Just a quick public service announcement: if you are shot to death, didn’t know me personally, and would like me to care, mourn, pray for your soul, or frankly even notice, you are going to have to take a number. I understand there’s a political activist in line, but we’re currently serving the toddler in Chicago who accidentally shot himself in the face yesterday. Please know that all our customers fellow human beings are valued. Thank you for your patience.

“I am ashamed that American government should have become the chief cause of disillusionment with American principles,” wrote Wendell Berry — in 1972.

Something different: a peg rack in red oak, carved with gouges.

Reading about continuing failed attempts to curb New York City’s rat infestation, I had a brilliant idea. Bait traps with a drug that uses messenger RNA (or, you know—something like that) to make the rats grow bushy tails. Bam! Instant squirrels! Squirrels are cute! Problem solved. You’re welcome.

At last, making the frame for the polyptych. Complicated, precise work. There is still one piece more not cut yet. Either it all goes together tight or it doesn’t. Just me and some cold hard physical reality here.

There are no “side effects.” There are only effects you like and effects you don’t like. To say otherwise is merely marketing.

Just a reminder that my spoons are still 100% American made… with Japanese saw blades, Swiss gouges, an English drawknife, a Swedish knife, and Canadian spokeshaves.

Falls Lake this morning.

Today’s WSJ, in brief:

• Front page: “A Chatbot Fueled Delusions, Ending in Murder-Suicide”
• Op-Ed: “A Chatbot Can Be Part Of Your Medical Team”

“In the garden of the mind it is always at once the blossoming of spring, the peak of summer, and the cusp of autumn.” Finches, flowers, 8x10.