Sunrise — 6:06, 6:26.

Happy Easter.

Talk about whatever you like in the comments.

"I got my one foot stuck because I was trying to get my electronics out of my pocket. I knew not to panic."

"I have to be a macho man. You can’t ask for help when you’re trying to impress the girl you’re with."

Said Mitchell O’Brien, quoted in "Man Sinks in Quicksand and Emerges With a Girlfriend/A Michigan man who ended up waist-deep on an unstable beach was rescued, and found himself in a relationship" (NYT).

A comforting thought: "As it happens, drowning in quicksand in real life is nearly impossible, scientists say. Sand is denser than the human body, so even if one’s legs sink, the air in the lungs keeps the body too buoyant to go all the way under."

And here's that John Mulaney bit about quicksand: "I always thought that quicksand was going to be a much bigger problem than it turned out to be. Because if you watch cartoons, quicksand is like the third biggest thing you have to worry about in adult life — behind real sticks of dynamite and giant anvils falling on you from the sky. I used to sit around and think about what to do about quicksand. I never thought about how to handle real problems in adult life, I was never like 'Oh, what's it gonna be like when relatives ask to borrow money?' Now that I've gotten older, not only have I never stepped in quicksand—I've never even heard about it! No one's ever been like, 'Hey if you're coming to visit, take I-90 'cause I-95 has a little quicksand in the middle. Looks like regular sand, but then you're gonna start to sink into it.'"

"When Biden bit into an ice cream bar after the talk, the partially melted dessert fell to the floor."

Wrote The Harvard Crimson, quoted in "Joe Biden drops ice cream and calls Ukraine ‘Iraq’ on secret Harvard visit."A talk by the former president at the university in Donald Trump’s crosshairs was 'marked by gaffes,' a student newspaper said" (London Times).

The former president held a private seminar with 50 politics students that was kept secret until his arrival. When word got out, a group of pro-Palestinian students assembled to protest outside the building....

Biden is well-known for his fondness for ice cream and frequently stopped for a cone during campaigning or presidential visits. He remarked in 2023 that, “you know it’s pretty dull when you’ve been in public life as long as I have and you’re known for two things: chocolate chip ice cream and Ray-Ban sunglasses, but what the hell.”

Why did they give him an "ice cream bar"?

"The Supreme Court temporarily blocked the Trump administration early Saturday from deporting another group of Venezuelan migrants..."

"... accused of being gang members under the expansive powers of a rarely invoked wartime law. 'The government is directed not to remove any member of the putative class of detainees from the United States until further order of this court,' the court said in a brief, unsigned order that gave no reasoning, as is typical in emergency cases. Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel A. Alito Jr. dissented.... More than 50 Venezuelans were scheduled to be flown out of the country...."

The NYT reports.

Meanwhile, with respect to a person already deported, Trump displays a picture and frames Democrats as admirers of the man (rather than as devotees of due process rights): 

This is the hand of the man that the Democrats feel should be brought back to the United States, because he is such “a fine and innocent person.” They said he is not a member of MS-13, even though he’s got MS-13 tattooed onto his knuckles, and two Highly Respected Courts found… pic.twitter.com/31sNr2k1SK

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 18, 2025

For the annals of Things I Asked Grok: Does Abrego Garcia have gang tattoos on his hand? Answer: here.

At the Friday Night Café...

... you can talk about whatever you want.

The unfortunate storefront in my photograph used to be Paul's Books, one of the loveliest places in Madison. It had been around since 1954, and I didn't know that it had closed. I hadn't walked downtown in quite a while. I prefer to walk in the woods, but I thought I'd change my ways today. I pictured myself looking at the poetry books at Paul's Books. But no, Paul's was gone. And this insanity was there. You're sorry? I'm sorry.

"The sentence, dull but clear, was buried 158 pages into Wisconsin’s budget. 'For the limit for the 2023-24 school year and the 2024-25 school year,' the sentence read..."

"... when it was passed by the Republican-controlled Legislature, 'add $325' to the amount school districts could generate through property taxes for each student. But by the time Gov. Tony Evers, a Democrat, and his veto pen were finished, it said something else entirely: 'For the limit for 2023-2425, add $325.' It was clever. Creative. Perhaps even a bit subversive, extending the increase four centuries longer than lawmakers intended. But was it legal? On Friday, the Wisconsin Supreme Court said yes. In a 4-to-3 ruling in a lawsuit challenging Mr. Evers’s use of his partial veto authority, the court’s liberal majority said the governor had acted legally. The three conservative justices on the court dissented...."

From "Wisconsin Supreme Court Says Governor’s 400-Year Edit Was Within Veto Authority/Gov. Tony Evers, a Democrat, used his veto power to increase school funding limits for four centuries longer than Republican lawmakers in the state had intended" (NYT).

"On Netflix for the past couple seasons, there has been a TV show that displays love — a type of love that I have never seen or experienced before."

"It's a love on the spectrum. Yeah. Best show out right now...."/"So although they have... I call them different abilities... they really about their business in what they desire and what love looks like to them....  And they'll tell you straight up, hey, baby, you don't like this? That ain't going to work for me."/"I'm telling you right now, if everybody dated how they date on 'Love On the Spectrum,' dating would be so easy.... I want to be matter of fact. I want to be able to just go in... It's so amazing to watch because if they don't like each other, they'd be like, all right, cool, I'm fine with that. And they walk away. They'll go on a date and she'd be like, did you have a good time? He was like, not really, not really. I wasn't feeling it. I didn't like you like that. But we could be cool. She'd be like, I understand. Don't worry about it. And they shake hands and hug and walk off.... If I could just wake up in the morning and say how I felt...."

I enjoyed "The Manly Deeds Podcast" talking about one of my favorite TV shows, "Love On the Spectrum":

I like the idea of neurotypical people watching the show and picking up communication hints. Now, the autistic people on the show have been taught skills that are modeled on the communication of neurotypical people. But there is room for learning in both directions.

Here's the trailer for Season 3 of "Love on the Spectrum," which I highly recommend:

"The single worst thing I think this White House could do politically is what they are doing, right?"

"Creating a causal relationship between their signature economic policy and prices going up. And so if... we do see that inflation or we do have a recession... this White House will be blamed... And that creates the perfect conditions for Democrats to have a good midterms and feel good about 2028. And that's nothing to do with their own vision.... Right now, it seems like the chaos, they're kind of used to. Donald Trump up against his usual enemies. And I think there is some leeway — for art of the deal... negotiation, things like that. But the guy who says he'll eat a rat for Donald Trump is the exception. If those prices increase, the only person who will be blamed for that is the president. And if you're a Democrat, that's the best thing that could happen for the prospect of the party returning the power, right?"

Said Astead W. Herndon, in "Do Trump Voters Like His Tariffs? We Went to Michigan to Find Out," today's episode of the NYT "Daily" podcast.

Was there a guy who said he'd eat a rat for Donald Trump? There was a guy who said he wouldn't care if prices go up, that he would "survive," "adapt," and: "I'm the kind of guy that'll, if I'm starving, I'll eat a rat. I'll eat cockroach. I'm a survivalist." I wouldn't say that's eating a rat for Donald Trump. It's eating a rat for himself — to survive. The implication is that he's self-reliant. He doesn't look to the government to solve his problems. The podcast made it sound like a "Fear Factor" challenge or a sick devotion to Donald Trump, the man. 

Anyway, I'm trying to highlight the idea that — on the tariff issue — those who are rooting for the Democrats seem to think their best strategy is to do nothing but hope for inflation and recession: "That's the best thing that could happen for the prospect of the party returning the power, right?"

"Kilmar Abrego Garcia, miraculously risen from the ‘death camps’ & ‘torture,’ now sipping margaritas with Sen. Van Hollen in the tropical paradise of El Salvador."

"Now that he’s been confirmed healthy, he gets the honor of staying in El Salvador’s custody."

Said El Salvador President Nayib Bukele, quoted in "Alleged MS-13 gang member Kilmar Abrego Garcia seen ‘sipping margaritas’ with Sen. Van Hollen amid El Salvador deportation battle, new photos reveal" (NY Post).

"Miraculously risen" — somehow, we get Easter joke to take us into Easter weekend. 

"Almost a decade after its première, 'Handmaid’s' retains its signature violence but has thoroughly exhausted its narrative premises...."

"Writing in the Reagan years, [novelist Margaret] Atwood imagined an authoritarianism of the repressive Christian variety. The sexual politics of our era’s conservatives are more prurient and boorish: the misogynists of Gilead say 'Blessed be the fruit'; ours say 'Grab ’em by the pussy.' Still, the sadism of the show’s fictional world finds ample comparisons in our own... In its early seasons, 'The Handmaid’s Tale' was criticized for what some saw as its self-indulgent scaremongering. The show, its detractors sneered, was trauma porn for middle-class women who wanted to see themselves as victims of the Trump age...."

Writes Moira Donegan, in "'The Handmaid’s Tale' Reflects the Exhaustion of Liberal Feminism/What’s most striking about the show, now in its final season, is not its hysteria but its lack of conviction" (The New Yorker).

If your first thought is "Sheer Madness," your second thought should be is this for real.

If you just X about it, you're revealing something about yourself. Do you want this to be true?

***

I just found that in draft form. Couldn't remember what it was, and it seemed so strange. Now, I remember and I remember why I left it unfinished, and somehow I like it in its unfinished form. I don't want to call attention to the specific thing I was reacting to, and I like it in the abstract.

"I’m very proud of my near thirty years with the Who. Filling the shoes of my Godfather, ‘uncle Keith,’ has been the biggest honor and I remain their biggest fan."

Said Zak Starkey, quoted in "The Who Fired Ringo Starr’s Son As Their Drummer" (Vulture).

The article links to "Moment Roger Daltrey halts show and kicks off at The Who drummer weeks before sacking" (Metro), where we hear Daltrey stop, mid-concert, and say "We’ve got a big problem up here. I can sing to some things, but I can’t sing to that fucking racket."

Vulture asks "But, well, was Keith Moon’s kit explosion considered too much?" I think the answer is yes. 

Roger Daltrey is 81 years old. 

UPDATE: "Zak Starkey reinstated as The Who’s drummer, days after departure" (The Guardian). A quote from Pete Townshend: "Roger and I would like Zak to tighten up his latest evolved drumming style to accommodate our non-orchestral line up and he has readily agreed. I take responsibility for some of the confusion."

At the Thursday Night Café...

... you can talk about whatever you want.

"Salmon given antianxiety drugs take more risks, study finds."

Says the headline at The Washington Post — free-access link. Your first thought might be: Scientists, leave those fish alone! But they're not just getting the drugs from scientists:

We’re turning our rivers, lakes and oceans into soups of pharmaceutical pollution.... Nearly 1,000 pharmaceuticals have been detected in waterways around the world.... 

"We have now seen that the Trump administration manages the economy with the same expertise and competence it manages higher education, and as a result we might begin to rally the American people."

I'm reading "I’m a Columbia Professor. Here’s the Really Disheartening Part of This Mess," a NYT op-ed by Matthew Connelly, a Columbia history professor.

I'm all for expertise and competence, but who is this "we" threatening to "rally" us in the name of longing for expertise and competence?

Well, it doesn't say "rally us," it says "rally the American people." I used the "us" pronoun for "the American people," but that doesn't work very well with the "we" that is used twice in the quoted sentence.

Professor Connelly sees himself and his New York Times readers as the "we" who look on as Trump breaks things and hope to excite "the American people" to oppose and resist Trump. But the American people have supported Trump because the American people have seen what your "we" has done with its power when it has had the chance. "Let the Experts Handle It Again" is not a great rallying cry these days.

I'm railing about one sentence. Most of the column is about Columbia working with the Trump administration and professors at other schools boycotting Columbia. Connelly's "we" is not cohesive. It's in no position to "rally the American people." It's in what Connelly calls a "circular firing squad." And you want to be our "expertise and competence" providers?

"On American TV shows, the London native starred as an android brought to an asteroid to keep a prisoner (Jack Warden) company on 1959’s 'The Lonely'..."

"... the seventh episode of CBS’ 'The Twilight Zone,' and she was the self-described 'office bitch' Roz in 1982-83 on ABC’s adaptation of '9 to 5.'"

From "Jean Marsh, ‘Upstairs, Downstairs’ Actress and Co-Creator, Dies at 90/The British actress won an Emmy for her performance as the prim and proper parlormaid Rose Buck on the acclaimed ITV drama ['Upstairs, Downstairs']" (Hollywood Reporter).

I saw that yesterday and immediately watched the "Twilight Zone" episode, "The Lonely." Marsh plays a robot, given, mercifully, to a man condemned to 50 years alone on a desolate asteroid:

It's a great robot story! Watch the full episode here, on Vimeo. Great ending (with a great teaser for next week's show). I don't remember having seen "The Lonely" before, and I devotedly watched the show at the time, but perhaps not until after the first season, which aired in 1959, when I was 8. 

The actor who plays the condemned man in "The Lonely" is Jack Warden. That blew my mind! I had just finished watching "Shampoo" (on The Criterion Channel) the previous night.

In "Shampoo," Warden plays the male character who is not played by Warren Beatty. I never go around thinking about Jack Warden! And yet yesterday, before I got the prompt to watch "The Lonely," I was thinking about Jack Warden. Here's the trailer, which has everything you need to know about Warren Beatty and just a bit of Jack Warden: