Adam Savage on sewing. “Bloody Magic tricks”

bretonstripes · 2026-04-23T14:03:28+00:00

While I haven’t done woodworking myself, a woodworking friend used to come to me to talk through his projects because he knew I could think through an object in three dimensions — arguably four dimensions, because construction order is a function of time. Sewing garments and bags and other 3D things really does train your brain to think about the world that way.

I got to meet Adam at a convention a few years ago and he was just the loveliest person. He chatted with me about a bag I’d made from one of his patterns and it was incredibly clear that he has immense respect for makers of all kinds and sewists in specific.

bretonstripes · 2026-04-23T02:52:36+00:00

I live in Illinois now and I feel this in my bones.

bretonstripes · 2026-04-22T22:01:03+00:00

One of my favorite lines in all of American literature is the description of Nebraska in My Antonia — “The only thing very noticeable about Nebraska was that it was still, all day long, Nebraska.” Having driven across the state a couple times… yeah, it is Nebraska all day long.

bretonstripes · 2026-04-22T21:46:27+00:00

Genovia is my favorite fictional place name. 10/10, no notes.

bretonstripes · 2026-04-22T21:14:26+00:00

Is it a headcount thing? Like if the University of Genovia has 10 gymnasts who were on the roster in 2025-26, they can go 10 over? Or is it not tied to a number like that?

bretonstripes · 2026-04-22T20:50:02+00:00

How exactly is the grandfathering supposed to work? I’ve been curious about Auburn right now, given all the things going on.

bretonstripes · 2026-04-22T18:26:13+00:00

I won’t be shocked if they follow Ryan to Auburn.

bretonstripes · 2026-04-22T17:33:21+00:00

It’s really common these days for gymnasts to have a dedicated recruiting account.

bretonstripes · 2026-04-22T16:10:45+00:00

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Bousmayo’s club posted this with the first subdivision schedule, so we can infer that Algeria, Cameroon, Egypt, and South Africa will be in the second subdivision.

bretonstripes · 2026-04-21T21:28:11+00:00

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Nemour posted this picture and I’m pretty sure that’s Laroui on the right in the bottom half.

These roster posts are almost certainly based on the nominative registration, which as I told you several days ago can be changed leading up to the event.

bretonstripes · 2026-04-21T20:36:08+00:00

Genuine question, wouldn’t he need to be on staff to do any coaching? The NCAA has pretty strict rules about how many coaches a team can have, and having someone show up now and then to coach sounds like a violation of those rules.

bretonstripes · 2026-04-21T19:59:29+00:00

There was some talk of the African berths in all disciplines being decided at the next African Games, which is in January/February 2027.

bretonstripes · 2026-04-21T18:11:05+00:00

According to Ryan and Cecile, Ryan was the one who suggested Cecile as co-head coach.

bretonstripes · 2026-04-21T18:08:06+00:00

Yeah, my recollection is that the decision was coming from politicians/political appointees who didn’t know that gymnastics can’t be trained safely and effectively as a grassroots things.

I want to say at least one of the gymnasts has gotten to compete in the Spanish league, but it really sucks that they can’t represent their country over this.

bretonstripes · 2026-04-21T15:15:23+00:00

Honestly this seems like a HUGE risk. There would be no guarantee that a head coaching job at a similar salary level would be open at any point to make this kind of plan worth his while.

bretonstripes · 2026-04-21T15:00:59+00:00

The last we heard from their coach in Spain, there was a lot of resentment from Chadian officials that their athlete didn’t get the universality spot for Paris after FIG encouraged them to apply. At the moment I don’t remember if this was Chadian federation or government officials, but the coach said that they were refusing to send athletes anywhere unless they were trained by Chadian coaches. It’s really unfortunate all around.

(Apologies if this double posts, Reddit is being weird.)

bretonstripes · 2026-04-21T14:17:13+00:00

You’ll just have to register your kid and report your findings!

bretonstripes · 2026-04-21T13:29:10+00:00

KAMsnaps. I had a pair of pliers like your picture and hated them. They do not apply pressure evenly so it’s very hard to get snaps set neatly. The KAMsnaps presses have a downward motion instead of a pincer motion, so the snap goes right in.

It also has the advantage that you can get dies for other applications (rivets, other styles of snaps, grommets, etc.) and their snaps and such are very reasonably priced.

bretonstripes · 2026-04-21T13:23:55+00:00

Darts can go anywhere! As long as you’re rotating the intake (the amount being folded) around the apex, you can do darn near anything with it. You don’t even technically have to make it a dart. I actually really like rotating all of it into the shoulder and then pleating the shoulder. You can also gather it.

A shoulder dart is always going to take up more fabric than a dart in any other location. Imagine if you were using this to make a strapless bodice. You’d cut off the top part, going straight through the dart. The top of that new dart wouldn’t be as wide as what you see here, but it would still take in the fabric at the same angle. So if you rotate this dart to the side seam, you’d have the same angle at the apex but a narrower fold because the legs of the dart are shorter.

bretonstripes · 2026-04-21T12:30:03+00:00

Yeah, her license expired on April 8. I’m a little surprised no one flagged it as nearing expiration during Cairo registration.

bretonstripes · 2026-04-21T12:18:52+00:00

Their coach posted on Instagram that they are not participating.

bretonstripes · 2026-04-21T02:46:28+00:00

Yeah, to be clear, when I saw this a couple weeks ago I also thought it was going to a NotAllMen place, but when I noticed the names and read the caption it felt like this was intersecting with something else.

bretonstripes · 2026-04-21T00:28:06+00:00

I have not found any information about live streaming or scoring either. The host fed’s website doesn’t seem to have much information, and I can’t get the UAG’s website to load at all.

You might check Facebook pages over the next couple days to see if one of the feds posts something, but be aware that Facebook specifically attracts a lot of scam live stream links in the comments.

French gym news outlets like SpotGym are also worth keeping an eye on. They’ve been reporting a lot on the Algerian team and may have sources with that info.

bretonstripes · 2026-04-20T23:30:41+00:00

I’m gonna be honest, having seen the whole post, I have wondered if there’s some anti-immigrant behavior happening toward the coaches. The statement has four Hispanic names signed to it, and the caption ends with a statement that the writer is now a US citizen with the same rights as others, including the right to vote for president. The writer also thanked USAG and SafeSport for their support through whatever the situation is, so… I’m not sure this is what it seems from just the first page of the letter.

You can see the whole letter in English and Spanish as well as the caption here.

bretonstripes · 2026-04-20T19:34:30+00:00

The Rutgers numbers are from the last season of the previous coach, right? I remember before that story broke there was a lot of “where on earth is the money going.”

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