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Hot takes, wrestling rabbit holes, free-streaming deep dives & life on the open web. Welcome to taco ‘bout it—Schwegler’s corner for TV commentary, chaotic internet culture, and fediverse experiments.

  • the geese have made actual plans

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    the geese have made actual plans

    crafts, icebox pie, and two actual dates on the calendar. meet silly goose girls night, with upcoming gatherings at hilltop public house… Tune in & read →

    the geese have made actual plans. there is a calendar and everything.

    silly goose girls night is a project built around crafts, food, friendship, and making room for a little more play. their feed moves between projects you can try at home and real-life gatherings in montgomery, alabama. the name sets a fairly manageable dress code for your personality.

    their mission statement puts the emphasis on creativity, laughter, and an inclusive community, with women giving themselves permission to play. not every hobby needs to become a small business. sometimes scissors can just be scissors.

    first, the dates that have not already happened

    if you’re around montgomery, there are two things on their published calendar:

    • saturday, october 31, 2026, 10 a.m.–3 p.m.: find their table at the hilltop halloween market at hilltop public house, 3 north goldthwaite street. their latest announcement says they’re making things for the market and will have candy for the kids. stop by and meet the geese.
    • saturday, november 14, 2026, 10 a.m.–noon: make & mingle at hilltop public house. the calendar announcement describes a laid-back social: everyone is welcome, and you can bring a craft or project you’re working on and meet some new people. your unfinished project has been invited out.
    Silly Goose Girls Night calendar: October 8 pop-up at Lorraine's, October 31 Hilltop Halloween Market, and November 14 Make & Mingle at Hilltop Public House.
    the organizers’ calendar, which also includes the now-past october 8 pop-up. graphic: silly goose girls night.

    those details are from their public announcements, checked october 22. follow the account for updates before heading out; the november listing doesn’t specify a ticket price or registration requirement.

    they have already put the scissors on the table

    their first official event was the october 8 modgepodge collage night at lorraine’s bake shop. the event listing supplied the practical part: collage supplies, a canvas, and time to make something together. their next-day recap shows people working around the craft tables and thanks lorraine and bill for hosting.

    this is the useful thing about the photos: you can see the activity rather than being asked to imagine an abstract concept called community. paper, scissors, glue, other people. an unusually literal way to make connections.

    photos and original recap: silly goose girls night. the october 8 event has already happened; this is a look at what they’ve been making, not a current ticket offer.

    the stickers can finally stop waiting for the perfect surface

    one of their at-home projects takes a familiar problem—stickers too good to commit to anything—and turns it into a miniature gallery wall. their july 19 carousel walks through framing favorite stickers, including travel souvenirs, in little frames.

    a small project, an excuse to sit together, and something to put on the wall afterward. the sticker collection has received a promotion.

    and yes, there is pie

    the food side is similarly approachable. their cream cheese icebox pie reel uses a graham-cracker crust and a blended filling, then lets the refrigerator do its part. the full method is in their original post below. leave time for chilling; the pie does have one scheduling requirement.

    between the craft projects, recipes, and local gatherings, there are several ways into this particular flock. try something from the feed, send a project to the friend you’d make it with, or put one of the montgomery dates on the calendar.

    start with @silly_goose_girls_night on instagram. their official link page also connects to facebook and tiktok. at the time of writing, its eventbrite button still points to the october 8 event, so the instagram announcements above are the useful place for the next dates.

    featured image: the sticker-framing project, silly goose girls night. all embedded posts are credited to and linked to their original account.

  • baseball and i have a seasonal situationship

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    baseball and i have a seasonal situationship

    i enjoy watching baseball. i also forget baseball exists until the playoffs every year. apparently my fandom has a flowering season. Tune in & read →

    i enjoy watching baseball. i also forget baseball exists until the playoffs every year. apparently my fandom has a flowering season.

    there is a particular pleasure in turning up when the stakes are high and immediately developing opinions. do i have the longitudinal data? no. do i suddenly care very deeply about this man reaching second base? absolutely.

    sports people sometimes make casual fandom sound like stolen valor. sorry i didn’t complete the summer internship before enjoying the game. i am here now, i have a snack, and i would like something dramatic to happen.

    you’re allowed to like a thing seasonally. not every interest needs to become a second job. see also: my annual return to knowing what an inning is.

    I enjoy watching baseball. I also forget baseball exists until the playoffs every year.

    — schweg, 🦇 (@schwegler.lol) 2026-10-16T03:01:43.549Z
    From my Bluesky: Original post.

    Featured photo: Robert Bye / Unsplash.

  • Samsung TV Plus Originals: Free Shows Beyond the Reruns

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    Samsung TV Plus Originals: Free Shows Beyond the Reruns

    Unlikely Romances and Keanu Reeves’s Hooligans show Samsung TV Plus using its free channels for actual first-run premieres. Tune in & read →

    the television manufacturer would also like to be a television network. normally that sentence would make me brace for a home screen full of sponsored rectangles. Samsung TV Plus has a more interesting example: original shows premiering on scheduled free channels.

    that is a real use for the guide already living inside the television. it gives the free service something of its own to put on, rather than requiring every row to consist of shows that finished their first lives elsewhere.

    Unlikely Romances puts scripted originals on a free channel

    Unlikely Romances is an anthology from Dhar Mann Studios about unexpected relationships. Samsung’s launch announcement set its first four-part run for June 5–26, 2026, with weekly Friday premieres at 9 p.m. ET.

    Promotional cast photograph for Unlikely Romances
    Promotional image: Samsung TV Plus; used for commentary.

    the announcement named Samsung Television Network, or STN, in the U.S., plus Dhar Mann TV in participating countries. that is a particularly clear answer to the original question behind this series: yes, a FAST channel can have a new scripted show in a designated time slot.

    Official Unlikely Romances trailer, linked from Samsung’s launch announcement. Video: Samsung TV Plus.

    Dhar Mann’s style of uplifting storytelling will not be everybody’s preferred flavor of drama. the interesting development is the distribution model. a creator-associated channel can commission something for the television screen and give viewers a weekly appointment without putting a subscription in front of it.

    Hooligans brings Keanu Reeves to the schedule

    Hooligans: The ARCH Racing Project follows Keanu Reeves and Gard Hollinger’s motorcycle company as it moves into professional racing. Samsung announced six Sunday premieres on STN, beginning July 12, 2026, at 9 p.m. ET and running through August 16.

    Samsung renewed the show for a second season on August 13, before the first season finished. that announcement did not set a season-two premiere date.

    Keanu Reeves, Gard Hollinger, and a motorcycle racer in Hooligans promotional artwork
    Promotional image: Samsung TV Plus; used for commentary.

    it is the documentary counterpart to the scripted experiment: a recognizable star, an actual series, and a broadcast pattern you could explain to somebody who stopped following streaming terminology in 2014.

    a famous person having a specialized, expensive interest is hardly new television. making that television available on a free scheduled channel is the part worth noticing here.

    what you need to watch Samsung TV Plus

    Samsung’s announcement lists compatible Samsung TVs, Galaxy devices, Smart Monitors, and Family Hubs. use the official Samsung TV Plus site to check your device and region, then search the channel guide for STN or Dhar Mann TV and the show title.

    the premiere dates above document the original release. they are not claims that those time slots still carry new episodes in October. current replay and on-demand availability are separate questions to check in the service.

    the device restriction matters. free admission is useful only if you have a way through the door. this is a particularly convenient option for people who already have supported hardware; the existence of a free show is not a reason to buy a television.

    a free channel can have a reason to exist

    the encouraging thing is the return of a recognizable programming decision. here is our show. here is when it starts. here is the channel. you may watch it without joining another billing relationship.

    originals do not automatically make a network good. neither does adding a celebrity to a motorcycle. but they give viewers something more specific to discover than a guide full of familiar reruns.

    I would like the television to spend more of its time offering television and less of its time presenting acquisition opportunities. a free original is at least moving in the right direction.

    previously in this series

    This is part 5 of Stuff You Can Watch Free. The series covers original shows on free networks and channels that recreate cable’s put-it-on-and-leave-it-on experience.

  • Tubi Originals to Watch Free: Slay, Lowlifes, and The Z-Suite

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    Tubi Originals to Watch Free: Slay, Lowlifes, and The Z-Suite

    Drag queens versus vampires, a road-trip horror movie, and Lauren Graham in an ad agency: three Tubi Originals to start with, plus… Tune in & read →

    Tubi has reached the point where “it is on Tubi” is not an explanation of what kind of movie you are dealing with. it might be a familiar studio film. it might be something extremely specific. it might be an original about drag queens fighting vampires, which is at least an honest use of everybody’s time.

    for this series, the useful part is that Tubi makes and acquires original programming for a free service. you can choose those titles on demand, and there is also a documented linear home for Tubi Originals. those are related viewing routes, not a promise that every title is appearing in tonight’s channel schedule.

    Slay: drag queens versus vampires

    Slay is a 2024 horror comedy directed by Jem Garrard. a booking mix-up sends four drag queens to a biker bar, where a vampire problem creates rather more urgency than an unreceptive audience. the cast includes Trinity the Tuck, Heidi N Closet, Crystal Methyd, and Cara Melle.

    Official promotional artwork for the drag queen vampire horror comedy Slay
    Promotional image: Tubi; used for commentary.

    this is the sort of premise that understands a horror comedy needs an actual idea. drag performers already work with transformation, theatricality, and a room that may need winning over. adding vampires is an escalation the poster can explain without a three-minute lore briefing.

    Facet projects a Buffy Summers-inspired persona, holds a wooden stake confidently, and says “I MAY BE DEAD, BUT I’M STILL PRETTY.” Reaction: defiant comeback.

    if you are building an October watchlist and would prefer camp with your creatures, this is the clearest starting point here. the movie is rated TV-MA; free streaming is not the same thing as family programming.

    Lowlifes: take the road-trip setup and stop reading

    Lowlifes follows a traveling family forced to spend the night at a remote homestead. Tubi lists the 2024 film as a horror thriller directed by Tesh Guttikonda and Mitch Oliver, with Amanda Fix, Matthew MacCaull, and Elyse Levesque among the cast.

    that is enough setup for a discovery guide. some horror premises benefit from being encountered without a helpful stranger unloading the entire plot into your lap. I am willing to let the family arrive at the house before we begin a formal incident report.

    choose this one when you want a feature-length horror story rather than another series that expects six hours before it explains why the hallway is wrong.

    The Z-Suite: Lauren Graham returns to workplace comedy

    The Z-Suite shifts the mood to an advertising agency. Lauren Graham plays an executive whose established team is displaced by younger employees. Tubi commissioned the original comedy, which also features Nico Santos and Madison Shamoun.

    Official promotional artwork for Tubi's workplace comedy The Z-Suite
    Promotional image: Tubi; used for commentary.

    the setup is generation conflict at work, a situation television can understand without first explaining how an alien monarchy functions. it is the option here for somebody who wants a sitcom instead of bloodshed, although an advertising meeting can presumably generate its own injuries.

    where Tubi’s linear channel fits

    Tubi’s current U.S. live-channel list includes a Tubi Originals feed. that establishes the linear connection. availability can vary by location and change over time, so use the current Live TV guide to see which feeds and programs your device offers now.

    for the three titles above, the direct on-demand links are the simplest viewing route. the live feed has its own rotating schedule, so opening Tubi Originals is not the same as pressing play on a particular movie. check the guide if you prefer to let the channel choose.

    all three have free Tubi viewing pages for U.S. audiences. some originals may also have paid purchase or international licensing options. the appeal is that watching them here does not require another subscription.

    a streaming service being free does not prevent it from having a personality. in Tubi’s case, that personality is broad enough to accommodate an office dispute and a drag queen vampire emergency. television has survived on less.

    previously in this series

    This is part 4 of Stuff You Can Watch Free. The series covers original shows on free networks and channels that recreate cable’s put-it-on-and-leave-it-on experience.

  • the new press secretary cured my imposter syndrome

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    the new press secretary cured my imposter syndrome

    watching someone walk up to the most famous lectern on earth and treat it like an unprepared oral report is a profound… Tune in & read →

    I spent years believing that imposter syndrome was a sophisticated personal affliction. You treat it like a delicate psychological tax on ambition: you read books about quiet confidence, you practice pausing before answering questions in meetings, and you spend twenty minutes drafting a three-sentence email because you are convinced that using the wrong preposition will reveal to the entire department that you have been faking your career since 2018.

    Imposter syndrome relies entirely on a foundational assumption of general competence. For you to feel like a fraud, you have to believe that the room is full of people who are not frauds. You have to picture the other participants as people who received the secret memo, mastered the enterprise software without consulting YouTube tutorials, and earned their chairs through rigorous intellectual superiority.

    Then, yesterday, the new White House press secretary walked up to the podium for her debut briefing.

    I think the new press secretary cured my imposter syndrome?

    — schweg, 🦇 (@schwegler.lol) 2026-10-14T01:43:42.315Z

    It was not merely a rough day at work. It was an interpretive dance of institutional malfunction. Dubbed the “Zachbot” across social media within roughly eighteen minutes of taking the lectern, Katie Zacharia stood before the White House press corps with a massive three-ring binder, visibly short-circuited on basic procedural questions, and radiated the specific, unmistakable panic of an eighth-grader giving an oral book report on a novel they only read the jacket copy for during homeroom.

    Watching it in real time was deeply, spiritually restorative.

    the competence myth requires someone to have done the reading

    There is a moment in every high-stress job where you freeze. Your pulse spikes, your throat gets dry, and your brain offers up the helpful suggestion that you should perhaps fake your own death and move to an unincorporated township in Idaho. That fear is driven by the belief that high-stakes environments demand flawless, encyclopedic mastery.

    The White House press briefing is supposed to be the apex predator of high-stakes environments. It is a small theater in the West Wing designed entirely to project imperial authority. You have the blue backdrop, the Great Seal, forty hardened political reporters whose mortgage payments depend on catching you in a contradiction, and a bank of cameras beaming your pores to foreign embassies in twenty-four time zones.

    A battery of microphones clustered together at a press conference table
    A battery of microphones arranged for someone who theoretically has an answer. Photo: Unsplash.

    If competence were the baseline barrier to entry for holding that microphone, no human being would ever take the job without six advanced degrees, a photographic memory, and a nervous system made of tempered steel.

    Instead, we watched a woman who is theoretically the voice of the executive branch of a nuclear superpower flip through a binder like someone frantically looking for a dry cleaner receipt at the bottom of a tote bag. She dodged softballs, stared blankly at straightforward follow-ups, and treated the entire briefing like a hostage negotiation between her notes and her vocal cords.

    It was glorious. It was the single most liberating piece of workplace therapy available without a co-pay.

    authority is mostly just not leaving the room

    The dirty secret of institutional authority is that confidence is almost never downstream of competence. It is downstream of access.

    The people who run things—the people who sign off on company-wide reorgs, approve enterprise software migrations that ruin everybody’s Thursday, and represent national governments on cable news—are rarely the people who stayed up until 2 a.m. making sure the spreadsheet was formatted correctly. They are simply the people who did not flinch when someone handed them a lanyard.

    Half of growing up is realizing that the “adults in the room” do not exist. There is no shadowy council of experts reviewing your work against a grand master rubric. There are only people who walked through a door, realized nobody was checking badges with any real enthusiasm, and decided to keep standing near the water cooler.

    Journalists gathered in the White House press briefing room facing the lectern
    Reporters in the James S. Brady Press Briefing Room waiting for the official version of reality. Photo: Kellerbn / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.5).

    When you struggle with imposter syndrome, you constantly audit yourself against an impossible standard that nobody in power is actually meeting. You worry that you don’t know enough about the budget forecast to speak during the Q3 planning call, while the person chairing the meeting is currently trying to remember whether Q3 comes before or after July.

    go ahead and send the email

    I am not suggesting that preparation is useless or that doing your job well is a sucker’s game. Excellence is great. Knowing what you’re talking about is a polite courtesy to everyone who has to listen to you.

    I am suggesting that you lower the emotional stakes of your daily existence.

    If someone can walk into the James S. Brady Press Briefing Room, face fifty hostile journalists, stumble through fifteen minutes of pre-scripted evasion without reading the room, and still collect a federal paycheck on Friday, you are entirely qualified to unmute yourself on Zoom. You can pitch the project. You can apply for the job even if you only meet six of the eight arbitrary bullet points on the listing. You can send the email without asking three trusted friends to proofread the greeting.

    The bar is not hovering in the upper stratosphere. The bar is lying flat on the linoleum, and somebody just tripped over it on live television.

    Pick up your binder. You’re going to do fine.

    Featured image: The James S. Brady Press Briefing Room. Photo: White House / Wikimedia Commons.

  • Watch Revry Free: Drag Competitions, Queer Comedy, and More

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    Watch Revry Free: Drag Competitions, Queer Comedy, and More

    Revry’s free network offers Unconventional, King of Drag, Drag Latina, and ballroom programming—with live channels as well as on-demand viewing. Tune in & read →

    queer television does not have to be one rainbow row near the bottom of somebody else’s app. Revry is a network built around it. scripted comedy, drag competition, ballroom, films, and music can occupy the same programming identity without a corporate interface asking whether we meant “LGBTQ+ interest.”

    the official Revry viewing page offers both a live route and on-demand viewing. that combination is the point: pick the thing you want, or let a queer network make the next choice. here are the shows and formats I would use to start exploring it.

    Unconventional: queer adults get a sitcom

    Unconventional is Kit Williamson’s nine-episode comedy about Noah Guillory, whose marriage, possible parenthood, academic life, and sperm-donor arrangement overlap in increasingly complicated ways. Revry identifies it as its first full-length original scripted series and lists free viewing through its distribution partners.

    Official Unconventional trailer. Video: Revry.

    the premise appeals to me because gay adulthood has more available subjects than coming out and being killed to develop somebody else’s character. marriage can be weird. families can be structurally complicated. academia can make any situation worse by adding a committee.

    a network that starts with queer viewers has room to assume those lives are the story. it does not have to spend the opening act requesting permission to include them.

    King of Drag: a different part of drag gets the stage

    King of Drag puts drag kings at the center of a reality competition. Revry’s season-two announcement names Cameron Esposito as host, with Gottmik, Vico Ortiz, and Damian Pelliccione as regular judges. the eight-episode season began September 20, 2026, at 9 p.m. ET.

    for Drag Race viewers, the appeal is not simply another competition to monitor. it is the chance to see performers and approaches to drag that have had far less television space. a genre gets healthier when its definition of who belongs on the stage gets wider.

    Hitch gives a slow clap with a knowing smile and raised eyebrow. Reaction: approval.

    Drag Latina and ballroom broaden the menu

    Drag Latina brings a bilingual, Latine focus to drag competition. Revry’s season-two page features Carmen Carrera and Fedro as hosts. it is another reminder that drag television has more possible centers of gravity than one American franchise.

    Drag Latina season two logo in bright pink and gold
    Promotional image: Revry; used for commentary.

    Revry also has Halloween Ball programming from ballroom culture. the available event is a useful seasonal starting point, but it is an existing broadcast, not an announcement of a new 2026 event.

    A performer in a black and green costume at Revry's Halloween Ball
    Promotional image: Revry; used for commentary.

    drag competition and ballroom are different performance traditions. I appreciate a channel where they can both exist without being squeezed into one miscellaneous category labeled “fabulous.”

    how to watch Revry without paying

    start with Revry’s viewing guide or the originals directory, and choose a free live or title-specific route available on your device. Revry also advertises a subscription with additional viewing options, so a paid button somewhere in the ecosystem does not mean the live network requires payment.

    check your live guide when you want a particular premiere. timing can vary among partner apps; choose an on-demand option when you want a specific episode after it has aired.

    the bigger appeal is having a channel whose default audience includes us. sometimes that is enough reason to see what is on next.

    previously in this series

    This is part 3 of Stuff You Can Watch Free. The series covers original shows on free networks and channels that recreate cable’s put-it-on-and-leave-it-on experience.

  • Tastemade Free Streaming: Cooking Shows Beyond the Reruns

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    Tastemade Free Streaming: Cooking Shows Beyond the Reruns

    Kitchen Glow Up, Worth the Hype, and Forking Delicious show why Tastemade’s free channels deserve more than background-rerun status. Tune in & read →

    a free food channel could easily spend the rest of eternity showing somebody chop an onion in an episode from 2009. Tastemade has decided it can also make new television. this is an encouraging development for both television and the onion.

    Tastemade’s free streaming channels carry food, travel, and home programming. they are also homes for original shows, with scheduled premieres rather than just an endless supply of rescued reruns. here are three starting points for figuring out whether that particular variety of television belongs on your screen.

    Kitchen Glow Up: renovation through a cook’s eyes

    Kitchen Glow Up pairs Ellen Bennett’s cooking and design perspective with homeowners whose kitchens need to function better. its first two episodes premiered on Tastemade’s streaming channel on May 28, 2024. the current show page lists two seasons.

    Ellen Bennett smiling in a bright kitchen in promotional artwork for Kitchen Glow Up
    Promotional image: Tastemade; used for commentary.

    the premise is appealing because a kitchen has actual work to do. there is a difference between a room that photographs well and a room where you can drain pasta without performing a minor obstacle course. renovation television is much more interesting when that difference makes it into the brief.

    this is the first stop if you want home television with a specific point of view. a useful counter needs to survive contact with dinner, not merely an arrangement of lemons.

    Worth the Hype: let somebody else investigate lunch

    Worth the Hype sends Frankie Celenza around cities to explore restaurants, dishes, and the people making them. Tastemade’s show page now lists three seasons, with recent stops including Charleston, San Antonio, New Jersey, and San Francisco.

    Frankie Celenza holding a taco in promotional artwork for Worth the Hype
    Promotional image: Tastemade; used for commentary.

    food travel is an excellent television format because the stakes are comprehensible. somebody made a thing, somebody else would like to eat it, and we might learn something about a place in the process. no cinematic universe needs to be consulted.

    choose this one if your preferred background television occasionally becomes foreground television because a sandwich has appeared. I respect the sandwich’s ability to secure an audience without a season-long mystery.

    Facet projects a Liz Lemon-inspired persona, clasps their hands eagerly, and says “I WANT TO GO TO THERE.” Reaction: longing.

    Forking Delicious: food opinions become the show

    Forking Delicious turns an audience-ranked list of 100 dishes into a discussion among comedians and food personalities. Tastemade’s launch announcement names Margaret Cho, Dulcé Sloan, Eric Wareheim, and Nyesha Arrington among the participants. the first two episodes aired in a double premiere on February 25, 2025.

    this is food television for the part of the internet that can turn a completely ordinary lunch into a constitutional dispute. the comedy comes from giving people something concrete to disagree about. finally, a panel discussion where the subject might improve my afternoon.

    how to watch Tastemade free

    use Tastemade’s where-to-watch page to find a free channel on your platform, then check that channel’s guide for the show. the network also sells ad-free, on-demand access. its subscription help page explains those paid options; they are not required to watch the free linear feed.

    the practical distinction is selection versus price. the free schedule chooses what is on now. a paid on-demand option may make selecting a particular episode easier. you can decide whether that convenience is worth anything to you.

    I like that Tastemade has a recognizable purpose. food, places, and homes are broad enough to provide variety, but related enough that leaving the channel on does not feel like a programming accident.

    previously in this series

    This is part 2 of Stuff You Can Watch Free. The series covers original shows on free networks and channels that recreate cable’s put-it-on-and-leave-it-on experience.

  • Free Streaming Originals: What to Watch Without a Subscription

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    Free Streaming Originals: What to Watch Without a Subscription

    free television has actual original shows, not just reruns. a guide to Tastemade, Revry, Tubi, and Samsung TV Plus—and the channels where… Tune in & read →

    somewhere along the way, watching television became maintaining a small portfolio of recurring payments. you subscribe for one show, forget which service has the second show, and discover the third show belongs to a company that has changed its name since lunch.

    meanwhile, free streaming networks are making their own television. cooking shows. queer sitcoms. drag competitions. horror movies. actual originals you can start watching without deciding whether this is the month you reactivate another account.

    this is Stuff You Can Watch Free, a series about that corner of television. the focus is original programming from free networks with a linear channel involved, whether you watch on that channel or choose an episode on demand. the final installment will look at free cable replacements for those evenings when choosing an individual episode is already too much work.

    free streaming originals are more than a rerun library

    a FAST channel is a scheduled, free, ad-supported television feed. the schedule keeps moving whether you are there or not. on-demand viewing lets you pick a particular episode or movie. a network can offer both, which seems like a reasonable arrangement television should have been allowed to keep.

    Tastemade makes cooking, travel, and renovation programming for its streaming channels. Revry puts queer stories at the center of its original lineup. these are networks with an identity, rather than a miscellaneous shelf somebody found while clearing a licensing warehouse.

    Frankie Celenza holding a taco in promotional artwork for Worth the Hype
    Promotional image: Tastemade; used for commentary.

    that matters because a channel can be a destination. you might arrive for one show and encounter another without conducting a second search. it is a modest service, but streaming has managed to make modest services feel revolutionary.

    four places to start watching

    Tastemade: start with Kitchen Glow Up for renovation or Worth the Hype for food travel. its free streaming channels coexist with paid, ad-free on-demand options.

    Revry: start with Unconventional for scripted queer comedy, or look for its drag and ballroom programming. the official viewing guide points to its live and on-demand routes.

    The cast of Unconventional gathered in a colorful room
    Promotional image: Revry; used for commentary.

    Tubi: its originals include the drag-vampire comedy Slay and workplace sitcom The Z-Suite. Tubi has documented a Tubi Originals linear channel, alongside its much larger on-demand catalog. that does not mean every original is airing in the live guide tonight.

    Samsung TV Plus: Unlikely Romances and Hooligans: The ARCH Racing Project had scheduled original premieres on Samsung’s channels. access depends on a supported device.

    what “free” means here

    free means a legitimate viewing option without a paid subscription. ads may be involved. a paid version may exist. availability and schedules vary by country and device; this series is written for U.S. viewers. it is not a promise that a show can never be purchased somewhere else.

    I do not want to replace a streaming bill with a spreadsheet of fine print. the useful question is simply: can I watch this, legally, without adding another monthly charge?

    I have already written about YouTube becoming an extremely strange television service. this is the neighboring development: television networks growing inside the free part of streaming, with shows of their own and something resembling a schedule.

    apparently we can still have television. somebody just needs to tell the subscription management screen.

    Telly, a TV-headed character, airborne celebration, raised fists, with “EVERYTHING’S COMING UP MILHOUSE!” on his screen. Reaction: small victory.

    follow this series

    This is part 1 of Stuff You Can Watch Free. The series covers original shows on free networks and channels that recreate cable’s put-it-on-and-leave-it-on experience.

  • the cowboy lost his hat. we do not need to make this complicated.

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    the cowboy lost his hat. we do not need to make this complicated.

    what did the cowboy say when he lost his hat? where’s my hat. a complete story with no unnecessary stakeholders. Tune in & read →

    “what did the cowboy say when he lost his hat?”

    pause. southern drawl. “where’s my hat?”

    I contributed this to a Bluesky discussion about favorite bad jokes, and I stand by it. there is a cowboy. he has experienced a problem. he communicates the problem clearly. the audience may now return to its life.

    “What did the cowboy say when he lost his hat?” … **southern drawl** “where’s my hat?”

    — schweg, 🦇 (@schwegler.lol) 2026-10-04T16:45:47.944Z

    the joke is that you were expecting a joke. you heard cowboy, then hat, and your brain began preparing a small committee to evaluate possible puns. something about a ten-gallon hat. something about being a little horse. perhaps a sheriff would arrive with a jurisdictional concern. instead, the man wants his hat.

    the setup has filed for an exemption

    I love a joke that makes the machinery visible. a normal setup teaches you how to listen: keep these details available, expect a turn, reward the clever connection. an anti-joke lets the expectation build and then declines to deliver the package. it is funny because you can feel yourself waiting for something that has already ended.

    A black microphone waiting on its stand
    A microphone is available if the cowboy has further questions. Photo: Zack Xavier / Unsplash.

    the southern drawl is important to my preferred version. not because an accent makes a person stupid, but because it supplies theatrical commitment to an answer with absolutely no theatrical ambition. you can stretch the pause, lower the voice, and create the sense that a very old frontier wisdom is about to be revealed. the wisdom is that an object is missing.

    this is also why explaining the joke makes it worse and, somehow, a little better. I have now devoted several paragraphs to a man noticing a hat problem. the disproportion has become another part of the joke. the cowboy has moved on. I am still at the podium.

    Hitch leans on a broom and checks his wristwatch impatiently Reaction: waiting.

    some jokes would like you to do less

    a lot of online humor asks for increasingly specialized equipment. know the meme. recognize the screenshot. remember which celebrity said the thing, which other celebrity answered, and which apology made it worse. I enjoy that too. I am not going to pretend I have never understood an image that would require a museum wall label for anyone outside my particular feed.

    but there is a pleasure in a joke whose entire archive is the sentence you just heard. no homework. no cast list. no declaration that understanding this makes you the right sort of person. the cowboy has not been canceled, redeemed, or recontextualized. he simply needs to locate his hat.

    Rows of empty theater seats face a stage across a central aisle
    An audience assembled at considerable expense could have received this information by text. Photo: ARTO SURAJ / Unsplash.

    the bad joke also gives everybody an easy role. the teller commits to it. someone groans. someone says that is terrible while smiling. nobody has to reveal anything painful or win an argument. for a moment, the whole social exchange is a tiny agreed-upon waste of time.

    I have written about the group chat as a municipal service. these jokes are part of the maintenance budget. not every message needs to carry news or ask for support. sometimes you just need to establish that everyone is still in the room and capable of being mildly irritated together.

    the hat is still missing

    I do not think every joke should be this dumb. the world contains satire, elaborate wordplay, and people who can tell a story for ten minutes before making the first sentence funny retroactively. good for them. I would like all of those things to continue.

    I also want room for a cowboy whose emotional journey begins and ends with inventory.

    where’s my hat?

    excellent question. somebody help this man.

    Featured image: Photo: KyneWynn Kind / Unsplash. https://unsplash.com/photos/brown-cowboy-hat-FbPUnMP_158

  • the universe got bigger because someone checked the paperwork

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    the universe got bigger because someone checked the paperwork

    Hubble’s VAR! plate is a wonderful discovery story. it is also a reminder that the person with the telescope is not the… Tune in & read →

    one of the history posts I re-skeeted this week was a glass photographic plate with an excited “VAR!” written on it. astronomical evidence, but also the energy of somebody discovering that a spreadsheet cell has been wrong for years.

    VAR!In the early morning hours #OTD in 1923, Edwin Hubble took a photo plate of M31 that showed a Cepheid variable star.Using Henrietta Swan Leavitt’s distance-luminosity relationship, Hubble concluded that M31 is another galaxy outside the Milky Way. 🧪 🔭 ⚛️Image: Carnegie Observatories

    — Robert "The Bobby Yaga" McNees (@mcnees.bsky.social) 2025-10-06T14:58:51.668Z

    the plate came from Edwin Hubble’s observations of Andromeda at Mount Wilson in October 1923. the important object was a Cepheid variable star: a star whose brightness changes in a way that can help measure distance. the resulting work established that Andromeda lay beyond our Milky Way. the universe had considerably more real estate than the neighborhood map suggested.

    Carnegie Science preserves the plate and its history. the annotation is irresistible. a neat heroic discovery story can fit in three letters and an exclamation point. man looks through telescope. man notices star. cosmos expands. roll credits.

    the credits should be longer

    except the measurement depended on work Henrietta Swan Leavitt had already done. she established the relationship between the periods of Cepheid variables and their luminosities. that supplied the basis for using them as distance markers. Carnegie’s account explicitly credits that contribution.

    Edwin Hubble and James Jeans beside the 100-inch telescope at Mount Wilson
    The visible machinery: Hubble and James Jeans at Mount Wilson’s 100-inch telescope. Photo: Carnegie Science archives.

    I like the discovery better with that part left in. not because Hubble needs to be demoted or because every achievement is secretly a theft. the actual story is more interesting than the one-man version. one person establishes a relationship. another applies it to an observation made possible by a huge instrument, a collection of records, and people who keep the whole operation functioning.

    the telescope is an impressive object. the method is less photogenic. you can pose next to the telescope. you cannot pose next to a relationship between a star’s pulsation period and its intrinsic brightness without somebody arranging a deeply unfortunate PowerPoint.

    that imbalance follows us around. public credit gravitates toward the moment with a face, a date, and a dramatic verb. the enabling work is easier to reduce to background. a discovery becomes something that happened to a great man instead of something he could do because other people had made it possible.

    maintenance does not arrive with an exclamation point

    I spend my working life around databases. this probably explains why an old plate with an annotation activates the same part of my brain as an unusually informative audit record. it is a physical trace of someone noticing that the previous description no longer fits the evidence. keep the record. change the interpretation. do not pretend you always knew.

    Hitch concentrates while writing on a clipboard with a pencil. Reaction: taking notes.
    Edwin Hubble examining an astronomical glass photographic plate
    Hubble examining a glass plate: the revelation also involved looking carefully at records. Photo: Carnegie Science archives.

    most useful work has a much less cinematic version of that structure. somebody kept the data. somebody made it comparable. somebody established what a value meant before somebody else used it to announce an insight. the final presentation may contain one name and a very nice chart. that does not mean the chart generated its own evidence.

    this is not an argument against celebrating discoveries. please celebrate discoveries. I would much rather have the internet get excited about an astronomical plate than another executive describing a chatbot as a new species of colleague.

    it is an argument for noticing what the celebration leaves outside the frame. precision takes work. records take care. a method can outlive the person who developed it and become the quiet foundation for something enormous. that is an achievement even when nobody puts an exclamation point beside your name.

    keep the wonder. improve the attribution.

    the comforting part of this story is not that one extraordinary person had the right idea. it is that knowledge can accumulate across people and time. the first contribution does not have to finish the entire project to matter. the next person can do something with it that the first person never had the chance to see.

    I want the glass plate, the telescope, the excited annotation, and the woman whose work made the measurement possible in the same story.

    the universe got bigger. our account of how that happened can manage to get a little bigger too.

    Featured image: VAR! plate: Carnegie Science / Carnegie Observatories. https://carnegiescience.edu/about/history/archives/plate-archives/m31var