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User ID: 3534
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23d ago
I cannot see most of the events you mentioned causing a civil war. If the J6ers had stopped the certification of the vote, kidnapped some congressmen, etc. that would rank the most probable. And they didn’t. The Zizians? What societal fault lines are the Zizians setting in motion? Who is calling for armed rebellion to avenge the landlord they killed?
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1mo ago
That’s a great reference. ❤️
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1mo ago
You get the feeling that, as a public company, if they could have moderated their greed, tempered it a bit, they might have gotten away with everything, albeit at a lesser scale in the second phase. But that tragic flaw brought them to that point and they couldn’t change.
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1mo ago
Just finished Misbelief by Dan Ariely. He was brought in to consult the government during lockdowns on how best to encourage mask wearing and how to boost engagement with remote learning, but played no part in the decision to require masks or close schools.
Conspiracy theorists on the internet became convinced he was one of the evil masterminds behind the plandemic. He reached out and engaged with several and wrote a book about it. One interesting insight was that if someone gets deep into a conspiracy theory — to the point it causes them to become ostracized by their family and (former) friends — it is exceedingly hard to pull them out of the conspiracy, as their new social circle consists of other people who have experienced the same, and they don’t want to go through a second social death.
The people sending Ariely death threats, were to his surprise, quite supportive of one another in their Telegram chat groups. One, after lengthy one-on-one communication, conceded he realized Ariely was not an evil power broker, but acknowledged he could not say so lest he lose the only social circle he had left.
Currently reading Moss Hart’s autobiography Act One after it was highly praised in both Graydon Carter’s memoir and a recent New York Magazine article on the history of Broadway. The rags to riches story has been quite good so far, blending an interesting memoir with insights into acting, directing, playwrighting and the theater business, living up to the hype.
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1mo ago
I’ve read this. I love non-fiction tales of financial crimes, and this is a favorite. I found how the fraud inverted over time particularly interesting.
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1mo ago
Willa Cather’s Death Comes for the Archbishop.
Historical fiction executed as a combination of agape and western, told episodically, with gorgeous descriptions of the landscape and humanity. I recommend it specifically because the tale of the lives of two French, Catholic priests sent to New Mexico, unfolding over decades, is not something I would predict I would enjoy, but was more than pleasantly surprised I did.
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1mo ago
In terms of slop, I’m surprised Amazon hasn’t cracked down on AI-generated knockoff scams. I recently purchased Graydon Carter’s new memoir, and in searching for “Graydon Carter memoir”, the first result returned was the actual hardcover, When the Going Was Good: An Editor’s Adventures During the Last Golden Age of Magazines.
Then, the AI-generated paperbacks and e-books immediately followed: Graydon Carter Memoir 2025: From the Golden Age of Mazines to the Digital…, Graydon Carter Memoir 2025: When the Going Was Grand, Graydon Carter Memoir: When the Going Was Perfect, Graydon Carter: The Biography…
Perhaps Amazon is just dealing with a game of whack-a-mole, or maybe they don’t really care?
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1mo ago
Looking at mass-death events from 800 to 1850 it’s within the realm of possibility the Mongol invasion killed enough people to infinitesimally lower CO2 levels. The second claim is based on genetic testing , coupled with some historical presentism regrading how consensual were the Kahn’s harems and concubines. Third claim amply addressed by other replies.
Will it be “post-modern corrosion” or will it be time? Genghis Khan Is believed to (1) have caused the deaths of enough people to slightly alter climate, and (2) have been the most-prolific rapist of which we are aware. And, currently, there are a couple of restaurant chains named after him here in America.
I once saw an inflatable, bounce-house type slide made to look like the Titanic. Kids would slide down the tilted deck, onto a landing area made to look like the sea. Fifteen hundred people died in the actual tragedy.
There is typically a loosening of taboo once knowledge of horrible events passes out of living memory. Are those around WW2 going to be different?
(West is certainly, dementedly ahead of the curve, here.)
I think draft coverage can often underplay how much destination matters.* He’s got his work cut out for him amid the mess that is Cleveland. Though, the current reporting suggests Watson has likely played his last snap for the Browns. Flacco is 40. And, if Sanders is, as his boosters suggest, much better than Gabriel, then there is as clear a path for him as any fifth round pick could hope.
*How good is Sam Darnold? I know KOC has friends in San Fran from the same coaching family-tree that spoke highly of Darnold’s growth while backing up Purdy in 2023. But Minnesota is about as ideal a situation as any quarterback could hope with Jefferson, Addison and Hockenson as it’s top three targets, an above average line, one of the best left tackles (though injury cut short Darrisaw’s season), and a head coach that ascended the quarterbacks coach->passing game coordinator->offensive coordinator ladder. Cousins looked terrible his first year removed. Interested to see how Darnold does in Seattle. With JSN’s breakout last year, Darnold has a legit no. 1. Hopefully Kupp can stay on the field. After that the targets look serviceable…
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1mo ago
It’s the skilled expression of the author’s own voice. I can’t be of much help, in the same way Potter Stewart’s 1964 definition of obscenity — "I know it when I see it." — doesn’t help anyone who isn’t Potter Stewart.
Stephen Fry recounted heavily cribbing, paradoxically, from Hemingway and Wilde, and being worried he had no real style of his own. He was then delighted when a classmate sussed out Fry had written an unsigned editorial in the school paper, telling Fry there wasn’t anyone else who could have written it.
Wolfe has a section early in Back to Blood where the slapping of a boat’s hull on waves rhythmically and unrelentingly interrupts his prose. It, specifically, was panned in a couple reviews I encountered. It made me nauseous to read; I thought it wonderful. It works for Wolfe, or it works from him.
In my own writing, elsewhere, I definitely suffer from imposter’s syndrome. Dorothy Parker, in her short story The Custard Heart compares a woman to a painting that looks impressive at a distance but less so upon close inspection. Parker does this in the same paragraph where she employs what starts out as a quatrain, but continues on for a line too long and unravels. It was delightful to read. If I had typed it out myself, I would dismiss it as a cheap gimmick.
And, what works for Fry, Wolfe and Parker is not entirely interchangeable.
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1mo ago
Blazing Saddles, by Mel Brooks, 0. I guess I operate on a different frequency than Mel Brooks, but I've never found his movies funny. Maybe the movie was funnier and more original fifty years ago and this is the O.Henry effect in action, but Gene Wilders and Slim Pickens couldn't save this snoozefest.
I find Brooks very inconsistent but enjoy the bits that land. I’m also not enamored with Blazing Saddles, but I do love when the film spills out onto adjacent Hollywood sets.
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1mo ago
Tangentially Eagles related, McCord at 181 seems a tidy piece of business. I enjoyed his brief sit down with Bootleg.
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1mo ago
Hard Knocks to Cleveland? Are they eligible based on the rules? Can the NFL resist?
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1mo ago
Devil’s advocate, we’re now in the fifth round. Is that still applicable now? Teams are now picking guys with injury concerns. Guys who had unimpressive production and teams gamble if they think those players were in the wrong college offense or defense for their talent. Fifth rounders don’t really have leverage like a high draft pick does.
A fifth round QB’s slot bonus this year is $384,680 and decreases with each pick. That is a guy you can cut or trade.
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1mo ago
Dolphins as an insurance policy on Tua at 116? Nope, traded down with Houston.
Steelers at 123? Saints at 129? Raiders again at 135?
Did the Sanders family inadvertently build the first custom UDFA room, instead of a custom draft room? The hater in me finds this all delightful.
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1mo ago
The Shedeur Sanders slide has been very entertaining. Could even reach culture-war post worthiness if looking at the various media reactions. New Orleans is on the clock so maybe posting this jinxes it, and he finally gets taken. I was a bit surprised Vegas just passed on him at 108, with Smith being 34 years of age.
He’s a decently athletic quarterback with NFL-caliber zip on short-to-intermediate throws and very, very good accuracy. Is just a touch undersized for a guy who will need to stay in the pocket in the pros. He’s going to need to learn to play within the pocket more, and to work through his progressions much faster. But ordinarily the above is a profile that gets a quarterback taken before Day 3.
And… the Saints just passed. His interviews must have been terrible. Teams do not want to deal with the circus in exchange for a prospect without elite arm talent.
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1mo ago
He and his wife joined me and mine on vacation. We were all staying on the coast and the other three of us wanted to go to a seafood restaurant for dinner one night. He asked that he not drive, consumed a gummy, and joined us.
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1mo ago
Sorry to hear about your loss of smell, sincerely.
If it’s any consolation, one of my good friends lost his sense of smell and taste for around six months in 2020. He ate skinless chicken breasts and steamed vegetables for every meal and got into the best shape of his life.
I hope you eventually recover your olfactory prowess.
Seconding what a few others have said. This was a fun read, and, was so because of your knowledge and interest in the subject.
When I was single I used to wear Creed’s Bois du Portugal in fall and winter. It had the most longevity of anything I’ve ever worn (not that the list is too long). I’d get hit with a big whiff of it again, the following morning in the shower, from the previous morning’s spritz.
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1mo ago
In a ludicrously-narrow application, I have a friend who can only tolerate eating fish after utilizing THC.
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1mo ago
What’s the practical difference between a significant advantage and a requirement in a lucrative and competitive industry? Sure, we can go back up thread and parse “have to”. I fully concede there is no law mandating it.
Public subsidy is a funny charge. Typically after all fuel taxes from every level of government are accounted for, it adds up to a quarter of the budget for road construction and maintenance in America. Tolls, registration and other fees only provide another 10 percent. 65% of funding is unrelated to usage. Which, this is typically how subsidy is defined when applied to rail networks.
“Same place” is one heck of a strawman. It really depends on the transit network. The rail lines that reach out into the suburbs around Munich, that lots of people in my wife’s extended family use to commute, as an example, are great. And Munich, with comparatively less of its streets dedicated to cars, is pretty great, too.
Your hypothesis is that we were close to civil war in the late 60s/early 70s? Disagree. Most young people weren’t hippies, let alone militant radicals. In the book Days of Rage it’s noted most NYers regarded the large number of bombings of mostly empty buildings as nuisances. The crazies can’t do it on their own.
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