“The Nolan” is the name for “highly sought-after, exotic” lizard-skin cowboy boots … You can’t make this stuff up.

A reporter friend of mine passed this along. Life is so weird.

The Internet tells me that “The Nolan is a highly sought-after exotic boot known for its unique scale pattern, natural sheen, and supple feel.” They’re handmade in Mexico. Uh … thanks, Tecovas.

Hey, man, I’ll take it. (Coulda been urinal cakes or something.) Maybe they’ll pay me to be their spokesman.



Album Cover for Depeche Mode’s “Black Celebration,” 1986

Grabbing Hands Music Ltd/EMI Music Publishing Ltd.

This is the look that I get when I try to bullshit an intelligent woman.

Not much gets past her. They raise ’em smart in Tennessee.

“July,” Alfons Mucha, 1898

From Les Douze Mois (The 12 Months), published in Cocorico magazine.

250 Years.

We are a troubled country, and a divided one, but there is always so much good to be found here.

I hope that people abroad will see that in us. And we should take pride when we see it in ourselves.



An America 250 commemorative flag flies in Fraser, Colorado, on May 25, 2026. The flag celebrates the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence.

Photo credit: Tony Webster, CC BY 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Washington Monument during “America 250” Celebration, photo by G. Edward Johnson, 2026

A 13-star “Betsy Ross” American flag projected on the sides of the Washington Monument as part of the “America 250” United States Semiquincentennial. Washington, DC, January 1, 2026. G. Edward Johnson.

American flag projected on the Washington Monument. G. Edward Johnson, CC BY 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

the air is burning

that is all

Nurse Your Favorite Heresies in Whispers