Noisy macOS, noisy iOS
Did you know that you can get distraction-covering noise from macOS (Ventura and above) and iOS (15 and above)?
Orange Crate Art
Blogosphere, alive, well
In The Guardian, John Naughton writes about blogging and the thirty-year effort of Dave Winer: “The blogosphere is alive and well and thriving. In fact it’s where much of the best writing — and thinking — of our era is to be found.”
Voter registration deadlines
Voter registration deadlines are approaching soon. Find them at https://vote.gov/register.
“Primary rules”
Sounds like Donald Trump, but it’s not. Can you guess who?
NYT, finally, sort of
At The New York Times, they’re finally willing to say something, sort of: “Trump’s Speeches, Increasingly Angry and Rambling, Reignite the Question of Age.” But as the clinical psychologists Drs. John Gartner and Harry Segal have pointed out week after week on the podcast Shrinking Trump, it’s not really, or simply, a question of age. Joe Biden’s brain, they have said, is aging. But Donald Trump’s brain, they have said, is dementing.
Jack’s Diner
I like seeing a diner wherever there’s space for one.
PAYPHONE
A pangram from the dowdy world, in yesterday’s New York Times Spelling Bee.
Today’s Saturday Stumper
“Country discovered by Bart Simpson on Lisa’s globe.”
Trump Bible in Oklahoma
Only the Trump Bible will do.
Fourteen lines? tl;dr
“Daniel Shore, the chair of Georgetown’s English department, told me that his students have trouble staying focused on even a sonnet”: from an Atlantic article by Rose Horowitch, “The Elite College Students Who Can’t Read Books.”
Paul Giamatti’s Closet Picks
From the Criterion Collection: Paul Giamatti’s Closet Picks. His first pick: Carnival of Souls (dir. Herk Harvey, 1962).
“Tell Me Why You Like Kamala”
At harvest.ink, a song lyric after “Tell Me Why You Like Roosevelt”: “Tell Me Why You Like Kamala.”
The Brontës get their ë
In Westminster Abbey.
Silk cap improved
It’s larger and turns easily on first use. And the sharp, narrowly spaced ridges have been replaced by larger rounded ridges. The cap is now less like a half-inch-thick coin, more like a knob.
Quaker Oatmeal Squares have returned
They are a sentimental favorite in our fambly (a food of a certain person’s childhood), so we’re glad to have them back.
Choice bits from Jack Smith’s filing
I find some of the details of Mike Pence’s efforts to persuade Donald Trump to accept an election loss bizarre and illuminating. These moments make me think of a parent trying to soothe an angry, tantrum-prone toddler.
Yesterday in Wisconsin
Donald Trump, lying, rambling, and rasping his way through the day.
The New Grown-Ups: “Franklin Roosevelt Is Back Again”
FDR FTW!
A complaint
“Margaret, the rules were that you guys weren’t going to fact-check.”
Frankie & Johnny and Al’s
I knew I knew it: The Late Show opening bit last night borrowed the storefront of Frankie & Johnny, the now-defunct New Orleans furniture store whose television commercials became an Internets sensation.
The New Grown-Ups: “Cheese Closet”/“Billy in the Lowground”
More music.
“Is Reading Over for Gen Z Students?”
Listening to podcasts and watching YouTube videos — two suggestions offered in this podcast — don’t replace the work (and joy) of reading. Podcasts and YouTube videos might, on occasion, supplement the work (and joy) of reading in worthwhile ways. But without the reading, what’s the point? If instructors are unwilling to assign “an entire novel,” exactly what are podcasts and YouTube videos supposed to be supplementing? And what happens when the work of listening and watching becomes odious?
“A September to remember”
The historian Timothy Snyder writes about “Trump’s Hitlerian month,” or “a September to remember.” With a discussion of the objection to making comparisons.
Recently updated
The House of Pets, now with added mayhem.
Forty
Elaine and I were married forty years ago today.
The New Grown-Ups: “Taxman Salamander”
With AI-generated lyrics.
Animal house
Walk down Flatbush Avenue from (what I’ve dubbed) the Leaning Tower of Brooklyn, and you woul have found The House of Pets, aka Altman’s Long Island Bird Store. With scenes of animal mayhem.
Today’s Saturday Stumper
“Gym ball.”
Watch your wallet
Jonathan Last and Mary Trump offer commentary on Donald Trump’s latest grift: watches.
Banky’s ghost
Sidney James as Banky’s ghost. From Joe MacBeth (dir. Ken Hughes, 1955).