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Twitter’s getting weirder.

I am not an expert on social media platforms, or big business or … anything, really.  It’s easy to toss out words like “algorithms” without having any detailed understanding of how they work.  Hell, even free speech issues can be a little more complicated than most people take them for.  (At least I think so.)

So I’m not trying to pass any definitive judgement on Elon Musk’s handling of his company (or the management of the subordinates he’s selected).

But Twitter just isn’t enjoyable any more.  My newsfeed has the feel of being completely random, without the links to articles that I find informative.  (In fact, there appear to be far fewer articles of any kind.) 

I’m seeing tweets from Marjorie Taylor Green, Newsmax and Musk himself, among other people.  (I do not wish to follow any of those tweeters, yet here we are.)  The strangest thing of all is that I seem to be seeing short videos of random violence in my feed (street fights, etc.).  It’s all so very odd.

I no longer view Twitter as a helpful source of news and information from people that I trust.  Yes … I realize that maybe I sound like someone who previously inhabited an online “echo chamber;” but whatever.  I know that MTG and her followers are not an improvement.  I’d rather have my existing biases confirmed than be an audience to that mad, rabid, semi-literate banshee-troglodyte from aryan-ass ghettos of white trash hell.

A pal of mine keeps telling me to migrate over to Mastodon.  And another site called “Post” (?) seems to be getting a lot of attention.  No verdict from me on those yet.

Anyway, I’m just chiming in.



Me being a poetry critic.

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“Roma: casa di Nicolò Crescienzio, poi abitazione di Cola di Rienzo,” Giuseppe Barberis, 1894

“Rome: house of Nicolò Crescienzio, then home of Cola di Rienzo.” Woodcut.

800px-Roma_casa_di_Nicolò_Crescienzio

(Call me for more culinary advice.)

Me, advising a holiday menu:

“You can serve a chicken to a pescatarian because it’s okay for them to eat pesky animals.”



(Shirley really was the smarter roommate.)

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Campbell Avenue and Market Square, Roanoke, VA, December 2022

Town always looks pretty around Christmastime.

Sunglasses Guy at the end of the video looks like he thought I was surveilling him. That was totally not my intention, Sir.


Cover to “Doctor Fate” #30, Peter Gross, 1991

DC Comics.

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“We Are Called to Tolerate”

There is a thoughtful and well composed opinion piece at The Roanoke Star News today that was written by my good friend and alumnus, Russell M. Painter.

You can find it right here:

https://theroanokestar.com/2022/12/12/we-are-called-to-tolerate/



She would be pretty badass.

With her imagination, think of the constructs she could create.


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Cover to “Doctor Fate” #3, Paul Rivoche, 2003

DC Comics.

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