There is a hint of something like snark in a couple of places that makes me realize I do not know enough to pass judgment on the objectivity of the author.
Snark in academia is generally a negative sign. Unless talking about the administration, in which case it is the norm. I read the article. It seems to say "somebody we dislike explained something we later confirmed with ancient DNA". I never found the original idea controversial.
FWIW & IMHO culture is just the shared interests and values of a group. We know these groups migrated (the original undocumented), and sometimes fought with others. They also slept with them, creating children sharing both DNA. Why did they win or lose? Too hard to say. It might be better weapons, or maybe the other group was suffering some illness which weakened them, etc. Of course we like our culture; we created it!
I never felt Darwin in writing "survival of the fittest" was saying those were better in general, just better suited to the environment. White tail bunnies can hide easier in snow banks than can brown tail bunnies, but it doesn't mean brown tail are dumb, or voted for the wrong POTUS, etc.
Thanks for your thoughts on this. I think I would retract "snark" and say there was a bit of "Oooo! The mess is going to hit the fan!"
I was not aware of the shift in archeology that followed the defeat of Germany in WWII. Kossina's approach seems reasonable to me also, and doesn't necessarily exclude lines of questioning introduced postwar.
One of the top three books that have most influenced my thinking on how humans look at humanity is That Noble Dream: The "Objectivity Question" and the American Historical Profession, by Peter Novick. Alongside it is From Genesis to Genocide by Stephen L. Chorover.
The third book is The Metaphysical Club by Louis Menand, which includes a chapter on Louis Agassiz and the racial elements and impact of his work. (Harvard released his photographs this week and I have wondered if that was strategic.)
Which is to say I am going to do some more reading on the subject.
On the other hand, he doesn't have to be objective in order to make some points that are worth considering. "Considering," not necessarily "getting married to."
I'm home from the doctor. Nothing seems to be unusually out of order for a bat my age, but they'll let me know if there's anything unexpected in the blood analysis.
There was a sticker on the cabinet in the lab section that said, "I'm a phlebotomist. I make grown men cry."
Cynthia, followup up on a discussion we had recently, the liturgical directives of your bishop there in Charlotte, have made waves in Catholic media, including this story in the National Catholic Register: https://www.ncregister.com/news/charlotte-bishop-liturgy-controversy
I'm aware of this kerfuffle. The main thing under discussion is a draft document that hasn't been issued but was leaked.
I saw the document online. Liked some of it, didn't like some of it, thought the Bishop sounded exasperated. I sometimes feel exasperated myself and write things that sound a bit overboard.
As I said on Sunday, the root question is whether the hierarchy of the church has authority over its institutions and practices, or not. The "nots" are weighing in on the interwebs.
I agree the primary issue is respecting the authority of the Holy father and the bishops. But a secondary issue is the the wise and charitable exercise of that authority. Given the context that I now know, bishop Martin's published directive seems open to critism, and that leaked draft even more so. I pray for the Pope and the bishops daily.
Now some on the rad-trad interwebs are saying Bishop Martin is a Freemason. My late father was a Freemason. So were my grandfather and a bunch of other Missouri-side relatives.
Freemasons are to traditional Catholics what Communists were to Cold War era conservative like Joe McCarthy.
My father and maternal grandfather were Freemasons as well. My mother and aunt were Order of the Eastern Star members, the women's auxilliary. Despite their paganistic ceremonials, they are (in the US anyway) a fraternal organization that socializes and does community work.
American Communists were at least part of our local milieu in the U.S. The obsession with Freemasons is much more of a "rooted in the past" European thing, it seems to me.
Everything is “open to criticism,” because nobody ever does anything perfectly.
One thing about the draft is that it's literally not in effect or even issued with an effective date. It's like when a bill is proposed in Congress: reacting as if it has passed, been signed, taken effect, and produced known results is not legitimate.
We were wandering thru some of my fortune in being around "the really smart people"... Ironically, my father in law, b 1914, a service driver and installation man for propane in New Jersey, was a brilliant self taught man.
Back in the day, like from Galileo to around the 1990s (when optical CNC lens making became common), amateur telescope making was a very cool hobby. Clyde Tombaugh ( in the long list of people I never met...haha 🐰🫎), made his amateur scope. He discovered Pluto. You can see the two actual plates at the Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff where Pluto "blinks".
Amongst some other notables in the Physicist category (I have a business, WW2, and sports categories of notables), Hans Bethe, Feynman, Phillip Morrison (I reviewed and had to to write the physics explanation for rejecting fantasy physics papers submitted to Physics Review, of which Professor Morisson (Oppy prodigal, Trinity trigger setter) was an editor, is Freeman Dyson.
So father in Law, WW2 Pacific Island combat Vet, ground and properly tested (using a classical razor blade Foucault test (the physics guy not the philosopher-historian) https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/L%C3%A9on_Foucault. The largest telescope in New Jersey. A 20" f5.6 at a measured 1/20th wave. Beautiful optics. Built his Observatory laying block, and a rollover roof for this massive 20 inch scope. He hand bent angle iron steel for the frame. Used an old truck differential and rear axle for the mount. It gave glorious views visually of planets and double stars, nebula and galaxies
It turns out this $5 test was ignored by Hughes management in making the Hubble mirror. the arrogance of management overriding the engineer. Alas Hubble needed glasses.
Oh. Back to the story and don't ask me why my recall this 60F morning came up with this. After the laborious meandering, I present the impressive and sadly under rewarded physicist genius, Professor Freeman Dyson. (Not the vacuum dude). This Institute of Advanced Studies at Princeton is Relativity close to Ms. Pinki parents.
And they had much company from the City (that's NYC to those who don't know it's proper name); and Princeton to observe. Around the kitchen table, coffee and stories.
And a few tales from this great physicist, Freeman Dyson
Both Richard Feynman and Freeman Dyson worked on the Manhattan Project building the A-Bomb.
Dyson was best known to SF fans for the concept of a Dyson Sphere, a solid sphere completely surrounding a sun, that an advanced civilization might build to capture all of a sun's energy.
Richard Feynman was a character, known for pranks like cracking safes at Los Alamos holding TOP SECRET material. This and other anecdotes he reported in his autobiography, "Surely You're Joking, Mr, Feynman!".
After reading that book, I saw a little presentation Feynman did on the commission investigating the Challenger space shuttle explosion, using a bit of rocket insulating material that he put in ice water to make a point about why the explosion happened. I could not help but smile.
Smart people observe how others solve problems, then modify that for their own needs.
One thing I love about "Hacks" videos on youtube are how people use products in ways we never intended. I know use dryer sheets in my walking shoes (cuts odor), and several older books on my shelves have dryer sheets as bookmarks. Also, I sometimes use the waffle iron to make Quesadillas, or scrambled eggs (but not at the same time).
"They like open woodlands, including forests with burned areas, because they nest in tree cavities."
Are their preferences for tree cavities why the Orthodontist likes having them in the office? Kinda a reminder/referral for their work; Finches fill tree cavities, Orthodontists don't fill cavities, but they do discover them when they apply braces.
Although it would give me nightmares if my urologist kept woodpeckers in his office.
I also had a followup for Jay. As I was thinking about the concept of "prestige", that reminded me of the fantastic movie "The Prestige". For those that haven't seen it, it is worth your time. The story follows two magicians in a fierce competition, played by Hugh Jackman and Christian Bale. Bale's character performs a trick that Jackman is obsessed with trying to figure out and duplicate.
In magic, the "prestige" is necessary for the completion of the magic. The magician performs the final, most stunning effect, often involving the reappearance of the object or the revelation of a hidden secret.
Admittedly stretching relevance, the prestige Jay describes is the revelation of a hidden secret - that the person that has not impressed with outward physical attributes reveals nonetheless a hidden competence.
This video was a pretty good "explainer" of the movie. If you've watched the movie, you might enjoy it. If you haven't watched the movie - I'd recommend it!
Harvard is so prestigious, it can flout many norms. Most B-schools are accredited by AACSB, EMBA, or EQUIS. In the US AACSB is the standard, but Harvard doesn't have it, never applied. Their faculty don't publish in the same journals as us mere mortals. And the pay? Very good! I read professor Gino was paid $1 million annually. Wowser!
There's some "affirming the consequence" going on there. Since it is prestigious, only "the best" get hired there. How do you know they are the best? Harvard hired them. 🤦♂️
Their president is trolling 47 by saying his demand for more political diversity among faculty is "DEI for conservatives". Although as I see it, perhaps he should try 'DEI for ethical faculty who don't plagiarize nor falsify data". Naahhhh, too long for him to remember.
Good morning. 56 degrees and cloudy, with a high reaching 70. It won’t be until next week until temps reach the 80s as is more typical this time of year. The Memorial starts today. This is the only time of year I pretend to even a mild interest of that sport of hitting around little white balls.
The mothership in a break from all things Trumpian, is reporting on advances in gene editing that are giving hope to young patients with rare genetic disorders. The FP headlines “IS DOGE Dead?” (We can only hope).
I'm wondering if it will be like the summer of 1816? I was hoping someone would ask Joe Biden if he remembered how old that summer was....
Speaking of old, the last living grandson of president William Tyler just died this week. He was about 97 years old. Tyler was the rascal who defeated John Janney in the balloting to become Harrison's vice president; not that I am bitter, of course! 😡 In his own journal John Janney admitted he did not vote for himself as that would be non gentlemanly. The vote that round was tied, Tyler defeated him on a subsequent ballot.
Sorry to hear. As I recall (and just looked up), John (not William) Tyler, born in 1790, remarried in his sixties and had children with his much younger second wife. One of his sons by that wife also was married twice, having 2 sons in the 1920s, including Harrison Ruffin Tyler, who passed away last Sunday.
Jay, I think your ancestor dodged a bullet. Tyler was the first Vice-President to succeed as President, and in establishing that precedent, had a rocky road ahead of him. In part, however, that was Tyler's own doing. He chose to switch parties from the Whigs to the Democrats, as a result, his entire Cabinet resigned. Tyler, a Virginian, was the only living former President to favor the Confederacy in the Civil War.
Yes he was. He left Friends to become an Episcopalian after he acquired a slave.
Sometimes people inherited slaves and kept them to care for them (as the slaves were old). But John Janney bought one at a market. Virginian Friends could not accept that. I don't know why he did.
He lived another 30 years. Sadly, he led the VA commission on secession in 1861. In his goal to get everyone on-board with staying in the Union he delayed too long. After Ft. Sumter, support for secession skyrocketed higher than Vlad Putin approval ratings in Russia! they went from about 33% to 98%. Had he called a vote earlier, the civil war likely would have been shorter and less deadly.
Had Virginia stayed in the Union, Robert E Lee, probably the best general on either side, would have remained loyal to the Union, again making the war much shorter.
Playing what-If, if John Janney calls for the vote pre-Ft. Sumter, Virginia chooses to stay in the Union; thousands of soldiers remain loyal, Lee and many other capable generals remain with the Union, and the fighting is confined to the deep south (and North Carolina).
Although, in Indiana "Copperheads" were loyal to the confederacy, and many fought for them. Most lived closer to the Kentucky than elsewhere. Perhaps Virginia would have had its own copperheads as well, I dunno. Or perhaps Ft. Sumter spurs a call for a new vote on secession, and it passes, I dunno.
That’s pretty fascinating, Jay. I remember your telling about this before, but hadn’t retained the details. He and his heirs clearly have spent time ever since wondering about alternative outcomes.
And, he does it without going dirty. I mean, I love dirty jokes. Really filthy jokes are even better. But, to find the humor and not go filthy is hard, and he does it better than anyone. Seinfeld was very good at it, but he has kinda run out of gas, imho.
Only thing to add: He needs to explain how earlier generations experienced phones as no more portable than the fridge in your kitchen, and you had to press your ear to it to use it…
And, if you wanted a private conversation, go into another room with the cord closed in the door. I think I spent 25% of my adolescence on the basement stairs.
And if the house phone rang, you'd better be ready to answer it with the approved phrasing stating the family's name, to say "may I say who's calling?" if the caller asks for someone else, and to call that someone else to the phone without causing a scene. Or if the person wasn't home or was busy, to take a message and write it legibly, with the pencil and paper that are supposed to be by the phone. These were skills expected of, oh, I want to say eight-year-olds.
I loosely recall the late ‘70s / early ‘80s innovation wave that swept Ma Bell’s products allowing the simple consumer a choice of phones—even permitting a non-phone-company employee to install additional phone jacks…well, quasi-legally.
Then there was the great early leap in technology of quick-clip connectors allowing the humble user to install an extra-long coil cord between the handset and phone base, sort of like a cordless phone concept device. Revolutionary!
I used to call my best friend Christy every two weeks. We wrote letters setting times for the phone calls. 79 cents during daytime, 39 cents during evenings, but then it eventually dropped to 10 cents a minute.
Interestingly, during her year in Indy at the Deaf School, I was a graduate assistant, and had access to SUVON, which allowed campus to campus phone calls for free. You could also use SUVON to call a local number--so if from Ball State I used SUVON to call IUPUI, any call that was local to IUPUI was local to me.
So I used to check in with her once a week or so on SUVON; we didn't chat long, but we'd arrange schedules, ask how she was feeling (this was when doctors knew what she had was serious), etc. The following year her baby sister was at IU-Bloomington, so I arranged for them to talk once a week, alone. That one they could talk longer since it was literally campus to campus. If her baby sister needed a long talk, she'd call, set up a time, Christy would go to my office to call.
'The FBI has been overwhelmed investigating James Comey “copycats” in the wake of his controversial “86 47” Instagram post, Director Kash Patel revealed Wednesday.'
This sounds like a parody, but it doesn't seem to be. It looks like the FBI is actually going around investigating social media posts showing items arranged as 86 47 instead of ... whatever the FBI normally does.
One other thought. Given there have been assassination attempts against 47, and someone this week was arrested for threatening it, Patel will get crucified if some idiot kills Trump and it turns out they had displayed 86 47 somewhere.
They'll discover thousands of false positives, but fear missing on the one true negative. It's a no-win situation.
When I was a camp director back in the oughts, we began formal background checks on all counselors. We didn't have a single hit on any counselor. But if someone actually did something bad, we could at least point to that as proof we took reasonable precautions.
Other than a) having no desire to meet James Comey, b) no desire to buy his book, and C) no desire to spend money trolling him, I was tempted to buy an Indy Colts jersey $ 86, and use duct tape over the name on back, putting his name in, as a joke. But I fear d) he wouldn't get the joke....
OTOH at least we know who is actually making the decisions, however badly as they are being made.
It is a waste of time for the FBI to investigate, but it was low class of Comey to prostitute himself to do that just to build publicity for his latest book. I shudder at what he'll do to promote his next book.
Cool looking birds
This is interesting and seems relevant to a recent discussion, if I remember correctly (do not bet on it):
https://quillette.com/2025/05/28/ancient-dna-and-the-return-of-a-disgraced-theory/
There is a hint of something like snark in a couple of places that makes me realize I do not know enough to pass judgment on the objectivity of the author.
Snark in academia is generally a negative sign. Unless talking about the administration, in which case it is the norm. I read the article. It seems to say "somebody we dislike explained something we later confirmed with ancient DNA". I never found the original idea controversial.
FWIW & IMHO culture is just the shared interests and values of a group. We know these groups migrated (the original undocumented), and sometimes fought with others. They also slept with them, creating children sharing both DNA. Why did they win or lose? Too hard to say. It might be better weapons, or maybe the other group was suffering some illness which weakened them, etc. Of course we like our culture; we created it!
I never felt Darwin in writing "survival of the fittest" was saying those were better in general, just better suited to the environment. White tail bunnies can hide easier in snow banks than can brown tail bunnies, but it doesn't mean brown tail are dumb, or voted for the wrong POTUS, etc.
Thanks for your thoughts on this. I think I would retract "snark" and say there was a bit of "Oooo! The mess is going to hit the fan!"
I was not aware of the shift in archeology that followed the defeat of Germany in WWII. Kossina's approach seems reasonable to me also, and doesn't necessarily exclude lines of questioning introduced postwar.
One of the top three books that have most influenced my thinking on how humans look at humanity is That Noble Dream: The "Objectivity Question" and the American Historical Profession, by Peter Novick. Alongside it is From Genesis to Genocide by Stephen L. Chorover.
The third book is The Metaphysical Club by Louis Menand, which includes a chapter on Louis Agassiz and the racial elements and impact of his work. (Harvard released his photographs this week and I have wondered if that was strategic.)
Which is to say I am going to do some more reading on the subject.
The author is "a biologist and essayist," so ...
On the other hand, he doesn't have to be objective in order to make some points that are worth considering. "Considering," not necessarily "getting married to."
Upon reflection, I think snark isn't the right word. Maybe more towards "Ooo! the mess is going to hit the fan! This could be interesting!"
More stuff to look up!
What a gorgeous bird! Thanks
You're welcome.
I'm home from the doctor. Nothing seems to be unusually out of order for a bat my age, but they'll let me know if there's anything unexpected in the blood analysis.
There was a sticker on the cabinet in the lab section that said, "I'm a phlebotomist. I make grown men cry."
I had no idea bats lived as long as humans. 🙂
Cynthia, followup up on a discussion we had recently, the liturgical directives of your bishop there in Charlotte, have made waves in Catholic media, including this story in the National Catholic Register: https://www.ncregister.com/news/charlotte-bishop-liturgy-controversy
I'm aware of this kerfuffle. The main thing under discussion is a draft document that hasn't been issued but was leaked.
I saw the document online. Liked some of it, didn't like some of it, thought the Bishop sounded exasperated. I sometimes feel exasperated myself and write things that sound a bit overboard.
As I said on Sunday, the root question is whether the hierarchy of the church has authority over its institutions and practices, or not. The "nots" are weighing in on the interwebs.
I agree the primary issue is respecting the authority of the Holy father and the bishops. But a secondary issue is the the wise and charitable exercise of that authority. Given the context that I now know, bishop Martin's published directive seems open to critism, and that leaked draft even more so. I pray for the Pope and the bishops daily.
Now some on the rad-trad interwebs are saying Bishop Martin is a Freemason. My late father was a Freemason. So were my grandfather and a bunch of other Missouri-side relatives.
Freemasons are to traditional Catholics what Communists were to Cold War era conservative like Joe McCarthy.
My father and maternal grandfather were Freemasons as well. My mother and aunt were Order of the Eastern Star members, the women's auxilliary. Despite their paganistic ceremonials, they are (in the US anyway) a fraternal organization that socializes and does community work.
American Communists were at least part of our local milieu in the U.S. The obsession with Freemasons is much more of a "rooted in the past" European thing, it seems to me.
Everything is “open to criticism,” because nobody ever does anything perfectly.
One thing about the draft is that it's literally not in effect or even issued with an effective date. It's like when a bill is proposed in Congress: reacting as if it has passed, been signed, taken effect, and produced known results is not legitimate.
We were wandering thru some of my fortune in being around "the really smart people"... Ironically, my father in law, b 1914, a service driver and installation man for propane in New Jersey, was a brilliant self taught man.
Back in the day, like from Galileo to around the 1990s (when optical CNC lens making became common), amateur telescope making was a very cool hobby. Clyde Tombaugh ( in the long list of people I never met...haha 🐰🫎), made his amateur scope. He discovered Pluto. You can see the two actual plates at the Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff where Pluto "blinks".
Amongst some other notables in the Physicist category (I have a business, WW2, and sports categories of notables), Hans Bethe, Feynman, Phillip Morrison (I reviewed and had to to write the physics explanation for rejecting fantasy physics papers submitted to Physics Review, of which Professor Morisson (Oppy prodigal, Trinity trigger setter) was an editor, is Freeman Dyson.
So father in Law, WW2 Pacific Island combat Vet, ground and properly tested (using a classical razor blade Foucault test (the physics guy not the philosopher-historian) https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/L%C3%A9on_Foucault. The largest telescope in New Jersey. A 20" f5.6 at a measured 1/20th wave. Beautiful optics. Built his Observatory laying block, and a rollover roof for this massive 20 inch scope. He hand bent angle iron steel for the frame. Used an old truck differential and rear axle for the mount. It gave glorious views visually of planets and double stars, nebula and galaxies
It turns out this $5 test was ignored by Hughes management in making the Hubble mirror. the arrogance of management overriding the engineer. Alas Hubble needed glasses.
Oh. Back to the story and don't ask me why my recall this 60F morning came up with this. After the laborious meandering, I present the impressive and sadly under rewarded physicist genius, Professor Freeman Dyson. (Not the vacuum dude). This Institute of Advanced Studies at Princeton is Relativity close to Ms. Pinki parents.
And they had much company from the City (that's NYC to those who don't know it's proper name); and Princeton to observe. Around the kitchen table, coffee and stories.
And a few tales from this great physicist, Freeman Dyson
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freeman_Dyson
Both Richard Feynman and Freeman Dyson worked on the Manhattan Project building the A-Bomb.
Dyson was best known to SF fans for the concept of a Dyson Sphere, a solid sphere completely surrounding a sun, that an advanced civilization might build to capture all of a sun's energy.
Richard Feynman was a character, known for pranks like cracking safes at Los Alamos holding TOP SECRET material. This and other anecdotes he reported in his autobiography, "Surely You're Joking, Mr, Feynman!".
After reading that book, I saw a little presentation Feynman did on the commission investigating the Challenger space shuttle explosion, using a bit of rocket insulating material that he put in ice water to make a point about why the explosion happened. I could not help but smile.
You were indeed around some Very Smart People.
I was part of a group that gave a concert to Hans Bethe in his nursing home!
How cool!!!
Smart people observe how others solve problems, then modify that for their own needs.
One thing I love about "Hacks" videos on youtube are how people use products in ways we never intended. I know use dryer sheets in my walking shoes (cuts odor), and several older books on my shelves have dryer sheets as bookmarks. Also, I sometimes use the waffle iron to make Quesadillas, or scrambled eggs (but not at the same time).
Awesome! We have a quesadilla maker Pinki got at goodwill for a few bucks. Works great!. We like waffles too! Have to try a waffled quesadillas!
Hey, not iguanas!
https://www.thecooldown.com/outdoors/iguana-pest-control-backyard-eggs-reidy/
Seems like the perfect antidote to pictures of certain catlike felines.
They're aggressive and unsanitary, like many teenbros.
"They like open woodlands, including forests with burned areas, because they nest in tree cavities."
Are their preferences for tree cavities why the Orthodontist likes having them in the office? Kinda a reminder/referral for their work; Finches fill tree cavities, Orthodontists don't fill cavities, but they do discover them when they apply braces.
Although it would give me nightmares if my urologist kept woodpeckers in his office.
Just -- 🚪
Oy.
From flying up to 4km for water to hopping from perch to perch in a cage. Why do we permit our greed to possess and control what we like?
Excellent question, Bill Mc.
And this is for you, Jay:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XMOKMS1MURk
I loved it! Although I mostly wear jeans and a golf shirt, not argyle sweaters.
I also had a followup for Jay. As I was thinking about the concept of "prestige", that reminded me of the fantastic movie "The Prestige". For those that haven't seen it, it is worth your time. The story follows two magicians in a fierce competition, played by Hugh Jackman and Christian Bale. Bale's character performs a trick that Jackman is obsessed with trying to figure out and duplicate.
In magic, the "prestige" is necessary for the completion of the magic. The magician performs the final, most stunning effect, often involving the reappearance of the object or the revelation of a hidden secret.
Admittedly stretching relevance, the prestige Jay describes is the revelation of a hidden secret - that the person that has not impressed with outward physical attributes reveals nonetheless a hidden competence.
This video was a pretty good "explainer" of the movie. If you've watched the movie, you might enjoy it. If you haven't watched the movie - I'd recommend it!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wwTcVug60uQ&t=6s
Interesting analysis.
I'll have to look for the movie.
Harvard is so prestigious, it can flout many norms. Most B-schools are accredited by AACSB, EMBA, or EQUIS. In the US AACSB is the standard, but Harvard doesn't have it, never applied. Their faculty don't publish in the same journals as us mere mortals. And the pay? Very good! I read professor Gino was paid $1 million annually. Wowser!
Making it at Harvard means you have arrived.
Those of us lower class underlings down Commonwealth Ave from the old brick lady; had some similar perspectives...🫣
Paid $1M?? That could stir some populist resentment. Life's not fair, but I'm not sure what to do about it.
they say it is expensive to live near Harvard, so they have to pay a living wage.
Not to their janitors, of course, but to retain top tier faculty.
Top tier faculty like "scientists" who falsify research?
There's some "affirming the consequence" going on there. Since it is prestigious, only "the best" get hired there. How do you know they are the best? Harvard hired them. 🤦♂️
Their president is trolling 47 by saying his demand for more political diversity among faculty is "DEI for conservatives". Although as I see it, perhaps he should try 'DEI for ethical faculty who don't plagiarize nor falsify data". Naahhhh, too long for him to remember.
An excellent movie
Excellent!
Good morning. 56 degrees and cloudy, with a high reaching 70. It won’t be until next week until temps reach the 80s as is more typical this time of year. The Memorial starts today. This is the only time of year I pretend to even a mild interest of that sport of hitting around little white balls.
The mothership in a break from all things Trumpian, is reporting on advances in gene editing that are giving hope to young patients with rare genetic disorders. The FP headlines “IS DOGE Dead?” (We can only hope).
As chilly as it’s been lately, it’s hard to conceive that we’re a mere three weeks from Summer Solstice…
I'm wondering if it will be like the summer of 1816? I was hoping someone would ask Joe Biden if he remembered how old that summer was....
Speaking of old, the last living grandson of president William Tyler just died this week. He was about 97 years old. Tyler was the rascal who defeated John Janney in the balloting to become Harrison's vice president; not that I am bitter, of course! 😡 In his own journal John Janney admitted he did not vote for himself as that would be non gentlemanly. The vote that round was tied, Tyler defeated him on a subsequent ballot.
Sorry to hear. As I recall (and just looked up), John (not William) Tyler, born in 1790, remarried in his sixties and had children with his much younger second wife. One of his sons by that wife also was married twice, having 2 sons in the 1920s, including Harrison Ruffin Tyler, who passed away last Sunday.
Jay, I think your ancestor dodged a bullet. Tyler was the first Vice-President to succeed as President, and in establishing that precedent, had a rocky road ahead of him. In part, however, that was Tyler's own doing. He chose to switch parties from the Whigs to the Democrats, as a result, his entire Cabinet resigned. Tyler, a Virginian, was the only living former President to favor the Confederacy in the Civil War.
I always thought "Tippicanoe and Janney" sounded good.
Virginia hosted the 1840 National Whig convention, and Harrison allowed the convention to select a VP for him. Both Tyler and Janney were Virginians.
Was your ancestor a slaveowner? (No judgement, of course).
Yes he was. He left Friends to become an Episcopalian after he acquired a slave.
Sometimes people inherited slaves and kept them to care for them (as the slaves were old). But John Janney bought one at a market. Virginian Friends could not accept that. I don't know why he did.
Considering the track record of presidential offspring, your ancestor probably dodged at least a figurative bullet.
He lived another 30 years. Sadly, he led the VA commission on secession in 1861. In his goal to get everyone on-board with staying in the Union he delayed too long. After Ft. Sumter, support for secession skyrocketed higher than Vlad Putin approval ratings in Russia! they went from about 33% to 98%. Had he called a vote earlier, the civil war likely would have been shorter and less deadly.
Had Virginia stayed in the Union, Robert E Lee, probably the best general on either side, would have remained loyal to the Union, again making the war much shorter.
Playing what-If, if John Janney calls for the vote pre-Ft. Sumter, Virginia chooses to stay in the Union; thousands of soldiers remain loyal, Lee and many other capable generals remain with the Union, and the fighting is confined to the deep south (and North Carolina).
Although, in Indiana "Copperheads" were loyal to the confederacy, and many fought for them. Most lived closer to the Kentucky than elsewhere. Perhaps Virginia would have had its own copperheads as well, I dunno. Or perhaps Ft. Sumter spurs a call for a new vote on secession, and it passes, I dunno.
That’s pretty fascinating, Jay. I remember your telling about this before, but hadn’t retained the details. He and his heirs clearly have spent time ever since wondering about alternative outcomes.
From the guy whose video on State Postal Abbreviations I previously sent, another very funny routine>
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yHI-3iuOezw
Gulman is great, one of his best bits.
A very troubled mental health past, which, I think, informs the humanity of his comedy.
I like his situational outlook, seeing absurdities in everyday common affairs.
Exactly
And, he does it without going dirty. I mean, I love dirty jokes. Really filthy jokes are even better. But, to find the humor and not go filthy is hard, and he does it better than anyone. Seinfeld was very good at it, but he has kinda run out of gas, imho.
Nate bargetze also
That was good. And now I'm leaving for the doctor. Unnngh.
Good luck!
🤣
Only thing to add: He needs to explain how earlier generations experienced phones as no more portable than the fridge in your kitchen, and you had to press your ear to it to use it…
And, if you wanted a private conversation, go into another room with the cord closed in the door. I think I spent 25% of my adolescence on the basement stairs.
And if the house phone rang, you'd better be ready to answer it with the approved phrasing stating the family's name, to say "may I say who's calling?" if the caller asks for someone else, and to call that someone else to the phone without causing a scene. Or if the person wasn't home or was busy, to take a message and write it legibly, with the pencil and paper that are supposed to be by the phone. These were skills expected of, oh, I want to say eight-year-olds.
lol! My mom went back to work (she taught high school chemistry) the year I started first grade. Pretty sure those skills were required at age 6.
Oh, the good ol’ days!
I loosely recall the late ‘70s / early ‘80s innovation wave that swept Ma Bell’s products allowing the simple consumer a choice of phones—even permitting a non-phone-company employee to install additional phone jacks…well, quasi-legally.
Then there was the great early leap in technology of quick-clip connectors allowing the humble user to install an extra-long coil cord between the handset and phone base, sort of like a cordless phone concept device. Revolutionary!
Collect calls, absurd long-distance rates…
We were on a party line. Pick up the phone and you'd hear people talking and have to ask "how long are you going to talk?"
I used to call my best friend Christy every two weeks. We wrote letters setting times for the phone calls. 79 cents during daytime, 39 cents during evenings, but then it eventually dropped to 10 cents a minute.
Interestingly, during her year in Indy at the Deaf School, I was a graduate assistant, and had access to SUVON, which allowed campus to campus phone calls for free. You could also use SUVON to call a local number--so if from Ball State I used SUVON to call IUPUI, any call that was local to IUPUI was local to me.
So I used to check in with her once a week or so on SUVON; we didn't chat long, but we'd arrange schedules, ask how she was feeling (this was when doctors knew what she had was serious), etc. The following year her baby sister was at IU-Bloomington, so I arranged for them to talk once a week, alone. That one they could talk longer since it was literally campus to campus. If her baby sister needed a long talk, she'd call, set up a time, Christy would go to my office to call.
Great story! The young’uns today have no idea.
I remember those!
Dave Barry wrote a good one about that.
https://nypost.com/2025/05/28/us-news/fbi-director-kash-patel-reveals-agency-overwhelmed-by-james-comey-copycats-after-86-47-post-forcing-agents-off-child-sex-predator-drug-trafficking-cases/
'The FBI has been overwhelmed investigating James Comey “copycats” in the wake of his controversial “86 47” Instagram post, Director Kash Patel revealed Wednesday.'
This sounds like a parody, but it doesn't seem to be. It looks like the FBI is actually going around investigating social media posts showing items arranged as 86 47 instead of ... whatever the FBI normally does.
One other thought. Given there have been assassination attempts against 47, and someone this week was arrested for threatening it, Patel will get crucified if some idiot kills Trump and it turns out they had displayed 86 47 somewhere.
They'll discover thousands of false positives, but fear missing on the one true negative. It's a no-win situation.
When I was a camp director back in the oughts, we began formal background checks on all counselors. We didn't have a single hit on any counselor. But if someone actually did something bad, we could at least point to that as proof we took reasonable precautions.
Other than a) having no desire to meet James Comey, b) no desire to buy his book, and C) no desire to spend money trolling him, I was tempted to buy an Indy Colts jersey $ 86, and use duct tape over the name on back, putting his name in, as a joke. But I fear d) he wouldn't get the joke....
Good point, in a gaaah way.
Not sure which is the most disconcerting: Patel in charge of FBI, Gabbard in charge of spooks, or Loomer in charge of vetting staffing decisions…
OTOH at least we know who is actually making the decisions, however badly as they are being made.
It is a waste of time for the FBI to investigate, but it was low class of Comey to prostitute himself to do that just to build publicity for his latest book. I shudder at what he'll do to promote his next book.
I agree. Comey was infantile, but taking it seriously is loo-loo.
The world has gone mad.
Or, as it was put very well in the pages of a book last night - "The world is staggering in natural drunkeness."
That makes me think of the drunk moose videos from summer in Scandinavia.
Friends do not let Moose drive drunk.
Newly reintroduced to America after 7 months in China...my transformed cosmology, if described accurately, would get me ranked in there with Q.
J Edgar Hoover is no doubt rolling in his grave over what Kash Patel has made the FBI he built.
Good morning, everyone. I have a doctor appointment this morning with blood work, so I'm not drinking coffee, and it's horrible.
Can you mainline caffeine? 🙂
Not a skill I have.
Yikes! Face-plant alert.