Just a few links….

Time to ditch a few tabs:

::  We watched Smokey and the Bandit not long ago–it’s a comfort food movie–and I found myself wondering, after the scene in which the Sheriff bursts into a diner and orders a “Diablo Sandwich” which he consumes in about four bites, while chatting with another patron and never realizing that it’s the Bandit himself. I always figured the Diablo Sandwich was just one of those kinds of truck-stop things you order when you’re in a hurry, and you’re better off not really knowing what’s in it, because it’s probably tastes amazing but is also going to do terrible things to your insides. Here’s an article on the Diablo Sandwich. I still want one.

::  New York City was all set to inaugurate tolls to combat congestion on its streets, like other cities around the world have done. Then, Governor Kathy Hochul stepped in. I have to be honest here: at this point I really don’t know what I plan to do if Hochul stands for re-election in 2026. I have zero illusion that the Republican Party will have returned to anything resembling sanity by that point, at least to the degree that they might put up a candidate for anything whom I’d be able to vote for without vomiting, but from a policy standpoint, Hochul is terrible.

::  And finally, rocket thrust!

A United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket with Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner spacecraft aboard launches from Space Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Wednesday, June 5, 2024, in Florida. NASA’s Boeing Crew Flight Test is the first launch with astronauts of the Boeing CFT-100 spacecraft and United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket to the International Space Station as part of the agency’s Commercial Crew Program. The flight test, which launched at 10:52 a.m. EDT, serves as an end-to-end demonstration of Boeing’s crew transportation system and will carry NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams to and from the orbiting laboratory. Photo Credit: (NASA/Joel Kowsky)