Oh! I found the "ratbag" video!

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We discussed the Rod Stewart quote based on the text alone, yesterday, here.

"Once the domain of mellow Gen X-ers in the ’80s and ’90s, the hacky sack is experiencing a renaissance at the hands — well, the feet — of Gen Z."

"High school students around the country are freshly enthusiastic about the toys, crocheted bean bags that once hung in the air like the scent of marijuana. Parents and teachers mostly seem glad to watch young people be entranced by something other than their phones...."

From "Hacky Sack Mounts a Comeback With Gen Z/Teenagers are booting the game out of the 1990s. 'It’s kind of bringing everybody together,' one said" (NYT).

"Along Colombia’s main river, fishing nets once filled with catfish are coming up emptier — replaced by the wake of churning beasts that shouldn’t be there."

"Fishermen are terrified to cast their hooks at night. 'They’ve changed our lifestyle,' said Giovanny Contreras, a fisherman, as he navigated his boat past the bulbous eyes of a male hippo peering at him.... It began as a drug lord’s whim: four hippos that Pablo Escobar brought as exotic pets for his sprawling estate in the 1980s. Now an unruly herd has bedeviled Colombia for decades...."

From "The Fight to Euthanize Pablo Escobar’s Hippos in Colombia/Colombia is planning to cull a population of wild hippos, the offspring of the drug lord’s pets, dividing a town where hippos are the main draw" (NYT).

It sounds easy. Kill them all. It's an invasive species — dangerous and damaging — and huge.

But no: "The hippos have long lent a touch of magical realism to daily life in Doradal. Visitors are greeted by kitschy hippo statues, locals offer hippo-watching tours and some residents have reportedly stolen baby hippos to try to breed them as pets. Many residents regard the beasts with a mix of pride, pity and prudence...."

Magical realism? The literary style? Is this related to "One Hundred Years of Solitude"? Would that be about attracting tourists to Colombia — readers who romanticize the destination and can be drawn into thinking they can see something dreamlike here — or is it about some kind of genuine culture of incorporating amazing new things into the traditional world?

"Students’ test scores had been increasing since 1990 — then abruptly stopped in the mid-2010s."

"That coincided with two events: an easing of federal school accountability under No Child Left Behind, which was replaced in 2015, and the rise of smartphones, social media and personalized school laptops. The pandemic then accelerated learning declines.... [No Child Left Behind] set a goal that all students would be proficient in reading and math, and schools that did not show progress could face penalties. It coincided with a period of rising test scores, especially in math, though reading scores improved more modestly. Low-performing students saw the biggest gains. The law, though, was deeply unpopular with many educators and parents. Critics said it put an outsize focus on testing, pushing schools to teach to the test and spend less time on other important subjects, like the arts or social studies. In 2015, Congress replaced it, and many states dialed back on requirements. Like many who have studied the law, Brian A. Jacob, professor of education policy at the University of Michigan, [said] 'It was not a cure-all, but I think it really did improve student achievement.... There’s evidence that school accountability does change behaviors of teachers and administrators and probably parents and students.'"

From "Your School District Is Probably Scoring Worse Than 10 Years Ago/The drops in U.S. scores go beyond the pandemic and cut across income, geographic and racial divides, new data shows" (NYT).

It was the screens and the pandemic — that's all they need to say to fend off the return of No Child Left Behind.

Sunrise.

Write about whatever you want in the comments.

The flowers are golden alexander.

"When we were fighting for gay rights — a fight I think we have essentially won — we knew that some issues were more popular than others."

"So we tended to start by trying to win the ones that were most popular. Gays in the military. Employment. We didn’t go after same-sex marriage, we didn’t make marriage a litmus test, until the very end. I analogize that to male-to-female transgender sports. That is the most controversial part of the agenda — the equivalent of gay marriage — so put it at the end. If you go at it that way, you build support for it. But if you insist on the most controversial parts all at once, you make it harder."

Said Barney Frank, quoted in "Barney Frank, in Hospice, Has Advice for the Democrats/Mr. Frank speaks about the missteps of the Democratic Party and his hope for its future. 'Frankly, if I weren’t dying, people wouldn’t be paying as much attention'" (NYT).

"Since last October in Memuro, Hokkaido, a café specialising in French toast has been open to parents and babies free of charge from 9pm on Sunday to 6am on Monday."

"There are areas for babies to crawl around and sleep, as well as changing tables and nursing booths. Users can relax, knowing their babies’ cries aren’t keeping others up.,,, Across the country in Tokushima Prefecture, a childcare support centre runs monthly 'crying cafés' with specialist staff.... The concept comes from Yonakigoya, a manga by a cartoonist and mother that was published online in 2023. The titular 'night-time crying house' is a space where overwhelmed mothers and babies can de-stress in the small hours...."

From "Overnight 'crying cafés' serve coffee with a side of tears/The night-time refuges in Japan are popular with mothers who can relax knowing their crying child is not disturbing anyone at home" (London Times).

"There's something that's kind of weird out there... Can I call it the painfully unsophisticated, highly educated political hobbyist?"

"And this is the audience for an awful lot of political media... and it is people who have a pretty good degree of education. They're highly attuned to politics and they're highly partisan. And that last bit of it — the highly partisan — actually means they become much less sophisticated about politics and law because... the volume consumers of political media are the most wrong about their political opponents. So... your median TED Talk listener is probably... a very partisan audience.... And if... you're left-leaning, and you're highly partisan, and you're highly attuned to political media, what is the one thing that you have in your mind about the Supreme Court? Totally biased against this [challenge to Trump's power]. You can't win. It's always gonna rule for Trump, blah, blah, blah.... They are just deluged with... it's rigged, it's rigged, it's illegitimate, it's rigged..... So then you have this attorney come in who's a fellow liberal who won in front of the six three Supreme Court. And he is going to, if that's your mindset, look like Zeus walking down from Mount Olympus.... You know, I walked in to the Lion's den of the 6-3 Republican court and got a 6-3 Republican court to strike down the signature policy of a Republican administration. Look at me. I am the God king!.... And it is a message that lands with a particular audience incredibly well because... it's premised on all of their false assumptions about the Supreme Court. If you actually walked in with a realistic view, he was the favorite. He was the favorite!"

Said David French in the new episode of the podcast "Advisory Opinions," "The TED Talk Heard ‘Round the World" (at 00:44:17)(transcript at that link).

And here's the Neal Katyal TED talk they're talking about.

"The Trump administration’s spotlight on testosterone and its increasing availability through online clinics come at a time when exaggerated, uncompromising, even aggressive masculinity is in vogue..."

"... in Hollywood and online in the so-called manosphere. Wildly popular figures like Joe Rogan and Andrew Huberman have spoken about their own use of T.R.T., framing it as a medical treatment for aging. But many influencers go much further, amplifying the message that being 'low T' is synonymous with low status, weakness and sexual inadequacy — and often profiting off promotional links to T.R.T. clinics, or even starting their own. That message seems to be reaching younger men in particular. Clavicular, the 20-year-old streamer who popularized the 'looksmaxxing' subculture, which casts the relentless pursuit of physical attractiveness as the clearest route to social capital, has said that he started using testosterone at age 14 to achieve 'a more dimorphic look.'..."

From "Why So Many Men Are Obsessed With Testosterone/From the Trump administration to online influencers, the hormone is increasingly seen as the key to achieving a new male ideal" (NYT)(gift link).

"Last week, the Department of Transportation released the first trailer for the Duffys’ odyssey, and boy does it look lavish."

"The family of 11 is shown riding in style in new model SUVs provided by Toyota — official vehicle partner of the show — lounging in bathrobes in hotels, snowmobiling, and even screaming down water slides on a Royal Caribbean cruise (another partner of the project). The trailer was met with widespread public backlash, with critics calling the seven-month production not only out of touch given the high costs currently hitting American travelers, but a potentially unethical misuse of federal resources. Duffy, who thinks people shouldn’t fly in comfy clothing because it’s uncivilized, is encouraging Americans to drive this summer, and get to know their country. 'We’re encouraging everyone to go take a road trip to celebrate America’s 250th anniversary,' he says in the trailer, adding later to Fox News that a road trip 'fits any budget.'"

That's from the Rolling Stone article "How Much Would It Cost to Fuel Sean Duffy’s Reality Show Road Trip?" which is updated "to reflect that the Duffys did not actually set sail on a cruise, and that they only enjoyed its amenities while it was docked."

With that correction, the price doesn't seem so astounding. I couldn't find the number, but then I only skimmed and then searched the page for a dollar sign. We're told the family — of 11 — drove 4,706 miles and maybe 2,458 miles more. Who would do that?! These people are taking care of 9 children. Why would you want to kick them around? Calling it "lavish" is nuts.

Here's that trailer that made Rolling Stone get all peevish:

Did that make you want to do a big road trip or did it make you want to wait until the 250th anniversary celebrants get back home? Or to never go anywhere again. I hear the bears are biting up in Glacier National Park.

"Dog owners love pretending dogs are these magical social connectors, but in reality they just attract endless unwanted interactions with random weirdos."

"Every walk becomes an open invitation for strangers to stop you for pointless conversations about dogs. Suddenly some bloke you’ve never seen before is standing there for 15 minutes talking about breeds, dog food, dog behaviour or telling you stories about his own mutt while you awkwardly stand there wanting to leave. Half the people that approach dog owners are bizarre as fuck too. I never once understood why I was expected to happily stand around talking to random strangers in the middle of nowhere just because they spotted a dog. And honestly, I’m convinced a lot of dog owners enjoy this because the dog gives them instant validation and attention from other people. The animal becomes a social prop."

From a rant at Reddit called "I dated a dog owner and this is what I found." I'm only quoting one point on what is a 5-point list. To get the full effect, read the whole thing.

The ranter has a very receptive audience, because it's on the Subreddit "Dogfree: We Don't Like Dogs." It's not really anti-dog so much as anti-dogpeople: "This is a subreddit for those who do not like or own dogs to discuss modern-day dog ownership and its effects on society. This is our corner of the world. Weigh-in from dog owners is off topic and disallowed. Thank you for respecting our space."

"I'd rate him top 10, could you imagine Ole' Blue Eyes singing 'It's alright Ma, I'm only bleedin''?"

A comment on the facebook post "Bob Dylan is the 56th greatest vocalist in music history," which links to "The 100 Best Vocalists of All Time/Vocalist Week begins with an artist-assisted list of the best to ever pick up a microphone" (Consequence).

That reminds me, when I was a teenager, my father liked to engage me in what he called "Socratic" debate, and I vividly remember the time he took the position that if a microphone was used, it was simply not music.

I think of him this morning as I encounter the greatest vocalists in music history restated as the best to ever pick up a microphone.

History is a long time, far longer than the era of the microphone. I assume nearly all of the top thousand greatest vocalists performed without a microphone.

"A berry green, [most] beautiful beetle I’ve ever seen. And I just picked him up and I said, ‘Whoa, you’re so pretty.’ And within seconds, I felt burning through my body."

From "Maine woman picks up ‘beautiful’ bug that caught her eye — it almost killed her" (NY Post).

Notable sentence: "With her kids in tow, the desperate mother bolted straight up a grassy hill — ignoring the park’s windy, paved path — to the park’s gift shop, where she collapsed in front of Dean Martin...."

"When Anthony wasn’t clearing trails at parks across the country, the 'motorhead' could be found cruising around Florida or preaching at his local Catholic church...."

"Before his final excursion in Montana, Anthony hiked through the Grand Canyon, Yellowstone and the connected Grand Teton National Park, Starved Rock State Park and the Mount Rushmore National Memorial, his father said. 'His life experiences in 33 years — some people don’t get to do ’til they’re 90 or their whole life,' [his father said]."

From the New York Post article about Anthony Pollio, 33, who was, apparently, killed by a bear in Glacier National Park. 

Here's a picture from Pollio's Facebook account:

"If I could cook you one meal, what would it be?"

"Oh, uh, deep-fried PB&J."

"May I say, well done in the Americas. You were superb, absolutely superb. Put that little ratbag in his place."

Said Rod Stewart, quoted in "Rod Stewart hails King Charles for putting ‘ratbag’ Trump ‘in his place’/The singer made the remark during a line-up at a 50th anniversary concert for the King’s Trust at the Royal Albert Hall, London" (London Times).

Did King Charles put Trump in his place? Maybe it's like that "bike rage" incident with Benedict Cumberbatch we were talking about yesterday. Two entirely nonviolent men stopped to exchange a few sharp words. 

The commenters over there at the London Times are going after Rod. Top-rated comment: "Rod Stewart put the King and Queen in a very embarrassing position by making political comments in a receiving line. It just shows he has no class whatsoever and doesn’t have the brains he was born with."

And: "Ah, Rod Stewart who made millions for being a hedonistic rockstar boasted about numerous, groupies, and rampant infidelity calling somebody else a 'ratbag' while shaking hand with the highest example of infidelity. Must have his picture in the dictionary next to hypocrite!"

Is this the first appearance of the word "ratbag" on this blog? No, it came up here, where I quoted the NYT obituary for Barry Humphries ("Dame Edna"). The NYT has printed "ratbag" a few times. In a 1984 piece about travel guidebooks, it has: "[I]n a section on 'picturesque patterns of speech'... the 'Maverick Guide to Australia' tells us that a bicyclist there is called a bikey, that to grizzle means to complain and that a ratbag is an eccentric character."

Well, Trump surely is an eccentric character. He should own it. Kind of cool too — isn't it? — in the American way of thinking — to have Rod Stewart calling you a "ratbag."

ADDED: Let's also consider the notion of putting someone "in their place." It reflects a background belief that people have a social rank or a station in life. For Rod Stewart — who, I hear, started from gasoline alley — to praise the King — a person of the highest rank — for putting someone "in their place" is pretty funny. And, we're told, the King just laughed. And didn't that put Rod in his place?

Take me back, carry me back down the gasoline alley where I started from....