"Mr. Field found his calling by happenstance. As a newly enlisted soldier boarding a troop train during World War II, he was handed a bag..."

"... by a Red Cross worker. It contained a toothbrush, a comb, a candy bar and an anthology of poetry. 'I was on that train for three days,' he said in a 2022 interview for this obituary. 'I read it over and over. I knew immediately that I was going to be a poet. He was just 18 and had never read a book of poetry...."

From "Edward Field, Bohemian New York Poet, Dies at 102/His colloquial language, emotionality and gay topics brought him widespread praise, a Guggenheim Foundation fellowship and other literary honors" (NYT gift link).

I'd like to see that anthology. It seems that the book was "The Pocket Book of Verse: Great English and American Poems," which contained 249 poems by 77 poets:

"'Every day, another church is sold,' said Lilian Grootswagers-Theuns, the president of the advisory board for Future for Religious Heritage.... 'This is happening everywhere in Europe...'"

"'... in Germany, Sweden, Spain and Italy. It’s already going very fast,' she said. 'But now we’re going fast-forward. Now, there’s a tsunami coming.' Churches, once central to European cultural life, were typically situated in the heart of a city and built to last. 'Before you even had the nations, you had a European tradition going back to the fourth century of having a church for each city, each village,' said Barbara Welzel, a professor of art history and cultural education.... These days, parishes may merge or unused churches be sold for private use, like homes or hotels. Sometimes communities rally to save their local church buildings and use them as tourist sites, cultural venues or health care centers. Some priests simply walk away. 'In some churches, they really throw away the key,” [Hedwig Fijen, the director of the 'roving art biennial' Manifesta, said.] 'I’ve found sacred objects in the garbage bin.'"

From "What to Do With Europe’s 'Zombie Churches'? These Artists Have Some Ideas. As the continent’s ties to Christianity fade, churches are being abandoned. But some see a chance to transform them into communal spaces like care centers or venues for the arts" (NYT gift link).

"Mr. Godin — 'pie-eyed, pudding-faced and potbellied,' in one writer’s description — was a pain in the derrière most of his life, beginning in Catholic school when he complained to the priests about his lackluster sex life."

From "Noël Godin, Prankster Who Threw Pies at the Powerful, Dies at 80/Splattering figures like Bill Gates, Jean-Luc Godard and Bernard-Henri Lévy, he perfected the art of using whipped cream as a form of protest" (NYT gift link).

A quote from Godin: 

I have always remained true to the spirit of May ’68. I still live for that time and have always advocated direct sabotage, the sabotage of the professions, the sabotage of the roles into which we are trapped by our day-to-day boredom."

I thought pie-throwers had all switched to shaving cream — just a pie tin full of shaving cream. Did Godin remain pure?

"We use only the finest patisserie, ordered at the last minute from small local bakers,” Mr. Godin told The Observer, a British newspaper, in 1995. "Quality is everything. If things go wrong, we eat them."

Isolated Transient Alexia — a migrainous accompaniment — ever had it?

JAMA Neurology abstract: "Alexia as a transient or paroxysmal neurologic event is a rare clinical finding. John Hughlings Jackson made reference to the paroxysmal occurrence of 'word blindness' as a temporary sequela of neuronal exhaustion at an epileptogenic focus.... A transient episode of alexia in the absence of accompanying neurologic deficit is exceedingly rare.... We recently observed a patient who experienced an isolated, transient alexia that appears to have been a migrainous accompaniment...."

I suspect this happened to me. Here's what I was trying to read and could not make any sense of it, and I struggled from all different angles: "The Story of the Foul-Mouthed Parrot Andrew Jackson Once Had" (an episode of a podcast I like: "Boring History for Sleep"). 

Now, I think that's a type of headline that is objectively hard to puzzle out. I encountered another one this morning in the NY Post: "Missouri foster mom accused of trading teen for monkey avoids prison." Something about the sequence "monkey avoids prison" sends your thoughts tripping over the precipice. 

But that "Foul-Mouth Parrot" headline was entirely undecipherable to me. I searched for an entry point: What is "Story"? What is "Andrew"? "Foul"? I couldn't even think of how to begin to pronounce those words or how words work together to mean something. This not-knowing lasted for about 15 minutes, and of course, I queried A.I. about it. That was after Meade had consulted a different A.I.

And I believe all A.I.s will tell you the same thing if you put this story into it — not the story of Andrew Jackson's parrot or the story of the foster mom's monkey — the story of a reading human suddenly completely unable to read. And we did what A.I. told us to do. That's why there was no sunrise photo yesterday. Our sleep was massively disrupted. I had to get my head examined. 

"I am a virgin. I grew up with no friends. I didn't have anyone growing up besides my two girlfriends that I'm still very close with today...."

"And I didn't like like I didn't do extracurricular activities. Like I didn't go out. I didn't have fun. Like I was just school home school home. So like I never had a relationship with anyone. And then I started working. I was serving for about four years at a mom and pop restaurant. I was a waitress.... And then now I'm here and I'm just waiting for the right person. But now everyone knows me and it's like weird. So like I'm trying to date but it's going to be a little weird now. It's hard. It's hard now. So I'm just waiting for the right person. Worth it. You know I'm waiting. Worth 100 million...."

Said Sophie Rain, the 21-year-old biggest moneymaker on "Only Fans," talking to the 70-year-old Bill Maher for nearly 2 hours. Creepy? Or is this helpful insight into a business you ought to understand? She's made $100 million. And yet: lonely! 

But you know the answer when people are so remote and loveless. Animals! She's all:

I love animals. That's what I want to do is I just want to live on a farm. That's that's the goal for me is to own a lot of land and just rescue animals. That's all I want to do....

Maher is all Me too. I love animals too. I'd just love to live on a farm too.

Animals are easy. People are hard. But what do you want from people? If you have 2 very close girlfriends, why would you say I grew up with no friends? 2 is so much more than zero. 2 very close friends seems like more than any number of remote friends. Or do you love remote friends... in social media?

IN THE COMMENTS: Leland writes: "Successful farms don't 'rescue' animals. They raise them, grow them, and then sell them..."

That's true for the restricted meaning of "farm," but there is an extended version of "farm" — watch and see who uses it — that's just a home in the heart of the country.

I want a horse/I want a sheep/I wanna get me a good night's sleep...

Elegant presence of mind in baseball.

Just for the joy of it:

Payton Tolle is the gift that keeps on giving 😭 pic.twitter.com/jaPwFhr3i8

— MLB (@MLB) September 6, 2026

And a effective perception that an out is right there waiting to be had:

1000 IQ play here by Joe Mack pic.twitter.com/kDTsrdZpPS

— Miami Marlins (@Marlins) September 6, 2026

The White House is taunting.

pic.twitter.com/Jh3DHXnflT

— The White House (@WhiteHouse) September 6, 2026

"The tone of your question was a little bit like Why haven't you done every single impossible thing possible?"

I thought @jaredkushner gave a spot on magnificent answer to the really nasty-toned question from @RichardEngel . Kudos to Jared 👏👏👏👏👏 pic.twitter.com/JNk6USUvqq

— Todd Headlee (@ToddHeadleeAZ) September 7, 2026

Sunrise, Monday morning.

Video by Meade, just now.

At the Pictureless Café...

... you can talk all night.

The tilted hat, Part 2.

Now both Cardinals and Rockies players are wearing their hats crooked in protest.

This is the shit. pic.twitter.com/viy4cVD53h https://t.co/3ZXr97CKU0

— Jacob P.M.🌔 (@JacobBSpeaks) September 6, 2026

"Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner meet Zelensky on first visit to Ukraine’s capital following three hours of negotiations with President Putin in Moscow."

The London Times reports.

“The situation is of course not simple,” Putin said before the negotiations began. “We will do everything that depends on us to ensure the safety of the negotiation process and mediators such as yourselves,” he added.... 

Afterwards, Witkoff thanked Putin for the “incredible memories” from the visits to the Russian capital. “We were all talking about when we retire, we’ll have all these incredible stories and incredible memories, and yours will be right at the top of it all,” he told Putin....

Yuri Ushakov, a Kremlin aide, told reporters... “The talks ‌went beyond a mere exchange of views on resolving the ⁠Ukrainian crisis. Economic issues and potential major, mutually beneficial Russian-American projects were discussed in some detail.”

"[W]hen a man suddenly began to shout vulgarities and became violent... two other passengers, relying on zip ties, duct tape and sheer will, restrained the disruptive man until the authorities could board the plane and take him into custody."

I'm reading "Unruly Passenger Is Restrained With Duct Tape During a Flight/The passenger on an American Airlines flight began to shout vulgarities and then became violent on Thursday, the authorities said. That’s when two passengers stepped in" (NYT gift link).

Richard O’Lenick, 53, one of the passengers who restrained Mr. Lundeen, said in a phone interview on Saturday that Mr. Lundeen began to shout racial slurs at one of the flight attendants.... Mr. Lundeen struck the laptop of the man next to him, and then grabbed the man’s throat, Mr. O’Lenick said. When a woman in a seat ahead of the scuffle tried to intervene, Mr. Lundeen started to attack her as well.

That’s when Mr. O’Lenick and Juan Mejia...  jumped into action from their seats two rows ahead....

"The emergency request marks the latest turn in a dizzying legal fight over mail-in voting, even as states begin distributing mail-in ballots to voters."

"The upshot has become clear in recent days: It will be the Supreme Court that has the final say on President Trump’s plans to restrict mail voting in the midterms. It’s unclear how fast the justices will move and announce a ruling.... The Trump administration had already filed emergency request to the justices challenging a shorter-term pause [the trial judge] had imposed on the plan. But the trial court judge acted to extend her freeze before the justices ruled, necessitating a new request from the administration for Supreme Court action...."

I'm reading "Trump Administration Again Asks Supreme Court to Allow Mail Voting Restrictions/The filing puts the legality of the president’s push to impose limits on mail voting squarely before the justices even as states begin sending out ballots" (NYT gift link).