Today's Mighty Oak


Alright, let’s see what we have today. First up, the stories behind the names of Pittsburgh’s neighborhoods.

The stories within stories: the fictional books we wished were real.

The recurring jokes of Arrested Development.

New Looney Tunes are coming to HBO Max and this is making me want to subscribe:

The PG (granted, it’s become a right-wing rag on the editorial side) has a neat interactive site about the bridges of Pittsburgh. Note this may be behind a paywall, I think it was one of my three free articles when I read it.

Dolly Parton secretly executive produced Buffy! And we just now found this out!

A DM and a set designer created a DnD adventure in a dresser! Each drawer is new level of the dungeon!

We’ve all been doing a lot of virtual exploration of place, and the British Museum recently revamped their online collections.

Speaking of, need some peace in your life? Check out the livestream of the Northern Lights!

Because there is such a need for blood right now, the FDA has reluctantly allowed itself to accept blood from gay men, as long as we don’t have sex for three months. They still don’t want our blood, but they realize they need it.

The Atlantic has a great piece about pandemic fatigue, how we should approach it both in ourselves and others. The article also covers the similarities between COVID and the HIV pandemic: they’re very, very similar, just on a different time scale. Be kind to yourself and others, be as smart and safe as you can.

Also in Pandemic related content, CGP Grey’s new video about it. While I will disagree, I think that for many, just surviving is enough (instead of creation of coming out ‘better’ in some way), this video has great tips about how to survive our new reality:

Dumb Runner, The Onion of running, hits it on the head: Local runner cancels backyard marathon, refuses to offer refund.

New research shows that Antarctica used to be a rain forest. Global tectonics and climate history really are awesome!

The voice of Big Thunder Mountain looks exactly how you think he does. And that is comforting.

The trailer for the new Netflix show ‘Hollywood” looks really fun:

Myst is set to become a TV Series….for the third (?) time. I’m excited, but will believe it when I see it.

Slog has great coverage of the white privilege of protesting stay at home orders. Worth a read.

An artist created a chandelier that forms as it collects rain water, and it’s beautiful!

That’s it for today, but I’ll be back soon, have a great one!



Alright, let’s see what have today. First up, and most importantly, a reminder for November:

Tom Holland and Chris Pratt want to start an Avengers DnD game and I’m all for it!

This comic is relevant to my career.

There were so many things I loved about Mayor Pete (and of course, things I didn’t), but his representation matters so, so much. Here is just one example of it, something I would have never dreamed of seeing growing up.

Also in political news, and especially after he’s been attacked for it, I love this ad from Bernie.

And in great news to help flip the Senate, Democratic challengers are leading in four tight races against incumbents!

An amazing look at the sets of The Mandalorian.

Aaron Schock is fucking trash.

Romero’s Day of the Dead is getting a new treatment as a short-run series on SyFy.

But in sad news from SyFy (although not wholly unexpected), The Magicians will end at the end of this season. An amazing show and book series, although both very different from each other.

And finally, bringing it back to the comic linked above, here’s some trucks in a towing contest:



Alright, let’s see what we have today.  Oh hey look, Drumpf is rolling back transgender health care.  We keep fighting.

And a gay teacher in Kansas was run out of town due to death threats for being gay.  When we say this country still hates us, we’re not lying.  We keep fighting.

Republicans introduce a bill to allow anti-queer discrimination in adoption agencies nationwide.  We keep fighting.

Thank you, to Garfunkle and Oates for hitting it out of the park with this song:

This makes me laugh, but it’s what we deal with all the time.  A person makes some bigoted remark about how he thinks gay people are going to hell and then gets all upset when the pushback happens.  The hypocrisy is staggering.

The trailer for the new Ryan Murphy show Pose, about the ballroom scene.

Let’s talk about gun control.  Thankfully, America’s Best Christian, Betty Bowers is here to have the conversation:

In case you forgot, PA state Rep (from north of Pittsburgh, so not my elected official) Daryl Metcalfe is a bigoted, misogynistic,, racist waste of oxygen.  He’s also been single handedly holding up the bills that would give me some equal rights in the Commonwealth.

HRC is hitting hard against Mike Pence, which is good to see them going on the offensive as he starts campaigning across the country for the midterms.

The BBC released a really good video about what homophobia feels like in 2018.

From a favorite youtube channel, Ask a Mortician, let’s talk about funeral strippers:

A bartender who was organizing a drag show that was “supposed” to be a satirical look at Hitler has apologized.  How does someone even think that is a good idea?  Words escape me.

Are you excited for Infinity War?  Do you like to crochet?  I have the link for you!  Crochet your own Infinity Gauntlet!

Speaking of The Avengers, the new movie will have an Arrested Development reference in it!  I must admit, I was so excited I decided to blue myself early and I have a little bit of a mess on my hands.

Randy Rainbow hits it out of the park again:

A Neural Network created new DnD monsters, and the results are pretty awesome.

Speaking of DnD (and crochet from above), would you like to make your baby look like a Beholder?  I mean, please don’t, Beholders are the worst.

GLOW comes back this June!  Check out the trailer:

And finally, it looks as though Labyrinth is going to become a stage musical!



Shocker, people are idiots.

It’s decorative gourd season!  Check out this video years in the making:

Kids can become certified ninjas in Japan!  Well, close enough, at least!

A photographer added Pennywise into the engagement photos she did for her sister.

An awesome local protest piece of art here in town.

I”m so excited for Black Panther, check out the new trailer:

What happens with Chris Griffin and Pinky read Star Wars dialogue?  Tons of laughter.

Disney brought real sloths to the DMV to recreate Zootopia.  I’m so jealous!

Wizards of the Coast has pulled together some statistics about the most common race and class combinations, it’s pretty interesting.

Mika’s new song has dropped, and it’s catchy:

Another mystery solved: the scrolling text from The Matrix was a sushi recipe.

As always, XKCD makes a great point.

The trailer for season 3 of Eastsiders looks great (and even includes a stop in Pittsburgh)!  But sadly, Colby Keller is in it, so I may not watch it because of that (although I think this was filmed before he was doubling down on his white privilege):

That’s it for today, have a great one!



Alright, let’s see what we have today.  First up, Prince has his own Pantone color!  Of course it’s purple!

If you haven’t been convinced that ‘gay conversion’ torture is real, or harmful, new, horrific recordings have surfaced thanks to investigative journalism.

A new reality show is coming to (British) TV, and I certainly want to watch it: Bromans:

The mayor of Hell (Michigan) has banned straight people.

My new favorite thing on the Internet: Dungeons and Drag Queens!

A gay porn star calls out Colby Kellar for his privilege.  It’s beautiful.

And finally, the trailer for the new Netflix documentary about Lady Gaga:

That’s it for today, have a great one!



Let’s see what I have today.  First up, the writers at io9 have to go and spoil science fiction with facts and science.  Sadface.

Nerd nostalgia:

Verizon was fined by the FCC for charging customers who worked around their ridiculous tethering fees.

This is amazing:

I’ve seen these events before, kind of a cool idea to get some closure.  The Brooklyn Cyclones have a “Trash Your Ex” night where you can take reminders of you ext to be destroyed.

The video for the new single from Matchhbox 20:

This has been floating around the Internet, but holy crap.  There are no words to describe the fury (and that some at the church, and even Mississippi’s governor have expressed as well).

Awesome t-shirt:

Thanks for reading, I’ll be back soon!

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