Way back in the ’80s and ’90s, two-character top-level domains (TLDs) like “.us” were assigned to countries and other sovereign states. Many decades later, some very tiny places are reaping financial windfalls with TLDs like “.tv” (Tuvalu, population ~11,000) and “.ai” (Anguilla, population ~16,000).

Last week, Harvard University announced it will cease to “issue official statements about public matters that do not directly affect the university’s core function”. It’s an idea whose time has come.

Last October, a Hamas-led attack on Israel killed well over 1,000 people, including hundreds of civilians. It was awful. Since then, a war has been waged. It, too, is awful. I continually find myself thinking back to Pete Davidson’s wise statement that no one in this world deserves to suffer. Sadly, seven months later, the war rages on.

In the midst of all this, during a recent trip to Israel, former 2024 Republican presidential candidate (and former UN ambassador) Nikki Haley decided it would be a good idea to sign an Israeli artillery shell. It’s so reprehensible that it’s hard to believe it’s real.

The Chanel sunglasses are quite the touch.

I simply can’t comprehend what would compel a human being to do this. Regardless of how necessary one may feel war is, it is all hell. War is not something to celebrate or glorify.

Haley isn’t exactly making good decisions lately though. This incident follows her recent heel turn regarding Donald Trump, who she now says she’ll be voting for in November. While campaigning against him earlier this year, she referred to Trump as “suicide for our country” and said he was “not qualified to be the president of the United States”. I’m sure things have changed since then, though. Donald Trump has always shown enormous capacity for growth.

Even the timing of this depravity is despicable, as it comes on the heels of an Israeli airstrike that hit displaced Palestinians near Rafah.

[T]he Council on American-Islamic Relations condemned her for writing “a violent message” two days after an Israeli airstrike on a tent camp in Rafah killed at least 45 people. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the attack a “tragic accident”…

For her next act, perhaps Nikki Haley can find a dog to shoot.

Boston-based Grillo’s makes a delicious pickle. However, for years, that tasty product has come in a package that could best be described as “really very bad”. The plastic containers feature a lid that’s overly difficult to open, and once it’s finally removed, brine invariably spills all over. A couple years back, I went so far as to email them about the issues.¹ I received a very nice reply, which included the following:

Because we don’t boil or pasteurize our pickles, we do need to fill our jars to the very top to avoid any air bubbles. I know that doesn’t help solve the problem of brine splashing out when opening, but we’ve found it helps if you can grip the edge of the cover when lifting instead of putting pressure in the middle.

These are a few additional tips that I have found helpful when opening and closing the jars. To open the jar, break the small plastic tab along the edge of the lid with your finger – I personally use the end of a spoon for a little more force. Once it’s off, you can lift (or peel) off the lid from that gap. To seal the jar, I apply pressure at 4 points along the edge of the lid until I hear the “click.” I almost think of it like a can of paint – you need to hit it at a few spots around the rim to get the whole top even!

That’s a whole lot of advice for something that should not be this difficult. I also received a link to a video showing how to open the jar, which is simply not a thing that should be necessary.

Now, after literal years of customer dissatisfaction², a solution has arrived:

Screw tops! I say again, what a time to be alive.

Footnotes:

1. Listen, everyone needs a hobby. ↩︎

2. As evidenced by the comments on the aforelinked video. ↩︎

France has unveiled a new postage stamp devoted to that most French of foods, the baguette. And this particular stamp has a special talent.

Thanks to scratch-and-sniff technology, it will also transport “bakery fragrances” to those lucky enough to receive a letter from France.

What a time to be alive.