Is Donald Trump Alive? Now, this is a site that knows how to write factual headlines, e.g. “Donald Trump is alive and ranting and raving about foreign interests infiltrating the Supreme Court that he created”. Take note, NYT. [isdonaldtrumpalive.com]

I don't know what this means other than someone has lots of money for outdoor advertising in San Francisco. (Photo by me, today)

"If we’re meant to hear 'watermelon water,' why are we reading WTRMLN WTR?" @samcorbin.bsky.social quotes me and @operativewords.com in her new @nytimes.com piece, "The SYRN Call of Oddly Spelled Brand Names." Gift link: www.nytimes.com/2026/02/23/c...

Word of the week: Financialize. For platforms like Kalshi and Polymarket, it increasingly means "place your bets." fritinancy.substack.com/p/word-of-th...

How many active listings are on Etsy at any given time? How much revenue did Microsoft's gaming business generate in FY2024? Test your knowledge of business scale with Joe Hovde's new game, "Sense of Scale." residualthoughts.substack.com/p/sense-of-s...

Seems like a low bar.

Getting shown up in the arena of elite impunity by *the British monarchy* is an incredible “America at 250!” achievement

One of the things that personally drives me crazy in the U.S. is how youth sports/athletic activities went from a part of the public good (municipal leagues and fields! rec centers! public parks!) to a privatized, expensive, highly competitive, highly structured pursuit for wealthy kids’ résumés

"Journalism is better when it's backed by live markets"? WTF, Polymarket. WTF, Substack. www.theverge.com/news/881292/...

Saw "The Alabama Solution" last night at @cwclub.bsky.social; director Andrew Jarecki answered questions afterward. Tough and important, about the dire conditions in Alabama prisons and the heartless "Christians" who'd like them to be even worse. On HBO now. www.youtube.com/watch?v=xRNN...

“Some say it tastes like motor oil, roofing tar, grandpa’s cough syrup or even battery acid.” And yet Moxie -- the soft drink that became a synonym for "verve" -- has survived and even thrived for almost 150 years. Read (almost) all about it: fritinancy.substack.com/p/brands-of-...

I imagine it was extremely disturbing

Still one of my favorite newspaper corrections (September 2019).

It's, you know, plant-based.

Who Wore It Best is a damn treasure.

Yes, this is gross, but I'm tired of implications that bidets are some sort of absurd luxury. You can buy a bidet attachment for $40 and install it yourself. Bidets are required in all new residential construction in Italy and Portugal.

Just saw him in a small, pivotal role in "A Private Life." -30-

Word of the week: Dissident. | ht @galbeckerman.bsky.social @alissawilkinson.bsky.social @bampfa.bsky.social fritinancy.substack.com/p/word-of-th...

“Of her” what? (Oh, her *self*)

A, 🤮. B, the past tense of the verb "to sunset" is "sunsetted."

"[I]t didn’t just take over the URL and brand its whole outfit as 'CuttingBall.com.' Whatever generative AI product it appears to have used to write its website copy got some inspiration from the theater content that the same web address once hosted."

I spent 6.5 hours yesterday watching all 5 chapters of "My Undesirable Friends"--Julia Loktev's documentary-in-progress about dissident Russian channel Rain TV--at @bampfa.bsky.social. Shot on iPhones, the film follows committed young (22! 23!) journalists in the lead-up to the Ukraine invasion. 1/2

“The first thing I thought was, ‘What is she talking about?’” said Bryan Fish, the vice mayor of Culver City, whom everyone calls Bubba but doesn’t look like someone whom everyone calls Bubba. “The only crime here,” he added, “is like the $18 strawberry at Erewhon.” 🎁 www.nytimes.com/2026/02/13/u...

Fun word search game from Slate: Pears. (I love any Boggle-esque sort of game. Got 433 today.) (via @fritinancy.bsky.social) [slate.com]

Happy birthday to one of my favourite haters, Charles Darwin

Everything is terrible, but I have the top score (so far) in today's Slate Pears game.

Why are so many brands calling themselves Ro, Row, Rohe, Rho, or Roe? fritinancy.substack.com/p/ro-is-a-ro...

fun fact: US Luge's youth talent search program is sponsored by White Castle. because, you know. sliders. www.usaluge.org/try-luge/sli...

“Palantir leadership sometimes refers to employees as “hobbits,” after the fictional Lord of the Rings characters. “ Is not even the most fucked up thing in this story but I believe it deserves its own notice! www.wired.com/story/palant...

Put your (bilingual) slogan where your mouth is. lipslut.com/products/f-c...

“Whose"-avoidance

This is breaking my brain. cc @mashedradish.bsky.social

“My theory was that we were gonna be sharks. The rest of the cast was like, ‘No, we’re gonna be frogs,’” he said. “And then we just see this bush moving, and we’re like, ‘What?’ And they go, ‘Nah, you guys are gonna be trees.’”

it's weird to see people complain about Bad Bunny's performance being in Spanish when there have been entire operas in Italian, German and French performed in the US and the top song of the last two years, K-Pop Demon Hunters' "Golden" has lyrics in Korean

Winter Olympics word of the week: Stoat. (ht @mashedradish.bsky.social) fritinancy.substack.com/p/word-of-th...

Gift shop in the Minneapolis airport is selling "ICE OUT of St. Paul" posters next to cute onesies and fridge magnets.

In a move destined to infuriate copy editors (among other accomplishments), Warner Bros. is insisting that critics use quotations marks when citing the title of Emerald Fennell’s “Wuthering Heights.” This is not a joke.

I'm sorry the guy changing the rules on the fly is named what

I had to look up "GM," "charisma check," "natural 20," and "d6," and I *still* thought this was brilliant.

White House press corps, I know some of you are shy, so let me help you get started. This isn't fifty questions--I could only fit twenty-one in alt text--but let me know if you need more!

"Criteria" is the plural. "Criterion" is the singular. (From the @nytimes.com "Open Thread" style newsletter, 2/6/26) messaging-custom-newsletters.nytimes.com/dynamic/rend...

In the last month I encountered "renown" used as an adjective (e.g., "a renown professor") in two books by, um, renowned authors that were published by big New York publishers. How is this happening?

Don't tell the Boss, but I prefer Mason's song. substack.com/@masoncolby/...

Your yacht will never find out anything damning about your business.

“‘From the heart, brains and boobs of Sydney Sweeney,’ the website cheerfully chirps at you, eschewing the Oxford comma and making it sound as if her brain and boobs are mashed together into one pulsating, confused, plush organ.”

Times New Resistance is a free font that's identical to Times New Roman but autocorrects some words as you type, e.g. "ICE autocorrects to the Goon Squad and the word Trump autocorrects to Donald Trump is a felon". Brilliant. [kottke.org]

Helen of Troy has one, and only one, relevant character trait: very pretty. In the Ancient Greek story, she's basically an object. An excuse to go to war. A MacGuffin. All the audience needs is to see her and go "yeah, I get it." Any beautiful actress can do that. Such a weird hill to die on.

Actual book title: "I'm the Beautiful But Evil Space Princess Who Rules A Galactic Empire But Really Wants To Leave People Ruthlessly Alone: Volume 3" www.amazon.com/Beautiful-Pr...

Horsey brands for the Year of the Fire Horse. | ht @kottke.org for Cry-Cry Horse (pictured). fritinancy.substack.com/p/the-year-o...