MARKWAYNE MULLIGAN (I know!): When was the last time we had a GOOD look at this orbit around the sun … theory? We shouldn't look at it again?
Author, punster, baseball fan, whisky lover, cocktail maker. Limericks happen here. Written on the Dark now released, Canada, U.S., U.K. Print, ebook, audiobook.
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MARKWAYNE MULLIGAN (I know!): When was the last time we had a GOOD look at this orbit around the sun … theory? We shouldn't look at it again?
Not with Rodgers they ain’t. Sorry to break it to you.
Was thinking same. Bobby’s death was a traumatic turning point for many of us. He represented a kind of hope, core optimism, political striving for decency. Robert Lowell put it in a poem when Bobby was killed: ‘Forever advancing towards your maturity.’ And now his son is … this obscenity.
I urge people to read this. Kennedy is mentally unwell, and will kill people. Is doing so already.
Saw a youngish guy on my walk, walking with wife or gf, and he was wearing a Pittsburgh sweatshirt so I called out condolences on both Pirates and Steelers, and we stopped to laugh-talk as she looked decently not-exasperated. Male bonding can take many forms, sports talk is def one of them.
Still with football, @gmukunda.bsky.social and I are discussing which of us needs to claim for our team Miami’s cornerback Storm Duck, just for the name. I do think @sentantiq.bsky.social should get a chance to have him. Odysseus knew many storms…
As our 1st decision of the season looms (Flex pick, Pickens of Dallas vs the tough Eagles D but with Prescott sure to throw a LOT, or Jones of Vikings, solid, reliable runner, unexciting, vs so-so Bears) I recall my partner, the venerable Martin Levin’s immortal line: ‘Whatever we do will be wrong.’
Afternoon poetry break. Lisel Mueller’s writing delivers tenderness and wisdom and gut punches in sequence and profusion. I have many poets I keep going back to but this end-of-summer she resonates for me so much. Rilke wrote ‘You must change your life.’ Some writers can hit you that way.
If Donald John Trump didn’t exist, Nigel Farage would be the poster child for ‘lying wannabe autocrat who elicits disbelief that anyone believes him.’
The BIG news in tennis is that Drake bet $300,000 on Sinner which would curse him if he wasn't … Sinner.
Online, people scattered all over the place! Yahoo doesn’t like our draft (woe!) but others like FantasyPros think we did just fine (yay?). The luck of the injury gods plays a huge role in fantasy football. @elquesogrande.bsky.social has McCaffrey AND Achane, he is buying votive candles as I type.
This sounds obvious but it is actually important. GOP and MAGA scream about upstart judges overreaching, balking Dear Leader, where what is happening is sane judges are defending the rule of law from wannabe fascists. And then there cometh SCOTUS…
Seeing too many people worried about tonight’s Folio League fantasy football draft at 7 EDT. Fear not, friends, despite the nefarious shenanigans of @elquesogrande.bsky.social, and 11 cunning foes, Martin Levin and I and our bottle of Bowmore will have this covered. (Draft night is always fun.)
REWENGE! REWENGE!
‘Thots? What even is them?’
Felix, post-match: It wasn’t pretty, too many nerves, but that’s what Grand Slams are about. Neither he or De Minaur were top of their game but the Canadian toughed it out and goes on, the Aussie will have regrets, a few. Very intense, entertaining tennis match, with a fine result seen from here!
Very expensive mall cops.
Just finished Jeremy Cooper’s BRIAN. A quiet, gentle novel that is very much about a love of film but also about exploring worth, value, rewards in an awkward person’s solitary life. I was moved by it … and given a number of films to add to my list, too.
For an entire fascist movement that goes out of its way to pay effusive lip service to the "classical" era, these fuckers really don't have any idea what actually happened at the battle of Thermopylae, do they?
You are correct!
It is interesting how nice it is to learn that some superstar athletes (or any other stars) seem genuinely good people. Carlos Alcaraz appears to be one. www.espn.com/tennis/story...
They adjourned for a month to avoid taking a vote on releasing the files, and THIS is the best scam they could come up with to fool people? Who hatched this genius plan - Comer? bsky.app/profile/meid...
Meanwhile Big Aspirin skates, again!
Everybody knows it is Ribena with prosecco and coke!
Why – real question – should Bluesky need to be perfect?
Are you … are you all right, Judith?
I love much of Bob Dylan, for myriad reasons (am of that generation) but one reason, of a certainty, is that he gave me the song I sing with morning coffee. (Usually when alone in the house as I am a truly terrible singer, and merciful.)
OK, this is very funny.
America to Trump, with tears in its eyes: ‘Sir! Rob me! Rob us all!’
A genuine sorrow. A distinguished figure, and not just as an actor.
Bublik is a legitimately good tennis player and is being filleted by Sinner like a fish.
Venus and Leylah are the new Dream Team.
“Whatever was bound to happen/ in my story did not happen.” Lisel Mueller’s poems are often haunted by historical happenstance. In 1939, 15yo Lisel and her family fled Nazi Germany as refugees for the U.S. She lived in Illinois for most of her life until her death in 2020. One of my favorite poets.
Message from an Alberta teacher: "I've been told that kids aren't allowed to bring books from home. No free choice reading. No silent reading time or listening to reading. No library time until books are catalogued and deemed appropriate. Please contact your MLA." @daniellesmithab.bsky.social
This would be hilarious if it wasn’t so monumentally fucked up.
The broadcasters explaining Coco Gauff’s issue as ‘too many thoughts in her head’ reminded me of Yogi Berra stomping back after a strikeout and exclaiming ‘I can’t think and bat!’ (It is true for some in sports, not at all for others. Different, er, strokes.)
Today includes a Critical Session with my fantasy football partner, Martin Levin, as we confirm HOW completely we shall not draft Aaron Rodgers. Folio League draft is Wednesday. Despite @elquesogrande.bsky.social AGAIN dumping us (randomly, he says!) into last pick, we shall sally forth with brio!
There are naive sorts who believe it is summer for 3 more weeks. Any Boomer who has ever been to school in Canada knows fall begins when school does, right after Labour Day, ie it is autumn tomorrow, this is the last day of summer. Some say fall starts TODAY, and that’s a fair position to take.
I am NOT going to begin September by adding to the snark on Rudy G’s roadside accident in the middle of the night. Look upon my restraint, ye commentariat, and despair.
This is a very good piece, exposing how American foreign policy and the world order crash on the rocks of Trump’s ‘I wanna Nobel!’ idiocy. I praise it despite another underestimate for overestimate sighting. (Which I mention so someone doesn’t point it out to me, since I’ve noted these all over!)
There are many fabulous versions of this, can spend a morning comparing, but for the start of this month I’ll share Sarah Vaughan and Clifford Brown. youtu.be/SUj5EX4b5Ig?...
Old school!
May I say how much I enjoyed Felix A-A offering what the announcers called a master class (essentially his forehand, really, it was stupendous) in beating world #3 Zverev just now? The phrase that sticks? ‘Unadulterated brilliance from the Canadian.’
43?? Wow!
A Sidecar this evening, for no special reason, but hadn’t made one in ages. Am aware that some might declare them a later night drink (cognac, after all) but my only firm drinks rule is probably no ice in a good single malt.
“…I am infuriated that the Air Force plans to grant military funeral honors to Ashli Babbitt. She did not die defending the Constitution. She died trying to overturn it.” My latest in @thebulwark.com www.thebulwark.com/p/honoring-a...
Don’t trust the experts”? That’s not democracy, that’s recklessness. On a plane, I want a pilot. In a hospital, I want doctors and scientists who understand the evidence. Expertise isn’t religion or authoritarianism — it’s training, accountability, and data. Ignore it and we all pay the price.
DOGE wasn’t a cost-cutting venture. It was a data mining operation for private interests. Trump opened the gates to the castle from inside for invaders with bad and greedy intent to plunder and exploit.
Nice dunk, Hayes!
This isn't just a political claim, it's an empirical one. If "the problem is not guns" then we shouldn't see any correlation between gun ownership and oh wait platform.vox.com/wp-content/u...
there is no question in my mind that rfk jr is the most dangerous person in this administration and that his eugenicist ideology threatens the lives of millions of people www.advocate.com/politics/dem...
“You have to let us break the law or we will be embarrassed” is not a good legal argument
For Edmonton friends.
I’m so grateful that I have tenure and the academic freedom to call it like I see it. “Dr. Kathleen Bachynski, a professor of public health at Muhlenberg College, described Kennedy’s comments as “absolute gibberish” and slammed the HHS secretary as a “dangerous buffoon” who is “threatening us all.”
You’ve made her an ernstwhile Senator!
29 August 1929 | A Polish Jew, Michel Adler, was born in Radom. He emigrated to France. In August 1942 he was deported to #Auschwitz and murdered in a gas chamber after the selection.
Contemptible, the whole list, the whole idea behind the lists.
She is, dare one say it, lying again.
Note that only 4.5 months of protection remained for Harris, so obviously there’s no policy point here. Trump did this to mess with her upcoming nationwide book tour.
I am actually all in on pols changing their minds on issues when new information emerges BUT everyone knew what RFK Jr was and what he wanted to do. Cassidy’s vote for his old friend was appalling, irresponsible, and deadly.
Then they did this, for the paperback reissue. brightweavings.com/wp-content/u...
With the (sane) Grand Juries refusing to indict the sandwich flinging dude on a felony, the Feds have now charged him with a misdemayonnaise.
Tip of the ol’ ballcap to Kyle Schwarber of the Phillies, his 49th homer of the year was also his … 4th of the game. Powerful lad.
Thank you. There was a time when green covers were deemed ‘bad for sales.’ I love this one, and the lush green cover Canada used for their hardcover YSABEL, too. (Also based on south of France, as it happens.)
There are dissenting voices, some respected, that say it is ‘fine, Gary, just fine.’
We made news in Britain!!! fuck
What, me, being driven (mildly) batty by word usage flubs? Pshaw! ‘What [Drake, quarterback, New England] Maye was able to achieve as a rookie in a terrible situation cannot be understated.’ This one happens all the damned time.
Now do brain surgeons and MLB shortstops!
Just reading ‘10 year old shooting survivor’ is sick-making. Clearly needs some good old fashioned GOP thoughts and prayers to address.
Can ChatCPT draw a tiny tiny violin in, say, the manner of Chagall?
‘Bootlicking servility’ is about right. From formally powerful men and women charged with the safety and good governance of their nation, on behalf of the people, not the humiliating pandering to a senescent, pathetically needy narcissist.
[NOUVEAUTÉ NEPTUNE] Le trilogie épique de @guygavrielkay.bsky.social continue son apparition dans notre collection poche. Découvrez le deuxième tome d'un classique du genre : La Tapisserie de Fionavar. Traduction d'Élisabeth Vonarburg. Illustration de @fortifem.fr www.l-atalante.com/catalogue/ne...
Read carefully? That sweet summer child.
There are already a lot of puninis abiut the sandwich guy and the grand jury. Word mustard have spread fast!
One (1) person gets to say the ham sandwich thing and then no one else, sorry those are the rules
‘Rumours are unreliable at the best of times, but they perpetuate themselves because, as Sir Francis Bacon observed, ‘man would rather believe what he wishes to be true.’ — Nadine Akkerman
I see a large number of people happy about an engagement and a small number being grumpy about that for various reasons and jeez, people, let them be happy!
Awake in the night (rookie error — had a coffee around 3:30 pm), started thinking how The Lions of Al-Rassan was published 30 years ago. The arc of time. New editions still coming. I cannot choose among my books, but Lions was, and is, so important to me, and the ache of writing that ending remains.
My political opinion that's changed the most with age is how I feel about personal character. When I was younger I (cynically) didn't care much. I thought electeds would bend to their constituency. Now I think nearly all the big problems we have are downstream from leaders with giant ethical gaps.
This, good people, is the time of year when the cascade of fantasy football analysis equals or surpasses the flood of political commentary. I am watching to see what Governor Justin Jefferson does next! And keep an eye on Senator Drake Maye!
The odds that Governor Wes Moore actually told Donnie Lies-all-Day that he was the greatest President in Moore’s lifetime (with a ‘Sir’ added for emphasis!) are roughly the same as those of my batting leadoff for the Yankees tonight.
Lisel Mueller (who is really very good) wrote in a poem, about her childhood: ‘At home the bookshelves connected heaven and earth.’ I think at times about the gift that was for her (and her knowing it then) and wonder how terribly close to extinction such a thing, such an awareness, is now.
An old-style telephone! Wow!
The prolonged public torturing of a single man because the state cannot admit to its errors is not something that occurs in a free country
Including, I fear, in voting at the polls next year.
Every time anybody calls any politically charged event or decision "a distraction" from some other thing, a jack in the box should pop up and punch them in the mouth
Exquisite.
A heartbreak of a photo from WW2, yes. Nazi occupation of Marseille (I think Marseille). Saw it young, have never forgotten his face.
Wow, Eric… and they both follow you! So cool!
"We’re witnessing, in real-time, a profound consolidation of power & collusion among political & tech elites... wherein the tools and technologies that this industry has built... can now be deployed in service of an authoritarian regime" — @katie-drummond.bsky.social www.status.news/p/wired-kati...
DRUMMOND: “.. Ultimately, this era in history is a WIRED story: The United States’ authoritarian turn, aided and abetted by the tech industry’s complicity. And that’s how we’re covering it.” @status.news @oliverdarcy.bsky.social @katie-drummond.bsky.social @wired.com www.status.news/p/wired-kati...
This has an ungodly number of shares for something that apparently to be entirely made up. The police report has been covered and doesn't say anything like this. www.wired.com/story/edward...
Very much worth saluting. (Also: he is a very good sport about his atrocious nickname, but I hate it.)
You are allowed that opinion in my feed.
Kid bro and an old friend truly happy to see Tommy Fleetwood win at the golf today. Me too. He has come in top 5 29 times before today (!), but never won on PGA Tour. A lot of other pros lingered at end to salute and celebrate. A nice sports moment. We need to find small pleasures in this chaos.
Truth resides in this, to a legit degree. Same applies to those who 'learned' from LotR and other fantasies that good eventually DOES triumph. In real life it may not, or may take almost unimaginable suffering first, and a long time.
WUT? CAN THIS BE TRUE??
Not really sure what this means, much as I admire Steiner, but Borges was great.
Vance says today that Russia has made “significant concessions.” Meanwhile, Lavrov says he won’t even meet with the Ukrainians because Zelensky isn’t a legitimate president. What the Admin says to the American people about Russia’s position is far different from what Russia says.
Who can forget Darth Vader saying ‘What is truth?’