December 27, 2025 This early Tintin frame from The Blue Lotus grabbed my attention -‌- that elliptical mirror in his Shanghai hotel room, so elegant! Highbrow essay in Aeon: Undefinable yet Indispensable -‌- why is ‘religion’ impossible to define? The latest iteration of Woody Allen's Rags in "Sleeper" -‌- the Casio Moflin, a plush, Smart Companion Powered by AI, with emotions like a living creature! Yours (in silver or gold) for only $430. Mental Floss: 'Tis the season to say "'tis the season" -‌- but why only now? December 22, 2025 A little late with this one but I just noticed, about 7 minutes in to the Great Pumpkin Lucy's on the cover of the TV Guide she's reading here. Recursion! At Flashbak, Alastair Philip Wiper's photographs: the Unintended Beauty of Big Industry in the 21st Century. Condé Nast Traveler asked folks from other countries to show what an American is like. 70 People from 70 Countries Imitate Americans. The Swiss guy wins. Listicle at Autoweek - the smallest cars in US history. That last one's almost a Little Tikes Cozy Coupe, allegedely the world's best selling car. Red and yellow? Single-seater? You know the one. December 18, 2025 Two fronm the BBC, unrelated: Surfers and swimmers pay tribute to victims of Bondi shooting and (from 2022) The overlooked benefits of real Christmas trees. Note that although I've arranged lights into conical forms, and decorated new plants that were then transplanted outside, I've never had a traditional Christmas tree. Bruce Sterling compiles Every Drink in “Casablanca” (1942). 15 most famous opera songs and arias. December 16, 2025 (updated) Random illustration from one of the Japan In Your Pocket books. And while we're there, Why Japan's internet looks weird -‌- unless you live there. They seem to prefer cluttered web-pages; the article begins by criticizing the 2025 Expo site, which I can confiorm was teh suck. Attendees were stymied by the shoddy user experience of a world’s fair meant to show us the future. CNN: the Leader says small cars can bring down big prices. Here’s why that’s unlikely in the USA. One word: Demand. Not enough of it, since Americans find driving in smaller cars scary. Three or four more unrelated Wikipedia articles: the post-War Baby Scoop Era (in which my sister was an unwilling participant); the enormous Angel Oak, a live oak tree on a South Carolina island, near Charleston; and the unofficial mascot of Wikipedia, Wikipe-tan, indentifiable by her puzzle-pieces. December 13, 2025 When I was young, neck-tie wearing men were still hunched over drafting tables, paid to produce images like this with compass and straight-edge. No longer, I reckon. Glad I was taught the trade's rudiments in Junior High shop class. Dick Van Dyke made it to 100 today. He recently reacted to His Life in Photos. Only indirectly Dick, a team recently resurrected Disney's lost Chromascreen sodium vapor process which was used instead of green- or blue-screen to make "Mary Poppins." GQ: Vince Guaraldi's soundtrack nails something no other Christmas album can. The way the contemplative passages in some songs suddenly give way to swinging rhythms is a bit like how you can find yourself ping-ponging between extremes of emotion during this period. (This music is rated #1 in misc/Christmas Songs.) More Rash IRL: there's a park in Baltimore named after Clarence H. Rash, who donated the land. December 10, 2025 1932 Popular Science cover The Leader Appears to Approve Kei Cars for the USA. Really? And what about the LBJ tariff still in effect, which severly limits smaller pickup truck imports: the chicken tax? Santa Con -- the San Francisco tradition that snowballed into 'bro-mageddon'. Some people even call it the first flash mob. I was receiving the LA Cacaphony Society's newsletters when this began, in the early 1990s, and probably read about it then. Slate: Moondoggle. Everyone agrees: It's a complete disaster. (archive link) A YouTube about reality, Why Buildings Stopped Spinning; and some more 'slop': the excellent Driving Tomorrow: Fantastic Future Vehicles of the 1950s at AI Retro Rewind, and the Brass Streets of London, New York, Paris & etc. by AI Art. The latter's music is hypnotische but the similarity of the effects becomes tiresome. However, jet-packs!
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	Current reading: The Man With The Golden Arm by Nelson Algren, Blackshirts and Reds by Michael Parenti and By The Shores of Silver Lake by Laura Ingalls Wilder
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