"Children in foster care sometimes live in group homes if they haven’t found placement with a family."

"When they are placed with a family, they usually move to where that family already lives. Together California upends that model by having both the parents and their foster children (and up to two children those parents already have) move together into the village, where they will be joined by 11 other foster families. One of the parents in each family will devote themselves fully to managing the household and will be compensated for that work by the nonprofit.... [T]he townhouses... are spacious enough to accommodate large sibling groups, who are often separated by the foster care system...."

From "Christian Bale Built a Foster Care Village in the California Desert/The actor has been working for almost two decades to build a foster care nonprofit outside Los Angeles" (NYT gift link).

"Mr. Bale revealed that his sister was briefly in foster care when they were children but discounted that as his motivation. 'I usually don’t say that because I think that it shouldn’t require any experience of that to care about little human beings,' he said."

"I think a lot of men view reading fiction as a frivolous waste of time. We’ve been conditioned to ignore the benefits of empathy."

"I think it’s a marketing problem. Reading should be sold to men like lifting weights for your brain. But it’s not just men. People who are happily staring at their phone all day don’t want to pick up a book. Their attention spans are fried."

From "Anthony Jeselnik: Men Should Think of Reading as 'Lifting Weights for Your Brain'/But the comedian isn’t naïve when he makes selections for his popular book club: 'Most importantly, they’re short'" (NYT gift link).

Asked "What’s a supposedly funny book that you just don’t find funny?," Jeselnik answers, "I have zero tolerance for David Sedaris." 

I wonder what David Sedaris would say about the notion that "Reading should be sold to men like lifting weights for your brain."

"A 19-year-old man died on Friday in a lightning storm while huddled with nine other people inside a metal structure atop a mountain in Utah...."

"The shack, a well-known spot atop the peak, was built out of steel in 1927 as a lookout house.... Mount Timpanogos... is more than 11,740 feet tall.... Hikers climb on an exposed ridge line to reach the peak... leaving them few places to take shelter until a storm passes.... People should...  refrain from touching materials that can conduct electricity, such as metal, utility lines, water and plumbing... Small, exposed structures cannot protect a person from lightning...."

The NYT reports.

The rescue opossum just can't stop playing possum.

"I want to be a real monk"/"But you are a real monk."

"A real monk doesn't have ADHD."

"On Saturday, Mr. Trump proposed a follow-on to Space Force: a new 'A.I. Force.'"

"But he left to earthbound speculation what, exactly, it was supposed to do. Mr. Trump cast his announcement — along with his promise to appoint a new A.I. 'Czar' for the White House — as an effort to boost the A.I. industry, saying 'we will cherish it, help it, and watch over it.' In the roiling debate in Washington over regulating frontier A.I. models and the companies that produce them, or slowing down development until the mystery is solved about the summer in which A.I. agents went rogue, Mr. Trump continues to side with the 'accelerationists,' who call for the government to stay out of the way.... Mr. Trump did not make clear whether he envisioned the new A.I. Force as a military command or a civilian agency or department."

From "A.I. Gone Rogue? Trump Proposes Not New Rules but an ‘A.I. Force.’/The president proposed a follow-up to his Space Force but continued to dismiss worries about A.I.’s pace or potential for harm" (NYT gift link).

Appointing a so-called "czar" is an old presidential trick, but which President started it?

It's never been an official title (of course!) but it was Woodrow Wilson, during WWI, who had the first "czars" — an "industry czar" and a "railroad czar."

"I am an original Yippie. A Yippie is a politicized hippie, a protester who has been hit over the head by a cop — and woke up."

Wrote Judy Gumbo, autobiographically, in "Yippie Girl: Exploits in Protest and Defeating the FBI."

Quoted in "Judy Gumbo, Who Found Freedom as a Yippie, Dies at 83/She was part of the leftist radical group, which mocked institutional authority with political satire and street theater" (NYT gift link).

I don't remember ever hearing of her, but it says: "Ms. Gumbo was not as well known as Abbie Hoffman and Jerry Rubin, two of the party’s founders, but she was 'an integral Yippie,' Nancy Kurshan, a Yippie who was Mr. Rubin’s partner for a while, said in an interview."

She's named in this little NYT squib from 1970:

"We’ve shown for the first time that the front of the brain arises from a totally different progenitor cell than the back of the brain."

"Our discovery means that we can now grow neurons from the back of the brain, the hindbrain, in a petri dish and study their functions."

Said professor of developmental biology Kyle Loh, quoted in "Brain made up of two distinct organs evolving independently/Scientists have discovered the brain is made of separate systems, solving a longstanding riddle and aiding research into conditions like motor neurone disease" (London Times).

It's so convenient I feel skeptical. What wouldn't be ethical becomes ethical. 

"Unlike my other callers, who were stunned, barely able to articulate their condolences and offers of help, he sounded giddily elated — like a lottery winner, I remember thinking at the time."

Writes Earl Spencer, now, about what he says he thought 30 years ago, quoted in "10 key claims in Earl Spencer’s Princess Diana book/Allegations by the princess’s brother provoked an unprecedented response from Buckingham Palace. These further revelations are likely to add fuel to the fire" (London Times).

The Palace rouses itself to call Spencer a liar. I'm paraphrasing. I admire the elaborate prose: "While we do not comment on books as a matter of principle, His Majesty is mindful that the pain of fraternal grief can cloud reason, affect judgment and colour memory in ways others do not recognise, even many years after such a loss."

"Ending her career in the movies at the age of 39, she fled the paparazzi who had hounded her and the male admirers who had so often let her down..."

"The day-to-day items which surrounded her during these decades, and which form the core of the sale on September 21, are a testimony to her rejection of the star system she had come to abhor. Many are remarkable in their ordinariness — a wooden desk worth no more than €50, a straw hat valued at between €20 and €40, a lot of five night gowns priced between €100 and €150.... The items on display in the auction room attracted a constant flow of visitors last week. Among them was Yoann Guer, 25, who works in the theatre world. He conceded that many of the objects were 'common' but added that he might bid for something anyway because they 'have a little bit of Brigitte Bardot’s soul in them.' Guer described her as a symbol of 'freedom, including the freedom not to do what you do not want to do.'"

I'm reading "Bric-a-brac tells story of Brigitte Bardot’s humble life/The late star’s belongings will go on sale next week in Paris and the ordinary possessions are testimony to her rejection of the system she had come to abhor" (London Times).

"Conceded" is the wrong word.

I see: "Brigitte Bardot widower slams sale of star's belongings": "The sale, featuring more than 300 items ranging from portraits and toiletries to a flamenco guitar and a black tutu, is due to take place Monday at Paris auction house Drouot. 'These are personal items. Why hold this sale? For the animals? It's a joke,' Bernard d'Ormale told AFP, adding it amounted to a 'disrespect to Brigitte's memory.'... The Brigitte Bardot Foundation rejected the criticism, saying the auction was approved by the board in June, including Bardot's widower, who was then its president."

"What would Brigitte Bardot have done?"

At the Saturday Night Café...

... you can talk all night.

(No sunrise photo today — too much rain.)

"A transcript leaked to The Guardian ­revealed that he had called [a 'Britain's Got Talent' contestant] a 'c***' and said about another 'she thinks you want to f*** her, but you don’t.'"

From "HarperCollins severs all ties with David Walliams/The publisher said it would no longer represent the author and Little Britain star’s back catalogue after allegations that he had harassed female staff members" (London Times).

According to the industry magazine The Bookseller, which first reported the decision, Walliams’s titles will gradually be phased out from bookshops and e-book stores. It is not known whether the rights to his work have reverted to Walliams with the opportunity for them to be picked up by another publisher....

"HarperCollins takes employee wellbeing extremely seriously...."

The highest rated comment: "If we're going on the principle that authors have to be nice people, then that rules out Virginia Woolf, Evelyn Waugh, Mario Vargas Llosa. Has Harper Collins really thought this through? Nobody is forced to buy or read books by Walliams or any of these more substantial but no doubt unpleasant authors."

ADDED: I'd never heard of him, but I see, at Wikipedia, that his books are children's books:

"But on the fourth day, Berg somehow veered off what he described as a poorly marked trail and ended up in a swamp."

"He fell, drenching his clothes, bag and food. His hiking boots fell off, but he was able to recover them. His phone, however, disappeared. 'It was like quicksand,' he said. Berg would spend the next 11 days frantically trying to find help, surviving on his small supply of freeze-dried food and drinking 'the most disgusting water that you could imagine.' Back home, his wife, Debbie, grew increasingly frightened as the days passed without word. 'Am I going to be a widow now?' she recalled thinking as her mind wandered to all the possible dangers on the island, including wolves and moose."

From "For 11 days, a lost hiker shouted for help. Then two kayakers appeared" (WaPo gift link).

The island was Isle Royale.

Berg — Craig Berg — was a 70-year-old man who thought that, with his phone and its mapping app, he was properly equipped. If you're trusting your phone for everything, it should not be possible for it to "disappear."

"Following a 19-month effort by President Donald Trump to take control of the arts center, its board voted to close the building Tuesday..."

"... as Trump, who has demanded his name be added to the institution, threatened to cancel a more than $250 million renovation. The president said Wednesday that without his intervention the building could be 'ripped down.'"

I'm reading "What Washington lost when the Kennedy Center closed/We asked Washington Post readers to share memories of the storied arts hub. Hundreds responded" (gift link so you can see the selected memories).

WaPo wants you to know it's fake... but you've got to see this, got to get it imprinted on your fragile brain.

(Obtained by Ann Althouse)

Yes, I too am exposing it and searing it on whatever brains may be within my range. You've got to inure yourself, not jump at everything, not jump at anything, really,  anymore.

WaPo offers future tricksters a tip: "Most likely, the high-resolution image came first... with the blurry version perhaps created by someone trying to get rid of the AI watermark....."

"It's unclear where the name Rose Bean originated from... however Gaga has a large rose down her spine..."

"... that she got to commemorate her performance of 'La Vie En Rose' in the film 'A Star is Born.' The middle name Bean may have been inspired by singer/activist Carl Bean -- whom her hit 'I Was Born This Way' pulled inspo from."

From "Lady Gaga & Michael Polansky/We Have a Baby Girl... Name Revealed" (TMZ).

Well, that's nice. I'm not named after my mother's tattoo. Are you?

I'm only reading TMZ because "CARROT TOP/HOSPITALIZED AFTER ATTEMPTED SUICIDE." Not seeing any reason. I hope he's okay. He's been treated unfairly over the years by people who think it's funny to say he's not funny.

Joe Rogan took issue with those people last year when Carrot Top appeared on the podcast: