Christopher Rowe

2026 Valley of the Sun Stage Race Preview and Start List Preview The 34 th running of the Valley of the Sun Stage Race, also known as the John Earely Memorial, is set to take place from Friday, 1...

domesticdomestique.blogspot.com/2026/02/2026...

A screenshot of a blog post titled "2026 Valley of the Sun Stage Race Preview and Start List." A colorful logo features a stylized cyclist in silhouette against sun-drenched mountains and a banner reading "Valley of the Sun Sun Stage Race - John Earley Memorial." The first pagragraph of the preview is also visible, and reads: "The 34th running of the Valley of the Sun Stage Race, also known as the John Earely Memorial, is set to take place from Friday, 13th February through Sunday, 15th February, with riders taking on the traditional time trial, road race, and criterium as stages raced for cumulative time. This year’s pro fields are significantly smaller than last year’s, with just 48 women and 77 men registered to start Friday’s time trial, down from 66 and 115 last year."

My preview of the first big domestic bike race of the year is available at my Domestic Domestique blog.

A reading from the Commonplace Book …wordmills had just come in, they were all the rage, people were sick of writers, they loved the wordmill product, there was no time for a publisher to think of anything else and no point in him doing so. —Fritz Leiber —“The Silver Eggheads” 1959

This is a repost, prompted by an NYT article going around about a writer who "produces" 200 books per year.

Making a couple of notes for this week’s cycling podcast recording, I had cause to find out how fast donkeys can run. This came up in Google. That maximum given in the graphic isn’t even close to correct, but I was more struck by the questions people “also asked.”

I am likewise impressed!

The entire anti wokeness nonsense of the past decade was about making this kind of gutter racism broadly acceptable again bsky.app/profile/adam...

Kaleidotrope is the Amazing Fandangle's plucky sidekick.

YouTube video by Christopher Rowe The Weekly Run Up Episode 1

The best cycling podcast ever made by Adair Countians! We need better equipment. I need to not get excited and interrupt Tom. It's hopefully fun for anybody, but we're still figuring our angle. This was 1 take, no script. I got a bit out of hand. Comments solicited!
www.youtube.com/watch?v=8u1A...

I don't feel as confident as I did when I was a kid that Canada geese know what the hell they're doing.

For what it’s worth, I meet four of five of these but considering me in the to 1% of writerly anythings is a biiiig stretch.

I don’t know. Stripped of context it’s not objectively stupid. But context exists.

To what international winter sport am I referring, and to what athlete in particular, in this only slightly exaggerated fictional commentary?

“And the world champion picks up another few seconds by once again choosing to ride through the crocodile pit where others are skirting it.”

www.instagram.com/reel/DT5cYF7...

I should add that I was impressed with their performance of those duties in those contexts by all of them, except for the elder Mrs. Bush, who somehow managed to simultaneously convey the impressions that she was bored and that she was dangerous.

I did not meet Secretary Clinton until years after she had left that role. All the others were in the context of their duties.

In my life, I have somehow “met” (to the point of shaking hands at least), every First Lady after Nancy Reagan, except for Mrs. Trump. I once worked an event at an inner city school in Washington DC at which I personally witnessed Laura Bush encouraging children to read books.

People are discussing an upcoming documentary film about First Lady Melania Trump bankrolled by Jeff Bezos and directed by Brett Ratner, who has not directed a film since he lost his Warner Brothers contract in 2017 following allegations of sexual misconduct.

That's not a direct quote, I should say, just a made up example which I do not believe to be exaggerated.

“Counter to what can be apprehended of Dr. X’s argument in “Y,” which essay mysteriously passed the usually unassailable peer review process of Journal Z, publishers of my own monograph on this topic…”

I just texted about this to a friend. In reading a lot of the stuff I've been reading the last couple of weeks, my love of footnote wars in academic texts has been reignited.

Wild. It is sad, to me, that we are now living in a world where if someone sees a photograph and they "disagree" with it, they can just say "AI" and not have to stop and think about the meaning conveyed by the picture at all. And it's even hard to blame them.

All the President's Men With Big Naturals.

A screen cap shows US President Donald J. Trump addressing a meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, on January 21, 2026. An accompanying CNN headline reads: "Trump renews demand for Greenland in Davos speech, but says he 'won't use force'

Here we go. The key moment in what brokers call "TACO trading." TACO stands for "Trump Always Chickens Out." TACO trading is the purchasing of stocks deflated by Presidential threats, then selling them at profit as they rebound following the President's reneging. Who profits? Who do you think?

Screen shot of a "Search Assist" result at duckduckgo, generated in response to the search string: republican response to trump message to norwegian prime minister The given response is: "Sorry, no relevant information was found in our search."

This is from duckduckgo. I also tried kagi, then yahoo, bing, and aol (all of which still exist). Google generated no AI overview. Across all 6, I found 1 item from the Hill (and some reposts of it), reporting that a retiring Nebraska rep tweeted: "Very embarrassing situation." And that is all.

If poets are the unacknowledged legislators of the world, then librarians are the unacknowledged foot soldiers. daybook entry Christopher Rowe 20th Jan 2026

This morning, I stopped at the pool hall to have some good food, enjoy some friendly company, and take the pulse of the local community. For the first time since I started doing this upon moving home 16 months ago, I did not hear a single word about national or international news voiced.

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I think some of y'all will have fun reading "In which you are invited to be a smarty-pants," which you can read by clicking on this giant, ugly link graphic and then choosing the blog post of that name. Be cerebral! I know you can! (remember the whole no pay required bit)
ko-fi.com/christopherr...

Citation

Randall, Dudley. “Ballad of Birmingham.” Broadside Press Broadside Series. Broadside Press, Detroit. Special Collections, University of Delaware Library. Accessed 19 January 2026.

A yellow broadside shows the following text in umber ink: Ballad of Birmingham BY Dudley Randall (On the bombing of a church in Birmingham, Alabama, 1963) “Mother dear, may I go downtown Instead of out to play, And march the streets of Birmingham In a Freedom March today?” “No, baby, no, you may not go, For the dogs are fierce and wild, And clubs and hoses, guns and jails Aren’t good for a little child.” “But, mother, I won’t be alone. Other children will go with me, And march the streets of Birmingham To make our country free.” “No, baby, no, you may not go, For I fear those guns will fire. But you may go to church instead And sing in the children’s choir.” She has combed and brushed her night-dark hair, And bathed rose petal sweet, And drawn white gloves on her small brown hands, And white shoes on her feet. The mother smiled to know her child Was in the sacred place, But that smile was the last smile To come upon her face. For when she heard the explosion, Her eyes grew wet and wild. She raced through the streets of Birmingham Calling for her child. She clawed through bits of glass and brick, Then lifted out a shoe. “O, here’s the shoe my baby wore, But, baby, where are you?” © Copyright 1963 and 1965 Melody Trails, Inc., New York, N.Y. Also available in the song, BALLAD OF BIRMINGHAM, Words by Dudley Randall; Music by Jerry Moore. This is the definitive version of the poem, extensively revised by the author. BROADSIDE No. 1, September, 1965 Broadside Press 12651 Old Mill Place Detroit, Michigan 48238 35 Cents

Black poet Dudley Randall (1914–2000) founded Broadside Press at Detroit in 1965. It quickly became one of the leading publishers in the Black Arts Movement. As is suggested by its name, the publisher produced a series of broadsides, the first of which, featuring Randall’s own work, is shown here.