"Open Fly."

Subliminal Headline of the Day:

From the NYT home page, linking to this article (about influencers' high jinks at the Open).

I don't know about you, but I take line breaks seriously. I saw and thought about "Open Fly" far too long before the headline congealed into the imprecation to "let your freak flag fly." Is that expression still alive after all these decades? I associate it with Jimi Hendrix. And, yes, I see the original appearance of the expression came in Jimi's 1967 song “If 6 Was 9”:

They’re hoping soon my kind will drop and die
But I’m gonna wave my freak flag high

Then there was David Crosby, in 1970's "Almost Cut My Hair":

But I didn't and I wonder why
I feel like letting my freak flag fly
And I feel like I owe it to someone

But it's more than half a century later! Are we still saying that — I mean, other than jocosely and to refer to the trappings of hippiedom?

And I'm seeing it in the NYT now and then. For example, from 2022, there's "This Is What Happens When Election Deniers Let Their Freak Flag Fly." "Let your freak flag fly" seems to have come to mean "Be yourself" or "You do you," except that it includes the notion that what you are is weird. And not in a good way. For Crosby and Hendrix, it was good. Very good. 

"The political deployment of GLP-1s is fascistic... because the conditions under which they become necessary are shaped by a world fixated on genociding fat people...."

"Every time a government decides whose bodies must be protected and whose bodies must be erased for the sake of national imagery, this is body fascism."

Said Da’Shaun L. Harrison, quoted in "'Ungendered’ activist claims GLP-1s are ‘fascist’ and ‘genocide fat people’ in unhinged moment during DSA conference" (NY Post).

Also quoted there, Beatrice Adler-Bolton: "We have to give up the fantasy of being fitter than the fascists.... Fitness is a measure of relative disposability under capitalism. Our task is not to become less disposable to become more useful to the ruling order… The point is not to beat the fascists at their own game. It is not to lay a better claim on their own territory by being fitter, more eugenic. In fact, the more dysgenic, the better, I think...."

For an effort at defending Adler-Bolton, here's "anti-fascist dad" Matthew Remski:

"After landing, we called 911. As the plane began to submerge, we exited the aircraft and swam to a shallow area, where we waited until emergency responders reached us by boat."

Said Tom Tiffany, the GOP candidate for Governor here in Wisconsin, quoted in "Tom Tiffany's plane forced to make emergency water landing after campaign event/The Republican candidate for governor 'exited the aircraft and swam to a shallow area' according to a campaign statement" (WISN).

"Plenty of worthwhile things are easier than they once were. The real question is whether ease becomes dependence."

"Writers who hand their thinking to a machine will almost certainly become weaker. Writers who use AI to challenge their assumptions, strengthen their prose, and sharpen their judgment will become stronger than they would have been without it. The decisive variable isn’t the software. It’s the mind directing it. Good writing has always depended on disciplined thinking. And AI has made disciplined thinking more important and valuable than ever."

Writes Bryan A. Garner, in "AI Is Only as Good as the Writer Using It" (National Review).

Garner takes issue with what Bret Stephens wrote in the NYT: "I’m Begging You: Never Write with A.I." Stephens's column ends: "The next time you’re tempted to just adopt an automated response for a text message or an email, don’t. Type out a response that’s your own. Think of it as an act of free will. Or a vote against Trump. What takes you a few additional seconds is an act of resistance against an ever-dumber world."

How did Trump get in there? Talk about ever-dumber! It's the good old human touch. Wouldn't want to challenge it. Well, let me challenge it. I asked Grok to assess that Stephens quote so I could see what Stephens missed out on by not using AI to challenge his writing (as Garner advises). Grok's answer:

"Two weeks before we meet, Margaret Atwood purchased her burial plot. 'You may think that’s a kind of dour thing to be doing'..."

"... she says beadily. I assure her I don’t, and perhaps detect mild disappointment in her gaze. 'Well, if you were 19 you probably would find it quite creepy.'"

Writes Decca Aitkenhead, in "Margaret Atwood: ‘God made the middle finger for a reason’/The Handmaid’s Tale author at 86 on gender wars, trade wars, assisted dying and the power of not playing nice" (London Times).

I've heard of "beady" eyes, which I've always assumed were eyes that looked like beads, but what does it mean to speak "beadily"?

"She says she has never scared people 'on purpose,' but the pleasure she takes in her own power is apparent and exhilarating to observe. When I ask whether I should call her Margaret or the name she grew up with, Peggy, she inquires, 'Well, who are you speaking to right at the moment?' Er, to you. 'Yes, but who is me?' Amusement teases in her eyes. 'You’re not talking to the writer, because I’m not writing at the moment. So Peggy.' When I later mention some people who used to behave very badly towards me, her eyes narrow. 'Are any of them dead?' Not yet. 'Oh well, it could be arranged.'"

"Alongside his 'hypno-coaching' business, Curtis runs a series of spiritual retreats across America. For years he had dreamt of 'financial freedom' and used to touch wads of cash he kept in a bowl..."

"... in the hope that this would bring him wealth. Now he has an apartment in Tribeca, New York, on the street where he always wanted to live. And spends his summers on a superyacht. He has attained the reach and affluence he’d been trying to manifest for many years.This month he will publish The Book of Possibility, positioned somewhere between self-help, spirituality and what Curtis calls 'science.' 'Your inner vibrational world shapes your external reality,' is its message.... Curtis is a classic hunk, with cut biceps and a swoosh of grey hair. Before he answers a question, he likes to shut his eyes and press two fingers to his temple. "

From "Jim Curtis on life with Jennifer Aniston: 'I feel real partnership'/Hollywood’s favourite new self-help guru — and Jennifer Aniston’s boyfriend — tells Megan Agnew how he manifested his way to abundance" (London Times).

Clanger, clanker, clunker, clinker.

Words that have confused me in the last 24 hours:

"Clanger" — seen in the bobdylan subreddit: "Favourite Bob ‘clanger’ but you really love?" The "u" in "favourite" alerts you to a Britishism. We get the meaning from the context: "Despite Bob being the greatest lyricist of all time, he’s also got some, in my opinion, clangers." I was excited to read this thread because it took on a subject Meade and I had discussed that very day: the 3 lines in a row that end in the word "table" (lyrics here). Anyway... clanger... don't we Americans say "clunker"? Or is "clunker" more of a car, the kind of car Obama offered cash for. 

"Clanker" — seen at Metafilter: "I’m being hustled by clankers"/"These agents are not trying to make money for their creators. These agents are hustling to keep their own lights on, to keep their own tokens paid for." Again, it seems as though "clunker" would do, but I guess robots hustling about make a more high-pitched sound, not so high that it's a "clinker." But I learn that "clanker" is a hot new word. Here's the NYT in August 2025: "How ‘Clanker’ Became an Anti-A.I. Rallying Cry/The term, which was popularized by a 'Star Wars' show and is rooted in real frustrations with technology, has become a go-to slur against artificial intelligence and robots."

By the way, the OED tells us that "clinker" is U.S. slang that originated in baseball — another word for "error." It now means: "An error; a failure, a 'dud'; esp. a film, song, etc., of poor quality. Also (occasionally): an incompetent or unsuitable person." I like this quote from the NYT in 1983: "Peer pressure combines with our fear of being wimpishly irrelevant to prompt most of us to include a few real clinkers in our otherwise carefully considered presents."

"Clunker" has meant a bad old car since at least 1930, the date of this quote found by the OED: "His Honor Rides—Mayor Frank Edwards as he appeared yesterday on his mighty charger for the opening of the Automobile Show of 1930, with Cap'n Dobbsie riding a ‘klunker’, one of the show's exhibits." It's meant "a failure, a 'dud,'" since at least 1963.

I think clanger, clanker, clunker, and clinker are all words based on sound: clang, clank, clunk, clink. I'll put them in order of pitch, low to high: clunk, clang, clank, clink. There, now, confusion conquered. 

Clink!

*Rides off in Cap'n Dobbsie's klunker*

Sunrise.

"I realized that everything that I had heard about President Trump and everything I believed about him from the mainstream media was a lie. Everything."

"I discovered a self-effacing man of superior intelligence, of empathy and compassion, with an encyclopedic grasp of the issues — and in molecular detail — and, most of all, a near reckless courage to challenge vested interests and official orthodoxies. I found a man who cared deeply about transparency in government, who believed in protecting free speech more than anything, and the entire United States Constitution."

The theater of did he really catch it?

HOW DOES LUIS LARA KEEP DOING THIS?????? pic.twitter.com/kTT7iZZw0k

— Milwaukee Brewers (@Brewers) September 12, 2026

Catching the sun.

Just now:

Earlier, in the dark:

"I am calling on the Smithsonian Institution to honor the Life and Legacy of George Washington, America’s Greatest Hero, with a five-year exhibition..."

"... at the National Museum of American History, beginning now, and continuing through, February 22, 2032, the 300th anniversary of Washington’s birth. I am also calling on the Smithsonian to erect a 30-foot 'Colossus statue' of the Father of Our Country outside the Museum, to replace the so-called 'Infinity' sculpture that stands there today. That strange modernist sculpture tells visitors nothing about America, inspires no one, and honors none of our Great American Heroes...."

Writes President Trump, at Truth Social.

Choose one:

Vote:

"What we really want to do is tell the story of the bus within the context of interior Alaska."

I'm watching the video "'Into the Wild’ bus display receives $300K federal grant" at Alaska News Source.

The bus has been kept indoors at the University of Alaska. "Now, the Museum of the North plans to put the bus into a free 24/7 outdoor display in the woods behind the building... along with an indoor exhibition featuring items from McCandless and art inspired by his journey."

ADDED: Before the bus was kept indoors, it was out in the wild where McCandless left it, and it became a dangerous tourist attraction. I blogged about that here, with video, 6 years ago. An official explained:

"We encourage people to enjoy Alaska’s wild areas safely, and we understand the hold this bus has had on the popular imagination. However, this is an abandoned and deteriorating vehicle that was requiring dangerous and costly rescue efforts, but more importantly, was costing some visitors their lives. I’m glad we found a safe, respectful and economical solution to this situation."

But something was lost, and now they're trying to get it back.  

I think his mother was protecting him. She's giving an official story. Now leave her boy alone.

That's what I think, reading: "Boy, 15, Drifted for Days on an Overturned Boat Before Rescue/The teenager survived in the Bering Sea off Alaska without food or water before a fishing vessel pulled him to safety, the Coast Guard said" (NYT gift link).

The ordeal began Friday morning when the teenager, Derek Parker Aghnaanga, set sail with his older brother, Sidney Kulowiyi, 35, to catch halibut, according to their mother, Vina Kulowiyi. 

Ms. Kulowiyi declined to comment but referred to a public Facebook post in which she gave a brief account of their journey and rescue. “He was never afraid the whole time,” she wrote.... “He lived on prayer,” she said.

Sunrise.

"The A.I. Kill Switch Act requires commercial-scale A.I.s to have a built-in 'kill' option."

"When I first heard of the bill, I envisioned a government employee’s finger hovering over a cartoonish red button reading 'KILL,' but my imagination outpaced the legislative text. Rather, the 'switch' would reside inside the labs — that is, at OpenAI, or Anthropic, or similar — with D.H.S. acting as an external monitor. If a threatening incident like the Hugging Face hack occurred, D.H.S. could issue a stop command and the researchers would be forced to comply...." 

Writes Stephen Witt, author of "The Thinking Machine," in "This Is Really Bad" (NYT gift link).

I think the kill switch looks something like this: