Michael Johnson

My first thought was, yeah, duh, it’s deer hunting season, so of course we’re all terrified of going to our mailboxes.

I need just one more person (or pretend person) to reach 1000 followers!

What does '67' mean? Dictionary.com's 2025 word of the year has no definition "67," pronounced "six seven," spread from a rap song, through sports and social media, to classrooms and homes across the U.S. But even the artist who coined it struggles to define it.

"67," pronounced "six seven," spread from a rap song, through sports and social media, to classrooms and homes across the U.S. But even the artist who coined it struggles to define it. n.pr/3WB1ZO2

clipping.: Tiny Desk Concert The hip-hop band reshapes its hypnotic melodies and serrating beats with the aid of MIDI-triggered robots and a desk full of glass bottles, coffee mugs and a pizza box.

The hip-hop band reshapes its hypnotic melodies and serrating beats with the aid of MIDI-triggered robots and a desk full of glass bottles, coffee mugs and a pizza box. n.pr/47iWsSy

I have finished recording Too Many Songs About Cats!
It will be live on my Bandcamp page at 9:15 pm Nov 7th, when I will press the button at the end of my Album Release show on Zoom.
buytickets.at/trevorstrong...

Graduate seminar did a deep dive on Thomas Paine’s Common Sense yesterday. At the line, “in America the law is king,” they (14 students from 6 countries) burst out laughing. I've been doing this for 35 years and this is the first time that was a laugh line.

The metaphors write themselves

A thousand writers: “SEE IF I WRITE THIS YOU TELL ME IT’S TOO ON THE NOSE”

WHAT IS THIS? AN ARCH FOR ANTS?

I live in Maine, and I haven't met Graham yet, but we share a number of folks in common. I hear he's really the real deal, and I agree with this assessment. Folks are truly pumped about him. No one I know is pumped about Janet. She has been an ok governor, but that's it.

The Virginia Senate just told UVA it’s not getting state funding if it accepts the compact since UVA exists to serve Virginia, its residents, & their interests—not be a tool of the federal govt. Scoop from our student newspaper, who’ve been doing vital reporting www.cavalierdaily.com/article/2025...

Laufey was an 'odd fish' in native Iceland. Now she's a jazz-pop star The Grammy Award-winning singer and musician had rigorous classical training. Now she's making music that crosses genres: "I've been inspired by Golden Age films, the va-va-voom of it all," she says.

The Grammy Award-winning singer and musician had rigorous classical training. Now she's making music that crosses genres: "I've been inspired by Golden Age films, the va-va-voom of it all," she says. n.pr/3J14qpM

Los Angeles: Spaghetti Cumbia, a band born from cultural fusion Photographers and storytellers Karla Gachet and Ivan Kashinsky document cumbia music in Colombia, Mexico, Ecuador, Peru, Argentina and the United States.

Photographers and storytellers Karla Gachet and Ivan Kashinsky document cumbia music in Colombia, Mexico, Ecuador, Peru, Argentina and the United States. n.pr/4ovoQXp

I love this.

Bread and Puppet Theater is still working to 'make the revolution irresistible' The decades-old radical troupe Bread and Puppet, famed for its protest art including giant puppets, is touring again — mixing circus, politics and bread in a sharply polarized moment.

The decades-old radical troupe Bread and Puppet, famed for its protest art including giant puppets, is touring again — mixing circus, politics and bread in a sharply polarized moment.

Students, listen up! NPR's College Podcast Challenge is back for 2025 Our national podcasting contest for college students is now open for entries. Submit your story for a chance to win our $5,000 grand prize, and hear your podcast on NPR.

Our national podcasting contest for college students is now open for entries. Submit your story for a chance to win our $5,000 grand prize, and hear your podcast on NPR.

This week Historians At The Movies kicks off spooky season by talking about the history of epidemic diseases. Join us on Netflix this Sunday, September 28 at 8pm eastern for 28 DAYS LATER. #HATM

12 brand new books we can't wait to read this fall A new Pynchon! A Tim Curry memoir! A 600-page doorstopper from a reclusive writer (not named Thomas Pynchon)! The fall is stacked with big book releases. Here's what we're particularly excited for.

A new Pynchon! A Tim Curry memoir! A 600-page doorstopper from a reclusive writer (not named Thomas Pynchon)! The fall is stacked with big book releases. Here's what we're particularly excited for. n.pr/4nf3nl6

Dem Lives Matter bsky.app/profile/acyn...

Last night I learned the final line in the intro of Let's Go Crazy by Prince is "punch a higher floor." I've been singing it wrong for 40 years.

Happy 75th birthday to Henry Huggins, Ramona Quimby's big-kid neighbor Beverly Cleary's fictional third grader with an adopted dog named Ribsy made his debut in 1950. Cleary was praised for writing simple, humorous stories that kids wanted to read.

Beverly Cleary's fictional third grader with an adopted dog named Ribsy made his debut in 1950. Cleary was praised for writing simple, humorous stories that kids wanted to read.

SNL casts Canadian provided she can evade ICE at border NEW YORK - Sketch comedy institution Saturday Night Live has announced the addition of its first new Canadian cast member in decades, Veronika Slowikowska, contingent on her not being captured by ICE ...

SNL casts Canadian provided she can evade ICE at border

PUBLIC HEALTH ORDER NEW MEXICO DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH SECRETARY GINA DEBLASSIE AUGUST 29, 2025 Ensuring Availability of COVID-19 Vaccine for the 2025-2026 Season

THIS ORDER supersedes any previous order, proclamation, or directives to the extent they are in conflict. This Public Order shall take effect immediately and remain in effect until such time as it automatically expires one year from the date of issuance, or until such time as the New Mexico Department of Health Cabinet Secretary rescinds it.

New Mexico has issued a public health order that removes federal restrictions to COVID-19 vaccine access so that pharmacies in New Mexico can vaccinate people of all ages and risk profiles. Every state need to do this!

RFK Jr.’s damage to the CDC is ‘past the point of no return,’ Dr. Demetre Daskalakis warns “The CDC you knew is over,” the infectious diseases doctor told The Advocate. “Unless someone takes radical action, there is nothing there that can be salvaged.”

there is no question in my mind that rfk jr is the most dangerous person in this administration and that his eugenicist ideology threatens the lives of millions of people www.advocate.com/politics/dem...

The cover of Eric Gardner’s book Frances Ellen Watkins Harper’s Civil War and Reconstruction. On a blue background, the largest portion of the cover reproduces a C19 engraving of African American author-activist Frances Ellen Watkins Harper from William Still’s 1872 The Underground Rail Road. The portrait shows her head and upper body. She is wearing traveling clothes, and she is in three-quarters profile, facing to the left. Her hair is pulled back in her signature chignon, and she looks ahead with wisdom and determination. The engraving lines can be seen throughout the portrait, especially on her skin and her dress. A mostly-opaque yellow rectangle rests perhaps two-thirds of the way down the cover below Harper’s chin and neck. Here, inside a thin brown border, the words “Frances Ellen Watkins Harper’s” are offered in brown all caps, followed by the words “Civil War and Reconstruction” in smaller white all caps, followed by a partial centered line, followed by the author’s name in smaller brown all caps.

The digital version of Frances Ellen Watkins Harper’s Civil War and Reconstruction is now available for folks who have Oxford Academic Access! Online ISBN 9780197804520; print (forthcoming) ISBN 9780197804490. See academic.oup.com/book/60645

Something blue states will need to explore: how to create cross-state compacts dedicated to a functioning government as the Trump administration walks away from it's responsibilities.

Dem Govs and Health Secretaries need to organize a ferocious campaign of resistance to what Kennedy is doing to their constituents.

Screenshot: "Sargent: I’m intrigued by your pinpointing of the Americans out there who vote Democratic but are unhappy with the Democratic Party right now. This is a big group of people, and they’re essentially absent from the debates that we have about the politics of these things. What they think matters or should matter to Democrats, right? Isn’t Pritzker essentially activating those people, saying, Hey you, you’re being heard, which is something that I don’t think a lot of Democrats do. They don’t say you’re being heard to that constituency. Beutler: Pritzker went further in a way that it’s actually very moving to me. He said, “If you hurt my people.” That’s a statement of his leadership of the state Illinois and the city of Chicago, but it’s a statement of solidarity with citizens who depend on their elected leaders to protect them from harm. And it’s those people, people who have been missing that from the Democratic congressional leadership, who are driving the public opinion favorability with the Democratic Party from where it should be, which is probably around half because about half the country votes for Democrats, into the 20s. Which essentially says that about half of the party’s voters are fed up with being abandoned by their leadership, that the administration has made a point of coming after people who comprise that population—people like us."

"about half of the [Democratic] party’s voters are fed up with being abandoned by their leadership, that the administration has made a point of coming after people who comprise that population—people like us."

worth listening/reading to @brianbeutler.bsky.social w @gregsargent.bsky.social (1/2) ↘️

Review | Say ‘A Little Prayer’: May this nearly perfect drama find its audience David Strathairn again shows us why he’s one of the secret glories of the past half-century of American film.

Calling all David Strathairn fans and lovers of tiny independent films that disappear without a trace: “A Simple Prayer” is Ozu in the heartland and you should see it.