Often the 100 minutes I spend on Amtrak to NYC is my most productive work time all week. It’s an instant concentration environment for me. Like straight into the zone.

We have had no significant rainfall since first week of July, and none is predicted anytime soon. The ground is so dry it crunches under our feet. Third drought in four years. We live very near one of the major reservoirs that provides drinking water to NYC and it is even lower than last time.

If you need a daily dose of joy…

Yesterday's piece from @jamellebouie.net is the only high-profile piece I've seen that specifically discusses the watchlist, its effect on academics, and its effect on public attitudes toward academia as a whole. (gift link) www.nytimes.com/2025/09/13/o...

With the Kirk assassination becoming clearer, we need to talk about the radicalized, Right Wing subculture that carries out terrorism and mass shootings. They’re an essential part of MAGA and so people really don’t want to see what is undeniable. jaredyatessexton.substack.com/p/the-threat...

ENLIGHTENED. Perfect in so many ways (and Laura Dern is AMAZING in it), and if you like White Lotus, it’s earlier Mike White.

The Heritage Foundation released the following words from the organization's president, Kevin Roberts, about the death of Charlie Kirk: “His martyrdom must be a turning point for our country.” Yes, he said "martyrdom." Remember, we don't even know who killed the man or why.

Useful info on autoplay below.

An extraordinary joint op-ed and plea by NINE former directors or acting directors of the CDC under both Democratic and Republican administrations, succinctly describing undermining of public health, and what’s needed now. (gift link) www.nytimes.com/2025/09/01/o...

Not to belabor the point but RFK Jr is going to implement policies that will kill thousands or even millions of people if he is not removed. Thanks to @thewarningses.bsky.social @saveamericamvmt.bsky.social for the frank discussion. www.youtube.com/watch?v=gaxc...

New York friends, please call your reps to support this.

I know there are 8,000 things to be upset about in this country right now, but the dismantling of all of our scientific research hits hard because there is no quick way to just restart all of this. The stupidity of that overtanned brainworm is going to kill so many people.

The temperature dropped 15 degrees and I just ate a perfect peach over the kitchen sink. Bliss.

Venice has the best protesters. #nograndinavi

The girl who was absolutely brutally mean to me in middle school about my clothes/hair etc (I grew up poor) just sent me a friend request on Facebook. I literally have not thought about her in 30+ years. I barely use FB as it is, but: Why on earth would I accept this? People are so weird.

Mike Bloomberg alone spent more money on Andrew Cuomo’s campaign than @zohrankmamdani.bsky.social raised and spent *in total.* Mutually supportive principled leaders w a dedicated base of people who care can beat back the billionaires & machine pols. People power FTW www.nyccfb.info/VSApps/WebFo...

A fun thing about American politics is that more people voted in New York City in a June primary than live in five states that get two senators.

A lot of tonight should go to @lindseyboylan.bsky.social who selflessly has made a good and righteous fight on behalf of herself and the other women Cuomo not only harassed... but then wasted our taxpayer dollars to legally harass again and again. www.thecity.nyc/2025/06/02/c...

Clinton, Clyburn, Summers, Palantir, Bloomberg, NYT, Wall St, AIPAC...all tried their best. The entire establishment went full racist and Islamophobic in the end. Still Mamdani won. Biggest F U to the Democratic Establishment and 1% since AOC win. Wow.

Brad Lander speaks: "Andrew Cuomo is in the past. He is not the present or future of New York City. Good fucking riddance"

After resigning in disgrace, Cuomo attacked the women he harassed with vexatious, punitive legal filings meant to bankrupt and humiliate them, and threatened to sue them for defamation. He wanted them to shut up. At great personal risk, they didn’t.

Fuck yeah NYC!

Was outside for all of twenty minutes today, after sunset, to water some new plantings that are even more sensitive to this heat wave than I am. Came inside and found both a tick and a spider crawling on me. Am assuming both wanted to come hide out in the air conditioned bedroom, too.

Every one of these establishment dems endorsing Cuomo is both completely unsurprising and completely infuriating.

At least the Bush/Cheney warmongers went to Congress for authorization. Trump bombing Iran without congressional approval is illegal. Full stop. But he’s never been held accountable for any of the illegal things he’s done in his life so why not drag us all down with him

Cuomo’s history of sexual assault allegations is so voluminous it requires its own Wikipedia page, Jim: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_...

The “heat dome” is apparently also a “migraine dome” for me. Ugh. The one trigger I cannot do anything about is barometric pressure shifts.

I am 100% one of those people who grew up in upstate NY and is obsessed with Wegman’s, but truly, their seltzer beats La Croix any day.

"We are witnessing the dismantling of a system that once made space for pure curiosity. But if we lose our commitment to basic research, we risk stalling the very engine of innovation that has propelled us forward for generations." www.chronicle.com/article/in-d...

You love to see it.

Bottle necked marchers on 40th street merging into 5th Ave break out chanting with fervor: fuck Andrew Cuomo

We’re somewhere in here. Great turnout, great energy. #nokings

Finally had a stunning day on a weekend and got all of the plants from my native nursery binge in the ground. Lots of shade gardening this time around so mayapple, bloodroot, bleeding hearts, an assortment of ferns, and then some liatris and prairie smoke and pussytoes to fill in some sunnier gaps.

Haliburton, as called in: Brazil, France, Iceland, U.S. (in Spanish), Albania, U.S. (ESPN Radio), Indianapolis, Oklahoma City, the Netherlands, Türkiye, Canada, and Croatia:

I have to say that now does not seem like the worst moment to be switching to a job that requires substantially less air travel.

I swear the worst offenders of watching:l/listening to things on a phone in public spaces is boomers. This skeet brought to you by today’s Amtrak journey, where an inane YouTube video is playing so loudly it’s cutting through my noise canceling headphones.

I hate this. (And am also really glad I just took a new job that will require way less Amtrak commuting in and out of the tunnels into and out of Penn.)

The two fighter jets we just lost cost $120 million. Trump's planned birthday/military parade will cost $45. He just called this "peanuts compared to the value of doing it." The entire annual budget for the NEA last year was $207 million.

I will never not re-share this video when it pops up in the feed. Pure joy.

If anyone wonders how strong habits are, ask me about how many times I have tried to mindlessly check the work email account that no longer exists in the last two days.

Have officially had my last day on the job at Hachette and am about to have 2 1/2 weeks off before starting my new gig. This is the first time in my life I have been able to take real time off between jobs, and the prospect of 19 days with no work email to check, makes my brain very happy.

„The Partnership for Public Service, a nonprofit organization that studies the federal work force, has used budget figures to produce a rough estimate that firings, re-hirings, lost productivity and paid leave of thousands of workers will cost upward of $135 billion this fiscal year“

Let’s! Go! Mets!

Rick Steves — the guidebook author, trip host and massive personal travel brand — has put his personal commitment behind the cause of anti-fascism, with a self-funded documentary hosted on his own website. Respect.

Spectacular view of 100,000 people attending the #HandsOff march in NYC

Let it be noted that the Democratic politician with as much proven crossover appeal as any in the country has done it while making a point of not giving in to the resegregators and transphobes.

Super grateful to Past Amber for cooking up a bunch of Rancho Gordo beans and freezing them before we went to London, so that tonight, when down with the inevitable post-conference cold, I was able to pull together a chickpea tuna lemon pasta thing in 10 mins with very little effort.

I thought I was not that jet-lagged, but now that 4pm EST has rolled around I am forced to admit that I was wrong. 🥱

This isn't the canary in the coal mine, it's a mine shaft full of dead miners.

I have been in London, mostly for work, for a week, and it has been unseasonably sunny (though still chilly) every single day, and my soul has been restored. (As well as the skin on my poor, desiccated hands. All the cracks have healed! In one week of mild humidity!)