Perplexed and Vexed

If anyone is wondering, like I was…

myshakespeare.com/hamlet/the-s...

Sir Ian McKellen performing a monologue from Shakespeare’s Sir Thomas More on the Stephen Colbert show. Never have I heard this monologue performed with such a keen sense of prescience. Nor have I ever been in this exact historical moment.TY Sir Ian, for reaching us once again.
#Pinks #ProudBlue

Person: say, i am alive. Computer: I am alive. Person: oh my god.

A photo of a dramatic supercell thunderstorm with a many-layered, rotating structure that is illuminated by multiple bright lightning strikes. The foreground includes a rural landscape with a dirt road, fence, and green trees/grass. Beside the storm is a crisp, clear night sky with stars shining.

In Sept. of 2023, I witnessed what was in my eyes the perfect storm. This intricately-structured, highly-electric supercell danced under a sky full of stars, looming over the landscape like the Mind Flayer while producing multiple funnels, bursts of sprites, and a barrage of lightning. #Photography

❤️

Landscape-oriented photo of a gray junco who is actually very brown, one of the browner juncos I've seen -- the borb-shaped bird stands astride the snow, tiny beak pointed forward, dark black button eyes staring as its tail -- peppered with snow -- juts out straight behind it. Its breast is white, but lined with a soft sandy brown. The bird isn't in FULL borb mode yet; hasn't gone ENTIRELY ROUND. Photo by me, Chuck Wendig

Landscape-oriented photo of a red fox stooping low in the snow, warily -- upper left of the frame, doesn't fill the frame -- what does fill the frame are weird bokeh reflections like smeary orange orbs. They're from Christmas lights captured in the window glass -- I tried not to get too close to the window so as not to spook our little vulpine buddy. Photo by me, Chuck Wendig

Landscape-oriented photo of a... red-shouldered hawk, I think? Brownish reddish bird, yellow beak, pale eye ring, white speckled breast. The hawk sits on a branch going across the middle of the pic (background is brown and scrubby on left, green and piney on the right). The bird has an indignant pose -- probably because he or she is cold but it looks like the bird is sort of a haughty prick. Judging you in your taste in music and cinema. Has a very sniffy Letterboxed account, I bet. Photo by me, Chuck Wendig

Landscape oriented. Amid snowy world, a white-throated sparrow sits on an angled branch, the snow puffed up and tufted around it. The bird sits forward -- eyemask line, little pointy beak, yellow between the eyes, and of course the trademark white throat -- as if gazing to the future, thinking of better days, which is something we can all understand. Though in reality, the bird is likely leaning forward, looking for its shot to get at the tasty snacks on the ground, and we can understand too the need for tasty snacks, I am sure. Photo by me, Chuck Wendig

I need a break from the relentless (bad!) news, so I'm poking through some recent photos, and I figured hey, maybe you want a momentary break as well. So here are four of those photos. All by me.

The head and neck of a mottled brown bird with a large bright yellow eye and a short sharply hooked black beak peeks out into a small sunlit open area of a green leafed tree. It is staring very intently at something in front of it. I caught this bird sneaking through a tree that was very popular with smaller birds who would come to our feeder. The bright yellow eye indicates that it is a young bird since adults have red eyes and although it was unsuccessful in this instance I was incredibly impressed with how stealthy it was.

I wouldn't want to be the focus of that stare.

Sharp-shinned Hawk

#BirdOfTheDay #EyeContact #raptors #birds #nature #wildlife #photography #ColorADay #YellowThu #JanuArty2026 #sharp #AlphabetChallenge #WeekDForDramatic

I think we’ve got better and more culturally-varied street food than I could have imagined, cool jackets galore, and drugs that make us think we’re really fast and strong before they kill us.

Photograph from 1911 taken by Herbert Ponting whilst with Scott's Antarctic Expedition The monochrome photo is taken from within a cave. The walls of the cave are made of ice. The cave entrance is in the mid distance with two figures standing looking out towards a distant ship. Between them and the ship there is first a 'beach' of ice before the sea itself. The ship could be up to 800 metres away What makes the photo so special is that where the figures are at the cave entrance there is a band of very white snow and ice (contrasting with the comparatively dark inside of the cave) that creates a stark framework in which the men and the ship are captured. It is made even more dramatic by the fact that the cave entrance is at least 30 metres high and is in the shape of a distorted elipse with the tail sloping off to the right at the top of the elipse The photo being in monochrome in a largely white environment makes the photographers skill all the more laudable

This photo was taken in 1911 using glass plate technology by Herbert Ponting who was part of Scott's Antarctic expedition,

The composition and detail are exquisite with the band of white snow/ice creating a perfect frame around the two people and the ship in the distance

Iconic imo

Here is a video of a frozen creek that had begun to thaw, and the water was flowing beneath the thin ice on top. I took this because it was soothing and wonderfully bloopy and I wanted to listen to it for hours. You are all welcome to enjoy it, too. Let your brain settle here and rest for a moment.

We've removed the paywall from this guide so everyone can access it. 👇 Stay safe.

i know we're all busy but i just overheard a plumber say "parlez-vous français ? non ? you motherfuckers don't even speak french, do you" to a pair of french bulldogs

The history behind the NYC subway station chosen for Mamdani's swearing-in The city shut down the station in 1945 on New Year's Eve. Eighty years later, it's a symbolic venue choice for the incoming mayor's private swearing-in ceremony.

The city shut down the station in 1945 on New Year's Eve. Eighty years later, it's a symbolic venue choice for the incoming mayor's private swearing-in ceremony. n.pr/4bbETpx

Zohran getting sworn in on the set of ninja turtles.

Do you swear to yell “cowabunga” when you and the other ninja turtles leap into battle?
I do.

A photograph of a female Scintillant Hummingbird, a tiny beauty, with soft buff-colored throat that is speckled with tiny spots of dark cinnamon and beautiful bronze-green upperparts. She is flying from the right as viewed towards some bright flowers coloured orange and yellow, some are beneath her. Her distinctive rufous tail is upturned which has a black band and buffy tips. Her wings are slightly blurred to show motion with a green background on a bright sunny day. Photograph taken by me in Costa Rica.

Flying into the New Year with hope and positivity! 🕊️🫶

Happy New Year everyone! Thank you to all those still here for our fun interactions, for all your kindness and support too over this past year. Here's to a wonderful year for nature too! 📷 🪶

#Photography #Birds #EastCoastKin #HappyNewYear

Three panel cartoon by Tina Menzel A cat sitting on a table next to a big sign that says 2025 Cat looks down at 2025 Cat pushes 2025 off the table

Service took @stationcdrkelly.bsky.social and me to the Navy and into space. It was the honor of a lifetime to do it for our country.

Digital painting of a young lady holding her scarf and smiling. She has a large afro full of stars, white gloves and a checkered scarf. Drawn by gdbeeart, Dec 2025

Winter girl sketch :)

The top half of a cat is concealed behind a gold curtain, its bottom half exposed.

David Attenborough [whispering]:

“Like a grain of sand in a vast desert, the predator blends seamlessly into its environment, nearly imperceptible to the naked eye.”

Comic. [Banner: Mathematical Society: 2025 Meeting.] PERSON 1 with bun: Any other new developments from the year to cover before we wrap? PERSON 2: Oh, the teens picked a new funny number. PERSON 3 with short hair: Aww, I’m glad to hear they’re still doing that. PERSON 4 with ponytail: I’ll add it to the list. [List: 23 (skidoo!; 42; 69; 420; 1,337; 58,008; [circled]: 67]

Funny Numbers

xkcd.com/3184/

I try to focus on posting about art and comics and not my complaints about the state of everything but GOOD GRIEF

Peak Geminids Meteor shower this past Saturday night captured over Stonehenge.

Photo credit: Sandra.Davies6869

this is such a painful loss. my heart is broken. “The most important things are the hardest things to say. They are the things you get ashamed of, because words diminish them — words shrink things that seemed limitless when they were in your head to no more than living size when they’re brought out. But it’s more than that,...

It hasn't even been twelve hours, but all three of us have been overwhelmed with requests from media for comment and I'm mostly writing this now so they'll leave me alone.

Merriam-Webster’s human editors have chosen ‘slop’ as the 2025 Word of the Year.

I begged them to let me hire some weirdos to write some Lower Decks EU novels with saucy covers and they said no.

A cat in the middle of the Christmas tree

Me while decorating the tree: I should put the Christmas ornaments a couple feet off the ground so the cats can’t get them.

The cat:

I hate how much I enjoyed this

BIG NERD DESIGN ENERGY 🫦

Image of Shax from Star Trek Lower Decks with the words "Sufficiently advanced incompetence is indistinguishable from malice"

We all know Clarke's "sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic"

Well we have corollary: