Joel, but the best 🇺🇦

@thebestjoel

You know, I could write something useful and interesting here. I could use a bunch of single word declarative labels… something like, “Djinn. Jokester. Joel.” Or some such. But instead, I think I’ll just leave this space blank.

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Joel, but the best 🇺🇦@thebestjoel· 19d

Comic Con is healing

A dimly lit photo of a cocktail in a coupe (?) glass with a generous layer of salted maple foam atop it. The garnish is a stencil of Totoro’s face

Joel, but the best 🇺🇦@thebestjoel· Jul 12

Enter: Elie Honig. www.newyorker.com/news/q-and-a...

Chotiner: I'm sure John Roberts thinks tariffs are a stupid economic policy.

Honig: I don't know, but I guess here's what I would say. I have no doubt that John Roberts is animated by institutional concerns on top of everything else, right? John Roberts plainly does not want to go down as the Chief Justice under whom this Supreme Court became hopelessly divided, with the automatic 6-3, the automatic pro- conservative outcome. And he has gone out of his way to broker outcomes within the Court to wheel and deal.

Chotiner: Aren't you describing politics?

Honig: Yeah, listen, don't get me wrong, 1 am not saying Roberts, Barrett, and Kavanaugh are pure beings who never consider politics. But I think there's a difference between institutional politics and engineering policy-real-world outcomes, right? Institutional politics happens every day between and among all nine Justices, right? But look, if Roberts's goal was to undermine the wide perception that this is just a hopelessly, ideologically split 6-3 Court, I think he made progress in that. I think he's got several powerful exhibits he can point to. Now, whether his motivation was simply to calm the Court's critics, or to do something else, I don't know.

Chotiner: There is also the additional political issue of when you look at his decision helping to save Obamacare, or his compromise on the Dobbs abortion case, he seems like someone who's wheeling and dealing, yes, but also, I think, in a more cynical way, doing things that are almost always helpful to Republicans. Getting rid of Obamacare would have been bad for Republicans. The Dobbs decision was bad for Republicans. Allowing Trump to declare insane levels of tariffs would have been really bad for the economy and bad for Republicans. I think Trump getting control of the Fed would have been bad for Republicans.

Honig: That's an interesting view...

Joel, but the best 🇺🇦@thebestjoel· Jul 1

I’m building a team.

Dola from Laputa (1986) - She’s a stocky, elderly woman with salmon pink hair braided into gravity defying pigtails. She’s wearing a blue flight suit and speaking over a tube phone on her airship with an intense expression on her face.

Jeremy Irons as Gabriel in The Mission (1986) - he is a thin Jesuit missionary wearing a drab frock, gazing up and out the frame, arms crossed but not in a standoffish manner.

Peter Finch as Howard Beale in Network (1976) - he is an elderly white news anchor, seated in front of a wall of world clocks, in a trench coat, face glistening under the studio lights, with both hands raised to either side of his head and a crazed expression on his face.

April Grace as Gwenovier in Magnolia (1999) - she is a sharply dressed black woman, seated in a chair to conduct an interview with Tom Cruise’s character, Frank TJ Mackie, with an inquisitive and perhaps mischievous expression on her face.

Joel, but the best 🇺🇦@thebestjoel· Jun 23

Gil Gilbert Gilbertson Gibbo Gibbity Gibbity Gib Gib Gilkerson Gil Christ Jibbity MacGill Gilberto Skibidi Gibbity

Gil, a brown tabby cat, lounges in the dappled sunlight on a concrete patio. He has an expression on his face that only be described as “guilty of crimes”

Joel, but the best 🇺🇦@thebestjoel· Jun 22

For the rest of my days, I will never imagine the pronunciation of Odysseus’ name in any other fashion than the way Sir Ian McKellen does it. “Ohh diss ee yohsss”

A screenshot of the audiobook I am listening to: The Odyssey, as read by Sir Ian McKellen, translated by Robert Fagles.

Joel, but the best 🇺🇦@thebestjoel· Jun 21

Advertise your Bluesky account with a Simpsons meme

Hans Moleman, the bespectacled, elderly(?) character from the animated television show The Simpsons, stands amid a pile of cash, holding a gun, he points it to the heavens, saying, "Thank you god. Now, hand over the rest of it. That's it... nice and easy."

Joel, but the best 🇺🇦@thebestjoel· Jun 18

A cartoon chimpanzee with an incandescent bulb sticking out of the top of his head, wearing a lab coat, sits at the controls of some hideous invention. This is Dr. Frankenollie, the mad scientist who famously swaps Mickey Mouse's brain into a giant monster in the classic Disney animated short, "Runaway Brain" Being a villain, naturally this character is voiced by Kelsey Grammer

Joel, but the best 🇺🇦@thebestjoel· May 25

Today was a good day for beer

A pair of beers at Stone Bistro. The one on the left is clear, with a light yellow color. It’s a cucumber jalapeño ale. The one on the right is also clear and a deeper golden orange color. It’s a double IPA

Joel, but the best 🇺🇦@thebestjoel· May 8

Now, “I, CLAUDIUS” is where we can branch off into Star Wars with Brian Blessed.

Brian Blessed as Augustus in “I, Claudius” a riveting BBC miniseries produced on a budget of £12. He is a portly gentleman with an expressive face. Wrapped in a toga, no less.

Brian Blessed as Boss Nass, the chief Gungan from the Star Wars prequels, specifically Episode I: The Phantom Menace. He is a portly gentleman, amphibious, and green skinned, with a very wide mouth orifice, and plentiful teeth.

Joel, but the best 🇺🇦@thebestjoel· May 8

Also, see:

David Warner as Chancellor Gorkon of the Klingon Empire in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country. A film replete with Shakespeare quotes. He is ornately adorned in opulent maroon shoulder pads, a bipedal alien with a ridged forehead, and dark skin complexion.

Joel, but the best 🇺🇦@thebestjoel· Apr 29

Safe travels sailing the astral seas, grandma. Here’s hoping I can make it within striking distance of your 98 year streak on the material plane.

A selfie of me, brown haired white guy, seated next to my grandma, white haired little old white lady with thick glasses, at a family function.

Joel, but the best 🇺🇦@thebestjoel· Apr 16

Post the best picture you have ever taken of your pet (if you feel like it):

Bruce the black longhaired Chantilly cat is draped on a cat pedestal with one front leg extended directly down, making him look like a cat monopod.

Joel, but the best 🇺🇦@thebestjoel· Apr 16

She is SUPER “DRY” Asahi. She does not like getting wet although she will put her whole face into the glass of any beverage you set down in her presence.

A calico cat’s head is peeking over the edge of a box that previously held Asahi beer. She is looking directly into the camera with an expression that can only connote pure innocence and angelic perfection.

Joel, but the best 🇺🇦@thebestjoel· Mar 31

Send lawyers, guns, and money.

Photograph of the vinyl cover art for Warren Zevon‘s album “Excitable Boy“ featuring Warren, wearing stylish, clear spectacle eyeglasses, and sporting a shaggy mop of dirty blond hair, wearing a black turtleneck. He definitely looks excitable to me.

Joel, but the best 🇺🇦@thebestjoel· Mar 15

One category down, twenty-three to go.

A picture of my filled-out predictions for Oscar winners. Amy Madigan wins Best Supporting Actress

Joel, but the best 🇺🇦@thebestjoel· Feb 22

It’s flummoxing to be sure. I remember, as a kid, hearing my uncle bragging all the time about how this thing was the, “best invention since canned beer!” And Spelling Bee tells me it’s not a real word 🧐

A NYT Spelling Bee puzzle forming the very real word COOTAMATIC.

“Not in word list” claims Spelling Bee, wielding its authority as though in communion with the ghost of Noah Webster

Joel, but the best 🇺🇦@thebestjoel· Feb 6

I will put a plug in for Divine Invasions: a life of Philip K Dick by Lawrence Sutin.

The cover of the book, Divine Invasions: a Life of Philip K. Dick, by Lawrence Sutin. It’s yellow, black and white, with a photograph of the late author, a middle aged white man sporting a beard sitting cross legged with a book balanced in his lap.

Joel, but the best 🇺🇦@thebestjoel· Jan 31

It’s a pocket burrito. Chicken Tinga.

A photo of my hand holding a small burrito wrapped up in aluminum foil. My tum tum is hankering for it

Joel, but the best 🇺🇦@thebestjoel· Jan 25

YouGov’s new daily poll is asking about the killing of Alex Pretti.

Live
Live results are not representative of the general population.
..
Question 3/4
Based on what you know, was the shooting of the man in Minneapolis justified or not justified?
Was justified
19%
Was not justified
~ 63%
Not sure
19%

Joel, but the best 🇺🇦@thebestjoel· Jan 25

Iskierka does not approve of excessive Balatro playing

My calico cat, Iskierka, sitting on my desk below and behind my computer monitor and mouse and mousepad, sitting upright with her head tilted down and her eyes narrowed and ears tucked just a little back. Essentially she’s glowering at me because I’m not paying her enough attention. She demands enrichment.

Joel, but the best 🇺🇦@thebestjoel· Jan 25

YouGov has a daily poll up asking whether respondents support abolishing ICE. Currently leading with 34%

Would you support or oppose abolishing ICE?
Strongly support
34%
Somewhat support
12%
Somewhat oppose
10%
Strongly oppose
31%
Not sure
12%

Joel, but the best 🇺🇦@thebestjoel· Jan 12

Two men, one, on the left, wearing a black suit with a black hat, is Hazel Motes, played by Brad Dourif, the protagonist of Wise Blood (1979) John Huston's film adaptation of Flannery O'Connor's novel of the same name. On the right, dressed in a white suit with a white stetson, is Hoover Shoates, played by Ned Beatty. Shoates has his hands out, fondling the air as if there were a pair of tiddies. Motes looks on with evident disgust.

Joel, but the best 🇺🇦@thebestjoel· Jan 12

Ned Beatty, a portly white man, wears a fishing cap and is speckled with river mud in a close-up shot from the classic buddy comedy film Deliverance (1972)

Joel, but the best 🇺🇦@thebestjoel· Jan 2

Hmmm

$A screenshot of the quote-skeeted MW post. I got the word, “besotted” which sounds like it means a person who is very inebriated and simultaneously sad, or alternatively, about a subtype of wagyu beef ¯\_(ツ)_/¯$

Joel, but the best 🇺🇦@thebestjoel· Dec 28

Post a perfect album from the 90s that isn't nirvana, soundgarden, pearl jam, or alice in chains.

The cover art for the album “How it Feels to be Something On” by Sunny Day Real Estate. It’s a painting of what looks like a jagged, angular representation of a fireball or perhaps the sun on a black background

Joel, but the best 🇺🇦@thebestjoel· Dec 17

I just imagine those Pace Picante Sauce commercial “cowboys” saying it over and over again, each time with mounting incredulity

Joel, but the best 🇺🇦@thebestjoel· Dec 15

He gave us so much

A photo of The Princess Bride, directed by Rob Reiner, on Criterion Blu Ray. RIP

Joel, but the best 🇺🇦@thebestjoel· Dec 3

For those disinclined to click through:

An illustration by Chanti (Patreon.com/chantilin) of a blushing, pregnant "Clippy" the infamous paperclip with eyes and eyebrows that would pop up to interrupt users of Microsoft Word and offer unasked-for help. Clippy's "paper" lower body is swollen as though with child.

Joel, but the best 🇺🇦@thebestjoel· Dec 3

I often think of this one. theonion.com/god-outdoes-...

Headline from The Onion, September 7, 2005: "God Outdoes Terrorists Yet Again" above a photograph of the flooded streets of New Orleans in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.

Joel, but the best 🇺🇦@thebestjoel· Nov 19

tenor.com/view/gollum-...