Mark Athitakis
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mathitak.bsky.social
Mark Athitakis
@mathitak.bsky.social
1.1K followers 480 following 2K posts
Writer, mostly about books.
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mathitak.bsky.social
BRB gonna have a talk with Grainger about the products it keeps pushing at me in my Facebook feed.
Socket heater Earplugs
November 11, 2025 at 3:49 PM
mathitak.bsky.social
Good mail day. @bobmehr.bsky.social did a stellar job with the liner notes.
Husker Du: 1985: The Miracle Year
November 11, 2025 at 1:06 AM
mathitak.bsky.social
Strip-club-with-a-buffet energy.
Sign for the Gold Club, a strip joint in SF
November 5, 2025 at 7:42 PM
mathitak.bsky.social
I'm a big fan of the Arizona Fall League, which everything you think Spring Training is, but isn't: cheap tickets, relaxed atmosphere, hungry prospects. But apparently the AFL Home Run Derby is some kind of bespoke experience now? I'm not paying $25 to watch AA guys hit dingers off 45 mph pitches.
Prices for AFL Home Run Derby
November 5, 2025 at 3:06 PM
mathitak.bsky.social
MLB sent me a survey just when I was looking for a good reason to procrastinate.
Me, grousing about the Jonas Brothers.
November 3, 2025 at 7:50 PM
mathitak.bsky.social
A movie you've seen more than seven times with a gif.
November 3, 2025 at 5:03 PM
mathitak.bsky.social
Green Fields of the Mind " It breaks your heart. It is designed to break your heart. The game begins in the spring, when everything else begins again, and it blossoms in the summer, filling the afternoons and evenings, and then as soon as the chill rains come, it stops and leaves you to face the fall alone. You count on it, rely on it to buffer the passage of time, to keep the memory of sunshine and high skies alive, and then just when the days are all twilight, when you need it most, it stops. Today, October 2, a Sunday of rain and broken branches and leaf-clogged drains and slick streets, it stopped, and summer was gone.
November 2, 2025 at 4:18 AM
mathitak.bsky.social
Radio play-by-play guy was grousing about this, but I'm all for it. Can't have your teammates throwing hands and you're all I dunno bro that's a lot of walking.
November 2, 2025 at 1:32 AM
mathitak.bsky.social
When the benches clear.
November 2, 2025 at 1:26 AM
mathitak.bsky.social
Greetings from Scottsdale, Arizona, where my kid is playing with his HS chamber orchestra at today's Arizona Fall League game.
Field view of Scottsdale Stadium.
November 1, 2025 at 10:10 PM
mathitak.bsky.social
Hard Pips is hard.
Notice that I finished a Pips puzzle in 27:06.
October 30, 2025 at 11:45 PM
mathitak.bsky.social
But whether it's flags or bumper stickers, the Trump Rule of Arizona Vehicles applies: If you've got one, you've got two, and likely more.
Rear of car with TRMP47 license plate and various Trump stickers
October 30, 2025 at 9:22 PM
mathitak.bsky.social
De gustibus, etc., and I like a few songs on the list---those Milli Vanilli hits were fine!---but it was a weak year even for critically acclaimed singles. Two Soul II Soul songs? "Batdance"? The Stones at their most rote and arthritic? www.robertchristgau.com/xg/pnj/pjres...
Pazz & Jop list of critics' favorite singles of 1989
October 29, 2025 at 8:54 PM
mathitak.bsky.social
The only winning move is not to play.
October 28, 2025 at 5:46 AM
mathitak.bsky.social
My timeline!
Skeets: "This game!" "This fucking game!"
October 28, 2025 at 3:56 AM
mathitak.bsky.social
A tick skeptical of this Genius annotation of "Walking on Sunshine."
"Katrina’s boyfriend at the time was in Afghanistan so, come around = come back from the war."
October 28, 2025 at 2:32 AM
mathitak.bsky.social
Check your children's record shelves!
Cover of John Tesh, "Sax by the Fire"
October 27, 2025 at 2:26 AM
mathitak.bsky.social
USPS holiday catalog shoved the William F. Buckley stamp in the back, cornered by baby animals and SpongeBob SquarePants.
Catalog page with Buckley stamp.
October 24, 2025 at 6:34 PM
mathitak.bsky.social
An image from President Obama's speech at the WH Correspondents Dinner in 2011, imagining what a Trump White House would look like.
October 23, 2025 at 12:54 AM
mathitak.bsky.social
East Coast media bias strikes again.
Ocotillo. It's a word!
October 22, 2025 at 2:06 PM
mathitak.bsky.social
Bad fortune cookie.
Forgive the action, forget the intent.
October 17, 2025 at 2:59 AM
mathitak.bsky.social
The anger at the oppo taco ad is strong enough to power a mid-size American city.
Complaints about MLB's oppo taco ad.
October 16, 2025 at 11:02 PM
mathitak.bsky.social
oh just play pavement ffs
Spotify daylist: 00s alternative chin-stroking Wednesday afternoon
October 15, 2025 at 11:32 PM
mathitak.bsky.social
Haven't got Chicago out of my system yet...
Program page for Mavis Staples, performing tonight at the Chandler (AZ) Center for the Arts.
October 13, 2025 at 1:31 AM
mathitak.bsky.social
RIP Tony Fitzpatrick, a Chicago great. Had the privilege of interviewing him in 2006.
chicagosuntimes.newsbank.com/doc/news/111...
"There's an old Chicago that I kind of wish would go away," he says. "It's the old Chicago of dross and heartbreak and steel mills and railroad tracks and slaughterhouses. There's also a magical Chicago, and that's the one I want shine a light on."
October 11, 2025 at 10:04 PM