"School called and asked why one of my children have not logged on. I explained that me and my wife both work and suggested that maybe Mayor Mandummy could come by the house to help the kids get connected."

From the comments section to the NY Post article "Remote learning is not for the weak — here’s how a day of it went thanks to Mamdani’s no-snow day verdict."

And here's the most popular comment:

I looked at my grandkids this morning and said - "OK, here is the deal. Get dressed for the snow, as we are hitting the park, and NO computers today or Tue. We go back to school on WED.......but today and tomorrow is fun, french fries, milk shakes, pancakes - with lots of nutella"

They screamed, and we had a blast.

They ran and ran and ran around in the snow and they were so adorable.

Sunrise — 7:20, 7:25.

Please use the comments section to begin topics of discussion — topics not already under discussion in other threads. In particular, I'm putting the discord in Minnesota off limits. Go to this post or this one to talk about that. The overnight open thread is not a place for anger and repetition. Bring some light.

AND: I put up an even newer post on the immigration strife. I'll update the time of this post so it can continue to sit on top of the day's travails.

"Gregory Bovino has been removed from his role as Border Patrol 'commander at large' and will return to his former job in El Centro, California, where he is expected to retire soon..."

"... according to a DHS official and two people with knowledge of the change. Bovino’s sudden demotion is the clearest sign yet that the Trump administration is reconsidering its most aggressive tactics after the killing Saturday of 37-year-old Alex Pretti by Border Patrol agents under Bovino’s command.... For the past seven months, Bovino has been the public face of a traveling immigration crackdown on cities governed by Democrats. Noem and other Trump officials gave Bovino the 'commander' title and sent him and his masked border agents to Chicago, Charlotte, New Orleans, and then Minneapolis. Bovino became a MAGA social-media star as he traveled the country with his own film crew and used social media to hit back at Democratic politicians and random critics online. Veteran ICE and CBP officials grew more and more uneasy as Bovino worked outside his agency’s chain of command and appeared to relish his role as a political actor...."

From "Greg Bovino Loses His Job/The Border Patrol chief has been ousted from his role as 'commander at large,' and will return to El Centro" (The Atlantic)(gift link).

Bovino was the one in the "Nazi" coat:

unmistakably drawn from fascist pageantry. Take Border Patrol commander Bovino’s long black trench coat, worn I would guess not for function but for theatrical authority. It is costume politics, a visual performance of domination meant to intimidate [not] persuade
✍️@HenryGiroux pic.twitter.com/AFWKS8jInr

— Jeff Ballinger (@press4change) January 21, 2026

"Governor Tim Walz called me with the request to work together with respect to Minnesota. It was a very good call..."

"... and we, actually, seemed to be on a similar wavelength. I told Governor Walz that I would have Tom Homan call him, and that what we are looking for are any and all Criminals that they have in their possession. The Governor, very respectfully, understood that, and I will be speaking to him in the near future. He was happy that Tom Homan was going to Minnesota, and so am I! We have had such tremendous SUCCESS in Washington, D.C., Memphis, Tennessee, and New Orleans, Louisiana, and virtually every other place that we have 'touched' and, even in Minnesota, Crime is way down, but both Governor Walz and I want to make it better!"

That's from PRESIDENT DONALD J. TRUMP at Truth Social.

That's nice. I can think of a couple cynical things to say, but I'll leave them unsaid.

Those wonderful "-id" adjectives.

A few posts down, I used the word "fervid," which I like, and have even blogged about before, and a couple commenters took notice.

I like it, not just for the meaning but visually, the letters. Something about that "-id" ending, which seems a bit unusual for an adjective. And yet, if you go looking, you'll find a lot.

Some of my favorites: fetid, flaccid, florid, gelid, horrid, insipid, intrepid, languid, limpid, livid, lucid, lurid, morbid, pallid, placid, putrid, sordid, stolid, stupid, torrid, trepid, turbid, vivid.

I looked up the "-id" ending in the OED and I got this strange response:

"To Those I've Hurt/By Ye Formerly known as Kanye West."

"Twenty-five years ago, I was in a car accident that broke my jaw and caused injury to the frontal lobe of my brain. At the time, the focus was on the visible damage - the fracture, the swelling, and the immediate physical trauma. The deeper injury, the one inside my skull, went unnoticed...."

Writes Kanye West, in what is a paid advertisement in The Wall Street Journal.

It wasn't properly diagnosed until 2023. That medical oversight caused serious damage to my mental health and led to my bipolar type-1 diagnosis. Bipolar disorder comes with its own defense system. Denial. When you're manic, you don't think you're sick. You think everyone else is overreacting. You feel like you're seeing the world more clearly than ever, when in reality you're losing your grip entirely.

"The killing of Alex Pretti is a heartbreaking tragedy. It should also be a wake-up call to every American, regardless of party..."

"... that many of our core values as a nation are increasingly under assault. Federal law enforcement and immigration agents have a tough job. But Americans expect them to carry out their duties in a lawful, accountable way, and to work with, rather than against, state and local officials to ensure public safety. That's not what we're seeing in Minnesota. In fact, we're seeing the opposite."

So reads the "Statement by President Obama and Mrs. Obama," posted on X by Barack Obama.

We were just talking about the "microvacation."

Remember that guy who "flew to Athens for 8 hours, where he toured the Parthenon... then hopped on a flight to Egypt, saw the pyramids, rode a camel and visited the Grand Egyptian Museum, all before returning to San Francisco in time for Sunday dinner."

I thought there needed to be some decent proportion between the time on planes and the time used to good effect at the destination. But check out this guy, flying all the way from NYC to Tokyo and back with just a single day in Tokyo. No hotel, no packing, just dropping in, hitting a few sights and eateries, and getting the hell back out. He landed in Tokyo in the morning and flew back out that same night:

"Big Time, Strong, Glamorous, and Exciting."

What do you want from football?

I'm reading Trump, complaining about football, at Truth Social: "I can’t watch the new NFL Kickoff. Like many others, I just turn my head. Who has the right to make such a change? So disparaging to the game! The original was Big Time, Strong, Glamorous, and Exciting. The ridiculous new Kickoff Rule takes away the prestige and power of the game. I hope College Football doesn’t follow suit!"

Glamorous.... the most powerful man in the world cries out for the old-time macho brutal collision of giant male bodies and what he's missing is the glamor.

I'm looking up "glamorous," and I like, for Trump's use of the word, the OED's second definition: "Attractive or appealing in an exciting way, esp. because out of the ordinary or suggestive of a more colourful or thrilling way of life." One of the sample quotes is from the 1960 novel, "The Custard Boys": "The cinema, the newspapers and the war books conditioned us to look upon war as glamorous and exciting."

Perhaps somewhere in Trump's fervid mind there's the notion that MAGA really means "Make America Glamorous Again."

"In his nonfiction book 'A Swim in a Pond in the Rain”' (2021), about reading the Russian masters, he described 'people who’ve put reading at the center of their lives because they know from experience that reading makes them more expansive, generous people.'"

"This is pleasant to imagine, and I suppose it’s true up to a point, but who doesn’t know a lot of big readers who are jackasses from head to toe? One thing’s certain: The writers who insist on the morally improving nature of fiction, and who robe themselves in the folds of wisdom or beneficence, tend to be the ones to avoid. 'If there is any test that can be applied to movies,' Pauline Kael wrote — her test applies to books, too — 'it’s that the good ones never make you feel virtuous.' Saunders’s new novel, 'Vigil,' is slim, about the size of Mitch Albom’s memoir 'Tuesdays with Morrie' or Richard Bach’s novella 'Jonathan Livingston Seagull.' It’s not as soft and shallow and saccharine and strenuously earnest as those books, but it’s not impossibly far off. It’s a hot-water bottle in print form. It’s going to be an enormous best seller for depressing reasons.... [I]t’s about an angel named Jill who presides at the deathbed of an oil tycoon and determined planet despoiler named K.J. Boone...."

Writes Dwight Garner, in "George Saunders Serves a Heavy Helping of Virtue in a New Novel/In 'Vigil,' an oil tycoon on his deathbed receives a visit from an angel" (NYT).

We made it out onto the Lake Mendota ice.

The sun popped.

Yes, that's Meade out there. Just before that, he saw it this way:

Spotify's "daylist" chose this for us:

Though spring is here, to me it's still September....

For us, it's winter.

"She... helped cut the trailer, which features a particularly arch interaction between husband and wife."

"'Did you watch it?' President Trump asks her over the phone, as she stands in her office in Trump Tower. 'I did not,' she responds. 'I will see it on the news.' It was a clip Melania chose herself. 'That’s the essence [of the movie],' says [Marc Beckman, her senior adviser]. 'People have never seen this part of their relationship before.' Melania as the chief executive, busy with other things. Trump as the sensitive husband. Melania then selected the marketing imagery, which was painted across billboards from the Sunset Strip in Los Angeles to Times Square in New York City. 'Melania’s vision is very symmetrical, right angles, black and white,' says Beckman, comparing the brand guidelines to those of fashion houses such as Chanel, Christian Dior and Bulgari. 'It’s all about supporting this luxury brand that she’s building.'"

From "Sensitive Trump, Melania the boss… inside the first lady’s second term/Her new documentary, which premieres this week, reveals the 55-year-old as the power behind the throne with firm views on her husband’s actions" (London Times).

"In 1981, David Bowie attended an Uncle Floyd performance at the Bottom Line nightclub in Greenwich Village..."

"... and later met Mr. Vivino backstage.'I said to him, 'How did you hear about the show?"' Mr. Gordon recalled. 'And he said, "Everybody talks about it," and that he and John Lennon and Iggy Pop used to sit and watch the show.' Mr. Gordon said that Mr. Lennon, who had been killed just a month earlier, had wanted to attend the performance. After meeting Mr. Bowie and his producer, Tony Visconti, 'Floyd says, "Jimmy get these guys outta here. We got a show to do!"' Jimmy Vivino said. Two decades later, Mr. Bowie wrote and recorded 'Slip Away,' a moody song about Uncle Floyd.... Twinkle twinkle Uncle Floyd/We were dumb/But you were fun, boy..."

From "Floyd Vivino, Throwback Comedian Known as Uncle Floyd, Dies at 74/His silly, vaudeville-style variety show was filled with his piano playing, skits, puppets and guest stars like Cyndi Lauper and Bon Jovi" (NYT).

If the game is scored by the quality of the guys about whom you said "get these guys outta here," Uncle Floyd wins.

Clicking on this headline, I had no idea it was going to be about the challenges faced by persons with neurodivergence.

The headline (in the NYT): "Your Wedding Doesn’t Have to Be Long, Loud or Uncomfortable."

And I hallucinated an "ress" after "Your Wedding D." I thought the news was "Your Wedding Dress Doesn’t Have to Be Long, Loud or Uncomfortable." Yes, those full-scale wedding dresses must be uncomfortable! I've gotten married twice, but never in one of those famous white things that I grew up thinking belonged to the past. 

I scrolled through the article looking for the new short, quiet, comfy wedding dresses, saw all the mentions of neurodivergence but still clung to my misreading. I thought neurodivergent women must have distinct preferences in clothing and wedding dressmakers are coming up with solutions. 

But, no, it's not just about the dress. The whole wedding is subjected to scrutiny from the point of view of the neurodivergent. I finally read the article competently, and I must say these accommodations for neurodivergent people still produce weddings that are way too much for me:

Sunrise — 7:25.

Talk about whatever you want in the comments.

"The right to publicly carry weapons is a centerpiece of Second Amendment advocacy and has emerged as a key issue in the shooting of 37-year-old ICU nurse Alex Pretti...."

"Bill Essayli, Los Angeles' top federal prosecutor and a Trump ally, received fierce blowback from gun-rights groups over his Saturday claim that there is a 'high likelihood' law enforcement will be 'legally justified' in shooting someone who approaches them with a gun. The National Rifle Association responded on X that this sentiment was 'dangerous and wrong.' Gun Owners of America condemned Essayli's statement, writing that the Second Amendment 'protects Americans' right to bear arms while protesting—a right the federal government must not infringe upon.' Essayli claimed that condemnation 'mischaracterize[d]' his statement...."

From "Gun rights groups challenge shooting of legally armed Minneapolis man" (Axios).

And here's Jonathan Chait, in "What MAGA Really Thinks of the Second Amendment/Now Americans know" (The Atlantic)(gift link).