Now we're getting to the good stuff

Harris Bakery Visit Goes Viral Amid Comparisons to JD Vance's Donut Shop Trip

Both campaigns consider Georgia to be a key battleground state this election, with the Harris campaign hoping to recreate President Joe Biden's success there in 2020. By contrast, former President Donald Trump is hoping to reclaim the Peach State after his win there in 2016.

It all happens in Georgia, of course — a state so important they couldn't wait for the state fair. State fairs are the traditional place for politicians to show off eating stuff. 

The Georgia State Fair this year is from September 27 to October 6.

Apartment hunting in Boston

Steer on the loose for two months in Boston seeks new home

I don't know what cattle get paid these days but the average cost of a pad in Beantown is $3,999/mo.

So if I watch the first half…

…of six games, that's really like watching only three games, right?

What a way to ease into another college football season. And in another week the pros will be playing too.

[On Sunday, USC plays LSU on ABC — got that down? That one might actually be worth way.]

Just mentioning. 

And if you haven't had enough already

 Traditionally (and in no other sense), political campaigns begin on Labor Day.

There'll always be a grump

Democrats are choosing joy. How much of it can one nation endure?

Mercy me, how much joy can one nation endure? By the umpteenth invocation of the J-word, I could think only of Dorothy Parker’s famously acerbic reaction to reading A. A. Milne’s “The House at Pooh Corner.” Parker, who wrote the Constant Reader column for The New Yorker, said of Pooh: “Tonstant Weader Fwowed up.”

Investigation or hack?

Russia’s Military Fears for Its Secrets After Telegram Founder’s Arrest

“Many are joking that the arrest of Pavel Durov is essentially the arrest of the chief signals officer of the Russian armed forces,” said Aleksey Rogozin, a Russian parliament adviser and former senior military industry executive.

Durov was arrested in Paris as part of an investigation, the French say, into Telegram's refusing to cooperate with law enforcement. 

He is a citizen of Russia, France, the United Arab Emirates and the Caribbean island nation of St. Kitts and Nevis. He is also, for now, the poster boy for an ongoing tussle between world governments and the operators of encrypted services over the internet.

After 300,000 years of reproducing…*

EU-Funded Scholars Fail to Define ‘Sex’ or ‘Gender’ after Five-Year Research Project

“GENDER-NET Plus” is an initiative that, beginning in 2018, funded 13 transnational research projects with nearly 400 researchers from 12 countries. According to a grant agreement, the European Union awarded GENDER-NET Plus nearly $4.2 million.

…we have finally arrived at wondering which ones are the boys and which the girls.

 * Aproximately 300,000.

End of Civilization 93.0

Want to Pay These College Football Players? Click the QR Code on Their Helmets

Behold the era of the digital college football tip jar.

Florida Man is impressed

Florida woman kills wild boar with mango

She’d just been wandering through Promised Land, the name of the 300-tree, 40-acre property she owns with her husband, David.…

Wait! Nobody told me about this!

These locations are on the Massachusetts Ice Cream Trail

There's an ice cream trail?

Not that there's anything you (or I) can do about it

CISA and Partners Release Advisory on Iran-based Cyber Actors Enabling Ransomware Attacks on US Organizations

FBI investigations conducted as recently as August 2024 assess that cyber actors like Pioneer Kitten are connected with the Government of Iran (GOI) and linked to an Iranian information technology (IT) company. Their malicious cyber operations are aimed at deploying ransomware attacks to obtain and develop network access. These operations aid malicious cyber actors in further collaborating with affiliate actors to continue deploying ransomware.

[If, however…

See #StopRansomware along with the updated #StopRansomware Guide for additional guidance on ransomware protection, detection, and response. Visit CISA’s Cross-Sector Cybersecurity Performance Goals for more information on the CPGs, including additional recommended baseline protections.]

One number for them all

Live Free or Dial: New Hampshire Fights to Keep Its Lone Area Code

New Hampshire belongs to a shrunken fraternity of states with just one code for long-distance dials. But a hangup looms. The growing state is running low on numbers under its current code, 603, and could need a second one in a few years’ time.

 Does anybody still remember party lines? Or, for that matter, operators?

Defending democracy by…

Lawsuits Fly Over Election Rules and Who Gets to Vote

Partisan lawsuits are fairly common in election spaces, and can be used to drive fundraising efforts and stir up motivation among voters, from any party. Even when normal, a high volume of lawsuits can create chaos—or at least confusion—as Election Day approaches, [Loyola Law School Professor Justin]  Levitt said.

“It fosters discontent with a system that works pretty well,” he said.

…by what? Ritual squabbling?

Some states will begin mailing absentee ballots the first week in September. Which means there's not much time left for adding or subtracting names.

Plenty of time for stirring the pot more, though.

Close call

I was unpacking some groceries and accidentally knocked over a big jar of honey I had sitting on the kitchen counter. Big, as in one pound of the stuff. Imagine.

The moral of this story is, if you're going to leave honey out on the kitchen counter be sure the lid's screwed on tight.

Luckily, mine was. Whew.

The reason I had honey on the counter is that somebody told me last summer eating honey from local bees would help prevent allergic reactions to pollen in the spring. So I tried it. I think it worked. For me.* So I'm going to keep doing it.

Also, it's good.

*This is not meant to be medical advice.

Hold the pickle, says Big Tennis

Does American tennis have a pickleball problem?

“Quite frankly, it’s obnoxious to hear that pickleball noise,” U.S. Tennis Association President Dr. Brian Hainline grumbled at a recent state-of-the-game news conference, bemoaning the distinctive pock, pock, pock of pickleball points.

Apparently they do.

I don't play either one. I did try tennis once and hit a lot of home runs. As in, over the fence. In tennis that's not a good thing, it seems. I've never even seen anyone play pickleball. Or heard them, for that matter.

Badminton I've played. But that's a whole nother thing.

Brave new world

A robot in downtown Boston can paint your nails in 10 minutes for $10

Although it will hardly upend the economy on its own, Clockwork’s nail-painting robot is one more sign of the wave of automation coming for many parts of society. As automation ingratiates itself more into the beauty industry and beyond, some say it marks a revolution of convenience and efficiency while others are concerned about robots taking humans’ jobs.

Getting to Boston could be a little pricey, of course, but soon there might be one near you.