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For a business event, I stayed for one night at the Tree House Inn in Sunnyvale, Calif., a delightful and playful boutique hotel with a rustic theme, like an upscale Catskills resort with a sense of humor. Every room has a crate of old records in it. Though I was at the hotel for only 13 hours, I took some time to photograph every album in the crate in my room.
When I was checking out, the desk clerk told me that guests could request a record player and play the records.
2026-10-02
How do you solve a problem like a paywall?
The current state of paywalls means everybody loses, writes journalist CT Jones. Readers find it difficult to gain access to articles. News organizations, who are desperate for readers, are pushing those readers away. AI and SEO slop fills the gap — as does propaganda.
Journalists need to get paid or journalism doesn’t happen. Jones writes about his experience with “paywall backlash,” which taught him yet again that “some of the loudest critics [of paywalls] don’t see reporting as labor at all. They see journalists and writers as obstacles, standing in the way of what they already believe. It’s why people were upset that I said writing my article was hard and it’s why they chastised me for assuming people would read past the paywall or even click on the article. Because they didn’t see my article as work.”
A partial solution would be to make it easy for readers to pay a nominal amount for just one article. In the days before the Internet ate journalism, I could walk into a newsstand, browse the racks, find a single issue of a magazine or newspaper with an interesting article, and buy that one issue. There is no equivalent on the Internet — you have to subscribe and ending the subscription is painful.
2026-10-02
A friend uses “Gladys Kravitz” to describe a certain type of busybody, and that is much better than calling these people “Karens.” I have known many Karens — actual women named Karen — and I can’t recall ever having a problem with any of them.
Indeed, if you’re starting a new job and being introduced to your teammates and one of them is named Karen, remember that person. She is a good egg and will be your friend. She will show you how things work, give you credit for your work, cover for you when you screw up, and occasionally bring delicious banana bread.
2026-10-02
🦍 Mitchellaneous #174: Memes and other found media
2026-10-03
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