Sunrise — 5:42.

"I’ve been reading a lot of Marcus Aurelius’s 'Meditations' book... And the funny thing about that book is..."

"... he talks a lot about the fallacy of even thinking of leaving a legacy—thinking your life is important, thinking anything’s important. The ego and fallacy of it, the vanity of it. And his book, of course, disproves all of it, because he wrote this thing for himself, and it lived on centuries beyond his life, affecting other people. So he defeats his own argument in the quality of this book.... I really have adopted the Marcus Aurelius philosophy, which is that everything I’ve done means nothing. I don’t think for a second that it will ever mean anything to anyone ten days after I’m dead...."

Says Jerry Seinfeld, interviewed by David Remnick, in "The Scholar of Comedy/Jerry Seinfeld on how to write jokes, the ending of 'Curb Your Enthusiasm,' and the world-historical struggle to invent the Pop-Tart" (The New Yorker).

That movie about inventing the Pop-Tart was not sponsored by the company that makes Pop-Tarts, so it's not like the Barbie movie. I was glad to see that, so let me show you the trailer:

Nice effort at setting things in 1963 — including a scene in the Oval Office with JFK — so why use the David Bowie recording of "Rebel, Rebel," which came out in 1974? Is everything on the top 100 for 1963 not Pop-Tarty enough? Couldn't get the rights for "My Boyfriend's Back" or "Walk Like a Man" or "Easier Said Than Done" or "Da Doo Ron Ron"?

"So Bragg would use one dead misdemeanor to trigger a second dead misdemeanor to create a felony..."

"... on the simple notations used to describe payments for a completely legal nondisclosure agreement. This circular reasoning is already incredibly creative, but the actual evidence... is even wackier. Bragg decided to start with a witness to discuss an affair that is not part of the indictment. David Pecker, former publisher of the National Enquirer tabloid, had supposedly been paid to kill a story of a Trump affair with a different woman, Karen McDougal, a former Playboy model.... On cross examination, Pecker admitted that had Trump told him that he knew nothing about any reimbursement to Cohen for any hush money, that he had killed or raised such stories with Trump for decades before he ever announced for president...."

Writes Jonathan Turley, in "On Alvin Bragg and the art of not taking the law too seriously" (The Hill).

"We were always taught that we were the best, and so we couldn’t do anything but the best."

Said Duke Ellington's sister Ruth, quoted in "Duke Ellington would be 125. Washington still dances to his tune" (WaPo).

Today, this might sound myopic and perhaps naive, but at the time it was the credo of America’s best-known Black educator, Booker T. Washington. He argued that rather than try to topple an entrenched Jim Crow system, Black people could battle back more effectively through economic improvement, self-help and focused teaching. That is precisely what the D.C. schools were doing in the early 1900s, offering a large dose of Black history and prideful learning to students like Duke Ellington. He remembered his eighth-grade English instructor’s dictum: “Everywhere you go, you’re representing the race. And you command respect. You don’t ask for it. … You command respect with your behavior.” Ellington took that message to heart, the more so since it was reinforced at home. He believed that Black is beautiful and made it a principle to live by, long before it became the mantra of Black activists.

"When I work with younger writers, I am frequently amazed by how quickly peer feedback sessions turn into a process of identifying which characters did or said insensitive things."

"Sometimes the writers rush to defend the character, but often they apologize shamefacedly for their own blind spot, and the discussion swerves into how to fix the morals of the piece. The suggestion that the values of a character can be neither the values of the writer nor the entire point of the piece seems more and more surprising — and apt to trigger discomfort. While I typically share the progressive political views of my students, I’m troubled by their concern for righteousness over complexity. They do not want to be seen representing any values they do not personally hold.... I can’t blame younger writers for believing that it is their job to convey a strenuously correct public morality...."

From "Art Isn’t Supposed to Make You Comfortable" by the writer Jen Silverman, in the NYT.

Can't blame them? I say blame them. They're already feeling bad about not doing everything possible to promote prescribed morality. Make them feel bad about making bad art. You've got to leverage the bad feeling. 

Pick a Dakota governor. With the governor of the south in the doghouse, the governor of the north comes down the chimney.

Axios reports:

North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum is quickly moving up former President Trump's list of possible vice presidential picks because Trump's team believes he would be a safe choice who could attract moderate voters, four people familiar with the situation tell Axios....

Two sources familiar with the Trump's thinking [sic] said he likes Burgum's measured demeanor and his gubernatorial experience — and sees Burgum as reliable and low-drama. Those are similar to the traits Trump cited in 2016, when he tapped Mike Pence....

They share one personal touch point, which the sources said occasionally comes up in conversation between Trump and Burgum: Kathryn Burgum is recovering from alcoholism, an addiction that Trump's late brother Fred Trump Jr. also struggled with....

ADDED: We talked about the Kristi Noem dog story yesterday, here, and I took a little poll. The results:

"First they came for the attendees of the White House Correspondents Dinner, and I said nothing...."

First they came for the attendees of the White House Correspondents Dinner, and I said nothing, because I hate those people https://t.co/hnAnLVFQOr

— Dr. Ben Braddock (@GraduatedBen) April 28, 2024

"In 2023, the United States experienced its lowest birth rate since 1979, with a total fertility rate of 1.62 births per woman..."

"... well below the replacement rate of 2.1 births per woman. This decline, attributed to factors such as financial concerns, unstable work hours, and lack of paid leave, has resulted in approximately 3.6 million births, marking a 2 percent decrease from the previous year. Experts and public figures, including Elon Musk, have expressed concern over the long-term implications of this trend on the country's demographic and economic future."

A Grok news summary at X (that comes with the warning "Grok can make mistakes, verify its outputs").

Elon Musk, not content to be mentioned by his robot Grok, adds a tweet of his own (responding to a video from a woman propounding the "Great Replacement Theory"). Musk writes:

You're not dressing like Cary Grant.

I disagree that you dress like Cary Grant. In this thread, I will list some of the ways in which your dress differs and why such important details matter. 🧵 https://t.co/6hTiPgpxSX

— derek guy (@dieworkwear) April 28, 2024

Read the whole detailed thread. Quite aside from the fantasy of dressing like men did in 1548, Guy shows it's also a fantasy to believe that men in suits these days are dressing like Cary Grant in 1948.

I was especially interested in Guy's attention to the problem of a collar gap, because I was troubled to see that Biden was allowed to go on close-up camera last night at the Correspondents' Dinner with a giant gap between his shirt and his neck:

  

It's reminiscent of a ventriloquist dummy, notably Charlie McCarthy, who dressed in white tie:

"When frightened men take to social media they risk descending into vitriol, which makes them sound unhinged."

"President Trump's rant against me is a barely coherent barrage of wild and inaccurate claims that should best be resolved in the American tradition of presidential debate. President Trump, who has proven himself the most adept debater in modern American political history, should not be panicked to meet me on that stage."

Tweets RFK Jr., responding to Trump's tweet, which we discussed here yesterday.

RFK continues, previewing the arguments he would make in a debate to "show how President Trump betrayed the hopes of his most sincere followers":

Sunrise — 6:00.

"In the weeks since his rowdy State of the Union speech... President Biden has shown a looser, more comfortable version of himself..."

"... cranking out memorable wisecracks, heartfelt moments and cringe-worthy gaffes in equal measure. He has needled his Republican rival, former President Donald J. Trump, with increasing frequency, presented his softer side on talk radio and repeatedly spun tall tales about driving an 18-wheeler truck, being arrested at a civil rights rally and having an uncle who might have been eaten by cannibals. In one memorable episode this week, Mr. Biden read aloud his teleprompter instructions, asking a crowd to imagine what he could do with 'four more years … pause.' The annual White House Correspondents’ Association dinner on Saturday night could be another opportunity for Mr. Biden to be in the moment, in what might be the perfect setting for him to continue roasting Mr. Trump.... And on Friday, Mr. Biden made a surprise visit to 'The Howard Stern Show'... showing an emotionally vulnerable side to Mr. Stern’s large audience of middle-class Americans...."

Writes Chris Cameron, in the NYT.

It's a puff piece. What can you say? I'll just say I wouldn't have written "continue roasting Mr. Trump" so close to "eaten by cannibals."

Also: If you'd asked me what kind of people listen to Howard Stern, I wouldn't have thought of saying middle-class Americans. From yesterday's NYT article about Biden's Howard Stern interview: "Mr. Stern’s listeners are mostly white, mostly male and mostly comfortably middle class, according to figures shared by the Howard Stern Radio Network...." "Middle class" looked odd to me, perhaps mostly because it floated free of those other 2 characteristics: white and male. 

"[Ralph] Nader told us that his longtime favorite pens, Paper Mate Flair Felt Tip Pens Medium Point (0.7 mm), had started drying out too quickly."

"He wanted to know why. Nader needed answers. Well, we didn’t have any. And neither did Paper Mate—Nader said the company waved away his concerns with a standard corporate non-answer about standing behind the pens’ quality.... 'For years I’ve been using felt pens, mostly red and black but sometimes purple, to mark up The New York Times,' Nader told me in a phone interview last year. 'I go through every page of the Times, and I mark up different articles and send them to different people. And I do that with The Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal.' When Nader says years, he means years. We found a black-and-white photo of him using what appears to be a Paper Mate Flair in 1972...."

From "We Sent Ralph Nader Some of Our Favorite Pens. He Dismissed Them All" (NYT).

1972! Why, I remember when Flair pens first came out. It was 1966. Before that, there were no felt-tipped writing pens. There were markers — specifically, the Marks-a-Lot — with thick points and permanent ink that were great for making posters on oak tag, but would bleed through writing paper and had a strong smell. So the Flairs, with their sharp points and dark but not overpowering ink, seemed miraculous. I felt very lucky to get my hands on a Flair back in 1966. And if you had multiple colors — purple! — you were a celebrity.

"More than six months into the war in Gaza and with dimming hopes for a cease-fire deal, Palestinians there are growing more critical of Hamas..."

"... which some of them blame for the months-long conflict that has destroyed the territory — and their lives.... In interviews with more than a dozen residents of Gaza, people said they resent Hamas for the attacks in Israel and — war-weary and desperate to fulfill their basic needs — just want to see peace as soon as possible. If Hamas wanted to start a war, 'they should have secured people first — secured a place of refuge for them, not thrown them into suffering that no one can bear,' said Salma El-Qadomi, 33, a freelance journalist.... 'Hamas... don’t be upset with us and try to understand us correctly,' Rami Haroon, a 45-year-old dentist and father of five, wrote on Facebook on April 20. 'We have been suffocated by you for a long time.... Your ship will sink and you will drown us with you.'... According to [Mkhaimar Abusada, associate professor of political science], people 'care about Palestine and resistance and freedom and independence. But first of all, they want to live as humans, to be able to eat and sleep. That’s why the criticism is much more vocal now and much more public now.... Israel really sent us to the Stone Age.'"

From "In war-battered Gaza, residents grow angry with Hamas" (WaPo).

"'I was a star; I had leading roles,' she said, solemnly shaking her head."

"She had parked in the town square for a takeout lunch — chicken salad, quiche and sweetened iced coffee, finished off with a drag of a Parliament. She lowered her voice. 'People think it’s just aging, but it’s not. It’s violence.' Prompted to explain 'violence,' Ms. Duvall responded with a question: 'How would you feel if people were really nice, and then, suddenly, on a dime' — she snapped her fingers — 'they turn on you? You would never believe it unless it happens to you. That’s why you get hurt, because you can’t really believe it’s true.'"

From "Shelley Duvall Vanished From Hollywood. She’s Been Here the Whole Time. After two decades, the actress known for her roles in era defining films like 'The Shining' and 'Nashville' has returned to acting. But what happened to her?" (NYT).

I'm blogging this because of the striking, strange use of the word "violence." Just 2 weeks ago, on this blog, I got involved in the meaning of that word.

Here's the post, "Another look at that Berkeley dinner party violence." Excerpt: "'Violence' can also mean 'Vehemence or intensity of emotion, behaviour, or language.'"

"Even if we had held the dinner in the law-school building, no one would have had a constitutional right to disrupt the event...."

Writes Erwin Chemerinsky, in "No One Has a Right to Protest in My Home/The difference between a private yard and a public forum," an Atlantic article, illustrated with a drawing of a conventional suburban house.

Is it about the sanctity of the home or not?

The dinner, which was meant to celebrate graduating students, was obviously disrupted.

The private family home is an emotionally compelling topic, but as you can see, it's not crucial to Chemerinsky's power to shut down the student who wanted to deliver a speech.

Some commentators have criticized my wife for trying to get hold of the microphone. Some have said that I just should have let the student speak for as long as she wanted. But in all of the dinners we have held over more than 15 years, not once has anyone attempted to give a speech. We had no reason to change the terms of the dinner to accommodate someone from an organization that put up anti-Semitic images of me....

Is he suggesting that he might have accommodated a speaker with a more pleasing viewpoint?