Ni!

Things that are familiar enough might become invisible, at least virtually. Looking around at the neighborhood just now I noticed how many houses have evergreen shrubs out front. The reason why is not too mysterious. Evergreen means a lot less raking, which is especially a relief when you're talking about shrubs and bushes where it's harder to get under. But is this a common practice all over the world? Probably not. Maybe not even all parts of the country.

Taken for a ride

Today while getting lunch I heard a guy talking. Talking about Uber and Lyft, both of which he's driven for. The deal now apparently is that they don't pay you benefits because according to them you're not an employee, you're an independent contractor. But you're not really an independent contractor because you can't negotiate. And they go out of their way to hire younger drivers because the older, more experienced ones know how much more they used to get paid.

None of this was all that surprising in the light of what I had heard before. Still, I had to wish him luck when he talked about joining a nascent labor movement for rideshare drivers. We'll see how that goes.

Homogeneous

Not too long ago it was reported that the music review website Pitchfork would be "folded into" the web-based content of the men's magazine GQ. This journal covers a lot of the event's aspects.

Truth to tell I didn't go there that often. In its aughts heyday Pitchfork was dedicated to reviewing and promoting music that might be well-known to hipsters or not, but which in most cases hadn't come anywhere near the mainstream. Some of it was quite interesting, although they would struggle to say anything interesting about it. Later on they dedicated more time telling you about stuff you should like because everyone else likes it and what's wrong with you, which is basically what is meant by "poptimism."

So despite my feeling for writers who are losing a gig, it's not like I'm losing a limb here. My problem is more just that there's another one down.

A few weeks ago I saw a tweet saying that (paraphrasing) it seemed okay when all the magazines started going out of print because websites would take their place, but now there are only six websites. That's only a slight exaggeration. When pixels started to replace paper the promise was that there would be even more voices heard, and now everything would be interactive. That was sort of true, to an extent, for a while. But at this point it's just kind of a bad joke. It's impossible to imagine anything like Factsheet Five publishing now because they'd have nothing to cover.

Pitchfork isn't the only institution to go all in on "diversity" that's only diverse in the most superficial sense. And it's not the only one to ultimately fall victim to the same logic. If new media doesn't keep us well-informed about anything or provide encouragement in pursuing our own unique interests, that's by design.

Thanks but no thanks

If you're a Democratic candidate looking to distinguish yourself from the current leadership, there are certainly good ways to go about it. But going all in on AI and crypto? Not the way to go about it, at least not for me. 

Phillips is basically giving voters the standard Democratic platform, only creepier and more transhumanist. Not surprisingly, it also opens up new ways to curry favor with plutocrats. So while Biden has had it and the party's efforts to protect him from a free election are a little hinky, there are no saviors here.

Equilibrium

I was out earlier and saw that it had started raining. Soon after that I saw a little snow mixed in. Then it all got to be snow. But after the sun went down I lost track of the fact that it was still snowing. That's because not only was it dark but the screen windows can play tricks with the light, so sometimes it looks like it is when it isn't. But now it definitely is.

The temperature is about freezing, maybe a little over. So we're not getting accumulation, and certainly not on the road. But lawn and hill snow, the kind that kids play with, that might get a little more for kids to play with. It's a good balance.

Farewell tour?

And so Ron DeSantis exits the stage. Vivek Ramaswamy has already left. Which might mean there are a few more voters available for Nikki Haley, but I think the handwriting is on the wall. Within the Republican Party no one has ever figured out how to run against Donald Trump. 

And there's a good chance they no longer have to. The most alarming thing about the Trump Era may be that it's ending. 

If DJT wins the general election he's limited to one more term. That's hard constitutional fact, and not something you can bluster past. If he loses, he may feel the need to plead out to one of the many politicized charges against him in return for no prison time but a promise not to run again. Either way the clock is counting down.

So what comes next? It may be that both major parties will be firmly back in the hands of their most venal and authoritarian members. Or maybe something else.

One thing I do know is the way the primaries currently run is a recipe for disaster. What we have is a system where 20+ people announce that they're running two years ahead of time, and most of them drop out for lack of money and hope way before any actual voting takes place. This places too much power in the hands of big donors, and it needs to change. Which doesn't mean it actually will.

Shifting ground

Okay, so there's a place around here. It's primarily known as an ice cream parlor, but it's also a coffee shop. And until recently they also served breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Good omelets, which I made a habit of picking up there during lockdowns. 

Well, at some point they lost the food angle. I think they just weren't able to pay the cook enough to stay. Something like that.

Sometime last year they put up a sign announcing that another restaurant in the area would be taking over their food services. Sounded good. Maybe they could start offering meals again. That wouldn't take effect for a while, though. 

It turned out that the new partners would control the side of the store with the majority of seating space. They closed their side off for renovations, with plywood separating the two. Meanwhile the old owners arranged some tables to seat as many people as they could, which to be fair has worked okay so far.

When I went back most recently the new partners had put up a permanent plaster wall, which a guy was painting. The new people are just running a completely separate business now. On top of that, their side has the public bathrooms.

It's just weird to me how the deal keeps changing, and every change leaves the old place worse off. What kind of Darth Vader "pray I do not alter it any further" business is going on here?

to pieces

Cities, big cities, are great and exciting. Potentially at least. When they're allowed to fall apart, as often seems to be happening, they can be kind of a drag.

I remember first seeing pictures of La Sombrita, a mesh-y little metal wall that looks like it does absolutely nothing. It's one example of many of public features being reduced to nothing, even as they officially continue to exist. 

As Arnade says, this is in large part a way to avoid the homeless from taking over bus stops, train stations, etc. But there are other things that could be done without any new legislation. Most big cities already have public nuisance laws on the books, but many have stopped enforcing them. 

That would be one way of addressing the problem. But those for whom the problem is a problem aren't really the people for whom the cities are being run.

Neat trick

A severe attack of acid reflux is not good. Especially because, in my case at least, what tends to trigger it is sleep. Just that, simple sleep. So once you finally relax and drift off to sleep again, it's Welcome to Round Two.

In the abstract I've known for a long time that having dinner earlier can help prevent acid reflux. Out of habit, though, I've been eating in the last part of prime time. Until a few days ago, due to having a bad week. It really does seem to be a game changer. In fact when I eat seems to be a bigger factor than what.

Getting needled

I've made a deal with YouTube. I don't use any kind of ad-blocking software. Videos have ads running before most of the time. I'll let them play out and at least pretend to pay attention, most of the time. If the ad approaches or surpasses the one minute mark, though, I'm likely to skip it. Or if it's particularly annoying, then all bets are off.

Botox ads are generally in this second category. And I'm not sure who they think their customer is here. I don't want to look younger. Looking older actually gets me a modicum of respect, at least most of the time.

So you don't have to

Sam Kriss has a funny and rather engaging review at the point of a new biography of Elon Musk, written by Walter Isaacson. I would not have time to read this book if tomorrow I found out that I was immortal. You may well feel the same way. So I appreciate Kriss taking the bullet on that one.

On Musk's role as the CEO of Twitter (or, okay, X,) there's not too much to be said. regardless of who runs it Twitter has always been a prime illustrator of Carlin's Law. "Think of how stupid the average person is, then realize that half of them are stupider than that." But the rather tatty business plans of his other businesses are a revelation. And his father sounds like an alarming scumbag.

Isaacson, the biographer, is also a founder of the Aspen Ideas Festival, a sort of stateside equivalent to Davos. The "ideas" at these festivals of ideas are always luxury items no one has ever actually thought about. Bringing the biggest idea is like showing up with the most luxurious jet or the youngest wife (or failing that, the most reconstructed.) These are people who should not have any influence outside the walls of their own homes but needless to say, have a good deal more than that.

A good time had by all

 

The title of the above painting is "Merry Company," and the painter is Gerard van Honthorst. Honthorst used variations of that title a number of times, and it does appear to be a strong theme for him. The patrons at the table appear to have overindulged somewhat, and it makes one wonder what the popular hangover remedies in seventeenth century Holland were. Still, it's a friendly gathering, not a debauched one.

Note the balance of chiaroscuro with splashes of color. He knew how to make light his friend.

Cottontail

It started snowing last night. By the time I went to bed it was already obvious that we were going to get some accumulation. I looked out the window and across the street saw a white rabbit. No, not that one. Just a bunny looking to get home, I guess. Hopped across the street, where there luckily was no traffic. 

If the rabbit lives in an underground hutch the snow could have made it a problem getting back. I hope it was able to find some workable solution. Probably did.

Temptation to just use a facepalm emoji as header

Not too long ago, in the midst of widespread campus activism in opposition to Israel's actions in Gaza, allegations of pervasive antisemitism spread. Congress had big hearings on it and everything. University presidents were called on the carpet about the supposed problem, and at least one fell on her sword. BY COMPLETE COINCIDENCE Harvard President Claudine Gay, who seemed likely to keep her job. Pushed by entirely disinterested observers like Bill Ackman, what looked like plagiarism turned up in her past. As a result Harvard has a new president now.

At the time of her resignation Gay got space in the New York Times to tell her side. Her editorial sounded big but didn't really say anything, proving that she's an academic after all. Others were less helpful than that. Ibram X. Kendi, for one, blamed the ouster on "racist mobs." There are two problems with that. One is that Kendi and others have just gone to that well too many times, and it's dry. The other is that the mob that went after Gay was all about de facto censorship and chilling effects. Race was a peripheral matter, if that.

When companies and institutions both public and private have diversified, they've tended to do it in a sneaky way. The candidates often have little substance, just shopworn jargon. Which means that when some billionaire asshole comes for their jobs they have no way to defend themselves. What seems like a victory quickly turns to defeat.

There's also a problem with progressives refusing to defend free speech on its own terms because it's become associated with people they hate. And also, of course, because they like to keep control over who gets canceled. What they haven't yet started to deal with is that not only can two play that game, but in some cases the other team plays it better.

Loan words

This evening at the laundromat I had just started a couple of wash cycles and I heard a Univision anchor speaking on the teevee set. In the middle of her report she said the words "fear of missing out." Those exact words.

I don't really have anything to say about FOMO in itself. It basically seems to be a standard youthful angst that's been extended via technology. But as an English speaker it's interesting to hear English in non-Anglophone contexts. French speakers are of course used to hearing their words and phrases turn up on the lips of others. And Germans must know their language has the reputation of being exacting and somewhat terrifying. I'm curious about the connotations the English language has for people who don't primarily speak it.

Armed floof

 

This is a creature I just learned about recently. The Pallas's cat, also known as the manul. As the narrator notes, their spending so much time in the cold hunting for food that can so easily get away must grate a little.

I've read Jared Diamond say that all domesticable animals are alike while every non-domesticable animal is non-domesticable in its own way. (Probably a paraphrase on my part.) My understanding is that domestic cats come from African wildcat stock. Could these cats found in Central Asia and Russia have been domesticated? They're gorgeous, but I don't know who would volunteer to be the first to try it.