Good morning good morning! Erratic morning here. Jane has a 10AM doctor’s appointment, but I have a 10 AM conference call, and then an 11 AM conference call, so I got Jane breakfast and ready for school, and Emma is taking her to the doctor’s. So many doctor’s appointments this month. Jane did not go to school before the appointment, so we all slept in, so no time for GMHHAY. There is also a broccoli sidequest saga going on but you don’t need to know about that.

It’s okay, though, I’ve been meaning to write an “article round-up” edition of GMHHAY for a bit. To recap: whenever I see a long, interesting article when I’m at work or busy, I have a little script that makes a PDF of it and sends it to my Kindle. And then on trips, I read all the articles on the plane. It’s great. And I have taken four plane flights recently, so I got a good batch of articles for you. And a few videos.

I do not generally like “link round-up” newsletters, because, my god, they feel like homework to me. I mean, I love the links, but I feel like I need to read every single one of them. And in the old days, before the format proliferated, I did. And it took up all my time.

BUT. You know. Every once in a while, they can be nice. Do not feel obligated to read (or watch) any of these. But if something piques your interest, now you know!

It’s also a format that can start and stop a lot and doesn’t take my full brain, so I can work on it in the background during these two upcoming conference calls that are going to eat up the rest of my morning.

Join the GMHHAY slack! Reply to this email and ask for an invite if you’re a human who likes chatting with other humans about topics such as these within!

Did you kow there is a new 16-disc Joy Division live box set? That drummer Stephen Morris has taken the last couple years tracking down every single live recording he could find of Joy Division — from fans, sound techs, fellow musicians, labels, everything — and spending as much time and energy getting them all remastered as cleanly and as perfectly as their aging tapes will allow? It is called Eternal and it is awesome. I am now on Disc 5. I have heard, maybe 5 of these concerts before. Two have been officially released — Hope and Anchor and Les Bains Douche. I’ve seen a few of the films (two of the discs are DVDs). But a lot of it is new to me, and the remasters on the stuff I have heard are great, and I am super into it and I am going to listen to Joy Division all day.

Ian Curtis complains a lot about the live sound in these recordings. Every time he complains, they are in the middle of sounding fucking awesome. I did not know this tendency of Ian prior to this. Perfectionist, mayhaps. On disc 5 they are in the middle of a phenomenal version of “Heart and Soul” and he says “Everything is fucking falling apart” and for a minute there you’re not sure if he means his performance or… something bigger.

Okay here we go.

‘She was almost a Batman figure’: Mexico’s avenging Mother Courage

Fascinating article about Mexico, drug cartels, crime, revenge, political influence, and when a noble pursuit goes too far.

In the Private Jet Age, the Quiet Allure of Private Rail

Man I am so going to rent one of these private train cars and take my family and a bunch of friends across the country on a private rail car. Who’s in? Maybe we should buy one of these. Feels like a new generation needs to take the reins in conserving these. Beautiful.

Inside the Armed Incursion From Florida Intended to Topple Cuba’s Government

Completely bonkers account of a keystone-cops absurd attempt at overthrowing the Cuban government with like 15 dudes and two boats and a drone and Tik Tok and SpaceX and the US Government really does seem to be completely fine with letting random US citizens go and try and topple governments. Drop News is really turning out to be a fantastic news service. Fucking wish it wasn’t on Substack.

How apple detectives solved the mystery of an ancient tree—and rewrote the history of fruit (I guess we’re just using whole sentences, or I guess sentence fragments, with no caps as article titles these days it’s like no one cares about anything anymore)

This is just a glorious article, pure science and passion, man I want an apple now. Apples are the best. Apples last forever. There are so many kinds of apples. I need more apple trees and I need to plant them now so that my property is lousy with apples when I’m old and everyone is super annoyed with all the Apples all over the ground.

Gathering of the Juggalos

Excellent video from the Channel 5 “All Gas No Breaks” archives, which they have recently re-obtained. This is from the 2025 gathering, but it’s still great. I regret to inform you all that Juggalos might be the most well-adjusted people in America, and we are all gonna have to go to a gathering at some point.

What if America Went Completely Dark?

Oh man this is terrifying. Did not like. Don’t fully believe that it would be quite as bad as this. And even if you’ve heard the doomsdaying, this article also has a pretty good rundown on the companies out there trying to change the system away from custom-built transformers that take millions of dollars and several years to build a single transformer. Also very much speaks to the need for the rise of on-premises micro-power generation, though of course if the whole grid went down for months, obviously a bunch of lunatics would home invade my house and kill my family to charge their flashlights or something.

This Masterpiece Is the Novel of the Decade, if Not the Century

Never have I read a more hyperbolic, more gushing review of a book. This is absolutely bonkers. It is so over-the-top. I promply bought the book just out of curiousity. Then I asked some friends who had read it and several people had and one of them said “it wasn’t good but it wasn’t the novel of the decade, it wasn’t even the best novel I read this year.” Another said that it is an absolute disservice to an author to write a review this fawning. There is no way the book could live up to it. Also it’s 600 pages, so, ummm… I am now undecided.

Behind His Great Novels, an Unbearable Family Secret

A fascinating in-depth feature of another author, an irishman named Sebastian Berry, of whom I’ve never heard. But now I kinda want to read all his books, that are all linked together in a sprawling saga. But who has that kind of time. Hopefully when I’m old, living in the indie-rock retirement community retired shopping mall. Great feature.

Sylvester Stallone Hid His Struggles for Decades. Now He’s Coming Clean.

Oh my god this was moving, harrowing, charming, thrilling. Amazing interview. Stallone admitting to bulimia. There are easily 20 all-timer quoted from Stallone in this interview. If you ever thought people couldn’t grow, evolve, learn, or change, read this.

Massacre at Minab: The School That Became a Grave

Easily the hardest article to read of the bunch. The United States government, in collaboration with Palantir, committed a war crime and killed 120 children. There is zero excuse. The human toll is incalculable. People need to go to jail for this. This article explains three main topics: the human toll, how this atrocity came to be, and assorted avenues available to those who are seeking justice. The latter part should be required reading for every Democratic politician. There are things we could do if we win the mid terms.

America Actually Built Something on Time and On Budget

Want some good news? Want some big machines? Big tractors? Human competency? People getting shit done? Behold. We have been completely replacing a train in the middle of Manhattan and it’s on time and under budget. It’s just fantastic.

The opposite of the apocalypse is a neighborhood

Notice how I am arranging these with some positive, hopefully articles after the Iran school atrocity. This one is a wonderful, moving, simple article about what we can and should be doing closer to home. My god I miss church potlucks. Do churches even do church potlucks anymore? Did anyone else here to progressive dinners as a kid? Those were so greast.

How Dinosaur Jr. Learned to Tolerate One Another, Kind Of

One of the best bits of rock and roll reporting in years. Even if it has a little bit too little of Lou. J Mascis really is a fascinating, enigmatic figure.

This Screw Is Needed for Missiles and Planes. Buying One Can Take Years.

Every time some Republican goes off about how the US Government spends too much money on toilets and pencils and screws, send them this article. Ball screws. Who knew?

Her Brand Was Tradwife. Now She’s Divorced.

Bit of a FAFO, but fascinating ethnographic insight, bit schadenfreude, bit of a sympathetic portrayal, but of a highlighting of the reduced options available to immigrant women, bit of everything.

A Simple Technique to Help You Fall Asleep

I have been trying this for a few weeks now and it has not really helped, but it’s actually kind of fun anyway and I think I enjoy it more than I enjoy laying there stressing about work or something. it’s kind of like the pressure washing simulation game or those websites that let you do fake shopping to scratch an itch and relax. File fake, less stressful mental information instead of shitty stuff!

Dear Youtube!

Youtube is going to let creators A/B the same video and it has a bajillion ramifications that it… seems pretty clear Youtube has not considered? Best and brightest, best and brightest.

The Bayeux Tapestry’s Long Journey Home

When I was sixteen I went to Bayeaux and saw the tapestry and it was amazing and I wish I could go see it again. Also I love the whole part of this article about people who are making their own replicas of the tapestry.

Child’s Play

Man. AI. Kid founders. Lazy VCs. Hubris. I just… I can’t. I can’t. Don’t read this one. It will piss you off. It’s about that AI dating cheating app. I mean, just. Rage.

Destroying Books to Build a Mind

This one, though, wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be? This is the article that uncovered the habit of Anthropic (and probably others) buying a ton of used books to chop em up, scan ‘em, absorb ‘em, train on em, and throw ‘em away.

I remain pissed off at AI companies for stealing all of the world’s information to make a machine that (tries and fails to) generates profit just for them, but I am now not too bothered about their book consumption habit. At least at the moment. They are not chopping up antiquarian or rare books. I do remain concerned that a) they will significantly raise the price on books that are not rare by collectibility standards, but rare in the sense of “there’s one copy for sale of this book I need for my research,” and b) they are too cheap to non-destructively scan them. But, well, it could be worse.

What is neuralese and why is it bad?

Quick primer on the growing tendency of our models to stop speaking english to us in their interim logic steps and why we should maybe not let them do this but, of course, are going to anyway, because no one in AI has any goddamn sense. Quick and informative.

Last Seen on September 10th

An older article about one of the last of the missing from 9/11. There is a conspiracy theory around this woman, and that she’s not really dead, stemming from a Post Secret note, but the odds do seem that Sneha Anne Philip did, unfortunately, die on 9/11.

Eating 30 Different Plants a Week: How to Do It

I read an article about how we should try and consume 30 different plants every week to ensure a quality gut biome. I actually saw a bunch of these, and was confused: was it plants? Or vegetables? Did it include ingredients in foods you cook? Processed foods? This article offers a decent explainer. But I personally believe plants in junk food, ultra processed food, booze, etc., should be counted as less than one whole plant.

So in a fit of OCD, I made a spreadsheet of my consumption habits to see how I fared. I am very proud of it.

My total comes out to 36.31 plants per week. Whew. I can rest easy. I remember like 10 years ago I was talking about my stir fry and my friend Ashley said “your gut biome must be amazing” and I had literally never thought about it before. Now I find it very fascinating. Especially those poop transplants. Guess I don’t need one. I am both happy and sad about that.

Behold:

Jane was not terrible last night, though her knees did hurt and she didn’t get enough sleep. We’ve had her checked for rheumatoid arthritis in her knees and she’s fine but there is definitely some sort of chronic problem there. Concerning. She couldn’t fall asleep, read till like 11, so we skipped early morning at school since we had to go to the doctor at 10 anyway. She is at school now. I do not know how the visit went because I am still on conference calls.

Part one of the root canal — the part where they kill all the infection — is in two days. We chose local anesthesia. It’s inconceivable to Emma and I that this adult-oriented endodontist is going to get Jane to sit still for 90 minutes on laughing gas, but they seem to think they can do it.

We shall see.

You are probably not going to like this, but my old friend Darryl has been posting a lot of his old live videos. And this one is a performance of one of my favorite old Boston bands, The Stuffings, who I saw like 20 times. They were the best. The Stuffings need a vinyl box set. You are probably going to hate them. I dare you I triple dog dare you.

Have a lovely day and I think our decks are now cleared for BIG NEWS TOMORROW.