Sunrise — 6:18.

Talk about whatever you like in the comments. And please support the Althouse blog by doing your Amazon shopping going in through the Althouse Amazon link.

The conversation at St. Peter's.

Wow, @piersmorgan , this is absolutely incredible! 🌟📸 What an iconic moment captured in such a breathtaking location—St. Peter’s Basilica is pure majesty!

The image of Trump and Zelenskyy deep in conversation is so powerful, and I can only imagine the weight of that tough… pic.twitter.com/XOHMqyvqst

— Dan Western (@westerns1978) April 26, 2025

ADDED: For the annals of Things I Asked Grok: Isn't there some expression along the lines of "He would upstage the corpse at a funeral"?

(Oh! I see. The stock expression is "He could upstage the bride at her own wedding.")

IN THE COMMENTS: Hassayamper said: “I've heard ‘He's always got to be the bride at every wedding and the corpse at every funeral’ to describe someone who can't resist being at the center of attention.” Yes! That’s what I was looking for. You beat Grok. 

The OED word of the day is "sonnettomaniac."

That is, a person who's crazy for sonnets.

Are words constructed out of "-maniac" really deserving of dictionary entries? Perhaps, in the case of "sonnettomaniac," it was valuable to nudge people to spell it the way it was spelled in the time when people really were sonnettomaniacs.

The OED proffers a quote from 2011: "After the decline of the previous century's 'sonnettomania,' the popularity of the sonnet would never scale such lofty heights again in the course of the twentieth century."

An update on Valerie.

You remember Valerie, the miniature dachshund who escaped into the wilds of Kangaroo Island, blogged here.

Today, I see "Valerie the dachshund rescued after 17 months in Australian wilderness/The eight-pound miniature dachshund had transformed from an 'absolute princess' into a rugged survivor" (WaPo).

I had to blog that... in case you were on tenterhooks.

What are tenterhooks anyway?

"Both Napoli and Hinman fell in love with the band after seeing them perform on the TV variety show 'Shindig!' in 1965."

"'It was the sound that drew me to them,' Napoli said. 'No one sounded like them, and I wanted to know as much as I could about them.'"

From "They spent years following the Kinks. Was this their final stop? What happens when you build your life — and your friendships — around a band that can’t keep it together forever" (WaPo)(full-access link). 

Here. I found it:

Of course, I watched that at the time. I loved the Kinks. Just turning around from my computer and not rearranging anything, I see this on my windowsill:

And I love the line "It was the sound...." I get the 60s vibration. I remember struggling to convey the meaning of "the sound" to my father when he Socratically questioned me about why the music I was listening to all the time could genuinely be considered good.

"Attorney General Pam Bondi actually seemed to lean into the idea that this was part of the larger pattern of judicial wrongs that the administration now seeks to right...."

"Appearing on Fox News, Bondi discussed the Wisconsin case and another in which a local New Mexico judge resigned after a man the government has alleged is a member of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua was arrested at his home. But rather than just focus on those two cases, Bondi repeatedly talked as if they were part of a broader problem with the judiciary. 'What has happened to our judiciary is beyond me,' Bondi said.... When Fox host John Roberts asked about the perception created by arresting judges — 'They’ll say this is a government that is expanding the powers of the Article One of the Constitution, now they’re arresting judges,' he said — Bondi didn’t dispute that. 'No one is above the law, John,' she said...."

I'm reading "Pam Bondi’s striking comments on arresting judges/Amid criticisms that the administration is intimidating judges, the attorney general didn’t exactly downplay the idea that this was part of a larger crusade against the judiciary" by Aaron Blake (in WaPo).

No one is above the law is what Trump antagonists said when the authorities arrested him. Four times.

I don't like the use of government authority as a political weapon or as a means of personal revenge, but that WaPo article doesn't get into the meat of what is alleged in the Wisconsin-judge case. Here's Pam Bondi explaining it (on ABC News):

The failure to rip a child from its mother's arms.

I'm reading "2-Year-Old U.S. Citizen Deported 'With No Meaningful Process,' Judge Suspects/A federal judge in Louisiana said the deportation of the child to Honduras with her mother, even though her father had filed an emergency petition, appeared to be 'illegal and unconstitutional'" (NYT).

“The government contends that this is all OK because the mother wishes that the child be deported with her,” wrote Judge Doughty, a conservative Trump appointee. “But the court doesn’t know that.”

Asserting that “it is illegal and unconstitutional to deport” a U.S. citizen, Judge Doughty set a hearing for May 16 to explore his “strong suspicion that the government just deported a U.S. citizen with no meaningful process.”

"She lost her life to suicide, after being a lifelong victim of sexual abuse and sex trafficking."

Said a statement from the family of Virginia Giuffre, quoted in "Virginia Giuffre, Epstein and Prince Andrew accuser, takes her own life/The mother of three died aged 41 in Australia, her family said" (London Times).

She was one of the first women to publicly accuse Epstein, who died by suicide in 2019 in a New York detention facility awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges....

They keep using that word. Without scare quotes.

"Giuffre told the Miami Herald in 2019.... that she had confided in Epstein and Maxwell about being sexually abused as a child and running away from home. 'They seemed like nice people so I trusted them, and I told them I’d had a really hard time in my life up until then,' Giuffre said."

Meanwhile, last month, Giuffre wrote on Instagram that a school bus had hit her car and that she only had 4 days to live. Giuffre and her husband had separated and were fighting over custody of their children Christian, Noah, and Emily. 

At the Friday Night Café...

... you can talk about whatever you like.

So she’s like “they went that-a-way” and they actually went the other way and the feds arrest her?

I'm trying to read "The F.B.I. arrested a Wisconsin judge, Patel says, accusing her of helping an immigrant avoid detention" (NYT), which describes the incident like this:

The case appears to stem from an incident last week in which Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents came to the courthouse seeking to apprehend an immigrant who had a misdemeanor case before Judge Dugan. The F.B.I. has been investigating whether the judge directed the defendant and his lawyer to exit her courtroom out a side door and hallway while the immigration agents were elsewhere in the building, the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel has reported....

UPDATE: Pam Bondi describes what happened. 

"I don’t think there’s anything wrong with tattoos. But they should have meaning. Not just that I was high watching Game of Thrones...."

"It’s a six-week healing process each time you get one removed. So each tattoo is 10 to 12 sessions. That’s 60 weeks of your life right there on just one tattoo."

Said Pete Davidson, quoted in "Pete Davidson is losing his tattoos. I removed mine — it hurt/Having spent $200,000, the comedian has described the experience as ‘horrible’. It’s not just the cost that’s painful, says Esther Walker" (London Times).

"Sensient develops its natural colors starting with the seed. It has developed a variety of beets, for instance, that are larger and more saturated in color...."

"After the produce is harvested, Sensient pulps, pulverizes and strains the purple sweet potatoes, red radishes and grapes into a rainbow of extracts, powders and liquids. The process also eliminates the flavors of most of the underlying fruits, vegetables or other plants, but not all. 'You’re never going to take the taste out of strawberry juice. It’s going to be a little acidic, a little strawberry-ish. And that works well for a strawberry flavor in a kids’ cereal.... But nobody is dying for a carrot-flavored cereal.' Even though the color... doesn’t often change the taste profile... the appearance does signal certain flavors — or intensity of flavors — to consumers.... 'If you reduce the color saturation level of a drink, your mind may tell you it’s going to taste less sweet or less sour than the original color.... Duller hues may signal that this is a duller flavor or stale for some people, while for others it may signal that it’s a more natural color, something found more in nature.'..."

From "No More [Synthetic] Food Dye in Froot Loops? Not So Fast. Companies make packaged food without synthetic dyes in other countries. But despite pressure from Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the change isn’t likely to happen quickly in the United States" (NYT).

The senses are interwoven. Some of us, including me, have little or no sense of smell, and a lot of what is referred to as taste is really smell. For me, the look of a food or drink contributes a lot to the illusion of flavor. By the same token, if some orange food that used to be flavored artificially were flavored with something made from carrot that smelled a bit of carrot, I wouldn't notice that unwanted smell. But I would notice the duller orange, and that would cause it to taste less... orange. It's complicated. I feel a little sorry for the food companies that find themselves in such a predicament after spending so much time and effort working to please us with everything that is non-nutritional about food and drink. 

"I think of the [antiracist] programming as a kind of secular religion, a progressive penitence."

"The real work of advancing equality is never mentioned. One exercise that consultants recommend is for students to visit a grocery store to observe who is 'enforcing white supremacy culture.'"

Said Steve Wilson, quoted in "He’s a Foe of D.E.I. in Schools but Not a Fan of Trump’s Crusade/Steven Wilson was forced out of the charter school network he started for an essay that conflicted with antiracism initiatives. Five years later, he feels both vindicated and dismayed" (NYT).

Wilson got "canceled" in 2019: 

"When Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said in a recent press briefing that autistic children will 'never pay taxes,' 'never hold a job,' 'never play baseball'...."

"... many people in the autism community reacted angrily. And yet I was transported back to the psychiatrist’s office and her bleak prognosis that my child might never speak again. I found myself nodding along as Mr. Kennedy spoke about the grim realities of profound autism. It’s not a position I expected to be in. I have never voted for Donald Trump. I vaccinated my children. I consider myself squarely left of center....  I have no interest in defending Mr. Kennedy.... And yet, I think his remarks echo the reality and pain of a subset of parents of children with autism who feel left out of much of the conversation around the condition. Many advocacy groups focus so much on acceptance, inclusion and celebrating neurodiversity that it can feel as if they are avoiding uncomfortable truths about children like mine...."

From "Kennedy Described My Reality" (NYT).

"One guy told me that every time he wants to buy something, he does 25 push-ups — he says it takes him out of his head and back into his body."

"And, hey, I’m not going to do that, but... [d]oing something physical, like putting on a song or getting yourself a snack or going to get a coffee, that’s all good. Text a friend or call someone. A lot of people have told me that they find their partner and have sex or get out the vibrator — which you can’t do at work, obviously, but if you’re at home, get after it. Whatever works. These are skills that you build over time...."

Said Ashlee Piper, author of "No New Things," quoted in "How I Quit Shopping" (NY Magazine).

Skills!

RFK Jr. evokes Lenny Bruce.

Getting some play on X right now is RFK Jr. saying "Thank you very much" in response to someone yelling "Fuck you!"

You can’t make this up.

While RFK Jr. was speaking about overcoming addiction and controlling anger, a protestor screamed “F*** you”—and RFK responded, “Thank you.”

RFK: “I think to myself, what should I do with this interaction? Should I pray for that person, or should I pull… pic.twitter.com/O2j07NRz3s

— End Tribalism in Politics (@EndTribalism) April 24, 2025

I'm remembering the movie "Lenny." The screenplay has Lenny Bruce (Dustin Hoffman) saying: "What's the worst thing you can say to anybody?"/"Fuck you, mister!''/"That's really weird, because if I wanted to hurt you, l should say, 'Unfuck you, mister' — because 'fuck you' is really nice, man."