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).

At the Sunrise Café...

... you can talk about whatever you want.

The morning puddle.

That crane video is by me, emphasizing the puddle. Here's Meade's crane video, stressing the freneticism of the feeding:

"These proceedings improperly threaten an open-ended, freewheeling inquiry into executive branch decision-making on matters of national security..."

"... that implicate ongoing military and diplomatic initiatives. This judicial intrusion into the autonomy of a coequal department cannot be remedied by a later appeal from a contempt conviction."

Wrote Judge Neomi Rao, for the majority, quoted in "Appeals Court Ends Contempt Inquiry Into Deportation Flights/A federal judge’s nearly yearlong effort to investigate whether the Trump administration had violated his order had become a point of contention in the president’s battles with the courts" (NYT): 

Here's the opinion, from the District of Columbia court. The judge below was James E. Boasberg. 

Why do people read this illustration to represent Trump depicted as Jesus rather than Trump with the miraculous power of the laying on of hands?

 

Trump shared this image, then took it down when he was attacked. The image was said to represent him as Jesus. He denied that he had seen it that way. He said the image showed him as "a doctor making people better and I do make people a lot better." Many observers hooted "Doctor!" What kind of doctor wears a robe and applies small orbs of light to the patient's forehead!?

But what is Jesus-y about handheld balls of light? What is Jesus-y about an American flag, the Statue of Liberty, the Lincoln Memorial, a bald eagle, fighter jets, soldiers ascending upward, and a medical worker with a stethoscope?

You can see what you want here, and maybe if you're genuinely concerned about blasphemy you'll want to err on the side of not jumbling up worldly images with things that might be sacred. But is there any serious Christian iconography there? I see nothing other than the white tunic and red mantle. What about the healing itself? But healing with the laying on of hands is not something limited to Jesus. Whether it is effective or not, it has been a widespread practice through human history, and it is a way to express the idea of profound healing.

There is healing through the laying on of hands in the Old Testament and, in the New Testament, it is not limited to Jesus. And in Western history, there was also the "royal touch" — "a form of laying on of hands, whereby French and English monarchs touched their subjects... with the intent to cure them of various diseases and conditions."

American Presidents are frequently portrayed as healers — spiritual healers — and the use of exalted imagery is common, not some freakish new thing special to Trump. It might be a bad idea — because it's trashy art, because politics and religion should be kept strictly separated, or because propaganda is deceptive and distracting — whatever. That image may be bullshit, but the outrage over it is also bullshit. When I think of all the times Barack Obama was portrayed as a Christ figure! Ridiculous. Grow up. 

And here are The Thompson Twins:

Oh, lay your hands on me/(Lay your hands) woo-hoo/(Ooh, lay your hands) oh, lay your hands on me/(Lay your hands) oh, oh-oh-oh....

Sunrise.

Meade's videos of the morning.

Which U.S. Presidents have been called "The Antichrist"?

I wondered, on seeing the Wired article "Staunch Trump Supporters Are Now Asking if He’s the Antichrist/The Iran war and a series of social media posts, including one depicting Trump as Jesus Christ, have some conservative commentators and fans suspecting the president may be the antichrist."

Of course, it's a long tradition in American discourse. If I can trust Grok, it goes back at least to FDR. 

Grok cites a 2011 Slate article: "How Many Presidents Have Been Accused of Being the Antichrist?/Hint: It’s not just Obama."

I remember why the topic came up in 2011. I blogged about it in "Obama does a great job reacting to a heckler who calls him the Antichrist" ("Obama has the presence of mind to say — responding to the heckled 'Jesus Christ is God, Barack Obama is the Antichrist!' — 'I agree. Jesus Christ is the Lord. I believe in that'").

There's also Ronald Reagan.

Trump is wowed by himself.

"Wow!"

ADDED: At the link, which goes to a Trump post at Truth Social, there's video animating a series of photos of Trump, in chronological order, beginning with him as an angelic toddler. We get the sense of Trump through the years, but there is one glaring problem, and it's funny that he chose to share this video anyway. There is only one photo where he is shown with one of his wives, and that wife is Marla Maples.

"Meta’s new gizmos are ordinary-looking Ray-Bans and Oakleys that have been juiced to the gills with hidden technology..."

"... Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, two tiny speakers, five microphones, a wide-angle camera.... [T]he real selling point is A.I. — an opportunity to chitchat with a disembodied superintelligence that can see and hear everything you do... So what do my miraculous sunglasses tell me? Many things. They inform me, in the voice of Princess Anna from 'Frozen,' that my dog is a golden retriever mix (he is not) and that a tree I am looking at is probably an oak (it is not). They tell me to walk north when I know I should be walking south. One afternoon, on a sunny stroll, I stop to admire a bright red cardinal singing its heart out in a tree. 'Hey, Meta,' I say. 'What kind of bird is that chirping in the tree?' My sunglasses make their little ding-dong noise, analyzing the world. Finally, they speak. 'I don’t see a bird in the tree or hear any chirping,' they say. I point directly at the bird, which is still chirping. 'I don’t see a bird in the tree where you’re pointing,' my sunglasses say, cheerfully. 'Just bare branches and sky.'..."

Writes Sam Anderson, in "I Feel So Sorry for My A.I. Sunglasses/Plenty of people hate Mark Zuckerberg’s superintelligent, supercharged spectacles. I was ready to hate them, too" (NYT).

There's your future — just bare branches and sky

"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."

Writes Michelle Cottle, in "How Many People Heard About Swalwell and Did Nothing?" (NYT).

Cottle does not delve into this "built differently" hypothesis or the reasons why people believe it and choose to condone bad behavior. She seems to hope to light a fire under these weaker people and motivate them to oppose the "powerful, ambitious men" who — supposedly — are fueled by sexual desire. 

Maybe she doesn't delve into the hypothesis because she thinks it's true and self-evident. Maybe she's too puritanical to open up the subject. "Built differently." Say it clearly and explicitly. When I was a child, circa 1960, I asked my mother how babies were born. That was long ago, but I remember her answer verbatim: "Well, you know how men and women are built differently."

Can we please grow up and say it bluntly? There's no reason to be polite here. Powerful, ambitious men are built differently... 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. We're diminishing ourselves if we filter out the men who have it. Look at JFK. Look at Trump. And by the way, it's also the reason why none of the women are truly great political leaders.

That's not my personal belief. That's the hypothesis Cottle gestures at, and I'm just putting it bluntly. Maybe you can put it more bluntly, so I'll turn the conversation over to you.

At the Sunrise Café...

... you can write about whatever you like.

"I made a necessary break with everything.... I broke up with my business partner. I broke up with my partner. I had a hysterectomy. I stepped back from work."

"It was it was, like, I went from full on to, like, sitting in a back room in my parents apartment in silence collaging letters together and... my mom coming in and being, like, 'That's really nice.'... It was not a time where I was capable of really keeping anything going and I'm not a big — so much has happened in my life that's wonderful and so much has something that's challenging — I'm not a big redux person. Like, I look back and I go — I remember once I said to my mom like, 'I'm so glad you're my mom.' And she was like, 'It could have been no other way.' And there's so much it could have been no other way in this story. And I like... I had to detach from this entity that I had created and everyone who was responsible for helping me keep that entity alive."

The entity is Lena Dunham:

"You don’t need people to believe you, you just need to get it out of your poor body before it gives you cancer."

Said the actress Ruby Rose, quoted in "Katy Perry accused of sexual assault by Ruby Rose/Rose claimed Perry assaulted her at a nightclub almost 20 years ago. Perry denied the accusations, calling them ‘dangerous, reckless lies’" (London Times).

Rose isn't suing, but she says, "[Perry] is more than welcome to sue me (she won’t, because it happened, I have photos and it was literally in public and witnessed by multiple people)."

Andy Dick and Bill Maher explain Biden to each other.

I like Dick's set up — "I don't know politics" — and then he does some nice physical comedy.

ADDED: This video has strong Man-in-Shorts content. I think the shorts work well for Dick. He's an odd little man, so shorts are fitting for him. He's not trying to convey the impression that he's A Man.

Swalwell says he's "deeply sorry to my family, staff, and constituents for mistakes in judgment I’ve made in my past" and he "must take responsibility and ownership for the mistakes I did make"...

... but he's also determined to "fight the serious, false allegation made against me." He's fighting and it's false but he's sorry and he did make mistakes and he's got to take responsibility and he is resigning from Congress.

That's what it says here in "Eric Swalwell resigns from Congress after heinous sex assault accusations" (NY Post).

Does it seem incoherent? Not if you see it all in terms of "distraction": It's "wrong," he says, for him to be "distracted from my duties." The fighting will need to take place where we won't care about it anymore — on the outside of any campaign or political office. And now, presumably, we don't need to think about Swalwell for one more second. He has become nobody. Move on. That went by fast.

ADDED: Tony Gonzales, the Republican Congressman, is also resigning, also based on a sexual accusation (NYT link).

In the UW Arboretum...

... there were some blossoming magnolias...

... but mostly the trees were bare.

We kept stopping at benches and catching up on our reading. Have you forgotten the pleasure of reading outdoors?

And don't be telling me those aren't magnolias. This comes up every year. I looked back to last year. It was precisely the same day that we went to the arb — April 13th: "These are our magnolias. You don't need to tell me that your magnolias look different or that only your magnolias deserve the name magnolias. These are magnolias."

"Rory wins again…I think. CBS missed the last 4 shots. I guess that’s what happens when you have one camera covering the course and the rest pointing at teenagers watching the broadcast in Ireland."

One fan posted, quoted in "CBS bashed for botching Rory McIlroy’s Masters-winning shots" (NY Post).

Sunrise hubbub.

Video by Meade, this morning, on Lake Mendota.

It's a hubbub, to my ear, but I noticed that if I left the subtitles on, the computer was able to discern words that were chaotic noise to me, no more articulate than the nonsense of the geese. 

"I hadn’t intended to offend anyone, but the B-roll I posted to an account with a scant 100 followers was evidently being promoted as rage bait for the masses — and still is."

Writes Tammy Teclemariam, in "'U Went Viral for the Wrong Reasons Honey'/After I posted a video of some garlic bread, TikTok took over" (NY Magazine). She's getting excoriated by commenters who are mad at her for saying, bossily, "You didn’t ask if you could do that," when her tablemate, who'd ordered the bread, started cutting into it with a spoon.

"Within 23 days of posting, the video surpassed a million views.... Whatever machine learning was needed to push this onto the FYP of so many people, it seems to have worked as designed. Everyone I showed the video to in my real life couldn’t understand the controversy. But everyone leaving comments seemed willing to ignore any reasonable context to insist I must be a horrible person. 'You must be fun at parties,' commented LucyInTheSky. Lucy, I am fun at parties.... Some friends, understandably, suggested I just delete it. While that might seem like a quick escape from nuisance behavior, it doesn’t change the threat of this happening again. In order to speak freely on the internet, you have to take the haters for granted...."

"My reaction was pure confusion, sarcasm and not ill intended. Could have handled it better! Now I know what a Zaghrouta is! I welcome all cheers and yodels from here on out."

Said Sabrina Carpenter, quoted in "Sabrina Carpenter Apologizes for Mistaking Arabic Celebration Call With Yodeling During Coachella Performance: 'Could Have Handled it Better'" (Variety).

Here's how it looked and what she said at the time: 

Sabrina Carpenter is currently at the mercy of cancel culture after this exchange at Coachella last night.

Fu#%ing based Sabrina. 😎 pic.twitter.com/QzmggohvPQ

— Amiri King (@AmiriKing) April 12, 2026

ADDED: Notice that she says "I don't like it" when she misreads it as yodeling. Why the hostility to yodeling? But showing disrespect to Arabic culture is another matter. From the NYT article:

Fans appeared divided over Carpenter’s response on social media. One user called it “insensitive and Islamaphobic.” Another wrote: “She’s not obligated to like anything, but after receiving the information that it was part of the person’s culture, the least that is expected is respect.”

AND: Does yodeling seem... too country and somehow right wing?

"I have no fear of the Trump administration, or speaking out loudly of the message of the Gospel, which is what I believe I am here to do."

Said Pope Leo, quoted in the NYT.

"Leo’s comments came after Mr. Trump’s lengthy attack on the pope on Sunday night, in which the president accused the pontiff of being 'weak on crime' and 'catering to the Radical Left.' Mr. Trump also said Leo, the first American pope, should 'focus on being a Great Pope, not a Politician.'"

Trump wants the Pope to stay in his lane, but does Trump stay in his lane? I see I already have the tag "Trump and religion," so I'm going to say no.

MORE: From Leo: "The things I say are not meant as attacks on anyone. I do not look at my role as being political, a politician. I don’t want to get into a debate with him. I don’t think that the message of the Gospel is meant to be abused in the way that some people are doing."

I'm not getting in your lane. You're getting in my lane.

Speaking of tags, I have a longstanding "religion and politics" tag. The line between the two has never been clear, and people are not clear about how clear they want the line to be. It's a very old problem, and it won't be solved with facile stay-in-your-lane taunts.

AND: Here's what Trump put up at Truth Social:

"It seems like a kind of arms race. You have people becoming more and more assertive about including dogs everywhere and then..."

"... on the other side, people becoming more and more assertive about their resistance to having dogs everywhere."

Says Jessica Pierce, "a bioethicist studying human-dog relations," quoted in "Where Does a Dog Belong? In restaurants or grocery stores? Tensions between canine lovers and other New Yorkers are boiling over" (New York Magazine).

“If there wasn’t dog shit all over the sidewalks, then I don’t think dogs would necessarily be coming to a boiling point,” one Greenpoint dog owner in his early 40s reflected. It wasn’t as though he had never pushed the boundaries with his 50-pound supermutt. Yet if he didn’t always follow the letter of the law, he believed he observed the spirit, though he understood that not everyone agreed. Recently, he’d been in Transmitter Park with his dog — who, yes, was off-leash, but people do that there — when a guy in the playground area with his kid leaned over the fence. “He was not even in the vicinity of where my dog was,” he says. “He said, ‘Excuse me, you see the sign? It says NO DOGS.’ And I kind of looked at him like, Hey, you must be new here.” Why did he feel so entitled, the guy wanted to know. “And so I told him, ‘Hey, man, you’re here with your family, and I’m here with my family.” In seemingly every argument, someone brings up children. “Well, my dog,” someone inevitably says, “is better behaved and less disruptive and more pleasant than your disgusting child.”...

AND: From the comments over there:

The sunrise in the rain.

Write about anything you want in the comments.

"I just don't get it. I mean, everybody says, if we're on the moon, we can get to Mars. I don't want to go there either."

"There's nothing out there — except other rocks. Let's fix the shitshow here on Earth."

Said Bill Maher in the monologue of last Friday's episode of "Real Time."

Later in the show, breaking up 2 panelists who were brawling with each other about the democracy in Hungary, Maher butted in to say, "How about that moon?"

A panelist smiled and said, "We can agree on the moon."

Maher: "Well, I don't know if we can agree on the moon. I like — who doesn't like? — the moon. To look at it. From here.

"We want a full house cleaning. Get the garbage out of here. These jerks are destroying Congress, for the American people and for all of us who came here to do good work."

Said an unnamed House Democrat, quoted in "Swalwell scandal threatens cascade of House expulsion votes" (Axios).

But: "Many rank-and-file House members are territorial about their prerogatives and terrified of the precedent it would set to expel someone on the basis of allegations that haven't been fully adjudicated — even when they are highly unsavory."

"Lauren Sánchez Bezos... and [Jeff] Bezos do everything together. On a typical day, the newlyweds wake up around 6 in their new, roughly $230 million compound on Indian Creek..."

"... an exclusive private island in Miami.... They don’t touch their phones. Instead, they begin each day by listing 10 things they’re grateful for — and they can’t repeat what they named the day before. From there, the couple drink their morning coffee in a sunroom and watch the sun rise: hers from a mug that reads 'Woke Up Sexy as Hell Again,' his from one she got him that spells HUNK in symbols from the periodic table. They play pickleball. Six days a week, they work out for an hour with a private trainer. 'He looks good, doesn’t he?' Mrs. Sánchez Bezos said of her new husband, in an interview in Miami in January. She slow-nodded, repeating, 'He looks good.'"

For some reason the NYT has a long article about Lauren Sánchez Bezos. It's called, inanely, "Someone Has to Be Happy. Why Not Lauren Sánchez Bezos? As half of an unfathomably powerful couple, Mrs. Sánchez Bezos seems to have influenced the uber-rich to stop apologizing, and start enjoying themselves."

I skimmed most of the article, but I'm blogging it because I can't imagine someone with all the money drinking coffee from a mug that says "Woke Up Sexy as Hell Again" and making her husband drink from a cup marked "HUNK." And, sorry, I just don't believe "they begin each day by listing 10 things they’re grateful for" — whether they allow themselves to repeat items or not. Supposedly, you wake up sexy, and then you do the 10-things list, which is more like a New Age religion substitute, and just not sexy at all, even if you're listing things like I'm thankful I'm so sexy, I'm thankful my husband is sexy, I'm thankful I wake up sexy, I'm thankful I know how to derive multiple thankfulness items from the concept that I am sexy, I'm thankful for the sexiness with which I woke up yesterday, I'm thankful for pickleball, I'm thankful my husband is the third richest man in the world, I'm thankful for the New York Times, I'm thankful for our unfathomable power, and I'm thankful to have reached #10 on our daily thankfulness list.

"So, there you have it, the meeting went well, most points were agreed to, but the only point that really mattered, NUCLEAR, was not."

"Effective immediately, the United States Navy, the Finest in the World, will begin the process of BLOCKADING any and all Ships trying to enter, or leave, the Strait of Hormuz."

Writes Trump at Truth Social.

"At some point, we will reach an 'ALL BEING ALLOWED TO GO IN, ALL BEING ALLOWED TO GO OUT' basis, but Iran has not allowed that to happen by merely saying, 'There may be a mine out there somewhere,' that nobody knows about but them. THIS IS WORLD EXTORTION....

Tim Dillon explains Melania's Epstein speech.

I like the detail in the interpretation of the line, "Donald and I were invited to the same parties as Epstein from time to time since overlapping in social circles is common in New York City and Palm Beach."

Dillon translates: "Here's what she's telling you: We are rich.... I'm wealthy and I'm attractive. Many of you aren't either one of those things.

"[A]s Vice President JD Vance took a podium in Pakistan and said no deal had been reached had been reached to end the war in Iran... President Trump... was surrounded by people, but Mr. Trump was somehow an isolated figure...."

"People mostly circulated around him, checking in with updates and then leaving again. For the most part, Mr. Trump sat and impassively watched blood and saliva sprayed out from the fighters beating each other silly in front of him...."

Writes Katie Rogers, "Trump Was Watching a U.F.C. Fight in Miami While Iran Talks Collapsed On his way to Florida, President Trump said it did not matter to him if a deal with Iran was reached or not: 'We win, regardless,' he said" (NYT).

Blood and saliva — I've got tags for both of those.

Trump was "surrounded." People "circulated around him." When you're a star, you can't grab what orbits around you:

"O."

Love how he stopped for the "OH"...if you're from Baltimore, you understand.

— Sҽαɳ 🇺🇸⚓️ (@doc_1029) April 12, 2026

"I worked in a warehouse. It's where I felt so free. Then HR saw that video and terminated me."

I was good. I was great. I was busy moving freight. But I wanted to be funny, now the trucks will have to wait. I miss that icy freezer. I know that must sound odd, but now the smoke has cleared and my testicles  have thawed. I used to pick up pallets and I used to lift them high. It used to lift my spirits up. I felt like I could fly....

That's Blake Porter, via this Metafilter post by CrunchyFrog.

I enjoyed that. It was sweet and quirky, and I felt for the guy (even though I also think employers do need some rules about making your own videos at work, especially if you're working with heavy equipment like forklifts).

But it also got me wondering about Metafilter. I remember years ago, it had hot debate about political and social issues, but now it seems that everyone has agreed amongst themselves only to talk about sweet little quirky things and to be really nice to each other. It's a gentle pleasant atmosphere, but what the hell happened? What sapped all the vigor out of the place? If you go over there now, you'll see a post about what Isaac Asimov wrote about "1984" in 1980, how Jhumpa Lahiri is finding "quivering energy" in the works of Thomas Hardy, the rescue of a sea turtle, a walk to see (hear?) a sound sculpture, a bird that has relearned an old birdsong, a cat in a library, what rock art might be saying about Tasmanian tigers, etc. etc. 

Attempting to use Grok to explore my wonderment, I encountered the word "cozification." My search based on that word might have led me down various sweet quirky paths, but in the interest of keeping myself sharp and fast-moving, I decided to end this post with this screen shot (from Urban Dictionary) which I deem found art: