Enigmarch 2026, Day 2: COLOR
Mar. 3rd, 2026 01:12 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tahnanToday's puzzle brought to by "just put something out there, it doesn't have to be good".
And as always, an answer checker.
How very colorful!
And as always, an answer checker.
tahnan
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Dance and action #9
Mar. 2nd, 2026 10:04 pmnosrednaydujI spent the weekend at the Tech Squares annual square dance weekend, where I had a blast. There was dancing on ice skates, dancing to pre-recorded stuff from the 1950s, dancing to silly hacks that people invented, just regular plus dancing, higher level dancing, board gaming, jigsaw puzzles, chatting with people I only see once a year, chatting with people I see more often than that, decent food, and not enough sleep.
Somebody had brought a Rubik's 4x4 cube, and I learned that I have forgotten everything I knew about what to do with the centers. At some point I had edges and corners solved and was making progress on the centers, but slowly, because the thing I was doing did more than I wanted it to, so I tried to figure out what I needed to do to be more restrictive in what changes my moves made, and of course ended up messing it up completely. Then I repeated that situation, and then I got into a mess where I couldn't solve the edges, and the centers were still a mess. Then I gave the cube back. Maybe I will get mine out and spend some of my retirement re-deriving how to do this.
The new car went 220 miles and returned with 24% left in the batteries. It's "guess-o-meter" is moderately accurate.
I found out about the whole bombing Iran thing while I was away, but mostly was not looking at any news sources and stuck my head in the sand about it til I got home. Today I clicked around for protests, and I found one, this evening in Boston. I would say there were 200-300 people there. This one was also put on by the socialists, like a previous one. Some decent speakers. The MC was pretty good at getting everybody to cheer at the right times and he led us in a number of chants. After an hour of rallying we started marching. I don't know what the destination was, because after 40 minutes of walking, it seemed we were getting further away from the train station, and when it was 15 minutes away and there was a train in 20 minutes, I got my phone to give me walking directions and, like a dork, I just stuck it in my pocket and had it announce things like "your next turn is in 1000 feet". Walking is often faster than taking public transit, and more reliable (assuming your feet work, which surprisingly, after dancing them off all weekend, mine did). I'm sure I would've missed the train if I'd taken transit, even though I walked past a couple of T stations.
Somebody had brought a Rubik's 4x4 cube, and I learned that I have forgotten everything I knew about what to do with the centers. At some point I had edges and corners solved and was making progress on the centers, but slowly, because the thing I was doing did more than I wanted it to, so I tried to figure out what I needed to do to be more restrictive in what changes my moves made, and of course ended up messing it up completely. Then I repeated that situation, and then I got into a mess where I couldn't solve the edges, and the centers were still a mess. Then I gave the cube back. Maybe I will get mine out and spend some of my retirement re-deriving how to do this.
The new car went 220 miles and returned with 24% left in the batteries. It's "guess-o-meter" is moderately accurate.
I found out about the whole bombing Iran thing while I was away, but mostly was not looking at any news sources and stuck my head in the sand about it til I got home. Today I clicked around for protests, and I found one, this evening in Boston. I would say there were 200-300 people there. This one was also put on by the socialists, like a previous one. Some decent speakers. The MC was pretty good at getting everybody to cheer at the right times and he led us in a number of chants. After an hour of rallying we started marching. I don't know what the destination was, because after 40 minutes of walking, it seemed we were getting further away from the train station, and when it was 15 minutes away and there was a train in 20 minutes, I got my phone to give me walking directions and, like a dork, I just stuck it in my pocket and had it announce things like "your next turn is in 1000 feet". Walking is often faster than taking public transit, and more reliable (assuming your feet work, which surprisingly, after dancing them off all weekend, mine did). I'm sure I would've missed the train if I'd taken transit, even though I walked past a couple of T stations.
yesterday
Mar. 1st, 2026 09:54 pmlauradi7dwI went to NYC to be a tourist for a couple of hours* and then ring bells. Amtrak each way. While I was reading the news on the way, I learned of the planned protest in Times Square at 2 PM, but that was when I was scheduled to be getting to Trinity Church, 3 miles away, so I skipped it and didn't do any protesting yesterday. Only about 1000 people did go, according to news on the web. It did seem to me that people were doing fun or other useful things while it was sort of spring-like outside, but I would have expected more.
*Takeout "tofu cupbap" from a ramyeon place in a food court on 32nd Street, eaten at a parklet table on a definitely not broad part of Broadway. Nice exhibit at the Museum at FIT. Jazz trio in a real park. long walk.
*Takeout "tofu cupbap" from a ramyeon place in a food court on 32nd Street, eaten at a parklet table on a definitely not broad part of Broadway. Nice exhibit at the Museum at FIT. Jazz trio in a real park. long walk.
New Orleans
Mar. 1st, 2026 08:48 pmredbirdWe’ve been in New Orleans for a few days, enjoying warm weather and eating outdoors— cattitude in particular needed to get away from winter. Not as much interesting food as we’d hoped, but lunch today was at a lebanese restaurant, where we tried Lebanese iced tea, made with rosewater— the server apologized because she thought we had asked for it instead of ordinary sweet tea. My grilled shrimp and rice were also excellent.
Then we wandered through the French Market, and bought hats, a shoulder bag, and a smaller cros-body bag.
We rounded the afternoon off by listening to the drum circle in Congo Square, which has been weekly for more than 300 years. My brother suggested than because our hotel is across thethe street street from the park.
More when I get home ; we’re flying back tomorrow
Enigmarch 2026, Day 1: SEASON
Mar. 1st, 2026 04:45 pmtahnanOh god it's March again! You know what that means!
We're starting with "list of clues", because I haven't the energy for anything fancier.
Spice Bland
The ten dishes at the top didn't come out very well and need seasoning. I'd recommend sprinkling something on them, which will get you the much better dishes at the bottom.
And of course the traditional answer checker.
We're starting with "list of clues", because I haven't the energy for anything fancier.
Spice Bland
The ten dishes at the top didn't come out very well and need seasoning. I'd recommend sprinkling something on them, which will get you the much better dishes at the bottom.
- A serious enthusiast, sometimes verging on extremist [1]
- Digestive liquid (or humour) found in the gallbladder [6]
- D&D spellcaster, though only in the second edition [1]
- Online invitation website [3]
- Trig function used to measure vector similarity [2]
- Apiece [7]
- Sulked [6]
- Structural part of a boat [3]
- Hills of sand [8]
- TV series with Billy Porter as an emcee in the New York ball culture [4]
- Arabic-derived name for Ptolemy's "Mathematical Treatise" (8)
- Assumed something to be true as a starting point (10)
- Band whose lead singer, Dan Smith, was born on July 14 (8)
- "Canvas" for a fresco (7)
- Colombia has two, separated by Panama (in contrast to Ecuador's one and Bolivia's zero) (10)
- Group in which Matthias replaced a missing member in the fifth book (8)
- Hovers without means of support (9)
- Like literature with elves and magic (or, per Jacques, like a musician's melancholy) (11)
- Showing no fear, like a Divergent faction (9)
- With nothing but bones remaining (8)
And of course the traditional answer checker.
(no subject)
Mar. 1st, 2026 12:07 amsorcyressI suppose I need to write my words, but what I would like to be doing is continuing my knitting project and watching Um Actually.
(Um Actually has been _great_ background television for me, lo these many moons. It's exciting when I can get something right --I was particularly proud of a recent "needs more pixels" where I actually got the right answer on first round and none of the contestants managed after several-- and it's easy to just enjoy when it's not things I particularly know.)
My vague sense for myself is "maybe I shouldn't have more than like three knitting projects on needles at the same time" which doesn't actually play well with my ADHD popping back and forth between things constantly. It feels like I should try and consistently have "something I can easily throw into a bag and work on wherever" in addition to "something I need to concentrate on in mostly one location". Finishing projects is going to remain the hardest part.
Current projects:
*A chaos scarf for my sister, because she was one of the two family members who actually honored my christmas list request of "tell me what you would like me to make you for next christmas". Mom's is more complicated, and I need to do more toruses before I'll be able to ask her for measurements, but Al very cutely was enthusiastic about my hideous nightmare chaos scarf that was the whole reason I got into this nonsense in the first place. Okay, sure, I can make you a scarf, scarves are great!
So far I have decided to make it difficult for myself in multiple different ways. But the nice thing about "make a twelve foot scarf with whatever random yarns come your way" is that I can just work on it forever.
*A book cover for my ereader. This is one hundred percent "I don't want to learn how to read patterns so I will design my own concept of fucking around". I had to frog like half of it because I didn't _quite_ have enough yarn to do the whole thing with my ancient remaining stash of candy-corn yarn, so I had to obtain a new ball in a similar colour. I'm increasingly close to actually done, but there's definitely a hard part I want to finish with that I have no idea if it's even possible to do. The candy-corn yarn is officially my "practice swatching things" yarn though, so I want it back, so eventually I'll just...do whatever nonsense I am gonna and be done with it. (do hard things badly).
*Wee tiny proof-of-concept swatch for a "I'm pretty sure this is how you do the thing" idea. It's also my first practice using my size 1 needles, which is very important practice to have if I'm going to try making socks, which I would probably like to do.
Future problems include "I dunno man, I'm just doing this because it's better for my mental health than playing shitty phone games" and "kilt hose". Cabling is obviously something I have to learn how to do at some point and goddamnit why is it only just now occuring to me that obviously I eventually need to have kilt hose with blue lines on them, what a delicious variety of nerd. Fuck. I'll write it in the file.
Anyways, that's where I'm at. Hope you are well!
~Sor
MOOP!
(Um Actually has been _great_ background television for me, lo these many moons. It's exciting when I can get something right --I was particularly proud of a recent "needs more pixels" where I actually got the right answer on first round and none of the contestants managed after several-- and it's easy to just enjoy when it's not things I particularly know.)
My vague sense for myself is "maybe I shouldn't have more than like three knitting projects on needles at the same time" which doesn't actually play well with my ADHD popping back and forth between things constantly. It feels like I should try and consistently have "something I can easily throw into a bag and work on wherever" in addition to "something I need to concentrate on in mostly one location". Finishing projects is going to remain the hardest part.
Current projects:
*A chaos scarf for my sister, because she was one of the two family members who actually honored my christmas list request of "tell me what you would like me to make you for next christmas". Mom's is more complicated, and I need to do more toruses before I'll be able to ask her for measurements, but Al very cutely was enthusiastic about my hideous nightmare chaos scarf that was the whole reason I got into this nonsense in the first place. Okay, sure, I can make you a scarf, scarves are great!
So far I have decided to make it difficult for myself in multiple different ways. But the nice thing about "make a twelve foot scarf with whatever random yarns come your way" is that I can just work on it forever.
*A book cover for my ereader. This is one hundred percent "I don't want to learn how to read patterns so I will design my own concept of fucking around". I had to frog like half of it because I didn't _quite_ have enough yarn to do the whole thing with my ancient remaining stash of candy-corn yarn, so I had to obtain a new ball in a similar colour. I'm increasingly close to actually done, but there's definitely a hard part I want to finish with that I have no idea if it's even possible to do. The candy-corn yarn is officially my "practice swatching things" yarn though, so I want it back, so eventually I'll just...do whatever nonsense I am gonna and be done with it. (do hard things badly).
*Wee tiny proof-of-concept swatch for a "I'm pretty sure this is how you do the thing" idea. It's also my first practice using my size 1 needles, which is very important practice to have if I'm going to try making socks, which I would probably like to do.
Future problems include "I dunno man, I'm just doing this because it's better for my mental health than playing shitty phone games" and "kilt hose". Cabling is obviously something I have to learn how to do at some point and goddamnit why is it only just now occuring to me that obviously I eventually need to have kilt hose with blue lines on them, what a delicious variety of nerd. Fuck. I'll write it in the file.
Anyways, that's where I'm at. Hope you are well!
~Sor
MOOP!
(no subject)
Feb. 27th, 2026 09:44 pmsorcyressBecause I do not wish this to be my third consecutive Friday without writing my words (with one bonus missed Sunday, siiiigh)1, I better get these done before getting *too* cozy on the couch. That way, we know from experience, lies sleepiness.
I rounded out my reasonably good-but-exhausting week with a third day that was good-but-weird. I was worried that I was going to be slightly late to school --I ran into Clayton on the path and we walked the back half together, quickly since we knew we were brushing against our contractual start time. Striding around the corner at 7:47 (two minutes after first bell, but still well before final bell), we were startled to find...everyone. Turns out a fire alarm had gone off right around the time of first bell, and so *no one* got into class before about 8:10. Well then.
A couple hours later, I watched in horror as my clock spontaneously fell off the wall and missed hitting a student on the head by 8-10 inches or so. I think that's when I declared that the day had pretty serious Friday-the-thirteenth vibes, despite being a Friday-the-not.
I was able to finish the day without too many hours of distractions, and determined that I would reward myself for a Productive Week with a trip to Make and Mend to poke around. It's the closest I've ever had two visits there (about two weeks), and I was pleasantly surprised by how much churn had occurred, and how many new things were out. My secret plan to obtain every possible knitting needle is going extremely well.
I walked home while chatting on the phone with Veronica, which meant I got to learn her youngest child has the same favourite dinosaur as me (Triceratops, which I decided was my favourite when I was probably pretty close to the age he is now: almost four). I really appreciate that she has initiated an every-other-week or so Friday afternoon call while she's doing daycare pickup. It's always so good to get to know what's going on in her life!
At home I did some important documentation of knitting supplies (so far I have managed to not duplicate any needle sizes, which is _excellent_) and then sat on the bed and listened to music and worked a bit on some of my projects. Hearing voices downstairs, I went down to hang with Rey and her lovely friend Al, who I'd met a few weeks ago and quite hit it off with.
Now they're off to watch the telly downstairs, and I have, as established at the beginning of this post, curled myself up very comfortably on the couch. I have a warm blanket, I have three different knitting projects in reach, I have good conversations going with my sweeties, all is good!
It's still not guaranteed (my brain has been piss of late), but I'm really hoping I make it out to bells tomorrow, since it's been an age. And then I can spend the rest of the day being lazy and quiet and maybe grading and maybe playing video games and maybe knitting. It's a good plan, bront.
I hope you have good plans for this weekend, be they restful or active.
~Sor
MOOP!
1: I don't think I've talked about it. I feel awful. My streak was 1271 days. But right now it is 6 days, and if I finish today it'll be 7, and the way you get to 1271 is by doing 6 or 7 or 8 days in a row, lots of times all strung together. So yeah, "feel awful" but also sanguine.
I rounded out my reasonably good-but-exhausting week with a third day that was good-but-weird. I was worried that I was going to be slightly late to school --I ran into Clayton on the path and we walked the back half together, quickly since we knew we were brushing against our contractual start time. Striding around the corner at 7:47 (two minutes after first bell, but still well before final bell), we were startled to find...everyone. Turns out a fire alarm had gone off right around the time of first bell, and so *no one* got into class before about 8:10. Well then.
A couple hours later, I watched in horror as my clock spontaneously fell off the wall and missed hitting a student on the head by 8-10 inches or so. I think that's when I declared that the day had pretty serious Friday-the-thirteenth vibes, despite being a Friday-the-not.
I was able to finish the day without too many hours of distractions, and determined that I would reward myself for a Productive Week with a trip to Make and Mend to poke around. It's the closest I've ever had two visits there (about two weeks), and I was pleasantly surprised by how much churn had occurred, and how many new things were out. My secret plan to obtain every possible knitting needle is going extremely well.
I walked home while chatting on the phone with Veronica, which meant I got to learn her youngest child has the same favourite dinosaur as me (Triceratops, which I decided was my favourite when I was probably pretty close to the age he is now: almost four). I really appreciate that she has initiated an every-other-week or so Friday afternoon call while she's doing daycare pickup. It's always so good to get to know what's going on in her life!
At home I did some important documentation of knitting supplies (so far I have managed to not duplicate any needle sizes, which is _excellent_) and then sat on the bed and listened to music and worked a bit on some of my projects. Hearing voices downstairs, I went down to hang with Rey and her lovely friend Al, who I'd met a few weeks ago and quite hit it off with.
Now they're off to watch the telly downstairs, and I have, as established at the beginning of this post, curled myself up very comfortably on the couch. I have a warm blanket, I have three different knitting projects in reach, I have good conversations going with my sweeties, all is good!
It's still not guaranteed (my brain has been piss of late), but I'm really hoping I make it out to bells tomorrow, since it's been an age. And then I can spend the rest of the day being lazy and quiet and maybe grading and maybe playing video games and maybe knitting. It's a good plan, bront.
I hope you have good plans for this weekend, be they restful or active.
~Sor
MOOP!
1: I don't think I've talked about it. I feel awful. My streak was 1271 days. But right now it is 6 days, and if I finish today it'll be 7, and the way you get to 1271 is by doing 6 or 7 or 8 days in a row, lots of times all strung together. So yeah, "feel awful" but also sanguine.
Let's talk about Buddy Guy instead*
Feb. 27th, 2026 07:55 amlauradi7dwTiny desk with Buddy Guy, Miles Caton, and band. Age range almost 21 (MC) to 89.5 (BG). I don't know how the Tiny Desk people decide whom to invite, but the timing is good, because it's only two weeks until the Oscars, and both appeared in the much-nominated "Sinners."
If you watch it on youtube, you can click in a sidebar to donate to support Tiny Desk. But if one clicks, a Google login page shows up. Heck no, I'm not telling google my credit card information, although I suppose it makes sense as youtube is part of google. I'll try to figure out some other way to donate.
* as opposed to ice breaking off in Antarctica, the fact that trans people in Kansas have had their driver's licenses revoked with less than 24 hours' notice, the idea that only some slight moral qualms from folks at Anthropic are keeping us from going full Terminator, Cuba is being starved at our hands, we're about to go to war with Iran, that the ridiculous Casey Means even has a chance to become surgeon general...
If you watch it on youtube, you can click in a sidebar to donate to support Tiny Desk. But if one clicks, a Google login page shows up. Heck no, I'm not telling google my credit card information, although I suppose it makes sense as youtube is part of google. I'll try to figure out some other way to donate.
* as opposed to ice breaking off in Antarctica, the fact that trans people in Kansas have had their driver's licenses revoked with less than 24 hours' notice, the idea that only some slight moral qualms from folks at Anthropic are keeping us from going full Terminator, Cuba is being starved at our hands, we're about to go to war with Iran, that the ridiculous Casey Means even has a chance to become surgeon general...
(no subject)
Feb. 26th, 2026 10:00 pmsorcyressAs a small good thing, I ordered two more skirts from Maya Kern while they were having a sale. I was worried the thistles one would be a colour I don't actually like, but it turns out to be a little more muted than the photos, in a way that I really enjoy! So that's lovely, and I am pleased to add a couple more very pockety skirts to my Pinewoods rotation.
I've been having a rough first half of the year at work. It's the fact that It's 2026 fucking me up, but I've also just like...not been as good of a teacher as I would like to be. I am maybe finding new energy and doing a better job these past couple weeks, which is very good, but also extremely frustrating because boy howdy, past me did not do any favours. Recovering from that is gonna keep being rough.
Case in point: Yesterday was 9.5 hours of active work, today was 9. Both with additional 2 hour zoom meetings after I got home. This is me _barely_ keeping up. It remains really _really_ frustrating that the better I do at my job the more time it takes --there is so little that I am able to optimize.
But I have a decent piece of differentiation/extra challenge for my ninth graders tomorrow (since some of them are definitely already finished with the activity that I expect the other half of the class to finish tomorrow). I found all the old reference sheets and made good (filled in!) copies for the special-ed tenth graders taking the midterm next week. I wrote a thoughtful circle activity (with help/inspiration from my coteacher!) for class 2 to do some community building with their extra classtime due to snow day shenanigans. I printed a couple early copies of the midterm for any tenth graders who want to start the midterm early since they won't be here Monday. I emailed the students and parents of every 9th grader who failed the midterm to begin making a tutoring and retake plan. I sorted the papers to return for one (of three, sigh) class so that I can just drop a pile at each person's desk instead of endlessly running around the room.
(to be fair, that last one is explicitly a "goddamn, recovering from being less good the first half of the year sucks" problem, since it's returning basically every paper I'd collected since, I dunno, October? This is very much something I could've been doing better on. Like. Returning things more frequently, yanno?)
((And to be unfair, I still have more grading and things to return, but that's all quarter 3 work at least.))
And while both yesterday and today I did take breaks after my contractual work day ended, they were only 45-60 minutes total. That's a lot better than getting stuck playing shitty phone games for three hours after the last bell and having to suddenly rush my copies so I can go the fuck home. I'm proud of myself for that.
Still though. "Excuse me while I teach your child but first I must" remains _barely_ satire. Rereading it, the phrase "time-wasting professional development" especially stings this week. Also the depressing reminder that this was in 2018 which is the only reason "attend a training for how to best protect my immigrant students from being targeted, deported, or killed by the government that should be supporting them" isn't anywhere on there. You know. Hypothetically.
So I'm flopping now, wearing a cute new skirt, and debating what to do for the last hour or so before I have to go to bed. It's such a delight to have any damn time to myself, maybe I'll waste it by fucking around with unsatisfying video games.
Maybe this weekend I'll have time and energy to make a dint on my grading pile. Or I could try going to bells for the first time in months? Both are good options, I suppose.
I wish you time and energy to do all the beautiful things that excite you.
~Sor
MOOP!
I've been having a rough first half of the year at work. It's the fact that It's 2026 fucking me up, but I've also just like...not been as good of a teacher as I would like to be. I am maybe finding new energy and doing a better job these past couple weeks, which is very good, but also extremely frustrating because boy howdy, past me did not do any favours. Recovering from that is gonna keep being rough.
Case in point: Yesterday was 9.5 hours of active work, today was 9. Both with additional 2 hour zoom meetings after I got home. This is me _barely_ keeping up. It remains really _really_ frustrating that the better I do at my job the more time it takes --there is so little that I am able to optimize.
But I have a decent piece of differentiation/extra challenge for my ninth graders tomorrow (since some of them are definitely already finished with the activity that I expect the other half of the class to finish tomorrow). I found all the old reference sheets and made good (filled in!) copies for the special-ed tenth graders taking the midterm next week. I wrote a thoughtful circle activity (with help/inspiration from my coteacher!) for class 2 to do some community building with their extra classtime due to snow day shenanigans. I printed a couple early copies of the midterm for any tenth graders who want to start the midterm early since they won't be here Monday. I emailed the students and parents of every 9th grader who failed the midterm to begin making a tutoring and retake plan. I sorted the papers to return for one (of three, sigh) class so that I can just drop a pile at each person's desk instead of endlessly running around the room.
(to be fair, that last one is explicitly a "goddamn, recovering from being less good the first half of the year sucks" problem, since it's returning basically every paper I'd collected since, I dunno, October? This is very much something I could've been doing better on. Like. Returning things more frequently, yanno?)
((And to be unfair, I still have more grading and things to return, but that's all quarter 3 work at least.))
And while both yesterday and today I did take breaks after my contractual work day ended, they were only 45-60 minutes total. That's a lot better than getting stuck playing shitty phone games for three hours after the last bell and having to suddenly rush my copies so I can go the fuck home. I'm proud of myself for that.
Still though. "Excuse me while I teach your child but first I must" remains _barely_ satire. Rereading it, the phrase "time-wasting professional development" especially stings this week. Also the depressing reminder that this was in 2018 which is the only reason "attend a training for how to best protect my immigrant students from being targeted, deported, or killed by the government that should be supporting them" isn't anywhere on there. You know. Hypothetically.
So I'm flopping now, wearing a cute new skirt, and debating what to do for the last hour or so before I have to go to bed. It's such a delight to have any damn time to myself, maybe I'll waste it by fucking around with unsatisfying video games.
Maybe this weekend I'll have time and energy to make a dint on my grading pile. Or I could try going to bells for the first time in months? Both are good options, I suppose.
I wish you time and energy to do all the beautiful things that excite you.
~Sor
MOOP!
voter math
Feb. 25th, 2026 07:28 pmlauradi7dwFor reasons that I never learned, despite living here for 37 years, our local town elections are the first Monday of March instead of saving money by bundling them into the November larger area elections. There are three people running for two open slots on the planning board. One of them is very qualified but a number of people in town seem opposed because he is quite young. There has been a good bit of ageism and stay in your lane kind of opposition. I am going to vote for him, gladly. So that leaves a decision of which of the other two to choose. Different friends recommend different ones. If I only vote for the person I really want, does that increase his chances a tiny bit? We're not doing ranked choice, just the top two vote-getters win.
What I watched instead
Feb. 25th, 2026 08:07 amlauradi7dwI did not watch the state of the union show (speech doesn't seem to cover it, from what I can tell).
Senator Tammy Duckworth on twitter last night
" For all those who didn't watch tonight, allow me to summarize:
The liar lied again."
Instead, I watched "Sunday Best," a documentary about how Ed Sullivan helped integrate TV variety shows and showcase Black talent. According to the Time magazine article below, it was released in the summer, but I had never heard of it before David Bianculli mentioned it yesterday on NPR. Netflix mostly recommends Korean shows to me, plus the top-rated new US stuff. I guess this documentary didn't have the numbers of Bridgerton, for example, which has been hyped lately (Bridgerton is made in the UK but really strikes me as a US show, part of the Shondaland universe. I watched parts of the first episode of this season, then quit).
https://time.com/7304108/sunday-best-netflix-ed-sullivan-show/
A companion playlist for the Ed Sullivan show
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLQWND5qZhbj3vIdycOaoDn__-vKmkeCsq
Senator Tammy Duckworth on twitter last night
" For all those who didn't watch tonight, allow me to summarize:
The liar lied again."
Instead, I watched "Sunday Best," a documentary about how Ed Sullivan helped integrate TV variety shows and showcase Black talent. According to the Time magazine article below, it was released in the summer, but I had never heard of it before David Bianculli mentioned it yesterday on NPR. Netflix mostly recommends Korean shows to me, plus the top-rated new US stuff. I guess this documentary didn't have the numbers of Bridgerton, for example, which has been hyped lately (Bridgerton is made in the UK but really strikes me as a US show, part of the Shondaland universe. I watched parts of the first episode of this season, then quit).
https://time.com/7304108/sunday-best-netflix-ed-sullivan-show/
A companion playlist for the Ed Sullivan show
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLQWND5qZhbj3vIdycOaoDn__-vKmkeCsq
It would be cool to have immunities on resumes
Feb. 24th, 2026 11:01 pmlauradi7dwI have been following https://adverts250project.org/ for years (mostly on twitter, sometimes at the website). The object is to go through newspapers 250 years ago to find classified ads relevant to slavery - usually either runaways or for sale ads. The idea of selling people has always been appalling, but it's interesting to see what was in the list of qualifications. In this case, I like seeing that he had had measles and smallpox because it means that the fact that he was immune to these diseases was a selling point. A fair number of them mention having had smallpox, but I hadn't remembered measles in previous ones. I'm really worried about measles now. I'm not so worried about smallpox, but I do think that if there are any live samples still in labs that someone should just pour bleach on them.
Edited to add: In the aforementioned "Our Blues," there is a passing mention of two siblings who had died as children "of measles." No elaboration, just a photo on the wall with other family pictures (can a photograph play a character? why not?). Based on the ages of other actors in that fictional family, they would probably have been born in the early 80s, I guess. Was this a tiny PSA to get your kids vaccinated? A tiny historical detail - the MMR shot was introduced earlier than that in Korea, but way more people in that age cohort got the first shot than the follow-up booster,
https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm5613a3.htm
Edited to add: In the aforementioned "Our Blues," there is a passing mention of two siblings who had died as children "of measles." No elaboration, just a photo on the wall with other family pictures (can a photograph play a character? why not?). Based on the ages of other actors in that fictional family, they would probably have been born in the early 80s, I guess. Was this a tiny PSA to get your kids vaccinated? A tiny historical detail - the MMR shot was introduced earlier than that in Korea, but way more people in that age cohort got the first shot than the follow-up booster,
https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm5613a3.htm
a nice walk, a day after the blizzard
Feb. 24th, 2026 03:24 pmredbirdI have just been out for a walk, a day after the blizzard: bright blue sky, temperature around freezing, and most but not all of the sidewalks have been cleared, so I walked down the middle of the street for a bit. The turkey flock that hangs out on Egremont Road is now up to at least 12 birds, two of which were sitting on a railing. [We got 16-18 inches of snow, I think--the official number from the airport is 16.5, which is significant, but a lot less than this storm dumped on some places.]
