OK, Florida, enough is enough

 Florida has a twisted relationship with the Burmese python.

Global warming will *not* save us from pumpkin spice

Waiting for fall weather to enjoy pumpkin spice lattes?

This year, Dunkin’ released its fall menu Aug. 16th. Starbucks has not yet announced its release date for 2023. 7-Eleven released its pumpkin spice beverages on Aug. 1, and Krispy Kreme released a new pumpkin spice collection Aug. 7.

[(Paywalled) Washington Post story is here.] 

You're not as sorry as I am.

When you realize you're *really* out of the loop

The Gaza Strip gets its first cat cafe, a cozy refuge from life under blockade

Sure, we don't have a Starbucks where I live. Or Uber. But this…

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) — The global cat cafe trend, where people pay to have coffee and hang out with cats…

…is a disaster.

Chortles echo in certain corners of the network…

Buyers of Bored Ape NFTs sue after digital apes turn out to be bad investment

Yuga describes its collection of 10,000 Bored Ape NFTs as "unique digital collectibles living on the Ethereum blockchain" that double as a "Yacht Club membership card." The website has some "members-only" areas. "When you buy a Bored Ape, you're not simply buying an avatar or a provably rare piece of art," the NFT collection's website says. "You are gaining membership access to a club whose benefits and offerings will increase over time. Your Bored Ape can serve as your digital identity, and open digital doors for you."

…while in others bitter tears flow.

Awww.

[Bored Ape digital cartoons valuable because, while any passing stranger can make a free copy of one, only you paid millions of dollars for yours. Which is known as an investment. In certain corners of the network. But, apparently, not in others.]

Thought you might get through the day without a worry?

Giant ice ball falls out of the sky, dents golf course green

Ice balls that fall from airplanes are known as megacryometeors and have been known to impact the ground several times a year.

Think again. 

A modest idea

Hunter Biden’s lawyers say gun portion of plea deal remains valid after special counsel announcement

Biden’s attorney argued in court documents that an agreement sparing him prosecution on a felony gun charge still is in place even though the plea deal on misdemeanor tax offenses largely unraveled during a court appearance last month.…

It’s unclear whether prosecutors agree…

Why not enforce the gun laws we have before we get into making a lot of new ones?

I know, I know, the whole Hunter Biden thing is overblown. But no one is above the law, I hear.

Meanwhile, of course, in the world of no one above, Georgia has come through with yet another indictment of the former guy and, this time, a whole bunch of his cronies. I've lost count.

But at least the TeeVee people can quit sweating the writers' and actors' strikes — it's going to be trialorama for a season or two. 

Buy popcorn.

How will we survive this? (Nope, not climate change…)

Zuck/Musk cage match canceled; tech billionaires blame each other

"I don't want to keep hyping something that will never happen," Zuckerberg says. [Apparently with a straight face.]

First the writers and the actors go on strike, then this. Nothing left but to watch football for the rest of the year. (And some baseball, I suppose, if you're that sort of person.)

What world does this guy live in?

Men’s groups expand with an urgent message: It’s okay to open up

“If a boy expresses too much emotion or too much need for connection, is too giddy, is too joyful, what we say to that boy is, ‘What are you, a sissy? What are you, a girl? What are you, gay?’” Greene said. “It’s your job to dominate those around you, or you will lose status, and that will increase the number of individuals above you who can dish out dominance to you. And what we find is that in that system, in that structure, men are constantly in competition with each other and constantly driven by this sense of anxiety.”

Yikes. 

Maybe he got traumatized by a DI somewhere along the line, nobody told him to get over it. 

From Boston beans to Boston, buzzed?

From yahoo!entertainment's Michael Walsh… 

VinePair alerted us to an upcoming (still unannounced) line of adult beverages that could change day drinking forever. Dunkin’ Donuts already has a website for Dunkin’ Spiked, a new collection of coffee beer and hard iced tea options that might cause riots in Boston.

 Still unannounced, but there's a fledgling (and somewhat unofficial) web site here that proclaims…

Dunkin’ Spiked will NOT be available in Dunkin’ restaurants. Click here to see where you can find Dunkin’ Spiked in grocery stores, liquor stores, and bars and restaurants.

Get in line for your Strawberry Dragonfruit Iced Tea Refresher (ABV 5%) or Caramel Iced Coffee beer (ABV 6%)? Personally, I'll abstain.

But Boston's (and the entire known universe's) favorite anti-Starbucks may never be the same.