Famous.

I'm reading "Conan O'Brien Party Guests Recall Nick Reiners 'Creepy' Questions Hours Before Parents Slain" (Enstarz):

Guests at a holiday gathering hosted by Conan O'Brien said they were unnerved when Nick Reiner repeatedly asked strangers "creepy" questions hours before his parents, Rob and Michele Singer Reiner, were found slain in their Brentwood home, police and prosecutors said. According to RadarOnline, attendees described the questions — "What's your name? What's your last name? Are you famous?" — as abrupt and repetitive, delivered without context and continuing even after people tried to disengage.... 'It didn't come across as simple curiosity — it felt driven and repetitive,' one guest said. 'You could see people growing uneasy.' Hosts later asked him to leave, according to two attendees....

Hours later, Nick Reiner made himself famous. The murder he committed is a famous murder. It is now the most famous thing about his long-famous father. 

It shouldn't be possible to become famous through murder, but it very clearly is.

I just unsubscribed from Netflix — because we weren't watching it — but now....

This is the story of President James Garfield and his greatest admirer Charles Guiteau, the man who would come to kill him.

Michael Shannon, Matthew Macfadyen, Nick Offerman, Betty Gilpin, Bradley Whitford and Shea Whigham star in Death By Lightning. Premiering November 6. pic.twitter.com/OGWlgbziaM

— Netflix (@netflix) October 9, 2025

It's titled "Death by Lightning," but it's based on a book titled "Destiny of the Republic: A Tale of Madness, Medicine and the Murder of a President" (commission earned). I've read that. By Candice Millard. Great! Nice to see Matthew Macfadyen — Tom Wambsgans from "Succession" — as the ridiculous, awful Charles Guiteau.

I'll turn Netflix back on for that. I originally subscribed to Netflix for one show — "The Crown." That's all it takes to rope me into a subscription. And I would not have unsubscribed if they hadn't dropped "Loudermilk."

"That Should Be a Movie — 'The River of Doubt.'"

It should be a movie, but if it were, how could it be better than the book?

Here, read the book "The River of Doubt/Theodore Roosevelt's Darkest Journey." I did. 

Excerpt:

That night, while the camaradas lay wound up in their cocoonlike hammocks under dripping palm leaves and a black sky, the officers took turns watching over Roosevelt in their tiny, thin-walled tent. As his temperature once again began to rise sharply, Roosevelt fell into a trancelike state, and he began to recite over and over the opening lines to Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s rhythmic poem “Kubla Khan”: “In Xanadu did Kubla Khan a stately pleasure-dome decree. In Xanadu did Kubla Khan a stately pleasure-dome decree. In Xanadu . . .”

"[T]raveling from town to town and asking for votes was considered undignified for a presidential candidate."

"Abraham Lincoln had not given a single speech on his own behalf during either of his campaigns, and Rutherford B. Hayes advised [James A.] Garfield to do the same. 'Sit crosslegged,' he said, 'and look wise.' Happily left to his own devices, Garfield poured his time and energy into his farm. He worked in the fields, planting, hoeing, and harvesting crops, and swung a scythe with the confidence and steady hand he had developed as a boy. In July, he oversaw the threshing of his oats. 'Result 475 bushels,' he noted. 'No[t] so good a yield as last year.'"

I'm reading "Destiny of the Republic: A Tale of Madness, Medicine and the Murder of a President" by Candice Millard. (Commission earned if you use that link.)

Sit crosslegged and look wise.