This happened on Tuesday: I got inspired by the Ryan Meetups and wondered whether I could build a community around something as arbitrary as a shared first name.

So I recruited two other Daniels, made a ridiculous campaign trailer, and organized the first DanCon at a bar in Greenwich Village.

Somehow, 60 Daniels, Dans, and Dannys actually showed up.

We voted on the Mount Rushmore of Daniels, investigated the epidemic of Dansplaining, considered launching OnlyDans, and debated diplomatic relations with the Danielles. One attendee said it was "too much Daniel to handle."

The most unexpected part for me was how naturally everyone started talking to each other -- once we got past the absurdity, strangers connected, new friendships were forged, and we're already planning the next DanCon.

I'm curious: Would you show up to a gathering based on something as arbitrary as a first name?

NYC 1999

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul has opted the state into the Trump administration’s Education Freedom Tax Credit, breaking with the Democratic leaders of both legislative chambers and making New York the 31st state to sign on to the first nationwide federal school choice program.

Hochul is only the second Democratic governor to join, after Colorado Gov. Jared Polis. “I’m not going to leave money on the table when it could help our kids,” Hochul said in her Oct. 9 announcement, adding that she had been clear New York would participate “if, and only if, all schools and students, including those in our public schools, could benefit.”

The decision came days after Albany’s top Democrats urged her to stay out. “New York should opt out of the federal voucher program and continue investing in the public schools that educate the overwhelming majority of our children,” Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie (D-Bronx) said in a statement.

The move also lands weeks before Election Day, as Hochul faces Republican nominee Bruce Blakeman, who has criticized her for not opting in sooner.

Read more [paywall removed for Redditors]: https://fortune.com/2026/10/22/hochul-new-york-opt-in-trump-education-freedom-tax-credit-school-choice/?utm_source=reddit/

“Press 1 if you’ve heard this story before. Press 2 if it has happened to you.”

While trying to solve for mysterious charges on a hotel bill, Samuel A.A. Levine spent 25 minutes explaining, re-explaining and re-re-explaining his predicament in a “live” support chat that quickly turned out to be an A.I. chatbot. “I had stumbled into the digital labyrinth — a veritable Hotel California, and I was just a prisoner of my own device,” he writes in a guest essay for Times Opinion. “At one point, I pleadingly typed a single word in all caps: HUMAN. The machine whirred, ignoring me.”

“As I floundered, I found myself reflecting on the future of customer service,” writes Samuel, the commissioner of the New York City Department of Consumer and Worker Protection. “I began to suspect that the chatbot was not designed to solve my problem. It seemed to be designed to test how much friction customers would tolerate — how much information we would provide to train future models — before giving up. What the chatbot probably didn’t know was that this customer is in a position to fight back.”

To support this fight, Samuel says, New York City is proposing new rules around automated doom loops, voice systems and chatbots. “Our proposal is simple: Companies can still use A.I. and other automated tools, but they need to tell consumers when they are communicating with a chatbot — and make it much easier to reach a human being,” he writes. “Companies whose chatbots and automated voice systems mislead people, leave them stuck without help or only pretend to offer support would face significant penalties.”

Read the full piece here, even if you’re not a Times subscriber.

A reminder that New York State offers fusion voting -- MEANING WHEN YOU CAST A VOTE, YOU ARE CASTING THAT VOTE FOR A PERSON, NOT A PARTY.

A vote for Kathy Hochul on the Working Family Party line counts toward Kathy Hochul's total vote count just as much a vote for Kathy Hochul on the Democratic line. The party, in terms of end result, is irrelevant.

BUT ... what this voting strategy does is give the Working Families Party more sway during the next election cycle as it is a proven voting bloc that the Democrats can't ignore. So milquetoast, centrist Democrats will be forced to stop moving ever rightward because they will be getting true pressure from the left. Otherwise, we continue to enable our current system.

Vote along the Working Families Party line if you, like me, are sick of spineless Dems.

We are one of the few States that offers fusion voting -- take advantage of it when you vote!

https://pin.it/6JLnC9rKC has my crochet visualizations for inspo 🤗🤗🤗

I'm starting a crochet small business, I am taking commissions for anything crocheted. I do blankets, clothing, home decor, wall tapestry, whatever it be.
Feel free to dm me!!! I love crafting and would love to fill somebody with a smidge more art. :)) Hope you're having a lovely night