Of course!

(I don't even associate cannabis with "trip")

"I want to get high *and* accumulate magic beans. Got something for me?"

Adding this to Things No One Has Asked For.

the penne opticon

Ah yes, Amity Shlaes, Calvin Coolidge's biggest fan.

Japan reveals new name for 40C-and-hotter days after blistering summer The term - kokushobi - translates to "cruelly hot", "brutally hot" or "severely hot", and comes after Japan's hottest summer on record.

A new language for climate change was voted in: “kokushobi” heat, >40°C (104°F), from the Japanese word koku, meaning harsh or cruel. 2nd choice for the new heat term was ‘super-extremely hot day’ or ‘cho-mosho-bi’, while ‘sauna day’, ‘stay-at-home day’ and ‘boiling day’ were also among the choices.

Name in the news: Maven How a Yiddish word for “expert” became a brand name in the U.S. and beyond.

"Project Maven," a new book by @katrinamanson.bsky.social, got me thinking about the unlikely success of "maven" as brand name (and even as baby name).

fritinancy.substack.com/p/name-in-th...

As a writer, I'm disappointed I won't be getting money in the Anthropic settlement for books that weren't on the list of stolen IP, but what's really going to keep me up at night is that even the computer didn't want to read my novels.

She's just a writer. Nobody cares.

New background picture.

("Hacks" season 4)

What happened to movie taglines? They used to be memorable and quotable. Now they're redundant, wordy, or banal.

Nancy Friedman notes the decline in quality in movie taglines. “As movies have become louder, flashier, and more expensive, their taglines have atrophied: they’re limp, lackluster, and uninspiring.” [fritinancy.substack.com]

And also bsky.app/profile/paul... by @paulisci.bsky.social

Ad for "literary writer - fully remote" posted by Mercor on LinkedIn

Ad on LinkedIn for Mercor, "an AI-driven hiring platform and startup that connects specialized human experts with top AI labs and enterprises to train AI models." Couldn't find the listing on the website. Here's a similar one: work.mercor.com/explore?list...

"We don’t have gathering spaces anymore. We don’t have spirituality and religion anymore. What do we have? We have control over our own appearance. We have capitalism and an obsession with perfectionism and scarcity. Now we want to live longer. Why? We’re so miserable.”

‘I Spray Myself With Magnesium and Read Under a Chicken Light.’ It has become socially acceptable to celebrate women for their extreme beauty routines and body modification. Is this a good thing?

Looksmaxxing for women: "Looking back, I didn’t have the executive functioning to be successfully anorexic, which is what I also wanted."

Zoe Dubno reports on "extreme beauty routines" for @thecut.com

www.thecut.com/article/extr...

The cast is terrific, particularly Brewer, whose Becky, an ancestor of Thackeray’s social climber, reminded me of the Ben Folds song “Fragile,” about an emotional terrorist full of

The play ("Becky Shaw") is contemporary, so I'm pretty sure the correct word is "descendant."

www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...

Archival note: I took this photo today on Market Street in downtown San Francisco.

Why did Allbirds lay an egg? The woolly sneakers were once the epitome of nerd chic. Did the brand's troubles start with its name?

The new all-unnatural AI-flavored Allbirds will be called NewBird. Sure, why not. Allbirds wasn't a great name anyway.

fritinancy.substack.com/p/why-did-al...

this Allbirds-pivoting-to-Artificial-Intelligence thing is funny because Allbirds' whole thing was "wool is natural!" and also because are you fucking kidding me

Sidewalk ad for Slash dor com that reads THE BAR JUST RAISED. Beneath that text are three rivals' names — Brex, Ramp, and Mercari — with strategically placed asterisks, as if the names were swear words.

I know there are bigger problems, but “THE BAR JUST RAISED” sets my teeth on edge.

✅ The bar just rose
✅ The bar has been raised
✅ The bar was just raised

(It's a stupid ad regardless.)

“Consumer brands now make up less than 10% of all billboard ads in [San Francisco].”

Sonder is dead. Long live (a different) Sonder. The unlikely success of an invented (and reinvented) word.

The strange and circuitous travels of "sonder."

New from me:

fritinancy.substack.com/p/sonder-is-...

Still need a link? archive.is/O85Q5

“'Andon' is a loanword from Japanese, originally meaning paper lantern; Japanese manufacturers began its quality-control usage." Andon is a system that notifies managerial, maintenance, and other workers of a quality or process problem. (Wikipedia)

Opinion | Don’t Use A.I. to Do This

"Some people say, 'I just use it to brainstorm ideas.' If you don’t know what to paint or compose or write, you’re in the wrong job. Art is the business of making up stuff — go make up some stuff." - by @colsonwhitehead.com

Gift link:
www.nytimes.com/2026/04/15/o...

But hey, he's not taking a salary!

Thank YOU!

On the new currency, "In God We Trust" has been replaced by "What's In It For Me?"

Words of resistance What do "analog bag," "sleepcation," and "sloppelganger" have in common?

ht @juliaangwin.com @lifewinning.com @rbrancatelli.bsky.social

fritinancy.substack.com/p/words-of-r...

Words of resistance What do "analog bag," "sleepcation," and "sloppelganger" have in common?

Words of the week.

fritinancy.substack.com/p/words-of-r...

TIL the voices are called George and Gracie.

("Say goodnight, Gracie.")