A branch died on a lilac in my yard and of course I had to see what the wood was like. It's really hard and finishes to a smooth surface. Wikipedia says as much (on the page for genus Syringa).

Lilac drawstring closure: Happy nineteenth, everyone.

I had a wild dream this morning. When stuff I was seeing didn't look plausible I considered whether I was dreaming but it was all so vivid and detailed that I was having a hard time saying it wasn't real. The phrase if there are no pics, it didn't happen crossed my mind and I took photos with my phone so I could check if they would be there later. They aren't.

I started reading The New York Times around 1977 and kept reading the paper when I moved to Los Angeles in 1981. I was getting papers printed in New York, flown to LAX overnight, and delivered to my office near the airport in the morning. Within a year, the Times started printing editions in California. When I lived in San Francisco in the 1990s, a youth delivered the paper arrived around midnight, I was usually awake and heard it land, and I'd wind down before bed by reading the next day's paper.

I forget what year I moved to reading the paper online. It was free to start but I subscribed when they started charging.

For a bunch of reasons, I switched to the Washington Post a few years ago. By that time it was owned by Jeff Bezos but the word was he was a hands‑off owner. Even so, you can't help but wonder what influence he has. I listened to an interview yesterday with the author of a recent book about Amazon. He said his friends at the Post are in a delicate position. Bezos isn't giving orders but at the same time reporters are concerned about writing too critically about Amazon. With how important lobbying and regulation are to his business, it's not an accident that the newspaper Bezos chose to buy was the biggest one in Washington.