Wit & Whim

 This is not about the news. This is about something truly and inherantly human. This is a blues song cloaked in a blog post, getting right to the heart of the things that people really care about. You may have heard it said that oral traditions are changing and evolving with the advent of digital media. That the wide dissemination of voice and video recordings are not corrupting the art, but saving it. Well, I don't know about all that, but just this morning I got to initiate my daughter into one of the universal rites in our people's oral history. You see, my child asked me why it was so dark at 7:45 in the morning, and would it just keep getting darker and darker until the longest day? And I took a day breath and answered her as our people have done for what seems like ages. No, I said, the darkness all around you at 7:45 in the lunatic consequence of something called daylight savings time, where we all change our clocks to say it is one hour later for half the year, for rea...

 I'd make you read all of Colossians 3, but I'll pull excepts: 1.  If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God... 8...But now ye also put off all these; anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communication out of your mouth.  I have a friend who likes to point out that there are two ditches on each side of the road, and we are often want to get out of one ditch only to cross right over the straight and narrow road into the opposite ditch. So it has been with the attempt to reclaim masculinity. We had--as a society--become ashamed of the notion that a man was the head of his family. We had bought in wholesale to the truism that men and women were effectively the same, and that the only real difference was socialization and upbringing. That the male impulse to competition, striving, and deal with emotions with a stiff upper lip were toxic traits forced on us by societal convention and obsolete necessity....

 Well done, Matt. Now we are eating. A Muslim, a catholic, and a Kennedy walk into a bar. No, wait, a conservative, a liberal, and a communist walk into a bar. No, lets try again, an African, an Italian, and a Pol...ish person walk into a bar. The three way mayoral race in New York should be introduced with such a line, because we can all see that it is a pretty bad joke. Ladies and gentlemen, behind door number one I give you: Cuomo. The ossified scion of american political gentry. A good catholic, who publicly professes against the beliefs of the church. A great statesman, who left office under the cloud of numerous scandals. Who could not seriously be on this ballot if he was not a wealthy political blue blood with the backing of a political matchine. And in this corner I give you the champion of the little man Homer Stokes! No, actually, it is Zohran Mamdani, the stunning underdog son of...wealthy elites with extensive  connections. No worries though, Zohran is here to mak...

 You can't make me do it, Matty. I'm not writing about any topic twice in a row, let alone that one. The reason I still like to check in on drudge is that he, if somewhat more obviously taking sides than in the past, still seems to have a great barometer on what is news worthy, and will link to a handful of non-AI slop stories about it. I looked around at a handful of other news sites I frequent on occasion to see if there was anything worth teeing off on. They were all 'problematic' in the same kind of way, and now I'm going to tell you how in a characteristically rambly way. Beer, Brats, and Bride is a peculiar event; a camp festival where we all revel in gathering around a cult classic that we have seen too many times. The camaraderie is strengthened by the shared knowledge that we are doing something very silly. Lines are recited aloud, laughter, hoots, and screams come from the audience as if scripted. Every single year, unfailingly, I look forward to watching ...

 How does one choose what to write about after a long hiatus? So much water under the bridge, some of it sweet and clear, and some brackish, muddy, carrying along oak trunks festooned with desperately clinging raccoons. The boring, the sublime, the absurd: life has had plenty of it. Choosing the right thing were too difficult, so instead we are going to play a game. Matt Drudge is going to have a headline, and I am going to give my half-formed opinion about it. I hope this will be fun for both of us. I promise to keep it short form, as long as you promise not to read it. Let's get started. DEVELOPING: HOSTAGES RELEASED I'm honestly shocked the hostages were released. I would have taken odds against it a month ago. I think we should all hope and pray for the peaceful transfer of power from Hamas to civilian authorities, and that humanitarian aid may flow freely, and that this is the beginning of an era of peace and healing for the people of Gaza. But I doubt it. And take my doub...