A number of you have asked how Bob Dylan was. Those who have seen him already know, because over a 60-plus-year career, one theme runs throughout: Bob does whatever Bob feels like doing. Also, Bob is now 83. He spent the show seated at his piano, never spoke to the crowd other than to introduce the band, and played about 85 minutes. The setlist was mostly from his most recent album, “Rough and Rowdy Ways,” although he took time to throw in “Desolation Row” and “It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue.” The overall vibe was loping, twangy, Americana.
I’m glad I went, but if I had missed it, I wouldn’t have missed anything.
Then we were into the weekend and its many rewards. Eggs Benedict, warm temperatures, Easter. I hope yours was great.
There were no Hands Off demonstrations nearby, so I didn’t do that, but for those who did? Respect. Best sign:
Ha ha ha.
The news went by in a blur, of course. What a gang of morons. Between the oopsie Harvard letter and the oopsie another Signal group getting the top-secret military texts and oopsie Google Drive sharing, to that add the impossibly hamfisted attempt to brand the all-female space flight as “inspiring” and who knows, about a thousand more dumbass moves that probably escape notice in America’s hollowed-out newsrooms.
I mean, I get 10 NYT gift links a month, and the last one was my seventh. There are still 10 days left in April.
I’m going to do a partial screen capture of a photo in that same paper. It’s a story about Kash Patel and his jet-setting fabulous life on the public dime. Here’s a piece of a photo of the A-Team at a UFC fight:
First of all: UFC, gross, but OK whatever, no judgment. There’s Croaky and Mrs. Croaky, POTUS, Patel et al. What are they thinking? The only one with a glimmer of emotion on his face is Patel, and my thought bubble for him would be, if I were in that ring, I’d totally be winning, only far better-looking. Mrs. Croaky: I can’t believe the shit I have to go to just to make sure he’s not cheating. POTUS: Covfefe. Croaky: Mom and Aunt Jackie would have hated this, but the world has moved on.
Modern life is so exhausting.
And the week ahead promises to be the same.
Mark P said on April 20, 2025 at 8:44 pm
I like to imagine Trump and his gang of maroons like Hitler and his inner circle: riding high now, but eventually munching on cyanide capsules or dangling from the gallows.
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susan said on April 21, 2025 at 2:18 am
Just ordered this tee shirt. Such a great design. It’s what everyone is thinking.
She has that on a mug, too.
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Brandon said on April 21, 2025 at 4:57 am
I just saw that Pope Francis has died.
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alex said on April 21, 2025 at 7:20 am
Imagine having to waste your last breaths arguing with a numbskull like J.D. Vance. The poor pontiff left this earth knowing that he’d come face to face with the most soulless and diabolical individual he’d ever met and it was more than his heart could stand.
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Suzanne said on April 21, 2025 at 8:36 am
No doubt, Vance took issue with the Pope’s attire as he was not wearing a suit. And VP Hillbilly probably told His Holiness that he wasn’t thankful enough for the VP taking time out of his busy schedule of planning global destruction to meet. God then took pity on Francis, seeing that he had suffered enough, and called him home.
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Jeff Gill said on April 21, 2025 at 8:56 am
I’ve told this story before here, but in brief: in August 1978 I was in a radio station with an AP ticker, working on some promos, and the ticker’s bell rang three times. That meant a BIG story, and the news director walked over, ripped off the output, and said “Pope died.” Paul VI it was, soon to be replaced by John Paul who wasn’t “I” yet.
End of September, less than two months later, I’m in the Purdue Advocate newsroom, getting oriented to the layout process; we’re looking at a light table with blue pencils and exacto cut ad graphics, etc. There’s an AP ticker there, too. And it rings . . . once (no one cares), twice (a few look up), three times (everyone looks up). Then it rang a fourth. Only time I ever heard that, but there was one older faculty adviser who went back to 1963. He muttered “crap, Carter’s been killed,” since the last time HE heard four bells on the AP was Kennedy’s assassination.
The senior editor was over to the machine in two steps, ripped the copy off the machine, and said to the newsroom “Pope John Paul just died.” The layout editor slid the mock-up for tomorrow’s paper front page off the table. It was now trash.
Rest in peace, Francis. You did some good.
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Jeff Borden said on April 21, 2025 at 9:09 am
I long ago left Catholicism and religion in general behind, but the world can’t afford to lose a man of compassion like Pope Francis…especially now. How sad one of his last official acts was meeting the rotten husk of alleged humanity that is JD Vance
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Little Bird said on April 21, 2025 at 9:45 am
I asked a friend, if Katy Perry can call herself an astronaut…. Can I call myself a zoologist ( I worked in the gift shop)? We agreed that if she can, I can.
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Julie Robinson said on April 21, 2025 at 9:51 am
Shame on me, my first thought was “Vance killed the Pope”. Suzanne has a nicer take on it. Francis moved the church forward as much as he could given the entrenched bureaucracy, and as I understand it has placed a majority of the new bishops. Still, the conservatives have been in resurgence.
We watched Conclave a month ago and now I’ll be picturing that as the next one meets.
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nancy said on April 21, 2025 at 11:34 am
Jeff, the NYTimes was on strike for the entirety of John Paul I’s papacy. Fun journalism fact.
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Jeff Gill said on April 21, 2025 at 11:44 am
Well, they didn’t miss much. [rimshot]
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tajalli said on April 21, 2025 at 11:58 am
Sic transit gloria mundi, Pope
Francis, you were one of the good guys.
Using the (gifted from freecycle) old Asus EEE, since my 17 year old iMac failed to turn on this morning. Hope only the on/off button died and not some more expensive component, a minor issue considering the ongoing implosion making ‘Murica into a third world country.
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Heather said on April 21, 2025 at 12:51 pm
I think Francis decided he had to stay around long enough to give Vance a public spanking. I kind of wish he had done it in person, though.
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David C said on April 21, 2025 at 1:37 pm
Pope John Paul I, patron saint of temp workers.
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Brandon said on April 21, 2025 at 2:30 pm
Fifteen potential successors.
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Deborah said on April 21, 2025 at 2:31 pm
This particular Pope was the best one in my lifetime, to me. Lots of people thought John Paul was the best who I actually saw in person, when he came to St. Louis and stayed in the archdiocese residence across the street from the high rise where we lived.
It was strange because my husband and I had just gotten back from a business trip, we were in a taxi from the airport and the cab couldn’t take us all the way to our place because they had traffic all blocked off, so we had to walk a couple of blocks through crowds of people. When we got to our building our neighbor who lived in the apartment next to ours was outside in the throng of people and when he spotted us he ran over and couldn’t wait to tell us that the guy who lived in the apartment on the other side of us had jumped out of the window and killed himself while we were gone. We were on the 16th floor of the building. For some reason when the cops came to investigate the suicide they thought it was our place he had jumped from and they almost broke our door down before they figured out it was the place next door. The guy who killed himself was a med student at Washington University School of Medicine which was a couple of blocks away. I will forever connect those events, seeing the Pope and the next door neighbor’s suicide.
Anyway the Pope stayed at that place a couple of days it was all below us and we could look down on it, we saw him get escorted in and out of the Pope mobile a couple of times. The neighborhood was crawling with security during the visit. There is a beautiful Basilica down the street from where the Pope stayed, he spoke there and now there’s a statue of him out in front of it.
If you ever go to Rome, go to the Vatican, it’s quite something to see the ceiling that Michael Angelo painted. But it’s also very creepy when you see all of the wealth concentrated there, and then you hear the Popes talking about helping the poor and destitute etc. Why they put so much money into that building and the pomp and ceremony surrounding it is bizarre to me.
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Deborah said on April 21, 2025 at 2:49 pm
Kristi Noem’s purse was stolen in a restaurant in DC Sunday night. Can you just imagine what must be in that purse? Holy Cow!
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Jeff Gill said on April 21, 2025 at 2:54 pm
I know there’s not many here who can vote in Licking County, Ohio for our levy on May 6, but to both of you, and anyone else interested in what we’re doing: please read! The need is real, the benefits of supporting this work many. And the reporter is one of our students at Denison with The Reporting Project, who does some stellar reporting here.
https://www.thereportingproject.org/children-services-replacement-levy-would-continue-support-for-foster-families-and-foster-children-with-special-needs/
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Sherri said on April 21, 2025 at 3:09 pm
The makeup of the conclave: https://www.reuters.com/world/after-pope-francis-death-focus-turns-cardinals-who-will-choose-his-successor-2025-04-21/
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Jeff Borden said on April 21, 2025 at 5:30 pm
Lumpy and wife are going to attend the Pope’s funeral. Bastard can never ignore a chance to preen before the cameras. And about the dog killer: Who carries $3,000 in cash?
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Sherri said on April 21, 2025 at 5:52 pm
Carrying that much cash gets you sent to El Salvador if you’re brown.
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Mark P said on April 21, 2025 at 6:14 pm
She wasn’t packing? I’m disappointed. Who knows when you might chance across a dog that is learning too slowly and needs to be shot?
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alex said on April 21, 2025 at 7:10 pm
Wonder if somebody scored her $50K Rolex.
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David C said on April 21, 2025 at 8:35 pm
I can just imagine him standing next to the Pope’s coffin with his stupid, shit-eating grin and giving the thumbs up. If he had any class, he’d send Biden. Of course, he doesn’t. There are cameras there and he’s not going to pass that up.
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alex said on April 22, 2025 at 6:28 am
The pope has been hailed for “bringing the church into the 21st century,” but any gay person would tell you that he’s gotten no further than the Victorian Era. Frank Bruni has a good essay this morning on the pope’s muddled messaging and the church’s historic hypocrisies. Gift article: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/22/opinion/pope-francis-gay-muddle.html?unlocked_article_code=1.Bk8.Ma0o.–mIir0iUFYL&smid=url-share
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Deborah said on April 22, 2025 at 11:23 am
I’ve been seeing a bunch of video clips of Hegseth on Bluesky this morning with sound off, not listening to them but studying his face while he’s speaking. He’s got a very rubbery face that seems to accentuate words and expresses emotion at the same time looking smug and bullyish. I can see why Trump is enamored with him, that kind of face is “good” on TV because you can watch and get what he’s saying without listening to his words, like a baby knows when their mother is cross by observing her face and body while not yet comprehending words. He looks like he’d be good on a Bryllcreem commercial, only he uses more than a little dab.
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