"He was the world’s most mature 12-year-old. He had a fantastic case of arrested development; he could sense immediately, 'This is what kids will love.'"

Said Art Spiegelman, quoted in "Len Brown, the Kidlike Creator of ‘Mars Attacks,’ Dies at 84/He brought a juvenile creative sensibility to the Topps Chewing Gum company, where he was able to unerringly predict what would appeal to adolescents" (NYT gift link).

The terrifying global invasion ['Mars Attacks'] played out in 55 vivid cards. But parents’ complaints about the gory incidents that were depicted — a dog being destroyed, for example, as a boy “cried out in horror” — kept them from being distributed nationally.... 

His many projects in the 1960s included helping to create a card set devoted to Soupy Sales, the mischievous TV personality. During the 1970s and ’80s, Mr. Brown was part of the team that created two major sticker series: “Wacky Packages” mocked consumer products, parodying them with names like Cap’n Crud, Jolly Mean Giant and Ratz Crackers; “Garbage Pail Kids” spoofed Cabbage Patch Kids, the wildly popular, round-faced dolls that came with adoption papers.

"I was hesitant in that, if it worked, it might be a difficult image to shake off. But then, really, I’ve always thought it wasn’t worth doing unless you took a risk, really. So I just took the risk."

Said Tim Curry, quoted in "Tim Curry, Star of ‘Rocky Horror’ and Much More, Dies at 80/The actor’s gift for garish eccentricity was indelibly appropriate for the outlandish, cross-dressing mad scientist Frank-N-Furter" (NYT gift link).

Here's Curry — who had a stroke in 2012 — discussing his roles:

"Even as Trump’s Standing Slips, He Slingshots a Political Novice to Victory."

Headline at the NYT for the story about Darline Graham's victory in yesterday's primary runoff.

You can see the story the Times wants to tell, even as the facts on the ground don't line up exactly right:

Some of the luster had seemed to come off Mr. Trump’s political brand in recent weeks. His approval ratings have drooped, his party’s midterm outlook has darkened and his chosen picks in several races for governor and the House have fallen short.

ADDED: He slingshots her. It's like something Wile E. Coyote would do to himself to cross a canyon. Or what the Lost Boys did to Robin Williams:

The Mythbusters tried it:

"Meta on Wednesday reached a landmark settlement with 47 states, the District of Columbia and U.S. territories, agreeing to pay up to $17.1 billion in penalties..."

"... and make major changes to its products over claims it endangered children with addictive social media platforms. In a dramatic capitulation, the owner of Facebook and Instagram agreed to the financial penalties for violating federal child privacy and states’ consumer protection laws, the states announced. Meta also agreed to limit how long teenagers can spend on its platforms and to bans on features that stoke mental health issues, striking at the heart of the company’s business of engagement for advertising.... Meta still faces numerous other lawsuits from school districts and individuals.... 'Meta wouldn’t settle unless it sees the writing on the wall and feels really exposed,' said Nora Freeman Engstrom, a law professor at Stanford University."

I'm reading "Meta to Pay Up to $17.1 Billion in Landmark Settlement Over Social Media Addiction Claims/The social media giant settled with 47 states, the District of Columbia and U.S. territories, and agreed to make major changes to its products over claims its platforms endangered children" (NYT gift link).

"Women in rural Devon are being coached on how to give birth in the back of a car after their local hospital shut its maternity service."

That's in the London Times.

Catherine Mchomvu, an antenatal class teacher at the Devon Antenatal Family Centre, said it was important that women and their partners had supplies, including towels, blankets and water in the car....  “It’s about trying to create the birth environment that you would normally have in the hospital or at home, in your car.

And here's an article from 12 days ago: "'Maternity deserts' leave women with two-hour journey to give birth/Mothers-to-be fear delivering their babies on the roadside as NHS staffing shortages and closures leave swathes of England without nearby maternity care."

The Royal Family pays tribute to Dolly.

Remembering the late, great Dolly, who brought joy, comfort and inspiration to so many - including the millions of children given free books through her Imagination Library. We will always ❤️ you. pic.twitter.com/wdKHKGALlH

— The Royal Family (@RoyalFamily) August 26, 2026

Sunrise.

Goodbye to Dolly Parton.

"Dolly Parton, Superstar Whose Songs Spoke to Millions, Dies at 80/Known for her outsize persona, appearance and talent, she rose from rural poverty to become a top-selling singer, songwriter and entrepreneur" (NYT gift link).

She wrote unabashedly, in simple Southern vernacular, about growing up as the daughter of an illiterate sharecropper. “I’ve seen Daddy’s hands break open and bleed / And I’ve seen him work ’til he’s stiff as a board,” she sang over wistful harmonica and acoustic guitar in “In the Good Old Days (When Times Were Bad).” “I’ve seen Mama layin’ in sufferin’ and sickness / In need of a doctor we couldn’t afford. / Anything at all was more than we had / In the good old days when times were bad.”... 

“Writing’s just as natural to me as getting up and cooking breakfast,” she told The Times in 2002. “I ain’t never far away from a pencil and paper or a tape recorder. I write every day, even when I’m on a plane, in the tub or on the bus. It burns in me.... Songwriting is my way of channeling my feelings and my thoughts. Not just mine, but the things I see, the people I care about. My head would explode if I didn’t get some of that stuff out. Not everything I write is good, but it’s all good for me — like therapy.”

It has long seemed to me that she was the most-loved celebrity in the world — universally loved.

ADDED: "Very sad to report that Dolly Parton, one of the greatest Country singers, and far beyond, EVER, has just passed away. This is a true loss for millions of people. There has never been anyone like her, and never will. In her honor, I am lowering the American flag throughout the United States for a one week period beginning tonight at 6:00PM. Rest in Peace, Dolly! The World loves you. President DONALD J. TRUMP."

I believe this is the first time a President has lowered the flag for someone in the entertainment world.

AND: My oldest post with the "Dolly Parton" tag has this quote from her: "A cartoon character is how I see myself and it's worked for me for 40 years. I would rather be a cartoon than a genius!"

"But in our conversations, he would return again and again to the electric chair, still an object of primal, almost talismanic fear all of this time later."

"'It cooks you,' he would repeat, folding into himself. 'It cooks you.' While the time of his trial is always within reach for Smith, the intervening decades are somewhere else, behind a curtain he won’t or can’t push aside. Smith isn’t in the habit of personal disclosure, in any case. He does not have friends in the nursing home. 'I keep to myself,' he says often. He doesn’t want to know what people were convicted of, and doesn’t ask. He says he didn’t have friends in prison either, and he isn’t exaggerating: 'Minds his own business and has no associates,' reads one behavioral report from 1964. Smith waves every question about those decades away with an impatient, 'It was prison' or 'I don’t think about that.'... Smith now spends most of his time in his room, watching TV. In conversations over the course of a year, the only person I hear him express something like friendship for is Tucker Carlson.... 'He’s my type of guy. We’re the same type,' he says, though he won’t say more.I could see it, somehow. The grievance, the paranoia, the sense that things are stacked against you."

Wrote Annalisa Quinn, in 2022 in the Boston Globe, "Frank Smith was locked up for eight decades. At 98, what would it mean to be free? Likely the longest-serving prisoner in America, he’s been paroled into a Connecticut nursing home. But he’s still not out."

That article is linked in this NYT obituary from a few days ago, "Frank Smith, Who Served 70 Years for Murder, Dies at 101/One of the longest-serving prisoners in American history, he was sent to death row in 1950 before his sentence was commuted to life imprisonment."

The Times obit doesn't mention Smith's affinity for Tucker Carlson... perhaps to maintain the Times reader's empathy for the ancient convict.

"Claims of having grown up in the wild are widely viewed with skepticism, and expertise in the subject is rare."

"There have been some notable cases, though they are few.... As Mr. Rodríguez told it, he was born into a poor family in southern Spain in June 1946. His mother died when he was very young, and the woman his father later married was an abusive stepmother.... When he was about 7, he said, he was put in the care of an old goatherd, to be trained to replace him..... The old man then died or disappeared, and young Marcos began to fend for himself.... Mr. Rodríguez said he lived in the wild for about 11 years with the help of wolves and other animals. In 1965, he was discovered by law enforcement authorities among wolves, wearing animal skins. He described his return to life among humans as something he did not know how to manage and would never fully embrace.....  Mr. Rodríguez said he struggled with human society for much of his life. Employers had taken advantage of him over the years, people had mocked him and he had been happiest among the animals, he said in interviews...."

From "Man Who Told of a Childhood With Wolves Dies at 80/Marcos Rodríguez Pantoja’s improbable story of a wild youth became the subject of a study, and inspired a novel and film" (NYT gift link).

"In the most eye-popping moment of the exchange, Mr. Watters asked if Dr. El-Sayed believed it was OK 'for a parent to slash his kid’s ding-a-ling off'..."

"... referring to transition surgeries for minors. Dr. El-Sayed responded by asking if Mr. Watters was circumcised. 'Uh, yeah, but that’s a personal question, doctor,' Mr. Watters responded, laughing, before contending that 'circumcision’s different than castration.' Dr. El-Sayed said that he believed the government should not tell Americans what health care procedures they could undergo, but he did not directly say whether he approved of transition surgeries. The interview showed the strategy Dr. El-Sayed is adopting as Mr. Rogers seeks to paint him as a radical leftist who is out of touch with Michigan voters. The Democratic nominee’s approach is to cast 'culture-war' issues as a distraction from the everyday problems Americans face, like rising costs and worries about health care...."

From "El-Sayed Joins Fox News for Some Light Verbal Combat and a Pitch to Republicans/In a smiling yet tense interview, Dr. Abdul El-Sayed, the Democratic nominee for Senate in Michigan, argued that his Republican critics were using culture-war issues to distract from Americans’ economic concerns" (NYT gift link).

"Mr. Rogers" = Mike Rogers, the Republican candidate.

"I have just been informed by the United States Navy that all mines have been removed and/or detonated from within the International Waters of the Strait of Hormuz."

"Iran has been notified that any ship or boat placing new mines will be immediately and systematically destroyed. Through Space Force, we are watching every square inch of the Strait, as we are, also, with Pickaxe Mountain and the already destroyed three other Nuclear sites. There is a Zero Tolerance policy on mine placement in full force and effect. Thank you for your attention to this matter! President DONALD J. TRUMP"

Writes Trump, at Truth Social.

So that means we won the war?

"Men are struck and killed more than four times as often as women.... The United States has seen 12 lightning fatalities so far this year."

"The vast majority (90 percent) of lightning-strike victims survive. Most who don’t suffer cardiac arrest or stop breathing. Most victims can be revived by immediate CPR. Strike victims do not hold a charge and are safe to touch.... In many cases, people are struck and killed even when it’s not raining. Lightning bolts can leap up to 10 miles from a parent thunderstorm, and often the more errant, farther-venturing bolts carry more charge. If you can hear thunder, you are close enough to be struck by lightning."

From "Woman and her 2-year-old daughter killed by lightning in Florida/Four people have now died from lightning in the state this year. Florida averages seven such fatalities annually" (WaPo).

"In 1983 she was mugged when she was out with her friend Larry David. She smiles. 'This is the curse of Larry David...'"

"'... it was terrifying but it was also hilarious. We both co-operated because there were two young guys and one of them had a shotgun, but Larry, I guess through stress, slipped into sounding like [the confident sports journalist] Howard Cosell. Going, "All right, take the money, everybody just stay calm." And I was looking at him, like, who are you?'"

From "I wrote Thelma & Louise — nothing has changed for women since then
Callie Khouri is turning her film into a musical. She talks about discovering a young Brad Pitt, getting mugged with Larry David and why she would love to return to Nashville" (London Times).

Also: "... Khouri says, looking resigned, that she doesn’t think much has changed for women since that day when, fired up, she wrote a fantasy about striking back against everything she had to put up with. 'In the US it’s got worse,' she states.

Target apologizes for a costume that — accidentally? — looks like blackface.

You decide. It's the "Kids’ Glows under Blacklight Circus Clown Halloween Costume Bodysuit":

I'll do a poll:

"In 2021, Columbia University law professor Philip Hamburger argued that the U.S. public school system violates the First Amendment."

"'Education,' he wrote, 'consists mostly in speech, and parents have a right under the First Amendment to exercise authority over what their children hear.' Forcing families to accept government messaging — or pay a steep price to escape it — amounts to unconstitutional pressure. A lawsuit filed in Nebraska on Aug. 13 brings that argument into court — and could open a path toward universal school choice."

From "Are public schools unconstitutional? A Nebraska court will decide. The challenge to compulsory education combined with public-school-only funding could lead to universal school choice" (WaPo)(gift link).

The headline is bad. The argument is about compelled public schooling, and the Supreme Court recognized long ago that parents have a right to choose to send their children to private school. The lively dispute is over whether privately schooled children are entitled to their share of public spending. If public school is the only free choice, then the choice is heavily weighted toward the government's preferred speech.

The Hamburger article, in the WSJ, is "Is the Public School System Constitutional? Education consists mostly in speech, and parents have a right under the First Amendment to exercise authority over what their children hear." The word "system" makes that headline less bad. The system is that if you pay your own way you can control your child's schooling but government schooling is free.

The old Supreme Court case is Pierce v. Society of Sisters, a unanimous 1925 case. Memorable passage: "The fundamental theory of liberty upon which all governments in this Union repose excludes any general power of the state to standardize its children by forcing them to accept instruction from public teachers only. The child is not the mere creature of the state; those who nurture him and direct his destiny have the right, coupled with the high duty, to recognize and prepare him for additional obligations."