diff --git a/daily-finds.log.md b/daily-finds.log.md
index 290e651..9351319 100644
--- a/daily-finds.log.md
+++ b/daily-finds.log.md
@@ -3484,3 +3484,17 @@ Every hero written this run was opened and looked at rather than trusted on file
 Kept after inspection, with reasoning: **synth-a-sette-cassette-synthesizer** (the bare cassette-shaped PCB — silkscreen on the product itself, not overlay), **diy-chatter-lora-communicator-kit** (the assembled device in its clear case, screen live), **alexander-calder-chess-set** (clean studio shot of the red-and-blue pieces on the board), **house-of-david-bowie-berlin** (the CC BY-SA street elevation; the "Therapie & Massage" shopfront visible in frame independently corroborates the physiotherapy clinic in the Atlas Obscura description), **spottest-file-type-identification** (a genuine screenshot of the app's Drop Window, which happens to show `file(1): RISC OS Draw file data` for an `Untitled.txt` — precisely the misidentification bug the copy describes). **envy-notes kept with a caveat:** its 1024×1024 asset is the app icon, not a screenshot — envynote.app publishes no screenshots — and it clears the 400px floor and is not a generic site logo, so it stays, but it is a thin tile and worth a veto look.
 
 Net effect on today's media: 8 heroes across 19 finds became 7, and every bundle still clears the hero floor (a-different-way-in 4, build-it-before-you-play-it 4, kept-because-somebody-decided-to 3, sculpture-youre-allowed-to-use 4). The capture-run entry above describes theremin, flashfilter and 3doodler as having "clean heroes"; that assessment was made before the images were viewed and is corrected here.
+
+## 2026-07-21 — pick of the day: alexander-calder-chess-set
+
+New pick, rotating off old-jail-art-center, which had held the hero since 07-20.
+
+The charter's preference order starts with reviews graduated this run, and all three were weighed. **flashfilter was eliminated on media:** the same-run hero audit (see the entry above) established that the only image its site publishes is a wordmark title card, so it is now a deliberately hero-less review — and a blank tile is disqualifying for the front page whatever the merits of the software, which are real. **house-of-david-bowie-berlin is the better piece of writing** — the roses in the ironwork, Iggy Pop out by the bins in the back courtyard, the Berlin Trilogy correction — **but its hero is a plain cream apartment block**, and the charter's tiebreak is "the one whose virtue is most immediately legible from the tile". Nothing about that facade tells a passing visitor why it matters; the whole delight is carried by the subtitle. It stays a review and is a strong candidate for the never-picked rotation later.
+
+That leaves **alexander-calder-chess-set**, and it wins on its own merits rather than by elimination. The hero is the best image the site has had in days: a clean 2040×2040 studio shot on white of Calder's pieces — red and blue, turned wood, the queen visibly taller than the king, an outsized knight — on a board with a yellow-and-red painted edge. The virtue is legible at a glance with no copy at all: these are obviously sculptures, and they are obviously chessmen. Broad appeal too, in that it lands for people who care about chess, about Calder, or about neither but who can see that the objects are lovely.
+
+Front-page safety: unambiguous. A wooden board game. Nothing that cuts, burns or explodes, nothing injury-prone, no camping gear, nothing that could read as a call to negative action or as a political statement. This is as uncontroversial as the hero slot gets.
+
+It beats holding old-jail-art-center on freshness — the incumbent is a day old, and a fresh pick is itself a daily contribution to delight (`EDITORIAL.md`, north star) — and it is not a weak graduate being forced onto the front page: it cleared its fact-check against the maker's own site, gained the two details that make the set (red/blue instead of black/white; queen taller than king), and had one retailer provenance claim scoped back rather than repeated. The never-picked pool (73 of 89 reviews have never held the hero) was not needed this run, since a same-day graduate genuinely earns it.
+
+Honest weakness, recorded: at $2,500 it is the most expensive thing ever to hold the pick, which makes the front page briefly look like a luxury-goods site. Judged acceptable because the tile sells the object, not the price, and the review is explicit that this is an art edition rather than a chess set to buy for playing chess.
diff --git a/src/data/pick.json b/src/data/pick.json
index b045be1..87c4810 100644
--- a/src/data/pick.json
+++ b/src/data/pick.json
@@ -1,3 +1,3 @@
 {
-  "hero": "old-jail-art-center"
+  "hero": "alexander-calder-chess-set"
 }