Sure, we all do!
Ava’s pa. OG blogger/designer. Automattician. Author, Designing With Web Standards & Taking Your Talent to the Web. Founder/Publisher, @alistapart.com. Formerly A Book Apart, An Event Apart, Happy Cog™, SVA MFA IXD faculty. zeldman.link
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Sure, we all do!
You must remember this.
We need you to infiltrate a notorious pedophile hangout. To make sure they don't suspect you, you will be a real-life pedophile. To do this, we are going to have you become best friends with the main pedophile for years, and then to ensure you don't get in trouble, you need to get elected president.
Eddie, are you kidding? This is sad news.
👇👇
Oh my god, Trump actually got the NRA to come out to defend trans people owning a gun.
Important to remember that everyone involved in renaming the DoD to the Department of War is afraid to take the subway.
Changing the name of the Department of Defense will cost billions.We could build units for all unhoused veterans. Or give service members a pay raise so 35K active duty members wouldn’t have to rely on food stamps. Or… or… or…
★ Stroll with us down memory lane as we celebrate pixel art, the early web, and some of the many artists and design languages the mighty pixel inspired. zeldman.com/2024/04/13/f...
Even with the prescription from my doctor, Walgreens can’t give me a Covid vaccination. I don’t fit the guidelines. I’m 63 with long Covid from the original virus. Such BS.
The context is a criminal defending his crimes to the man who was once his best friend—and whom he is contemplating killing if the friend doesn’t let up on his investigation into the truth about “the third man.” If you haven’t seen the film, do yourself a favor and watch. It’s brilliant.
The Swiss told Welles the same thing after the film was released in 1949. Nonetheless, it is a brilliant line—and a perfectly immoral defense of the character’s crimes. The misattribution, if anything, underscores how little Harry Lyme cares for human life, let alone the truth.
“In Italy for thirty years under the Borgias, they had warfare, terror, murder, and bloodshed, but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, and the Renaissance. In Switzerland, they had brotherly love, they had 500 years of democracy and peace, and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock.”
The transition from the world of typewriters to the universe of computers was meandering and lengthy. Traces of its many battles and decisions remain scattered across keyboards today—and no key better represents the complexity of that journey than the Return key.
Gives a whole new meaning to “defund the police.” www.nytimes.com/2025/09/05/a...
Truly a kinetic attack on keming in the title there.
Good morning, Bluesky! Orson Welles as Harry Lyme in the film noir classic, “The Third Man.” Watch for more from Orson later today.
"Within three months, at least 300,000 Black women left the job market, many as a direct result of Trump's policies."
that A-list web sites aggressively pop a geolocation permission prompt for absolutely no good reason has done a huge disservice to how folks perceive privacy on the web
Next we’ll be told he went deep undercover as a sexual abuser for 60 years to uncover the sex trafficking ring run by his best friend…
The American left alienates voters with its endless treatises filled with jargon no normal person could understand. Now here's my 2000 word piece on BlueSkyism, a term that I just made up.
fluffy little cloud tonight, looks like whipping cream
For the “war = offense + defense” crowd…the U.S. dropped “War Dept” in 1947 because it carried the wrong signal to citizens and the world. Calling it “Defense” projected restraint in a nuclear age. Switching back now isn’t semantics, it’s a deliberate rebrand toward aggression.
(Closes Criterion Channel app.)
Why I love the web, part 99999: Search every visible word on New York City’s streets.
Why I love the web, part 99999: Search every visible word on New York City’s streets.
Gives a whole new meaning to “defund the police.” www.nytimes.com/2025/09/05/a...
WHY DO PEOPLE IN DOCTOR’S WAITING ROOMS HOLD LOUD CONVERSATIONS ON THEIR PHONES
This is my cold comfort: that my mother, brother, and father didn’t live to see Trump and his morons destroy America. 3/3
Then again, when my father enlisted at age 17 to fight the Nazis, I don’t think he could have imagined an America run by those bastards. Thankfully, he died before he could see it. 2/3
My beloved uncle George, now in his 90s, had polio as a child. That medieval minds in Florida are working to resurrect that terrible disease is something I never imagined him or the rest of us having to face. 1/3
i know everyone's excited about picking a name but i'm stoked for the DOD gender reveal
It’s in nearly every digital product we use, sure. But it also appears in @merriam-webster.com’s and Dictionary.com. Not your father’s web. Not your father’s desk reference.
What can your font do? Find out with this delightful free web app by pixelambacht.nl. 😲 wakamaifondue.com
@bsky.app has not yet verified @alistapart.com, we suppose because they’ve got bigger fish to fry first. We guess that at least some members of the Bluesky team learned their craft from us and trust that they’ll get around to verifying us sooner or later. Reshare if you care.
We absolutely are! bsky.app/profile/zeld... Here’s our most recently published article, BTW: bsky.app/profile/alis...
Only someone who avoided the draft would want to rename the Department of Defense to the Department of War.
@anildash.com Happy birthday, boychick.
Good morning, Bluesky!
The transition from the world of typewriters to the universe of computers was meandering and lengthy. Traces of its many battles and decisions remain scattered across keyboards today—and no key better represents the complexity of that journey than the Return key.
The guy that ordered 8 fighter jets to perform a low altitude fly-over in an effort to drown out Epstein survivors is the same guy who wants you to believe he's innocent.
It’s in nearly every digital product we use, sure. But it also appears in @merriam-webster.com’s and Dictionary.com. Not your father’s web. Not your father’s desk reference.
“I don't think anyone wants a Balkanized Internet, but I fear that's exactly where we're going.” – Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols In their endless hunger for content, AI web crawlers are destroying websites. But the cure may ruin the web…. Hat tip: Dave Martin
Good morning, Bluesky! Here’s an old true story for you: zeldman.com/2014/09/16/o...
That was a peak time for web design.
★ Stroll with us down memory lane as we celebrate pixel art, the early web, and some of the many artists and design languages the mighty pixel inspired. zeldman.com/2024/04/13/f...
Good morning, Bluesky! Baby Yoda pixel illustration by @pseudoroom.bsky.social, icon art O.G. from the early days of @iconfactory.com, #K10k, and #pseudoroom. Watch for his reappearance later today...
The search.txts we wrote 20 years ago work for search crawlers. This is a different txt file. And only some AI crawlers comply.
Also, that was a smart question.
You can write a txts file instructing AI crawlers not to scrape your content, but most AI companies ignore it. Perhaps at some point more will comply.
I agree with everything you just said. :)
I subscribe to "Notify NYC" text messages to be notified if there’s an emergency in the city. They always notify me when someone is hit by a train. And update the notice when the trains resume normal service. But they never say what happened to the person who was hit by the train. :(
“I don't think anyone wants a Balkanized Internet, but I fear that's exactly where we're going.” – Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols In their endless hunger for content, AI web crawlers are destroying websites. But the cure may ruin the web…. Hat tip: Dave Martin
I too—and four books and 30 years of blog posts bear this out—use em-dash in my writing. Like, a lot. Yet few readers will mistake what I write for AI slop. Style. Personality. Realness. That’s how real, human writers win. Always has been. Alt z avatar: @pseudoroom.bsky.social. Details: ALT text.
Haha. Just cheese. I don’t eat meat.
This is the little boat that Trump bombed. Literaly bombed it with a cruise missile. 11 people murdered. Where are the drugs that a little skiff like that could carry, crammed with people? Stop calling it the Venezuelan strike. It is outright murder in international waters.
The President saying “we’re going in” — about deploying the military to an American city just to terrorize its people — should be immediately impeachable. Full stop.
There's a solution: Stop having Trump officials on TV. Stop having them appear in Sunday shows or airing them at all on the news. Just stop. Just assume everything they say is a lie
The Treasury Department was founded OTD in 1789. It did not issue many small denomination paper notes before the Civil War, but here is one from the 1815 in the wake of the War of 1812. It was receivable for taxes, duties, and land sales or could be redeemed in amounts over $100 for stock at 7%. 🗃️
Have you ever wondered what the year 1000 was called in other calendar systems? I have a new page on my website that explores other ways of keeping time a thousand years ago! womenof1000ad.weebly.com/the-year-100... #MedievalSky #Skystorians
Federated Identity Management (FIM) lets you hop between apps and services using just one login, no password juggling required. Here’s how it works.
“Since I had tasted only the inside of my mouth for three weeks, the white cranberry juice was electrifying.” Life without eating isn’t living, but for one great writer with Crohn’s Disease, it would have to do. Read the award-winning story at @longreads.com. longreads.com/2024/04/18/c...
Teenage clicks: how child photographer Stephen Shore turned everyday New York moments into magic #photography #NYC
Danke!
I just had pizza for breakfast to celebrate. I know, I know.
50 pounds down, go me.
Inspired by 1950s poster lettering, Wingman is a hand-drawn sans “with a friendly lean and a little bounce. Great for headlines, branding, and anything that needs to feel warm without going full retro.” taylorpenton.com/products/win... #HandDrawnFonts #typography #typefaces #fonts #DisplayType
“A varied-width sans serif font with fun OpenType options, Think pairs wide and narrow characters to create a bold, eye-catching look.” upupcreative.com/collections/... #DisplayType #typefaces #fonts
Covid is back with a vengeance. Can you still get a shot in RFK’s America?
“Much of the world, myself included, [hasn’t] paid much attention to WordPress and we have only used a small fraction of its potential. I’m going to try to build on and unlock for other developers, a whole new side of the platform.” – Dave Winer
WordPress showed off Telex, its experimental AI development tool, at WordCamp US last week. techcrunch.com/2025/09/02/w...
The light-dark() function is currently designed to support just two color schemes. Should it support others? @sunkanmifafowora.bsky.social says yes _and_ no. css-tricks.com/should-the-c...
Nominate your favorite (or your own) WordPress products and services for the 2025 WP Awards. Do it soon! The nomination phase ends 16 September. thewpweekly.com/awards/
Arweave: A Permanent Solution for WordPress Content Storage https://openchannels.fm/building-a-resilient-web-with-arweaves-vision-for-decentralized-long-term-content-storage/
Even within progressive spaces, disability is too often left out of the conversation, and well-intentioned policies can reinforce exclusion when they are made without input from those most affected. cdrnys.org/blog/disabil...
Awww, thanks!
HappY BirthdaY Walt Simonson!
Misidentifying Gary Panter as Daniel Clowes—the two artists could not be more different, or more unmistakeable in their individual styles—is the dumbest thing I’ve said publicly since I once mistook Arial for Helvetica. @adactio.com may recall that flub. Anyhoo, la de da, la de da.
Good morning, Bluesky! Here’s an old true story for you: zeldman.com/2014/09/16/o...
Oh, fuck me, yes. You’re right. Wow. Thank you. Gotta get that mag out of storage!
That Pritzker press conference was... surreal, and I think marks a significant moment of escalation in the constitutional omni-crisis. This was the governor of a state saying plainly the Union itself is being torn apart and his state is being militarily invaded by an authoritarian regime.
“Much of the world, myself included, [hasn’t] paid much attention to WordPress and we have only used a small fraction of its potential. I’m going to try to build on and unlock for other developers, a whole new side of the platform.” – Dave Winer
Covid is back with a vengeance. Can you still get a shot in RFK’s America?
Federated Identity Management (FIM) lets you hop between apps and services using just one login, no password juggling required. Here’s how it works.
You’re too kind. Thanks!
Thank you so much!
Eyes aside, our coloring matches.
Jasper & Me
I’ve started a Bluesky list featuring some of the brilliant writers, designers, coders, editors, and others who’ve contributed to A List Apart “for people who make websites.” Are you on the list? zeldman.com/2024/11/24/a...
Current events, my dude. variety.com/2025/film/ne...
Or maybe he’s agreed to do that film with Woody Allen.
Good morning, Bluesky! Detail from the cover of Three Dimensional Tales from the Crypt of Terror No. 2, Spring 1954. Art by Al Feldstein. Copyright: TM & © William M. Gaines Agent, Inc. Story in @parisreview.bsky.social: www.theparisreview.org/blog/2020/10...
“I made a poopie like a big boy.”
We’d be thrilled to have ya.
More framing like this, please www.nytimes.com/2025/09/01/u...
The difference between the text of the post and the headline of the article below it is staggering
Innovation makes useful things smaller and smaller. Overconsumption makes things bigger and bigger (and more dangerous with bigger costs & consequences). Bigger vehicles and larger homes for fewer people is not progress. HT @fietsprofessor for graphic
I hope sharpies are involved.
Just imagine what is being saved for the book this week.