My practice of avoiding as much political news as possible means I’m the last to know about Fascist Barbie’s “gazpacho police” gaffe.

This is the kind of Winter Olympic coverage I need: “What is Ice Dancing and is It Different From Figure Skating?”

My broadcasting life

C and I have talked often about blogging, tweeting, and generally how we use the Internet. He likes to comment a lot, usually on Reddit or Facebook these days. I like to post about stuff I’m thinking or reading or listening to; I like to think I’m ambivalent about if or how people react, though I probably care more than I want to admit. Either way, I’m less inclined to engage a whole lot online – partly out of laziness, mainly because my sense of introversion often extends beyond real life to virtual platforms.

“So you’re a broadcaster,” C tells me.

I never though of myself that way, but yeah, I guess I am. I prefer to produce stuff, package it a little, and throw it out there – and if people want to read it, great. If not, whatever. That was kind of my career for almost 30 years. That has generally been how I prefer to play on the Internet.

So, I’ve created a “Broadcast” category for this site, which is what I choose to share on the Micro.blog timeline and on Twitter. Much of it will overlap with what I linkblog; some of it will incorporate random short takes (which almost function as an online variant of the one-sentence journal concept).

(Facebook cross-posting isn’t an option on Micro.blog, but maybe that’s just as well. I don’t post a ton these days on FB.)

Hoping this can finally realize the one-stop-shop “indieweb” idea of posting to one place where I own the content and syndicating it to other platforms – without having to roll out everything I write here to the social media masses.

Update: I’ve turned off the crossposting until a glitch resurfaced this afternoon (Friday 2/11) that posts EVERYTHING I write here to the Micro.blog timeline. I do not want everything here posted to the Micro.blog timeline. Waiting to see if it can be fixed.

Here’s a fascinating explainer of how Spam became such a big deal among my people – part of an Atlantic podcast series that, in essence, opens a whole Spam can of worms about its cultural impact.

Wordle saves lives, people: “Family was concerned woman didn’t text her daily score.”

Decided to get a jump on the game for Friday. Discovered that the game now has New York Times branding. That didn’t take long. 😐

Wordle 236 5/6

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I guess it’s weird to look forward to a midday dental appointment because it gives me a break from work. Happy to own this particular “weird.”

Wordle 236 3/6

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This landed in the mailbox today. I’ve already read through most of it and plan to go back and linger over it again.

After catching Anne Helen Petersen’s two interviews with this Native American poet and storyteller, I immediately subscribed to his Substack newsletter and bought this book from someplace other than The Retailer That Shan’t Be Named.

Chris La Tray is a national treasure. Read him. Now.

I wish there was a card with this lovely prayer from Fr. James Martin’s book “Building a Bridge.” In lieu of that, posting this here.

A small Dairy Queen cone makes up for a deeply annoying day.

I can’t even remember whether I ate lunch.

Funny.

Wordle 235 4/6

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Felt like a close call.

Wordle 234 5/6

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Ugh. Almost forgot to post.

Wordle 233 3/6

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Trying not to panic when letters go dark at the outset like that.

Wordle 232 3/6

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As the game put it, “Whew.”

Wordle 231 6/6

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Did “THE Batman” go to “THE Ohio State University”?

This remarkable exchange between Stephen Colbert and singer Dua Lipa about faith is making the social media rounds.

Of course, I’ve seen unpleasant comments on the old Twitter like “I cannot believe that anyone would think he is a Christian. Plus he says he is a Catholic and a Christian. You can’t be both.” 😐

And then there’s this, retweeted by no less than noted evangelical apologist and Presbyterian pastor Timothy Keller.

Having identified with all four groups in my lifetime (Catholic, Anglican, Protestant, and evangelical), I’d concur with Dr. Bradley on this.

(To clarify: I think non-Anglican Protestants and evangelicals are capable of articulating their faith. But, as Keller himself notes, “Catholicism is both a popular religion for the masses and yet has nurtured a robust intellectual class. Fundamentalism’s largely anti-intellectual stance has only grown among conservative Christians who are alarmed by the progressive excesses of today’s universities. However, this leaves conservative Protestantism in general with little ability to reach the college-educated and little ability to reflect theologically on our U.S. culture. The cultural ‘captivity’ of evangelicals—the inability to see the difference between biblical beliefs and American culture—is largely due to a lack of evangelical scholarship.")

And I disagree with Colbert on some things, but I love how open, winsome, and intelligent he is about his faith. Very grateful for his witness.

“Remembered is no longer a word you can utter on its own. You will hereafter precede remembered with ‘I finally.'”

Binging Wordle-related content in the wee hours of Friday because I’ve already done today’s puzzle and I’m wired on peppermint green tea that I ingested way too late in the afternoon. Got a few links, in no particular order:

I had nothing better to do at 1 a.m.

Wordle 230 4/6

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Washington Post (subscription): “Sixteen Penn swimmers say transgender teammate Lia Thomas should not be allowed to compete”

“Thomas, a transgender woman who swims for the Quakers women’s team, competed for the Penn men’s team for three seasons. After undergoing more than two years of hormone replacement therapy as part of her transition, she has posted the fastest times of any female college swimmer in two events this season. The letter from Thomas’s teammates raised the question of fairness and said she was taking “competitive opportunities” away from them — namely spots in the Ivy League championship meet, where schools can only send about half of their rosters to compete.'

“‘We fully support Lia Thomas in her decision to affirm her gender identity and to transition from a man to a woman. Lia has every right to live her life authentically,’ the letter read. ‘However, we also recognize that when it comes to sports competition, that the biology of sex is a separate issue from someone’s gender identity. Biologically, Lia holds an unfair advantage over competition in the women’s category, as evidenced by her rankings that have bounced from #462 as a male to #1 as a female. If she were to be eligible to compete against us, she could now break Penn, Ivy, and NCAA Women’s Swimming records; feats she could never have done as a male athlete.'”

Best thing I’ve seen shared on Twitter in a while. H/T to @jr_briggs for posting it.

YouTube Thursday: WKRP, Cheap Trick, and a lot of late night TV

Selected highlights from recent idle drifting on the ‘Tube:

The husband got 1/6, only because somebody in an earlier time zone posted the word on Reddit; he used it for the hell of it. Be forewarned if you ever loiter in the Wordle subreddit.

Wordle 229 3/6

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