In Europe, he is known as Kilometers Davis. (pace)

On Her Majesty’s Anodyne Service

I laughed. Of course I did.

For Christmas Eve dinner, a San Francisco cioppino:

Usage note: “The announcement cited ‘the brutal and tortuous conditions’ some recently released deportees said they endured there.” Common error. Tortuous means “twisted” or “convoluted”; use torturous for the sense of “painful” or “agonizing.” #amediting

TIL that Shania Twain’s real name is Shamuel Clemens:

A garden-path headline, caused by ambiguity:

I confess to being the “target market” for this:

The framing cost as much as the art!

You’re getting warmer… apple.news/Aa05yyJYtTR2...

Holy tautology, Batman! “Home buyers have been shut out of the housing market because they can’t afford a house.” www.marketwatch.com/story/more-h...

I’m noticing that for the most part, media outlets have returned to calling the platform Twitter, with only occasional qualifiers, e.g., “and posted it on Twitter (also known as X).” Likely because the verb remains “to tweet.” #Wordwatch

Thought I’d try my homemade kimchi with eggs for breakfast. Related: My sinuses are clearing.

How exactly do they plan to do this? What if you say that you don’t have social media accounts? How much time do they have to muck around on the internet? apple.news/A-f4LiN6OS9i...

Things to enjoy about being retired, Magnificent 7 edition: 1. People above you: none 2. People you report to: none 3. Performance evaluations: none 4. Hours commuting: none 5. Alarms you turn off in the morning: none 6. Things you have to do: none 7. What day is today? No idea.

Made Georgian kachapuri bread for brunch. Came out well.

Secretary of Make Stuff Go Boom says, “Out with idealistic utopianism,” he said. "In with hard-nosed realism.” This isn’t Tiger Beat magazine, dude. Go back to skateboarding.

This will leave a mark: unprecedented.ghost.io/archive/a-de...

Yes, please. Do go on a nation-wide barnstorming tour talking about how your idiotic tariff nonsense has made everything cheap. We’ll laugh all the way home from the grocery store. Laugh, laugh, laugh. www.washingtonpost.com/politics/202...

First Baltimore snow.

Cue Dean Martin: “I’m not the Aryan kind…” www.theverge.com/news/838489/...

Here for a Profs and Pints lecture about the darker history of Santa, Krampus version. This should be amusing.

Moar ikura! I could live on this.

Still early to make a definitive call, but the Pete Kegstand order to "double-tap" the Caribbean boat survivors looks to be a bridge too far, even for the crazed Maga zealots. We, the last few patriots, remember that this country didn't used to just go around executing people without due process.

Johnny Johnny Johnny Johnny whoop! Johnny whoop! It’s enough to make you want to cross your arms.

“He wants to play games with our military and have them at his beckoned call to stop elections and control Americans.” The more common error is “beckon call,” but both here miss the idiom “beck and call.”

Finally got my hands on a jar of Fan-Pi-Xiong-Di. These are Chinese pickled peppers. And yes, they *will* blow your head clean off. Drink with rough liquor or a low-rent beer.

The reading nook is coming together.

Heard a commotion outside and walked up on this. Guy on the ground is a package thief. I helped hold him down until the cops came. The box he stole? Turned out to be mine.

No, I’m not surprised to hear that Noam Chomsky might be on the list.

One of the most beautiful phrases in the English language is: "A transcript can be found here."

Ikura for lunch!

The only thing I can offer you on #Bluesky is a distraction from you own sense of impending doom. Think 2025 is a bad year to be alive? Let me remind you of worse (medical) realities from the past. Smallpox! Bubonic Plague! Typhoid! It's all waiting for you on my timeline... 😂

Finally got one of those electric kettles my Uk friends keep mentioning. What a useful appliance!

Heard on a police bodycam video: Tow truck operator, a native speaker of English, says, "You need to be out with people who need your guys's help." People talk like that.

One of my pastimes is watching arrest videos. No two are alike, but certain themes emerge. “I don’t have ID” generally means the perp has an outstanding warrant. “I don’t answer questions” will escalate the situation.

It’s starting:

Damn, I love my new city.

A couple days ago, whipped up a batch of fresh kimchi, and got it into the fermenter. Today I saw the first bubbles in the airlock. It’s alive!

I’m noticing this kind of carelessness more often, a sign of cost-cutting run amok:

I lift my lamp beside the golden door.

Notice that the superfluous signage isn’t square; they clipped around the words, making it look even more slapdash and jejune.

Hey, New York? Elon Musk and his billionaire buddies have ordered you to vote for Cuomo. They have threatened you that they will be unhappy if you elect Mamdani. They caution that if you cross them, they might punish you by moving away. Take them up on the bet.

My new neighborhood is way into Halloween—3 big bags of candy gone in less than an hour. Happy!

Getting ready for Trick-or-Treaters: