"I have this German mind, if something is too spicy, it should be warned — or at least labelled."

Said Faycal Manz, quoted in "A German tourist sued a restaurant because its sauce is too hot. So I tried it/A litigious visitor claimed the salsa at Los Tacos No. 1 in Times Square made his tongue burn. I wondered: How bad could it be?" (London Times).

“My tongue and mouth were burning immediately,” he claimed. “My Apple Watch registered at this time a higher pulse.”

His lawsuit, for $100,000, was dismissed.

According to the article, the salsa at Los Tacos No. 1 isn't even that spicy. 

"Students at the University of Glasgow have been cautioned that Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone contains 'outdated attitudes, abuse and language.'"

"The work by JK Rowling appears alongside a number of titles, including Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll, the dystopian 2001 novel Noughts & Crosses by Malory Blackman and Edith Nesbit’s 1899 book The Treasure Seekers, assessed as having the potential to cause offence."

From "Trigger warning slapped on Harry Potter for ‘outdated attitudes’/Students at the University of Glasgow are also being warned about Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll and The Treasure Seekers by Edith Nesbit" (London Times).

Maybe college students need to be warned to move on beyond children's books. 

"I did not like to think about it just as later I would not like to think about the worm in his brain that other people found so funny."

"I loved his brain. I hated the idea of an intruder therein. Others thought he was a madman; he was not quite mad the way they thought, but I loved the private ways that he was mad. I loved that he was insatiable in all ways, as if he would swallow up the whole world just to know it better if he could. He made me laugh, but I winced when he joked about the worm. 'Baby, don’t worry,' he said. 'It’s not a worm.'... I worry about evil.... Was it ever a question, that where there was a cloak there would be a dagger? A friend told me once, 'Never trust anyone wearing a lapel pin.' This politician did not wear one of those.... I mean to tell you that, as it relates to monsters, little can be assured beyond their ceaseless want.... I mean to tell you that as I studied them, I was sometimes fooled.... I mean to tell you that this is more meaningful and more meaningless than you might think. I mean to tell you that, before I was consumed by it, I could not have told you what it was.... I am talking, of course, about how it happened between me and the Politician. I am talking, of course, about how it happened between the country and the president... I mean to tell you now as best I can."

Writes Olivia Nuzzi, in "Olivia Nuzzi's American Canto: Read the Exclusive Excerpt/She flamed out and she faded away. Vanity Fair’s West Coast Editor returns to the written word to survey scorched earth" (Vanity Fair).

If you are a connoisseur of purple prose, don't miss this one. There are also some lovely pictures of Ms. Nuzzi, who seems to be quite beautiful.

Oh, A.I., make a charming argument for why purple prose should be celebrated when it is written by a beautiful woman. Answer: "A beautiful woman’s purple prose should be celebrated because her extravagant words are merely the audible shimmer of her own radiance spilling onto the page, and only a fool would demand a diamond dim its fire to spare the darkness."

AND: I had another prompt for A.I.: What do you think of the title "American Canto" for a purple prose account of a beautiful woman's love affair with a politician (specifically Olivia Nuzzi's book about RFK Jr., a married man)? I'll just give the conventional warning,  "Abandon all hope, all ye who enter here."

"Camp Mystic’s leader got a ‘life threatening’ flood alert. They evacuated an hour later."

"Much of what made the camp special also put it at heightened risk as the river rose to record levels, a [Washington] Post investigation found."

That's a free-access link.

Excerpt: "As the water encroached, the teenage counselors, cut off from others, were left to make frantic life-and-death decisions. They began rousting girls from their cabins, the younger campers screaming or crying as they waited for help or were ushered to higher ground. Dick Eastland, 70, and other staffers eventually realized that the Bubble Inn and Twins cabins, which held the littlest girls — some as young as 8 — were in the most danger, Eastland Jr. said. A swirling eddy of water had formed from two directions...."

"'I was so distraught when I heard this news last night,' said Senator Tim Kaine... who for years has opposed adding flights at Reagan..."

"... and warned of the dangers posed by overcrowding the D.C. airspace. 'I will not be able to rewatch the speech I gave on the Senate floor about it because it would make me too upset,' he added. Last year, as the Senate debated the latest round of additional flights, Mr. Kaine said he feared the prospect of people sticking a microphone in lawmakers’ faces after a tragedy and saying 'you were warned and you voted for it anyway.'"

From "Congress Approved More Flights at Reagan Despite Warnings of Danger/Lawmakers repeatedly added flights despite fears of delays and accidents" (NYT)(Congress has repeatedly voted to increase the number of daily flights at Reagan National Airport, adding departures that made life more convenient for lawmakers...).

"The crab warned her. The goldfish warned her."

"There is no seatbelt for parents to click, no helmet to snap in place, no assurance that trusted experts have investigated and ensured that these platforms are safe for our kids...."

"Parents aren’t the only ones yearning for solutions. Last fall, I gathered with students to talk about mental health and loneliness. As often happens in such gatherings, they raised the issue of social media.... 'I just don’t feel good when I use social media,' [a young woman named Tina] said softly.... Her confession opened the door for her classmates.... There was a sadness in their voices, as if they knew what was happening to them but felt powerless to change it.... Why is it that we have failed to respond to the harms of social media when they are no less urgent or widespread than those posed by unsafe cars, planes or food?... Students like Tina... do not want to be told that change takes time, that the issue is too complicated or that the status quo is too hard to alter.... Now is the time to summon the will to act...."

Writes Vivek H. Murthy, the Surgeon General, in "For Our Kids’ Safety, Social Media Platforms Need a Health Warning" (NYT).

WARNING — THE QUESTION THAT FOLLOWS MAY AFFECT YOUR BRAIN. How dare the government slap its message on the writing and photography of its free citizens?

Let's have a congressional hearing...

"In a complaint filed Wednesday... Justen Lipeles... alleges that [Madonna concert] attendees were subjected to 'pornography without warning'..."

"... including 'topless women on stage simulating sex acts' in an uncomfortable, sweltering environment. He claims that Madonna demanded the air conditioning be turned off and he became physically ill in the heat. Lipeles also cites Madonna's tardiness.... 'Forcing consumers to wait hours in hot, uncomfortable arenas and subjecting them to pornography without warning is demonstrative of Madonna's flippant disrespect for her fans'...."

From "Madonna hit with new lawsuit alleging unwanted exposure to sexual content and emotional distress/California concert attendee Justen Lipeles is the latest to sue the pop star over her 'Celebration' tour" (Entertainment Weekly).

It was hot and she was late are not interesting complaints. The key phrase here is "pornography without warning." I remember seeing "Marat/Sade" in New York in the 1960s when I was a teenager and feeling quite surprised to see the lead actor become completely naked at one point. Somehow I dealt with it. Should I have been warned? It was supposed to be shocking, not that it was "pornography without warning." It was about revolution and madness, not sex.

Maybe some people would like advance consent to anything sexual, including a theatrical performance. Isn't it enough to know it's Madonna? Who goes to a Madonna concert then complains about topless women on stage simulating sex acts?

"The head of Maui’s emergency management agency... defended the decision not to activate the sirens, saying the outdoor alarms are used primarily for tsunamis..."

"... and would not have helped because people are trained to seek higher ground when they hear the siren.... None of the 80 warning sirens placed around Maui were activated in last week’s fires.... A county-run website on the siren describes it as an 'all-hazard siren system' to alert residents to natural disasters and other emergency situations, 'including tsunamis, hurricanes, dam breaches, flooding, wildfires, volcanic eruptions, terrorist threats, hazardous material incidents, and more.'"

From "Maui’s Emergency Management Chief Resigns After Questions About Fire Response/The chief, Herman Andaya, cited his health in stepping down. His agency’s decision not to sound emergency sirens as wildfires neared Lahaina had drawn scrutiny" (NYT).

"Asked if he was warned about the fire, one Lahaina resident [said] 'Oh, hell no'... [H]e fled with his wife when they saw flames about 500 yards from their house."

"He said the fire quickly closed in on them as they drove through thick black smoke — and finally to safety. 'Nobody saw this coming,' he said. Claire Kent, who works in Lahaina taking tourists out on a boat off the coast, said she began to panic around 3:30 p.m. when she saw a billowing cloud of black smoke and heard an explosion. A neighbor told her three nearby gas stations were on fire and urged her to pack a bag to flee. As she and several friends tried to drive out of town, she said, she saw people trying to escape on foot, some holding children. Even then, said Ms. Kent, she had still not been notified of any need to evacuate — save for a shirtless man on a bicycle along the road who was screaming: 'You have to get out!'... Robbie Wares, who has lived in Lahaina for decades, said the only warning she got was from someone — it was not clear who it was — shouting out of a moving vehicle that passed by her house...."

From "Some Fire Survivors Say Flames Reached Them Before Evacuation Orders/A fire near Lahaina that had initially been contained flared up again and threatened homes, but some residents said they received no evacuation orders" (NYT).

That last post — about warning Trump not to use the criminal trial to prove the 2020 election was stolen — got me exploring the general subject of warnings...

... exploring with a robot.

Me: "What are some examples in literature of a person being told not to go somewhere, as if it would be dangerous, when in fact it would be beneficial to that person to do what he is being warned against? "

ChatGPT:

"Former president Donald Trump and some of his legal advisers see an upside to the latest criminal case against him: He can use his upcoming trial to further argue his false claims of a stolen 2020 election...."

I'm reading "Trump plans to use charges to revisit 2020 election, a fraught topic for GOP/Strategists in both parties agree that having Trump talking about election fraud and Jan. 6 hurts Republicans" (WaPo).

Isn't it a "fraught topic" for Democrats too?! This is the sharpest example of concern trolling I've ever seen. It's going to "hurt Republicans" if Trump uses the opportunity of the criminal trial to break open the question of the legitimacy of the 2020 election?

Let's keep reading:

"And now, we are all thinking about the kitten. Wish I hadn't read this"/"I stopped reading a quarter of the way in"/"Wish I had."

"Same. Ruined my morning. And a picture on top. There’s nothing cute or funny about this story, though the author tried. It’s just horrible"/"It wasn't entirely clear what the author was doing. Some of it seemed like he was making the horror into a cute story...."/"Wonder if they ever took those pups out walking - get them tired so no running around crazy in the back yard"/"I'm mostly against trigger warnings in general, but I resent this story being presented as some sort of whimsical travel tale. I also didn't need to see the picture of the dead kitten, adorable as he was. I don't think I'll ever want to revisit this dude's writing"/"This was an awful article, made worse by pictures of the angelic, deceased kitten. Who continued to be mentioned for the rest of the article. I’m reading this with my cats on my lap. WTF, WaPo??!!"

The comments section is reviling this WaPo travel article: "They arrived to housesit amid 2 dogs and 16 cats. What could go wrong?"

Apple's new Mindfulness app lets you log in your “momentary emotion” and “daily mood”...

"... compiling a diary of feelings and their causes — perhaps family time makes you happy and time working in front of screens makes you sad — which could be reflected back as insights that might help make things better. [There] was a set of tools for improving users’ 'vision health,' with a focus on myopia.... Using data from device sensors, Apple will instruct users — especially but not exclusively young ones — to go outside, into the natural light, or to move their screens further from their faces....[while also selling you] the Vision Pro, a $3,500 computer that straps directly to your face...."

From "Apple Keeps Trying To Fix Its Users/The company’s guilty conscience is making it nudgy" (NY Magazine).

You never see a spoiler alert on an obituary.

But this is the most compelling case for one that I have ever noticed. Please, if you haven't seen the excellent movie "Heavenly Creatures" — directed by Peter Jackson, starring Kate Winslet and Melanie Lynskey — don't click forward. Watch the movie first! I know you won't. You've gone this long without seeing it. And what a story. You might as well click through.

"What was unique about the Cornell situation is they rapidly turned in a response that was a 'hard no.'"

"There was no level of kowtowing. It was a very firm defense of what it means to get an education."

Said Alex Morey, the director of the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, quoted in "Should College Come With Trigger Warnings? At Cornell, It’s a ‘Hard No.’ When the student assembly voted to require faculty to alert students to upsetting educational materials, administrators pushed back" (NYT). 

The student assembly voted unanimously that it "implores all instructors to provide content warnings on the syllabus for any traumatic content that may be discussed," and the university president Martha E. Pollack, vetoed the resolution, the first use of this veto in more than 20 years.

The students' use of the word" implores" makes it sound like a mere request, but there was also the resolution that "students who choose to opt-out of exposure to triggering content will not be penalized, contingent on their responsibility to make up any missed content."

That the "Day of Hate" did not happen is a news story that must be reported.

It's not nothing, because of the warnings. When I google "Day of Hate," I see no news of the actual day, when, apparently, nothing happened, but the warnings about it:

 

I want to see not merely the news of what, if anything, happened but also the investigation of how these warnings came into being. Did the authorities get conned by some internet trolls? Are the Russians afoot? Does our own government seek to control us with racial paranoia?

Why just a warning?

"Britney Spears has received a warning from animal control after her Doberman, Porsha, escaped her California mansion and bit an elderly cyclist. Porsha - who was gifted to Spears by husband Sam Asghari with the promise that she will be trained to protect his wife from 'any motherf****r with bad intentions' - got out of the couples' $7.4 million Thousand Oaks home on Thursday... Sources told the outlet the dog came across a man in his 70s who was getting off his bike in the area and bit him before a member of Spears' security team got a hold of the pooch."

The Daily Mail reports.

Meanwhile, in San Antonio: 

"Man, 80, is killed and three others are injured in 'horrific' San Antonio pit bull dog attack: Firefighters forced to use pickaxes and metal poles to fight off the savage animals" (Daily Mail): "Neighbors say they had reported bites occurring in the past with multiple calls to the city's 311 complaint line. The dogs had been previously impounded for a 'mild bite' in 2021. Other calls made by neighbors within the past two years were concerns about animal neglect and aggression."

Elon Musk's 3:48 a.m. tweet.

My bedside table pic.twitter.com/sIdRYJcLTK

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 28, 2022

 

My thoughts, in order:

1. What's that thing in the lower left corner?

2. What's that book in a box in the back?

3. If we were still in old Twitter, and some disfavored person posted that, he'd have been permanently banned for inciting violence.

4. What's the source of that photo, really?

5. Elon Musk is trying to excite right-wingers positively and left-wingers negatively. It's all about churning the environment, cranking everybody up, and not about the creating a space where people who disagree can talk to each other, despite what he tweeted yesterday afternoon: "Just a note to encourage people of different political or other views to engage in civil debate on Twitter. Worst case, the other side has a slightly better understanding of your views." That was then. This is now. He tested civility. Now he's testing guns and caffeine.

6. Some kind of pun about "trigger warning"? He did do a conspicuous visual pun the other day: "Let that sink in." But he didn't use words to drive home the pun this time.

7. It seems more as though he's genuinely warning people that he will defend himself — figuratively and literally. 

8. Some statement about new and old — innovation and tradition. There's a modern gun and some sort of expensive historical artifact that may or may not have crossed the Delaware in George Washington's boat.

9. Testing to see who has a problem with American history in its upbeat, glorified form. 

10. Elon sees himself as a top-level historical figure. He's like Washington. He wants you to do a photoshop with his face pasted in for Washington's.

11. Do I have to go look and see what other people have said? He wants them to say it — to tweet it — over at Twitter. But, no, I'm here, securely in the old tradition. Blogging, not microblogging.

These are all headlines on the front page of the Washington Post website right now. Did I put them in the right order?

"Craving brains and hangry: Zombie behavior demystified by scientists."

"The sun was ‘smiling’ in a NASA photo. It might be a warning for Earth."

"Don’t blame ‘both sides.’ The right is driving political violence."

"Assault of Paul Pelosi was attack on democracy. The risks keep growing."