Unlike Boston and NJ Transit, SEPTA won’t gouge World Cup fans | Shackamaxon share.inquirer.com/wkZfth Long annoyed with Josh Shapiro’s taste for white sneakers I am thrilled to find agreement with @dpearsonphl.bsky.social on this subject

Putting my journal editor hat on: this has become a huge problem since covid. I don’t know what senior faculty are thinking about how they benefited from willing referees in their own career and now just won’t/can’t/sorry-I’m-too-busy. Others ghost editors who write to inquire about late review.

If Hungary can free itself from the rule of a corrupt Russian agent, the USA can too.

The shared excitement over NASA’s recent mission compared to the general indifference to SpaceX missions speaks to the power of something seen as the product of communal human effort rather than just the ego and avarice of one obnoxious dork.

Waiting for Artemis 2 to reenter the atmosphere brings back so many great memories from childhood, even if they were nervous memories when I was preteen

We’re glad it’s TACO Tuesday! 🌮

I just stumbled upon this, which is utterly wonderful, including the songs: www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cr9b...

So far so good NASA! One of my favorite days was 13 years ago when my younger son and I lucked into the end of the time when Mission Control in Houston was open to the public. I got a bit verklempt

As someone who was obsessed with the Apollo program as a boy, I am grateful to NASA for delaying the launch of Artemis today until I’m home from work.

Monarch is irresistible to men in their 60s who grew up watching Godzilla movies and then Kurt Russel transition from Disney actor to kickass hero of John Carpenter movies. Pop culture catnip

Angry and panicked Phillies fans should be aware that Bo Bichette is 1/14 with 8 strikeouts.

As a long-time Al Gore admirer I watched his interview with Tim Miller and was blown away by his fluency with the biggest questions facing us. But are any dem politicians talking to him? Why hasn’t he spoken at the dem convention recently, unlike the ubiquitous Clintons? It’s weird

Can You Hang a Pride Flag in Your Office Window? This University Says No. - The Chronicle of Higher Education Appalling. Support for the basic rights of gay and trans people is not political advocacy.

RIP Robert Mueller. By me. No paywall. fallows.substack.com/p/one-man-a-...

1) This is my last semester as full-time tenured faculty at Temple. Turning only 65 in May, I would have laughed at this idea 5 years ago, and I still love teaching, but the relentless budget-cutting is producing passively closed or closing programs, save for 3 in the social sciences.

I’m getting very impatient waiting for season 2 of Monarch: Legacy of Monsters, writes this older guy who spent many hours in his youth watching Godzilla and friends. Then there was Ultraman…

This a.m. by far the most migrating geese I’ve ever seen and heard flying over Philadelphia. Due to melting of snow cover? Sensing the coming storm? Flying very fast, so they hopped on a good jet-stream? Reassuring, given reports of new bird flu wave. #birds

I remember when Jesse Jackson spoke at my high school in the late 1970s. He was so inspirational. I shook his hand afterwards, and, looking into his eyes, I could also see so much pain in them. A great, complicated, often frustrating human being. RIP.

Even for something inspired by Le Carre, the ending of The Night Manager was really dark and depressing. Other than that, Hugh Laurie is a truly kick-ass villain.

I’m really not happy about the reboot of Rockford Files, barring a resurrection of James Garner. Yet another failure of government regulation…

Best day of every year

This week’s opening rant on the Daily Show by @jonstewartdaily.bsky.social was the Sistine Chapel ceiling of opening rants. Thank you, Jon.

In the halftime show the string musicians are conducted by a real classical conductor Giancarlo Guerrero

Even the Daily Mail connects dots www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article...

Real Catherine O’Hara fans know there was SCTV and then the other stuff. Just kidding. Sort of. 😉

When the temperature first plummeted a few weeks ago I thought God might be trying to send the US a message by turning the US into Greenland. Now I think it’s turning the US into Minnesota.

Signs about the history of slavery in the U.S. and the 9 people George Washington enslaved are being removed right now at the President’s House Site in Philadelphia, across from Independence Hall, months after the Trump administration threatend to do so. How far we have not come in 250 years.

RT if you don't even know how the hell to open a ChatGPT tab

Who among us ...

My three favorite male speaking voices are Patrick Stewart, Avery Brooks and Seth Joyner. Two Star Trek captains and a former Eagles linebacker turned analyst

Phila Orchestra today Dalia Stasekva led Adams’ Short Ride, Barber violin concerto (Hadelich!!!!!) and Mahler 4. Best concert I've heard heard this season. Orchestra sounded wonderful, much better than the awful Brahms 3 last time. Will definitely want to go when he’s on the podium again.

Four generations of my family have served our country. Service is in my blood. The President wouldn’t know anything about that.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=8FzN... This is utterly wonderful on so many levels. 30-something years old documentary of Neumann sitting on the podium with the Czech Philharmonic talking about various passages of Mahler before playing through them. Utterly riveting for me, even with subtitles.

www.nytimes.com/2025/12/22/o... @laurenginsberg.bsky.social Timely, yes? Gift link

I enjoy the Bulwark’s podcasts on Youtube but am concerned that half their staff seem to regard Mark Zuckerberg and Sam Altman as sartorial role models. That said, I am guessing Zuck’s t-shirts cost several hundred dollars a pop.

This is one of the best Shostakovich performances I’ve heard in ages. Karina Cannelakis is a significant talent, marrying head and heart to an unusual extent. www.youtube.com/watch?v=UT6U...

Hurts-haters really must learn at some point that poking the bear is really stupid

This was taken 7 years ago yesterday–the little guy’s first time on a couch with me after we picked him up from a rescue at a farm in Delco. He’s assumed this position several times a day since then. We call it facetime. And he and I both have more gray hair on our heads than then.

Given how little happened in the 2nd half I’m glad I’m too old to watch that part of night games while I’m not old enough to be retired. Today will be one of those days like Mike Schmidt once sort of described. The thrill of victory and the agony of hearing about on sports talk radio the next day

For what I assume is a limited time the Czech Philharmonic’s YouTube channel has a stream of a marvelous performance of Mahler 2 under Oramo. Fleeter than normal but not rushed, with one of the two truly great Mahler orchestras.

Have the Commanders won a game since you know who said he wants their new stadium named after him?

So I have an Espn account through Disney and it won’t let me watch the Eagles. It keeps insisting I need to sign up for a plan even though I’m already logged in.

I was watching Jon Stewart’s interview with Mandani just now and had been trying to figure out who he reminds me of from the past and kept returning to the word “happy”. The Happy Warrior Hubert Humphrey. The more I think of this the more it makes sense. If you’re young look up Humphrey.

I can’t shake the feeling that there is something really odd about Scott Bessent’s face, something unnatural. Botox? Surgery?

Last Sunday I wore my 2018 Super Bowl champion T-shirt for the first time this season. I wore it again today. 2-0. Eagles clearly got my message. You’re welcome, Philadelphia.

Go 🇨🇦!!!!!

Fifty years ago today, the greatest piece of baseball writing on deadline: www.bostonglobe.com/sports/1975/...

The Towering Musical Integrity of Christoph von Dohnányi - The New Yorker This is a terrific piece by Alex Ross, which begins with a touching letter from young Christoph to his uncle Dietrich. I wish we had more conductors now who were like CVD and fewer like Liberace.

I guess the Browns won’t be getting the #1 pick this year. Dolphins are playing like they want their coach fired

There’s nothing quite like starting your morning with overreacting to almost being run over by a speeding e-scooter on the sidewalk