"But Ladies’ Man: The Careless Heart of John F Kennedy is far more interesting than its tacky title suggests."

"(Sloppy subtitle too: Kennedy’s heart was not exactly the organ he was putting about back then.) Leamer has become known for telling the stories of the people around a famous person: Capote’s Women, Hitchcock’s Blondes, Warhol’s Muses — you get the picture. He goes through the stories of some of Kennedy’s mistresses here and includes first-hand interviews with the few still surviving, such as the posh Radcliffe student Diana de Vegh, whom Kennedy eventually installed as a researcher in the White House so he could have quickies with her in the Lincoln Bedroom. 'It was chit and chat and then some sex and then go home,' de Vegh tells Leamer, making Kennedy’s seduction methods sound on a par with a teenage boy’s...."

From "Why did JFK risk everything for casual sex?/In Ladies’ Man, Laurence Leamer asks what drove President Kennedy to conduct affairs with everyone from his secretary to an alleged Nazi spy" (London Times). 

"Leamer’s main argument is that Kennedy’s compulsive sex life was driven by his poor health.... He also had repeated painful STDs due to his refusal to wear condoms.... If I had to pick Kennedy’s lowest point in this book

"Indeed, there’s an active scientific debate over whether newborns possess consciousness."

"Resolving it could help solve one of science’s most stubborn mysteries: what consciousness is, how it emerges and how we can know if another being possesses it.... Amid all the uncertainty, there’s one fact that everyone can agree on. In each of our lives, there was a time when our brains were still too rudimentary to support consciousness, and there was a time when that changed. Even if we can’t say when babies gain consciousness, Dr. Austin said, “one thing we can be certain of is that they will become conscious.”

From "Are Babies Conscious?" (NYT).

From the comments over there: "My first memory is waking up in my crib when I was 3 years old. I recognized everything around me and it all felt familiar but I had no specific memory of anything. In reflecting upon this as I grew older I felt like this was the moment I became conscious."

Also there's this quote from Charles Darwin: "There is no trace of consciousness in very young children."

"Netherlands Confirms First Child Euthanized Under New Law Was 1 Year Old."

Headline at People Magazine. Subheadline: "The child was euthanized due to severe illness and suffering, making it the first case under a 2024 law allowing euthanasia for terminally ill children under 12."

In 2024, the law was extended to allow children under the age of 12 to be euthanized if the child is “terminally ill and is suffering unbearably with no prospect of improvement.” In these cases, the doctor and parents can decide together to end the child’s life. “This decision is always made in consultation with the parents and, if possible, also with the child,” the government website states.

The Brewers hit 100 wins last night, but it would all have been shrouded in darkness...

... if this ball had hit the baby:

This dad made a wild barehanded snag with his baby in his arms 😮 pic.twitter.com/Txy0rnUSv7

— MLB (@MLB) September 25, 2026

That was, per Grok, the top of the 3rd inning during the Brewers-Phillies game at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia last night — a foul ball hit by Brewers first baseman Jake Bauers.

And don't talk about the Packers:

This Packers fan is going through it 😭

(📺 Prime) pic.twitter.com/TSRPaCkTT6

— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) September 25, 2026

"The case drew national attention when a surrogate from Alaska refused to have an abortion after the fetus she was carrying was diagnosed with a serious heart problem."

"She eventually traveled to Texas and gave birth to the child over the initial objections of the parents, a couple from California.... On Tuesday, Justice Kagan, who oversees emergency filings from California, denied the surrogate’s request to block the lower-court ruling in the couple’s favor. She acted on her own without referring the matter to her Supreme Court colleagues. The justice’s order did not include an explanation, as is often the case when the court responds to such filings...."

From "Supreme Court Order Gives Parents Custody of Baby in Surrogacy Fight/A surrogate refused to have an abortion after the fetus was diagnosed with a serious heart problem. She asked the justices to block a court order giving custody to the biological parents" (NYT gift link).

Here's the emergency filing. The proceedings below are all in state courts, and much of the argument is about jurisdiction, but that's interwoven with the merits of the case — who gets the baby:

"Women in rural Devon are being coached on how to give birth in the back of a car after their local hospital shut its maternity service."

That's in the London Times.

Catherine Mchomvu, an antenatal class teacher at the Devon Antenatal Family Centre, said it was important that women and their partners had supplies, including towels, blankets and water in the car....  “It’s about trying to create the birth environment that you would normally have in the hospital or at home, in your car.

And here's an article from 12 days ago: "'Maternity deserts' leave women with two-hour journey to give birth/Mothers-to-be fear delivering their babies on the roadside as NHS staffing shortages and closures leave swathes of England without nearby maternity care."

"It’s crazy to spend $100-plus on a babysitter just to go to the movies."

Said a woman, quoted nonanonymously, who brought her 7-week-old daughter to a screening of the hit movie "The Odyssey."

I'm reading "Baby’s First R-Rated Blockbuster/'The Odyssey' is selling out in all formats at all times of day. Even at morning screenings, which are packed with newborns and parents desperate to feel 'normal'" (NYT gift link).

But this isn't a woman who's oblivious to the interests of babyless moviegoers. She goes to a "baby-friendly matinee." The tickets clearly say the show is for "Adults With Infants." Fine, then. I just hope the babies have ear protection. It does say they turn the sound down "a tad." A tad's not enough.

And, of course, it doesn't matter that the movie is R-rated. The baby understands nothing of what makes it R-rated. Though it is possible that the turmoil and anxiety come across in some way we adults cannot understand.

"He was relieved that everyone was home safe from the hospital, and yet he found he couldn’t connect with his [newborn] children, Olympia and Elisabetta."

"He became full of nervous, negative energy. He had physical symptoms of anxiety: a racing heartbeat, chest pains, burning and electric sensations in his torso and muscles. When the babies smiled and laughed for the first time, he found himself saying out loud: 'What do they have to be happy about?' He didn’t feel he could actively give his family emotional support, so instead he came up with practical solutions, such as creating organised systems and spreadsheets to track his daughters’ feedings and sleep schedules. 'Control was how I approached many things in my life,' he says. 'I had to control their sleep because only when I knew for certain that they were asleep could I settle and relax.'"

From "'Holding my IVF twins as a new dad, I felt only sadness'/As a doctor, Christopher Choukalas thought he could diagnose an illness when he saw it. But his paternal postpartum depression crept up on him completely unnoticed" (London Times).

"The summer I turned 39, my husband and I moved from Brooklyn to a darling little village in upstate New York. Our parents were thrilled..."

"... their unspoken hope that leaving the big city might be a sign that we were settling down—that as my fertility began to sunset, we’d turn one of our house’s three bedrooms into a nursery. And we were having that conversation, too. We owned a home with ample space and an affordable mortgage. I worked for myself and had maximal flexibility. He had good health insurance and a great if demanding job. Did we want to have a baby? As late summer melted into a vibrant fall and then into the cold of upstate winter, I knew my answer: No...."

Writes Jill Filipovic in "We Need More Good Men/Conservatives often lay the blame for declining fertility at women’s feet. They’re wrong" (Slate).

"Do I really want a fifth person in my house? Not really. Do I, rather, want to feel as if I were the kind of mother who could handle another child..."

"... even though I know, thanks to the COVID years, that I’m likely not? Wanting to feel like you can do it is, it goes without saying, a stupid reason to have a kid. I remember telling a friend who was appalled at my desire for a third that I craved a repeat of that big explosion of Technicolor feeling that came with a new baby.... Our society is designed to enable and reward parenthood for some women and guarantees a thriving existence for basically no children. The work we do to fight these systems is reproductive labor even when there’s not a single baby in your house. So, really, the question I need to ask myself is not Who was that phantom baby? What might our life have been? It’s Who am I, now? And what can I do for the people who are already here?"

Writes Lydia Kiesling, in "Yearning for a Third/Did I really need another baby for my family to be complete?" (New York Magazine).

That's how the essay ends — with commitment to a cold left-wing platitude and italicized wistfulness about the life she decided the "systems" had denied to her. 

The author calls herself away from the question "Who was that phantom baby?" That felt so sad to me.

I don't know if this really connects, but what swirled up in my mind was the last thing Andre said in "My Dinner with Andre": "People hold on to these images: father, mother, husband, wife, again for the same reason: because they seem to provide some firm ground. But there’s no wife there. What does that mean, a wife? A husband? A son? A baby holds your hands and then suddenly there’s this huge man lifting you off the ground, and then he’s gone. Where’s that son?"

"...people hold on to these images: father, mother, husband, wife, again for the same reason: ’cause they seem to provide some firm ground. But there’s no wife there. What does that mean, a wife? A husband? A son? A baby holds your hands and then suddenly there’s this huge man lifting you off the ground, and then he’s gone. Where’s that son?"

"Since last October in Memuro, Hokkaido, a café specialising in French toast has been open to parents and babies free of charge from 9pm on Sunday to 6am on Monday."

"There are areas for babies to crawl around and sleep, as well as changing tables and nursing booths. Users can relax, knowing their babies’ cries aren’t keeping others up.,,, Across the country in Tokushima Prefecture, a childcare support centre runs monthly 'crying cafés' with specialist staff.... The concept comes from Yonakigoya, a manga by a cartoonist and mother that was published online in 2023. The titular 'night-time crying house' is a space where overwhelmed mothers and babies can de-stress in the small hours...."

From "Overnight 'crying cafés' serve coffee with a side of tears/The night-time refuges in Japan are popular with mothers who can relax knowing their crying child is not disturbing anyone at home" (London Times).

Childrearing tips from Eleanor Roosevelt.

My son Chris sent me that clip, which I think is from "FDR: A New Political Life" (commission earned). Chris has a project of reading (at least) one biography of each of the U.S. Presidents. He's not reading them in chronological order though, and he's a lot closer to the end than it looks. Anyway, I'll correct this post if I'm naming the wrong bio. So hold off on snapping up that book until later in the day. And think twice about jury-rigging a chickenwire cage to hang your baby out an upper story window. Or are you the sort of busybody who calls the authorities on a very modern mother who just might be Eleanor Roosevelt?

UPDATE: The book is actually "FDR" by Jean Edward Smith. Chris says it has "a lot of anecdotes." 880 pages. That other one is a mere 284 pages. 

I'm reading "How a Family of 3 Lives on $500,000 on the Upper West Side" in The New York Times.

Excerpt:

Their household income is roughly $500,000 per year. While they make a good living, they try to be frugal and are saving money to buy an apartment. They moved into their roughly 800-square-foot rental eight years ago when it was just them and their dog, Peabody, a Maltese poodle. Now their son’s crib is steps away from their bed. They installed a curtain between the bed and the crib to keep the light out.... Since they share a room with their son, he often wakes them up around 5 a.m. 'In the sweetest and most adorable way,' Ms. Gossai said.

They make $500,000! $500,000 and they've got a makeshift curtain separating their baby from their bed and are resorting to framing the situation as adorable. 

I wonder how much thinking went into referring to the dog as a "Maltese poodle," rather than a "Maltipoo." Is this a sign of the great turn against the -oodle? Or is this run-of-the-mill resistance to cutesiness?

A woman holding a baby is trending on X.

The report on the trend is title "Woman Who Didn't Want Kids Melts Holding Baby for First Time." And: "The TikTok video from @daniela.brkic shows the friend who swore off kids sobbing with joy...."

Sample response:

We all laugh, but what’s happening here is holy.

An instinct no ideology can suppress forever. Holding a baby rewires everything: your politics, your priorities, your purpose.

We’ve spent decades teaching women to resist this. Imagine a world where we stopped. pic.twitter.com/Kevz1N7hy4

— Josh Wood (@J_K_Wood) February 8, 2026

If that's true, it should also be true that men who observe that woman also experience rewiring. They see her as the beautiful ideal and long to center their life on a woman like that. If men don't respond like that, it is no wonder that women have put effort into resisting that and warning other women to resist.

I hit the Grok button over there and asked: "is the video a genuine response from a real woman or is this a setup with acting?" Grok says it seems genuine, and I'll assume that it is, but I won't assume that woman's reaction represents something inside all women that is pure and uncomplicated. It's hard to take care of a baby, a toddler, a school kid, a teenager, and many other emotions will well up — suddenly or chronically — and mother will need to soldier on, usually without anything close to the emotional high seen in that viral video. 

ADDED: I'm reminded of the time I held a little dog: "I love this little dog. I think this is the first time I ever held a dog on my lap." Yes, holding the dog released a distinctive feeling in me, 12 years ago. That might be seen as a reason to immediately acquire a dog (which is much easier to do than to have a baby). The instinct to possess a dog required fulfillment. No, it did not! I see other people's dogs every day. Sometimes I even interact with them. But I am quite happy not to have pre-committed so much of my time to a canine creature. 

"Hessy Levinsons Taft, who as an infant appeared on the cover of a Nazi magazine in Germany promoting her as the ideal Aryan baby..."

"... a distinction complicated by the fact that she was Jewish and had been exploited as part of a dangerous hoax, died on Jan. 1 at her home in San Francisco. She was 91.... As Latvians, her parents were protected from laws targeting Jews of German descent. Still, they were terrified that the Nazis would discover what had happened and execute them. They kept Hessy inside, rarely taking her out, even for walks...."

From "Hessy Levinsons Taft, Jewish Baby on Cover of Nazi Magazine, Dies at 91/Without her parents’ knowledge, her portrait was entered as a prank in a contest in 1935 to represent the ideal Aryan infant — and she won" (NYT).

"Today, the Trump Administration is proud to announce the United States of America’s updated Childhood Vaccination Schedule."

"This Schedule is rooted in the Gold Standard of Science, and widely agreed upon by Scientists and Experts all over the World. Effective today, America will no longer require 72 'jabs' for our beautiful, healthy children. We are moving to a far more reasonable Schedule, where all children will only be recommended to receive Vaccinations for 11 of the most serious and dangerous diseases. Parents can still choose to give their children all of the Vaccinations, if they wish, and they will still be covered by insurance. However, this updated Schedule finally aligns the United States with other Developed Nations around the World.... Many Americans, especially the 'MAHA Moms,' have been praying for these COMMON SENSE reforms for many years...."

Writes Trump, on Truth Social.

"I think the museum staying in North Bay will help them from making foolish choices, like what they did to us, you know. It should never be repeated again."

Said Annette Dionne — born in North Bay, Ontario — quoted in "Annette Dionne, Last of the Celebrated Quintuplets, Dies at 91/She was the first to crawl, the first to cut a tooth, the first to recognize her name, and the last to die. And, like her sisters, she resented being exploited as part of a global sensation" (NYT).

Imagine being one of 5 babies and then also to be famous, all your life, for just that. It's a puzzle of distinction and indistinction.

From the Wikipedia article for North Bay: "The Dionne Quintuplets... had a tremendous impact on tourism in the area. For a province struggling against economic strangulation they were as valuable a resource as gold, nickel, pulpwood or hydro power. They saved an entire region from bankruptcy. They launched Northern Ontario's flourishing tourist industry. At their peak they represented a $500 million asset. North Bay and the surrounding area lived off this legacy well into the 1960s. Many visitors to the area discovered lakes and summer retreats that were easily accessible, and the businesses thrived on the tourist dollars."

"This is what it means to be a disruptor. They will try to discredit you. They will lie about you. They will attempt to silence what they don’t understand."

Writes Emilee Saldaya of The Free Birth Society, quoted by The Guardian in "Five key findings from our investigation into the Free Birth Society."

The Guardian tells us: "The Free Birth Society (FBS) is a business run from North Carolina that promotes the idea of women giving birth without midwives or doctors present. It is led by Emilee Saldaya and Yolande Norris-Clark, ex-doulas turned social media influences...."

Here's the rest of the FBS statement, on Instagram. Highlights:

When you challenge the status quo, it pushes back. 

Peddling propaganda on mainstream news channels is nothing new....
The [Free Birth Society] message is simple:

• We make our own decisions.
• Birth is a normal biological process.
• We have the right to enact our own biology, even in a culture that shames it.
• Freebirth is ours to choose or not choose....

This moment is not a battle; it’s a mirror. A collective reckoning about birth, power, and spirituality.

The eternal dance of darkness and light continues in infinite forms.

I am not afraid of the shadows.
They reveal what needs to be seen.

And so, we continue
because the work is meaningful.
Because it is needed.
Because women deserve better than the narrative they’ve inherited....

"In April 1965, the magazine published his extraordinary cover image of an 18-week-old fetus, luminous in its amniotic sac..."

"... seemingly floating through space, along with an extensive photo essay. Nilsson had worked closely with a Stockholm hospital, where he had a makeshift studio set up. He’d get a call when a woman had had a miscarriage or came in for an abortion, which had been legally permissible in Sweden since 1938 if the woman’s life was in danger. The photographer would then rush over with his Hasselblad camera. Only one image in the photo essay was of a live fetus in utero. All the others, including the groundbreaking cover, were of fetuses that had been surgically removed. In the 1980s, after learning that his pictures were being used at anti-abortion demonstrations, Nilsson refused to allow them to be republished...."

From "The 25 Most Influential Magazine Covers of All Time/Four editors, a creative director and a visual artist met to debate and discuss the best of print media — and its enduring legacy" (NYT)(free-access link, so you can see all 25 covers and the story behind each of them).

I vividly remember that Life Magazine cover, "Drama of Life Before Birth," April 30, 1965. If I remember correctly — from 60 years ago when I was 14 — the article had nothing to do with abortion and readers were shielded from the notion that these unborn children were dead. We were invited to feast our eyes on the miracle of life, and we had never seen pictures like this before.

That Life cover ranks 6th on the list, well above the cover I would have put first, Saul Steinberg's "View of the World From 9th Avenue," which is only #14.

"Do you think it’s a good idea to bring a 1-year-old baby to a concert where the decibels are this f–king high? That baby doesn’t even know what it’s doing here."

"Next time, protect their ears or something. For real. It’s heavy. It’s your responsibility. You’re waving them around like they’re a toy.. That baby doesn’t want to be there, for real. I’m telling you with all love and respect, now that I’m a father… would never bring them to a concert. For the next time, be a bit more aware."

Said Maluma, quoted in "Rapper Maluma stops concert to scold mom for ‘irresponsible’ act with her baby" (NY Post).