Want to make your January movers really happy? Tell them you that you renovated your house with an elevator that can carry you, boxes, and furniture to all levels of your hous, as we did.

There is nothing like moving house in January in New England

Lexington Annoying Kings Since 1775.

No Kings since 1776 in Lexington, MA.

Neighbors fed up after pesky woodpecker damages cars, homes in Mass. town The woodpecker has been caught on camera perching on cars and trucks and drilling into the side mirrors, leaving some cracked and others shattered.

Our son saw a pileated woodpecker near our home yesterday, and then I read this in the Boston Globe (that article is paywalled so I linked to a different one). They are glorious birds to see, even if the males are overly protective of their territory.

www.wcvb.com/article/wood...

A good crowd at our little Revolutionary town of Bedford MA Hands Off rally.

I hadn’t realized Lumon had an goat research facility near us.

Clearly & Juliet was last night’s theater. There isn’t much cellular coverage underground at the Sondheim theater.

Am now seated for our third night of theater seeing Gogol’s The Inspector at Yale Rep. I’m guessing no dancing in the aisles at the end of this one.

Am excited to be seeing & Juliet on Broadway again! This is show #7 for me. You have to love a show that leaves people dancing in the aisles.

Anyone who has held a security clearance knows that keeping top secret information on unsecured media is way more serious than the leak to a reporter. You can usually find the penalties for doing so on the red-bordered cover page with the bold TOP SECRET lettering.

Congratulations to all the students receiving acceptances to MIT today. You will have the opportunity to solve some of the most difficult problems of today’s world and may even have some fun doing it!

Looking at some brush fires from Prospect Hill Lookout in Harvard MA

Several red-winged blackbirds in a tree against a blue sky.

A flock of red-winged blackbirds are making a racket outside our house today. Spring is definitely on the way.

Congratulations on the new book! I can't wait to read it.

Could there be a more classic set of events? Today is my family’s moving day as we prepare to renovate our house. I went out and snowblowed (snowblew?) and salted the drive for the movers, slipped on black ice, hit my head, and now am sitting in the ER waiting for a CAT scan.

In these dark times of division, I'd like to offer one unifying ray of hope to some of you suffering deprivation out there: dry January ends at midnight tonight.

#NWSBoston #WX1BOX Overnight temp was down to -1F here in Stow. According to my data, that is a record low for the 2024-2025 winter season.

Apple Apple has celebrated MLK Day with a Homepage Takeover since 2015 to honor the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Thank you to Apple for dedicating its home page to Martin Luther King Jr. today. May his memory endure until his dreams are achieved. https://apple.com

Happy birthday, A. A. Milne! This celebrated author of the Winnie the Pooh stories attended Trinity to study Mathematics, graduating in 1903. His son, Christopher Robin, was admitted to Trinity in 1939.

An original manuscript of Winnie the Pooh is currently on display at the Wren Library. 🍯🧸

Photo of a 2001 iPod and a 2024 iPhone 15, both still working.

Here are two Apple technologies almost 25 years apart. The amazing thing: the V1 iPod still syncs over Firewire and plays music.

Great Molasses Flood - Wikipedia

If you're interested in strange but true natural disasters, today is the anniversary of the 1919 Great Molasses Flood here in Boston. 21 people died in the 40-foot wave of molasses that flooded the streets when a molasses storage container failed. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Molasses_Flood

Good thread. Also, speaking as a former acquiring editor, this post is true: A whole lot of submissions don't make it out of the first paragraph. It's not about the being flashy out of the gate. It's about whether the craft is there. Craft isn't something you can fake (even with "AI," trust me).

Jimmy Carter, longest-lived US president, dies aged 100 Former president faced series of economic and foreign policy crises, including Iran hostage affair and Soviet invasion of Afghanistan

A decent man is a rare thing.

www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024...

The low of the night here in Stow, MA was 6.9F! Fortunately, the sun is slowly heating us back up again.

Mass. leaders remember philanthropist Jack Connors Connors, who rose to prominence in the advertising business, was a leading philanthropist in Boston for decades.

If you don't recognize the name Jack Conners, he was a legendary Boston ad man who believed in giving back to his community and always put his money where his mouth was. He died July 23, 2024. www.boston.com/news/local-news/2024/07/...

This 25-year old advertisement created by Boston philanthropist Jack Conners and published anonymously was reprinted in today's Boston Globe. At this time of year, may all those who have more than enough do what they can for those who don't.

https://carlhowe.com/photos/generosity-ad.jpg

Amy Tan’s website Thanks, everyone! More stock coming!

Watching and counting the birds I see makes me appreciate Amy Tan’s Backyard Bird Chronicles even more than on my first reading. https://amytan.net/backyard-bird-chronicles

I am enjoying participating in #Feederwatch this year, where you log the birds that come to your feeder. The information gathered is processed by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology to study songbird populations and migration patterns. https://www.birds.cornell.edu/home

We have made another 11 dozen spritz cookies, bringing this season’s total to 43 dozen. I don’t t think our 80 dozen record is in jeopardy, but we still have a week…..