I've been checking eBay to see if scraps of the paint from the Reflecting Pool might show up, but alas. On the other hand, a whole ton of these popped up suddenly:

And are you wondering who our ambassador to Italy is? Why, he's Tilman Fertitta, a Texas billionaire restaurant and real estate developer with no diplomatic experience whatsoever, of course!

This is definitely Bushmiller using a French-English dictionary with an archaic meaning for "dumb" and making the best of it, LOL.

Non-elite man-of-the-people who throws solid silver flatware into the trash like it's a Wendy's spork.

20 years ago (!!) on Princess Sparkle Pony's Photo Blog, I wrote about another remarkable DC water feature, the Ty-D-Bol™ Memorial Fountain: sparklepony.blogspot.com/2006/06/phot...

My most contrarian music opinion is that I think Avalon is one of Roxy Music's worst albums.

It was so, so obvious that McDuffie was the "establishment" pick. The anti-McDuffie ads were effective; the anti-Janeese ads are what made her sound good.

Happy John Baldessari's Birthday to all who celebrate! Still from Teaching a Plant the Alphabet, black and white video, 1972:

I was just thinking that after more than 25 years working closely with the art in a museum, I've only ever touched the art exactly twice. The first was a "I need you to help me move this painting because nobody else is around" situation which still makes me feel nervous 23 years later.

CUTE BEAR DRESS-UP DOLL www.youtube.com/watch?v=ucqN...

Science fiction story prompt: What if Callista Gingrich suddenly sprouted huge moose antlers?

Also from 2011, the inevitable, ultimate Callista Gingrich fantasy:

Colored pencil drawing of Callista, 2011:

Also: I did a Nancy/Callista mashup:

To fully understand Callista Gingrich's hairdo, one must go back to the basics, to the origin story, which is, of course, Sue Storm in the early 60s Fantastic Four:

I know everybody is having a confusing Callista Gingrich moment, so here is my handy guide for discerning her from other celestial bodies, because it can be so confusing: sparklepony.blogspot.com/2011/03/how-...

It's the same hairdo, but somehow it has gotten much, much weirder.

Just saw a crowd of people losing their minds over an albino squirrel. I've named her "Loose Leaf".

We just photographed this new-ish acquisition, a peculiar 1998 shaped canvas by Ed Ruscha titled Metro, Petro, Neuro, Psycho:

It's National Lobster Day! Moon, engraving by Sebald Beham, 1539:

This afternoon's jam! www.youtube.com/watch?v=keDp...

Listening to Devo's masterpiece, Freedom of Choice, and the underrated song is "It's Not Right," a perfectly mutated take on 1950s breakup songs played straight: www.youtube.com/watch?v=x9wh...

Ahhhhh, looking forward to a nice, refreshing, severe downpour this evening! The Approaching Storm, oil on canvas by Constant Troyon, 1849:

At first glance I thought they were gilding the Lantz sculptures at the FTC building and, frankly, it wouldn't surprise me.

Couldn't find any artworks depicting pissing elephants

Grim sign o' the times

One cool thing at my work is that we've acquired so many Daguerreotypes recently that we had to become EXPERTS at documenting them, and now we are teaching other institutions how to do it and sharing our workflows. Here's a couple of great recent examples:

Extremely mixed feelings about the death of David Hockney.

Whenever I see something like that giant Elon Musk inflatable in Times Square, I wonder who has that amount of money to spend on bespoke, five-figure momentary publicity stunts and contemplate how that money could have been better spent.

Susan Collins, if you are not going to follow the assignment, you shouldn't be joining in the group Insta shots.

"Sometimes, just for fun, I like to take three buzzwords and then string them together into a sentence. It's my hobby."

Honestly not the kind of email I expected from them.

Definitely a "here we go again" moment in design: upholstered headboards! They sure do look great when they are band new and posted on Instagram! In practice, however.... www.apartmenttherapy.com/painted-head...

OK, LOL, Buzzfeed, this is pretty funny: www.buzzfeed.com/mjs538/refle...

Oh wow, an entire LP of unreleased 1977 studio recordings by The Cramps, produced by Alex Chilton, is going to be released by Ivy's resurrected Vengeance Records: coloradosound.org/the-cramps-l...

It's National Drive-In Movie Day! Photograph by Steve Fitch, 1973:

It's National Doughnut Day! Still Life with Sweets and Pottery, oil on canvas by Spanish painter Juan van der Hamen y León, 1627, and detail:

I think for a lot of older gays like me, Pride Month catches one wavering in between longing for what being gay used to be like and memories of why it's great it's not like that anymore.

Hard time deciding between Willem Dafoe and Ian Holm.

Ron Perlman: consistently great real hair:

It is imperative that Sluggo secures employment because he is a homeless eight-year-old orphan. ☹️

It's World Cider Day! Cider Making, wood engraving by the gifted Clare Leighton, 1932:

I don't know, CNN, maybe it's because you persist in calling them "girlies"?

Kudos to Crystal Bridges, because this looks like a great Keith Haring show, concentrating more on his commercial work and object making, his strongest work, so much better than his more conventionally museum-friendly easel paintings www.thisiscolossal.com/2026/06/keit...

Fabulous news! The Washington Post has, bit by bit, paywalled all their weather coverage until they had it locked down completely. But now the Capital Weather Gang is free at last! wtop.com/dc/2026/05/a...

It's Wear a Dress Day! Flashback to November 2006:

It's World Parrot Day! The Jack of Parrots, Engraving by Master PW of Cologne, c. 1500:

Sluggo Eye for the Straight Guys

My favorite thing about this Vogue feature on the new Lucas Museum is the Cartier ads sprinkled throughout. The architecture and interior design certainly is... architecturey! www.vogue.com/article/luca...