My mother used to iron the tinsel (it was heavy strands in those days) every year.

Love this article and love your writing style.

Distraction from the price of eggs that skyrocketed under Biden? Doubtful.

Nice guy but he has TDS.

Tracinski is running for Congress. https://www.tracinskiletter.com/p/tracinski-for-congress

Over on the new Megyn Kelly channel (111) on SiriusXM, her gossip columnist is talking about the RFK Jr./Nuzzi digital affair, which required her to describe and define "felching," since somehow that came up in their love talk.

I wonder if most of the people pushing this idea are childless and have an experience of diapering that is limited to deviant adults.

I really don't think that the point of the film is to discuss or attempt to provide an explanation to current day politics at all? It's simply a portrayal of what can go wrong whenever radical ideas and concepts are introduced to the wider population? She had an idea, she wrote a book about it and first she agreed with what was happening as a result of her having written the book but then it begins to morph into something else completely and evolves into something entirely different? The idea that what you write and out out into the world always has the very dangerous potential to be completely misunderstood/manipulated/misrepresented? That's my opinion anyway!!

Netflix keeps pitching (me or everyone?) Emirates Airlines for our holiday travel. I don't know what the profile of Netflix viewers is that we are getting this.

That's correct. Neandertal DNA has been found (esp in Europeans and descendants) and Denisovan (Asians, Indigenous Americans). Some people may have both. https://www.livescience.com/archaeology/human-evolution/the-first-americans-had-denisovan-dna-and-it-may-have-helped-them-survive

I don't think they have found any Homo floresiensis DNA in humans. AI seems to agree with that, but it gets a lot of things wrong.

"DOGE days are over. I need a pardon."

I have always marveled at people like Richie Fitzgerald who endure the chilly ocean temperatures in search of challenging waves and surf for hours in places like Ireland, the Oregon & Washington coast and even the shores of Alaska where the water temps never get above the mid 50s and they can get as low as the mid 40s. As a lifelong surfer for over 50 years I have had many memorable winter surfing sessions in Southern & Central California and Mexico where the water temps can get down into the mid 50s which for me meant paddling out and getting through the initial chill then surfing for 40 minutes or so until the secondary chill kicks in and uncontrollable shivering takes over which means time to head to the shore for a warm drink and a hoody. These days I limit my surfing to April through early November and avoid the cold months all together...Keep on surfing Mark but also keep on writing. Both pursuits are good for the soul.

You have no way of knowing this. What you mean is that there are no credible sources claiming he is, or ever was, transgender. Most likely he wasn't ever that, but it's still poor journalism on your part to claim you have the definitive answer, as is referencing homophobia when the subject of homosexuality is not being discussed. But I know, you've been writing for years, so you're not to be challenged. Ho hum.

You're not really reliable when it comes to facts, "Fact Checker" Ken. Who actually believes that a deep economic crisis—if that's in fact the case—doesn't mean the country is in serious trouble? Maybe a petty nitpicker.Did the rise of the Third Reich have anything to do with the disastrous economy of the Weimar Republic? I'm not suggesting that Germany is in that shape now, but your claim that it's "rather different" to say the nation's economy is in free fall than to say the nation is in trouble is a distinction without a difference.

Norman Podhoretz is dead. https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/16/us/politics/norman-podhoretz-dead.html

Nick Reiner is not and never has been transgender; an easy fact check for a journalist. Therefore it wouldn’t be “low hanging fruit” for Trump, since it’s not true. What the president of the United States wrote is horrific enough without piling on additional lies and homophobia, so if we could possibly avoid those things here also it would be fabulous. As you say: “blame evil, defend victims.”

Nothing in this piece approaches "the darkest hell." And the quote that >>the country is in its “historically deepest crisis” << isn't what the guy said, which was: "The German economy is in its deepest historical crisis since the founding of the Federal Republic ...", rather different. https://bdi.eu/presse#/artikel/news/bdi-zu-industriebericht-wirtschaftsstandort-im-freien-fall-bundesregierung-reagiert-nicht-entschlossen-genug

The whole is greater than the sum of its parts. Reaching the conclusion that Bob Dylan sucks by deconstructing and dissecting some select passages from a small sample of Dylan songs and disaggregating the lyrics from the music unfairly diminishes the art that Dylan produced. Music is absorbed and appreciated by those who hear it in different ways be it intellectually, emotionally, spiritually or some other defined or undefined way. As someone who is old enough to have enjoyed Dylan's music when it was released during the dramatic changes of those times and the personal changes that I was going through, Dylan's music resonated with me and I am not alone.. Bob Dylan was also hugely influential to many artists both during his heyday and after... The linked song is an example of some of those musicians who were influenced by Dylan and who obviously appreciated his music...https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MjtPBjEz-BA....

Assuming what you wrote is not intended as comedy, there's more to poetry and songwriting than words. Whitman changed the subject of poetry. Dylan did the same for pop music. They both experimented with form. I'm not sure how old you are, but "Mr. Tambourine Man" was something new when it came out.

I don't see any convincing refutation. That you don't like what he's done is perfectly fine; however trying to justify your dislike by trying to prove his work is very bad is not quite convincing. It is so easy to make fun of quotes, I could do it with a Shakespeare sonnet. It is just your perception. Mine is different. Is all his work great? Of course not. It is not the point. His work, like all work of art, is vast and varied enough to find valuable things in it. Your refutation falls short on several things. The folk idiom is mentioned in a previous post. You clearly have trouble with images. No, a hammer does not howl in real life, just as an orange cannot be blue. It's the idea. reducing Like A Rolling Stone to a break up song is quite simplistic. That song touched people not just because it is an angry song. Clearly it evoked different things to various people. That is art. I don't see a break up song, I see different feelings exposed. In a coherent way, with a music that matches the text. Which is what a song does. The debate about Frost or Bernstein being art (because they came before) and popular music being too simplistic is alos a little outdated. If Dylan did one thing, it is to make teenage music something more. You can argue it opened the gates of hell, but it's a fact. Art is constantly changing. The impressionist paintings were not seen as art either. A song does not have to have a specific meaning. It, like any form of art, can be used to express or create emotions. A lot of the lyrics you don't understand do just that. You may not like the medium or the way it is made, but it does just that. Can't just dismiss it as nonsense. Or you can dismiss Rimbaud and Dylan Thomas as well. Clearly didn't get The Times They AreA-Changing. Yes times change, they have for the past two centuries at an accelerating speed. The times are not time. One last thing, this is an artist (I don't know what else to call him) who keeps changing. Just for that, in an age when fashion rules, I think of him as an artist. Whom of course you are completely free to not like. But spending so much time trying to prove he is not even a songwriter, with arbitrarily selected examples, shows more resentment than aesthetic consideration. A song is like a poem, it stands (or not) as a whole.

Let's not forget, "That man whom with his fingers cheats, and whom lies with every breath."

Clarification: "The time isn’t changing, things are." The correct lyric is "times," referring not to time in general, but rather a particular period in time—e.g. those were "hard times." The A is added there, for rhythmic reasons. Makes the lyrics fit the words better, as you pointed out. Also, it's a usage found in the old folk songs that influenced the so-called Bob Dylan—"the train's a-coming." You write that no one has ever spoken this way, but many TV shows and movies prove you wrong. The Wizard of Oz—"We’re a-going to see the Wizard.” The Andy Griffith Show - “He’s a-comin’ round here again.” Etc.etc. It's a rural way of speaking. The lyrics, with their usage of inherited language, are not conversational. As for "Blowin' in the Wind," some need answers in such songs, and others don't. He wrote for the latter group.

https://youtu.be/phZmQC-sFZA?si=F8zJ-HKG53Oy7cRn

On "Coffee with Scott Adams" today (11/11) Scott Adams says, in discussing how to persuade people, you should watch Cheryl Hines on podcasts, and in particular this episode, if you want to know how to be on a podcast.

That and GQ?

I think seeing The Sting as a young teen or pre-teen helped turn me gay. THAT was a hot couple!

Trump has won twice, but neither of these guys have the slightest idea of why that happened. Try harder, Splice Today.

Hard to imagine thinking that Marc Maron has any real insights into the future of American politics. He's a good comedian and decent interviewer, but his talent stops there. And in this clip, he's talking to a fellow insufferably smug progressive, Sam Seder, who hasn't had an original thought in decades. Posting such material is a total waste of time. Thanks for nothing.

Actually the second littlest one was not her son because he was younger than my dad, i unfortunately don’t remember which cousin he was but the tallest boy was my great aunt’s son.

They are not going to school, my grandfather filmed this. It was a leisurely trip to the end of the line by lake Roland. The little blondie in white was my dad and the dark haired second tallest boy in stripes was my uncle. The lady that was on camera before they boarded was my aunt Bea and the two other boys I think were her sons

Such a great song. So sad youngin's don't know our music in the 60's and 70's was SO much better than their music is.

"If you only know a cup this way, you don't know the cup." David Thomas threw off sparks every time he opened his mouth.

A loving/moving biography of Les Baxter: https://lesbaxter.com/pages/biography

This is great. please add a blusky link one of these days.

Just saw it yesterday. She was terrific.