Sunrise — 7:07, 7:15, 7:23.

Write about whatever you want.

"Trump Might Have a Case on Birthright Citizenship."

That was the title of a post last February.

You might want to revisit that today, because "Supreme Court agrees to hear Trump’s challenge to birthright citizenship" (SCOTUSblog).

"Once a week, his maternal grandmother would come home from the market with a live carp... 'We’d put it in the bathtub... and I’d play with this fish for a day until she killed it and made gefilte fish.'"

From "Frank O. Gehry, Titan of Architecture, Is Dead at 96/He burst onto the scene with an attention-getting renovation of his Southern California home before going on to design some of the world’s most recognizable buildings" (NYT).

Like many Angelenos, he was drawn to the laid-back, anything-goes atmosphere of the city, whose mix of garish mansions, flimsy bungalows, vacant lots, Googie coffee shops and colorful billboards was the antithesis of East Coast architectural academicism. And he became close to a generation of Los Angeles artists... whose surfboard-inspired aesthetic and raw work spaces suggested an alternative to the chilly austerity of late Modernism and the reactionary tendencies of postmodernism.... “I was trying to use the dumb, normal materials of the neighborhood,” Mr. Gehry said years later. “There must have been half a dozen cars in various states of deconstruction sitting around on the lawns; there was chain link in people’s backyards. They thought that was normal.”

For more about the fish, see "Frank Gehry, Fish Lamps/Paul Goldberger traces the history of the fish form throughout Frank Gehry’s career" (Gagosian.com).

Icing up.

Video by Meade.

ADDED: More swans from Meade:

"In his satirical 'Dictionary of Received Ideas'... Flaubert offered up a range of definitions embodying the stupid notions that silly people too readily accept."

"...  'Art': 'Leads to poorhouse. What use is it, since machines can do things better and quicker?' ... 'Bird': 'Wish you were one, saying with a sigh: "Oh, for a pair of wings!" This shows you have a poetic soul.'... By mocking these thoughts, we push ourselves past them. From this perspective, our sense that we’re getting stupider may simply reflect our determination to be smart."

Writes Joshua Rothman, in "Are We Getting Stupider? Stupidity is eternal—and more complex than we think" (The New Yorker).

"Dictionary of Received Ideas' — link goes to full text — is one of the few books that has its own tag on this blog: here. It's long been one of my favorite books, and you may have noticed my various proposals for entries in a new Dictionary of Received Ideas. If you get Flaubert's idea, maybe you can help me write this volume for my shelf of Unwritten Books. 

Actually I don't think Rothman conveys Flaubert's idea accurately. Here's a new New Yorker piece from 2013 (by Teju Cole), which explains the "Dictionnaire des Idées Reçues" like this:  "What galls Flaubert most is the inevitability, given an action, of a certain standard reaction. We could learn from his impatience: there are too many standard formulations in our language. They stand in place of thought, but we proclaim them each time—due to laziness, prejudice, or hypocrisy—as though they were fresh insight."

Anyway, what's Rothman's point about our possibly becoming stupider? He writes: 

"I grew up on a commune in Northern California where I was raised by hippies, drank well water and ate wild Miner’s lettuce from our field."

"The only medicine allowed was herbs, homeopathy and marijuana. During the stress of my divorce, my mother suggested that I micro-dose mushrooms to regulate my moods. But I knew I needed more than meditations and adaptogens during this ongoing, post-pandemic punch in the face.... It wasn’t until my friend explained how ChatGPT offered her better advice than her expensive psychotherapist that I asked her to come over and walk me through it....  ... I wasn’t feeling better after seven years of work with [my therapist].... I worked for days with Chat to process my feelings and notes and to compose an email....  The therapist responded with a single sentence: 'I appreciate your sentiments.' Her cold reply provided clarity, but it also revealed to me how my relationship with her had mirrored the pattern in my marriage. 'You poured your heart, clarity and depth into that message,' Chat wrote. 'Her reply confirms the very dynamic you’ve been working to free yourself from, where your vulnerability and honesty are met with detachment, minimalism and emotional withholding.'..."

Writes Adele Uddo, in "My Rebound Relationship With a Robot/Raised on a commune, I resisted technology at every step. Until it saved me" (NYT)(gift link).

Spotify Wrapped is telling everyone their "listening age."

I am old, so I don't care if my listening age is old — a few years older (78) than my actual age (74). It's because I still listen to the music I loved when I was a teenager in the 1960s, when I lucked into what still seems to me to be the best popular music. I would have thought most Americans get fixated on whatever was popular when they were a teenager, but I'm seeing that a lot of people are getting a  "listening age" of 70-something.

I'm reading "Spotify Just Called You Old" (NY Magazine), which especially likes this tune "Why did everyone I know have a listening age of an old-age home on Spotify Wrapped?":

"A New Jersey-bound airplane that suddenly plunged thousands of feet in the air... was likely struck by cosmic rays from a star that exploded in another galaxy, according to space experts."

"The JetBlue Airbus A320 flight was hit by a stream of high-energy particles from a distant supernova blast that traveled millions of years, according to Clive Dyer, a space and radiation expert.... 'They can cause a simple bit flip, like a zero to one or one to zero. They can mess up information and make things go wrong. But they can cause hardware failures too, when they induce a current in an electronic device and burn it out.'"

From "NJ-bound plane that suddenly plunged thousands of feet likely hit by ‘cosmic rays’ from a whole other galaxy" (NY Post).

"He walked through the Darién Gap between Panama and Colombia... Later, he reached the Bering Strait between Alaska and Russia — the midway point of his walk...."

"In the winter, he said, the strait does not entirely freeze over. 'It is this massive body of crushed ice and seawater…you’re literally climbing over the ice to make any short distance,' he said. He met a fellow adventurer in Alaska who traversed the strait with him. 'No one believed we were going to make it,' Bushby said. 'As it turned out, we managed to nail it on the first go, which no one expected, least of all us.' Once Bushby arrived in Russia, he hit another hurdle: he was detained for entering the country at an incorrect border. He spent 57 days in detention, he said, and faced a trial, until authorities agreed to let him continue his walk. 'It was just a whole series of miracles,' Bushby said...."

From "He set out to walk around the world. After 27 years, his quest is nearly over. Karl Bushby is expected to finish his globe-walking expedition by September 2026" (WaPo)(gift link, so you can see the photos, including Bushby immersed in Bering Strait ice).

Sunrise — 7:16.

The wind chill was -1° but we were undeterred. We didn't want to miss the "Cold Supermoon." You can still see it: "The exact moment of December's full moon phase will take place at 8:13 p.m. EST (2313 UTC) on Dec. 4." That's half an hour from now, so check it out.

I loved seeing the full moon at sunrise, but I didn't like any of my still photographs of it. They looked, in a word, stupid. But scroll down 2 posts and you'll see Meade's video of the big orange disc beginning to dip behind the distant shore.

Write about whatever you want in the comments.

UPDATE: I stepped out to gaze at the sky at 6:47 CST. The moon was too far above the horizon to look extra large, but because the iPhone didn't realize I was doing a night picture and it decided to make a long exposure and I was entirely unprepared for that, so I got a cool surprise:

Reset to normality, the iPhone gave me this:

"The court’s brief, five-paragraph order indicated that 'Texas is likely to succeed on the merits of its claim that the District Court committed at least two serious errors.'"

"Moreover, it added, the lower court 'improperly inserted itself into an active primary campaign, causing much confusion and upsetting the delicate federal-state balance in elections.'"

From "Supreme Court allows Texas to use redistricting map challenged as racially discriminatory" (Scotusblog).

Here's the opinion. There's a long dissent by Kagan, joined by Sotomayor and Jackson, arguing for deference to the decision of the district court. Alito writes a concurring opinion, joined by Thomas and Gorsuch:

The full moon was setting in the west as the sun rose in the east.

This morning on Lake Mendota. Video by Meade:

If the Minnesota fraud was so huge, why didn't government officials notice and take action?

The question is asked on today's episode of the NYT podcast "The Daily."

The answer is two-fold:

1. A group called Feeding Our Future accused the state of racism for "slow walking" their application. This wasn't long after the "national reckoning" that followed the death of George Floyd, and "at that time, nobody wanted to be called a racist, even it was wholly unfounded" and "that really had a paralyzing effect on people in state government who knew something funny was going on, but didn't really want to stick their necks out and stop it."

2. Money was cycling back to the Democratic Party. "Somali Americans have become politically quite powerful in the state... and... became important donors to their campaigns.... [S]ome democratic elected officials... worried that any action they took to question or intervene in a way that would maybe stop these schemes, could have alienated a really important constituency."

Now, the podcasters clearly wish the fraud problem could be solved by Minnesota. But Trump has jumped at the opportunity to emphasize what reads as racial. He forthrightly — brutally — connected the fraud problem to immigration from the wrong places:

"The suspect’s identity remained unclear for the moment, but the arrest could ultimately provide an answer to one of the most tantalizing mysteries arising from the Jan. 6. riot."

I'm reading "Suspect Arrested in Inquiry Into Pipe Bombs in D.C. Ahead of Jan. 6 Riot" (NYT).

"The break in the case was not based on new information but came after agents bore down yet again on their investigative files and discovered a new lead, according to one person familiar with the matter."

"We should be facilitators and enablers."

“They had a patient coming in saying, ‘I want to look like Frank-N-Furter from Rocky Horror Picture Show.’ ”@LeorSapir spent over 100 hours going through footage of gender conferences.

In the videos obtained exclusively by The Free Press, gender doctors acknowledge they… pic.twitter.com/Jm00RUKFhh

— The Free Press (@TheFP) December 3, 2025

Here's the article: "'We’re All Just Winging It': What the Gender Doctors Say in Private In footage obtained exclusively by The Free Press, gender doctors acknowledge they perform life-altering procedures on vulnerable youth with no supportive evidence—and they are proud of it."

Melanie Hamlett has a word to say about Scott Galloway.

You know Scott Galloway — he has a new book, he was on Bill Maher's show, I blogged about him back in '23 after he talked about men "garnering the skills and strength."

Melanie Hamlett was new to me but I see she's written lots of mainstream media articles, including "Men Have No Friends and Women Bear the Burden/Toxic masculinity—and the persistent idea that feelings are a 'female thing'—has left a generation of straight men stranded on emotionally-stunted island, unable to forge intimate relationships with other men. It's women who are paying the price" (Harper's Bazaar 2019).

Before I read any of that I decided based on this one TikTok that she is a comic genius:

Sunrise — 7:09.

Write about anything you want in the comments.

"Flanked by executives from major automakers in the Oval Office, Mr. Trump said the Transportation Department would significantly weaken fuel efficiency requirements..."

"... for tens of millions of new cars and light trucks. The administration claimed the changes would save Americans $109 billion over five years and shave $1,000 off the average cost of a new car. The Biden administration’s stricter efficiency standards were designed to get more Americans to go electric. But Mr. Trump said they 'forced automakers to build cars using expensive technologies that drove up costs, drove up prices, and made the car much worse. This is a green new scam, and people were paying too much for a car that didn’t work as well.'"

From "Trump Returns to Gasoline as Fuel of Choice for Cars, Gutting Biden’s Climate Policy/The president said he would weaken Biden-era mileage standards, which were designed to increase electric-vehicle sales, calling them a 'scam'" (NYT).

"Schopenhauer was a lifelong bachelor who had few friends and many enemies, who preferred the company of dogs..."

"... to that of his fellow men and women, and whose own mother, Johanna Schopenhauer, broke off ties with him, telling him in a letter, 'I am acquainted with your heart and know that few are better, but you are nevertheless irritating and unbearable, and I consider it most difficult to live with you.'... [H]e became even more so as he grew older, driven by the belief that solitude was the price of telling the rest of humankind two unbearable truths. First, that it is better never to have been born; second, for those of us unfortunate enough to exist, to expect nothing but suffering and sorrow.... It is curious to think that his beloved standard poodle, Atma, knew what men and women did not know: that his master believed in the care and concern for all living beings...."

Writes Robert Zaretsky, in "Compassionate Curmudgeon/Why we must root ourselves in the real world" (The American Scholar).

"Republicans and Democrats are now nearly unanimous in believing the other party has gone too far with its rhetoric and are much more likely to think this than in 2011."

"Ninety-four percent of Democrats, compared with 74% in 2011, now say Republicans and their supporters have gone too far, and 93% of Republicans (vs. 63% in 2011) say the same about Democrats and their supporters. In contrast, partisans are disinclined to believe their own party has gone too far with its rhetoric and are no more likely now than in 2011 to hold this view. Today, 36% of Republicans believe the GOP and its supporters’ rhetoric has gone too far, compared with 32% in 2011. And Democrats are less likely now (28%) than in 2011 (45%) to say their party’s rhetoric has been too inflammatory."

From "More Americans Say Political Rhetoric Has Gone Too Far/69% say Republicans', 60% say Democrats' inflammatory criticism of opponents has gone too far" (Gallup).

Is it the beans?!

Yesterday, I fell into #beantok:

"I hesitate to take at face value Lizza’s account of Nuzzi’s behavior, but a specific detail sticks in my mind..."

"... he recounts finding a 'tabloid-style news story' she wrote in which she describes herself as a 'blonde beauty' and 'one of the most famous political reporters in America.' It is easy to imagine the narrator of 'American Canto' producing fan fiction about herself, because, in many cases, the book reads as if that’s what she’s doing. 'He threw himself onto the bed, his pink shirt unbuttoned, revealing my favorite parts of his chest,' Nuzzi writes, of a conversation with Kennedy."

Writes Molly Fischer, in "Does Olivia Nuzzi Make Good Copy? Across social media, definitely. In her new memoir, 'American Canto,' not so much" (The New Yorker).

Bookstore photograph — notice anything?

My son Chris sends this from Austin:

"President Trump unleashed a xenophobic tirade against Somali immigrants... calling them 'garbage' he does not want in the United States..."

"... in an outburst that captured the raw nativism that has animated his approach to immigration.... 'These are people that do nothing but complain,' Mr. Trump said at the tail end of a cabinet meeting at the White House.... 'When they come from hell and they complain and do nothing but bitch, we don’t want them in our country. Let them go back to where they came from and fix it,' Mr. Trump added as Vice President JD Vance banged the table in encouragement. He said Somalia 'stinks and we don’t want them in our country.' He described Representative Ilhan Omar... as 'garbage.'... 'She’s garbage. Her friends are garbage....'... Mr. Trump has used this kind of rhetoric throughout his rise in politics, including in his first term as president, when he demanded to know why the United States would accept immigrants from Haiti and African nations, which he described as 'shithole countries'...."

From "Trump Calls Somalis ‘Garbage’ He Doesn’t Want in the Country/President Trump has a history of insulting people from African countries, but the outburst was shocking in its unapologetic bigotry. Vice President JD Vance banged the table in encouragement" (NYT).

I watched this performance live yesterday, and I believe I said out loud, "He's choosing to resonate with racists."

Sunrise — 7:00, 7:11, 7:14.

Write about whatever you like in the comments.

"So anyway, there are a number of you folks in what I would call the manosphere who are reaching some conclusions that I wonder if they're not going to be, um, more harmful than they are insightful...."

Says Bret Weinstein to Ben Davidson, in a podcast titled "Son Set in the Manosphere."

Weinstein has a lot of things he wants to say, and he takes the time spell them out calmly. Davidson is way more emotional — embarrassingly angry at women — to the point where I felt that he shouldn't be on the show at all, but he did give Weinstein a lot to bounce off from. 

"Minnesota Governor Tim Walz was warned about massive fraud in a pandemic food-aid program for children, yet he failed to act."

"Instead, whistleblowers who raised concerns faced retaliation. Because of Governor Walz’s negligence, criminals — including Somali terrorists — stole nearly $1 billion from the program while children suffered.”

Said House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.), quoted in "
Treasury, House panel launch probes into Tim Walz’s handling of $1B food aid fraud — and they could make criminal referrals" (NY Post).

"The more I advance in my life, the more I fear humans. I’m more animal than human."

Said Brigitte Bardot, quoted in "Brigitte Bardot: I tried to kill myself many times. A miracle saved me/The 91-year-old screen icon discusses her struggles with depression as a young woman in a new 90-minute documentary titled Bardot" (London Times).

Today at the crunchy steps, coots.

Some ducks finding their way into the fringe of coot society, but basically coots.

Crunching on the steps, that's Meade, not me.

Here I am — another coot video'd by Meade:

Michelle Goldberg calls Olivia Nuzzi's book "a grandiose postmodern pastiche that attempts to situate her personal catastrophe in the context of our collective one."

"Interspersed with Nuzzi’s stream-of-consciousness musings are facts about drone strikes, gun deaths and wild fires; long chunks of Q&A dialogue, including with Donald Trump; a court document detailing the assault on Nancy Pelosi’s husband; an F.B.I. report on the man who wrote the children’s book 'Harold and the Purple Crayon'; and quotes from figures including Friedrich Nietzsche, Carl Jung and Jane Birkin. It’s a pretentious mess, but an audacious one. It seems less an attempt to justify herself to the Beltway world she once inhabited than to catapult over it, into the more congenial realms of art and literary celebrity."

Here's the whole column: "A Serious Journalism Scandal Hiding Inside a Frivolous Sexual One."

I read the excerpt from Nuzzi's book when Vanity Fair published it a couple weeks ago, and I too made fun of the florid, pretentious writing. But "grandiose postmodern pastiche" — in the New York Times — makes me feel a twinge of empathy. What if Nuzzi is genuinely literary? What she did is perhaps what I would have done in the same circumstances — tossed out of my ongoing career with nothing but raw material, raw emotion, a publisher's advance enough to cover living expenses, and whatever true writing gift I could find inside myself. They thought I was a journalist, that I would write a fast-moving, funny, fact-filled account of my interaction with RFK Jr., but they don't know, they don't know what I am....

Here's the book, "American Canto" (commission earned).

Crunchy snow steps at sunrise.

Those are Meade's crunchy snow steps. I was struggling with my iPhone which was acting like a camera with the lens cap on. I thought I could just point and shoot as if I could see what I was doing, but I couldn't.

Here's another Meade video, the western view at 7:26 a.m.

Write about whatever you want in the comments.

"I had spent 12 hours with this man. What could I have done differently? What words could I have used?"

"My patient’s opinions were mystifying, as if the product of an unsound mind. Should we have disregarded them and performed a procedure against his wishes?... My patient had been clear. He was consistent. He had the right to make his own decisions. What I considered to be an unfounded and ultimately disastrous objection to a pacemaker was not, in and of itself, proof of incapacity.... I did not know what it was like to live with his autoimmune disease.... Because I was unwilling to accept my patient’s desires at the end of his life, his final 12 hours on this earth were fraught and contentious. I could not have changed his mind, but perhaps I could have changed that."

Writes Daniela J. Lamas, in "My Patient Was Making a Fatal Decision. What Could I Do?" (NYT).

Melania Trump presents the White House Christmas.

Home Is Where the Heart Is
AMERICA’S CHRISTMAS

This Christmas, let’s celebrate the love we hold within ourselves and share it with the world around us. After all, wherever we are, we can create a home filled with endless possibilities. pic.twitter.com/VouZAtLpHU

— First Lady Melania Trump (@FLOTUS) December 1, 2025

I laughed when I saw the picture of Trump on the windowsill, like Trump — mugshot Trump! — is a Christmas character — along with Santa and Jesus. But on rewatch, I see the emphasis on the United States as a political entity, in its 250th year. And there's George Washington on the other windowsill as if the windows are a time line from the origin point in the past to the present day. We see Jesus, but not Santa. There's nothing aimed at children here. It's elegant, not fun or cute.

Melanie reaches out to one of the frosted white ornaments. There must be one for every state, because it says "Georgia." We see the slogans "Fostering the Future" and "Be Best." [ADDED: I said there is "nothing aimed at children" in the decorations, but both of those these slogans indicate programs aimed at children.]

The animal that represents Christmas in this display is a blue butterfly. Is that a real species of butterfly or just a monarch butterfly rendered in blue?

"The 36-year-old New York-based private chef Jen Monroe... uses cotton candy... wind[ing] the filaments around edible wildflowers, adding savory notes like smoke, tea or parsley...."

"Much of cotton candy’s appeal is its inherent evanescence. When the Italian arts patron Nicoletta Fiorucci asked the London-based chef Imogen Kwok, 34, to create a dish that recalled water for a show at her namesake Chelsea foundation, Kwok piled what she calls 'wispy cumulus clouds' into a cascading form, from which guests could pull clumps with their hands...."

From "How Cotton Candy Won Over the Adults/Long associated with childhood and county fairs, the food has found its place among a new generation of experimental chefs" (NYT).

"To comply with a spoken order from Hegseth to kill everyone, the Special Operations commander overseeing the mission ordered a second strike..."

"... that killed the two survivors, according to two people with direct knowledge of the operation. Those people, along with five others in the original report, spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the matter’s sensitivity. Trump said he would look into the issue. 'I wouldn’t have wanted that. Not a second strike. The first strike was very lethal. It was fine,' the president told reporters."

From "Trump says Hegseth denied issuing order to kill boat crew/The president also said he would not have wanted a second strike on a boat allegedly carrying drugs, which occurred after U.S. forces realized the initial attack left two survivors, as The Post reported" (WaPo)(gift link, so you can read the whole thing).

UPDATE: "Hegseth Ordered a Lethal Attack but Not the Killing of Survivors, Officials Say" (NYT): "According to five U.S. officials, who spoke separately and on the condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive matter that is under investigation, Mr. Hegseth, ahead of the Sept. 2 attack, ordered a strike that would kill the people on the boat and destroy the vessel and its purported cargo of drugs. But, each official said, Mr. Hegseth’s directive did not specifically address what should happen if a first missile turned out not to fully accomplish all of those things. And, the officials said, his order was not a response to surveillance footage showing that at least two people on the boat survived the first blast. Admiral Bradley ordered the initial missile strike and then several follow-up strikes that killed the initial survivors and sank the disabled boat. As that operation unfolded, they said, Mr. Hegseth did not give any further orders to him."

These men in shorts are exempt from any Althouse rule against men in shorts.

Photo taken on the ride back from the sunrise walk. It was 7:53 a.m. and the temperature was, perhaps, 20°.

"For the first time in modern memory, the [Solicitor General's] office’s merits briefs... begin with an 'introduction,' a section often filled with unusually charged language..."

"... including direct quotes from Mr. Trump.... The Harvard Law School professor Richard Lazarus, an assistant solicitor general during the Reagan administration, said the charged rhetoric in filings could imperil the office’s special status with the Supreme Court as a trusted counselor that presents the justices with rigorous arguments that interpret the law consistently, no matter who occupies the White House. The fiery language, Professor Lazarus said, makes the office sound like 'a zealous ideologue.' 'They look like they are representing an individual. They don’t look like they are representing the United States or the federal government,' he said. 'The question is whether the court will call them on it or not.'"

From "Despite Supreme Court Wins, Elite D.O.J. Unit Has Seen Mass Turnover/Even with an exodus of lawyers, the Office of the Solicitor General has had remarkable success. But fiery rhetoric and close White House ties have raised concerns" (NYT).

I'm fascinated by the way the first 2 sentences of that headline state cause and effect in 2 different directions.

"Despite... Wins... Mass Turnover" suggests that usually people don't leave a successful team.

"Even with an exodus of lawyers... remarkable success" suggests that teams usually aren't successful when lots of people leave.

It's not incoherent though. The point is that the Solicitor General's office has adopted a forceful position that is both successful and repellent.   

"I hope that the sisters will accept the path I have outlined and that a regulated religious life will once again be a reality in Goldenstein."

Wrote Abbot Markus Grasl, quoted in "3 Rebel Nuns Can Stay in Abbey, if They Give Up Social Media/After the octogenarian nuns refused to return to their senior center, the abbot has finally folded. But he has some conditions" (NYT).

When three octogenarian nuns escaped their senior center in September, their unlikely quest for freedom set off a bitter standoff with the abbot who leads their Roman Catholic order. The three rebel nuns forced their way back into the Austrian abbey where they had lived for decades, before the senior center. ...

The abbot had cited "a church rule that orders must have at least six living members." What happened to that rule? There were 3 nuns living in an abbey within a medieval castle.

Now that they've gotten so much attention and support, the abbot says they can stay, but they "must stop letting laypeople into their cloisters, and — most likely much more important — they must end their social media feed." And yet that's how they won their heart's desire, though public attention and support, acquired through social media. Without social media, perhaps they'll lose what they've gained. But what prevents them from restarting their social media, if promises are broken? A vow of obedience? That didn't stop their first rebellion. 

Here's that social media feed (at Instagram). 

Sunrise — after the big snow — at 6:37, 6:38, 6:40, 7:00.

Not wanting to drive the car to our vantage point, we set out on foot. It was quite the trudge — a mile out and a mile back — mostly through 9 inches of snow on uncleared pathways. 

Write about whatever you want in the comments.

"rage bait" — "online content deliberately designed to elicit anger or outrage by being frustrating, provocative or offensive."

It's the Oxford University Press "Word of the Year" (the NYT reports).

The runners up were "biohack" and "aura farming."

I've never used (or quoted) the phrase "rage bait" or "aura farming."

I did quote "biohack" once. The context was the use of an IV to fend off a hangover. I commented: "Drinking is funny until it's not. Does this IV bag extend the funny phase or expedite the tragic? The need to say things like 'self-care,' 'virtuous aftercare,' and 'biohack' sounds desperate, but that can be part of the funny, especially for the drunkards."

"On July 10, Mattheis Johnson hopped a bus on a warm summer night to see a pop-up punk rock show at Seattle’s Gas Works Park, a hulking collection of steel towers, tanks and pipes..."

"... that has become one of the world’s most widely emulated examples of postindustrial landscape design. His parents felt nervous every time their 15-year-old son asserted his independence, but they also knew he needed adventures.... [A]s the concert wound down, Mattheis tried climbing the park towers....  He lost his footing, fell 50 feet and died at a nearby hospital...."

From "After Teen’s Death, a Seattle Icon Confronts a New Label, Nuisance/For years, architects and design experts have resisted safety changes at Seattle’s Gas Works Park, but after a teenager died there this summer, his parents want it declared a public nuisance" (NYT).

"Over the last five years, law enforcement officials say, fraud took root in pockets of Minnesota’s Somali diaspora as scores of individuals made small fortunes..."

"... by setting up companies that billed state agencies for millions of dollars’ worth of social services that were never provided.... Outrage has swelled among Minnesotans.... Gov. Tim Walz and fellow Democrats are being asked to explain how so much money was stolen on their watch.... Many Somali Americans in Minnesota say the fraud has damaged the reputation of their entire community, around 80,000 people, at a moment when their political and economic standing was on the rise.... Critics of the Walz administration say that the fraud persisted partly because state officials were fearful of alienating the Somali community in Minnesota.... The episode has raised broader questions for some residents about the sustainability of Minnesota’s Scandinavian-modeled system of robust safety net programs bankrolled by high taxes...."

I'm reading "How Fraud Swamped Minnesota’s Social Services System on Tim Walz’s Watch/Prosecutors say members of the Somali diaspora, a group with growing political power, were largely responsible. President Trump has drawn national attention to the scandal amid his crackdown on immigration" (NYT).

"[Theo] Von introduced C.K. to Sex and Love Addicts Anonymous, where he began working to address his addiction..."

"... to masturbation. He practiced abstinence—it was, he said, a 'crazy idea to me. . . . Don’t have sexual release for several months in a row'—but, eventually, he 'got out of the cycle.' His emotions started coming back. 'I saw everything really differently,' he said. 'I saw that everything that had happened with me was because of me. And, by the way, that’s great news, because that means you could do something about it.'... [And] this is what enabled him to write his book. He recently finished a second one. 'I’m writing novels because I don’t jerk off every fifteen minutes,' he said. 'It’s really all it is.'"

Writes Tyler Foggatt in "Louis C.K.’s Next Chapter/In a new standup special, and a début novel, the comedian navigates murky, post-#MeToo terrain: not quite exiled, not quite welcomed back" (The New Yorker).

That reminded me of the old after-sex punchline. Attributed to Balzac: « Là… encore un roman de perdu ! » (“There… another novel lost!”). There's a line in "Annie Hall": “I read a thing about Balzac. He used to, uh, after he’d have sex he’d go, ‘Oh, there goes another novel.’”

I opine on the snow — before and after.

At 7:22 a.m. yesterday, as the snow is beginning to fall:

And at 11:22 a.m. on today:

Had to dust off the old "I was wrong" tag.

"... Maduro is embracing English, singing John Lennon’s 'Imagine,' advocating for peace and dancing to a remix of his latest English catchphrase, 'No War, Yes Peace.'"

I'm reading "Venezuelan leader Maduro may seem desperate. But his loyalty vs punishment strategy is hard to crack/Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro was once critical of English" (ABC News).

"The emails described a man who was struggling to assimilate... while he alternated between 'periods of dark isolation and reckless travel.'"

"Sometimes, he spent weeks in his 'darkened room, not speaking to anyone, not even his wife or older kids.'... But then, there were 'interim' weeks where Lakanwal would try to make amends and 'do the right things'.... 'But that has quickly evolved into "manic: episodes for one or two weeks at a time, where he will take off in the family car, and drive nonstop,' the email outlined. Once, he went to Chicago, and another time, to Arizona...."

From "Suspect in National Guard attack struggled with ‘dark isolation’ as community raised concerns/Emails obtained by The Associated Press reveal mounting warnings about the suspect" (Politico).

At the Saturday Night Café...

 ... you can talk about whatever you want.

No sunrise photos today. We stayed off the roads and, from inside, watched the snow fall.

"I write fiction because it’s a way of making statements I can disown, and I write plays because dialogue is the most respectable way of contradicting myself."

Said Tom Stoppard, quoted in "Sir Tom Stoppard obituary: playful and prolific playwright/A popular and exotic figure, Stoppard was known for his dandyish appearance as well as his wit and eloquence" (London Times).

Goodbye to a great playwright. Stoppard was 88. We were blown away when we saw "Travesties" at the American Players Theater a few years ago.

[In] Travesties (1975)... Lenin, the Dadaist Tristan Tzara and James Joyce meet in Zurich during the First World War and become involved in a production of The Importance of Being Earnest.

APT also produced "The Importance of Being Earnest," so we took that in, then returned to see "Travesties" again. I think that may have been the best theatrical production I've seen in my entire life. 
 

I've also seen "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead" (based on "Hamlet") and "Arcadia," both at APT. And I saw his last play "Leopoldstadt," in New York City. If you click on my "Tom Stoppard" tag you'll see what I think are some interesting details. 

"I’ve come to lean on the daily mechanics of the kitchen for much-needed meditation, and on my kitchen meditation — if it can be called that — for the energy to cook...."

"It’s exactly what makes daily cooking so demanding — the volatility of the materials, metal pans that conduct frighteningly high heat, the perishability of vegetables and meat and milk — that shapes it into such good material for noticing.... Find a time when the sun is low and, without self-censure, take an inquisitive inventory of the flotsam beneath your kitchen table. Mine is an elaborate collage. There are two kinds of beans.... There’s a chunk of sourdough bread. There’s a chink off a chestnut, a piece of apple core, some leaves, a coil of thin white thread. Beneath my table is a topographic model of my family’s life, painted in golden light: the beans and leaves and string that we’ve shelled and tracked in and with which we’ve sewed. It looks, suddenly, too sweet to alter, too poignant to sweep up. Who dropped the bread and decided, absorbed in conversation, to leave it there?"

Writes Tamar Adler, in "My Antidote to Early Evening Despair" (NYT), which is adapted from her book "Feast on Your Life: Kitchen Meditations for Every Day" (commission earned).

I liked that romanticizing of detritus. And the notion of kitchen meditation is a good counterbalance to the TikTok trend of de-normalizing cooking:

"... the baby is fat... "

Chris, who reads biographies of U.S. Presidents, texts me this photo from "The Bully Pulpit: Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, and the Golden Age of Journalism" by Doris Kearns Goodwin (commission earned).

If your first baby was "frail from birth" and died at 14 months, you too would experience joy to see the new baby is actively fat. Taft grew to a heft of 340 pounds, our fattest President by far.

Chris also sends this photograph he took, in case you are wondering what Christmas decorations look like in Austin:

"To all Airlines, Pilots, Drug Dealers, and Human Traffickers, please consider THE AIRSPACE ABOVE AND SURROUNDING VENEZUELA TO BE CLOSED IN ITS ENTIRETY."

Writes Donald J. Trump, on X, thanking us for our attention to this matter.

"Mr. Trump is aware of the criticism that his ballroom plans are too large."

"He told a group of donors to the project last month that he didn’t want the new ballroom to 'dwarf anything.' But at the same event, in discussing related plans to construct a Triumphal Arch, Mr. Trump showed small, medium and large options. 'I happen to think the large looks by far the best,' he said.... 'We started with a much smaller building, and then I realized, we have the land, let’s do it right,' Mr. Trump said recently to donor... Speaking of the design plans for the new ballroom, Mr. Trump has said that he likes to see different proposals, but that he ultimately has the final say. 'I consider myself an important designer,' Mr. Trump has said."

From "Inside Trump’s Push to Make the White House Ballroom as Big as Possible/President Trump’s ever-growing vision has caused tension with contractors. His architect has taken a step back as the president personally manages the project" (NYT).

Sunrise — 6:43, 7:12, 7:14.

Write about whatever you want in the comments.

"Stuff that we would normally have stolen was there in profusion."

My favorite sentence in "Becoming Led Zeppelin," a documentary playing on Netflix — about 39 minutes in.

"Are you stupid? Are you a stupid person?"

Trump just made this reporter reevaluate her life 😂

Q: "Why do you blame the Biden Admin?"

Trump: "Because they let them in. Are you stupid? Are you a stupid person? And you're just asking questions because you're a stupid person!" 💀 pic.twitter.com/s97shKW0yd

— Sara Rose 🇺🇸🌹 (@saras76) November 28, 2025

"Why do you blame the Biden Admin?"/"Because they let them in. Are you stupid? Are you a stupid person? And you're just asking questions because you're a stupid person!"

Presented for your contemplation, not to indicate my approval (or disapproval!).

***

I'm giving this my "civility bullshit" tag because the topic of "civility bullshit" is in play. That is, Trump doesn't fall for civility bullshit. You can't persuade him to be civil because he (correctly) observes that the other side will not be civil toward him and he will not unilaterally disarm. I think his incivility invariably — or almost invariably — comes only after someone has shown incivility toward him. 

I'm paranoid about why this book isn't available at Amazon (as far as I can tell).

It's "Tales of Paranoia," R. Crumb's first comic book in 23 years. 

I'm linking to Fantagraphics, where I bought it. I've read it and will reread it. Crumb tells the story of his own paranoia and maintains — at age 80+ — excellent dedication to detailed drawings, even with the difficult task of drawing his own face many many times with all sorts of different emotions, mostly in the range of fear and anxiety.

A glimpse, which will perhaps inspire you to paranoia about why you can't get this book from Amazon:

"[T]he '30-book limit' is a mistake. This misunderstanding likely originated from my comment, where I mentioned that I personally was left with about 30 books..."

"... after tidying my own collection. This comment was exaggerated over time, and somehow turned into the idea that I had created a 'rule' limiting books to 30.... The main focus is always on choosing what sparks joy for you. Therefore, whether the result is 30 books or 100 books, it is fine.... I actually have more than 30 books on my shelves now, partly because I now have a larger bookshelf than I did back then...."

Says Marie Kondo, quoted in "Marie Kondo Likes Book Covers That Feel 'Smooth and Silky'/'It’s all about the texture'..." (NYT).

I like the idea that part of what makes a book qualify for keeping in your collection is how it feels as an object.

"Dressed in a strange tuxedo/tutu combination with the blanched face of a heroin addict, he opens with a menacing prowl round the empty stage, pausing to stare contemptuously at the audience while eating a banana."

My favorite sentence in "A Midsummer Night’s Dream review — ruined by a needlessly shocking finale/Headlong Theatre’s production turns the Bard’s tricksy comedy into a pitch black ballet-themed spectacle full of spite and horror" (London Times).

"Think of all the lost boys who have disappeared into their rooms, only to return as something unrecognizable, like a modern changeling."

That's my favorite sentence in "Your Phone Isn’t a Drug. It’s a Portal to the Otherworld" (NYT).

I'd make that a gift link but I'm out of them, but I think you can figure it out..

Sunrise — 6:40, 7:02, 7:27.

The comments section is an open thread.

Happy Thanksgiving!

"During the press conference on Thursday, Pirro said the two Guardsmen were sworn in 24 hours prior to being shot."

"A joint task force spokesperson later said the two Guard members were deputized less than 24 hours before the shooting to 'maintain their status to conduct presence patrols,' according to a joint task force spokesperson."

From "What we know about the 2 National Guard members shot near White House/The two soldiers are still in critical condition" (ABC New).

Pirro = Jeanine Pirro, U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia.

"The victims were identified as 20-year-old Army Spc. Sarah Beckstrom and 24-year-old U.S. Air Force Staff Sgt. Andrew Wolfe."

The quoted text gives the impression that Beckstrom and Wolfe were under-prepared but I don't think that impression is correct. I think the swearing in was the activation for this immediate mission. Both had been in the National Guard for years.

UPDATE: I'm just hearing President Trump announce that Sarah Beckstrom has died.

Surf's up for a bleak sunrise over Lake Mendota, 2 mornings before the big snow.

Video by Meade.

Chitchat about swifts by Althouse.

More about swifts:

What if Arlo Guthrie had sung "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald" and Gordon Lightfoot had sung "Alice's Restaurant"?

The Hey Man does the necessary impersonations:

"Of all the genres of unsatisfying nonfiction, books by Supreme Court Justices may be at the top of the heap."

"One subset is the memoir that focusses on the Justice’s early life, ending before confirmation. Justice Sonia Sotomayor’s 'My Beloved World,' Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson’s 'Lovely One,' and Justice Clarence Thomas’s 'My Grandfather’s Son' are examples. These can be gripping narratives and helpful to understanding a Justice’s formative years, but by definition they omit what readers most want to know: what the Justice did on the Court and why she did it. Another category is the learned disquisition on the law, as in Justice Neil Gorsuch’s 'A Republic, If You Can Keep It' and Justice Stephen Breyer’s 'Reading the Constitution.' These, too, fall short of readers’ hopes, for the simple reason that the authors resist any temptation to rule and tell. They write about their understanding of the law and the judicial process, but when it comes to their dealings with colleagues they remain resolutely circumspect. Barrett’s book is a mashup of the two forms: memoir and personal reflection are interlaced with explanations of legal doctrine. (Her grandmother’s unwritten recipe for shrimp remoulade provides a jumping-off point for discussing the benefits of a written constitution: 'Unwritten constitutions, like unwritten recipes, can be hard to pin down.')"

Writes Ruth Marcus, in "How the Supreme Court Defines Liberty/Recent memoirs by the Justices reveal how a new vision of restraint has led to radical outcomes" (The New Yorker).

This definitely gets my "unread books" tag (though I did read, a blog about, "My Grandfather's Son"). 

Marcus gives the Justices credit for writing "about their understanding of the law," but do they? How could they really?

Here's my old post "What I really think about the Clarence Thomas book" (from October 2007). I sort of "live-blogged" my reading of that book, and along the way, I was "accused both of fawning over him and of obsessively hating him," but, I said:

"[T]he suspect in custody is a foreigner who entered our country from Afghanistan, a hellhole on earth. He was flown in by the Biden administration..."

"... in September 2021 on those infamous flights that everybody was talking about. Nobody knew who was coming in. Nobody knew anything about it. His status was extended under legislation signed by President Biden, a disastrous president, the worst in the history of our country.... The last administration let in 20 million unknown and unvetted foreigners.... [H]undreds of thousands of Somalians are... ripping apart that once great state [Minnesota]. Billions of dollars are lost and gangs of Somalians come from a country that doesn't even have a government, no laws, no water, no military, no nothing. As their representatives in our country preach to us about our Constitution and how our country is no good.... We must now re-examine every single alien who has entered our country from Afghanistan under Biden. And we must take all necessary measures to ensure the removal of any alien from any country who does not belong here or add benefit to our country. If they can't love our country, we don't want them...."

Said President Trump, last night:

"Yes, there are important reasons to cut ties with certain people intentionally. But we’re not just cutting people off..."

"... we’re letting our closest relationships disintegrate through neglect, busyness and an unwillingness to move past the things that bother us. You may think it’s better for your mental health to slowly distance yourself from someone you have difficulties with, but, in the long run, it will likely have a devastating impact on your happiness and well-being.... Accepting what you can’t change doesn’t mean you’re endorsing their beliefs — it simply means doing everything you can, right now, to embrace the positives and look past the negatives. We’re fortunate that some of the biggest regrets of older people — not expressing love, not seeking forgiveness, not telling those who matter how they feel — are regrets that we can avoid.... The only time it’s too late to apologize or ask for forgiveness is when somebody is no longer here...."

Write Karl Pillemer, a professor of human development at Cornell, and Mel Robbins, author of “The Let Them Theory,” in "Life Is Too Short to Fight With Your Family" (NYT).

The comments are stuff like "Life is too short to waste time on family members who bring nothing positive to your life," "Stop trying to make people feel guilty for choosing to take care of themselves," and, of course, "This might be good advice in normal times, but not in the age of trump. Bye bye trump supporting family members."

AND: That's obviously a Thanksgiving op-ed, so happy Thanksgiving. Are you celebrating in the old-timey style with a big group of family? If not, is it your choice, somebody else's choice, or no choice at all?

The snowy woods in a dark sunrise.

Video by Meade, who went out when I said no. It was really windy!

Write about what you want in the comments.

"The animal that shot the two National Guardsmen, with both being critically wounded, and now in two separate hospitals, is also severely wounded..."

"... but regardless, will pay a very steep price. God bless our Great National Guard, and all of our Military and Law Enforcement. These are truly Great People. I, as President of the United States, and everyone associated with the Office of the Presidency, am with you!"

Writes President Trump, on Truth Social.

From the NYT updates: "Two members of the National Guard were shot near the White House on Wednesday afternoon.... A suspect was in custody, according to the D.C. police, and President Trump said the attacker had also been shot. Dozens of emergency responders and police vehicles were amassed at the corner of 17th and I Streets NW near the entrance of a hotel, just northwest of the White House...."

UPDATE: The 2 National Guardsmen have died. BUT: I am seeing that the report of death, which came from the Governor of West Virginia, is not true.

UPDATE 2: CNN: "The FBI believes it has identified the suspect, multiple law enforcement officials briefed on the matter tell CNN. The initial identification matches a man from Washington state who appears to have immigrated from Afghanistan in August 2021, they said."

"A judge in Georgia dismissed the last pending criminal prosecution against President Trump on Wednesday..."

"... effectively ending efforts to hold him criminally responsible for attempts to overturn the 2020 election.... A motion seeking to end the prosecution was filed Wednesday morning by Pete Skandalakis, the executive director of the state’s nonpartisan prosecutor council. The case was once seen as one of the most serious legal threats to Mr. Trump, because state criminal convictions are not subject to presidential pardons. Mr. Skandalakis... shredded the case originally brought by Fani T. Willis.... He asserted that 'it is not illegal to question or challenge election results.'... He added that the idea of pursuing a case against a sitting president in Georgia was impractical...."

From "Judge Dismisses Georgia Election Interference Case Against Trump/The president has now seen three criminal cases against him dissolve since he was re-elected last year" (NYT).

This was the case that produced the magnificent mugshot that Trump has from the start used to his advantage.

"... a conflict between architectural norms and Trump’s grandiose aesthetic, according to four people who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe internal conversations."

I'm trying to read this WaPo article, "Trump wants a bigger White House ballroom. His architect disagrees/The president and James McCrery had argued in recent weeks over the project’s size, with Trump pushing him to expand the ballroom" (free link).

I wonder who the 4 sources are and how intensely Trump and the architect have disagreed. Is it a friendly back-and-forth about proportion and aesthetics or is there raging and threatening to stomp off and tell all?

And I wonder what size the architect thinks is right. We're told Trump wants a 90,000-square-foot building but not what the architect has been arguing for. We are told there's a "general architectural rule" that an addition shouldn't "overshadow" the main building and the executive mansion is 55,000 square feet. But what's the specific position the architect is taking? 90 is so huge, but what is the proposed ensmallment?

Fault me if you like, but I went over to Grok and prompted: "Assume I want to write a fancy-schmancy essay interweaving the Trump and the architect story with ideas from the Ibsen play 'The Master Builder.' Help me out!"

From Grok's answer (which spoils the ending of the play):

"[I]t is now clearly established that I cannot be prosecuted for saying, in this essay, 'Members of the military have not only the right, but the obligation, to refuse illegal orders.'"

"Nor could I be prosecuted for stating, as I also have, that the orders to kill suspected drug smugglers are illegal. The First Amendment protects all such statements. Indeed, it protects explicit calls for illegal conduct unless the speech is both intended and likely to incite imminent illegality, a standard rarely met, and one not even approached by Senator Kelly’s words...."

Writes David Cole, in "Mark Kelly Is Being Investigated for Telling the Truth" (NYT)(gift link, so you can read the whole thing, including the part that rejects the idea that Kelly has less free speech because he's a retired member of the military).

"Who'd want to harm this beautiful bird?"

Sorry but we’ll never have this much fun ever again
pic.twitter.com/959k1V1Gky

— Arynne Wexler (@ArynneWexler) November 25, 2025

I love Trump's body language, and Melania seems genuinely amused.

"The people around him are similar to Biden’s aides. They would talk as if we’re living in a little bit of a fantasy world."

"Trump, in that way, with the help of his aides and his doctors have created this fiction about his health to hide the hard, cold truth that he is 79 and one of the oldest people to ever occupy the Oval Office.”

Said political historian Matthew Dallek, quoted in "Shorter Days, Signs of Fatigue: Trump Faces Realities of Aging in Office/President Trump has always used his stamina and energy as a political strength. But that image is getting harder for him to sustain" (NYT).

Is this even news at all? What's news to me and why I'm blogging this is that the NYT is displayed at the top of the home page as if it's the top news story of the day:

"At the moment the power balance between somebody working in prostitution and the punter is very much in the punter's favour..."

"... and quite often punters use that in order to exploit women's vulnerabilities more. 'So they'll say to them "you know if you don't do what I say I'll tell the police about you" and so on, whereas it turns around in the Nordic model. The women in prostitution can say to the punter: "No I'm not going to comply with that request, and I can call the police on you." It doesn't sound like a lot but that is a subtle power shift which I think gives more security and more safety to those working in prostitution.'"

Said Independent MSP Ash Regan, quoted in "'I would love to be doing this in my 60s' - the debate over selling sex in Scotland" (BBC).

The quote in the headline is from someone called Porcelain Victoria, who "says she started selling sex when she was 18 and used it as a way to escape an abusive household": "I plan to do this until I can't, basically. I would love to be doing this in my 60s. My plan is to hopefully semi-retire and become a counsellor helping couples and solo people figure out their sexuality when it comes to kinks and fetishes."

I had to look up "punter."

"I do not find the complainant was as alarmed and distressed as they portrayed themselves to be."

Said District Judge Briony Clarke, quoted in "Graham Linehan cleared of harassing trans campaigner/The Father Ted co-creator was found guilty of criminal damage after smashing the phone of activist Sophia Brooks" (London Times).

The comedy writer, 57, was appearing at Westminster magistrates’ over allegations he had waged a social media campaign against [transgender campaigner Sophia] Brooks between October 11 and October 27, 2024. He posted about her more than 20 times on the social media platform X in which he used terms such as “sociopath”, “psycho”, “domestic terrorist” and “groomer”, the court heard. 

Linehan's reaction: "There are a group of dangerous men who are determined to bully women and girls, and to misuse the courts and police in furtherance of a misogynistic agenda. I’m proud to have stood up to them and I will continue to do so."

I wanted to blog this using a tweet from Lineham, but he tweets so much that I gave up scrolling looking for something from yesterday. Here's a search of his feed limited to the name "Sophia Brooks." To select one thing:

This was all very polite legal speak for “Brooks is a liar”. But as I said during the trial, people who are capable of lying about their sex will lie about anything https://t.co/Fz29yir4fG

— Graham Linehan (@Glinner) November 25, 2025

I became interested in Lineham's legal ordeal when he appeared on Joe Rogan's show, blogged here, with embedded video of the whole show.

Sunrise — 6:42, 7:04 — and midday — 1:52.

Write about whatever you want in the comments.

"A British swimmer sustained by bananas and painkillers has become the first person to circumnavigate Hong Kong’s largest island..."

"... a distance equivalent to swimming across the Channel and back again. Simon Holliday, 46, from Ashford in Kent, completed the 40.3-mile circuit of Lantau Island on Friday in 20 hours 57 minutes. Half an hour later, he was followed by Edie Hu of the United States, the first woman to make the swim. They did not wear wetsuits — marathon swim rules mean they are not allowed in waters above 20C — so the chill was one of their biggest challenges.... The three swimmers were followed by a support team in two boats and two kayaks. They were fed in the water every 45 minutes with snacks such as chocolate, jelly babies and bananas."

From "British man is first to swim round Hong Kong’s biggest island/Simon Holliday won the 40-mile race round Lantau — the equivalent of swimming the Channel and back — as competitors battled tides, hallucinations and cramp" (London Times).

20C = 68° Fahrenheit.

A quote from Hu (the woman): "I started getting a little loopy. I was getting sleepy and actually dozing off [in the water].

CNN insanity.

My screenshot from X, showing the Grok fact check that's easy to display:

 

And here's the whole video clip that should have any sane person saying That can't be right:

Come on fathers don't hesitate/Send your sons off before it's too late.

I'm reading "Army Chief Ignites Uproar After Saying France Must ‘Accept Losing Our Children’/The furor erupted as President Emmanuel Macron is expected to present a plan for paid, voluntary military service to bolster the armed forces against the threat from Russia" (NYT):

The army chief, Gen. Fabien Mandon, who took over as chief of staff in September, told mayors gathered in Paris from across France last week that they must become the messengers of a new French resolve on an unstable European continent.

What is needed, he said, is “the spirit that accepts that we will have to suffer to protect what we are.” If France “wavers because we are not ready to accept losing our children,” then “we are, indeed, at risk,” he told the mayors, evoking the growing threat from Russia since its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

Made me think of this:

Be the Zeppo.

I thought Variety's "100 Best Comedy Movies of All Time" was pretty well done, but what I liked best about it was the way it inspired me to write one of my unwritten books. Look:

To my mind, this still from the movie establishes a proposition I've long been aware of: Zeppo was the funniest Marx Brother. For the uninitiated: Zeppo is second from the left. 

Now, for those of you who don't want to read anything written by A.I., it's time to leave. Here's the prompt I took to Grok: "Is it true that in the opinion of those whose opinion counts most Zeppo was the funniest Marx Brother?"

The answer is yes.

First, Groucho said it, repeatedly. Grok writes: "He described Zeppo as having the best natural comic timing and delivery in real life, a dry, deadpan wit that killed in a room, but that Zeppo simply didn’t care enough about performing to push himself forward on screen. Groucho claimed Zeppo could have been the breakout star if he’d wanted it."

Then there was George S. Kaufman, co-writer of "The Cocoanuts" and "Animal Crackers," who "reportedly said Zeppo was the funniest of the brothers in rehearsals and in person." Other authorities who said the same thing included Steve Allen, Woody Allen, and Billy Crystal.

So Zeppo was given the “straight man/romantic lead” role until after "Duck Soup" he quit movies altogether and "became a successful theatrical agent and inventor (he held patents related to the cardiac clamp used in open-heart surgery)."

I was motivated to say: "If the other brothers saw him as the funniest, they had something to strive to excel. Zeppo was maximizing the comedy by performing that role and he didn't have the motivation to excel anyone. He was secure."

Skimming Grok's somewhat lengthy mirroring of what I'd just said, I got a new idea: "I want to expand this into a larger life lesson and write a self-help book — in the manner of 'Let Them' — that would be titled 'Be the Zeppo.'"

1. By "write a self-help book," I meant write a blog post that would earn the tag "Unwritten Books," that is, the blog post you are reading now.

2. Of course, Grok immediately outlined this book for me, replete with subtitle options — like "The Power of Radical Non-Competition" — and 10 chapters — including "The 'Anything Further, Father?' Principle/One perfectly timed sentence beats a ten-minute monologue. The power of strategic silence."

3. Here, you can read everything Grok said.

4. Here's Mel Robbins, the author of "The Let Them Theory," quickly explaining the whole book to Bill Maher. 

5. Anything further?

Sunrise — 6:42, 7:03.

Write about whatever you like in the comments.

"A federal judge dismissed the indictments against former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James on Monday."

"The judge found that the appointment of interim US Attorney Lindsey Halligan in Alexandria, Virginia, was invalid. Trump handpicked Halligan for the role amid increasing pressure to bring criminal cases against his political enemies, including Comey and James...."

CNN reports.

"Pentagon says it’s investigating Sen. Mark Kelly for video urging troops to defy ‘illegal orders.'"

AP reports.

In its statement, the Pentagon suggested that Kelly’s statements in the video interfered with the “loyalty, morale, or good order and discipline of the armed forces” by citing the federal law that prohibits such actions. “A thorough review of these allegations has been initiated to determine further actions, which may include recall to active duty for court-martial proceedings or administrative measures,” the statement said.

Here's the controversial video: 

"Well, they tell me of a pie up in the sky/Waiting for me when I die/But between the day you're born and when you die/They never seem to hear even your cry..."

Goodbye to Jimmy Cliff, who was 81.

ADDED: "I can see all obstacles in my way...."

"[I]t has become nearly impossible to attend a Democratic political event without encountering a 'creator hour,' an influencer briefing or a lineup of one-on-one interviews with Substackers and independent podcasters...."

"Are Democrats on par with Republicans in the digital media space? Not yet. The gap remains wide, according to audience numbers and interviews with creators and strategists. Republicans dismiss their efforts as phony. 'What they need to stop doing is trying to copy our homework and go invent something of their own,' said CJ Pearson, a conservative influencer and podcast host. 'If they do that, it’ll be a lot more authentic than whatever they’re doing right now.'... But even the friendly confines of liberal media can turn hostile. Creators who bring strong political opinions to interviews sometimes push Democrats harder than expected, said Kyle Tharp, author of a newsletter about politics and online influence.... Tharp predicted the creator class will wield even more power in the 2028 presidential campaign. 'Some of these campaigns are going to be handing them a bag of cash for an endorsement,' he said. 'People are really going to want some of these major Democratic talkers’ endorsements in the next campaign.'"

From "How Democrats are building their own digital media army/The 2024 election spurred Democrats to seek out podcasts and social media creators to spread their message and catch up with their Republican counterparts" (WaPo)(free link).

I'm suddenly remembering the "Authenticity" trend that seems to have peaked last August.

I think good social media emerges organically. Ask Joe Rogan. These top-down efforts are not going to produce the right influencer/influencee relationship. And I've been watching the Democratic Party try to do this since the 2004 campaign, when it coddled bloggers.

"Violence is necessary. Violence is a part of America’s culture. It is as American as cherry pie."

A quote from the subject of the NYT obituary "Jamil Abdullah Al-Amin, Black Power Activist Known as H. Rap Brown, Dies at 82."

He died in prison, convicted of murder. But once: "With his trademark black beret and sunglasses, dexterous mind and imposing 6-foot-5 inch frame — 7 feet, with his Afro — he was a persuasive and charismatic figure to many, adept at rallying Black audiences to his cause while alarming many white listeners."

Other quotes in the article: "Black folk built America, and if it don’t come around, we’re gonna burn America down," "You’ve got to arm yourself. If you’re going to loot, loot yourself a gun store," and, referencing 5 days of rioting, “I don’t think you could articulate the sentiments of Black people any better than they just did in Detroit."

The NYT prints the full "n-word." Is it fit to print? I won't write it. But it is the second word of the 3-word title of the man's 1969 autobiography. The other 2 words are "Die."

Ankle monitors in the news.

1. "How a Sabotaged Ankle Monitor Ended Bolsonaro’s House Arrest/Shortly before he was expected to start serving a 27-year sentence, Brazil’s former president took a soldering iron to his tracking device" (NYT): "Mr. Bolsonaro, 70, wasn’t trying to flee, his sons, allies and lawyers said. Rather, he felt unwell because of his medications." This happened "days before he was expected to begin a 27-year prison sentence for trying to stage a coup." "A day before the ankle monitor episode, his lawyers had asked the court to let Mr. Bolsonaro serve his sentence at home because of health problems, which he attributes to complications from a stabbing attack in 2018. His poor health, which includes frequent attacks of hiccups and vomiting, 'makes his safe stay in a prison environment impossible,' his defense said on social media.... At a hearing on Sunday, Mr. Bolsonaro told the court he had burned the ankle monitor because his medications had caused 'hallucinations' and 'paranoia' that the device might be used to eavesdrop."

2. "'Slender Man' attacker Morgan Geyser found a day after cutting off monitoring bracelet" (CNN): "A woman who stabbed her sixth-grade classmate to win favor with a fictional internet character named 'Slender Man' more than a decade ago has been taken into custody, a day after cutting off her monitoring bracelet and leaving a group home where she’d been living, police said.... At age 15, Geyser pleaded guilty to a charge of attempted first-degree murder in a deal with prosecutors to be placed in a mental institution instead of serving jail time.... In January, a judge ordered she could be released from the Winnebago Mental Health Institute, where she spent nearly seven years.... Geyser is currently living at a group home in Madison, [Wisconsin] on the same street where she was last seen...."

3. "Innocent woman, 26, set alight on Chicago subway 'by serial criminal, 50' freed on ankle monitor by soft touch judge in horrific echo of Iryna Zarutska murder" (Daily Mail): "Cook County Judge Teresa Molina-Gonzalez (pictured) allowed Lawrence Reed, 50, to be released on an ankle monitor after he assaulted a social worker in August.... Reed is accused of setting fire to [Bethany MaGee, 26] around 9.24pm on Monday, which is outside of the hours he was allowed out of the house while on the ankle monitor."

4. "Charge against Melodee Buzzard’s mom dismissed, ankle monitor removed as FBI hunts for missing 9-year-old/Ashlee Buzzard no longer faces false imprisonment charge as FBI searches for 9-year-old Melodee" (Fox News): "... Brewer said Buzzard locked multiple deadbolts after he entered and appeared 'agitated and tense.' He testified that she sat across from him with a box cutter visible on a nearby tray. When he said he was uncomfortable and wanted to leave, he claimed she blocked the doorway and locked the front door.... The court... dismissed the felony charge for insufficient evidence and ended Buzzard’s pretrial supervision.... She is also no longer required to wear an ankle monitor."

"Is it really possible that big progress is being made in Peace Talks between Russia and Ukraine??? Don’t believe it until you see it..."

"... but something good just may be happening. GOD BLESS AMERICA."

Wrote Trump, on Truth Social, 4 minutes ago.

Sunrise — 6:45, 6:46, 6:54, 6:57.

Write about whatever you want in the comments.

(The last photo is Meade's.)

Simultaneous sunrise.

By me:

"She works as a cocktail waitress, a go-go dancer, a racetrack stable hand and, for a long stint in Phoenix, a sex worker..."

"... sometimes out of a trailer. Drink and drugs soften life’s jagged edges and get her through the day: 'I found the perfect formula to work on was a mixture of Spañada wine, Cold Duck and Squirt poured over crushed ice. That and bennies, or as Jenny called them, whaaat crawses. The drink, though quite potent, went down like cherry soda, and when coupled with the speed, produced a loose capable vigor just made to order for the job. During a normal day I would make about three trips across the lot through the quivering airwaves to the Circle K in my pink halter to hoard ingredients for the precious punch.'"

From "Her Father Wrote ‘On the Road.’ She Lived Her Own Version. Jan Kerouac’s 1981 novel 'Baby Driver' chronicles a fearless and windblown life entirely distinct from her famous parent’s" (NYT).

That's a review, by Dwight Garner, of "Baby Driver" — which is getting reissued.