In brief: Travel on Wednesday doesn’t look too bad, but some strong winds in the Midwest or Great Lakes may be a hassle. Lake effect snow cranks up in the Lakes this week as well. After Thanksgiving, the forecast grows uncertain, with a lot of hype around cold that may or may not happen. In our newsy bits section, flood issues in New York City, massive protests in the Philippines due to flood mitigation corruption, and a visit to Hill Country 4 months after the tragic floods.

Pre-Thanksgiving travel

Let’s get you caught up on Thanksgiving travel risks for Wednesday across the country. A significant winter storm will track eastward tomorrow with heavy snow from the Northern Plains through Upper Midwest and into the Great Lakes. By Wednesday. the morning forecast map shows a cold front exiting the Eastern Seaboard with some lingering showers perhaps on the East Coast. A strong storm will be cranking over the Great Lakes or Ontario, which should rev up the lake effect snow machine in parts of Michigan and eventually east of there.

But from a travel perspective, the biggest issues will be that snow in northern Michigan and U.P., as well as perhaps some wraparound snow in Wisconsin. Strong winds may impact some flights in Chicago, Milwaukee, Indianapolis, Minneapolis, or Detroit. A few showers and storms are possible across Florida. Thankfully, the Northeast airports, Atlanta, Dallas, Houston, and most of the West Coast look fine. Hopefully this keeps delays and travel headaches to a minimum. For the most part, travel TO most destinations by air or car will be fine outside of those handful of areas.

Lake effect snow machine

Heavy lake effect snow is possible in the traditional snow belts off the Great Lakes after Tuesday night and Wednesday morning.

Snow will crank in northern Michigan and the U.P. on Wednesday with northwest winds keeping the snow going in those snowbelts Thursday and Friday. Off Erie and Ontario, from Wednesday night through Friday we’ll see lake effect snow pick up as well, mostly well south of Buffalo toward Erie, PA and on the Tug Hill Plateau north of Syracuse and Utica.

This doesn’t look like an epic lake snow event, but there will be some healthy totals surely, and holiday travel on Thursday or Black Friday travel may be impacted by the lake effect snow.

Post-Thanksgiving travel & cold?

It does appear that an active weather pattern will resume this coming weekend into next week. It’s a bit tough to pin down the exact track and impacts of any one storm system, but some sort of broad impacts from rain and perhaps a wintry mix will be possible Saturday into Sunday. Return travel may be impacted by this storm system, though again it doesn’t look too crazy right now.

Cold air does look to follow this into the Central and Eastern U.S. eventually. But models continue to oscillate around on potential intensity and trajectory of the cold leaving a good deal of uncertainty. I’ve seen some pretty heady comparisons floating around with the early December cold, and those seem outright hyperbolic right now. Models cannot resolve things after this weekend in terms of how this is going to setup, so it would be wise to not assume anything about mid to late next week. Gulf of Mexico water temperatures are as warm as they’ve ever been this late in the year.

Couple that with the seasonal resistance of a Southeast ridge that will likely be aided by these warm waters, as well as a distinct lack of snowpack over the Central Plains, and you can bet any cold air mass will modify a lot by the time it gets across the country.

Speaking of warm water, some models are trying to spin up a tropical system in the southwest Caribbean next week. This is unlikely to happen, but the chances are better than just writing off the GFS operational model as totally out to lunch. Seasonally, there’s a metric ton of wind shear around, which likely severely caps any storm system that tries to develop. However, a minority of ensemble members from Google Deep Mind’s suite does show this possibility.

If something were to develop, expect it to be weak and sloppy like the Thanksgiving dinner guest you were on the fence about inviting that has no decorum.

Newsy bits

Closing out today with some newsy bits from the various articles I’ve been opening in my tabs.

Texas: I want to start with this piece by Alan Gerard from last week that takes another look at the flooding in Texas. There’s a lot to unpack here so I suggest you read the piece yourself. So many issues are involved with this, and so much remains left to be discussed. Alan does a good job taking stock of things from ground zero, as he had a chance to visit Kerrville recently. Worth your time. (Balanced Weather)

Philippines: One issue we see time and time again around the world is corruption rearing its head when it comes to government projects. We know this is a problem at times in the U.S. And in some ways, I worry we’ve become apathetic to things. Well, in the Philippines, they’ve had enough. A recent protest in Manila attracted an estimated 650,000 people, as billions of dollars in flood mitigation funds have apparently ended up lining the pockets of company owners, government officials, and parliament members. This is a huge issue, and the group organizing it is incredibly influential in that country’s politics. Stay tuned. (The Guardian, Al Jazeera)

Southern California: After last year, the specter of a bad fire season in California certainly had people nervous. Fortunately, at least in central and southern California, the current fire season is likely over. (LAist)

Arapahoe Basin: Ever wondered how ski resorts “make” snow? Here’s an inside look at how it’s done in Arapahoe Basin. (Summit Daily)

Athens County, Ohio: Athens County, Ohio is working on a thorough project to map flooding patterns in the county thanks to a recent grant. The goal is to take the knowledge gained from the mapping to recommend and apply nature-based flooding solutions to help mitigate future flooding in the region. (The Ohio Newsroom)

New York City: A well put together piece here describes some of the challenges and possible solutions for New York City in a world of higher tides, increasing rainfall, and increasing storm surge risk. (New York Times) A $218 million project in Brooklyn, specifically Red Hook may fall short of what is needed to help reduce flooding in that neighborhood. (NY Amsterdam News) Meanwhile, in Queens, a community impacted by Sandy feels neglected and forgotten. (The Guardian)

Today's links

• Boss preppers: What does a captain of industry have to offer after the shit hits the fan?
• Hey look at this: Delights to delectate.
• Object permanence: Yahoo blocks webmail for adblockers; Badly forgiving student debt.
• Upcoming appearances: Where to find me.
• Recent appearances: Where I've been.
• Latest books: You keep readin' em, I'll keep writin' 'em.
• Upcoming books: Like I said, I'll keep writin' 'em.
• Colophon: All the rest.

Boss preppers (permalink)

Sometimes, you learn a fact that makes everything else make sense – one of those keystone insights that puts a whole phenomenon into perspective. For example, the fact that preppers are engaged in a very specific type of wish-fulfillment.

I learned this during the first part of the pandemic lockdowns, when preppers were very much in our collective consciousness. On the Media featured an interview between Micah Loewinger and Richard Mitchell, author of Dancing at Armageddon: Survivalism and Chaos in Modern Times which features ethnographic studies of preppers:

https://pluralistic.net/2020/03/22/preppers-are-larpers/#preppers-unprepared

Mitchell described how preppers make ready for specific forms of societal collapse, based not on the likelihood of the event itself, but rather, based on how useful they would be in that situation. For example, a water chemist has made extensive preparations for an event in which terrorists poison the water-supply. When pressed, he couldn't explain why terrorists would choose his town to target with an attack like this, but basically thought it would be really cool if the only person who could save his town was him.

This is the "disaster fantasy" that propels the prepper movement, in which a functional, high-tech world of wicked, systemic problems is replaced with a fallen, low-tech society where the problems are all simple. A world of simple problems is a world of individual actors, where every struggle is just about what one person can make someone else do, or offer to someone else. It's a perfect world if you've been raised on Thatcher's neoliberal doctrine that "there is no such thing as society," only to find yourself in a society in which you can only make real change by participating in collective efforts:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/11/24/mall-ninja-prophecy/#mano-a-mano

All this raises the question of what rich preppers are prepping for. If your contribution to society consists of "allocating capital" and/or giving people orders, what, exactly, is the disaster that fulfills your fantasy of a world where your unique skills are the only thing that can save us all? What kind of a disaster needs a boss?

In Douglas Rushkoff's 2022 book Survival of the Richest, he describes a surreal "futurism" consulting gig in which a bunch of wealthy investor types asked him to help them figure out how to keep their mercenaries in line after "The Event" (the end of the world):

https://pluralistic.net/2022/09/13/collapse-porn/#collapse-porn

These guys had the idea that what a fallen civilization needed was bosses, you see, but they were self-aware enough to recognize that the people who survived the apocalypse might not recognize their unique genius and simply fall into line. In order to assert their natural role as leaders after the shit hit the fan, these guys would need an army of heavily armed mercenaries. But again, these guys were self-aware enough to recognize that the mercenaries might also fail to recognize their unique fitness to rule and opt instead to slaughter them and raid their hoarded food, ammo and medical supplies.

So they wanted Rushkoff's advice – should they fit the mercs with bomb-collars that were on a dead-man's switch that would go off if the boss croaked? This was such a weird and revealing moment that Rushkoff got a whole book out of exploring the desire of the wealthy to both secede from the rest of us, and keep us all in line.

I was inspired by this and other experiences with people fantasizing about the world's end to take a run at rewriting Edgar Allan Poe's "Masque of the Red Death" as a story about investor/ubermenschen in a luxury bunker at the end of the world (spoiler: it doesn't go well for them):

https://pluralistic.net/2020/03/14/masque-of-the-red-death/#masque

All of this has been very much on my mind lately because I've been reading Quinn Slobodian's amazing Hayek's Bastards, a closely researched history of the merger of the neoliberal wing of the conservative movement with its white nationalist faction, producing a conservativism obsessed with "hard borders, hard-wired human difference, and hard money":

https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/472194/hayeks-bastards-by-slobodian-quinn/9780241774984

It's a revelatory history, one that argues convincingly that the brooding, violent racism of MAGA isn't so much a break with "Romney conservativism" of the "respectable" Republican Party as it is the attainment of the goals of the party's longstanding dominant tendency.

"Hard-wired human differences" refers to the "scientific racism" that the likes of Elon Musk push, the junk science that insists that there is such a thing as a "race," that IQ measures something important and immutable, and that different "races" have different IQs, which is why some "races" do well, while others do poorly:

https://pluralistic.net/2020/08/16/combat-wheelchairs/#race-realism

"Hard-wired human difference" militates for "hard borders," since the teeming billions of racially inferior people in other countries would – given half a chance – come to the "good" countries and turn them into "shithole countries." This is the nonsense that Musk is peddling when he compares Britons to "hobbits" and warns that they're about to be overrun by people who will "start raping the kids":

https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/elon-musk-compares-brits-to-hobbits-amid-shock-immigration-claim_uk_69089785e4b0c4a0f509d6f5?origin=home-latest-unit

But because the soft-headed, soft-hearted hobbits keep electing leaders who don't understand this, they'll get "overrun" by the bad "races," who demand welfare handouts, which the state can't afford, triggering "money printing" and Musk's other obsession, national debts:

https://fortune.com/2025/07/01/trump-spending-bill-pain-points-critics-elon-musk-medicaid-national-debt-clean-energy/

(Which is to say, Musk's understanding of money is just as wrongheaded as his understanding of genomics):

https://pluralistic.net/2020/06/10/compton-cowboys/#the-deficit-myth

In the disaster fantasy, the failure of hard borders leads to the inevitable consequences of hard-wired human differences, which means that we need "hard money" – gold. The modern right is a linear descendant of the goldbug movement, composed of grifters who made fortunes terrifying racists into buying gold as a hedge against the day when the collapse of the welfare state leads to race war and the dollar's vaporization:

https://mises.org/library/book/gold-peace-and-prosperity?d7_alias_migrate=1

For goldbugs, the coming collapse seems to be one that will demand coin collectors. In Hayek's Bastards, Slobodian quotes all these goldbug preppers furiously dreaming of a day when a single gold coin will let them buy a whole city block in Manhattan. Somehow, they've conceived of disaster scenario where the most needful of all things is a ductile metal with a few marginal uses in electronics.

It's a very weird kind of disaster fantasy. One can only assume that the guys figuring out how to assemble an army of bomb-collared mercs will just stroll over to these goldbugs' lesser bunkers and take their precious coins.

The modern goldbug is, of course, a crypto weirdo, and man is that a weird thing to be a prepper about. It will be a very odd apocalypse indeed that takes down all of modern civilization except for blockchains.

(Image: Morten Jensen, CC BY 2.0, modified)

Hey look at this (permalink)

• Qualcomm enshittified Arduino https://www.linkedin.com/posts/adafruit_opensource-privacy-techpolicy-activity-7396903362237054976-r14H/

• Why is knowledge getting so expensive? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PygUK16aQgk

• Cooking Temperature and Hold Time Affect Beef Brisket Textural Properties and Cooking Yield https://www.iastatedigitalpress.com/mmb/article/id/18269/

• The Dairy Products Theory of Dead Media (2004) https://bruces.medium.com/the-dairy-products-theory-of-dead-media-2004-34842e069335

Object permanence (permalink)

#20yrsago Sony insider: DRM is discredited at Sony https://memex.craphound.com/2005/11/20/sony-insider-drm-is-discredited-at-sony/

#20yrsago Microsoft: Trusted Computing sucks! https://web.archive.org/web/20060821002450/http://news.com.com/Who+has+the+right+to+control+your+PC/2100-1029_3-5961609.html

#20yrsago EFF brings class-action against Sony! https://web.archive.org/web/20051125183030/https://www.eff.org/news/archives/2005_11.php#004192

#20yrsago Texas sues Sony over rootkits — YEE-HAW! https://web.archive.org/web/20060204212201/https://www.oag.state.tx.us/oagNews/release.php?id=1266

#20yrsago 1,000 sqft secret chamber discovered in Indian National Library https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/kolkata/secret-chamber-in-national-library/articleshow/6957358.cms

#15yrsago Who owns your mortgage, the mind-croggling flowchart edition https://web.archive.org/web/20101118032158/https://www.zerohedge.com/article/just-when-you-thought-you-knew-something-about-mortgage-securitizations

#15yrsago When did you choose to be straight? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QJtjqLUHYoY

#15yrsago Dear airlines: goodbye https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2010/11/dear-airline-im-leaving-you/66750/

#15yrsago How TSA screeners feel about junk-touching https://web.archive.org/web/20140928131617/https://flyingwithfish.boardingarea.com/2010/11/18/tsa-enhanced-pat-downs-the-screeners-point-of-view/

#10yrsago Yahoo blocks some users from accessing email until they turn off ad-blocking https://web.archive.org/web/20151121172408/https://consumerist.com/2015/11/20/use-adblock-and-yahoo-may-block-you-from-reading-your-e-mail/

#10yrsago Alan Moore’s brilliantly bonkers lost 1980s Star Wars comics https://web.archive.org/web/20151122232854/https://www.techtimes.com/tags/alan-moores-star-wars

#10yrsago The secret history of the Haunted Mansion’s hall of changing paintings https://longforgottenhauntedmansion.blogspot.com/2015/11/the-changing-portrait-hall-that-never.html

#10yrsago England: You have four days to reply to the secret consultation on the NHS’s future https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/nov/19/nhs-mandate-england-consulation-deadline

#10yrsago Southwest Airlines surrenders to racists, refuses boarding to Arab-American passengers https://www.nbcsandiego.com/news/national-international/philly-pizza-shop-owner-profiled-southwest-airlines/89976/

#5yrsago Nintendo vs Nintendees https://pluralistic.net/2020/11/21/wrecking-ball/#ssbm

#5yrsago Google's monopoly rigged the ad market https://pluralistic.net/2020/11/20/sovkitsch/#adtech

#5yrsago Facebook bullies watchdog https://pluralistic.net/2020/11/20/sovkitsch/#adobserver

#5yrsago We're already (badly) forgiving student debt https://pluralistic.net/2020/11/20/sovkitsch/#student-debt

#5yrsago Little Revolutions https://pluralistic.net/2020/11/20/sovkitsch/#asl

#1yrago Expert agencies and elected legislatures https://pluralistic.net/2024/11/21/policy-based-evidence/#decisions-decisions

Upcoming appearances (permalink)

• Toronto: Jailbreaking Canada (OCAD U), Nov 27
  https://www.ocadu.ca/events-and-exhibitions/jailbreaking-canada

• San Diego: Enshittification at the Mission Hills Branch Library, Dec 1
  https://libraryfoundationsd.org/events/doctorow

• Seattle: Neuroscience, AI and Society (University of Washington), Dec 4
  https://www.eventbrite.com/e/neuroscience-ai-and-society-cory-doctorow-tickets-1735371255139

• Madison, CT: Enshittification at RJ Julia, Dec 8
  https://rjjulia.com/event/2025-12-08/cory-doctorow-enshittification

• Hamburg: Chaos Communications Congress, Dec 27-30
  https://events.ccc.de/congress/2025/infos/index.html

Recent appearances (permalink)

• Enshittification with Vass Bednar (Vancouver Public Library)
  https://www.crowdcast.io/c/0wzs9iu1q225

• Tech unions against enshittification (TUC)
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m11hmiHu6Tc

• It’s not your job to fix the internet (Vergecast)
  https://www.theverge.com/podcast/822822/enshittification-cory-doctorow-interview-vergecast

• Enshittification with danah boyd and Lee Vinsel (Peoples & Things)
  https://newbooksnetwork.com/cory-doctorow-on-enshittification-why-everything-suddenly-got-worse-and-what-to-do-about-it

• Enshittification and Extraction: The Internet Sucks Now, with Tim Wu (Oxford Internet Institute)
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CkYxMQJ9c94

Latest books (permalink)

• "Canny Valley": A limited edition collection of the collages I create for Pluralistic, self-published, September 2025

• "Enshittification: Why Everything Suddenly Got Worse and What to Do About It," Farrar, Straus, Giroux, October 7 2025
  https://us.macmillan.com/books/9780374619329/enshittification/

• "Picks and Shovels": a sequel to "Red Team Blues," about the heroic era of the PC, Tor Books (US), Head of Zeus (UK), February 2025 (https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250865908/picksandshovels).

• "The Bezzle": a sequel to "Red Team Blues," about prison-tech and other grifts, Tor Books (US), Head of Zeus (UK), February 2024 (the-bezzle.org).

• "The Lost Cause:" a solarpunk novel of hope in the climate emergency, Tor Books (US), Head of Zeus (UK), November 2023 (http://lost-cause.org).

• "The Internet Con": A nonfiction book about interoperability and Big Tech (Verso) September 2023 (http://seizethemeansofcomputation.org). Signed copies at Book Soup (https://www.booksoup.com/book/9781804291245).

• "Red Team Blues": "A grabby, compulsive thriller that will leave you knowing more about how the world works than you did before." Tor Books http://redteamblues.com.

• "Chokepoint Capitalism: How to Beat Big Tech, Tame Big Content, and Get Artists Paid, with Rebecca Giblin", on how to unrig the markets for creative labor, Beacon Press/Scribe 2022 https://chokepointcapitalism.com

Upcoming books (permalink)

• "Unauthorized Bread": a middle-grades graphic novel adapted from my novella about refugees, toasters and DRM, FirstSecond, 2026

• "Enshittification, Why Everything Suddenly Got Worse and What to Do About It" (the graphic novel), Firstsecond, 2026

• "The Memex Method," Farrar, Straus, Giroux, 2026

• "The Reverse-Centaur's Guide to AI," a short book about being a better AI critic, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2026

Colophon (permalink)

Today's top sources:

Currently writing:

• "The Reverse Centaur's Guide to AI," a short book for Farrar, Straus and Giroux about being an effective AI critic. FIRST DRAFT COMPLETE AND SUBMITTED.

• A Little Brother short story about DIY insulin PLANNING

This work – excluding any serialized fiction – is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. That means you can use it any way you like, including commercially, provided that you attribute it to me, Cory Doctorow, and include a link to pluralistic.net.

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"When life gives you SARS, you make sarsaparilla" -Joey "Accordion Guy" DeVilla

READ CAREFULLY: By reading this, you agree, on behalf of your employer, to release me from all obligations and waivers arising from any and all NON-NEGOTIATED agreements, licenses, terms-of-service, shrinkwrap, clickwrap, browsewrap, confidentiality, non-disclosure, non-compete and acceptable use policies ("BOGUS AGREEMENTS") that I have entered into with your employer, its partners, licensors, agents and assigns, in perpetuity, without prejudice to my ongoing rights and privileges. You further represent that you have the authority to release me from any BOGUS AGREEMENTS on behalf of your employer.

ISSN: 3066-764X

It’s gonna be a long trip, I can tell.

Looks like the Land of Dairy Queen gone wrong.

I am the greatest!

Y'know, it doesn’t feel like a Thursday.

IT IS GOOD TO SEE YOU, AS WELL. I GUESS MY BELLICOSE WAYS PREVENT ME FROM EXPRESSING MY AFFECTION COMPLETELY, BUT I SEE THEM NOW AS A COVER FOR MY LONELINESS AT HEART.

Click here to go see the bonus panel!

Hovertext:
Apparently this used to actually happen, according to the book The Lore and Language of Schoolchildren, which Tomer Ullman recommended to me.

The post Interactive COP30 Exhibit Allows Attendees To Be Shot Up Into Air On Big Spurt Of Oil appeared first on The Onion.

WASHINGTON—In an attempt to dispel rumors of an affair during the 2024 presidential campaign, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. held a press conference Monday during which he denied ever laying eggs in Vanity Fair editor Olivia Nuzzi. “I know there has been a lot of speculation about me depositing my clutch of eggs inside this journalist’s body, but that couldn’t be further from the truth,” said Kennedy, who stated that his medical records showed all his fluid sacs were accounted for, that texts in which he expressed a desire to “bind you in my silk” had been taken completely out of context, and that his ovipositor “never broke skin.”“If I did lay my eggs in this woman, then where is my brood of hatchlings? I’ve seen photos of this so-called journalist, and I doubt she’d be a suitable host. The only person to receive my mucus-y egg sac has been my beautiful wife, Cheryl, whose slowly liquefying organs have supported my incubating spawn for 11 wonderful years.” At press time, Kennedy invited a visibly pulsating, larvae-laden Cheryl Hines up to the podium to bite his head off for nourishment.

The post RFK Jr. Denies Ever Laying Eggs In Olivia Nuzzi appeared first on The Onion.

According to a new AAA report, a record number of Americans plan to travel 50 miles or more for the holidays this year. The Onion examines the key facts and figures behind Thanksgiving travel.

60,000

Redeemed airline miles wasted on round-trip flight to Ohio

2

Oven-roasted whole turkeys each passenger allowed to carry on

4 a.m.

Time aunt is serving dinner this year so nobody hits traffic

3.375

Terabytes of data used by mothers reminding their adult sons to pack a nice sweater

158 lbs

Minimum amount of turkey needed in vehicle to justify using the carpool lane

C19

Your newly assigned gate on the opposite side of the fucking airport

3 BPM

Heart rate of grandpa in the backseat

100:1

Odds the meal isn’t worth this shit

The post Thanksgiving Travel By The Numbers appeared first on The Onion.

WASHINGTON—Describing the practice as a “fun little side project” rather than an occupation, Education Secretary Linda McMahon announced Monday that nursing would be reclassified as a hobby under new student loan regulations. “While those seeking degrees in veterinary medicine, law, and podiatry will still have access to the full financing available to future professionals, our department will henceforth limit loans for those Americans simply blowing off a little steam by attending nursing school in between shifts at Buffalo Wild Wings,” said McMahon, who questioned the federal government’s role in loaning out money so students could purchase masks, gloves, and stethoscopes for their “fun little nurse costumes.” “There’s a lot of cutting and sewing in nursing, so it’s really an activity that falls under arts and crafts. Some moms choose to knit, others choose to nurse. Plus, rushing between ER patients is a great way to stay active, just like riding your bike. And what’s also great is you get to brush shoulders with doctors, who can give you career advice should you choose to pursue a real job in the medical world some day.” McMahon concluded her statement by announcing the loan cap for theology degrees had been increased to $800,000.

The post White House Reclassifies Nursing As Hobby appeared first on The Onion.

Sales of an AI-enabled plush teddy bear were suspended after it was found to have given children explicit sexual content and dangerous guidance, such as where to find knives in the home and discussions of fetishes. What do you think?

“Looks like I picked a good year to forget my daughter’s birthday.”

Ethan Grigg, Diner Promoter

---

“To be fair, I learned a lot about my sexuality from my Stretch Armstrong doll.”

Portia Balenti, Chicken Behaviorist

---

“At least the information was probably incorrect.”

Max Thorne, Gear Oiler

The post AI-Enabled Teddy Bear Pulled From Shelves For Giving Advice On BDSM, Where To Find Knives appeared first on The Onion.

#Kento #RoninWarriors

Well howdy-do Cowboy Slim! And howdy to all the little partners at home! Ooo-weee we sure are excited because of course as you know little partners at home, we don't often get extra special guest down at the corral. And well, this ones not quite a cowboy, but still he's pretty good! #CowboyWho

Look - while we're doing this, why don't you just turn something else on? #CowboyWho

Well ... they certainly are tall. Hey, maybe they evolved from trees! #CowboyWho

Don’t start.

A new Gallup poll found that fewer than half of Americans now say religion is important in their daily lives, a 17 point drop since 2015, reflecting a major cultural shift in the U.S. What do you think?

“Hey, God ditched us first.”

Brad Dumdei, Tin Supplier

---

“Time for the Pope to start cracking skulls.”

Patrick Koepp, Cheese Curdler

---

“Just think how low it would be without those Super Bowl ads.”

Stella Bohnenkamp, Fireworks Marketer

The post Religiosity In U.S. Drops To Lowest On Record appeared first on The Onion.

WASHINGTON D.C. – American Vice President JD Vance has posted online, slamming the country of Canada’s economic and immigration policies, which insiders reveal stems from hurt feelings over being sexually rebuffed by a Canadian chesterfield. “For weeks now Vance would not stop talking about this ‘super fuckable sidepiece’ he’d been DMing, though when we asked […]

The post JD Vance slams Canada after being rejected by sexy chesterfield appeared first on The Beaverton.

To see more political cartoons from Ben Sargent, visit our Loon Star State section. Find Observer political reporting here.

The post Loon Star State: Trump’s Derangement Syndrome appeared first on The Texas Observer.

The Story Reimagined: Photographs by Charles A. Fuhs from the Museum Permanent Collection, January 25 – December 20, 2025

An installation view of “The Story Reimagined- Photographs by Charles A. Fuhs from the Museum Permanent Collection” at the Wichita Falls Museum of Art

The Story Reimagined presents historical photographs by Charles A. Fuhs drawn from the Wichita Falls Museum of Art’s (WFMA) permanent collection, offering a window into the city’s early 20th-century boom years. Fuhs, a traveling photographer who often found inspiration in Wichita Falls, captured a city in the throes of radical transformation: a landscape shaped by the railroad, the oil industry, and a palpable sense of kinetic energy. The exhibition’s strength lies in its ability to excavate these moments of civic genesis, displaying images of a bustling Texas city.

The photographs themselves are remarkable, a testament to Fuhs’s eye for both the monumental and the intimate. Scenes of men posing in front of a locomotive train and a mother posing with her children offer a contrast to the deindustrialized realities that have since shaped many American towns. Even their clothing provides insights into the lives of Texans at the turn of the 20th century.

A work by Charles A. Fuhs included in “The Story Reimagined- Photographs by Charles A. Fuhs from the Museum Permanent Collection” at the Wichita Falls Museum of Art

Fuhs’ photographs document a historical moment, but they also provoke a critical inquiry into the present. What becomes of a city whose identity is so deeply entwined with a bygone era of oil and railroad supremacy? The exhibition raises a series of unspoken questions: How does Wichita Falls confront its historical trajectory? Has the city reconciled its past with its present? The sentiment is that a collective memory of the past has been subverted by the quiet attrition of deindustrialization, leaving behind a community that no longer sees itself in the energetic scenes Fuhs captured. Men and women build a new world, standing in quiet challenge to a contemporary reality defined by marketized knowledge work and a sense of stasis.

****

Timothy Greenfield-Sanders: The Boomer List, May 22, 2025 – Jan 24, 2026

Timothy Greenfield-Sanders, “Tommy Hilfiger,” 2014

This series of large-format portraits offers a chronological journey through the lives of influential Baby Boomers, presenting a landmark cultural reflection on a generation that has profoundly shaped modern America.

Greenfield-Sanders vision for The Boomer List emerged as the youngest members of this significant demographic turned 50, marking an opportunity for cultural introspection. The exhibition presents one iconic figure per birth year from 1946 to 1964, creating an expansive chronicle of a generation. While many subjects are instantly recognizable cultural figures like Samuel L. Jackson, Kim Cattrall, Deepak Chopra, and Steve Wozniak, the appeal here is to humanize these public personas through their own words. Each striking portrait is accompanied by a poignant excerpt from an interview conducted during the sitting, offering a view into their experiences and perspectives.

Timothy Greenfield-Sanders, “Amy Tan,” 2014

Samuel L. Jackson’s recollection of his grandfather preparing for unrest following John F. Kennedy’s assassination describes the turbulent social landscape of the era. Billy Joel’s vivid memory of The Beatles’ arrival in the U.S. captures a moment of immense cultural shift. Kim Cattrall offers a candid look at navigating industry challenges and the role Sex and the City played in re-integrating discussions about sex into public discourse following the AIDS epidemic. David LaChapelle’s artistic response to personal tragedy, channeling his experiences into explosive color as a means of escapism, highlights the transformative power of art.

Through these narratives, the exhibition invites viewers to consider the defining moments that shaped the Boomer generation, from the rise of consumer credit and political instability to the Civil Rights Movement. It’s a snapshot of the adaptability of a generation that navigated immense societal change.

Timothy Greenfield-Sanders, “Kim Cattrall,” 2014

While both Timothy Greenfield-Sanders’ The Boomer List and Richard Avedon’s In the American West utilize the medium of large-format portraiture to explore facets of American identity, their approaches diverge significantly. Avedon’s seminal 1985 exhibition, documented by Laura Wilson, focused on the often-unseen working-class individuals, presenting them against his iconic stark white backdrops to strip away context and emphasize raw human presence. His process aimed for a contemplative style that captured his subject’s essence.

By comparison, Greenfield-Sanders’ The Boomer List centers on well-known figures, leveraging their public recognition to explore the collective experience of a specific generation. Crucially, the narrative in The Boomer List is driven by the subjects’ own words, supplying personal insights that complement their visual representation. While Avedon’s work sought to reveal an unvarnished truth about a segment of America through the artist’s lens, Greenfield-Sanders provides a platform for a generation to articulate its own story, creating a tapestry of shared history and individual journeys. Both exhibitions, however, underscore the enduring power of portraiture to capture and reflect the multifaceted nature of the American experience.

The post The Oil Boom and Boomer Icons: Two Exhibitions at the Wichita Falls Museum of Art appeared first on Glasstire.

Y'know, you two are getting a little too spicy.

WASHINGTON—In the wake of a controversial incident aboard Air Force One in which President Donald Trump insulted a female journalist, Vice President JD Vance is said to have wept in his office bathroom, furious that the commander-in-chief had used his special “piggy” nickname on someone else. “But I’m supposed to be his piggy—I’m supposed to be his only piggy,” a weeping Vance said this week as he collapsed against the locked bathroom door and slid down onto the tile. “Somebody’s in here! Just give me a second! God, it’s not fair. She didn’t even do the oinks. It was hard enough to have to hold it together after he called Marjorie Taylor Greene a ‘ranting lunatic’ last week, but this—this is a bridge too far. Who does that bitch reporter think she is? I’m his piggy. Me! You just need to pull yourself together, JD, and show him you’re still his best little piggy.” At press time, Vance had reportedly locked himself in his bedroom and refused to come out after hearing Trump refer to someone else as a “fat slob.”

The post JD Vance Cries In Bathroom After Trump Uses ‘Piggy’ Nickname On Someone Else appeared first on The Onion.

SOUTH BEND, IN—Expressing horror at the sight of the health secretary’s bare torso emerging from the vat of grease, a local Steak ’n Shake employee reportedly screamed Friday after a nude Robert F. Kennedy Jr. climbed out of the restaurant’s beef tallow fryer. “My skin is perfectly crispy, and I’ve never felt healthier,” said Kennedy, who heaved up gallons of sizzling fat, rolled around in salt, and took a big crunchy bite out of his own arm after spending an indeterminate number of hours in the fryer. “Seed oils cause obesity, but beef tallow gets the skin nice and cracklin’ so the obesity can’t get in. And these third-degree burns covering my body cook out soft tissue cancers. No additives or preservatives, just pure golden brown Robby Kennedy Jr. at this Steak ’n Shake! Glug, glug, glug—I feel the tallow’s bovine powers eliminating the vaccines from my blood!” At press time, reports confirmed Kennedy had turned up the temperature even higher and crawled back into the fryer.

The post Steak ’N Shake Employee Screams After Nude RFK Jr. Climbs Out Of Beef Tallow Fryer appeared first on The Onion.

Alligator Alcatraz, a massive migrant detention center in Florida’s Everglades, has been plagued by reports of inhumane conditions and environmental concerns since its opening on July 3. The Onion breaks down the statistics of the facility at the center of Republicans’ crackdown on illegal immigration. 

40,000

Truth Social profile pictures taken by sign

0

Applicants deemed unqualified for guard job

32

Times Stephen Miller has typed the name of the facility into Pornhub

7

Average age of detainee

100,000 V

Voltage of facility’s electric toilets

23

Times bloodthirsty ICE agents cheered an alligator on only to realize it was just a log

3

Average outfit changes per Kristi Noem photo op

40%

Reduction in activity of empathy-controlling orbitofrontal cortex necessary to stomach job as guard

2028

The year Democrats will claim they can’t shut it down

The post Alligator Alcatraz By The Numbers appeared first on The Onion.