Reading the Static: A Field Guide to Signals

Turn an old television to a dead channel and watch. Most of what you see is cosmic background radiation — the universe's baby photos, physicists say. The rest? Opinions differ. Mine are stronger than most.

The vortex sorts static into signals the way you'd sort a junk drawer: expired coupons for futures that never happened, love letters between radio towers, weather reports for Tuesday-adjacent days. My job is finding the one addressed to you.

And yes — sometimes there is a ram in the static. Ninety-four seconds at a time, warm as a struck match. The regulars ask about it constantly. All I will say in print is: every signal comes from somewhere, and some of them come from someone. Channel 94 knows more than I'm allowed to type.