A calm Pacific Ocean

Top 3 things Nerk can be proud of…

1. The earthworks, now an UNESCO World Heritage Site
2. Jerrie Mock
3. … let me get back to you

A fun MapTap today, featuring Newark Ohio’s own Jerrie Mock, the first woman to fly around the world.

www.maptap.gg April 17
99🎯 99🎯 98🎯 98🔥 94🏅
Final score: 970

A Newly Discovered Recording Lets You Hear Delta Blues Legend Robert Johnson in Stunning Clarity Great swathes of rock music since the nineteen-sixties would never have existed, we're sometimes told, were it not for the recordings of Robert Johnson. Certainly the likes of Keith Richards, Eric Cla...

A Newly Discovered Recording Lets You Hear Delta Blues Legend Robert Johnson in Stunning Clarity

as you were

stereogum.com/2495691/liam...

Sprint season will be a footnote like the MLS Is Back tournament, I wouldn’t go out of my way to do anything special for it. Definitely nothing at the cost of the 27/28 season.

there is no folly of the beasts of the earth which is not infinitely outdone by the madness of men

While cooking dinner I listened to a podcast about Henry VIII and how right up until Pope Clement VII officially refused to annul his marriage no one thought the split would actually happen. Didn’t expect to feel so relevant when I logged back on here just now.

Rydström’s clearly getting desperate

Good, there’s plenty of options. He’s not needed or wanted.

Is it the best 80s horror movie? No. But it might be the most 80s horror movie. It’s so much fun.

The Integrity, with the NASA worm logo and no SpaceX or Boeing bullshit

Right before splashdown for the Artemis mission with 3 orange and white striped parachutes deployed

The Apollo XIV splashdown with 3 orange and white chutes deployed

One thing that I really appreciate with the Artemis mission is it looked and felt like a NASA mission. The capsule was a NASA capsule and not designed to look cool to a billionaire. Even the splashdown with the striped parachutes is NASA heritage.

Listen

Obviously she’s a terrible person for a laundry list of reasons but the First Lady is also a genuine weirdo (value neutral). She consistently makes such bizarre choices on everything. Who else would even think of those Christmas decorations?

Iran Join Rick as he explores the most surprising and fascinating land he's ever visited: Iran. In a one-hour, ground-breaking travel special on public television, you'll discover the splendid monuments of...

My one-hour special “Rick Steves Iran: Yesterday and Today,” which helps humanize 90 million Iranian people, is streaming free and ad-free at www.ricksteves.com/watch-iran.

A bunch of California poppies in their buttery orange

At least it’s poppy season

Don’t want to alarm anyone but I just saw some sort of rough beast slouching down the road. Not sure where it’s headed. It’s probably fine?

Thank god they scheduled the mission during a full moon!

Rick Steves' Iran (2009) YouTube video by Rick Steves' Europe

If you need something to watch today you could do a lot worse than the Rick Steves Iran episode. It’s free on YouTube (as are almost all of his shows)

“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness”
Mark Twain

Where is your humanity?

Ethan Hawke as Rev Ernst Toller in the movie First Reformed saying “Well somebody has to do something!” And that feeling of rage and helplessness that he feels in the film is pretty much how everyone seems to be feeling today in the face of Trump’s promised horrors. I don’t know what I can do as an American citizen right now, but I know I’m responsible for what is done in my name.

I’ve watched a ton of Apollo mission documentaries and they all talk about how a lot of people felt ambivalence if not hostility to the missions. I totally get it now. I haven’t felt as excited as I should and that clip of Trump talking to the Artemis astronauts isn’t helping.

Also I’m old enough that I’ve come to some conclusions on some issues. I don’t have to pretend “maybe women shouldn’t have the right to vote” is a potentially valid argument. I can ignore that stuff and focus on things that I’m actually interested in.

Who said journalism is dead?

Yes, distressing. Once on a road trip we tried to find a place to eat in Binghamton and found it so unsettling we just kept driving. These big old buildings all empty, I remember there was a strip club in what was once a majestic looking bank.
I kinda want to go back and explore it.

Racking up parent points by taking the first born to see Mitski at Hollywood High School tonight. Feel like there’s a decent chance I’m the oldest person there.

I’m always unclear what I, a Bluesky user is supposed to be doing to “fix” Bluesky. I’m sure users are down, but the only solution these guys ever posit is “stop being mean to Atlantic writers” and I refuse to do that on principle.