You mean why are there utensils in the book drawer?
Jack-dog has had a longstanding, cartoonish obsession with cats. We once sat outdoors at a winery in Jacksonville, OR where a cat slept on the steps and, for the better part of two hours, Jack did not blink. The cat rested; Jack stared with unwavering attention.
Well, he finally got his wish. But it was not Jack who started the confrontation yesterday. Charlie did. Honestly, I have never seen a cat go this far out of its way to more intently start a fight. This scene could actually serve as a wildly accurate reenactment.
(He’s fine. And so is Charlie, who rethought his decision after a ten-second ass kicking. Never underestimate Jack’s deeply mutt-ingrained survival instincts — and canine jujutsu.)
Ordinary unplanned utterances • “What is that? Is that a booger on your face? Come here. Give me that. Is that your booger or your brother’s booger?”
(We’ll never know.)
January ‘26 • When was the last time you smelled — you just had to smell, couldn’t resist smelling — some morning sunshine on a wall?
Kitchen Chalk Talk • Fuller context here, plus a poem to the same effect.
You have been on this page for 60 seconds. You scrolled 73% of the way down. You never left this tab. We would have noticed if you had. Your finger moved 181 times. You tapped 7 times. You paused once for 34 seconds — longer than anywhere else. We were not counting. We were always counting.
For a long time I rocked the same bumper sticker on whatever car I was driving — Yaris, Tacoma, Yaris again, Focus, Crosstrek. And I just noticed one on the back of the ol’ bike rack.
And a little fitting that I’ve been reading Auden’s “O Where Are You Going?” lately. If you ever see this bumper around town, know that this is what I mean by it.
Presented without comment:
Will Manidis:
I do think the AI thing is the single greatest jump ball of meaning that we’ve ever had. The questions of how then do we live and how do we conduct ourselves are incredibly consequential over the next few years. And I just don’t think there are particularly good answers, secular answers to them that exist outside of religion.
Got in the car this morning thinking Aside from the usual (and reliable) politics chatter, I haven’t heard a good podcast in a while, not one that actually gets your attention. Leave it to Demetri Kofinas to correct this.