The timeworn fish weir on the East Branch of the Delaware River may have trapped its last eel. The stone-and-wood structure in Hancock, New York, has been operated for decades by Ray Turner, whom locals refer to as “The Eel Man.”
Turner is something of a recluse, a throwback to earlier times and the analog world.
We rent a house on the East Branch for a few days most summers, walking distance to Ray’s smokehouse, and have enjoyed both his stock and his stories over the years.
On our last visit he told us he’s no longer running the eel trap, the “geezerism” got him.
I’ve worked from home for 15 years, and have heard this question from my wife or kids a thousand times. I made Status Light so they never have to ask again.
Status Light is a simple macOs menu bar app that detects when your camera or microphone is in use and triggers an Apple Shortcut to let the people around you know you’re busy.
That Shortcut can do whatever you want: turn on a smart light (make it red!), change your Focus, send a message, or anything else that helps keep kids, partners, parents, or roommates from wandering into frame to ask if you want a sandwich.
When you start a call, Status Light knows. When you end the call, it knows that too.
Download it on the App Store for $1 (and if you work at Automattic, ping me for a coupon).
Apparently a fuel barge ran aground on the rocks directly in front of El Morro, only last week! You can get a neat view from the ramparts, an unexpected bonus with your ticket to the park.
Saddled between the New Jersey and Pennsylvania borders, and located in Orange County, New York, Port Jervis is one of those fantastic small cities that in recent years is experiencing a much-deserved renaissance.
I stopped in yesterday after visiting with my folks, he’s got a great selection and it’s rad to have a punk record store in my home town. Pretty weird to see it in Spin magazine though.
San Diego Comic-Con changed an AI art friendly policy following an artist-led backlash last week.
For the past few years, Comic-Con has allowed some forms of AI-generated art at this art show at the convention. According to archived rules for the show, artists could display AI-generated material so long as it wasn’t for sale, was marked as AI-produced, and credited the original artist whose style was used.
These rules have been in place since at least 2024, but anti-AI sentiment is growing in the artistic community and an artist-led backlash against Comic-Con’s AI-friendly language led to the convention […] changing the rules.
What if you could modify your Swiss Army knife with modules of your choice? That’s what Las-Vegas-based EDC company Keyport is enabling with their Versa58 system. It’s named for the keychain-sized Swiss Army Knives that are 58mm in length. Once you pop the knife’s press-fit handle sides—called scales—off, you attach an interface plate, and then the Versa58 modules can be magnetically attached to that.
My wife’s great-great-aunt is the late Agnes Meyer Driscoll, a renowned cryptanalyst who played a central role in deciphering Japanese and German Navy codes in the 1920s and 30s.
Known as Madame X, she co-developed the “Communications Machine”, which became a standard enciphering device for the Navy for most of the 1920s, and was later considered the “first lady of naval cryptology”.
We were gifted some of her restricted-access Navy crypto assignments from the 1930s.
Fourteen years ago I made a mix CD for my wife as a little stocking stuffer at Christmas time. Just a few of our favorite songs from that year to listen to while she’s in the car.
I also know enough Photoshop to be dangerous, so I made a silly cover to go with it (she’s a big Beatles fan).
The following year, I kept it going, and what was initially just a gag gift became an annual tradition: Photoshopping her into a favorite album’s artwork. I don’t even make the mix CD anymore (we have no way to play it!), but every year she still gets a new cover.
These are a few of my favorites… I don’t aim for perfection, the quality varies a lot from year to year, but I will say that I am unreasonably proudof how the G N’ R Lies cover turned out.
What can be written about Gotham that hasn’t already been published? The typeface, commissioned by GQ Magazine in the early 2000s, is now so ubiquitous it has become part of the visual landscape and can be seen all over the world from Manhattan to Melbourne, Bangkok to Buenos Aires.
This was my first time at the Bearsville Theater, which is lovely. Good sound, easy parking, and a sweet lounge area with tons of seating and a view of the stage.
From Nancy Drew to Animal Crackers to The Maltese Falcon, 1930’s greatest works enter the U.S. public domain on January 1, 2026. Expect celebration, confusion, and at least one Betty Boop slasher film. Sorry in advance.
Little-by-little, over the last 10 years, my kids and I have built a small town in Minecraft.
It started unintentionally. My son, Tommy, came home from kindergarten one day excitedly talking about this new game he had heard about. Within a few days I was up to my elbows in redstone tutorials and modpacks.
We created a new world for our experiments, and called it simply, “Town”. We added some houses. He built a grocery store. I added a church.
A couple of years later his sister, Maggie, joined the fun and built a pet shop.
And from there, Town just kept growing. Over the years we’ve added a community pool, library, elementary school with working elevator, police and fire departments, hospital with helicopter and landing pad, clothing store, apartment building, gas station, arcade, renaissance faire, ice cream stand, working subway system, and more. Even a hydroelectric power plant!
The kids are getting older, and our construction crew doesn’t work as often these days. But we keep a running list of ideas to build and—usually when the weather gets cold—still come back together to take on a new project.
We just broke ground on an airport.
One more building, one more season, one more reason to sit next to each other and make something together.
