"'I’m faking being sick, because I hate school and I’m stressed, and they’re always having to pick me up early,' he recalled.... He was a scrawny, shy boy with a bowl cut. 'He always called himself stupid,' his sister said, and other kids apparently agreed. 'The guys kept saying, "If you’re looking for your brother, he’s hanging from his underwear on a lamppost."' In middle school, Newsom took steps to reinvent himself as an athlete. 'Rocky' had recently come out, and he emulated the main character—running up and down hills, drinking raw eggs, learning to box. His sister remembers falling asleep night after night listening to the sound of him relentlessly practicing basketball: shooting, shooting, shooting, shooting.
Learning to read was a similar feat."
"When I asked Newsom about his dyslexia in his office one afternoon, he showed me an overstuffed folder of printed material, his reading from the previous evening. Almost every word of text was underlined. He flipped through a galley proof of his memoir, in which the underlining covered whole pages—the only way, he said, that he could read any book, even his own. He produced another folder filled with lined paper and covered with his handwriting: he copies all the text he underlines onto writing pads...."
In 1985, President Ronald Reagan appointed me as a federal judge. I was 38 years old. At the time, I looked forward to serving for the rest of my life. However, I resigned Friday, relinquishing that lifetime appointment.... When I became a senior judge in 2013, my successor was appointed, so my resignation will not create a vacancy to be filled by the president.
Despite being a Reagan judge at the time of appointment, Wolf handed the power to appoint the next judge to President Obama. Wolf is sloughing off senior status to gain a power for himself, the power to speak freely. And what he wants to talk about is Trump's "assault on the rule of law." He ends the column by quoting RFK Sr. — "Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope" — and the poet Seamus Heaney — the “longed-for tidal wave of justice can rise up, and hope and history rhyme.”
ADDED: For more detail on that Seamus Heaney line, here's Bill Clinton:
We were there for this at 5:16:Later, I continued my practice of sitting in the front-yard and reading an entire book. Sample page:I showed that photo of the page to my son John, who said, "When I was a kid I loved that kind of understated humor" and sent me Salvador Dali's "Fried Egg on the Plate without the Plate":Understated humor... and yet when the sun does something like that sunny-side-up egg, I consider it one of the most extravagant sunrises of the year. Like this, from last May:Feel free to understate or overstate whatever you like in the comments.And consider supporting this blog by purchasing a readable-in-one-sitting book by Edward Gorey using my Amazon Associates link. The book containing the threatened deviled egg is "The Betrayed Confidence."
Everyone's talking like Trump now. Just get rid of the weasel word "may" and you have Trump-style rhetoric: Booker's speech changed the course of political history.
And then there was Elon Musk the other day, saying that the Wisconsin Supreme Court election would affect the entire destiny of humanity. No, he wasn't that Trumpian. He had weasel words. He said "I feel like this is one of those things that may not seem that it’s going to affect the entire destiny of humanity, but I think it will."
Speaking of speaking bluntly, here's Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Rebecca Bradley talking about that election:
"... in the evening, and he ended his meal with a cup or two of excellent black coffee without sugar."
That was while writing a book. When he was done, “he sped to a restaurant, downed a hundred oysters as a starter, washing them down with four bottles of white wine, then ordered the rest of the meal: twelve salt meadow lamb cutlets with no sauce, a duckling with turnips, a brace of roast partridge, a Normandy sole, not to mention extravagances like dessert and special fruit such as Comice pears, which he ate by the dozen. Once sated, he usually sent the bill to his publishers.”
"He ended up in a prison in the Syrian capital known as the 'Palestinian Division,' and was held in a separate ward until Monday morning, a day after rebels took over the capital and freed thousands of inmates. 'It was a chaotic scene. I had my prison clothes on, and another prisoner was with me. I was walking to Jordan,' he said, stopping to rest every night in a farm. A local guard in Zahayabeh said he came across him in the morning. 'He didn’t speak much Arabic, so I took him home. He told me he wanted to go to bed. When he woke up, he asked for a fried egg and a boiled egg. I gave him both and some pickled eggplant too, and then I called you,' he said, turning to a member of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), the Islamist rebel group that has taken over Damascus. 'And then, the media attacked.'"
"In the second, Miranda loses her phone on the beach. In the third, Carrie pretends she has COVID to get out of recording her own audiobook. The stories are breathtakingly small, as though the original show has been shrunk down into a vivid maquette. A substantial portion of the fifth episode is dedicated to Charlotte and Harry dressing up as Philip and Elizabeth Jennings from The Americans for Halloween and getting frustrated that no one gets the reference...."
Ooh... just by chance, following my usual blog practice, I seem to have stumbled into a theme day. The theme is: Nothing happens. I haven't used my "blog has a theme today" tag in a long time.
This feels propitious. Things fall in place. Anything falling in place for you? Can you poach an egg? No?! Well, then, pay attention at 0:16 to 0:24 of "Levi eats Green Eggs and Ham Benedict":
"The customer then demanded that we make her new eggs since we placed her plate too close to her friend, causing the friend to be confused as to which was her plate. The friend had ordered a hamburger."
"... 'cancel culture' to an audience of millions. There were the men whose long history of abuse allegations did nothing to dissuade people from coming to their defense or giving them MTV VMA cameos. Did you know Louis C.K. won a Grammy this year?... It was a particularly embarrassing year for men with too much money. Over the summer, Jeff Bezos reportedly wanted to pay to disassemble and reassemble a bridge in the Netherlands so his big stupid boat could pass through.... [F]or reasons unbeknownst to humankind, Musk tweeted a picture of his bedside table.... ... Drake decided his collaborative album with 21 Savage was a good time to claim that Megan Thee Stallion lied about being shot by Tory Lanez.... [There] were the cringey men — men who embodied 'the ick.'... There was the Try Guy cheating scandal that validated our cultural suspicion of Wife Guys.... [There were] Whiny Little Baby-Men. These are the men who had to overcome such adversity as omelets and pens.... [T]here are men who are still making hypermasculinity their whole thing. These range from supplement-scamming Liver Kings to men who proudly embrace the title 'King of Toxic Masculinity.'... Then there are the truly sinister men.... They have either been a guest on Alex Jones’s podcast or are Alex Jones himself..... [There are] Ricky Gervais, Matt Gaetz, Brad Pitt, Tom Brady...."
I love the way she got through all that without naming Trump. We really have moved on! And now, 2022 is about to expire, and we can move on from all the scoundrels she did name. Let's move on once again, to the — hopefully — much better masculinity of 2023.
"But you understand them as geometrical bodies, with solid angles and planes, and you know how to make them see wonderful things, and you can make music that drives them mad. You’ve got the character of Saturn and the spirit of Venus. Passion and desire, you give it to them under the counter. Your guidelines are simple, and you rule nothing out. Strip yourself bare and dance the sword dance, buck naked inside of a canvas tent, fenced in, where the town royalty, the top brass and leading citizens, bald as eggs throw their money down, sometimes their entire bankroll."
That's Bob, talking about — what songs did you think he was going to talk about? — "Gypsies, Tramps & Thieves."
In the song the men of the town would lay their money down. But for Bob, they throw it down, those bastards. And they're all bald. As eggs. But they are understood as geometrical bodies, with solid angles and planes. You try doing that with an egg. Bob, he's a genius. He's like Picasso. He sees the angles and planes in what, for you, is ovoid.
My favorite line in a movie we finished watching last night — "Ace in the Hole."
ADDED: I'd started watching that movie a while back and forced myself to finish it yesterday after my son John — who ranked it as the best movie of 1951 — reminded me it was about to end its run on the Criterion Channel. It's a rather strange movie about a ruthless, ambitious journalist. It's got the most absurd scene involving a fur garment. I don't want to spoil it, so that's all I'll say.
AND: There are a lot of movies about journalism — usually presenting the journalist as a hero. For example here's a ranking, with "Ace in the Hole" at #46, but if you limit that to movies where the journalist is an awful person — which I'm not equipped to do — I'm guessing it would make the top 10.
I'll just watch this cold and tell you what I think (because what else am I going to do at 5:20 a.m.?):
Pausing at 1:44 — Fallon prompts him to tout the infrastructure bill, and he talks about how far "behind the curve" we are. He doesn't use the phrase "Make America Great Again," but that's his pitch. He mentions 2 details of greatness to come: removing lead pipes and providing high speed internet. Just the flow of essential material into our home — water and data.
Pausing at 3:27 — Fallon prompts him to talk about "Build Back Better" — how will it help Americans with the cost of living? That made me think about inflation, but the answer was about helping people pay for childcare and providing schooling for younger children. Fallon followed up, but not about inflation, just about whether BBB could "pass the Senate before the year." I presume Fallon is working from a script and was supposed to say "before the new year" or "before the end of the year."
Pausing at 5:29 — Fallon praises Biden for being "classy" and "bringing class back to the office."
Pausing at 5:57 — Fallon asks what can be done about Covid when not everyone is getting the vaccine. Fallon himself will do anything Biden tells him to do, and "If you want me to wear red pants, I'll wear red pants." When is it not about science but about obeying orders?
Pausing at 9:26 — Prompted about his poll numbers, Biden offers optimism about the economy, then concedes, "We do have inflation." He's trying to reduce the cost of gas by increasing the supply using the Strategic Petroleum Reserve.
Pausing at 10:06 — He's going to "shoot from the shoulder." He's said that before, as noted here. He's mixing up "shoot from the hip" and "straight from the shoulder."
Pausing at 12:01 — "I have enormous confidence. You're going to realize what a naive guy I am, but I really have faith at the end of the day. The American people are going to get it. They understand."
The video ends with Fallon announcing that there will be more with Biden. What have I got myself into? Here's Part 2:
Pausing at 1:16 — Biden says that he and Jill grew up middle class, so it's hard to get used to all the people in the White House waiting on them. He made a deal with people who do the food to leave them alone in the morning and let them get their own breakfast. He mentions eggs, and Jimmy expresses amazement. Jimmy: "You cook your own eggs?" Biden: "Well, I don't. Jill does." This gets a huge laugh, but I had the classic feminist reaction: That's not funny. They had chefs serving them breakfast, Biden told them to back off, because he's got a wife for that?
Pausing at 1:28 — More laughing and Biden breaks in to tell a story of "When Jill was in graduate school, which was her whole life, it seems," which sounds like a criticism of Jill for getting her education. The story is about an interview someone did with "my daughter," who said her "daddy" couldn't do much, only boil water and cook "psghetti." Again, this is bad feminism! The man just can't cook. Ha ha. So the woman must do the cooking. For decades. And by the way, what's with "my daughter"? Why not "our daughter"?!
"... as seen in a video posted on Twitter by Spectrum News reporter Kate Cagle. The woman appeared to be white, Elder is Black, and ape characterizations have been used as a racist trope for centuries. Moments later, the woman took a swing at a man who appeared to be part of Elder’s team. The man was hit by at least one other heckler just before Elder was escorted into the SUV."
Here's the Kate Cagle tweet discussed in the quote:
Breaking: A flying egg narrowly missed the back of recall candidate @larryelder's head after it was thrown by an activist wearing a gorilla mask in Venice. A scuffle broke out and the candidate was escorted into an SUV.
"Not to be dramatic, but this is something I genuinely hate about myself — I always wait too long to eat, and I inevitably get into a bad mood before finally fixing the problem. My wife Alice rescued me with yogurt. She put all kinds of stuff in there that would never occur to me, like honey, almond shavings, plum slices, and a syrupy jam made out of sour cherries.... I got hungry for lunch around noon, but again waited like 90 minutes to do anything about it. Once I hit a breaking point, I needed something fast and potent, so I made myself three soft-boiled eggs using a Japanese device my friend David gave me...."
"People look at me like I’m a lunatic. On planes, I’ll order a Virgin Mary — not because I’m a teetotaler, just because I’m in it for the tomato juice — followed by an orange juice, followed by a glass of milk.... Late in the afternoon, I ate 'sous vide egg bites' from Starbucks, which are these sad low-carb food-like egg disks that say 'I’m not eating bread, but in every other way I have given up.'... On this morning, I was scheduled to appear on Good Morning America to discuss my foreign-policy book, so it was up at 4 a.m. local time to make a Nespresso and Zoom with George Stephanopoulos, who looked perkier than I did, as is his wont. So did the phalanx of six-packed hotties next to whom I lumbered through leg day at the gym shortly thereafter. Time for another ham sandwich and green juice."
Before now, no one in the history of the world had ever said "phalanx of six-packed hotties next to whom I lumbered." I didn't even know you were allowed to call random strangers "hotties" anymore. But "phalanx of six-packed hotties next to whom I lumbered" — that's mad. And there it is with "sous vide egg bites," "sincerely a juice person," and George Stephanopoulos!
It's all so alien. I never get anywhere near George Stephanopoulos!
"The building and its grounds also are part of the fabric of the city. Streams of bikers pass through on morning and evening commutes. Tourists gather for concerts on the lawn. When it snows, the front face of Capitol Hill becomes a popular sledding spot, with neighborhood children sometimes transforming discarded protest signs into makeshift sleds. This is not just an amenity for neighbors and visitors. It is the tangible manifestation of the idea that the government is a part of American life, rather than something separate and apart."
They're reacting to the statement by the acting chief of the Capitol Police, Yogananda Pittman: "In light of recent events, I can unequivocally say that vast improvements to the physical security infrastructure must be made to include permanent fencing...."
The NYT description of the Capitol grounds makes me think of our state capitol grounds here in Madison. Such an important gathering spot. To lose it to fencing would sacrifice a lot and send a terrible message about the accessibility of government and the ineffectuality of the police. It feels like giving up.
But, you know, you used to be able to walk around on the White House lawn. From a 2014 WaPo article:
I am a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for me to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.
Encourage Althouse by making a donation:
Make a 1-time donation or set up a monthly donation of any amount you choose:
Understated humor... and yet when the sun does something like that sunny-side-up egg, I consider it one of the most extravagant sunrises of the year. Like this, from last May:
संदेश
