Say it isn’t so. These four have the best chemistry in sports. Ernie has always been the glue.
‘We Are All Black Friends’
Reply
Anything Goes
From the New York Times:
Inside Democrats’ Secret Effort To Stack Alaska’s Ballot.
I am seriously out-of-step. Guess I’m just not ideological enough because this investigative report left me with a “pox on both their houses” cynicism about national politics. Complete Demo bullshit.
Sample a few of the top ten out of 3,200+ comments (and counting).
A Blue Team friend, and loyal PressingPauser, whose name I will protect, but goes by the initials DDTTM, will co-sign on these comments because he believes any criticism of Team Blue cedes ground to Team Red.
Maybe my parents were wrong and two wrongs do make a right?
‘Hum 10’ For The Win
The Brutal Harvard Class That Suddenly Everyone Wants to Take.
From the Wall Street Journal:
“On a Tuesday morning in October, Samantha Matherne paced as she marked up on a white board explaining the philosophical underpinnings of Jane Austen’s “Emma,” with segues into Adam Smith and Immanuel Kant.
The philosophy professor posed big questions to the 90 students gathered in Boylston Hall: ‘Why did Austen create such an unlikable heroine?’ she asked. ‘Why read novels at all?’ And finally, as the 75-minute lecture ended, ‘What will become of Emma—and what will become of you?’
The students burst into applause.
Hum 10, as it’s commonly known, has become the surprise hit of Harvard’s academic lineup and something of a campus institution. Demand to get into the class has surged, fueled by word-of-mouth from ‘Hum Alums’ who talk it up on social media. Applications (essays required) shot up 40% this fall with 180 incoming freshmen vying for 90 spots.
. . . The class is definitely not for padding the GPA. Students read a hefty book a week and write regular essays. There is no pass/fail option. Digital devices are verboten, and attendance is taken in every lecture (pink slips for those who arrive late).
. . . In their applications and in interviews, students expressed the urge to be forced to tackle classics they otherwise wouldn’t read, the need to combat frayed attention spans and the desire for an antidote to The Machine. Several mentioned with disdain that people who aren’t in the class wondered why they didn’t “just Chat the books,” i.e., use AI.”
Be still my beating heart.
INCNTRL?
Driving down Harrison towards the crib the other day I saw a personal plate that immediately made me feel oldy and moldy. “INCNTRL”. There’s only two explanations I thought. The driver just turned 16 or they’re completely delulu. Either way, one sus plate. The slang makes me seem younger, right?!
Saw another one on the way up the Fourth Street Bridge even more recently. “GUDRUN”. Bastard! He should know I’m rehabbing post surgery and can’t run for another few weeks.
I Will Pay You To Be My Friend
Initially, the headline, “Why Some People Are Paying to Make Friends” puzzled me, but it quickly began making sense. Way back in the day, I remember my brother’s stand on college fraternities, “I’m not going to pay,” he said, “to make friends.” Thereby highlighting the fact that lots of people have been paying to join clubs to make friends for a long time.
It’s also not surprising given this:
“The apps are taking off at a time when about 67 percent of adults have reported social-emotional loneliness, in part because they did not feel part of a meaningful group, according to a 2024 study by the Making Caring Common Project at Harvard. About 45 percent of lonely adults said they ‘don’t really know how to develop close friendships.'”
Those are brutal statistics.
How the apps work:
“The start-ups are meant to remove the strain caused by online dating and other meet-up apps — no profiles to swipe through, no schedules to align, no locations to discuss.
When they sign up, the apps’ tens of thousands of users, typically in their 20s to their 50s, fill out questions related to their background, interests and values. The companies consider unusual criteria like sense of humor, how you like to spend time with friends and if you like meeting people on the other side of the political spectrum.
Once users pick an event off the apps’ calendars, the companies’ algorithms kick into motion. Users are matched with a small group from all the people who signed up — based on characteristics like age and other answers — and told to meet at a predetermined location.”
Obviously, one limiter is affordability. Note, they do not appear to ask if you like meeting people from different economic classes. Also:
“The apps are not always a hit. Some users complain on social media that they did not click with their group or that the experiences can feel awkward and forced.
Alex Cheney, 34, attended several friendship-matching events in cities including Los Angeles — organized by apps like Timeleft, Groupvibe and Kin — over the last two years. But he did not form any meaningful friendships, he said.
‘In terms of building a deep friendship, it’s almost something that you have to explore and co-create and build in real time,’ said Mr. Cheney, who had also tried building a matching algorithm for coffee meet-ups. ‘I don’t necessarily know if it’s something that you can build into a matching algorithm because you might have a lot of compatibility on paper with someone.'”
Say a person doesn’t have an extra $22/month for a friendship app or has it but doesn’t want to pay anything at all? How do they begin building a circle of friends? Or widen their circle? Or deepen it?
Of course I have ideas, but they’re probably not as good as your collective ones.
Second In A Series
For shit’s sake, where to start? How about some context. Here’s a little somethin’ somethin’ to give you a feel what the brewery looks like 23 years since it closed.
Mayor Leatta Dahlhoff, henceforth known as “MLD”, or Major League Disappointment, may very well be a lovely person, but she’s a feckless leader and shite communicator.
She writes, “We are keeping legal pressure on the owners to ensure compliance with our code” and then completely contradicts that with this mind numbing admission, “. . . we have given the owners 12 years to improve these properties”. (emphasis mine)
I couldn’t squeeze LMD’s concluding sentence into my screenshot, so here goes:
“Legal pressure will remain until more demotion and more substantial progress occurs.”
Hey LMD, guess what, you’ve been getting played for decades, are continuing to get played, and will continue to get played because somewhere, far far away, the owners are laughing at your “amplified approach”.
Unless there’s a perp walk and the owners are seriously threatened with imprisonment, nothing will change. Well, eventually, I suppose, nature will take over like in “The Last of Us”, but neither of us will be around to see that.
I can’t even muster the energy to do a rewrite. I promise a more amplified approach to editing LMD next time. Until then, let’s all keep pretending progress is being made.
Sentence To Ponder
From The Chronicle of Higher Education:
“For fiscal year 2026 . . . Harvard’s endowment, often the largest among the nation’s colleges, enjoyed a 27-percent rate of return, growing to $68 billion.”
Peak Gray Lady
For the New York Times, an unexpected thing happened on the way to market dominance. She continually improved.
You don’t have to have a degree in economics to know that competition is the lifeblood of our economy. And yet, as minor, mid, and major papers fade from view, the most dominant paper is peaking. Go figure.
Exhibit A is this type of multimedia story detailing why you increasingly feel like you’re up against it. “Life Feeling Too Expensive? It’s Not Just You. And It’s Not Just Inflation.“
Oh, want something lighter, okay. Exhibit B, this example from an excellent series titled “Modern Love”. “On Our Third Date, I Asked for a Joint Bank Account.” It’s a slowish burn, but if you stick with it, there is a wonderful insight about romantic love. Okay, spoiler alert, both people have to be their whole selves for it to have any chance of “working”.
Still not convinced? Exhibit C. “This Emily Dickinson Poem Will Hit You Where You Live.” Major props to A.O. Scott for getting Ronald Scot, a poetry neophyte, to not just read it closely, but appreciate its brilliance.
And I haven’t even mentioned the mouth dripping recipes, the numerous word games, and most significantly, it’s commitment to holding power to account.
She has cast her net so widely and so successfully, how the hell are upstarts supposed to identify niches to exploit?
Here’s hoping The Gray Lady doesn’t get complacent and that a thousand upstarts throw caution to the wind and somehow bloom.
Nostalgia Is A Thing
Always a highlight while waiting for fam therapy to start. I don’t know what it’s called, but I OWNED this contraption when I was 5-7 years old. You start in the top center with one marble of sorts, and then, oh so gently, adjust side knobs in ways that enable your marble to weave through the obstacle course without falling into any hole.
Today, in the few minutes I had, I got to 18. Only 42 more to go and I’ll be back baby!
If His Mouth Is Moving
Daniel Dale, Trump fact-checker extraordinaire:
“Asked about Trump’s false claims that schools in multiple states are allowed to send kids for gender surgery without parental consent, the president of the National Association of School Nurses notes schools typically need written consent ‘to give a kid Tylenol’.”
How ’bout we sub in the NASN President for the pathological liar.
