"Entertainment and the arts are undergoing what might be termed a Great Simplification."

"Take the Netflix film 'Irish Wish,' which ranked No. 1 on the streaming platform following its release in 2024. The film stars Lindsay Lohan as an American book editor named Maddie, who travels to Ireland dreaming of marriage to a hunky best-selling author (a genre of person more common in films than in life). As writer Will Tavlin observed, as you watch, you may notice that the characters are explaining what is going on, as if you are too slow to understand. In one scene, Maddie says to her lover, 'We spent a day together. I admit it was a beautiful day, filled with dramatic vistas and romantic rain, but that doesn’t give you the right to question my life choices. Tomorrow I’m marrying Paul Kennedy.' He replies, 'Fine. That will be the last you see of me because after this job is over, I’m off to Bolivia to photograph an endangered tree lizard.'"

Writes James Marriot, in "Is society growing stupider? The clues are simple and repeated. Shorter sentences and monotonous lyrics form a sign of something bigger" (WaPo)(gift link).

Speaking of shorter sentences, yesterday, I happened to run across this long sentence:

"I say fling but he only worked like a dog in parkinglots, the most fantastic parkinglot attendant in the world, he can back a car forty miles an hour into a tight squeeze and stop on a dime at the brickwall, and jump out, snake his way out of close fenders, leap into another car, circle it fifty miles an hour in a narrow space, shift, and back again into a tight spot with a few inches each side and come to a bouncing stop the same moment he’s jamming in the emergency brake; then run clear to the ticket shack like a track star, hand a ticket, leap into a newly arrived car before the owner is hardly out, leap literally under him as he steps out, start the car with the door flapping and roar off to the next available parking spot: working like that without pause eight hours a night, evening rush hours and after theater rush hours, in greasy wino pants with a frayed furlined jacket and beat shoes that flap."

Wrote Jack Kerouac, typing "On the Road: The Original Scroll." I'm fascinated by the readability of very long sentences, but that one struck me (at 40 mph) because I have a long-running debate with Meade about whether good drivers back into parking spaces. 

Surprise me.

 It's October.

"An early clip of the film... features the toddler character bending down to pick up a snail, before gently touching it, her face breaking into a smile."

"Such a performance would probably be beyond a child actor of the equivalent age, raising the question of whether it is easier for filmmakers to work with AI toddlers than human ones. Minkoff said that working with young children on 2002’s Stuart Little 2 'in some respects was horrible' because they would be crying while the film’s stars tried to console them. 'Geena Davis would be holding the baby, Hugh Laurie would be holding the baby, trying to calm the baby,' he said. Minkoff added that using an AI toddler was 'much more humane.'"

I'm reading "Lion King director: Why I’m embracing AI/Rob Minkoff touches on a source of tension in Hollywood as he tells The Times about Storm Dogs, his forthcoming film made with AI" (London Times).

Working with adults is also in some respects horrible. They're always crying and demanding consolation. It's not easy getting them to gently touch snails or whatever damned thing you'd like to tell them to do. And the problem isn't limited to moviemaking. In all fields of endeavor, human beings are difficult crybabies and A.I. will just get the job done. 

I like this quote from the director: "Obviously it’s not my goal or interest to put people out of work." Oh, the things you can do with an excuse like that! I wasn't my goal to hurt you. I was just achieving my goal and you were in the way. 

"For nearly 28 years Karl Bushby has been walking around the world with two rules: no transport and no going home to Hull unless he arrives on foot."

"On Monday afternoon, for the first time since 1998, the former paratrooper, now aged 57, stepped on to British soil after swimming the Channel. Bushby started his epic trek in Chile on November 1, 1998, shortly after leaving his mother Angela’s home in east Yorkshire. Since then, he has traversed the Darién Gap as fighting raged between the Colombian government and Marxist guerrillas; covered the frozen Bering Strait on foot; and become the first person known to have swum 184 miles across the Caspian Sea....He swam on his back the whole time as he is 'not a swimmer' and it is the 'most energy efficient way.'..."

From "Adventurer sets foot on British soil after 28-year walk home/Karl Bushby arrived in Kent after swimming the Channel for the final stage of a 30,000-mile journey from Chile back to Hull" (London Times).

How does he pay for this lengthy adventure? "Werner Herzog is directing a feature-length documentary about Bushby’s journey, titled Walk of Life, co-produced by Westward Productions, which has been supporting the adventurer for the past 16 years."

"Democratic congressional candidate from Long Island acknowledged on Monday that he had posed years ago in an explicit ad campaign modeling leather bondage gear..."

"... saying that it had no bearing on his campaign or ability to serve. The array of photos, which surfaced in The New York Post and a local news site, Messenger Papers, shows the candidate, Christopher Gallant, shirtless and variously wearing a leather collar attached to a chain and a leather face mask. In some of the photos, he is in intimate situations with another man. They appeared on the site of a bondage apparel company called Mr. S Leather; Mr. Gallant’s lawyer said they were taken around 2010...."

I'm reading "N.Y. Democratic House Candidate Admits to Bondage Photo Shoot" (NYT).

I clicked those internal links to see the photos. I laughed. A nice looking man modeled when he was young. Who cares!? I mean, who cares if he modeled? I think we do care that a person is good looking. It's part of nature. You might not vote for a man just because he's pretty, but my goodness, doesn't it help?

"Combine [bra as outerwear] with the rise of naked dressing, nostalgia among the next gen set for the ’90s and Y2K (the last years before social media)..."

"... and GLP-1-inspired urges to show off newly shrunken bodies; power it with celebrity buy-in, as on the recent VMAs red carpet; and you get brazilla. Bralapalooza. The ultimate late-stage capitalist conclusion to the second wave feminists’ call for bra burning. Bra-vo?"

Writes Vanessa Friedman, in "Fashion Says Wear Your Bra as a Top/At Miu Miu, Miuccia Prada puts on her trend-forecasting glasses, and calls it" (NYT).

That's a gift link, as all NYT links are now, so you can go in and see the photographs of models with newly (or oldly) shrunken bodies, shown off in outfits that feature bras worn as outerwear. See if you can find the one that made me say "Her chest looks like a faceless man wearing sunglasses."

"This whole thing was triggered by the fact that somebody brought a civil lawsuit, a lawyer who's working on contingency...."

"This is multi-million dollars at stake. And I hope it doesn't shock anybody, but oftentimes in civil litigation, people motivated by money do lie...." 

Glenn Greenwald takes a stand for procedural fairness and professional journalism.

NEW: Glenn Greenwald slams AOC and the press for branding the accused Cornell students "gang rapists" without a trial.

None of the seven has been charged, yet a sitting member of Congress described the allegations as fact.

GREENWALD: "This whole thing was triggered by the fact… pic.twitter.com/UUK7enNosJ

— KanekoaTheGreat (@KanekoaTheGreat) October 6, 2026

Here's the whole segment:

"God damn it Merrill."

“God damnit Merrill”

An all-time in-game interview with Pat Murphy here: pic.twitter.com/cdaLvlK1D0

— Zach Sweet (@by_ZachSweet) October 7, 2026

"Just entering the month of October makes me freeze up,” she told The Times. “People think I came back from captivity and I look normal..."

"... but they have no idea what I’m going through. I might have come back physically but it’s not over. Only my body came back."

Said Mia Schem, quoted in "'I was taken hostage by Hamas on October 7. I feel as though I’m still there'/Mia Schem’s wounds have healed since the terrorist attacks on Israel three years ago. Her mind is still in pieces" (London Times).

Sunrise (with moon).

Goodbye to Eva Marie Saint — she was 102.

Here's the NYT obituary: "Eva Marie Saint, Oscar Winner for ‘On the Waterfront,’ Is Dead at 102/A luminous beauty with dramatic depth, she brought a layered intensity to harrowing roles and seduced Cary Grant in the romantic thriller 'North by Northwest.'"

"I voted against my party more than another other senator on either side of the aisle."

Asserted Senator Susan Collins, quoted in "Live Updates: Collins and Jackson Clash in First Debate of Crucial Maine Senate Race/Senator Susan Collins and her Democratic challenger, Troy Jackson, faced off on Supreme Court appointees, health care, Immigration and Customs Enforcement and their approach to governing" (NYT).

ADDED: I think the quote should be "I voted against my party more than any other other senator on either side of the aisle." Perhaps the Times will tweak the transcription.

BUT: If she said “other” twice, the Times probably has it right. Who knows how they talk in Maine?

"The painting was discovered in July when a man, nosing around at an estate sale in Kalamazoo, Mich., stumbled upon the enigmatic painting on the wall of a dimly lit corridor leading to the garage."

"The man, who wishes to remain anonymous, was familiar with Abercrombie’s work and was stunned to see the still life bearing the painter’s distinct signature. Zachary Wirsum, a senior vice president at Freeman’s [auction house], said the man told him he 'was shaking as he walked out to his car,' with his discovery. 'I think, objectively, had he not purchased it, this would have just ended up in the dumpster,' Mr. Wirsum added. 'So I think that he saved it from forever being lost in time.'"

From "Bought Months Ago for $30, This Painting Set Off a $1.35 Million Bidding War/'He saved it from forever being lost,' the auction house said of the person who found a Gertrude Abercrombie painting at an estate sale in Kalamazoo, Mich." (NYT).

"Ms. Pike’s medical condition is likely to determine whether Tennessee officials try to execute her again."

"The U.S. Supreme Court has forbidden the execution of someone who does not have a 'rational understanding' of why they’re being put to death."

From "Christa Pike Regains Consciousness After Her Failed Execution/The death row inmate in Tennessee received two doses of a lethal injection drug last week but lived. She was taken from the execution chamber in an ambulance" (NYT).

So if the drug that was intended to kill her happened to cause enough brain damage to deprive her of "rational understanding," she gets to avoid further efforts to take her life?

"I have learned how vicious the pig really is, and our comrades are teaching me to attack with even greater vicious­ness."

Said Patty Hearst — in her "Tania" incarnation — quoted in "One of Patty Hearst’s Kidnappers Has Died/Bill Harris was a disillusioned Vietnam veteran looking for purpose when he joined a revolutionary group known as the Symbionese Liberation Army."

In 2024, Harris reflected on what had happened in 1973: "There were many factors that influenced Patty’s decision to stay and fight. What we didn’t know when we kidnapped her was that she had rejected her mother, a gold digger and right-wing ideologue."

A view from the Sober Monitor.

@stasiakatherine intimidation goes further than you can imagine #cornell #alumni #greeklife ♬ original sound - stasiakatherine