Image created by chemical leakage within a damaged thermopane window, Milton Hospital, Milton, Massachusetts. Believed by many to be an image of the Virgin Mary holding the baby Jesus, it eventually attracted a total of 25,000 viewers. This image was taken on 7/6/2007.

Flocking sparrows, 2021

Landscape Arch, Arches National Park, 2011

Poet's Walk Trail, 2018. The Scenic Hudson parks have some very cool park benches.

People are coming up with such convoluted explanations on what the Trump-Mamdani meeting means. It's simple: Trump is nuts.

"Dog Accidentally Shoots and Injures a Pennsylvania Man..." That does it. We ARE in a computer simulation. No way is this a real world. www.nytimes.com/2025/11/14/u...

Badlands National Park, 2016. Long camping road trip, Boston to Yellowstone and back, but really Badlands was the highlight of the trip.

Gooseberry Badlands, near Worland, WY.

The only "emergency" is Trump's collection of tariffs which might need to be refunded. But the tariffs were collected from American businesses and, if refunded will be refunded to American business. The money would stay within the US and refunding it would not be an economic catastrophe.

ISN'T THAT A LOW-FLUSH TOILET? Did Trump install a low-flush toilet in the renovated bathroom of the Lincoln Bedroom? Isn't we worried that his honored guests will "need to flush ten times?"

Save me from badly integrated IT systems. My 2025 Toyota Camry has a dashboard clock. Although the car is connected to the Internet, to satellites, and to my smartphone, it is unable to automatically adjust the clock for the time change. The time cannot be set by any of twenty-odd settings groups

Donald Trump wants the US to resume bomb tests. But he's my age, he remembers ATMOSPHERIC testing. Bomb tests were tourist attractions. Announcers said "Welcome to the valley where we grow the giant mushrooms!" He loves spectacle. I bet he will demand ATMOSPHERIC testing when he figures that out.

The last poem in Carl Sandburg's "The People, Yes," slightly abridged for Bluesky's three-minute limit. "The people will live on. The learning and blundering people will live on. They will be tricked and again sold, and go back to the nourishing earth for rootholds.

It was a big deal in 1962 when all three networks aired "A Tour of the White House with Mrs. John F. Kennedy." Donald Trump would have been 15. I think the ballroom is about Camelot envy. If it is completed, I fully expect Donald Trump to conduct a TV "Tour of the White House with Donald Trump."

My language companion in Peru hadn't heard about the destruction of a third of The White House, found it difficult to believe, and said "This couldn't happen in Lima because there are laws against changing historic buildings."

The web page describing the White House tour begins by explaining that "The site of the new ballroom will be where the small, heavily changed, and reconstructed East Wing currently sits." But it then goes on to say "Tours of The White House include the public rooms in the East Wing!"

Little kids are going to see the diarrhea-bombing video. Some of them are going to be disturbed by it. Nightmare-disturbed. Too-scared-to-ask-parents-about-it disturbed. They will NOT understand that the President only bombs bad people. Or will think that if they are bad, it could happen to them.

Why is it called a "ballroom" when the only purpose ever mentioned for it is dining?

"In February 2024, [Paul] Ingrassia wrote: 'The founding fathers were wrong that all men are created equal … We need to reject that part of our heritage.'" That's not "joking" language. www.politico.com/news/2025/10...

I ache for at least one Trump supporter to say something like "I still support Trump, but I could have done without the diarrhea-bombing video."

The price OF EGGS does seem to be down. They weren't up because of Biden, they aren't down because of Trump--but they are down. Oddly, Republicans aren't trumpeting this--probably because ALL OTHER grocery prices are up, so they'd like to avoid discussing groceries.

Someone needs to tell Donald Trump that the Nobel Economics medal weighs ten grams more than the Peace medal. THAT should get him going.

A originalist legal scholar whom the Supreme Court often cites wrote a "bombshell" article denying the "unitary executive" concept. The knell of democracy is that the NYT says "the new article is unlikely to have a practical effect." www.nytimes.com/2025/10/13/u...

"Trump Administration Will Rehire Scores of Experts Fired in Error" Friday’s layoffs swept up scientists involved in responding to the measles outbreak and running an influential journal. An official acknowledged the mistakes on Saturday." This is 100% on Russell Vought.

What I want to know is why alien foreign Briticisms are creeping into our All-American English. For example... why is an injection now a "jab" when it always used to be a "shot?"

I was puzzled as to how "rocking" a piece of clothing can mean "wearing" it, until I realized that it makes exactly as much sense as "sporting" it.

Remember the "generic" supermarket items briefly popular in supermarkets in the early 1980s, possibly a response to inflation? They were typically cans with all-white labels and no brand name, simply carrying a word like "peas" or "corn" on them. They often used a typeface resembling a stencil,

Waves of topics seem to come and go, without obvious reason. One week, posts about cats; then a lot about dreams people say they had; then a lot about autism. I can't relate these to posts I've marked "like." Am I doing something to attract these topics, or is that just how Bluesky is?

Old guy here. PLEASE tell me that there are young programmers who care about getting stuff done with a minimum of bugs, not just flamewarring about language snobbery.

I remember how exciting the special effects were in "Destination Moon" (1950), particular one scene where they solve some critical problem by opening oxygen cylinders and using them for propulsion. They are floating, they crack the valve, something sprays out and hisses, and they move the other way!

The wonders of technology have brought us the Virtual Locked Groove. Please, if you have music on hold, and your server farm can't spare space for more than 30 seconds of music, and ten-minutes holds are common, choose and edit the music to that the loop repeats at a natural place in the music.

Suppose a mother's FEVER during pregnancy increases the chances of the child developing autism. And that it also increases the chances of the mother taking Tylenol. That's a storyline in which you would have correlation without causation. And not a crazy one. www.nature.com/articles/mp2...

I expected the right wing to accuse Tyler Robinson being "anti-fascist" based on one of his bullet casings, but the Overton window has not yet shifted for the right wing to self-identify as "fascists." Five years ago they were demonizing "ANTIFA" but maybe few understood "ANTIFA" as "anti-Fascist."

I'm dreaming, but in my dream Kash Patel announces "On review we have found that mistakes were made in the matter of Salt Lake City SAC Mehtab Syed, and we are reinstating her with a promotion and a pay raise..."

How true Masha Gessen's "Autocracy: Rules for Survival" has turned out to be. "Rule #1: Believe the autocrat. He means what he says. Whenever you find yourself thinking, or hear others claiming, that he is exaggerating, that is our innate tendency to reach for a rationalization." Check. Trump's

As far as I know, Donald Trump has not yet mocked RFK Jr's dysphonia and tics. We'll know Trump has changed his mind about RFK Jr when that happens.

I fear the ACIP, whose recommendations govern insurance coverage, is likely to recommend almost nothing. We will enter a world where "anybody who wants a vaccine can get one" IF their doctor's willing to write an "off-label" prescription AND they don't mind paying $250 out of pocket for the shot.

Now, this is interesting. Sorry, I think I need to post the full text. Trump is _aware_ that CDC is being "ripped apart" by vaccine questions and regards it as a "MESS" that needs to be cleaned up. This is the first indication of any qualms about "Bobby Kennedy Jr." September 1, 2025 @ 8:15 AM:

THE GOLF LINKS (1914) The golf links lie so near the mill That almost every day The laboring children can look out And see the men at play. --Sarah Norcliffe Cleghorn 1876-1959

Just to remember... news story, "October 18, 2012: Cuban state media released a message attributed to Fidel Castro on Wednesday evening, as speculation mounts over the health condition of the 86-year-old communist leader." Then he lived until November 25th, 2016, and was 90 when he died.

To tamp down rumors, the White House ought to publish a Court Circular, à la Mark Twain in "A Connecticut Yankee:" "Clarence’s way was good, it was simple, it was dignified, it was direct and business-like; all I say is, it was not the best way."

User interfaces. Just got a new Android phone and decided to take advantage of "extended unlock" feature to make it easier to access my phone. So here's my current user experience. If I'm home, I just swipe. Unless I've been home more than four hours, in which case I use my fingerprint.

In 1956, an ad said "A hog can cross the country without changing trains--but YOU can't!" If that was true, how can the proposed Union Pacific and Norfolk Southern merge be "the first transcontinental freight railroad?"

Sign of the times. Years ago, the New York Times crossword editors assumed that their readers knew a little French and included an occasional French word. Now, there appears to be no French, but they assume their readers know a little Spanish.

Will someone explain to me what is supposed to be "woke" about the new Cracker Barrel logo, and what are the MAGA dog whistles in the old one? Was America great before the invention of the Uneeda Biscuit in 1898 made cracker barrels obsolete? Do we see cracker barrels and think "McKinley & tariffs?"

Why is DHL and other carriers suspending shipments to the US from Europe? Not because of "tariffs" as such. But because '"Key questions remain unresolved, particularly regarding how and by whom customs duties will be collected in the future, what additional data will be required,

The monumental architecture 19th-century libraries and universities may be deification of wealthy donors, but oh, how I love it. Here, Yerkes Observatory, visited in 2006. It would take a coffee-table book to do justice to the complexity and intricacy of the architectural detail.

Meta mystery. How many managers are looking at this and saying "Wow! This is just what we need?" I can't figure out what this IS (some kind of augmented reality?) What it does? What it's good for? Or how he can do anything with both hands occupied.

Am I missing something? Putin: "I would like to hope that THE AGREEMENT WE'VE REACHED TOGETHER will help us bring closer that goal..." Trump: "So there's no deal until there's a deal." Sounds as if Trump actually contradicted Putin. www.cbsnews.com/news/transcr...

Like seriously, Target? You do understand we are talking about a 2.7 gallon plastic bathroom wastebasket?