Stop scrolling and post two characters who bring you happiness. (It's a deep cut, but I've been thinking about these weirdoes a lot in the past couple days.)

Woke up this AM with a cough and an ashen taste in my mouth. It was weird, but also oddly familiar. Then I remembered: this is what it was like to wake up when I was smoking. But now it's not me: it's the world that's smoking three packs a day. Here's hoping we can get it to quit.

Other derivatives include _anxious_, _anguish_, _angst_, _quinsy_, _hangnail_ and (ahem) _Enge_. Just so you know who you're dealing with, here, Conan. 3/3

Cicero (Tusc 4.7.16) lists Schadenfreude among the mental disorders attendant on envy, which makes a certain amount of sense. Nonius recorded the phrase as _lactans malo alieno_ "nursing (literally: sucking milk) from another's misfortune"—probably just a scribal error, but an arresting image. 2/x

As I pondered weak and weary over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore, I ran across the Latin expression _laetans malo alieno_ ("rejoicing from another's misfortune") and its Greek equivalent ἐπιχαιρεκακία, both of which effectively render Schadenfreude. 1/x

I drifted away from the new CAPE FEAR. Without likable characters in a story (and there are none here), the story itself becomes extremely important, and I'm not convinced they have a story to tell—parts, but no whole. The dialogue is pretty dull, too. De gustibus, etc, as always.

I read something, Conan, and then wrote more than 300 characters about it. jamesenge.com/2026/07/13/r...

D & I watched HELVETICA (2007), about a font she loves and I hate. We both liked the movie, although my favorite part was the middle third where people were slagging on Helvetica. At 80 minutes it was probably 20 minutes too long, but there were a lot of interesting and effective photos 1/x

After they've spent spend decades and countless work-hours reshaping their office suite into a bloated, inept, money-grabbing beast which is the archetype of everything I don't want from a computer program, now they're trying to get me to like the thing? That ship has sailed, Clippy. 2/2

Typo of the day: _xxam_ (for an intended _exam_). Not sure what an xxam would be—maybe some kind of x-rated ham? Lends a new and possibly unwelcome meaning to hot ham-and-cheese.

Theseus vs. the Minotaur—my favorite representation, by Alice and Martin Provensen, a couple of mid-century kooks who illustrated a bunch of Golden Books & other stuff—mostly for kids, Conan, but barbarians can enjoy them, too. They cover some Persian and Germanic myths, along with Greek stuff.

Renaissance Tarot cards by Bonifacio Bembo (from an NYer article about a show running at the Morgan Libray & Museum in NYC, Conan). www.themorgan.org/exhibitions/...

I fell into the dictionary this afternoon, had just enough energy to blog about it, but not enough to deformat it for social media, where we have to pretend like we're all operating on dumbphones from the late 90s. jamesenge.com/2026/07/02/h...

Bless me, Bluesky, for I have sinned. Well, not sinned, exactly, but I saw two movies and wrote more than 300 characters about them, which is bad enough. jamesenge.com/2026/06/29/t...

“Conan, what is best in life?” “To read books of medieval poetry, to solve the riddle of riddles themselves, and to hear the fables of the beasts.” “Conan—and I rarely say this—had you ever thought about going to grad school?”

Known to many as a relentless researcher and author of the magisterial A TOPOLOGY OF SMELLS, Dr. Reuben Sandwich is also an irrepressible kooky funster.

Pigs in space!

I tried to post my reaction to Cynthia Ward's piece at Reactor, Conan, but the site wouldn't let me sign in. The screed was long enough to be its own blog post, anyway, so I put it on my own site. jamesenge.com/2026/06/24/a...

Up late on a cool, rainy summer night, listening to cool jazz and reading Lucian's cool, Cynical satires. It's rough work, but someone has to do it, I guess.

Not even Sally Kellerman could make me like ranch dressing, but if I heard her languorous voice suggesting I crash my ship on some rocks, I might just do that.

Steve Sack retired before Trump II. But he fortunately has been very active in retirement.

It turns out that the modern Middle East was created by vain, ignorant, greedy men who shared the delusion that military force was the same thing as political omnipotence. No wonder that the orange clown came to grief there, as the last, least, and most stupid imperialist. 2/2

I started reading this well-written, meticulously researched book a few years ago & stopped because it was too depressing. Since nothing could be worse than the daily news nowadays, I recently picked it up again and read the whole thing. The book is a brilliant, judicious, devastating read. 1/x

Ebooks for @oldmoonquarterly.bsky.social 9 & 10 are available to backers, Conan; print & ebook versions for purchase should follow. I've been looking forward to 9 for a long time—not only because it has a story by me. (Elevator pitch: Merlin vs. Medea in the enchanted forest of Broceliande.) 1/x

Or maybe a protato is a potato who's very much in favor of you. ("I hated to do it to him. He was such a protato! But I really wanted hash browns...") 2/2

Typo of the day: _protato_ (for an intended _pro toto_). I figure a protato is a professional potato. ("Of course the hash browns are good, Conan! Those were protatoes!") Or maybe it's someone who is very much in favor of potatoes. ("Order her some hash browns. She's very protato.") 1/x

Typo of the day: _That snot_ (for an intended _That's not_). A pretty big slippage in meaning.

Finding that I am having to teach my word-processor to accept—YET AGAIN—names of my characters, geminate consonants, the words of my invented languages, etc. But—seriously, Conan—what dictionary doesn't come preloaded with useful items like: Morlock Ambrosius, Aithonford, harven coruthen, etc?

Can you explain the following, Conan? Can you? WHAT ABOUT THE COLORED POLLEN, HUH? If this Bernard guy were alive today he would definitely be in charge of something in the Trump Administration—probably NASA's Inner Space Initiative.

My web-host is screaming at me to subscribe to their A.I. slop-troughs. This popup was the 3rd ad for the stuff as I logged in. You'll note that GET ALL FOUR MODELS is the default. The alternative is KEEP PAYING FOR THEM SEPARATELY. My real choice—KEEP THAT SLOP AWAY FROM ME—is not even presented.