What a great book! While it humanized Custer to some extent, it also made me think even less of him as a person. Good read.

I’m reminded, 150 years ago this June, that Custer led his troops to Little Bighorn.

The so-called Indian wars were over fourteen years later.

Reading Philbrick’s The Last Stand reminds me of things I haven’t thought about for years.

A Monthlong Closure of Hormuz Will Bankrupt Countries (w/ Sal Mercogliano) YouTube video by The Bulwark

I started following What’s Going On With Shipping last year because of the tariff regime out of the US. Here he is talking with The Bukwark.

youtu.be/JmMEekBi1W8?...

Got home from a weekend in Boundary Country where I cooked for friends. Now I’m back to cooking for one.

I made chicken stock from scratch and *lordsnaminvain* it smells way better than store bought.

“What am I? A chopped liver sandwich?!” Why, yes. You are indeed.

I just read the plot summary of Aïda, an opera I’ve heard but never seen.

OMG!

Mediocre men get the best chicks.

a chef in a chef 's hat is standing in front of a large piece of dough ALT: a chef in a chef 's hat is standing in front of a large piece of dough

I threw together ingredients from memory for a broccoli soup and the end result needs “something.” A future recipe should add: Bacon? Ground almonds? Roasted lemons?

Stay tuned.

I hit Rick Roll Records on Hastings on my way home.

The Nick Lowe needed a deep clean but now that it’s done, it’s a full on blast.

PVA is a band out of London. The Eels are classic America. Boomtown Rats are part of our local Vancouver history and my own timeline. General Public is classic.

I had to look this up because I absolutely did not think it was real

I thought the true identity of Banksy was revealed 20 years ago. And we didn’t care then, or any other time it has been revealed since, and we don’t care now.

Michela Murgia’s 2018 short book takes a “bitingly ironic” look at the thinking that seems to be breaking our democratic norms.

This is an amazing read. Just about everything I’ve read in the last fifty years is being nudged and repositioned.

It’s also fun.

I’m reading Harris’ book about California and capitalism, Palo Alto, and I have never understood Karl Marx more clearly than I do now.

This “get in loser” T-shirt has been doing the rounds for about a decade and I think I might pull the trigger and get it this year.

I live in Vancouver, BC, and it looks like snowballs are falling from the sky right now.

Someone suggested that we should mispronounce Markwayne’s name in the style of Key & Peele’s Substitute Teacher and now I can’t read his name without thinking Mar-Kwan-nee.

Honestly, I am shocked. Sure, Jennifer Rush wrote and recorded this massive song. But Laura Branigan’s version is the one I knew first and no one told me Branigan died 20+ years ago. I thought we were friends! Friends would have told me.

I have decided that more salads are needed in my diet.

I admire people who can throw together a lovely salad while sipping a glass of white and yelling at the kids.

That is not me.

I need help. America’s Test Kitchen has arrived to help me.

About four months ago I bought several pounds of Argentinian frozen shrimp. I ate a simple breakfast each Sunday with pan-fried shrimp and scrambled eggs.

The shrimp ran out, the butcher didn’t restock, and I am now improvising on my months-old Sunday tradition.

Also, French brandy is delicious.

Peter Grimes - Wikipedia

I am listening to Peter Grimes, Britten’s opera about a murderous fisher, while the rain leaks into my living-room from some unseen hole in the roof.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_G...

Sir Ringo Starr announces new 10-track album Long Long Road The former Beatles drummer's new album features collaborations with Sheryl Crow and Billy Strings.

I am so looking forward this Ringo Starr album.

T-Bone Burnett is the perfect choice as producer for Richard Starkey.

My friend once took a phone message from Burnett in the 1980s and asked, “Your parents named you T-Bone?”

I still laugh.

www.bbc.com/news/article...

The Hitler Salute: On the Meaning of a Gesture by Tilman Allert In this brief, insightful book, German sociologist Allert writes penetratingly about the gesture familiar around the world. Work...

This short book, about a seemingly unimportant thing — greeting others, tells us how quickly a society can turn from being civil and progressive into a full-blown political zombie cannibal nightmare over the course of a weekend.

www.publishersweekly.com/9780805081787

I got up to feed the cat and see the Blood Moon. Unfortunately, there are clouds and the moon isn’t visible.

My little side dish.

*astronomical

Today/tonight some astrological shit is going down!

The sky is clear in Vancouver. Head over to someplace you can see the night, away from the light pollution.

Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson - H2Ogate Blues YouTube video by StrataEast1

Gil Scott-Heron burns the place to the ground.

youtu.be/1wixtjUL42E?...

I just started reading Harris’ Palo Alto, and 25 pages in I’m already blown away.

A steak in my belly, a few ounces of Polish vodka, the Rolling Stones on the turntable. I think I’m good.

Money is a goddamned escape artist.