John E. Simpson
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johnesimpson.com
John E. Simpson
@johnesimpson.com
190 followers 220 following 340 posts
Running after my hat since the mid-20th century. Recording the chase online since, oh, the late '80s.
Blog: https://johnesimpson.com/blog/
Substack: https://johnesimpson.substack.com/
Linktree: https://linktr.ee/johnesimpson
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johnesimpson.com
When Ya Gotta Go... (Standard Grill, NYC, 2924-04-17, post-Whitney Museum visit)

#photography #urbanphotography #nyc
A dimly lit twisting stairway down, over which hangs a lighted neon sign reading "WC."
April 18, 2025 at 1:26 AM
johnesimpson.com
Gallows humor, I know, but lol, lol. Looking forward to the solution to be offered by the Very Stable Genius and his minions, especially since they've proved themselves already when confronting past health crises.
January 24, 2025 at 11:52 PM
johnesimpson.com
Spotted on Substack...
January 24, 2025 at 5:20 PM
johnesimpson.com
Spotted on Substack...
A screen capture from Substack, specifically a note from Jeff Tiedrich. Besides Tiedrich's profile photo, the screen capture consists of text which says: "here's what we know so far: a teenager obtained a weapon, just as our founders intended, and took that weapon into a school, just as our founders intended, and shot and killed a teacher and a student, just as our founders intended, and ended up dead, just as our founders intended."
December 17, 2024 at 3:35 PM
johnesimpson.com
The announcement in question.
December 8, 2024 at 6:20 PM
johnesimpson.com
Horrible, I tell you. Horrible! 🤣
December 6, 2024 at 5:44 PM
johnesimpson.com
Isn't she great? I first found out and wrote about her in 2014, thanks to a video "duet" in which she (with The Piano Guys) covered the 'Mission: Impossible' theme.

johnesimpson.com/blog/2014/06...
Screen capture (from the blog post) of Lindsay Stirling's and The Piano Guys' duet of the 'Mission: Impossible' theme song. Stirling and one of the "Guys" are dressed in black jumpsuits, posed back to back and staring (proudly? heroically? arrogantly? à la Tom Cruise?) at the camera. Across the bottom of the frame, in bold italicized red text, are the words "Mission: Impossible."
November 30, 2024 at 3:51 PM
johnesimpson.com
The cover of cartoonist Roz Chast's book, 'I Must Be Dreaming.' It depicts several ludicrous but quite likely REAL images from Chast's own dreams, including several flying saucers, birds wearing human clothing, and a subway stop labeled "28,732,856th Avenue." Most prominent is a figure resembling the cartoonist herself, arms stretched forward, legs behind -- obviously flying like a superhero.
November 27, 2024 at 6:55 PM
johnesimpson.com
Austrian Airlines' final Tweet went first-class.
An image of a smiling flight attendant holding up her hands splayed outwards in the classic "In case of emergency..." pose. The caption says, "We took a moment to locate our nearest X-it."
November 20, 2024 at 9:33 PM
johnesimpson.com
Spotted on Substack...
A status message describes an incident in which the poster was walking down the street in a small town with her husband. They encountered a small dog in a car, repeatedly blowing the horn of a parked truck. As soon as the dog saw them, it stopped blowing the horn. The couple laughed for blocks afterwards. The poster concludes: "I feel a little as if my whole life was one long, beautiful path bringing me to this moment, just so that I could see a small dog repeatedly honking a car horn and know that life is so very worth living."
November 19, 2024 at 9:56 PM
johnesimpson.com
I've been experimenting for a few months with a variety of AI image generators. The main business case (I guess you can say) is to find illustrations for a serialized novel I've been posting over on Substack. Results, predictably, have been mixed. Will provide the prompt for this one in a follow-up.
A grid of 16 images. Each panel shows a male, business-suited figure; in most, the figure is doing something with his hands -- waving, pointing, etc., and in a few of the panels the hands are... disturbing: one person with DOZENS of hands, say, or with a hand twisted at what must be a very painful angle. The backgrounds tend to be scenic or urban landscapes. Over each panel is something which might vaguely be interpreted as a weekly calendar of dates, but the numbers are random (e.g., "26 23 16 11 2 18").
November 17, 2024 at 10:17 PM
johnesimpson.com
You can do much, much, *much* worse than following 'This Modern World' from week to week. Shown, for example (per The Nib in 2013): an ever-useful reminder of what it can be like to "discuss" things with folks on the other side of the aisle, which is to say, the Moon.
A cartoon in six panels, showing a "reasonable" conservative in a blue suit who opens a conversation with an obviously lefty penguin by calling him "that pathetic libtard." The next couple panels have the man calling the penguin by increasingly absurd insults. Finally, the penguin says it's just not going to listen anymore, and walks away. The man, obviously offended, closes by asking, "But-- but-- what about my FREEDOM OF SPEECH?"
November 16, 2024 at 6:38 PM
johnesimpson.com
Over on Substack, I've been serializing a screwball-noir-ish SF serial called '23kpc.' But for some reason, I've never posted *here* about it...

This link will get you to the whole series to date -- including this week's installment:
johnesimpson.substack.com/s/23kpc
Illustration for Chapters 17-18 ("Charm Can Take You a Long Way") of '23kpc.' The illustration depicts someone wearing a dark gray jumpsuit/coverall. From the tool belt hang a multitude of keys, "swipecards," miscellaneous unidentified small electronic gizmos...
November 9, 2024 at 3:42 AM