Can someone make a map of which countries tend to put the loo/toilet roll on the rod correctly and which ones are full of W.C. war criminals?

Why is it that every time I open this app it destroys my mood? Here is a picture of my grandma's mid-century modern china in a hutch I just bought from Wayfair so it's not in storage anymore that makes me happy.

I had my unread work emails down to 18 this morning in London I am now back in Chicago and there are now 143 unreads. HOW? How does anyone get literally anything done when email is a thing that exists? I shall be requiring all messages be sent by interoffice mail those yellow envelopes.

Just gonna readily admit I sometimes take inspiration in my professoonal art from London in the most cheeky ways.

A bit of Berlin station name signs (in their many tile-surrounded typefaces).

As per tradition, London, I have a prawn and mayo sandwich and cloudy apple juice for the Lizzy Line ride in and have dressed properly for the occasion of my arrival in you.

Am I joyscrolling? I think I am.

Transit is freedom. Transit makes Chicago great. It is for everyone and it is beautiful. 32 years ago today I boarded at this spot on the Pulaski Orange Line platform with my legally blind mom to help her learn her new, faster way to work on its first weekday. 'L'ove at first ride.

Got a gorgeous night shot of a train going overhead at Schiller (which used to have a stop here!) on the Brown Line with, though no longer the outside tracks in use, the four-track infrastructure they originally built from Wilson to Chicago before heading with two tracks into the Loop 'L' in 1900.

I love when one of my favorite people on the Internet—like patron saint level—surprise me by wearing a T-shirt with the logo I'm responsible for making sure we use right! @techconnectify.bsky.social

When you're lucky enough, you find yourself sitting on a pier after a warm and lovely night with family, in silence except the water lapping on the shore, reflecting on your life, your experiences and knowing all those things make you you—a beautiful little spark in this unimaginably large universe.

Goodbye Chicago, for a couple days! Going to spend a weekend with family up in crunchy Door County as we do every year. Such a pretty day here, tho.

I didn't design this but am proud to have sorta art-directed & that we have these as an option for a farecard, adding to our library of inclusiveness, putting Black and brown and trans folks first as part of acknowledging everyone. Thanks to Steve Wallach and our graphics team for bringing it home!

This is the playbook, folks. If you're not paying attention now and doing something about it, then you're going to have to sit down the rest of your life because democracy is being taken away. Do not be quiet in this moment.

Long but hopefully fulfilling transit nerd thread incoming: I want to talk about that I’m super proud of, and which is a culmination of things we’ve done in the past as well as things I’ve seen elsewhere that I wanted to bring home to Chicago: New digital at RPM stations that we hope to expand!

Delete your Twitter account. Right now. Seriously. Right now.

Tell me you're really from a City of Chicago family without telling me you're from a City of Chicago family.

Big shout out to my friends Tony, Quinn, Erik and Steve at @chicagocta.bsky.social for the tour around the office and some great conversations about the power of transit to bring people together. @tonycoppoletta.com @eriktakestransit.bsky.social

If we waited until interracial marriage was popular to protect it, it would’ve been illegal until 2004.

"but we can't support trans rights, it's unpopular!" just a reminder that US approval for marriage between black and white people at the start of the civil rights movement was 4%, reaching a whopping 20% by the end of the movement it's 95% now you don't wait for popularity for a rights movement

I thought maybe this was a good time to post about something nice that I'm proud of. A new thing we've started doing at work is "bagging" long-term, out-of-service (but not to be permanently removed) bus stop signs rather than just taking them down.

I reflect upon this lake from Saugatuk and was reminded of the below series of posts. Perhaps nothing is truly forever, and perhaps neither are our problems.

JB Pritzker uses the word "invasion" to describe what Trump has planned for my city, Chicago. And that's exactly what it would be – an autocratic government trying to crush our dissent because we oppose his corruption, cruelty and incompetence. It's what dictators do.

I am upset that people are basically coronating Newsom as the opposition inheritor when we've got JB Pritizker out here in Illinois having said, since the election, that, inclusive of trans people, "a happy warrior is still a warrior, and if you come for my people you will have to come through me."

Well, I've been trying for hours to reach someone who can even tell me if they can help me or not at Verizon (VZW). Like, just tell me if I'm wasting my time on hold. I am travelling and I have no service on my new Google Pixel and it just went out as if I had no functioning sim around 3:30 EDT.

This is pretty cool for checking if where you live in Chicago has lead service lines for your water. If you do, this can help you be informed and perhaps cause to get your water tested to see if it's getting into your taps.

To Donald Trump and his administration: If you hurt my people, nothing will stop me — not time or political circumstance — from making sure you face justice under our constitutional rule of law.

I think this is absolutely true. I live in a 2-bed/bath high rise in Uptown that is historically affordable because we have tons of apts. That's changing now that Uptown is super hip but I am still fortunate enough to be able to afford this in a decent building in a diverse community.

Wealthy people will always have the nicest housing available. If you fail to build new housing, you are forcing poor people to compete with wealthier people for that existing stock. That is not working out for folks.

Chicago just... sparkles. ✨

I can't even imagine being interviewed by her. She's so amazing. One morning, maybe 20-25 years ago, my alarm clock went off to WBEZ (Chicago NPR) and I heard "welcome back to Fresh Air, with my guest Graaandmaster Flash" with a delivery only she could give and that's the day I became a member.

Yesterday I was hungry so I took a fun size peanut M&Ms from my neighbor's bucket-o-candy and there were only three pieces in the packet. Narrator: This unlikely quantity was not Tony's idea of fun.

The last few days I've been dreaming of using some miles and popping over to New York because I like the Subway and I want to ride it more and see bits I've not seen. ♥️✈️ 🚇

It's kinda weird to wake up and look out from a decent (but not crazy) apartment and look out and think "most of my family, the people I grew up with and even my friends today live somewhere in this view or just over the horizon." The future is uncertain, but I don't take the now for granted.

I feel like this is my "BlueSky has the juice" moment that this obscure, classic Italian pop song I learned about more than a decade ago on NPR has made it into my feed here! It's Gibberish, But Italian Pop Song Still Means Something www.npr.org/2012/11/04/1...

As a cancer survivor who went through 21 days of three kinds of chemo in ten weeks and had an immune collapse in the middle of omicron and had ppl in my building tell me if they didn't like *me* asking they had a mask on to protect me, a cancer patient, that *I* should wait for the next elevator? 🤬

"Paraprosdokian" is one of my favorite words. And a good one is amazing. i.e.: I lost my keys, my wallet and my dignity.

A brief, wonderful thread about the Pride Train here in Chicago and the efforts to use it to do right by as many communities as possible. Good on @tonycoppoletta.com for doing this.

Nature finds a way.

The heating of milk to kill bacteria — aka pasteurization — helped reduce infant mortality rates from 150 to 300 deaths per 1,000 babies in the 1800s to 5 or 6 deaths per 1000 today. Pasteurization is simple, safe, and super effective. Raw milk is dangerous and stupid. Please don’t be stupid.

Not taking any risks: got COVID, flu and MMR vaccines today on my lunch before heading north to help crew a heritage train event. 👨‍⚕️💉💪✅ (I don't know if most need the MMR, my doc just suggested it for me. Having survived cancer I just do what I'm told by my awesome care team and don't take risks.)

Been meaning to write about this... I’ve had the privilege to be allowed by my employer to be behind and see to fruition our Pride Train. Every year it’s meant to be a showing of welcoming and inclusion, though started as just a train wrap and mean to run from June 1 thru at least Market Days.

The sound of the trains on the new tracks

The world ends not with a bang, but it's hearing about how nothing beats a Jet2 holiday and that right now you can save £50 per person—that's £200 for a family of four!

It's almost like my location history is entirely about transit and gay.

Is... Is everything bad right now?

Wait, is Word 2003 the model for every news piece I try to read on my phone?

Read and talk to the staff. All of the best service experiences I’ve ever had at restaurants was when I was dining by myself because if I’m not in a book I’m talking to the people making my food.

"Happy Birthday to You," as typically sung by people who look like me, is a dirge. Change my mind.