Have you noticed the talking-to-strangers trend?

People are adopting a deliberate practice of making themselves talk to strangers.

I suspected as much — I noticed a pattern of 2 or 3 incidences — and asked AI to find me some writings on the subject. There are these, all from this year:

Celebrities in distress.

Ed Sheeran, "shattered" and "in tears" as he sat cross-legged onstage at Lincoln Financial Field.

Carrot Top, perhaps extorted over a sex tape and perhaps having attempted suicide.

Presley Gerber, son of Cindy Crawford, dead at 27. The ideally handsome model died at a rehab facility. 

"We hold [these events] aloft as crystalline emblems of how this carnival government of men advances the professional interests of men, at the expense of all who are not men."

Crystalline emblems, eh?

I'm trying to read "The Thomas and Kavanaugh Hearings Restaged as a Theatre of Fact
'The Ford/Hill Project,' a documentary play, may capture recent events, but it’s a product of the present: activist theatre in a moment when the idea of civic urgency is losing purchase," by Doreen St. Félix, in The New Yorker. (Felix covered the Kavanaugh hearings for The New Yorker.)

"Hamilton’s Kavanaugh delivers his denial in bleats of indignation, and Bougere’s Thomas is rigid, stentorian, as he categorically rejects Hill’s claims. Because the stage is so empty, rid of the bureaucratic veneer of the so-called system, we start thinking about the state as an invisible force, everywhere and nowhere...."

I wondered if anyone had ever, before this, called anything a "crystalline emblem," and discovered the sad little world of car logos bedazzled with crystals. Like this.

"Crystalline emblem" could also be some magical object floating somewhere in a video game. As in "the naaru-like crystalline emblems on the spaulders are pretty cool."

But I get how it comes up in writing about art. "Crystalline" is one of those words like "luminous" that belong on a list of words never to use again to describe writing.  

"This morning, we notified the government that we are filing a lawsuit today to protect our First Amendment rights and defend the principle that the government does not decide what the press reports or publishes."

Say CNN, MS NOW, Politico, quoted in "CNN, MS NOW, Politico to sue White House over blocked access" (Axios).

Trump response, at Truth Social: "The White House is not instituting an assault on the Free Press, something which I cherish. It is instituting an assault on the FAKE NEWS, something that has grown like Cancer in our beloved United States of America. It is corrupt, purposeful, pervasive, fully coordinated, and totally out of control. It is a threat to our National Security, and must be stopped, NOW!"

Did you watch Ross Douthat interview Patrick Clancy on "60 Minutes"?

I did. It was terrible. What is the point of bringing on Ross Douthat to invite the father to speak of cuddling a baby as it died and seeing a dead toddler in his dreams and receiving assistance from his new wife in bearing the burden of grief? I thought Douthat was an intellectual, devoted to analyzing morality.

Patrick Clancy talks about the final days with his 8-month-old son, Callan.

“I really thought there was a chance that Callan would live,” he tells 60 Minutes. “And remember just thinking, ‘Just gimme one. Just gimme one kid,’ and I would raise him as best I could, and I would… pic.twitter.com/5HMfnujj1d

— 60 Minutes (@60Minutes) September 20, 2026

ALSO: Even though I pay for YouTubeTV, I had to watch many commercials, including the thumping, ominous trailer for the movie "Primetime," which is about rescuing children from sexual predators. I had to watch that awful mess before the interview, in the middle of the interview, and at the end of the interview. Who wanted that ad placement and why did CBS allow it? And what does Ross Douthat, traditional moralist, think of it?

At the Sunrise Café...

... you can talk all night.

"Children in foster care sometimes live in group homes if they haven’t found placement with a family."

"When they are placed with a family, they usually move to where that family already lives. Together California upends that model by having both the parents and their foster children (and up to two children those parents already have) move together into the village, where they will be joined by 11 other foster families. One of the parents in each family will devote themselves fully to managing the household and will be compensated for that work by the nonprofit.... [T]he townhouses... are spacious enough to accommodate large sibling groups, who are often separated by the foster care system...."

From "Christian Bale Built a Foster Care Village in the California Desert/The actor has been working for almost two decades to build a foster care nonprofit outside Los Angeles" (NYT gift link).

"Mr. Bale revealed that his sister was briefly in foster care when they were children but discounted that as his motivation. 'I usually don’t say that because I think that it shouldn’t require any experience of that to care about little human beings,' he said."

"I think a lot of men view reading fiction as a frivolous waste of time. We’ve been conditioned to ignore the benefits of empathy."

"I think it’s a marketing problem. Reading should be sold to men like lifting weights for your brain. But it’s not just men. People who are happily staring at their phone all day don’t want to pick up a book. Their attention spans are fried."

From "Anthony Jeselnik: Men Should Think of Reading as 'Lifting Weights for Your Brain'/But the comedian isn’t naïve when he makes selections for his popular book club: 'Most importantly, they’re short'" (NYT gift link).

Asked "What’s a supposedly funny book that you just don’t find funny?," Jeselnik answers, "I have zero tolerance for David Sedaris." 

I wonder what David Sedaris would say about the notion that "Reading should be sold to men like lifting weights for your brain."

"A 19-year-old man died on Friday in a lightning storm while huddled with nine other people inside a metal structure atop a mountain in Utah...."

"The shack, a well-known spot atop the peak, was built out of steel in 1927 as a lookout house.... Mount Timpanogos... is more than 11,740 feet tall.... Hikers climb on an exposed ridge line to reach the peak... leaving them few places to take shelter until a storm passes.... People should...  refrain from touching materials that can conduct electricity, such as metal, utility lines, water and plumbing... Small, exposed structures cannot protect a person from lightning...."

The NYT reports.

The rescue opossum just can't stop playing possum.

"I want to be a real monk"/"But you are a real monk."

"A real monk doesn't have ADHD."

"On Saturday, Mr. Trump proposed a follow-on to Space Force: a new 'A.I. Force.'"

"But he left to earthbound speculation what, exactly, it was supposed to do. Mr. Trump cast his announcement — along with his promise to appoint a new A.I. 'Czar' for the White House — as an effort to boost the A.I. industry, saying 'we will cherish it, help it, and watch over it.' In the roiling debate in Washington over regulating frontier A.I. models and the companies that produce them, or slowing down development until the mystery is solved about the summer in which A.I. agents went rogue, Mr. Trump continues to side with the 'accelerationists,' who call for the government to stay out of the way.... Mr. Trump did not make clear whether he envisioned the new A.I. Force as a military command or a civilian agency or department."

From "A.I. Gone Rogue? Trump Proposes Not New Rules but an ‘A.I. Force.’/The president proposed a follow-up to his Space Force but continued to dismiss worries about A.I.’s pace or potential for harm" (NYT gift link).

Appointing a so-called "czar" is an old presidential trick, but which President started it?

It's never been an official title (of course!) but it was Woodrow Wilson, during WWI, who had the first "czars" — an "industry czar" and a "railroad czar."

"I am an original Yippie. A Yippie is a politicized hippie, a protester who has been hit over the head by a cop — and woke up."

Wrote Judy Gumbo, autobiographically, in "Yippie Girl: Exploits in Protest and Defeating the FBI."

Quoted in "Judy Gumbo, Who Found Freedom as a Yippie, Dies at 83/She was part of the leftist radical group, which mocked institutional authority with political satire and street theater" (NYT gift link).

I don't remember ever hearing of her, but it says: "Ms. Gumbo was not as well known as Abbie Hoffman and Jerry Rubin, two of the party’s founders, but she was 'an integral Yippie,' Nancy Kurshan, a Yippie who was Mr. Rubin’s partner for a while, said in an interview."

She's named in this little NYT squib from 1970:

"We’ve shown for the first time that the front of the brain arises from a totally different progenitor cell than the back of the brain."

"Our discovery means that we can now grow neurons from the back of the brain, the hindbrain, in a petri dish and study their functions."

Said professor of developmental biology Kyle Loh, quoted in "Brain made up of two distinct organs evolving independently/Scientists have discovered the brain is made of separate systems, solving a longstanding riddle and aiding research into conditions like motor neurone disease" (London Times).

It's so convenient I feel skeptical. What wouldn't be ethical becomes ethical. 

"Unlike my other callers, who were stunned, barely able to articulate their condolences and offers of help, he sounded giddily elated — like a lottery winner, I remember thinking at the time."

Writes Earl Spencer, now, about what he says he thought 30 years ago, quoted in "10 key claims in Earl Spencer’s Princess Diana book/Allegations by the princess’s brother provoked an unprecedented response from Buckingham Palace. These further revelations are likely to add fuel to the fire" (London Times).

The Palace rouses itself to call Spencer a liar. I'm paraphrasing. I admire the elaborate prose: "While we do not comment on books as a matter of principle, His Majesty is mindful that the pain of fraternal grief can cloud reason, affect judgment and colour memory in ways others do not recognise, even many years after such a loss."

"Ending her career in the movies at the age of 39, she fled the paparazzi who had hounded her and the male admirers who had so often let her down..."

"The day-to-day items which surrounded her during these decades, and which form the core of the sale on September 21, are a testimony to her rejection of the star system she had come to abhor. Many are remarkable in their ordinariness — a wooden desk worth no more than €50, a straw hat valued at between €20 and €40, a lot of five night gowns priced between €100 and €150.... The items on display in the auction room attracted a constant flow of visitors last week. Among them was Yoann Guer, 25, who works in the theatre world. He conceded that many of the objects were 'common' but added that he might bid for something anyway because they 'have a little bit of Brigitte Bardot’s soul in them.' Guer described her as a symbol of 'freedom, including the freedom not to do what you do not want to do.'"

I'm reading "Bric-a-brac tells story of Brigitte Bardot’s humble life/The late star’s belongings will go on sale next week in Paris and the ordinary possessions are testimony to her rejection of the system she had come to abhor" (London Times).

"Conceded" is the wrong word.

I see: "Brigitte Bardot widower slams sale of star's belongings": "The sale, featuring more than 300 items ranging from portraits and toiletries to a flamenco guitar and a black tutu, is due to take place Monday at Paris auction house Drouot. 'These are personal items. Why hold this sale? For the animals? It's a joke,' Bernard d'Ormale told AFP, adding it amounted to a 'disrespect to Brigitte's memory.'... The Brigitte Bardot Foundation rejected the criticism, saying the auction was approved by the board in June, including Bardot's widower, who was then its president."

"What would Brigitte Bardot have done?"