Althouse

Trump posts a "West Wing" clip decrying the notion of a "proportional response."

noreply@blogger.com (Ann Althouse) — Wed, 10 Jun 2026 12:52:58 +0000

Are photos on this blog displaying the wrong way for you?

noreply@blogger.com (Ann Althouse) — Wed, 10 Jun 2026 12:42:10 +0000

Are you, like me, seeing some of the photos sometimes display as if they were enlarged behind the frame of the blog and only showing one quarter of the image? You could click on that image and get the whole thing, but only a stupid corner is showing on the blog?

Maybe it's only a problem for me, but I've spent a lot of time trying to fix it at the code level, using Grok, and I've only gotten as far as to understand that Flickr has introduced some new incompatibility with old Blogger templates like the one I've been using for 20+ years.

One solution is to switch to a new Blogger template, but I'm so used to seeing this template that subjectively the newer templates all look wrong to me. If I try to be objective, they still look bad — cluttered, stupid, tricked out. Ugh!

Can we not all love the new pool?

noreply@blogger.com (Ann Althouse) — Wed, 10 Jun 2026 12:34:35 +0000

I stopped by the new Reflecting Pool. It is simply glorious. There were a thousand people, everywhere, taking pictures and just enjoying its beauty. Thank you President Trump for restoring our city’s national treasure. pic.twitter.com/Ii7DlEItfd
— Howard Lutnick (@howardlutnick) June 10, 2026

"It was not clear how the flag got loose."

noreply@blogger.com (Ann Althouse) — Wed, 10 Jun 2026 09:47:04 +0000

That's the third sentence in a NYT article titled, "Huge American Flag Flies Into Power Lines, Knocking Out Power for Thousands/The flag hit transmission lines on Saturday night, affecting 5,000 customers in Connecticut."

The power company called the flag "massive" — 40' x 76'.

The article doesn't have comments, so readers were deprived of the opportunity to spin metaphors. If it had, I'm sure Trump would have been mentioned prominently.

"The idea that trying too hard is deeply uncool is... nothing new. In the ’90s, it was the central dogma..."

noreply@blogger.com (Ann Althouse) — Wed, 10 Jun 2026 09:35:22 +0000

"... of the grunge era.... Similarly, the current just-rolled-out-of-bed look might be seen as a pendulum swing away from looksmaxxing, big blowouts and heavily filtered social media photos. Guido Palau, who styled the windswept ponytails at the Prada show, describes the look as 'weirdly bourgeois' and designed to keep people guessing. 'If you’re wearing the most beautiful cashmere jumper and it costs a fortune, you want people to know but not to know,' he says, and messy hair works the same way. 'There’s a kind of inverted snobbery.'"

From "Want to Stay on Trend? Stop Brushing Your Hair. With messy mops showing up on both runways and red carpets, the key to fashion’s new favorite hairstyle is doing less" (NYT).

I've long been a fan of this kind of hairdo. When I was a teen, in the 1960s, I imagined myself becoming famous as the hairdresser who invented the style called The Mess-Up. How could you get people to rave about your brilliant work when what you were doing is messing up their hair? I don't know, but it's genius if you can make that happen. I had the vision to mess up the hair just the right way, the way that looks so nonchalant and witty.

Life took me elsewhere, but the inspiration of The Mess-Up must have formed an underlying anti-structure.

You know, I didn't stumble across that link myself. Meade texted it to me, and I'm pretty sure that had to do with my criticism of the hair of the women on the various news commentary TV shows he watches. I loathe the shows, but I sit there, often with noise-cancellation AirPods in while I read my iPad, but I do take in the visuals enough to become annoyed by the messy cocker-spaniel ears that festoon the female heads. Make is sleek! Pin it up! Look professional!

At 5:26, an ultra-soft sunrise.

noreply@blogger.com (Ann Althouse) — Tue, 09 Jun 2026 22:51:52 +0000

Write about whatever you want in the comments.

"I have just been informed by our Great Military that last night the Iranians shot down one of our highly sophisticated Apache Helicopters while patrolling over the Strait of Hormuz."

noreply@blogger.com (Ann Althouse) — Tue, 09 Jun 2026 19:45:27 +0000

"There were two pilots involved, both are safe and uninjured. Nevertheless, the United States must, of necessity, respond to this attack. Thank you for your attention to this matter! President DONALD J. TRUMP"

That's Trump, at Truth Social, 3 hours ago.

"... a Goddamn coward..."

noreply@blogger.com (Ann Althouse) — Tue, 09 Jun 2026 15:34:13 +0000

Chris, reader of presidential biographies, sends me a photograph of the book he's reading:

Tiny Althouse in the rain/frantic bee in the rose.

noreply@blogger.com (Ann Althouse) — Tue, 09 Jun 2026 15:31:45 +0000

Videos by Meade:

"An online debate has been simmering for years over what constitutes an acceptable date, especially if it’s your first as two singles."

noreply@blogger.com (Ann Althouse) — Tue, 09 Jun 2026 14:35:41 +0000

"Some people embrace the idea of a cheap date, like a walk in the park or a chat over coffee, to build connection. For others, it’s dinner or nothing — preferably with a $200 minimum spend.... Riding bikes side by side through the city, [said Chester Martin, a 33-year-old musician in Brooklyn], is a 'slightly more elevated version' of going on a walk. And in case his date isn’t in the mood to ride her own bike, he doesn’t mind putting in extra work. 'The person I’m dating now is of the size where she can comfortably sit in the Citi Bike basket,' he said. 'I’ll just grab a bike, she’ll sit in the basket and we’ll go literally from, like, Brooklyn to Manhattan and just talk the whole way.'"

From "Would You Go on a Bike Date? Celebrities have recently been hitting the bike lane with their beaus, but the 'Bicycle Boy' was once branded a type to be avoided" (NYT).

1. The Citi Bike rental agreement says "You may not exceed the maximum weight limit for the Bicycle (260 pounds) or the basket (17 pounds), and You may not otherwise use the basket improperly.... You understand the basket is not a child seat." But do you understand that it's not a woman seat? And how much does this teeny tiny woman weigh? More than 17 pounds I bet, but who knows?

2. "Once upon a time there was a woman who very much wanted to have a little tiny child.... so she went to an old witch.... 'Oh, we can manage that," said the witch, "there's a barleycorn for you!...'... [T]he woman... went home and planted the barleycorn; and very soon a fine large flower came up.... 'That's a charming flower,' said the woman, and gave it a kiss on its pretty red and yellow petals. But just as she kissed it the flower gave a loud crack and opened. You could see it was a real tulip, only right in the middle of it, on the green stool that is there, sat a tiny little girl, as delicate and pretty as could be. She was only a thumb-joint long, so she was called Thumbelina...."

3. Now, I don't know how well Thumbelina would do in Chester Martin's Citi Bike basket:

4. Be careful, Thumbelina! Shouldn't the musician take better care of you? Is this merely a "slightly more elevated version" of something else you shouldn't be doing? Don't you deserve a bigger "spend"?

5. Do you like "spend" as a noun? "Spend" meaning "The action of spending money; the amount spent" — according to the OED — has been around since the days of John Bunyan. In the late 1600s, he wrote: "What if I cannot but live upon the spend all my days, yet, if my friend will always supply my need, is it not well for me?"

6. It is also obsolete slang meaning "Semen, vaginal secretion; ejaculation." The OED gives this as its oldest example, from 1879-1880: "I felt her crack deluged with a warm, creamy spend whilst my own juice spurted... in loving sympathy." That's from a magazine called "The Pearl: A Magazine of Facetiae and Voluptuous Reading." The story title is "Sub-Umbra, or Sport among the She-Noodles."

7. Now, you have links to the full text of 2 famous and delightful stories. But perhaps you'd prefer to watch Paul Newman demonstrate all the many tricks you can do on a bicycle that are easier than balancing a woman on the handlebars:

"Born with male sex characteristics and raised as boys, the current group of bissus are feminine in appearance."

noreply@blogger.com (Ann Althouse) — Tue, 09 Jun 2026 13:06:36 +0000

"Their sacred rituals embody both genders: the daggers represented masculinity; the colorful silks femininity. 'Within a bissu, both male and female exist, and that is perfection,' said Kahar Eka, 52, a senior bissu, who wore a distinctly male attire of a peci hat and trousers, a day after donning an elaborate headdress embedded with flowers...."

I'm reading "The Priests Revered in the Land of Five Genders/The bissus of South Sulawesi are considered a link between the earthly and celestial because they are thought to embody both male and female traits" (NYT).

Eka, who commonly goes by just one name, remembers feeling effeminate even as a young boy; but that sentiment was rejected by Eka’s father, a conservative Muslim. Growing up in Sulawesi, Eka often looked at the bissus and wondered why they were respected, but the calabai — or men who exhibited feminine traits — were bullied. The calling to be a bissu, Eka said, came in a fever dream....

Sharyn Davies, an associate professor at Monash University in Australia... said when Islam came to Indonesia, it arrived with the idea that “God created you as you are.” By contrast, the early Christian missionaries to Sulawesi told local people that they had to be either men or women, or be killed. 'From the very start, they’ve been able to find a place within Islam,' Ms. Davies said....

Job opportunities are few and far between. Like many transgender people in Indonesia, bissus often find that they are limited to being performers, makeup artists or hairdressers.

"The teams totaled 34 hits, and 14 pitchers combined to throw 444 pitches. It was the fourth game in major league history with at least 29 runs and 11 homers."

noreply@blogger.com (Ann Althouse) — Tue, 09 Jun 2026 09:41:29 +0000

I'm reading "Brewers outlast A's 15-14 in 12 innings as teams combine for 11 homers and 34 hits in Las Vegas/Andrew Vaughn had four hits and four RBIs, including a two-run double that tied the score in the ninth inning, and the Milwaukee Brewers outlasted the Athletics 15-14 in 12 innings at Las Vegas Ballpark in a wild game that featured 11 homers" (WaPo).

No, I wasn't watching. That game started at my bedtime — 9 p.m.

I just noticed that there's a team now that's just named the Athletics — no city/state in the name. Just the mascot... and it's the most generic mascot. The Athletics. And they played in Las Vegas last night — "at the site of their Triple-A affiliate, the Las Vegas Aviators." They seem homeless. They're not in Oakland anymore, and their normal home these days is West Sacramento, but not enough of a home to become part of its name. Playing a few games in Las Vegas this week has something to do with Las Vegas being its future home. A new stadium will open in 2028.

But maybe you watched basketball last night. I'd rather watch a random baseball game than an important basketball game, but I did pause the movie I was watching and go downstairs to hear the National Anthem and catch a glimpse of Trump. The NYT says "Mr. Trump smiled and saluted in the face of deafening boos when he briefly appeared on the arena’s video board...." I went back to my movie — "A Complete Unknown," now, finally, on HBO — but I did look up the result this morning. I see Trump ruined everything:

Ooh, that Trump. The Knicks lost. Meanwhile, Bob Dylan won. That's what Joan Baez says to him at the end of the biopic: "You won." He's all "What did I win?" and then he rides off into the sunset on his motorcycle.

Sunrise, between the rains..

noreply@blogger.com (Ann Althouse) — Mon, 08 Jun 2026 23:52:28 +0000

Write about whatever you want in the comments.

"Gabi Drunyte, 21, from the Glasgow area, posted her first video, which opens 'I have no friends,' on TikTok in November."

noreply@blogger.com (Ann Althouse) — Mon, 08 Jun 2026 16:00:16 +0000

"It received more than 211,000 views and 20,000 likes. 'A really large flood of people said they were in the same position … and that it was refreshing to see someone be so open because they thought they were alone,' she said. 'The biggest comment that I got was that I gave them a new lease of life, like they were really contemplating things, they felt really, really, really poorly about themselves.' Drunyte explained that after school she gave into being 'a wee bit of a recluse,' feeling that her efforts to socialise were futile. After university, she moved home and worked hybrid jobs. She posts 'day in the life' videos of her doing errands, hikes or solo trips to lochside lodges...."

From "The latest TikTok trend for Gen Z? Admitting you have no friends/Behind the perfect skin routine, delicious meal for one and spotless flat, popular 'living alone diaries' highlight a loneliness epidemic" (London Times).

"The problem with putting in a reflecting pool? The darn thing reflects. When the light off the Reflecting Pool bounced up onto Lincoln's face, it looked as if a flashlight had been held up under his chin."

noreply@blogger.com (Ann Althouse) — Mon, 08 Jun 2026 14:37:29 +0000

Wrote Sarah Vowell, back in 2005, in her very entertaining book "Assassination Vacation," which I recently reread. The link goes to an excerpt of the book at the NPR website. There's also audio of Vowell reading her text, which she does extremely well.

Here's more context:

"[Daniel Chester] French obsessed for years about how to sculpt Lincoln's peculiar face, fretting and reading and thinking before committing to the brooding, seated philosopher in the memorial. He received the commission in 1913. So by the time the memorial was finally dedicated nine years later, the sculptor was a little pent up worrying how his work would come off. Hoping to celebrate, French looked upon the final installation with horror. The problem with putting in a reflecting pool? The darn thing reflects. When the light off the Reflecting Pool bounced up onto Lincoln's face, it looked as if a flashlight had been held up under his chin. The Chesterwood guide described the photo as a "Halloween picture." Lincoln looks frightened, startled, confused -- Edvard Munch's The Scream by way of Macaulay Culkin's Home Alone. Apparently, "hilarious" wasn't the aesthetic French had been going for.

Along with architect Henry Bacon, French tinkered with various solutions, concluding that only electric lighting placed above Lincoln's head could correct the travesty. For years, he pestered the government to pay to fix it. I'm happy for French that he lived long enough to see the ceiling lights installed so that his Lincoln is as dignified and pensive as he intended; otherwise the man might have died of embarrassment.

But I like that picture of the panicky Abraham Lincoln. Lately, I think I might prefer it. Given what that sign says about the Reflecting Pool mirroring American moods....

The sign — at least at the time Vowell visited — said: "The Pool reflects more than the sky and landscape. It mirrors the moods of America, from national celebrations to dramatic demonstrations." I don't think the sign is there anymore. It would have been perverse, I would think, to have had it there when the pool was gunked up with slimy algae. And yet, there are plenty of Americans who would prefer to have a sign that said slimy gunk mirrors the moods of America.

"In 1968, Janet Malcolm visited a new showroom for high-end furniture that was, she wrote, among 'the most beautiful and interesting' in New York."

noreply@blogger.com (Ann Althouse) — Mon, 08 Jun 2026 14:18:25 +0000

"The venue was designed by Warren Platner, an architect who himself designed furniture; Donald Trump would later acquire a set of his chairs, and sounded gratified when, during an interview in 2010, a reporter from the Times recognized them. Platner’s son, Bronson, went into law, in Maine; his son Graham studied at Hotchkiss, a tony boarding school in Connecticut, though he hated it, skipped classes, and was quickly kicked out. Graham transferred to a different private school closer to home, where he starred in a production of 'My Fair Lady.' He played Henry Higgins, the haughty phonetician who teaches a lower-class flower girl to speak proper...."

Those are the opening lines of an essay by Jon Allsop titled "The Changing Face of 'Authenticity' in Politics/What Graham Platner’s scandal-plagued Senate run says about a tired cliché" (The New Yorker).

Here's how Platner entered the political arena, last summer:

Allsop ponders "authenticity":

The modern notion of “authenticity” grew out of the Enlightenment era. Prior to that, in medieval Europe, societies were highly localized and hierarchical, and their denizens were not encouraged to think reflectively about their “real selves,” or how they related, as individuals, to the world around them. Then came modernity, or, as the academic Charles Lindholm has put it, “the condition of living among strangers.” This required trust, which in turn required sincerity, which in turn raised all sorts of questions—What does it mean to be sincere? What internal truths should guide us? And how do we access those, anyway?—that philosophers are still sorting through today....

"Please! I traveled all the way to Wisconsin!... Listen, we traveled all the way to Wisconsin for this interview"

noreply@blogger.com (Ann Althouse) — Mon, 08 Jun 2026 13:17:42 +0000

News companies know women like this are tanking their ratings. If one of these Sunday broadcasts brought in a non ideological White Man their ratings would double. However, they still choose to loose money, just to promote the views of the ownership. Trump is right. pic.twitter.com/Un33VHNqro
— Nate P. Hall (@Nate_PHall) June 8, 2026

Wouldn't it have been funny if the all-the-way-to-Wisconsin plea had worked? Oh, yeah, poor you, going to Wisconsin, let me sit back down and yammer on with you, because you endured the ordeal of coming to Wisconsin.

How many times has Trump traveled to Wisconsin in his political career? 40? 60? He's put in the hard work of demonstrating to Wisconsin that we matter, and here's Kristen Welker obviously irked to have had to touch down in a flyover state. I can't believe I came to this hellhole for you!

ADDED: I love the set with the hay bales and tractors. I was hoping Welker and Trump would jump up and do his old "Green Acres" routine:

Walking at sunrise, between rainstorms.

noreply@blogger.com (Ann Althouse) — Mon, 08 Jun 2026 13:04:36 +0000

Video by Meade:

How can Spencer Pratt put a happy face on his loss in California?

noreply@blogger.com (Ann Althouse) — Mon, 08 Jun 2026 12:52:23 +0000

That might not be your question, but it was mine. It's the first thing I typed when I opened up Grok to explore how I felt about what happened.

Tell me what you think. Grok talked about spinning — "turn a loss into content, troll the establishment, and keep the spotlight... he's wired for this exact kind of spotlight-reality spin."

Okay. That's justified by the way I framed my question. But I had 2 other things in mind.

First, if he'd won he'd actually need to make good on his promises. He'd have to confront reality on the ground and facing lots of opposition. He wanted to round people up and institutionalize them. How would that have worked? This way, he can just keep pointing to the dream of a beautiful LA that might have been.

Second, his own mother said she wanted him to lose... for the sake of his wife and children:

"It's more expensive than any car I ever bought, but I can't drive around in my face."

noreply@blogger.com (Ann Althouse) — Mon, 08 Jun 2026 12:06:49 +0000

Said Rosie O'Donnell, about the facelift she'd always said she'd never get.

Everyone can see it looks phenomenal. But don't try this with your local surgeon. What she got is "very expensive."

Is it okay to look like privilege?

The proposed rule would impose "a narrow, culturally specific understanding of family" that "privileges a dominant cultural framework over the lived realities of communities of color and global Christians."

noreply@blogger.com (Ann Althouse) — Mon, 08 Jun 2026 11:52:33 +0000

I'm reading "Presbyterian Church faces revolt after proposing clergy must be in monogamous relationships — and critics blame white privilege" (NY Post).

The headline is miswritten. The rule doesn't require a relationship. Clergy can still be single. They just can't have more than one partner. It seems that clergy can have sequential sexual relationships — with no commitment at all — as long as they follow a one-at-a-time approach.

The Presbyterians on both sides of this controversy are relying on progressivism. Opponents tap into racial critique — that "lived realities" discourse.

Proponents deploy feminist critique. They're "arguing that the practice of polyamory or polygamy can create 'power imbalances, emotional harm, and spiritual confusion,' particularly for women, children, and historically marginalized persons."

It seems that no one wants to get caught invoking tradition. History is that place where persons were marginalized. It's something to be undone.

***

I love the stock photo the Post chose to illustrate this story. It's like an ad for fabric softener:

Which one is supposed to be the Presbyterian clergyperson?

Sunrise.

noreply@blogger.com (Ann Althouse) — Mon, 08 Jun 2026 00:06:11 +0000

Write about whatever you want in the comments.

"Because it was raining, I got a little bit angry at them. I was not happy with them. But we had a good time."

noreply@blogger.com (Ann Althouse) — Mon, 08 Jun 2026 00:04:54 +0000

Said Trump, quoted at the end of "Trump walks out of 'Meet the Press' interview when challenged over false claims/When pressed by host Kristen Welker, the president cited no evidence for claims about Jan. 6 and elections he said were 'rigged'" (WaPo)(gift link).

I was watching that live, but I fell asleep. I heard the loud rain that was adding stress and discontinuity to the interchange, but I'm sorry I missed witnessing the big falling out as it happened. It's easy to catch up:

"He read 'Moby-Dick' at 9. He could devour 400-page books in an hour. He had a photographic memory."

noreply@blogger.com (Ann Althouse) — Sun, 07 Jun 2026 23:50:32 +0000

"As an after-dinner party game, he liked to recite 'Paradise Lost,' starting from any line a tipsy guest chose."

Writes Dwight Garner, in "Inside the Mind of the ‘Man Who Read Everything’/A collection of Harold Bloom’s letters details the working life of one of America’s most influential intellects" (NYT).

"Restoring Van Gogh’s Ear & Mending His Broken Heart."

noreply@blogger.com (Ann Althouse) — Sun, 07 Jun 2026 15:04:26 +0000