Sunny Day Real Estate last night in Baltimore.

Still can’t believe how tight these guys sound and how well Jeremy’s voice holds up.

Sunny Day Real Estate live at Baltimore Soundstage A meditative Jeremy Enigk during Dan Hoerner fingerpicking the pre-chorus of

Three candidates have announced their 2024 candidacy for Delaware’s lone U.S. House seat. How did they use branding to differentiate themselves in an already crowded field?

In the next installment of “The Politics of Design,” I critiqued all three for the Delaware Call.

Made the Roy Choi salsa verde tonight and, folks? It’s good.

Admittedly fudged the recipe a bit based on what was on hand but it’s a hell of a starting place.

Allstate is still using “security questions I can probably find the answers to if you’ve filled out your Facebook profile even a little bit” in 2023. Woof.

Please select &10;v What was the high school mascot at the last high school you attended? &10;What is the name of your first elementary school? &10;What is the first name of your first boyfriend/girlfriend? &10;What was the name of your first pet? &10;In what city did you get married? &10;Who was your first employer? &10;What was the name of the street you grew up on? &10;What is your favorite vacation spot? &10;What was the model of your first car?

I’m in the Delaware Call today!

The Politics of Design will be a lighthearted series of critiques focusing on the branding of state and local politicians.

First up: the logo for Delaware gubernatorial hopeful Matt Meyer.

Finished reading: Tomorrow Will Be Different by Sarah McBride 📚

I absolutely tore through this book. Partially out of personal interest in McBride’s story, as she is my state senator and has a really good change to be the first out transgender member of the US House of Representatives, but mostly because she’s an engaging storyteller with an incredible story to tell.

This is pretty clearly a political memoir, one written to give background as the candidate ascends in the public sphere. McBride is pretty transparent about her ambitions, but manages to be ambitious in a way that never feels transactional to me. She deftly is able to zoom out from a personal story to illustrate a policy point or value statement in a way that makes the connections obvious, and offers some insight into how she will govern that have since been demonstrated in her tenure in the state senate.

Her “why” is incredibly clear, and I am hopeful she will be able to bring an undiluted version of it back to Washington.

I will be calling balls and strikes this afternoon

View from my seats at Citizens Bank Park, directly behind home plate

Bookmarked Rep. Mimi Brown and Frank Cooke used their positions in elected office to rail against advocacy orgs like NAACP and ACLU and pretend like they had full input in a bill introduced on Friday via the Law Enforcement Accountability Task Force meetings that ended over a year ago. by Karl Foster Stomberg.

Before calling for a vote, Cooke spent ~10 mins doing what I can only describe as scolding everyone in the room who had the temerity to suggest the bill wasn’t good enough. Wish we could give specifics but his scolding blew out the mic; all we know for sure is that he was Big Mad.

The 80% off all ebooks sale at Verso Books ends this Wednesday. (Looks like most of their paper books are also 20-30% off, too.)

You know your boy copped:

Screenshot of my purchases at the Verso 80% off ebooks sale. Their titles are listed in the text for this post, along with links.

State legislators have attempted to ban CRT in every state in the nation, except Delaware.

DNF: The Terraformers by Annalee Newitz 📚

Huge fan of the author’s previous work, but I simply could not find an entry point. Too many characters, and the emotional stakes were too abstract. I made it about 100 pages in.

Just dropped the needle on this monster for the first time in a long time and let me tell you, it still absolutely owns.

Definitely not going to take this personally.

I asked ChatGPT "Tell me what you know about Len Damico" Answer: "I'm sorry, but I don't have any information on a person named Len Damico. It's possible that this person is not widely known or has not made significant contributions in a particular field that would make them notable. If you have any additional information or context about who Len Damico is and why you are interested in them, I may be able to provide more relevant information."

If you’re suddenly in the market for a less fashy RSS reader, I can wholeheartedly recommend NetNewsWire.

(I’m also experimenting with Readwise Reader, which I’ll have more to say about soon, but its RSS features are currently underwhelming.)

I could stare at this photo for hours.

Your local paper probably deserves your subscription money more than the New York Times ever did.

Because of the way campaign finance works (or doesn’t work) in America, it’s often much easier to understand a candidate’s priorities by understanding their donors rather than listening to their stump speech.

This rundown is… illuminating.

Finished reading: The Idiot by Elif Batuman 📚

One morning, on my way to a lecture on Balzac, it came to me with great clarity that there was no way that that guy, the professor, was going to tell me anything useful. No doubt he knew many useful things, but he wasn’t going to say them; rather, he was going to tell us again that Balzac’s Paris was extremely comprehensive.

I am shocked at how well Batuman captures the overwhelming banality of one’s first year away at college. Every experience is simultaneously novel, intense and boring.

Finished reading: The Future of Another Timeline by Annalee Newitz 📚

Still cooks.

Finished re-reading: The Perfect Pass by S. C. Gwynne 📚

Inspired to pick it back up after the untimely death of Mike Leach late last year.