Current reading: Colin Asher’s #biography of Nelson Algren, ‘Never a Lovely So Real’ (@wwnorton.com, 2019) One highlight so far: Algren’s conviction for stealing a #typewriter in Texas. #chicago #literature

“[R]eading a good book makes one modest.” —Christopher Morley, ‘Parnassus on Wheels’ (1955)

Nothing like a barrel cactus for a pillow.

My 1926 soprano saxophone and my 1926 Underwood No. 5 typewriter in our 1926 Chicago bungalow.

Always follow Strunk & White’s wise advice: “Omit needless words.”

My 30+-year-old cactus blooms every half dozen years or so, and this year it's time. Just what we need these days.

R.E.M.’s album ‘Murmur’ is as old now (43 years) as Glenn Miller’s hit “Tuxedo Junction” was when ‘Murmur’ came out.

“Well said the Wiseman, now prov’d true… That the displeasure of the mighty is Th[a]n death it selfe more dread and desperate….” —Edmund Spenser, ‘The Faerie Queene’ (1596), 4.8.1–4

Oh for pity’s sake, YES, Chuck, obviously spending IS one of your levers — as precisely (checking notes) EVERYONE has been telling you for over a year now. smh www.nytimes.com/2026/01/30/u...

Scenes from the Boyd ladies’ participation in today’s #NoKings protests in Chicago. The kazoo and tambourine are their preferred instruments of joyful noise in resistance.

Nothing like a really accurate clock in a train station. (Seen just now in @rtachicago.bsky.social’s Union Station.)

What we're protesting is no fun, but it's best to laugh at clowns and celebrate America with joy—so that's what @annthebrave.bsky.social and I did today (along with thousands of others filling the streets). #NoKings #indivisible #resist

Easy edit for this headline.

Black licorice jellybeans are still my go-to fave in the Easter basket, but they have a new contender hard on their heels.

The gall of Musk's Department of Education to email asking me to feed them still more info for DOGE's datasets. (No offense to the faithful public servants who still remain at @altdepted.bsky.social. Strength to your hands!)

My protest placard for the #50501 demonstrations today (and as long as we need them). Written on a Dutch-language typewriter made in Germany (in 1954) — because America doesn’t need to be first if we build good friendships. #resist #nokings #stoptrump

Honestly though it’s totally unfair to actual muskrats, who are adorable and ecologically important.

A very personal thanks to the employee(s) in the U.S. Department of State who processed our daughters' passport applications—submitted during the Biden administration but received just now. Your workdays must be hell, but thanks for taking care of a couple young citizens in need.

This is from Edmund Spenser’s sixteenth-century poem, ‘The Faerie Queene’ — or maybe it’s straight out of Ted Lasso’s mouth.

Seen in a neighborhood diner:

“One may speak out like sword stabs, but the tongue of the wise is healing.” —Proverbs 12:18, trans. Robert Alter (@wwnorton.bsky.social, 2019)

After an unexpected illness after Christmas, my father passed away this weekend. We grieve his loss, but celebrate his life and legacy with joy! For those who may want to come to a celebration of his life in Evanston, Illinois, here are the details: boydsnest.org/news/2025/bi...

Not a spoiler, I promise! But one highlight for me in the new Christmas-themed Netflix movie ‘Carry-On’ is when we get to see a portable typewriter go through the machine. Could be documentary footage of me at security—except OBVIOUSLY would be in its case! 🤣

I don’t care what anyone else may say: the track by Blues Traveler on ‘A Very Special Christmas 3’ (1997) is great.

“Her heart—like every heart, if only its fallen sides were cleared away—was an inexhaustible fountain of love: she loved everything she saw.” ―George MacDonald, “The History of Photogen and Nycteris” (1879), in ‘The Complete Fairy Tales’ (@penguinbooksusa.bsky.social, 1999) #relationalspirituality

An expression of George MacDonald’s I’ll be borrowing: “you’ve got a tile loose.”

Be good. He’s watching you.

Let's get writing.