My new piece for Bicycle Retailer is up. In it, I explore the long term effects of excess inventory on suppliers, and how it just might mark a change in the supplier/retailer dynamic of the past 20-odd years. www.bicycleretailer.com/opinion-anal...

Question for the day: people involved in an oligarchy are rightly referred to as oligarchs. Is it therefore correct to refer to people involved in a kakistocracy as "kakistocks?" Asking for a friend.

This month's post for Bicycle Retailer follows up on my search for Authenticity in the cycling industry, and finds it in an unlikely place...the cream of local bike shops. See what you think. www.bicycleretailer.com/opinion-anal...

My current piece for Bicycle Retailer is all about authenticity, and why the cycling industry could use a whole lot more of it. Read the whole thing here: www.bicycleretailer.com/opinion-anal...

Speaking of The Rapture, Wikipedia lists almost 200 predictions about the end of the world. To date, about 165 of them never happened. The rest are for dates yet to come. Me, I'm betting on the heat-death of the universe. en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of...

DISNEY: "OK, we are putting Jimmy Kimmel back on the air. You can resubscribe now." ME: "I unsubscribed because you immorally bowed to fascism. I'm not going to resubscribe because you immorally bowed to finances."

"Taiwan has been the top overseas supplier of screws to the US for more than three decades, but steel and aluminum tariffs are now forcing some factories to close." —The New York Times Sometimes the punchlines just write themselves.

Things I think About (That No One Else Ever Would): Why isn’t "anagram" an anagram? If it was, it would be an "anagramargana", which, in addition to sounding a whole lot cooler, would be far more appropriate.

Part Three of my three-part series for Bicycle Retailer on oversupply on the bicycle industry is up. In it, I tie together some of the ideas from the first two installments and suggest some changes for how we might move forward as an industry. www.bicycleretailer.com/opinion-anal...

Image caring more about stopping a memorial for people killed in a mass shooting than stopping mass shootings. #Priorities

Just a word to the wise: the autumn equinox isn't until September 22nd, which means it's still summer for almost four weeks yet. This whole summer-ends-at-Labor-Day business is just a plot hatched by the nefarious international Pumpkin Spice Cartel. Don't fall for this scam!

Score one for the Good Guys. AI maker Anthropic caves following its blatantly illegal use of copyrighted material from authors to train the company's LLMs. arstechnica.com/tech-policy/...

This poster is currently up in Washington DC. We'll see how long it stays up. Because They hate it when we laugh at Them, no humor will be permitted in the coming shining city (or cities) upon a hill. Please govern yourselves accordingly.

So now Trump has claimed 10% of Intel's revenues. As Molly Ivins put it, "Fascism should more properly be called corporatism, since it is the merger of state and corporate power." She attributes this quote to Benito Mussolini, although it's never been confirmed.

"For grifters who prey on angry, bitter rubes, stealing from the rubes only makes them angrier and more bitter—and thus easier to fleece." —Cory Doctorow, Conservatism Considered as a Movement of Bitter Rubes, 22-July-2025 Any relevance of the above quote is left as an exercise for the reader.

My latest Bicycle Retailer piece is "Another Fine Mess We've Gotten Ourselves Into, Part Two." www.bicycleretailer.com/opinion-anal...

From this morning's Morning Brew newsletter: A Wall Street Journal reporter attended the wedding of two friends who were married by the Hellman’s Mayonnaise mascot, Manny Mayo. There’s nothing as beautiful as seeing two people bonded in aioli matrimony.

An Occasion Worth Celebrating. 51 years ago today, Richard Nixon resigned. As a young man, I remember feeling an enormous sense of relief, triumph, and personal validation. Score one for the Good Guys.

Thought for the Day: “What does the AI machine eat? It eats youth, spontaneity, life beauty, and, above all, it eats creativity. It eats quality and shits quantity.” —Paraphrased from the Job: Interviews with William S. Burroughs (Burroughs originally said "money")

Microsoft adding its Copilot AI to Word and Excel is exactly like bringing back Clippy. Only not as cute.

Lest we forget.

I note that Joey Chestnut has once again won the Fourth of July Nathan’s Famous Hot Dog Eating Contest. If there's a more All-American sport than Competitive Binge Eating, I'd surely like to know what it is. Image: NYT

47 wants to host a UFC Cage Match on the White House lawn. My Modest Proposal: use members of his own cabinet. Winner sleeps in the Lincoln Bedroom plus a lifetime supply of Trump-branded merch. Loser gets a warrantless abduction by masked ICE "agents" and a 1-way ticket to Alligator Alcatraz.

My latest piece for Bicycle Retailer is the first installation in a multipart series (3, as of now) exploring how the industry got itself into the current oversupply imbroglio, where the responsibility lies, and what we might do to prevent its recurrence. Get the full story at the link.

“If you have any young friends who aspire to become writers, the second greatest favor you can do them is to present them with copies of The Elements of Style. The first greatest, of course, is to shoot them now, while they’re happy.” —Dorothy Parker, of course

Thought For The Day: "Never be deceived that the rich will permit you to vote away their wealth." Lucy Parsons, African-American Labor Organizer (c. 1853-1942)

In a Pew poll today, 64% of Canadians described their feelings about America as "Unfavorable" (or "Unfavourable," in Canadian). And I thought 64%? They're Canadians. They're so nice, they like EVERYBODY! Except us now. www.pewresearch.org/global/2025/...

The neighborhood is getting ready for tomorrow

I usually take MeidasTouch with a grain of salt, but this sums things up nicely: "It took Trump less than 150 days to destroy our alliances, destroy our economy, start a failed trade war against the world, send our military to attack Los Angeles, and now create a massive war in the Middle East."

From The New York Times newsletter this morning: Trump attended the opening night of “Les Misérables” at the Kennedy Center. “It’s a musical largely about a revolution,” Jimmy Kimmel said. “After Act 1 last night, Trump called in the National Guard and squashed the whole thing.”

Thought for the Day: To the extent to which media is owned by corporations, that media necessarily reflects neither a liberal or conservative bias at its heart, but a corporate one.

New Bicycle Retailer piece is up. Even if I say so myself, this one is a real barn-burner, and it's certain to thoroughly piss off any number of people (you know who you are).

Make no mistake. According to people who are actually there on the ground, there are no "riots" in LA, no "looting." Federalizing the National Guard and sending Marines in without being invited by the CA governor is a cynical power grab, the thin edge of a coming Police State wedge.

I note the Federal Reserve has reinstated the swindling scum at Wells Fargo as outstanding corporate citizens. As we say here in the South, there's only one way to cure an egg-sucking dog, and it ain't by leaving the door to the chicken coop open at night.

Conversation between me and my wife, just now: J: I'm on my way to a stupid @#$%^& meeting that doesn't need to happen. Me: Are you bringing Snacks? J: No. I'm just bringing Attitude.

You know you're attempting to implement a dystopian agenda when the judge quotes Kafka at you.

The perfect bird feeder doesn't exi--

Bottoms up, Ladies! Wait, that doesn't sound right. How about: “We found that women who consumed moderate amounts of caffeinated coffee in midlife were more likely to age in good health.”

Best new word for describing the state of the economy: Tariffying.

Personally, I think the mark of a good parent is that your kids end up less messed up than you are. Of course in my case I have to admit that doesn't raise the bar very high.

Saw a bluebird (Eastern) a couple days ago. We don't get many here in South Arkansas, so it's a particular treat when they do appear.

New from me: I am a professor of public administration, and I have a radical proposal - President's should not put people with significant drug problems in charge of our government. donmoynihan.substack.com/p/presidents...

Newsflash: France (France!) intends to ban smoking in beaches, parks and near schools. Based on my very limited visits to Paris, I had concluded that puffing away in all public places was a matter of national pride there. www.bbc.com/news/article...

Liberal Arts majors rejoice. "Majoring in nutrition, art history, or philosophy could set you up for more employment success than majoring in a STEM (science, technology, engineering, math) field like chemistry or physics." No word yet about those of us who majored in Music Theory.

Strong (but completely reasonable, IMO) words from the folks at @splinternews.bsky.social about @cbsnews.com.web.brid.gy's ongoing headlong descent into full-time Trump sycophancy.

Here's my new piece for Bicycle Retailer. In it, I discuss how the Bike 4.0 business model is responding to our current and unprecedented economic uncertainty, and spend some time analyzing Cycling West publisher Dave Iltis's list of dealer closures. www.bicycleretailer.com/opinion-anal...

If you're interested enough in #Pynchon to want to learn more, check out this link. In addition to being a nice précis of the master's work, it contains the PR for Pynchon's new (well, upcoming, anyway) novel, “Shadow Ticket.” To add to the fun, the press release is written by Pynchon his ownself.

As if there wasn't enough enough reasons already to distrust the Triumvirate—NYTimes, WaPo, and WSJ—here's one more. I wasn't familiar with @splinternews.bsky.social, but I'm following them now here on #BlueSky.

My favorite holiday— #pynchoninpublic day! Best wishes to all who celebrate.