"A-Spock-bop-a-loo-bop, a-Spock-bam-boom."

I've found the parsley. I've found the sage. I've found the rosemary. I've found the thyme. They were at the Harris-Teeter. Didn't even have to go to Scarborough Fair.

Everyone knows about how the Ents lost the Entwives and hoped to find them again someday. Less known (though equally lengthy) is the tale of how the Ents lost the Entdogs... which they're okay with, really, please don't trouble yourself distributing fliers or anything.

The willingness of so many to discuss Trump's diplomacy as if it is a strategic successor to the linear tradition of Roosevelt, Eisenhower and Reagan rather than the violently incompetent chaos bomb it is in reality will forever baffle me

I had absolutely no idea that many Americans had moved to Portugal and Ireland.

It worked for Reagan. So far, it's working for Trump, though it might not work half as well if any reporter followed up with, "Why don't you know, sir?"

it’s legal for yahoos to say all the slurs they want here in these Yoo-Nited States it’s also legal for us to point at those people and avoid them like we would a pile of dogshit* on the sidewalk they hate that second part *the dogshit at least provides nourishment for flies

Not me poring through old castle plans at various historical societies because I am determined to do my DnD maps to actual scale. Surprise, fuckers! The whole tower keep has a smaller footprint than a single fireball. There are CANTRIPS with longer ranges than the length of the entire outer wall.

Worth noting, I guess, that inside of a year we've gone from administration officials taking selfies of themselves at CECOT and bragging about how it's hell on earth to now getting their horrible little media worms to kill stories about it

Something which isn't always acknowledged is that "contrarian thinkers" are just regurgitating conventional wisdom with a little extra racism, and these forbidden views are generally expressed by the most platformed mainstream figures, like Pinker.

I think they basically fall into two camps. There's a handful of people like Miller and Vought who are self-aware enough to know everybody hates their agendas, so they're moving fast and breaking things, hoping whatever can't be easily reversed becomes a new normal. And the rest are simply morons.

I'd forgotten that Cards On the Table is the one where Dame Agatha goes meta with author insert/self-parody Ariadne Oliver and implies, tongue in cheek, that she may have regrets about making Hercule Poirot a Belgian.

This is what Bari Weiss et al think "censorship" actually is; when subordinates criticize their superiors. That has been the bedrock of the entire "cancel culture" discourse in elite media; rage at the idea that students, women, journalists, interns, etc might be able to speak against the boss.

"Don't make me apologize!" is code for "I know I'm not a good person, but I don't want to feel guilty about it, so I'm going to imagine that you're trying to make me feel bad and direct all my self-hatred back out at you."

Nobody racists/xenophobes quite like a midcentury Golden Age of Detection English lady racists/xenophobes.

Things are Terrible, but this isn't. Be weird.

Currently reading. Happy to report this crime novel is a Blades '68 campaign in which no one can roll above a 4.

I cannot imagine how impoverished I would be as a writer, a thinker and a human if I had bypassed the entire process by which I learned to put words together in a way that is uniquely mine.

It's midwinter's eve tonight. If you're quick about it, you can start your timed THE DARK IS RISING read-along before midnight. (tonight's portion is Chapter 1, 'Midwinter's Eve'. Tomorrow is 'Midwinter Day' and 'The Sign-Seeker'.)

Lake Mungo is on Criterion through the end of the month. I'm pretty sure I've mentioned this one a few times before; I rewatched it again tonight because I was in a ghost story mood. Gotta say, it gets better on every rewatch. I don't think it's personal Top-10, but it's definitely in my Top 20.

“First things first... We're having fish every Friday."

Chicago is having none of this administration's BS.

“What goes too long unchanged destroys itself. The forest is forever because it dies and dies and so lives.” —Ursula K. Le Guin

This has been said a million different times and ways and it never seems to penetrate but I’ll try again: Using AI to “do” art isn’t possible. Art is not the process of coming up with a good idea to get started and then executing it flawlessly in the style of someone you admire.

"Right on cue, here they come with their cancel cudgels—it’s the intolerant left trying to cancel me for the 'thought crime' of farting (loudly) at the height of my sax solo and then getting dizzy (from saxophone exertion, NOT farting exertion) and crashing into nearby scaffolding."

In which we're forced to appreciate the relative restraint Andrew Lloyd Webber displayed when he did HIS version of the Gospel.

Great piece from Paul Musgrave on how Trump is, in essence, taking America private:

Book bought for the cover alone, part 37: Why was the heiress so horribly frightened of fish? And why was the chipmonk (chipmunk?) starry-eyed? Inquiring minds want to know!

President Trump is dreaming if he really thinks his team up with President Kennedy is even half as great as President Kennedy's team up with Elvis Presley to fight an ass-sucking mummy.

one of the core things liberals need to stop doing is acting like our positions are some kind of aberration. instead, let us just do as the right does - operating from a position of strength that yes, our positions are better, superior and more popular.

One of the most corrupt and militaristic Presidential administrations in history harasses and attempts to detain a temporary alien who has been known to crossdress and to sometimes provide free healthcare to American children. Alas.

We're happy to announce that Bandcamp Fridays will be returning in 2026. Check out the full list of dates below.

A sad little man who can't get the respect he craves from those he envies scribbles his tarnished name on everything in reach, knowing in the pit of his stomach it won't matter, that he is old and mortal and going to die, a death that will be celebrated more than mourned, his life quickly forgotten.

1.10 seconds. They got me at 1.10 seconds with the 'OR DID I?' sting. God DAMN it. www.youtube.com/watch?v=JSsG...

I mean there's not much point in bribing Guard Volunteers, is there? Which, incidentally, underscores how cheaply bought the Administration thinks America's enlisted are. Overlook the gimmicky dollar amount: they think they can repair Trump's reputation in the Armed Forces for under $2k a head.

I know some people may have thought the purpose of scholarship was to create and refine better understandings of the world while winnowing and weeding out incorrect and obsolete ideas, but what if we just gave all the ideas equal time all the time instead of discarding the dumb and immoral ones?

25 years ago today, the world lost Kirsty MacColl. I wrote this piece for the AV Club & framed it as being about her song "My Affair," but it won't take you long to realize that it was really a love letter to her entire career. You are still missed, Ms. MacColl... www.avclub.com/the-single-f...

I used to joke about how lighthouse keeper would be the best job in the world, until I found out so many people have the same idea that, between that and everything being automated now, YOU have to PAY to work there. I feel like a volunteer job as a Penguin Wellbeing Monitor has the same energy.

Things I'm pretty sure an AI can't do for me and my writing: offer that glorious epiphany when you realize the scene you wrote that you were thinking was maybe just a throwaway bridge thing you'd probably lose for length is the lynchpin that tells you how the story is supposed to begin.

Oh my god y'all I had not seen the rest of the Vanity Fair photos holy shit. Christopher Anderson deserves a medal. Look at this. He left the LIGHT SWITCHES in the edited photos! These assholes look like their well-meaning mom took a picture of them on their first day in a grown-up job.

Aha, it's the anniversary of the most famous bicycle modification by bicycle mechanics working out of their bicycle shop! #BikeTooter

TFW you think you somehow accidentally squashed a bug only to realize you're marked from when you refilled a fountain pen earlier in the day.

Monday the high here was 34 F° and today it looks like we'll hit 60° and it's a bright sunny day. NC in December in the modern AGW era, folks. Get out your sweaters and longjohns, but don't expect to wear them. Unless you do. Which you may not. But you might. Or not. Or yes, definitely, unless no.

Lolol. Why in the world would putting this in their TOS impact anything at all?

Ach, my heart. It breaks. (Gift article) www.nytimes.com/2025/12/16/o...

"Don't reply to any questions. Tell 'em you want your lawyer. I'm going to start calling bail bondsmen."

Counterargument: this is the behavior that sets the standards for all future FIFA Peace Prize recipients. Or, since I doubt they'll ever bother giving it to anybody else, it's the defining behavior of every recipient.

We only know of the big cases Kash Patel is bungling. Who knows how many smaller cases he's also made a dog's breakfast of.

One of the biggest moments of my career: USCIS canceled my client’s naturalization oath ceremony. We filed a lawsuit, went to trial, and the judge swore him in right there in the courtroom!