POTD: Taller Talavera de la Reyna

From 2025 06 01 Puebla

Today's photo-of-the-day was taken in Puebla, Mexico, at Taller Talavera de la Reyna. It shows ceramic plates arrayed on the ground, some broken. I can't explain it (the plates). I can explain Talavera de la Reyna. "Angélica Moreno founded the Talavera de la Reyna workshop in 1990, with the objective of preserving, rescuing, innovating and valuing one of the most important artisanal processes in Mexico." Today, you can watch artisans at work and purchase their products. It's worth a visit.

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"Not trash, not display,
just ceramics marking time
through chips and edges."
— h/t ChatGPT

Book Review: Catherine the Great: Portrait of a Woman

From Catherine the Great: Portrait of a Woman, by Robert K. Massie:

Amazon

"Traveling toward an unknown country, propelled by an empress’s sentimentality, a mother’s ambition, and the intrigues of the king of Prussia, an adolescent girl was launched on a great adventure. And once the sadness of parting with her father had passed, Sophia was filled with excitement. She had no fear of the long journey or the complications of marrying a boy whom she had met only briefly four years before. If her future husband was considered ignorant and willful, if his health was delicate, if he was miserable in Russia, none of this mattered to Sophia. Peter Ulrich was not the reason she was traveling to Russia. The reason was Russia itself and proximity to the throne of Peter the Great."

Harry Up, We Have a Deadline to Meet

The big news February 9, 2026, was that the Richardson City Council ordered a $223.4M bond election for May 2, 2026. So let's talk about something else instead.

Also on February 9, 2026, the council ordered a Charter Amendment election. There was some urgency involved. Ready or not, this week's council meeting was the last chance for the council to call an election for May, either for a bond package or for charter amendments.

Agatha Christie's Seven Dials (TV 2026)

Rotten Tomatoes

Agatha Christie's Seven Dials (TV 2026): Fast-moving (only 3 episodes) whodunnit set in a 1925 English country house. Like the original, the hero is a smart young woman who is the equal of the superintendent detective investigating the murder. Not bad for a story from 1929. C+

Netflix

The Coming Squeeze on City Budgets

Community Impact.

Community Impact has a straightforward report on the coming challenges for Richardson's finances. The bottom line: "Richardson could see a budget shortfall in the next few years due to the statewide cap on property tax increases."