iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Matt Alston @mcribsisback.bsky.social · 13/10/2026

"I just drove all the way to Brooklyn to check out this store"

Fassbender gives up the game in Inglorious Basterds by flashing an English "three"

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Matt Alston @mcribsisback.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

New Donald Antrim has a date, a title and a cover, let's fucking GO www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/752470...

McMahon meme reacting to descriptions of Donald Antrim's forthcoming "My Eliot" ... in order:

1. "Lost in the house he grew up in, haunted by the ghost of his younger sister and his strange, cruel parents, and with the love of his life, Paula, zipping around town in a sportscar"

2. the words "our narrator Donald Antrim" highlighted

3. the words "Instead of writing his book, Donald spends his time with the technicolor trees, talking to a possum named Tom, pursuing the phantom of a little boy, and trying to win back his beloved Paula."

4. "Pages: 224"

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Matt Alston @mcribsisback.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

The Social Network score had a damn stranglehold on late-night writing sessions for a decade, but there's a new girl in town since 2020 and she never disappoints

TENET original motion picture soundtrack, the greatest music for writing when you're up late

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Matt Alston @mcribsisback.bsky.social · 29/08/2026

Everyone I’ve met in Jackson Hole is a

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Matt Alston @mcribsisback.bsky.social · 12/08/2026

Selling stuff on Facebook and observing some high school acquaintances having an extremely normal time

A Facebook post by Brian Sauve being shared (sharing user blocked out) that reads: "There is no question:
If what we’re seeing reported about Fauci true, he must be swiftly executed after a fair trial.
He is willfully complicit in mass murderer. See less"

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Matt Alston @mcribsisback.bsky.social · 31/07/2026

The most soul-affirming, earnest communication attempts on the entire internet: boomers posting comments on YouTube clips of classic rock concerts. The most depraved: Facebook comments on news posts about bicycle safety

responses on a YouTube video: "Van Morrison - Cyprus Avenue - 9/23/1970 - Fillmore East, New York, NY (OFFICIAL)"

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Matt Alston @mcribsisback.bsky.social · 14/07/2026

This Claude ad on Instagram reveals the story of a restaurateur who used Claude to ... move things closer to the cooks who needed those things? Why didn't the cooks just set up their mise better? What are we even talking about anymore

"When brunch was slow, Eli gave Claude his sales data and kitchen photos. It turns out the ingredients cook needed most were the hardest to reach. That week he began shifting things around, bringing his team into the process and revising as they weighed in. Food came off the line faster, servers turned more tables, and tips went up."

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Matt Alston @mcribsisback.bsky.social · 08/07/2026

When you all talk bad about Maine this is who you’re insulting

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Matt Alston @mcribsisback.bsky.social · 06/07/2026

I had this exact dish 9 years ago and still think about it all the time

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Matt Alston @mcribsisback.bsky.social · 06/07/2026

Guys want one thing and it's disgusting

Big League Chew Bubble Gum
Ground Ball Grape

It does not say it was invented by Todd Field on the packaging, but true heads know

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Matt Alston @mcribsisback.bsky.social · 13/06/2026

my wife has us do this thing called "Maine's Big Night," where every spring scientists send out the locations of vernal pools that attract mating frogs, and on warm rainy nights, we head out with flashlights and plastic shovels & help them avoid cars as they cross roads. I'm so happy she's my wife.

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Matt Alston @mcribsisback.bsky.social · 09/06/2026

Maine has ranked choice voting! He’s likely about to win a primary with ranked choice. National media keeps overlooking that Mills ran a horrible (might call it smug?) campaign, alienated parts of her base, and has a dangerously high disapproval rating. It sucks but the process “worked”

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Matt Alston @mcribsisback.bsky.social · 15/05/2026

I have the world’s least monetizable hidden talent and I love it for exactly that reason. Just did this during a Zoom meeting and have already shaken it away:

Calvin and his dad, drawn on an etch-a-sketch

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Matt Alston @mcribsisback.bsky.social · 14/05/2026

Etch-a-Sketch skills TESTED by this very fun game

picture of me drawing a pretty quality circle on this game

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Matt Alston @mcribsisback.bsky.social · 14/05/2026

Left, Nat Geo, 2022; Right NYT Mag, 2025

Invasive green crabs: If you can't beat them, eat them.
The crustaceans, non-native and fierce, are taking over the Gulf of Maine. Could eating them help draw down the population?

Invasive Crabs Have Taken Over New England. One Solution? Eat Them.
America’s Northeastern coast has been overrun by crabs from Europe and Asia. Luckily, they’re delicious.

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Matt Alston @mcribsisback.bsky.social · 06/05/2026

their groupchat + a chorus of reactionary nazis and bots

twitter post from the dude who wrote the AI/Universities piece: "Bluesky really is the weirdest social media site ever created. It’s like the most toxic liberals built themselves a prison and then locked themselves up in it and now have 10 riots a day. Why would you do that lol."

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Matt Alston @mcribsisback.bsky.social · 23/04/2026

Terence Howard Math as rhetorical policy

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Matt Alston @mcribsisback.bsky.social · 01/04/2026

I am overdue on filing a story and the editor is a huge Bowie fan so I bribed him with this; I'd say it's worth 24-36 more hours yeah?

Etch-a-Sketch drawing of David Bowie from the "Low" cover

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Matt Alston @mcribsisback.bsky.social · 13/03/2026

My "My company didn't kill Matthew Perry" T-shirt has people asking a lot of questions already answered by my shirt.

Linkedin post where one CEO is quoting another CEO and talking about them both suing the WSJ for defamatory reporting —

Quote poster:
"We're suing them for $88M for lying that we killed Matthew Perry.

That lie manipulated patients away from evidence-based care and into the arms of their big pharma advertisers.

Lying to readers for profit is evil, and evil must be fought.

Welcome to the party, Binance."

Quoted post:
"We've filed a complaint against Wall Street Journal for publishing false and defamatory reporting."

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Matt Alston @mcribsisback.bsky.social · 20/02/2026

me: “I have an embarrassing blind spot where I have NO IDEA where to start with good sci-fi“ my buddy: “tell me what you have liked and I’ll send you some books” Some books:

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Matt Alston @mcribsisback.bsky.social · 18/02/2026

It's fine to be bad. It's good to be good. It's worse to be nothing at all.

Mark Wahlberg, Charlize Theron, and Edward Norton in the Italian Job, a poster that apparently predicted the Now You See Me trilogy's whole deal

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Matt Alston @mcribsisback.bsky.social · 25/01/2026

went on Facebook for a very scary 12 minutes earlier. the brains are boiled, they are disintegrating in the pot like wet chalk.

a woman on Facebook named Megan writing "Always wait for more truth to be revealed" and sharing a post from someone named Ryan Fournier that says

·
🚨BREAKING: New footage just dropped and it completely flips the script on the narrative we've been fed. This is what the media DOESN’T want you to see:
1. THE ASSAULT: The new video appears to show the man who was shot actually ASSAULTED A WOMAN moments before.
2. THE REACTION: It is now crystal clear that the federal agent saw a direct threat, forcing him to pull his weapon FAST. He was reacting to what was right in front of him.
3. THE FIGHT: The man was STILL fighting and moving even after the first shot was fired. This raises massive questions about who actually pulled the trigger first.
THE TRUTH IS COMING OUT! 🔥

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Matt Alston @mcribsisback.bsky.social · 12/01/2026

Like, the NYT or LAT or WSJ daily crossword puzzles are often clever, but go by so fast. Ruminating on a clue like this for a little while and then getting it ... nothing better. May he and his keen mind live another 20 years. Everyone else's cryptics are just lurching toward Maltby's wry genius

RHJ: As a puzzle maker, you’re highly aware of the solver. It demands a very literal form of readerly engagement. Is your relationship with your solvers more adversarial or collaborative?

RM: My goal with the clues is to make you laugh. A smile is okay, a bit of a chuckle is acceptable, but I really want the all-out laugh. Try this one: “Sign for and take $100 off recreational vehicle on beach (9).” Take C (one hundred in Roman numerals) off CAMPER (“recreational vehicle”) on SAND (“beach”). Do you see the definition? “Sign for and.” AMPERSAND. Could it be more obvious?

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Matt Alston @mcribsisback.bsky.social · 12/01/2026

"Winning" the puzzle a few years back was a genuine life highlight.

The bottom panel of the Harper's Puzzle from a few years back, when I won, with the following circles:

"The winner of the November puzzle, 'Foursomes' is Matthew Alston, Falmouth, Maine."

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Matt Alston @mcribsisback.bsky.social · 15/12/2025

Learned a few years back that I'm bizarrely good at Etch-a-Sketch and the most common response is asking how I might monetize it. Disregarding that you cannot sell one without considerable effort (taking the thing apart, magnets, etc), it's so wonderful to only be able to do a thing for its own sake

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Matt Alston @mcribsisback.bsky.social · 14/12/2025

my face when I see another dingbat riding around in the woods really fast and decide to make them my robbin' friend

Ben Mendelssohn asking Christoph Waltz for the Django best supporting actor Oscar that should belong to Mendelsohn for his fluid, embodied, preternatural performance in Place Beyond The Pines

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Matt Alston @mcribsisback.bsky.social · 25/11/2025

it might also have been one of the one-sheets, but I think you're right. however the BEST poster is the full-page ad they took out after the siskel & Ebert review:

"two thumbs down"

two more great reasons to see ...

a film by David Lynch

LOST HIGHWAY

[now showing, etc]

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Matt Alston @mcribsisback.bsky.social · 21/11/2025

there’s no way Trump knows the price of milk but there’s also no way David Brooks knows the price of milk and tbh I’m not sure I would pass a milk price quiz myself

“Does Trump know the price of milk” op ed headline in the gray lady

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Matt Alston @mcribsisback.bsky.social · 17/11/2025

Brother, it’s the only kind of movie I like

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Matt Alston @mcribsisback.bsky.social · 15/11/2025

My 6yo daughter is having a friend sleep over tonight, is It finally time to introduce these kids to TENET (2020)?

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Matt Alston @mcribsisback.bsky.social · 24/10/2025

This costume is the formerly hipster dad bat signal, I’m casting about for my people. Excited to meet 3-7 Halloween Bobs next Friday out with our kids trick or treating.