samhexum

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/7044539/2026/02/13/winter-olympics-condom-shortage-reactions/ The Winter Olympics condom supply ran out in 3 days obviously the organizers didn't watch Heated Rivalry, or they'd have been better-prepared to host a bunch of hockey players.

https://www.tvline.com/2100331/the-simpsons-animation-style-explained-episode-800/ The Simpsons Recreates Classic Animation Style In Episode 800: 'Part Of Me Wishes We Could Make Every Episode Look Like That,' EP Says In celebration of its 800th episode, "The Simpsons" is taking fans back to where it all began. Sunday's milestone event opens with a recreation of the show's very first episode, 1989's "Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire" (pictured above), lovingly animated in its original style — complete with a 4:3 aspect ratio.

Wendy’s is closing several hundred U.S. restaurants and increasing its focus on value after a weaker-than-expected fourth quarter. The Dublin, Ohio-based company said Friday that its global same-store sales, or sales at locations open at least a year, fell 10% in the October-December period. That was worse than the 8.5% drop expected by analysts polled by FactSet. U.S. same-store sales fell even further in the fourth quarter. Wendy’s said late last year that it planned to close underperforming U.S. restaurants, but it gave more details about those closures Friday. Wendy’s said it already closed 28 restaurants in the fourth quarter and ended 2025 with 5,969 U.S. locations. It expects to close between 5% and 6% of its U.S. restaurants – or 298 to 358 locations – in the first half of this year. Those actions come on top of the closure of 240 U.S. Wendy’s locations in 2024. At the time, the 57-year-old chain said many of its locations are simply out of date. Wendy’s also plans to emphasize value as it tries to win back inflation-weary customers. “One learning from 2025 around value, we swung the pendulum too far towards limited-time price promotions instead of everyday value,” said Ken Cook, Wendy’s interim CEO and chief financial officer, in a conference call with investors. In January, Wendy’s introduced a permanent “Biggie Deals” value menu with three price tiers: $4 Biggie Bites, $6 Biggie Bags and an $8 Biggie Bundle. Cook said Wendy’s also has new products coming this year, including a new chicken sandwich.

Hudson made a bunch of short films. They have been popping up on my YouTube feed the past 24 hours.

A cozy Filipino cafe serving creamy Ube lattes and honey-calamansi chicken poppers just opened in Elmhurst in the space where Pata Cafe, a local Thai gem, stood for a decade before permanently closing. Bukas Cafe, located at 56-14 Van Horn St., has transformed from a no-frills Thai restaurant with authentic dishes to an intimate cafe that feels like visiting family for coffee and good conversation, filled with books, lush plants, and serene jade walls. As customers walk in, they’re greeted warmly by owners Anna Javier and Angel Carreon, despite the morning rush, as they take orders, prepare drinks, and dishes inspired by Filipino recipes with a modern twist, letting everyone in on the delicious flavors they have to offer. The pair had previously lived in the Philippines and planned to move back there and open a cafe, but the opportunity to open one here came up when Pata Cafe closed, and it seemed like the right decision to open in Queens. Together, the couple have always loved creating new recipes to share with one another and finding recipes online that seem unique and fun to try. They named the cafe ‘Bukas,’ which has two meanings in Filipino, “tomorrow” and “open.” Presently, the cafe has a small food menu with selections like Poprito, chicken poppers with adobo aioli dip, or tossed with honey calamansi or Filipino-style buffalo, as well as the Adobo Jalapeno Melt, made with a choice of chicken or pork adobo flakes, mozzarella, pickled onion and jalapeno on sourdough with adobo aioli dip. The Pimiento Melt is another option: a house-made pimiento spread with a five-cheese blend on sourdough, served with a condensed milk dip on the side. Presently, the cafe is open Wednesday through Sunday until 4 or 5 p.m., but eventually, they would like to expand to late-night hours and offer a dinner menu with food and drink for a low-lit, cozy space to get dinner and meet with friends. “We want people to truly experience Bukas, not only in the morning,” said Carreon. Bukas Cafe is open Wednesdays 7 a.m.-5 p.m., Thursdays to Saturdays, 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. and 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. as well as Sundays from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. To learn more, follow them at @bukas.cafe.

It's stylish but I still don't know if it's good.

You were late to the party. I was in lust with him from the time of his exercise infomercial.

https://qns.com/2026/02/fairview-residents-heat-outage/ ‘I don’t feel safe in this building’: Fairview co-op residents left in the cold for 16 days amid heat outage The building where the grand central and LIE meet... I delivered the NY Post there when I was in college.

well, somebody's been busy as a... well, you know...

I just watched a brief clip of Geena Davis on the Graham Norton show and she talked about Brad Pitt being cast in Thelma and Louise. They had her read with four actors, three with brown hair and Brad Pitt and he was so charismatic that she kept screwing up her part of the audition and she told the producers he should definitely be the one. The three other actors were Mark Ruffalo, Grant Show (of Melrose place, who is married to the actress who plays Dana the charge nurse on the Pitt), and George Clooney.

https://www.aol.com/articles/heart-attacks-fainting-falls-perils-162950888.html Heart Attacks, Fainting, and Falls: The Perils of Pooping The humble toilet seems like the least likely setting for drama. Yet throughout history, it has claimed kings, toppled celebrities, and served as the scene of untimely deaths ranging from the tragic to the downright bizarre. What is it about the smallest room that makes it, occasionally, the most dangerous? At the heart of this peril lies the Valsalva maneuver — the act of forcibly exhaling against a closed airway while straining, such as during defecation. This puts pressure on your chest, which reduces blood flow back to the heart. For most people, it’s harmless. But for those with heart problems, this strain can lead to “defecation syncope” (fainting), irregular heart rhythms, and even sudden death. The vagus nerve is a key player here. It helps control your heart rate, and when it becomes overstimulated — through intense straining or pressure in the rectum — it can cause bradycardia (a dangerously slow heartbeat), low blood pressure, and loss of consciousness. This makes defecation a surprisingly high-stakes event for those with underlying heart conditions. Two of history’s most frequently cited examples of toilet-related deaths — Elvis Presley and King George II — offer sobering case studies in the hidden dangers of defecation. Presley, aged just 42, was found collapsed on the bathroom floor of Graceland on Aug. 16, 1977. Though fans speculated about drug overdose — and it’s worth noting that the full report is withheld until 2027 – the post-mortem narrative reveals a more complex and tragic medical picture. Presley had suffered from chronic constipation, possibly exacerbated by a high-fat, low-fiber diet, prolonged opiate use, and a “megacolon” — a pathologically enlarged colon. On the morning of his death, he was reportedly straining forcefully. The Valsalva maneuver may have triggered a fatal arrhythmia in a heart already compromised by years of prescription drug abuse and poor health. A more aristocratic death occurred in 1760, when King George II of Great Britain died suddenly after visiting his privy. His physician, Dr. Frank Nicholls, performed a rare royal autopsy and found that the king had suffered a ruptured thoracic aortic aneurysm, a ballooning of the body’s main artery. The event probably occurred as George stood up from the toilet, at a moment when blood pressure fluctuated dramatically. Historians and physicians now believe that the effort of defecation or the sudden change in posture may have been the trigger. The king’s heart was also notably diseased, with significant calcification of the aortic valve, further compounding the risks posed by even minor circulatory strain. Deaths by drowning (and worse) While fainting on the toilet poses risks today, historical toilet use came with even deadlier consequences, particularly for those using privies and cesspits before the advent of modern plumbing. In the 18th and 19th centuries, many households relied on outdoor privies built over deep pits designed to collect human waste. These structures were often unstable, poorly maintained, and perilously constructed. Falling into a cesspit wasn’t just revolting — it could be deadly. People who lost their footing, especially in the dark or while drunk, sometimes drowned in the filth or were overcome by toxic gases like methane and hydrogen sulfide, which are released as waste breaks down. Newspapers and coroners’ reports from the time reveal a grim pattern: People — especially children and the elderly — regularly died after falling into night soil pits. In his 1851 classic London Labour and the London Poor, Henry Mayhew vividly describes the deadly risks faced by night soil men, including suffocation by toxic cesspit gases. These grim accidents helped drive 19th-century public health reforms and campaigns for better sewage infrastructure, eventually paving the way for the modern sewers we rely on today. But the danger hasn’t disappeared. In some parts of the world, pit latrines are still common, and toilet-related falls and drownings still occur, particularly where facilities are poorly built or inadequately maintained. The dangers of sitting too long Modern habits add new risks. Bringing your smartphone to the toilet often means longer sitting times. This increases pressure on the rectal venous plexus (the network of veins around the rectum), raising the risk of hemorrhoids and anal fissures. The “toilet scroll” also poses microbial dangers. Studies have found that phones used in the bathroom can carry harmful germs from the toilet to your hands — and eventually, your mouth. They can harbor E coli and other pathogens long after you’ve finished washing your hands. There’s also the issue of toilet posture. The western-style sitting toilet, unlike the squatting toilets common in parts of Asia and Africa, places the rectum at an angle that makes defecation more effortful and hence more likely to provoke straining. This is why some people use footstools or “toilet squat platforms” to adjust their position and reduce the risk of complications. Whether it’s sudden cardiac death, fainting and falls or microbial exposure, the toilet is not always the sanctuary we imagine. It’s a space where anatomy, privacy, and risk intersect — often unnoticed until something goes terribly wrong. So the next time nature calls, think twice before settling in with your phone. Sit smart, don’t strain, and remember: Even in the smallest room, your body could be handling some surprisingly high-stakes business.

The first waterbug I ever saw was at Juniors restaurant in Brooklyn when I was a young'n. It didn't stop us from returning. I don't remember if this was before or after my father found a full toolbox (which I still have) on the sidewalk on our walk back to our car one night after dinner.

The Diocese of Brooklyn announced Wednesday that seven Catholic schools will be closing in June, including six in Queens, at the end of the 2025-2026 school year. Ongoing financial challenges and sustained enrollment declines were cited as the main factors leading to the decision to close these elementary schools. The schools were determined to suffer from these challenges after an extensive review process analyzing enrollment trends, operating costs, capital repair needs and long-term sustainability, considering rising costs of insurance and pension obligations. “This is an extraordinarily difficult moment for our school communities,” Diocese Superintendent of Schools Deacon Kevin McCormack said. “These schools have served generations of families with dedication and faith. The decision to close them was made only after careful consideration and with great sorrow.” The seven schools that will close at the end of the school year include six in Queens: Sacred Heart Catholic Academy in Cambria Heights, St. Bartholomew Catholic Academy in Elmhurst, St. Nicholas of Tolentine Catholic Academy in Jamaica, Incarnation Catholic Academy in Queens Village, St. Thomas the Apostle Catholic Academy in Woodhaven and St. Elizabeth Catholic Academy in Ozone Park.

James Vanderbeek has died. He was 48. He had been fighting colorectal cancer for a couple of years. https://www.tvline.com/2099069/james-van-der-beek-dead-obituary-dawsons-creek/

"Wicked: For Good" will debut on Peacock on March 20. The streaming version will come with an exclusive full-length commentary from director Jon M. Chu, two new behind-the-scenes featurettes, and a sing-along option.

* "Song Sung Blue," which just earned Kate Hudson an Oscar nomination for best lead actress, will make its streaming debut this Friday, February 13 on Peacock. "Wicked: For Good" will debut on Peacock on March 20 The streaming version will come with an exclusive full-length commentary from director Jon M. Chu, two new behind-the-scenes featurettes, and a sing-along option.

For Sale: Brooklyn Five-Bedroom. Price: $100 New York Focus identified more than a thousand cases where a disputed interest formula increased a home’s bidding price at auction, allowing a bank to obtain it for a pittance. https://nysfocus.com/2026/02/05/foreclosures-emigrant-bank-brooklyn-home-disputed

Today was supposed to be Alyssa's last show but she went into labor earlier in the day.

old news...

The two-time Emmy winner, best known for her roles as Kate McCallister in "Home Alone" and Moira Rose on "Schitt's Creek," died January 30 at the age of 71. According to a death certificate obtained by TMZ, a pulmonary embolism was listed as O'Hara's immediate cause of death, with rectal cancer as the underlying cause.

Ilya: What is your room number? Shane: 1410 Ilya: If I come to 1410 at 9 o'clock... Shane: I might open Not quite sure how it would've happened, but perhaps some straight men have become open to gay love stories.

taking my melatonin and sleep gummy in 3... 2... 1...

I always loved this song and having this video pop up on my YouTube feed tonight made me smile. The girls look beautiful and both couples actually look happy.

The mass market paperback, light in the hand and on the wallet, once filled airport bookstores and supermarket media aisles. You may never buy a new one again. February 6, 2026. When the first book in the Bridgerton series was published in 2000, it was immediately recognizable as a romance novel. The cover was pink and purple, with a looping font, and like most romances at the time, it was printed as a mass-market paperback. Short, squat and printed on flimsy paper with narrow margins, it was the kind of book you’d find on wire racks in grocery stores or airports and buy for a few bucks. Those racks have all but disappeared. After almost a century in wide circulation, the mass-market paperback is shuffling toward extinction. Sales have dropped for years, peeled away by e-books, digital audiobooks and even more expensive formats like hardcovers and trade paperbacks, the mass-market’s larger and pricier cousin. Last year, ReaderLink — the country’s largest distributor of books to airport bookshops, pharmacies and big-box stores [including] Target and Walmart — announced that it would stop carrying mass-markets altogether. “You can still find them in some places,” said Ivan Held, the president of Putnam, Dutton and Berkley, publishing imprints that once did brisk business inmass-markets. “But as a format, I would say it’s pretty much over.” Paula Rabinowitz, the author of a cultural history of paperbacks called “American Pulp,” traces the “creation myth” of the modern paperback industry to the mid-1930s, when an English book editor named Allen Lane was so displeased with the reading options available to him at an Exeter train station that he committed himself to making better stories widely available. He went on to publish compact, smartly branded paperbacks and sell them in chain stores and tobacco shops for no more than a pack of cigarettes. “It was one of the most brilliant technologies in the history of the world,” Rabinowitz said, “precisely because you could shove it in your purse or your pocket.” Such low prices required inexpensive production. Because mass-market spines were glued together instead of sewn, the covers often came off, or pages fell out. Libraries rarely bought them, in part because they were too fragile. But they were plenty popular elsewhere. By 1939, the paperbacks put out by Lane’s new venture, Penguin Books, had reached the United States. Mass-markets from Penguin and other publishers,[including] Pocket Books, were soon available for 25 cents in supermarkets and train stations, brought there by the same companies that distributed magazines and candy bars. “There were, say, a few hundred book stores in the United States, but there were thousands of little drugstores and bus stations and so on in small towns,” Rabinowitz said. “That’s why they’re called mass market. There was a much more robust system for getting these books out there.” During World War II, the American government distributed specially made paperbacks to soldiers, who couldn’t very well listen to the radio while sitting in fox holes, Rabinowitz said. The books were printed horizontally, to get more words on each page, and fit in the pockets of G.I. uniforms. After the war, books and weapons were the only wartime supplies the armed services required soldiers to return. Publishers feared that otherwise, millions of free paperbacks would flood the American market, devastating their businesses. The books were often dumped in countries where Americans had fought before the soldiers headed home. In the middle of the 20th century, mass markets — or “pulps,” as cheap paperbacks were called then — regularly sported covers we might now call “spicy,” featuring a woman taking off an article of clothing. Many of these books were westerns, thrillers or self-help titles, and there were even popular gay and lesbian pulps available. Publishers that put out classics as mass-market would generally give those racy covers, too. For decades, mass-market sold in enormous quantities. A genuine hit could, as the Beatles famously put it, “make a million for you overnight.” Successful hardcovers might sell in the tens of thousands, while a mass market hit could sell a hundred times that. Stephen King, a famous paperback writer himself, said he grew up buying 35 cent mass-market at the drugstore and was sad to see them go the way of the VHS tape. As a young man, he bought every paperback novel by the thriller writer John D. MacDonald he could get his hands on — and sometimes books with “beautiful babes” on the cover. Paperbacks were what King could afford, and it was “paperback money,” he said, that allowed him to quit his teaching job and write full time. When the New American Library bought the paperback rights to his 1974 debut novel, “Carrie,” it paid $400,000. “We lived off that money,” King said. “I could write books. I was free.” In the 1990s, with sales of mass-market beginning to sag, new technologies came along that were more portable than print books — and often even cheaper. After digital books were introduced to the public, publishers worried they would all but replace the print book. That hasn’t happened. Physical books still account for about 75 percent of book sales, according to the Association of American Publishers. But mass-market paperbacks have been a casualty. According to Circana BookScan, which tracks most print-book sales in the United States, about 103 million mass-market were sold in 2006, the year before the Kindle was introduced. Last year, readers bought fewer than 18 million of them. Over the past decade, the number of mass market titles publishers made available in the United States dropped as well, but not nearly so sharply, falling to about 44,000 from 54,000. It wasn’t publishers leading the move away from mass markets. It was readers. E-books converted many mass-market stalwarts. Devoted romance readers, for instance, who often devour multiple books every week, used to buy mass-market by the bundle. Those readers were among the first to move to e-readers, which can store thousands of e-books at a time — many of which are sold for even less than mass-market. Mass-markets were not just cannibalized digitally. Readers now seem more willing to buy books in larger, pricier formats like trade paperbacks and hardcovers. And romance readers happily shell out three or four times the price of a mass market on deluxe hardcovers with colorfully stained edges on the paper or other embellishments. “We follow the consumer,” said Dennis Abboud, the chief executive of ReaderLink. “In the case of mass-markets, the consumer spoke. They were just done with it.” Not every mass-market title is going away quite yet. Classics like “To Kill a Mockingbird,” “Catcher in the Rye” and “1984,” for example, are still sold to schools as mass-markets because they’re so inexpensive. Vintage, a publishing imprint, said it shipped more than 210,000 mass-market copies of “A Raisin in the Sun” in 2025 — a huge number for a book. The format also remains of interest to bibliophiles. The Strand bookstore in New York City sells thousands of copies of used mass-markets every year, said June Amelia, a used-book buyer at the store, with collectors and resellers sometimes spending hundreds of dollars on them. Still, the format makes less and less financial sense. There is only about a 30 cent difference, Abboud said, between producing a mass-market and a trade paperback of the same title — but the trade version could easily sell for $6 more. Hudson, a retail chain, operates more than 1,000 stores in transportation hubs across North America. Long a stalwart seller of mass-markets alongside gum, newspapers and travel pillows, the chain began phasing them out of its convenience stores several years ago and stopped carrying them there altogether in 2025. Sara Hinckley, who leads the North American books-and-media business for Hudson’s parent company, Avolta, said Hudson’s dedicated bookstore locations now have small selections of mass-markets, and that’s it. Even the Bridgerton books are no longer printed as mass-markets. After bookstores run out of their stock, it won’t be replenished — but you can still buy them in trade paperback and hardcover. Landon DeLille, an 18-year-old in Converse sneakers and blue jeans, browsed a bin of used paperbacks at the Strand while visiting New York last month. “If it weren’t for these, I reckon I might not have gotten into reading what I do,” he said. DeLille plucked a mass-market copy of “Those About to Die,” by Daniel P. Mannix, from the bin, its pages yellowed with age. The original price, printed on the cover, was 35 cents. “This one is from 1958, and it’s about gladiators,” DeLille said. “That’s cool.” DeLille didn’t wind up buying it. Instead, he brought home a story collection called “A Letter to Harvey Milk,” signed by its author, Lesléa Newman. The book was a trade paperback. Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/06/books/mass-market-paperback-books.html