. I was about 18 or 19. Mr Koufax came to dinner. (Photo by F Sinatra)

Wile E. Coyote could never.

As always, Jeremy Peters and the NYT think some random history professor who has assigned CLR James is "elite" and doctrinaire, but a man like Elon Musk is too complex too describe politically. (Note also which "critics" are allowed to "say" without getting contradicted by Peters.)

You can't win an election by blaming Glonzo, the terrifying kaiju who eats electricity, for inflation if voters think your party is responsible for Glonzo.

Time for 2025 updates to my annual “opinions about solar” thread. If you like these, you might like the second edition of my book, Solar Power Finance Without The Jargon. A 30% discount code WSQ0437 is valid on publisher website until end of November 2025. www.worldscientific.com/worldscibook...

"This fucking sucks" and "all is lost" are two different sentences. Don't say the second when you mean the first.

Nerds: You can set up an owncast.online server on a random cloud service, then stream videos to it via ffmpeg, and invite your friends to chat and hang while they watch a movie. This is what I do with the fellas. Right now we're watching Playtime by Tati and winding down the night.

Quote-posted for Halloween handle reasons.

A nationwide search for "Observe And Report-type dudes." A whole new parallel armed force made up of guys who have described themselves as "a pretty serious DUI guy" in conversation. A qualification exam where the only task is getting upset and driving your truck into another truck. A new age.

This person is one hundred percent correct and it’s scary af. We will never “media literacy” our way out of this as a society. We are about to reap the whirlwind when it comes to misinformation, disinformation, and informational warfare.

"No one who likes Boyd Rice could be an evil man," as The Simpsons said.

Absolutely flabbergasted to report that we have somehow eaten a 24h timeout for—something? we streamed during the 30 minutes we were live. Incredible! 1. Should be back by tomorrow, so assume next month's stream, etc, is still on 2a. We gotta watch this specific movie together ASAP somehow (1/?)

Trump using a Chinese* excavator to destroy the White House is a bit on the nose as metaphors go. *Volvo is owned by Geely Holding, a Chinese company.

As I learned from I think The Comics Journal, he didn't just do Barnaby and Harold and the Purple Crayon, he was the art director for New Masses.

this rocks. when indiana edu killed the student newspaper, Purdue stepped up, printed the forbidden issue, drove it to Bloomington and stocked the boxes.

If a quick lookup on ESPN is correct, that was the second longest home run in Dodger Stadium in the last decade.

I made it out to OBAA last night so reading takes. @scotttobias.bsky.social's interview of Kevin Tighe—who has Parkinson's and clearly thought he would never act again—was moving. "Even though my role is brief, I feel like, 'Yeah, I’m part of something here.'" thereveal.film/interview-ke...

I was married, but I'm not married anymore. Women don't like the vehicle.

Trump's mechanism to pay the troops during the shutdown is by far the most illegal budgetary action he's taken as POTUS, potentially setting the stage to break everything. It's also needless because Congress would easily pass a troop pay bill if Johnson were willing to gavel in. Long thread.

Did a joke AMA last week, but now it’s time for a real one. I’m Steve Lieber and I’ve been drawing comic books professionally since 1992. I’m on this flight for the next 5 hours. Ask Me Anything.

Lord Peter Wimsey is the narrative voice of The Waste Land.

Bet the good people at the Black Cat are delighted to have these guys in the neighborhood.

They’re monsters and freaks, and not in a fun David Bowie way.

so, this weekend the great Dr. Demento did his final show. I could write a lot about the importance of his show to me & my friends when we were 12 and 13. there's more to it than "he played funny stuff" and "his show is where @alyankovic.bsky.social got his start." 1/3