If you're not wandering cemeteries piecing together histories of strangers what are you doing with your time? Three children born and died between 1852 and 1859. Another son, Frank Comly, born in July 1859, just months before his father's death, survived to adulthood.

I am obsessed with this situation.

Kid chose the audiobook of Jurassic Park for our long drive this evening. He's driving. I'm arguing with the book.

I love this idea so much.

It's the last week of school. Things that happened in my classroom that I don't consider a waste of time: multiple game of Uno, connect 4, and chess; coloring pages; so much Lego; put a copy of A Wrinkle in Time into the hands of a student who just discovered this year that she likes reading.

Star Shipped is sweet, funny, and nerdy, three of my favorite things. No surprise since @catswrites.bsky.social is always a good read. This one is a contemporary romance, but also a love letter to the TV sci fi we grew up with. #booksky

Sir Cinnamon Roll is a fiend for ear scritches and will reach out to grab you if you stop too soon.

Class picnic today. It's 86°F, feels like 92. School is offering cold water and popcorn. I tried explaining to the kids that the water plus salty popcorn was like a Gatorade. Student said "Ms. G, I'm not trying to to learn science right now." Sorry kid, I'm gonna stuff it in there anyway.

Come along with me to Poplar Island to release Megatron the Diamondback Terrapin into the wide world

Final weigh-in today. Tomorrow is release day. In October she didn't eat at all, holding steady at 8g, with a shell length of 31mm. Yesterday she ate 25 Rosy Red Minnows. Today she is 202g and 105mm. In the comments on her growth log my student helper simply wrote "very big now."

Found this dude hanging out by my front door this afternoon.

Spoiler free review: The protagonist is both an awful person and a victim. When I first understood what the twist was going to be I was disappointed, but then it twisted harder. No idea how they're going to turn this very internal novel into a movie. #book #Yesteryear

Someone explain how peacefully sharing a professional opinion is a security threat. www.nytimes.com/2026/06/05/w...

The problem, of course, is that while the actual government is the the three co-equal federal branches working in concert with State and local officials, the Trump Administration thinks Trump and his minions are the government and are not accountable to anyone. That's fascism.

Sometimes students ask me "if you're so smart, why are you a teacher?" Sometimes they say "you're so smart, that's why you're a teacher." Sometimes they ask "since you're a science teacher, are you a scientist?" Sometimes they ask "have you ever met a real live scientist?" 🔭 🧪 🥼

The chat function for my online textbook used to be staffed by helpful human beings. Now it is an AI chatbot that insists on giving me very detailed and yet incorrect directions based on an out-of-date version of their website. I'm so glad we're wasting water and energy on this nonsense.

A message for Pride Month youtu.be/Gh7buOqtzdc?...

May in Baltimore ended with 8 homicides. That’s down from: -15 last May -29 in May 2023 -39 in both May 2021 and 2020 -40 in May 2017 -and 42 in May 2015

Gen X problems: I can't sing this without thinking of Ferris Bueller's best friend Cameron. ⚓ #TEC

My college had a writing test. I ignored the prompt and wrote an essay arguing that the test was an insult to the professors who taught the 3 required literature classes. If they were giving passing grades to students who couldn't construct a rational paragraph what were any of us even doing there?

Reminder that we shouldn't be mocking people for how they look. I don't care how short someone is, or how fat, or how big their nose is, or how much hair they have. When I say that Stephen Miller is ugly I don't mean being ugly makes him a bad person, I mean that he is his own portrait in the attic.

Twelve days until Terrapin release. It's bittersweet, and a little scary to send her out into the wide world, but she's needs more space and the Chesapeake Bay needs more Terrapins.

Trying a second time to get the same appliance repaired and the big company wants me to call the service technician on the phone to work out the problem. Service tech speaks very little English. I don't need him to speak English as long as he speaks appliance, but calling him is not helpful.

When my grandfather earned his teaching certificate in 1928, it was a beautiful piece of art in addition to being a tangible proof of his qualifications. I just renewed my license this year. It looks like a receipt from the DMV.

One of the scenes I had in my head made it into text today. It's not *good* yet, but it's drafted. #writersky

Pick a Bond villain from the pictures you already have on your phone.

This is fantastic news (and also none of this should ever have happened.) www.npr.org/2026/05/22/n...

Those of you who love Megatron, remember this is the home she's returning to next month. The Chesapeake Bay is a complex ecosystem under a lot of pressure. Continuing research is needed to increase our understanding of the problems and to develop better solutions.

Television Without Pity and The Toast. At one point I was as deep into TWoP as a person could be without writing recaps and it was always equally fantastic and horrifying.

The request and the response.

This nonsense was going around the socials a few years back. Someone made a video where they "researched" the claim by googling it and reading the Google summary of an Atlantic article. The summary said peasants worked less than we do, but that was a myth that was debunked in the actual article.

Giving middle schoolers unfettered access to the Internet has been a net negative for society, especially the middle schoolers themselves.

Weekly growth update! Megatron's shell is now more than 100 millimeters long, more than triple her hatchling size. She's growing in all directions, of course, including drama. She fought me on everything today. Twenty one days until she returns home to the Chesapeake Bay.

Grant us grace fearlessly to contend against evil and to make no peace with oppression

The louder you scream "I don't need a nap!" the more you need a nap.

Maryland, we have to eat Pennsylvania.

And now for an entirely different reptile, the broad headed skink.

Quote with a fictional band that is not Spinal Tap.

Megatron likes basking, but she loves snack time more.

An excellent use of Freedom of Religion. #TEC www.wboc.com/news/ocean-c...

Very important question for today: Rice and beans Or Beans and rice?

Fun New Jersey fact: it is illegal to make a left turn in New Jersey unless said left turn requires you to cross multiple lanes of traffic without a traffic light.

Parents of college students: your kid will have twice as much stuff to move out of the dorm as they moved into it. Bring some big blue IKEA bags carry all the stuff.

This is not AI, just an odd rose. Nothing else is unusual from the outside. Might dissect it once it starts to wilt. The Internet tells me this is called fasciation, which is not a word that either my spell-check or I had heard before.

A perfect day to go outside for extra recess.

As Hank Green says, Earth is a such a good planet. youtu.be/OdO_g1S_MBU?...

My daughter goes to middle school 3 blocks from the statehouse. The school’s tornado evacuation plan is go to the basement. The basement flooded so they went back to the cafeteria. Kids were saying goodbye to each other. Lawmakers are building a new statehouse but not a new middle school.

American male culture has always been steeped in violence. Before video games it was Cops and Robbers or Cowboys and Indians (because racism has always been part of the culture too.) The games are always a symptom of the culture, not the cause.

Megatron wants to know which side is her good side.