Solving for Why

First They Came for the Immigrants

Pundits and talking heads are calling the murder of Alex Pretti by ICE officers a “tipping point.”

• Targeting brown people wasn’t enough.

• Waiting at Home Depot parking lots wasn’t enough.

• Invading cities wasn’t enough.

• Zip-tying children wasn’t enough.

• Giving orders to enter homes forcefully without judicial warrants wasn’t enough.

• Shooting a mother in the face wasn’t enough.

What it took was for the most privileged among us, a young white man, getting brutally murdered in broad daylight. Only it isn’t like the poem says: There are still a lot of people left to speak up for Alex Pretti, including the NRA.

Some think it was the fact that he was armed and licensed for a concealed-carry permit, which has even the NRA up in arms. But gun or no gun, it was his white maleness that tipped it. They can come for the least of us, but they can’t come for the best of us. A white man imperiled won’t stand.

“I Admit the Deed,” created for the Tell-Tale HeART art show.

The Perpetual Problem

I’ve been working all week for a client on something called a “perpetual calendar.” It’s been done before, so I can copy one of the three examples online, two of them from companies that will print them for you for a few hundred dollars and add your logo to it. It’s unattractive, but it serves a purpose, whatever that purpose is.

This was my first time seeing one of these. I would hate to have been the first person to make one. There are 12 months in a year, and a month can begin on one of seven different days. Once you have those seven calendars, you can plug one into every month, removing a day from April, June, September, and November, and removing two or three days from February.

There are exactly 14 variations on the annual calendar, and the pattern seems to repeat every 28 years. While most calendars have five rows, every so often, a 30- or 31-day month can add an extra row.

My job is to build one from scratch, make each year uniform, and have all 14 years plus a key fit on a letter-size page and still be readable. The key tells you which version of the calendar to use for which year. If it’s 1920, use version 12. For 1954, version 6. For 2000, use version 14.

The thing is: it takes you longer to find out what day October 31, 1998, was by using this analog thing than it does to check Google. Or, as we have done in the past for various reasons, ask Alexa or Siri.

As a consultant, it should be within my purview to ask questions and offer alternatives, but I don’t feel I can do that here.

I love solving problems. Sometimes a new idea pops into my head while I’m showering or falling asleep. But I have spent 14 hours on this project, and I’ve found no joy. The largest point size I can use is 4.5. I’m about to suggest we use the ugly one and stick our logo on it.

I’m Bitter, Cold

This morning, it was four degrees. Last week, we had bees. I cannot move from one spot to the next in my house without being shocked by static electricity. I have a no-touch faucet in the kitchen that I can turn on by waving my hand above it. But I get shocked by the water itself. And just when I thought nothing could shock me.

Listen to the Prophet

Late last week, I wrote to Chuck Prophet, one of my all-time favorite musical artists (some of you may remember his excellent set at the party for my 50^th birthday), to ask him if he would listen to Utah’s new record and, if he likes it, give me a blurb. I wasn’t expecting him to reply so quickly, but I heard from him moments later. He said he was just thinking of me because there was an email from a mutual acquaintance in his inbox. We exchanged a few brief emails, and then he got back to me with the blurb. It was so sweet it made me cry. Go buy all of Chuck’s records and merch, and Utah’s, too.

Here’s a new song:

@sanjunipero.music

San Junipero (U. M.) on Instagram: "“As All The Angels Fell.”

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And this concludes the fourth week of 2026 and my fourth Substack post of the year.