I always come crawling back to Canvas.

I intend to return to politics after my doctorate so I have to exercise some restraint here on Al Gore's Internet, but I can flash a humble bicep for #Pride, right? 🏳️‍🌈

Me, watching all of the cool fit gay guys posting their sexy and youthful 'Happy Pride' posts while I read Tebbits' Philosophy of Law in an old bath robe, all curmudgeon-like. Happy Pride!

"I realized that I'd never thought about British geography." -My husband, B.S. in Geography, to me, at showtunes Sunday, as he peruses a map of Britain and not the veritable cornucopia of showtunes.

ST. LOUIS—Apologizing to all customers who had received a defective product, pet food giant Fancy Feast issued a massive recall Friday for 1 million cans of food that cats just kind of stared at before wandering away.

We're halfway through this, the year of our lord 2026, where LLMs can generate entire music albums within minutes, and trying to use my godforsaken printer is still an infuriating and damaging experience. Make it make sense, Brother printer company.

Pleased to announce that I was just awarded a year-long fellowship for the study of constitutional democracy. Alexa, you know what to play:

Not bad for 33, eh? Happy birthday to me — I've finally hit a billion-ish seconds! Now to figure out what to do with the next billion. So far it includes antacids, preventative stretching, and the initial exchanges in the battle for my hairline. :D!

Things suck. But, the second civil rights movement is going to be fought with a much larger porportion of the population in support of it, and with a citizenry that thinks nostalgically about the relative prosperity and strength of the United States during its era as a multicultural democracy.

Next week is my 33rd birthday and all I want is for my country to calm the fuck down.

Just makin' it clear for your asses. Erasing the voices of black and brown people is not "agree to disagree" territory.

Men will say "honor us or else we'll engage in a bunch of stupid brutal violence" and then do the stupid brutal violence regardless.

my favorite part of people telling us not to eat ultra processed foods is that it always stops there. no suggestions for how to make this a systemic change, no effort to limit availability of ultra processed foods. it's just "you know the food that's everywhere and affordable? stay away from it."

Well good morning to me, I guess.

That horrifying moment you tell the cat to stop messing with the blinds behind you, except that the cat is sitting next to you and also wondering what the hell that was.

A fun little fact about me: I had anemophobia — a fear of strong winds — as a child. It could be an absolutely cloudless day but if trees were whipping around, I'd be inconsolable if I had to go outside. So, anyway, I'm probably taking an edible and posting up in the basement today. GLHF y'all!

The absurdity of this Hot Rotisserie Chicken Act is beyond parody or satire. 100 of the most influential Americans working diligently to determine whether or not our poorest deserve to buy a hot chicken. Just insulting. Put the US Senate on SNAP for one month and see how quickly it's reformed.

A month or so into my tenure as Alderman, Ray invited me onto his radio show for an interview. An incredibly nice guy and gracious interviewer — he put you at ease. Hartmann certainly left an indelible mark on St. Louis. A tragic loss for our region, to say the least. STTL, Ray!

I started Dr. Schrader's latest book 'Blue Power' this morning. The introduction alone should be required reading — for students who study Postwar America, policymakers at all levels of government, and citizens who give a damn about our modern political hellscape.

Hey, @nytimes.com, the City of St. Louis would like a word.

We're rhyming pretty damn hard with the immediate post-WWII era here. Surprise: it's most likely to benefit contractors, not society, once again. "The US is short 10 million houses. A new White House report lays out a blueprint to fix that" —AP

Me, patiently waiting for an academic association I joined less than an hour ago to give me access to their journal archive:

Miss me with those bad-faith "both sides are the same" arguments.

The looming threat of nuclear armageddon is no excuse not to vote, St. Louis. Vote 'Yes!' on Prop E and retain that 1% earnings tax! Cause ain't nobody in the City of St. Louis out here saying "oh, but we already have so much money!"

“I feel liberated,” one top banker told the Financial Times in January 2025. “We can say ‘retard’ and ‘pussy’ without the fear of getting cancelled.… It’s a new dawn.” Wonder where that guy is today and what he thinks about this all.

We're in the era of the 'Ugly American', and it's dealt a serious blow to my belief that, generally speaking, people are good. That may have been true before social media, Newt Gingrich, and modern conservatism, but it isn't true anymore. And it breaks my heart, over and over again.

Armageddon is terrible, but our only other option was diversity trainings at work.

English, in all its vast majesty, nevertheless fails to provide the words necessary to express my absolute loathing of LLMs at drive-thrus. Why are they always coded as young white women? What's being recorded during the interaction? Why must LLMs pervade every aspect of society?

A small anecdote from history (and mostly because I'm on an Enron kick at the moment), but the same was said about Kenneth Lay, former CEO of Enron, upon the announcement of his nineteen convictions. "You've committed massive fraud and harm — just like Jesus!" 🙄

The Supreme Court ruled that nobody is a U.S. citizen Chief Justice Roberts stated “No person can be in this country. We all have to leave. Now.” The judges packed up their robes and are getting on a boat

The Pulitzer Prize–winning author being "Interpreter of Maladies" and "The Namesake" will talk about her work, writing in Italian and more when she accepts the award on April 8.

The city of St. Louis had 20 homicides in the first quarter of 2026 – the lowest total in 20 years. The total continues a decline in killings that has also been seen nationwide since 2021.

It's actually very literally written exactly that way. Not to mention that it has been interpreted that way for 161 years. I know most Americans haven't read the US Constitution, much less taken ConLaw. But for the love of God, please don't believe this statement or organization. Please refute it.

I believe that, ultimately, the goal is to nullify each of the Reconstruction amendments — the 13th, 14th, and 15th. The 14th is the linchpin for an overwhelming amount of 20th/21st Century equality cases, but they'll come for 13 and 15 as well by trying to lock them into a specific era.

Failing to anticipate a question from Gorsuch about the implications to Native Americans is so staggeringly naive. It would be like having a copyright or trademark case and being surprised when Sotomayor cracked her knuckles and did a few air punches.

With regards to acronyms and initialisms, is the current convention to capitalize only the first letter? I've seen it popping up on social media, but the BBC just put out a headline about 'Nasa', as opposed to NASA. Is this the thing now? Because I don't care for it, personally.

Commentary: Anyone Else Have Those Weird Dreams Where Sobbing Future Generations Beg You To Change Course?

Fun Fact: "Salve, Regina!" is Latin for "Hey, Queen!"

Not only was this article fantastic, but it turns out that Dr. Esparza is a professor at WashU!

This was my experience with Republicans in MO's Jeff City, too. "I don't actually support [proposed anti-LGBT legislation], but I can't vote against my caucus." And for good reason, too; Tony Lovasco did vote against his caucus, and lost a reelection primary because he had a spine and conviction.

Government must deliver for working people—and every dollar in our budget should work as hard as they do. That’s why I directed every agency to cut waste and help close our budget gap. Here’s some of what we found.

What goes better with coffee than 'The Sexual Love of Blight: Queer Domesticity and the Policing of Intimacy in the Postwar City'? (René Esparza, American Quarterly vol. 78 no. 1)

Prewitt entered prison in 1986, at age 36 and a mother of 5. It wasn't until 2024, a few days before Christmas, that Gov. Mike Parson finally acted, commuting her sentence. She was 75. At the time of her release, her 38 years in prison made her Missouri's longest serving prisoner.

I'm just waiting for Trump to tweet about speed humps, or how motorcyclists use the neighborhood, or how he doesn't like the neighbor's paint, or how...

I'm casually holding a book that was first published 92 years ago and presumably reprinted 50 years ago, which is when the library acquired this particular copy. All so that some silly little doctoral student can nerd out over coffee. And yet we want to defund libraries. 🙄

You could say that Rock n Roll was born 111 years ago today in Arkansas, but probably not where you'd think. Before there was a Chuck Berry or Little Richard, there was those who wanted to be like her. Rosetta Nubin better known as Sister Rosetta Tharpe, the godmother of Rock was born on this day

Today my optometrist and I learned that I have a freckle on the back of my left eye. Everything else looks great — optic nerve living its best life, retina at risk of detachment but holding strong. All in all pretty good, just now featuring a freckle on Ol' Lefty. Hide me from the sun entirely.

Shout out to St. Louis's own Steve Templeton (@firstalert4.com) for recognizing and assuaging the anxiety around potentially tornadic weather, following the worst tornado in seventy years last May. Steve's the real MVP of local weather watches!

A tornado story in three parts. You can’t walk in many parts of north St. Louis without seeing these blue strands and realizing what they are. When I first saw tarps go up, I was naive enough to think they were a sign of hope. Now as they shred, I know no help is coming.

It's official! I'm joining Boston College as a doctoral student of 20th Century American History with a focus on Postwar Public Housing, this coming fall. Extremely excited for this opportunity, AND I saw an ocean for the first time! (Casey wouldn't let me taste the saltwater, however 😞)