Bobbi Gibb Kicks Ass ∞

She’s an elite runner and an accomplished sculptor as well.

Wednesday, April 8th, 2026

Long-time readers may recall that in 1967, Kathrine Switzer became the first woman to complete the Boston Marathon with an official race bib. A year earlier, though, Bobbi Gibb was the first woman to ever run the Boston Marathon. Sixty years later, she’s just become the race’s first woman to be honored with a statue.

Bobbi Gibb, with a statue of her younger selfBobbi Gibb, with a statue of her younger self

The sculpture, entitled “The Girl Who Ran”, was recently installed near the race’s starting point in the town of Hopkinton.

The bronze, life-size statue is located on the route, less than 100 yards from the starting line, at the corner of Hayden Rowe Street and Main Street, where Gibb now-famously hid in the bushes before sneaking into the 1966 men-only race.

Even more impressive, the statue of Gibb was made by Gibb herself, who is apparently quite an artist. Curious how that came to be?

Originally, the 26.2 Foundation reached out to Gibb about doing a sculpture of Joan Benoit Samuelson, but Benoit Samuelson “very quickly came back and said, ‘No, please, you shouldn’t do a sculpture about me; a sculpture should be done honoring Bobbi Gibb,”

That’s pretty great. And for the record, Joan Benoit Samuelson also kicks ass, and not just because of her graciousness

Every Day Is an Exhausting New Hell ∞

We could really do with some of that regime change at home.

Tuesday, April 7th, 2026

The headline for Tom Ley’s piece on Donald Trump’s vile threat to Iran really nails it:

  • I Guess We’re Just Waiting Around To See If This Demented Psychopath Kills Everyone

This is an awful way to live.

A Windy Day With the White Clouds Flying ∞

We can still hope for a future of renewable energy.

Monday, April 6th, 2026

I have never understood people who dislike wind turbines. They become a prominent part of any landscape once erected, that much is true. But to me, they are wondrous. They represent the possibility of a better, cleaner future, a future when we are no longer burning a dwindling supply of fossil fuels and polluting the very air we breathe. Aside from oil company executives, who wouldn’t want that?

Regrettably, turbines in Gloucester, Massachusetts, are being decommissioned well before the end of their useful lives. Gloucestrian Sarah Shemkus wrote about the loss.

Molly Went for a Helicopter Ride ∞

And she made some friends along the way.

Friday, April 3rd, 2026

After Jessica Johnston took a terrible fall while hiking, rescuers were able to save her, but they couldn’t find her border collie companion. A week and one crowdfunding campaign later, Molly the dog was located and brought back home in style.

Molly (and Bingo) in a helicopter
Who’s a good dog? Molly! Also Bingo, a Jack Russell who was part of the rescue crew.

Molly got to take a ride with Precision Helicopters of New Zealand, who had handled the rescue and shared this outstanding photograph. They’ve also got a tremendous video.1

Footnotes:

  1. That video is archived here. ↩︎

Detecting Frustration Using Regex ∞

That’s different from detecting frustration with trying to use regex.

Thursday, April 2nd, 2026

This week, Anthropic accidentally leaked a whole bunch of information about Claude Code. In addition to revealing many of their future plans, the leak showed that the tool uses some rudimentary pattern-matching to detect user frustration.

Claude Code is actively watching our chat messages for words and phrases—including f-bombs and other curses—that serve as signs of user frustration.

The exact regex pattern is a delight to read:

/\b(wtf|wth|ffs|omfg|shit(ty|tiest)?|dumbass|horrible|awful| piss(ed|ing)? off|piece of (shit|crap|junk)|what the (fuck|hell)| fucking? (broken|useless|terrible|awful|horrible)|fuck you| screw (this|you)|so frustrating|this sucks|damn it)\b/

It’s very simple and surely very effective.

Poor Blue Blob ∞

Three liters is really quite a lot of vodka.

Wednesday, April 1st, 2026

Reader Micah C. pointed me to a story from Down Under, where a woman was recently convicted for the addition of googly eyes to sculpture.

The sculpture before and after receiving the gift of sight

While I do think the addition enhances the work, the use of Gorilla Glue is too much. Tsk! Also, recording your own crime and posting it online? Tsk again!

Perhaps It’s Time for a Taking Pledge ∞

Just how evil can you be?

Tuesday, March 31st, 2026

The Giving Pledge is a campaign started by Bill Gates, Melinda Gates, and Warren Buffet, intended to establish a norm of charitable giving by the ultra wealthy. Though the pledge has no enforcement, it still seems a wise way for billionaires to attempt avoiding being at the wrong end of pitchforks.

Supervillain Peter Thiel is trying a different route, and is apparently attempting to convince signers to renege on their commitments.

Creepy and Seemingly Inaccurate ∞

Note also that the period in question was during the summer.

Monday, March 30th, 2026

Speaking of license plates, friend-of-the-site Gus M. pointed me to a school district using plate recognition in an attempt to verify residency.

According to the school district, her daughter’s new student enrollment form was denied due to “license plate recognition software showing only Chicago addresses overnight” in July and August. In an email sent to Sánchez in August, the school district told her, “Although you are the owner on record of a house in our district boundaries, your license plate recognition shows that is not the place where you reside.”

It’s understandable for school districts to not want to be burdened with non-residents. This method to avoid it, however, seems well beyond the pale.

Perverse Incentives in License Plates

Or at the very least, a silver lining to bad decisions.

Friday, March 27th, 2026

While writing about the 9-9-9 challenge, I learned of the existence of license plates specifically assigned to DUI offenders. These plates are a tool to assist law enforcement in monitoring high-risk drivers and to deter repeat violations. However, they’ve gained the nicknames “party plates” in Ohio and “whiskey plates” in Minnesota. Those names convey an insouciance, rather than intended shame.

There’s also a problem with the visuals. Though the yellow is a bit garish, Ohio’s DUI plate looks markedly better than their mess of a standard plate:

A standard Ohio license plate, and a DUI plate
[Photos via Wikipedia]

That’s a bad incentive.

Aramark’s Sham Edition of the 9-9-9 Challenge ∞

In the words of friend-of-the-site Jason S., “This ain’t it”. It really ain’t!

Thursday, March 26th, 2026

While contemplating the corporate edition of the 9-9-9 challenge yesterday, I was surprised that a massive corporation would encourage fans to drink copiously. I should have known better. It turns out the package comes with one (1) single 24 ounce beer. I am entirely unsurprised to find a massive corporation pretending to sell one thing, while providing something much less.

With this promotion, Aramark and MLB have bastardizing to an unforgivable extent the sacred concept of drinking nine beers and eating nine hot dogs over nine innings of baseball. Even if we accept the mini weiners, in no world does 2.67 ounces qualify as “a beer”.

Friend-of-the-site Colin T. pointed me a helpful post from SFGate, which answers most of the questions I had yesterday. It includes an image showing exactly what you get when you buy into this farce:

Aramark’s bogus 9-9-9 challenge
Aramark, you should be ashamed.

I now know that when you purchase, you do indeed get everything at once. Given that you receive just one beer, it’s surely fewer calories than I estimated, and sales probably continue late into the game. As for selecting your beer, at Oracle Park, fans can have any beer they want as long as it’s Coors Light. Still, my bet that youcouldn’t select your beer wasn’t entirely correct. At least last year, fans in Philly really were given a choice from a range of beers.

In guessing how this all worked, I did get one thing completely right. The phony package you see above costs a whopping $54.99 before tax. That is indeed too much to pay for a completely sham edition of the 9-9-9 challenge.

« Older Entries