"To lead a better life..."

She was great as the girlfriend to male comedians — Lenny Bruce and W.C. Fields — but she's also perfect as the mother of The Village People....

Goodbye to Valerine Perrine.

NYT obituary: "Valerie Perrine, Screen Siren Who Won Critical Acclaim, Dies at 82/Known early on for skin-baring temptress roles, she later earned rave reviews, a Cannes award and an Oscar nomination for her performance in the Lenny Bruce biopic 'Lenny.'"

Sunrise — 6:46, 6:57.

Write about whatever you want in the comments.

"OnlyFans was launched in 2016, the same year as TikTok, and started out by connecting models directly with fans to sell them photos and videos."

"Where pornography had mostly been viewed for free on online sites, OnlyFans developed a subscription-based model for creators with their own OnlyFans accounts, with most being sex workers. In 2021, OnlyFans banned sexually explicit video content on its site as it looked to bring on outside investors and responded to requests from banking partners and payment providers, including major credit card suppliers."

From "OnlyFans Owner Leonid Radvinsky Dies at 43/The adult entertainment platform owner ran the company since 2018 and passed away after a battle with cancer" (Hollywood Reporter).

The link on "banned sexually" goes to the 2021 article "'Am I Going to Lose My House?': OnlyFans’ Pivot Leaves Adult Content Creators With Fewer Options/As the social platform unveils a ban of sexually explicit content starting in October, sex workers say the company is placing them back in a financially precarious position that they had previously gotten out of because of the platform" (Hollywood Reporter).

I'd never noticed this ban until now, mixed in with the news of the death of the man who got very rich building the platform and who died at the age of 43.

UPDATE: This post seems like a deliberate trick to lure readers into revealing their familiarity with OnlyFans! It was only after posting that I realized that Hollywood Reporter was bad at reporting the complete facts. Neither the new article nor the 2021 article revealed that the ban was never implemented. I suspect it's because of an assumption that its readers know what goes on at OnlyFans. I knew enough to write "I'd never noticed this ban until now." I never noticed what was not there to be noticed. Noted.

I'm reading "How a Family of 3 Lives on $500,000 on the Upper West Side" in The New York Times.

Excerpt:

Their household income is roughly $500,000 per year. While they make a good living, they try to be frugal and are saving money to buy an apartment. They moved into their roughly 800-square-foot rental eight years ago when it was just them and their dog, Peabody, a Maltese poodle. Now their son’s crib is steps away from their bed. They installed a curtain between the bed and the crib to keep the light out.... Since they share a room with their son, he often wakes them up around 5 a.m. 'In the sweetest and most adorable way,' Ms. Gossai said.

They make $500,000! $500,000 and they've got a makeshift curtain separating their baby from their bed and are resorting to framing the situation as adorable. 

I wonder how much thinking went into referring to the dog as a "Maltese poodle," rather than a "Maltipoo." Is this a sign of the great turn against the -oodle? Or is this run-of-the-mill resistance to cutesiness?

"Stop. Stop. Stop. Stop. Stop truck 1. Stop."

How does this happen?

"I am pleased to report that the United States of America, and the country of Iran, have had, over the last two days, very good and productive conversations..."

"... regarding a complete and total resolution of our hostilities in the Middle East. Based on the tenor and tone of these in-depth, detailed, and constructive conversations, which will continue throughout the week, I have instructed the Department of War to postpone any and all military strikes against Iranian power plants and energy infrastructure for a five-day period, subject to the success of the ongoing meetings and discussions. Thank you for your attention to this matter!"

Writes President Donald J. Trump at Truth Social. He's got it in all caps. He's shouting it from the rooftop, I guess. That doesn't make it true, but I hope it's true.

UPDATE: "Oil Prices Tumble and Stocks Rise as Trump Backs Off Threats to Iran Infrastructure" (NYT)("Despite Tehran responding to Mr. Trump by saying that no such talks were taking place, the gains in stocks and drop in oil mostly held").

Moby was "taken aback at how unevolved" The Kinks were.

Here's Moby (in The Guardian):

Lola by the Kinks came up on a Spotify playlist, and I thought the lyrics were gross and transphobic. I like their early music, but I was really taken aback at how unevolved the lyrics are.

Here's the Wikipedia article for "Lola" and here are the lyrics. You know them: "Girls will be boys and boys will be girls/It's a mixed up, muddled up, shook up world/Except for Lola," etc. etc. Video here.

Dave Davies deigned to respond: the X response from Dave Davies: "I am highly insulted that MOBY would accuse my brother of being ‘unevolved’ or transphobic in any way."

Unevolved!

I thought The Kinks wanted to be unevolved! 

That's "Apeman," my favorite track on the 1970 album, "Lola Versus Powerman and the Moneygoround, Part One." That's also, obviously, where you'll find the more familiar track, "Lola."

What's so great about evolution?

Sunrise — 6:34, 6:55.

Write about whatever you want in the comments.

"Sometimes you have to escalate to de-escalate...."

Said Scott Bessent, on "Meet the Press" today, answering the question "Is the president in the process of winding down this war or escalating the conflict?"

Another highlight from Bessent: "The command and control system of the Iranian regime is in chaos. This is Hitler’s bunker. Hitler’s dead. Himmler’s dead. Göring is dead. Most of what you’re seeing are lone wolf activities. The mid-range ICBM that was shot off, these two missiles yesterday, that’s out of desperation...."

On how long the war will last:

Trump starts tearing into Talarico, pivots to "Newscum," and ends with "Kamala is back!"

A new Truth Social post from Trump (boldface mine):

The Democrat running in Texas, James Talarico, turns out to be a FRAUD! It showed after the Election when he beat Low IQ Candidate Jasmine Crockett (No relation to Davy Crockett!). He’s got six Genders, insults to Jesus, only vegan food, was wearing a mask in 2023 and 2024, and is a weak, ineffective guy who we “allowed” to win prior to releasing the avalanche of information we had on him because, as bad as Crockett was as a Candidate, this guy is worse! I believe that any human being running against him, sick, incompetent, close to death or, even a child, would win. He may be the Worst Candidate I have ever seen, other than, of course, Gavin Newscum who admitted that he suffers from mental incapacity, is unable to read a speech, and is dumb but, in saying “the dumb comment,” referred to his audience, and therefore became, in the eyes of African Americans, A TOTAL RACIST — which is probably true! Gavin admits that he’s a Low IQ individual, which typically is not good for winning the Presidency. His interview may have been the worst ever given by a “professional” politician. I believe, it takes him OUT OF THE RACE. Kamala is back! President DONALD J. TRUMP

Also, Trump has a Truth post with a video from the new "Saturday Night Live UK," the same clip I discussed and passed along in my first post of the morning, here. So we're already discussing that clip in the comments over there, where Rabel wrote: "Unflattering representation of Starmer. Shows him living up to the 'coward' claim. Minimal bashing of Trump. It wasn't especially funny but I agree with the message in the attempted humour."

"I swear to God if I were a young woman today I would choose celibacy over having the government in charge of my body. Stripping woman of the right to bodily autonomy is in itself a form of rape."

So writes one commenter at the Washington Post article "Woman charged with murder after allegedly taking abortion pills, going to hospital/The 31-year-old Georgia woman went to the emergency room with severe pain after allegedly taking abortion pills at home, according to police and court records."

We're told "Alexia Moore delivered a 22- to 24-week-old fetus 'with cardiac activity' in December, according to an arrest warrant, which cited Moore’s medical records. The newborn, a girl, died within an hour."

Delivered a fetus? The child was born alive, then died. I think they mean that they detected cardiac activity while it was in utero, so they delivered what was, on delivery, a baby.

"Think about the 250th. A lot's going to happen this summer on the Mall. But come the end of the year, what's still going to still be on the Mall? The bronze bison."

From "Smithsonian brings bison back to the National Mall with gigantic statues" (WaPo)(gift link, because this is all about the photographs).

Andy Beshear seeks to distinguish himself as the anti-Vance.

I'm reading "Andy Beshear Delivers a Scathing Attack on JD Vance in Ohio, Stoking 2028 Tensions/Mr. Beshear, the Democratic governor of Kentucky, sharply criticized Mr. Vance as both angle for potential presidential runs" (NYT).

Speaking at a local Democratic Party gala in the Ohio county where Mr. Vance grew up, Mr. Beshear accused the vice president of talking down to the people of Kentucky.... And he argued that “Hillbilly Elegy” — Mr. Vance’s well-read memoir about his youth in Kentucky and Ohio — amounted to “poverty tourism” and “trafficked in this tired stereotype” about the region.... 

Mr. Beshear has repeatedly accused Mr. Vance of overstating his blue-collar roots and misrepresenting himself as a product of Appalachia.

Waking up at 3 a.m. — "the quiet interstice of night"....

"A defibrillator delivers up to 1,000 volts to a patient’s heart; inmates executed by electric chair typically receive about 2,000."

"A typical lightning strike, by contrast, transmits 100 million volts or more. But lightning races through the body in milliseconds, and therefore often spares it. Some people... recall the moment vividly.... the flash of light whiting out all vision; the sound, which many survivors say is the loudest they’ve ever heard. The pain, for some, is excruciating, yet others feel no pain at all. 'It felt like adrenaline, but stronger,' one survivor reported. 'I felt an incredible pulsing,' another said, 'a burning sensation from head to toe.'... [Afterwards, f]orgetfulness, sleep problems, sexual dysfunction, and headaches that manifest as intense pressure—like 'my eyeballs are just popping out,” one person told me—are common. Some people become hypersensitive to noise; others lose their hearing entirely. A few, almost miraculously, are freed of a prior ailment: a bad leg healed; vision, once impaired, restored.... Some have to relearn simple things, things they’ve done their whole life—how to read, how to sing, how to ride a bike.... One woman told me she often feels as though water is running down her limbs.... Inexplicable odors can emerge; food can taste like cardboard or glue...."

From "What 100 Million Volts Do to the Body and Mind/The odds of being struck by lightning in America in a given year are one in 1.2 million. How does the experience reorient a person’s sense of chance, of fate?" (The Atlantic)(gift link).