![\"Sketch](\"https://cdn.uploads.micro.blog/4638/2026/f3e2de1847-m.jpg\")
@JohnBrady Just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean everyone isn’t out to get you.
\n","url":"https://micro.blog/dwalbert/92666969","date_published":"2026-06-22T15:23:15+00:00","author":{"name":"David Walbert","url":"http://www.davidwalbert.com","avatar":"https://cdn.micro.blog/photos/96/https%3A%2F%2Favatars.micro.blog%2Favatars%2F2026%2F02%2F10333.jpg","_microblog":{"username":"dwalbert"}},"_microblog":{"date_relative":"15:23","date_timestamp":1782141795,"is_favorite":false,"is_bookmark":false,"is_deletable":false,"is_conversation":true,"is_linkpost":false,"is_mention":true}},{"id":"92610570","content_html":"@ablerism Those are great.
\n","url":"https://micro.blog/dwalbert/92610570","date_published":"2026-06-21T16:55:58+00:00","author":{"name":"David Walbert","url":"http://www.davidwalbert.com","avatar":"https://cdn.micro.blog/photos/96/https%3A%2F%2Favatars.micro.blog%2Favatars%2F2026%2F02%2F10333.jpg","_microblog":{"username":"dwalbert"}},"_microblog":{"date_relative":"2026-06-21 16:55","date_timestamp":1782060958,"is_favorite":false,"is_bookmark":false,"is_deletable":false,"is_conversation":true,"is_linkpost":false,"is_mention":true}},{"id":"92610504","content_html":"\n\n\n\n","summary":"","url":"https://social.davidwalbert.com/2026/06/21/the-empty-coffee-cup-sits.html","date_published":"2026-06-21T16:54:06+00:00","author":{"name":"David Walbert","url":"http://www.davidwalbert.com","avatar":"https://cdn.micro.blog/photos/96/https%3A%2F%2Favatars.micro.blog%2Favatars%2F2026%2F02%2F10333.jpg","_microblog":{"username":"dwalbert"}},"_microblog":{"date_relative":"2026-06-21 16:54","date_timestamp":1782060846,"is_favorite":false,"is_bookmark":false,"is_deletable":false,"is_conversation":false,"is_linkpost":false,"is_mention":false,"note":"","syndication":[]}},{"id":"92574751","content_html":"The empty coffee cup sits on the park bench. It has had a busy morning, filled with ambition, and now it has found its peace.
\n
@jabel I like it! I appreciate that you did not make it overly complicated. It is handmade but it is a tool not an heirloom, and you wouldn’t be afraid to poke it in a mud hole to see whether it’s deeper than your boots. I say this because my father made one with a duck’s head on it, and then when it broke he had to gorilla glue it back together and duck-tape it and hide the repair with rawhide cord, and now it lives at my sister’s house where it will probably remain propped in a corner until the end of time. May yours be happy in its stick-ness.
\n","url":"https://micro.blog/dwalbert/92574751","date_published":"2026-06-20T22:57:31+00:00","author":{"name":"David Walbert","url":"http://www.davidwalbert.com","avatar":"https://cdn.micro.blog/photos/96/https%3A%2F%2Favatars.micro.blog%2Favatars%2F2026%2F02%2F10333.jpg","_microblog":{"username":"dwalbert"}},"_microblog":{"date_relative":"2026-06-20 22:57","date_timestamp":1781996251,"is_favorite":false,"is_bookmark":false,"is_deletable":false,"is_conversation":true,"is_linkpost":false,"is_mention":true}},{"id":"92459856","content_html":"@antonzuiker I would be interested to see a list! I’ll see if I can dig up the one from that eastern Orange County spot.
\n","url":"https://micro.blog/dwalbert/92459856","date_published":"2026-06-18T22:21:13+00:00","author":{"name":"David Walbert","url":"http://www.davidwalbert.com","avatar":"https://cdn.micro.blog/photos/96/https%3A%2F%2Favatars.micro.blog%2Favatars%2F2026%2F02%2F10333.jpg","_microblog":{"username":"dwalbert"}},"_microblog":{"date_relative":"2026-06-18 22:21","date_timestamp":1781821273,"is_favorite":false,"is_bookmark":false,"is_deletable":false,"is_conversation":true,"is_linkpost":false,"is_mention":true}},{"id":"92395504","content_html":"@antonzuiker I used to have an acre and a quarter between Eno River State Park and Duke Forest, and the drift from those two natural areas and the stage of forest succession meant that I was able to find 26 native species of tree on the property. I’ve always been curious how unusual that was, but I imagine there are lots more for you to find where you are.
\n","url":"https://micro.blog/dwalbert/92395504","date_published":"2026-06-17T23:43:40+00:00","author":{"name":"David Walbert","url":"http://www.davidwalbert.com","avatar":"https://cdn.micro.blog/photos/96/https%3A%2F%2Favatars.micro.blog%2Favatars%2F2026%2F02%2F10333.jpg","_microblog":{"username":"dwalbert"}},"_microblog":{"date_relative":"2026-06-17 23:43","date_timestamp":1781739820,"is_favorite":false,"is_bookmark":false,"is_deletable":false,"is_conversation":true,"is_linkpost":false,"is_mention":true}},{"id":"92384917","content_html":"@joshuapsteele From experience, men’s room at that age. It gets more difficult in the years after that until they’re old enough to go in on their own.
\n","url":"https://micro.blog/dwalbert/92384917","date_published":"2026-06-17T20:59:12+00:00","author":{"name":"David Walbert","url":"http://www.davidwalbert.com","avatar":"https://cdn.micro.blog/photos/96/https%3A%2F%2Favatars.micro.blog%2Favatars%2F2026%2F02%2F10333.jpg","_microblog":{"username":"dwalbert"}},"_microblog":{"date_relative":"2026-06-17 20:59","date_timestamp":1781729952,"is_favorite":false,"is_bookmark":false,"is_deletable":false,"is_conversation":true,"is_linkpost":false,"is_mention":true}},{"id":"92363573","content_html":"@bbowman Both extremes have a kind of literality to them, I think. It’s the possibilities of “both/and” that I find intriguing in art. Or that art ought to be a tool for seeing.
\n","url":"https://micro.blog/dwalbert/92363573","date_published":"2026-06-17T15:09:12+00:00","author":{"name":"David Walbert","url":"http://www.davidwalbert.com","avatar":"https://cdn.micro.blog/photos/96/https%3A%2F%2Favatars.micro.blog%2Favatars%2F2026%2F02%2F10333.jpg","_microblog":{"username":"dwalbert"}},"_microblog":{"date_relative":"2026-06-17 15:09","date_timestamp":1781708952,"is_favorite":false,"is_bookmark":false,"is_deletable":false,"is_conversation":true,"is_linkpost":false,"is_mention":true}},{"id":"92357658","content_html":"\n\n\n\n\nMost secular modern and post-modern creatives intuit that the age of naturalism is long since over. But this discovery confronts us with the enormous, gaping hole that yawns, where we’d expect to find a metaphysical framework able to give coherence and moral order to non-naturalistic artworks…. I submit that this is the real sickness in contemporary culture: not the abandonment of naturalism as such, but the widespread (and highly politicised) refusal to allow the reality of any metaphysical substrate able to sustain the artistic depiction of forms, and ends.
\n
In other words: Why...
social.davidwalbert.com","summary":"","url":"https://social.davidwalbert.com/2026/06/17/mary-harrington-most-secular-modern.html","date_published":"2026-06-17T13:25:42+00:00","author":{"name":"David Walbert","url":"http://www.davidwalbert.com","avatar":"https://cdn.micro.blog/photos/96/https%3A%2F%2Favatars.micro.blog%2Favatars%2F2026%2F02%2F10333.jpg","_microblog":{"username":"dwalbert"}},"_microblog":{"date_relative":"2026-06-17 13:25","date_timestamp":1781702742,"is_favorite":false,"is_bookmark":false,"is_deletable":false,"is_conversation":true,"is_linkpost":false,"is_mention":false,"note":"","syndication":[]}},{"id":"92356962","content_html":"@jabel There are no boring webinars, only boring people who make them.
\n","url":"https://micro.blog/dwalbert/92356962","date_published":"2026-06-17T13:15:17+00:00","author":{"name":"David Walbert","url":"http://www.davidwalbert.com","avatar":"https://cdn.micro.blog/photos/96/https%3A%2F%2Favatars.micro.blog%2Favatars%2F2026%2F02%2F10333.jpg","_microblog":{"username":"dwalbert"}},"_microblog":{"date_relative":"2026-06-17 13:15","date_timestamp":1781702117,"is_favorite":false,"is_bookmark":false,"is_deletable":false,"is_conversation":true,"is_linkpost":false,"is_mention":true}},{"id":"92356895","content_html":"This week’s work
\n\n
@isaacgreene @robertbreen Quite a few images from that book come vividly to mind now you mention it. One of the best portrayals I’ve read of simply not fitting.
\n","url":"https://micro.blog/dwalbert/92356534","date_published":"2026-06-17T13:03:59+00:00","author":{"name":"David Walbert","url":"http://www.davidwalbert.com","avatar":"https://cdn.micro.blog/photos/96/https%3A%2F%2Favatars.micro.blog%2Favatars%2F2026%2F02%2F10333.jpg","_microblog":{"username":"dwalbert"}},"_microblog":{"date_relative":"2026-06-17 13:03","date_timestamp":1781701439,"is_favorite":false,"is_bookmark":false,"is_deletable":false,"is_conversation":true,"is_linkpost":false,"is_mention":true}},{"id":"92299425","content_html":"@jabel one of my favorites.
\n","url":"https://micro.blog/dwalbert/92299425","date_published":"2026-06-16T16:59:32+00:00","author":{"name":"David Walbert","url":"http://www.davidwalbert.com","avatar":"https://cdn.micro.blog/photos/96/https%3A%2F%2Favatars.micro.blog%2Favatars%2F2026%2F02%2F10333.jpg","_microblog":{"username":"dwalbert"}},"_microblog":{"date_relative":"2026-06-16 16:59","date_timestamp":1781629172,"is_favorite":false,"is_bookmark":false,"is_deletable":false,"is_conversation":true,"is_linkpost":false,"is_mention":true}},{"id":"92252072","content_html":"@ablerism Yes indeed to both! Homemade ranch dressing and granola, two great tastes that should be kept on opposite sides of the kitchen…
\n","url":"https://micro.blog/dwalbert/92252072","date_published":"2026-06-15T23:36:40+00:00","author":{"name":"David Walbert","url":"http://www.davidwalbert.com","avatar":"https://cdn.micro.blog/photos/96/https%3A%2F%2Favatars.micro.blog%2Favatars%2F2026%2F02%2F10333.jpg","_microblog":{"username":"dwalbert"}},"_microblog":{"date_relative":"2026-06-15 23:36","date_timestamp":1781566600,"is_favorite":false,"is_bookmark":false,"is_deletable":false,"is_conversation":true,"is_linkpost":false,"is_mention":true}},{"id":"92120186","content_html":"@ffmike I’m baking some right now. Can you be here by five?
\n","url":"https://micro.blog/dwalbert/92120186","date_published":"2026-06-13T18:35:44+00:00","author":{"name":"David Walbert","url":"http://www.davidwalbert.com","avatar":"https://cdn.micro.blog/photos/96/https%3A%2F%2Favatars.micro.blog%2Favatars%2F2026%2F02%2F10333.jpg","_microblog":{"username":"dwalbert"}},"_microblog":{"date_relative":"2026-06-13 18:35","date_timestamp":1781375744,"is_favorite":false,"is_bookmark":false,"is_deletable":false,"is_conversation":true,"is_linkpost":false,"is_mention":true}},{"id":"92075739","content_html":"@tinyroofnail I used to have on my office wall a framed blow-up of a photo I took of a triple rainbow from the side of a Swiss mountain. Someone said it was too perfect (three rainbows!) and looked like it must be faked, and I said if I’d faked it I’d have gotten the focus right. That of course was in the days of film cameras.
\n","url":"https://micro.blog/dwalbert/92075739","date_published":"2026-06-12T23:14:59+00:00","author":{"name":"David Walbert","url":"http://www.davidwalbert.com","avatar":"https://cdn.micro.blog/photos/96/https%3A%2F%2Favatars.micro.blog%2Favatars%2F2026%2F02%2F10333.jpg","_microblog":{"username":"dwalbert"}},"_microblog":{"date_relative":"2026-06-12 23:14","date_timestamp":1781306099,"is_favorite":false,"is_bookmark":false,"is_deletable":false,"is_conversation":true,"is_linkpost":false,"is_mention":true}},{"id":"92075520","content_html":"@Miraz I just thought it was funny — you all are famed for your native birds over there but someone apparently couldn’t live without his goldfinch. Which, I guess, I understand.
\n","url":"https://micro.blog/dwalbert/92075520","date_published":"2026-06-12T23:12:12+00:00","author":{"name":"David Walbert","url":"http://www.davidwalbert.com","avatar":"https://cdn.micro.blog/photos/96/https%3A%2F%2Favatars.micro.blog%2Favatars%2F2026%2F02%2F10333.jpg","_microblog":{"username":"dwalbert"}},"_microblog":{"date_relative":"2026-06-12 23:12","date_timestamp":1781305932,"is_favorite":false,"is_bookmark":false,"is_deletable":false,"is_conversation":true,"is_linkpost":false,"is_mention":true}},{"id":"92070039","content_html":"Recently I heard someone say that such-and-such a farm had “buffalo and other iconic animals.” What other animals are iconic? What animals are not iconic? Is there a chart somewhere I can reference? Are the non-iconic animals insulted?
\n","summary":"","url":"https://social.davidwalbert.com/2026/06/12/recently-i-heard-someone-say.html","date_published":"2026-06-12T21:14:13+00:00","author":{"name":"David Walbert","url":"http://www.davidwalbert.com","avatar":"https://cdn.micro.blog/photos/96/https%3A%2F%2Favatars.micro.blog%2Favatars%2F2026%2F02%2F10333.jpg","_microblog":{"username":"dwalbert"}},"_microblog":{"date_relative":"2026-06-12 21:14","date_timestamp":1781298853,"is_favorite":false,"is_bookmark":false,"is_deletable":false,"is_conversation":false,"is_linkpost":false,"is_mention":false,"note":"","syndication":[]}},{"id":"92009450","content_html":"@Miraz European goldfinches? Are they naturalized there?
\n","url":"https://micro.blog/dwalbert/92009450","date_published":"2026-06-11T23:56:57+00:00","author":{"name":"David Walbert","url":"http://www.davidwalbert.com","avatar":"https://cdn.micro.blog/photos/96/https%3A%2F%2Favatars.micro.blog%2Favatars%2F2026%2F02%2F10333.jpg","_microblog":{"username":"dwalbert"}},"_microblog":{"date_relative":"2026-06-11 23:56","date_timestamp":1781222217,"is_favorite":false,"is_bookmark":false,"is_deletable":false,"is_conversation":true,"is_linkpost":false,"is_mention":true}},{"id":"91982289","content_html":"@JohnBrady When I was 22 I discovered chile bean paste and it changed my life. I know people throw that phrase around casually, but I’ll stand by it. God bless the Har Har Pickle Food Factory.
\n","url":"https://micro.blog/dwalbert/91982289","date_published":"2026-06-11T16:59:05+00:00","author":{"name":"David Walbert","url":"http://www.davidwalbert.com","avatar":"https://cdn.micro.blog/photos/96/https%3A%2F%2Favatars.micro.blog%2Favatars%2F2026%2F02%2F10333.jpg","_microblog":{"username":"dwalbert"}},"_microblog":{"date_relative":"2026-06-11 16:59","date_timestamp":1781197145,"is_favorite":false,"is_bookmark":false,"is_deletable":false,"is_conversation":true,"is_linkpost":false,"is_mention":true}},{"id":"91981503","content_html":"@tinyroofnail That’s a lovely moment. Per @JohnBrady I would assume that if it were genAI the power lines wouldn’t run across the church. :)
\n","url":"https://micro.blog/dwalbert/91981503","date_published":"2026-06-11T16:39:48+00:00","author":{"name":"David Walbert","url":"http://www.davidwalbert.com","avatar":"https://cdn.micro.blog/photos/96/https%3A%2F%2Favatars.micro.blog%2Favatars%2F2026%2F02%2F10333.jpg","_microblog":{"username":"dwalbert"}},"_microblog":{"date_relative":"2026-06-11 16:39","date_timestamp":1781195988,"is_favorite":false,"is_bookmark":false,"is_deletable":false,"is_conversation":true,"is_linkpost":false,"is_mention":true}},{"id":"91864213","content_html":"@ffmike Nicely shot.
\n","url":"https://micro.blog/dwalbert/91864213","date_published":"2026-06-09T22:42:54+00:00","author":{"name":"David Walbert","url":"http://www.davidwalbert.com","avatar":"https://cdn.micro.blog/photos/96/https%3A%2F%2Favatars.micro.blog%2Favatars%2F2026%2F02%2F10333.jpg","_microblog":{"username":"dwalbert"}},"_microblog":{"date_relative":"2026-06-09 22:42","date_timestamp":1781044974,"is_favorite":false,"is_bookmark":false,"is_deletable":false,"is_conversation":true,"is_linkpost":false,"is_mention":true}},{"id":"91864208","content_html":"@JohnBrady Ironically, the difference between urgency and importance was first raised to me by someone referencing The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People.
\n","url":"https://micro.blog/dwalbert/91864208","date_published":"2026-06-09T22:42:37+00:00","author":{"name":"David Walbert","url":"http://www.davidwalbert.com","avatar":"https://cdn.micro.blog/photos/96/https%3A%2F%2Favatars.micro.blog%2Favatars%2F2026%2F02%2F10333.jpg","_microblog":{"username":"dwalbert"}},"_microblog":{"date_relative":"2026-06-09 22:42","date_timestamp":1781044957,"is_favorite":false,"is_bookmark":false,"is_deletable":false,"is_conversation":true,"is_linkpost":false,"is_mention":true}},{"id":"91726632","content_html":"@jabel Looks like a lovely spot (or spots). It’s easy enough to suppose the underground river a thin place—such a strange thing.
\n","url":"https://micro.blog/dwalbert/91726632","date_published":"2026-06-07T23:30:13+00:00","author":{"name":"David Walbert","url":"http://www.davidwalbert.com","avatar":"https://cdn.micro.blog/photos/96/https%3A%2F%2Favatars.micro.blog%2Favatars%2F2026%2F02%2F10333.jpg","_microblog":{"username":"dwalbert"}},"_microblog":{"date_relative":"2026-06-07 23:30","date_timestamp":1780875013,"is_favorite":false,"is_bookmark":false,"is_deletable":false,"is_conversation":true,"is_linkpost":false,"is_mention":true}},{"id":"91707582","content_html":"@dwalbert Nineteenth-century food, nineteenth-century recipe format. On the extremely small chance that someone reading this is visually impaired and actually wants to bake the thing (don’t just jerk my chain) drop me a line, I will give you my phone number, you can call me and I will read it to you. Happy to help out a human being but have better things to do than arrange ASCII for bots.
\n","url":"https://micro.blog/dwalbert/91707582","date_published":"2026-06-07T17:07:52+00:00","author":{"name":"David Walbert","url":"http://www.davidwalbert.com","avatar":"https://cdn.micro.blog/photos/96/https%3A%2F%2Favatars.micro.blog%2Favatars%2F2026%2F02%2F10333.jpg","_microblog":{"username":"dwalbert"}},"_microblog":{"date_relative":"2026-06-07 17:07","date_timestamp":1780852072,"is_favorite":false,"is_bookmark":false,"is_deletable":false,"is_conversation":true,"is_linkpost":false,"is_mention":true}},{"id":"91706984","content_html":"Made oatmeal-potato datschkuche for breakfast and it is the best thing I’ve ever eaten this week. You can have the recipe receipt if you can read my handwriting. See William Woys Weaver’s Dutch Treats for the original.
![\"datsch](\"https://cdn.uploads.micro.blog/4638/2026/oatmeal-potato-datsch-m.jpg\")
![\"datsch](\"https://cdn.uploads.micro.blog/4638/2026/img-8857-m.jpg\")
\n@ffmike @the @JohnBrady We’re like these guys.
\n","url":"https://micro.blog/dwalbert/91645196","date_published":"2026-06-06T12:35:43+00:00","author":{"name":"David Walbert","url":"http://www.davidwalbert.com","avatar":"https://cdn.micro.blog/photos/96/https%3A%2F%2Favatars.micro.blog%2Favatars%2F2026%2F02%2F10333.jpg","_microblog":{"username":"dwalbert"}},"_microblog":{"date_relative":"2026-06-06 12:35","date_timestamp":1780749343,"is_favorite":false,"is_bookmark":false,"is_deletable":false,"is_conversation":true,"is_linkpost":false,"is_mention":true}},{"id":"91615831","content_html":"@ffmike You have me beat by 10 years, but I did some FORTRAN 77 coding in high school that was saved on not-floppy discs measuring roughly a foot in diameter and at least an inch thick. (Let me tell you kids they were darned inconvenient to have to carry around on horseback.)
\n","url":"https://micro.blog/dwalbert/91615831","date_published":"2026-06-05T23:52:07+00:00","author":{"name":"David Walbert","url":"http://www.davidwalbert.com","avatar":"https://cdn.micro.blog/photos/96/https%3A%2F%2Favatars.micro.blog%2Favatars%2F2026%2F02%2F10333.jpg","_microblog":{"username":"dwalbert"}},"_microblog":{"date_relative":"2026-06-05 23:52","date_timestamp":1780703527,"is_favorite":false,"is_bookmark":false,"is_deletable":false,"is_conversation":true,"is_linkpost":false,"is_mention":true}},{"id":"91588862","content_html":"@robertbrook Castle in the air?
\n","url":"https://micro.blog/dwalbert/91588862","date_published":"2026-06-05T14:59:05+00:00","author":{"name":"David Walbert","url":"http://www.davidwalbert.com","avatar":"https://cdn.micro.blog/photos/96/https%3A%2F%2Favatars.micro.blog%2Favatars%2F2026%2F02%2F10333.jpg","_microblog":{"username":"dwalbert"}},"_microblog":{"date_relative":"2026-06-05 14:59","date_timestamp":1780671545,"is_favorite":false,"is_bookmark":false,"is_deletable":false,"is_conversation":true,"is_linkpost":false,"is_mention":true}},{"id":"91500593","content_html":"@tinyroofnail Mary Harrington has been posting a series about this topic in her Substack— techniques of memory before the printing press.
\n","url":"https://micro.blog/dwalbert/91500593","date_published":"2026-06-04T00:04:07+00:00","author":{"name":"David Walbert","url":"http://www.davidwalbert.com","avatar":"https://cdn.micro.blog/photos/96/https%3A%2F%2Favatars.micro.blog%2Favatars%2F2026%2F02%2F10333.jpg","_microblog":{"username":"dwalbert"}},"_microblog":{"date_relative":"2026-06-04 00:04","date_timestamp":1780531447,"is_favorite":false,"is_bookmark":false,"is_deletable":false,"is_conversation":true,"is_linkpost":false,"is_mention":true}},{"id":"91272103","content_html":"I am continually experimenting with my garden space, but here is one thing that works year after year: I run jute twine through steel fenceposts for a crude trellis, tie up and spread out the plants with the same twine, and in fall compost the whole mess, leaving the posts for next year.
\n\n![\"closeup](\"https://cdn.uploads.micro.blog/4638/2026/12b206e172-m.jpg\")
![\"tomato](\"https://cdn.uploads.micro.blog/4638/2026/438a4bc02f-m.jpg\")
![\"cherry](\"https://cdn.uploads.micro.blog/4638/2026/91ec9792fe-m.jpg\")
\n“Coffee in a can” must be one of the saddest phrases in the English language.
\n","summary":"","url":"https://social.davidwalbert.com/2026/05/30/coffee-in-a-can-must.html","date_published":"2026-05-30T11:25:30+00:00","author":{"name":"David Walbert","url":"http://www.davidwalbert.com","avatar":"https://cdn.micro.blog/photos/96/https%3A%2F%2Favatars.micro.blog%2Favatars%2F2026%2F02%2F10333.jpg","_microblog":{"username":"dwalbert"}},"_microblog":{"date_relative":"2026-05-30 11:25","date_timestamp":1780140330,"is_favorite":false,"is_bookmark":false,"is_deletable":false,"is_conversation":true,"is_linkpost":false,"is_mention":false,"note":"","syndication":[]}},{"id":"91157909","content_html":"Two observations today. (1) Thank God for human beings willing to help other human beings solve problems in ways not entirely condoned by bureaucracy; and (2) those designing to replace such human beings with AI should be thrown in an ICE prison, given a phone, and put on hold until they starve.
\n","summary":"","url":"https://social.davidwalbert.com/2026/05/29/two-observations-today-thank-god.html","date_published":"2026-05-29T16:31:03+00:00","author":{"name":"David Walbert","url":"http://www.davidwalbert.com","avatar":"https://cdn.micro.blog/photos/96/https%3A%2F%2Favatars.micro.blog%2Favatars%2F2026%2F02%2F10333.jpg","_microblog":{"username":"dwalbert"}},"_microblog":{"date_relative":"2026-05-29 16:31","date_timestamp":1780072263,"is_favorite":false,"is_bookmark":false,"is_deletable":false,"is_conversation":false,"is_linkpost":false,"is_mention":false,"note":"","syndication":[]}},{"id":"90235395","content_html":"Just ran across an article that I thought might be interesting but quickly learned that the New Scythians were not in fact proponents of appropriate technology in agriculture. Alas
\n","summary":"","url":"https://social.davidwalbert.com/2026/05/15/just-ran-across-an-article.html","date_published":"2026-05-15T15:22:02+00:00","author":{"name":"David Walbert","url":"http://www.davidwalbert.com","avatar":"https://cdn.micro.blog/photos/96/https%3A%2F%2Favatars.micro.blog%2Favatars%2F2026%2F02%2F10333.jpg","_microblog":{"username":"dwalbert"}},"_microblog":{"date_relative":"2026-05-15 15:22","date_timestamp":1778858522,"is_favorite":false,"is_bookmark":false,"is_deletable":false,"is_conversation":false,"is_linkpost":false,"is_mention":false,"note":"","syndication":[]}},{"id":"90157306","content_html":"Two things you might see more of in Raleigh if people didn’t tend their lawns so carefully: a great crested flycatcher (which nests in natural holes in trees) and a crazy array of grasses going to seed. But you can see the carving (and me) downtown at Artsplosure Saturday and Sunday.
\n\n![\"\"](\"https://cdn.uploads.micro.blog/4638/2026/fc1223aa45-m.jpg\")
Thought I would try carving some text again: the first lines of Goethe’s “Mailied” (May Song), loosely translated, with the first bars of Fannie Mendelssohn Hensel’s setting of the text. I had a terrible time carving it, and only realized the problem was not me or the knife but the wood after I’d done too...
social.davidwalbert.com","summary":"","url":"https://social.davidwalbert.com/2026/05/13/thought-i-would-try-carving.html","date_published":"2026-05-13T20:46:52+00:00","author":{"name":"David Walbert","url":"http://www.davidwalbert.com","avatar":"https://cdn.micro.blog/photos/96/https%3A%2F%2Favatars.micro.blog%2Favatars%2F2026%2F02%2F10333.jpg","_microblog":{"username":"dwalbert"}},"_microblog":{"date_relative":"2026-05-13 20:46","date_timestamp":1778705212,"is_favorite":false,"is_bookmark":false,"is_deletable":false,"is_conversation":true,"is_linkpost":false,"is_mention":false,"note":"","syndication":[]}},{"id":"90111070","content_html":"Follow-up on the Second Luddites Congress: The August 1996 issue of the Friends Journal includes an article about the meeting (pp. 16–18) which includes a “summary statement” that may be the same as the “statement of means” referenced here and elsewhere, but I don’t know for sure. (Otherwise, I am fairly...
social.davidwalbert.com","summary":"","url":"https://social.davidwalbert.com/2026/05/13/followup-on-the-second-luddites.html","date_published":"2026-05-13T20:34:35+00:00","author":{"name":"David Walbert","url":"http://www.davidwalbert.com","avatar":"https://cdn.micro.blog/photos/96/https%3A%2F%2Favatars.micro.blog%2Favatars%2F2026%2F02%2F10333.jpg","_microblog":{"username":"dwalbert"}},"_microblog":{"date_relative":"2026-05-13 20:34","date_timestamp":1778704475,"is_favorite":false,"is_bookmark":false,"is_deletable":false,"is_conversation":true,"is_linkpost":false,"is_mention":false,"note":"","syndication":[]}},{"id":"90089806","content_html":"Shot in the dark: Does anybody have a copy of the Statement of Means written at the Second Luddites Congress in 1996? Or know where I can find one? I have found all sorts of writing about the event but only brief quotations from the document.
\n\n(Obviously the idea of looking for it on the internet is absurd,...
social.davidwalbert.com","summary":"","url":"https://social.davidwalbert.com/2026/05/13/shot-in-the-dark-does.html","date_published":"2026-05-13T15:07:36+00:00","author":{"name":"David Walbert","url":"http://www.davidwalbert.com","avatar":"https://cdn.micro.blog/photos/96/https%3A%2F%2Favatars.micro.blog%2Favatars%2F2026%2F02%2F10333.jpg","_microblog":{"username":"dwalbert"}},"_microblog":{"date_relative":"2026-05-13 15:07","date_timestamp":1778684856,"is_favorite":false,"is_bookmark":false,"is_deletable":false,"is_conversation":true,"is_linkpost":false,"is_mention":false,"note":"","syndication":[]}},{"id":"89891908","content_html":"![\"\"](\"https://cdn.uploads.micro.blog/4638/2026/b57abf6801-m.jpg\")
\n","summary":"","url":"https://social.davidwalbert.com/2026/05/10/132312.html","date_published":"2026-05-10T17:23:12+00:00","author":{"name":"David Walbert","url":"http://www.davidwalbert.com","avatar":"https://cdn.micro.blog/photos/96/https%3A%2F%2Favatars.micro.blog%2Favatars%2F2026%2F02%2F10333.jpg","_microblog":{"username":"dwalbert"}},"_microblog":{"date_relative":"2026-05-10 17:23","date_timestamp":1778433792,"is_favorite":false,"is_bookmark":false,"is_deletable":false,"is_conversation":false,"is_linkpost":false,"is_mention":false,"note":"","syndication":[]}},{"id":"89766932","content_html":"\n\n\n\n","summary":"","url":"https://social.davidwalbert.com/2026/05/07/seen-from-afterward-the-time.html","date_published":"2026-05-07T14:36:46+00:00","author":{"name":"David Walbert","url":"http://www.davidwalbert.com","avatar":"https://cdn.micro.blog/photos/96/https%3A%2F%2Favatars.micro.blog%2Favatars%2F2026%2F02%2F10333.jpg","_microblog":{"username":"dwalbert"}},"_microblog":{"date_relative":"2026-05-07 14:36","date_timestamp":1778164606,"is_favorite":false,"is_bookmark":false,"is_deletable":false,"is_conversation":false,"is_linkpost":false,"is_mention":false,"note":"","syndication":[]}},{"id":"89337251","content_html":"Seen from afterward the time appears to have been
\n
\n all of a piece which of course it was but how seldom
\nit seemed that way when it was still happening
Yesterday seemed like another day of drought-clouds that promised without delivering, but near midnight thunder rolled and a quick storm brought half an inch of rain, after an inch this weekend. It’s a long way back to normal, but hopefully we’re making a start.
\n","summary":"","url":"https://social.davidwalbert.com/2026/04/30/yesterday-seemed-like-another-day.html","date_published":"2026-04-30T19:16:46+00:00","author":{"name":"David Walbert","url":"http://www.davidwalbert.com","avatar":"https://cdn.micro.blog/photos/96/https%3A%2F%2Favatars.micro.blog%2Favatars%2F2026%2F02%2F10333.jpg","_microblog":{"username":"dwalbert"}},"_microblog":{"date_relative":"2026-04-30 19:16","date_timestamp":1777576606,"is_favorite":false,"is_bookmark":false,"is_deletable":false,"is_conversation":false,"is_linkpost":false,"is_mention":false,"note":"","syndication":[]}},{"id":"89137537","content_html":"Is it too early to start printing “No More Mr. NICE Guy” t-shirts?
\n","summary":"","url":"https://social.davidwalbert.com/2026/04/27/is-it-too-early-to.html","date_published":"2026-04-28T00:29:45+00:00","author":{"name":"David Walbert","url":"http://www.davidwalbert.com","avatar":"https://cdn.micro.blog/photos/96/https%3A%2F%2Favatars.micro.blog%2Favatars%2F2026%2F02%2F10333.jpg","_microblog":{"username":"dwalbert"}},"_microblog":{"date_relative":"2026-04-28 00:29","date_timestamp":1777336185,"is_favorite":false,"is_bookmark":false,"is_deletable":false,"is_conversation":false,"is_linkpost":false,"is_mention":false,"note":"","syndication":[]}},{"id":"89005315","content_html":"I remembered this week that one need not bother with shaker and cocktail glass to enjoy a martini: a rocks glass and a few ice cubes will do, granted the proper gin and a good vermouth. It may not, all things considered, be a good thing that I remembered this, but for the time being I’m enjoying it.
\n","summary":"","url":"https://social.davidwalbert.com/2026/04/25/i-remembered-this-week-that.html","date_published":"2026-04-25T23:48:36+00:00","author":{"name":"David Walbert","url":"http://www.davidwalbert.com","avatar":"https://cdn.micro.blog/photos/96/https%3A%2F%2Favatars.micro.blog%2Favatars%2F2026%2F02%2F10333.jpg","_microblog":{"username":"dwalbert"}},"_microblog":{"date_relative":"2026-04-25 23:48","date_timestamp":1777160916,"is_favorite":false,"is_bookmark":false,"is_deletable":false,"is_conversation":false,"is_linkpost":false,"is_mention":false,"note":"","syndication":[]}},{"id":"88936476","content_html":"\n\n\nSpring here is not spring as we know it: the cool, wet promise of snowmelt and frozen ground yielding into mud. Here, a sudden heat falls out of the sky one day, and one breathes and moves as if deposited inside a kettle of soup. In response, vegetation shoots out of the ground with irresistible force. Just when the body wishes to slow down and give way to lassitude, it must instead accelerate, for the challenge is to keep human labor on a pace with the work of Nature, or else by overrun by the excesses of her abundance.
\n
—Geraldine Brooks, in March. About as good a description of a Southern spring...
social.davidwalbert.com","summary":"","url":"https://social.davidwalbert.com/2026/04/24/spring-here-is-not-spring.html","date_published":"2026-04-24T15:54:33+00:00","author":{"name":"David Walbert","url":"http://www.davidwalbert.com","avatar":"https://cdn.micro.blog/photos/96/https%3A%2F%2Favatars.micro.blog%2Favatars%2F2026%2F02%2F10333.jpg","_microblog":{"username":"dwalbert"}},"_microblog":{"date_relative":"2026-04-24 15:54","date_timestamp":1777046073,"is_favorite":false,"is_bookmark":false,"is_deletable":false,"is_conversation":true,"is_linkpost":false,"is_mention":false,"note":"","syndication":[]}},{"id":"88484243","content_html":"\n\n\nsocial.davidwalbert.com","summary":"","url":"https://social.davidwalbert.com/2026/04/17/l-m-sacasas-discussions-around.html","date_published":"2026-04-17T23:19:31+00:00","author":{"name":"David Walbert","url":"http://www.davidwalbert.com","avatar":"https://cdn.micro.blog/photos/96/https%3A%2F%2Favatars.micro.blog%2Favatars%2F2026%2F02%2F10333.jpg","_microblog":{"username":"dwalbert"}},"_microblog":{"date_relative":"2026-04-17 23:19","date_timestamp":1776467971,"is_favorite":false,"is_bookmark":false,"is_deletable":false,"is_conversation":true,"is_linkpost":false,"is_mention":false,"note":"","syndication":[]}},{"id":"88404233","content_html":"Discussions around the human in relation to technology, specifically AI, parallel older debates about science and religion. In that discursive context, there was a form of argument known as “God of the gaps.” The idea was that God was simply a name for the gaps in our scientific understanding of the world. Of course, once those gaps were filled, God would be effectively squeezed out of the metaphysical picture. Similarly, we are operating with a “human of the gaps” model when we try to locate the essence of the human creature by pointing to what cannot yet be accomplished by a machine,...
\n
Salad days
\n\n![\"radishes](\"https://cdn.uploads.micro.blog/4638/2026/b6662636b6-m.jpg\")
![\"flowering](\"https://cdn.uploads.micro.blog/4638/2026/c54511e8df-m.jpg\")
![\"flowering](\"https://cdn.uploads.micro.blog/4638/2026/9f0a5eadea-m.jpg\")
![\"lettuce](\"https://cdn.uploads.micro.blog/4638/2026/e6183c2d50-m.jpg\")
![\"baby](\"https://cdn.uploads.micro.blog/4638/2026/f7d34ff35e-m.jpg\")
\nCame home this afternoon to find the local five-foot black rat snake (whom I call Ermengarde) sunning herself on the front steps digesting a chipmunk-sized bulge. I always like seeing Ermengarde, but she is less excited to see me, so we kept it brief. (Maybe you’ve had relationships like that.)
\n","summary":"","url":"https://social.davidwalbert.com/2026/04/14/came-home-this-afternoon-to.html","date_published":"2026-04-14T21:06:27+00:00","author":{"name":"David Walbert","url":"http://www.davidwalbert.com","avatar":"https://cdn.micro.blog/photos/96/https%3A%2F%2Favatars.micro.blog%2Favatars%2F2026%2F02%2F10333.jpg","_microblog":{"username":"dwalbert"}},"_microblog":{"date_relative":"2026-04-14 21:06","date_timestamp":1776200787,"is_favorite":false,"is_bookmark":false,"is_deletable":false,"is_conversation":true,"is_linkpost":false,"is_mention":false,"note":"","syndication":[]}},{"id":"88249767","content_html":"All right, back to our regularly scheduled programming. Here’s a go at some butterflies.
\n\n![\"chip](\"https://cdn.uploads.micro.blog/4638/2026/d91b25640c-m.jpg\")
\n\n\n“Blasphemy” is not a phrase we are used to seeing in print these days even in magazines like this one. When it does appear, it is usually in a non-literal sense, meaning something like “insouciance.” But blasphemy is not a mere casual lack of concern for sacred things; it is their willful profanation.
\n\nIf the image posted on Trump’s TruthSocial account on Sunday evening… is not blasphemous, the word has no meaning.
\n
Walther’s rare hot takes always manage to be both cogent essays and barn-burners, but I’m going to push back, gently, and say that if one accepts his definition of...
social.davidwalbert.com","summary":"","url":"https://social.davidwalbert.com/2026/04/14/matthew-walther-blasphemy-is-not.html","date_published":"2026-04-14T13:40:08+00:00","author":{"name":"David Walbert","url":"http://www.davidwalbert.com","avatar":"https://cdn.micro.blog/photos/96/https%3A%2F%2Favatars.micro.blog%2Favatars%2F2026%2F02%2F10333.jpg","_microblog":{"username":"dwalbert"}},"_microblog":{"date_relative":"2026-04-14 13:40","date_timestamp":1776174008,"is_favorite":false,"is_bookmark":false,"is_deletable":false,"is_conversation":true,"is_linkpost":false,"is_mention":false,"note":"","syndication":[]}},{"id":"88074071","content_html":"Man. Now lay we mortal flesh upon the fire,
\nAnd, raising toothsome searings to our nostrils,
\nBring us pleasure.
\n Dog. My jowls are all a-water!
\nMan. Sit thee on thy haunches, knave, and wait!
\nSweet morsels will I grant a trusty servant.
![\"meat](\"https://cdn.uploads.micro.blog/4638/2026/c1f32f6ed8-m.jpg\")
![\"the](\"https://cdn.uploads.micro.blog/4638/2026/89091ba0d5-m.jpg\")
\n