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When Americans think of a highway rest stop, if they were feeling generous they imagine a gorgeous park, filled with children playing and couples strolling. Maybe a second-rate Starbucks and ice cream shop. Possibly even a nice view of the water. But nothing like this. This puts them all to shame.

Well, here we are again. I’ve returned to the cool damp climes of Britain, and apologise for the long break in entries, time slips away quickly when on holiday. Now where were we . . . Ah yes, Woodstock. After Woodstock, I travelled east to Massachusetts to visit new acquaintances. We drove around central Massachusetts searching for elusive autumn colour one day. The colour wasn’t spectacular this year, but even …

Hi CA, In the last year two people have gone no contact with me (she/her). One is a former colleague (she/her) who has burned many bridges in our professional community. She’s been basically blackballed in our specialty area and had to take a position doing similar but much less exciting work after she was fired from her last job. Around the same time she stopped talking to me because she …

Writing in Practicing New Worlds, Andrea Ritchie documents a pattern of crisis response that, far from interrupting the crisis, merely serves to continue it. I will quote at length here: Yet, as conditions worsen and urgency increases, as millions are increasingly mired in economic and climate crises while billionaires bank on our suffering, as the Right rises around the globe and comes for our throats with a clear intention to …

Feeling a bit blocked on the writing front to be honest. Which isn't great when a book chapter about the crisis of the Conservatives is due this Saturday. Ho hum. Past experience suggests that when I moan about "not feeling it" or having "nothing to say", it's enough to uncork the barrel and watch the torrents of words spill forth. Here's to hoping this is one of those occasions. On …

A book of conspiracy theories about the Titanic; a manifesto for reforming society by appointing a ‘War Minstrel of Supernatural character’ to lead men into battle; a volume of erotic poetry dealing with ‘aspects of love usually passed over’. These were just some of the manuscripts turned down by the...

Every once in a while, a reminder is overdue that photography does best what, well, it does best. It’s shocking to see how often photographers feel the need to dress up their wares by comparing their pictures with other media (“painterly”, “poetic”, …). Ignoring the question which paintings they actually refer to — Titian’s, Rothko’s? — or what exactly “poetic” is supposed to mean, it’s weird to observe a medium …

In Go, sometimes you need to get a pointer to a constant value. This is normally easy, but only if you have a value, not a constant. Let's say you or a friend are dealing with the AWS S3 API and you need to pass a value to one of the parameters: _, err = s3c.PutObject(ctx, &s3.PutObjectInput{ Bucket: "mah-bukkit", Key: "something", Body: bytes.NewReader(fileContent), }) Doing this gets you a compile …

I've written a lot about railways in southern Ontario over the years, mainly because that is where I grew up. One place that I've had precious little to share anything about is Strathroy, a small town at the southwestern edge of Middlesex County. The town lends its name to the Canadian National Strathroy Subdivison. Strathroy is amalgamated into the surrounding Caradoc Township. Located about 35 kilometres west of London, it …

My latest pair are these Alden split toe derbies made back in 1977, still unused in their original box. It was part of their Foot Balance range made on the orthotic TruBalance last with a very long heel stiffener, which fits me really well. Here’s a closer look with lots of photos of this lovely pair. Last week I was on my yearly trip to Japan, and one of the …

*Frithjof Tidemand-Johannessen, "Birds in a landscape." Via le jardin robo.*Maynard F. Reece: Plate XI, "Forney Lake." An illustration from Waterfowl in Iowa by Jack W. Musgrove, 1940. Via le jardin robo.*Detail of a 22-page birchbark letter, ca. 1908, from Vermont, ca. 1908. Via Haec City.*From a conversation between leaves in Bambi: A Life in the Woods, by Felix Salten, 1923.*Communists and socialists demonstrating against the far right in Paris, February …

Lately I’ve been watching a number of detective/police procedurals on Prime. But these shows French, not something from the mind of Dick Wolf. In fact, I’ve never watched one of the multitudinous “Law & Order: This, That or The Other Place” shows. Which leads me to wonder why I watch these French programs—e.g., “Deadly Tropics,” “Alice Nevers,” “Cherif”—particularly given that I don’t have a lick of French language skills. Perhaps …

Sour Patch Kids is bringing its signature tangy twist to the holiday season with the 24 Days of Mischief Advent Calendar, a playful and festive treat for sour candy lovers. Each door of this limited-edition calendar hides two individually wrapped Sour Patch Kids Big Kids—one for you and one to share (or not). The calendar is not just a candy countdown; it’s a statement piece. Packaged in a sturdy, well-designed …

Here's my weekly update with a few interesting random findings that I came across the last week or two. I am going to try to make sure they're here in time for you to enjoy with your morning coffee (or beverage of choice) every Saturday or Sunday, and include some of my thoughts around them.Gear Drop 🛍️Due to popular demand I have added a new meme shirt from last week's …