"You know, if you're if you're a 70-year-old billionaire, you can't walk into a bar... and meet an 18-year-old.... I'm presuming these things are facilitated at private parties..."

"... and it needs to, you know, for a lot of these guys, it has to be discreet. You know, they've got wives, they've got reputations, and you know, there's an aspect of this that plays out at every institution. I worked at a New York law firm and... there's ways that you can make partner — at least this was kind of the vibe that I felt. Some people make partner because they're really good technically.... There are some people who move up because of nepotism.... There are some people... who brought in one client... a really big rainmaker. And there are some people who move up because they open doors to partners while they're associates. They introduce them to someone. They host events. They've got tickets to exclusive things. And the partners just like being around that person because they get access to that person in a currency that they can't get on their own. And that includes hosting cool exotic parties, having attractive women."

Nicki Minaj and Scott Bessent.

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Sunrise — 7:16.

Write about whatever you like in the comments.

Politico chooses the photograph with the blue dress.

Link.

"Jill Biden’s ex-husband was arrested Monday on charges he murdered his wife in their Delaware home in December...."

The NY Post reports.

"Jill Biden, 74, divorced Stevenson in 1975 after a five-year marriage. Two years later she wed then-Senator Joe Biden (D-Del.). Stevenson has accused Jill of having an affair with the one-term Democratic president prior to their divorce...."

"The 13-year-old Australian boy who swam for hours to get help for his family after they were swept out to sea has told the BBC 'I didn't think I was a hero - I just did what I did.'"

"Austin Appelbee didn't know if his mother Joanne, brother Beau and sister Grace were still alive when he finally reached the shore, four hours after he left them clinging to two paddleboards. Miles out to sea off Australia's west coast - the waves getting bigger, the light beginning to fade - his mother feared he too may not have made it.... 'We couldn't see anything coming to save us.... It was very much getting to that point where we are on our own.' Joanne couldn't even relax when she saw the boat approaching: the children had fallen into the water and she was desperately trying to reach them."

From "'I don't think I am a hero': Boy, 13, describes 'superhuman' swim to save family" (BBC).

"There are no bedrooms. The sleeping area for Yoichiro, a painter and metal guitarist, is little more than a bed in a corner..."

"... with one real wall and three makeshift ones fashioned out of a painting rack, a stereo cabinet atop a dolly, a bookcase and a bureau. The area is decorated with stuffed animals sitting atop a canvas; Yoichiro’s drawing of a departed family cat; and photographs of his muse, Laura Ingalls from the 1970s television show 'Little House on the Prairie.' His parents’ sleeping area is tucked in a more secluded corner of the labyrinth, reached by navigating among yet more canvases, under a clothesline strung with coats and through a passage no wider than a goat path. On the walls hang fuse boxes and Yoichiro’s paintings. A typical morning begins with Toshihisa rising around 6:30 to make tea, which the Yodas use in a prayer ritual at a Shinto shrine that sits atop an old dresser. Then they work...."

From "A Family of Three in a SoHo Loft Without Walls/Toshihisa and Junko Yoda and their son, Yoichiro, have been making art in a 4,000-square-foot space on Mercer Street for 35 years, each following their own muse" (NYT)(gift link, because there are cool photos of artwork and arty interiors).

It's a big living space, and right in a beautiful part of NYC. A 53-year-old man lives with his 85- and 82-year-old parents. And no walls! "In lieu of walls, the Yodas have divided the vast space into an eccentric warren of 'rooms' with hundreds of stacked canvases and boxes, some adorned with a Japanese moving company’s logo of a mother cat carrying a kitten in her mouth."

You can see that logo — and the children's drawings it's based on — at "The Cat that Carried a Nation/What Kuroneko Teaches Us About Brand Trust" (Medley): "A black cat carrying her kitten. No text. No slogan. Just a gentle silhouette, frozen mid-step. In Japan, you don’t even need to see the full image. A flash of yellow and black, the curl of a tail, and you already know — it’s Kuroneko. And your package is in safe hands. What makes it brilliant isn’t just recognizability. It’s emotion...." 

Moon and sun.

That's by Meade, this morning. And a bit earlier, there was this:

Fresh muffins and steaks.

somehow, this so-casual, cutesy references to "fresh muffins" & "steaks" is among the most obscene emails in what we have seen of the Epstein files.
to learn that the emailer is a woman named Susan Hamblin who'd founded an adoption charity is overwhelmingly disgusting. https://t.co/qDp2UBU0fl

— Joyce Carol Oates (@JoyceCarolOates) February 3, 2026

If I'm reading this right, both victims and predators were conceptualized as food to Epstein and whoever Susan Hamblin is.

Many of the commenters over there at X seem to think they are talking about actual food.

Can you think of any examples — beyond this possible one — where a non-metaphor was read as a metaphor? Sex is often talked about using food metaphors, so there could easily be a mixup where talk about food is misread as sex talk. Famous example from 10 years ago: Pizzagate. The words "cheese pizza" were said to mean "child pornography."

Looking up "Pizzagate" this morning, I see what was 10 years old is new again:

"His doctors hit the cancer with chemotherapy and radiation, then focused on medications to deprive it of male hormones, or androgens, which fuel its growth...."

"Brian’s treatment took away his libido and left him sometimes with brain fog. Without testosterone in his system, Brian lost sexual function and libido, which had been a core of his identity. 'That has been the hardest part of this,' he said, with typical directness. 'Because I love being a man. I love being in a man’s body.'... Brian asked his doctors about taking a three month 'holiday' from the drugs — allowing his testosterone levels to rise for a short spell so he could feel like himself again, without the fatigue and brain fog and sexual dysfunction....  After deliberation, they slated it for the summer of 2025, when he planned to spend several weeks on Fire Island, long a mecca for gay men and women.... Here was a chance to briefly reinhabit his old energetic, sexual self.... One day he set out for the beach, eager for an outing not shaped by his cancer. But when he came to a slight incline in the footpath, he realized he could not make it.... By midsummer, it was becoming clear that his drug holiday was not going to deliver as he’d hoped. He still had no libido, let alone sexual function.... "

From "A Role Model for How to Die/What if you really did live every day as if it were your last? That was Brian’s plan" (NYT).

Sunrise, 7:13... afternoon, 3:58.

Write about whatever you like in the comments.

"I can't believe the bespoke NY magazine biz hasn't yet realized that an Annie Leibovitz puff piece photoshoot is a political death sentence."

I can't believe the bespoke NY magazine biz hasn't yet realized that an Annie Leibovitz puff piece photoshoot is a political death sentence pic.twitter.com/INL4dWe7Hb

— David Burge (@iowahawkblog) February 2, 2026

"And some 'disabilities' are just downright silly. Students claim 'night terrors'; others say they 'get easily distracted' or they 'can’t live with others.'"

"I know a guy who was granted a single room because he needs to wear contacts at night. I’ve heard of a girl who got a single because she was gluten intolerant. That’s why I felt justified in claiming endometriosis as a disability.... The application process was very easy.... The system is staffed largely by empathetic women who want to help students.... In addition to a single housing assignment, I was granted extra absences from class, some late days on assignments and a 15-minute tardiness allowance for all of my classes.... Had I been pushier, I am sure I could have received almost any accommodation I asked for. While I feel entitled to my single room, I would feel guilty about some of the perks I have — except that so many of my fellow students have gamed the system...."

Writes Elsa Johnson, a Stanford student, quoted in "Nearly 40% of Stanford undergraduates claim they’re disabled. I’m one of them/One of the most prestigious universities in the US offers perks to those who say they have ADHD, night terrors, even gluten intolerance. You’d be stupid not to game the system" (London Times).

"The constant activity is better than therapy. It’s a lot of work, but running this restaurant is my passion, my dream. I don’t feel like I have Tourette’s anymore."

Said Dylan Larson, quoted in "Teen with Tourette’s Syndrome operates restaurant by himself — and the 'constant activity is better than therapy" (NY Post).

Larson, now 21, is the sole employee at Rare Earth Goods Café in Ishpeming, taking every order, cooking every meal, washing every dish, and balancing the books.... He works without a stovetop or full-sized oven, relying instead on a small electric griddle, a four-slice toaster and a countertop convection oven. On busy days, customers wait up to 45 minutes for their breakfast and lunch meals.... 

Doctors later diagnosed him with Tourette’s at age 8.... “I was noisier or a bit more, I don’t know, just louder than other people.” Larson said. “I was like, shouting in class. And when I got excited about something, my first word would be like, yelling at you. Sometimes, it would scare people.”

You may remember the chef with Tourette's from "Curb Your Enthusiasm":

"The Government Published Dozens of Nude Photos in the Epstein Files. The photos, which showed young women or possibly teenagers with their faces visible..."

"... were largely removed after The New York Times began notifying the Justice Department.... As part of its required disclosure of the Epstein files, the federal government was tasked with redacting both sexually explicit imagery and information that could be used to identify victims. But in the process of reviewing more than three million pages uploaded to the Justice Department’s website on Friday, The New York Times came across nearly 40 unredacted images that appeared to be part of a personal photo collection, showing both nude bodies and the faces of the people portrayed...."

The New York Times reports.

Government-issued pornography. Presumably accidental, but what can you expect with this longstanding prurient interest in Jeffrey Epstein?

That can't feel good.

"Her custom negligee dress and matching cape were crafted in silk georgette in a deep red garnet. But once Roan removed the cape, the result was a naked dress that seemingly exposed her breasts, with the silk georgette suspended by nipple rings."

I'm reading "Chappell Roan’s Naked Dress at Grammys Shocks Social Media/The double Grammy nominee created what was arguably the night's first viral moment when she turned up in a sheer look by Mugler" (Hollywood Reporter).

Congratulations on getting attention. It's quite a look, and it kind of looks good. But I'm just worried about that kind of weight suspended from pierced nipples. You're treating your breasts like hooks on the back of a bathroom door, things to hang clothing on.

Here's a closeup (on X) that highlights the pulling. It's not just an illusion that the whole bottom of the dress is hanging from those nipple rings. You can see the distortion from the weight. You can see the risk of injury. The viewer is drawn into the experience of pain and danger. Who is that for?