Oh, I was also placed into the “gifted” program in first grade. Looking back at the experience, it was basically parallel play. I only still know one guy from then, and he’s been in NYC for decades as a musician.

I get the strong feeling we were set aside because the A-word wasn’t ready to admit anything short of a second nose. I was put in a support group with people who had such deformities in third grade (thanks, Pop!) to “help me make friends with others who were having trouble at school.”

No, you fucking asshole, the system is the problem. I’m making straight As in subjects that engage me. Other educators are making incorrect assumptions, and as a psychologist, you are inherently a scientist; as such, incorrect assumptions must be discarded, and you’re paying people to treat me like I’m deficient instead?

Not that I’m bitter at all.

“We’ve secretly replaced the ethanol with methanol. Let’s see if he notices.”

I see what you both did there, but I don’t think she’s allowed in theatres anymore.

I’ve since come to understand 80,000 Hours as basically MBA-lite (all the “what’s wrong with you,” less filling). Their “free consultations” require having first read all the literature and accepted your role as a cog (as such, I lost interest). I don’t find it inherently worthless – I was, after all, still running into people in their 30s and even 40s bereft of direction and purpose, and for some, it might have been useful.

But of course, only a cult claims to have a One True Way.

Interestingly, I took one of those personality tests from a career counselor late in high school, and it came back with three top results:

• Newspaper editor
• Journalist
• Reporter

—^[1]

I had zero interest, having been told not to write by high school teachers. How the hell would that be my destination? I didn’t run into that long-forgotten dot-matrix printout until I was cleaning out my apartment for a move in 2018. Why was I moving? Because I’d been dating another newspaper editor for a couple of years, and paying separate rent was starting to look stupid.

It’s been a week. I’m both numb and randomly crying as I go about my day after last week interring my dad’s ashes. It’s been almost a year since he died, and I didn’t feel anything until flying home and flying back. Then it actually hit me.

So I’ve for the most part been laying low while my amygdala figures out its baseline. The nice thing about not having a job is that I have some time to actually process this without having to put on a happy face professionally.

It is worth noting for context that Massie has for quite some time been threatening to do this, and the House was immediately adjourned early for the election season specifically to avoid this happening during the general.

I’d imagine Hegseth is drinking a fair amount tonight, but that’s just because it’s a day that ends in “y.”

When part of the whole apparatus is doing stupid things and wanting to avoid stupid prizes, of course there’s a full corporate structure. Much like a corporation rarely enjoys efficiency because that threatens middle-management, actually getting the chapters to change their behaviour is a bridge too far, so it’s a “nudge, nudge, wink, wink” thing of “we’re shocked by the actions I personally engaged in 30 years ago without getting a reprimand, and this will not stand so long as anyone’s still paying attention.”

Greek Row during my college years was known less for setting people on fire and more for photos of pledges in highly sexualized positions with fraternity members. Oh, and there were a number of falls from balconies.

I have always found the most success with a dollar-store bristle handbrush. As others have said, a bleach solution is going to be a good starting point. Turn on the vent and open the window when pouring it into the railings and – I say this from experience – if you aren’t getting the desired results, do not add ammonia to speed things up.

But basically, yeah, you want an old towel around for incidental splashes, but aim the brush such that the gunk is going into the shower, not creating a new hassle. I find that two hours is more than sufficient, and with good ventilation and you not being in the washroom, it’s a pretty harmless chemical that gets the job done even at full consumer strength. Adding water within reason retains the efficacy while making the whole affair a fair sight cheaper. Basically, it’ll smell like an indoor pool.

I met with success by telling my mom that the prevailing thoughts about neurodivergence in the '80s were not useful for my upbringing. I take the little wins where I can these days. I’m a guy living in a room who used to run newspapers, and it’s not fun. But I know a bit how to play everyone (else I’d not have been a particularly good editor).

So, I’m going to open with the obvious: Nader, Stewart and Noah are scarcely apolitical.

I enjoy Seth Meyers’ A Closer Look segments but rarely care for much more. I’m also going to violently reject your prohibition on finance by suggesting Patrick Boyle, just because he knows enough to keep me abreast of underlying trends internationally. Miniminuteman is usually a good time, but he can be a bit hit-or-miss. I like Mentour Now/Mentour Pilot to learn about aviation. For video games, I like The Geek Cupboard, OrbitalPotato and Real Civil Engineer. Tom Scott, GamersNexus are also at the top of my subscriptions. And if you like watching middle-aged men solve sudokus, Cracking the Cryptic is perfect for a certain mood.

That’s nice and all, but don’t you have anything longer? 🤣

I never got into podcasts. Are you open to suggestions about YouTube channels?

(also, how’d my print recommendations a few months back end up working out for you?)

While I appreciate the sentiment, I hung up The Powderhorn as a column after a particularly bitter 2006 layoff at a paper where I was the news editor and the opinion editor. My only connection to Texas at the time was choosing to run Molly Ivins when I had the opportunity to shake up the entirety of our syndicated content.

Having decided which letters to the editor run in full, which ones need heavy edits to make any plausible sense, and which were simply useless in their form, I don’t really like the process from the other end. I think the last time I was published in a letters section was about the same time as the layoff … I wasn’t yet willing to give up my voice, and Fareed Zakaria had just written a piece in Newsweek that really rubbed me the wrong way.

I’d told my then-fiancee I’d sent off the letter, and she made sure to pick up a copy the following week, exclaiming “It ran!” My take was a bit more subdued, akin to “Of course it did. You did fall in love with a guy who’s been in journalism for nearly a decade – and started as a fucking columnist.”

But life looks far different 20 years later. Being published yet again is a nothingburger for my ego, and while I still have very strong political beliefs and am not afraid to write about them, I’m content to leave my reach at those I know personally and the very small tranche of parasocial online followers. Also, the pay for a letter to the editor fails to make the juice worth the squeeze.

I’m sure someone with more vigor will make the point better than I could, and unlike anyone in Congress these days, I can sense when my time is over, and it’s the next generation’s turn.

Left to my own devices, it’s fucking prosciutto. I do not do well left to my own devices.

Haley makes Trump’s own-goals look like fucking amateur hour.

This isn’t particularly surprising. In Temple, Texas, data centers are a thing, and people are like “I would like to have cheap electricity and water. Who the fuck are these folks?”

Hot Wheels does love calling the Lege into special session to make liberal policy at the local level illegal at the state level. We aren’t quite done with the bullshit yet.

I would imagine Austin will be far more jubilant than Temple, Texas. I do know that my home will be thrilled.

I am much happier to fly into Austin tomorrow. I was sick of the same fucking people running the state for the entire 11 years I’ve lived there. “Here” returns tomorrow.

This is a sufficient blowout that there’s no need for tick-tocks.