TODAY'S RAMBLINGS 4 Minute Read It's a Monday. And now this. After reading today's veritable font of enlightenment, you might be glad the survey is open until this Wednesday. So you can scream. The Portico Darwin Blog Reader Survey There have been endless references to "my leaving TEECOM". There was the whole blog on my music system at...

TODAY'S RAMBLINGS The Attached Article is a Long Read Thanks to those of you that completed the survey; for everyone else, there's still time to take your shots. The Portico Darwin Blog Survey I will keep the survey open for a week, and give my thousands hundreds dozens of subscribers plenty of time to tell me what they really think. T...

TODAY'S RAMBLINGS 4 Minute Read Before getting started, please take 1 minute and answer 4 questions about how you're enjoying this blog. In other words, enough about me, but what do you think about me? Your responses are anonymous, and you might even enjoy the survey. The Portico Darwin Blog Survey I will take this feedback, and with t...

TODAY'S RAMBLINGS 2 Minute Read Happy Monday and I came down with COVID, for the 2nd time since the pandemic's inception. I knew this already when I made my post on Friday, but hey, why ruin your weekend when I had that covered already? I'm fine already - mostly like a quick cold - but I thought these things were behind us? So line me ...

TODAY'S RAMBLINGS <5 Minute Read Let me virtue signal my way into the weekend by saying that I have a proud history of mentoring, both formally and informally. I enjoy helping others and giving back. And it has the side benefit that I get to hear myself talk - always a plus for me. I have an equally proud history of listening to very s...

TODAY'S RAMBLINGS 2 Minute Read Truth be told, I kind of enjoy clothes, fashion, and yes, style. You may not notice, but I put a lot of thought and effort into selecting which of the 4 Banana Republic Medium Tall Cotton T-Shirts in Black I own to wear on any given day. So today I share - in a mercifully shorter post for your hump day -...

TODAY'S RAMBLINGS 4 Minute Read Happy Monday and I am just now wrapping up my latest read, Sally Denton's "The Profiteers". It has the exactly correct subtitle of "Bechtel and the Men Who Built the World." Except "Built the World" - while true in the sense you're probably imagining - also reflects something far more sinister. To this w...

TODAY'S RAMBLINGS 3 Minute Read A global pandemic, and then an attempted coup here. The first European ground war since World War II. Now, runs on banks and a looming nuclear war with China over Taiwan? BORING! What's next - supply chain disruptions of Weissβier? Sounds like a great weekend to hang around, and perhaps listen to great m...

TODAY'S RAMBLINGS 2 Minute Read Yes, it's that time of year again! It's our 3 year Covid-19 anniversary tomorrow! Thank God that's over. It is over, right? Let's just say it is and today turn our attention (again) to the issue of wealth inequality in America. But I am going to approach it from a slightly different angle. First, I will ...

TODAY'S RAMBLINGS 3 Minute Read Happy Monday. In putting together the word cloud stuff for the 2nd anniversary post, one thing really stuck out. I've been giving short-shrift to the most important thing there is as an American citizen: gear and its corollary, shopping. Let's attempt to right this wrong on a Monday with a looksie at som...

TODAY'S RAMBLINGS 5 Minute Read Specifically, Representative Wesley Hunt (R) of Texas. And OK, it was me that met him. He was a guest of Dr. Shelly Murphy in her suite at NRG Stadium this past Sunday night at the Rodeo, and is one of 9 congressional representatives from Harris County, in which Houston is located. He is also the only Re...

TODAY'S RAMBLINGS 2 Minute Read Hello and happy hump day. While I enjoyed Houston and its rodeo, it is very good to be back home in SF. A lot of what I write here is influenced by the podcasts to which I listen, and one of my favorites is Plain Speaking by the thirtysomething genius Derek Thompson. Recently, he had as guests two academ...

TODAY'S RAMBLINGS < 3 Minute Read Happy Monday and we head home to SF today. Despite the clamoring (in actuality, there was no clamoring) for a Houston Travel Guide, there's simply no point, as my experience is not available to the general public. In fact, today's post is fairly brief, and there's almost as much info on Thailand as Hou...

TODAY'S RAMBLINGS 3 Minute Read Holy smokes, this blog is 2 years old tomorrow! What started as just a pitiful and narcissistic quest for relevance and attention in retirement has turned into . . . an ongoing pitiful and narcissistic quest for relevance and attention in retirement. 10 Seconds of Seriousness: as I've said here and to so...

TODAY'S RAMBLINGS <2 Minute Read Sure, we're in Houston having a crazy time, but why not throw some cold water on your vacation planning? I'd like to share the contents of Fodor's No List 2023. This is the travel website and publisher's annual attempt at discouraging visits to fragile and typically, over-loved, travel destinations. We'...

TODAY'S RAMBLINGS 2 Minute Read Tomorrow would have been the 81st birthday of Brian Jones, one of the founding members of The Rolling Stones; he died in 1969. (It's also the first day of Rodeo here in Houston, but more on that soon.) When I noticed his birthday coming up, I broke out a beautiful TASCHEN coffee table book we are proud t...

TODAY'S RAMBLINGS 3 Minute Read Editor's Note: tomorrow we depart for 8 nights in Houston, where we will be attending the extraordinary Livestock Show & Rodeo as the guests of the future highriser Dr. Shelly Murphy. So to make it easy on myself, essentially every word that follows and all of the images were created by the artificial in...

TODAY'S RAMBLINGS <3 Minute Read As I've worked to understand the dynamics of identity politics, one thing that is obvious is the reasonable desire for people heretofore ignored (or worse) by society to be heard. And (although I hate this Wokistan term) seen. I believe that is a major reason people have taken to deeming themselves quee...

TODAY'S RAMBLINGS < 3 Minute Read Happy Monday. Yes, I remember. It was just about this time last year when my love and appreciation for the art of my cousin Charles Clough collided with the hysteria around blockchain technologies, and specifically, non-fungible tokens (NFTs). Remember this? Then (as now) I believed in Charlie and his ...

TODAY'S RAMBLINGS 1 Minute Read Today, for the weekend, we can laugh about the airline business, and cry about trains, or at least, one route in particular. Here's a mercifully short post, but a troubling one, at least to this transportation nerd. As I occasionally do, I am liberally stealing plagiarizing borrowing from two different s...

TODAY'S RAMBLINGS 2 Minute Read As you might have noticed, I've recently been railing on extreme progressivism, or what I call The Psycho Woke. A lot, and as recently as Monday. It's because I am fed up with the mindless silo-ization of America, and the victimhood that comes with it. Add a few dollops of the woefully ineffective left-w...

TODAY'S RAMBLINGS <2 Minute Read It's Monday, but cheer up: we're going to Wokistan! And even better, we're starting at the candy store! These Boots Are Made For Woking By now, you may have heard of the trials and tribulations of that tramp proud woman, the Green M&M. You see, some found her original incarnation misogynist. Of course t...

TODAY'S RAMBLINGS <1 Minute Read (7 hour + listen) I mean, who has the time to wade through the NINETY-ONE categories that made up last Sunday's Grammy Awards? Are you f'ing kidding me? What to do? Well, congratulate yourself for subscribing to this blog. Because I skimmed this list, and then made a playlist of the albums that looked i...

TODAY'S RAMBLINGS 2 Minute Read Nah, it's not what you think. In fact, I want to nuke Texas so badly, and in such a positive manner, that I almost called in my heavy hitters. But I didn't. Because wanting Texas to be the center of clean energy, and especially the modular nuclear power plant industry, should not be fantasy. Yes, some ba...

TODAY'S RAMBLINGS <4 Minute Read Let's dive right in to Monday with me touching two of the third rails in modern America: gender and race. Heck, I even delve into sexuality for good measure. To illustrate, I'll use a term du jour: construct. But not the verb, the noun: Disclaimer: please top reading this right now if you are easily off...

TODAY'S RAMBLINGS > 3 minute read Hi! I'm a Californian again! And it's Friday! Along those lines, here are my favorite convertibles, in no particular order. Most, but not all, are vintage vs. something new. I'm not bothering with years, although I do provide the model of the car. And shocker, there's even a pithy comment here and ther...

TODAY'S RAMBLINGS <2 Minute Read Happy hump day. It is back to SF in a short while after a typically glorious, if cloudy and cold, visit with the literal lifesaver, Dr. Shelly Murphy, here in busy Houston. If you are in America, alive and anything other than off-grid, you've no doubt heard the wave after wave of hype over AI - artifici...

TODAY'S RAMBLINGS 5 Minute Read (attached PDF) I flew into Houston yesterday, courtesy of my favorite cousin, Dr. Shelly Murphy, and am now ensconced in the palatial Murphy Villa. But the Villa will be just a memory soon, which is why I'm here: I'm spec'ing out the tech for her new digs. "New digs," you ask? Nothing major, unless you c...

TODAY'S RAMBLINGS < 3 Minute Read It's the weekend, and I'm asking my dear departed parents to serve up the drinks. What drinks? I'm talking late 1960s and early 1970s, and following are what my parents and those around them were tossing back. People like this - my parent's friends Art Hansen, Wally Clarke, and Bill Cameron. All fine w...

TODAY'S RAMBLINGS < 3 Minute Read First and foremost: Happy Birthday to my very special wife, Julie. If only she took better pictures. On to less wonderful subjects. My typical disclaimer on days like today: no, I am not returning to my news and social media-fueled hair-on-fire and angst-ridden blog style. Nobody wants that. Or mass sh...