It's funny because it's a man.

"A California TV reporter got into a hairy situation while filing a report from her bathroom – when her naked hubby was caught in the shower, according to a report" (NY Post).

"Twitter’s CEO, last of the Steve Jobs-like tech-founder demigods, was on the verge of being pushed out by private-equity investors. But his will, and wiles—and COVID-19—gave him new purpose. For now."

From a new Vanity Fair piece about Jack Dorsey (by Nick Bilton):

[E]ach day Dorsey wakes up... checks to see what the sleep-tracking ring on his finger says, then lowers himself into an ice bath before meditating in a warm tent sauna. This is followed by a seven-minute workout and then drinking his breakfast, which he calls “salt juice,” a concoction of water, salt, and lemon, which is the only thing he will “eat” until the evening, when he enjoys his single real meal of the day. His day wraps up in a slightly more extreme version of the way it began, with a ritual of 15 minutes in his barrel sauna, followed by three minutes in his ice bath, which he does back and forth three times for an hour. He then meditates again.... He enjoys working from home at least two days a week, often in his kitchen, or at his desk under the glow of a near-infrared light. When he does go into the office, he always walks the five miles there...

In Silicon Valley, tech founders embody all of the industry’s highest values—much like Greek gods. Someone like Dorsey, who goes on silent meditation retreats, dresses in couture costumes, runs two companies at the same time, and dates supermodels, is the epitome of “making it.” For a long time, Wall Street really couldn’t argue with the “cult of the founder” philosophy, as it’s called, as tech companies grew exponentially... Yet in recent years, as one start-up after another has fallen under the weight of its own bullshit, the cult of the founder has given way to a much more realistic reality....

As for the 45 total minutes Dorsey allegedly spends in his 220-degree sauna at night (which he breaks up into three separate stints), two World Sauna Championship competitors (yes, that’s a thing) collapsed after spending six minutes in a sauna only 10 degrees warmer than Dorsey’s (which is already hotter than boiling water). After being dragged out, the competitors were treated for severe burns, and one of the men died....

Lots more in the article. I didn't excerpt the details about various efforts to oust Dorsey. I'm stressing the weird stuff — the hot and the salty.

CNN's Jeremy Diamond asks Trump "Is this really the time for self-congratulations?" and Trump hits back.

I've clipped out the very hot segment from yesterday's Task Force press briefing:



Here's the transcript:

Speaker 16: Mr. President, more than 22 million Americans are currently unemployed as a result of this. Today we hit the grim milestone of more than 40,000 Americans now having died from the coronavirus. Can you explain then why you come out here and you were reading clips and showing clips of praise for you and for your administration? Is this really the time for self-congratulations?

"Isn't it wonderful that folks are learning to make their own kicky cocktails at home during the pandemic, and that bars are doing a brisk take-out business?"

"Ha, ha, ha, what a cheerful story! Here's the reality: loss of jobs and income, fear, crowding, desperation are causing many people to drink excessively. I can see it at the supermarket: grocery carts crammed with the lowest-price gin and whiskey. What we have here is a new incoming wave of alcohol abuse and addiction. Shame on the WaPo for this idiotic story."

A comment on "Traveling in spirit: How to-go drinks and cocktail kits are letting us escape/And helping bars and restaurants across the United States survive" (WaPo).

Harvard Magazine gets attention for an article about the "risks of home schooling."

Harvard Magazine has a cover story on the dangers of home schooling and suggest a presumptive ban. In the cover image they misspelt arithmetic. https://t.co/GjTzL64hEQ

— Shruti Rajagopalan (@srajagopalan) April 19, 2020

I first saw that at Instapundit, where Glenn has written a funny-mean headline: "ELIZABETH BARTHOLET, THE 'KAREN WANTS TO SPEAK TO THE MANAGER' PROFESSOR OF LAW AT HARVARD, DOESN’T LIKE HOMESCHOOLING."

Let's look at the article. First, "arithmetic" is spelled correctly (so the illustration was either edited by Harvard Magazine or by somebody who wanted to make it look stupid):

The article is written by Erin O'Donnell, based on interviewing Elizabeth Bartholet, who is the Wasserstein public interest professor of law and faculty director of the Law School’s Child Advocacy Program. Bartholet "recommends a presumptive ban" on homeschooling.

“We have an essentially unregulated regime in the area of homeschooling,” Bartholet asserts. All 50 states have laws that make education compulsory, and state constitutions ensure a right to education, “but if you look at the legal regime governing homeschooling, there are very few requirements that parents do anything.” Even apparent requirements such as submitting curricula, or providing evidence that teaching and learning are taking place, she says, aren’t necessarily enforced. Only about a dozen states have rules about the level of education needed by parents who homeschool, she adds. “That means, effectively, that people can homeschool who’ve never gone to school themselves, who don’t read or write themselves.” In another handful of states, parents are not required to register their children as homeschooled; they can simply keep their kids at home.

This practice, Bartholet says, can isolate children. She argues that one benefit of sending children to school at age four or five is that teachers are “mandated reporters,” required to alert authorities to evidence of child abuse or neglect. “Teachers and other school personnel constitute the largest percentage of people who report to Child Protective Services,” she explains, whereas not one of the 50 states requires that homeschooling parents be checked for prior reports of child abuse. Even those convicted of child abuse, she adds, could “still just decide, ‘I’m going to take my kids out of school and keep them at home.’”

Reading those paragraphs,  I thought of the great memoir Educated, by Tara Westover, and then I saw that the next paragraph has Bartholet citing Westover as an example of a child who is kept out of school, left uneducated and subjected to physical abused throughout childhood.

[S]urveys of homeschoolers show that a majority of such families (by some estimates, up to 90 percent) are driven by conservative Christian beliefs, and seek to remove their children from mainstream culture. Bartholet notes that some of these parents are “extreme religious ideologues” who question science and promote female subservience and white supremacy.

Children should “grow up exposed to...democratic values, ideas about nondiscrimination and tolerance of other people's viewpoints.”...

Bartholet's idea of a "presumptive ban" would put the burden on the parents to meet some sort of standard that would be set by legislation. Do those who are insulting Bartholet support letting parents keep their children out of school on a mere claim that they are educating their children at home?

Sunrise, 6:10.

... actual sunrise time — 6:09.

(Talk about anything you want in the comments.)

At the Midday Café...

... don't be blue.

"When I first came in, Iran was going to take over the entire Middle East. Right now they just want to survive."

From the transcript of yesterday's press briefing:

When I came in Iran was a terror. We had 82 points of fighting. We had 18 points of major confliction. The first week I said, “Tell me about Iran.” “Sir, we have 18 points of confliction.” Meaning Yemen, Syria, Iraq, they’re going into Iraq all over the place. They’re a much different nation right now.

I stopped that horrible deal. And they want to talk except that Kerry violated the Logan Act. He made the deal and he doesn’t want them to make a deal because… I would have made a deal, in my opinion, except that John Kerry, who made the deal originally, which was a stupid deal to make. Gave them $150 billion, gave them 1.8 billion in cash, in green. That would be more than this room, 10 times, with $100 bills. You could fill up this room 10 times with $100 bills and it’s not that small of room....

When I first came in, Iran was going to take over the entire Middle East. Right now they just want to survive. They’re having protests every week. They’re loaded up with the plague, which I don’t want. I’ve offered to help them if they want. If they need ventilators, which they do, I would send them ventilators....

Right now they don’t want to mess around with us. They don’t want to mess around with us... And they want to make a deal. The only reason that they don’t, they’re being shamed because the guy that gave them the sweetheart didn’t want to…. met with him many times. He should have never met with them. And in my opinion, he’s telling them: Don’t. Wait. Maybe Trump will lose and then you can negotiate with a patsy — with a weak guy — and you’ll take over.

"No, with a beautiful head of white hair. Go ahead. I’ll tell you if I like his hair in about a minute, after he asks the question."

Said Donald Trump — calling on the last questioner at yesterday's press briefing — addressing a man identified as "Speaker 11" in the transcript.

The man with the white hair that was beautiful or not beautiful depending on how much Trump liked his question want to know about Trump's "LIBERATE VIRGINIA" tweet that connected the protest of the lockdown to the Second Amendment. ("LIBERATE VIRGINIA, and save your great 2nd Amendment. It is under siege!")

Doesn't that "potentially pose a concern" about "civil unrest"?

Notice that the man did not say Doesn't that foment armed rebellion? — and that makes the head of white hair look beautiful. Indeed, Trump called the question "an easy one" — so we may infer that Trump "like[d] his hair."

Trump's answer to the question:

We’re entitled to a Second Amendment and [the Governor of Virginia is] trying to take... that Second Amendment right away. To me that’s liberty. When I say "Liberate Virginia," I would say "Liberate Virginia" when that kind of thing happens and where does it all stop? So I think it’s a very good analogy.... [Y]ou have them working and signing documents trying to take your Second Amendment away essentially. So I do think it’s an appropriate time to bring it up.

What's the analogy? I think it's in using the idea of a state "under siege" and in need of "liberation" to describe a state that is limiting Second Amendment rights. The right to keep and bear arms is a "liberty" — he's saying — so if the state is cutting back on that liberty and you want to fight against that, you can say — in colorful language — that it's a fight to "liberate" the state.

ADDED: This morning, I heard a snippet of MSNBC on the car radio. A Michigan Congressman, Dan Kildee, was asked about the protests against the stringent restrictions. What would he would say to the people who feel that they are deprived of liberty?

I don't have the verbatim quote, but Kildee had an earnest way of presenting safety as liberty. He was not talking about gun rights, specifically, but he was using the same rhetoric that I've heard in the defense of gun control regulations. Restrictions on liberty are justified by characterizing one person's liberty as an impingement on the liberty of others. Just as gun control is presented as a protection of the people's right to be free of gun violence, Kildee presented the stay-at-home orders as a protection of the people's right to be free from the virus.

The rhetoric of liberty is available to everyone and is presumed to be what Americans want to hear. Wanting to be safe is repackaged as a love of the freedom to be found in safety.

As long as people are video-phoning it in from their rooms, there will be Room Rater — just rating the rooms.

Nice mix. Good use of Fern. Tells Trump what for. 8/10 @dananessel pic.twitter.com/bhTQMDy2dM

— Room Rater (@ratemyskyperoom) April 19, 2020

Nice pad. Lived in. Livable. Still nice to look at. Points for cat. 9/10 @arwaCNN pic.twitter.com/edE3NW8N3g

— Room Rater (@ratemyskyperoom) April 18, 2020

We are going to revise previous ranking. -3 for color coding books. 5/10 ⁦@FoxReports⁩ pic.twitter.com/OOVUYofQbw

— Room Rater (@ratemyskyperoom) April 18, 2020

Conan. Is this a Holiday Inn Express? 2/10 @ConanOBrien pic.twitter.com/gQ2qoILffM

— Room Rater (@ratemyskyperoom) April 18, 2020

If you look at the ceiling you may miss the blood on his hands. -2/10 @StephenMoore pic.twitter.com/xbyA7eZkYn

— Room Rater (@ratemyskyperoom) April 18, 2020

Perfection. 10/10. @johnlegend @chrissyteigen pic.twitter.com/Ur0GGQvkVv

— Room Rater (@ratemyskyperoom) April 19, 2020

At the Trout Lily Café...

... you can talk about whatever you like.

I was so pleased to see the wildflowers back in my favorite woods!



The trout lilies have decided to grow in a way that we humans see as upside down. Meade got the idea to get underneath and photograph the flower from our idea of the front side (which let sky shine through):

"Look, if I wasn’t elected you would right now be at war with North Korea. Okay? I'll tell you for your people who don't understand the world..."

"... and they don't understand how life works. If I wasn't elected, you would, right now — Maybe the war would be over, hopefully with a victory, but if you remember when I first came in we didn’t have ammunition — not a good way to fight a war. President Obama left us no ammunition. Okay, and he left us virtually no medical and ventilators. He left us — the the cupboard was dry. Right — the cupboard was dry. No, I think right now, you'd be at war — essentially, in some form — it would be over, it would be raging — with North Korea, if I weren't President. And we're doing just fine with North Korea. Just fine. We'll see how it all ends up."

Trump said today.

On the subject of China, he said: "Maybe Sleepy Joe Biden’s gonna win. And if Sleepy Joe Biden wins you’ll own the United States. And China will own the United States."

ADDED: I listened to the entire press briefing today, and those 2 quotes were the things I remembered and wanted to tell you about. I thought they were a preview of the way Trump will be campaigning against Biden. In today's briefing, at least some of the time, Trump let it show that these briefings are taking the place of the rallies he's been prevented from doing.

"Noticeably subdued, Mr. Cuomo on Saturday shied away from conflict with President Trump a day after the two leaders traded barbs...."

"The governor underscored the need to work with the Trump administration to implement the widespread testing necessary to reopen New York’s economy. 'In the midst of this, there is no time for politics,' Mr. Cuomo said. 'How does this situation get worse and get worse quickly? If you politicize all that emotion. We cannot go there.'"

From "New York Appears to Be ‘Past the Plateau,’ Cuomo Says: Live Updates/Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo backed away from his conflict with President Trump but emphasized that the state would need federal help on testing" (NYT).

I think Cuomo was showing signs of stress yesterday. Who knows what happened behind the scenes, but there are so many reasons for toning down the public emotions. I went to the transcript to see the whole context, and this phrase jumped out at me: "If you’re in public, you have to wear a mask." He was talking about the actual physical masks that people are told to wear, but I thought the phrase worked well to express the demeanor a leader needs to display to maintain confidence and morale.

Anyway... here's the context I was looking for:

On State Street today — the temporarily closed, the closed for good, and the still open.

The protest scene in Austin, Texas.

ADDED: Here's Governor Abbott's order limiting freedom of movement in Texas. Key paragraph:

Is protesting a "physical activity like jogging and bicycling"? Are the protesters on the state capitol grounds "visiting a park"? Are they maintaining "necessary precautions"?

ALSO: "We must be outside!"



Note: I've clipped out a few seconds (not 6 minutes, as the video title has it).

"'We’re afraid of everyone. Afraid of the sun!’ – seemed to Jeff and me especially profound right now, this song about isolation, fear, and existential risks to our world."

Said Johnny Depp. ("Jeff" is Jeff Beck.) Here's their cover of John Lennon's song, "Isolation," recorded last year, presented now, to "make sense of the moment or... pass the time as we endure isolation together."



The lyrics appear on screen — or you can read them here. And if you prefer to hear John, listen here. The song is from 1970, when (Wikipedia tells us), John was "disillusioned with fame" and suffering from the effects of drug use. That is, he was talking about his personal situation and his psychological woes, which are nothing like the social distancing undertaken to fight the spread of the virus. How does this song affect you now? Does it help you endure the isolation or does it make you feel the urgency to reconnect with society?