Another look at the sunrise.

"The 2009 film 'Cart' illustrates what Dr. Lienhard called the 'symbiotic relationship' of humans and shopping carts."

"In the film, a shopping cart is given a mind of its own, navigating the perils of city streets as it searches for a boy who has left his blanket in the basket.... Jesse Rosten, the director, said the idea arose when he and a friend spotted an overturned cart in a parking lot. A sad song was on the radio as they drove past it, adding to the potential for cinematic melancholy. 'We laughed the whole way home, imagining back stories for this down-and-out cart who was struggling against the world,' he said. 'We’ve all seen abandoned shopping carts out in the world, and the film is one take on how carts end up where they do.'"

From "Everyone Has a Theory About Shopping Carts/An essential tool. An inspiration for artists. A public nuisance. The humble shopping cart has been all of these in the decades since it was invented. But what does it reveal about our character?" (NYT).

I put an ellipsis where the article reveals the ending of the movie, which we watched here at Meadhouse. It's 10 minutes and we were predicting different endings, all of which I like better than the actual ending, so don't get too fixated on the actual ending...

 

I predict that — if you watch this — you'll predict at least 2 endings that you'll like better than the actual ending.

5:27 a.m.

Joe Rogan talks about gender difference with a Harvard professor who's written a book about testosterone.

Bill Maher highlights "progressophobia" — the fear of seeing progress.

 

ADDED: Maher's audience usually supports him with a lot of laughter. Actually, it's forced at times. So it was weird at 5:18, when I laughed out loud — unusual for me sitting at my computer — and there was dead silence from the studio audience. And he paused distinctively there to accommodate a laugh.

"The order from Public Health Madison and Dane County closing all county schools was illegal, unnecessary and unconstitutional."

Said Rick Esenberg, president of the conservative Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty, qutoed in "Wisconsin Supreme Court strikes down Dane County health department order to close schools" (Wisconsin State Journal). 

The order was from last August, but the court had place a hold on the order, so private schools that wanted to open did.

Artisanal comments.

A reader, John Henry, emails:

I was a prolific commenter, probably too prolific, previously. I was really upset when you stopped allowing comments. But now that I am getting over my withdrawal symptoms, I am kind of liking it, especially now that you are bringing back curated, artisanal, commenting via email.

Sunrise — 5:18 to 5:26.

 

A man in shorts and his wonky ram.

 I approve of this one:

"I don’t believe in seedless watermelon — that is against my religion."

Said Gabrielle E.W. Carter, "a multimedia artist and gardener in Apex, N.C.," quoted in "Summer’s Greatest Prize: Watermelons, With Seeds, Please/For many Americans, juicy, scarlet watermelon is a must for Juneteenth. The heirloom varieties are a sacred summer fruit" in The New York Times.

I did not know that it was possible to write an article about black people and watermelon, but here it is.

All season long, you’ll find watermelon eating in its purest form — palms clenching the rinds over gingham tablecloths; all pleasure and no tropes — at family reunions, at get-togethers on terraces and around patio fire pits. Consuming the fruit is a sacrament of an American summer, and, for many Black Americans, a must for Juneteenth, the Texas-born holiday gaining national recognition that’s celebrated with red punch, strawberry spoon cake and dry-rubbed ribs.

On the received wisdom that it's racist to discuss black people and watermelon, here's "How Watermelons Became a Racist Trope" (The Atlantic). 

"This article is from three years ago. I don’t know how you came across it unless you were digging in the New York Times for the 'worst of the NYTimes articles.'"

 A reader named Mary emails me about a post I did yesterday, riffing on a NYT article that, I see now, came out in 2018. The article is titled "Some L.G.B.T. Parents Reject the Names ‘Mommy’ and ‘Daddy’" and it really does seem to be vying for the title of Dumbest NYT Article (especially since it had an atrocious math error). 

The NYT will push old stories in its sidebar or at the bottom of whatever article you are reading, and the linked headline looks fresh. I think that's happening more lately, so I'll be more vigilant going forward. The policy I'm trying to follow is to say something about the date whenever the story isn't new, unless the subject is something that's clearly old.

The quote in the post title is the first item on a list of 4 observations from Mary, so let me give you the rest of her list here rather than put it in the comments at the original post (though I encourage you to go back to that, because I've posted many excellent comments there):

"In fact, Wallace [Idaho] is the self-declared 'Probable Center of the Universe,' and according to its citizens, for good reason."

"A proclamation given by then-mayor Ron Garitone on September 25, 2004, avowed, 'Our government-contracted scientists...have, after years of diligence, been unable to unearth one scintilla of [proof] that Wallace is NOT the center of the universe.' This year Wallace is celebrating the centennial births of two native Hollywood elite: Doris Houck, known for her roles in several Three Stooges films, and The Postman Always Rings Twice star Lana Turner, whose childhood home at 217 Bank Street still stands, and is in the midst of a renovation."

 From "THE 15 BEST SMALL TOWNS TO VISIT IN 2021/From Alabama’s music capital to the self-proclaimed ‘center of the universe,’ these American towns are calling your name" (Smithsonian).

Why not proclaim yourself the center of the universe? Everybody is a star. That's a song title. 

By the way, do you know that "Keeping Up With The Kardashians" has been on TV for 20 seasons? Here's a promo for the finale episode of their 20th season:

 

Despite years of diligence, scientists have been unable to unearth one scintilla of proof that the Kardashians are not the center of the universe.

FROM THE EMAIL: Wince writes:

Doris Houck may be best known as the girl who tried to mash Shemp Howard's head in a vice in BRIDELESS GROOM in an attempt to persuade him to marry her. 

Famous Stooges line: "Hold hands you lovebirds..."

Wow, these are some tough dames:

"The archive’s drawings, which date to between 1905 and 1920, range from self-portraits to pictures of other people and quick sketches..."

"One is an intimate portrayal of Kafka’s mother, who wears her hair in a high bun and dons small, oval-shaped spectacles. Another ink drawing titled Drinker shows an irate-looking man slumped in front of a glass of wine.... Among the newly digitized papers is a scathing, 47-page letter to [his father] Herman; never delivered, it describes Kafka as a 'timid child' who cannot have been 'particularly difficult to manage.... I cannot believe that a kindly word, a quiet taking by the hand, a friendly look, could not have got me to do anything that was wanted of me.'"

Smithsonian reports.

View the archive here. Here's "Drinker":

"And nearly 13 percent — 20 percent of the lesbian couples and 5 percent of the gay couples — participated in some version of 'undoing gender.'"

"Many do this by taking parental names from their native cultures or religions that strip away the binary in this cultural context, collapsing the dichotomy between terms by merging them, such as 'Mather,' a fusion of mother and father, or creating nicknames ('Muzzie,' in one instance).... Ellen Kahn, the director of the Children, Youth & Families Program at the Human Rights Campaign, said the gender binary that underlies 'mother' and 'father' doesn’t jibe with some parents’ self-understanding and self-presentation: 'For queer parents who don’t think of themselves as gender conforming, "mommy" and "daddy" may be a little discordant with the way they think about themselves.'"

From "Some L.G.B.T. Parents Reject the Names ‘Mommy’ and ‘Daddy’" (NYT).

1. Hello? NYT? "Muzzie" is a slur against Muslims! How can you just print that? Was someone pulling a prank on you — were you swingin' on the flippity-flop again?   

2. "Mather," that's an interesting idea. I wonder how it would be pronounced. Just about exactly like "mother," but slightly weird and affected. Good luck, little child of "mather" and "fother." 

3. You're going to give a child the task of expressing its parents' nonconformity? Be careful! You might create a longing for conformity.

4. It's an old idea, but worth considering — "parental units":

5. The NYT article has a correction noted: "An earlier version of this article misstated the percentage of parents in a study who were 'undoing gender' by creating new names. It is nearly 13 percent, not a quarter." I read the comments over there and saw how the mistake was made. As you see in the quote in my post title, they had "20 percent of the lesbian couples and 5 percent of the gay couples." They added 20% and 5% to get 25% ("a quarter"). That's some embarrassing innumeracy. 

6. I remember the days of "Heather Has 2 Mommies." Apparently, we're regressing to the notion that there can't be 2 mommies. Even more regressive is the idea that to be a mother or a father is to follow stereotypical gender roles. How can this man be a father if he stays home with young children while this other person — how can we call her a mother?? — goes out to work for pay?!

"In her most recent post, she argued that 'vaccinated people’s urine/feces' (sic) needed to be separated from general sewage supplies/waterways until its impact on unvaccinated people via drinking water was established."

From "Naomi Wolf banned from Twitter for spreading vaccine myths/Many social media users applaud termination of author’s account, but some have said move is a blow to freedom of speech" (The Guardian).

Let's take a closer look at that snapping turtle.

Following up on yesterday's video, here are the stills:

 

I like the curved line left by little monster's tail.

Closer:

I don't know for sure, but I am thinking this newly dug hole is turtle-related: