David Daniel
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daviddaniel.bsky.social
David Daniel
@daviddaniel.bsky.social
2.4K followers 700 following 3K posts
Husband & father, American Jew, entertainment journalist, environmentalist, reader, regular blood donor. SoCal native, home after Boston & Atlanta sojourns. “Find the good, and praise it" - Alex Haley
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daviddaniel.bsky.social
I knew I pulled this back off the shelf recently for a reason.
Cover of the remarkable Jane Mayer’s book THE DARK SIDE: THE INSIDE STORY IF HOW THE WAR ON TERROR TURNED INTO A WAR ON AMERICAN IDEALS.
November 4, 2025 at 4:15 PM
daviddaniel.bsky.social
Yes I did!
Me, out of my mind with joy, holding up my World Series scarf from Game 3, in front of the on-field championship celebration on the TV.
November 2, 2025 at 4:38 AM
daviddaniel.bsky.social
I have so many books on my TBR list, I rarely find myself reading something published that year. I made an exception for @billmckibben.bsky.social's HERE COMES THE SUN.

Despite his self-described "dark realism," I'm finding this a clear, illuminating (no pun intended), and, yes, hopeful vision.
Cover art for HERE COMES THE SUN by Bill McKibben. The title and author's name are in black capital letters, below the subtitle in white, A LAST CHANCE FOR THE CLIMATE AND A FRESH CHANCE FOR CIVILIZATION The type is over a shot of the sun, rays spreading outward in all directions, above a sheet of solar panels, which is just below the author's name.
November 1, 2025 at 5:34 PM
daviddaniel.bsky.social
I live in a neighborhood where it’s common to see people riding or walking horses, and it always makes me smile.
A person leads a white horse across an otherwise empty residential street. There are trees partially obscuring a house, boulders, a stop sign, and signs indicating a horse crossing and “Share The Road.”
November 1, 2025 at 3:24 PM
daviddaniel.bsky.social
House speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) continues to try to pin the upcoming catastrophic lapse in Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) funding on the Democrats. But with the U.S. Department of Agriculture sitting on $6 billion in funds Congress appropriated for just such an event, the Treasury finding $20 billion to prop up Trump ally Javier Milei in Argentina, Johnson refusing to bring the House into regular session to negotiate an end to the government shutdown, and President Donald J. Trump demanding $230 million in damages from the American taxpayer, bulldozing the East Wing of the White House to build a gold-plated ballroom that will dwarf the existing White House, and traveling to Asia, where South Korean leadership courted him by giving him a gold crown and serving him brownies topped with edible gold, blaming any funding shortfall on Democrats is a hard sell.
October 31, 2025 at 5:45 AM
daviddaniel.bsky.social
Post something random or you'll have an awful November

(I don’t usually join these chain-letter things, but after the last 10 months, I’m not taking any chances)
Trader Joe’s herbal tea bag
October 29, 2025 at 6:20 PM
daviddaniel.bsky.social
Okay, second-longest WS game ever: the 2018 18-inning game (Max Muncy had the walk-off HR then) was longer. Still a marathon, and a memorable night.

Drinking tea with lemon to restore my voice – sure wish I could use this form today!
Official Dodgers Permission Slip Please excuse [blank for fan’s name] from all responsibilities at work/school on 10/28/2025 due to enduring 28 innings and 7 hours of fear and anxiety in Game 3. They need time to rest and recover before Game 4 tomorrow [actually today] at 5pm PT. [signed] Dodgers Nation
October 28, 2025 at 4:18 PM
daviddaniel.bsky.social
My brother (and favorite baseball game companion) noted Freddie Freeman has hit extra-inning walk-off home runs in consecutive World Series. Longest WS game ever. We’re deliriously happy… and incredibly tired. Sweet dreams, y’all.
Two very happy Dodgers fans.
October 28, 2025 at 7:07 AM
daviddaniel.bsky.social
FREDDIE!!!
October 28, 2025 at 6:55 AM
daviddaniel.bsky.social
My brother has joined me for my first World Series game in 39 years: 1986, Game 5. Red Sox 4, Mets 2 at Fenway. The Sox knocked out Mets starter Dwight Gooden with four runs in the first four innings, and Bruce Hurst went the distance.

(I was not at Game 6. We’re not taking about that. Go Dodgers!)
Me and my brother smiling in Dodgers gear, sitting in Dodger Stadium as we impatiently await the start of the game.
October 28, 2025 at 12:05 AM
daviddaniel.bsky.social
You may choose one person to tell you the Aristocrats joke.
Black and white photo of a youngish George Carlin.
October 26, 2025 at 4:46 AM
daviddaniel.bsky.social
Volunteered at a local park cleanup, had lunch at our local açaí place (celebrating its one-year anniversary!), and now making my 178th blood donation. Good day.
A man with gray hair and a salt-and-pepper goatee, wearing eye glasses, a blue GIVE BLOOD GIVE HOPE t-shirt, and blue jeans, donates blood. Red Cross posters and Halloween decorations are on the wall behind him. (Me, obviously. No idea why I started that in the third person. Maybe it’s the blood loss.)
October 25, 2025 at 10:07 PM
daviddaniel.bsky.social
I took as long as I could to finish @maryrobinettekowal.com’s wonderful THE MARTIAN CONTINGENCY, savoring every page. (Page 286, I read several times.) If it’s the last Lady Astronaut novel, I’ll cherish it all the more. Delighted I caught the @velveteenrabbi.bsky.social reference!
Book cover of “The Martian Contingency” by Mary Robinette Kowal.
October 24, 2025 at 10:42 PM
daviddaniel.bsky.social
SINNERS is returning for Halloween! Ryan Coogler's award-winning horror thriller starring Michael B. Jordan is set to screen in IMAX theaters for one week, beginning October 30. www.imax.com/movie/sinners
Michael B. Jordan and Christian Robinson in a scene from "Sinners."
October 21, 2025 at 8:35 PM
daviddaniel.bsky.social
From @juddlegum.bsky.social at @popular.info:

"ICE has increased spending on 'small arms, ordnance, and ordnance accessories manufacturing' by 700% compared to 2024 levels." popular.info/p/ice-boosts...
A chart from Popular Info titled "ICE spending on 'small arms' (January 20 - October 18). It begins with spending of about $6.7 million in 2017, ranging between $6 million and $15 million each year through 2024, then skyrocketing to $71.5 million this year.
October 20, 2025 at 7:22 PM
daviddaniel.bsky.social
More here:
Six likely bogus “No Kings” accounts hawking merch with the exact same copy in their posts.
October 20, 2025 at 2:51 PM
daviddaniel.bsky.social
An appropriately spooky Halloween event in Hollywood: Robert Englund, aka "Freddy Kreuger," will be honored with the 2,826th star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, in the Motion Pictures category, on October 31.

Guest speakers: Eli Roth, and Englund's "Elm Street" co-star, Heather Langenkamp.
Robert Englund, aka "Freddy Kreuger," out of costume but looking plenty sinister.
October 16, 2025 at 9:50 PM
daviddaniel.bsky.social
The “Murder, She Wrote” FAST channel is a pleasant way to pass the evening between loads of laundry.
Publicity shot of Angela Lansbury as Jessica Fletcher in “Murder, She Wrote.” She’s smiling, leaning on her left elbow, her left hand against her cheek, her right arm draped over her typewriter. She’s wearing a blue sweater, and her hair is light brown and short.
October 14, 2025 at 3:19 AM
daviddaniel.bsky.social
Joyce Van Patten (still with us at age 91!)
Black and white photo of actress Joyce Van Patten.
October 13, 2025 at 6:58 PM
daviddaniel.bsky.social
Happy Indigenous Peoples' Day!
As society changes, the values we want to commemorate shift. In the 1920s, Columbus mattered to Americans who opposed the Ku Klux Klan because celebrating an Italian defended a multicultural society. Now, though, he represents the devastation of America’s Indigenous people at the hands of European colonists who brought to North America and South America germs and a fever for gold and God. It is not “left-wing arson” to want to commemorate a different set of values than the country held in the 1920s. What is arson, though, is the attempt to skew history to serve a modern-day political narrative. Rejecting an honest account of the past makes it impossible to see accurate patterns. The lessons we learn about how society changes will be false, and the decisions we make based on those false patterns will not be grounded in reality. And a society grounded in fiction, rather than reality, cannot function.
October 13, 2025 at 3:44 AM
daviddaniel.bsky.social
BATMAN: KNIGHTFALL, a multi-part animated event from Warner Bros. Animation, DC, and Warner Bros. Home Entertainment, announced today at New York Comic Con.

Part 1, currently in production, is due out next year.
Promo image for BATMAN: KNIGHTFALL. The title appears in capital letters on top of the black Batman logo. Behind the logo is an irregular reddish-orange shape suggesting a sunset or sunrise, surrounded by black. Small DC and WB logos appear in the lower right corner.
October 10, 2025 at 10:17 PM
daviddaniel.bsky.social
Warner Bros. announces AN UNTITLED MINECRAFT SEQUEL will be released July 23, 2027 in IMAX. Jared Hess is back to direct, co-writing with Chris Galletta; "plot details remain deep in the mine for now."

BAD FAIRIES, which had been scheduled for that date, moves up to May 21, 2027.
Detail from the poster for A Minecraft Movie, showing a grassy cube with block cutouts resembling eyes and a frowny/scared mouth.
October 9, 2025 at 6:08 PM
daviddaniel.bsky.social
One more KATU live web cam screenshot of the devastation. It was nice knowing you, Portland. So sorry.
One more KATU Portland live web cam screenshot, this from "Touchmark in the West Hills. Lush green trees (unburned) fill the foreground and extend off toward the mountains in the horizon, with occasional buildings here and there. No fire. No smoke. No carnage.
October 5, 2025 at 7:27 PM
daviddaniel.bsky.social
Even more Portland via the KATU live web cam, for you disaster porn lovers.
Despite the "City Liquidators" tag (presumably the camera is located on a building housing that company), all appears well as bridges arc in front of downtown on a near-Chamber-of-Commerce-quality day in Portland.
October 5, 2025 at 7:27 PM
daviddaniel.bsky.social
More of the Portland apocalypse, courtesy the KATU live web cam just now.
Another view of downtown, courtesy the KATU live web cam. Bridge intact; sun shining off the buildings; a bit of clouds, but no smoke. Clearly a hellscape.
October 5, 2025 at 7:27 PM