This is a vetted fundraiser for the family of Renee Good, the woman who was killed by ICE in Minneapolis. www.gofundme.com/f/support-fo...

This family was new to Minneapolis and they showed up for their neighbors. Now we show up for them.

"The party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command." — George Orwell, 1984.

Also, I am judging the SHIT out of all you suburban brosephs in giant-ass trucks with gear that didn't even pause to see if we need help, let alone do the proper MN thing and run towards a stuck vehicle. A few guys on their way to work did stop, but only after I'd been there for 15 mins! Come on!

It is SLICK out there, Twin Cities. Stopped on my way home from drop-off to help a guy who'd slid at the bottom of a hill, off the street, and over an icy berm that then pinned his car doors shut while keeping his front wheels up and not getting any traction.

No. No. No. Punitive processes make narrowly targeted programs *less* efficient and *more* costly. Because more scrutiny requires more bureaucracy. Punitive processes also make it *less* likely that people will get aid for which they qualify. Because of the roadblocks and stigma scrutiny creates.

Hypothesis: people in ski chalets have worse spatial awareness than people in a Trader Joe’s.

Why yes, I did update my "Kid Activities" airtable for a few hours yesterday with registration dates, offerings, various weeks of availabilities, holidays, costs, etc. 🫠

Expect to see a lot of this classic Onion headline, from 23 years ago, over the coming weeks.

huh so Google is kicking off the new year by pissing off knitters that’s fun

Minnesotans when a Metro Transit bus is stuck: Let’s get to work! Minnesotans when an ICE vehicle is stuck: 🍿

Oh I’ll absolutely take this!

Happy New Year! We love sharing these pro-book posters from the Works Projects Administration Poster Collection in the Library's Prints and Photographs Division. Of the 2,000 WPA posters known to exist, the Library of Congress's collection of more than 900 is the largest.

Here’s to 2026

STREET PARKING CHAT: if your house faces a street, is the street parking "for" your house? For instance if a neighbor had guests over, and the guests parked for a few hours in front of your house without blocking the driveway or sidewalk, would you have a snit? (My car has caused a snit!)

2025 Year in Review! -falcon hearing worse than ever -center losing 50 to 100% of holding capacity -blood-dimmed tide containment failure -the Worst with record high passionate intensity

My dad famously had no barometer for age-appropriateness for movies, leading to great lore: I came home from school in 4th grade saying a kid said The Exorcist was the scariest movie ever. Dad was indignant because "scary" is subjective, so how about we test this by WATCHING IT TOGETHER. I was 9!

Relatedly, while you can't un-ring a bell, you can absolutely stop continuing to ring it.

THERE, DID A PASS, AAAARGGGHH. The overpowered snowblower I inherited from my dad (nicknamed "The Murder Machine") is making a strange rattling noise but still got the job done.

Trying to hype myself up to go out and do a pass with the snowblower before it gets dark but uuughhhhh the wiiiiiind and collllld and nnngghghhhhkjhkjdhsfgkjshl

Save this, it's perfect.

Always repost Big Challenges

Just stirred a spoonful of frozen vanilla custard into a cup of cold brew, so take THAT, 2025! I WILL keep finding joy in things! Every day!

Not now, haunted Victorian shoes

Happened again this morning when I felt dizzy, thus convinced myself I’d had a stroke and had a concussion and would be forbidden from looking at screens and would need to quit my job. 2 hours of chill rest later, I remembered I’m recovering from the flu, so yeah I don’t feel 100%

Rare footage of St Paul’s Cathedral testing its giant flamethrower

Two things I’ll never understand about AI boosters: 1. What they think research is. 2. What they think writing is. I literally think through writing. If I didn’t write, I would not refine my ideas. Reorganizing writing helps me rethink/further develop my understanding. Good rant thread.

Adding my voice to the chorus of the current flu being awful. A reminder to restock your at-home COVID tests - I took two of them over the course of a few days because I haven't felt this wrecked by illness since I had COVID in 2022.

Gift link, probably the funniest thing the Wall Street Journal has done this year.

My ADHD brain often think that what’s happening in the moment is what will be true forever, and no time more than when I’m sick. Then I like… take a tylenol and am in absolute disbelief that my headache is gone.

Yes I know them, we went to Twitter together.

I will never use AI for sample copy bc BLUTH IPSUM exists. bluthipsum.com

It has been zero (0) days since I ranted about JJ Abrams and his mystery box nonsense.

Once again, not only is the "America Design System" bloated, inaccessible garbage, but there is ALREADY a full system – US Web Design System/USWDS – built, maintained, and regularly improved by feds, free to use and iterate on. designsystem.digital.gov

Tried to defrost an iced over mini fridge “the fast way” by chipping at it with a flathead screwdriver. Heard a weird bubbling sound, got closer to investigate, and got a face full of freon !

Lost my annual holiday music challenge at the shops today (Sir Paul’s “Wonderful Christmastime,” a song FAR more heinous than anything Wham gave us.)

Oceans are now battlefields, sweet potatoes are now spice melange, &c &c

"there's a new serif in town"

My phone rolled through some memories today and showed me the glorious Palmer House Hilton, meaning that seven years ago I was in Chicago, onboarding as a fed to my dream job at 18F. I miss it so, so much. 💔 @alt18f.bsky.social

Admittedly, I say this as someone enjoying her *THIRD* David Graeber book of this calendar year (turns out I'd only read parts of "Utopia of Rules," not the whole thing!!), but dang this looks great and I've already put on a library hold. www.npr.org/2025/12/09/n...

One theory I have is that competence, self-control, responsibility, and expertise have all been feminized, leaving “masculinity” with the realm of impulsivity and petulance. So the divide is not really between “femininity” and “masculinity” so much as between adulthood and childishness.

Having a physical accessibility panel available to escape room players so they can turn down background music or turn off flashing lights is a fantastic idea and I hope it spreads! Steal this idea, folks!

As a small delight in a bleak world, I highly recommend setting your ringtone to the "Come on down!" music from The Price Is Right. My phone went off in an Ikea once and the amount of people who looked physically ready to SPRING into action and play a pricing game was great.

Flamin’ Hot Q-Tips

Best parenting advice I got was "Don't have a kid because you want to have a baby, or even a child. Have a kid if you want to have a whole additional PERSON in your family. Most of the time you'll be relating to them as an adult."

I need to stop listening to random news hits crowing about generative AI doing... the same thing as search engines? Or non-AI websites that already exist? "Give an AI your grocery list and it will put in an order." THIS IS WHAT GROCERY SITES ALREADY DO.

TIL about a memorial ceremony in Iceland in 2019 to mark the end of a glacier, changing the place name from Okjökull to Ok (jökull = glacier). Uncompromising wording on the bronze plaque: "This is to acknowledge that we know what is happening and what needs to be done. Only you know if we did it".

“Cautious classicalism” I’m dead. 💀