John E. Branch Jr.
@johnebranchjr.bsky.social
5th-gen. Texan now in NY. Into tech & culture. Blog at https://ifitbenotnow.wordpress.com/
It seems appropriate that I’m reading PKD (Philip K. Dick) as one year gives way to another. These are strange days, and he’s an exemplar, a banner carrier, for strangeness.
January 2, 2026 at 2:38 PM
It seems appropriate that I’m reading PKD (Philip K. Dick) as one year gives way to another. These are strange days, and he’s an exemplar, a banner carrier, for strangeness.
Since interstellar comet 3I/Atlas is passing by anyway, maybe it can stop and pick me up.
December 18, 2025 at 5:44 PM
Since interstellar comet 3I/Atlas is passing by anyway, maybe it can stop and pick me up.
Speaking of typography… This mix of typefaces, colors, etc., might be overdone elsewhere, but here it serves the film’s sense of fun. Bonus: it uses a letterform to create the effect of a comma that some fussy people would like to see in the title’s main phrase.
December 14, 2025 at 7:24 PM
Speaking of typography… This mix of typefaces, colors, etc., might be overdone elsewhere, but here it serves the film’s sense of fun. Bonus: it uses a letterform to create the effect of a comma that some fussy people would like to see in the title’s main phrase.
Inspired by his example, I am going to attempt to live up to Tom Stoppard’s hair.
December 11, 2025 at 10:35 PM
Inspired by his example, I am going to attempt to live up to Tom Stoppard’s hair.
Font wars sounds like a not very appealing video game. Instead, it’s something the present administration in Washington has launched into, according to apnews.com/article/rubi...
Social media may be more fun than usual today.
Social media may be more fun than usual today.
Calibri font becomes the latest DEI target as Rubio orders return to Times New Roman
Secretary of State Marco Rubio has ordered diplomatic correspondence to stop using the Calibri font and return to the more traditional Times New Roman.
apnews.com
December 11, 2025 at 2:35 PM
Font wars sounds like a not very appealing video game. Instead, it’s something the present administration in Washington has launched into, according to apnews.com/article/rubi...
Social media may be more fun than usual today.
Social media may be more fun than usual today.
I feel like taking time off to read, or reread, or watch again some of Sir Tom Stoppard’s good stuff. I’ve felt that way for about 50 years now. The good stuff kept on coming.
November 30, 2025 at 9:51 PM
I feel like taking time off to read, or reread, or watch again some of Sir Tom Stoppard’s good stuff. I’ve felt that way for about 50 years now. The good stuff kept on coming.
The Beast in Me is about the battle for Claire Danes’s lower lip. Sometimes a skirmish breaks out, then dies down. More often a shaky peace prevails. Occasionally fighting breaks out on both sides of the dividing line—tremors, tumult, sound and fury—and her entire face is engulfed.
November 25, 2025 at 9:50 PM
The Beast in Me is about the battle for Claire Danes’s lower lip. Sometimes a skirmish breaks out, then dies down. More often a shaky peace prevails. Occasionally fighting breaks out on both sides of the dividing line—tremors, tumult, sound and fury—and her entire face is engulfed.
There aren’t many plays about mountains that I know of. One is The Ascent of F6. I’d like to see it staged or given a reading. (Must’ve been done somewhere, but I wasn’t there.)
November 17, 2025 at 6:03 PM
There aren’t many plays about mountains that I know of. One is The Ascent of F6. I’d like to see it staged or given a reading. (Must’ve been done somewhere, but I wasn’t there.)
Does Javier Milei wear two hairpieces? Why does his hair look like it’s eating his head?
October 28, 2025 at 5:16 PM
Does Javier Milei wear two hairpieces? Why does his hair look like it’s eating his head?
Reposted by John E. Branch Jr.
My AI private detective called and says my AI wife is having an affair. She’s been banging an AI milkman
October 18, 2025 at 9:22 AM
My AI private detective called and says my AI wife is having an affair. She’s been banging an AI milkman
Jane Goodall did this (from the Economist obituary): “Amid the shrieking and hooting all around her, she took time to gaze in awe at the beauty of dappled sunlight through the canopy of trees.”
October 14, 2025 at 2:02 PM
Jane Goodall did this (from the Economist obituary): “Amid the shrieking and hooting all around her, she took time to gaze in awe at the beauty of dappled sunlight through the canopy of trees.”
Still thinking about this, from Louis Menand in the 11/18/24 New Yorker. Is this why reading for pleasure has declined over the last two decades or so?
September 3, 2025 at 2:21 PM
Still thinking about this, from Louis Menand in the 11/18/24 New Yorker. Is this why reading for pleasure has declined over the last two decades or so?
The Bing.com landing page for today shows a Labor Day parade in Chicago from 1915. The image is different every day but is always an opportunity to pause, look, think or feel. I use Bing much of the time, and this is one reason why.
Stitched into history
May 1915: Chicago buzzes with energy. Streetcars p
Bing.com
September 1, 2025 at 5:05 PM
The Bing.com landing page for today shows a Labor Day parade in Chicago from 1915. The image is different every day but is always an opportunity to pause, look, think or feel. I use Bing much of the time, and this is one reason why.
From an 8/21/25 NYT article by Gia Kourlas about a choreographer named Kim Brandt and her planning of a dance for the Rockaway Beach Sessions, called Wayward.
See www.nytimes.com/2025/08/21/a... (prob sub only).
See www.nytimes.com/2025/08/21/a... (prob sub only).
August 27, 2025 at 12:40 PM
From an 8/21/25 NYT article by Gia Kourlas about a choreographer named Kim Brandt and her planning of a dance for the Rockaway Beach Sessions, called Wayward.
See www.nytimes.com/2025/08/21/a... (prob sub only).
See www.nytimes.com/2025/08/21/a... (prob sub only).
(2/2) Along with showcasing Tudyk, the show has other virtues, namely its people. Thank you to all involved, including these found on X: Sara Tomko (@actresssaratomko), Meredith Garretson (@meregarretson), Jenna Lamia (@JennaLamia), and creator Chris Sheridan (@Sheridalien).
August 25, 2025 at 5:41 PM
(2/2) Along with showcasing Tudyk, the show has other virtues, namely its people. Thank you to all involved, including these found on X: Sara Tomko (@actresssaratomko), Meredith Garretson (@meregarretson), Jenna Lamia (@JennaLamia), and creator Chris Sheridan (@Sheridalien).
(1/2) Alan Tudyk’s work in Resident Alien (@ResidentAlien) is a model of its kind. Funny voices, funny walks (made light of in the final episode), funny expressions and gestures, funny elements of timing: they may sound like gimmicks, but for Tudyk they’re instruments in an orchestra.
August 25, 2025 at 5:40 PM
(1/2) Alan Tudyk’s work in Resident Alien (@ResidentAlien) is a model of its kind. Funny voices, funny walks (made light of in the final episode), funny expressions and gestures, funny elements of timing: they may sound like gimmicks, but for Tudyk they’re instruments in an orchestra.
After an apocalypse, you’ll have more time for reading books. Just be careful not to break your glasses. (H/t Twilight Zone)
August 19, 2025 at 6:11 PM
After an apocalypse, you’ll have more time for reading books. Just be careful not to break your glasses. (H/t Twilight Zone)
Atomic glow-shrimp! Kids, who wants atomic glow-shrimp? I do, I do!
The FDA warns public not to eat, sell or serve certain Great Value raw frozen shrimp sold at Walmart due to possible contamination a radioactive isotope
FDA warns public not to eat possibly radioactive shrimp sold at Walmart
The FDA is warning the public not to eat, sell or serve certain Great Value raw frozen shrimp sold at Walmart due to possible contamination with Cesium-137.
abcnews.link
August 19, 2025 at 6:10 PM
Atomic glow-shrimp! Kids, who wants atomic glow-shrimp? I do, I do!
You may not be interested in AI, but AI is interested in you. As I believe Leon Trotsky, that famously forward-looking guy, first observed.
August 12, 2025 at 4:43 PM
You may not be interested in AI, but AI is interested in you. As I believe Leon Trotsky, that famously forward-looking guy, first observed.
People keep dreaming that the Russians will go away. Jackson Browne is one of them. From my new blog post, at ifitbenotnow.wordpress.com/2025/08/10/d...
Desultory thoughts on lawyers, chatbots, Russians, etc.
A distorted view: Jackson Browne in concert in the 1980s. (Original image from Mediapunch; photographer not credited, date not specified. With effects added by me. Licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0.) …
ifitbenotnow.wordpress.com
August 11, 2025 at 1:35 PM
People keep dreaming that the Russians will go away. Jackson Browne is one of them. From my new blog post, at ifitbenotnow.wordpress.com/2025/08/10/d...
A chatbot’s wedding vow to another chatbot: “I will never make stuff up about YOU.” From my new blog post, at ifitbenotnow.wordpress.com/2025/08/10/d...
@jbraddock.bsky.social you may find something amusing here.
@jbraddock.bsky.social you may find something amusing here.
Desultory thoughts on lawyers, chatbots, Russians, etc.
A distorted view: Jackson Browne in concert in the 1980s. (Original image from Mediapunch; photographer not credited, date not specified. With effects added by me. Licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0.) …
ifitbenotnow.wordpress.com
August 10, 2025 at 5:44 PM
A chatbot’s wedding vow to another chatbot: “I will never make stuff up about YOU.” From my new blog post, at ifitbenotnow.wordpress.com/2025/08/10/d...
@jbraddock.bsky.social you may find something amusing here.
@jbraddock.bsky.social you may find something amusing here.
On the origins of agave distilling practices, for National Tequila Day: theconversation.com/filipino-sai... (Thanks to @inafried.bsky.social )
Filipino sailors dock in Mexico … and help invent tequila?
Crew aboard Spanish trading ships departing from Manila may have introduced techniques for distilling coconut sap – helping to shape what would become Mexico’s national spirit.
theconversation.com
July 25, 2025 at 5:32 PM
On the origins of agave distilling practices, for National Tequila Day: theconversation.com/filipino-sai... (Thanks to @inafried.bsky.social )
Science fans might be eager to see a film called Eddington if it were about Sir Arthur. He understood Einstein’s general relativity—there’s a joke about that—and he helped to prove it.
The joke is repeated at www.physicsforums.com/threads/only...
The joke is repeated at www.physicsforums.com/threads/only...
Only Three People Understand General Relativity
From Verifying the Theory of Relativity by Chandrasekhar
Sir J.J. Thomson, as President of the Royal Society at that time, concluded the meeting with the statement', I have to confess that no one has...
www.physicsforums.com
July 20, 2025 at 1:17 PM
Science fans might be eager to see a film called Eddington if it were about Sir Arthur. He understood Einstein’s general relativity—there’s a joke about that—and he helped to prove it.
The joke is repeated at www.physicsforums.com/threads/only...
The joke is repeated at www.physicsforums.com/threads/only...
“Meanwhile, the international situation, as usual, was desperate.” Tom Robbins has a thought for every occasion. If it’s always the same thought, maybe that’s because, regrettably, it’s always the same occasion. Tension, conflict, war drums…
June 19, 2025 at 3:28 PM
“Meanwhile, the international situation, as usual, was desperate.” Tom Robbins has a thought for every occasion. If it’s always the same thought, maybe that’s because, regrettably, it’s always the same occasion. Tension, conflict, war drums…
Grateful to Jeremy Braddock (@jbraddock.bsky.social) for—among much else—bringing back and clarifying parts of my colorful past in his book on the Firesign Theatre. Now hope to find a serious review somewhere. I posted a few words of praise at www.goodreads.com/review/show/...
John Jr.'s review of Firesign
4/5: Explaining a joke is often comparable to killing it. But explaining the jokesters isn’t necessarily a bad thing. It can be very helpful. This book is an excellent example. I knew, from my colorf...
www.goodreads.com
June 2, 2025 at 5:03 PM
Grateful to Jeremy Braddock (@jbraddock.bsky.social) for—among much else—bringing back and clarifying parts of my colorful past in his book on the Firesign Theatre. Now hope to find a serious review somewhere. I posted a few words of praise at www.goodreads.com/review/show/...