USPS quietly changed its postmark rules — mail is no longer dated when you drop it off. The “official” date is when it hits automated sorting — sometimes days later Which could have major implications for mail in voting — it’s a clever way to disenfranchise voters that’s going largely overlooked

It’s not just the US and the UK: the EU’s beer consumption is now below 2019 levels — and falling. Meanwhile, new regulations on labeling and packaging are likely to hit small breweries the hardest. What’s at risk? Part of European culture. vinepair.com/articles/eu-...

ICE detain father shopping on Christmas Eve—then steal his family's groceries. Then 3 agents divvy up his paid for food—taking what they want for themselves. "Can I just get the wife's number to call and let her know?" woman asks. "No, guess he should've complied," agent says. Yakima, Washington

So I have the cover story in next month's TNR. I interviewed the heads of police groups; immigration defense attorneys, ex-judges and ex-prosecutors; former DOJ and DHS officials, and the former head of Border Patrol. They're all horrified at what we've seen, and they all fear what's coming.

I'm almost done publishing some casual links between German and American beer riots in the mid-1800s. I helped a journalist contextualize oral histories from small-scale mezcaleros in Oaxaca And now I'm working to pick apart the knotty cultural histories behind American Oktoberfest beers.

PDX friends! Cinemagic Theater in Portland will be screening "Rainier: A Beer Odyssey" on Jan 16-18. It recounts Rainier's iconic advertising from the 1970s on, and gives a fun glimpse of classic Seattle/PNW culture. I loved it, personally. www.thecinemagictheater.com/coming-attra...

Grandma has the kids making spriographs. I understand it's supposed to discourage gang activity later in life.

May it be a light for you in dark places... when all other lights go out... (Tavern wall, taken tonight in a small Wisconsin town)

A historian in the year 2225 wasting hours trying to track down fake sources and scholarship that were hallucinated in the short-lived AI fads of 2025.

Iron Works Alt from Metropolitan in Chicago. (Really anything from Metropolitan)

The Vanity Fair photographer from the Susie Wiles story. Holy. Shit. www.washingtonpost.com/style/power/...

idk guys, if you are like into weirdish history about Egypt (and the Middle East) and sometimes, but not always, food and drink, but I got you History of Caramel in the Arab World open.substack.com/pub/omardfod...

I am reminded of Lincoln's famous letter to Joshua Speed in 1855 quod.lib.umich.edu/l/lincoln/li...

When my grandmother was 9 years old, she and her family lived in Texas and they were extremely poor. She lived with her mother and stepfather and three sisters. My great-grandmother made all their clothes, and they scrimped on everything so that they had enough to eat.

I need to get a PDF of this 1909 hearing & don't have access to ProQuest Congressional database. Can someone with access help me out? searchworks.stanford.edu/view/11001298

Having taught at Purdue (as an grad student, not to overstate it), I'd see no choice but to respond to this mandate by teaching extensively on the massive negative effects and externalities of AI use in my field. And I'd have a lot less time to teach, ya know, the actual content.

You can do this right now: Think of a person who wrote a paper you love, whose work influenced or helped you, or has made your professional life better. Search up their email address. Shoot them a quick email of thanks. It means so, so much. This is a rough time of year, share some joy.

"Gastronationalism"? 🙄 Whitewashing history? Politicizing food and drink? Pfft. What a joke. *sips my Hulk Hogan Real American™️ beer*

White House Begins Christmas Season With Ceremonial Lighting Of Cross

In Evanston tonight, outside Chicago— In the bitter cold, neighbors are gathered outside Lake Street Church for a vigil for ICE victims. This is where @revdrmichaelwoolf.bsky.social preaches—the pastor arrested on camera by ISP at Broadview. Baby Jesus in zip ties. Mother Mary in a respirator.

No one ever showed them Reefer Madness?

Magliaro's Half Acre is selling a 12-pack of BA beer for $199. I'm curious: who's the audience for it? Not being snarky, not knocking the beer, brewery, or strategy. Just hoping to learn something. Are these rewards to a small core fanbase, or pas$ion enduring? blockclubchicago.org/2025/12/08/c...

I should have seen this coming when Not Your Father's ran back to its classic branding and switched to blank bottle caps. The signs were all there.

How did the poinsettia become a symbol of Christmas? Check out this article below in Time Magazine by my dad Norman Ellstrand and I: time.com/7202847/poin...

Saw a Utopia on a grocery store shelf for the first time. I'm a little intrigued because I've never tried it before, but $300 is a bit out of my range.

Two independent studies found that AI chatbots were better at persuading voters than political ads. The most persuasive bots also lied the most. This is something that humans working in psyops have known for decades. AI is psyops at scale. www.technologyreview.com/2025/12/04/1...

Anchor Brewing is not leaving San Francisco and reopening plans are still in the works. Timeline: July 2023: Anchor abruptly closes May 2024: Anchor acquired by yogurt king June 2024 - Dec 2025: 🦗 🏏 sfstandard.com/2025/12/05/a...

In their confirmation hearings, RFK Jr pledged he would not be anti-vax, Hegseth said he respected women serving in leadership positions in the military, and Bondi said she would not weaponize DOJ against Trump’s political enemies.

I feast on Christmas Carol adaptations every year, and it's always the Marley scene that separates good versions from bad. That, and young Scrooge's temperment during the Fezziwig scenes.

Indiana's 2nd oldest brewery, Lafayette Brewing Company, is closing this month. This won't make the splash that Rogue did, but LBC was a local treasure. Fond memories there. non-paywall link: archive.ph/lvIet cc @timothyjlombardo.bsky.social @ppospisek.bsky.social @castrohistorian.bsky.social

If we can only have art from people who "aren't in it for the money" that means we can only have art from privileged middle-class dilettantes. Making art being a viable career is responsible for nearly all worthwhile art, and if it's not a viable career any more we will get drastically less of it.

i made a video about the president's gutter racism against somali-americans and how a scandal became a smear became a call for de facto ethnic cleansing

HBOMax has started showing a 'remastered' 4K Mad Men and they’ve messed things up so during Roger’s oyster vomit scene you can now see the crew men with the vomit hose on the right

when someone tells me not to use em dashes because AI uses em dashes

KW friends! One more screening of What Ales Us? before the end of the year. My pals at Short Finger Brewing will be hosting it on Sunday, December 14th. Event starts at 1.30pm. bdiversitygroup.com/upcoming-eve...

Fingers is like no other drinks publication out there. I don't score wines, review whiskeys, or wax poetic about craft breweries. I publish adversarial reportage and analysis on the business, politics, and culture of drinking in America—especially the money/power shaping it. Just one recent example:

I’m not very good at self-promotion, but here’s a repost for the Sunday readers out there 🙂 There’s a claim that is being repeated more often of late that cyder was a different and superior drink to cider. In this long read (perfect with a cup of tea or a glass of cider) I debunk this modern myth.

Roughly 6 ounces of snow so far in New Ulm

Will be buying the book based on this excerpt. This concept sounds phenomenal. maureenogle.com/the-price-of...

I VERY much dislike using SM for self-promotion, but… My new book is THE PRICE OF PLENTY: A HISTORY OF MEAT IN AMERICA. A lengthy excerpt is available at Maureenogle.com Buy at bookshop.org, B&N, Kobo, Amazon Pass it along…..?

This is one of the most important exposés published in WSJ in several years, and it derives from intercepts and analyses by foreign intelligence services studying the conduct of Trump and his inner team. It's first and foremost a wake up call to the people of the United States.

Why are universities paying money to fascists when they could just use said money to support their faculty to do their research without fascist money? It’s so fucking stupid.

Succotash. Tamales. Cornbread. Foods we call “American” often have Indigenous roots. In Ep. 426, Michael Wise helps us see Native cuisine—hidden in plain sight. 🎧 benfranklinsworld.com/426

How Republicans commemorated Thanksgiving in 1869--with a multi-racial/multi-ethnic gathering of people at a table with a centerpiece celebrating universal suffrage and self-government, and with an engraving of Castle Garden, the pre-Ellis Island point of disembarkation for immigrants.

Holy cow.

DOGE was always a very thinly disguised con to dress up data theft and extraction class destruction of federal corporate oversight as innovative, and it's important to remember that part of the reason it worked so well is that the press helped legitimize it

The first 2025 Diversity in Beer Writing Grant story is live: “Michigan Hops: The Women Behind the Bines” by Brenda Marshall on CraftBeer.com Thanks to Hollie Stephens, Beth Demmon, @kbernot.bsky.social, Adam Dulye & @allagashbrewing.bsky.social for the support! #beerwriting #diversityinbeer

I was advised to go to grad school in history riiiight about there.

I've been hyped for this book like 6 years now. This book deserves to launch a thousand collab beers. Well... 999, since one's already been done 🍻