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@benmsmith.com

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Nerd-About-Town. Co-Host of The Eurowhat? Podcast. he/him. goodatinter.net @eurowhat.bsky.social

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B-Side @benmsmith.com · 4d

this week on the podcast: Choose! Your! ̶P̶o̶k̶é̶m̶o̶n̶ Weird Little Dude!

presenting my initial dissertation in Weird Little Dude Studies, a field I think holds a rich well of future research.

The EuroWhat? Podcast @eurowhat.bsky.social · 4d

🥸 NEW EPISODE 🥸

Käärijä, Joost, Baby Lasagana, Tommy Cash... we've used the term "Weird Little Dudes" to describe these contestants from the last few editions of #Eurovision. We attempt to define the term and identify what other contestants may fall into this category: www.eurowhat.com/280

Cover art for Eurowhat 280: Weird Little Dudes. A triptych featuring Käärijä peering out of his crate, Joost Klein walking downstage, and Miriana Conte bouncing on an exercise ball

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bort @crushbort.bsky.social · 1h

enjoying the fact that someone somewhere has been wandering around thinking this is true

Written Prompts (3)
The one thing you should know about me is
I played the harp on the 1998 Monica/Brandy duet "The
Boy is Mine"
One thing I'll never do again
Play the harp flawlessly during an intense showdown between two of R&B's biggest stars
My biggest date fail
A double date with Brandy and Monica that turned out to be an intervention demanding I stop taking credit for play...

My biggest date fail
A double date with Brandy and Monica that turned out to be an
intervention demanding
I stop taking credit for playing the harp on
"The Boy is Mine"
ok brag much?? you have mentioned that just a few times

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performative male @milesklee.bsky.social · Feb 11

Silicon Valley guy who feels intellectually maxed out by the cubicle version of Lost is such a funny concept. “this speculative fiction is dealing me sustained HP damage!!”

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B-Side @benmsmith.com · 1d

they did a whole Cinema Ritrovato series with BEAUTIFUL prints of a whole range of stuff, AND we've got an upcoming Fall Focus series from the local indie fest with a ton of early screenings of stuff happening the next few months:
iffboston.org/series/fall-...

B-Side @benmsmith.com · 1d

I’m behind on a few entries, but it’s been such a nice practice

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B-Side @benmsmith.com · 1d

I signed up for and pretty much immediately un-signed-up for a trivia newsletter last year once I realized it was going to be all Serious Current Events With a Glib Tone with occasional current pop culture content

B-Side @benmsmith.com · 1d

I started keeping a journal this year for all the movies I saw in theaters (I'm by a repertory cinema that has GREAT programming) and it's been such a great practice in trying to think about where my taste comes from.

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B-Side @benmsmith.com · 1d

fun fact: this pre-order offer doubled as an entry into a simultaneous sweepstakes and I just found out I won one of the five prize packs!

photo of the prize pack, including a copy of the book and a bunch of pasta tools, including some all clad cookware and accessories

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B-Side @benmsmith.com · 1d

what is the non-actual-moviegoing part of the course going to entail?

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jam @socialistboat.dad · Apr 27

Top walk-up songs in the MLB right now. This playlist would be pretty amazing

Fake chart with baseball players on the right and song names on the left

Mambo No. 5
Lou Bega
Piano Sonata in B Minor
Franz Liszt
Albuquerque
"Weird Al" Yankovic
Interstellar Main Theme
Hans Zimmer
Short People
Randy Newman
Clapping Music
Steve Reich
Man! I Feel Like a Woman
Shania Twain
Edelweiss
Rodgers & Hammerstein
White Noise Loopable No Fade
Sleep Sounds Library
Every Breath You Take
The Police
The Home Depot Beat
The Home Depot

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B-Side @benmsmith.com · 1d

SHERMAN!

AmeriKraut @inchargeofthegirls.bsky.social · 1d

sherman, for the love of god!

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lacey @byelacey.bsky.social · 1d

it's that time of year, it's time to get your flu and covid booster shot unless you're from massachusetts then it's time for your flu and covid borcester shot

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Tressie McMillan Cottom @tressiemcphd.bsky.social · 18d

I think…people’s obsession with “a cause”…is precisely because autism’s genetic randomness is hard to stratify by social class……………..

Audra Mitchell @audralmitchell.bsky.social · 18d

THERE. ARE. NO. 'CAUSES'. OF. AUTISM.

(other than being born as a member of Homo sapiens, which is a huge risk factor for turning out to be Autistic).

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paris martineau @paris.nyc · 2d

after the 10th radioactive shrimp recall in 7 weeks, i decided to do some digging

little did i know it would lead me to an underreported industrial accident that may have released an airborne plume of radioactive debris over swaths of indonesia
www.consumerreports.org/health/food-...

What Is Really Going on With All This Radioactive Shrimp? - Consumer Reports

Here’s the latest on how shrimp and spices got contaminated with cesium-137, how the FDA has responded, and why consumers should not panic.

www.consumerreports.org

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Josh Frightbert @joshseybert.bsky.social · 2d

One of my favorites.

Two little guys standing outside their cabin on a snowy night looking at a huge spider. One of the guys is holding up a mug and says “Big fella, we got hot apple cider happening here.”

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emily moonlight @threnody.bsky.social · 2d

just watched a dozen people ask microsoft copilot experts their most pressing questions and those questions were 90% “how do i turn it off?” and “when i turn it off, is it really off or is it spying on me?”

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B-Side @benmsmith.com · 2d

update: have been mentally reading this in a Charlie Behrens deep-Wisconsin accent and it’s delightful

B-Side @benmsmith.com · 2d

between hearing his new book was set in Milwaukee and deeply enjoying ONE BATTLE AFTER ANOTHER, I am toying around with getting into Pynchon again after reading Lot 49 in college

a FRESH library copy of Thomas Pynchon’s Shadow Ticket

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Dan Olson @foldablehuman.bsky.social · 2d

this implies the existence of a Yaoi Gagarin

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Dan Greene @dmgreene.bsky.social · 2d

Absolutely the case. It's a mass media phenomenon, just a different mass media from what everyone else likes (which angers them to no end). The titanic chintz of the megachurch is replicated in books, movies, tv, MLMs, camps, etc. The Bible is more a source of authority than a piece of the program.

Jess Calarco @jessicacalarco.com · 2d

Based on the interviews I've done with conservative Evangelical moms, I'd say--a lot of them aren't engaging with the Bible directly. They're reading Evangelical self-help and parenting books like Your Best Life Now and Growing Kids God's Way that selectively interpret the Bible for them.

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Gianmarco Soresi @gianmarcosoresi.bsky.social · 2d

People assigned female at birth be shopping

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jam @socialistboat.dad · 2d

congratulations to nobel prize in literature winner László Krasznahorkai

Klaproth @klaproth.bsky.social · 6d

SWIFT: Trav, honey?
KELCE: (looks up from first edition Krazsnahorkai in original Hungarian) (pauses rare Steve Reich LP, Japanese pressing) Yes?
SWIFT: What rhymes with "thighs"?
KELCE: Hmm. "Belies," perhaps?
SWIFT: (under her breath) Oh for fuck's sake

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Anil Dash @anildash.com · 2d

Being able to reason over things has *so* much value. www.anildash.com/2023/06/08/a...

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Kelsey Hightower @kelseyhightower.com · 2d

One day the industry will recognize the drawbacks of AI agents and nondeterministic automation, and rediscover the UNIX philosophy of chaining together small purpose built tools in a low cost and predictable way, otherwise known as shell scripts.

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Scare-ic Hirsch @ehirsch.bsky.social · 2d

To expand on this, I’ve come to the belief that it’s impossible to spend any time driving without taking moderate-to-severe psychic damage from the accumulation of interactions with other drivers that make clear how selfish everyone has become. I *never* feel better after driving.

Patrick Wyman @patrickwyman.bsky.social · 3d

Watching antisocial driver behavior in the school drop-off line makes it really clear that the pandemic destroyed whatever few shreds remained of the social compact, just pathological selfishness on display every day

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Benjamin Tausig @burrata.bsky.social · 2d

A “Music for 18 Musicians”-type piece, but made up of interlocking recordings of players in handshake lines saying “good game, good game, good game, good game…”

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Ellen Muehlberger @emuehlbe.bsky.social · 2d

today's earworm:
🎶if you're proud of what you're doing, show your face🎶

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