Well, plenty of people think something filthy, dirty, and disgusting looking is representative of the country.

Imagine an art installation titled "America." It wouldn't have sparkling clear water bubbling cheerfully now, would it?

But I'm reading "Trump Says He’s Renovating ‘Filthy’ Reflecting Pool on the National Mall/The pool, which is more than 2,000 feet long, was the site of Martin Luther King Jr.’s 'I Have a Dream' speech and other events" (NYT)

“It’s filthy, dirty — the water’s disgusting looking,” Mr. Trump recalled a friend telling him. “It’s not representative of the country.”

"I kissed Bryan, a gardener, on his red leather couch. I kissed Ray, a painter, in his lofted bed and smashed my head into his ceiling fan."

"Andrew 1 kissed me at the Met in front of a painting of hell. 'Sometimes I think this is hell,' he said, gesturing around us before putting his mouth on mine. Andrew 2 seemed confident over text but wary in person. He surprised me with a smooch on a street corner while we waited for the light to change.... Haden, a sommelier, met me to walk a friend’s dog. We kissed kneeling on the welcome mat while our hands fumbled to free the pug from her harness. Thomas, a surfer, walked me to the subway after playing pool at a dive bar. He planted one on me outside the C train.... When men asked why I was single, I told them it was because my partner of 20 years walked out on me with as much warning as one might get before an earthquake.... In return, the men were unexpectedly kind. I had heard so many horror stories about the emotional capacity of the male species, but these guys told me I didn’t deserve to be treated that way...."

Writes Erin Chack, in "From Kissing One Guy in 20 Years to 11 in a Month My husband leaving nearly broke me. I tried to put myself back together by dating for the first time in my life" (NYT)(gift link, because I think it's a well-written essay).

ChatGPT's astounding hallucination: "Joe Biden did not withdraw after the primaries were over. He stayed in the race through the primaries and remained the nominee. Kamala Harris did not replace him as the Democratic nominee."

I was reading the NYT article, "Concern Grows Over Republican Congressman’s Mysterious Absence/A spokesman for Representative Thomas Kean Jr. said an unspecified 'personal medical issue' has led the New Jersey Republican to miss House votes."

The last vote Mr. Kean cast was on March 5.... [A] campaign spokesman said that Mr. Kean was “dealing with a personal medical issue” and would be “back to a full schedule soon.”... “He’s going to be totally fine”...

I went to ChatGPT just to ask about what sort of medical issue it might be. He needed to keep it secret. It's "personal" (embarrassing somehow?). And we know he'll be "totally fine" "soon." On reflection, I suspect there's some dissembling in there. I prodded ChatGPT to consider that Kean is ultimately going to withdraw from his re-election race and that what's going on now is a matter of timing. The primaries in New Jersey will happen on June 2d, he'll win, then withdraw, and then the Republican Party will be free to slot in whomever they want. 

ChatGPT was dubious about my hypothesis, so I said: "Just look at the last presidential election. The Democratic Party avoided a crowded primary because they let the incumbent look like he was going to go forward. When it was too late and the primary season was over, Biden withdrew, and the party got to put Kamala Harris in. I assume that was coordinated and the timing of Biden‘s withdrawal was done to spare the party a contentious primary season."

Here's ChatGPT's amazing answer:

That interpretation doesn’t really line up with how the 2024 cycle actually unfolded—or with the incentives the party was facing.

First, some grounding: 

• Joe Biden did not withdraw after the primaries were over.
• He stayed in the race through the primaries and remained the nominee.
• Kamala Harris did not replace him as the Democratic nominee.

So the specific sequence you’re describing—“incumbent clears the field, then withdraws late so the party can install a successor”—didn’t actually happen in that case.

Thanks for the "grounding," Chat.

"[Wendy] Duffy’s son, Marcus, died at the age of 23 after choking on a tomato that became lodged in his windpipe while he was sleeping."

"Nine months later, she tried to kill herself by overdosing and had to be put on a ventilator for two weeks. Ultimately, she said, no amount of medication or therapy can make her whole again and that she 'can’t wait' to die. She’s already chosen what she will wear on her deathbed and told the Daily Mail that Lady Gaga and Bruno Mars’ 'Die With A Smile' will be playing as she passes on.... [Duffy said] she paid Pegasos, a Swiss assisted-dying nonprofit organization, $13,500 to euthanize herself under its care... This time, she said she wants it to be 'neater.' 'I could step off a motorway bridge or a tower block but that would leave anyone finding me dealing with that for the rest of their lives,' she said."

From "Physically healthy mom to end life by euthanasia at Swiss clinic after death of her son" (NY Post).

Did you think it was possible to fall asleep while eating and choke to death? Sit up, pay attention, or don't eat. You could kill yourself and kill your mother.

Sunrise.

Write about whatever you want in the comments.

"We can fix this with Republican votes, and we will. Every Democrat has opposed money for the Border Patrol and ICE at a time of great peril."

Said Senator Lindsey Graham, quoted in "Senate Adopts G.O.P. Budget, Defeating Democrats’ Affordability Proposals/Republicans pushed through a budget plan with a $70 billion increase for immigration enforcement after an overnight session in which they beat back Democratic proposals aimed at lowering costs" (NYT).

On the other side, there's Senator Chuck Schumer: "This is what Republicans are fighting for. To maintain two unchecked rogue agencies that are dreaded in all corners of this country instead of reducing your health care costs, your housing costs, your grocery costs, your gas costs."

And as long as we're talking about ICE, there's this: "Tom Homan Invites Pope Leo on ICE Ride-Along: 'They’re Talking About Something They Don’t Understand'" (Mediaite). "I’m speaking for myself, a lifelong Catholic. I wish they’d stay out of immigration. They don’t know what they’re talking about. Because if they wore my shoes for 40 years and talked to a nine-year-old girl that got raped multiple times, or stood in the back of a tractor trailer with 19 dead aliens at my feet, including a five-year-old boy that baked to death."

"Donald Trump will launch a 'revenge' attack on the White House media when he confronts them in person at a Washington dinner on Saturday night—then flee before there can be revenge...."

"Trump will leave the White House Correspondents’ Association event after making his speech, so he will miss the presentation of press awards—one of which would be certain to embarrass him. He has told aides he has no intention of still being in the International Ballroom at the Washington Hilton when the Wall Street Journal is honored with the Katherine Graham award for its scoop about a bawdy letter Trump allegedly wrote for Jeffrey Epstein’s 50th birthday card.... Mentalist Oz Pearlman is performing this year, replacing the usual comedian and avoiding a potential Trump roast...."

From "Trump’s Plans for ‘Mic-Drop’ Media Confrontation Are Leaked/The president is planning a rage-fueled moment at the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner" (Daily Beast).

"Donald Trump will launch a 'revenge' attack" — why is "revenge" in quotes? The article doesn't have Trump or anybody else using that word.

They've replaced the comedian with a mentalist?

"Reinforce the academic core of the university; don’t allow classes to be dominated by open laptops or other devices; do more to ensure that people do not self-censor; respect the ideals of free speech and academic freedom; 'be human.'"

Those are among the "smart and sensible recommendations" to be found in Yale's "Report of the Committee on Trust in Higher Education" according to "Yale Has Come Up With a Surefire Way to Make a Terrible Situation Worse" (NYT). That's written by the president of Wesleyan University, Michael S. Roth.

Sorry, I'm having a Marx Brothers flashback: "The Dean is furious! He's waxing wroth!"/"Is Roth out there, too? Tell Roth to wax the Dean for a while."

So what is Roth waxing wroth about with this anodyne committee report? 

The committee claims that in 2016, “departing from its traditional emphasis on the creation and dissemination of knowledge, Yale expanded its mission statement to include ‘improving the world today,’ educating ‘aspiring leaders worldwide,’ and fostering ‘an ethical, interdependent and diverse community.’”

It's weird to make a show of retreating from something so mild and vague. But Roth paraphrases the rejected mission as a matter of "independent thought, a commitment to truth even when it’s inconvenient and a focus on the creation of truly democratic citizens." Is that what the Trump administration has been "punishing" and what Yale is trying to be self-defensive about? 

"[I]n 1972, Keith Stroup, founder of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, discovered ['Reefer Madness'] in the Library of Congress archives."

"He screened it at a New York benefit, catching the eye of Robert Shaye, founder of the new production company New Line Cinema. Shaye knew it had potential as an accidental satire so he rereleased it, holding midnight showings marketed to college students across California campuses in particular. The rest is campy cult classic history, one that includes a 1998 stage musical, which has been revived in productions big and small around the country since, and a 2005 TV movie musical starring Kristen Bell, Alan Cumming and Neve Campbell. 'Reefer Madness' may be the first film to be embraced by a generation because it’s so bad — or so bad, it’s good."

That's from a new NYT article, "'Reefer Madness,' the P.S.A. That Backfired Spectacularly/The comically self-serious and outrageous 1936 morality tale, which warned the public about marijuana, became an unintentional parody and midnight-movie classic decades later."

First, I was sorry to see the article omitted the name of the author of the story:

 

Image taken from Wikipedia.

That's amused me for a long time.

But, second, I don't believe "Reefer Madness" was the first thing that "a generation" embraced because "it’s so bad — or so bad, it’s good." Personally, I remember going to see "The Green Slime" in 1969 for this reason. I remember hearing that it was what "all the heads" in New York were seeing. 

But I see the distinction: "The Green Slime" was trying to be so bad it's good. "Reefer Madness" was trying to warm young people away from marijuana.

Or was it?

AND: Even as we speak: "Trump administration moves to ease federal restrictions on marijuana/Marijuana had the same classification as heroin, LSD and others before being reclassified for lower potential for abuse" (Guardian).

ALSO: I took my "Or was it?" question to Grok, which assured me it was sincerely intended as propaganda. That made me think. I wrote this sentence to sum up my thoughts: "Propaganda is inherently funny but circumstances might cloud one's ability to appreciate the fun."

"You can get married at the New York Marble Cemetery on Second Avenue/The Balloon Saloon in Tribeca has the best gag gifts and the biggest fake poops in town."

"Avoid trampoline parks at all costs. Throw a less chaotic kids’ party instead at Twinkle PlaySpace in Williamsburg. For $399, hire NY Teacup Piggies to bring in three piglets for the young partygoers to play with.... Call Beverly Fish at Chezzam for out-of-the-box entertainment — think actors in rat costumes serving a cheese platter.... You can hire a babysitter to walk your child (ages 4 to 15) from school to your home (or wherever they need to go) using the service Trot My Tot. You’ll pay a maximum of $25 per hour.... Cheeky tweens tend to enjoy the 'butt scavenger hunt' at the Brooklyn Museum; ask for it at admissions.... "

From "259 Things New Yorkers Should Know/The second edition of our annual handbook will help you make the most of the city" (NY Magazine).

I looked up the "butt scavenger hunt" so you don't have to:

"Coyote vs. Acme — a film Warner Bros. famously tried to scrap in 2023 — has released its first footage ahead of coming to theaters this summer."

Hollywood Reporter observes.

Warner Bros. had planned to scrap the completed movie as part of a $115 million write-down. Social media uproar helped to save the project, which Ketchup Entertainment acquired for distribution. The shelving attempt was one of the first headline-making decisions under CEO David Zaslav (along with another high-profile and completed project, Batgirl).... Zaslav previously told The New York Times about the decision, “The question is, should we take certain of these movies and open them in the theater and spend another $30 or $40 million to promote them? And [the] Warner Bros. team and HBO made a number of decisions. They were hard. But when I look at the health of our company today, we needed to make those decisions. And it took real courage."

I've seen the trailer, and I think they made the right decision to scrap this thing after making the wrong decision to manufacture it in the first place — to insert the Warner Brother cartoons into the real world, especially a real world full of lawyers... it's awful... but then that's the opinion of someone who has an aversion to movies based on pre-existing intellectual property and to movies about lawyering. So check for yourself:

ADDED: Let's remember that Chuck Jones had rules for the use of Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote, and this movie egregiously breaks rule #6: "All action must be confined to the natural environment of the two characters—the southwest American desert." 

"The three members of TMZ’s new Washington, D.C., bureau arrived at Capitol Hill last Monday...."

"The celebrity-gossip outlet’s Washington operation had started off with a bang. The partial government shutdown had enraged TMZ founder Harvey Levin, who thought he might shame Congress back into session by publicizing how lawmakers were spending their recess while federal workers went without pay. The photos did not disappoint. There was a khaki-clad Lindsey Graham at Disney World, holding a bubble wand and boarding Space Mountain. There was Ted Cruz scrolling in his Economy Plus seat. There were members of Congress touring Edinburgh Castle while on a trip to Scotland. 'The reaction in D.C. was, "Oh, that’s just a codel,"' said Washington communications veteran Nu Wexler, referring to a congressional delegation. It wasn’t clear TMZ understood the distinction or if it cared...." 

From "Washington Enters Its TMZ Era" (Intelligencer).

"Veterans are greeting the arrival of TMZ’s aggressively tabloid approach with a mix of curiosity and wariness. 'If they can expose scumbags who rape and abuse women, that would be a great public service,' said Axios CEO Jim VandeHei. 'If they just make a mockery of a widely mocked institution, that would be a shame. Let’s see the road they choose.'"

Sunrise.

Write about whatever you want in the comments.

"I could have tried to adopt, though I think a single gay man would still be right at the back of the queue..."

"... but I remember seeing my nephew for the first time, back in 1997 — just recalling it makes me emotional — and feeling this tug, a real visceral knowing that I was related to this little human being, that we share a gene pool. I wanted the same with my own child. When I reached 50 I thought, ‘It’s now or never,’ and I really started looking into surrogacy seriously.... A couple of friends took a beat or two to respond when I told them about my plans. Another asked, 'Do you really want to be coping with a stroppy teenager when you’re in your seventies?' I think my parents, who are both in their eighties, and sister were concerned that, aged 50-plus, I didn’t realise the enormity of what I was letting myself in for.”

Said Simon Burrell, quoted in "What it’s like to be a single dad (with a child via surrogacy)/The frequency of single fathers having children through surrogacy has tripled. Simon Burrell tells Helen Carroll why he spent £200,000 on becoming one. Plus: I was the UK’s first solo surrogacy father" (London Times).

"But Trump’s urge is toward gigantism, not grace. This is as true about his ballroom... as it is about the proposed arch."

"It is, simply, un-American. It is even, in its derivative way, un-French, since the Parisian instances are, at least, right-sized for their place and their purpose. If it were ever to be built, future generations would dream of its demolition. Its injury to the democratic spirit is too large to contemplate, and would be too hard to look past, even from a distance."

Writes Adam Gopnik, in "Donald Trump’s Triumphal Arch and the Architecture of Autocracy/When asked by a reporter whom the arch would be for, Trump said, 'Me'" (The New Yorker).

Is gigantism un-American?

Sundust.

"It's discouraging to come up here and see all the heads down..."/"Sir, you're on a 2-minute timer here so let's go."

Resident speaks at the Seattle City Council

The Democrat city council wouldn’t even look up at him. He asked them to at least look at him and they rudely tell him his time is almost up

He tells them they’re like Animal Farm

“It reminds me of George Orwell's famous saying from… pic.twitter.com/Unkx9ZEYcs

— Wall Street Apes (@WallStreetApes) April 22, 2026

I love the elegance with which the citizen adapted to the city council's effort to throw him off, to reduce him to nothing. He made the experience into the substance of what he was able to say within the harsh time constraint. He spoke slowly and with dignity and even worked in a George Orwell quote. 

"As some of you might recall, earlier this year I had an AI oopsie of my own..."

Writes David Lat, in "An AI Screw-Up By... Sullivan & Cromwell? There are multiple ironies involved in this unfortunate incident."

I’ll simply repeat my two signature quips, urging you to extend grace when it comes to AI fails:

   • “In the future, everyone will be world-famous for 15 minutes… for an AI screw-up.”

   • “The next time you hear about an epic AI fail, instead of (or at least after) laughing your ass off, perhaps have the humility to say this to yourself: ‘There but for the grace of God go (A)I.’”

Or, if you prefer, here are some bon mots from Claude, which it generated after I fed it my two sayings and asked for more along the same lines:

"'If the Democratic Party is to flourish in the future,' Mr. Platner told me, 'it needs to be an antiwar party.'"

"As talks to end the latest disastrous war focus on reopening a narrow strait of water that was open before the war began, this seems like an obvious conclusion. And yet many Democratic politicians would most likely be wary of embracing it.... [M]any Democrats seem to fear being seen as antiwar. What if they vote against wartime funding, and then an Iranian attack targets U.S. troops or the homeland? Or what if Mr. Trump bombs Iran, and the regime collapses and is replaced by something better? You could feel this calculation within the Democratic Party as the war began — a hedging that only dissipated when the war’s brutality and insanity became clear.... We like to frame our wars as virtuous, but they are not. Instead, they resemble a declining empire sowing chaos along its periphery as a matter of strategy.... [T]he forever war has been destroying America from within, like an organism that must keep growing to survive, filling us with fear of outsiders and contempt for one another. War does that to societies: Once you normalize taking human life abroad, you tend not to value it at home...."

Writes Ben Rhodes, in "Graham Platner Went to Hell and Back. He Has a Simple Message for Democrats" (NYT).

Rhodes was a speechwriter for Obama. Platner is the likely Democratic Party candidate for U.S. Senator for Maine. 

Shaping the SPLC story.

I'm taking a position of cruel neutrality and see myself spending much of the day observing how the 2 sides are shaping the story.

Let's just start with the way things look at Elon's place:

Is it terrible or is that a huge loophole?

Terrible https://t.co/geK2swDv82

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 22, 2026

The litigation is already pending: "Lawsuits pending at Virginia Supreme Court over redistricting referendum" (ABC 13 News). There are 3 lawsuits, 2 of which challenge the language. The vote was allowed to go through, but we'll see what the court says. I can see how one might argue that the voters didn’t approve of anything that doesn’t "restore fairness" and the plan put forward by the Democrats was designed for the purpose of advancing the party— not to restore fairness — so the voters did not approve it.

Sunrise.

Write about whatever you want in the comments.

"I wish I could designate myself as a 'foreign-policy Republican,' but there’s no such option, so I have to go whole hog."

"By registering as a Republican rather than an independent, maybe I can have some influence on moving some Republican policies toward the center. I have given up on trying to change the Democratic Party. My main goal is to send a message that many traditional Democratic voters can’t accept what it is becoming—a replica of left-wing European parties that are hurting their countries."

Writes Alan Dershowitz, in "Why I’m Becoming a Republican/I first registered as a Democrat in 1959. The party’s hostility to Israel is too much" (Wall Street Journal).

We're at war. If you find yourself cheering for the other side, you've lost your way.

The word traitor gets thrown around too much.

But, uh, this is a United States senator openly cheering on Iran against American military forces. pic.twitter.com/TYVYGO44oR

— Bonchie (@bonchieredstate) April 21, 2026

And look at him, grotesquely smiling, as he makes the excuse that we don't understand "sarcasm" anymore — you know, the form of humor that consists of saying the opposite of what you think:

JUST IN: Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy doesn't say he has any regrets after furious backlash to his X post calling reports of Iranian ships slipping past the U.S. naval blockade "awesome."

"I guess I just have to be more careful about sarcasm on Twitter," Murphy exclusively told… pic.twitter.com/MB6nuZjY9V

— Fox News (@FoxNews) April 21, 2026

"Twitter has become kind of a cesspool, I probably should give up on sarcasm on Twitter," Murphy says, as if the debased speech of others — who?! — undermines our capacity to understand sarcasm. Why? If anything, this "cesspool" quality ought to make us more likely to think somebody's just talking shit.

But Murphy wants to elevate his cynically spit out "awesome" into something subtle. He's doing sarcasm and the shitheads of the cesspool can't figure it out. They can't see that when a Senator says something, it really counts as the opposite of what he said through the magic of the time-honored device known as sarcasm.

Does Chris Murphy need to apologize? Of course, not. He's essentially already said he's sorry — sorry "Twitter" made the people so shitty they don't understand sarcasm anymore.

"I was very impressed with myself to have the head of Apple calling to 'kiss my ass.'"

Writes Donald Trump, on Truth Social this morning:

I have always been a big fan of Tim Cook, and likewise, Steve Jobs, but if Steve was not taken from the Planet Earth so young, and ran the company instead of Tim, the company would have done well, but nowhere near as well as it has under Tim. For me it began with a phone call from Tim at the beginning of my First Term. He had a fairly large problem that only I, as President, could fix. Most people would have paid millions of dollars to a consultant, who I probably would not have known, but who would say that he knew me well. The fees would be paid but the job would not have gotten done. When I got the call I said, wow, it’s Tim Apple (Cook!) calling, how big is that? I was very impressed with myself to have the head of Apple calling to “kiss my ass.”

Childrearing tips from Eleanor Roosevelt.

My son Chris sent me that clip, which I think is from "FDR: A New Political Life" (commission earned). Chris has a project of reading (at least) one biography of each of the U.S. Presidents. He's not reading them in chronological order though, and he's a lot closer to the end than it looks. Anyway, I'll correct this post if I'm naming the wrong bio. So hold off on snapping up that book until later in the day. And think twice about jury-rigging a chickenwire cage to hang your baby out an upper story window. Or are you the sort of busybody who calls the authorities on a very modern mother who just might be Eleanor Roosevelt?

UPDATE: The book is actually "FDR" by Jean Edward Smith. Chris says it has "a lot of anecdotes." 880 pages. That other one is a mere 284 pages. 

"Morante, born José Antonio Morante Camacho, is widely regarded as the leading 'torero de arte' of his generation, and deemed by some to be the greatest ever."

"Famed for his mastery of the cape and a style that blends risk, improvisation and aesthetic refinement, critics regularly attribute 'mysticism' to his best performances.... A recent El País commentary called one of his performances a 'virtuosic, stirring, surprising, baroque work — an act of improvisation by an artist who is not of this world, capable of hypnotising, with a supernatural ability entirely alien to modern bullfighting.' Another suggested it would not be surprising 'if a religion were founded in his honour.'..."

That's from The London Times., where it looks like this:

Sunrise.

Write about whatever you want in the comments.

ADDED: Me, by Meade:

"Finding a new name was surprisingly easy. A Weatherman would drive out to a rural graveyard and look around..."

"... until he found the headstone of a person who would have been about his age but had died as an infant. Then he’d head over to the county courthouse and ask for a replacement birth certificate. Soon, he would have an official government license with his photo, but a new name and a whole new identity. My dad grew his beard out. My mom cut her hair short, dyed it red, and started dressing like a California hippie—big glasses and flowing dresses—rather than in her signature black leather, miniskirts, and knee-high boots. They set up safe houses—cheap apartments in working-class neighborhoods. They took jobs as construction workers, longshoremen, and nannies—work that didn’t require a Social Security card and always paid at the end of the day, in cash. Meanwhile, their bombing campaign intensified.... The method they used was simple: a young white woman dressed up as a secretary would walk into a building, place a bag or a purse in an empty rest room or office, set a timer, and walk out...."

Writes Zayd Ayers Dohrn, in "My Childhood in the Weather Underground/My parents founded the radical revolutionary group, then became fugitives. I was born in hiding, and spent my early years on the run" (The New Yorker).

"This foray into looking at humans as creatures that are governed by instinct and biology offered little in the way of advancing Darwinist theory..."

"... nor was his explicit approach of studying man as a mere ape a novel one. What ensured the popularity of The Naked Ape was first its clarity of prose, and second, the era in which it was published, where a popularised 'back to nature' philosophy and sexual liberation were all the rage.... [T]he salacious manner of the book helped to guarantee it success. During copulation, he wrote, 'the female breasts … shows a significant increase in size. By the time orgasm has been reached, the breast of the average female will have increased by anything up to 25 per cent of its normal dimensions. It becomes firmer, more rounded and more protuberant.' Elsewhere, Morris would tell readers that the human penis is the largest of all primates, and the only one without a bone, making it harder to achieve an erection.... The Naked Woman (2004) was a similar blend of zoological observation and detailed titillation, with an analysis of women’s backs ('even at rest … naturally more arched than a man’s back'), legs ('part of the sexual fascination … is that they focus attention on the point where they meet'), buttocks (they 'transmit a powerful gender signal') and breasts (which 'operate first as visual stimuli and then as tactile ones'). Never short of ideas, Morris also advanced the theory that female breasts had developed as imitation buttocks 'to shift the interest of the male to the front.'..."

From "Desmond Morris obituary: natural world expert/Zoologist, broadcaster and author best known for The Naked Ape dies aged 98" (London Times).

I'd always thought woodpeckers were in it for the insects, but now I see at least this one guy is in it for the music.

He's into the metallic resonance. Listen all the way to the end:

This was out at our sunrise vantage point this morning. The boxes are part of the equipment attached to a pole out there. It's a bit unsightly, but I believe it's for science — weather, maybe, or is it surveillance?

Wherever music has emerged, hasn't the first musical instrument always been the drum? (That is, the first instrument beyond the musician's own mouth.) Or is it the flute?

"He wants to use his presidency not only to slash the country’s budget but to wage an ideological war and rewire the country’s mentality."

"He wants to dismantle what he calls the 'aberrant' concepts of social justice and economic equality and make the nation’s core principles capitalism, the free market, a limited state and individualism. 'We are at war,' Mr. Milei said at a right-wing festival last year, and added: 'We are fighting a cultural struggle, an ideological battle, a war for the survival of our freedom.' At political rallies and international summits, in public policies and a deluge of social media posts, Mr. Milei has relentlessly sought to infuse Argentina with his libertarian ideals. And turn it into a model for the world. A nation where people are loath to eat alone or drink a cup of mate, the national infusion, without sharing with the person next to them is embracing a leader whose fundamental message is that people should fend for themselves. 'He is trying to break our DNA,' Juan Grabois, an opposition lawmaker, said of Mr. Milei. 'To destroy the communal identity of our people.'... Laziness to Mr. Milei is a vice stemming from years of left-leaning governments that turned society to indolence by giving citizens generous benefits...."

From "Javier Milei Wants to Rewire the Argentine Mind/Argentina’s right-wing president has tamed the country’s runaway inflation. Now he wants to transform its values" (NYT)(gift link, because there's a lot going on over there).

And here he is in his superhero costume:

"There’s always two poles in any movement. There’s this pull toward being post-human, shinier, newer, cloned, etc., the sense that people have elevated the lacquered surface of the machine over the body."

"[And there's this pull toward] I’m real. I think we’re like old stone houses. We have the value of antiquity. If you haven’t tweaked yourself, it’s like you have a working fireplace that’s been going since 1680. We’re authentic.... For all women, there’s that line between choosing to be malleable and pleasing and to conform with the collective norms or refusing it.... No, I’m not playing that game."

Said the 77-year-old French Vogue editor Joan Juliet Buck, quoted in "Why Fashion Suddenly Loves Older Women/Representation of women of a certain age has never been higher. What’s going on?" (NYT).

The article is by Vanessa Friedman, who continues: "Authenticity is, of course, one of the current buzzwords not just in fashion, but in culture generally. It’s a reflection of the fear that individual style has been lost to the algorithm.... It’s not just influencers and celebrities who have become the vehicles for this version of ageless sameness. It’s political figures, too.... As many MAGA women have embraced the plumped and smoothed 'Mar-a-Lago face,' it has become an expression of a larger social swing toward exaggerated norms and old-fashioned patriarchal gender roles rather than simply a cosmetic fad."

Morning fire.

"Tucker Carlson... has called the nicotine pouch brand ZYN a 'lifesaving' product that can increase productivity and 'male vitality.'"

"Mr. Carlson went so far as to say that the pouches are 'like the hand of God reaching down and massaging your central nervous system.'...  'What the Make America Healthy Again movement is saying is, "I am going to question what I’m told," said [biohacking influencer Dave Asprey,] who has encouraged his followers to do their own research on and experiment with nicotine, which he calls one of 'Mother Nature’s cognitive enhancers.'... Another common refrain among MAHA supporters is that the medical establishment has made Americans sicker by suppressing information about natural cures and instead pushing prescription medications. That was the focus of an episode last year of the popular 'Culture Apothecary' podcast, titled 'Nicotine is NOT the Villain: What Big Pharma Hides from Parents.' Alex Clark, the podcast’s host and a leading figure in the MAHA movement, interviewed a chiropractor and alternative medicine practitioner who suggested that the drug industry had buried information on nicotine’s benefits and claimed that nicotine could treat Covid, cancer and more...."

From "Influencers Are Spinning Nicotine as a ‘Natural’ Health Hack/The influencers, many of them aligned with the Make America Healthy Again Movement, say the medical establishment has unfairly demonized the compound" (NYT).

like the hand of God reaching down and massaging your central nervous system — reminds me of that Trump-is-like-Jesus illustration:

"The New York Times... says a boom of older mothers is coming to reverse low fertility, but the math is against them."

Explains Maibritt Henkel, at The Argument, with some devastating graphs.

"Chinese carmaker Seres has been granted a patent for what it calls an 'in-vehicle toilet' that slides under a passenger's seat for visits to the loo while on the road...."

"Chinese electric vehicles have become increasingly packed with unconventional features, like built-in massage seats, karaoke systems and a fridge, to stand out in a highly competitive market.... The loo will come with a fan and exhaust pipe to channel odours out of the car.... Waste is collected in a tank that has to be emptied manually. The toilet also features a rotating heating element that evaporates urine and dries other waste. When not in use, the toilet is concealed beneath the seat, making full use of the space inside a car without requiring more room."

BBC News reports.

Via Metafilter, where somebody links to this video:

"The cloud-being in the pictograph... includes the symbols of a snake, which is associated with lightning, and a hummingbird, which is believed to be..."

"... a messenger with prayers to bring rain. The outstretched arms of the cloud being have rain as well as its full body consisting of rain. The lightning snake under its arm is stimulating the rain to fall. It looks like a storm cloud with lightning that has a heavy downpour in one region and lighter rain falling in others. There are examples of cloud beings with lighting that have a very similar appearance to modern photographs of storm clouds that have captured lightning bolts. Clouds can seem to be standing on lightning feet, which look like plant roots going down into the ground...."

From "Prehistoric Art of the Colorado Plateau: It’s All About Clouds!" (Cloud Appreciation Society).

"In different cultures and historical eras, pitch polarity was not designated as 'high' vs. 'low' but rather..."

"... by 'light' vs. 'heavy' (Kpelle people in Liberia), 'sharp' vs. 'heavy' (ancient Greek music theory), 'small' vs. 'large,' used in Bali and Java, as well as among Kpelle and Jabo in Liberia...), 'young' vs. 'old' (Suyá people of the Amazon basin...) or 'weak' vs. 'strong' (the Bashi people of central Africa...). Often, pitch vocabulary seems to derive from specific cultural practices. For instance, pitch classification for the Shona mbira (Zimbabwe) includes the opposition of 'crocodile' (low pitch) with 'those who follow crocodiles' (high), and 'stable (person) who holds the piece together' (low) vs. 'mad person' (high), as well as 'old men’s voices' (low) vs. 'young men’s voices' (high), 'men’s voices' vs. 'women’s voices,' and 'thin' (low) vs. 'thick' (high).... In the Gbaya xylophone (Central African Republic), notes are arranged genealogically, and include (from low to high) grandmother, mother, father, son and daughter...."

From the delightfully named "Beethoven’s last piano sonata and those who follow crocodiles: Cross-domain mappings of auditory pitch in a musical context" (Academia) by Renee Timmers.

I got there via a discussion with Grok that began with my question "Why is it that the most emotional part of a melody is always (almost always?) a move to a higher note?" The answer shouldn't be because in real life heights are exciting/scary/magnificent.  

Imagine thinking about a melody in terms of crocodiles and those who follow crocodiles!

At the Sunrise Café...

... you can talk all night.

What does an arch mean? If Trump, fascism. If Mamdani, warmth and friendliness.

There was this, April 10th, in The Washington Post:

Today, we've got this in The New York Times:

"Iran decided to fire bullets yesterday in the Strait of Hormuz — A Total Violation of our Ceasefire Agreement!"

"Many of them were aimed at a French Ship, and a Freighter from the United Kingdom. That wasn’t nice, was it? My Representatives are going to Islamabad, Pakistan — They will be there tomorrow evening, for Negotiations. Iran recently announced that they were closing the Strait, which is strange, because our BLOCKADE has already closed it. They’re helping us without knowing, and they are the ones that lose with the closed passage, $500 Million Dollars a day! The United States loses nothing. In fact, many Ships are headed, right now, to the U.S., Texas, Louisiana, and Alaska, to load up, compliments of the IRGC, always wanting to be 'the tough guy!' We’re offering a very fair and reasonable DEAL, and I hope they take it because, if they don’t, the United States is going to knock out every single Power Plant, and every single Bridge, in Iran. NO MORE MR. NICE GUY! They’ll come down fast, they’ll come down easy and, if they don’t take the DEAL, it will be my Honor to do what has to be done, which should have been done to Iran, by other Presidents, for the last 47 years. IT’S TIME FOR THE IRAN KILLING MACHINE TO END! President DONALD J. TRUMP"

Trump, on Truth Social, this morning.

Jordan Peterson and akathisia.

We figured out that dad has a psych med induced neurological injury, and has been suffering from akathisia. It’s been 6 years since any psych medications. Last summer his symptoms started, after a flare up likely induced by mold (CIRS) and stress. It was complicated by pneumonia… pic.twitter.com/wPjAz4XsLT

— Mikhaila Peterson (@MikhailaFuller) April 18, 2026

"It takes most college students at least four years to earn a bachelor’s degree. Christie Williams finished in three months."

"The North Carolina human resources executive spent two months racking up credits through web tutorials after work in 2024, then raced through 11 online classes at the University of Maine at Presque Isle in four weeks. Later that year, she went back to earn her master’s — in just five weeks. The two degrees cost a total of just over $4,000. Since then, she has coached a thousand other students on how to speed through the state college, shaving off years and thousands of dollars from the usual cost of a degree. 'Why wouldn’t you do that?' Williams asked. 'It’s kind of a no-brainer if you know about it.'"

From "Students are speeding through their online degrees in weeks, alarming educators/Some online colleges allow students to take unlimited courses on their own time, leading to quick degrees and worries about devaluing credentials" (WaPo).

So, perhaps everyone's degree is devalued, because it becomes too easy to see that what the degree represents is not such a big deal. But another thing that's devalued is the experience of in-person education. Why wouldn't everyone switch to the cheaper, more efficient method? The purveyors of in-person education need to prove what they have on offer is better. We assume it's better, but is it? And is it that much better?

It's a little hard to believe he shaved.

"While the police made light of Mr. Augustine’s pasta-and-switch method, calling it a 'pasta-tively terrible plan,' his scheme was just the latest in a trend of Lego thefts."

I'm reading "Man Charged in Lego Theft Scheme of Replacing Pieces With Pasta, Police Say/A California man was charged with grand theft after the police said he reaped about $34,000 in what an official called an 'off the charts' pasta-and-switch scheme involving Lego kits" (NYT).

Read Hayes, a research scientist and criminologist at the University of Florida and the executive director of the Loss Prevention Research Council, said it was possible that Mr. Augustine’s use of uncooked pasta — which he described as “off the charts” — was meant to simulate the shifting sound of the pieces inside the box.

So this guy was able — at least 70 times — to return boxes and get a refund without it being noticed that the box did not contain the original Legos? It was enough that the box sounded as though it contained Legos. This worked 70+ times?! And the police act like it's cute and make puns.

"A federal appeals court on Friday allowed construction to continue on President Donald Trump’s new White House ballroom until June, just a day after a federal judge halted progress."

NBC News reports.

Meanwhile, The Washington Post has just come out with an "analysis" of the quantity of Trump's "fixation" on building the ballroom: "Trump’s fixation on White House ballroom is increasing, Post analysis finds/The president has publicly highlighted his ballroom project on roughly a third of the days this year."

That's a gift link, so you can check to see how WaPo measured the mind of Trump. 

At the Sunrise Café...

... you can talk all night. That's my photo above. Below, Meade's live-action version:

Herbert Hoover takes a strong position against retirement.

My son Chris sends that excerpt from "Hoover: An Extraordinary Life in Extraordinary Times" (commission earned).

Half-fallen tree completes its journey to the ground.

For years, I've enjoyed the sculptural grandeur of this half-fallen tree. You've seen it in photographs on this blog. Just from this past year, here are 3:

Who knew ant farms were this popular?

"Man caught with 2,000 live ants in his luggage..."

"The Trump administration has urged professional football’s leaders to induct Theodore Roosevelt into the sport’s hall of fame..."

"... with one top official predicting it will happen within the year.... [Historians and sports experts have said [Theodore] Roosevelt played a crucial role by forcing a national conversation around football safety, rather than leaving it to factions that could not agree on next steps. Edward O’Keefe, the CEO of the Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library pointed to some of the specific changes to football that resulted from Roosevelt’s interventions. 'He helped invent the forward pass,' said O'Keefe. 'He made some of the first safety measures that continue to make the game possible today.'"

From "Trump officials push Theodore Roosevelt for Pro Football Hall of Fame/'I think we’re going to see Theodore Roosevelt inducted,' Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said at an event on Thursday" (WaPo).

I went looking in Edmund Morris's "Rise of Theodore Roosevelt" for some meatier material about TR and football. I found this on page 598:

“What matters a few broken bones to the glories of inter-collegiate sport?” he cried at a Harvard Club dinner. (Meanwhile, not far away in hospital, the latest victim of football savagery lay paralyzed for life.) He declared publicly that he would “disinherit” any son of his who refused to play college games. And in private, through clenched teeth: “I would rather one of them should die than have them grow up as weaklings.”

"I got a call from a number of people, including the great Joe Rogan, and he said we have to do something about this."

"And I looked into it. I called Bobby... And it was really uniform support. And I said, so why would we wait three or four years to get it done?... Let's get it done immediately. And that's what happened. This is probably has never been anything that happened so quickly. Everybody is so strongly in favor of this. It's for a lot of people, but it's for the military in particular...."

"I want to thank Secretary of Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who is fantastic.... And people love him. More importantly, your wife is here.... Real boss in the family. It's fantastic.... Joe Rogan — fantastic. We did an interview before the election. We had over 300 million people. And I said, oh, man, I hope Kamala doesn't do it and she didn't. He wanted her to do it and she didn't Some day, Joe's gonna explain why. I can tell you why. Because she didn't want to.... The executive order I'm signing... today.... directs the FDA to expedite their review of certain psychedelics already designated as breakthrough therapy drugs.... If these turn out to be as good as people are saying, it's gonna have a tremendous impact on this country and other countries too.... Usually with things like this, nothing ever happens, no matter how the research ends up. We're changing that...."

ADDED: Joe spoke:

🚨 WOW! Joe Rogan reveals President Trump IMMEDIATELY offered him FDA approval for a psychedelic treatment in a text chain

Because the data was SO CONVINCING and STUNNING

"I wanna tell everybody how this happened. I send President Trump some information."

"With one dose of… pic.twitter.com/dnqYVf96hN

— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) April 18, 2026

"If that’s what 'woke' means, it explains why most Americans don’t want to be woke."

"Transgender adults should have the freedom to live as they see fit and that includes the option to pursue elective medical procedures. But why should that choice come at taxpayer expense, especially for noncitizens? If the fiscal well-being of California isn’t incentive enough to crack down on such wasteful mismanagement of tax dollars, then maybe Newsom’s political future is. The outgoing governor seems determined not to learn from the failure of another California Democrat. The most devastating attack ad against Kamala Harris in 2024 featured her saying during her previous presidential campaign that she supported taxpayers picking up the tab for federal prisoners to receive gender transition care...."

Writes the Editorial Board of The Washington Post, in "Gavin Newsom chooses the wrong side of gender politics again/Sex changes for illegal immigrants might sound like a Republican ad, but it’s California policy."

"Merchant ships were sent scrambling to retreat after Iran fired on multiple vessels on Saturday morning, part of its sudden decision to re-close the Strait of Hormuz."

 The Washington Examiner reports.

AND: From the NYT: "Iran’s military announced it has closed the Strait of Hormuz just a day after the country declared the waterway open, decrying the U.S. blockade and leaving the status of the vital waterway unclear. The Strait of Hormuz had 'returned to its previous state' and 'is under the strict management and control of the Armed Forces,' Iran’s military command said Saturday, according to a statement published by Iranian state-backed media."

"Secret memos obtained by The New York Times illuminate the origins of the court’s now-routine 'shadow docket' rulings on presidential power."

Gift link.

Excerpt: "Writing on formal letterhead, but addressing one another by their first names and signing off with their initials, they sound notes of irritation, air grievances and plead for more time. In addition to the usual legal materials, they cite a blog post and, twice, a television interview. They sometimes engage with one another’s arguments. But they often simply talk past each other.... When colleagues warned the chief justice that he was proposing an unprecedented move, he was dismissive. 'I recognize that the posture of this stay request is not typical,' he wrote. But he argued that the Obama plan, which aimed to regulate coal-fired plants, was 'the most expensive regulation ever imposed on the power sector,' and too big, costly and consequential for the court not to act immediately. In the Trump era, he and the other conservative justices have repeatedly empowered the president through their shadow docket rulings. By contrast, the papers reveal a court wielding those same powers to block Mr. Obama...."

The notion that Swalwell was "flirty."

I'm seeing this inane word "flirty" in the context of Swalwell's downfall.

In the Politico article "'I fell for it:' Gallego gives emotional remarks following Swalwell sexual assault allegations/The Arizona Democratic senator said he regrets not seeing the signs that his colleague was “a predator'" (Politico).

“I let this man into my family … it hurts me that this man hurt a lot of people,” [Senator Ruben] Gallego, who chaired Swalwell’s 2020 presidential campaign, said in emotional remarks where he at times appeared on the verge of tears.

While Gallego conceded he had long heard rumblings that Swalwell was “flirty,” he insisted he was unaware of the severity of the charges being lodged against Swalwell by former staffers — including rape....

The NYT has "Gallego Dismissed Rumors of a ‘Flirty’ Swalwell, Highlighting a Culture of Silence/The admission by Senator Ruben Gallego that he had heard, but disbelieved, rumors about Eric Swalwell and women showed the attitude on Capitol Hill toward men accused of behaving badly." 

Senator Ruben Gallego, Democrat of Arizona, acknowledged on Tuesday that he had long heard rumors that Representative Eric Swalwell was “flirty” with women, but had allowed his longtime friendship with the California Democrat to cloud his judgment and never said or did anything about it.

I could give you many more links to reports of Gallego saying "flirty" to distance and absolve himself of knowledge of anything serious Swalwell may have done.

Nothing I found gave any substance to the characterization "flirty," which sounds like a quality you'd attribute to a school girl or a low-status woman.

When has a man ever been called "flirty"? Why would you call a powerful man flirty? I can only think that you're going out of your way to avoid saying "creepy" or "predatory" or one of those other words that are normally flung at men. Did Swalwell go up to women and say things like "Ooh, I like your dress" — things like that — and only things like that? If not, to say "flirty" is to continue to hide your part in covering for the sexual abuses of your colleagues.

"If My people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land."

That is the passage from the Old Testament book of II Chronicles that is read by President Trump in the event called "America Reads the Bible."

So it says in the NYT article "Trump Will Participate in a Marathon Bible Reading/He will read a passage from the Old Testament that his Christian supporters cite as a call to national repentance and divine blessing."

Trump recorded his contribution, but most of it will be read live, at Museum of the Bible in Washington, beginning tomorrow at 9 a.m. and ending next Saturday.

"President Trump has been rampaging around the globe like Grendel at dinner time, a rapacious, feral creature. Who could stand up to him?"

"The soft-spoken, humble Leo, who strives to unify, squared off against the bombastic, solipsistic Trump, who strives to divide. And watching the saintly pope school the amoral president is a blessed sight...."

Writes Maureen Dowd, in "The Pope Bedevils Trump" (NYT).

That's a gift link, so you can explore the entire argument.

"Because the beauty of the less-than-an-hour show is that it ends before 10. You can get a drink or even dinner or hustle home..."

"... in time to watch James Austin Johnson do his Donald Trump in the SNL cold open. Or just go to bed early...."

Writes Geoff Edgers, in "Very short concerts aren’t a scam. They’re brilliant. Lily Allen’s shows of under an hour have drawn some backlash. But many fans are content to go home early" (WaPo).

"'She’s offering something different — and I’m paying to see that.' It was a special show, reminding me more of a play than a pop concert. Allen delivered a performance as the scorned wife that was both heartbreaking (the contemplation of pills and drink) and defiant (one performance delivered in lingerie and heels). At one point, she’s wrapped in the 'revenge dress,' a length of green fabric printed with what’s said to be images of receipts she found documenting what her ex spent on other women. Even without a band, I found some of the songs coming alive in a way they didn’t on the record...."

From the comments over there: "150-250 bucks with no supporting musicians to pay? Just vain costume changes? 60 minutes? That's hubris. Nothing more."

Sunrise.

Write about whatever you like in the comments.

Trump's 9 posts of the last hour... including, at #7, "A GREAT AND BRILLIANT DAY FOR THE WORLD!"

From his account at Truth Social:

1. "The U.S.A. will get all Nuclear 'Dust,' created by our great B2 Bombers - No money will exchange hands in any way, shape, or form. This deal is in no way subject to Lebanon, either, but the USA will, separately, work with Lebanon, and deal with the Hezboolah situation in an appropriate manner. Israel will not be bombing Lebanon any longer. They are PROHIBITED from doing so by the U.S.A. Enough is enough!!! Thank you! President DJT"

2. "Now that the Hormuz Strait situation is over, I received a call from NATO asking if we would need some help. I TOLD THEM TO STAY AWAY, UNLESS THEY JUST WANT TO LOAD UP THEIR SHIPS WITH OIL. They were useless when needed, a Paper Tiger! President DJT"

3. "Thank you to Saudi Arabia, UAE, and Qatar for your great bravery and help! President DONALD J. TRUMP"

4. "Iran, with the help of the U.S.A., has removed, or is removing, all sea mines! Thank you! President DJT"

5. "Again! This deal is not tied, in any way, to Lebanon, but we will, MAKE LEBANON GREAT AGAIN!"

6. "Thank you to Pakistan and its Great Prime Minister and Field Marshall, two fantastic people!!! President DONALD J. TRUMP"

7. "A GREAT AND BRILLIANT DAY FOR THE WORLD! DJT"

8. "Iran has agreed to never close the Strait of Hormuz again. It will no longer be used as a weapon against the World! President DONALD J. TRUMP"

9. "The Failing New York Times, FAKE NEWS CNN, and others, just don’t know what to do. They are desperately looking for a reason to criticize President Donald J. Trump on the Iran situation, but just can’t find it. Why don’t they just say, at the right time, JOB WELL DONE, MR. PRESIDENT, and start to gain back their credibility???"

"By 1963 we had accumulated ten horses, eleven dogs, a donkey, two goats, pigs, my 4-H cow, chickens, pheasants, ducks, geese, forty closely related rabbits (I started with two)..."

"... and a coop of Hungarian homing pigeons, along with the hawks, owls, raccoons, snakes, lizards, salamanders, and fish in my personal menagerie. A pair of bush babies lived under the porte-cochère, a nocturnal honey bear slept away his days in the playroom crawlspace, while my coatimundi and my giant leopard tortoise roamed free in the house. A jill ferret fed her pups under the kitchen stove. The mailman, retreating to his car, might be chased by goats, geese, or an imposing pack of barking dogs, where he might find a sea lion lolling on the vehicle’s warm hood, playfully slathering the windshield with a fount of fishy saliva. Aunt Jackie captured this bedlam in one of her watercolors, depicting frolicking children pursuing a football among a herd of galloping horses, a worn-out cook leaving the driveway with her overnight bags as her replacement arrives similarly encumbered, while canines pursue an accountant, tearing at his clothes...."

Writes RFK Jr., in "American Values: Lessons I Learned from My Family – An Intimate Memoir of Father and Son, the Kennedy Legacy, and Hope" (commission earned).

That's the only mention of raccoons in that book, which I've read and enjoyed and which I was searching this morning a propos of the new story "Kennedy Jr/RFK Jr once cut penis off ‘road-killed raccoon’ in New York, new book reveals/Health secretary in a diary entry said his kids were in the car as he cut off animal’s genitals in 2001 to 'study them later'" (Guardian).

Here's Kennedy when he was asked about the raccoon penis yesterday. I love the reaction, a subtle chuckle as he walks away. I read his mind to say: If only you knew the life I've lived. Your windshield was never slathered with fishy saliva.

"The shift to drilling holes in fuel tanks comes as an old method of stealing gas has faded: siphoning...."

"Most newer vehicles have narrow, curved filler necks leading to the gas tank, making it difficult to force a tube inside. Some vehicles also have internal flappers or baffles to thwart siphoning. And anti-pollution regulations mean fuel systems are often better sealed. Gas thefts of all kinds tend to follow pump prices...."

From "As fuel prices rise, a new technique of gas theft is spreading/With simple tools, thieves are 'drilling and draining' fuel from vehicles, leaving drivers with costly repair bills" (WaPo).

I don't like that phrase "As fuel prices rise," which seems to assume the rising trend will continue. Right now, I'm seeing this:

"The Strait of Hormuz is 'completely open' for all commercial ships after the agreement of a cease-fire in Lebanon, Iran’s foreign minister said on Friday."

The NYT reports. 

And here's Trump at Truth Social, one minute ago: "THE STRAIT OF HORMUZ IS COMPLETELY OPEN AND READY FOR BUSINESS AND FULL PASSAGE, BUT THE NAVAL BLOCKADE WILL REMAIN IN FULL FORCE AND EFFECT AS IT PERTAINS TO IRAN, ONLY, UNTIL SUCH TIME AS OUR TRANSACTION WITH IRAN IS 100% COMPLETE. THIS PROCESS SHOULD GO VERY QUICKLY IN THAT MOST OF THE POINTS ARE ALREADY NEGOTIATED. THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION TO THIS MATTER! PRESIDENT DONALD J.TRUMP"

Friday sunrise.

Video by Meade.

"I have an interview on NBC tonight, and I'm a little nervous."

"What's an opening line I could say that just makes them interested in me?"

Lots more from Husk here.

"I felt like the whole time [the jury] saw right through what the defense was trying to do, how they tried to defame my character..."

"... things they brought up that had nothing do with the case. They were just trying to criminalize, bully me and make me look like a bad human being."

Said Diana Sanders, quoted in "Woman Who Took 15 Tequila Shots on Carnival Cruise Gets $300,000 in Damages/The woman, who fell and injured herself, said in a lawsuit that bartenders had been negligent for serving her while she was visibly intoxicated" (NYT).

Before you judge, consider that Sanders had paid extra for what Carnival called the “Cheers!” drink package, which pays for as many as 15 alcoholic drinks per day. Sanders was drinking up the amount she'd paid for, and Carnival had structured its commerce in a way that created that incentive. The cruise ship business — what can you say? It's tawdry, isn't it?

"This was a fecund period of first-person writing by women that had a transgressive and self-revealing quality, which also had the consequence of creating a kind of adrenalized form of commentary."

"Blogging was personal, but also a job, often a grind. It created cycles of argument that were rapid, intense and often punishing for the people at the center — both the subjects and the writers. As post quotas were filled, a slippage occurred between the artist and her public, the blogger and her commenters, the internet-famous and the real stars. 'Girls' permeated this media ecosystem...."

Writes Amanda Hess, in "We Need Lena Dunham Now More Than Ever/The era of 'Girls' is long gone. So why are we still so fascinated by its creator?" (NYT).

"An inveterate poster, [Lena] Dunham lived online and seemed determined to step on the rake of commentary as her influence scaled.... [Dunham said she] wished she could have had the experience of aborting a pregnancy.... She explained that her comment was made under the guise of 'a "delusional girl" persona I sometimes inhabit'.... Her name, and her auto-fictional project, had wandered beyond their creative boundaries, and the internecine debates of blogs had ballooned into a national concern. When Clinton lost the election, some blamed Dunham."

Sunrise.

Those are my pictures, and here's Meade's video of me taking them.

"A federal judge set new limits on President Donald Trump’s planned White House ballroom, saying construction could proceed only on an underground portion of the project deemed necessary by the military..."

"... and not on the 90,000-square-foot aboveground addition that Trump has eyed to entertain VIP guests. 'National security is not a blank check to proceed with otherwise unlawful activity,' U.S. District Judge Richard Leon wrote Thursday. He said the Trump administration could also take steps to secure the construction site to make it safe for people on the White House grounds...."

WaPo reports.

"In contrast to the carved statues of monarchs and saints framing the entrance to the museum’s main building eight miles to the west, this towering sculpture depicts an anonymous young Black woman."

"She holds a phone in one hand as she turns, in a twist reminiscent of Bernini’s 'David,' to look over her right shoulder with an intent gaze. Her hair is in two neat braids and the folds of her T-shirt drape luxuriously where they tuck into her jeans. She wears colossal Nike Air Rift sneakers."

From "A Huge Statue of a Black Woman Opens a New Door to London’s V&A/Thomas J Price’s bronze figures present anonymous Black people at heroic scale. After an installation in Times Square sparked a furor, his latest work welcomes visitors to a new museum outpost" (NYT).

What was the Times Square sculpture that "sparked a furor"? It was a similar anonymous generic black woman. According to the artist, "the messages I would get from women who look like her [were] saying she was disgusting." He said: "A lot of people, they’re not used to seeing people who look like them. And I mean that not just in terms of race or gender, but people just being people."

I wonder if most people, confronted with a colossal sculpture of a person who looked exactly like them — other than the size and the monotone color of bronze — would find it disgusting. But those 2 changes — size and bronzeness — are what we usually think makes a statue "heroic."

Or perhaps the "heroic" quality requires something more: a proud pose, idealized beauty, nudity (or a military uniform, a toga, or at least a business suit), some connection to glorious achievement (certainly not just standing around casually). But when's the last time elite art came out in favor of the heroic? That's so right wing. Like something Trump would do. Or try to do.

"Why art thou proud, O man? God for thee became low. Thou wouldst perhaps be ashamed to imitate a lowly man; then at least imitate the lowly God."

Wrote Saint Augustine, quoted in "Imitation of Christ," a Wikipedia article I'm reading on the occasion of so much talk about that illustration of Trump in which he is depicted as Christlike.

The Apostle Paul wrote, in Ephesians: "Be ye therefore imitators of God, as beloved children, and walk in love, even as Christ also loved you."

Thomas Aquinas wrote: "Religious perfection consists chiefly in the imitation of Christ."

Then there's the 15th century best-seller "The Imitation of Christ," by Thomas à Kempis.

Of course, I'm not saying Trump has been living up to this standard. I am only questioning those who seem to be saying that there is something blasphemous about equating a human being to Jesus Christ. The standard seems too high, and yet it has been tradition in Christianity to speak in terms of that standard. The name "Christian" contains the thought that we are called to be Christlike.

Here's a good C.S. Lewis passage, speaking of Christians as "little Christs":

"... I made remarks that were inappropriate. I regret my hurtful comments. I have apologized to my colleague."

Said Justice Sotomayor, quoted in "Justice Sonia Sotomayor issues unusual apology over 'hurtful' remarks about colleague Brett Kavanaugh/The liberal Supreme Court justice had criticized her conservative colleague while she was talking about an opinion he wrote last year in an immigration case" (NBC News).

Here's the statement for which she apologized: "This is from a man whose parents were professionals. And probably doesn’t really know any person who works by the hour." 

You can see the context at the link. She didn't call the "man" by name — it was Kavanaugh — and she didn't even say he lacked empathy. She didn't even assert that he lacked experience with the working class. She didn't even say he probably doesn’t know anyone who works by the hour. She only said he probably doesn’t really know anyone like that. 

To really know someone... that takes a lot. That's a high standard! She apologized for only saying that he probably didn't meet a high standard. Why apologize then?

Perhaps it's an effort to appear especially virtuous herself, but perhaps the motivation is to stop Kavanaugh supporters from getting lots of attention coming forward with accounts of his interactions with working class people. Kavanaugh has volunteered to serve the poor through Catholic Charities, he's done tutoring, and he's coached youth basketball in the Catholic Youth Organization league. This was widely reported during the confirmation hearings but that was years ago. It could all be laid out again, in detail, and with hooting at Justice Sotomayor. Some might ask whether Justice Sotomayor has done equivalent charity and service to the poor and working class. Better to apologize.

Can we talk a little bit about beauty filters?

I'm told this is Rosie O'Donnell, inviting us to "talk a little bit about Eric Swalwell. If she's actually ready to get serious about the interests of women, why is she presenting herself like this?

Rosie O’Donnell speaks out about her past support for Eric Swalwell.

“It’s heartbreaking to me. And I wrote him a little message. And I said ‘Bill Clinton broke my heart and you did too.’ The conclusion I’ve come to- men suck.” pic.twitter.com/QP1nBuQDUc

— Oli London (@OliLondonTV) April 16, 2026

She's used some kind of filter that makes her look like a little girl. That actually fits the substance. She's posing as an innocent girl whose "heart" was broken when men she supported revealed themselves to be abusers of women. She wants us to be angry at them because they hurt her — they broke her heart. First Clinton and now Swalwell. Her conclusion is babyish: "Men suck." 

Then she takes on a believe-the-science attitude: "The way that [men] are physiologically, they can't, sort of, control their sexual urges." After saying that, she touches her nose and cheek in a way that makes me think she knows she's bullshitting.

Notice that it's basically the same bullshit theory we were talking about 2 days ago in "The problem is less a 'boys will be boys' tolerance than a sense of resignation among politicians, staff and other members of official Washington that powerful, ambitious men are built differently."  That post title is a quote from a NYT column. The columnist, Michelle Cottle did not detail this "built differently" hypothesis, so I paraphrased it: "the idea is if we want truly great men in our positions of power, we need to accept the component of their psyche that is a drive for sex — a lot of sex, with young, beautiful women."

"Former Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax shot and killed his wife inside of their home and then shot and killed himself."

So say local police, quoted in "Former Virginia Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax kills wife, self amid divorce proceedings, police say/Fairfax served as lieutenant governor from 2018 to 2022 and previously ran for governor of Virginia" (NBC News).

The former lieutenant governor, who was 47, served in the role from 2018 to 2022 under Democratic Gov. Ralph Northam. In 2019, two women accused Fairfax of sexual assault years earlier, prompting Virginia Democrats to call for his resignation.... 

When he ran in the Democratic primary for governor in 2021, Fairfax, who was Black, said during the gubernatorial debate he was treated like George Floyd and Emmett Till when Democrats immediately called for his resignation after the women made the allegations.

The city looked like it was sinking into the lake this morning.

7 minutes later:

 

Those are my pictures. Here's Meade's point of view at the same time:

The Trump-as-Jesus meme rages on.

These 2 gems came up on my for-you feed on TikTok today. Don't watch if you're actually appalled by this sort of thing. Watch if you think it can be funny/intriguing/worth keeping track of:

"Investors appear to be treating an end to the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran as a foregone conclusion, as the S&P 500 closes above 7,000."

The NYT reports.

Morning fog.

Video by Meade.

Write about whatever you want in the comments.

"Bob was inspirational. I always just think: ‘The vandals took the handles.' Just that little phrase out of everything. It’s so sort of corny but brilliant."

Said Paul McCartney, quoted in "Bob Dylan and the Beatles: When the Fab Four Became the Fab Five/Jim Windolf’s new book, 'Where the Music Had to Go,' traces the influence of Dylan on the Beatles and the Beatles on Dylan" (NYT).

You might think I'd read that book, but I actively don't want to read it.

"Please don’t write about this immediately. I know how you work, and that you will. But please, just not right away."

Said the "Girls" showrunner, Jenni Konner, to Lena Dunham, quoted in "In 'Famesick,' Lena Dunham Diagnoses Celebrity, Illness and Herself/This unusually unfiltered memoir takes us to the hospital, to therapy and to the sometimes hostile set of 'Girls'" (NYT).

The book reviewer, Alexandra Jacobs, adds: "Maybe, contra Dunham’s mentor Nora Ephron, not everything is copy? Or at least … everything needs a copy editor? The Keebler elf makes a second, sexualized appearance; 'Harold and the Purple Crayon' is invoked twice; and Jack and Lena share soup from a 'terrine.'"

Points if you know the difference between a terrine and a tureen. 

I know "tureen" because I know "Alice in Wonderland" — "The Mock Turtle's Song":

"'It shows you that there are people interested in stuff beyond just living and existing,' Bridges said, chatting with fellow residents over Golden Oreos and cranberry juice after her virtual trip to Santorini. 'It’s an escape from reality.'"

From "How Older Adults Are Using V.R. to Counter Social Isolation/New tools tailored for use in senior living communities allow for shared experiences and social bonding" (NYT).

I'm not using a gift link for this one, so you'll just have to picture old people with a big VR device strapped to their face. And imagine many paragraphs puffing the joys of VR — and the joys of travel.

But VR and travel are touted as a means to an end, and the end is the all-important social connection: “When V.R. is done well, you get mentally transported to a place,” said Jeremy Bailenson, founding director of the Virtual Human Interaction Lab at Stanford University.... A few minutes together on a virtual hike or sunset cruise can change a silent dinner to a lively conversation about past travel experiences...."

"My voice is hoarse because I've been screaming at Iranians all day."

Said Trump, just now, in an interview on Fox Business.

"Androgenic Reacts After Reports Of Clavicular Suspected Overdose."

A Newsweek headline. Can you even read it?

I know Clavicular is a person, and I've got to presume Androgenic is also a person. By their names alone, I would have guessed they were corporations or health-care products of some kind. But in the context — reacting, overdosing — I can see that they are human beings. Sad.

Clavicular is only 20, and he's gotten far too much attention for a young person. Yes, he's been asking for it, but don't give young people everything they ask for.

Sample paragraph from his Wikipedia page: "On December 27, 2025... [Clavicular] described Vice President JD Vance as 'subhuman' for his "recessed side profile' and for being 'obese,' asking, 'How are you fat and expected to lead a country?' He agreed with [a] criticism of California governor Gavin Newsom as both a 'degenerate' and a 'liar' but said that, in a potential 2028 United States presidential election in which Newsom ran against Vance, he would vote for 'Chad' Newsom for 'mogging,' or being more attractive than, Vance."

"He likes to do whatever I want him to do.... He is always looking at me and smiling.... I wanted him to dig, and he just did exactly what I told him to do."

Said Barbara Collins, quoted in "Woman, 96, enlists 150-pound dog to plant spring flowers: She points, he digs/A video of Barbara Collins and Chewy gardening together has amassed millions of views on social media" (WaPo)(gift link, so you can see the pictures of the tiny old woman with the gigantic dogs).

This is another one of those mainstream media reports on what's in social media. Here's Chewy's TikTok,  account, with much better coverage of the old lady and what is her granddaughter's dog.

Sample video:

"Colleagues in the operating room 'had concerns that Dr. Shaknovsky did not have the skill level to safely perform this procedure'...."

"After Dr. Shaknovsky removed the organ, 'The staff looked at the readily identifiable liver on the table and were shocked when Dr. Shaknovsky told them that it was a spleen,' the state documents said. 'One staff member felt sick to their stomach.'"

From "Surgeon Who Removed Wrong Organ From Patient Is Charged in His Death/Dr. Thomas Shaknovsky tried to persuade his colleagues in the operating room that the liver he removed from a 70-year-old patient was a spleen, according to Florida’s Health Department" (NYT).