Ricardo Cortés

pencil drawing on graph paper of an ashtray design

IMHO design improvements…⁣

A. The joint tray aligns flush w interior ring for easy cleaning.

B. Inner lip to “put out” joints, allowing ash to fall into the well. I switched to a nub in final version.
⁣
C. Deep well protects ash from breezes, w a smooth rounded bottom for easy cleaning.⁣

photo of a unique, round ceramic ashtray with a joint tray, made by the Houseplant company.

I built it on the back of Seth Rogen’s ceramic design. Its deep well keeps ash calm in a breeze even near a window. But it’s too deep (or otherwise filled with ash) to put out a roach. And I love the joint tray, but its position makes cleaning inside the ashtray a lil tricky.⁣

First draft of my take on a perfect ashtray. ⁣

some people have been calling it the Epstein Ballroom

Trump Says He Will Not Seek Authorization for Cartel Strikes

What is the Times doing calling this extrajudicial murder spree “cartel strikes”? On what evidence do they ape the killers’ propaganda?

www.nytimes.com/2025/10/23/u...

So I guess sex work is only ok if just tech oligarchs are profiting off it and not marginalized women or minorities who depend on it to survive?

Well, if only there were a large supply of foreign students who would happily pay a premium price to get access to American higher education.

So exhausting..

Getting one of these in the US would cure my depression

‘… we must not fall into the trap of mistaking the outputs of writing (which are increasingly substitutable through technology) from the value of the cognitive process of writing (which hones mental development and cannot be substituted by a machine’

We are dangerously close <bag goes over head> to normalizing <shoved in van> behavior like that.

It shouldn’t be shocking, but the lack of any expressed concern whatsoever for Muslims in this statement is shocking

Photo of a children’s picture book, “PARTY - A Mystery,” by Jamaica Kincaid, illustrated by Ricardo Cortés. The book’s cover depicts two young Black girls; one eating a piece of cake, and the taller of the two looking aghast at something out of view from the audience.

If you missed “Party - A Mystery” when it was first published, I hope you might take another swing around to enjoy this unique tale by the great Jamaica Kincaid.

And if you don’t understand the mystery, maybe get some help from a young reader. 🕵🏾‍♀️

www.partyamystery.com

It’s a strange, beautiful, almost inscrutable story. I mean…

“It’s difficult to read PARTY without thinking of this new edition of the book as a quiet commentary on how horror shapes young girls, even if something about it remains Kurtzian in its inexpressibility." @literaryhub.bsky.social

A photograph of Jamaica Kincaid wearing a black t-shirt that says “I CAN’T BREATHE.” She is sitting next to Ricardo Cortés, illustrator of her picture book, “Party - A Mystery.” Jamaica is reading to an audience, from her book “Talk Stories.”

Today is the 🎂 of PARTY - A Mystery, by the inimitable Jamaica Kincaid.

I found the tale in her collection of essays, “TALK STORIES,” and asked if I could illustrate it into a picture book.

Thanks to our intrepid independent publisher
@akashicbooks.bsky.social, it’s here:

www.partyamystery.com

New York Post v @nypost Follow 24-year-old Australian woman set friend on fire for making misogynistic remark: report trib.al/Dvo1DFB this mf’s shirt is frilly

maybe next time he shouldn’t be dressed so flammable

Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich: We are destroying everything that remains in Gaza, the world isn't stopping us.

People who are still shouting that Israel is not committing genocide must be clapping their hands over their ears every time an Israeli minister steps onto a podium because

Unsplash image of the Earth, mostly the nightside with a tracery of city lights on every continent.

OK, this is wild.

In September 2023, geophysicists across the world started monitoring a very odd signal coming from the ground under them.

It was picked up in the Arctic. And Antarctica. It was detected everywhere, every 90 seconds, as regular as a metronome, for *nine days*.

What the HELL?

1/

'How come I can’t breathe?': Musk's data company draws a backlash in Memphis The company’s turbines — enough to power 280,000 homes — run without emission controls in an area that leads Tennessee in asthma hospitalizations.

Poisoning the air of a Black community for a fucking chatbot.

In which Piers Morgan is politely handed his ass.😂

Alien DJ scratching with the Voyager disc on the turntable

I see an *alarming* amount of people replying to the OP with “that’s ridiculous, art isn’t sexual,” and ohhhh no my friends, wrong argument. The art often IS sexual, and there’s nothing wrong with displaying sex and sexuality as a function of art.

an article in an Arlington paper headed "the owls are not what they seem"

now this is hard hitting journalism

Every April, we celebrate Independent Bookstore Day to remind us how vital indie bookstores are to our communities and society. It’s a day of joy and solidarity, and significant financial impact for these bookstores. This year, Amazon is undercutting that with a “Book Sale” on the same day—a calculated move by a company that has already put half the bookstores in the country out of business, controls over 60% of the market and sells far more books than all indie bookstores combined. The people at Amazon responsible for the timing of their "Book Sale" should be ashamed, but they are shameless.

Man, this is a pretty fucking gross move from Amazon, huh? Good on @bookshop.org for not mincing words, though:

I'm sick of these people. Homeschool your kids and buy your books from Amazon if you're so terrified of your children knowing that queer people exist. Throw out your TV too. Go live like the Amish do.

I saw someone criticizing a very funny poster for making jokes instead of posting about politics, and I am reminded of a favorite line from E. B. White: We should strive not for balanced books but balanced libraries

Conservative men are terrified of riding the New York City subway. I am terrified of driving on the highway. We are not the same (I am far superior at risk assessment)

A very old Soviet joke, from an especially dark time:

Foxes are fleeing the USSR in droves.
Q: Why are you running away?
Fox: The Soviets passed a new law that they’re going to arrest all camels.
Q: But you’re foxes!
Fox: Yeah, why don’t *you* try proving to the NKVD that you’re not a camel.