"Connecticut’s bears might choose to spend an entire autumn day beneath stands of white oak and black cherry trees, feasting on acorns that fall on the forest floor."

"Or they might find their food by scavenging roadkill or preying on small mammals or deer. But when higher calorie, more plentiful human-provided food is accessible, like trash and agriculture... bears seize the opportunity for an easy meal. Bambi Gambino, the co-owner of Country Eatery in Woodbury, said that this year bears began making a mess of the restaurant’s trash more frequently.... Mr. Hawley believes the problem isn’t being solved, in part, because Connecticut is the only state without a hunting season — other than Rhode Island, which doesn’t have many bears...."

From "Black Bears in Connecticut Are Eating Grapes and Entering Homes/Bears and humans are increasingly getting in each other’s way, presenting problems for both species" (NYT).

I'm mainly blogging this because I love the name Bambi Gambino. And that bit about hunting.

Also I thought acorns were very high protein, but I see they can't compare to meat. Stop throwing meat in the trash, maybe.

"I came as Donald Trump. I didn’t have time to get — people spent a lot of time and money. Rich people. They spent nine hours getting ready. I had 10 minutes, so I came as Donald Trump."

Said Donald Trump, quoted in "'I Came as Donald Trump': The President Hosts a Luxury Halloween at Mar-a-Lago/President Trump attended his jungle-themed Halloween party at Mar-a-Lago dressed as a distinctly recognizable figure" (NYT).

Like all NYT links, this is a gift link, and this one has lots of pics from the Mar-a-Lago party, including pics of Donald Trump dressed as Donald Trump, along with rich people interpreting the theme of jungle. 

There are 2 reasons why you might not get this.

@Brewers @tomhanks I prefer the real Forrest Gump https://t.co/nG7wnQeXWb

— LeftyGrove (@Lefty_Grove12) November 1, 2026

1. The man in the top photo is Tom Hanks (who, I know you know, played Forrest Gump).

2. The man in the video is Jacob Misiorowski, the great pitcher, and the manager of the Brewers has called him Forrest Gump.

I knew #2 very well, but #1 was completely unknown to me. Even after I am told that definitely is Tom Hanks, I cannot see Tom Hanks in that man. 

Hanks appeared on SNL last night:

See the first post of the day for the full Brewers context of last night's SNL.

"The Democratic representative who lost a primary fight against Dr. Abdul El-Sayed, the progressive Democratic Senate nominee in Michigan, endorsed his Republican opponent on Sunday...."

"The Republican nominee, Mike Rogers, received the endorsement from Representative Haley Stevens, a Democrat who represents suburban areas around Detroit, after she appeared alongside him at a church service.... 'I am endorsing Mike Rogers for the United States Senate today,' Ms. Stevens said in a video she posted on social media, not long after she arrived with Mr. Rogers at Perfecting Church, a Black church in Detroit. 'I don’t belong in Abdul’s campaign.'... Dr. El-Sayed was attending a church service in Detroit that was intended to be a unity gathering with Ms. Stevens... in an effort to move past her recent criticisms of him. But that plan fell apart this weekend, with Ms. Stevens and Dr. El-Sayed publicly feuding over U.S. policy on Israel. On Saturday, Dr. El-Sayed urged Ms. Stevens to stay away from the event...."

From "Midterm Elections Live Updates: Democratic Senate Primary Loser Endorses Republican in Michigan/The rift between Dr. Abdul El-Sayed, the Democratic nominee for Senate, and Representative Haley Stevens widened to a gulf two days before the midterms. The president was set to campaign in Iowa and Kansas" (NYT).

ADDED: "Congrats, Fetterwoman":

@HaleyforMI Congrats, Fetterwoman, on nuking your political career and being the saddest sore loser in Michigan political history. I hope whatever you’re getting in return for doing this is worth it.

— 𝐂𝐡𝐢𝐝𝐢 (@ChidiNwatu) November 1, 2026

"'It was a miracle for my brain. All the food noise was gone.' But when her husband of 20 years would ask her where she’d like to go for dinner..."

"'I’m like, "Here’s the problem, dear. I don’t care about food anymore, so it doesn’t matter where we go,"' she said. 'That part was very frustrating for him.'"

From "Is this the era of the GLP-1 divorce? Taken for weight loss, the drugs can dramatically change people’s marriages, for better and worse" (WaPo).

"But the weave seems to be getting weavier. An A.I.-assisted New York Times review of Mr. Trump’s comments..."

"... from speeches, rallies, social media, interviews and public meetings found significant changes since he began a run for president at age 69 in 2015, although not as much of a notable shift since 2024 when a similar review was conducted. Broadly speaking, the review concluded, Mr. Trump’s public communication is more vulgar, more uninhibited and less coherent than it was a decade ago...."

I'm reading "Threats, Gaffes and Men’s Posteriors: Trump’s Talk Gets Wilder/A Times review of the president’s public speeches finds that he is more profane, more absolutist, longer-winded and less coherent than he was in 2016" (NYT).

"How many individuals still live whose young lives were shaped by World War I?"

I asked, 14 years ago, in a blog post titled "Jacques Barzun has died... at the age of 104."

I landed there because I had the idea that people don't talk about decadence anymore, and Grok reminded me that Barzun had published "From Dawn to Decadence: 500 Years of Western Cultural Life 1500 to the Present" (commission earned) in 2000. 

That was a quarter century ago. How long past decadence do you need to get before decadence isn't even an issue? And then, what?

As for the question in the post title, pressured, Grok to came up with 300 to 500. There are super-centenarians in this world, though you never encounter them when you're just out and about. It would be cool if you did. 

Barzun was 9 and living in Paris in 1914, when the war broke out. He was one of the students who had to become teachers, teaching younger students when so many of the real teachers were drafted. He became deeply depressed, contemplated suicide, and — it seems like a solution — travelled to America. There he attended Columbia University, where he wrote a Ph.D. thesis in which he "attacked the popular notion of 'the French race.'"

"My dream of a beer winning the World Series finally came true!"

"Reflecting on the Second World War, Hannah Arendt suggested that totalitarianism takes root in societies where lots of people feel unnecessary or unwanted."

"After the 2016 election, it was common for the media to report on underemployed people in the Rust Belt who felt that they’d been cast aside. Today, manosphere ideology rages against a society that, allegedly, claims not to need men, and young people wonder whether there’s room for them in an A.I.-saturated workforce. Recently, even world-class mathematicians have felt the sting of redundancy. In a blog post titled 'The Mathocalypse,' the mathematician Scott Aaronson recounts what his nine-year-old son told his wife, the computer scientist Dana Moshkovitz: 'Mommy . . . I heard that a robot solved the math problem you worked on for your whole career!'"

From "Do You Feel Needed? Being necessary has never been more necessary—or more difficult," by Joshua Rothman in The New Yorker.

It's the last day of October.

Write about whatever you want.

"[M]y speech was not a critique of Arabs or Islam, but of Islamism... a toxic ideology conceived and promoted by the terrorist group, the Muslim Brotherhood.”

"Let’s see which reporters take the time to read this post and then correct their stories."

Writes RFK Jr., at great length, at X. 

He links to various reporters, and I don't think any of them have responded.

The Daily Wire and The Washington Examiner have, however, noted his post: here and here.

"The Senate race in Michigan... will test moderate and independent voters’ appetite for a combative brand of unalloyed progressivism."

"The party’s activist class believes Dr. El-Sayed’s success next week would establish a proof point that left-wing populism is a winning message, even in swing states. He has embraced an economic agenda that sharply attacks the billionaire class and taken a clear stance against Israel. Centrist Democrats fear that a potential El-Sayed triumph in an otherwise favorable climate for Democrats could be badly misinterpreted as a mandate."

That's how the NYT puts it in "The Most Important Race Shaping 2028 for Democrats Is Happening Now in Michigan/The fate of Dr. Abdul El-Sayed, the progressive candidate in the race, will serve as a litmus test for the left’s potency heading into the next presidential contest."

I suspect the Times wants El-Sayed to lose. 

There's this quote from Matt Bennett, an executive vice president of the centrist Third Way think tank: "The danger is that the triumphal stuff coming from the left will take hold as a narrative that 2028ers believe. I think he will win despite — not because of — the fact that he has campaigned mostly to the left."

Which "narrative" is more true — because of or despite? Good luck with the "despite" side of that narrative flogging.

From the comments over there:

"There was the button that produced literature. And there were of course the buttons by which she communicated with her friends."

"The room, though it contained nothing, was in touch with all that she cared for in the world.... The clumsy system of public gatherings had been long since abandoned.... Seated in her armchair she spoke, while they in their armchairs heard her, fairly well, and saw her, fairly well.... Her lecture, which lasted ten minutes, was well received.... Then she fed, talked to many friends, had a bath, talked again, and summoned her bed.... She made the room dark and slept; she awoke and made the room light; she ate and exchanged ideas with her friends, and listened to music and attended lectures; she make the room dark and slept.... And of course she had studied the civilization that had immediately preceded her own — the civilization that had mistaken the functions of the system, and had used it for bringing people to things, instead of for bringing things to people. Those funny old days, when men went for change of air instead of changing the air in their rooms!"

Wrote E.M. Forster, in 1909, in "The Machine Stops" (commission earned).

This was the book he wrote between "A Room with a View" and "Howards End," and it seems to presage the web, A.I., and social media. That seems odd, but my understanding is that he, like many others, was reacting to "A Modern Utopia" by H.G. Wells. 

Here's a book I read a while back, "The Ministry of Truth: The Biography of George Orwell's 1984." It tells the story:

"To wander aimlessly is very unswinging. Unhip."

Having a hundred thousand beers in Milwaukee.

one of the best moments in wisconsin sports history pic.twitter.com/C70YmB5dCZ

— Nick Whalen (@wha1en) October 30, 2026

This interview alone cements Jake Bauers and Sal Frelick as Milwaukee Legends 🚬🍻🍾#ThisIsMyCrew #WonOurWay pic.twitter.com/FCHFddXcWz

— Connor (@DTownCnnrBrown) October 31, 2026

Things got weird. https://t.co/e2SmSOvtIW

— John Egan (@BrewersRaptor) October 30, 2026

Darkness on the eve of election.

The view from Memeorandum — where I've gone for many years to see an overview of the day's talked about headlines — is a non-view: 

 Jamison Foser / Finding Gravity:

The New York Times invents a Democratic scandal while ignoring a new Trump rape allegation  —  America is four days out from the end of an election in which America's deeply unpopular fascist ruling party is trying to retain control of Congress.  The week began with yet another new rape allegation … 

Discussion: The Nation, Fox News, The Wrap and New York Times

RELATED:

 Greg Sargent / New Republic:

Inside Trump's Dark Plot to Keep Senate in GOP Hands Even If Dems Win  —  On Thursday night, the Republican governor of Alaska refused to commit to certifying the outcome in the Senate race if Democrat Mary Peltola wins.  Which means that if she does triumph, refusing to seat Peltola … 

Discussion: Political.org, Anchorage Daily News, The Federalist, Politico, Axios and Washington Examiner

 New York Times:
Justice Dept. Confirms Alaska Inquiry Even as Its Focus Remains Unclear

Discussion: Associated Press, Newsweek, Political.org, Eurasia Review, WJBK-TV, Alaska Public Media, The Hill, Mediaite, Fox News, The Daily Wire and The Guardian

It's a story of woeful blindness: the focus is unclear, the plot is dark, things that do not exist are seen, and things that exist are unseen.

This gets my favorite tag: "seen and unseen."

And, yes, I know: What the hell is "Finding Gravity"? I'll just say the NYT did a big investigation before publishing its story on the dirty-trick name-game in Alaska. If there's a "new rape allegation," maybe the Times is at the stage of doing an investigation. You can't seriously believe that every allegation of rape should be published immediately... and on the eve of elections.