American history is comparatively extremely short but it really is wild just how much happened right before the Civil War.

Talking with friends about the sort of self-referential / self-mythologizing nature of contemporary country music and thinking more about it now probably the funniest part of this to me is everyone's extreme, situationally tone-deaf reverence of OG Hank Williams. SO many songs from the '90s to today about turning up Hank, play Hank, being a Hank fan etc as though he was some kind of huge rock star slinging the party hits. Obviously he is one of the most influential artists of the genre and some of these people might be referring to Hank Jr or Hank III who are much more Rockstar types but it's still very funny to imagine, like, 2026, you're at the bar, someone is like play something country! And the DJ throws on "I'm so lonesome I could cry."

Was talking to the intern (age 20) about HBO Succession and jokingly said "I've seen a couple of episodes but, maybe unsurprisingly, I'm on Tumblr so that's how I know most of my Succession facts." and she went, "oh my gosh, the other interns and I were talking about tumblr! I think we all used to have one at one point :)" which, like, what do you mean used to? You are 20 years old. You are a 20 year old woman in GLAM with strong opinions about the personal lives of futbolistas. Get back on tumblr, girl, you're the next generation, this website needs you.

When my mother was a lobbyist in DC back in the late 80s/early 90s she bought three or four khorjin and at least two big Persian rugs in Old Town Alexandria and now wants to give some of them to me which is lovely but I really don't want her to try to send antique textiles in the mail across the country and unfortunately there is no normal way to say "don't worry about it, I was actually planning on getting these in 15 to 20 years along with your condo assuming Colorado is still habitable."

Not to be too sincere on main but my friends are some of the most incredibly kind and generous people on the face of the planet who gave up SO MUCH time and energy and money (and possibly, given that it was like 112 F this weekend, a year off their total lives) to help Mar and I move over the holiday. I've thanked everyone personally of course but I must also post about it. Let the record show: it was an amazing effort and I owe everyone.

Domestication is a pretty wild and crazy thing when I think about it. The kitten I pulled out of a wheel well is about 9 weeks old and, as far as I know, didn't know about people for the first 7 of those but at this point he's no longer afraid of us and is instead very excited about playing with us and no longer runs to hide behind the toilet when we open the bathroom door but will come outside and scamper around the whole house when we let him. He purrs! And he's willing to be held and even wants to sit on laps sometimes. Obviously he could have probably survived in a totally different life in the colony in our neighborhood but he knows instinctively how to be a cat in the house also and that blows my mind. It's so great, I'm really happy for him! Thank you people of the ancient Near East for domesticating cats, this was a huge W for all of us.