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Geoph Essex 🤨💭 11742d/4h/3m; 16940d/18h/34m 🕟 @semperbufo.bsky.social · 7m

Still feels like we should check every so often.

Sheryl Weikal and the colorful Parrotlegals @leftistlawyer.com · 18h

At least Henry Kissinger is still dead

Geoph Essex 🤨💭 11742d/4h/3m; 16940d/18h/34m 🕟 @semperbufo.bsky.social · 58m

Another one of those shots where there's a non-zero chance I'm in it. (Though I doubt it: we usually did the beach much farther south during the day, and it doesn't look early enough for me to be riding a bike on the boardwalk.)

Looks like…Ocean Towers are there, but the Convention Center isn't…? 🤔

old roadside pics @roadside.xor.blue · 1h

overall above to south, wildwood, new jersey, 1978

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Reposted by Geoph Essex 🤨💭 11742d/4h/3m; 16940d/18h/34m 🕟

Geoph Essex 🤨💭 11742d/4h/3m; 16940d/18h/34m 🕟 @semperbufo.bsky.social · 15h

#BookSky 📚💙

#Halloween is nigh!

#LovelyAssistant🎩 has #ghosts, #spooky riders in hooded black cloaks, and a #sinister creature more terrifying than anything under the sun (and bigger than it)—plus a climax that TAKES PLACE ON HALLOWEEN NIGHT!

Learn more at lovelyassistant.com

And buy it at:

LOVELY ASSISTANT, a novel by Geoph Essex

Preview and buy Geoph Essex's novel “Lovely Assistant” online in print and ebook formats.

sbufo.com

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Geoph Essex 🤨💭 11742d/4h/3m; 16940d/18h/34m 🕟 @semperbufo.bsky.social · 15h

Yeah, I think it was a mistake. (The Germans can—and did—do what the Germans would like with it; in the modern American English iteration, it was a big mistake.)

Geoph Essex 🤨💭 11742d/4h/3m; 16940d/18h/34m 🕟 @semperbufo.bsky.social · 2d

I'm not saying it would've helped, but—as a writer who's also been a graphic designer and branding consultant—at the VERY LEAST it should've been kept "anti-fash."

For one thing, it's more of a reminder of WHAT you're anti. For another, the syllabic emphasis is consistent.

No, really! It matters.

Geoph Essex 🤨💭 11742d/4h/3m; 16940d/18h/34m 🕟 @semperbufo.bsky.social · 15h

Strong agree.

Geoph Essex 🤨💭 11742d/4h/3m; 16940d/18h/34m 🕟 @semperbufo.bsky.social · 3d

Yup. "Anti-fascist" is a declaration. "Antifa" is a secret handshake that became a brand.

It's "precious," not helpful. It was never terribly useful as a rallying cry. It was only ever going to be co-opted (and weaponized) by, you know, "fa." Oh, does it sound puerile to call fascists that? AGREED.

Amateur Expert Opinions @amateurexpertop.bsky.social · 3d

"expert on *ANTI-FASCISM*" say it! say the whole word, without exception, motherfuckers!
www.nytimes.com/2025/10/08/n...

Geoph Essex 🤨💭 11742d/4h/3m; 16940d/18h/34m 🕟 @semperbufo.bsky.social · 15h

#BookSky 📚💙

#Halloween is nigh!

#LovelyAssistant🎩 has #ghosts, #spooky riders in hooded black cloaks, and a #sinister creature more terrifying than anything under the sun (and bigger than it)—plus a climax that TAKES PLACE ON HALLOWEEN NIGHT!

Learn more at lovelyassistant.com

And buy it at:

LOVELY ASSISTANT, a novel by Geoph Essex

Preview and buy Geoph Essex's novel “Lovely Assistant” online in print and ebook formats.

sbufo.com

1

Reposted by Geoph Essex 🤨💭 11742d/4h/3m; 16940d/18h/34m 🕟

Geoph Essex 🤨💭 11742d/4h/3m; 16940d/18h/34m 🕟 @semperbufo.bsky.social · 10d

Halloween🎃 is coming!

Not only are there spooky figures in hooded black cloaks galloping about and a sinister creature more terrifying than anything under the sun (and bigger than it), but the climax of #LovelyAssistant🎩 TAKES PLACE ON HALLOWEEN!

Read it: sbufo.com/UR/?L=b2rla

lovelyassistant.com

LOVELY ASSISTANT, a novel by Geoph Essex

Preview and buy Geoph Essex's novel “Lovely Assistant” online in print and ebook formats.

sbufo.com

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Reposted by Geoph Essex 🤨💭 11742d/4h/3m; 16940d/18h/34m 🕟

Geoph Essex 🤨💭 11742d/4h/3m; 16940d/18h/34m 🕟 @semperbufo.bsky.social · Jun 30

I promise you don't need to prove (unsuccessfully) that a word with modern derogatory usage has nefarious etymological roots (it doesn't) in order to convince people who aren't assholes (🙋) to stop using it. No need to distort the facts to fit an argument that doesn't need to be made.

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Geoph Essex 🤨💭 11742d/4h/3m; 16940d/18h/34m 🕟 @semperbufo.bsky.social · 1d

On the plus side, that would sound pretty good in an epitaph (reminds me of Wordsworth's bit about Newton in "Cambridge," for some reason).

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Geoph Essex 🤨💭 11742d/4h/3m; 16940d/18h/34m 🕟 @semperbufo.bsky.social · 2d

I think it's a great concept, timely (then AND now), and really well done. I have a soft spot for it, even if I'm bothered by certain flaws.

But really, I like it more than I probably would, kind of as a big 🖕 to Carrey's critics (I'm not even a big Jim Carrey fan, it's just out of solidarity).

Geoph Essex 🤨💭 11742d/4h/3m; 16940d/18h/34m 🕟 @semperbufo.bsky.social · Apr 22

I've often thought Carrey could be an even better dramatic actor if: a) directors would stop giving him scenes where they say "Yeah, just do some Jim Carrey stuff"; and b) he felt confident enough that he could carry one without that stuff.

(I think some critics kinda squished that confidence.)

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Geoph Essex 🤨💭 11742d/4h/3m; 16940d/18h/34m 🕟 @semperbufo.bsky.social · 2d

One of the first "old movies" that I got really into as a kid, after of the Marx Brothers, Thin Man flicks, and Hope/Crosby road movies.

My favorite bits were with Garner and Pleasance. I still wince every time they get caught.

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Geoph Essex 🤨💭 11742d/4h/3m; 16940d/18h/34m 🕟 @semperbufo.bsky.social · 2d

It's not the movie's fault that dorks think reciting an entire scene (after the ONE line that someone actually funny quoted because it was in fact relevant to a particular moment) is funny.

It's also not the movie's fault that half the Pythons suck.

(Though "Life of Brian" was always my favorite.)

Geoph Essex 🤨💭 11742d/4h/3m; 16940d/18h/34m 🕟 @semperbufo.bsky.social · Apr 29

Cleese's 𝘰𝘸𝘯 𝘮𝘦𝘮𝘰𝘪𝘳—read it back in 2015 or so—starts out fun (if in the exact tone you'd expect) but ends with bits that just made me depressed and annoyed at him. A man who got lucky enough to get success and respect for an impressive body of work preferred to shit all over the work and its fans.

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Geoph Essex 🤨💭 11742d/4h/3m; 16940d/18h/34m 🕟 @semperbufo.bsky.social · 2d

Coming out right when my gang got into high school, and starring an actress who *plenty* of us were crushing on at the time, it had an outsized influence on some of my closest friends in some very odd ways. Not saying they were good OR bad…just odd.

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Geoph Essex 🤨💭 11742d/4h/3m; 16940d/18h/34m 🕟 @semperbufo.bsky.social · 2d

I've always been so, so much more a fan of Cher's acting than I am of Cher's music. She's a seriously talented actress. She's a seriously talented singer, too; I'm just not into the songs she puts out, I guess.

But Moonstruck? Suspect? Mermaids? So many more…

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Geoph Essex 🤨💭 11742d/4h/3m; 16940d/18h/34m 🕟 @semperbufo.bsky.social · 2d

I had a *very* rough time getting through the end of this movie. Beautiful movie; the end just…killed me. I was depressed for a week. My wife drew me an alternate ending to cheer me up. It worked.

I'm very much not a Philip Seymour Hoffman fan (personal reasons), but he did an excellent job here.

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Geoph Essex 🤨💭 11742d/4h/3m; 16940d/18h/34m 🕟 @semperbufo.bsky.social · 2d

Um. I think I've been playing the Google Earth RPG for over a decade now…

A screenshot of Google Earth, centered on North America, with a STAGGERING number of labeled markers with different icons and colors, as well as paths in varying colors and thicknesses.

I've got plenty of stuff not in North America, too. And a bunch of overlay images that I keep turned off unless I want to see them, because otherwise they make it really hard to use the actual map itself.

My (backed up) KML file is currently about 12.2 MB.

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Geoph Essex 🤨💭 11742d/4h/3m; 16940d/18h/34m 🕟 @semperbufo.bsky.social · 2d

Can't stand bagels. Or gefilte fish. Or kugel. Or about a million other things American Jews chow down on. (I have a soft spot for mandlen and latkes, though.)

…and my family's Jewish. (Secular, mostly.)

The funnier part is my wife—fellow unbeliever but from a Muslim family—loves ALL our Jew Food.

Erin Biba @erinbiba.bsky.social · 2d

Tell me your bagel order and I will tell you *based on NYC cultural expectations* if you have won or lost your election for political office in NYC.

Erin Biba @erinbiba.bsky.social · 2d

One of my favorite things about NYC is whenever anyone runs for office here they are required to disclose their bagel order.

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Geoph Essex 🤨💭 11742d/4h/3m; 16940d/18h/34m 🕟 @semperbufo.bsky.social · 2d

So, you know how the greater body of scientific knowledge is an evidence-based "This all seems to work and unless/until a specific part clearly doesn't we can assume it does"?

Yeah, literally anything that any VC/techbro proposes is the exact opposite, for exactly the same evidentiary reasons.

Dr Space Junk (Alice Gorman) @drspacejunk.bsky.social · 3d

Do we really want 250,000 mirrored satellites in Low Earth Orbit? Hasn't the Starlink megaconstellation already done enough damage?
🧪 @mjibrown.bsky.social

A US startup plans to deliver ‘sunlight on demand’ after dark. Can it work – and would we want it to?

Satellites beaming sunlight down to Earth sound like science fiction – and they have astronomers very worried.

theconversation.com

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Geoph Essex 🤨💭 11742d/4h/3m; 16940d/18h/34m 🕟 @semperbufo.bsky.social · 2d

Ah, okay, better than alternatives!

Big Bro had a totally innocuous mole on his hand most of his life, walked into the doc once, doc said "Oh, I can take care of that" and froze and sliced it before BB could even ask "Take care of what?"

Kinda missed it after that. Didn't even get to say goodbye.

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Geoph Essex 🤨💭 11742d/4h/3m; 16940d/18h/34m 🕟 @semperbufo.bsky.social · 2d

I sincerely hope that the surprise was the news it would happen, rather than that it, y'know, suddenly happened. 😉

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Geoph Essex 🤨💭 11742d/4h/3m; 16940d/18h/34m 🕟 @semperbufo.bsky.social · 2d

Fuck it. Deleted it. I used to never delete shit 'cause I stand by anything I've ever said.

But now? Even though I stand by what I said, guess I have to make sure I'm not biting a hand I hope might feed me, even if that hand has literally no interest in feeding me ever, nor feeding anyone, ever.

Geoph Essex 🤨💭 11742d/4h/3m; 16940d/18h/34m 🕟 @semperbufo.bsky.social · 2d

In act one, a dipshit in the audience understood nothing.

In act two, he understood it again.

Lux "Nightmare" Alptraum @luxalptraum.com · 4d

TFW you paid $1400 to see Beckett’s most famous work without knowing anything about it

One Star Review of Waiting for Godot on Broadway
I recently attended Waiting for Godot on Broadway and spent over $1,400 for two Row C seats (103 and 104). I'm a longtime admirer of Broadway productions and even hold a season pass for Shea's Performing Arts Theatre, so I came in with genuine enthusiasm and high expectations. Unfortunately, this show was unlike anything ! have ever experienced —and not in a good way.
What I encountered was not the artistry, music, or emotional storytelling I usually associate with Broadway, but instead what felt like an endless cycle of nonsensical conversation between characters who seemed trapped in their own madness. I tried-truly tried-to find meaning, symbolism, or even a thread of emotional resonance. I stayed through the first half hoping the second would offer clarity. But by intermission, it was clear: this was a waste of both time and money.
Keanu Reeves is an actor I respect greatly, but I cannot fathom why he would agree to participate in such a disjointed, inaccessible production. His talent was lost in a performance that defied reason rather than provoked insight.
To anyone considering attending: unless you are drawn to highly abstract, nearly incomprehensible theater, I strongly caution you against this show. For the average, educated, thoughtful theatergoer, it is far more frustrating than fulfilling. In my opinion, this was the single most disappointing Broadway experience I've ever had - an unfortunate waste of money and, more importantly, of time.

Geoph Essex 🤨💭 11742d/4h/3m; 16940d/18h/34m 🕟 @semperbufo.bsky.social · 2d

I'm not saying it would've helped, but—as a writer who's also been a graphic designer and branding consultant—at the VERY LEAST it should've been kept "anti-fash."

For one thing, it's more of a reminder of WHAT you're anti. For another, the syllabic emphasis is consistent.

No, really! It matters.

Geoph Essex 🤨💭 11742d/4h/3m; 16940d/18h/34m 🕟 @semperbufo.bsky.social · 2d

I am *not* trying to mess with the person who said this (that's why no QP/reply). Thing is:

1. Plenty of them *would* say they approve. 🫩

2. "Antifa" is now a brand. No getting around it. It doesn't mean "anti-fascist" anymore—that's not what they hear. That's the risk when meme overtakes reality.

[Screenshot of the text of a Bluesky post that reads:]

There is no other explanation than willful ignorance when you consider there are to states of mind:

FA (Fascism) and ANTIFA -- (Opposed to Facism)

It's crazy. You ask a MAGA supporter if they approve of Hitler. OF COURSE NOT. You say, so... Antifa! and they say. OF COURSE NOT...

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Geoph Essex 🤨💭 11742d/4h/3m; 16940d/18h/34m 🕟 @semperbufo.bsky.social · 2d

In act one, Godot is played by neither of them.

In act two, the same actor plays him again.

Dave Karpf @davekarpf.bsky.social · 2d

My wife and I are going to see Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter in Waiting for Godot this weekend.

I’ve never seen the show before. Which one of them plays Godot?