"This show has become a sort of lighthouse show for people who want to believe that there are people in these hospitals who are dedicated, intelligent, compassionate, doing this kind of angelic work."

Said Noah Wyle, quoted in "'The Pitt' Defied Odds by Going Back to the Future/On Sunday, Emmy voters made a loud statement that there is an appetite for the kind of shows that used to dominate TV" (NYT).

I had never heard of this show, but apparently it's what people want these days. I'd watched "The White Lotus," which had a lot of nominations but won nothing. 

It seems that people are worn out and done with snark and irony. They want to be reassured that there are sincere, competent, hard-working people ready to help. (Note: Everything seems to relate to Charlie Kirk.)

Reminds me of "Hill Street Blues." Or... more on the subject matter: "St. Elsewhere."

"I’m watching your show, and I’m watching your butt sticking out there.... What is going on here? This is crazy."

Arnold Schwarzenegger jokes about seeing his son Patrick naked on screen in ‘THE WHITE LOTUS’:

“I’m watching your show, and I’m watching your butt sticking out there. And all of a sudden, I see the weenie. What is going on here? This is crazy.”

pic.twitter.com/okdNsYx5PE

— Film Updates (@FilmUpdates) June 3, 2025

"But it’s not just the song’s universal applicability that feels important right now. It’s also Dylan’s sneering, taunting tone."

"You could hear that same tone — a kind of sarcastic contempt, directed at an unnamed 'you' — 15 years ago in Lady Gaga’s anthems of alienated love and today in Kendrick Lamar’s diss tracks. ('Your lil’ memes is losin’ steam, they figured you out.') I sense the same spirit, too, behind television shows like 'The White Lotus,' where almost everyone is morally repulsive but no one knows it, or (if they suspect it) has any idea what to do about it...."

Writes Sebastian Smee, in "The uncanny Bob Dylan song that inaugurated an era of dread/Dylan is the Picasso of popular music. His ‘Ballad of a Thin Man’ speaks more powerfully to what it feels like to be alive in 2025 than anything I can think of" (WaP0)(free-access link).

I wasn't going to read this article, because I didn't need The Washington Post to help me understand a song I've been listening to — very attentively — for 60 years.

But then I saw that it was written by Sebastian Smee, so I read it.

"My fellow professors and I are supposed to have nuggets of optimism at the ready, gauzy and gooey encomiums about infinite possibilities, the march of progress and..."

"... that apocryphal arc, the one that bends toward justice. But all I’ve got is the metastasizing pit of fear in my own gut...."

Writes Frank Bruni, in "What Do You Tell a College Student Graduating Into This America?" (NYT).

What's the point of wisdom if it doesn't apply in the bad times? 

Anyway... for the annals of Things I Asked Grok: 1. When did people stop talking about a fear that they have in the "pit of their stomach" and begin to refer to the fear as a "pit in their stomach"? 2. Am I supposed to picture the "pit in the stomach" as something like an apricot pit? 3. Aren't apricot pits poisonous... and are they more or less poisonous than the seeds of the pong-pong fruit, last seen on "White Lotus"?

"Mike White is headed to Colombia. Will #TheWhiteLotus follow him there for Season 4?"

The Howard Stern Show writes on Instagram:

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Howard Stern Show (@sternshow)

 

That had me looking for a 4 Seasons hotel in Colombia, and here it is, the Casa Medina in Bogotá. Would that make a good location from Season 4? I checked out some of the rooms and found this:

"You might as well pay someone to come to your house every day and kick you in the nuts if that's what you're into," says Howard Stern to Mike White.

Mike White — the writer and director of "White Lotus" — talked with Stern for over an hour and revealed — over and over — that he allows the least criticism of the show to overshadow all the praise and success and make him feel terrible! Stern told him — more than once — not to look at the criticism. 

At the end of the hour, White said, "Thanks for the advice and and and I want I want I'm stop I'm just gonna stop get that get off that Google alert for a while."

He keeps a Google alert going to harass himself with whatever potshots people are taking at his show in any given moment!

Stern: "Google alert is is the devil! That's the devil! I used to be on that Google alert... Forget Google! You might as well pay someone to come to your house every day and kick you in the nuts if that's what you're into."

Go to 25:30 in the linked audio of the show if you want to hear White stammer through his anxiety about any criticism. Sample verbiage:

"Vietnam Offers to Drop U.S. Tariffs to Zero. Will That Be Enough for Trump?"

A New York Times headline reports the good news for Trump but the good is not enough for the New York Times. The good news must be balanced with bad news, even if it's just a nudging toward amorphous doubt. You know that Trump. There's always more disruption and chaos coming. 

What will the NYT say if Trump's tariffs have this effect across the board and all countries drop their tariffs? Will the NYT credit Trump for his success — for his audacious, clever move?

I see that yesterday, the NYT had this headline: "Musk Says He Hopes Europe and U.S. Move to a ‘Zero-Tariff Situation’/The billionaire adviser to the Trump administration appeared to part ways with the president in a videoconference appearance with Italy’s far-right League party." I give the Times credit for slipping in that weasel word, "appeared." The 2 men appeared to part ways. And it appears different today. Now that Vietnam has responded to the incentive — oh, look at that! — the 2 men seem to be going the same way.

Well, they looked like that yesterday too, but the NYT needed to continue on its way, making trouble for Trump. There's always bad news inside any good news.

I need a phrase that's the reverse of "Every cloud has a silver lining." Maybe: "Every pong-pong fruit has its deadly poison seeds." I mean, to hell with the agitation in New York Times headlines! Tonight is the finale of Season 3 of "The White Lotus." Those seeds are getting into one of those protein smoothies Patrick Schwarzenegger keeps whipping up, right? 

"A conservative commentator took offense at the statement conservatives 'are really gratified to see a conservative person on television.'"

"The person who made the statement wondered if 'gratified' is now a 'trigger' word. This made me think the commentator might think 'gratified' implies sex."

For the annals of Things I Asked Grok.

I was reading "Meghan McCain Gets Triggered By Carrie Coon After 'White Lotus' Star Said Former 'View' Co-Host Was 'Gratified' For Conservative Character" (Deadline). 

So, McCain is the "conservative commentator."

So is [blank] [blank]'s [blank] or not?

If you watched the new episode of "White Lotus," I invite you to discuss it, with spoilers, in the comments.

We watched as soon as it became available. Waiting for that moment to arrive, we were straining to follow the stammering silhouette, Elon Musk, that paced in front of a screen-filling, lit-up American flag. The flag image was so intense that when I averted my eyes, I hallucinated a flag that looked like this....

ADDED: Here's a look at the stage in Green Bay, Wisconsin, with Musk leaning into the "cheesehead" ethos:

pic.twitter.com/1eaWcy3LfW

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 31, 2025

"Now, it’s easier to become a 'who.' Everyone has at least a thousand hard-core fans. You don’t even have to be that famous to have a dedicated audience."

Said the podcaster Lindsey Weber, quoted in "Who Even Knows What Famous Means These Days? They Do. As viral stars cross into the mainstream, the hosts of the 'Who? Weekly' podcast consider: Is Addison Rae an actual celebrity? Yes. Brittany Broski? Definitely not" (NYT).

The podcast, which started in 2016, is a roundup of developments for notable “whos” — and for teasing out who is a “who.” Recent episodes have weighed the celebrity of the actor Jason Isaacs, who entered the zeitgeist for his awkward commentary on his nudity in “The White Lotus,” and that of the former “America’s Next Top Model” contestant Yaya DaCosta, who addressed modern viewers’ criticism of that reality show. Both are interesting, but nowhere near front-page news....

Fame isn't what it used to be. Fame is a has been. Who's who? Who cares? When I think of a "who," I think of Cindy-Lou Who, and, in that light, and considering present-day fame, here's something I saw on TikTok yesterday:

"You didn't vote for Trump, though. Did you?"

They're talking about this scene — here — on Reddit, where somebody says, "The beauty of this scene is that I imagine it’s relatable for people on both sides of the political spectrum," and somebody else says, "Are right wingers watching White Lotus? I’d be surprised if."

"But it’s time to catch up with a new batch of mopey millionaires who apparently didn’t do any due diligence to confirm..."

"... that the White Lotus is a luxury hotel where they could relax in peace and without any homicides on the premises."

I'm reading "The White Lotus Kill-or-Be-Killed Report: Chattering Monkey Minds" (Vulture)(analyzing, after Episode 1, who might be killing whom, this time around).

The article goes through a number of options. I'll cherry pick one, just because the actor is Patrick Schwarzenegger (as Saxon Ratliff, who went to Duke):

"Between the time that Aiden Judson and his wife, Laura, picked Sicily as their honeymoon destination and their actual trip in early June, something significant happened..."

"... the second season of 'The White Lotus.' The New York couple had imagined a quiet getaway, hiking across the nearby Aeolian Islands and plunging into the crystal turquoise waters of the Tyrrhenian Sea, far from crowded Italian beach destinations like Capri and the Amalfi coast.... 'When we watched the show, we were so excited, like 'wow, that’s going to be us,' and didn’t realize that it would mean everyone and their mom* would be going to Sicily this summer,' said Mr. Judson, 37, who returned from the island earlier this month. 'It was still stunning and we had some special moments, but it was crazy busy with loud and sweaty tourists packed into narrow streets. It made it difficult to feel the Italian charm.'"

From "Going to Europe This Summer? You’re Not Alone. After three years of pandemic restrictions, travelers are flocking to Europe in record numbers, despite high airfares, limited accommodations and crowded sites. Here’s what you might encounter" (NYT).

What a cool art project: A realistic-looking action-figure set of The DiGrasso Men from "The White Lotus."

At Reddit, someone asks "What's your method here? Kit bashing other toys or are you like molding yourself? Either way this is such cool art!" 

The artist answers "They're 3d sculpts that I do in Blender and then 3d print and paint. The heads are entirely my own designs and then the bodies are usually scans of existing toys that I alter(I like to call that digital kitbashing haha)." 

The execution is great, and I love the idea that there would be action figures of the characters from "The White Lotus," though the comedy of unusual choices for action figures has been around for decades.

By the way, I am such a "White Lotus" fan that I not only rewatched both seasons and watched both seasons of Mike White's earlier show "Enlightened," I rewatched the season of "Survivor" where he was a contestant, and I've started reading books I see recommended in "Mike White's Top 10 Books." I chose the book that someone I know in real life has leaned on me to read. Him, I resisted. But somehow Mike White wants me to read it, and I believe. 

What is the book Albie is reading 20 minutes into "In the Sandbox," Episode 4 of Season 2 of "The White Lotus"?

This is a key moment in the story, so I especially wanted to know what book it is...

... but I'm generally very interested in what books characters are reading in all episodes of both seasons of "The White Lotus." There's so much reading in these things, often "performative reading." The characters are on vacation, usually reading out in the sun by the pool. The writer/director, Mike White, is clearly big on reading. 

We see the back cover of Albie's book, and it's partly covered up, but I figured out that it said "Or, What Is the Power of Shit?," which is the second part of the title of "The Architecture of Closed Worlds: Or, What Is the Power of Shit?"

"I just feel like there must’ve been a time when the world had more, you know? Like mystery or something."

"And now you come somewhere like this, and it’s beautiful, and you take a picture, and then you realize that everybody’s taking that exact same picture from that exact same spot and you’ve just made some redundant content for stupid Instagram."

Said my favorite "White Lotus/Season 2" character, Portia, quoted in "How to Redeem Social Media in One Easy Step" by Margaret Renkl (NYT). 

Renkl bemoans the bane of social-media-driven photography:

My son and daughter-in-law, who are frequent campers, have seen people queued up at least 50 deep to take phone selfies at popular national park waterfalls and rock formations.... 

"Sam Smith has expressed their disappointment that women have been snubbed from the gender-neutral category at the BRITs this year."

"No women are nominated for Artist of the Year at next month's ceremony, which has sparked fury among music fans. The BRITs changed their format last year to remove the gendered awards, which Adele issued a jibe at as she picked up its first ever non-gendered gong. While Sam welcomed the axing of the gendered awards - which came some years after they came out as non-binary - the Gloria hitmaker has branded the lack of female talent celebrated in the category 'frustrating.'"

The Mirror reports.

If Adele won last year, what's the problem? Why should music be divided into male and female?

Here's Sam Smith singing "Gloria" on "Saturday Night Live" 2 days ago: 

 

Somehow, somebody decided they needed a woman's body sprawled out in the foreground while Smith sang, and somehow that body ended up being Sharon Stone.

The hell? What's progressive? It's totally retrograde.

"And then there were this people who were sort of giving me these cute little jobs..."

Jennifer Coolidge delivers an epic #GoldenGlobes acceptance speech that makes #TheWhiteLotus creator Mike White cry. https://t.co/m069JEKekW pic.twitter.com/WBWx9H6BCj

— Variety (@Variety) January 11, 2023

AND:

We binge-watched 2 seasons of "White Lotus" in 2 weeks.

Discuss!