"Like many terrible things, we can blame therapyspeak on America’s stupidest decade: the 1970s."

"Back then, it was called psychobabble.... The concept survived the hedonistic ’80s, the grimy ’90s, and the low-rise aughts only to reemerge in the social media age with a new name and a more sinister purpose.... Isn’t it odd... that the most selfish people you know always seem to be the ones who are armchair diagnosing their friends and family with personality disorders? I’m reminded of the minor scandal that erupted a few years ago when an A-list actor allegedly wrote private messages to his then girlfriend telling her that if she needed to post photos of herself in a bathing suit, he was not the right partner for her. Elsewhere he wrote, 'I’d love to know before the premiere so I’m not put in the position of publicly flaunting our love if my boundaries are going to be continued to be disrespected. That would be hurtful and triggering for me.' The girlfriend was a professional surfer...."

From "You're Not a Therapist. Stop Talking Like One/Please respect everyone else's boundaries by keeping your psychobabble to yourself" (Vanity Fair).

This is an important general issue, but if you're interested in the A-list actor part of it, here's a Newsweek article from 2023: "Jonah Hill, Sarah Brady Text Messages—Full Transcript." It's really long and a massive invasion of privacy. Why did Newsweek publish all that? Or maybe the better question is why do people have their arguments via text? Why would anyone want to leave a cold record for the whole world to read? And this was a man concerned with "boundaries."

"The risky white male hypothesis!" — I say out loud as I'm writing the last post.

"Did you see the video I just sent you?" is Meade's response.

Whatever happened to The Utne Reader?

I was wondering, because it came up in conversation here this morning with Meade. Both of us used to read that magazines years ago. What was it — the 80s? Anyway, it's still around, and of course, it's also a website. I checked it out. I was amused by what it picked out for me (because I easily go off into the fantasy of contemplating is this really me?):



Is there some book I've spent years looking for? Am I dithering over varieties of fish? Am I ready to become suspicious of soy sauce? No. No. No. But they're right to prompt me with "Ten Things to Do When You’re Feeling Hopeless," not because I'm feeling hopeless, but because it's a list of 10 things, which makes me feel hopeful — hopeful that I can easily upload 10 tips and ward off hopelessness. I note that the article is from 2011, but that's great because it means there's no chance it will be padded with anything about Trump. Tip #1:

Give up hope. That’s right, get off the hope/despair roller coaster and realize once and for all: It’s hopeless! You should have known when a U.S. presidential candidate won an election on a platform of mere hope that it was time to give it up. Embrace hopelessness! It’s OK! It makes sense. But we can, should, and must still be intentional, responsible, and joyful.

Ha ha. Confident that Trump would not appear, I stumbled into Obama. Hey, this is a good article. I recommend it. I also like these other suggestions that appeared in the sidebar next to the hopelessness article. I would click on all of this stuff:



Forest bathing is an old favorite topic of mine — see here and here. The new Utne Reader article is "Your Guide to Forest Bathing/Learn to take a step away from stress and towards the presence of nature, using mindfulness and meditation to feel peace while surrounded by the wild earth":

The sequence described [of 8 steps in the Optimal Flow] has proven over hundreds of walks to reliably create a strong sensory connection with the forests. It brings us home, opening our internal gates and inviting the forest to come meet our minds and hearts and spirits... The repeated use of these invitations will, over time, deepen your understanding and your capacity to fully “drop in.” Dropping in is a term I’ve often heard forest bathers use. Its origin is in surfing, a practice that’s related in many ways to forest bathing. Surfers wait watchfully for a wave; when one comes, they must paddle to catch it. At a certain point, the paddling gives way to the wave’s own energy carrying the board forward. The surfer stands and “drops in” to the wave and the flow of the moment. When your forest bathing practice begins to ripen, like a skillful surfer you will learn how to drop in, allowing the forest and your own embodied awareness to flow together....

Yes, dropping in. Works for web-surfing too. We're web-bathing here. Feel the flow!

"One of the first stories Barack told me when he and Michelle arrived on Moskito Island was how..."

"... just before he became President, he had been surfing on a dangerous break in Hawaii. When he came in from an exhilarating session, the new head of his security team turned to him and said: 'This will be the last time you surf for eight years.' For the next eight years he didn’t have the chance to surf, enjoy watersports or do many of the things he loved. So it was tremendous to offer him the chance to learn to kitesurf...."

What do you think of Garrett Epps saying Justice Alito "looked for all the world like Sean Penn as Jeff Spicoli in Fast Times at Ridgemont High..."

"... signaling to the homies his contempt for Ray Walston as the bothersome history teacher, Mr. Hand"? Commenters at "Did Justice Alito roll his eyes while Justice Ginsburg was speaking?" let Epps have it. Does he even know the movie? Amartel said:

If Alito had ordered a pizza to be delivered to the well at the Supreme Court, or called Ginsburg a "dick" that would be, like, a totally different story.

Likewise, Youngblood says:

Spicoli doesn't act like that in the film. Now, if Justice Alito said to Justice Ginsburg, "You DICK!" or ordered a pizza in the middle of class, that would be a different story. But little niggling gestures of disrespect aren't really Spicoli-like at all.

And CatherineM:

What I find most offensive is the Spicoli reference. Has Epps ever watched Fast Times? Jeff called Hand a dick once for ripping up his excuse, but he never mocked Mr. Hand. He was incapable. He was too high.

That's his tell. Epps is lying. I object.

To sum up, here's Henry:

Jeff Spicoli is a hero. When did liberals go all in on being turgid squares?

I don't know, man, but the Supreme Court is about to close up for the summer, and maybe all Sam Alito needs are some tasty waves, a cool buzz, and he'll be fine.  When it's October, and the Justices are back for oral arguments, maybe he will order that pizza....

"Not many people get bitten by a shark twice, so that’s good."

"It lowers my chances."

I'm starting a new tag: Charming bad logic.

"I think that any (laws) there are in Constitution or in life, are already made."

Hey, come on. That's kind of a great answer. Now, it gets a bit odd after that:

I think that we should have a straight way to go in our similar, or ... in our lives. For example, I am a surfer and I think that the best wave that I can take is the wave that I wait for it.

But still... I see the sense in it: Libertarian!

Some fine Drudge juxtapositioning today — monkey + Sebelius and Lewinsky + some scary mysterious liquid.

Thanks to the reader who pointed me to Drudge right now. (Here it is, preserved in the archive.)

You have to scroll down to the middle of the page, where you find, in the center column, the striking face of the new monkey whose eyes direct our eyes over to the right-hand column and the face of Kathleen Sebelius, which — you tell me — either looks or doesn't look like the new monkey.



Scroll down further and there's Monica Lewinsky, who might write "a tell-all book," not that she hasn't already written a memoir. But that puts her in the news enough for Drudge to dredge up her picture, and who'd really care but — yikes! — what's that stuff in that picture next to her...



"Surfers ride foam-covered wave in NZ..." Of course, Drudge wants us to think of Clinton's semen. (Look! Lewinsky's wearing a blue dress!) There's no question about that. I click on the splooge-evoking link and get a much bigger shot of those "330ft of yellow froth"... those "overflowing flood-waters which whipped the murky-coloured waves into a frenzy, kicking up some eye-catching spray when they broke."

Whew! I don't know if I want a tell-all book.

In other news: "Monk Found Wandering Naked After Eating Hallucinogenic Berries..."

How do they know the surfer's wave was 78 feet high?

It breaks the 2008 record by 1 foot. 1 foot?! Who does these measurements and how? 

Judges for the awards, considered the official arbiters of big-wave surfing, pored over footage and high-resolution still images from several angles to calculate a more accurate estimate....

They used McNamara’s height in a crouch and the length of his shin bone to help compare it to the wave’s top and bottom....

The measurement is reported in feet, but it's measured in shin bones.

"I've spent the last 48 years chasing hurricanes to ride the swells."

Says our commenter Surfed:

Was a Florida hurricane correspondent for Surfline.com for a few years. I've been caught in a few. First the wind comes in blowing in one direction for several hours. Then the eye passes over and things go quiet. The sun comes out birds sing and people wander out of doors to asses[s] damage. Make sure your car is allright. Surfers bike/walk to the beach to check out the swells and wind. Then as the eye wall passes you run back in doors as the wind comes in from the opposite direction. Roofs blown free come back at you. Everything that was blown off is returned as the wind swings around. If you're actually hunkered down on the coast you do a lot of praying. There are no athiests in a hurricane. As it all subsides and if the damage isn't to great it's time to go surfing. If you're an older surfer like me you have to be more aware of your physical limitations. It's easy to die in big waves. A 55 year old high school teacher (like me) died in New Symrna Beach yesterday. If it's a Class I you'll generally be allright. Less so as you move up the scale. Class IV and above? Run like hell. At any rate the waves are calling so I'm out for my second session of the day...

In that light, Governor Christie says:



"Get the hell off the beach.... You've maximized your tan..."

"You've maximized your tan..." really applies independently of the hurricane. Come on, Jersey kids. Enough!

"It is my high priority to find a new venue —and bring the Surfing Madonna and her important message of 'Save The Ocean' — back into public view in our community as soon as possible."

The unauthorized mosaic is "uniting the Latino community, surfers, ocean-lovers, environmentalists, and promoting ocean awareness in a way that's playful."

"Cool it, Fellas! When I'm done let's all get high on the ammonia fumes!!!"

I love the comments thread over at YouTube — the source of the post title.

Cripes! Like they've never seen a white funnel cloud come out of a hot blonde's house!

looks like a 70's porn movie, lol.

:-D Just love that tornado music.

Heh, that one surfer kinda looks like Nicolas Cage! I can remember that tornado (& trippy musical accompaniment) somewhat freaking me out as a child.

I never knew there was a time where a strong ammonia smell was a good thing...

Ha ha. I never knew there would be a time when the stupid things I tried to avoid would be things I would go out of my way to make everyone look at. Or — for insiders only — the things I eschewed would be things I espewed.

***

This post is inspired by the poem wonderful Bissage wrote about the sink rainbow.

"I'm a surfer up against two lawyers."

But it was not to be. Sorry, Ozzy. I was rooting for you. Yul, I loved you too. Congratulations.