iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Wayne O'Cohen / 上野公園 @wayneocohen.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

Lower Knob Hill? Posting that as a location is just asking for trouble.

Wayne O'Cohen / 上野公園 @wayneocohen.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

Hey, there's always work for coal miners in China, right? Shouldn't those endlessly bitching American coal miners follow the example of their sainted forebears and pack up & move to a new land of opportunity? If they insist on digging up rocks for a living, they can always emigrate.

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Wayne O'Cohen / 上野公園 @wayneocohen.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

By the time McCarthy came around, the public's attitudes had changed and grown more conservative than they were in the 1920s and ‘30s. What's more, some former activists no longer help the views of their youth. So they were entrapped—until McCarthy was disgraced. But lives & careers were ruined.

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Wayne O'Cohen / 上野公園 @wayneocohen.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

McCarthy & his allies were fond of particular question: "Are you now or 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳 𝘣𝘦𝘦𝘯 …?" This specific phrasing was intended to force witnesses to admit before Congress that they were involved in left-wing politics or trade unionism in an earlier era when such activities were often popular.

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Wayne O'Cohen / 上野公園 @wayneocohen.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

I listened to an interesting podcast discussion that referenced the McCarthy hearings in the US in the 1950s during an analysis of current right-wing efforts to paint negative portraits of the current crop of midterm progressive and Democratic Socialist candidates.

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Wayne O'Cohen / 上野公園 @wayneocohen.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

Actually, I wouldn't know Matt Walsh if I tripped over him. And I'm wondering what Shiloh Hendrix does for an occupation. But that's a rabbit hole I don't wanna go down.

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Wayne O'Cohen / 上野公園 @wayneocohen.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

Had to read up on this ‘cuz I'd forgotten the details. Didn't know the child has been described by some as autistic. And since I never read the Daily Wire, I had no clue Matt Walsh has been championing the defendant all along. Surprised she ain't wearing a huge cross necklace in the illustration.

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Wayne O'Cohen / 上野公園 @wayneocohen.bsky.social · 19/05/2026

Oops! Just realized that Dida is in Taichung, not Taipei. Online retail sales all over Taiwan. Re: Bob's Red Mill--Offers high-fiber alternatives to white rice better suited to my diet, but Japan bans the personal import of some grains via iHerb. HK doesn't. Taiwan's in between: www.bobsredmill.com

bobsredmill.com

Bob's Red Mill Natural Foods

At Bob's Red Mill, our mission is Inspiring Joy with Wholesome Foods. Explore baking flours, whole grains and more.

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Wayne O'Cohen / 上野公園 @wayneocohen.bsky.social · 19/05/2026

Great! Hope I didn't overwhelm you w/ suggestions. Can't help myself. Friends in Japan & HK are always traveling between those cities or to Taipei, S'pore, etc. Everyone's got ideas or requests. If someone goes to HK or Taiwan, I ask for whole grains that US-based Bob's Red Mill can't sell in Japan.

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Wayne O'Cohen / 上野公園 @wayneocohen.bsky.social · 18/05/2026

Meanwhile, I hope this distant branch of a Cornish bakery is still open in Tokyo's JR Shinjuku Station, which serves an estimated 3+ million people per day. Haven't been there yet, but it ought to be able to survive w/ that many potential customers: www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

bbc.co.uk

A taste of Cornwall winning fans in East Asia

How Japanese customers are enjoying Cornish cream tea, complete with clotted cream.

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Wayne O'Cohen / 上野公園 @wayneocohen.bsky.social · 18/05/2026

It has several locations, but its shops are always moving, likely due to rent-gouging, a problem in HK. Latvian-owned Mayse is in the countryside, but sells its wares in the urban core. Due to the large # of expats, HK is used to my dietary issues. The basics: www.fridayclubmag.com/lets-get-thi...

fridayclubmag.com

Let’s Get This Bread! Top Bakeries In Hong Kong

Get the best pastries, desserts, and more at the top bakeries in Hong Kong – where bread goes hot from the oven and straight to your heart!

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Wayne O'Cohen / 上野公園 @wayneocohen.bsky.social · 18/05/2026

Based on what I've been reading, Japanese-style milk bread has taken the US by storm. It does nothing for me. I like dark loaves w/ some heft to them. I had more luck when we lived in HK, where some indie bakers got started on the farmers market circuit. Levain specializes in sourdough.

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Wayne O'Cohen / 上野公園 @wayneocohen.bsky.social · 18/05/2026

If you're thinking it must be difficult for me to dine out in Japan, you'd be right. Gotta watch the carbs, which are often a meal's centerpiece. Meanwhile, I'll look for a thread about strawberry & whipped cream sarnies debuting in the UK. Some British folk I follow had a ball discussing it.

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Wayne O'Cohen / 上野公園 @wayneocohen.bsky.social · 18/05/2026

If I head over to Chamonix early, I can buy loaves of 60% rye sourdough bread & maybe pick up a lightly sweetened pastry. Big commercial Japanese bakeries go overboard w/ the sugar, but indie operations often have a lighter touch. I like to support local biz, too. Have a look: www.chamonix-pain.com

chamonix-pain.com

CHAMONIX -BOULANGERIE- | シャモニー -ブーランジェリー-

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Wayne O'Cohen / 上野公園 @wayneocohen.bsky.social · 18/05/2026

No, I follow a restricted diet that severely limits how much white bread, white rice & potatoes, etc. I can eat 1/4 cup of white rice per sitting or 1/2 cup of brown rice, for example. A sandwich made w/ white bread is OK once in a while, but why bother when I can get all manner of sourdough nearby?

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Wayne O'Cohen / 上野公園 @wayneocohen.bsky.social · 17/05/2026

The 2 dessert sandwiches, for lack of a better word, in the 1st photo surpass anything I've seen in Tokyo convenience stores. What they sell is more in line w/ the grape sammie, often w/ strawberries. Tuna, egg & mash? New to me, but plausible, given that we've already got potato salad sandwiches.

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Wayne O'Cohen / 上野公園 @wayneocohen.bsky.social · 13/05/2026

I see it headed my way. Just a drizzle now, though. Won't be going out shopping this evening.

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Wayne O'Cohen / 上野公園 @wayneocohen.bsky.social · 13/05/2026

The success hailed above is A'dam's status as the 1st major city to ban street ads for meat & fossil fuels. Ban took effect May 1, but a grace period for compliance runs thru early '27. The PvdD got the ban passed in Jan., w/ help from GroenLinks, or "green left" party. www.parool.nl/amsterdam/ve...

parool.nl

Verbod op reclames voor vlees en fossiele brandstoffen in Amsterdam niet direct gehandhaafd

Amsterdam heeft reclame voor vlees en fossiele brandstoffen in de openbare ruimte per 1 mei verboden, maar wethouder Melanie van der Horst gaat pas vanaf 2027 handhaven. Dit jaar geldt nog als overgan...

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Wayne O'Cohen / 上野公園 @wayneocohen.bsky.social · 13/05/2026

Now I know what I'll be reading for language practice. Yes, the Dutch have a Party for the Animals (PvdD), whose German counterpart is the Partei Mensch Klima Tierschutz (Tierschutzpartei). They have progressive views on animal rights, climate change, ecology & fossil fuels. bsky.app/profile/pvdd...

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Wayne O'Cohen / 上野公園 @wayneocohen.bsky.social · 13/05/2026

And I too must say that the 1st thing that came to mind when I saw those, er, trousers are jodhpurs. Whatever they are, they can barely contain the flesh fountain that he calls an abdomen. Who the hell is this clown? Smug, to use a word he projected onto others, describes him well.

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Wayne O'Cohen / 上野公園 @wayneocohen.bsky.social · 13/05/2026

Jodhpurs! That's the word I was looking for to describe those, er, trousers.

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Wayne O'Cohen / 上野公園 @wayneocohen.bsky.social · 13/05/2026

Haven't been paying heed to the Cup, except as it affects NJ/NYC, their economies, the threat of ICE & the impact on life locally. Price of NJ Transit tix to MetLife Stadium got cut to $105 from $150. That's up from the usual $12.90. Can't quit CBS NY despite Bari: www.cbsnews.com/newyork/news...

cbsnews.com

After outcry, NJ Transit reduces round-trip ticket price to World Cup games

Round-trip rail tickets were going to cost World Cup fans $150. They will now be $105, NJ Transit CEO Kris Kolluri said Thursday.

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Wayne O'Cohen / 上野公園 @wayneocohen.bsky.social · 13/05/2026

With a name like Infantino, whaddya expect? Yeah, I know English speakers are usually aware of the Italian word 𝘣𝘢𝘮𝘣𝘪𝘯𝘰, meaning "baby." But 𝘪𝘯𝘧𝘢𝘯𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘰 is the diminutive for 𝘪𝘯𝘧𝘢𝘯𝘵𝘦, which is kinda like saying he's a "little baby." He's just as corrupt as predecessor Sepp Blatter.

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Wayne O'Cohen / 上野公園 @wayneocohen.bsky.social · 10/05/2026

Gotcha. Acknowledged your reference to charting rap records in my draft, but cut that part while editing. Sorry for the misunderstanding. I'm no rap expert. Did some reading about "99 Problems" & was surprised there are so many versions. Archived from Vulture: web.archive.org/web/20260217...

web.archive.org

The 21-Year History of the Song ‘99 Problems’

It was Ice-T's first.

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Wayne O'Cohen / 上野公園 @wayneocohen.bsky.social · 10/05/2026

And that's the tame stuff. The clamor over the once obscure shock rockers during the PMRC's crusade for warning labels & other "safety" measures served as free publicity. Leader & drummer El Duce was killed by a train in '97, 2 days after claiming Courtney Love offered him cash to kill Kurt Cobain.

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Wayne O'Cohen / 上野公園 @wayneocohen.bsky.social · 10/05/2026

The most needlessly graphic lines in music fill the lyrics of the Mentors, a punk-metal band who caught the ear of Tipper Gore's Parents Music Resource Center in '85. The lines "Bend up & smell my anal vapor / Your face is my toilet paper" from "Golden Shower" were read in a US Senate hearing.

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Wayne O'Cohen / 上野公園 @wayneocohen.bsky.social · 08/05/2026

Brings back memories of our years in JC. Shopped often in Little India, but didn't eat there as much as I should've. Couldn't resist stopping by Boulevard Drinks for a pair of chili dogs beforehand. Never tried paan, but just learned a Burmese shop in our Tokyo neighborhood sells fresh betel leaves.

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Wayne O'Cohen / 上野公園 @wayneocohen.bsky.social · 08/05/2026

Yeah, it's humiliating--sometimes excruciatingly so. But I believe better days are ahead. And a lot of these fuckers are going to get their just reward. I hope the Megalomaniac-in-Chief is one of them. Podcast here: newrepublic.com/article/2099...

newrepublic.com

Trump Ballroom Saga Takes Brutal Turn for GOP as Midterm Panic Worsens

As Trump’s obsession with building monuments to himself backfires for his party, a political scientist explains how his “vanity presidency” is badly alienating voters in the middle.

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Wayne O'Cohen / 上野公園 @wayneocohen.bsky.social · 08/05/2026

Via the 5/6 transcript: "Everybody agrees I’m one of the most genius people. He’s now apparently comparing himself to Caesar and Alexander the Great, as literally the most influential and powerful person ever to draw breath on the planet—this nonstop breaking his own arm to pat himself on the back."

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Wayne O'Cohen / 上野公園 @wayneocohen.bsky.social · 08/05/2026

Greg Sargent of the New Republic's Daily Blast podcast & political scientist Tom Schaller had me cackling as they shared anecdotes about Trump's "vanity presidency": covering every surface w/ tacky gold crap, lying about his golf skills & "bragging about his big brain & his incredible memory."

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Wayne O'Cohen / 上野公園 @wayneocohen.bsky.social · 08/05/2026

Never got the knack. Been wondering if the frozen avocado chunks sold by Japanese supermarkets are any good. No shortage of the fresh kind here. Just wanna save myself some prep work for smoothies & such. Online reviews are mixed. Frozen sea buckthorn & diced sweet potato cubes are handy & tasty.

A small bag of TopValu-branded frozen avocado chunks typically sold at Aeon grocery stores, Maruetsu supermarkets & other Japanese retailers.

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Wayne O'Cohen / 上野公園 @wayneocohen.bsky.social · 07/05/2026

Can't access CNBC, perhaps 'cuz I live overseas. From what I read after recently recalling that PulteGroup built the NJ property we rented in the late '00s, Bill isn't involved in his late grandpa's biz. He started Pulte Capital in 2011 & served on the PulteGroup board until being ousted in 2020.

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Wayne O'Cohen / 上野公園 @wayneocohen.bsky.social · 04/05/2026

Made me search for Bert Is Evil! memes. Know Your Meme says its creator took it offline in '98 after it got too costly to maintain, but allowed others to mirror the site & content. Will look it up on the Internet Archive. Brief history & links to more Sesame memes: knowyourmeme.com/memes/bert-i...

knowyourmeme.com

Bert Is Evil! | Know Your Meme

Bert is Evil is a photoshopping trend that involves superimposing an image of Sesame Street character Bert into scenes of disasters like JFK’s assassinatio

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Wayne O'Cohen / 上野公園 @wayneocohen.bsky.social · 03/05/2026

I was getting into the strip clubs along Baltimore's notorious Block when I was 16. Almost never got carded. Didn't even have a fake ID. Just walked in like I owned the joint. Granted, that was when the drinking age was still 18 in Maryland. This doorknob Blanche never had a proper coming of age.

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Wayne O'Cohen / 上野公園 @wayneocohen.bsky.social · 21/04/2026

Today, the eastern federal states continue to lag behind their western peers in many important ways & have become breeding grounds for the AfD & other far-right political movements. And to think we were discouraged from playing baseball w/ Cuban students 'cuz it seemed a clash of political systems.

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Wayne O'Cohen / 上野公園 @wayneocohen.bsky.social · 21/04/2026

Love that word. I spent the summer of '86 as a language student in Leipzig in what was still the old East Germany. The GDR was praised in West Germany for its de-Nazification efforts & its anti-Nazi school curricula. Failed spectacularly post-unification, though. Likely due to economic factors.

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Wayne O'Cohen / 上野公園 @wayneocohen.bsky.social · 21/04/2026

BAP, a long-established, left-leaning band from Cologne who sing in the Kölsch dialect, in part address the targeting of gays & foreigners in "Kristallnaach" (Kristallnacht in Hochdeutsch). Sorry, I saw no subtitles in the Duck Player version of the video. Don't use Google. youtu.be/b1EkIU9cpxw

youtu.be

BAP - Kristallnaach 1982 with English Subs

YouTube video by Jack Klaber

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Wayne O'Cohen / 上野公園 @wayneocohen.bsky.social · 21/04/2026

Doch habe ich das mitgekriegt ohne probleme. He's babbling that "Ausländer raus!" crap. Don't think I haven't heard it before--in east, west & united Germany. I've been around the block. About the only good thing about such screeds in the old DDR was that they were quietly directed at Russians.

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Wayne O'Cohen / 上野公園 @wayneocohen.bsky.social · 20/04/2026

Your post points to a big problem on B'sky: user confusion about what to do after creating an account. People give up because it ain't FB. Starter packs are a great idea. My niche: I've tried to help my US compatriots access trustworthy non-US sources of medical info after Trump ravaged ours.

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Wayne O'Cohen / 上野公園 @wayneocohen.bsky.social · 20/04/2026

No need to add me to any starter packs. Although I maintain a personal curation list titled 𝗟𝗶𝗳𝗲𝘀𝘁𝘆𝗹𝗲 / 𝗨𝗿𝗯𝗮𝗻𝗶𝘀𝗺 / 𝗧𝗿𝗮𝗻𝘀𝗽𝗼𝗿𝘁, it's just one of my areas of interest. I likely pay more attention to my music & cuisine lists. In any event, that list skews toward the geographic regions of interest to me.

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Wayne O'Cohen / 上野公園 @wayneocohen.bsky.social · 19/04/2026

Guess I'd say it depends on the mood I want to get back into. If it's Baltimore nostalgia I seek, though not necessarily of the heartwarming kind, I'd say: "Diner" and/or "Avalon" "Pink Flamingos" and/or "Polyester" But more generally speaking, you can't go wrong w/ "Animal House." Toga! Toga!

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Wayne O'Cohen / 上野公園 @wayneocohen.bsky.social · 18/04/2026

Everywhere in the US, perhaps. But not in the Maldives, I suspect. You've accidentally tagged the Bluesky account of the Maldivian Democratic Party in your post. No problem. We get it. Just wish B'sky would let users edit posts.

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Reposted by Wayne O'Cohen / 上野公園

Markonthemaps (Mark Ovenden) @markonthemaps.bsky.social · 18/04/2026

Oooops almost missed our 1st #WorldPublicTransport day! Reminder: without #railways we would not have opened continental interiors; moved #freight for Industrial Revolution; built #streetcars that made suburbs; dug #subways that crossed cities, ran #buses that gave #mobility to those without cars.

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Wayne O'Cohen / 上野公園 @wayneocohen.bsky.social · 17/04/2026

Didn't have my reading glasses on & therefore couldn't tell what I was looking at initially. Absolutely no idea. Thought that row of grayish-brown containers might be gas canisters of some sort. And all those knobs & such might be a display of watches. Talk about eye strain.

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Wayne O'Cohen / 上野公園 @wayneocohen.bsky.social · 17/04/2026

A DDoS attack? I gave up trying to log in after a few hours. Tried servers in various EU nations & elsewhere. But looked no further than Down Detector for an explanation. Will adjust settings to be notified of future official posts from B'sky HQ.

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Wayne O'Cohen / 上野公園 @wayneocohen.bsky.social · 17/04/2026

At least the municipal authorities used rocks--or rock-shaped building materials--to line the riverbanks. Much more tasteful & aesthetically pleasing than the unadorned concrete that some places pour in the name of flood control.

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