Author: Chad
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Let there be lights
My wife recently got a little solar-powered prism for our backyard window that starts rotating once it’s charged up with enough sunlight. This has given sunny mornings an extra little burst of magic with little rainbows streaming around the room, one of which I managed to capture as it dashed right next to one of…
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That poor little tree
Ken Priebe on why A Charlie Brown Christmas works so well: There are so many reasons why this perennial special from 1965 shouldn’t work. It’s weird, sloppy, has no real plot, its storyline meanders all over the place, and it feels like it was edited with a chainsaw. … And yet, this is exactly why…
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Links of the moment
An ongoing series Uncovering the mystery of the forbidden photos of Nazi-occupied Paris. The chilling sound of the Aztec death whistle. [Trigger warning: it’s creepy AF!] One dad’s collection of hundreds of VHS tapes with beautifully hand-drawn labels. Looney Tunes but just the backgrounds. A nice interactive history of Notre-Dame cathedral in honor of its post-fire restoration. French archaeologists discovered a…
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Gotta catch ‘em all, I guess?
Somehow the 5 year old has gotten really into Pokémon. He’s never seen the show nor the cards nor the video game, so it must have been from a friend or kid at the playground. Though I was at the prime age of 12 when it exploded globally and was all the rage among my…
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My sons’ media of the moment
A spinoff of an ongoing series Yotos and Tonies. All day every day. Seriously great screen-free stories, learning, and music for the 5 year old, and something to hold and play with for the 18 month old. Great holiday gifts too for the parents/kids in your life. Card games. The 5 year old has gotten…
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Links of the moment
An ongoing series How the Pulp Fiction poster became a dorm room staple. The first Zoom meeting happened in 1916. Humanity’s first interstellar transmission turns 50. Find the net elevation—i.e. the height difference between their birth and death place—of dead people. Memento Movi is a cinematic progress bar for your life.
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A giddy mass of waltzing things
A quote about the earth from Orbital by Samantha Harvey: It’s not peripheral and it’s not the centre; it’s not everything and it’s not nothing, but it seems much more than something. It’s made of rock but appears from here as gleam and ether, a nimble planet that moves three ways—in rotation on its axis,…
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Writes and thinks
Excerpts (though you should read the whole thing) from Paul Graham’s dissection of writes and write-nots: The reason so many people have trouble writing is that it’s fundamentally difficult. To write well you have to think clearly, and thinking clearly is hard. And yet writing pervades many jobs, and the more prestigious the job, the…
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Oh and guess what
Our 5 year old likes to say that a lot when he gets on a roll telling us about something he’s excited about. It could be science facts or recounting a fun outing or his latest playground escapades. He’ll sprinkle it in throughout the story, which shows he’s both excited to share and keen on…
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On the ballot
Election Day is upon us. My wife and I already voted, and I’m very grateful to live in a state that supports pro-democracy initiatives like early voting, vote by mail, and automatic voter registration. Illinois has its issues, to be sure, but it’s a leader in this regard—along with book ban bans, Midwest abortion access,…
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Links of the moment
An ongoing series Reimagined ‘80s logos of popular brands. Restoring a 1,200-year-old psalter discovered in an Irish bog. How did you find accurate information before the internet? Librarians, of course. Where did our 2004 photos go? An interview with Saturday Night Live’s early ‘90s graphic designer of sketch titles, parodies, and props.
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Recent Views
More photography here. Partly cloudy in the Windy City: Feeling reflective at our park: Fishing class with the five year old: First time downtown with the lads: Enjoying the hotel room balcony at Timber Ridge Lodge: Burgundy boy blending in with the fallen leaves:
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Media of the moment
An ongoing series Midnight Mass. Loved this Netflix limited series for the same reason I love Darren Aronofsky’s Noah: it takes literally all the Bible’s very goth elements (“drink my blood”, the terror of angels, etc.) and transposes it into a deeply human modern story. Didi. This coming-of-age story set in 2008 featuring a teenager…
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In praise of Disney’s pop punk phase
I almost couldn’t believe this when I saw it: Disney put out an album of pop punk covers of Disney songs called A Whole New Sound, which includes: I would just like to shoutout whichever 40-year-old at Disney got the greenlight for this. As Boomers retire and we Millennials take over positions of power, I…