Sunrise — 5:58, 6:17, 6:25.

Write about whatever you like in the comments.

Bluestem.

"He had thought about hiking the Appalachian Trail since a seventh-grade teacher discussed it in class — it had opened in full in 1937 — and he started planning it..."

"... in quiet moments at his first job, in sales training for a hardware company, which he didn’t like. He bought a used backpack from an Army surplus store, hiking shoes from L.L. Bean, a canvas tent and a rain poncho. He carried a Boy Scout knife, cooking utensils, a miner’s carbide lamp and two canteens, one for water and the other for gasoline to fuel his tiny stove. His meals included dehydrated mashed potatoes and boiled cornmeal with sugar, raisins and powdered milk.... Food and supplies for his hike cost Mr. Espy about $300. When his trek ended, he hitchhiked to Boston, where he spent $100 on new clothes and a bus ticket back to Georgia...."

From "Gene Espy, Pioneering Hiker of the Appalachian Trail, Dies at 98/In 1951, always an adventurer, he was the second person to walk the trail in a 'thru-hike,' from Georgia to Maine, in an arduous 123 days. He later met the first to do so" (NYT).

"He’s very concerned. How do they say it, this is for all the tea in China. This is serious."

"He" = Trump.

The quote is from John Catsimatidis, "a billionaire grocery and oil magnate in New York," who says he's just talked with Trump about this.

Quoted in "Trump Advisers Have Discussed a Job for Adams if He Quits Mayor’s Race/The conversations have also involved Curtis Sliwa with the goal of giving Andrew Cuomo a better chance of defeating Zohran Mamdani in November" (NYT).

Are New Yorkers going to be responsive to Trump's meddling in their local election? Cuomo wants to return to power like that? Seems wrong. And why would we the people of the whole United States want Adams and Sliwa handling whatever it is they'd be given? Let New York be New York. The people responded to Mamdani. That's democracy. Deal with it.

"Why Don't You... Cover a big cork bulletin board in bright pink felt banded with bamboo, and pin with colored thumb-tacks all your various enthusiasms as your life varies from week to week?"

Wrote Diana Vreeland, quoted in "Diana Vreeland Asks, Why Don't You.... Diana Vreeland helmed the stylish pages of BAZAAR for 25 years. During that time she penned an advice column with extravagant ideas for the modern woman. We rounded up 12 of Vreeland's most outrageous and stylish suggestions. Check back every week for new audacious advice. So, why don't you..." 

Harper's Bazaar did that round-up in 2014, and Diana Vreeland worked there from 1936 until 1962 and then at Vogue from 1962 to 1971. I got sidetracked into the topic of Diana Vreeland after blogging about the Vogue editorship passing from Anna Wintour to Chloe Malle. As I noted in the comments section to that earlier post, I had a job in the early 1970s that required me to read Vogue (among many other magazines) ever month. I was intensely aware that there had been an earlier era that was so much wilder and crazier.

But the pink bulletin board with thumbtacks seems within anyone's reach. I assume "pin with colored thumb-tacks all your various enthusiasms" means use colored thumb-tacks to pin up slips of paper upon which you've written words representing whatever you're currently feeling enthusiastic about.

"It’s time this government told the police their job is to protect the public, not monitor social media for hurty words."

Said Kemi Badenoch, the Tory leader, quoted in "Comedian Graham Linehan arrested over trans tweets/The 57-year-old TV writer says he has been ordered not to use the social media platform X while he has been released on bail after being detained by armed police at Heathrow" (London Times).

"Hurty words" is a useful and musical phrase. Badenoch didn't coin it. I'm seeing, from back in March 2024 in the London Times, "Islamophobic tweets just ‘hurty words’, says mayoral candidate/Susan Hall, the Tory hoping to run London, was responding to claims about Sadiq Khan and Londonistan.'" Someone in the comments there writes: "Anyone using the infantile term 'hurty words' calls into question their suitability for high office." Is it infantile or is it a satirical way to accuse those who are complaining about hurtful speech of being big babies?

"How did you find out over the weekend that you were dead?"

Yesterday, in the Oval Office, Peter Doocy asked Trump: "How did you find out over the weekend that you were dead?... People didn't see you for a couple days, 1.3 million user engagements as of Saturday morning about your demise. "

TRUMP: "Really? I didn't see that. You know, I have heard — it's sort of crazy — but last week I did numerous news conferences, all successful. They went very well. Like this is going very well. And then I didn't do any for two days and they said there must be something wrong with him. Biden wouldn't do them for months. You wouldn't see him. And nobody ever said there was ever anything wrong with him. And we know he wasn't in the greatest of shape. No, I heard that. I get reports now. You knew I did an interview that lasted for about an hour and a half with somebody and everybody saw that was on one of your competitors. Uh I did numerous uh shows and also did a number of Truths, long Truths. I think pretty poignant Truths. No, I was very active over the weekend. They also knew I went out to visit some people at the at the club that I own pretty nearby on the Potomac River. And no, I've been very active actually over the weekend. I didn't hear that one. That's pretty serious...."

Also, at 31:20, Doocy gets another question and asks about the mysterious throwing of something out of a White House window.

"The new job is not quite the same role that has made Wintour one of the most recognisable women in the world with her signature blow-dried bob and sunglasses and just-as-famous froideur."

"Instead, the title is 'head of editorial content, US'.... Over three decades, Wintour has transformed fashion from a mainly trade-facing industry to a billion-dollar celebrity and pop culture vehicle.She has turned Vogue from a monthly print magazine into an omnichannel digital brand.... 'Anna is basically the CEO of fashion and this new job isn’t that,' says a fashion veteran who did not want to be named. 'As we’ve seen at the other editions, these heads of content aren’t mini editors-in-chief — they’re quite muted figures. This person might be seen as ‘the new Anna’ from the outside, but Anna is still very much in control.'...There are those who say that, rather than marking a new era, this job indicates the end of one. As one industry stalwart puts it: 'This is very much an assistant position. Vogue dies with Anna.'"

From "Chloe Malle steps into Anna Wintour’s shoes at US Vogue/The fashion doyenne has stepped back from the day-to-day US Vogue editorship. Chloe Malle, the daughter of Candice Bergen and Louis Malle, has been confirmed as her replacement" (London Times).

The headline on the home page of The Times calls Chloe Malle "the daughter of Hollywood Royalty." Imagine having such parents!

"I have long thought that Humphrey’s Executor should be overruled because it is inconsistent with the Constitution’s vesting of all executive power in the President..."

"... and with more recent Supreme Court decisions. Of course, I agree with my colleagues that only the Supreme Court may overrule its precedents.... Granting a stay of the district court’s injunction, however, does not require this court to claim that Humphrey’s Executor has been overruled. Instead, the stay is warranted by the Supreme Court’s decisions to stay injunctions ordering the reinstatement of removed officers.... Everyone agrees that FTC commissioners are principal officers who exercise 'substantial executive power.'... The Constitution establishes three departments of the federal government, and the so-called independent agencies are necessarily part of the Executive Branch, not some headless fourth branch. Commissioners of the FTC exercise 'considerable executive power,' and such officers are not entitled to reinstatement while they litigate the lawfulness of their removal...."

Writes Judge Neomi Rao, dissenting, in Slaughter v. Trump. 

The NYT article about the case is "Federal Appeals Court Reinstates an F.T.C. Commissioner Fired by Trump/The court said the commissioner, Rebecca Kelly Slaughter, had been illegally terminated 'without cause.'" Excerpt: "Since March, the F.T.C. has been led only by Republicans. Ms. Slaughter said in an interview Tuesday evening that she planned to go to the F.T.C. on Wednesday morning to work."

Here's the Wikipedia article on Humphrey's Executor. Excerpt: "The case involved William E. Humphrey, a commissioner of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) whom President Franklin D. Roosevelt had fired. Roosevelt had fired Humphrey over their policy disagreements involving economic regulation and the New Deal, even though the Federal Trade Commission Act of 1914 prohibited firing an FTC commissioner for any reason other than 'inefficiency, neglect of duty, or malfeasance in office.'"

FDR wrote to Humphrey: "You will, I know, realize that I do not feel that your mind and my mind go along together on either the policies or the administering of the Federal Trade Commission, and, frankly, I think it is best for the people of this country that I should have a full confidence."

"Extremely disrespectful to show me up like that in the first inning after hitting a home run. Standing there, watching it, taking your sweet time getting down to first base...."

"I just find that extremely disrespectful, and I felt that I needed to let him know about that."

Said the Colorado Rockies pitcher Kyle Freeland, quoted in "Rafael Devers’ homer sparks wild, ejection-filled Giants-Rockies brawl" (NY Post).

The video focuses on the flight of the ball — the typical theater of a home run with the announcer waiting forever to call it "Gone!" and the fans in the bleachers scrambling for their souvenir — so we join the showing of "disrespect" in progress. We don't see the "standing there, watching it" and what must have been the most annoying part of "taking your sweet time":

BENCHES CLEAR IN COLORADO! 😳

Rafael Devers crushes a home run and doesn't even get to second base before everyone is on the field. pic.twitter.com/1DbNxFR5er

— Foul Territory (@FoulTerritoryTV) September 3, 2025

The Rockies are by far the worst team in baseball. They've lost 100 games and are 12 games behind the next worst team. I guess taunting them is experienced as especially mean — downright cruel.

ADDED: Here's more complete video that goes back and replay the full showing of "disrespect":

Eh. I blame Freeland.

Sunrise — 5:53.

Talk about whatever you want in the comments.

"Liebich has vigorously resisted suggestions of taking this step to satirise the authorities, rather than out of a wish to live as a woman."

Link to the London Times.

It should be noted that "Alexander Dobrindt, the interior minister, said Liebich had 'abused' the new gender self-identification law and it needed to be tightened up."

"A new world order is being created, new rules of a multipolar world, a new balance of power, which is extremely important for stability in the world."

"Being part of such discussions means supporting dialogue and not acting like a sulking little child. This is how the EU and its representatives behave today."

Said Robert Fico, the prime minister of Slovakia, "the only European Union leader present at the parade," quoted in "Kim Jong-un joins Xi and Putin in China for military parade/The North Korean leader has travelled in an armoured train to Beijing for a display of anti-West solidarity with other leaders at the SCO summit" (London Times).

"The 'Father Ted' writer Graham Linehan has revealed that he was arrested on Monday by 5 armed police officers on arrival at Heathrow airport over 3 tweets about transgender activists...."

The London Times reports.

Linehan told The Times: “I was outraged by what happened. I’d just travelled ten hours from Arizona to voluntarily appear in another court case and they thought they had to send armed police to get me." 

"I was arrested for messages on X when I haven’t even been banned from X. The tweets are not my best work but they are completely harmless. I’m furious about what is happening to women in the UK and I despise trans activists because I think they are homophobic and misogynist.... I was arrested at an airport like a terrorist, locked in a cell like a criminal, taken to hospital because the stress nearly killed me and banned from speaking online — all because I made jokes that upset some psychotic crossdressers. To me, this proves one thing beyond doubt: the UK has become a country that is hostile to freedom of speech, hostile to women and far too accommodating to the demands of violent, entitled, abusive men who have turned the police into their personal goon squad.”

The Times prints the tweets in question:

Bill Maher has another awkward conversation with an over-90 celebrity he admired when he was a kid. And he's 71.

Last week it was Barbara Eden. This week it's Woody Allen.

 

MAHER: You say... in your unconvincing defense of how you're not an intellectual...  that you never read "Great Expectations," you never read "Ulysses," you never read "1984," "Catch 22, "Don Quixote"....

WOODY: That's right. I've never read any of the ones you've just mentioned.

MAHER: I've read 'em all. You want to get the skinny on them. You want to, you want to get...

WOODY: Yeah, you could condense 'em? 

MAHER: Yeah, well... 

WOODY: I hadn't the patience to read any of them. I was never a reader. I never enjoyed reading as a kid.

Sunrise — 5:54, 6:24.

Write 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.)

"May God watch over our Afghan people. War, earthquakes, poverty — every hardship is a test from God."

Said a man named Said Meer, one of many Afghans who are returning to Afghanistan after being expelled from Pakistan, quoted in "Earthquake in Afghanistan Leaves More Than 800 Dead/The quake, near the border with Pakistan, injured more than 2,500 people in mountainous areas that rescue workers took hours to reach" (NYT).

We're told it was a 6.0-magnitude earthquake.

"Lots of melodrama plus clowning. At one point there was a bear on stage. Not a real bear of course..."

"... a man in a bear costume, but it was very large. It’s kind of pretty funny. In the text of the play, the stage direction is 'exit, pursued by a bear.'"

Things I texted, using voice-to-text, during intermission, when asked, from afar, "how is the play."

We'd gone out to Spring Green again, for a wonderful production of "A Winter's Tale."

Here's the Capital Times review. Excerpted sentence: "The transition from buttoned-up Sicilia to wild and woolly Bohemia — dressed by Raquel Barreto like cowboys and the ensemble from the 1960s musical 'Hair' — allows viewers to relax into the story." That transition comes right after intermission. As we drove home afterwards, Meade made that same comparison. It was like "Hair"... but the actors didn't get naked nor did they urge us to join them on stage.

"As another man who once worked with me declares himself saddened by my beliefs on gender and sex, I thought it might be useful to compile a list..."

"... for handy reference. Which of the following do you imagine makes actors and directors who aren’t involved with the HBO reboot of Harry Potter so miserable?"

J.K. Rowling has a useful list, at X, where she also engages with many of her commenters.

It's a long list, so go to the link. I'll just highlight one item, the belief "[t]hat gay people shouldn’t be pressured to include the opposite sex in their dating pools, nor should they be smeared as ‘genital fetishists’ when they don’t?"

"The New Dream Guy Is Beefy, Placid and … Politically Ambiguous/Amid pitched debates about masculinity, the 'himbo' stands stoically above it all."

What??!

That's a headline in the NYT for a piece by Casey Michael Henry (a writer who's got a novel called "Not Recommended").

Excerpt: "Calls have proliferated for a left-wing parallel to Joe Rogan.... Consider, for instance, Zohran Mamdani’s surprise win in the New York City mayoral primary, which came with the strong support of the young male vote. A key part of Mamdani’s strategy was finding vessels for an uncomplicated message about affordability, including a few men who could be described, and who might describe themselves, as 'himbos.' The candidate was endorsed by Hasan Piker, the leftist pinup, marathon livestreamer and co-founder of a clothing line called Himbo Fitness. Joshua Citarella, a bodybuilding enthusiast and the host of the left-wing show 'Doomscroll,' facilitated a fund-raising panel. The comedian Stavros Halkias, a heterodox Bernie Bro who could be called a 'himbo' of a more freewheeling, bacchanalian variety, filmed an Instagram endorsement. There were times when Mamdani’s praetorian guard of male influencers looked like an Ultimate Fighting Championship undercard or at least the set of 'The Man Show.'"

Here's what the more freewheeling, bacchanalian himbo looks like:

"Despots want science that has practical results. They’re afraid that basic knowledge will expose their false claims.

Said Paul R. Josephson, an emeritus professor of history at Colby College and author of a book on totalitarian science, quoted in "Historians See Autocratic Playbook in Trump’s Attacks on Science/Authoritarians have long feared and suppressed science as a rival for social influence. Experts see President Trump as borrowing some of their tactics" (NYT)(free-access link).

Analysts say authoritarians and their students fear science in part because its feats — unlocking the universe, ending plagues, saving millions of lives — can form bonds of public trust that rival or exceed their own.

“Science is a source of social power,” said Daniel Treisman, a political scientist at the University of California, Los Angeles. “It always poses a potential threat.”

ADDED: Note that we've got historians purporting to see something in present-day politics. Their topic is science and politics, but are they being scientific? What is the science of historians seeing patterns that yield useful fuel to political arguments? Perhaps it's true that "Despots want science that has practical results." But don't they also want history that has practical results?

Scroll down one post to see a photo of a crane on whose head you can see the head of a goose. One can "see" a lot of things. There are patterns everywhere. But the pattern I've seen the most in all my studies, scientific and imaginative, is that people see what they want to see.

The sandhill crane would like to be seen as a goose or duck.

Photo by Meade. The white duck/goose head shape pops as the dark beak and the true head shape recede.

I asked Grok if there's any writing on the topic of this head-shape camouflage on the sandhill crane and it "searched extensively" and told me that I seem to have made "a unique observation." How can that be, with all the birdwatching that goes on?! I can't believe it. The fake head marking is so obvious!

"We have each had the honor and privilege of serving as director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.... Collectively, we spent more than 100 years working at the C.D.C...."

"We served under multiple Republican and Democratic administrations.... What Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has done to the C.D.C. and to our nation’s public health system over the past several months — culminating in his decision to fire Dr. Susan Monarez as C.D.C. director days ago — is unlike anything we have ever seen at the agency, and unlike anything our country has ever experienced. Secretary Kennedy has fired thousands of federal health workers and severely weakened programs designed to protect Americans from cancer, heart attacks, strokes, lead poisoning, injury, violence and more. Amid the largest measles outbreak in the United States in a generation, he’s focused on unproven 'treatments' while downplaying vaccines. He canceled investments in promising medical research that will leave us ill prepared for future health emergencies. He replaced experts on federal health advisory committees with unqualified individuals who share his dangerous and unscientific views. He announced the end of U.S. support for global vaccination programs that protect millions of children and keep Americans safe.... This is unacceptable, and it should alarm every American.... The C.D.C. is not perfect. What institution is?"

From "We Ran the C.D.C.: Kennedy Is Endangering Every American’s Health" (NYT). The piece is signed by William Foege, William Roper, David Satcher, Jeffrey Koplan, Richard Besser, Tom Frieden, Anne Schuchat, Rochelle P. Walensky, and Mandy K. Cohen — all former directors or acting directors of the CDC.

"You know what Addison Ray said, taste is a privilege... I thought that it was one of the most elegant self-aware things that a pop star has ever said to me in an interview."

"She was locating herself as a person who, when she was 16, 17, 18, did not have access to a lot of cultural product outside the very obvious mainstream. Didn't know how or where to dig and had this kind of life force urge to get out of the circumstance that she was in. And in moments like that, you can't necessarily be like, I want to be artful, I want to be weird, I have unusual perspective. You're just like, how do I get outta here as fast as possible? The the speediest route and for her becoming a TikTok star and kind of being very relentless about like, I'm on every trending audio, anything that's, anything that's viral I'm participating in that was her speed run through the internet and now she's like, now I can have taste."

So said Jon Caramanica on yesterday's episode of the NYT podcast "The Daily," which was titled "The Summer in Culture." (Transcript and audio at Podscribe.)

Caramanica he written about that interview back in June, in "TikTok Made Addison Rae Famous. Pop Made Her Cool. The onetime social media superstar has re-emerged as the most surprising rookie pop star of the year."

Annoyingly, the word "privilege" does not appear in the article. But I am seeing "taste is a luxury":

“When I reflect back on that time,” she said, “I’ve recognized how much choice and taste is kind of a luxury. I was definitely strategic with it.... It was a lot about like, ‘How am I just going to get out of here?’ It wasn’t about like, ‘Let me show the intricacies of myself right now.’” Pursuing her own taste, whatever that might have been, wasn’t an option — “a sacrifice that had to be made,” she said.

"Luxury" and "privilege" are not synonyms, but the slippage from "luxury" to "privilege" seems to have occurred in the mind of Caramanica. What is the more interesting idea — "Taste is a privilege" or "Taste is a luxury"? "Taste is a luxury" seems more like what it looks like it means in context: She was in a hurry. "Taste is a privilege" sounds more like something they'd teach about in a fancy college, full of deep political and sociological meaning. "Taste is a privilege" is a luxury for those who are not in a hurry.

ADDED AFTERTHOUGHT: Someone in a hurry could use AI to impose taste on a musical composition.

***

Also in that podcast is some "discourse" — they call it that — about shorts. My old topic: Men in shorts.

"There’s a strain of rabies where the animals get very, very friendly..."

"... [a] family saw a raccoon that kind of showed up on their front step and he was sick and he was so cute and wanted to be petted. And you know when raccoons aren’t barring their teeth they are pretty cute."

Said a health official quoted in "Outbreaks of rabies seem to be rising across the U.S., CDC surveillance shows/The CDC's rabies team says it's tracking 15 different likely outbreaks from New York to Oregon" (NBC News)(citing 6 deaths from rabies in the U.S. in the past 12 months).

"The family petted and fed the animal until it died. They called animal services to pick up the body 'and thank God they did, because when they sent the brain out to be tested, it was positive, and so the whole family had to get vaccinated.... Oh, my gosh, they never would have known if they hadn’t called animal services.'"

Sunrise — 5:57, 6:22, 6:25.

Write about whatever you want in the comments. The third photo is by Meade. One and 2 are by me.

"The submarine sandwich’s... phallic yet floppy nature can also be seen in this context as a mocking reflection of the administration’s strutting, performative, hollow machismo...."

"'He thought it was funny. Well, he doesn’t think it’s funny today,' declared Ms. Pirro, playing the nation’s sputtering high school vice principal sick of all these disrespectful kids, in a video announcing that Mr. Dunn would be charged with felony assault.... Attorney General Pam Bondi... condemned him as 'an example of the Deep State we have been up against for seven months.' That seems like a lot of firepower brought to bear on a single sandwich-throwing paralegal...."

Writes Bruce Handy, author of "Hollywood High: A Totally Epic, Way Opinionated History of Teen Movies," in "I’ll Have My Resistance on a Roll. Hold the Mayo" (NYT).

As you may have noticed, the prosecutor failed to get an indictment, disproving at long last "that grand juries aren’t in fact willing to indict ham sandwiches."

By the way, what's the origin of that old joke? Let's read Tom Wolfe's "Bonfire of the Vanities":

Found — August 29, August 30, August 31.

All items left untouched, found near Lake Mendota. All photographed in the early morning — 5:50, 6:15, and 6:31.

"Other signature wellness kitchen innovations include humidity controlled 'growing cabinets' for planting and maintaining live herbs and lettuces..."

"... filtered water at all taps, compacting composters and islands engineered to allow multiple cooks to chop and dice together, encouraging socializing at home... [A] high-tech gadget they recommend for coaxing kitchen gardens to grow by bathing them in magenta light and soft music is not strictly necessary. Neither are the hushed appliances they endorse for reducing noise pollution. 'If you’re in your 20s and live in a shoe box, what we recommend is, go and buy yourself a $2.99 rosemary plant... Use it in your eggs or as a garnish. When you pluck something fresh and living, it has a massive ripple effect. It resets your relationship with food.'... 'I love the fact that mental health has become a part of the conversation around kitchens'...."

From "The 1950s Kitchen Gets an Update/With today’s wellness kitchens, it’s farewell to the pantry with shelf-stabilized foods, and hail to the composter" (NYT).

I clicked on this article because I wanted to see photos of 1950s kitchens and how they might be thoughtfully renovated, but "1950s Kitchen" just refers to the homeowner's lifestyle, which used to involve more processed and shelf-stable food. So, get rid of the extra shelving and do something to help people with the problem of fresh food going bad. Then there's the idea of treating food like endless self-improvement — and not only for your body but for your mind.

Well, the truth is, I'd like a kitchen oriented to the assembling of fresh wholesome food, but I know from experience — I remodeled the kitchen, once, 30 years ago — that remodeling a kitchen is not a wellness experience. Whatever you can do with the new kitchen after it's done, what you have to do to get there is not calming or rewarding or social or meditative. 

"I think a lot about the somatics, which is how the sound feels in your body."

Said Karl Scholz, the D.J. quoted in "What’s Loud, Pink and Drawing New Yorkers Together?With his Karlala Soundsystem, Karl Scholz is using nightclub-grade audio to ensure that neighbors gather" (NYT).

Ping-ponging around the makeshift dance floor was a bearded man in flamingo pink joggers carrying a laptop. Karl Scholz, 41, was using the computer to tune the sounds coming out of each of the six hulking stacks of speakers along the street, each painted the same bold pink as his pants....

If you don't like the noise, don't live in the city.

"It is the idea that we all contain the world and the world disappears when we disappear. There’s a word for that and I can’t f***ing remember what it is."

"That’s what I’m afraid of. I’m afraid of that happening to me and every time that I can’t remember a word or something, I think, 'This is the start.'"

Said Stephen King, quoted in "Stephen King on dementia — ‘I’m afraid of that happening to me’/The bestselling author, 77, talks about why he writes every day — and says each time he can’t remember the right word he worries: 'This is the start'" (London Times).

The article isn't entirely about the fear of your own brain pre-deceasing you. It's about other fears, including the fear of AI. King says:

“I don’t really care about AI. My sons [Owen King and Joe Hill] are both writers … and they’re all hot to trot about AI and how awful it is for writers.... I just think that it’s a foregone conclusion that people are going to write better prose than some kind of automated intelligence.... I think that once there is a kind of self-replicating intelligence, once it learns how to teach itself, in other words, it isn’t going to be a question of human input any more. It’s going to be able to do that itself. And then … have you ever read The Time Machine by HG Wells? In it, a Victorian scientist travels to the year 802,701...

I like how he has the precise year, down to the 1, still in his mind and worth saying as a challenge to the fiend, Dementia, that wants to infiltrate and destroy.

"Even overpriced lobster salad can’t seem to make people out here feel better.... The Hamptons is basically in group therapy about the mayoral race."

Said Robert Zimmerman — some political fund-raiser, not the Robert Zimmerman.

Quoted in "From How Are the Very Rich Feeling About New York’s Next Mayor? The Hamptons is basically in group therapy about the mayoral race." 

Holly Peterson, a Park Avenue and Southampton based novelist who, as she put it, owes her career to being able to skewer the “selfishness” of high society types, said she can barely find anyone on the East End who is over 40, works in finance and is “pro-Mamdani.”

That's reminiscent of Pauline Kael's immortal remark: "I can’t believe Nixon won. I don’t know anyone who voted for him." 

"Trump is dying! He hasn’t been seen in 3 days!"/"*Spent 3 days examining security footage to see who damaged his limestone*"

Leftists: “Trump is dying! He hasn’t been seen in 3 days!”

Trump: *Spent 3 days examining security footage to see who damaged his limestone* pic.twitter.com/ylpKFAefE1

— johnny maga (@_johnnymaga) August 30, 2025

"Those who own land would be offered a digital token by the trust in exchange for rights to redevelop their property, to be used to finance a new life elsewhere..."

"... or eventually redeemed for an apartment in one of six to eight new 'AI-powered, smart cities' to be built in Gaza. Each Palestinian who chooses to leave would be given a $5,000 cash payment and subsidies to cover four years of rent elsewhere, as well as a year of food. The plan estimates that every individual departure from Gaza would save the trust $23,000, compared with the cost of temporary housing and what it calls 'life support' services in the secure zones for those who stay.... [T]he trust plan 'does not rely on donations,' the prospectus says. Instead, it would be financed by public and private-sector investment in what it calls 'mega-projects,' from electric vehicle plants and data centers to beach resorts and high-rise apartments. Calculations included in the plan envision a nearly fourfold return on a $100 billion investment after 10 years, with ongoing 'self-generating' revenue streams...."

From "Gaza postwar plan envisions ‘voluntary’ relocation of entire population/The Trump administration and international partners are discussing proposals to build a 'Riviera of the Middle East' on the rubble of Gaza. One would establish U.S. control and pay Palestinians to leave" (WaPo).

What is the token worth? The plan says when the rebuilding is done, the token may be exchanged for a new 1,800-square-foot apartments worth $75,000 — right in this alien, gleaming place, rebuilt in the style of your enemy. Will the returnees gratefully toil in the new restaurants and hotels or will they see an opportunity for a glorious new era of destruction?