Katie Britt? Will she explain her position on not helping a seven year old child, in her Fundy Baby Voice?
Naming anything military after the short-fingered vulgarian is a disgrace and a travesty. Makes me want to vomit, even more so, since I now have a great grandson newly in the Navy. The height of an offense to humankind would be for him to die for the vulgarian, while on a ship named for that puddle of rancid ordure. Perhaps the Navy will refuse?
“You’re walking, and you don’t always realize it, but you’re always falling at the same time. With each step, you fall forward. Over and over, you’re falling, then catching yourself falling, and this is how you can be walking and falling at the same time.” – Laurie Anderson, “So Happy Birthday”
We've had some noisy demolition in our back garden for the past week (old, nasty, leaky conservatory coming off to have an actual usable room built in its place) and I am now half deaf from all the jackhammering on the other side of the wall about three feet away from me. Earlier, my husband and I had to shout to each other across the dining room to be heard. So, of course, he decided to fuck off to the golf course and hand off coffee-serving duties to me. I hope he ends up hitting his ball into ever bunker on the course.
Of course, this means that we had to move my (American) washer and dryer onto the patio, wrapped in huge plastic sheets, where they'll stay until everything is done (in another month) and we can move them back into their own dedicated laundry room. And naturally, moving them outside did exactly as I predicted it would do—broke the drought we've had here in the Garden of England since at least June. Not doing laundry for a month has been a slight concern, so I went online and got us enough underwear and socks to not worry about it. Underwear-wise, I guess we're set for any apocalypse that may befall us.
Except for spelling checks, we shouldn’t be using AI in writing at all. Not because it’s a lazy approach, but because it undermines the principle that writing is communication. The computer won’t know what you’re trying to say if you don’t know it.
The potential renaming of the USS Doris Miller really makes me mad. I mean, yes, it isn’t anywhere near as bad as a stupid war, destroying American science and medicine and tearing apart families and communities by ICE goons, but it angers me nevertheless.
I wonder if the naming is being proposed because Doris Miller was a Black American, or because they think Doris Miller was a woman, or it is hubris on the part of Trump? Maybe all three?
I love fairs, too, Garrett. The big one where I grew up was the Tri-State Fair (lotsa Tri-State-named stuff in Amarillo). A lot of good live music, too, in addition to the rides, games, and livestock barns.
The Fletcher's Corny Dogs at the Texas State Fair in Dallas are the best corn dogs. I will brook no dissent on this.
Trump and the GOP have fucked up everything, part eleventy-billion...
I've been working on a screenplay project I occasionally get inquiries about from actors or producers and wanted to make sure it was officially registered for copyright. I was advised by an entertainment lawyer to make sure anything I share is registered with the Library of Congress, since, if you get ripped off, that official registration allows you to sue for punitive damages in addition to what you would normally sue for.
In Ye Olden Days, before Trump, going online and registering something for copyright was a simple process - you put in some information, uploaded a copy of the work, and you'd have a registration certificate and registration number for your item in a couple of weeks.
I submitted my work for registration in February.
It was finally processed and I received my certificate yesterday, after SIX MONTHS.
Why did it take so long? Trump has cut staff to the bone in this office in the LOC and, on top of that, the LOC developed a backlog because of the GOP government shutdown.
Living here in the midst of this beautiful forest, I've learned that if you pay close attention, you can feel the subtle change of seasons. The slow fade of summer into autumn is my favorite because there's so much happening right in front of you. All the animals are busy preparing for the winter that's coming. The squirrels and chipmunks are preparing their burrows and nests. Digging holes out in the yard and caching the sunflower hearts Paul gives them. The hummingbirds are emptying their feeders every other day for their long flight south and across the Gulf of "Murrica". The bright light of summer is slowly fading into the crisp golden glow of fall. Mid-August is busy for animals and humans alike. I got one of the regular bird feeders out to hang for the other migratory birds passing through two days ago. I scrubbed it and filled it and hung it and sure enough the birds started to come back. And so did our little bear that's all grown up now. We hadn't seen him since June. That was the last time he trashed the feeder and we decided that was enough and took the feeders down and put them away. The feeder was up for less than 48 hours and after two months little fuck (not so little anymore) was right back to being his healthy, plump, shiny coated criminal self.
I do love Tiedrich, should be playing patty-cake with Diaper Nurse Natalie. ‘look Donny, I’ve got your nose.’ He makes me laugh until I cry.
PLEASE someone tell me that everything he has desecrated will be demolished and replaced. I was reading that he will be labeled the worst president in US history.
AI - someone commented that AI will eventually eat itself. That it will become this endless loop of bad info and will not recover.
AI will also eat trillions of dollars. Dollars in investment accounts, pension funds, 401k, and insurance holdings. Trillions of dollars will disappear, and the empty server farms will sit idle.
Dorie Miller wikipedia: "Miller helped carry wounded sailors to safety during the attack on Pearl Harbor. He then operated an anti-aircraft gun and, despite no prior training in gunnery, officially shot down one plane (according to Navy Department records), but Miller and other eyewitnesses claimed a range of four to six."
That record cannot compare to that of Cadet Bone Spurs.
"We did not set up a system of governance in this country that says, 'Just don't do anything wrong and you won't have anything to worry about.' What we said is, 'No, actually, law enforcement is affirmatively restricted against getting up in our business as we go about our daily lives,'" she says.
Cops don't really give a shit about making society safer. They've argued they don't legally have to do that. They like the power this gives them, and of course they're going to abuse it. And they like new toys.
Yeah, Flock's fucking "plan" for if a cop is misusing the database is to cut off their access. It's not preventing something if you are waiting for it to happen. Total bullshit!!!
Rs always talking about smaller govt and law and order when they are the worst abusers of it all. They have made a raging machine that oozes into every facet of life that it's strangling us all to death. Not only are they in our bedrooms now they are in our face every second of every day. This is stalking and terrorizing.
Swaning around in the hed gif. More info and a deeper dive (har) into habitat specialization here: https://martiniambassador.substack.com/p/upended-swan-buns
Also there’s a meme chat: https://open.substack.com/chat/posts/c1580f96-db71-4e17-9ee4-ba9a23a65c03?utm_source=share
Have a good weekend!
Dabbling with waterfowl, now?
I couldn't beat a good blues song this morning.
May the sun shine on your back door today.
Diving Duck Blues
Song by Taj Mahal ‧ 1968
Lyrics
If the river was whiskey and I was a diving duck
If the river was whiskey and I was a diving duck
Honey, if the river was whiskey and I was a diving duck
Ooh y'all, I'd dive upon the bottom, honey, and I'd never come up
Well, the sun's gonna shine on my back door someday
You know the sun's gonna shine on my back door someday
Well now, the sun's gonna shine on my back door someday
The wind's gonna rise and blow my blues away
Put your loving arms around me, honey, like the circle around the sun
Put your loving arms around me, baby, like the circle around the sun
Put your loving arms around me like the circle around the sun
Oh, I'm gonna love you, baby, honey, till my moo cows come home
My easy rider won't give me no rest
Well, my easy rider sure won't give me no rest
My easy rider sure won't give me no rest
She's got my heart a-wondering like the wild geese in the West
Well, I'm sitting on my front porch, sunning in my old rocking chair
I'm sitting on my front porch, sunning in my old rocking chair
Sitting on my front porch, sunning in my old rocking chair
I'm gonna rock, rock, rock, rock, rock
Rock, rock 'cause I just don't care
If the river was whiskey and I was a diving duck
If the river was whiskey and I was a diving duck
If the river was whiskey and I was a diving duck
Ooh y'all, I'd dive upon the bottom, baby, and I'd never come up
Dive upon the bottom, baby, and I'd never come up
I'd dive upon the bottom, baby, and I'd never come up
I'd dive upon the bottom, baby, and I'd never come up
Source: Musixmatch
Damnit! I know I put my keys down here somewhere.
Hey Martini, je vous souhaite une excellente fin de semaine et un très bon repos. Bottoms up!
Wut wut?
Babby Swan Butts!
It’s their cygnature move.
Swans showing off their tail feathers!
Shake a tailfeather, baby!
Take it away, Ray!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qdbrIrFxas0
Katie Britt? Will she explain her position on not helping a seven year old child, in her Fundy Baby Voice?
Naming anything military after the short-fingered vulgarian is a disgrace and a travesty. Makes me want to vomit, even more so, since I now have a great grandson newly in the Navy. The height of an offense to humankind would be for him to die for the vulgarian, while on a ship named for that puddle of rancid ordure. Perhaps the Navy will refuse?
This date in history...
2017—Taxpayers fund a $27,000 trip so Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin and Sen. Mitch McConnell can visit Fort Knox and fondle some gold.
1992—Samuel Weaver, 14, and U.S. Marshal W.F. Degan die in a shootout at Ruby Ridge, Idaho. Troubles ensue.
1982—The U.S.-trained Atlacatl Battalion murders more than 200 Salvadorans at El Calabozo.
1976—A two-day occupation of the Seabrook, N.H. nuke site begins.
1969—Traffic on Boston’s Southeast Expressway is held up: three Penn Central engines cross the roadway.
1963—Ngo Dinh Nhu’s secret police kill hundreds of Buddhist protestors across Vietnam—for democracy.
1939—Five Black men, reading quietly in Alexandria, Va.’s public library, are arrested for disorderly conduct.
1934—After three months a General Strike in Minneapolis ends with victory for workers everywhere.
1927—Justice Louis Brandeis refuses to hear a request for a stay of execution of anarchists Sacco and Vanzetti.
1850—Nearly 50 fugitive slaves convene in Cazenovia, N.Y. Presaging Malcolm X, they call for others to free themselves, no matter what it takes.
1831—Nat Turner begins a slave rebellion in Virginia. About 60 whites are killed in two days; whites kill twice as many Blacks in response.
1791—Haitians rise in revolt; 12 years later, history’s greatest rebellion of enslaved people ends in victory.
https://www.nhgazette.com/2026/08/21/fri-aug-21-2/
Good morning. From The Commonplace Book:
“You’re walking, and you don’t always realize it, but you’re always falling at the same time. With each step, you fall forward. Over and over, you’re falling, then catching yourself falling, and this is how you can be walking and falling at the same time.” – Laurie Anderson, “So Happy Birthday”
https://tetmancallis.substack.com/p/august-21-2026
We've had some noisy demolition in our back garden for the past week (old, nasty, leaky conservatory coming off to have an actual usable room built in its place) and I am now half deaf from all the jackhammering on the other side of the wall about three feet away from me. Earlier, my husband and I had to shout to each other across the dining room to be heard. So, of course, he decided to fuck off to the golf course and hand off coffee-serving duties to me. I hope he ends up hitting his ball into ever bunker on the course.
Of course, this means that we had to move my (American) washer and dryer onto the patio, wrapped in huge plastic sheets, where they'll stay until everything is done (in another month) and we can move them back into their own dedicated laundry room. And naturally, moving them outside did exactly as I predicted it would do—broke the drought we've had here in the Garden of England since at least June. Not doing laundry for a month has been a slight concern, so I went online and got us enough underwear and socks to not worry about it. Underwear-wise, I guess we're set for any apocalypse that may befall us.
And now it's time to recaffeinate the builders.
Except for spelling checks, we shouldn’t be using AI in writing at all. Not because it’s a lazy approach, but because it undermines the principle that writing is communication. The computer won’t know what you’re trying to say if you don’t know it.
The potential renaming of the USS Doris Miller really makes me mad. I mean, yes, it isn’t anywhere near as bad as a stupid war, destroying American science and medicine and tearing apart families and communities by ICE goons, but it angers me nevertheless.
I wonder if the naming is being proposed because Doris Miller was a Black American, or because they think Doris Miller was a woman, or it is hubris on the part of Trump? Maybe all three?
It’s symptomatic of all that.
c. All three.
You are probably correct.
Damn, I would really love to go see Demitri Martin tomorrow night but whomp whomp, I'm already going to see Leslie Jones! Isn't life awful!
Any naval vessel named for Donald Trump is bound to be more cursed than the ship in "The Rime Of The Ancient Mariner" by Coleridge.
Trump is both the ship and the albatross.
I love fairs, too, Garrett. The big one where I grew up was the Tri-State Fair (lotsa Tri-State-named stuff in Amarillo). A lot of good live music, too, in addition to the rides, games, and livestock barns.
The Fletcher's Corny Dogs at the Texas State Fair in Dallas are the best corn dogs. I will brook no dissent on this.
Trump and the GOP have fucked up everything, part eleventy-billion...
I've been working on a screenplay project I occasionally get inquiries about from actors or producers and wanted to make sure it was officially registered for copyright. I was advised by an entertainment lawyer to make sure anything I share is registered with the Library of Congress, since, if you get ripped off, that official registration allows you to sue for punitive damages in addition to what you would normally sue for.
In Ye Olden Days, before Trump, going online and registering something for copyright was a simple process - you put in some information, uploaded a copy of the work, and you'd have a registration certificate and registration number for your item in a couple of weeks.
I submitted my work for registration in February.
It was finally processed and I received my certificate yesterday, after SIX MONTHS.
Why did it take so long? Trump has cut staff to the bone in this office in the LOC and, on top of that, the LOC developed a backlog because of the GOP government shutdown.
Fuck Trump. Fuck the GOP.
Good Morning Wonks.
Living here in the midst of this beautiful forest, I've learned that if you pay close attention, you can feel the subtle change of seasons. The slow fade of summer into autumn is my favorite because there's so much happening right in front of you. All the animals are busy preparing for the winter that's coming. The squirrels and chipmunks are preparing their burrows and nests. Digging holes out in the yard and caching the sunflower hearts Paul gives them. The hummingbirds are emptying their feeders every other day for their long flight south and across the Gulf of "Murrica". The bright light of summer is slowly fading into the crisp golden glow of fall. Mid-August is busy for animals and humans alike. I got one of the regular bird feeders out to hang for the other migratory birds passing through two days ago. I scrubbed it and filled it and hung it and sure enough the birds started to come back. And so did our little bear that's all grown up now. We hadn't seen him since June. That was the last time he trashed the feeder and we decided that was enough and took the feeders down and put them away. The feeder was up for less than 48 hours and after two months little fuck (not so little anymore) was right back to being his healthy, plump, shiny coated criminal self.
https://substack.com/profile/439485293-holly-lima-charlie/note/c-319432640
Amazing! I am DYING to see a bear in nature! We don't really have them down here in Central OK.
I do love Tiedrich, should be playing patty-cake with Diaper Nurse Natalie. ‘look Donny, I’ve got your nose.’ He makes me laugh until I cry.
PLEASE someone tell me that everything he has desecrated will be demolished and replaced. I was reading that he will be labeled the worst president in US history.
AI - someone commented that AI will eventually eat itself. That it will become this endless loop of bad info and will not recover.
AI will also eat trillions of dollars. Dollars in investment accounts, pension funds, 401k, and insurance holdings. Trillions of dollars will disappear, and the empty server farms will sit idle.
Let's hope those who tried to tell them don't get caught up in it.
Dorie Miller wikipedia: "Miller helped carry wounded sailors to safety during the attack on Pearl Harbor. He then operated an anti-aircraft gun and, despite no prior training in gunnery, officially shot down one plane (according to Navy Department records), but Miller and other eyewitnesses claimed a range of four to six."
That record cannot compare to that of Cadet Bone Spurs.
"Professor Sisyphus!"
That reminds me . . .
Teen daughter: "Who's Sisyphus?"
Me: "It's this myth about a guy being punished in the underworld where he has to . . ."
*Her phone rings.*
TD: "One second . . ."
*A few minutes later*
TD: "I'm sorry, I cut you off. Who's Sisyphus?"
Me: "It's this myth about a guy being punished . . ."
*Her phone rings again*
TD: "One second. . ."
"I...am Sisyphus."
Yup. Fuck AI and fuck the surveillance state:
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&opi=89978449&url=https://www.npr.org/2026/08/21/nx-s1-5939851/flock-cameras-police-block-surveillance-vandalize&ved=2ahUKEwie2bHpz7GWAxVUhYkEHSy_IeAQ0PADKAB6BAgZEAE&usg=AOvVaw0RC6NJQqmSkPcJZXFu0WMn
"We did not set up a system of governance in this country that says, 'Just don't do anything wrong and you won't have anything to worry about.' What we said is, 'No, actually, law enforcement is affirmatively restricted against getting up in our business as we go about our daily lives,'" she says.
Cops don't really give a shit about making society safer. They've argued they don't legally have to do that. They like the power this gives them, and of course they're going to abuse it. And they like new toys.
Yeah, Flock's fucking "plan" for if a cop is misusing the database is to cut off their access. It's not preventing something if you are waiting for it to happen. Total bullshit!!!
This is doing the cops work for them and they will abuse it in every way.
Rs always talking about smaller govt and law and order when they are the worst abusers of it all. They have made a raging machine that oozes into every facet of life that it's strangling us all to death. Not only are they in our bedrooms now they are in our face every second of every day. This is stalking and terrorizing.
Another aspect about this is police officers now abusing white people who are complaining about the leopards eating their faces.
I didn't know about these. I hope someone creative comes along and finds an easy way to zap this tool of creeping totalitarianism.
Great read! Thanks for posting!!!