Sunrise — 7:08.

Talk about whatever you want in the comments.

Goodbye to Diane Keaton.

Diane Keaton, 1946-2025.

ADDED: I was just thinking of her this morning. On the sunrise walk, we passed a man with a dog and I said to him, "Your dog is neat." And then I wondered why on earth I'd said "neat" and I thought it's like I'm channeling Annie Hall. See: "Lines from 'Annie Hall' Containing the Word 'Neat'" (Grok)(#6 is "We're not having an affair. He's married. He just happens to think I'm neat").

Now I'm looking back over all my old posts with the "Diane Keaton" tag. I see that she came up on the second day of this blog:

"It’s an emotional gas-main explosion, from people who felt unheard, patronized, left behind...."

Writes Michael Hirschorn, explaining why he's voting for Mamdani, in "With Mamdani, the Left Finally Has Its Trump" (NYT).

This is a febrile, statue-toppling time, one with some parallels to the politics of previous moments of authoritarian ascendancy, when hard-left movements sprung up in response to the right. But it’s not quite a “horseshoe” moment, either. That’s the theory that far-left and far-right ideologies often converge around similar ideas in times like these. As we watch Mr. Trump lay waste to multiple generations of conservative dogma, it starts to become clear that ideology of any kind is inadequate to capture what is happening in the electorate.... 

"It’s true that Pynchon can construct a cathedral out of language, but he also seems to have no idea where the light switches are located."

"His fiction’s chief flaws include characters so flimsy they are dead on arrival, superficial plots, a tin ear for dialogue and an adolescent awe of spectacular violence. These are merely the charges that Pynchon cheerfully levies against himself, in the introduction to 'Slow Learner' (1984).... To them I would add: an unfortunate habit of delivering exposition through dialogue ('Let me guess, you’re wondering why are we sending you eight hundred miles out of town'); pacing so robotic it feels lifted from 1950s comic books; an almost compulsive busyness that feels like a kind of horror vacui, a fear of the empty page; flat jokes; wooden romances; ridiculous attempts at menace ('It’s OK, I’m a creature of the streets, all gatted up, don’t trust nobody'); and an uncomfortable fixation on Shirley Temple. Can I confess that this list was compiled with affection, even admiration?"

Writes Parul Sehgal, in "Thomas Pynchon Saw Where America Was Headed. What Does He See Now?/The novelist anticipated our bizarre present. How does his latest book hold up in an age of eroding reality?" (NYT)(reviewing Pynchon's new novel "Shadow Ticket).

"I assumed that I would at least meet with Streep so that she could study my mannerisms and pick up my Ohio accent."

"I straightened up my New Yorker office, expecting a call any day announcing that she was heading over. I mentioned it to friends at work—something along the lines of 'Oh, Meryl Streep might be dropping by, just in case you see a stranger wandering around,' and tried to imagine which gestures of mine she might focus on. Time passed. More time passed. I finally called Ed and asked him when Meryl was coming to see me. He told me she didn’t need to, because she had already created the character on her own."

Writes Susan Orlean, in 'The Making of “Adaptation'/When your quirky book becomes a quirkier movie" (The New Yorker).

"Ed" = Ed Saxon, a co-producer of the movie based on Orlean's book "The Orchid Thief."

"Some of my readers hated the movie and were angry that I had allowed 'The Orchid Thief' to be adapted in that way. My response was to remind them that nothing in the book had changed, no matter what the film had made of it.... We see books as beautiful and meaningful and important and profound, but we see movies as dreamlike. Being a character onscreen transports you forever into another, more enchanted realm."

Woe to the cartoonist who dares to satirize a black person.

I'm reading "VA Dems Are Getting Desperate: Powhatan County Dems Post Blatantly Racist Cartoon of Winsome Earle-Sears" (Twitchy).

Blatantly racist????

How is it even racist at all?

When a particular person is drawn — as an individual and not as a stereotype — it is not racist. It's important to be able to continue the art of cartooning and to treat black public figures the same way as other public figures. We need to be able to keep making fun of power-seekers and power-holders, whatever race they happen to be. The charge of racism here is wrong and dangerous. 

Highly organized to say not highly organized.

New talking point directive just issued #AntifaDoesntExist pic.twitter.com/1BbAe8ql0q

— Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) October 10, 2025

"At the meeting her husband handed the Russian leader a 'peace letter' from his wife which called on Putin to restore the 'melodic laughter' to children suffering from the war in Ukraine."

"'Much has unfolded since President Putin received my letter last August,' said Mrs Trump, 55. 'He responded in writing, signalling a willingness to engage with me directly and outlining details regarding the Ukrainian children residing in Russia. 'For the past three months, both sides have participated in several back-channel meetings and calls, all in good faith. My representative has been working directly with President Putin’s team to ensure the safe reunification of children with their families between Russia and Ukraine. In fact, eight children have been rejoined with their families during the past 24 hours.'"

From "Melania Trump secures release of children abducted from Ukraine/The first lady said she was working ‘directly’ with President Putin to release more children that were brought to Russia" (London Times).

"Leaves have fallen for millions of years, so of course plants and animals have come to expect or even rely on them to complete their life cycles."

"It’s our job as ecological gardeners to figure out how to incorporate these natural processes into our landscapes in ways that are both functional and beautiful."

Said Rebecca McMackin, the lead horticulturist for the American Horticultural Society, quoted in "Why Leaving the Leaves Is Better for Your Yard/Keeping leaves in your yard can bolster the number and variety of species around — and the perks go beyond just the fall season" (NYT).

On the way to the sunrise, we noticed the moon... and the autumn leaves.

That's my photo, and this is Meade's:

"President Trump has put Columbus on a list of statues he wants included in his proposed National Garden of American Heroes. This week he said 'We’re back, Italians'..."

"... after he signed a proclamation for Columbus Day, a federal holiday he has called for celebrating after some cities and states have either replaced it or supplemented it with celebrations of Indigenous Peoples’ Day. 'Before our very eyes, left-wing radicals toppled his statues, vandalized his monuments, tarnished his character, and sought to exile him from our public spaces,' the proclamation reads...."

From "Beheaded and Sent to Watery Graves, Columbus Statues Get New Life/More than 30 monuments to Christopher Columbus were toppled or taken down in 2020. Now some are being restored, and finding new, usually less-public homes" (NYT).

The face covering I was about to bemoan... and then wanted to buy for myself.

I'm reading "Why Can’t Fashion See What It Does to Women? A season that included off-putting, sometimes cruel designs left us wondering about what it all means." That's by the NYT fashion critic Vanessa Friedman, and I'm giving you a free-access link so you can read the whole argument and see all the pictures. But I just want to concentrate on one thing.

At Courrèges, Nicolas Di Felice covered the faces of many models, in an otherwise elegant show inspired by the idea of the sun and rising temperatures, and shielded them from view. But even if the shades were meant as protection, the suggestion that a woman would need to hide was problematic....

Hide from the sun?! Is the sun sexist? I spend my life hiding from the sun — going for walks before sunrise or in the shadiest woods. I had a childhood full of sunburns, and the calendar of my old age is studded with dermatology appointments. I'm averse to the ritual of slathering sunblock goo all over. I prefer protective clothing when I can get it. And to me this Courrèges thing is fantastic.

It's not like the other things pictured at the link, e.g. "Arm-trapping 'cocoon' bodysuits at Alaïa, and mouth guards that stretched the face into rictus grins at Margiela."

Here's the Vogue article about the Courrèges show: 

Too rainy to go out for the sunrise today...

... but we got out later. It's still quite green around here. Just a touch of red.

Write about whatever you want in the comments.

"I dedicate this [Nobel Peace P]rize to the suffering people of Venezuela and to President Trump for his decisive support of our cause!"

This recognition of the struggle of all Venezuelans is a boost to conclude our task: to conquer Freedom.

We are on the threshold of victory and today, more than ever, we count on President Trump, the people of the United States, the peoples of Latin America, and the democratic…

— María Corina Machado (@MariaCorinaYA) October 10, 2025

Profound and multidimensional disrespect.

It is weird to me that these people don't see the irony of honoring "marginalized communities" by making a beautiful historical building really ugly. https://t.co/j7GEtCFsMY

— JD Vance (@JDVance) October 10, 2025

One of the comments over there: "I haven't seen a single person yet mention that this isn't real graffiti. These are carefully pasted vinyl stickers that will be taken off in a couple months when the exhibition ends. They obviously didn't permanently deface a sacred building."

Good thing they were carefully pasted. They could have been carelessly pasted. And it could have been real spray paint. It's hard to imagine any religion but Christianity inviting and celebrating this kind of humiliation. 

"But one of the things that's so problematic about Colorado's law is that it undermines the well-being of kids that are struggling with gender dysphoria."

"And so Colorado accepts that up to 90 percent of kids who struggle with that before puberty will work their way through it and realign their identity with their sex. But this law says that if any of those children go to a licensed professional and say: I would like help realigning my identity with my sex, that licensed professional has to decline to help them.... Moreover, if they're continuing down the path of transition, then, unfortunately, they get locked into that path, and, eventually, it leads, over 90 percent of the time, once they start down the path of social transition, it will lead to the route of medicalized transition, which the Cass report tells us comes with a lot of harm and devastation...."

From the oral argument in Chiles v. Salazar.

Note that 90% is used in 2 different contexts in that argument.