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Tucker’s February 22, 2026 cover
# 1752

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Thoughts from Dom’s Porch: Read Across America Day — Feb 22
Read Across America Day
Dom Capossela with AI

This day serves as a national invitation to slow down and get educated.
It’s an encouragement to find a comfortable, well-lit chair, and, favored book in hand, to sit. I like Beethoven’s Piano Sonatas playing softly as I read.

Books are great companions. They lay on a shelf quietly, patiently until you select the one for your read.

There are numberless reasons that prompt people to choose a book.
Perhaps it’s by a familiar author, or an appreciated genre, or a title you’ve heard good things about.
Or you want to match your mood: seeking comfort, escape or challenge.
Or you identify with the premise or the character.
Perhaps you read the first sentence of the book, or the cover caught your eye, or the subject interests you.
Maybe a friend, librarian, bookseller, or critic recommended it.
Or it’s the right size for the bus or plane trip you are about to embark on.
I chose the book I am reading now—The Journey Home by Radhanath Swami—to better understand my 27-year-old daughter’s search for spirituality.
Maybe you simply like to carry the book to draw attention, that, perhaps, instigating a conversation.

Whatever the reason—edification, rest, composure, or something quieter we can’t quite name—the half-hour we invest in reading returns a body more rested and a mind calmer than when the book found us.

Researchers have concluded that approximately 95% of students can be taught to read by the end of the first or second year of school, yet in many countries 20% or more do not meet that expectation.[56][57]
Moonsun1981 - Own work
Azerbaijanian girl Leman reading a book.

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More Thoughts from Dom’s Porch
Thanks to cannabis infused gummies, sleep hasn’t been a problem for me for the last year and a half. As soon as I started taking the gummies I jumped from sleep being problematic to a dependable 4 hours. My life turned around. These gummies were 5-5-5, meaning 5mg of THC, CBD, and CBN.
I wondered if I could boost my sleep by taking 1 ½ gummies (7.5mg of each). I tried, it worked and I now get 5hrs sleep nightly.
I would like to gain more time sleeping so I will start taking 1 ¾ gummies with the hope of boosting my sleep by ½ hour or even an hour.
I don’t worry about the added hallucinogen (THC) because my experience has taught me I am immune to the effects of THC, the hallucinating component.

Okay.
After three nights at a 1.75 dose, my sleep has jumped up from 5.5 hours to 6.0 — a solid 30‑minute of sleep gain. And even with the higher THC intake, which usually pushes users toward hallucinations, I haven’t had any odd sensations or distortions at all.

Never one to let well-enough alone, I am going to increase the dosage to 2 gummies. My goal is a minimum of 6 hours sleep with a creep towards 7 hours.

Stay tuned.

The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters (1799) by Francisco Goya
Francisco Goya - Museo del Prado
This print is work No. 43 of the "Caprichos" series (1st edition, Madrid, 1799).

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Kat’s Gen Z Corner

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Tucker’s Corner

RIP my loves

And now, this week’s review

Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die

Gore Verbinski (making his first film since the underrated “A Cure for Wellness”) is finally back with the playful, sharp “Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die,” a movie that takes common concerns about an A.I.-driven future and spins them into a timely action-comedy about how the potential end of the world might be closer than we think. It’s a bit haphazard in both structure and messaging, but there’s a creative spark under this one that’s missing from a lot of Hollywood products of late. And it comes along at a truly historic time for the form, in that Hollywood uses more and more A.I. every day. The call is coming from inside the house. You’ll probably even see an AI-generated ad before your screening of this one.

A perfectly-cast Sam Rockwell plays an unnamed man who bursts into a crowded L.A. diner one night garbed in plastic and with wires all over his body, rambling about how the world is going to end momentarily. He needs people to come with him right now if they want to live. He’s kinda the anti-Terminator, one of those people who you see screaming about the apocalypse on the street corner, but you don’t really pause to take him seriously. However, this traveler from the future seems to know more than he should about the residents of this particular diner. He tells them it’s because he’s tried this over and over again in a sort of futuristic “Groundhog Day.” When the night goes wrong, and it always goes wrong, he can push a button and reboot it all over again. As often happens, a collection of what seems like ordinary Los Angelenos ends up going with our intrepid time traveler—maybe tonight is the one in which they can finally defeat the machines.

Writer Matthew Robinson then flashes back to fill in the back stories on how these intrepid souls got to this key moment in history. We see how schoolteachers Mark (Michael Peña) and Janey (Zazie Beetz) have been fighting back against the proliferation of technology in the classrooms that they’re desperately trying to maintain a human grip on. We meet a single mom named Susan (Juno Temple) who lost her son in a school shooting but has been given a creepy chance to reunite with him via technology. And there’s a young woman named Ingrid (Haley Lu Richardson) who not only has a “Better Call Saul”-esque allergy to technology but has watched as her boyfriend got sucked into virtual worlds instead of exploring real ones. All of these people have seen their lives upended by technology in a way that makes them ideal warriors in the fight to come, and so they end up following the Man in the plastic coat.

At times, the mini-“Black Mirror” episodic structure of Robinson’s script can derail momentum. Just as we’re getting involved with the escape from the diner, “Good Luck” goes back in time, and that naturally does something to the pace that Verbinski can only half-recover. These backstories are thematically effective, but there could have been a better way to incorporate them into a narrative that doesn’t lose momentum every time they arise. It’s a credit to Verbinski’s always energetic direction that the film doesn’t fall apart completely. He once again brings a sort of Looney Tunes mania to a script that could have been leaden doomsaying. It’s harder than it looks to make a fun movie about how A.I. is going to destroy us all. Of course, it helps to have a performer as charismatic as Rockwell in the lead. The whole cast seems to be on the same page.

And that page is furious. It’s wrapped in an original, funny piece of entertainment, but this is also undeniably a warning. When one looks back on the various threads of “Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die,” it’s clear to see a message that A.I. is dangerously hollow on every level. It seeks to replicate human experience without the messy things that actually make it human. We’ve been watching terrifying visions of the future since before Sarah Connor gave birth to humanity’s savior, but the truth is that A.I. represents a very current fear instead of a vision of what could be.

As more filmmakers reckon with how A.I. will shape the form, Verbinski and Robinson are asking how it’s also shaping things like parenthood, education, and even grief. We’re told more and more that A.I. is going to invade every corner of our lives, if it hasn’t already. And while Verbinski’s film only rarely resorts to preaching, its stance is clear: We’re all gonna need some really good luck.

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Chuckles and Thoughts

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Lisa’s Neck of the Woods

                                                         Not another museum? Ah but these are different!

                We all know the Europe museum “must sees” in each city. You must go to the Prado if you’re in Madrid. Of course you went to the Louvre while you were in Paris. There is the Picasso museum in Barcelona. And so it goes. But what if we sought the lesser known museums; would they be a worthwhile experience? The answer is a resounding YES.   They are less crowded, not an Instagram influencer in sight (too highbrow for those heathens), and foster a more intimate insight into the artist’s life and creative inspirations. Much like a special exhibition at a major museum, these hidden gems focus entirely on one artist’s life.

                We purposely stopped along the Spanish coast to stay in Malaga, where the great Picasso was born. We already loved the artist, but got obsessed with him after watching a National Geographic Genius mini series called Picasso. Antonio Banderas played him and was wonderful (when isn’t he?). Picasso’s grandson, Bernard Ruiz Picasso, was instrumental in creating Museo Picasso Malaga. His mother Christine, along with Bernard, donated and loaned hundreds of artwork that form the basis of the collection in the museum. There is archival material including some of his sketchbooks, and family held art that had never been made public before. There was a significant number of original Picassos displayed. We were lucky to attend during a special exhibition that may make it to the States called Memory and Desire, where we viewed art by Juan Gris, Marcel Duchamp, Fernand Leger, De Chirico, Magritte, and a mesmerizing short film by Jean Cocteau. What a heady experience !!

                When we were in Barcelona, we skipped the Picasso museum and instead booked tickets to the Fundació Joan Miró museum in the Montjuic region. Located at the top of Barcelona, even higher than Sagrada Família, which we understand from locals will remain that way, so that Montjuic is always the highest point in the city. We walked up about a million steps to reach the museum and arrived at the opening time. Again, hardly anyone was there, and we had room to breathe and admire the incredible views before we went inside. The building is a modernist design by Catalan architect Josep Lluis Sert, a close personal friend of Miro and the former dean at Harvard Graduate School of Design. Sert it turns out has quite a lot of connections with Cambridge and Boston MA. He founded the 1st degree program in Urban Design at Harvard. Miro visited him on many occasions and created murals for Harvard that are preserved at the Fogg Museum.   Who knew? Maybe some of the readers here know this history.

                The museum is truly magnificent and filled with art, sculpture, textiles, prints and letters between Miro and his artist friends. Miro had a wonderful relationship with many artists who adored him and the museum makes the most of it. Again, maybe it was serendipity but there was a special exhibition called Miro and the United States. What are the odds? We were treated to art by Pollock, Motherwell, Nevelson, and Alexander Calder, another close friend of Miro. There were playful outdoor sculptures, that were accessible for picture taking. Don’t tell anyone though, or the swarms of influencers will descend upon the place and ruin it. My personal favorite part of the visit was the young Spanish school kids who arrived for a field trip and were climbing the invaluable Miro sculpture at the entrance. It is playfully provocative but their innocence erased all negative thoughts save for the joy in seeing children appreciate art in their inimitable way.

                Onward to Sardinia, getting closer to the Motherland of Sicily and mainland Italy!

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FOOD THOUGHTS: Corned Beef and Cabbage
Serves 6

BEEF I
Best to cook the beef the day before so you can doctor the broth (instructions below)
2 ½ to 3lb piece of brisket
Prep beef #1:
Add water to cover (some dark beer is optional)
Add 4TB seasonings: either Corned Beef Pickling Spice from Spice Specialist; or, to a total of 4 TB, a mixture of mustard , coriander, black peppercorns, bay leaves, cloves, juniper berries, allspice, ginger, chilies, cinnamon.
Bring the pot to a boil, then reduce the heat to a low simmer.
Cover the pot and let the corned beef cook for about 3 hours or until it is tender.
Remove the cooked brisket and strain the broth.
Return the brisket and broth to the pot and refrigerate.
Day of service, remove the brisket from the cold pot and skim the fat from the broth.
Reheat the broth.

Prep vegetables:
Anytime: wash the veggies and carve to equal sizes: 1 ½lbs of Yukon Gold potatoes, 1 medium onion, 1 ½ lbs carrots, a green cabbage into small wedges.
Day of service: When the broth is at the boil add the potatoes, onions, and carrots, returning the pot to a boil and then immediately return it to the low simmer.
Simmering the veggies for30 minutes should be fine.

Then add the chopped cabbage to the pot and simmer for another 15-20 minutes or until the cabbage is tender.
Remove the vegetables to a platter.

BEEF II
Return the brisket to the broth.
Keep the heat low so the pot never boils and heat the pot for about 10 minutes.
Once warmed through, lift it out, slice across the grain, and spoon a little hot broth over the top before serving.

Prep beef #2:
Remove the corned beef to a cutting board and slice the brisket against the grain.
and vegetables from the pot and place them on a platter. Slice the corned beef against the grain and serve it with the vegetables.

Serve with: horseradish, tobasco, Japanese pickles. Mustard, plum sauce

A corned beef sandwich served in a diner
jeffreyw - Mmm... corned beef on rye with a side of 'kraut Uploaded by Fæ
Mmm... corned beef on rye with a side of 'kraut

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Six Word Stories
Rain fell. Umbrella broke. Love bloomed.

[This little three‑beat line is doing what you love: using tiny actions to sketch an emotional arc.]

“Rain fell. Umbrella broke. Love bloomed.” The author is saying that connection often arrives in the middle of inconvenience, not in perfection. The rain is the disruption, the broken umbrella is the vulnerability or moment of exposure, and the blooming love is what becomes possible only because things went wrong.

It’s a micro‑story about:

Chance — two people thrown together by circumstance
Softened defenses — the broken umbrella forces closeness
Unexpected warmth — love appearing where discomfort was supposed to be

It’s essentially: the moment you’re unprotected is the moment someone steps in, and something tender begins.

Il s'agit de la place de Dublin vue depuis la rue de Moscou.
Gustave Caillebotte - 5wEUCOlEf-EaVQ at Google Cultural Institute maximum zoom level

The tone of the light indicates that the painting is set on a wintery afternoon, and the two main figures walk underneath an umbrella. They are dressed in the height of contemporary Parisian fashion. She wears a hat, veil, diamond earring, demure brown dress, and a fur lined coat, described in 1877 as "modern – or should I say, the latest fashion". The man wears a moustache, topcoat, frock coat, top hat, bow tie, starched white shirt, buttoned waistcoat and an open long coat with collar turned up. They are unambiguously middle class. Some working-class figures may be seen in the background; a maid in a doorway, the decorator carrying a ladder, cut-off by the umbrella above him. Caillebotte juxtaposes the figures and the perspective in a playful manner, with one man appearing to jump from the wheel of a carriage; another pair of legs appear below the rim of an umbrella.

The painting does not present a convivial mood. The figures seem mostly isolated, and their expressions are largely downcast. They appear to hurry rather than stroll through the streets, absorbed in their own thoughts. The umbrellas shield them, in the words of Rose-Marie Hagen, "not just from the rain, but also it seems, from other passersby". Characteristic of the positioning of the figures, the heads and eyes of the main couple are faced away from the man approaching them from their right. Hagen believes that given their close quarters, they will both be unable to comfortably step out of the man's way, but also their averted gaze applies equally to the viewer, who looks from a perspective equal to us.

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Last Comment
I’ve nudged my intake of gummies to 10-10-10mg nightly, that’s THC, CBD, and CBN.
It may be the right course for me: no hallucinations and >6 hours of sleep.
Goal is to approach seven hours.
I hope, I hope.

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Feb 17 February 22, 2026

Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die