"Thank you, Lord, thank you for making me who I was and not some little squirming powerless nincompoop."

"Thank you for making me unique, one of a kind, incomparable, victorious."

That's the "deathbed prayer," offered by a character in the novel "Vigil," by George Saunders, which Ezra Klein quotes to Saunders to begin the discussion "George Saunders on Anger, Ambition and Sin" (NYT).

That was a pretty strong way to begin the interview, and I'll bet Klein — as well as Saunders — thinks of himself unique, one of a kind, incomparable, and victorious. Surely, they're not little squirming powerless nincompoops.

"Nincompoop" seems like a word that would be examined in "Why Kids Are Starting to Sound Like Their Grandparents/The strange resurgence of words like 'yap' and 'skedaddle,'" (a NYT article blogged at that link). And it also reminded me of that George Will column blogged yesterday — "JD Vance vies for the gold medal in coarseness and flippancy" — the one that took umbrage at Vance's deployment of the insult "dipshit." If only Vance had been in on the kids' new trend and cared a little more about the problem of coarseness and flippancy, he could have said "nincompoop." Note how the excrement is discretely included.

The word "nincompoop" is, the OED says, first seen c1668 in the form of this title, which will give you lots of ideas for old words that could resurge: "The ship of fools fully fraught and richly laden with asses, fools, jack-daws, ninnihammers, coxcombs, slender-wits, shallowbrains, paper-skuls, simpletons, nickumpoops, wiseakers, dunces, and blockheads."

The first use of the word "nincompoop" in The New York Times came in August of 1861, recounting the statement of then-Congressman John Sherman: "[Congressman Samuel Sullivan 'Sunset'] Cox called [Sherman's] own constituents 'Nincompoops, intelligent baboons dressed up as Wide-Awakes, Gump-heads, mutton-heads, blabber, Dogbanes, toadies, and bloats, Suppose he [Sherman] should speak thus of [Cox's] Democratic constituents, would they not set him down as unfit to represent decent people?'"

"I’m the nice lady who wrote 'Eat, Pray, Love,' and I’m out in the park with fentanyl and morphine and sleeping pills trying to craft a murder."

From "Elizabeth Gilbert Gets Dark/A new memoir finds the self-help icon locked in a destructive romantic relationship with her best friend, who relapsed while fighting terminal cancer" (NYT)(free access link).

That's a free access link, in case you were an "Eat, Pray, Love" fan and had an impression of Elizabeth Gilbert as a nice lady and need to see if it's crushed. Me, I never picked up that book, was never vulnerable to the possibility that the author was a "nice lady" and wouldn't have cared. I just assumed she was a lady who was into herself for reasons that had nothing to do with me. Is praying something to be wedged in between gorging and fucking? I don't know, but I didn't need to know. I have no Elizabeth Gilbert-related illusions to be dispelled and I'm not temptable into the question whether she's got a dark side. I'm just going to guess that the "murder" she was "crafting" was assisting in the suicide of a cancer patient.

"But many Iranians love their pooches. Speaking of her ShihTzu terrier, Teddy, Asal Bahrierad, a Tehran resident, said... 'No one, not even the police, can take him away from me.'"

"She also said then that the ban was not being taken all that seriously. 'The police are actually very friendly to us,' she said of her daily walks with Teddy. Some even view walking a dog in public as a quiet rebellion against the Iranian government, which has long tried to enforce an Islamic lifestyle and restrict citizens’ civil liberties...."

From "'Dog Walking Is a Clear Crime': Iran’s Latest Morality Push/The government regards pet dogs as a sign of Western cultural influence. They are also considered impure, in Islam. Now there is a crackdown" (NYT).

Meanwhile, according to the Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's fatwa, "Prayer is invalid with the presence of dog hair." We're told "A dog’s saliva or hair would render anything it touched — like a person, clothing or a surface — impure."

If you have a dog, you've always got at least one dog hair on you, I would think. All your prayers are invalidated. If things as puny as one dog hair invalidate a prayer, it's hard to imagine any prayers getting through. 

"Alongside Romania, Germany and Sweden, Vance singled out the UK for some of the most scathing passages of his tirade."

"He complained that the British authorities had been jailing journalists.... Vance also railed against the 'crazy' conviction last year of Adam Smith-Connor, a physiotherapist and army reserve veteran, who was fined £9,000 for conducting a brief 'silent prayer' protest in the legal 'buffer zone' around an abortion clinic in Bournemouth. He then turned to the Scottish government, which he said had been distributing letters to households near abortion clinics that warned residents they would be committing a crime if they prayed against abortion in the privacy of their own homes. 'Actually, the government urged the readers to report any fellow citizens suspected to be guilty of thoughtcrime,' Vance told the Munich Security Conference. 'In Britain and across Europe, free speech, I fear, is in retreat.'"

From "JD Vance attacks UK and EU over 'retreat of free speech'/Addressing the Munich Security Conference, the US vice-president avoided mentioning Ukraine but said censorship was more dangerous to the West than Russia" (London Times).

The full speech:

"My first time in this Oval Office was in... 1962... I came here... and I had a meeting with my uncle who was President... He was involved deeply, as we all know..."

"... in restoring physical fitness in this country.... At one point during his administration, he challenged Americans to do a 50-mile walk, which I ultimately did. But I remember the day that my father completed his walk. We were staying at Camp David, and my father came in after 18 hours walking on this towpath with his feet bleeding and blisters on them...."

Said RFK Jr. at the beginning of the short speech he made after his swearing in yesterday. I wrote quite a bit about that speech, here, but I did not include that part, and this morning I'm seeing an important reason why I should have. 

RFK Jr. began his remarks with JFK's physical fitness program, and then he extends beyond his uncle to his father, who took the uncle's challenge very seriously, and we hear of his father's wounds — his wounded feet. I think of Christ's wounds, so often detailed in art, and here, we are given grisly details — "bleeding and blisters." RFK Jr. began with a family story — father, son, and holy President — and a grand mission — physical health. 

From that beginning RFK Jr. spoke of how his father came to run for President in 1968.

"Students appeared to form a prayer circle in the field as they waited to depart."

"One approaching mother began to cry when she saw her young daughter. She ran to her, wrapping her in a tight embrace. Nearby, a boy pressed his mother for details about what had happened. 'Did anyone die, Mom?' he asked. She walked briskly on and responded, 'I don’t know.'"

From "Georgia students and teachers killed in deadliest school shooting this year/Frightened children prayed and wept in their classrooms as desperate parents ran down a rural road to reunite" (WaPo).

Trump's convention speech had 2 phases, both brilliant, but very different.

In the first phase, Trump describes the assassination attempt from his perspective and for what he asserts is the last time:

So many people have asked me what happened. “Tell us what happened, please.” And therefore, I will tell you exactly what happened, and you’ll never hear it from me a second time, because it’s actually too painful to tell. It was a warm, beautiful day in the early evening....

This fills 20 minutes and segues into an unrushed tribute to the man who died and the 2 other men who were injured. There's an iconic stage prop, Corey Comperatore represented in the form of his empty helmet and jacket. Trump kisses Comperatore's head and pats him on the shoulder then returns to the lectern to lead a silent prayer. Again unrushed (but not overlong). We see different members of the audience in different attitudes of prayer. (Jared Kushner, eyes wide open, looked straight ahead.) 

The first phase continued with the uplifting abstract material that Trump had promised to deliver. I've copied this section in full:

"You're going to be so blessed, you're gonna be tired of being blessed."

NOT FUNNY!!!😂😂😂 pic.twitter.com/ha3EeFosAj

— il Donaldo Trumpo (@PapiTrumpo) July 16, 2024

"I have some news to tell you. Please don’t be sad. I am ….dying.... The truth is we all are dying. Every day we live we are getting closer to our death."

"Why am I telling you this? Because I want you to enjoy your life to the fullest every single day. Get up in the morning and look at the sky… count your blessings and enjoy.  Start with a healthy breakfast.... Then there is lunch. How about a nice salad? Don’t eat your dinner too late.... Every day that you are alive you have got to move.... I have a lot of workout videos on YouTube that you can use....Tell the ones that you love that you love them... If you have time I want you to listen to a terrific song. It is by Tim McGraw it is called Live Like You Were Dying. Live today and don’t forget to pray."

Wrote Richard Simmons, on Facebook last March.

I clicked there from Richard Simmons, legendary fitness personality, dies at 76/Simmons was found unresponsive Saturday at his Hollywood Hills home, one day after his 76th birthday, two law enforcement sources said" (NBC News).

"I think he’s praying. But if he is sleeping, you know, he certainly looks pretty while he sleeps."

Said Congresswoman Lauren Boebert, reacting to Congressman Robert Garcia, who'd had some reason to point out that Trump seems to be sleeping some of the time at his criminal trial, reported at Mediaite.

This exchange took place at the same House Oversight Committee meeting where Marjorie Taylor Greene sneered at Jasmine Crockett's false eyelashes and Crockett shot back with a butch-phobic remark about MTG's body.

The most outré quotes come from the Oversight Committee.

"But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven."

Said Jesus Christ, quoted in Matthew 5:44-45.

Recalled on reading Trump's Truth Social Easter message:

"'Do my work, ignore the distractions,' she said God told her."

"She" is Fani T. Willis, the district attorney in Fulton County, Georgia, who wants us to think God speaks directly to her.

I'm reading "Atlanta D.A. Defends Qualifications of Outside Lawyer She Hired for Trump Case/At a historic Black church, Fani T. Willis pushed back against an accusation that Nathan Wade, the special prosecutor she brought on, was unqualified for the job" (NYT).

We're told "Ms. Willis said she turned to prayer last week, at one point even writing a letter to God in which she expressed self-doubt." Expressed self-doubt but also seems to have reprimanded God for not telling her how challenging life would be:

"Kennedy maintains a mental list of everyone he’s known who has died. He told me that each morning he spends an hour..."

"... having a quiet conversation with those people, usually while out hiking alone. He asks the deceased to help him be a good person, a good father, a good writer, a good attorney. He prays for his six children. He’s been doing this for 40 years. The list now holds more than 200 names. I asked him if he felt that his dad or uncle had sent him any messages encouraging him to run for president. 'I don’t really have two-way conversations of that type,' he said. 'And I would mistrust anything that I got from those waters, because I know there’s people throughout history who have heard voices.' He laughed. 'It’s hard to be the arbiter of your own sanity. It’s dangerous.'"

 Writes John Hendrickson, in "The First MAGA Democrat/Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is feeding Americans’ appetite for conspiracies" (The Atlantic).

"I should have the right to introduce my daughter to the concepts of adultery and coveting one's spouse."

"It shouldn’t be one of the first things she learns to read in her kindergarten classroom."

Said John Litzler, general counsel for the Texas Baptists Christian Life Commission, quoted in "Public schools would have to display Ten Commandments under bill passed by Texas Senate/The Senate also passed a bill that would set prayer and Bible reading times during the school day" (The Texas Tribune). 

On the pro side, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick said: "I believe that you cannot change the culture of the country until you change the culture of mankind. Bringing the Ten Commandments and prayer back to our public schools will enable our students to become better Texans."

I like the way Litzler is invoking parental rights, which, on other issues, are so performatively treasured by social conservatives.

"You don’t get to 'thoughts and prayers' your way out of this" — says AOC to Lauren Boebert.

.@laurenboebert you have played a major role in elevating anti-LGBT+ hate rhetoric and anti-trans lies while spending your time in Congress blocking even the most common sense gun safety laws.

You don’t get to “thoughts and prayers” your way out of this. Look inward and change. https://t.co/mxt6wFMVEv

— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) November 20, 2022

"“From all sour faced saints, deliver me O’ Lord. I don’t want to be with a grouch, a crab, a crocodile in a moat...."

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A post shared by Humans of New York (@humansofny)

More about the priest, Father Bill Holt, here. We're told "He’s famous for his 'Holt-isms' (little pieces of friendly priestly advice) and for sending thoughtful notes to encourage the brothers in their work."

I've got 10 TikToks for you on this profound evening.

1. Close out Yom Kippur with Mandy Patinkin.

2. Gordon Lightfoot, an icon of old age.

3. The handsome dog.

4. Man in shorts.

5. Survival.

6. Shopping at Erewhon is the essence of anxiety.

7. Husband loves separate bedrooms.

8. Rethink "I'm only human."

9. An especially crazy Rube Goldberg Machine.

10. The holiday film written by bots.

"I want my father back."

@mandypatinktok

One of our favorite experiences from TikTok last year.

♬ original sound - Mandy Patinkin and Kathryn G

At the Tuesday Night Café...

... you can write about whatever you want.

It was a lovely day here in Madison, Wisconsin. I got out of the house twice. First, at 10 a.m, I took a break from my morning's blogging session to walk over to the church to vote. Yes, as I've told you many times, we vote in a church. We had to wear masks and show IDs. That was an odd combination, and the woman who checked me in looked at my photo and then spent extra time earnestly examining the top half of my face. I got through voting before Meade, so I waited in the hallway. I passed the time reading a big collection of Post-It notes — prayer requests relating to the pandemic:

Back at home, I did lots more blogging — and some other things — before throwing myself out of the house at 4:30. I got in plenty of steps down by the lake — listening to David McCullough's "1776" — and I took this one photograph:

"It creates a grounding feeling - a moment of stillness. I feel like our dinners at home are much better now - like, 'Now we are together, and this is what we're doing.' I mean, I'm not going to say we have Rockwellian dinners or anything."

Said one father, quoted in "Saying grace: How a moment of thanks, religious or not, adds meaning to our meals" (originally published in WaPo, but linked to Greenwich Time, where I arrived via Drudge). 

Also: "M.J. Ryan, whose books on gratitude include 'A Grateful Heart: Daily Blessings for the Evening Meals from Buddha to the Beatles,' says... 'Taking in the good is a counterbalance to that negativity bias we have in our brains... [Grace is] a built-in moment.... The food is an objective thing to look at that we have and can be grateful for.'" 

And Tim O'Malley, the academic director for Notre Dame's Center for Liturgy: "If you think about the modern household, it's efficient - we get together, we eat, we run.... It might be the most damning thing in modern culture, that receiving without gratitude...."