Sunrise — 6:25, 6:30, 6:31, 6:39.

Write about whatever you want in the comments.

At the Saturday Afternoon Café...

... you can talk about whatever you want.

"And I did my little audition and they said can you do it more southern? And I'm like, are you shitting me?"

"It's like, you got to be shitting me. I said, well, what you have to understand is I actually did just get off the turnip truck from back there and this is how you talk.... And it was like, oh, I, I see what they're getting at. Yeah. So they wanted the Foghorn Leghorn — you know, now, ovah heah, what we have is — and... I grew up down there. I never heard that.... There are a lot of performances over the years where people who are not from the South played the part that actually used that accent. And they win Academy Awards and stuff. And I'm like, wow. So anyway, I didn't get this part. And the guy who got the part literally sounded like he was in the Bronx, but he was doing that thing, you know, I thought, wow, this is gonna be tough out here...."

Said Billy Bob Thornton, talking to Joe Rogan about the Southern accent.

Scroll back to 25:35 if you want to hear Joe link the Southern drawl to hookworm infection. I didn't think I'd hear Joe talking about "dewormers" again, but he does. 

"People like Trump and Putin are not politicians; they are artists who create alternate realities."

"They tell stories, invent alternative facts, enact daily dramas, construct show trials and reinvent religions — they build a world. In their world, the people who felt humiliated are now dominant and doing the humiliating. Russia felt humiliated by the West in the 1990s. Many working-class American voters have felt humiliated by coastal elites for decades. In this alternative world, the snobs suffer. People support an authoritarian not because they like this or that policy but because they embrace the authoritarian’s artistic vision. Performance artists like Trump and Putin can be dishonest, offensive and outrageous, but there is one rule: They must never be boring."

Writes David Brooks, in "Imagining What’s in Trump’s Brain" (NYT)(gift link).

I'm expending one of my gift links on this one because this snippet, taken out of context, gives rise to the question Are artists authoritarians?

Brooks is "imagining what's in Trump's brain" and we're stuck with the added task of imagining what's in Brooks's brain when he's imagining what's in Trump's brain. Trump is an artist because he's imagining — conjuring up an "alternative world" that is satisfying to the downtrodden. But don't all politicians depict the world in a somewhat abstract and fictional framework? They impose a narrative. They choose which facts to highlight, while their opponents select other facts from the big bag of "facts." The "coastal elites," the "snobs," have their creative narratives too... and this David Brooks column is one of them.

Quite apart from Trump and Brooks, I am fascinated by the question Are artists authoritarians? I am reminded of something I blogged 20 years ago: "To be a great artist is inherently right wing."

"Asked why the park was in the desert kingdom, where free speech is curtailed by the regime and homosexuality is a capital offence, [Mr. Beast] said..."

"... most of his fans were outside the United States. 'Middle of the world because a majority of my audience is outside America and we have a big Middle Eastern fanbase,' he wrote on X. 'Wanted to give them a chance to participate!'"

From "World’s biggest YouTuber MrBeast unveils theme park in Saudi Arabia/Jimmy Donaldson, who is known for controversial stunts involving eye-popping prizes, says Beast Land will not be a 'typical theme park'" (London Times).

1. How can any point on the face of a globe be considered the "middle"? It could be the middle of the land mass, but Saudi Arabia isn't that. It's somewhere in Turkey/Iran.  It could be the middle of the population mass, but that would be somewhere in northern India or southern China.

2. The U.S. is the biggest slice of Mr. Beast's audience — 25–30% — but it's true that the majority is outside of the U.S. and the Middle East as a whole is a big chunk — 20–25%. I'm also seeing that Saudi Arabia, of all the countries in the world, has the largest percentage of the population using YouTube — 95.8%.

3. One must infer that the real attraction for Mr. Beast is the money — combined with some idea of "reaching" the people through the absurd infusion of American popular culture? A better question is why the Saudis want this stuff on their land? For tourism? Isn't their tourism better if they keep everything traditional and historical?

4. There is some argument that Mr. Beast is genuinely intrigued by the idea of making a new kind of theme park. Imagine going to Saudi Arabia to break loose from the shackles of theme park conventions. 

Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson empowers Trump to continue withholding food money.

The NYT reports: "Supreme Court Temporarily Allows Trump to Curtail Food Stamp Funding/The temporary ruling by Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, blocking a lower court order to fully fund the aid, added to the uncertainty around the nation’s largest anti-hunger program."

See? It's not all about empathy.

Justice Jackson, a member of the court’s three-justice liberal bloc who has spoken forcefully against many of the Trump administration’s policies, issued a decision on the stay because she is responsible for emergency applications from that region of the country. She said in the order that she expected the appeals court to evaluate the matter and issue a more complete ruling swiftly.

Still, many Democrats around the country erupted in anger on Friday night, with some accusing President Trump of trying to turn nutrition assistance — a program on which one in eight Americans rely — into a bargaining chip while the government remains closed.

“Trump fought for this,” Gov. Kathy Hochul of New York, a Democrat, said in a post on social media. “He doesn’t care if millions of Americans go hungry.”

Did Hochul say that before or after Jackson showed she "doesn't care"?

Sunrise — 6:34, 6:40, 6:44.

Write about whatever you want in the comments.

David Hajdu, reviewing Patti Smith's new memoir, sounds cranky about people who write too many memoirs.

"How many memoirs can a richly lived life fill? Eleanor Roosevelt published four autobiographies. Shirley MacLaine has written at least five so far. Charles Lindbergh published six autobiographical books, though only 'The Spirit of St. Louis' won a Pulitzer Prize. Maya Angelou wrote six or seven, depending on how you categorize the writing. Now, with 'Bread of Angels' [commission earned], Patti Smith has matched Angelou in one of the few things the two poets have in common, with more than six books of autobiographical prose and prose poetry.... [Smith] could have spun the contents of 'Bread of Angels' into at least three separate books and surpassed Angelou numerically...."

I'm reading "Taking Stock: Patti Smith Looks Back on Everything/From cradle to late life, the godmother of punk remembers it all — including, especially, her life with the late Fred 'Sonic' Smith" (NYT).

If memoir is your genre, you write memoirs. It doesn't matter how eventful or "richly lived" your life is. You rustle up your material — whatever material is still lying around raw — and you make it happen. 

But I think Hajdu does seem to like the book: "Now we know that what Patti and Fred Smith did was set up housekeeping in a stone house on a mucky canal, where she wrote on a little card table... Working at her card table, assessing and adjusting her priorities, she came to see herself mainly as a writer.... A core theme of 'Bread of Angels,' then, is how its author became someone who would write something like 'Bread of Angels.'..."

Elise Stenfanik — announcing her run for NY Governor — uses Zoran Mamdani's word: "affordability."

"There's no question New York is facing an affordability crisis.... Kathy Hochul made New York the most unaffordable state in the nation, crushing families with sky-high taxes, unaffordable rent, soaring energy costs, and record high grocery bills and cozied up through a defund the police, tax hiking anti-semitic communist.... Elise Stefanik will make New York affordable and safe.... We are the most unaffordable state in the nation because of single party Democrat rule led by Kathy Hochul. As a working mom, congresswoman, and fighter, Elise knows families need more help, and she'll make New York affordable.... With everything on the line, we need someone who will deliver results and make New York affordable and safe for families and small businesses to not just survive, but thrive...."

So Mamdani just got elected on the promise of making NYC affordable, and he needs to work with Hochul if he is to get anywhere toward fulfillment of the promise, and Hochul has Stefanik hot on her heels, so Hochul is powerfully motivated to help progress toward this affordability in the coming year, running up to the 2026 election. Hochul must act. Stefanik will say she's doing it all wrong, and with Mamdani — "the communist" — as her partner in affordability-seeking, she probably will be. 

"In 2022, a group of union members asked the Sierra Club to 'follow [its] values of antiracism and justice' and cancel sightseeing trips it operated in Israel...."

"'Palestine is an environmental issue from our standpoint,' Erica Dodt, the president of the Progressive Workers’ Union, which includes Sierra Club employees, said in an interview. 'People are a huge part of our environment.'... Internally, the club’s commitment to a progressive workplace curdled into a culture of allegations and investigations.... Delia Malone, an ecologist and volunteer for the club’s Colorado chapter, said she heard from attorneys hired by the Sierra Club, seeking to interview her as part of an investigation against her. 'I said, "What’s the claim, and who made the claim?" And they said, "We can’t tell you that,"' Ms. Malone said. Ms. Malone thought that someone else in the chapter had filed a complaint. She recalled an incident when a club staff member had scolded her for saying that the club should lobby Colorado’s legislature for more protections for wolves. 'One of the staff said, "That’s fine, Delia. But what do wolves have to do with equity, justice and inclusion?"' Ms. Malone said...."

From "The Sierra Club Embraced Social Justice. Then It Tore Itself Apart. The environmental group gave up its singular focus on climate change for a broader agenda. The ensuing internal strife left it weakened as it takes on the Trump administration" (NYT).

"Nancy Pelosi, the old and broken political hack who Impeached me twice and lost, is finally calling it 'quits.'"

"She illegally made a fortune in the Stock Market, ripped off the American Public, and was a disaster for America. I’m glad to see the stench of Nancy Pelosi go!!!"

Wrote Trump, about Pelosi, an hour ago, at Truth Social.

I like how he didn't put anything sexist in there.

The moon at 6:34 this morning.

"[T]he character of Mr. Obama, played by T.J. Wilkins, is the near-perfect embodiment of the American ideal — a noble, caring patriot who could catch a beat."

"(The only character more perfect, it goes without saying, is Michelle.) Part revival meeting, part endangered species preserve for normie Democrats who can afford theater tickets, by the end, the show prompted audience members to put their hands in the air. I was less ecstatic...."

Writes David Litt about a "Hamilton"-like theater production about Obama, in "The New Obama Musical Made Me Feel Old" (NYT).

As the headline suggests, Litt, a former speechwriter for Obama, goes on and on about himself, which makes me assume the play isn't much of a play. It's no "Hamilton"... and it actually begins with an announcement "This is not 'Hamilton.'" The name of the new musical is "44: The Musical."

I was a bit taken aback by "a noble, caring patriot who could catch a beat." I think "could catch a beat" means about the same thing as "had rhythm." That's a stereotype about black people that sophisticated people learned to stop vocalizing back in the 1970s.

Litt continues: "While I’m not proud to admit it, watching Mr. Obama receive the cherry-tree treatment awakened my inner curmudgeon.... 'This was so much more difficult than you make it look!' I inwardly grumped...." I'm not sure what "cherry-tree treatment" is supposed to mean. Treated like a legendary hero (George Washington)? That would make me grumpy too... except it wouldn't because I can see from a thousand miles away this show is not for me. It's hard to understand Litt, a person who would go to this show but is nevertheless displeased.

"As for the Government’s suggestion that the President is harmed by not being able to impose a uniform definition of sex across various regulatory schemes..."

"... that assertion is just another species of the far-fetched contention that the President must be injured whenever he is prevented from doing as he wishes.... The Government also fails to explain why it needs a uniform definition of sex, much less why such a uniform definition needs to be imposed now such that it cannot await the outcome of this litigation...."

Writes Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson — joined by Justices Kagan and Sotomayor — dissenting in Trump v. Orr, which granted a stay of a district court’s preliminary injunction against a new Executive Branch policy that required all new passports to show the individual's "biological sex" (AKA "sex assigned at birth").

"When I have an issue that I want to speak about, people will hear."

NEW: Sydney Sweeney refuses to apologize for the American Eagle jeans ad after GQ's Katherine Stoeffel continuously tried to get her to cave.

Stoeffel: I mean, Trump tweeted about the jeans ad ... that just seems like a very crazy moment...

Sweeney: It was surreal.

Stoeffel:… pic.twitter.com/F9ihaeMqeq

— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) November 6, 2025

For the Annals of Unsaid Things.

Sunrise — 6:18, 6:32, 6:45.

Write about whatever you want in the comments.