Bye bye, Metaverse

For 2026, I've decided to clean things up a bit. One for the dustbin is Facebook/Instagram. My farewell post stands (with the cheeese) alone.

After nearly 18 years, it's time to check out of Facebook and its universe. I have no professional need to stay here. Personally, the junk, vitriol, and idiocy have spoiled what was a lovely way to keep up with people and stumble across unexpected things I didn't know would interest me.

I'll miss all the random pop culture, sports, and music. I'll miss the people I lived through vicariously. But there's too much garbage in my feed, and I understand that's how this site makes money -- engagement, data scraping, and ad sales. Fine. Include me out.

You can find me the traditional ways, and I'm on Substack (often as a commenter), Bluesky (occasionally), and my mostly dormant blog "Artificial Irrelevance."

Happy trails. Be good to yourself and to others.

I should have also mentioned YouTube, for anyone interested in mediocre ukulele performances.  

 

In my feed

I like the design of the homepage. So I'm sticking what's the equivalent of the ol' blogroll here.

Here's part of what winds up regularly in my inbox: 

NYT/The Athletic (news, newsletters, games)

The Washington Post (newsletters, puzzles)

The Dispatch (newsletters, articles, podcasts)

Axios Denver (plus the national newsletters)

The Colorado Sun

NOTUS

Politico Playbook

Matt Yglesias

PoliticsNC

The UnPopulist

Persuasion

Ukulele Underground 

Whenever they post, I read them and recommend them:

Virginia Postrel

Walter Olson

Joel Mathis

Bonnie Kristian

Got a Ukulele

The rest of my life, online

Here's my history, for the world to see. Past lives, etc. Caveat emptor.

Journo stuff:

My writings at The Week

The Assembly NC re: Merlefest

The Assembly NC re: State election management

The Assembly NC: Quoting me about film subsidies

Carolina Journal: 2009-21

Reason: 1989-98 (potentially many bad links here ...)

Other materials from Investor's Business Daily, Las Vegas Review-Journal, Riverside Press-Enterprise, and Rocky Mountain News may be lost forever in the ether. I have hard copies, but I'm not digitizing them!

Frivilous, fun stuff where you can find my fingerprints:

The Raleigh Uke Jam

Make Music Raleigh

The Pete Kaliner Show, June 3, 2021

 Pete asked me to discuss my Deregulator post on the Nikole Hannah-Jones/UNC j-school dustup. Listen here!

https://thepetekalinershow.com/episode/nobody-looking-good-in-the-nikole-hannah-jones-tenure-fight-with-unc

I talk Substacking and independent journalism on Consumer Choice Radio!

Check out this appearance in early May with Yaël and David on the Center for Consumer Choice's podcast. Thanks to them for the invitation and the fun conversation.

LINK here.

VIDEO here.

Election Red Meat, plus follow-up interview, in The Assembly, April 2021

This was a fun long-form piece for the online startup. I enjoyed the collaboration with Editor Kyle Villemain and his crew.

Election Red Meat

A few days after the story ran, Kyle did a follow-up Q&A with me. Again, fun.

Q&A with The Assembly's Kyle Villemain

My Carolina Journal archive (all of it ... )

My old home page at CJ, including interviews, stories, etc. 

If there's interest, I'll curate this and highlight the award-winning stuff, or my particular favorites. 

It's pretty doggone extensive, if I say so myself!

Carolina Journal archive