Phil Cook

YouTube video by Not Just Bikes This is Why Cycling is Dangerous in America

🧵Content Warning: I am about to propose that you watch a 95-minute video about bike lanes. Sorry about that. But Not Just Bikes has done a genuinely great job with this. www.youtube.com/watch?v=pRPd...

The public transport punt that changed Melbourne Melbourne's history with trams goes back 140 years. The city got its first tram in 1885 and the fleet has grown to become the world's largest tram network.

Happy birthday Melbourne trams.

We ask everyone outside of the car to be safe so that drivers can be dangerous.

Yeah, I disagree with the queuing advice in that context. If a queue has formed and you're a customer, don't skip it. If you're staff — and it's not how that venue is meant to run — then gently break it up, manage customer priority, and maybe figure out what aspects of the layout caused it to form.

The Beta Band at the 930 Club in Washington DC. It's a wide angle shot from the front row, the stage washed in blue and pink, with a mirrorball lit by a dozen spotlights above.

The Beta Band at the 930 Club in Washington DC. There's a screen at the back of the stage with the Three EPs artwork, the band are lit in red and orange and playing an extended jam of B+A.

John Maclean from The Beta Band playing trumpet at the 930 Club in Washington DC. He's wearing a pink overall and the screen behind is a peachy glow from a sunrise animation. The photo should cause an instant Dry The Rain earworm for fans.

The empty stage at the 930 Club in Washington DC before The Beta Band came on. Purple-lit smoke is creeping in from both sides, dozens of instruments are laid out, and the tiger logo from the Champion Versions EP is protected onto a large screen at the back.

The Beta Band at the @930club.bsky.social last night were an absolute delight. The reunion tour was announced shortly after we moved to DC and it felt incredibly lucky to be able to catch them here. One of those dream gigs I'll be thinking about for ages.

Passengers eager for entertainment between trains could check their bags with a Red Cap and enjoy cartoons, short subject films, or newsreels in the 300-seat Grand Central Theater. Men in hats and coats walk by a newstand.

Passengers eager for entertainment between trains could check their bags with a Red Cap and enjoy cartoons, short subject films, or newsreels in the 300-seat theater. A large illuminated clock above the screen helped people keep track of the time so they did not miss their trains.

The original Far Side Cow Tools Cartoon by Gary Larson. A cow stands on its hind legs behind a table, staring blankly at the viewer from behind its heavy brow ridge. On the table are four crudely made tools: a lump, a lump with an offset crooked handle, a long stick with hooked prongs at the end, and a crude handsaw with irregular teeth. In the background a barn sits on a hill. Caption reads, "Cow tools."

43 years ago today, readers the world over opened their newspapers and gazed upon cow tools for the first time. happy birthday cow tools. you look great.

How I Used Smart Glasses to Trick a Bartender Into Giving Me a Free Drink How smart glasses can be used to con, cheat, and manipulate—and how to spot if someone is doing it.

Cool how one of the most prevalent tech stories now is “here’s how to be a creep and/or convincing fraud.”

I pretty much always include cheese. And my hot take is that mayo works better than butter. These chips were delightfully mad: Thanksgiving stuffing flavour (sorry, "flavor") from Trader Joe's. Worked kind of like chicken chips (my usual fave) with extra herbiness.

Absolutely fine. I would be honoured.

A chippie sandwich (white bread, American cheese, a few layers of crisps) on a wooden chopping board with a can of National Bohemian in the background (its ridiculous one-eyed mascot seeming to smile approvingly at it) and a can of Dovetail wet hop lager blurrily visible behind it.

#crispsandwichday observances are scattered throughout a *lot* of the calendar in my house, if I'm being completely honest about my eating habits. But I'm delighted to join in the official celebrations and see more people experimenting with the artform today.

Theakston’s old Peculier

Imagine if they made a beer taste like a ball of marzipan dunked in prune juice but it was literally the best thing ever.

Hovis Soft White (medium) with Two Farmers Hereford Hop Cheese & Onion crisps.

Good afternoon from @theshirkersrest.bsky.social where #CrispSandwichDay is in full swing!

I'm always stoked to say our dark lager is our biggest seller. The past six months it's been 42% of our volume.

It's a regional thing that not many people in NZ really think about, but NZers love dark lager, which is why we called it Kiwi Dark. 4% abv, 100% NZ ingredients

Green hop beers are like Oktoberfest beers. It's a mark on the calendar as the year passes. A reminder of the end of summer. A style that seems constrained.
However it's also a delightful celebration of a style of beer - like CAMRAs Mild May - that keeps things interesting & long may they prosper.

Northern Monk x David Bailey Extra Extra Special Bitter label stretched out over two cans with the beer in the background, shot in Port Street Beer House

The first of seven collaborative beers between Northern Monk and myself, Extra Extra Special Bitter. 6.2% Golden Promise w/ crystal malts and crystal rye, hopped w/ Fuggles, Target, East Kent Goldings. Serious business. The whole series is based on pub beers. This out now, in pubs and bottle shops.

Yep

Here’s a Halloween treat from 1963, featuring Rowlf on THE JIMMY DEAN SHOW. Rowlf was Jim Henson’s first breakout character on a national scale, & it’s a joy to see how much fun Jimmy Dean seemed to always have in any of their interactions - most often just downright tickled…

Petty sidepoint: Melbournite is the better demonym. "Melburnian" is late-1800s private-school Latin-obsessed snobbish nonsense.

Speaking as a native Wellingtonian and adoptive Melbournite, this tracks.

"New Far Side comics" was definitely not on my bingo card for this week. They're not bad!

www.thefarside.com/new-stuff/

Mad Enough to Blog It™️

Beer as emerging status symbol, 1986 | Boak & Bailey's Beer Blog You can learn a lot about beer’s social position if you stare at a single copy of a magazine for long enough, like an edition of Punch from 1986.

BLOG POST: On filleting an old copy of Punch to find out what it can tell us about the status of beer in 1986. 🍻🍺

boakandbailey.com/2025/10/beer...

On That NYT Op-Ed About Craft Beer — Beervana You may have seen the op-ed in the New York Times offering handy advice to reverse the declines in the craft beer segment of the beer industry. It produced a chuckle among those who actually underst...

I was going to skip replying to that New York Times op-ed, but I failed.

Whenever there's an acquisition / merger it's worth saving a copy of the announcement press release to see how quickly they contradict its claims about preserving autonomy, or continuity in leadership, or other such soothing assurances. This one didn't quite make it to its first birthday.

That's pretty much it! I've done it with raspberry, boysenberry and cherry sours. All just with good straight plain ice cream. It's incredible. It works just as well as a stout does, but in a different way. Alice Galletly, a food / beer writer back home in NZ put me on to the idea.

Crisp Sandwich Day 🥪🎉 25th October An annual celebration of the magic that happens when crisps (potato chips) are placed between two slices of bread.

Only 11 days til CRISP SANDWICH DAY Phil!
vole.wtf/crisp-sandwi...

I feel the same way about chips / crisps in sandwiches as I do about ice cream in beer (particularly stout or fruit sour): more people should try the combination more often.

Didn't think this piece could get any dumber, but they changed the headline from "How to Save Beer" to this.