New poll finds an encouraging 34% of Americans unwilling to volunteer a glib binary answer about a complex and multivalent phenomenon

I’m hopeful that New York’s terrific new First Lady, Rama Duwaji, can finally heal the divide between people who say “ceramist” and people who say “ceramicist”

Journalists, when you write that someone is “her generation’s Elphaba” or whatever, please know that I want to smack you just as hard as I did twenty years ago when you wrote that someone was “their generation’s Dumbledore” or whatever.

James Mosely's series of lectures on the history of letterforms were delivered every year to students in the Department of Typography and Graphic Communication at the University of Reading. These were recorded in 2020-21, and are now available for everyone to watch: www.youtube.com/playlist?lis...

There’s going to be a printed 12th Edition of the Merriam-Webster Collegiate Dictionary! Even if you’re living that digital life, you should order one, for the splendid and thought-provoking delight of opening to a random page and seeing something unexpected. → hflr.io/mw12

Reposting, because: 1. CLANKER 2. words generally 3. H&Co fonts on the website!

How ever to define a color in the dictionary? This is the topic of @korystamper.bsky.social’s long-awaited new book, now available for pre-order. As a huge fan of her splendid “Word by Word,” I am absolutely tickled in a color as of coral or salmon! www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/555914...

Just going to consult this reference book, “The Consequences of Pursuing Godlike Power,” by The Entire Canon of World Literature

The greatest gift I have ever received has been the introduction to the *millions* of people around the world who’ve sharpened their love of letterforms through my episode of “Abstract” on Netflix. This morning, a lovely email from a complete stranger in Krefeld, Germany — thanks, Melissa!

By “the industry,” are we talking about the one that has enriched civilization since the stone age, or the one run by a small handful of tech titans

To the Honorable Judge @darthbluesky.bsky.social: Budino has discovered that his longtime favorite, the slipper, sometimes has (when worn) a hard crunchy center (the human toe.) The literature advises that I’m supposed to discourage this, but I am weak to deny him this apex happiness. Advise?

It really might be time to let all the tech CEOs fulfill their ambition of building an extra-territorial tax haven island where they can all go and live together, allowing the rest of us some peace and quiet, or at least the ability to take them out with a single naval bombardment

I don’t know what chance or fate led me tonight to rewatch The West Wing S05 E16, “Eppur Si Muove,” but my god did it hit like a ton of bricks. American scientists, 2025. The scientists.

This needs “Yakety Sax”

okay, pretty great ad www.youtube.com/watch?v=wTv3...

You know, I look around at this world — its economic turmoil, civil unrest, environmental collapse — and I keep coming back to the thought that what we most need right now are some giant wolves

I HIGHLY recommend subscribing to “Your Local Epidemiologist” on Substack. This morning, a shrewd analysis of the disinformation campaign being waged around measles in Texas. An invaluable read: yourlocalepidemiologist.substack.com

Concept of the day: “Hamming Distance.” Interesting, useful; jolly name. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hamming...

I don't think we'll ever know why scientists act like that.

I’m gonna go out on a limb and suggest that “eating alone” might not be the whole picture.

Woefully incomplete! At the very least, missing are: (vi) those belonging to the Emperor (vii) embalmed ones (viii) fabled ones (ix) stray dogs (x) those included in this classification (xi) innumerable ones (xii) those that have just broken the vase (xiii) those that from afar look like flies

I don't know about you, but I'm heading into the kitchen to mix myself the granddaddy of all negronis

Good read. Short. www.archives.gov/founding-doc...

What do we think “half mast” looks like at McDonalds? Are both flags run down? Just the Stars and Stripes? Do they move the McDonalds flag to half mast if Mayor McCheese dies?

Readying an old old album for digital distribution, and I remembered this pretty funny album-credits-as-type-specimen that was included in the CD.

Apple Intelligence has truly achieved the caliber of insane gibberish unseen since the days of the Newton MessagePad. Below, my phone's alarming summary of a voicemail, which in fact dealt with scheduling a time to meet with an electrician to compare halogen and LED light fixtures.

When next you need a break from all the doomscrolling, may I suggest a few minutes with CutAndPasteMovies: www.instagram.com/cutandpastem...

Helpful illustration by Dr. Hardeep Singh on how federal health & safety agencies protect us.

A fun Black History Month footnote to this is that the motif of the anthropomorphic legislative bill—known to most of us from Schoolhouse Rock—has roots in the Black press of the 1930s, as in these two editorial cartoons by Bill Chase & Romare Bearden, both highlighting anti-lynching legislation

Currently paused at the grocery store, listening to a soothing Bob Marley song, and contemplating whether the answer to all our problems might just be eating an entire ball of mozzarella and going to bed

Really worth the two minutes. And the additional related phenomena that @kottke.org pulled together are illuminating!

Making the rounds is this *wonderful* sequence by Questlove, which is so joyful and energizing. Not just “worth the seven and a half minutes,” but the 22-1/2 in which you’ll be unable not to immediately watch it three times in a row. Ingenious and beautiful and inspiring. youtu.be/vDxYQd51Xuk?...

Reposting this because it’s topical for me, but personally I’m more interested in the gent at lower right who appears to be watching a murder mystery on a black-and-white TV:

I must ask: is it just me, or does Bluesky by default show you the e n t i r e thread that someone posts? I follow a couple of beloved but prolix people, so 99% of bluesky for me are their 15-thread posts, which can be a little enervating.

Hemingway 2.0

I rewatched Severance S01 this week, and man alive, Adam Scott gave us so much in those early episodes as Mark S’s outie. It’s so satisfying to see S02 moving to a place where he — and the rest of this fine cast — has a chance to strut their stuff. Wonderful.

For anyone who felt that Bishop Budde’s words were a surprise, here are the first four pages of her book, published two years ago. She remains the very same person of principle, who takes seriously her obligations to the public.

For Blue Monday we can't think of anything more appropriate than this charming depiction of a man getting his face eaten off by a leopard. #MosaicMonday

I am here for every step of this continuing odyssey gamerant.com/doom-ported-...

An opportunity to improve legibility, at no cost! For @nysdmv, and others. Originally, license plates had bubbly letters because of how they were fabricated: characters were stamped in relief, and their faces were painted by a roller. But today, → (1/4)

I did not expect to be sobbing uncontrollably this morning

The vanishing neon of the city. [Gift link] www.nytimes.com/2024/12/24/r...

I like to interpret this as a bittersweet holiday story in the style of O. Henry, in which a child learns about dual verification, and an Air Force colonel about the two-person rule in missile silos, so that both can discover that love is the greatest gift of all. www.norad.mil/NORAD-Tracks...

A *significant* portion of my brain was shaped by these two books, some of my most cherished childhood possessions.

Back in my day, we just said we’d hope to see smurfs smurf the smurf with smurfs who smurf smurf

A word I learned today, which goes straight into the kerning proofs.

Today I learned that the voluminous Bach family tree includes, among all the Johanns and Christophs, one "Lips" Bach (1590–1620), who I'm saddened to learn was just another musician, and not some loan shark's merciless enforcer. :|| en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bach_fa...

It's hard to believe there isn't a greeting card for this

I supported this project at the highest level, and I hope you will, too: it’s going to be a splendid showcase of the Type Archive (1992–2023), one of history's great collections of type-making material. History needs our help! vol.co/collections/...

I watch this every year. Twice in an election year. www.youtube.com/watch?v=LQlU...