I posted a page of frequently asked questions about my carving for those who can’t come to shows in person to ask them.

Suggested listening for October: The first season of RKO’s The Shadow, starring Orson Welles. (And in case you find yourself wondering, Blue Coal really was blue).

Yesterday was the equinox and whoop-de-do for astronomy, but if you think of “day length” like any sensible person who just wants or needs to do stuff outside, you would use not sunrise and sunset but first and last light: something like civil twilight. By that standard, we won’t have equal day and night here in central North Carolina until about the 19th of October.

But if, on the other hand, you don’t do stuff outside… why do you even care?

“The Country of Marriage” (7”x12”) titled after Wendell Berry’s 1973 book of poems. (The birds are modeled on sandhill cranes, so I should maybe have found a title from Aldo Leopold?) N.B. the frame is meant to evoke sunset and autumn leaves, not to go with your décor. Thanks for supporting etc.

More fun for the whole family: The North Carolina Liver Mush Festival in Shelby, October 17. I don’t believe I’ll be in attendance, I just want to make sure y’all are apprised of your options.

Added to my platform: Tax breaks for bands with brass sections.

Far be it from me to criticize what I don’t understand, but I have to think that emails reminding me that my CVS points expired today would be more convincing if I only received one, instead of four… or at least if they all listed the same number of points. I feel like we’re just not even trying.

If I weren’t going to be at Centerfest in Durham this weekend, I’d be going to Asheville for the 46th Annual World Gee Haw Whimmy Diddle Competition.

A Severe Misalignment of AI in Mathematics, signed by 25 Fields medalists:

In recent months, the success of AI in solving major mathematical problems has made headlines even outside mathematical circles. But solving problems is only a tool and proxy for achieving the primary goal of conceptual understanding and insight. Forgetting this in the world of AI may turn the tool against the primary goal. Indeed, the mass production at faster and faster pace of “true/false” statements could destroy fertile ground instead of breathing life into new ideas.

Maybe I shouldn’t admit this but the no-splash urinal paper was exactly the sort of thing that fascinated me when I was in physics.