Come for the photo, stay for the alt text

Aerial photo of New London Connecticut No Kings Rally, March 28 2026

New London Connecticut says #NoKings

It’s shocking how many restaurants today still just shrug their shoulders and apologize when you ask if they can make a mocktail.

Annual governors gathering with White House unraveling after Trump excludes Democrats The National Governors Association annual conference is unraveling after President Donald Trump did not invite some Democrats to events.

I wrote my dissertation on the National Governors' Association (history, political development, effectiveness, etc.) so this one hits close to home, intellectually. The NGA Winter Meeting *always* included a meeting of all the governors with the president. apnews.com/article/trum...

Screenshot of the Amazon listing of the book "The Native American Southwest in the Middle Ages, 500-1540 CE" by Frederick Paxton

We bought a friend's book last year when it came out, and then gave it away to a dinner guest last week who was very interested. I re-bought it today so we'll have a copy!

Great news. I live about 3 miles from the Connecticut pier shown in the photo and drive by it all the time. I feel like I’ve gotten to know these turbines over the past few years.

Once when we lived in Ireland for a semester someone in the US emailed me at like 3:00 am their time and I wrote back immediately because it was 9:00 am where we were. They were mortified and apologized because they thought they’d woken me up, until I explained the situation!

I spent part of the week inputting data into IPEDS!

Nice piece! I agree that abstractions like "rule of law" are hard to keep large numbers of people committed to when compelling narratives pull them in another direction. My work on federalism is similar; many people are for states' rights until it means giving up some policy outcome they want.

Picture of snowy woods with two pathways forking in the distance

Two Robert Frost poems for the price of one— “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening” and “The Road Not Taken”

We like Töst, but not just straight out of the bottle. Use it as a base and add things… at least some club soda.

Has the size of the student body remained constant?

Very helpful. How much German would you say is appropriate for a competitive grad school application?

The U.S. News rankings went public today, so there’s that…

Outstanding

I think a lot about Zaller and Feldman's 1992 article on opinion surveys: "Most people are internally conflicted over most political issues...and most respond to survey questions on the basis of whatever ideas are at the top of their heads at the moment of answering."

Look for new tariffs on Spain tomorrow

Or jumping up to touch the top of a doorframe.

This is why it's terrible to have the ultra-rich serving in and heavily involved in government: checks and balances means hearing no sometimes, accepting it, and seeing it as part of the process. No one is telling Trump et al. "no" right now, when he should be hearing it all the time.

It’s Time for Americans to Start Talking About “Soft Secession” Blue states are finally learning what red states have known all along: you don’t need federal permission to govern.

“Uncooperative federalism,” Heather Gerken’s phrase, is quite good.

cmarmitage.substack.com/p/its-time-f...

Federalist 46 (Madison): "The federal and State governments are in fact but different agents and trustees of the people, constituted with different powers, and designed for different purposes."

ChatGPT does a decent job at content analysis of open-ended survey results and displaying the results in the way you specify (e.g., top 20 themes mentioned by respondents, with number of times they appeared, in descending order, with 2 examples of each...)

As someone whose college kid just declared a concentration in archival studies, may this ever be so!

I was using it the other day to analyze open-ended survey responses to identify the main themes and topics, and before starting, it said I could help by giving it some of the themes and topics I *expected* to be in the responses. I thought, Isn't that what you're supposed to be figuring out??

I'm currently reading the novel Thirteen Moons by Charles Frazier, which details the Cherokee removal from Western North Carolina. I've been repeatedly struck by the heartbreaking parallels between that episode and what's happening now.

Dwight Yoakam - Guitars, Cadillacs (Official Music Video) YouTube video by Dwight Yoakam

Yoakam’s Razor: the simplest song is probably the correct song youtu.be/q6F7xMRWB10?...

I was on a small airplane with Dog the Bounty Hunter and his wife, flying out of Peoria IL

I listened to a lot of KZ93 radio growing up in Peoria. Steamboat Days is a festival in summer there.

I only recently figured out the pun in the band name "Camper Van Beethoven"