The lake at 12:14 in the afternoon.

Open thread in the comments.

"An earlier version of this article misstated the age of Soon-Yi Previn when she and Allen began a romantic relationship. She was 21, not a teenager."

From "Woody Allen, Reputation Bruised, Finds Muted Reception to 50th Film/'Coup de Chance,' a milestone, is being released in the United States after opening in Europe months ago" (NYT).

And this is an interesting quote from Allen’s sister (and producer) Letty Aronson: "I’m happy that [the new movie is] opening. Woody is only interested in the creative part — once that’s done and he makes the film, he never sees it again. If you told him it wasn’t opening in the United States, it wouldn’t matter to him."

"President Biden will announce a new effort on Monday to reduce or eliminate student loan debt for millions of borrowers, an election-year attempt to..."

So begins the first sentence of the NYT article by Michael D. Shear, "Biden Will Try Again to Wipe Out Student Loan Debt for Millions of Borrowers/The Supreme Court blocked President Biden’s first attempt at large-scale student debt relief last summer."

The sentence piddles out tautologically:

... revive his goal of providing large-scale relief for Americans struggling to pay off their college loans, a person familiar with the plan said Friday.

Biden is reducing or eliminating debt in order to reduce or eliminate debt. Noted, and thanks for mentioning that this is happening in an election year.

But the word "attempt" doesn't fit. If what he's attempting to do is to reduce or eliminate debt, then how is the reduction or elimination of debt just an attempt to reduce or eliminate debt? A reduction or elimination of debt is a reduction or elimination of debt. We have the modifier "election-year": It's an "election-year attempt." That's such an awkward way to avoid having to say that what's being attempted — with our money — is to win the election. 

"Well, aren’t you all hot shit? And don’t tell me you haven’t been working it. You’re at the Kennedy assassination and you’ve got your seats on the grassy knoll."

Said Jerry Seinfeld, to the studio audience for the "Seinfeld" finale episode in 1998.

Quoted in "Larry David’s Last Stand/As the series finale of ‘Curb Your Enthusiasm’ approaches, everything, it seems, has been building toward one of David’s most strongly held beliefs: that, actually, the ‘Seinfeld’ finale was pretty, pretty good" (The Ringer).

Nielsen estimated that 76.3 million viewers tuned in to the last episode of Seinfeld, making it the fourth most watched television finale since 1960. That’s an astronomically high number by any era’s standard, especially today’s. In a world where the NFL and almost nothing else consistently pulls in huge audiences, there are barely any truly widely watched scripted shows left....

The monoculture’s last gasp may have been in 2019, when 19.3 million people watched the Game of Thrones finale. Four years later, the Succession finale–the TV event of the year—drew only 2.9 million.

The last episode of "Curb Your Enthusiasm" becomes available for streaming — it doesn't "air"! — tomorrow. People are predicting that it will parallel the final "Seinfeld" episode. Presumably, there will be a trial. We've been headed toward that all season. And we've been told that since Larry did the act — he gave water to a lady who was waiting in line to vote (in Georgia) — the outcome will hinge on the jury's view of Larry's character. So how can it not be a review of all the bad things Larry's done, tracking the  "Seinfeld" finale? But who really cares, a quarter century later, whether the "Seinfeld" finale was actually good? Maybe somehow the finale "Curb Your Enthusiasm" episode will go meta and become an examination of Larry's longterm belief that he ended "Seinfeld" exactly the right way.

"Do you know — okay, a bit of a history lesson...."

Kamala Harris is all cutesy coyness as she purports to enlighten us and is so wrong it's hard even to figure out what she thought she was trying to say:

Kamala Harris says that the NCAA women’s basketball tournament was not allowed to have brackets until 2022.

pic.twitter.com/baTrWdg9Xm

— The Post Millennial (@TPostMillennial) April 5, 2024

"Do you know — OK, a bit of a history lesson — do you know that the women’s teams were not allowed to have brackets until 2022? Think about that, and... talk about progress, you know, better late than never but progress. And what that has done, because of course — you know, I had a bracket, it's not broken completely, but I won't talk about my bracket. But you know what? How we love — we love March Madness, even just now allowing the women to have brackets and what that does to encourage people to talk more about the women’s teams, to watch them, now they’re being covered. You know, this is the reality. People used to say, 'Oh, women’s sports, who’s interested?' Well if you can’t see it, you won’t be. But when you see it, you realize, Oh...."

I thought maybe she was trying to say something about about how individuals pick brackets, as in the phrase she uses "I had a bracket."

"To see what happens at totality, how cold it gets, what the birds do, you know, if everyone gets hushed, and just kind of a surreal experience...."

Says a woman, anticipating the solar eclipse, quoted in "2024 solar eclipse preparations in home stretch in Carbondale" (ABC7Chicago).

That's a big if.

If everyone gets hushed, you may have a peak spiritual experience. 

But if you're in any kind of crowd, your shot at hearing a hush are approximately zero. Look at the videos from the 2017 eclipse and you will see how Americans respond. They scream:

 

LOOK AT IT JUSTIN!!!!

Every mom within earshot will be yelling her own kid's name, insisting that he look at this thing. And that was 7 years ago. These days, the kids will probably be staring into smart phones and the moms and dads will need to scold them. I can't believe we came all this way and you'd rather look at that fucking phone!  NOAH! Look at the fucking sun!!! And all the little Noahs and Liams will respond in variations of Mom! I told you I didn't give a shit about the sun!

Oh, yes, there will be some lovely children too and maybe some of them will even respond with hushed awe. But those are not the ones you will hear. Maybe someone will attempt crowd control, screaming, "Everyone shut the fuck up!" Or, less likely, Please honor those of us who have traveled here to experience the eclipse in a state of hushed awe.

Maybe you think you'll find the ideal secluded place....

"Look! Look up there!" someone will surely scream, as if it's tricky to find where the sun is. What are the chances you won't hear the phrase "Oh, my God!" at least a hundred times? Well, who going to count? Some blogger who wastes the hushed-awe opportunity to count the annoying things other people shouted?

I'm suddenly torn from my reverie by Meade, who has been reading something and decides to read this aloud: "It will be remarkably awesome for a few life-altering minutes."

My response: "I'm writing a poem about that.... I mean... where did that come from? I'm writing a post."

Sunrise — 6:24, 6:27.

"I am concerned about the possibility that political objectives motivated the vigor of the prosecution of the J6 defendants, their long sentences, and their harsh treatment."

Said RFK Jr., quoted in "RFK Jr. has repeatedly dismissed severity of the Jan. 6 attack: 'What's the worst thing that could happen?'/The independent presidential candidate's campaign distanced itself from its own fundraising email Thursday that called the Jan. 6 rioters 'activists'" (NBC News).

He added that if elected president he will "appoint a special counsel — an individual respected by all sides — to investigate whether prosecutorial discretion was abused for political ends in this case."

ADDED: Here's how the WaPo columnist Philip Bump writes about it: "RFK Jr. clarifies that his view of Jan. 6 is the conspiratorial one."

"When I was 20 and a junior at Harvard College, a series of great ironies began to mock me."

"I could study all I wanted, prove myself as exceptional as I liked, and still my fiercest advantage remained so universal it deflated my other plans. My youth. The newness of my face and body. Compellingly effortless; cruelly fleeting.... I could diligently craft an ideal existence, over years and years of sleepless nights and industry. Or I could just marry it early. So naturally I began to lug a heavy suitcase of books each Saturday to the Harvard Business School to work on my Nabokov paper. In one cavernous, well-appointed room sat approximately 50 of the planet’s most suitable bachelors.... I could not understand why my female classmates did not join me.... Why ignore our youth when it amounted to a superpower?..."

Writes Grazie Sophia Christie, in "The Case for Marrying an Older Man/A woman’s life is all work and little rest. An age gap relationship can help." This is from a series in New York Magazine called "The Good Life," which is "about ways to take life off 'hard mode,' from changing careers to gaming the stock market, moving back home, or simply marrying wisely."

"I think she does a magnificent version of it and it reinforces the civil rights message that inspired me to write the song in the first place."

Instagrams Paul McCartney, gently but pointedly pushing back those who are crediting Beyoncé with adding a civil-rights meaning to "Blackbird."

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Paul McCartney (@paulmccartney)

"Although [Michael] Douglas... considered using heavy prostheses and makeup to create [Ben] Franklin’s distinctive look..."

"... including that famously high forehead, they decided to go a more naturalistic route. Douglas wears gray, wavy hairpieces and extensions.... He looks more like Michael Douglas than someone trying to imitate Benjamin Franklin. Rather than experiencing 'eight hours of the full Ben Franklin covering up Michael,' Douglas says, 'I thought the audience would be more comfortable if they knew the guy. … It just freed me up so much more.' Still, he observes, that entailed a gamble: 'Can I give the persona of Franklin?'... In the series, the actor portrays Franklin... as an 18th-century rock star.... 'In five years of [writing a biography of] Ben Franklin, it never once occurred to me to confuse him with Michael Douglas,” says Stacy Schiff, who wrote 'A Great Improvisation: Franklin, France, and the Birth of America,' on which 'Franklin' is based. 'That said, as soon as Michael’s name came up, he seemed insanely right. … He has the Franklinian twinkle in the eye, the raw charisma, the physical and intellectual versatility, the ability to move a discussion along with a tilt of an eyebrow. Michael has better hair, but that’s a detail.'"

Writes Ann Hornaday, in "Michael Douglas as Ben Franklin? You bet your britches. In ‘Franklin,’ Douglas portrays the iconic founding father as an 18th-century rock star with a dash of Gordon Gekko swagger" (WaPo).

But your main question might be, What streaming service do I need? It's one I don't have: Apple TV. Is this at the level where you'd subscribe to a new service? I'll test it by watching the trailer. The first few seconds of atrocious sound effects (music?) are so off-putting to me that I immediately hit the pause button, but I'll keep going for the sake of this post....

Earthquake in NYC.

Did you feel it?

JJ's back....

Aw, JJ's back ❤️ I missed you, buddy. pic.twitter.com/20Mq0jfVVK

— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) April 5, 2024

Looming and dooming.

I'm reading "How Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Could Doom Joe Biden/The independent candidate looms as a serious drag on Biden’s Latino support in Arizona and Nevada" by Adrian Carrasquillo in Politico.

Kennedy’s popularity appears to be a function of name recognition and a general lack of enthusiasm for President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump, not to mention voters brushing their views onto the somewhat empty canvas of his candidacy.

As if RFK Jr. is mainly an empty space and Biden and Trump are just guys people are blasé about. Sorry. That's just a random/filler sentence. The article is full of specific material Latinos in Arizona and Nevada. Those are important swing states and in both the Latino population is about 30%.

So... another excerpt:

"And the other thing is I hate, they put out tapes all the time. Every night, they’re releasing tapes of a building falling down. They shouldn’t be releasing tapes like that."

"That’s why they’re losing the PR war. They, Israel, is absolutely losing the PR war... releasing the most heinous, most horrible tapes of buildings falling down. And people are imagining there’s a lot of people in those buildings, or people in those buildings, and they don’t like it.... I don’t know why they released wartime shots like that. I guess it makes them look tough. But to me, it doesn’t make them look tough.... They’re losing the PR war. They’re losing it big. But they’ve got to finish what they started, and they’ve got to finish it fast, and we have to get on with life."

Said Donald Trump, on Hugh Hewitt's radio show, quoted in "Trump used to brag about his support for Israel. Now his criticisms are growing sharper/'I don’t know why they released wartime shots like that. I guess it makes them look tough. But to me, it doesn’t make them look tough,' Trump said" (Politico).

People who don't know — or pretend not to know — that Roseanne Barr is a comedian.

Here's the highly lovable video clip:

 

At Kari Lake’s fundraising event at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home, Roseanne Barr told young people to “drop out of college” while pushing QAnon conspiracies:

“It isn’t nothing but devil worshipping, baby blood drinking, Democrat donors.” pic.twitter.com/WP9Br1X1DQ

— PatriotTakes 🇺🇸 (@patriottakes) April 4, 2024

And here's where I found that: "Roseanne Barr Pushed QAnon Blood Drinking Conspiracy at Kari Lake's Mar-a-Lago Event/Barr also encouraged everyone to drop out of college" ("The people of Arizona will decide if they want to send someone who associates with QAnon conspiracy theories and those who against college to represent them in the senate").

That's at something called MeidasTouch, which I saw because it was featured at my favorite source of links, Memeorandum.