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From Shaun Usher’s Letters of Note, here’s a letter written by E.B. White in 1973 to a man who said he had “lost faith in humanity”. It begins:
As long as there is one upright man, as long as there is one compassionate woman, the contagion may spread and the scene is not desolate. Hope is the thing that is left to us, in a bad time. I shall get up Sunday morning and wind the clock, as a contribution to order and steadfastness.
God, I hope he’s right.
Tags: E.B. White · Shaun Usher
If you’re on Bluesky, you can follow the Downticket Democrats bot: “I share donation links to US Democrats running for legislative seats in competitive districts.”
After 12 years, Pete Wells is stepping down as the NY Times’ restaurant critic. “I realized I wasn’t hungry. And I’m still not, at least not the way I used to be.” But also: “My cholesterol, blood sugar and hypertension were worse than I’d expected.”
There’s a 25th anniversary edition version of Brian Greene’s The Elegant Universe coming out. I devoured this book when it first came out and I still have not read an easier-to-understand summary of modern physics and quantum mechanics.
Oh, I really like this particular image from Bernhard Lang’s series of aerial photographs of sea ice in the Baltic (part one, part two). (via colossal)
Tags: Bernhard Lang · photography
Molly White: Fighting bots is fighting humans. “Any attempt at limiting bot access will inevitably allow some bots through and prevent some humans from accessing the site, and it’s about deciding where you want to set the cutoff.”
There’s a version of The Woodcutter and the Trees series of fables that I ran across the other day that’s particularly relevant to this moment in history:
The forest was shrinking, but the trees kept voting for the axe; for the axe was clever and convinced the trees that because his handle was made of wood, he was one of them.
Or perhaps it’s always resonant because some variation of it has been told for thousands of years now.
Illustration in the triptych above by Ferdinand Hodler.
The legendary dancer, actor, and singer Gene Kelly appeared on The Muppet Show in season five, in what turned out to be the last episode of the show ever filmed. The episode’s gag involved Kelly being under the impression he was turning up to watch the show and not perform. Kermit tricks him into it, but in the final act, Kelly refuses to do his most famous song, Singin’ in the Rain. Until…
As Jonathan Hoefler said about this bit on Threads:
For all the satire and irony and anxiety that shaped Gen X, we were so lucky to grow up with the gentleness, wit, kindness, and respect of Jim Henson, the Children’s Television Workshop, and public television generally. How lovely is this?
Tags: dance · Gene Kelly · music · The Muppets · TV · video
There’s a Devil Wears Prada sequel coming… “Gird your loins.”
Although I am slightly disappointed this isn’t a “real” crossword puzzle, I do admire Randall Munroe’s commitment to the bit. And then there’s the gray letters…
Tags: crossword puzzles · games · Randall Munroe · XKCD
I’ve linked to these before, but the Do Not Reply images (which gently dunk on social media reply guys) are now available on their own site — and you can order IRL stickers too.
Did you know you can renew your US passport online now? The State Department is beta testing the new online renewal system for the next several months.
New book out this fall: Comic Sans: The Biography of a Typeface. “Author Simon Garfield tells the story of how Comic Sans emerged from speech bubbles on educational software to become one of the most recognized — and reviled — typefaces on Earth.”