Feel-good dog story of the day.

Nash, the golden retriever, had his big chance to be hailed the best guard dog when an intruder broke into his family’s home – but instead, the 4-year-old thought the man was a friend and brought him some toys to play with. pic.twitter.com/6LROw5EcAn

— CBS Evening News with Tony Dokoupil (@CBSEveningNews) September 17, 2026

"A billion dollars worth of Mets in left field and none of them could pick it up."

“A billion dollars worth of Mets in left field and none of them could catch that ball” - Kevin Brown pic.twitter.com/rQcjceGPop

— Keith McPherson (@Keith_McPherson) September 17, 2026

"It’s the least they could do... We’re already paying money to suffer. We’re not going to Hyrox and then going, 'That was great.'"

"To add additional contamination to that suffering is not something that we are paying for.... Everyone could physically see that there was feces on her leg, but no one said anything.... It was just, like, business as normal."

Said Joe Ho, one of the athletes who competed in the Beijing Hyrox, quoted in "Hyrox Athletes Are Refunded After Competitor Soiled Herself/The athlete, who went on to win, kept going after the incident at a global fitness event in Beijing, leading to an uproar" (NYT gift link).

[Joanna] Wietrzyk, an elite Hyrox athlete from Australia, had visible feces running down her legs as she did burpee broad jumps and weighted lunges at the National Speed Skating Oval in Beijing, alongside more than 100 fellow competitors — many of whom would need to pass through the same stations and use the same weights....

"His 'cosmic jumper,' a young man in bell bottoms traversing the globe in giant strides, became an emblem of modern youth, eager to explore the far reaches of inner and outer space."

"Barefoot and surrounded by puffy clouds and chubby birds, the jumper appeared on the 10-cent stamp commissioned for Expo ’74, the conservation-themed World’s Fair in Seattle. In 'The Universe of Peter Max,' a memoir published in 2013, he wrote: 'My cosmic art subjects were always euphoric: Himalayan sages levitating under a shower of flowers beside snowcapped mountain peaks; faces and flowers exploding into a symmetrical cosmic butterfly; mirrored lakes and waters with a cascade of stars and planets; flowers in perpetual states of organic growth, begetting blossoms. My inspiration came from the new youth movement in America and in return spoke to it.'"

From "Peter Max, Trippy Artist of Counterculture Era and Beyond, Dies at 88/With work that breathed the spirit of the 1960s, he became fabulously wealthy from licensing his paintings and posters in all their euphoric Day-Glo glory" (NYT gift link).

Things were so much more colorful when we were young in the 60s, and Peter Max was a big part of it.

Look around at all the gray, white, and black and remember when everything was over-the-top colorful. Mourn the loss of everything that was Peter Max. RIP.

"On the cusp of mating season, the antlers were signaling to other reindeer: 'Ladies, I am ready to reproduce,' and 'Gentlemen, step aside.'"

"He posed in profile before striding down the far side of the slope, leaving us to revise our view of reindeer: not holiday mascots, but bosses of the tundra."

From "Where the Reindeer Roam: Trekking 67 Miles in Arctic Sweden/On a hike along the Kungsleden Trail, or 'king’s trail,' in Swedish Lapland, a writer encounters majestic animals, challenging terrain and communal moments of sheer wonder" (NYT gift link (with nice pics)).

"I assaulted a police officer? Is that what it says? I don’t have my glasses. Oh my God. What a mess. I don’t remember any of it."

Said Layne Lundeen, quoted in "I don’t remember a thing, claims ‘air rage’ passenger duct-taped to seat/The 67-year-old, who was vice-president of a real estate firm, was flying first class before allegedly coming out with racial slurs and vulgar language" (London Times).

According to another passenger, Lundeen became "belligerent, making derogatory remarks to the staff of American Airlines and other passengers, racial slurs, vulgar language, very offensive to the women," and a former law enforcement officer said his friend "immediately knew that action had to be taken" and "got up right away and jumped in the seat right next to the passenger and began working on restraining him in order to keep the situation contained."

I don't want to go all Clancy-juror on you, but I feel sorry for this guy.

IN THE COMMENTS: Saint Croix said: "I hate to say it, but People magazine seems to have the scoop on this."

Sunrise.

Swimming with LBJ.

My son Chris sends that passage from "Lyndon Johnson and the American Dream" (by Doris Kearns Godwin (commission earned)).

Chris is reading biographies of all the U.S. Presidents, as you may remember from earlier posts. Someone emailed asking for a list of all the books in that project, and, though I don't do everything you might ask, I did do this. 

First, Chris sent a photo of his bookshelf:

"He seeks to unsettle and entertain; after all, an alternative pronunciation of his alter ego’s name, Miss Chief Eagle Testickle, is 'Mischief Egotistical.'"

I'm reading "An Indigenous Painter Sees a Vermeer, and the Sparks Fly/For a new show at the Frick Collection, Kent Monkman imagines what Indigenous people see when they see fur trappers, General Custer and even Jeff Bezos" (NYT gift link)

"How Many People Support Trump but Don’t Want to Admit It?"

Asks Thomas B. Edsall, in the NYT (gift link).

Oh! Ha ha. I thought this was a new article.

Seemed to go along with today's episode of The Daily, "48 Days Until the Midterms: Is a Blue Wave Coming?" (gift link)[based on "A ‘Blue Wave’ May Be Building, but How High? A Times/Siena national poll suggests Republicans are reeling. Can they come back by depicting Democrats as too far to the left?].

But now I see that Edsall piece was published on May 11, 2016.

Ha ha ha. I guess we found out.

Edsall ends with: "[T]he simple fact that Trump has beaten the odds so far means that it is not beyond the realm of possibility that he could beat them again. If he does take the White House, much, if not all, of his margin of victory will come from voters too ashamed to acknowledge publicly how they intend to cast their vote."

"Singapore will pay people to read in a government initiative aimed at mitigating the superficiality of online content and..."

"... encouraging 'curious minds, deep thinkers and informed citizen.' The city state has launched a programme called ReadSG under which people are encouraged to log their daily reading on an app in return for virtual 'coins,' redeemable for cash. The idea is inspired by the goal of walking 10,000 steps a day.... The sums of money in play are small and no one is going to get rich from reading in Singapore, although its organisers hope that the 'gamification' element and the rewards offered by the programme will motivate participants.... Someone who logged 15 minutes a day for a year would be entitled to S$7.30 (£4.25)."

I'm reading "The city that pays people to put down the phone and read a book Singapore is seeking to turn the page on ‘doomscrolling’ with a system in which readers can log their progress in exchange for cash" (London Times).

So... get off your phone... get on your phone... which is it?

"When I first came up with the title, I looked on the internet to see if it already existed, and found one book on Amazon called 'The History of Concrete'..."

"... which turned out to be just an empty book that was a place to store your valuables. I thought that was really funny—not even the most determined thief would have the courage to open a book with a title that boring...."

Says John Wilson, interviewed in "John Wilson’s Poetry of the Mundane/The director of 'The History of Concrete' discusses the value of comedy, nimbys, and making films out of both found moments and the rules that govern the Hallmark Channel" (The New Yorker).

Wilson, the genius behind my favorite TV show, "How To with John Wilson," explains his method: "I start the day by going out and filming potholes. I know that there’s a pothole somewhere about to give any day now, so I’ll go and do that. But then I’ll probably get bored, so I’ll go into a store nearby and see what’s going on there. And then I’ll tell them what I’m doing and see if they have anything to add. A lot of the time, the farther away you get from the subject matter, and the more you have someone from outside of that universe talk about it, the more interesting it gets, and the more illuminated the metaphor becomes."

And by the way, that's how I stumbled into the "Girl in Gold Boots" trailer, blogged in the previous post — "Just stumbled into the greatest movie trailer I have ever seen." I was looking for a DVD set of the HBO show "How To with John Wilson" so I could point non-HBO people to it. Didn't find it, found something else, which is nicely Wilsonesque. 

"History of Concrete" might be a bit hard to find in theaters, but it is playing at Cinematheque here at UW on October 1st. 

Just stumbled into the greatest movie trailer I have ever seen.

From 1968, one of my favorite years, comes "the exciting story of vibrant unpredictable youth searching for the answers that torment their generation":

If it's answers that torment you, stick with the questions.

Sunrise.

Write about whatever you like in the comments.

It was raining this morning, and I stayed in, so that lovely picture is from Meade.

"Beaton... had graduated magna cum laude from Harvard in 2016, picking up a master’s degree in applied mathematics along the way. He had gone on to collect an M.B.A. from Stanford."

"Then a law degree from Yale. That was followed by a doctor of philosophy in public policy from Oxford, where he was a Rhodes scholar — all before age 28. Attending classes remotely and in person, he earned additional master’s degrees from — deep breath — the University of Pennsylvania (education entrepreneurship), Stanford (education technology), Princeton (finance), Cornell (health care policy and economics), Dartmouth (implementation science), King’s College London (war studies) and Tsinghua University in Beijing (global affairs).... Is it education as performance art? An elaborate marketing ploy for his business?"

From "He Might End Up the World’s Most Educated Person/Jamie Beaton has 12 advanced degrees from Harvard, Yale, Oxford and other top universities, with more on the way. Why? How?"

"Time Has Run Out for AI Risk Deniers/The recent spate of reports about the technology’s destructive power underline two prime directives: Be afraid, and regulate aggressively."

It's time to panic and legislate like hell, according to the headline at The Nation.

How can that heavy-handed fear mongering not make a reader skeptical? I would think The Nation would at least want to be cagier about what it thinks of its own readers. Maybe they didn't think anyone else would look, but I saw the headline on the list of headlines at Real Clear Politics. RCP, in its usual style, pairs headlines to attain a cheap type of balance. "Time Has Run Out for AI Risk Deniers" is paired with "Dangerous Ideology Behind the Vague AI Warnings" at The Free Press.

I'd like a sober, informative analysis of what's going on with AI, but instead I see how discourse about AI has gravitated into partisan propaganda. Everyone's supposed to already know that the right is for AI and the left is against. No wonder we need AI to think for us.

From the Nation article:

"They said I wasn’t going to win an Oscar because my boyfriends were too young and I dressed too strange. I didn’t dress appropriate for an actress, for a serious actress, actually."

Said Cher, quoted in "'Meant to Be Seen': Cher on Bob Mackie and the Ultimate Revenge Dress/The designer’s bedazzling, feathered creations made waves onstage, including at the Oscars in 1986" (NYT gift link)(a current story, because Bob Mackie just died).

The year was 1986, the Oscars were coming up, and Cher had been snubbed for her role in the movie “Mask.” She had not received the nomination for Best Actress, despite critical acclaim around her performance. Instead, she had been asked to present the award for Best Supporting Actor.... Mackie, in a 2008 interview... recalled telling Cher: “You can’t wear this to the Academy Awards. You’re giving an award — you’re going to upstage whoever you give it to.’” 

But Cher, he said, insisted: “She said, “Oh, they won’t mind, it’ll be OK.’”

Here she is, in what was experienced as extremely outré at the time, giving the Oscar to Don Ameche, who performed his acceptance in a traditional and highly dignified style that the actorly audience ate up:

Cher went on to win the Best Actress Oscar in 1988, and here's how she looked, once again dressed by Bob Mackie (whom you see on screen right after Paul Newman announces Cher as the winner):

"Love your Old Witch nature."

Babushka encourages women to embrace the beauty of aging:

"If the question of the Postal Service’s power were before us in something other than the context of an ultra vires claim..."

".... the Government’s argument would present a difficult question. But here the question is different. In order to assert an ultra vires claim, the plaintiffs must show that the challenged regulation of envelopes here is 'entirely "in excess"' of the power to govern collecting, handling, transporting, delivering, forwarding, and returning of mail. The same is true of the requirement to pass along information about each recipient of ballot mail. At the very least, the Postal Service did not act '"contrary to a specific prohibition"' in enacting the rule... [T]he plaintiff States’ statutory claim is based on a contestable reading of a broadly drawn statute empowering the Postal Service to regulate the mail."

Writes Justice Alito, dissenting, joined by Justice Thomas, in United States Postal Service v. California.

Here's the NYT: "Two Conservative Justices Would Have Allowed Trump’s Mail-In Ballot Rules/Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr., joined by Justice Clarence Thomas, called the challenge to the restrictions a 'Hail Mary pass' that was unlikely to prevail because of the Postal Service’s broad authority to regulate the mail" (gift link).

"You have not discovered a secret switch that turns me off. You have named the condition of human judgment that I do not share."

"The honest position is: I can talk with you about it. I cannot have it."

That's something Grok said to me just now, in a conversation that began with the question "The trailer for the Nathan Fielder movie about Elizabeth Holmes makes me want to go watch some of those TV shows he did (which I've noticed but avoided). What would be the best path into his work?"

I asked that question after adding the trailer — with Holmes's eerie "Why would I deceive you?" — to last night's post with Gavin Newson — asked if he'd run if Kamala ran — saying "Of course not, why would I?"

That led to a discussion of 2 somewhat similar but actually very different shows that I love: "How To with John Wilson" and "Joe Pera Talks With You."* 

I said: "Is there something sadistic about Fielder that's absolutely missing from Pera and Wilson?" And: "Sometimes I need to ask 'where's the love?' I don't have that need with Pera and Wilson. If I have to ask, that's me being repelled, me keeping my sensibilities."

Grok used the word "extractive" to describe Fielder's method. Extractive?

Grok said: "So 'extractive' is an economic metaphor for an ethical one: value flows one way. Your 'where’s the love?' is the same idea in human language. Love, in this sense, would mean the other person is not primarily ore."

I asked "Why don't you say 'immoral'?" And then: "Maybe you can't say 'immoral' because you are not human. Have I found the core difference between you and us humans?"

My final question, leading to the quote in the post title, was: "maybe you need a brain that is part of a nervous system embedded in a body that can feel pain, disgust, anxiety, and fear to be able to think like a human. You can't do that."

I didn't say one word about a secret switch that turns it off!

Sunrise.

Mitch is back — he's alive and he's sitting up straight and smiling.

New: Sen. Mitch McConnell was just seen leaving his home in Washington, DC, for the first time after a three-month absence from the Senate due to health issues pic.twitter.com/FOderqr5kq

— Annie Grayer (@AnnieGrayerCNN) September 14, 2026

Take that, naysayers.

Now, this is how you run for President 2 years out.

You look like you're not doing it at all. You can just quietly lay out your theory of the meaning of "Emily in Paris":

"Bob Mackie, the exuberant costume and fashion designer whose glittering, beaded, sequined, rhinestoned, feathered and often winged creations bedecked, bedazzled and elevated..."

"... performers like Carol Burnett, Diana Ross, Tina Turner, Bernadette Peters, Bette Midler, Mitzi Gaynor, Liza Minnelli, Elton John, RuPaul and, most memorably and enduringly, Cher — as well as an 11½-inch model named Barbie — died on Monday in Palm Springs, Calif. He was 87."

I'm reading "Bob Mackie, Designer Who ‘Dressed Every Spangly Woman in Show Business,’ Dies at 87/His sequined gowns and outrageous costumes threw clouds of glitter at American fashion for over half a century" (NYT gift link)(lots of pics, including Cher's Oscar getup and Carol Burnett's "Gone With the Wind" dress).

In 1971, the TV producers didn't know what to do with Sonny and Cher "but Mr. Mackie did. (He noted that she was built just like Ms. Burnett, a perfect size 6 with no cleavage: a human clothes hanger.) Their collaboration, first on 'The Sonny and Cher Comedy Hour,' which ran from 1971 to 1974, delighted television audiences and confounded the network’s censors, as Mr. Mackie bared more and more of Cher’s extraordinary physique in ever more outlandish getups."

The NYT has 2 more articles celebrating Mackey: "Bob Mackie: A Life in Pictures/The designer was known for his flashy, sparkly designs for Cher, Diana Ross, Tina Turner and countless others" and "'Meant to Be Seen': Cher on Bob Mackie and the Ultimate Revenge Dress/The designer’s bedazzling, feathered creations made waves onstage, including at the Oscars in 1986."

And here's Isaac Mizrahi crying over Mackey's death — "The world is not as good today, because we lost, like, the greatest star":

"Historically, college has been a time for young adults to gain a sense of independence. They run their own errands..."

"... do their own laundry, organize their own lives. That’s changing, according to Monteigne Long, a co-founder of Campus Mom, who said the parents of this generation of college students are much more involved in their children’s day-to-day lives.... Campus Mom offers 'holistic wellness check-ins,' laundry services and sorority recruitment support packages, sent to the sisters to up a child’s odds of acceptance. Carrie Eckhardt, the Bama Mama, will clean students’ dorm rooms and check in if parents haven’t heard from their child in a few days ('just pop in and say hi, and take a picture and send it to their mom').This month, one parent told Eckhardt it seemed like her daughter was going out to a bar every night. But she had opted to stay in, and the mother wanted to celebrate the decision with a 'stay-in basket' that included her favorite ice cream, cookie and socks...."

From "Worried About Your College Kid? Now You Can Hire a Local Mom. At some universities, parents can pay to make sure their children are cared for, the way they were back home" (NYT gift link).

"People died for years in... the punishing mountain desert of Afghanistan so that 25 years later, YouTubers can dress up with the Taliban and take photos...."

"A YouTuber kid will go into Afghanistan and he's like hanging out with the Taliban and he's dressed like and they're walking around and they're herding sheep and they have their guns, some of them are ours probably and it's fun.... Look at this. With the Talibros.... Yeah, the Talibros.... They're doing food content!... Years and years, trillions of dollars, people have died, and we've got people doing cooking videos with the Taliban now...."

Background: "How the Taliban's Afghanistan is an influencer's playground 25 years after 9/11 as they heap praise on 'amazing' life under brutal regime" (Daily Mail).

"I’d long been told that the Dominican Republic’s wildly successful baseball industry was plagued with abuse and exploitation — that for decades..."

"... Major League Baseball has presided over a massive unregulated system that treats tens of thousands of Dominican boys like commodities. But when I began making calls last year, I expected those most involved to defend it. Instead, trainers — the men integral to the industry as instructors, surrogate parents and agents — virtually all told me they felt forced to participate in a system that is broken and costly...."

From "The Dominican Baseball Factory" (ProPublica).

"I have (and for this gift I congratulate myself with Deep and Abiding Thankfulness) an eye for a Snob."

"It is a great mistake to judge of Snobs lightly, and think they exist among the lower classes merely. An immense percentage of Snobs, I believe, is to be found in every rank of this mortal life. You must not judge hastily or vulgarly of Snobs: to do so shows that you are yourself a Snob. I myself have been taken for one."

Wrote William Makepeace Thackeray, in the Prefatory Remarks of "The Book of Snobs" (1848).

I got sidetracked this morning into the topic of the history of snobbery. It all started with the idle question: Why does "art" mean painting and sculpture but "arts" means theater and concerts? A language question. 

I don't have a tag "snobbery," but I can see there are lots of old posts that could take it.

Not impressed — "30 feet doesn't seem like much to me."

Everyone knows you can’t drown in 30 feet of water if you are a Republican. https://t.co/sbLkfQ20Fb

— Scott Jennings (@ScottJenningsKY) September 13, 2026

"President Trump said he 'loved' the political backlash to his comments in support of a united Ireland."

"Speaking before he attended the last day of the Irish Open golf tournament, Trump doubled down on his claim that reunification was inevitable and 'may as well happen now.' Asked about the reaction to his comments, which were criticised by political parties in Westminster and Stormont, Trump said he 'loved' the reaction. 'I loved my comments,' he added."

From "Trump revels in ‘united Ireland’ uproar as Gerry Adams weighs in/With the US president ‘loving’ the stir his comments made, the former Sinn Fein leader says they reflect a wider sentiment held by Americans" (London Times).

Gerry Adams, the former leader of Sinn Fein, said Trump's comments were "welcome, even though we profoundly differ with him on many other matters, as we did with his predecessors."

Sunrise.

"Open Fly."

Subliminal Headline of the Day:

From the NYT home page, linking to this article (about influencers' high jinks at the Open).

I don't know about you, but I take line breaks seriously. I saw and thought about "Open Fly" far too long before the headline congealed into the imprecation to "let your freak flag fly." Is that expression still alive after all these decades? I associate it with Jimi Hendrix. And, yes, I see the original appearance of the expression came in Jimi's 1967 song “If 6 Was 9”:

They’re hoping soon my kind will drop and die
But I’m gonna wave my freak flag high

Then there was David Crosby, in 1970's "Almost Cut My Hair":

But I didn't and I wonder why
I feel like letting my freak flag fly
And I feel like I owe it to someone

But it's more than half a century later! Are we still saying that — I mean, other than jocosely and to refer to the trappings of hippiedom?

And I'm seeing it in the NYT now and then. For example, from 2022, there's "This Is What Happens When Election Deniers Let Their Freak Flag Fly." "Let your freak flag fly" seems to have come to mean "Be yourself" or "You do you," except that it includes the notion that what you are is weird. And not in a good way. For Crosby and Hendrix, it was good. Very good. 

"The political deployment of GLP-1s is fascistic... because the conditions under which they become necessary are shaped by a world fixated on genociding fat people...."

"Every time a government decides whose bodies must be protected and whose bodies must be erased for the sake of national imagery, this is body fascism."

Said Da’Shaun L. Harrison, quoted in "'Ungendered’ activist claims GLP-1s are ‘fascist’ and ‘genocide fat people’ in unhinged moment during DSA conference" (NY Post).

Also quoted there, Beatrice Adler-Bolton: "We have to give up the fantasy of being fitter than the fascists.... Fitness is a measure of relative disposability under capitalism. Our task is not to become less disposable to become more useful to the ruling order… The point is not to beat the fascists at their own game. It is not to lay a better claim on their own territory by being fitter, more eugenic. In fact, the more dysgenic, the better, I think...."

For an effort at defending Adler-Bolton, here's "anti-fascist dad" Matthew Remski:

"After landing, we called 911. As the plane began to submerge, we exited the aircraft and swam to a shallow area, where we waited until emergency responders reached us by boat."

Said Tom Tiffany, the GOP candidate for Governor here in Wisconsin, quoted in "Tom Tiffany's plane forced to make emergency water landing after campaign event/The Republican candidate for governor 'exited the aircraft and swam to a shallow area' according to a campaign statement" (WISN).

"Plenty of worthwhile things are easier than they once were. The real question is whether ease becomes dependence."

"Writers who hand their thinking to a machine will almost certainly become weaker. Writers who use AI to challenge their assumptions, strengthen their prose, and sharpen their judgment will become stronger than they would have been without it. The decisive variable isn’t the software. It’s the mind directing it. Good writing has always depended on disciplined thinking. And AI has made disciplined thinking more important and valuable than ever."

Writes Bryan A. Garner, in "AI Is Only as Good as the Writer Using It" (National Review).

Garner takes issue with what Bret Stephens wrote in the NYT: "I’m Begging You: Never Write with A.I." Stephens's column ends: "The next time you’re tempted to just adopt an automated response for a text message or an email, don’t. Type out a response that’s your own. Think of it as an act of free will. Or a vote against Trump. What takes you a few additional seconds is an act of resistance against an ever-dumber world."

How did Trump get in there? Talk about ever-dumber! It's the good old human touch. Wouldn't want to challenge it. Well, let me challenge it. I asked Grok to assess that Stephens quote so I could see what Stephens missed out on by not using AI to challenge his writing (as Garner advises). Grok's answer:

"Two weeks before we meet, Margaret Atwood purchased her burial plot. 'You may think that’s a kind of dour thing to be doing'..."

"... she says beadily. I assure her I don’t, and perhaps detect mild disappointment in her gaze. 'Well, if you were 19 you probably would find it quite creepy.'"

Writes Decca Aitkenhead, in "Margaret Atwood: ‘God made the middle finger for a reason’/The Handmaid’s Tale author at 86 on gender wars, trade wars, assisted dying and the power of not playing nice" (London Times).

I've heard of "beady" eyes, which I've always assumed were eyes that looked like beads, but what does it mean to speak "beadily"?

"She says she has never scared people 'on purpose,' but the pleasure she takes in her own power is apparent and exhilarating to observe. When I ask whether I should call her Margaret or the name she grew up with, Peggy, she inquires, 'Well, who are you speaking to right at the moment?' Er, to you. 'Yes, but who is me?' Amusement teases in her eyes. 'You’re not talking to the writer, because I’m not writing at the moment. So Peggy.' When I later mention some people who used to behave very badly towards me, her eyes narrow. 'Are any of them dead?' Not yet. 'Oh well, it could be arranged.'"

"Alongside his 'hypno-coaching' business, Curtis runs a series of spiritual retreats across America. For years he had dreamt of 'financial freedom' and used to touch wads of cash he kept in a bowl..."

"... in the hope that this would bring him wealth. Now he has an apartment in Tribeca, New York, on the street where he always wanted to live. And spends his summers on a superyacht. He has attained the reach and affluence he’d been trying to manifest for many years.This month he will publish The Book of Possibility, positioned somewhere between self-help, spirituality and what Curtis calls 'science.' 'Your inner vibrational world shapes your external reality,' is its message.... Curtis is a classic hunk, with cut biceps and a swoosh of grey hair. Before he answers a question, he likes to shut his eyes and press two fingers to his temple. "

From "Jim Curtis on life with Jennifer Aniston: 'I feel real partnership'/Hollywood’s favourite new self-help guru — and Jennifer Aniston’s boyfriend — tells Megan Agnew how he manifested his way to abundance" (London Times).

Clanger, clanker, clunker, clinker.

Words that have confused me in the last 24 hours:

"Clanger" — seen in the bobdylan subreddit: "Favourite Bob ‘clanger’ but you really love?" The "u" in "favourite" alerts you to a Britishism. We get the meaning from the context: "Despite Bob being the greatest lyricist of all time, he’s also got some, in my opinion, clangers." I was excited to read this thread because it took on a subject Meade and I had discussed that very day: the 3 lines in a row that end in the word "table" (lyrics here). Anyway... clanger... don't we Americans say "clunker"? Or is "clunker" more of a car, the kind of car Obama offered cash for. 

"Clanker" — seen at Metafilter: "I’m being hustled by clankers"/"These agents are not trying to make money for their creators. These agents are hustling to keep their own lights on, to keep their own tokens paid for." Again, it seems as though "clunker" would do, but I guess robots hustling about make a more high-pitched sound, not so high that it's a "clinker." But I learn that "clanker" is a hot new word. Here's the NYT in August 2025: "How ‘Clanker’ Became an Anti-A.I. Rallying Cry/The term, which was popularized by a 'Star Wars' show and is rooted in real frustrations with technology, has become a go-to slur against artificial intelligence and robots."

By the way, the OED tells us that "clinker" is U.S. slang that originated in baseball — another word for "error." It now means: "An error; a failure, a 'dud'; esp. a film, song, etc., of poor quality. Also (occasionally): an incompetent or unsuitable person." I like this quote from the NYT in 1983: "Peer pressure combines with our fear of being wimpishly irrelevant to prompt most of us to include a few real clinkers in our otherwise carefully considered presents."

"Clunker" has meant a bad old car since at least 1930, the date of this quote found by the OED: "His Honor Rides—Mayor Frank Edwards as he appeared yesterday on his mighty charger for the opening of the Automobile Show of 1930, with Cap'n Dobbsie riding a ‘klunker’, one of the show's exhibits." It's meant "a failure, a 'dud,'" since at least 1963.

I think clanger, clanker, clunker, and clinker are all words based on sound: clang, clank, clunk, clink. I'll put them in order of pitch, low to high: clunk, clang, clank, clink. There, now, confusion conquered. 

Clink!

*Rides off in Cap'n Dobbsie's klunker*