—I’M SUCH A FOOL FOR YOU …Is that the same cloud from yesterday, hanging up there like a bad head of cauliflower? …Sometimes the answers depend on where you’re looking. …What’re you hiding? What’s in there? …What I never noticed, until it was told to me, is that Leroy and Royel is an anagram. How clever. …I think pushed the wrong button last week. …Tom Brady can look like a total poseur a lot of times, but I’ll always be a fan. …We lost two of the world’s biggest feminists within a week. Our country could use another feminist to believe in. …“She never took energy from a room, she gave energy back to the room.” Melissa Etheridge on Dolly Parton …I don’t think you can habve too much Dolly. …“Sometimes you just have to be willing to put on the clown nose and take a risk.” Shawn Hatosy …I think it’s time we lifted the curse. …“I have always loved everything about you, even what I didn’t understand.” Albert Camus …I’m anything but not clever. … "They teach you there's a boundary line to music. But, man, there's no boundary line to art." ―Charlie Parker …Most writers would be discouraged to see their fingers aren’t moving but whenever I see mine aren’t, I say, “Yay,” out loud. …There better be a Heaven. …What good is it if you only play the game that’s been given to you? …Every writer I know says they own too many books, and it’s not a contest, but just look around here and see if you don’t find yourself saying, “Holy hell.” …I think we need more bread. …What if the ceiling doesn’t own a roof? What then? …If I’m not mistaken, I think I learned that from you. …There’s another dead soldier. …There’s another metaphor only 2 percent will get, but hey, so what? …No, we have to keep going. ...“It’s not about showing weakness or projecting yourself as someone who’s strong. It’s about doing a thing that can’t be defined.” Jalen Hurts …It was really strange, about a month or so ago, watching someone pull up one of my Friday blog posts and reading it out loud to a group of 15 people. It felt really awkward, of course, but the weird thing was most all of them got what I was saying, or they got it in a way that meant something to them. … “To change your life, you need to change your priorities.” Mark Twain …“I think you need to be in Canada to understand how deep the animosity to the US is.” Denise Humphrey, Winnipeg. (I understand what you’re saying Denise, but I think you’re wrong. You only have to live in the US.) …It’s truly astonishing how corrupt and inept this administration is: …‘I wouldn’t call it a war.’ Vice President Vance said Thursday that he wouldn’t call the military operation between the U.S. and Iran “a war,” despite the eruption of hostilities this week. (No, you’re right; it’s not a war—we only exchanged 150 bombs in five days and we’ve only spent $145 BILLION so far.) …JD Vance says he’s doing ‘God’s work – and if that leads to the end times, OK’ “The president didn’t mean any offense. Obviously, he loves Christians … Did Donald Trump mean to post a meme of himself as God? No. The president has a good sense of humor. He did not mean to mock or mimic God. That’s just not who he is.” The Guardian (You’re right again, he never mocks anyone.) …Trump administration seeks to strip private schools’ tax-exempt status if they consider race (This really does sound familiar, like Nazi Germany targeting Jewish people.) … Trump Administration Begins Blitz to Find Elusive Voter Fraud Ahead of Midterms Election fraud is exceedingly rare, but President Trump has fixated on rooting it out this year, claiming without evidence that tens of thousands of noncitizens are registered to vote. The government is privately calling the effort the Unlawful Voter Initiative and is pulling agents from their normal duties, which include investigating such serious crimes as human trafficking and terrorism. https://www.nytimes.com/2026/09/02/us/politics/trump-election-voter-fraud.html?emc=edit_na_20260902&nl=breaking-news&segment_id=225918 … Pentagon cuts internal access to classified documents after The Washington Post reporting on military concerns about Iran war … Trump floats renaming Strait of Hormuz after himself (The Hill) …US Mint officially launches $1 coin featuring Trump The United States Mint released 250,000 $1 coins Wednesday featuring President Trump’s likeness to commemorate the nation’s 250th anniversary. …Trump ranks himself the greatest US president ever. Historians beg to differ. (That’s what I call being a Christian, showing humility. I have never in my life known a “person” more pathologically narcissistic than this monster.) …The above insanity is just in the last FOUR days. It’s amazing, and so sad, that the Republican Party (who holds the majority in both houses) allows this because they’re too scared they’ll lose their jobs. The people can protest all they want, but they’re not the ones with the power. Anyway… …I get to see my bestie in three days. We’ll solve the world’s problems. …You must know something I don’t. Why’re you so happy? …Well, it just goes to show you; everybody’s from somewhere. ...Hey, Sparky, how’s a nap sound? “The world is the closed door. It is a barrier. And at the same time it is the way through.” Simone Weil …I have a new musical group obsession. I mean, if you have the balls to sing “Linger,” basically a cappella, I’m going to pay attention. …I really have no life skills. Like I have none. I can’t fix a thing. Most times I can’t even fix myself. …You can tell me anything. I’m a good listener. Is that a life skill? …Anyone who says, “I’ll never judge you.” automatically scores bonus points with me. But it all depends on if they genuinely mean it. …Sometimes you realize, that’s as close as you’re going to get to the thing you want, and then you just have to figure out how to deal with it. …I never really thought I’d cry at that, but I’m a soft touch. …I don’t have access to a Swedish ladder, but if I did… …“It’s obviously ridiculous to say somebody is ‘pro-abortion.’ Nobody wakes up in the morning and says, ‘I think I’ll have an abortion. It’s a pleasurable experience.’ The question is not pro-abortion or anti-abortion, the question is who makes the decision: a woman and her physician, or the government.” Gloria Steinem …Anyone can be passive-aggressive if their underwear is on too tight. …Someday…I think I hate those somedays. …Yesterday, I saw the LAKE HOURS sign floating down the water, untethered somehow. It was almost as if I was hallucinating. …What’s weird is a lot of people actually want to go to Las Vegas. Isn’t there any other place you’d want to go? …“Don’t forget to make your picks!” …I can hear you talking down there, but you’re not talking to me. …I don’t care about what my watch wants to tell me, but sometimes it tells me something important. …The deer have found all the dropped apples in the yard. I’ve seen at least 20 in the last week. I’ll drive up the driveway and be four feet from three of them, roll down the window and have a chat, and they never budge, even though they’re four feet away. It’s astounding. …This is where I should be and you should be, too. …“I think she’s a national treasure. There is so much in that voice. She’s a petite little person, but when she opens her mouth you hear her region of America, and you hear the suffering and hardship, and you also hear the love and compassion.” Don Henley about Dolly Parton, 2015 …I know I’ma gonna lose them when the wheels fall off. …I haven’t seen that guy in ages. …Uh oh, he’s pulling out the footstool again. ...I’ll have breakfast eventually, I promise. Just promise me back you won’t watch me snoring over the bowl. …Wait, didn’t I tell you that already? …Who are you talking to if it’s not me? …I still think about that four-year-old boy across the lake about to have a birthday party. I think about it every day. It’s hard not to when his house looks right at me. …I know I know I know. Write something happy for once. …the lone katydid The nighttime insect chorus reaches fortissimo in late August, filling the dark with its mating calls. In the woods outside New York, it’s bliss to sit still and listen through the open window to male katydids invisibly trying to out-fiddle other suitors. I do it as the poet Diane Ackerman, one of the most perceptive chroniclers of the natural world, advises: “Eyes closed and jaw relaxed into a smile, which gives the brain a rest from the whole seeing-is-believing thing.” Insomnia offers few gifts, but one I cherish as I lie awake as dawn arrives is the call of the last katydid, the lone romantic who’s pulled an all-nighter and bravely keeps up his song after everyone else has scurried off to avoid being eaten by morning birds. The name “katydid” is onomatopoetic, from the three-syllable sound the insects make. In the early hours, instead of what Ackerman calls a “tattletale” (“Katy did! Katy did!”), I hear a plaintive cry: “Anyone? Anyone?” It’s heartbreaking and heartwarming at the same time, this solitary soul hoping to meet someone before the lights come on. --Melissa Kirsch, “The Good List,” The New York Times