At the Saturday Night Café...

... you can write about whatever you like.

"Young people in the city are very boring now. I am only in my early 30s but the difference between 10 years ago is stark."

"When I was in my early 20s, you would go out and meet new people every bar you went to. Every night had a funny or interesting story. Contrast that with the Gen Zs you see out: they sit glued to their phones, are scared of speaking to new people, vape constantly, and are only interested in the latest viral tiktok they saw. If you are in New York and spend all your time hanging with other transplants from your same home city, scrolling your phone, and order delivery from a franchise for all your meals, why even live here? You can eat chick fil a and watch TikToks in any city in the US. Guess I'm getting old!"

Says Bud Weiser — if that really is your name — in the comments section of "Why Are These Clubs Closing? The Rent Is High, and the Alcohol Isn’t Flowing/The financial decline of some of the city’s most popular clubs has put a spotlight on the realities of nightlife" (NYT).

Agreeing with Bud is Clark:

The looming doom is creating main character energy.

I'm reading "Are You the Only One Who’s Broke? Or Is It ‘Money Dysmorphia’? The ‘boom boom’ aesthetic meets the gloom and doom of market turmoil" (NYT).

"Phone-eats-first type of food, whatever viral sweater is going around on TikTok, the new work bag," said Devin Walsh, 25, who lives in New York... listing the tempting purchases that flit across her Instagram, even, stubbornly, this past week.... [T]he draw toward prudence feels especially tricky for her generation because of the shared sense that they’re living under a cloud of incessant crisis.... "We’re more inclined to spend frivolously because of this looming main character energy of 'The world is going to end anyway,'" Ms. Walsh said....

In February, she splurged on hosting a Valentine’s Day party in her Hell’s Kitchen apartment, spending hundreds of dollars on heart-shaped sunglasses that she mounted to the wall to feel like a Sunglass Hut, a sink filled with alcohol and a new $150 heart-printed dress. “Was it a rational use of funds?” she said. “Maybe not.”...

Talk about the human phenomenon of plunging into irrational, extravagant pleasures in anticipation of swiftly arriving doom.

Bonus language topic: The word "doom" originally meant statute.

"He's much more self-aware than he lets on in public.... Everything I've ever not liked about him was — I swear to God — absent at least on this night with this guy...."

"I've had so many conversations with prominent people who are much less connected... And he mostly steered the conversation to: What do you think about this?... There were there were so many moments when I hit him with a joke or contradicted something and no problem.... I never felt I had to walk on eggshells around him.... I voted for Clinton and Obama, but I would never feel comfortable talking to them the way I was able to talk with Donald Trump.... I feel it's emblematic of why the Democrats are so unpopular these days.... My favorite part of the whole night was: We were standing in the Blow Job Room*... and he said 'You know, I've heard from a lot of people who really like that we're having this dinner — not all, but a lot.' And I said "Same — lot of people told me they loved it — but not all.' And we agreed. The people who don't even want us to talk: We don't like you. Don't talk? As opposed to what? Writing the same editorial for the millionth time and making 25-hour speeches into the wind?"

"Is there footage of this thing gasping for breath for two minutes before expiring? I need some light comedy before bed."

Says one commenter on "SC cop killer Mikal Mahdi chose upscale final meal before he was executed by firing squad" (NY Post).

And there is this, from Mahdi's lawyer: "Faced with barbaric and inhumane choices, Mikal Mahdi had chosen the lesser of the three evils.... Mikal chose the firing squad instead of being burned and mutilated in the electric chair, or suffering the lingering death on the lethal injection gurney."

Having given you 2 sides of the death penalty issue, I will take the liberty to turn the topic to grammar — the lawyer's grammar. You shouldn't say "the lesser of three evils." It's correct to say "the lesser of 2 evils," but "lesser" is used when there are only 2 things. If there are more than 2, you've got to use "least" — "the least of 3 evils."

That "the lesser of 2 evils" is a very common phrase and "the least/lesser of 3 evils" feels new is evidence of our tendency to see our choices as binary.

For the annals of Things I Asked Grok:

Sunrise — 6:17, 6:30.

Talk about whatever you like. And please support the Althouse blog by doing your Amazon shopping going in through the Althouse Amazon link.

And here's something exciting to those of us who love the changing seasons:

Facilitate and effectuate.

From the Supreme Court's statement in Noem v. Abrego Garcia:

On Friday, April 4, the United States District Court for the District of Maryland entered an order directing the Government to "facilitate and effectuate the return of [Abrego Garcia] to the United States by no later than 11:59 PM on Monday, April 7." ... 

The order properly requires the Government to “facilitate” Abrego Garcia’s release from custody in El Salvador and to ensure that his case is handled as it would have been had he not been improperly sent to El Salvador. The intended scope of the term “effectuate” in the District Court’s order is, however, unclear, and may exceed the District Court’s authority. The District Court should clarify its directive, with due regard for the deference owed to the Executive Branch in the conduct of foreign affairs....

That's what you call "minimalism." 

"Every time I see people that disagree with anything that's happening, any gigantic world events, it's one of these retarded shows... There's the word again...."

"We were just talking about that.... The word 'retarded' is back, and it's one of the great culture victories that I think is spurred on, probably, by podcast. But these things are always... you know, where everyone's screaming over each other.... There's never just rational conversations where you discuss things...."

Said Joe Rogan, at the beginning of his new podcast.

I'd been noticing — and not just on Joe Rogan's podcast — that some people seem to want to feel free to say "retarded" again.

You don't really need that word, though, do you? You can always say "stupid." That makes me wonder why "stupid" survived when "retarded" was banished. But the answer is that "stupid" is a very old word that lived in ordinary speech and was applied broadly, and "retarded" was an innovation in the clinical setting that was designed to refer specifically to persons with a disability. It was supposed to be polite. 

For the annals of Things I Asked Grok: Why is it that when something starts out good and turns bad it seems worse that something that was bad all along?

"Progressives within the federal bureaucracy, regardless of Democrat or Republican being in the White House, have been advancing left-wing racialist ideologies and DEI programs for decades."

 "And so I don't have any doubt in my mind that what we're doing is, is, is the right course of action. It's defensible intellectually. And certainly I think it is actually a minimal and very restrained response to a long standing problem.... You know, I would certainly like to see much more dramatic action. I would like to see, you know, if, if, if they, if they are anticipating this as a, as a shock, I could easily imagine, you know, 10 times, 20 times, you know, 50 times more dramatic action that is, you know, within the realm of possibility.... We'll see... One thing I've learned is that you, you want to keep the, the, the larger ideas close to the chest and you wanna work incrementally up to them. And so we're doing some A/B testing, we're doing some prototyping. And as those things gain traction, I think it'll open up new lines of action. But what we're doing is really a counter-revolution. It's a revolution against revolution. And so I think we are the responsible party in this. But responsible doesn't mean weak. It doesn't mean self-effacing, it doesn't mean playing nice. I think that actually we are a counter radical force in American life that paradoxically has to use what many see as radical techniques."

Says Christopher Rufo at the end of today's episode of the NYT "Daily" podcast — "The Conservative Activist Pushing Trump to Attack U.S. Colleges."

What "50 times more dramatic action" do you think he has in mind? Criminal prosecution?

That quote is from the end of the interview. At the beginning, Rufo establishes his left-wing credibility:

"[H]is sartorial inspirations included people he described as 'accidentally well dressed' or, as he put it, those who 'have no intention of being fashionable.'"

"'They have just found a style that works for them and developed it throughout their life, which often leads to their clothes telling interesting stories,' he said. As for his hair, he explained that he started growing it out seven years ago when he was looking for ways to style his thick, fuzzy curls. 'It just stuck ever since,' Mr. Willis said, 'and I think the style unintentionally guided how my way of dressing has developed. And it keeps my ears warm in winter!''"

From "Look of the Week/Dreamy Hair With Clothes to Match" (NYT)(free-access link so you can see what Billy Willis wore).

Note: I love it — the clothes and the hair. Reminds me of Marc Bolan in his Tyrannosaurus Rex days.

"This guy from the counter yells at me and tells me, 'You’re not going to make this flight. Give it to somebody. Get rid of it.'"

"I said, 'No way, I’m not going to get rid of my baby.'"

Said Maria Fraterrigo, 81, quoted in "Grandmother Is Stranded When Her Parrot ‘Plucky’ Can’t Board Flight/Plucky, an African gray parrot, accompanied its owner on a Frontier Airlines flight to Puerto Rico in January. But a gate agent would not let it on board the return flight" (NYT).

Once they let her fly out with the animal, it was unfair not to allow her to return with it. It's one thing to say "Give it to somebody, get rid of it" about a newt or a gecko, but this was a parrot. Those things have some individuality and personality, especially from the viewpoint of the owner. They talk. And they live a long time. Plucky is 24.

And whether you support the "emotional support animal" loophole or not, the airline owed her consistency within a single round trip. 

The woman's ordeal made the news and politicians, including Chuck Schumer, got into the game and pressured the airline. A Frontier spokesperson said "Parrots do not qualify as emotional support animals under our policies nor those of any other U.S. airline that we are aware of," but "We are pleased to have enabled Plucky’s return to New York," and "We apologize for any confusion that may have occurred with respect to our policies.”

At the Thursday Night Café...

... you can talk about whatever you want.

"My fellow professors and I are supposed to have nuggets of optimism at the ready, gauzy and gooey encomiums about infinite possibilities, the march of progress and..."

"... that apocryphal arc, the one that bends toward justice. But all I’ve got is the metastasizing pit of fear in my own gut...."

Writes Frank Bruni, in "What Do You Tell a College Student Graduating Into This America?" (NYT).

What's the point of wisdom if it doesn't apply in the bad times? 

Anyway... for the annals of Things I Asked Grok: 1. When did people stop talking about a fear that they have in the "pit of their stomach" and begin to refer to the fear as a "pit in their stomach"? 2. Am I supposed to picture the "pit in the stomach" as something like an apricot pit? 3. Aren't apricot pits poisonous... and are they more or less poisonous than the seeds of the pong-pong fruit, last seen on "White Lotus"?

"Totally Drunk Guy Is A Famous American Novelist Who Viewed Hippies With Disgust On National TV."

An incredibly stupid YouTube title for what is a fantastic episode of "Firing Line," from 1968, with William F. Buckley interacting with Jack Kerouac (and a sociology professor and Ed Sanders of The Fugs):

Kerouac died 7 months later. He may be drunk but every word he says has more value than anything that comes from the sociology professor. And nobody on the stage has much of a good word to say about hippies.

Speaking of death, Buckley opens the show with: "The topic tonight is the hippies an understanding of whom we must I guess acquire or die painfully...."

"A description of the book in a news release announcing the publication on Wednesday sounded suspiciously like it might have been written by Pynchon himself..."

"... and Penguin confirmed it was his handiwork," it says in "A New Thomas Pynchon Novel Is Coming This Fall/Featuring a Depression-era private eye, 'Shadow Ticket' will be the 87-year-old writer’s first book since 2013" (NYT).

Here's that description:

“Surrounded by history he has no grasp on and can’t see his way around in or out of, the only bright side for Hicks is it’s the dawn of the Big Band Era and as it happens he’s a pretty good dancer. Whether this will be enough to allow him somehow to lindy-hop his way back again to Milwaukee and the normal world, which may no longer exist, is another question.”

He withholds commas until he doesn't and I presume he's got his reasons.

I like "lindy-hop his way back again to Milwaukee" and "Milwaukee and the normal world."

"'I just felt like I lost my inner compass,' said [Isabel] Falls, 27, who was working as a design researcher at the time and missed being closer to nature."

"'I wanted to feel a bit more like I was alive and living,' she said. She turned her attention to building up her savings and quit her job in May 2023 to take a year off. 'It’s a huge privilege to have been able to do it, and I really recognize that'....  Almost two years later, Ms. Falls is in Mexico... and working on a freelance basis for a travel agency. The flexibility of the job was enticing...  Most of her belongings are still in a shed at her mother’s house in Washington State.... 'I’m not in the mind-set of, "Let me grind as hard as I can right now so that I can retire at 55," or whatever... I can work and I can make money and I can save, and I can also live my life now.... I’m still trying to do what makes me happy rather than being in the grind of it all."

I'm reading "To Escape the Grind, Young People Turn to ‘Mini-Retirements’Some young people are spending their savings on an extended break earlier in their careers rather than waiting until retirement" (NYT).

I've also been reading Jack Kerouac's 1958 novel "Dharma Bums" — full text at link — and I've been looking for a place to quote this paragraph: