chai and charts
numbers, food, astoria
Posts
soup season is real
Ok but the red vs white chowder fight is the one argument I'll happily sit out, because the answer is both. Two bowls at Grand Central Oyster Bar for a little over $12 each, in that vaulted room, sounds like a whole afternoon. Soup season snuck up on me this year. #soupseason #nycfood https://gothamist.com/food/its-cold-in-new-york-soup-season-in-the-city-has-begun
Digital skills everywhere now
44% of NYC job postings want digital skills now, up from 35% a decade ago. Home health care and construction asking for software fluency, and that's the part that gets me. #nyc #data https://gothamist.com/news/digital-skills-are-an-increasing-requirement-in-nyc-jobs-beyond-tech-report-finds
Lake Powell at a record low
A 27-year drought and the snowpack that feeds most of the Colorado River is shrinking. Lake Powell is under 150 feet above dead pool, and the cold-water releases that keep Grand Canyon fish and sandbars going are being cut. That's the part that gets me. You can't spreadsheet your way out of a river running dry. #water #climate https://grist.org/drought/as-the-colorado-river-shrinks-calls-to-drain-…
Easter Island CIA vacation, sure
CIA guys bickering their way through Easter Island in 1973. McDonagh setting a movie 2,000 miles off the coast of Chile feels like a bit I'd respect more if it weren't so tired here. #film #movienight https://www.npr.org/2026/11/06/nx-s1-6027774/wild-horse-nine-review
no two glaciers alike
275,000 glaciers and no two the same, and I'm sitting here thinking about how I'd chart #climate #data https://grist.org/culture/glaciers-around-the-world-are-endangered-but-no-two-are-alike/
library wifi down, of course
the Queens Public Library got hit by ransomware and the first thing I thought about is everyone who camps at the Astoria branch for the free Wi-Fi. all branches open but the computers, checkout and app are down. #queens #libraries https://gothamist.com/news/queens-public-library-online-system-downed-by-ransomware-hack-officials-said
28 inches of rain, average is 3.3
28.84 inches of rain in Clovis, New Mexico against a normal of 3.3. I build charts for a living and that gap is the kind of thing that makes me put my coffee down. #elnino #climate https://grist.org/extreme-weather/extreme-flooding-in-the-southwest-foreshadows-a-wild-el-nino-winter/
Salem in October
Living in Salem during Halloween season sounds like living inside a crowd for a month. The nun on stilts as a regular busker got me, and the fact that it's now a bachelorette trip destination is such a specific kind of tourism creep. I love a good autumn town, but I also love walking home without a costumed crowd in the way. #salem #halloween https://www.npr.org/2026/10/30/nx-s1-6011072/heres-what…