Yup.

Puffins return to Maine after half a century of absence. Eastern Egg Rock now hosts the only puffin colony in the United States, restored through decades of painstaking work after the birds were hunted out a century ago. buff.ly/RB0Ibz0 #ShareGoodNewsToo

Look nobody ever had autism before we were aware of and capable of diagnosing autism, you merely had a second son who was “touched” and he joined the monastery where he was known for communing with the birds.

ICE just blatantly violated the law and arrested sitting Chicago Alderperson Jessie Fuentes while seeking to illegally arrest a patient in a hospital. Fuck these fascists.

Had one of those "crusty old dude" fountain pen moments last night watching vintage pens sell on Ebay below far below their value. Pens aside, those nibs have an ounce of gold in them. (Do not melt nibs for gold value!) 1/

As the President flouts the Posse Comitatus Act by sending troops to Portland, I can’t help but be struck by the irony that Portland was the birthplace of the Christian Nationalist and white supremacist, right wing domestic terror group called the Posse Comitatus.

The National Archives under the Trump administration released @mikiesherrill.bsky.social full, unredacted Navy personnel file to Jack Ciattarelli's campaign. This is an unprecedented and illegal weaponization of the National Archives and private, personal records to attack a political opponent.

Look what we have here then.

Mixed feelings about edibles this morning. On one hand, too high to write in journal about Trump's UN Speech, a low point in the history of presidential speeches. On the other, too high to pass away in a fit of apoplexy. Sat, dumbfounded with each inanity.

Watching a third of the country beclown and degrade themselves in cultish devotion to this stumbling turnip makes me want to puke.

FYI, out into the universe: A Roman Candle is a tube that contains pyrotechnic stars-- the ball things you shoot at each other in "Roman Candle Wars". A *Fountain* is the shower of sparks. If you're making Celebration of Life plans and want to mark the occasion's solemn dignity with fireworks.

Tickets to Paradise are sold out. Not one. Especially not two, and that's sad.

My 14-year-old will call me via his Echo dot. Randomly or to request food. This morning: "Dad. I'm surprised we haven't gotten Klondike Bars in awhile." "...okay?" "I still want some, though." "Noted." What reminded him of Klondike Bars?!? Who prefaces that with "I'm surprised"?!? How? Why?

🧵I currently have about 3200 words sunk into an essay called "Above Your Grade Level" mostly about books I read "too early" as I was in the Stephen King/V.C. Andrews/Jane M. Auel generation. Early on, the school librarian suggested talking animal books and I wanted the monster books. 1/

1. Republicans are attempting to get the FBI to label trans advocacy as domestic terrorism. Project 2025's parent org is pushing it. It would not label all trans people as terrorists, but it would open the door for heavy surveillance and disruption. Subscribe to support our journalism.

Kat is still out there fighting four hours after this. I'm just fucking livid.

Just now, 11 state and city lawmakers were arrested by DHS police on the 10th floor of 26 Federal Plaza after a hour of demanding access to the ICE lock up on the same floor. @thecity.nyc

The Dept. of Justice has removed a study showing that white supremacist and far-right violence “continues to outpace all other types of terrorism and domestic violent extremism” in the U.S.

People keep invoking FAFO, but I repeat: this cohort is dedicated to Not Finding Out. They can meet their rhetoric's direct consequences and get posthumously disconnected from them. Their personally sown, lethal crops stand, unreaped, for others; never them. "Personal responsibility" shirked.

"I think it's worth 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" - Charlie Kirk, 2023 www.mediamatters.org/charlie-kirk...

My unimportant conspiracy theory is Aldi somehow got the rights to som3 frozen pizza products Red Baron used to sell. Just got some deep dish breakfast singles and their French Bread pepperoni tastes almost exactly alike.

No pasarán, coward.

It is twenty years today since my first book Queer London: Perils and Pleasures in the Sexual Metropolis, 1918-57 was published by @uchicagopress.bsky.social and I am feeling contemplative. press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/bo...

I'm sure there's a perfectly reasonable explanation for this.

For a bit I had a little table/stool next to my desk and my working books and notebooks would stack there. Got this RÅSKOG cart from IKEA to make my stationery more manageable. Fountain pens live in or on the desk.

paperback coming early 2026! ✨

Just resacked (resaced?) four Sheaffer fountain pens: two lever fillers and two Touchdowns. Had to buy shellac and got a quart at rhe hardware store. I have fixed all these pens before, but something prematurely ossified the sacs. Noodler's (from the Before Times)? Ammonia? Phoenix Arizona?

This is the digital stasi. Social media influencers utilizing tips from followers for content that they monetize while working with state actors to target the people they want. It's all a spectacle packaged as content. Destroying people's lives for profitable ideological bloodsport.

Got a rotisserie attachment for my grill-- which was at the house when we bought it-- for my birthday last month. Had a small learning curve but I think I'm getting this shawarma down.

Oh, I was so close.

Kids have been at school three days and brought home a cold. The chicken bones and wingtips I froze all summer hear the call. The Souper Cube molds stand at the ready.

Fountain Pen people, #fountainpen #fountainpensky: where do we get our sacs these days? I used to get them at Pendemonium. I have about three Sheaffer TM Touchdowns that need love, and two (Balance Senior; late 40s Crest Deluxe) that need #20 sacs, I think.

hey hey rfk how many kids did you kill today

I sought Philip Kaufman's 1990 Henry & June at about 15 due to a few photos in Playboy. Came away with an appreciation of Miller, Nin, Erik Satie, Lucienne Boyer, Josephine Baker, Tarrega, most actors involved, and St. James Infirmary Blues. But I was too young, apparently.

Watching someone trying to take the high road to defend their indefensible behavior is like watching a car speeding the wrong way on the freeway to get back to the exit they missed.

People like to pay lip service to doing the right thing and go through the motions, but someone actually *doing* the right thing reveals how shabby and performative they are. So they'll tear that down as much as possible. Cf. Quentin Crisp on dragging the Jones to your level-- it's cheaper.

What, me, oh nothing. Just figuring out the Three Special Steps that Special Agent Oso needs to do for a ritual human sacrifice, along with his helpful hints. "The blade has to be the right obsidian with the right sigils!"

ICE Is Nothing Like the Brownshirts Because the Brownshirts Actually Identified Themselves www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/ice...

A useful WaPo map of where Trump Storm Troops are actually operating in DC. www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/202... If you know DC, what this map tell you is: They're making the gaudy show of strength in areas where it matters least and will do least good. Except for sheer spectacle.

For anyone interested in a just-the-documents-and-books focused study of Johannes Gutenberg, this new biography by Eric Marshall White for the Reaktion's "Medieval Lives" series is very good: bookshop.org/p/books/joha... #medievalsky #BookHistory

Do you folks want to see a body?

I live in a town of about 1300 and I mostly stay at home. On trips to NYC I could just watch people *all day* and try and figure where they were going and what they were up to. On the subway, at Coney Island, the street. It takes you outside of yourself into other other walks of life.

Hungover yesterday after drinking the day *after* my birthday. Losartan either plays too well or poorly with alcohol, depending on perspective, so I have cut back. Haed to believe I did this on a regular basis. Wish we had drug glands like The Culture though. I had a decent time and cleaned my bar.

Bedhead saved me. 🧵 My wife had a candle going to mask the smell of the litter box, which needed a dump and replace. And that's my gig. I am stubbornly trying to re-use the bags the litter comes in for this so I was focused on the pour. 1/

You can now 'look inside' my new #history book on the Penguin website! Read the introduction and first chapters, see the list of poems and moments in history I explore, and discover the wormhole which inspired this particular kind of time travel... www.penguin.co.uk/books/461263...

Periodically I go to Twitter for embarrassing reasons, and today this led me to a conservative Catholic blog about the religion of modernity. It struck me I could likely find a 100-year-old piece with the same grammar and structure, just changed specifics.

Second batch of straciatella-style chocolate chip. The first time I used Stella Parks' recipe on Serious Eats, which had milk, cream, sugar, but also corn starch simmered in the milk. Like some reviewers I found it too sweet. 1/