Sunrise — 6:53, 7:03, 7:12, 7:22, 7:35.

Write about whatever you want in the comments.

Meade photographs the lampposts of Madison, Wisconsin.

"But my goal was to push the justice on... whether her preferred legal theory, originalism, can bend and flex in response to prudential and political concerns."

"[Amy Coney] Barrett believes strongly that it shouldn’t, that justices should rule without worrying about public opinion or who happens to be in the White House. But I tend to think real-world politics constantly tests and limits that ideal. So in our conversation, I’m trying to find those limits and the ways in which even justices devoted to the original meaning of the Constitution have to deal with the highly unusual pressures of right now."

Writes Ross Douthat in the introduction to his podcast, which is an interview with Amy Coney Barrett — "Amy Coney Barrett Is Looking Beyond the Trump Era."

I'll let you listen to that and decide if Douthat got what he said he was pushing for. It's a well-worn road, and I was distracted by the phrase "the highly unusual pressures of right now." It made me think of "the fierce urgency of now." It's always now. Is the pressure of the now that happens to be today's now really so highly unusual? There's too much melodrama!

I began to fritter away precious time thinking of mellower alternatives to "the highly unusual pressures of right now"/"the fierce urgency of now." I thought of: The gentle nudge of somewhat later.

Name a song that you've heard hundreds of times but you finally one day just played of your own volition.

For me, this morning, it's "Black Water" by The Doobie Brothers. I don't think I'd ever played a Doobie Brothers song on my own.

It's odd the way old songs that used to be pushed at you endlessly on the radio drift back to mind. I was just thinking about the word "backwater" — not "black water" — after it came up in a podcast: "He suggested that the horde ride west and toward a previously unexplored land that sat on the periphery of the world, a great peninsula jutting out of the Asian land mass, about which The Mongols knew little. These were the lands of Europe. Europe around the year 1200 was something of a backwater...."

"Backwater" began as a literal description of water: "A piece of water without current, lying more or less parallel to a river, and fed from it at the lower end by a back-flow" (OED). But we know it better figuratively: "A place or situation in which no development or progress is taking place." If you're trying to think of a song with "backwater," it might be "Backwater Blues."

In short, the answer is no. The question is "Should California voters feel confident that there aren't any more 'Katie Porter videos' out there?"

I'm watching "Frontrunner for California governor Katie Porter sat down with Inside California Politics host Nikki Laurenzo for her first interview since two now-viral videos called into question the former congresswoman's temperament."

The question is asked — and evaded — 4 times:

Why doesn't she even say "I don't think there are any"? She must know there are! I can only think of 2 other explanations: 1. She's just compulsively opaque and uncooperative, a real bullshitter, or 2. She knows she's behaved that way on various occasions, but she hasn't kept track of whether there was video and whether any such video has been preserved. In any case, she is so unappealing! 

The answer has got to be no, California voters should not feel confident that there aren't any more 'Katie Porter videos' out there. 

Isn't it funny that we understand the term "Katie Porter videos"?

If a man wanted to mythologically pee from Camp Pendleton, across I-5, into the Pacific Ocean, how far would he need to project his urine stream?

I'm reading "I-5 may be shut down due to concerns over live-fire military event at Camp Pendleton" (L.A. Times).

Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office is weighing whether to close parts of Interstate 5 beginning Friday amid concerns over what it says is a White House-directed plan to use live ordnance "during a military anniversary celebration off Camp Pendleton’s coast in San Diego County — where Navy ships are expected to fire over the freeway onto the base. Newsom’s office has received, but not confirmed, reports that live ordnance will be fired from offshore vessels during the event commemorating the Marine Corps’ 250th anniversary. The event is titled "Sea to Shore — A Review of Amphibious Strength" and will feature Vice President JD Vance.... The military show of force coincides with No Kings rallies and marches across the state on Saturday.... The Times could not confirm whether live ordnance will be fired over the freeway....

Oh, great. The 2 men who are their party's presumptive nominee for President next time around are in a monumental pissing contest. Sea to Shore — A Review of Amphibious Strength indeed.

Calculations from Grok:

Physics of Projection: In reality, a human urine stream is limited by physiology and physics. Studies and anecdotal records (e.g., from urology or informal "contests") suggest a typical male urine stream might reach 1–2 meters (3–6 feet) horizontally under optimal conditions (e.g., high bladder pressure, no wind). A "mythological" stream implies superhuman ability, so we’ll ignore real-world limits but use the distance as the target.

Required Distance: To cross 2 miles (3,200 meters), the stream would need to be propelled with extraordinary force, akin to a fire hose or a superhero’s ability. For context:

At the Wednesday Night Café...

... you can talk about whatever you want.

(Photo by Meade.)

Only?

I'm reading this NYT column by Jessica Grose: "Kennedy’s Comments on Circumcision Are Only Going to Confuse and Shame Parents."

The headline makes it sound as though human beings cannot be trusted with information. We'll only get confused or descend into shame.

What's the issue here?

On Thursday, Kennedy, the secretary of health and human services, said in a cabinet meeting, “There’s two studies that show children who are circumcised early have double the rate of autism. It’s highly likely because they’re given Tylenol.” Was he trying to persuade parents to avoid circumcision, Tylenol (the most popular brand of acetaminophen) or both?...

Why not read it for exactly what it is, an observation that you can take into account when deciding whether to have your child circumcised and, if you do, what form of pain relief do you want? What's confusing or shameful about that? Health info often comes in this form — studies find that a substance is associated with a health problem. It might not be causal, but don't parents have the right to decide if they should take the risk?

"Nearly half of U.S. presidents have invoked the Insurrection Act. Some (many) more than once."

"We’ve known about this problem for a long time. Plenty of people pointed it out in 2021 when Dems controlled WH+Congress. But nobody wants to give up power when their team has it."

Sarah Isgur explains the Insurrection Act in 4 quick points — I'm quoting #4 — after somebody on X calls attention to the time she trounced George Stephanopoulos on the topic:

I’d like to take this opportunity to thank the hair and makeup team at ABC as well as my hats, sunscreen, and dermatologist. https://t.co/ws0xo8TBOB

— Sarah Isgur (@whignewtons) October 14, 2025

ADDED: Here's the full clip from "This Week," which aired last Sunday:

"'I love Hitler': Leaked messages expose Young Republicans’ racist chat/Thousands of private messages reveal young GOP leaders joking about gas chambers, slavery and rape."

Politico reports.

William Hendrix, the Kansas Young Republicans’ vice chair, used the words “n--ga” and “n--guh,” variations of a racial slur, more than a dozen times in the chat. Bobby Walker, the vice chair of the New York State Young Republicans at the time, referred to rape as “epic.” Peter Giunta, who at the time was chair of the same organization, wrote in a message sent in June that “everyone that votes no is going to the gas chamber.”

Giunta was referring to an upcoming vote on whether he should become chair of the Young Republican National Federation, the GOP’s 15,000-member political organization for Republicans between 18 and 40 years old. “Im going to create some of the greatest physiological torture methods known to man. We only want true believers,” he continued....

Read the whole thing. Politico takes the position "The chat offers an unfiltered look at how a new generation of GOP activists talk when they think no one is listening."

ADDED: I asked Grok, "Is the Politico report accurate or should we be suspicious? Many people think Politico is slanted." What follows is Grok's answer:

Sunrise — 6:49, 7:00, 7:09, 7:13.

Write about whatever you like in the comments.

"Morante is a genius, a being born to make beauty dream; a revolutionary, a complete artist, pure feeling, brave, master of a prodigious technique and a dazzling capacity for inspiration."

Wrote Antonio Lorca, a bullfighting critic, quoted in a London Times article about Morante's sudden retirement, "Spain’s top matador bids farewell — with a snip of his scissors/After a dramatic final fight, the torero retires as bullfighting faces growing scrutiny and declining support among younger Spaniards."

Spain’s leading matador has stunned the bullfighting world by staging an unexpected farewell, symbolically cutting off his ponytail in the ring after a “historic” performance.... His departure marks the end of a unique career whose “classicism” and “mysticism” often exhausted critics’ superlatives....

Is it surprising that there is still bullfighting in Spain?

"It was a garbage truck the size of a whale."

Says Alec Baldwin, on Instagram, endeavoring to explain why he crashed his car into a tree. Apparently, he was "cut off" by the biggest garbage truck he'd ever seen. "To avoid hitting him, I hit a tree." 

ABC has the story: "Alec Baldwin crashes car into a tree in East Hampton: Authorities/Alec Baldwin is okay after he crashed his car into a tree, authorities said." ("He went on [Instagram] and said that a 'garbage truck the size of a whale' cut him off on the road").

Had you thought about the relative size of a whale and a garbage truck?

Thanks to Chris for asking ChatGPT for that visualization. And for this alternative, from Gemini:

It reminds me of the time LBJ saw a portrait of himself and said "That's the ugliest thing I ever saw."

Trump on Truth Social: "Time Magazine wrote a relatively good story about me, but the picture may be the Worst of All Time. They 'disappeared' my hair, and then had something floating on top of my head that looked like a floating crown, but an extremely small one. Really weird! I never liked taking pictures from underneath angles, but this is a super bad picture, and deserves to be called out. What are they doing, and why?"

Quoted in "President Trump accuses Time magazine of deliberately using the worst photo ‘of all time’ on a cover praising his peace deal" (NY Post).

As for that LBJ portrait, you can see it at "The Presidential Portrait That Was the ‘Ugliest Thing’ L.B.J. Ever Saw" (Smithsonian).

As for Trump's question, "What are they doing, and why?" I think he answered it, they were going for an artistic effect — "a floating crown, but an extremely small one."

"3D tracking of Max Muncy's 404-foot 'grounded into double play.'"

3D tracking of Max Muncy's 404-foot "grounded into double play" pic.twitter.com/xWSIvyWb7S

— David Adler (@_dadler) October 14, 2025

Live action — and don't miss the look on Frelick's face at 0:21:

WHAT JUST HAPPENED?!?!?! #NLCS pic.twitter.com/x7BbmJ6hzX

— MLB (@MLB) October 14, 2025

A New Day.