Andy Kaufman, subject of a new documentary, "anticipated our reality-bent world"
Kaufman “set up camp on ever-advancing frontiers of unpleasantness, all the better to mystify crowds about where the joke, if there was one, ended.” You were never quite sure what was a bit and what was real.
There’s a direct line from Kaufman’s recurring routines as an obnoxious lounge singer and misogynistic wrestler to Musk and Bannon throwing Nazi salutes and never clarifying whether they are really Nazis.
Two Kingston, NY, restaurants featured in “Severance” host watch parties for the show, with customers showing up in costume. The New York Times has a photo essay. “Please try to enjoy each photo equally, and not show preference for any over the others.”
European nations were at war for a thousand years, culminating in two of the bloodiest wars ever fought. But those nations have been at peace for 80 years. This is a magnificent achievement. The Trump administration thinks it’s “pathetic.”
Make Person-To-Person Email a Thing Again
Inspired by Cory Doctorow @pluralistic@mamot.fr, I’m trying to Make Person-to-Person Email a Thing again. If your message does not require immediate attention, don’t send a text message, WhatsApp, iMessage, Facebook Messenger, or other direct-message. Just send an email. That way, the recipient reads and responds to it it at their leisure.
Things you should send in email:
- “Happy birthday!”
- “Here is a funny meme.”
- “Let’s get together in a couple of weeks.”
Things that are OK to send in text message:
- “I’m running 15 minutes late - sorry!”
- “You’re on fire. Literally. You might want to look into that.”
- “There is pie.”
Cory wrote about this on his blog recently, but I can’t find the link.
I’m having a lot of difficulty focusing on work today. Fortunately, my work requires me to operate a computer that is connected to the whole Internet oh shit I’m fucked.
Here’s something I saw while walking the dog: The Canada geese are back hanging around at the park. The goslings are not far behind!
"But her emails!" is back in the news again
When Clinton used her email for official business, it was completely normal behavior, even at her level of government. Small professional services businesses (like the Clinton Foundation) ran their own email servers, and people used their personal email for work.
It was utterly innocent behavior that the Republicans just pretended was shady. Republicans like to do that.
We’re seeing the same strategy today with transphobia and hysteria over immigration and migrants. Trans people, immigrants and migrants threaten no one, but Republicans are just making shit up and getting their supporters worked up over nothing. Jumping at shadows — but there aren’t even any shadows. It’s jumping at nothing.
71-year-old Donald Gorske has eaten two McDonald’s Big Macs every day since 1972. That’s 35,000 Big Macs. He’s saved the receipts and cartons, stacked in his basement.
I still sometimes think about something John Gruber said on Daring Fireball when Gorske was in the news for eating his 25,000th Big Mac in 2011:
My first thought when I heard about him was that he must be either an idiot or an asshole. But now I think not. I think maybe he’s a lucky man — someone who found the perfect food to suit his taste, an obsessive who never tires of it, and it happens to be cheap and readily available almost everywhere in the world.
Merchant of Menace: Trump and the Jews (Robert Kuttner / The American Prospect) — “This will not end well.”
The Signal leak reveals the depth of the Trump administration’s loathing of Europe (Andrew Roth / The Guardian) — Vance and Hegseth are little boys cosplaying as conquering generals.