Dalmatian or sardine
“You ever wonder why the Dalmatian’s the symbol of the firehouse?”
Orange Crate Art
Recently updated
A reader suggests a missing triplet for a “separated at birth” post.
“Keys to the Past”
From the National Archives: Keys to the Past, an online collection of typewriter-related documents and photographs.
Time, it goes so fast
“What’s a BVD?”
Schaden meet Freude
The Washington Post reports that Project 2025 is ending its policy work. Why? The boss is angry:
Keats or Shelley
From Maureen Duffy’s That’s How it Was.
A giant pencil
News from New York State: “Ticonderoga unveils giant pencil sculpture celebrating graphite heritage.”
Zip’s Diner
The diner in today’s Zippy is real.
Irony alert
J.D. Vance: “I felt like the modern world was constantly in flux. The things that you believed 10 years ago were no longer even acceptable to believe 10 years later.”
Ten movies, two series
Olive Kitteridge and others.
Some Plymouth Rocks
Cole Porter and Malcolm X.
Childs
Childs restaurants were once ubiquitous in New York.
“You can beat it just like I did”
From Letters of Note, a letter to an eight-grader from Joe Biden. Human kindness abounding.
Today’s Saturday Stumper
“Loonie’s shape.”
How to improve writing (no. 123)
Subject and verb should always agree. Sheesh, NY Times.
“Competitive floating”
From the BBC: “The extinct Olympic sport that was the ’dullest’ of all time,” the distance plunge, derided as “competitive floating.”
Apple Calendar
Does everyone already know that you can reschedule events in Calendar by moving them with a finger or a mouse?
Apple System Status
A helpful page for Apple users.
Bad Faith
A documentary urgently worth watching: Bad Faith: Christian Nationalism’s Unholy War on Democracy.
Toumani Diabeté (1965–2024)
The kora virtuoso.
Paul Harvey redux
it sounds as though Peter Baker is attempting to channel Paul Harvey.
Saving our democracy
“Nothing can come in the way of saving our democracy. That includes personal ambition. So I‘ve decided the best way forward is to pass the torch to a new generation”: President Joe Biden, a few minutes ago.
“It’s pathological”
Eddie Glaude on Donald Trump’s suggestion that people with disabilities should just die.
What did I think about Kamala Harris?
From 2019: “The last thing Democrats need to do is to turn the 2020 presidential election into a battle between oldsters. Such a battle will do little to spark voter interest and much to spark parody..”
Recently updated
Mott Street, in July, now with a passage from The WPA Guide to New York City. And pizza.
John Mayall (1933–2024)
I wanted to find something with Mayall playing piI wanted to find something with Mayall playing piano, solo. I got close: here’s “Bear Wires,” with Bob Hite.
TV as radio or children’s game
Listening or playing Guess Who?
“President Venn Diagram”
The webcomic xkcd is on the case.
Goodbye, goo.gl
After August 25, 2025, links with the form http://goo.gl/*/ will no longer return results.
One original thought
Andy Beshear would be an excellent vice presidential choice for Kamala Harris. He’d be the anti-Vance.