A Reading from the Commonplace Book The way I figure it, every man’s entitled to a door he can close against the world. —Ed McBain —Lady, Lady, I Did It!
27.02.2026 18:57
👍 4
🔁 1
💬 0
📌 0
A Reading from the Commonplace Book The way I figure it, every man’s entitled to a door he can close against the world. —Ed McBain —Lady, Lady, I Did It!
AI generated response to the query: “What snack food is Kentucky known for?”
“Kentuckians love their cheese dust. This is the top favorite snack around the state.”
A list of texts in the format of an MLA works cited page reads: Chabon, Michael. “Chapter 4: The Cloud Factory.” The Mysteries of Pittsburgh, William Morrow & Co, New York, 1988, pp. 37–45. Lahiri, Jhumpa. “Interpreter of Maladies.” Interpreter of Maladies: Stories, Houghton Mifflin Co, Boston, pp. 35–51. Melville, Herman. “Bartleby, The Scrivener: A Story of Wall Street.” I Would Prefer Not To: Essential Stories, Pushkin Press, London, 2021, pp. 6–51. Roanhorse, Rebecca. “Welcome to Your Authentic Indian ExperienceTM.” The New Voices of Science Fiction, Tachyon, San Francisco, 2019, pp. 239–259. Robinson, Kim Stanley. “Part 3: The Crucible.” Red Mars, Bantam Spectra, New York, 1992, pp. 134–161. Slezak, Ellen. “If You Treat Things Right.” Last Year’s Jesus, Hyperion, New York, 2002, pp. 167–183.
I think many of you will be able to ascertain the theme for next week's setting class from the reading list.
A screenshot of a blog post titled "2026 Valley of the Sun Stage Race Preview and Start List." A colorful logo features a stylized cyclist in silhouette against sun-drenched mountains and a banner reading "Valley of the Sun Sun Stage Race - John Earley Memorial." The first pagragraph of the preview is also visible, and reads: "The 34th running of the Valley of the Sun Stage Race, also known as the John Earely Memorial, is set to take place from Friday, 13th February through Sunday, 15th February, with riders taking on the traditional time trial, road race, and criterium as stages raced for cumulative time. This year’s pro fields are significantly smaller than last year’s, with just 48 women and 77 men registered to start Friday’s time trial, down from 66 and 115 last year."
My preview of the first big domestic bike race of the year is available at my Domestic Domestique blog.
A reading from the Commonplace Book …wordmills had just come in, they were all the rage, people were sick of writers, they loved the wordmill product, there was no time for a publisher to think of anything else and no point in him doing so. —Fritz Leiber —“The Silver Eggheads” 1959
This is a repost, prompted by an NYT article going around about a writer who "produces" 200 books per year.
Making a couple of notes for this week’s cycling podcast recording, I had cause to find out how fast donkeys can run. This came up in Google. That maximum given in the graphic isn’t even close to correct, but I was more struck by the questions people “also asked.”
I am likewise impressed!
The entire anti wokeness nonsense of the past decade was about making this kind of gutter racism broadly acceptable again bsky.app/profile/adam...
Kaleidotrope is the Amazing Fandangle's plucky sidekick.
The best cycling podcast ever made by Adair Countians! We need better equipment. I need to not get excited and interrupt Tom. It's hopefully fun for anybody, but we're still figuring our angle. This was 1 take, no script. I got a bit out of hand. Comments solicited!
www.youtube.com/watch?v=8u1A...
I don't feel as confident as I did when I was a kid that Canada geese know what the hell they're doing.
For what it’s worth, I meet four of five of these but considering me in the to 1% of writerly anythings is a biiiig stretch.
I don’t know. Stripped of context it’s not objectively stupid. But context exists.
To what international winter sport am I referring, and to what athlete in particular, in this only slightly exaggerated fictional commentary?
“And the world champion picks up another few seconds by once again choosing to ride through the crocodile pit where others are skirting it.”
I should add that I was impressed with their performance of those duties in those contexts by all of them, except for the elder Mrs. Bush, who somehow managed to simultaneously convey the impressions that she was bored and that she was dangerous.
I did not meet Secretary Clinton until years after she had left that role. All the others were in the context of their duties.
In my life, I have somehow “met” (to the point of shaking hands at least), every First Lady after Nancy Reagan, except for Mrs. Trump. I once worked an event at an inner city school in Washington DC at which I personally witnessed Laura Bush encouraging children to read books.
People are discussing an upcoming documentary film about First Lady Melania Trump bankrolled by Jeff Bezos and directed by Brett Ratner, who has not directed a film since he lost his Warner Brothers contract in 2017 following allegations of sexual misconduct.
That's not a direct quote, I should say, just a made up example which I do not believe to be exaggerated.
“Counter to what can be apprehended of Dr. X’s argument in “Y,” which essay mysteriously passed the usually unassailable peer review process of Journal Z, publishers of my own monograph on this topic…”
I just texted about this to a friend. In reading a lot of the stuff I've been reading the last couple of weeks, my love of footnote wars in academic texts has been reignited.
Wild. It is sad, to me, that we are now living in a world where if someone sees a photograph and they "disagree" with it, they can just say "AI" and not have to stop and think about the meaning conveyed by the picture at all. And it's even hard to blame them.
All the President's Men With Big Naturals.
A screen cap shows US President Donald J. Trump addressing a meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, on January 21, 2026. An accompanying CNN headline reads: "Trump renews demand for Greenland in Davos speech, but says he 'won't use force'
Here we go. The key moment in what brokers call "TACO trading." TACO stands for "Trump Always Chickens Out." TACO trading is the purchasing of stocks deflated by Presidential threats, then selling them at profit as they rebound following the President's reneging. Who profits? Who do you think?
Screen shot of a "Search Assist" result at duckduckgo, generated in response to the search string: republican response to trump message to norwegian prime minister The given response is: "Sorry, no relevant information was found in our search."
This is from duckduckgo. I also tried kagi, then yahoo, bing, and aol (all of which still exist). Google generated no AI overview. Across all 6, I found 1 item from the Hill (and some reposts of it), reporting that a retiring Nebraska rep tweeted: "Very embarrassing situation." And that is all.
If poets are the unacknowledged legislators of the world, then librarians are the unacknowledged foot soldiers. daybook entry Christopher Rowe 20th Jan 2026
This morning, I stopped at the pool hall to have some good food, enjoy some friendly company, and take the pulse of the local community. For the first time since I started doing this upon moving home 16 months ago, I did not hear a single word about national or international news voiced.
