Happy 20th!

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Twenty years ago, a few of us wandered off the digital trail and decided to build something quieter, slower, and a little more thoughtful.

We didn’t know what we were doing—so naturally, it worked.

Since 2005, Trail Mix has been a campfire for the curious. We’ve argued, laughed, cooked, cried, herded metaphorical (and actual) cats, and weathered a few storms—online and off.

What we didn’t do is sell ads, chase clicks, or let trolls in the door. That’s no small feat. That’s damn near a miracle.

So here’s to twenty years of unlikely community. Of deep threads and deeper friendships. Of homemade recipes, political philosophy, gardening tips, and occasional gossip about soup.

We’re still here. Still weird. Still mixing.

Happy 20th, Trail Mix.

And thank you, each of you, for being the reason we’re not just another forgotten forum in the attic of the internet.

Now somebody pass the potato salad and start a new thread about it.

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76 thoughts on “Happy 20th!”


  2. Song From The Movie The Unsinkable Molly Brown, Debbie Reynolds Singing ” Belly Up to the Bar, Boys”

  3. Craig, thanks for opening the doors, welcoming us in and keeping the joint jumpin’ and jivin’ all these years.

  4. what with DODO rampaging thru out the land threatening this and that, we may be singing this instead at our next anniversary. alas, it’s only a matter of time.

  5. back to business in bizarro world

    After he was booted from the White House, Elon Musk called President Trump’s budget bill a “disgusting abomination,” Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene admitted she didn’t read the bill before voting for it, and the Trump administration is marking Pride month by curtailing federal protections for LGBTQ+ folks and removing gay icon Harvey Milk’s name from a Navy ship.

  6. It just occurred to me that I was twenty years younger – and 12 years from Medicare eligibility when I started hanging out in this joint. Lotta smart folks have passed through here, and more than a few have passed on, and I’ve missed them. On the whole I’ve enjoyed the interaction and all you folks who are still hanging in. Have to say thanks to Craig for opening the door.

  8. Attached is first post I could find from 2005. We started out as Crawfordslist in those days.
    A thumbnail sketch of some basics to trigger your memories for sharing.
    📚 From CrawfordsList to Trail Mix: A 20-Year Snack Break
    2005 – Blogger Days (crawfordslist.blogspot.com)
    Mid-2000s – Hosted by Congressional Quarterly, then craigcrawford.com
    Political blogging surge era
    TV commentary crossover moments
    Commenter Takeover Era (late 2000s–2010s)
    When the community started running the place
    Legendary comment threads, early recipe wars
    Ad-Free Underground Phase
    Deliberate retreat from search indexing and ad culture
    Community deepens, trolls vanish
    Today – New Logo, New Fire Visual rebranding
    Launch of Trail Mix Live on YouTube
    Cooking crossover + Lazy Man Cooks

  9. During the years of our association with Congressional Quarterly (CQ.com) we were frequently re-posted by the New York Times, had to wear shoes and avoid bath robes.

  11. Happy Anniversary!
    OMG… that’s me weaving on my loom 15 years ago.
    Thanks for everything Craig!

  13. OMG, so many names on that video. I guess this was post Chef Shiela and the woman who had something to do with Piping Plovers, and between Nash and Nash 2.0.

    Here’s to IRL get-togethers and to virtual, group vacations as folks checked in during their travels. That pic of Craig popping out of Costa Rican ferns is one of my favorites.

    Happy Anniversary to all!

    Craig, Thank You for all of it!

  14. Happy 20th Anniversary to Trail Mixers past and present. Great run and more to come. We’ve kicked up some dust along the way!

  15. Some names and faces we remember and miss, not to be forgotten. Thank you, Craig, for keeping us going through all the twists and turns. We’re in a new era and Trail Mix is more important than ever.

  16. Ahh the memories come flooding back while watching that video. I wish I could say I don’t look a day older, but… At least I still have the cap.

    Sturge, for me that was a hip and knee replacement and 70% of Mrs. P & my marriage and LP’s life ago.

  18. This was a time after the AOL free-wheeling chat rooms, a time of websites and commenting.
    it was Imus having Craig announce his website which led me hither….so mucho thankos to both those guys, Craig and Imus.
    And to Colorado Bob , Robert Chapman, of Lubbock, Texas, who let me know I wasn’t in the wrong place. I blew a water pump in a 72 Chevy Capeice outside Lubbock once during a former life.

  19. I found this undated quote which obviously meant something to me because I saved it:

    BlueBronc: “Peace within is very important now.”

  20. A timeless quote that made me laugh was from Patsi to C-Bob, and I find it useful with certain of my real-life folks:

    Leave me out of your bullshit.

  21. 2025 motto, IMO, by C’Bob: Fasten your chin straps.

    Craig’s appearances on KO’s MSNBC show led me to the trail.

    Bill Clinton on The View, this morning.

  22. BlueBronc: “Peace within is very important now.”

    Corroboration Luke 17….20, 21

    20 And when he was demanded of the Pharisees, when the kingdom of God should come, he answered them and said, The kingdom of God cometh not with observation:

    21 Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you

  24. Craig quote from 12/10/16

    Come Home Trail Mixers: A few of our friends here appear to be staying away. We miss you. Yes, I dissed Hillary Clinton and her failed campaign. But that’s just me. Surely you know I’ve never meant this to be a home for views that reflect only my own. Anyone can contribute a post, or publish a comment from any point of view. All I ask is that I be allowed to do the same without assumptions that my view rules the site. So even if you don’t like what some say here come on back and share. We miss you

  26. C-Bob’s midnight ramblings contained much wisdom and beautiful writing. I never connected the dots he was posting from the mountain time zone, so it wasn’t all that late for him.
    Miss him still.

    I got to meet his friend Hank at the store up in Estes Park.

    Found a lost item in my catacombs.

    glad you saw it Green, glad the winds were howling down the mountain when you went. Glad you saw the Rockies mean.”http://blogs.cqpolitics.com/trailmix/2009/01/democrats-testing-obamas-tax-m.html#comment-187919
    CBob, You can even make bad weather sound inviting. I don’t know how you do it. 🙂
    and when you say things like this: “Vestavia, ALPerfect place. I never heard of it. I love places I never heard of as much as the ones I went and saw.”, it reads like poetry. Thanks.

  28. C-Bob told his story of surviving the Big Thompson Flood on these pages. I can’t find what he wrote now but it was quite a story of the night he left Colorado and never went back. Next month will be 49 years.

    Editor’s Note: On July 31, 1976, the skies opened up over the Big Thompson Canyon, setting off the deadliest natural disaster in Colorado history that claimed 144 lives and caused $35 million of damages. Read more in the Coloradoan’s series about the details of the Big Thompson Flood, the aftermath and a look back at the news coverage 40 years ago. A year’s worth of rain fell in 70 minutes.

    https://www.coloradoan.com/story/news/2016/07/29/big-thompson-flood-killed-scores/87524858/

  30. I wander into this bit of the internet tubes somewhere around 2007. I don’t remember what lead me here but I’m glad it did. I was a refugee from usenet, a place with free wheeling discussions/sometimes flame wars. But as with blogs now, folks had moved on to other places. I was looking for a new home. I landed here and haven’t regretted it.

    Jack

  32. such painful times but mustn’t be forgotten, part of our history.

    Craig, every family has its tangles but we’re still family. We forgive, we forget, and we keep coming back.

  33. Quote I kept from Blonde Wino that’s become all the more timely and relevant as a lesson and daily reminder to me these last few years. I don’t always stick to it but I try.

    Stay away from the tasty morsels of resentment while in the grief cycle. Bittersweet is just that and I used to love to binge on the anger buffet with all of delicious regrets and rancor. I once told you my Mom walked my mind…her sayings and support still as fresh as the day she told me. She would tell me to buck-up and stick to my principles, speak my mind. She also loved to smile and I could always make her smile or laugh. She would be so disgusted by how the disrespect is so easy off the lips of the exceptional Americans.”
    – Blonde Wino

  34. I keep telling my knees that time is an illusion, but they don’t listen or are disregarding the concept

  35. honestly, Mr. C, the premise of that infamous post that alienated half of your community has been vindicated

    The DNC is awful, and everyone hates Democrats including Democrats

    i’m starting to hear people of influence within the party acknowledge that fact with an understanding that the brand needs to be shed, they finally “get it”

  36. We’re still here. Still weird. Still mixing.

    Dispute between Austin and Portland about which coined the “keep weird” moniker. Room for debate means we can borrow or steal. They both offer the Voodoo Doughnuts now too.

  37. i still remember what my first post was in 2008:

    “Hilary Clinton will never be President”

    …but Dems never want to listen, just tell

  40. “Let bygones go bye bye”

    The descent into madness was an American phenomenon, possibly international, If you wanna go that far, and happenings on trailmix at that time were just a microcosm of the larger phenomenon

  41. I thought it was Portland. Didn’t know much about Austin back in the day, just a place we passed on the way to Wimberley.

    The slogan was created with the intention of supporting local businesses and small business owners.[1] It was based on the Keep Austin Weird organization and slogan in Austin, Texas, and was brought to Portland in 2003[7] by Music Millennium owner Terry Currier after he learned of the movement in Austin.[8] Currier, whom The Oregonian called “the father of Portland’s weird movement”,[8] trademarked the phrase “Keep Portland Weird” in 2007 and printed the first bumper stickers, selling more than 10,000 by the end of the year.[8] As of 2011, more than 18,000 bumper stickers with the slogan were said to exist, according to accounts from local media, as well as a painting on the side of a building across from Voodoo Doughnut in a high foot-traffic area of Old Town.[9][10]

  44. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/live/2025/jun/05/donald-trump-travel-ban-elon-musk-joe-biden-friedrich-merz-us-politics-live-news-updates

    Trump threatens to ‘terminate Elon’s Governmental Subsidies and Contracts’ as feud with Musk escalates

    *In retaliation, will Elon spill the tea on any election high- jinx? Will Elon be Epsteined before any spillage of tea? Is this all just a distraction? (Love how Adolf still tries to stick it to Biden. He is so obsessed.)

  45. Interesting tidbit on The View from James Patterson and Bill Clinton. They have both golfed with Adolf, and say he is actually a good golfer. Does he cheat? Yes. He cheats, but he doesn’t need to because he’s a good golfer. Cheating is a pathology with the orange guy. I figured it was just his ego and him bringing a bad golfer that caused him to cheat.

  46. Oh! Elon posted that Adolf is in the Epstein files and that’s why they weren’t released. I mean, we knew that, but…I’m here for the petty, but I want an election confession from Musk.

  48. IvyGreen says:
    June 4, 2025 at 9:08 am
    Doesn’t most of Elon’s money come from government contracts? Hmmm…

    That was quicker than I thought. Lonnie got a back-up plan?

  49. Who’s paying for it? Elon’s got construction going on all over Austin and parts thereabouts. Been there, seen that, bought the tee shirt.

  51. we also already knew that type a personalities eat each other

    Especially evil gluttonous ones

  52. Pat, before I forget, we wouldn’t be here 20 years without you. You are the chief trail-hand. Thanks for all that and more.

  53. see Trump can’t hand Elon the keys to the kingdom and then undermine him and then say he’s right about everything

    I’m done crafting messaging, but if the left can’t exploit this properly with middle America, then seriously dissolve the party

  54. Trump is the establishment. Trump is the deep state. Trump is the fat cat. Trump doesn’t wanna have a beer with you. He doesn’t drink beer. He never drank beer.

    OK, maybe I’m not done crafting messaging

    …not necessarily good messaging 😜

  55. Are Republicans in Congress going to start bailing on Taco Don (because if/when the pedo thing comes out) and his big, awful bill (which has a section about the courts in it that would make SFB dictator)?

    If they make up, we’ll know MuskRat knows what’s in the file and that Donald chickened out.

    If MuskRat ODs soon, or soon after a make up, we’ll know that he knew what was in the file.

  57. From The Hill article:

    The president last year denied any connection to Epstein, writing on social media, “I was never on Epstein’s Plane, or at his ‘stupid’ Island. Strong Laws ought to be developed against A.I. It will be a big and very dangerous problem in the future!”

    *The call log that was made public listed him on the pedo plane seven times.

    ***
    The budget bill currently under consideration includes a provision that would ban states from regulating artificial intelligence (AI) for the next ten years. This has raised concerns among consumer advocates about the lack of protections against potential harms from AI technologies during that period.

    *Peter Thiel’s Palantir uses AI. You know, the tech-monster who is being paid taxpayer money to create a file and track taxpayers.

  58. Didn’t we already see photos of Eppie and Dodo acting out together that erased any doubt and left plenty of room for fertile imagination? And maggers didn’t care?

    Billionaire Elon Musk alleged that President Trump has ties to convicted sex offender and financier Jeffrey Epstein as the part of his growing feud with the president, a fight that boiled over and turned personal on Thursday.

  59. once again, it has nothing to do with Trump’s character. It’s about permissive racism.

    For Trumpism to be rejected, its policies have to be demonstrably deleterious to middle America

    This is how they wanted it

    that phenomenon is why online-libs’ “Trump is a terrible person” messaging fails, they don’t care and are likely also terrible people

  60. One-time friends bought a house in the country that turned out to be next to a property that raised roosters for cock-fighting. All kinds of strange comings-and-goings deep into the night, then loud (very loud) cock-a-doodling starting at first light.

  62. Would love to squeeze in another get together similar to Vegas. Seeing so many of you in solid form is still treasured with a special shout out to BiD and the shows.

    On the phillosophical side of things, other that protesting the raging racism of Trump and MAGA fueled as it is by greed and vengence, I find it best to float along with Buffett on as calm of waters as possible.

  63. Anon, I have those Knees and me conversations daily. Like you pointed out, only one of us listens.

    And it really does look like the WH bromance is over.

  71. Just a slight change of pace, but is it just me, or is cornhole nothing like a fucking sport that’s worthy of hours on ESPN2? There’s at least four hours of it on ESPN2 tonight. I get that there is an element of skill to throwing a beanbag through a hole 30 feet away, but is that a sport? Doesn’t Bud Light figure into it at some point?

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