World Cup Final Watch Party. Central Park. 7/19. 

First 1,500 people can claim up to 4 tickets through our partnership with Global Citizen and Governor Kathy Hochul! 

If you’re not in the first 1,500, you can still enter the lottery for tickets through Wednesday. 

on.nyc.gov/finalswatchparty

When hiding out, try to blend in with the crowd

The tire industry claims it only recently learned about the toxicity of 6PPDQ (a compound that holds the tire together). The good news is that tire co's are scrambling to develop a substitute, and they've apparently made progress. But yeah, best not to inhale tire particles. To say the least.

That won't serve them well in an emergency. It's also a pleasure to know your way around, as I do to some extent in several cities. I also know how to travel on foot across unroaded landscapes reasonably well without getting lost, and I enjoy the sharpened attention to landmarks, directions, etc.

The above is from the intro to the New Orleans atlas. For me being oriented, having a general sense of where I am and how to get there, is essential (and normal). Maps require you to work and reward you with learning and they thereby become superfluous. Devices you obey don't as I learned...

Always Repost Owls 🦉

I was thinking of posting something just like this, but Mary said it better than I could.

Meanwhile, Chuck Grassley celebrates his 132nd birthday

If you're gonna read one obit today, make it this one instead. Two guys doing the hard, unglamorous, deeply human work of making their corner of the world a little better and more hopeful. www.nytimes.com/2026/07/11/n...

Russia killed Ukrainian volunteer Olha Kuzmenko, along with the animals Olha was caring for. Olha chose to stay in the frontline town of Druzhkivka, Donetsk region. She refused to leave because of the animals - Olha spent her days feeding them and helping with their evacuation to safer areas.

[Exit Queen.]

Gift 🔗 www.nytimes.com/2026/07/12/u...

One of my favorite glass vessels: A marvellous Roman vessel in the form of a pig, made of blue glass. It was used to hold ointment or perfume. Found in a burial in Cologne. Dating late 2nd/early 3rd century AD. 📷️ Römisch-Germanisches Museum Köln

Sunday's Weather Rating: 8/10 Now we're talking!!! High temperatures reach into the mid 80s later today, and while it's still a bit humid the dew point is falling towards more reasonable numbers. Partly cloudy skies are in control, too. The vibes have improved!!

'Sew' is about feminine identity & sewing on stage; it reads the 'English lesson' scene in Henry V as a sewing scene, positing that this activates a troubling material intertext; 'Cut' is about tailors & the fraught construction of masculine identity (Shrew, 2 HIV, much Jonson) & of plays 7/10

Timeline Cleanse

Starlink is planning ultimately to launch 100,000 Amazon is planning to launch 7,700 satellites Including other players, there could be as many as 150,000 in low earth orbit within the decade. (look up Kessler syndrome)

At the turning of the millennium there were 769 satellites in space, 2026 there are 14,500 satellites. I spent 7mins photographing the Milky Way rising above Poatiri Mt Charles Hoopers Inlet, on Muaupoko (Otago Peninsula) this evening. Ōtepoti Dunedin, NZ #Photography

I gotta sleep but everyone please take this moment as a prompt to check in with friends and make sure everyone is on the same page with your wishes: Do you want to be woken up when it happens or not?

Despite a paper trail proving otherwise, Unbound’s administrators claimed they still owned the rights to Effin’ Birds and threatened to sue Penguin Random House if PRH paid me any royalties for my ongoing book sales. Wasn’t resolved until two months ago. They tried to bankrupt me out of spite.

Gift 🔗 www.nytimes.com/2026/07/12/u...

A stick grasshopper having a salad 🥗 I had never seen these until just a couple of months ago and now I am obsessed. Saw this one in Valparaiso, Antioquia. The audio is the Cartama River just a few meters away. 🌱🌿

Hundreds of people in San Francisco marched from tech company to tech company on Saturday, blasting OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google for barreling towards an AI future. They rallied under a giant "Stop the AI Race" banner. missionlocal.org/2026/07/san-...

Did you know if you have a following of any size, some percentage of them rely on alt text because of vision, neurological, or crappy internet connection issues? Adding alt text also makes it more likely your image gets reposted. It is also a great and thoughtful kindness in a world that needs it 💜

This is what governing on behalf of the people looks like. www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...

Gift link 🔗 www.nytimes.com/2026/07/11/b...

"When the public’s right to know is crushed, as the Trump administration is trying to do with its subpoenas against The New York Times, all of us suffer irreparable harm," said @rcfp.org Chairman Stephen J. Adler.

Yesterday, The New York Times reported that the Trump administration issued subpoenas to several of its journalists — including those who wrote about the new Air Force One. Read statements from @rcfp.org Chairman Stephen J. Adler and President Bruce D. Brown:

People are like "Bear with me" and they don't even have a bear with them.

Stokes Asters

Imagine having this as your work station ~ in 1963, Marion Ash worked at the Wall Court Floral Library in Corfe Castle, Dorset, and here she is in the flower drying room (photo: John Drysdale)

This project will create more than 3,200 union construction jobs and generate billions in economic activity. It will also produce nearly $250 million in tax revenue that will go toward paving potholes, improving schools, planting trees, and supporting the services New Yorkers rely on every day.

BREAKING: the clock struck midnight and our bipartisan housing bill is now law. Trump refused to sign it, but he couldn't stop it. This law is GROUNDBREAKING. It will build more housing, bring down costs, and for the first time, stop private equity from buying up homes.

Belted Kingfishers Herman Theodore Bohlman, 1901.

Letters from an American July 10, 2026 Continue reading here: https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/july-10-2026

nothing like this, in the present case, had been done

Gift link 🔗 www.nytimes.com/2026/07/11/b...

Good news this week: Salish Sea whale Pop Tart was successfully freed from fishing gear. A Tallahassee mourning dove baby kidnapped by a do-gooder was returned to her mother without harm. A redtailed hawk from NE Portland named Chocolate was rescued after windowstrike and will make a full recovery.

Don't get TRAPPED paying for subscriptions you don't want anymore.

Timeline Cleanse

They’re voguing on the whaling ship

On my way, Clacton.

Stokes Asters

Timeline Cleanse

Pay her the debt you owe her, and unpay the villainy you have done with her. The one you may do with sterling money, and the other with current repentance.

Gift 🎁 🔗 www.nytimes.com/2026/07/08/u...