e. m. jensen

Catalogue illustration of a grey wool hooded cape from the 1987 Banana Republic Catalog. “It was a classic case of demand exceeding supply for Republic citizens who sought but were denied our surplus French Naval Cape last winter. Happily, your impassioned letters-fraught with reports of "thwarted purchase lust," "daggers of uncloaked depression," and "frustrated fantasies of whirling about town"-touched our sensibilities, and so we have cut a cloak as devilishly dashing as the soigné surplus original. From Sweden came the cloth: an exceedingly dense, military-grade wool woven to withstand Arctic winters. In styling. we honored the French forebear, with its dramatic hood and draft-resisting armholes. In perpetually neutral gray-green, the Cape of Two Countries is a sweeping response both to winter's demands and to its own loyalists.”

Luckily, someone had grievously mislabeled a listing for one as a “sleeveless trench coat with hood”… and I’m quite excited to have a hooded winter cape soon.

These things are going for $$$ with vintage sellers, now. And aside from the Venetian police tabarro, or the Southwestern poncho/ruana, I don’t know of modern utilitarian capes making a come back so much.

The other day I learned Banana Republic used to be a surplus clearing catalogue, among other things, and carried, in 1986 & ‘87, *wool capes*.

Aggrieved this was abandoned & fascinated that they instead fell into trashy fast fashion before I could get one.

www.secretfanbase.com/banana/wool-...

I’d read books and take walks and drink tea. So I’d support the book and tea economies, at least.

So the flipside of this:

One person with £143m of wealth is given, just for having that wealth, the same amount as 10 people working average-income jobs. Every year. If they don't spend it, then it's 11 people, 12 people. etc.

10 years of average-citizen spending power for every year.

Playwright Sir Tom Stoppard dies at 88

Oof. He was truly a master, from Rosenkrantz & Guildenstern to Arcadia to Leopoldstadt—just a lifetime of tremendous, thought-provoking, hilarious work. RIP. www.bbc.com/news/article...

The death of browsing is part of the reason art is the way it is now. Our opinions are largely fed to us by algorithms. Spending a spare 15 minutes wandering around a bookstore or comic shop or video rental place was how you found stuff you wouldn't ordinarily pick up and thereby expanded your taste

www.youtube.com/watch?v=S7Jw...

What a terrible era in which idiots govern the blind.

~ William Shakespeare, Julius Caesar

The president has illegally declared war to stop fentanyl trafficking from a country that does not traffic that drug, claiming its leader is trafficking drugs himself, the day after pardoning a former leader of a country who is a convicted drug trafficker.
Just to level set

I’m so distracted by the dry bone …croissants? and the absolute muppet Animal turkey carving.

According to google’s top of the list AI summary earlier today, for the search term “louvre robbery”, reality is fiction. #theInternetIsBroken

@404media.co the sheer unreality of google’s AI summary for the basic search “louvre robbery” earlier today. I guess reality is fiction, now.

If you are a municipality with a large video screen, we can provide you this video.

Carnivorous “death-ball” sponge among new deep-sea species - Oceanographic Scientists have confirmed 30 previously unknown deep-sea species - among them, a hook-covered carnivorous sponge dubbed the “death-ball.”

Link here:

oceanographicmagazine.com/news/carnivo...

Screenshot reads, "A Carnivorous ‘Death Ball’ Has Emerged from the Deep This newly-discovered species is being called the “death-ball sponge” for its appendages, which end in orbs and are covered in micro-hooks meant to capture prey."

Not now, carnivorous death ball

"I can't wait until January 1st, when all the memes will finally reboot."

My tween

basically every 2024 truism is dead. Trump did not build a lasting multiracial coalition or turn young men into committed Republicans. You don’t need to cave on trans rights to win. The pundits have nothing left to tell you.

like how little do you think of americans that “daily videos of masked men terrorizing children and tearing families apart” is an issue you don’t touch because you think you’re going to lose on it. that’s insane

A drawing of two Laufr standing on a sod house, staring at falling stars.

The liminal time is coming.

It shouldn’t be forgotten that a big piece of Mamdani’s campaign was simply “cities are cool and lots of people enjoy living in them” which in and of itself dismantles alot of rightwing talking points

Agree so much. All ads using AI images make me suspicious, tbh, like why did you need to fake it all so hard if you have a good product

If we go on strike, our union of 12,000 workers are calling on customers to NOT BUY STARBUCKS.

Sign our pledge to not cross a picket line and we'll send you local calls to action - nocontractnocoffee.org

Intense pumpkin effort! Grand result.

Oh wow. Are they BOTH hollow? Is there a candle inside?

I’ll post a clear daytime pic tomorrow but I’m just so proud of the Childe and my team pumpkin work this year, and it looks SO COOL at night.

I give you…the Jack O’Beholder!

Screenshot of the QuickTime Player app on Mac, circa 2002. It’s from Apple’s peak glossy era. The main frame of the player looks like brushed metal. The top 2/3 of the window is the video player frame, currently showing the QuickTime logo (a glossy blue capital letter Q). Beneath that is a progress bar for the video. Below that are the playback and volume controls, all of which are designed to look like water drops on the metal surface with icons inside.

We used to live in a proper society