Lots of tech dudes think the "idea" is the important part of creating, not the creative journey you take through work to give that idea actual meaning. Ideas are the easiest, cheapest and least fulfilling part of it. Giving ideas life through work, and sharing that work with others, is the stuff.

I recall a poetry prof from another life, who said that you're not a writer if you don't love words, and I don't think you love words if you're letting a computer pick them for you.

"Our product identifies legacy process-driven, rule-based back-office tasks and streamlines them through clear process mapping and the automation of human-augmented workflow nodes. It then facilitates the execution and disposal of all legacy human elements." www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/our...

like, she made a tool to make the protest more accessible to people who don’t know the chants she made a cutesy video that maybe makes going to a protest more approachable for people who don’t know how to join in i am just so annoyed with people criticizing folks actually doing something

Walter won’t apologize, he isn’t sorry. And he will use his experience of not being charged for the misdemeanor he committed to bolster his ongoing argument that anyone assaulted or killed by police (or ice) has earned it with their failure to be cordial.

I think often of a New York Times photo of a little Iraqi girl tending to her parakeets in a bombed house, probably from 20 years ago now. I will think of this man and his sweet dog often now too. People just want to love what they love, care for their little beings, and instead we do this to them

For a sense of the scale of the federal occupation of the Twin Cities metro this winter... Chicago and LA were too big so they tried picking on somewhere smaller. They were thick on the ground here but they still left in disgrace. www.axios.com/local/twin-c...

Did panic last year about the cute little elderly church ladies protesting, are they prepared for possible violence or arrests? Chatted with them about it, turns out that I shouldn’t’ve looked at their age and cute sweaters and assumed they didn’t have an history of getting arrested at protests

(This one was for the theatre kids.)

Walz: We will never leave the side of our Somali Minnesotans. Here's our pledge to you, our Somali Minnesotans, your great grandchildren will still be here when that orange clown is in the dustbin of history.

There's literally a transcript from congress during ratification where one senator says "wait but this would mean kids of gypsies and Chinese immigrants would also get to be citizens" and the sponsoring senator says "yep, sure does"

Having tried both alternatives, I'm becoming increasingly convinced that "don't be a grouch" is *always* good advice.

In today's Flyover news roundup...

In underfunded fields, people tend to do their own work. In overfunded fields, people pay others to do everything, including “their” research and writing. It’s not an accident that AI is an overfunded field that grew out of other overfunded fields.

All I'm going to say that: If I had never done a thing, I wouldn't be so quick to jump into discussions about whether "AI" can do the thing.

Does this work at universities too, or how does this work exactly?

While we’re at it… Why are cryptocurrencies legal? And how can Generative AIs operate without violating copyright laws?

Most of what a university can offer that students can’t get elsewhere is stuff they don’t know to “demand” ahead of time precisely *because* it isn’t available elsewhere. Judging the value of a university program by how much it appeals to people who’ve by definition not encountered it is backwards.

a government for abusive men, by abusive men

Im telling you now that you know this formula you will only have to read the first couple sentences of a feature to know it’s about to follow this narrative non-fiction formula and if you’re anything like me you might groan and start skimming LOL

Pope Leo is the first Pope to have ever experienced the US healthcare system, so there's that

I'm just stunned anyone thought a tagline that starts with University of Minnesota: Leave ... was a good idea.

I just clued into the Afroman defamation lawsuit. Amazing. Absolutely amazing content. Actually, it surpasses mere content. It is art.

CAESAR The ides of March are come. SOOTHSAYER Ay, Caesar; but not gone.

Look at the great poster the U of Connecticut made for me--incorporating the witty trade card of Elizabeth Griffin, mid #18thc London map & printseller. Immodest of me--but I believe my talk (3/26, 4pm) will be live-streamed, so pls let me know, farflung Bsky pals, if you'd like more info'.

Still true

Every pronatalist argument I’ve encountered seems like it could be solved by a robust immigration system that allowed more people to move here. The reluctance to entertain that solution tells you what the real concern is.

Now they live in fear of gangs of neurotic humanities majors who've been denied funding.

Watching Politico get told they're sanewashing shit by the guy they're sanewashing is just excellent. Media cooked. Getting dunked on by the people they're protecting. We are in the post-dignity era of the press.

Narratively having Ever Given getting stuck in 2021 to set up Hormuz in 2026 is great foreshadowing. You want your audience to understand the basics of international shipping in a lower stakes context so you drop the real plot without a lot of saggy exposition about the minutiae of cargo logistics.

In case anyone needs it for their syllabi, my statement in gen-Ai from the minicomic I made as a syllabus for class last semester. All online and printable here spinweaveandcut.com/fall-2025-sy...

This and a ton of additional material from our NEH case is available on our website historians.org/lawsuit-to-restore-the-neh

James & Mary Laurie Booksellers is ensconced in their new location at 933 Marquette Ave. S. in downtown Minneapolis. If I have the sequence right, this is about location No. 6 (N. St. Paul>Stillwater>St. Paul>Nicollet Mall>North Loop>Marquette). Yes, the photo when Mick Jagger visited is displayed.

One minute of the Grain Belt Beer sign and a train crossing the Mississippi River in Minneapolis

this is a metaphor for the american electorate

a) Shoutout to @emersonrp438.bsky.social's MOO for making my cubicle job bearable in 1997 b) "just for being on it" to like, engage, talk to people & enjoy things instead of trying to build clout and become an INFLUENCER like me, bro I don't believe in bullying *anyone*, but if I had carve-outs..

There were 250 people in the audience, at the biggest available room for our #awp26 panel, Resisting AI in Writing and Teaching. It was invigorating; hearing about how writing instructors are pushing back against their institutions was inspiring. Thanks to my co-panelists Carmen and Umair.

Minnesota's state hockey tournament time is here which means the state is once again suffering from a peroxide shortage. First team up is Dodge County

Honestly this brought me a ridiculous amount of joy. I love how we bond over the monthly awoooo and the storm watches and pets in the basement pics. Really, truly, the MN feed is the best community on the Internet even before we are god-damned heroes protecting each other. No place I'd rather be

There’s a broader point here which is that professors are always being accused of trying to brainwash students. Professors like disagreement! They get off on coherent challenges to their position! The absolute best moment in teaching is when a student says plausibly “you’re full of shit.”

NANCY MACE: What is a woman? Have you learned that lesson? WALZ: I'm the governor of Minnesota. I'm not here to be a prop for your obsession.

“Cut the utilities, condemn the building, demo it, take it under eminent domain, whatever you can do. Make it impossible for them to use our neighborhood for a concentration camp,” he said. “This will not be solved by a harshly worded letter or resolution. We need action.” wdet.org/2026/02/27/c...

Blowing things up, kidnapping and killing foreign leaders, is good because it's Doing. Considering the consequences of Doing would be Thinking, which is weak and woke

Totris - for your next hotdish! 😋

Charlie Kirk dropped out of an Illinois community college after one semester. He later advised Gen Z that today's higher ed probably isn't worth it. A perfect icon for this regime's attitude toward becoming educated

We are training undergrads (18-22) to digitize vcr tapes, cassettes, and vinyl. We introduce phrases like "rewind" into their vocab and made diagrams of what a tape looks like from 6 angles. And we get questions like "how do I rewind a record" which is understandable but turns my bones to dust.

They all THOUGHT that they were talking to the Hillary that Rush “Conspiracy Theorist” Limbaugh warned them about. They didn’t realize that they were ACTUALLY talking to the woman that Bill Clinton, who is smarter than ALL of them put together, said is smarter than HE is.

Want to know more about the sweeping trend of state mandated taxpayer financed and hyper empowered civics centers, and the political project they embody, as in Ohio? See this excellent @theguardian.com article @osuaaup.bsky.social www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...

"Then this whole ICE thing started up, and I just got so fucking pissed off about it."