Festivities of whiteness.

Diddy White Party pic.twitter.com/pXfsutl3Jl

— Donna Marie (@sabback) March 22, 2025

Contemplating the meaning of whiteness, I reread Chapter 42 of "Moby Dick," "The Whiteness of the Whale." Help me answer the question as asked by Herman Melville: Why does whiteness symbolize "spiritual things" and also work as an "intensifying agent in things the most appalling to mankind"?

Is it that by its indefiniteness it shadows forth the heartless voids and immensities of the universe, and thus stabs us from behind with the thought of annihilation, when beholding the white depths of the milky way? Or is it, that as in essence whiteness is not so much a colour as the visible absence of colour; and at the same time the concrete of all colours; is it for these reasons that there is such a dumb blankness, full of meaning, in a wide landscape of snows—a colourless, all-colour of atheism from which we shrink? 

"Can you do me a favor? Can you stop scattering your dearly departed’s ashes all over my favorite golf course?"

"I want to play Pebble Beach, not your grandpa. For that matter, stop dumping your meemaw’s sandy 'cremains' on Disneyland rides. Last year, somebody on Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance pulled the stunt, forcing the ride’s shutdown for cleaning. What are parents in the next car supposed to tell the kids when a cloud of human ash hits them in the face? Luke, that is not your father...."

From "Please. Stop. Spreading. Human. Ash. In. Public. With a huge rise in cremation rates, a sentimental ritual is turning into a gritty scourge" (WaPo)(free-access link, because it's full of amusing/horrible details).

Can we also stop saying "cremains"? I see the author put the term in scare quotes and the word "ash" is in the headline. I object to "cremains." The word, according to the OED, only dates back to 1950, and it seems to have been concocted like the name of a snack food. For example, Funyuns = fun + onions. Wouldn't it be more respectful to say "ashes"? Or do we think that "ashes" suggests the soft silky material left after a wood fire and thus has a whiff of false advertising?

10 things I've asked Grok in the last 2 or 3 days.

1. Is it honest for me to say: I have no idea whether Trump has any idea whether Mitch McConnell had polio?

2. What poet had a beard, round glasses and wore a "poet’s hat"?

3. What is the origin of the phrase "take up the mantle"?

4. What have smart people had to say about the tendency to see images in words, including things that are not really relevant to the etymology of the word? For example, one might imagine that "ostracize" is connected to "ostrich" or "marginalize" relates to "margarine."

5. What is the argument that the crows in "Dumbo" are not a racist stereotype?

6. Does RFK Jr. speak of himself in terms of "Camelot"?

7. What is that famous saying about remaining silent because I was not X, Y, etc.?

8. Why do some people say you shouldn't use "impact" as a verb?

9. What is the episode of "Leave it to Beaver" where June and Ward Cleaver are turning over a mattress and Ward asks if it's mattress-turning day?

10. What if you had to argue that "The fog comes /on little cat feet" is actually very depressing and pessimistic?

"After mostly avoiding interviews as her campaign began, the vice president will hold several this week, including with Howard Stern, Stephen Colbert and the hosts of 'The View.'"

A funny subheadline at the NYT — funny because if she's just going on Howard Stern, Stephen Colbert and "The View," Harris is still avoiding interviews. That those are the 3 interviews the NYT names makes it obvious.

The headline is "Harris Will Appear in a Whirlwind of Interviews, Most of Them Friendly."

Most of them? Who's the unfriendly interviewer she dares to face? I am really appalled by the timidity. She needs to prove she's strong and can stand up for us. 

I noticed that article because I went looking for Kamala Harris articles on the front page of the New York Times. You'd think she'd make more news!

There's also this Susan Faludi thing at the top of the right hand column, sitting atop a musing about celibacy:

So let's stare slack-jawed and cross-eyed at a rose. Mmmm. America's protector, eh?

Yeah, that kind of was my question about Kamala Harris when I saw that she dared to speak to Howard Stern, Stephen Colbert and the hosts of "The View."

So let's see if Susan Faludi makes the case for KH as a protector. Much of that column is generic: Women have not, traditionally, been regarded as the protector. Some of it is an attack on Trump. Let's skip to something specific about Harris:

The Biden campaign is a disaster and this is what The New York Times dredges up?

I'm reading "A Hollywood Heavyweight Is Biden’s Secret Weapon Against Trump/The longtime movie mogul Jeffrey Katzenberg always sought scary villains for his films. Now he has found what he considers a real-life one in Donald J. Trump."

Trim and wiry, intense but amiable, Mr. Katzenberg at age 73 still exudes a kind of ambitious, animal energy as if he were one of his movie protagonists. He is famous around Hollywood, and now Washington, for rising at 5 a.m. and riding an exercise bicycle for 90 minutes while simultaneously reading four newspapers before taking as many as three breakfast meetings — and waffles or eggs-and-extra-crispy-bacon breakfasts, not the leafy California kind. “The guy eats like a horse and he doesn’t gain any weight,” his close friend Casey Wasserman, the sports, music and entertainment mogul, groused good-naturedly.

Are Biden supporters in such deep delusion that they would take comfort from this "secret weapon"? This inane filler says: Time to panic! 

Katzenberg once ran Disney, so...

"It's a world of hopes and a world of fears...."

Terrifying, but take a moment to mourn for Richard Sherman — "Richard Sherman, Songwriter of Many Spoonfuls of Sugar, Dies at 95/He and his brother, Robert, teamed up to write the songs for 'Mary Poppins' and other Disney classics. They also gave the world 'It’s a Small World (After All)'" (NYT).

Sherman and his brother wrote "A Spoonful of Sugar," "Supercalifragilistic-expialidocious," "Chim Chim Cher-ee," “Fundamental-Friend-Dependability," "Tall Paul,"  "Let’s Get Together," and the songs from "Charlotte's Web," "The Jungle Book," "The Aristocats," and "Bedknobs and Broomsticks."

The brothers also wrote the great rockabilly song that's considered sexually wrong today:

What is the word in the 1964 movie "Mary Poppins" that has caused the British Board of Film Classification to change the rating to "Parental Guidance”?

I'm reading "‘Mary Poppins’ gets higher age rating as U.K. reckons with racism in classics" (WaPo).

Elon Musk makes a big move to fund anti-DEI litigation against Disney, ABC, ESPN, and Marvel.

If you were discriminated against by Disney or its subsidiaries (ABC, ESPN, Marvel, etc), just reply to this post to receive legal support https://t.co/PDqCgJKAY5

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 6, 2024

"South Park" lands a shot at Disney.

That's just a clip, 2-and-a-half minutes... and the way to watch the whole thing now is to subscribe to Paramount.

True love.

Disney is just determined to lose money. Rachel Zegler and Gal Gadot don't get it. Girls and grown women dream of true love. It's not old-fashioned. It's not even exclusive to women. Men dream of having a good wife as well. Don't stand on the shoulders of giants and then take a… pic.twitter.com/GI3M6yQxvf

— Black Tea News (@TrueBlackTea) August 1, 2023

"Ideally, we want guests to get excited, but this is one of the first times I've seen a guest get visibly excited."

"They love to look [these characters] in the eye. They love to be able to make a connection.... I see that sort of excitement in everybody's eyes."

Excitement and connection... as the character who is a tree come to life comes to "life" as a robot.

"Nate Silver Out at ABC News... ABC News is expected to retain the FiveThirtyEight brand, with plans to streamline the data-driven site."

 Hollywood Reporter reports.

Silver founded FiveThirtyEight in 2008, eventually bringing it to The New York Times. Silver would go on to sell the site to Disney’s ESPN; it later was moved to the ABC News division. His departure will be the first time that Silver has not been involved in the site since it launched 15 years ago....

A lot of people getting fired these days.... 

What's on the Disney Channel?

Oh. pic.twitter.com/Om8TZJuOxg

— Christopher F. Rufo ⚔️ (@realchrisrufo) February 10, 2023

Here's the Rotten Tomatoes page. From the critics reviews:

"Some fans tried to mount a 'Save Splash Mountain' campaign, even urging opponents of the switch to enlist the help of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R)."

"Others acknowledged they would miss a classic but were looking forward to a new chapter for the ride. Still others argued that it was past time for the original to go, given its source material."

From "Splash Mountain has closed.... The controversial flume ride at Magic Kingdom in Florida took its last plunge Sunday" (WaPo).

Splash Mountain was based on "Song of the South," the "1946 film set in post-Civil War Georgia that has been under fire since its release" and that Disney CEO Bob Iger has said is "just not appropriate in today’s world." Is he right? Who can say? Who has seen this movie? 

I've only ever seen the "Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah" sequence. 

"For a home lacking interior walls, at least structural ones, the dome feels surprisingly cozy; where the plaster-finished gypsum room dividers don’t extend all the way..."

"... to the curved ceiling, panes of soundproof glass have been added for privacy. From the kitchen, the heart of the structure, a hallway leads past a space-themed arcade game into a bright living room with cork flooring. Another hall, lined with a fully stocked candy bar, leads to a self-contained screening room accessible through a folding garage-type door. There are two guest bedrooms — both with a view of 'Toxic Mickey' (2017), a bronze fountain sculpture by the American artist Bill Barminski that depicts a man chest-deep in a punctured oil drum, wearing a gas mask in the shape of Walt Disney’s beloved mouse."

From "In Malibu, an Inflatable Bungalow for Robert Downey Jr./The actor’s thin-shell home is at once an aerodynamic oddity and, perhaps, a harbinger of environmentally conscious architecture" (NYT).

If you should be so lucky as to receive an overnight invitation from Mr. Downey and his lovely wife, you'll have a beautiful room with a view of this:

A few TikToks for you this evening, but first...

 I need to show you this from Twitter, another example, like last night's #5 TikTok, of the irascible King:

We’ve all had pen rage. https://t.co/Jt56Ft3XkL

— Piers Morgan (@piersmorgan) September 13, 2022

All right then. Now here are 4 new TikToks:

1. Quick judgments on architects.

2. Approving of Wisconsin (even though some of it is in Illinois).

3. Why you should eat at the Chinese restaurant that has the 3.5-star rating.

4. Little girls react to Disney's black Little Mermaid.

That's all for now!

"Disney has never endorsed Gay Days... Nor has it tried to rein it in. There isn’t much the company could do anyway."

"For red shirt days, attendees buy tickets like anyone else. The planning is handled by private companies like One Magical Weekend, Gay Days Inc., and the lesbian-focused Girls in Wonderland.... Would the anti-L.G.B.T.Q. vitriol that has surrounded Disney in recent months spill over to Gay Days?...  On Saturday morning... Gay Days participants streamed into Disney World. Many of them wore red shirts with the words 'SAY GAY' on the back....  [Disney's] Parks & Resorts division celebrates Pride month with a barrage of rainbow merchandise in its shops, including a button featuring Mickey Mouse and a rainbow along with the slogan 'Belong, Believe, Be Proud.' There were also rainbow-themed desserts... [and] Pride-themed photo backdrops.... There were no protesters. There were no cautionary signs. The only tension I saw came from a gay man who was cranky that a Disney manager had told him that his shirt could be viewed as inappropriate. It featured Pluto in leather gear and the phrase 'I like it wruff.'"

From "After a Political Storm, Gay Days Return to Disney/An L.G.B.T.Q. tradition at Disney World took on new significance this year, when Disney was ensnared in a heated cultural debate" (NYT).

"Why would anyone assume they could get onstage at Disney for their own personal reasons? The article makes it sound so sad, their dreams were dashed."

"But... if my dream were to propose in front of a Broadway crowd, I should just get a new dream (and certainly wouldn't expect apologies and free tickets!)" 

That's the top-rated comment at "Disney Apologizes After Employee Thwarts Marriage Proposal/A man had been planning for months to pop the question at Disneyland Paris, but the employee instead snatched the ring and ushered the couple off a stage" (NYT). 

The heads of Drudge have got me wondering — which one is the real boy?

Note the headless angel, the creepy succession of men, and — topping it all off — the little puppet boy. Beyond heads — hands: I like the mirrored hand gestures, the angel and Joe Biden and then Tom Cotton and Pinocchio. All the human entities frown. We can't know the expression on the angel statues head and Pinocchio is slack-jawed and woozy. 

Anyway, what's up with Disney sending the live-action remake of "Pinocchio" straight to video? It was directed by Robert Zemeckis and stars Tom Hanks. That's conspicuously intended to be huge. It must stink like a bad cigar.

ADDED: I see that there is a second live-action version of Pinocchio coming out this year.

"Nordic larpers... 'are emotional junkies.... Most of us larp because we can feel it and smell it with our bodies.' 'Nordic larps—they’re not for everybody'...."

"Some of them 'can be intense experiences, and that is probably not what we want to offer to our mainstream audience.'"

That's just an isolated snippet from "LARPing Goes to Disney World/On a 'Star Wars' spaceship, the company has taken live-action role-play to a lavish extreme. Guests spend days eating, scheming, and assembling lightsabres in character" by Neima Jahromi (The New Yorker).

LARP = live-action role play. 

We're told that in the "Nordic larp scene," they prefer "games with deep emotional involvement and few rules." Nordic designers of LARPs were inspired by Dungeons & Dragons, but they rejected the idea of using actuarial tables to determine who wins and loses a fight. That "didn’t really fit the culture here.... Nordics are way more collaborative than adversarial." 

I'm not at all familiar with Dungeons & Dragons, but it was funny to read that it's based on insurance underwriting. 

Anyway, the article is mostly about a big Disney/"Star Wars" production. I had trouble understanding this. My point of reference was a Renaissance Faire, not that I'd ever attended one, but I've seen that phenomenon discussed and mocked for decades, most recently in episode 5 of "Love on the Spectrum U.S." Isn't this LARPing like going to a Renaissance Faire?

I've been on immersive Disney World rides like "Pirates of the Caribbean," where they load you into a fake boat and pull you though various scenes, but you're still a passive member of an audience. I did that only in the context of amusing my children. I can't imagine wanting further immersion with the pressure of being part of the show. But I will put some effort into trying to understand what other people are finding rewarding. 

And does this mean I'm a standoffish observer in life, missing out on the fun? I'm standoffish about manufactured things that you're supposed to get caught up in. If there's one thing that makes me feel like a separate individual, it's being in the midst of people who are having an emotional group transformation.