David Friedman

Plotting out the entire extended family tree for Mr. Kotter is one of the best uses of AI I've seen in a while. #sweathogs4life https://ironicsans.com/kotter/

Anyone have more examples of the WTC in animation?

Six short things I wrote about 9/11 ironicsans.ghost.io/six-things-i...

Someone has made a videogame where all you do is sort nails into the appropriate bins. Sometimes you have to straighten them first. store.steampowered.com/app/4972300/...

Gisnep is a fun word game that does not fund hate.

For more than two years, Uber kept giving me free rides, and I had no idea why. I think I finally figured it out. ironicsans.ghost.io/the-mystery-...

I present the Trajan Horse. I will be taking no questions.

This story from photographer Chris Buck about sticking his foot in his mouth while photographing Joyce Carol Oates is incredibly relatable. chrisbuck.substack.com/p/joyce-caro...

I really should have done this back when more people were actually playing this game, but better late than never. I finally added a leaderboard to DOOMscroll. gisnep.com/doomscroll/

I looked. There’s no money in it.

I'm so busy this week I only had time to write a half-newsletter. Honestly, I'm fine if you only half-read it. ironicsans.ghost.io/the-half-new...

I have quietly released a new feature for Gisnep. You can now save your game history in the cloud and it will sync across devices where you log in with the same account. So you can play at work and home, or desktop and mobile, and your history will follow you. gisnep.com

I made myself a decent screenwriting web app that met my particular set of needs (no install or account required). It’s not perfect but I’m debating making it public in case it meets other people’s needs. Does the world need yet another screenwriting tool? Or is that category overstuffed already?

I sometimes think about the other set of twin towers in the original Spider-Man trailer that were also destroyed. ironicsans.ghost.io/the-other-tw...

"Milla Jovovich's GitHub repo" is not a phrase I expected to see today. github.com/milla-jovovi...

The Louvre has the Mona Lisa. Here’s what other institutions consider their Mona Lisas. For instance: the National Portrait Gallery in London has a portrait of William Shakespeare and MoMA has the Gold Marilyn Monroe. [ironicsans.ghost.io]

Only the Louve has *the* Mona Lisa, but here’s what other institutions consider to be *their* Mona Lisas! ironicsans.ghost.io/its-t-mona-l...

The truest thing on the internet today

I just moved Gisnep’s upgraded mobile version from beta to the main site. So if you ever stopped playing Gisnep because you found the mobile experience frustrating, now’s a great time to revisit! gisnep.com

Turns out, the first website to ever be hacked was the website for the movie Hackers ironicsans.ghost.io/when-hackers...

Dammit, this is actually starting to be fun.

I think the topic of my next newsletter is so interesting that I'm tempted to send it early just because I want people to see it. But it's going out on schedule, next week on Tuesday. Sign up to make sure you don't miss it. That's all I'm saying. ironicsans.ghost.io

20 years!!

Actor-style headshots from the 80s of artists like Cindy Sherman, Jeff Koons, Jenny Holzer, and Robert Longo. [ironicsans.ghost.io]

I love these 80s headshots of famous artists. Jeff Koons, Cindy Sherman, Jenny Holzer, and more ironicsans.ghost.io/80s-headshot...

I love these 80s headshots of famous artists. Jeff Koons, Cindy Sherman, Jenny Holzer, and more ironicsans.ghost.io/80s-headshot...

Regarding the Discourse, lemme just say that if you can't draw, yes you can. Everyone can draw, and folks will almost certainly respond more positively to your stick figures than some generic "A.i." slop. Also, there are LOADS of resources for free images. Like this! 🧵 www.nga.gov/artworks/fre...

Do you play #Gisnep on mobile? I'm looking for people who can test a new-and-improved mobile experience before I roll it out. If you're interested, DM me and let me know what mobile device and browser you use.

Flashback to when you could get a cool job in the newspaper classifieds. From the Sunday NYTimes this week in 2000. And that’s how I became Polo Ralph Lauren’s staff photographer for the next 7 years.

Might I interest you in some gisnep.com?

Under a minute! My favorite morning brain-waker-upper! I solved today’s #Gisnep in 00:49. No. 518 | January 7, 2026 gisnep.com

I do Alphaguess, Hang Five, and Gisnep. Sometimes they're super easy and sometimes they take me ages to finish.

That is correct for $2000! (Your current score: $182000)

I can’t believe tomorrow’s Gisnep is #500!! That’s a lot of puzzles. If you aren’t already playing, a vast archive awaits you! gisnep.com

God this is heartbreaking. I read many of his books. I’d seen him speak. One of my prized possessions was hand-written correspondence I received from Oliver Sacks. I feel so let down.

Good read — Becoming a Centenarian www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...

No newsletter this week, but it’s a good opportunity to catch up on the last edition in which I attempted to find every giant model whale in the world, in size order. (Spoiler: the blue whale at the American Museum of Natural History is not the biggest!) ironicsans.ghost.io/there-be-wha...

@kottke.org This struck me as potentially of interest to you: youtu.be/uBwM8oy7_Ok?...

The last episode of Pluribus comes out on December 26, just one day too late to call the episode A Christmas Carol.

Carol Sturka is an anagram for Our Car Talks. Also: Ocular Karts, A Solar Truck, and Orca Ark Slut. This reveals everything.