In RR's analysis, the short answer is: We The People. "Remember this."

A few years ago, our county library system was in a building phase, replacing some branches with new buildings. They asked me to make a donation, which I did because I love libraries. As a thank-you, I inscribed a brick which is in their outdoor garden. The brick is in the 1st photo.

Every morsel of joy is precious.

Here a selection of a few short notes (with links) on why we, as a tolerant society, cannot tolerate the intolerant. They're worth the few moments it takes to read them. #CommonplaceBook

It's so easy to press the wrong button on today's remotes, especially if one has small hands.

I like this easy summary of manual approximations for angles. (Also, I love the word "subtended" since it took me--it felt like--YEARS to understand it fully. WE have verbs that involve "direct objects" and "indirect objects", but it's always seemed to me as though "subtend" really needs ID^2)

This is probably the most famous of #Angles in Washington, DC: it's the 19-degree corner of the East Building of the National Gallery, design by I.M.Pei. You can see that folks cannot resist touching it. 12 August 2020 #BlueskyArtShow

This is a place in West Virginia called DJ's Diner. It has such a classic-diner design. I dare anyone to try to count the number of 90-degree #Angles visible in this picture. #BlueskyArtShow

This is the atrium of the East Building of the National Gallery of Art, in Washington, DC, famously designed by I.M.Pei. There are so many lines, planes intersecting, cross-sections--basically, #Angles everywhere in abundance! #BlueskyArtShow

This cute little statue is, from the card: "Aquamanile in the Form of a Lion" (c. 1200; bronze with traces of gilding; North French or Mosan)", at the US National Gallery, Washington DC. 16 Feb 2020 #Photo #Aquamanile

I'm sure I have a stamp around here somewhere.

The Covid times were not yet upon us, but it was a cold day when we went to the [US] National Gallery. Here I was in the middle of Pennsylvania Ave with so little traffic. Canadian Embassy on left; East Building of National Gallery on right. 16 Feb 2020 #Photo

Data for the discourse.

Shall we go ahead an organize "The Party of Them"? Apparently, WE (i.e., "Themers", or "Themists") already have all the technology, deceitful know-how, and brainwashed voters we need to prevail.

“If you can’t honor a man by quoting him directly because his own words seem disparaging to his legacy, then perhaps you shouldn’t try to honor him at all.” --Allison Gill (Mueller She Wrote), 14 Se0p 2025 #CommonplaceBook

Is this a *comprehensive* catalogue? Good heavens no: no webpage is big enough for THAT! These are just some of the lowlights from the man who's done more to ratchet up the violence-filled Rhetoric of the Right than anyone.

Passes the LOL test--easily.

At #Home this week, work began on our major bathroom remodeling. This was how our shower looked after the first day of demolition. #BlueSkyArtShow

"Political violence" is the topic. Has it gotten worse? Different, maybe, but "worse"? Not if one lived through the 1960s. But American has always been a violent culture. Does it need to be? No, but it would take work to get there. I think I'll adopt RR's tone: I'm an "Atypical Old Fart".

Some discussion, much data, all on the vital theme that "contemporary American elections aren't contests between candidates, but battles over who gets to participate." We need to find our way toward universal enfranchisement in open, fair, secure, and safe elections. #Reading

Thanks, Brazil, for doing something obvious and necessary.

This looks like a horrible mistake, but it was really a delicious mess: roasted Brussels sprouts and grapes with walnuts. (The grapes lose a lot of personal integrity in the roasting, but generously share their sweet with the sprouts.) 25 December 2024 #FoodOnFriday

What radicalized me? Decades of listening to Conservatives instantly escalate their smallest disagreements to using violent imagery and threats. .

“I think it's worth it to have a cost of, unfortunately, some gun deaths every single year so that we can have the Second Amendment to protect our other God-given rights. That is a prudent deal. It is rational.” —Charlie Kirk www.newsweek.com/charlie-kirk...

rarely have I more acutely felt the dynamic by which Dems are held responsible for the rhetoric of every random left-leaning person on the internet and Republicans are not even asked to answer for their own personal words

At the Valley Forge Historic Park, this lone cannon keeps lookout over the mountains of Eastern Pennsylvania. 29 December 2023 #Photo #ValleyForge #Cannon

This is a modern reproduction of a Revolutionary log cabin at the Valley Forge Historic Park, Pennsylvania, USA. I took the photo on 29 December 2023. #Photo #ValleyForge

Quotidian socialism. "[P]ublic services for the public good." "Normal socialism." Bernie pointing at Zohran, explaining the hysteria: They're “afraid of him becoming an example of what can happen all over this country.” It's a beautiful essay by Hamilton Nolan. #Reading

I like this essay, because "why science?" is tricky. I liked the things he said--and nothing upset me. Two wins! "The only thing that lifts our boats is the rising tide of knowledge. One of the basic functions of the government is to help make that happen."

This essay by Mr Armitage is brief & very useful to understanding. "The economics are clear. Denver saves $15,733 annually per housed person in reduced emergency services. Every $1 in permanent supportive housing returns $1.80 in reduced public costs. Homelessness is expensive. Housing is cheaper."

Nothing says "summer" to me like a county fair. This was on the midway at the Prince George's [Maryland] County Fair, 23 August 2020. #BlueskyArtShow #Summer

Years ago we were driving through southeastern Pennsylvania when I spotted this arrangement of pond, flag, and Adirondack chairs looking like they were just ready for a major, summer barbeque. 28 June 2008 #BlueskyArtShow #Summer

In an oldish (c. 2020) ep of "Have I Got News for You", we heard the word "grabatologist"--meaning a "collector of neckties"--for the first time. It seemed very useful because Isaac is an autograbatologist (collector of ties he's made himself), but there seems to be some doubt about the provenance

#TodaysWorstSentence : "President Donald Trump will attend Sunday’s men’s final of the U.S. Open, returning to a tournament he once frequently attended for the first time in a decade." I'm having trouble resolving "he once frequently attended for the first time".

#TIL that there are "18 universities that make up the Big Ten Conference", which I find surprising in view of the name, sounding now rather like a Lake-Wobegon league. But then, I've never really understood university sports. [source below]

"Numbers always tend to benefit the left." --Rep R. Fine [File next to Colbert's "Reality has a well-known liberal bias."] #CommonplaceBook

Just as some people with chronic conditions (e.g., diabetes) mistakenly stop taking their maintenance drugs when they feel better, polio has not been eradicated but very effectively suppressed, and that's starting to change as people refuse to immunize their children.

Music folks & interested others: This is from an intersting series by Mr Rotem on temperaments/tunings in early music (14th - 17th c), and is worth it just the hear the brief--and very surprising, odd, & rather unsettling--passage sung near the end "enharmonically" (which is not what you think).

Can we have some mockery over here for the Secretary? Don't make me bring out the Turbo Encabulator. (Nobody expects the Turbo Encabulator!)

"In any case, the classic explanation of 'chutzpah' is that it’s when you murder your parents, then plead for leniency because you’re an orphan.' --Paul Krugman, 2 September 2025 #CommonplaceBook

"Before the war it was said 'the United States are'; grammatically it was spoken that way, and thought of as a collection of independent states. After the war it was always 'the United States is', as we say today without being self-conscious at all." -- Shelby Foote, in Ken Burn's "The Civil War"

So, what IS the deal with aggressive snails battling knights in illuminated marginalia of Medieval manuscripts? I prefer to eschew the convoluted symbolism and imagine them just as an inside-joke type of Medieval Meme from bored scribes that became a thing for awhile.

Here is a lovely, touching short piece about Maurice & Fred, their "forbidden" relationship, and the blue plaque that commemorates it.

This is a selfie I took in a very #Shiny coat of arms that features two greyhounds rampant, advertising "Trussardi", the very chic fashion house within. Taken in Rome, Italy, on 29 October 2015. #BlueSkyArtShow

This is the very #Shiny concourse of the Quadracci Pavillion, designed by Santiago Calatrava, of the Milwaukee Art Museum; the sculpture is "The Walking Man", by Auguste Rodin. Taken 23 July 2021. #BlueSkyArtShow

I haven't heard from Piet Hein for awhile; this is a good way to be reminded. #Poetry

"Tsundoku" : I have heard this before, but I need to add it to my every-day, super-active vocabulary. #Words

#TIL*: When US Grant assumed command of the Union army during the civil war, there were some 533,000 troops--the largest army in the world at the time. *While we're rewatching Ken Burns's "The Civil War"

Cowards.

I am reposting in support of CDC staff and their commitment to REAL SCIENCE.