Inundated

Marathon Monday.

Ahh, spring. Sadly, that means it’s shooting season, locally and around the country. (overflow)

I’ve been using email since before Gmail was invite-only and spam is worse now than it’s ever been. It’s a fire hose. Unsubscribing doesn’t work in many cases (I’m talking to you MLB). Something has to give.

Billy Baker surveys the woods. Old folk in New England still get excited when we see a deer or eagle.

Justin Franz goes planespotting with the aviation geeks.

And Better Call Saul, maybe the best TV series ever, is back today with the beginning of the end. You only have a few hours to catch up on Netflix.

Timing is everything

Easter Sunday. With all the frills upon it.

The Pope is warning against a nuclear annihilation of the human race in his Easter message. Not a sermon to sleep through.

Today, the Globe runs a story about how the city of Boston and Mayor Wu are hamstrung by state laws limiting municipal power. And they’re right. It is a ridiculous situation. But it’s not a new situation. Maybe a better time for this story would have been back when all those campaign-trail promises were being made.

Lucas Mann teaches English at UMass Dartmouth. He has a thing or two to say about the atmosphere on campus in these times of political correctness and restrictions on speech. His message: In most schools it’s not that big of a deal. Relax. The kids are alright.

The Times and the New Yorker have stories about the manhunt for Frank James after the subway shooting last week. The New Yorker also has an interview with a witness. Scary stuff.

And here’s a wholesome Easter egg hunt tale.

A quiet place

Feelin’ Friday. Just a photo today.

A couple in Mumbai.

Cops and robbers

Wednesday. It’s a birthday for Butch Cassidy, Seamus Heaney and Al Green.

Gilbert Gottfried has died. The Miles Davis of comedy.

Many Democratic cities are backtracking on defunding the police and instead are moving to hire more cops. It’s amazing what a couple of years and an increase in crime can do. And in Maryland, a last minute police reform bill has made everyone unhappy. Which means it’s probably solid policy.

Sam Tyler weighs in on an appointed vs. elected School Committee. As you might guess, the practical-minded Tyler favors the former.

The war in Ukraine looks, increasingly, like an ongoing conflict. The other war—the economic one—will continue on as well. Whether we’ll have the will to persist with it is yet to be seen.

And insider trading, crypto-style? Sure looks that way.

Inflation theory

Tuesday. It’s National Grill Cheese Sandwich Day!

Even though this is Squirrel Week, the Times is featuring pigeons. Very disrespectful, don’t you think?

A report this morning on the consumer price index is expected to show inflation at an ‘extraordinarily elevated‘ level. It could be pretty ‘nasty,’ some say. Who could have seen this coming?

How to build your own cathode ray TV set, circa 1933. Sounds easy. Not.

Ethereum is moving closer to the merge. It might even be real this time.

And over at BU, they’re creating “a real love atmosphere.” What would John Silber say about all this?

On the fast track

Monday. The second day of Squirrel Week.

Jet Blue is looking beat up these days. The question is: Is it just chipped paint from the weather or is it a crack in the fuselage?

Finland and Sweden are on track to join NATO as early as this summer. There’s a long border between Russia and Finland. Plenty of room for an Article 5 misunderstanding.

Matt Viser on Kamala and Marty.

The jigsaw puzzle is almost finished but one important piece that was supposed to fit… just doesn’t. In this case, the puzzle is the Universe.

And what’s a good tip for a robot waiter? You tell me.

Polling Americans

A sanguine Sunday.

It’s the start of Squirrel Week. Hold onto your hat.

Are Americans really worried about rising crime. Gallup says yes. Concerns about crime are at their highest level !!! (…since 2016.) In reality, their data show that crime worries are down significantly from 2001. But, you know, headlines. Also, those patterns of partisan reaction to crime are pretty interesting.

So what would happen if Russia and the US engaged in a broad nuclear exchange? The good news is, we wouldn’t have to worry about global warming anymore.

Constructor Theory. It’s a new way to think about physics and natural laws. Here’s an introduction.

And Maureen Dowd is right to be concerned. How long can our attention span on Ukraine last in the face of another Kardashian wedding?

What’s old is new again

Saturday morning music: Darlingside’s Extralife and The Best of Bread.

An uncanny valley for… benches?

Inflation prognosticator Larry Summers recalls the early 1970’s when demand outstripped supply and then, unexpectedly, OPEC tightened oil markets. As he noted in an interview with Ezra Klein, “in many ways, that’s the right analogy for now.” It does certainly does have a familiar unwelcome ring to it.

Bitcoin is so 2020. It’s over. Ethereum is what the cool kids are into.

Maybe it’s just from the perspective of a guy getting up there, but this cellular rejuvenation thing seems like kind of a big deal.

And meanwhile, in Russia…