"Say you wake up in a hotel room in Wichita and look out the window. A little girl is walking along the train tracks dragging a big statue of Buddha in a wooden wagon..."

"... with a three-legged dog following behind. Do you reach for your guitar or your drawing pad?"

Bill Flanagan asked Bob Dylan, in 2009.

Dylan answered: "Oh wow. It would depend on a lot of things. The environment mostly; like what kind of day is it. Is it a cloudless blue-gray sky or does it look like rain? A little girl dragging a wagon with a statue in it? I’d probably put that in last. The three-legged dog – what type? A spaniel, a bulldog, a retriever? That would make a difference. I’d have to think about that. Depends what angle I’m seeing it all from. Second floor, third floor, eighth floor. I don’t know. Maybe I’d want to go down there. The train tracks too. I’d have to find a way to connect it all up. I guess I would be thinking about if this was an omen or a harbinger of something."

The reason I'm reading that this morning is I just searched bobdylan.com to see if Bob had ever used the word "wow." And that interview was the only thing. You know, "wow" is a pretty interesting word. It's one of those sounds people made, in amazement or surprise, that caught on and came to be regarded as words, things like "oh" and "ooh" and "ah."

"Wow" got started in Scotland.

"At first, he kept his apartment and a few changes of clothes. But gradually and methodically, Greenfield embraced asceticism and dedicated himself to it full-time."

"He let go of his possessions, as well as his connections to the government and commercial society. He has no phone, car, driver’s license, passport, health insurance, property, bank accounts or credit cards. He wears biodegradable clothing and has not paid taxes or taken pharmaceuticals for more than a decade. He lives under the poverty level, and said he has no romantic or sexual attachments. He brushes his teeth with a twig.... He likens his practices to those of wandering sadhus, holy men who take vows of poverty and celibacy to pursue spiritual freedom in India....  In June, he offended a group of women in California who had picked him up in a car to look for mushrooms. He was expecting just one person, he told them curtly, announcing that he did not like surprises, recalled a woman who spoke on the condition of anonymity because she is part of a tight-knit foraging community where Greenfield is revered. The difference between the mild-mannered online persona — an amalgam of Henry David Thoreau and the Dude — and the aggravated guy in the back seat was upsetting, she said."

From "He Wants to Be One With Nature. But He Can’t Quit Instagram. Once, Robin Greenfield aspired to wealth. Now, he has no home and eats from the earth. He chronicles it all on social media, but does the persona match the man?" (NYT).

I blogged about Greenfield a couple weeks ago, here, but there's different material in this NYT article and more skepticism about the man. 

Also, here's the list of 100 things Greenfield came up with back in 2020 — positive changes he wanted to make in his life — to "live free of lies and corruption." Much of it is what you might predict from a radical environmentalist, so let me — a connoisseur of travel critique — focus on the part about travel:

"At one point [Mary Peltola] required her staff to feed her family's pet chameleon, which is named Meatball, which only ate crickets."

"At one point, they had to feed Meatball in her congressional office when she was in Congress, and these live crickets escaped, and staff had to recapture them. So that was an example where they felt this was beneath their duties or somewhat demeaning of employees.... So one of the employees Mary Peltola fired in August was her campaign manager, a woman named Elisa Rios. I began talking to Elisa Rios, and she told me a pretty incredible story about what really happened with Dan J. Sullivan and the role Democrats played in his candidacy...."

I'm listening to today's episode of the NYT "Daily" podcast, "A Plan for Two Dans: How Democrats Manipulated Alaska’s Ballot/An investigation by The New York Times looked at how two people named Dan Sullivan ended up on the ballot for the Senate."

The underlying NYT story was the subject of a blog post yesterday, but that one did not have crickets, and I can't miss a good opportunity to bring out my "insect politics" tag.

I mean, have you ever heard of insect politics? They're very... brutal. No compassion, no compromise. We can't trust the insect....

A word to the wise politician: After you've demeaned someone by forcing them to scuttle about capturing crickets, don't fire them, not before the election. Better yet: Don't keep your pets in the office, especially not if they — or their food — creeps people out or smells like hell. That is, if you must keep a pet in your office and you are a politician, make it a dog. There are lots of dogs kept in the offices of congresspersons. Dogs are the official pet of politics. They signal that you are human and normal. You might need that. Trump haters love to tell us he's lacking a dog. And Nixon saved his skin by mentioning his dog named Checkers, Bill Clinton procured a dog (Buddy) to offset his cat (Socks), and Obama ostentatiously acquired the dog Bo. The dog is the animal if you want to be a politician.

Have you ever heard of dog politics? They're very friendly. No brutality, no live crickets. 

"For a minute I thought this was going to be another Anne Carson post."

Wrote Smilin' Jack in the comments to the post that begins "His English mastiff was dying, so he hired her to read its mind. But when she met the man with the messy hair, he kept apologizing for his casual outfit."

And isn't this a lovely tribute to the literature Nobelist who's found her way into a few of my posts? 

There are some writers who rearrange your vision so that other things look as though they are influenced by her mind. That may be what Carson did to Jack and it may be what Carson did to me. Maybe I am picking out different things to blog or finding excerpts in some new way, framing the post differently, and maybe Jack is reading these things differently. 

Don't you want writers to shake up your world? Don't you want to live in the enchanted world where dogs send you messages that psychics step up to translate? 

Carson says some things about dogs. Like this, from page 142 of the Kindle edition of "Wrong Norma" (commission earned): 

"His English mastiff was dying, so he hired her to read its mind. But when she met the man with the messy hair..."

"... he kept apologizing for his casual outfit. 'He told me, "Sorry for being dressed like this; I’m always in a suit on television,"' recalled [Celia] Melamed. 'I don’t have a television, so I had no idea what he was talking about.' The man was Javier Milei, at the time a TV pundit in Argentina known for railing against the government. The mastiff was Conan, soon to be Argentina’s most famous dog.... Ms. Melamed then became [Milei's] dedicated pet psychic. He kept hiring her for the next two years, she said, including to talk to Conan in the afterlife and to the five clones made with Conan’s DNA...."

From "The President’s Dog Psychic/In Argentina, many people try to read the mind of the president. Celia Melamed read the mind of his dogs" (NYT).

At the link to there's a photo of a book Milei wrote and autographed for Melamed. It says: "For Celia, TOTAL GENIUS OF THE UNIVERSE, the being of light who helped me find the way."

"What do you love most about your human?"

@manwire68 #CapCut #dogsoftiktok #mypet #mansbestfriend🐶 ♬ original sound - Unfluencers AI

For the first time since they've been counting, more American households have kittens than have puppies.

And it's because dog ownership is declining, WaPo reports.

The number of American households with dogs has dropped 5 percent since 2019, while cat ownership has held relatively steady. Dogs still dominate America — roughly 71 million households have dogs compared with 53 million that own cats — but that is changing quickly...

Why the change?  

Feel-good dog story of the day.

Nash, the golden retriever, had his big chance to be hailed the best guard dog when an intruder broke into his family’s home – but instead, the 4-year-old thought the man was a friend and brought him some toys to play with. pic.twitter.com/6LROw5EcAn

— CBS Evening News with Tony Dokoupil (@CBSEveningNews) September 17, 2026

Isolated Transient Alexia, Part 2.

No, I didn't have another incident, though I did run into another sentence that powerfully resisted reading. From Reddit:

But I did have to add an update to Monday's post, "Isolated Transient Alexia — a migrainous accompaniment — ever had it?":

The various doctors would not simply accept my opinion that this was an isolated transient alexia — a migrainous accompaniment. They had to see it as a possible TIA. Not only were various tests ordered up, but even the best results don't eliminate the possibility that it was a TIA and so the cautious approach is to assume that it was.

"Her heart’s desire included a $400 sea-foam green jacket from the New York Liberty women’s basketball team that reads 'New York or Nowhere.'"

She'd had more than $200,000 in student loans, but qualified for loan forgiveness, so "One thing I did is I gifted myself an extra loan payment for whatever my heart desired."

She is New York City Council member Tiffany Cabán, who "spends much of her day thinking about how to address New York City’s affordability crisis," and rents a two-and-a-half-bedroom place in Astoria, "where she lives with her rescue dog Ducky."

I'm reading the latest entry in the NYT series "Affording New York," "How a City Council Member Lives on $148,500 in Queens" (gift link, with photos of Cabán place and her dog and her jacket).

It is a nice jacket for a City Council member, and it's nice that she has season tickets to the game ($5,000), and that her salary is going up from $148,500 to $175,500, after she and other council members voted them a raise. Well earned, no? You wouldn't want to try to live in NYC for only $148,500.

The jacket's slogan is "It will Always be New York or Nowhere." You know that wonderful New York feeling: every place else is nowhere. It reminds me of my old saying: Better than nothing is a high standard. But acquiring nothing leaves you intact as a living human being, and you save whatever money you'd have spent on that item that's not better than nothing. But with "New York or Nowhere," it seems you cease to exist if you can't swing life in New York. Life without being in New York is not better than nothing. It's nowhere. 

"It's natural for dogs."

Take a side:

"I enjoy it. From throwing on some wacky stuff to some really slick stuff," said Travis Kelce.

Link to Vogue.

More Kelce fashion-talk: "I kind of take bits and pieces from everybody and everything that I see, and just kind of change things around depending on which situation I’m in and what event I’m going to.”

Why do I find this so funny? "Dog Dad"... the posing... posing as nonchalant.

I hadn't used my "deeply" tag since last May.

It's a deeply bloggy tag, so it makes me want to do a post collecting recent iterations of "deeply." The first time I used it — in "Deeply... it's such a poser word" — I had a 12-point list. That was back in 2014. Let's see what "deeply" has been doing lately.

1. "The Once-Shameless President Is Deeply Embarrassed/As Donald Trump faces one humiliation after another, he is attacking those he blames" by Jonathan Lemire in The Atlantic, published today. Gift link. "But how Trump will respond next to this ongoing embarrassment remains unknown. He’s made the war deeply personal. Will he now bail on the stalled war entirely, leaving Iran more empowered in the region? Will he follow through on his threats to dramatically escalate the conflict, perhaps even to strike civilian infrastructure and energy sites? Or will he channel his rage against Americans who point out his mistakes?"

2. "UN rips ‘deeply troubling’ Iran for executing at least 56 people since start of war: ‘Has no place in our world'" — published today in The New York Post. "Several people were executed in the last two weeks alone, including a 19-year-old charged with 'enmity against god' for allegedly partaking in January’s protests. Two others arrested during the protests were also executed. And in July, two people were executed out of a group of 12 convicted of 'corruption on Earth' and 'enmity against God' over connections to four police killed in January."

3. "Ken Jennings Says He Cares 'More Deeply' About Trans Rights Than Any Other Issue" (Them, August 3, 2026). "Ken Jennings... recently got into a relatively minor back-and-forth on Bluesky with people who claimed his subscriptions to the New York Times were supporting an anti-transgender media organization.... Would I subscribe to the New York Times? No. Would I unfriend someone who did? Not necessarily.... Do I do the crossword puzzle? Yes, because nothing else quiets the anxiety I feel about living in our current reality quite like trying to find a five-letter word for boredom. Ah, 'ennui,' my old friend."

4. "The Woody Guthrie story you’ve probably never heard is deeply Jewish/A documentary recasts the folk singer’s legacy through the influence of his mother-in-law, Yiddish poet Aliza Greenblatt" (Jewish Telegraphic Agency, August 3, 2026). "The film ['Dust Bowls and Jewish Souls: Another Side of Woody Guthrie'] makes the case that Guthrie’s extended Jewish family was not incidental but integral in his artistic and personal evolution. It is a story that stretches from Oklahoma to Coney Island to the Yiddish literary world, and from the folk revival’s Jewish impresarios to one remarkable immigrant woman whose influence has largely gone unrecognized."

5. "Neil Shubin on Trusted Science in a ‘Deeply Partisan Age’/An eminent fossil hunter takes the reins at the National Academy of Sciences in a turbulent moment for American researchers" (NYT, June 2026). "As an institution, we are — by charter and design and history — nonpartisan. But we are in a deeply partisan age. Just by doing our work, we will be viewed in a partisan light no matter what. So our job is to double down on the science. We need to be a trusted source of data."

6. "'I Deeply Believe Dogs Have Superpowers and Secrets’/Prompted by a fierce attachment to his own pet, Paul Yoon wrote a harrowing yet hopeful novel, set during wartime, told from a canine perspective" (NYT, August 2, 2026). "Like his finest literary forebears who have written from a dog’s perspective — Virginia Woolf ('Flush'), John Berger ('King: A Street Story'), Jack London ('Call of the Wild') — Yoon pulls it off without being treacly or condescending.... It helps that Etna can understand everything that’s said by people around him. This was partly a practical choice, as Yoon explains: 'I wanted to create a bridge for the reader to experience this world and this journey.' But, he added, 'I deeply believe dogs have superpowers and secrets.'"

7. "The Deeply Human, Complexly Queer Animated Animals of 'Bouchra'" (autostraddle, August 3, 2026). "In Meriem Bennani and Orian Barki’s bold film Bouchra, an NYC‑based lesbian filmmaker... tries to process her relationship with her Moroccan mother through a semi‑autobiographical meta‑fictional drama stemming from a coming‑out letter she sent nine years prior.... It’s told via anthropomorphic animals in a hyperrealized backdrop.... [E]ntirely animated in Blender, Bouchra’s experimental animal‑filled approach takes some getting used to."

"'I deliver almost every single meal, almost every single day, because I hate to cook and I’m incredibly lazy,' she says..."

"... with a practiced, self-deprecating laugh to her camera, propped against the wall as a portable LED light bathes her in a warm glow. 'It is 10:15 a.m., and my first delivery just arrived, and it is my Starbucks coffee.' The coffee, an almond-milk iced latte with cold foam, two pumps of vanilla, and a pinch of cinnamon, costs $25.18. 'When I really want to rage-bait, I’ll order coffee. People get so mad at me,' she tells me. The Starbucks, after all, is only three blocks from her apartment, and most of the time she grabs it while walking her dog, an English cream miniature dachshund named Linguine...."

From "'You Can’t Just Be Showing Matcha-Pilates-Alo'/Lifestyle influencers used to post cute photos and make millions. Now they have to pivot" (NY Magazine).

"Once upon a time, influencers could post beautiful photos of their lives — their outfits, their coffee, their vacations, their children — and, with enough consistency, amass an audience of followers who looked to them for inspiration or escape.... Now... [t]he only reliable way to reach mainstream or even moderate recognition against all the noise is to either carpet-bomb social media with clips or to enrage wide swaths of the public...."

"After kissing my husband and dog good night and putting them to bed in a separate room, I put magnesium lotion on my feet, do my Duolingo lesson, pull up my meditation app and, of course, go to the bathroom one last time."

From "The Little Rituals That Prepare You for Sleep/Origami, cleaning countertops, talking to plants — here are some ways readers wind down for the evening" (NYT gift link).

Kitties and puppies that have annoyed me this morning.

There's this at the top of the home page at Smithsonian Magazine: "15 Kitten Photos That Will Make You Feel as Warm and Fuzzy as the Tiny Felines Themselves/These moments from the Smithsonian Magazine Photo Contest highlight curious kittens from around the world." We're told these are "the most adorable creatures... the cutest fluffy kittens that are sure to warm your heart." No, that is false. My heart is not warmed. This magazine's asserted mission is: "Smithsonian Media exists for the sole purpose of increasing and diffusing knowledge." What's the knowledge here? Kittens are cute?

In the canine category of my annoyance, I know it serves me right for scrolling through TikTok in the morning, but TikTok somehow saw fit to serve up this thing that I know some people must love but it's exactly the sort of thing I loathe:

"Fireworks release tiny particles that can irritate lungs and trigger asthma attacks, along with gases like carbon monoxide and sulfur dioxide..."

"... and sulfur dioxide and metals including aluminum, manganese and cadmium, according to the American Lung Association. Even Freedom 250, the Trump-backed group that helped organize the event, acknowledged on its website that 'air quality will decline' and visibility 'may become compromised.' It advised children and older people to avoid extended time outdoors and advised residents to keep windows closed and to use air filters. 'It’s probably going to be incredibly hot and adding a firework show is just going to compound the air quality that’s already destined to be poor,' said Panagis Galiatsatos, a pulmonary physician.... He encouraged people with respiratory conditions like asthma to stay indoors and watch the spectacle on TV. 'Sometimes we need to just be mindful of safety versus grandiosity'.... Dogs tremble. They drool. They try to hide by cramming themselves into spaces that are too small. They have accidents indoors and tear up clothes or furniture...."

From "Bombs Bursting in Air Means Hours of Smoke and Confused Dogs in D.C./Organizers want the July 4 fireworks in the nation’s capital to break the world record. But the fun will also come with air pollution and possibly headaches for pet owners and zoo keepers" (NYT).

"The Supreme Court on Thursday allowed the Trump administration to end humanitarian protections that have permitted hundreds of thousands of people from Haiti and Syria..."

"... to live and work legally in the United States. President Trump has pushed to terminate the program, known as Temporary Protected Status, as part of his broader crack down on immigration. The program was created by Congress with bipartisan support in 1990 to provide temporary legal status to people whose home countries were deemed unsafe because of war, natural disasters or other crises."

The NYT reports in "Supreme Court Lets Trump End Deportation Protection for Haitians and Syrians/President Trump has pushed to rescind Temporary Protected Status for hundreds of thousands of people from countries convulsed by humanitarian crises."

Here's the full opinion: Mullin v. Doe. Excerpt from the majority opinion, written by Justice Alito:

None of the cited statements by either the President or the Secretary was overtly racial, and in substance all expressed policy views that could rest on race-neutral justifications. For example, one may oppose TPS and favor tighter restrictions on immigration for economic or other reasons that have nothing to do with race. And a person without racial bias can provide a harshly unfavorable description of living conditions in some of the countries with TPS designations....Political discourse by prominent public figures is increasingly couched in terms that would have scandalized the public just a short time ago.... But whatever one may think of the cited statements, they are insufficient to show that the termination of Haiti’s TPS designation was based on the race of the Haitian people....

From the dissenting opinion by Justice Kagan:

The evidence [the Haiti plaintiffs] have offered includes statements by the President so repellent and racially inflected that the majority declines to put them in print....

"A possible referendum in Oregon on animal rights would end fishing, hunting, even pest control, just when Democrats are trying really hard not to be seen as 'weirdos again.'"

I'm reading "Protect Every Animal From Cruelty? Not in 2026, Oregon Democrats Say" (NYT).

The measure, known for now as Initiative Petition 28... would give all animals the same protections from cruelty that Oregon grants dogs and cats.... Hunting, trapping and fishing would be outlawed, along with scientific research on animals, lethal pest control and conventional livestock production.... 

The fight is in some ways very Oregon, long a proving ground for ideas that initially seemed politically impossible only to enter the mainstream, such as medical aid in dying, universal vote-by-mail and legalizing the hallucinogenic compound in magic mushrooms for therapy.

When people think of "animals" — as in "I love animals!" — they're not thinking about cockroaches and mosquitoes.

ADDED: According to Ballotopedia, the initiative "Applies to mammals (including vermin), birds, reptiles, amphibians, fish." So I think "lethal pest control" is meant to call to mind mice and rats, not the various troublesome insects. The NYT article says "all animals" and also, more than once, says "pest control." 

In the comments here, Tom T. said, "Then would come the court decisions defining pet ownership as cruelty and outlawing it." That got me looking into the argument that pet-keeping is a form of cruelty to animals. Here's an interesting Vox article from 3 years ago: "The case against pet ownership/Why we should aim for a world with fewer but happier pets." Excerpt: 

Chris sends pictures from Teotihuacán.

It's quite the climb, and you have to get back down again. Or hang out in the blazing sun:

Chris sends this snippet from a book:

Here's the book: "1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus" (commission earned). I'm going to read that. I can't see me climbing those steep stairs in full sunlight, but I do want to read that book.