![\"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@joshuapsteele What I was going to say when you initially posed the question was that of course people can change, but it’s a fool that expects them to.
\n","url":"https://micro.blog/dwalbert/91408974","date_published":"2026-06-02T18:03:36+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":"18:03","date_timestamp":1780423416,"is_favorite":false,"is_bookmark":false,"is_deletable":false,"is_conversation":true,"is_linkpost":false,"is_mention":true}},{"id":"91359420","content_html":"@JohnBrady I just picked that off my shelf last week to re-read.
\n","url":"https://micro.blog/dwalbert/91359420","date_published":"2026-06-01T22:55:15+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":"2026-06-01 22:55","date_timestamp":1780354515,"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\n@jabel if you have a screen in your hand, is it really solitude?
\n","url":"https://micro.blog/dwalbert/91211081","date_published":"2026-05-30T13:32:40+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":"2026-05-30 13:32","date_timestamp":1780147960,"is_favorite":false,"is_bookmark":false,"is_deletable":false,"is_conversation":true,"is_linkpost":false,"is_mention":true}},{"id":"91208221","content_html":"@JohnBrady Well, Japan doesn’t have a coffee culture that canned product undermines. (Now, canned tea…) Whereas I believe that the decline of this country pretty nearly tracks the decline of the bottomless diner cup of coffee.
\n","url":"https://micro.blog/dwalbert/91208221","date_published":"2026-05-30T12:32:54+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":"2026-05-30 12:32","date_timestamp":1780144374,"is_favorite":false,"is_bookmark":false,"is_deletable":false,"is_conversation":true,"is_linkpost":false,"is_mention":true}},{"id":"91205722","content_html":"@jabel Point taken, but my name isn’t Jeremy. :)
\n","url":"https://micro.blog/dwalbert/91205722","date_published":"2026-05-30T11:26:28+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 11:26","date_timestamp":1780140388,"is_favorite":false,"is_bookmark":false,"is_deletable":false,"is_conversation":true,"is_linkpost":false,"is_mention":true}},{"id":"91205689","content_html":"“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":"91169298","content_html":"@jaheppler Your idea of “beach read” seems to track fairly closely with mine…
\n","url":"https://micro.blog/dwalbert/91169298","date_published":"2026-05-29T19:26:38+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 19:26","date_timestamp":1780082798,"is_favorite":false,"is_bookmark":false,"is_deletable":false,"is_conversation":true,"is_linkpost":false,"is_mention":true}},{"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":"91156642","content_html":"@Rachelburch Someone I know has a bumper sticker that says “I would rather be slowly consumed by moss.” I sympathize.
\n","url":"https://micro.blog/dwalbert/91156642","date_published":"2026-05-29T16:28:37+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":"2026-05-29 16:28","date_timestamp":1780072117,"is_favorite":false,"is_bookmark":false,"is_deletable":false,"is_conversation":true,"is_linkpost":false,"is_mention":true}},{"id":"91155986","content_html":"@jabel @JohnBrady Have y’all ever eaten anything made from the Kernza flour Jackson’s Land Institute is now producing, from his dream of perennial polyculture? It makes really good bread. When I first read what Wes Jackson was doing I didn’t think any more than he did that I’d live to see fruition, but it works.
\n","url":"https://micro.blog/dwalbert/91155986","date_published":"2026-05-29T16:16:04+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 16:16","date_timestamp":1780071364,"is_favorite":false,"is_bookmark":false,"is_deletable":false,"is_conversation":true,"is_linkpost":false,"is_mention":true}},{"id":"91050662","content_html":"@isaacgreene Ah, of course! I took a carving class with Shea once. Nice guy.
\n","url":"https://micro.blog/dwalbert/91050662","date_published":"2026-05-28T02:03:23+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":"2026-05-28 02:03","date_timestamp":1779933803,"is_favorite":false,"is_bookmark":false,"is_deletable":false,"is_conversation":true,"is_linkpost":false,"is_mention":true}},{"id":"91040540","content_html":"@isaacgreene love that print. I may have to find room for it in the kitchen
\n","url":"https://micro.blog/dwalbert/91040540","date_published":"2026-05-27T22:58:58+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":"2026-05-27 22:58","date_timestamp":1779922738,"is_favorite":false,"is_bookmark":false,"is_deletable":false,"is_conversation":true,"is_linkpost":false,"is_mention":true}},{"id":"90905654","content_html":"@troykitch Yeah, that’s why so many of my boxes only have molding on three sides! Yours looks great.
\n","url":"https://micro.blog/dwalbert/90905654","date_published":"2026-05-25T22:33:02+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":"2026-05-25 22:33","date_timestamp":1779748382,"is_favorite":false,"is_bookmark":false,"is_deletable":false,"is_conversation":true,"is_linkpost":false,"is_mention":true}},{"id":"90841498","content_html":"@tinyroofnail love the map, too.
\n","url":"https://micro.blog/dwalbert/90841498","date_published":"2026-05-24T20:45:04+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":"2026-05-24 20:45","date_timestamp":1779655504,"is_favorite":false,"is_bookmark":false,"is_deletable":false,"is_conversation":true,"is_linkpost":false,"is_mention":true}},{"id":"90786217","content_html":"@jabel As usual, I hesitate to say anything pithy and don’t have time for a thousand-word blog post. (Is there an emoji for that?) But if you’re wrestling with it, you’re on the right track. And anyhow we all know you’re a mystical genius without some robot telling us so.
\n","url":"https://micro.blog/dwalbert/90786217","date_published":"2026-05-23T18:59:35+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":"2026-05-23 18:59","date_timestamp":1779562775,"is_favorite":false,"is_bookmark":false,"is_deletable":false,"is_conversation":true,"is_linkpost":false,"is_mention":true}},{"id":"90785810","content_html":"@jabel @ReaderJohn What I find interesting is that Westerners started developing this mythology of extraterrestrial life almost immediately after the acceptance of Einstein’s general theory of relativity, under which galactic travel is a nonstarter. A belief in witches might well be more rational.
\n","url":"https://micro.blog/dwalbert/90785810","date_published":"2026-05-23T18:50:27+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":"2026-05-23 18:50","date_timestamp":1779562227,"is_favorite":false,"is_bookmark":false,"is_deletable":false,"is_conversation":true,"is_linkpost":false,"is_mention":true}},{"id":"90776260","content_html":"@ReaderJohn Had the administration changed in the meantime?
\n","url":"https://micro.blog/dwalbert/90776260","date_published":"2026-05-23T15:32:24+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":"2026-05-23 15:32","date_timestamp":1779550344,"is_favorite":false,"is_bookmark":false,"is_deletable":false,"is_conversation":true,"is_linkpost":false,"is_mention":true}},{"id":"90236185","content_html":"@bbowman My father, who had been raised in a Lutheran-Reformed unified church (a Pennsylvania German thing, long story), quit taking us to our small-town Methodist church because, although no one was actually calling out “amen” during the service, he felt like they wanted to. So… eh, amen to that!
\n","url":"https://micro.blog/dwalbert/90236185","date_published":"2026-05-15T15:34:45+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":"2026-05-15 15:34","date_timestamp":1778859285,"is_favorite":false,"is_bookmark":false,"is_deletable":false,"is_conversation":true,"is_linkpost":false,"is_mention":true}},{"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":"90229975","content_html":"@mineinmono It runs until 7 Saturday and 6 Sunday, if you do have time I’d love to meet you in person!
\n","url":"https://micro.blog/dwalbert/90229975","date_published":"2026-05-15T13:57:19+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 13:57","date_timestamp":1778853439,"is_favorite":false,"is_bookmark":false,"is_deletable":false,"is_conversation":true,"is_linkpost":false,"is_mention":true}},{"id":"90222348","content_html":"@jabel thanks!
\n","url":"https://micro.blog/dwalbert/90222348","date_published":"2026-05-15T11:47:02+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 11:47","date_timestamp":1778845622,"is_favorite":false,"is_bookmark":false,"is_deletable":false,"is_conversation":true,"is_linkpost":false,"is_mention":true}},{"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\")
@JohnBrady Given that I’m not writing a monograph here, I’ll guess the same. Has to be close enough. I like the sketch artist. There used to be a watercolor artist around here who did weddings, which I thought was a vastly better idea than having a photographer skulking around.
\n","url":"https://micro.blog/dwalbert/90150770","date_published":"2026-05-14T11:54:50+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":"2026-05-14 11:54","date_timestamp":1778759690,"is_favorite":false,"is_bookmark":false,"is_deletable":false,"is_conversation":true,"is_linkpost":false,"is_mention":true}},{"id":"90111844","content_html":"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":"90111301","content_html":"@JohnBrady I had forgotten about the Amish-John Lennon connection, but I ran into the same problem when I was doing living history… you don’t want to be wearing plastic frames with your 19th-century togs.
\n","url":"https://micro.blog/dwalbert/90111301","date_published":"2026-05-13T20:38:57+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":"2026-05-13 20:38","date_timestamp":1778704737,"is_favorite":false,"is_bookmark":false,"is_deletable":false,"is_conversation":true,"is_linkpost":false,"is_mention":true}},{"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":"90094683","content_html":"@JohnBrady I figured it would be you if it was anyone! That’s great. It must have been interesting… that was just before I started paying attention to the kinds of things that might have let me know about it. The current Plain magazine is an architectural/design rag (!) but I managed to find a specific issue reference via Amazon and may be able to hunt down a copy. As I’m finding requests for the magazine on obscure forums I have a feeling it was never digitized.
\nI did find an article from Utne Reader, whose author would up charmed and converted but began with this description, which you can confirm or deny:
\n>My God, what an unruly collection of beards! Ratty Quest for Fire beards, free-flowing Deadhead beards, tousled Walt Whitman beards, kooky Kaczynski beards, hipster goatees circa San Francisco 1958, and dozens of untrimmed, Quaker “peace” beards affected by the most studiously “plain” folk in the crowd. Also, everyone–from the punk who was so pierced he seemed perforated to the serenely bonneted Quaker women–was wearing those little round John Lennon glasses, not to mention a depressingly practical assortment of hike-the-Appalachian-Trail-and-construct-a-cow-barn-in-your-spare-time shoes…. I had seen neo-Luddite utopia, and it was sensibly shod, nearsighted, and hirsute.
\n","url":"https://micro.blog/dwalbert/90094683","date_published":"2026-05-13T16:10:58+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":"2026-05-13 16:10","date_timestamp":1778688658,"is_favorite":false,"is_bookmark":false,"is_deletable":false,"is_conversation":true,"is_linkpost":false,"is_mention":true}},{"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":"90039097","content_html":"@annahavron Now I did not know that was where the name “Bushong” came from. We had a family of Bushongs where I grew up in Pennsylvania. Makes sense though.
\n","url":"https://micro.blog/dwalbert/90039097","date_published":"2026-05-12T20:57:20+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":"2026-05-12 20:57","date_timestamp":1778619440,"is_favorite":false,"is_bookmark":false,"is_deletable":false,"is_conversation":true,"is_linkpost":false,"is_mention":true}},{"id":"90038763","content_html":"@ReaderJohn Oh, I love that one, actually. Simple, clear, usable. They’re not wasting their (your) money and time on flash. My only complaint is that if they’re going to be early-web classic, they should use the purple for visited links, because that color choice made me think something was wrong.
\n","url":"https://micro.blog/dwalbert/90038763","date_published":"2026-05-12T20:54:24+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":"2026-05-12 20:54","date_timestamp":1778619264,"is_favorite":false,"is_bookmark":false,"is_deletable":false,"is_conversation":true,"is_linkpost":false,"is_mention":true}},{"id":"89948235","content_html":"@jabel Interesting. I’m going to have to try some of their tomato seeds next year (assuming I get my crap together early enough to grow from seeds, which I haven’t the past couple of years). I also like Baker Creek Rare Seeds… I recommend the big catalog just for January reading.
\n","url":"https://micro.blog/dwalbert/89948235","date_published":"2026-05-11T23:35:00+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":"2026-05-11 23:35","date_timestamp":1778542500,"is_favorite":false,"is_bookmark":false,"is_deletable":false,"is_conversation":true,"is_linkpost":false,"is_mention":true}},{"id":"89948177","content_html":"@annahavron “Shoppe” is so 1950s retro-fancy I’d expect it to be down-market. Exactly the sort of place to serve scrapple. Just as long as nobody gets turf toe tripping on that plastic grass!
\n","url":"https://micro.blog/dwalbert/89948177","date_published":"2026-05-11T23:31:47+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":"2026-05-11 23:31","date_timestamp":1778542307,"is_favorite":false,"is_bookmark":false,"is_deletable":false,"is_conversation":true,"is_linkpost":false,"is_mention":true}},{"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\")
\nCurrently reading: the new Library of America volume of John McPhee books (early evenings); a paperback P. G. Wodehouse collection I picked up this week at a used bookstore (on the nightstand); and David Kline’s The Round of a Country Year (a little at a time, in the morning).
\n","summary":"","url":"https://social.davidwalbert.com/2026/04/10/currently-reading-the-new-library.html","date_published":"2026-04-10T21:12:33+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":"2026-04-10 21:12","date_timestamp":1775855553,"is_favorite":false,"is_bookmark":false,"is_deletable":false,"is_conversation":true,"is_linkpost":false,"is_mention":false,"note":"","syndication":[]}},{"id":"87722603","content_html":"Field madder, another tiny flower I’d never noticed before—or mistook for bluets from walking eye level. Apparently native to Europe, North Africa, and West and Central Asia, but naturalized here. (“Here” very specifically being along the edge of a mini-park.)
\n\n![\"tiny](\"https://cdn.uploads.micro.blog/4638/2026/9adad4f1dc-m.jpg\")
Ground ivy, which I had never noticed before. (I would say “never seen” but that probably isn’t true.) Lovely flowers that my phone refused to focus on even in macro mode, but you get the idea.
\n\n![\"vines](\"https://cdn.uploads.micro.blog/4638/2026/246ad43b19-m.jpg\")
![\"small](\"https://cdn.uploads.micro.blog/4638/2026/4b96299b2c-m.jpg\")
![\"hand](\"https://cdn.uploads.micro.blog/4638/2026/abfd1f1430-m.jpg\")
\nMary Harrington on scrolling as the return of Charles Taylor’s unbuffered self:
\n\n\nsocial.davidwalbert.com","summary":"","url":"https://social.davidwalbert.com/2026/03/31/mary-harrington-on-scrolling-as.html","date_published":"2026-03-31T12:54:24+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":"2026-03-31 12:54","date_timestamp":1774961664,"is_favorite":false,"is_bookmark":false,"is_deletable":false,"is_conversation":true,"is_linkpost":false,"is_mention":false,"note":"","syndication":[]}}]}[W]e should also pause for a moment on how post-print selves are now formed, in practice. Specifically: as selves are growing less buffered, many are embracing this new state of affairs with remarkably little discrimination on how external influences may contribute to the formation of mental habits…. [A]nyone who simply absorbs whatever the scroll throws up, without discernment, will end up being formed by discourses often optimised less for truth, or wisdom, or human flourishing, than for maximum immediacy in playing on...
\n