Sunrise with rabbit.

The rabbit surprised me. Not at the time, but just now.

I wonder if the election results will be surprising. Settle in. Results should begin to come in soon. Feel free to hang out here for election night conversation. Or talk about anything else if you want.

"As in previous years, Republicans seem to be enjoying strong Election Day advantages in states that report live turnout by party registration."

"As of Tuesday afternoon, Republicans in Florida were enjoying a wider advantage than two years ago, voting on Election Day by a nearly two-to-one margin. Republicans were also leading registered Democrats by 12 percentage points in Nevada, a wider margin than their Election Day advantage in 2024. In both of those states, registered Republicans made up a smaller share of the advance votes this year than they did in 2024 — and a wide majority of votes are cast ahead of Election Day."

I'm reading "Election Day Turnout Is High Across Battleground States/A midterm campaign marked by high engagement showed no signs of slowing on Election Day, though it was unclear whether either party had an advantage" (NYT).

We voted.

 How about you?

"It sounds like the plane iced when they flew through the cell. They thought at first it was light to moderate icing. But then it sounds like it got really severe."

"The plane can become almost uncontrollable.... They couldn’t recover from it, and they crashed.... This, to me, is just a textbook example of exactly what we’re taught when we’re pilots, and that is, don’t fly through thunderstorms, because you just don’t know their severity."

Said Daniel Bubb, a former pilot who now teaches at the University of Nevada, quoted in "What Caused a Jet to Dive Nose First Into the Ground? Ice, experts said, can change the shape of a plane’s wing, disrupting its aerodynamics" (NYT).

"'When you’re in a glass house, your whole life changes,' Egan says. 'You live with the light.'"

"After 21 years of frantic days and late nights in Manhattan, she began rising with the sun and going to sleep at dusk. 'It informed everything about how I worked because it slowed me down.' Inhabiting the building through different seasons helped her understand the way it functioned: how the wide, floor-to-ceiling glass panes encouraged you to observe the birds in the old trees; how the kitchen’s spot in the center of the living space created implied corridors that let people and air circulate. She began talking with her frequent collaborator the architect Carl Muehleisen about converting the home into a more contemporary, year-round dwelling, adding a work space and rooms for visiting friends — all while retaining its rigor and economy...."

From "Living in a Glass House Changed Her Life/After the interior designer Carol Egan took over a Modernist home on Long Island, she discovered that it offered bountiful light and gave her a new affinity for the passing of the seasons" (NYT)(like all NYT links, it's a gift link, and this one is especially worth it for the photographs).

Faking?

Alaskan Voter realizes he voted for the wrong Dan Sullivan on live TV https://t.co/GLyePrmc1T

— Spencer Hakimian (@SpencerHakimian) November 3, 2026

"What was the educational benefit of showing her first-grader a theoretical image of a conventionally attractive 25-year-old woman?"

"And what impact might that have on her child’s developing imagination? Anderson was particularly troubled by the way the AI-generated image had seemingly eclipsed her daughter’s own ideas of what her adult life might look like; Harper was thrilled by the appearance of the pictured woman. 'That was the most heartbreaking part of it for me,' Anderson said. 'She said, "Maybe when I’m older I will look this beautiful," and I’m like — 'Oh my God, she’s so proud of how beautiful the picture of the person is.' At that point, it wasn’t about being a nurse or imagining herself in this empowered role, as a person in the world. It was about what she looks like at 25...."

From "A 6-year-old imagined her future self. Then her school gave her an AI version. A South Carolina school used AI to create an image of a 6-year-old as a 25-year-old nurse. Her mother had questions" (WaPo)(gift link).

Here's the mother's Instagram post showing the child's illustration of herself in the future as a nurse and the photographic AI image that bothered the mother so much. By the way, the child loved it.

"The comedian’s barrister, Ian Winter KC, argued that that despite what he called mischaracterizations of his client in the media, [Russell] Brand is not a psychopath..."

"... and only a psychopath could have committed the behavior he is being accused of. 'You would have to be a psychopath to be raping someone and asking them if they were enjoying it at the same time,' Winter said, referring to the first of Brand’s accusers.... He then noted that Brand 'left his actual email address — rapists do not leave their address. He left photos she’d taken of him, rapists do not leave their photographs; and he kissed her good-bye, or tried to, when he left.'"

From "Russell Brand’s Defense Comes to a Close in His U.K. Rape Trial" (New York Magazine).

"Though both are polyamorous, they are not currently dating others.... 'We’re building the foundation of our marriage'..."

"... Carr said. 'And I think in order to be poly, you need to have a really, really good foundation.'"

I'm reading a "Mini-Vows" column in the NYT: "She Gave Dates 30 Minutes. This One Clicked in the 27th/Erin Lee Carr, the daughter of the former Times reporter David Carr, 'can’t do small talk' — and didn’t on her first date with Michelle Bruton."

The article opens like this:

Erin Lee Carr came across a striking photo on Hinge in August 2023 that she could not scroll past. It was of Michelle Toni Bruton, who’d had top surgery in 2018, shirtless on a horse.

“I’m going to kiss this person,” Carr told her friends.

Here's a Vulture article about Carr from 2 years ago, "Erin Lee Carr’s Criminal Mind."

"Virtually no schools offer formal training programs for legal engineers, though some have added classes."

"Many legal engineers are former practicing lawyers who taught themselves A.I. skills or learned on the job. Some have backgrounds in legal operations, paralegal work or consulting. Fewer are former software engineers who then went to law school — 'the unicorn,' one hiring manager said.... 'It’s not so much going from actively practicing law to not,' she said. 'I think it’s more embracing this generational shift in the legal industry.'... 'You don’t necessarily need a giant pyramid of lawyers anymore... People who have this kind of skill set don’t have to have a J.D., and they don’t have to be software engineers, but there’s business process re-engineering, or this M.B.A. type skill, that I think is really necessary.'"

From "The New Hot Job in Law Doesn’t Require a J.D./Big law firms, legal tech vendors, and in-house legal departments at companies like Microsoft and Nvidia are all hiring legal engineers, a new position for lawyers with A.I. skills" (NYT).

"... rhabdomyolysis, a rare muscle condition that can be brought on by exertion in which the muscles break down and can poison the body."

"'It’s unfathomable,' [her father] said. 'Perfect health, perfect shape, 24 years old.'"

From "Runner, 24, Dies During Her First Marathon/Rachel Apa collapsed in Central Park. The cause was rhabdomyolysis, a rare muscle condition that can be brought on by exertion, her father said" (NYT).

"Rachel, a product manager for an electrical component company who had just started an M.B.A. program at Charleston Southern University, was running to raise money to fight Parkinson’s disease, which had killed her grandfather. 'My grandfather was one of my role models growing up,' she wrote on LinkedIn. 'He taught me to stay active, push my limits, and embrace challenges.'"

Sunrise.

Those 3 pictures were taken at the same time and place. The trees are nearly entirely bare in the third picture because they're in a much more exposed position. 

Here's one more photograph, about a mile away, taken at 3 in the afternoon, in the rain.

"But did Haley Stevens expect that, by switching her support from a Democrat to a Republican, she would receive the media's Liz Cheney Country Over Party award?"

"It sounds like you're upset with me, too, Anderson." Indeed, it did. But did Haley Stevens expect that, by switching her support from a Democrat to a Republican, she would receive the media's Liz Cheney Country Over Party award? If so, she was badly mistaken.

— Byron York (@ByronYork) November 2, 2026

Why did Martha Stewart think it would work to go as a homeless person for Halloween?

Martha Stewart addresses her homeless person Halloween costume in statement to Page Six: “I am distressed that my Halloween costume yesterday, which was intended to bring more awareness to the very serious subject of homelessness, has offended people, which was never my intention. […] Homelessness continues to remain one of America’s greatest challenges and ongoing crises, something that I care deeply about and I have spent a significant amount of time and effort supporting charities that combat this ongoing social epidemic.” (https://t.co/cuZF2B1tv0)

— Pop Base (@PopBase) November 1, 2026

I remember, back in the 1950s, going as a "hobo" was as common as going as a witch or a ghost. But in the 2020s, it's so obviously insensitive that one wonders how she could have thought it was a good idea. My theory is that she thought her own real-life image was so strongly the opposite of a homeless man that everyone would get it. She's incredibly neat and put together and made up and smiling, not smudged with dirt and disheveled. And she would never need help getting food. She's a provider of food, always helping others cook and arrange food. So — ha ha — she's going as the opposite of Martha Stewart.

Compare Donald Trump, going as Donald Trump to his Mar-a-Lago Halloween party. He said he only had 10 minutes to get ready. But if he'd had a little more time, maybe he'd have come up with Martha's idea and assembled a costume that would read as the opposite of Donald Trump. What would that be? Undo his usual hairstyle. Wipe the orange off of his face, if it comes off. Get rid of the red tie and boxy suit and go with baggy shorts and an oversized t-shirt with that big Obama logo.

See? That would be funny.

But Martha as the opposite of Martha... not funny.

The theory that since we haven't protected young girls from seeing photographs of penises, it's not important to protect them from a penis in the girls' locker room.

.@AbdulElSayed says it’s ok for MEN to be in girl’s locker rooms. Why? “Well because they are going to find out about it on the internet anyway” Completely unacceptable. https://t.co/eXeh70kkeP

— Mike Rogers (@MikeRogersForMI) November 2, 2026

"As a lifelong economist, I am distraught at what is happening to my profession. What I observe is economists losing status."

"Economists used to be highly respected figures, and nowadays, even when they are not pilloried, they are often simply ignored. There is an ongoing bipartisan flight from economic reasoning. And as voters go to the polls this week, neither Republicans nor Democrats are offering anything like a rigorous plan for economic growth...."

Writes Tyler Cowen, in "No Matter Who Wins the Midterms, Economics Will Lose/Both parties used to craft their policies with the help of the best economic minds. Now they are driven almost entirely by politics and vibes" (Free Press).