Mascot falling on ice

“How many takes to have a White Bear not slip on the ice during a commercial shoot? Let us count the times!! Enjoy the outtakes from our latest commercial shoot showing our venerable mascot doing its best to stay upright!”

Another falling mascot:

Amazing. I love this one, too. https://t.co/JtwvMQUUks
— Haley Glover (@HaleyGlover17) January 7, 2022

Tweets about coal

The U.S. is ditching coal, and the Supreme Court ruling won't change that. @StevenMufson explains why: https://t.co/hsJZCrEKPA
— Juliet Eilperin (@eilperin) July 1, 2022

Terrific report by @caraNYT detailing how former coal miners in Kentucky are transitioning to new jobs installing solar panels:https://t.co/RgVOGYYFB7

Reminder: The mine workers union says BBB would incentivize creating renewable jobs in coal country. Manchin is blocking it: https://t.co/MTJaUIgRT5
— Greg Sargent (@ThePlumLineGS) January 2, 2022

Many coal country residents still don’t believe that investments in green technology would provide them with long-term jobs. Unfortunately for President Biden, this skepticism has threatened to undermine his efforts on climate change. https://t.co/fTZtmb8A18 pic.twitter.com/SICLzEkSYE
— The New York Times (@nytimes) December 12, 2021

"It does feel wrong when your electric bill is more than your mortgage," West Virginia resident Felisha Chase told CNN https://t.co/yGIxqpNZM0
— CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) October 19, 2021

https://twitter.com/ella_nilsen/status/1450435225578786817?s=11

For decades now, the coal/WV thing has been more about the cultural ideal of coal miners than actual coal miners. https://t.co/hWx2zgtjCJ
— Nathaniel Rakich (@baseballot) October 19, 2021

There are just 11,418 coal-mining jobs in West Virginia. The state is already a chemical and manufacturing hub, one primed to benefit from green technology investment.

This is entirely about Manchin's wallet and the $500k a year he gets from Enersystems, which burns waste coal. https://t.co/L3JXFYzizR
— Max Kennerly (@MaxKennerly) October 16, 2021

Worth saying that coal accounts for a small fraction of nonfarm employment in West Virginia. https://t.co/NtuPmagMwV
— b-boy bouiebaisse (@jbouie) October 16, 2021

Future historians — if there are any future historians, that is, if civilization doesn't collapse — will be astonished that we let the planet burn for the sake of an industry that employs less than 3 percent of workers even in West Virginia pic.twitter.com/Rg5Fk0tQpe
— Paul Krugman (@paulkrugman) October 16, 2021

After four years of former President Trump trying and failing to revive coal country, there is now an acknowledgment within the industry that more pain is coming — and new ideas are needed to blunt the damage. https://t.co/Dez6Ch0MBc
— CNN (@CNN) April 21, 2021

More early coal plant closures in Colorado. The number of western coal plants with plans to operate beyond 2030 is dwindling: https://t.co/NhtG9D9dUd
— Sammy Roth (@Sammy_Roth) February 25, 2021

Trump's failure to rewrite Obama's standards for coal-fired power plants is an implicit admission of a simple truth: Nobody is going to be building new coal-fired power plants in America. https://t.co/uXFX4NmxpR
— Dan Farber (@dfarber) January 20, 2021

President Trump pushed to weaken regulations on industry, but more coal power plants closed during his first term than in the last four years of Barack Obama’s presidency.https://t.co/Fl479f8gzG
— NYT Climate (@nytclimate) October 28, 2020

Revised tweet: EPA went to extraordinary lengths to try to boost the coal industry. Wheeler himself is a former coal lobbyist. But the effort failed. Coal burning in US has tanked. As a result, Americans are breathing cleaner air today than any point in EPA's 50 yr history. https://t.co/6JPfcdF5l3
— Eric Lipton (@EricLiptonNYT) October 22, 2020

A great mop

I’ll have to find this one

It hasn’t been released yet where you could buy it.

Floor mops for high school basketball tournament in Japan: Cup Noodles Ramen mops with pieces of shrimp, beef and chicken on the top of the mop!

(H/T @jeremybrahm) pic.twitter.com/u8mS9lai2O
— Darren Rovell (@darrenrovell) December 27, 2021

Funny autocorrect tweet

#AmandaMcBroom, who wrote “The Rose”, just sent me this…. pic.twitter.com/kiRWpSADAd
— bettemidler (@BetteMidler) December 28, 2021

Individualism vs. Public good

These tweets should do more to spell out that the individualism that is preventing us from doing better at combatting Covid is a Republican problem. Democrats want to do things to help the public good.

I mean… you've kind of got to work the country you've got. The US is extremely individualistic and not particularly risk-averse. It's also extremely polarized. None of that is going to change overnight. Public health strategies probably need to accept those as constraints. https://t.co/J363a8InQn
— Nate Silver (@NateSilver538) December 31, 2021

From the article pic.twitter.com/KpOD971pL2
— Harris Levy (@HarrisL585) December 31, 2021

It won’t work on the Trump cult members. They’re not concerned about protecting others. They’re only concerned about themselves.
— Harris Levy (@HarrisL585) December 31, 2021

I don’t really buy “individualism” as a huge distinguishing cultural characteristic between the US and, say, Australia — two countries that pre-Covid I think everyone would have said are very much part of the same cultural milieu. https://t.co/dRUxGh8ZSE
— Matthew Yglesias (@mattyglesias) January 1, 2022

Covers: America (Simon & Garfunkel song)

“America” was a Simon and Garfunkel song on their 1968 album Bookends. Yes drastically rearranged it in 1970.

Where’s Ron?

Florida Governor DeSantis is missing in action during the latest Covid spike.

As Florida shatters its record for new COVID cases, Democrats want answers:

"Our residents, all Florida residents, should be outraged and they should ask the question, 'Where is our state? Where is our governor? Where is Ron DeSantis now?'"https://t.co/UwCZrKYCwZ
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) December 31, 2021

Hasn’t Gov. DeSantis been inexplicably missing for like 2 weeks?

If he’s around, I would be happy to say hello. His social media team seems to have been posting old photos for weeks.

In the meantime, perhaps I could help with local organizing. Folks are quite receptive here 🙂 https://t.co/LmmqT8eLDh
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) December 31, 2021

Ron DeSantis has now gone from posting 2 week old visits to restaurants to a video showing old high school football games while Florida is on fire with COVID-19 without any state testing sites. His last public appearance was 2 weeks ago. #WhereIsRon
— Daniel Uhlfelder (@DWUhlfelderLaw) December 31, 2021

He cancelled our Cabinet meeting in the middle of December (not the first time, he does this to avoid public accountability) and we haven't seen him since Dec. 17.https://t.co/d6Q8FnYuKF
— Nikki Fried (@NikkiFried) December 31, 2021

Ron DeSantis shut down all state-operated COVID testing sites and refuses to open them up despite cases in Florida increasing 1,000% and people waiting up to six hours for a test. He has not been seen in public since Dec 17th. Florida needs a new governor.https://t.co/MhZjQ1JOPA
— Thomas Kennedy (@tomaskenn) December 31, 2021

For the record, the State of Florida operates exactly ZERO COVID testing sites. #Desantis shut them all down in May since prevention isn’t really his thing.

If he opened even a single testing site, it would be a huge improvement over their current effort…which is ZERO.
— Rep. Carlos G Smith (@CarlosGSmith) December 30, 2021

Banner Declaring Ron DeSantis 'Is Missing' While Florida 'On Fire' Flown Over Miami https://t.co/s2H10fGiiL
— Daniel Uhlfelder (@DWUhlfelderLaw) December 31, 2021

"Ron DeSantis only won by 34,000 votes out of 8.3 million that were cast. He's certainly leading our state like he believes that he won it in a landslide," Nikki Fried says. https://t.co/Pzzx5hbDSy
— MSNBC (@MSNBC) December 31, 2021

Covers: Jamaica Say You Will

Los Lobos recently covered this Jackson Browne song. The first version of “Jamaica Say You Will” was by the Byrds in 1971 while Browne’s own version was released in 1972.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Los Lobos (@loslobos)

Covers: Pancho and Lefty

The tweet about Emmylou Harris prompted me to write this post. “Pancho and Lefty” (1972) is a song by Townes Van Zandt. The cover by Willie Nelson and Merle Haggard (1983) is the best-known version.

Emmylou Harris Records ‘Pancho and Lefty’ by Townes Van Zandt – Rolling Stone https://t.co/Nx2olx3Z6l
— Calvin Hicks (@CalvinH93377335) December 29, 2021

"Merle is the quintessential country music singer. At least of my generation, of my life."https://t.co/MIOyJuLtI5
— Whiskey Riff (@WhiskeyRiff) December 30, 2021

A tip of the cap to the great Townes Van Zandt.@ShaneSmithMusic @hayescarll https://t.co/Y9L8SU1pi9
— Whiskey Riff (@WhiskeyRiff) August 17, 2023

Originally written and recorded by the great Townes Van Zandt.@GeorgeStrait @ChrisStapleton https://t.co/3Q8RoMOPqx https://t.co/3Q8RoMOPqx
— Whiskey Riff (@WhiskeyRiff) June 11, 2024

Hamsters in the news

A team of scientists at Northwestern University in the US have accidentally created overly-aggressive mutant hamsters following a gene-editing experiment. 🐹

They were trying to increase bonding between the lovable animals but failed.

Let's Discuss 👇https://t.co/jxOmKAMs0z
— Metro (@MetroUK) May 27, 2022

Hong Kong will cull more than 2,000 hamsters after a pet shop worker, a customer and at least 11 hamsters tested positive for the Delta coronavirus variant. Officials said it was not clear that the virus had been transmitted to humans from the animals. https://t.co/tZkjSpXglq
— The New York Times (@nytimes) January 18, 2022

You know who loves booze? Hamsters. They can drink the human equivalent of 1.5 liters of Everclear a day, @sarahzhang writes:https://t.co/h13X9iROxu
— The Atlantic (@TheAtlantic) December 27, 2021

Man in a Floating Hamster Wheel
From Florida to New York Sadly
Failed to Cross….. https://t.co/OC6bWI2zOG
— Raj Selvadurai (@RajSelvadurai1) July 27, 2021

https://twitter.com/rachel/status/1338309584260395009?s=11

These laboratory-made antibodies are a best bet for a coronavirus treatment, but there won’t be enough

Meanwhile… https://t.co/urXFLTJ21u
— Jennifer Cohn ✍🏻 📢 (@jennycohn1) May 2, 2020

I post this old Christmas photo because I just noticed my pocket square is my sister’s hamster. pic.twitter.com/3ME8UMuvoH
— M. T. Anderson (@_MTAnderson) December 25, 2018

Student Blames Airline After She Flushes Her Emotional Support Hamster Down Airport Toilet

Tiny Hamster Serves Up Tiny Sushi and Tiny Drinks

Hamster Takes on Competitive Eater Takeru Kobayashi in Hot Dog Eating Contest

Back in the 70s there was a DJ named Dr Demento who used to play a parody version of that song, titled “Hamster Love”. Audio here: https://t.co/69jRLX1kpw
— Sky Beaver (@skybeaverXL) June 13, 2022