Finally got to my train station & 15 minutes later we got hit by another car on the drive home. No injuries but this day is cursed.

My train home was delayed 4.5 hours & once Amtrak started mentioning an investigation & authorities needing to arrive, knew what that meant www.berkeleyscanner.com/2025/12/04/t...

NEWS: The Institute of Museum & Library Services has restored ALL previously canceled federal grants to libraries, following a ruling by a federal judge in Rhode Island last month. This is a massive win for libraries & communities in every state & territory! Learn more: www.ala.org/news/2025/12...

An Advent calendar of vintage festive ephemera, posting daily on our stories Instagram.com/presentandco...

If you take historic home tours, especially the Stanford Mansion and the Thunderbird Lodge, there’s always a point in the tour where the docents explain how the occupants were so rich that they couldn’t function as a normal human being

ILL is the category of program that you don't think exists because it would just be unrealistic to expect something so impressive and valuable provided so smoothly and universally.

Suburban cowboys are a completely alien culture & way more wealthy demographic than the rural Southern relatives I grew up around. Who had nothing but contempt for anyone who was going into debt to buy a new truck.

Costco and HEB.

One of my uncles was the only person in his circle who didn’t contract AIDS, but it was a constant unspoken stress in my family. I have some of his photos from the before times of people living their lives in places like New York & Fire Island

Had a dental check up on my lunch break & made a new friend

The end of PEPFAR and global cuts to HIV prevention and treatment are a longterm health crisis and an immediate, fast-moving economic crisis—not dissimilar from the ways that conservatives are waging war on queer and trans people by coming for their jobs:

Today is the 70th anniversary of Rosa Parks' arrest. Six myths: 1) She wasn't old or tired. 42 years old that day, she had a "life history of being rebellious" & had spent two decades helping to turn the Montgomery NAACP into a more activist branch alongside ED Nixon and Johnnie Carr.

Barbara Stanwyck with Rod La Rocque in THE LOCKED DOOR (1929). Directed by George Fitzmaurice, this was Stanwyck’s first talkie and first starring role.

imho James Garner really is the guy that everyone thinks Steve McQueen is. Garner's fit was so powerful that McQueen threw a tantrum about it and insisted they swap costumes.

now shifting into Jólakötturinn (child-eating Icelandic Yule cat ) season

One of my top 5 movie audience experiences was Best of the Best 2 being screened on a bus ride from Laredo to Monterrey. The entire bus was really into it and pretty sure that's how I first learned the expression "puta madre."

Frog and Toad jumped into the water. They swam all afternoon. Frog swam fast and made big splashes. Toad swam slowly and made smaller splashes.

Let's talk about the GLORY HOLE of Lake Berryessa. It's a flood relief measure connected to Monticello Dam which creates the lake in Napa County, California. When water levels exceed 440 ft (134 m), the water enters a 72 ft diameter circular spillway that drains it under the dam to Putah Creek.

Salami Advent Calendar, Czech Republic. podnikovka.cz/uzeniny_c103...

“Is it frivolous to worry about art when the world is on fire? The Franklin D. Roosevelt administration didn’t think so. In the midst of the Great Depression, the worst economic calamity in the country’s history, FDR’s New Deal invested in culture as essential to a more “abundant life” for…citizens”

If they invade Venezuela, it’s going to be dumber than how the Marines used an AMEX tourist map to plan the invasion of Grenada. This is going to be led by former Texaco executives & Baptist missionaries

One of my job site colleagues during Peace Corps was the daughter of a politician assassinated by the Medellin cartel & always told me that US government anti trafficking activities never targeted the people who were making money (or laundering it) for Americans

Bong Joon Ho hit me up for the squad you legend deadline.com/2025/11/bong...

NEW: The New York Times got a State Dept. cable telling diplomats to destroy visas that had been approved and printed to give to Afghans. And diplomats are told to do scheduled interviews but not grant visas. US shuts all legal entry routes for Afghans. Our story: www.nytimes.com/2025/11/28/u...

Introduce yourself with 5 animals you’ve seen in the wild: Humpback Whale Capybara Armadillo Mongoose Sloth

Since people find being hopeful and optimistic so cringe these days, let me remind you once again that there isn’t a single liberation movement in the world that wasn’t built on hope and optimism.

The news frequently has stories about how a family is selling off the Tahoe region ranch that they've owned since the Gold Rush to investors for luxury real estate development. This is unexpected good news.

Kudos to past me for setting up an e-mail filter which deletes any message with the phrase "Black Friday" in the subject line. First time in years I'm not feeling harassed by my inbox.

Happy Birthday to William Blake, who knows where the wild things are...

Happy birthday William Blake. The English artist, poet & printmaker, whose printing technology innovations allowed him to print his illustrations & poems in a single process, was born today in 1757. #printing #poetrycommunity

Tyger, tyger, burning bright, In the forests of the night. What immortal hand or eye Could frame thy fearful symmetry? Who else remembers reading this aloud in school and marveling at asymmetry? Ah, William Blake. Happy birthday.

A central issue at trial for the My Lai massacre in Vietnam was whether an Army lieutenant, or the Army captain who was his superior, was responsible for the order to leave no survivors. Neither suggested the SecDef would have given such a command.

There might be no better example of the war coming home than a CIA trained teen death squad recruit getting asylum in the US and then shooting a bunch of soldiers who were deployed to DC for no reason other than Kabuki Security Theater

Tule fog fills California’s Central Valley.

Always a floor, sometimes more.

Joan Crawford is the greatest classic- Hollywood actress, and Scott Eyman's wonderful new biography, Joan Crawford: A Woman's Face (out today from @simonschusteranz.bsky.social), reveals the exacting process behind the art—and how the studio system factored into it: www.newyorker.com/culture/the-...

Introduce yourself with 5 concerts you’ve been to: - Grace Jones - Dolly Parton - The Butthole Surfers - Caetano Veloso - Nirvana

Every time a US veteran snaps people fall all over each other to point out the effects of war and literal physical changes that PTSD triggers, but one Afghan veteran snaps and we’re going to shut down immigration for all Afghans forever and I bet they’re working on revoking parole wholesale

James Cagney, Modern Screen, Dec. 1931 “According to Jimmy, the way to celebrate Thanksgiving properly is by eating plenty of turkey—with cranberry sauce, white and sweet potatoes, and plenty of other vegetables and fixin's.”

Elliott Erwitt, Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. New York City, USA. 1988.

ICE DETAINED MARILYN. Fuck these people. www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news...

Man, this is a fantastic conversation about humor, both when it's about maintaining the status quo (responding to Epstein revelations w/smug self serving comments instead of moral horror) & when it's in service of justice (inflatable frog costumes & ice scrapers deflating facism).

My favorite new expression is the osteopathic clinic this morning where they showed me a treatment for TMJ where you apply pressure "where the wisdom teeth live." Have this mental image of a neighborhood of wisdom teeth (I was born with 10) getting evicted when I had the surgery to remove them.

fuck you the memories of a generation lost because of Reagan's homophobia will not be erased i think we should do something in DC that would make david wojnarowicz proud tbh

Good morning to Brazilian reporter Manuela Borges, who’s been waiting eleven years for this petty moment. ❤️ 🇧🇷

My pumpkin pie hot takes is make it savory & emulating a quiche. Made a variation of this recipe using a roasted Kuri squash with carmelized leeks. Learned that I'd rather buy a slice than make an entire pie, but the leftovers were outstanding adventuresincooking.com/chevre-and-b...

I always say that I want to be BrazilIan in my next life.

Just paid for a couple kid's book wishlists for Mercy Housing, including anime and YA novels. Hope the kids enjoy their books. One of my grandmas was in Catholic foster care as a kid & always think about the stories about her being alone w/the nuns during Christmas w/no visitors or presents.

It’s a sign of the impending New Year, the cult and financial scam operation posing as an anti communist dance troop will be returning to NorCal.