I don't feel bad about this confession: this is the kind of stuff that makes a physicist laugh heartily.

I know it's petty, but a question like this always makes me want to answer something like "Mahler's Third Symphony".

Some ideas concerning our current problems with roving gangs of MAGA idiots and The Crusades: a purpose for both! (It's a short thread.)

Despite Trump's hard-on to perpetuate a fossile-fuel economy, the world of reality seems to have settled on renewable energy sources.

The money in political campaigns doesn't directly influence elections; but, oligarch money buys influence in policy-making, which significantly influences governing outcomes. Money does corrupt US government, but the actual points of influence are largely hidden. Are there remedies? Yes!

Now: THIS I did not know. #TIL

I love expanding my vocabulary!

In a stunning moment of mental clarity: ' According to [Jesse] Watters, Trump told him [re: the "White-House Ballroom"]: “Jesse, it’s a monument. I’m building a monument to myself because no one else will.” ' [quoted below]

"An embarrassment to our country!" --Donald J #Trump

I hear all the best Presidents are demanding that their #Epstein files be released immediately.

Every year, Longwood Gardens (in Kennett Sq, PA), extravagantly decorates its conservatories for Christmas and holds an #OpenHouse (well, with admission). 28 Dec 2017 #BlueskyArtShow

Also decorated for Christmas, this is at the New York statehouse--it has an inviting, #OpenHouse feel to me. December 2022 #BlueskyArtShow

Aligning with this week's theme, here's our house's entrance just minutes before our Christmas #OpenHouse of 2008, which we did annually for many years. (The house never looked this tidy again!) #BlueskyArtShow

I'm holding out for vastly increased levels of democracy, reëstablishment of a robust Liberal Consensus, and severe consequences for those who thought bullying & corruption would be tolerated in the United States. (Thanks to @rossengineer.bsky.social for pointing this out.)

For the last half-year I've been sending "Listening Assignments" on Tuesdays to a few friends, typically short pieces of music that I think worthy of mindful listening. This was today's, a charming little duet from the English Renaissance. If perchance you'd like to join my list... #TuesdayMusic

Long before I visited, Antonio Gaudí's Sagreda Familia, in Barcelona, was top of my list of #FavoriteThings when buildings are the subject. Being inside for a few hours was a transcendent experience. 6 Nov 2024 #BlueskyArtShow

On any list of #FavoriteThings of mine must be bookstores, for all the reasons that will come into your mind if you understand. This one is in Annapolis, MD [USA]. 18 Mar 2017 #BlueskyArtShow

Another of my #FavoriteThings is pipe organs, which fascinated me from a very young age: my Mother KNEW I'd marry an organist. She was right, but she didn't expect he would be a man. This photo is inside the wind chest of the giant organ at Longwood Gardens, PA. 28 Dec 2017 #BlueskyArtShow

The first time I was ever in Europe was a tour after HS graduation. In Paris, there was a GIANT retrospective of art by Joan Miró. I must have imprinted, because he's been a fav artist ever since. 1974 #BlueskyArtShow #FavoriteThings

Topping my list of #FavoriteThings has to be all the beautiful, kind-hearted, and often stubborn greyhounds we've lived with over the past 28 years. This is former resident Azalea, not really enjoying a walk as a blizzard gets going. 10 Feb 2010 #BlueskyArtShow

What are your Emotional Support Movie Scores?

Tonight's cultural event: a Christmas concert by the Chesapeake Flute Consort. Nice arrangements, good playing, and an unparalleled opportunity to see & hear alto, bass, AND contrabass flutes! #Flutes #Consort #Music

Despite the clickbait patina of this video, this rearrangement of the BG's classic into idiomatic Renaissance polyphony is creative, amusing, and beautifully performed by a young & enthusiastic vocal quartet. #Music

It's a well-known characteristic of mine that sometimes my hearing can be "creative". Tonight, listening to @hcrichardson.bsky.social commentary, she made a reference to "billionaires", which I misheard as " #villainaires ". I wouldn't have mentioned it, but it seemed a timely coinage to me.

Reading this in Hamilton Nolan's latest newsletter "Yet here we are. ICE and CBP goons, balaclavas emphasizing the penis-like nature of their heads, have descended on New Orleans." makes me think that #LittlePenisHead is the *perfect" debilitating nickname for these small-dicked goons.

This is a delicious plate of Fish and Chips that I enjoyed at Madigan's Pub on O'Connell Street, Dublin, not quite 2 months ago. 18 October 2025 #FoodOnFriday #FishNChips #Dublin #MadigansPub

Last week, Hamilton Nolan wrote an essay describing how a "Labor" candidate could build political support in "red" places that would never vote for a Democrat. Apparently, he got some "won't ever happen", defeatist feedback. This essay is an excellent exposition of what he believes--and I agree--

I stopped using TurboTax several years ago when 1) it was revealed that they used several shady tactics to charge people more, particularly taking advantage of "Free File" patrons; 2) we saw how much money they spent to buy Senators to keep the IRS from implementing free tax-prep. Don't use them.

"[WH spokesperson Leavitt] attributed the orders of September 2 to Admiral Bradley, appearing to be setting him up for underbussing." --HCRichardson [linked below] I think this is the first time I've seen "underbussing", a neolilgism whose time has clearly arrived. #CommonplaceBook #Underbussing

It has seemed an eventful week. Tonight we finished Ken Burns's "The American Revolution", having watched it over 11 nights. (I felt well prepared for it: we just rewatched "The Civil War" a few months ago.) This past Tuesday we got official word that our mortgage is now paid off. That's nice.

The golden hour in Autumn makes light of #Warmth that I find irresistible. This is an otherwise unremarkable small tree dressed in brilliant red foliage bathed in the glow of the sun retiring for the evening. Someplace on Capitol Hill, Washington DC, 3 December 2017 #BlueskyArtShow

This, I believe, is one of my most favorite photographs. I think I saw the #Warmth of the setting sun and was attracted to the way it treated the side of this little shed, but I'm sure it came out better than I expected. Robert Fulton birthplace, Pennsylvania, 2008 #BlueskyArtShow

Protesting ICE actions at a Home Depot in Charlotte, NC. ' “It centers from the fact that they say they’re deporting the worst of the worst,” Norm Perreault said. “But day laborers are the best of the best.” ' #CommonplaceBook

“TRUMP DOES NOT WANT TO EXECUTE MEMBERS OF CONGRESS, WHITE HOUSE SAYS”* --Ed O’Keefe reported from Reuters, 20 November 2025 [CAPS in original quotation from HCR below] #CommonplaceBook substack.com/app-link/pos...

In my college days I saw plenty of math theorems that were "obvious" (or "easily shown by the reader"), but the two lovely geometric theorems/proofs on this page are probably the most obvious ones I've seen yet. #Math #Proof #Geometry #Reading

It is a very rare treat to see this meteorite impact on the Moon.

I am waiting to hear an announcement from the White House that Trump is cooperating fully with DOJ prosecutors on the Epstein case in exchange for immunity.

"Now, nobody knows what a magnet is. " --President DJTrump, 10 November 2025 I so rarely get to say this: I have a degree in physics, and I actually DO know what a magnet is. #CommonplaceBook

Finding "new" [ #Classical ] music. For some years now, American classical-music radio--even those I can stream online--have seemed very tepid, very "Top 40 classics" to me, when what I really crave is hearing unfamiliar music from unfamiliar composers that is interesting and worthy... #Music

#Evening just closing in on the streets of downtown #Toronto [CA]. Sunlight was obscured by the valley of buildings, but warmly lighting the #BellTower of the #OldCityHall at the end of the valley. I was standing in a busy intersection of traffic, but it was worth it! 20221027 #BlueSkyArtShow

#Evening --now night has set in--in Rome: a flower merchant's stand somewhere not far from the Spanish Steps. 20171024 #BlueSkyArtShow #Rome #Flowers

#Evening on the National Mall, Washington, DC [USA], where a large stage was being set up for an event. We were walking to our parked car after a visit to the National Gallery, so: near the Capitol [East] end of the Mall, looking West. 20141109 #BlueSkyArtShow

This is probably the oldest #Evening photo I ever took. It was during the winter of my first year in college (Cornell College, Mt Vernon, IA), probably January 1975. It could get really, really cold there on the Hilltop! #BlueSkyArtShow #CornellCollege #Winter

IDk, but this sounds to me like the President has finally recognized the money-sucking nature of US health-insurance companies and is ready to scrap the entire system in favor of direct-to-user single-payer govt-financed system: Medicare for All!

For #FoodOnFriday, my photo of this "Sushi Triptych", by Washington DC [USA] area artist Lily DiBenigno (16 years old at the time), at "Artomatic 2017" (Crystal City, VA). 15 April 2017 #SushiTriptych #Art #Sushi #Painting #Artomatic

Doing my bit to make the good things viral.

"[W]e won because we insisted that no longer would politics be something that is done to us. Now, it is something that we do." --Zohran Mamdani, Mayor-Elect of New York City, 4 Nov 2025 #CommonplaceBook

Frogs + Foot-longs = Resistance An unexpected but welcome equation.

To my rep @hoyer.house.gov and colleagues: do you really think the President is well and capable of fulfilling his presidential duties?

Here in Dublin, two blocks from our hotel, is the art-work/memorial known as "The Spire", 400-feet high (the tip has a light), erected as a millennium project (replacing the previous monument to Lord Nelson), here shown in two parts because it IS very #Vertical. #BlueskyArtShow