smithbend.bsky.social - Profile | ThreadSky | a Reddit-style client for Bluesky

Had a shot of Tennessee moonshine last night, which I figured would lead to nocturnal leg cramps, but, nope, it didn't. May be a cure for leg cramps for all I know.

submitted 15 hours ago • 0 comments

Lots of plaques on walls stating humorous proverbs: Kid's stick drawing of two people roasting hot dogs over campfire. Caption says, "It's all fun and games until someone loses a wiener." Lots of humorous signs, that's the key to good home cooking, lots of veggies.

submitted 1 day ago • 1 comment

Taking a drive and listening to roots music on WMOT radio, for a change from jazz. I like WMOT's programing for its variety. Lots of indy music around Nashville. Keb Mo singing Hank William's I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry, crosses genres, generations, race, and class. Finding common ground.

submitted 1 day ago • 0 comments

Transferring title of my old pickup to my daughter tmro, a vintage truck kept in the dry, 28 years old with only 80k miles. Truly extraordinary. Bittersweet, too. Glad for her to get it now instead of in my estate. Sad tho: one more small step toward aged ineptitude, senile decrepitude. Ah, well...

submitted 4 days ago • 0 comments

Just bought a new car, a 2025 Ioniq 5. One of the most emotionally exhaustive acts a person can undertake. Will be delivered tmro (maybe). I've never driven one, never even sat inside one. How cud I do that? Easy. I've driven its little brother, the Kona, a year.

submitted 4 days ago • 0 comments

Luis is gonna get the tree off my house tomorrow. "I know what I'm doing," he says in his Guatemalan accent. I believe he does and I trust him completely.

submitted 14 days ago • 0 comments

It's a rude wakeup when a tree falls on your house.

submitted 15 days ago • 1 comment

It's always a red oak.

submitted 15 days ago • 0 comments

FEDERAL WORKER: “A copy/paste mass firing takes nothing into account of the people… That the workforce is too bloated feels like a scapegoat... Nobody joins the federal government to get rich." 30K+ federal workers in TN. Same size since the Depression. www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-f...

submitted 17 days ago • 36 comments

My letter to the Editor, likely the last one. I doubt such letters change many minds. Anyway, here it is:

submitted 17 days ago • 0 comments

Afoot on the open road [Whitman] this morning: Sand Hill cranes heading north (early?) were continual. An apparently healthy coyote on the side, tho now very dead, made lunch offering for buzzards sitting on fence posts. Waiting for what?Someone to formally announce lunch? 6 miles in the bag.

submitted 17 days ago • 0 comments

The big chill: Wether running, walking, duck hunting, etc, I can stay warm enough in the first hour; the second hour cold steadily seeps in; the third hour drills in full-bore misery. My cure:

submitted 17 days ago • 0 comments

Seems futile to point this stuff out anymore, but Musk and Trump holding a photo op to tout all the “corruption” DOGE has found on the same day Trump’s DOJ announced it would no longer investigate foreign governments who try to bribe U.S. officials was some real Orwell-level messaging.

submitted 20 days ago • 17 comments

KY GOV. BESHEAR: “If they eliminated the Department of Education and its funding, that’s half a billion dollars in meals for kids that otherwise might go hungry.”

submitted 21 days ago • 555 comments

Union square is full of people protesting for trans youth. Over for 4000 in attendance

submitted 23 days ago • 29 comments

Saturday BlueSky is pure, white-hot fire. Man!

submitted 23 days ago • 0 comments

Ollie's is a 4-calendar joint (see Blue Highways) to which I'll drive 40 miles one-way to have lunch, even tho it sits in depressed (red) Clay Co, TN -- town of Celina, to be precise.

submitted 23 days ago • 0 comments

Its well-read pages held together by duct tape, the book I always turn to during life's crises, and it never fails me. A miracle of a book: Catch-22.

submitted 24 days ago • 0 comments

So accustomed to seeing them I realized I wasn't see them at all, as I sat having breakfast alone. My late (3 weeks ago) wife loved embroidery and making things. Here are the 6 wreaths she made that were within my view that day.

submitted 25 days ago • 5 comments

My heart is heavy with regret and sorrow, regret that I didn't do more to make our 40 years together better and sorrow that it is forever too late. Jo Ann passed away Monday two weeks ago. I could not have had a better wife.

submitted 31 days ago • 3 comments

My heart is heavy with regret and sorrow, regret that I didn't do more to make our 40 years together better and sorrow that it is forever too late. Jo Ann passed away Monday two weeks ago. I could not have had a better wife.

submitted 31 days ago • 3 comments

"The scenario of a state-run insurance plan going broke due to a big disaster has now come true." www.hamiltonnolan.com/p/uninsurabl...

submitted 48 days ago • 8 comments

When your own government turns against you.

submitted 48 days ago • 9 comments

🔥 MUST-WATCH: “Vouchers are NOT popular in Tennessee, despite skewed polls… Out-of-state billionaires are seeking to dismantle public education.” @tn4all Liv Cook of @socmtn dismantles @govbilllee’s private school vouchers scam in 3 minutes👇🏽 Full: www.instagram.com/share/BAByqn...

submitted 50 days ago • 7 comments

The USA population is 14% black. The NFL players are 53% black. How do White Supremacist explain?

submitted 52 days ago • 1 comment

BAM!!!

submitted 52 days ago • 129 comments

"How contained are the wildfires? All three of the wildfires in Los Angeles County are at zero percent containment." www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2025...

submitted 55 days ago • 0 comments

Level 2, baby! Passed corner Mapco store tonight were I always bought gas. Regular was $2.64. It don't matter. I haven't stopped there in nearly a year; gas pumping is a habit I've dropped.

submitted 55 days ago • 1 comment

Surgeon drew a picture to explain proposed oral surgery, a picture worth 1 word: "unintelligible." His surgery was better than his art.

submitted 55 days ago • 0 comments

submitted 59 days ago • 910 comments

INBOX: “Stop the Voucher Scam: Virtual Town Hall - January 7th at 7ET” SOCM/PublicSchoolStrong statewide virtual town hall on @GovBillLee’s voucher scam and its potential impact on Tennessee students. Link: bit.ly/tnvoucherscam

submitted 59 days ago • 6 comments

even in Norway the right-wing shithead party is leading the polls and wants to throw their hard-won EV success--100 percent of cars sold in 2025!--in the garbage www.thenationalnews.com/climate/2025...

submitted 59 days ago • 12 comments

This is a BFD

submitted 60 days ago • 720 comments

THIS IS HUGE! Researchers at Stanford Medicine have devised an influenza vaccine that prompts immunity to ALL four major flu subtypes AND shows potential against bird flu, indicating a significant advancement in flu prevention and a potential increase in vaccine efficacy. Let’s talk about that! 🧪🧵⬇️

submitted 61 days ago • 724 comments

submitted 63 days ago • 72 comments

Just read a column arguing that since the election was close Trump does not have the mandate he claims, as if that makes a big difference. It won't matter. Trump will do whatever he wants to. Mandate or not, he will have the power. And that's all that matters.

submitted 61 days ago • 0 comments

AI is stupid. $16/mo is extra charge I pay for green electricity, which I intend to cover all we use. Comes in blocks of 150 kwhr, which Google's AI told me cost $4/block. Call to elect dept revealed a cost of $2/block. So buying 1200 kwhr, as I thot. AI didn't know charge reduced yrs ago.

submitted 62 days ago • 0 comments

What do you do after you've ruined your life Where do you go Who do you know That will give you anything to go With some good advice Do you tell your friends Can you face your wife What do you do after you've ruined your life ~ Mose Allison, the William Faulkner of jazz

submitted 62 days ago • 0 comments

The book I turn to in my darkest times. It has always helped pull me through. Joesph Heller's Catch-22.

submitted 62 days ago • 0 comments

Happy New Year from Dorothy Parker (and me).

submitted 63 days ago • 58 comments

Level 2, charger installed after nearly a year of getting by with only the 120V portable charger supplied with car. Details: 240V hardwired on 60A breaker. Cost: ChargePoint charger $536.88. Installation $1325.00. Capability: Gains approx 36 mile of range per hour of charge. Ready to roll!

submitted 62 days ago • 0 comments

The difference between Jimmy Carter and Donald Trump is almost unfathomable to me. A thoroughly decent man and a thoroughly indecent one

submitted 64 days ago • 19 comments

RIP Jimmy Carter, the last good man.

submitted 64 days ago • 10 comments

You drop one piece of your toasted sandwich bread on the hardwood floor. You then, 1. Wipe it off and use it in your sandwich, or 2. Throw it away and toast a new piece, or 3. Cuss a lot?

submitted 64 days ago • 0 comments

Titans are playing the Jaguars. Each has a record of 3-12. People are sitting in the stands in the rain watching the game. You understand that?

submitted 64 days ago • 1 comment

Canned peppers beside Harley Fat Bob.

submitted 64 days ago • 4 comments