Strip Search: “‘In this environment of fentanyl, it’s a whole different ballgame, compared to when I started going to parties 27 years ago,’ said a 43-year-old tech company manager from Brooklyn. She said she methodically tests her stash before going out, using strips she bought from DanceSafe, a nonprofit group.” The deadly fentanyl scourge has become so risky that cocaine users are using fentanyl test strips before they sniff. NYT: Fentanyl Test Strips Are ‘Catching On’ Among Cocaine Users. And, Marijuana use is outpacing cigarette use for the first time on record. (I can’t take all the credit for that…)

+ Alito the Line: “Some baby boomers were permanently shaped by their participation in the countercultural protests and the antiwar activism of the nineteen-sixties and seventies. Others were shaped by their aversion to those movements. Justice Samuel Alito belongs to the latter category. For many years, he lacked the power to do much about that profound distaste, and in any case he had a reputation for keeping his head down.” Well, his head is up now. The New Yorker: Justice Alito’s Crusade Against a Secular America Isn’t Over.

+ And the Norse You Rode in On: Archeological melts are the new archeological digs. The latest find: Prehistoric Viking weapons in Norway.

+ Gator Aid: “When he turns his nose toward you, that means he expects a kiss.” His emotional support animal is an alligator. They sleep in the same bed. (The good news about having an alligator as an emotional support animal is no one tells you you’re not allowed to go somewhere with your emotional support animal.)