Kirk Israel's commonplace and blog. Quotes and links daily since 2001.
2026.02.09
Why Cops Frequently Got Caught Planting Drugs in 2017 - it took them a while to realize the cameras would include the 30 seconds before they hit record.
2026.02.08
Thoughts of her kept me awake at night, standing at the window and staring out across the snow, and when, after years of thinking those thoughts and courting her and getting engaged and the date of our marriage fast approaching when I would cross over the river into the land of bliss, the excitement was debilitating.

Now, of course, young people cross over into the land of bliss pretty much whenever they want to. There are bridges, there are islands in the river, and the water is so low that most places you can wade across, but back then the river was wide and deep and fast and the church owned the boats. The church ferried you across to the land of bliss and you stayed there for the rest of your life with the one you went across with, or so we believed. Marriage was a fact, immense.
Garrison Keillor, "Who Do You Think You Are" in "We Are Still Married"

One cold fall day, three days before we would walk up the aisle and into a motel room, my mind full of carnal thoughts, I took a walk along the Mississippi near where I lived, thinking the cold would clear my mind, but cold is an aphrodisiac, as we Minnesotans know, and I rehearsed once again in my mind exactly how I would go about making love, changing some details, tossing in a few improvements, and I practiced making ecstatic cries. I'd never made love before and had never cried out in an ecstatic way (except one Christmas when I got a Lionel train, but "Oh, boy, thanks, Mom and Dad" was wrong for sex) and I wanted to do it right. Spontaneously, freely, joyously, but also correctly. I stood at the edge of Riverside Park above the river, looking across toward the gray shapes of the University, and attempted to make outbursts of sexual passion. Loud ones like Tarzan, soft sighs, grunts, some growling. I tried yipping and wahooing, even something sort of like yodeling.
Garrison Keillor, "Who Do You Think You Are" in "We Are Still Married"
2026.02.07
Trump Just Gave Us the Worst January Since the Great Recession

but republicans are great for the economy right?
whole lot of legit voter blocking nonsense in the name of stopping a non-problem- the number of non-citizen voting incidents is microscopic

not counting a marriage certificate as an approved document for why your name doesnt match your birth certificate is a great touch . these guys probably aint so big on that whole "women get to vote" amendment anyway

via
2026.02.06
Love you back!
Kip's Father on "Heated Rivalry". Man, I'm annoyed that I'm 50 years into this life and only now noticing this possible response to "I love you", which somehow feels so much richer than "Love you too" or even "...I Love YOU". "Love you back!" implies a beautiful mutuality, that real love is a duet of feeling, not a pair of solos...
(My buddy Dylan is a big fan of "Heated Rivalry" - kinda the Brokeback Mountain of Hockey. Beautiful men, nuanced acting, great cinematography.)
2026.02.05
Indeed, for much of the 2010s and likely before and since, it appears the crime rate of CBP agents and offices was higher PER CAPITA than the crime rate of undocumented immigrants in the United States.
Garrett Graff, via
2026.02.04
Crypto has basically been big bribes from the UAE for Trump that he has happily lapped up.
2026.02.03
A brand is basically making a promise and keeping it.

You can test new tech ideas using the Seinfeld Test

Would the product eliminate the plot of an episode? (Google maps, cell phones, paypal, battery packs)

Good tech.

Would the product inspire new Seinfeld plots? (NFTs, AI chatbots, crypto currency, blindboxes, metaverse land sales)

Bad tech.