I started to write about Lindsey Graham and Mitch McConnell. Then I remembered how unlikely it is that they will be remembered as important by anyone other than historians in even ten years.
I suspect that AI is the real, enduring story of our era. And who is the Avatar of AI?
My wife just read me a news item about Martha Lillard, the last polio survivor still using an iron lung.
How terrifying had to be it for my parents’ generation to watch the advance of polio! I had one classmate who survived it. The Salk Vaccine is one of the great achievements in public health.
Watching England and Norway on two-hour delay (it conflicted with Vespers). I’m impressed with Norway’s lightning strikes. Glad I got to see what all the Haaland buzz is about.
With USMNT out, I’m shifting my allegiance to France (which isn’t hard for me) and I’m stoked about today’s match against Morocco.
Pulisic appeared to sustain the injury in the 52nd minute of the U.S. men’s national team’s 4-1 defeat, when he wound up to take a shot at the edge of the penalty box but instead kicked the back of Belgian midfielder Youri Tielemans’ calf.
James Horncastle, Henry Bushnell and Paul Tenorio
First, I’m going to ask “What are you guys smoking? He kicked the heel of the Belgian’s shoe. And my leg ached just watching the replay.”
Second, I’m going to see if there’s a YouTube for a very belated VAR … Well, there is and it shows that I’m right.
In need of salvation, yet not wanting to be made safe by science. The humanities are hoary. Towards the end of one’s life, towards the end of the century; worse still towards the end of the millennium, the tempter appoaches us as desperation.
R.S. Thomas, The Echoes Return Slow, in Collected Later Poems 1988-2000
This is set off on Lilly Road at Lafayette’s southwest, on the way to nowhere else that I ever go. It’s Lafayette’s cog in the Eli Lilly (Evonik) wheel, and Evonik is spending another $100 million for expansion.
Employs 750 with 80 more on the way. How can this be so easy to forget?
Seriously, Chrysler: “In loud we trust”? (World Cup ad)
The calculated corruption of “In God we trust” is secondary; my primary offense is the message that we Americans are power-hungry and tumultuous jerks.
I was looking forward to the USA vs. Belgium World Cup match tonight, but the decision of FIFA to suspend the one-game suspension of Balogun cast a pall over it.
I’ve now rationalized the suspension of the suspension and will watch with a clear conscience.
Currently reading: Galahad and the Grail by Malcolm Guite 📚
I’m shockingly ignorant of Arthururian lore and of the Grail, but this is going to be a delightful way to learn.
I’m taking the poet’s advice and reading aloud, pretending I have a wide-eyed child on my lap.
This Buried Apple Feature Turns an iPhone Into the Perfect Kids’ Dumb Phone. Who knew?
It makes the most sense as a reconfiguration of an old iPhone passed down to a child.
A chance encounter outside our sunroom: stray cat meets what-the-heck is this, observed serendipitously by me on the way to the bathroom.
I got a head start because my ancestors started practicing miscegenation before it was fashionable. (Ted Gioia), on his American identity. A polymath’s Substack that I never consider cancelling.
I feel affirmed. Some Thoughts on the Court’s Opinion(s) in the Birthright Citizenship Case is in alignment with my own.
I’ve decided to celebrate the Semisequicentennial a bit. I’ll decline Jonah Goldberg’s allusion to hate-watch Trump’s America 250. Instead, I’m watching the SBD World’s Strongest Man competition on CBS.
After June 29’s Unitary-Executive-tinged SCOTUS decisions, we need Congress to step behind the Rawlsian veil of ignorance to decide how much power a generic President should have and then refashion all the now-not-so “independent” agencies accordingly.
I fear Congress cannot rise to the occasion.
AI use case: remembering the half-remembered, the “I seem to recall” stuff of life.
My chat history shows a lot of that.
At long last, I’m reading A Pattern Language. 📚I blame @ablerism for pushing me over the edge.
When it arrived, my wife looked at the cover, then at me, then at the cover, and said “why?” I had no answer beyond that good and smart people love it.
The introductory material helps a lot. Excited.
I was kinda shaking my head about World Cup tourists going mad over ranch salad dressing. Then I remembered my first taste of the original Dorito at a young adult church picnic in Prescott, AZ.
I think I get it now.
14. The city of Bergen, Norway, shook on the night of June 22–23, not because there was an earthquake or an unknown geological phenomenon. But because the Norwegian national team scored a goal during the 2026 World Cup. This curious phenomenon was reported by a team of researchers from the University of Bergen, who found that fan celebrations produce vibrations in the ground so intense they can be detected even by highly sensitive scientific instruments like seismometers. … (Source: wired.com)
John Ellis News Items for June 25.