From The Chronicle of Higher Education:
“For fiscal year 2026 . . . Harvard’s endowment, often the largest among the nation’s colleges, enjoyed a 27-percent rate of return, growing to $68 billion.”
Sentence To Ponder
2
Peak Gray Lady
For the New York Times, an unexpected thing happened on the way to market dominance. She continually improved.
You don’t have to have a degree in economics to know that competition is the lifeblood of our economy. And yet, as minor, mid, and major papers fade from view, the most dominant paper is peaking. Go figure.
Exhibit A is this type of multimedia story detailing why you increasingly feel like you’re up against it. “Life Feeling Too Expensive? It’s Not Just You. And It’s Not Just Inflation.“
Oh, want something lighter, okay. Exhibit B, this example from an excellent series titled “Modern Love”. “On Our Third Date, I Asked for a Joint Bank Account.” It’s a slowish burn, but if you stick with it, there is a wonderful insight about romantic love. Okay, spoiler alert, both people have to be their whole selves for it to have any chance of “working”.
Still not convinced? Exhibit C. “This Emily Dickinson Poem Will Hit You Where You Live.” Major props to A.O. Scott for getting Ronald Scot, a poetry neophyte, to not just read it closely, but appreciate its brilliance.
And I haven’t even mentioned the mouth dripping recipes, the numerous word games, and most significantly, it’s commitment to holding power to account.
She has cast her net so widely and so successfully, how the hell are upstarts supposed to identify niches to exploit?
Here’s hoping The Gray Lady doesn’t get complacent and that a thousand upstarts throw caution to the wind and somehow bloom.
Nostalgia Is A Thing
Always a highlight while waiting for fam therapy to start. I don’t know what it’s called, but I OWNED this contraption when I was 5-7 years old. You start in the top center with one marble of sorts, and then, oh so gently, adjust side knobs in ways that enable your marble to weave through the obstacle course without falling into any hole.
Today, in the few minutes I had, I got to 18. Only 42 more to go and I’ll be back baby!
If His Mouth Is Moving
Daniel Dale, Trump fact-checker extraordinaire:
“Asked about Trump’s false claims that schools in multiple states are allowed to send kids for gender surgery without parental consent, the president of the National Association of School Nurses notes schools typically need written consent ‘to give a kid Tylenol’.”
How ’bout we sub in the NASN President for the pathological liar.
I Feel (a little) Better
Thanks to this paragraph in Jon Gruber’s review of Apple’s new HomeView. Gruber is normally all business. Love that he snaps here.
Lost in Gruber’s snark is Apple marketing staying undefeated for all-time. Such a good ad it might even convince some people that their phones and iPads aren’t enough. Ca-ching bro.
Bend
I don’t want to write this and you don’t want to read it because it’s depressing as hell and there’s more than enough disturbing news to process. One can only take so much. The end result, we’re desensitized to school shootings. And the more desensitized we become, the more vexing the problem. A downward spiral that must delight the NRA.
I dig Bend, which I visit annually, the last time three weeks ago. Many, many fond memories, mostly of cycling with good friends. And I have acquaintances and friends in Bend who I immediately thought about.
This article left me even more hopeless about solving this problem.
Depressing point one being the most obvious. The tragic loss of such young lives, three students and a 25 year-old teacher who described her Silver Rail Elementary special education teaching job as her “dream job”. With another student and teacher in critical condition.
Depressing point two. The cluelessness and callousness the mother, who allegedly kept an AK-47 in her apartment, demonstrated by saying her “son was a good boy who she seriously missed”. Then saying she was sorry for the families losses had to be completely lost on them and everyone in the community.
And maybe most depressing of all, this quote from the article, describing the school parents’ mindset.
“Now they’re lining up for other ways to help: Meghan Standish, a stay-at-home mom in the neighborhood, said that when she went online to sign up for a meal train to help the family of Rhoam Summer, a 5-year-old killed in the shooting, every night until Christmas was booked.
Beyond looking to help, she was debating other plans as well.
‘I know a lot of friends are interested in getting their concealed carry permits after this,” Ms. Standish said. “I know I am.’”’
More guns. When does it end?
Why Is It So Hard To Make Friends As An Adult?
I recently had elective surgery, that I’m happy to report, went well. I’m 10 days into a six week recovery that currently limits cross-training me to walking. Thus, I’m working through my too-long podcast queue. If you see me looping Capital Lake, say hello, I’ll happily take my AirPods out.
This was a good, recent listen.
It made me think of another one I recently listened to with a real estate expert riffing on the U.S. housing market. His main point, which I’ve heard many real estate experts make before, is that you can’t generalize about the U.S. housing market much at all, because there are significant regional, state, and even city-based differences. Meaning prices are rising in some areas, flat in others, and dropping in still others.
Thompson and Grant seem to be using the U.S. as their frame of analysis, and like real estate, generalizing as much as they do is problematic.
In one way at least, the “friendship recession” is far worse than the rather pessimistic Thompson/Grant conversation would suggest. Specifically, using my former students as a frame of reference, many young adults openly admit that their interpersonal skills have seriously atrophied in recent years given their preference for digital communication. To the point where often IRL interactions create serious social anxiety, to the point where some find it difficult to leave their dorms and venture in the cafeteria, or leave their apartments and mix it up with their peers at all.
Put differently, Thompson/Grant assume the runner is starting on second base, when in fact, if young, he or she may be stuck in the batter’s box. My challenge to them is to identify small steps socially anxious young people might take to begin running towards first base.
On a completely different note, if I use my bubble fair city of Olympia, WA as my frame of reference, I question the premise of a friendship recession. Why? Because, if you look for it, you can’t help but see ample evidence of people connecting while swing dancing at the Eagles or eating lunch on the picnic benches while listening to music at the Farmer’s Market. Not to mention the ever growing number of grassroots small group bicycle rides for people of every ability. Or running groups up the gazoo. Or the Briggs Y Masters swim team (which I’m sure is missing me something terrible right now, right?). Or Rocky Horror bingo. Or a new “literary” community. Or noisy coffee shops and restaurants.
I suspect Thompson/Grant might be extrapolating from their personal experience. And I can’t help but wonder if where one lands on the “friendship recession” depends mostly on what one is looking for? In which case, I will continue to look for and celebrate small quiet examples of friendship and larger, louder ones.
Your friend,
Ron
Headline To Ponder
Katie Zacharia Out as Press Secretary in Half a Scaramucci.
Saying Zacharia got off to a “bumpy start” is like saying Sam Darnold had a bumpy ending last night.
Gotta laugh to keep from crying.
Pass On Pedestals
Lara and I graced downtown Olympia’s ArtsWalk and Fiddlefest a few Friday nights ago. Groovy events.
Dear Crow, who wrapped up Fiddlefest, are a really talented local couple.
Penka Jane Culevski, the female half of Dear Crow had a nice, personable way of transitioning from piece to piece. The more specific part of her personality that stuck with me, to the point of writing this lo’ these few weeks later, was her youthful idealism which took the form of talking about her musical inspirations as if they could walk on the Salish Sea right outside of the venue.
Here’s what I wanted to say to PJC. It’s human nature to conflate artistic genius with personal character. But the correlation is weak at best. The very best fiddlers are a cross section of the population with all of the positive and negative personal attributes that come with that. Go ahead and place your favorite artists on pedestals, but prepare to be disappointed by their ordinariness.
And more generally, go ahead and continue placing your favorite writers, academics, intellectuals, spiritual figures, politicians, multimillionaires or billionaires, actors and other artists, and athletes on pedestals. And then wait, not very long at all, for them to fall off and disappoint.
A secret I want to share with PJC. Some people are truly exceptional and do deserve pedestals. But almost always, they are committing random acts of kindness in the shadows. Some likely live on your street. You just haven’t met them yet, and may never meet them, because they assiduously avoid drawing attention to themselves.
It’s Come To My Attention
That I’ve been keeping things especially light lately with my focus on the decline of the (dis)U.S. Empire and homelessness as just two examples.
So in an effort to dial up the substance and significance of the Humble Blog, a nod to one of the most weighty developments of the present day.
The UCLA Bruins are 5-0 and ranked 12th in the (dis)U.S college football rankings. Which begs several questions, among them, can one be both a basketball and football school simultaneously? And how long can we stay undefeated with an untested backup QB who had a cup of coffee at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo last year?
I am expecting a reversion to the mean, but until then, I will continue to shout happily at the t.v.
