(via Pleated-Jeans)
Friday, September 11, 2026
Boatlift
Here's a 9/11 story you may not be familiar with, or might have forgotten. Tens of thousands of people were pouring out of the World Trade Center and nearby buildings, and they were stuck in Manhattan. Businesses shut down. The bridges and subways were closed. That's when the boat operators on all sides of the city converged to get people away from the site. They took half a million people away from the disaster site in about nine hours. (via Nag on the Lake)
Where Were You on 9/11?
It was 25 years ago that four hijacked planes attacked the US. Two of them slammed into the World Trade Center skyscrapers, causing their collapse. A third crashed into the Pentagon. A fourth plane was delayed long enough for the passengers to learn what was going on, and they attacked the hijackers and crashed in a field in Pennsylvania. The death toll was 2,977 people. I won't ever forget that day.
I worked the afternoon shift back then. In the morning, I went down to the DMV to renew my driver's license. The clerk asked about my daughters, ages three and four, and suggested I bring them in to get a "bicycle license." I'd never heard of such a thing, but said I would do that. They and my husband were up when I got home, so we all went back downtown. As we were headed out the door, a friend called and said to turn on the TV. We didn't, but turned on the car radio. The morning DJ at my station was talking about "some idiot" who had flown a plane into the World Trade Center. He obviously was under the impression then that it was a small plane, which had happened before. But when we got to the DMV, everyone was huddled around a TV set, and it became clear this was something much bigger. Still, the clerk took my kids' pictures and made bicycle licenses, which have no information beyond their pictures, but are laminated and important-looking.
I worked the afternoon shift back then. In the morning, I went down to the DMV to renew my driver's license. The clerk asked about my daughters, ages three and four, and suggested I bring them in to get a "bicycle license." I'd never heard of such a thing, but said I would do that. They and my husband were up when I got home, so we all went back downtown. As we were headed out the door, a friend called and said to turn on the TV. We didn't, but turned on the car radio. The morning DJ at my station was talking about "some idiot" who had flown a plane into the World Trade Center. He obviously was under the impression then that it was a small plane, which had happened before. But when we got to the DMV, everyone was huddled around a TV set, and it became clear this was something much bigger. Still, the clerk took my kids' pictures and made bicycle licenses, which have no information beyond their pictures, but are laminated and important-looking.
On the back, she jotted down the date before laminating them.
Back home, we were glued to the TV, and I cried. I know now that for my daughters, it was like the day President Kennedy was shot when I was five years old. They knew it was important and awful, but didn't understand much more than that. We saw the second crash and when the buildings collapsed. Yeah, I should have sent to kids out of the room, but I couldn't anticipate when another tragedy would be shown live, and they didn't want to be alone anyway.
When I got to work, we were in emergency mode. No music, no ads, just the live network news feed, for about a week afterward. A few days in, the office informed me that we had to make up all the ads we missed, so I would run 15 minutes of ads and 15 minutes of news until we caught up. No matter- by then, no one was listening anyway. The station owner bought the biggest American flag I'd ever seen (outside of the Smithsonian) and hung it over the front of the two-story building. For months afterward, we couldn't even check the weather outside the studio window. And they hung it wrong, with the blue field on the upper right. I mentioned it, but they said it was too much trouble to change it.
What are your personal memories of that awful day 25 years ago?
When I got to work, we were in emergency mode. No music, no ads, just the live network news feed, for about a week afterward. A few days in, the office informed me that we had to make up all the ads we missed, so I would run 15 minutes of ads and 15 minutes of news until we caught up. No matter- by then, no one was listening anyway. The station owner bought the biggest American flag I'd ever seen (outside of the Smithsonian) and hung it over the front of the two-story building. For months afterward, we couldn't even check the weather outside the studio window. And they hung it wrong, with the blue field on the upper right. I mentioned it, but they said it was too much trouble to change it.
What are your personal memories of that awful day 25 years ago?
Miss Cellania's Links
Redditors explain what the world was like before 9/11, and what has changed.
Manitoba Has an Ambitious Plan to End Homelessness. Wab Kinew’s approach involves moving thousands of unhoused people into permanent homes. (via Metafilter)
Soap approved for nuns. (via Memo of the Air)
These are the people in your neighborhood – Mr. ICE Officer! The latest from Tom the Dancing Bug.
The Tragic End of Milo of Croton. He was likely a real person, but the legend of his death reads like an Aesop's fable.
Texas was once a hotbed of wild west socialism – could it make a comeback? (via Fark)
The Lucas Museum of Narrative Art Is Here: the Good, the Bad, and the Incredible.
This summer was hot. August shattered global heat records.
How 9/11 Changed Skyscraper Design
As we observe the 25th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, it's natural to take a look at what has changed on the years since. Those horrific moments when we all watched the twin towers of the World Trade Center collapse live on TV were particularly scarring. You have to wonder how safe such tall buildings really are, as those towers were a model of safe architecture in their day. It might be reassuring to know that we've come a long way in both design and materials since the World Trade Center was designed in the 1960s, and especially in the past 25 years since they fell. (via Digg)
Buying Votes, Or Just Saying He Will
They really are just openly trying to buy votes now. Trump says every adult American will get a $5,000 “Trump dividend”, but only if Republicans win both the House and Senate in November.
— Alt National Park Service (@altnps.bsky.social) September 9, 2026 at 11:15 PM
Trump promised $5,000 stimulus checks from DOGE cuts. You got 0. Trump promised $2,000 stimulus checks from tariffs. You got 0. Trump promised $1,000 checks from Obamacare cuts. You got 0. Trump promised $1.98 gas. You got $4+. Trump now has more promises for you.
— Ron Filipkowski (@ronfilipkowski.bsky.social) September 10, 2026 at 9:04 AM
Seeing Trump lose his power and be constantly investigated for two years is worth a lot more than $5,000 to me.
— Rocky Mountain Mike (@rockymntnmike.bsky.social) September 10, 2026 at 1:08 PM
Thursday, September 10, 2026
Remembering Betty Ann Ong
As we observe the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, we must remember that each of the 2,977 people who died had a life and a story.
Betty Ong was a flight attendant on American Airlines Flight 11, and was the first person to alert anyone about the hijackings. She stayed calm and focused during the emergency, and left a lasting legacy.
Handcrafted Japanese Tinware
When you think of tin, you probably think of midcentury toys or canned food. But in the hands of skilled craftspeople, it can become a work of art. (via Metafilter)
A Collection of Lumps
One vignette after another of surreal body horror rendered in simple and colorful animation. Well, maybe horror is too strong of a word, since there's no realism and little gore, despite plenty of heads exploding. There's also honestly very little meaning behind most of them, although I do like the image of exercising your fingers by scrolling on your phone as if they were walking on a treadmill. Many of these sequences build tension due to what you think will happen, when sometimes it's a surprise left turn, and often nothing happens at all. Lumps is the internet pseudonym of animator Sam Drew. You can see more of his designs at his website. (via Memo of the Air)
50 People Try to Cut a Watermelon
The stated goals is to cut a watermelon into "triangles." It took me a few minutes to realize they really meant "wedges," which is a very normal way to cut a watermelon. I don't know where they found all these confused folks. It's a simple matter of... cutting a watermelon. (via Digg)
Wednesday, September 09, 2026
Zydereen of Neptune
Zydereen of Neptune may be considered a TV movie. It is a compilation of three 1955 episodes of the Flash Gordon serial. The episodes are titles "The Witch of Neptune," "The Brain Machine," and "Struggle to the End." Zydereen is the witch, and she's messing with the oxygen generator on Neptune. Flash Gordon must find and stop her before the oxygen runs out! (Thanks, WTM!)
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