iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Popcornbender Spatch @spatch.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

Morning noodle will be a treat from H Mart; I am poaching an egg in it and will eat it while watching videos of showa-era tourist attractions and all shall be well for 20, 25 minutes

A package of instant yuzu chicken ramen from Sapporo Ichiban which promises a "tangy and refreshing" dish and friends if this turns out to be chicken piccata ramen I shall be delighted

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Popcornbender Spatch @spatch.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

APPROVED CLOTHING ONLY No jeans No sneakers No ballcaps

A locked gate with barbed wire on top with signs warning us to "LOWER ANTENNA" and that "APPROVED FR CLOTHING REQUIRED FOR ENTRY INTO SUBSTATION". The little brick substation building is set very far back in this narrow plot of land.

Through the gate we see a concrete flagstone path leading far down the narrow plot of land to the brick substation building. There are two bronze sconces flanking the door and lettering which used to read CAMBRIDGE ELECTRIC LIGHT but several letters are missing.

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Popcornbender Spatch @spatch.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

last night sonya wanted to see the top gear episode where they try to shoot a reliant robin into space so we found it and the experience also brought up the ol' bingo card which I had made ages, ages ago

an old top gear bingo card, hastily and inaccurately made, with squares featuring phrases ilke

ALL WE KNOW IS

CHOICE OF MUSIC MORE EXCITING THAN CHOICE OF CAR

SOMEONE'S GOING REALLY FAST

HAMMOND IS WAY TOO EXCITED TO DO THE COOL WALL

STAR THINKS HAMMERHEAD FOOTAGE IS "SO SLOW"

HETEROSEXUALITY ASSERTED

ONE SEGMENT, TEN CAMERA FILTERS

RANT ABOUT ROADWORKS AND/OR SPEED CAMERAS

OH, COCK

THE LADS INSULT THE LOCALS

HOW HARD COULD IT BE?

QUITE HARD AS A MATTER OF FACT

(FREE SQUARE) CLARKSON IS A BLOWHARD

CUTE GIRL PROMINENT IN BACKGROUND

HAMMOND DOES/DOES NOT WHITEN HIS TEETH

RACE RESULT A SURPRISE BUT NOT REALLY

STAR LEANS FORWARD TO SEE LAP TIME

CLARKSON ABSOLUTELY LOVES CAR

CLARKSON ARBITRARILY DISMISSES CAR

AMBITIOUS BUT RUBBISH

IT'S GOT A BIG BOOT

JAAAAAAG

JAMES GETS HIT FROM BEHIND

WE DON'T NORMALLY SHOW CLIPS ON THIS PROGRAMME

AND ON THAT BOMBSHELL...

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Popcornbender Spatch @spatch.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

What a world we live in where fire hydrants can hang out on the street completely naked

A shiny stainless steel-colored fire hyrdant, bare and shiny, with a hint of former red-orange paint on one of its caps

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Popcornbender Spatch @spatch.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

hey somerville what the heck someone needs to jump on this

Why someone has written on scrap paper the following

Film
Lovers'
Underground
Film
Festival

Which would mean nothin but fluff

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Popcornbender Spatch @spatch.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

Alfred E. Mann worked as a undertaker in Union Square for 25 years and when the Hobbs Building opened he jumped at the chance to move to a new building with all the modern conveniences like electricity and a 100-person chapel (roughly the size of one of our side houses) which fronted on Dover St.

Ad from January 21, 1916 for A.E. Mann, Undertaker, 83 Dover St, Somerville Theatre Building. The ad mentions you can reach him at home on Francesca Avenue during off hours, and that you can request auto service because much like Enterprise, he'll pick you up

A very blurry scan of a 1914 article which explains that Mr. Mann has moved from Union Square into the Hobbs Building and is occupying "handsomely equipped quarters which are provided with the most modern accommodations that go with his business". This includes being "well-lighted by electricity and well-ventilated". It alo mentions the "chapel accommodations which permit the seating of seventy five to 100 persons". We are also informed that Mr. Mann is a member of a lot of the fraternal orgs in town and that his father was Town Messenger with a perfect record of faithful service.

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Popcornbender Spatch @spatch.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

Thanks to the Somerville Library's online newspaper archive I discovered other businesses in the Hobbs Building when the Somerville Theatre opened Some we knew about, like the bowling alley and the auditorium/ballroom, but nobody knew about the undertaker who maybe worked where theaters 2 and 3 are

A column of ads from June 12, 1914, a month after the theater opened. Three of the four are for Hobbs Building businesses: the Hobbs Bowling Alley, which featured six of the "latest type loop the loop alleys" and 4 pool/billiard tables and a "special provision for ladies"; the Somerville Auditorium (which IIRC would later be renamed Hobbs' Crystal Ballroom) advertising "glide and modern dancing parties" every Wednesday and Saturday evening; and one Alfred E. Mann, Undertaker.

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Popcornbender Spatch @spatch.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

And here we are at CVS making sure to protect one of the most vulnerable groups in our society, the good people who hold shares in the conglomerate what makes Campbell's Soup

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Popcornbender Spatch @spatch.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

From Facebook, a form which came with a WWII-era globe inviting you to send in ten cents when "the boundaries of European countries have been definitely established at the end of the European war" for new revised graphics to paste on

A paper form now encased in a clear plastic bag from the Replogle Globes company of Chicago, Illinois. It advises you "[don't] hesitate to purchase this globe because it shows Europe as it was September 1, 1939" and that boundary changes are only official when ratified by a peace treaty, so once that happens you can send the coupon and ten cents back to Replogle Globes for corrected map sections which you can the paste over the 1939-era landmasses on your globe. That this form remains intact implies that either Replogle printed out more than they needed, or someone decided they liked the 1939 edition just fine.

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Popcornbender Spatch @spatch.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

it is important to remember always remember every character when done right every character finds someone who wants to create fanart of them (it is just a shame that I found this on tumblr where it was maddeningly credited to "other people's fanart")

040

Popcornbender Spatch @spatch.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

He'd pick it up, bite it, stare at it with a look of wild-eyed betrayal, pitch it behind him into the river with dismissive insouciance, then run off chasing a Hobbit chorus girl

The three faces of Harpo Marx (maniacally ecstatic, musically pensive, and anarchically outraged) all in one like some madcap Cerberus

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Popcornbender Spatch @spatch.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

the breeze picks up the heavy, oddly chemically perfumed scent of the vape shop across the street while we participate in traffic light captcha and a disgruntled little green alien critter, having dumped off the remains of their entertainment center, prepares to scuttle off to parts unknown

A brown metal box originally marked ELECTRO-MATIC and now sporting some white paint pen tags as well, stands decades defunct on this street corner while behind us a captcha scene requires you to select which squares contain a traffic light. Yes, there it is. Now that we've successfully identified it let's move on, fellow human. Leaning against the former traffic control box is one well-used and warped and weathered plank of flatpack particle board, formerly somebody's bookshelf or media center or I dunno. The scene is garnished with a big sprawling sprig of wild grass sprouting out of the sidewalk next to the box, looking like a disgruntled alien critter.

The same scene as before but artfully arranged to feature the box and board and green alien critter on the extreme right of the shot so as to show the building-sized Glade Plug-In "air freshener" that is the vape shop across the street.

040

Popcornbender Spatch @spatch.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

The camera doesn't quite do the combination lime and orange swamp water jello justice here but I like it. the neat thing is that the color is dark green in the middle but tries to lighten to orange around the edges tastes just fine btw, like mystery flavor or that orange-lemon lime gatorade

A chilled pyrex dish containing four cups of lime and orange Jello. The resulting color is a brackish green but the edges, the very edge edges look a little orange. The gelatin is pristine and untouched.

A serving of swamp jello in a white bowl with spoon in.

070

Popcornbender Spatch @spatch.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

tanking my win streak cause even if this is a non-NYT game host I don't want to give the random word picker the goddamn satisfaction

I am going to play a guess the 5 letter word game! YAY!

For my first word I'll choose POISE. Oh! There is a P in the word but not in the first position!

I'll choose APPLY for the second to check the A and Y. Oh! Nothing lit up but that's helpful too. The only letter I've still got is that P and it's still in the wrong position.

Looking over my remaining letters I realize I'm dealing with a word with a U in it and the P is probably at the end. There are some nice consonant clusters I can try for the first two letters. Surely the word won't be-- no, it can't be, I won't let it be, and I'd hate to win it on 3 guesses. Maybe it's GRUMP. Nope, but I've confirmed the last four letters.

Oh! I know another word! CRUMP! That is valid but not the word the random dictionary picker is thinking of.

Ah ha! FRUMP! Like Mr. Frump in his iron lung, the noun from which we presumably get our adjective frumpy! Unfortunately it's not that either.

I have one guess left and I don't want to give the game the satisfaction so I just wrote FUCK and am about to hit the NEW GAME button.

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Popcornbender Spatch @spatch.bsky.social · 01/09/2026

"Everybody knows Ebenezer Scrooge was in the wrong. But what this movie presupposes is: what if he wasn't?"

Owen Wilson as Eli Cash in the Royal Tenenbaums, having a library walk-and-talk-and-presuppose with a bunch of literary fans.

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Popcornbender Spatch @spatch.bsky.social · 31/08/2026

THERE'S MORE OF FANCY FEAST GRAVY LOVERS THAN OF GRAVE ABOUT YOU

IMPORTANT CEO BUSINESSCAT THE THIRD LOOKING LIKE HE WILL NOT BE COWED BY ANY CAT GHOST

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Popcornbender Spatch @spatch.bsky.social · 30/08/2026

we found him, we found the guy who's gonna do this

His name is Ray Bolger and he is stuffed with straw ostensibly to ward off crows

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Popcornbender Spatch @spatch.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

At the 1964 World's Fair this bad boy was a Ferris wheel, check it out

An enormous mockup of a whitewall car tire 80 feet in diameter with a ring of red Ferris wheel gondolas in the center where the treads would go. It is labeled US ROYAL TIRES / US RUBBER and it is smack dab in the middle of a futuristic-looking World's Fair getup complete with automotive-theme rocket and a building in the shape of an enormous tailfinned car behind it. Hooray for pop art!

A close-up of the tire Ferris wheel in 3/4 perspective showing more of the red gondola cages and the wheel mechanism inside.

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Popcornbender Spatch @spatch.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

As we came out to watch the moon be slowly nibbled away a fox jumped out of one bush, rabbit in jaws, and jumped into another bush Happy dinner eclipse fox

Part of the moon during a lunar eclipse, with a chunk missing from the lower left

050

Popcornbender Spatch @spatch.bsky.social · 27/08/2026

I worked for DEC in the late 90s-early 00s so I didn't work at the Mill, but I remember spending time there moving equipment back to our Parker Street facility. Where I worked at Parker Street is is now a Market Basket parking lot, RIP PKO-1, but the Mill stands thru dotcom implosions & recessions