OK, I have to take at least some of my criticisms of museums back. Admission to the Accademia was free Thursday (Liberation Day), and while a steady stream of art lovers (ha!) streamed through, they couldn’t take anything away from David. He’s so monumental, there are no bad seats, so to speak, and he stands under a dome, bathed in natural light. Unlike virtually every other work of art we’ve seen on his trip, he is more impressive in person. He’s beautiful.
You can read reams of scholarship on his various anatomical quirks — his overlarge right hand, his somewhat cockeyed gaze — but I wouldn’t dive too deeply into that. Just appreciate him.
And marvel at Michelangelo’s attention to detail. His musculature, the veins in his arm, his confident gaze, the tendons and hollows in his neck, even the grooves in his scrotal sac. They’re all amazing, crafted by a 26-year-old, 500-plus years ago.
I read, this morning, about the Supremes’ apparent desire to do the bidding of the worst person in the country, and possibly the world. Yesterday I spoke to a long-lost high-school friend, who today lives in London, permanently she said. She’s been back and forth across the Atlantic for a while, looking after her elderly parents, but other than visits, she plans to spend the rest of her life on this side of the ocean. It was January 6 that did it; she was living in California at the time, and simply didn’t know how to answer her European friends’ questions about how this could possibly happen. So she has noped out of the American experiment. Can’t say’s I really blame her.
Have a good weekend, all.
Jeff Gill said on April 26, 2024 at 7:34 am
Thank you again; I’d come back but not until I’d gotten some good piazza time in. The current situation isn’t great, but the past, recent or more distant, wasn’t all that, either. For good or ill it’s not as much worse as you might think.
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alex said on April 26, 2024 at 8:04 am
Even if I could sell everything and leave the country, I don’t know where the hell I would go, but maybe I should consider it. I certainly hope that Sotomayor and Kagan and Jackson write such vociferous dissents that the court will not be able to pretend that there is any unanimity whatsoever in its decision, whatever it will be.
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Mark P said on April 26, 2024 at 10:02 am
I’m not sure whether people realize how close we are to the end of the US as democratic republic. The timing of Trump’s president-for-life case could not be any worse. If the Supremes return this to a lower court, and if Trump wins in November, they can give him immunity and supreme power no matter what the lower court decides. If the lower court decides that the president is actually a king, then it’s all done. If they decide he isn’t, the Supremes can simply allow an appeal, and then, conveniently waiting until Trump is coronated, rule that he is god-emperor. I’m not sure whether there are enough ethical members of the court to prevent it, and even if there are, they can always wait till the next time
As Sherri has said, now is the time to rein in the Supreme Court. If the Democrats take the presidency, the House, and the Senate, they must pack the court with responsible people who can stop the country’s slide towards christofascism.
If Biden wins and they somehow decide in favor of Trump, even if only to keep him out of jail, well … I hear Guantanamo is quite pleasant in the winter. With freedom to do anything he wants, Biden could offer a few of the Supremes plus the orange canker an all-expenses-paid, long-term vacation to a tropical paradise.
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Deborah said on April 26, 2024 at 10:44 am
Except during hurricane season, Mark P, which as climate change proceeds as predicted will be worse and more frequent. I wonder what they do now during that season?
This whole immunity question seems ludicrous to me. I can’t believe it’s even being considered. Seems like the founding fathers must be swirling in their graves.
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Jeff Borden said on April 26, 2024 at 11:13 am
I imagine Leonard Leo and his minions at the Federalist Society–which has been working for decades to corrupt our judicial system– are having extra helpings of ice cream today. SCOTUS is working exactly as they planned it.
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Mark P said on April 26, 2024 at 11:21 am
I agree, Deborah. The fact that the SC is giving this case serious consideration is just one more demonstration of how low the court has sunk.
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Julie Robinson said on April 26, 2024 at 11:44 am
And from his grave, Richard Nixon is still proclaiming that he is not a crook. He would have loved today’s version of the Supremes.
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Sherri said on April 26, 2024 at 1:55 pm
Nixon got to appoint 4 Supreme Court justices, all in his first term, so it wasn’t for lack of opportunity that he didn’t have a Court of his liking. Of course, the Senate was still controlled by Dems back then, and even Republicans were quite different, so he wouldn’t have been able to just go done a Federalist Society list.
It takes the cooperation of the GOP to appoint such obvious partisan justices. Reagan didn’t even have that kind of cooperation, which is partly why we didn’t have Bork on the Court. Bush wasn’t able to appoint Harriet Miers, either, but by the time we get to Trump, Brett Kavanaugh is no problem to the GOP despite his obvious political record.
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Julie Robinson said on April 26, 2024 at 2:45 pm
Off topic question for the room: am contemplating getting another AAA membership but wondering if there are alternatives. Yesterday we picked up a nail and the tire was not only flat, it didn’t want to come off so we could put the spare on. It took about an hour and some WD40, but finally we got it off.
Understand that when I say “we” I mean Dennis.
It finally came off and we (this one was me!) called Costco, who had no appointments until Monday afternoon, and said a walk-in today would probably take four hours.
So, as we are aging, I’m thinking I want a road service again, and looking for recommendations.
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Deborah said on April 26, 2024 at 4:28 pm
Way past time to expand the courts. Hopefully when Biden wins his second term this will be on the agenda. That and making DC and Puerto Rico states. Time to get serious.
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Sherri said on April 26, 2024 at 4:31 pm
We have had AAA for years, but our most recent experience of needing roadside assistance is making me reconsider. When we were rear-ended on the freeway a year ago, AAA would have left us on the side of the freeway in the dark and rain for two hours. That was how soon they said they could get a tow truck to us. The state trooper got us a tow truck in 15 minutes, and our insurance covered the cost.
The last time I had a flat tire, a Good Samaritan appeared on the scene before I could even call AAA, with his own jack, eager and ready to change my tire!
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David C said on April 26, 2024 at 4:46 pm
We get roadside assistance from our auto insurance company for an extra $25 per quarter. We used it when we had our accident last year and their tow truck arrived in about fifteen or twenty minutes. It’s Badger Mutual, but I don’t know if they sell nationwide. I doubt whether they do.
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SusanG said on April 26, 2024 at 4:57 pm
The first time I saw David, I cried. I cried every time I ever saw him again.
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David C said on April 26, 2024 at 6:07 pm
It still blows my mind thinking about the teacher in Florida who was fired for showing a picture of David in art class. That school’s art classes are probably just dogs playing cards paintings now.
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Jason T. said on April 26, 2024 at 6:08 pm
As many people have pointed out, if the President is truly immune from prosecution for any activities that happen while he was in office, then Joe Biden will be immune, too, at least through 12 noon Jan. 20.
No reason for Biden not to order summary arrests and executions, then.
I don’t know where I’d go, either. To be honest, the entire English-speaking world is currently being threatened by fascism; picking up and fleeing may be a fool’s errand.
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Sherri said on April 26, 2024 at 6:46 pm
Not just the English-speaking world, unfortunately. There’s already a Fascist Prime Minister in Italy, India grows ever more right wing, and even in Germany and the Netherlands, right wing parties are making gains. Not to mention Orban in Hungary or Erdogan in Turkey.
I’m fairly gloomy about the prospects of liberal democracy worldwide, especially as climate change effects worsen. Opposition to immigration has been the galvanizing force for right wing populism, and as climate refugees start showing up, that’s going to be worse. I’m not sure there is a safe landing spot for any of us.
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Sherri said on April 26, 2024 at 8:16 pm
Even when they try to brag about their meanness, GOP politicians are stupid. Kristi Noem brags about shooting a hunting dog she couldn’t train. Really? How much did you pay for that hunting dog, only to shoot it because you couldn’t train it? Nobody does that.
High off of doing that, she decides to shoot a goat she doesn’t like, but can’t even do that without having to go back and get more ammo. And then she wasted the goat meat, which, why did you have the goat, anyway, if you weren’t going to eat it?
She’s trying to portray herself as capable of making tough decisions, but mostly, it looks like she made stupid decisions.
Politicians! Free tip! Never brag about harming a dog! It just makes you look like a sociopath.
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alex said on April 26, 2024 at 9:35 pm
I swear by AAA. Fortunately I’ve seldom had to use it and it seems to happen only when I drive our GM vehicle, never the Honda or the Toyota. I used to have roadside assistance through State Farm but they discontinued it.
AAA will bombard you with junk mail peddling life insurance and all kinds of other crapola, but every mailing comes with a fresh sheet of return address labels, so there’s that.
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Deborah said on April 26, 2024 at 11:07 pm
One of our trips to Florence we stayed in a hotel that backed up to the Accademia. It was across the piazza from Brunelleschi’s Foundling Hospital. It was one of the best hotels we’ve ever stayed in, at the time we were there it wasn’t expensive but it is now. The Loggiatta de Servitii was the name of it, I’m probably misspelling it. I have fond memories of that place.
When LB and I visited Florence together we stayed in a kind of hostel that was perfectly fine but at night we could hear young students coming back after partying and retching loudly in rooms near us. LB and I had spent a week in Barcelona before we took the train to Florence and when we thought about it we much preferred our time in Barcelona. It was much warmer in Barcelona then and we had a better place to stay. We enjoyed our rambles there and stopping for tapas and a drink at cafes along the way.
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Deborah said on April 26, 2024 at 11:17 pm
Actually I looked up a room at the Loggiata dei Servitii for a night in October and the price isn’t as bad as I thought. Compared to Tokyo and Kyoto anyway.
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Dexter Friend said on April 27, 2024 at 4:27 am
AAA, right. The local service quit it when AAA wouldn’t pay them. I dropped it when I had a flat near Wauseon and it took hours for a response because my spare was flat to my chagrin. I was towed to a beat old cold garage and an incompetent mechanic took an hour to fix the flat. Where I live there are many wreckers who respond quickly, and my State Farm roadside insurance always pays…Alex, I guess State Farm must have stopped service in your area, but not here for me. AAA charges a ridiculous premium for what they offer, discounts to resorts I never patronize, shit like that. I quit them 25 years ago.
SCOTUS is now a tool for Trump, and Gorsuch just pulled the curtain chain away…it’s out in the open, no question, as he concurred with D. John Sauer that there must be many more hearings to decide on immunity. These crooked bastards are ensuring that this will never be decided until, what? 2045? Motherfuckers!!
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Jeff Gill said on April 27, 2024 at 7:53 am
Is being a sociopath actually a downside for politicians, currently? Not clear.
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Julie Robinson said on April 27, 2024 at 9:35 am
Good one, Jeff.
We had AAA for many years, starting when our oldest was driving a clunker to college, so I’m familiar with the marketing onslaught. It got used a few times and gave me peace of mind. But it got ridiculously expensive and we couldn’t bargain them down. It’s disturbing to hear about long wait times.
So I’m going to check with State Farm to see if they offer road side service here. It’s not on the policy endorsement page, but is listed as an option on the card you put in the car.
Thanks, all.
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alex said on April 27, 2024 at 9:38 am
Dex, I’m gobsmacked. State Farm discontinued roadside service when I was living in Illinois, and it didn’t occur to me that it might be available in other states. So just now I was looking at my insurance cards that came with my premium notice and sure enough it says I have emergency road service.
I think I’ll give my agent a call and see if this is for real. Makes me wonder if my roadside coverage in Illinois was cancelled because I was relying on it so heavily for the worst car I’ve ever owned, an ’80s Buick.
Is being a sociopath actually a downside for politicians? You wouldn’t know it by the political ads in Indiana this season. I’ve never seen so many people competing for the title of Biggest Asshole.
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LAMary said on April 27, 2024 at 10:45 am
David C, you know that painting of the dogs playing poker isn’t real. I mean, no dog I’ve known could stifle a tail wag if they had a good hand. Or paw.
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David C said on April 27, 2024 at 1:24 pm
I always thought it was fake because you could never get that many dogs to sit still at a table and play a game that doesn’t involve sniffing each other’s asses.
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Dexter Friend said on April 27, 2024 at 1:31 pm
Pogo-Labbie Dogg has a poker face but it took her to age 14 1/2 to make it real.
When I was working all sorts of split shifts around the clock, with a 50 minute commute weaved in, my mind , sober as I was already, kept making mistakes, misplacing my wallet, keys, sunshades, eating at irregular intervals, and I kept locking my car keys inside. It became a joke as yet another visit by the wrecking service to the work parking lot for an un-lock. I found that I had 12 a year on my policy. One year I locked my keys in my car eight times. State Farm paid it all.
A couple arguments arose…in December, 1986, I had 2 claims, 2 wrecks, neither my fault, but my agent got shitty with me, lecturing me, and I got mad, as a truck ran a stop sign and cut my Citation car in half. The other was an evasive maneuver as I ditched my car to avoid a 2-deer collision a man had had just over a hill. Right now, comfortably retired , I don’t drive the 75 mile round trips to work and I am a better, safer driver because I just ain’t out there as much.
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basset said on April 27, 2024 at 1:58 pm
State Farm, and maybe others, won’t increase your fees if you hit a deer… way it was explained to us, they figure there was nothing you could do about it so no fault.
Meanwhile, making progress on the pottery. Found a “maker space” with pottery wheels and kilns, once I get the clay sorted out we’ll try a test piece. All of this is much more complicated than I expected, turns out you can’t just pick up a handful of mud and squeeze it into shape.
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Sherri said on April 27, 2024 at 2:13 pm
I really think I’ve lost my mind.
Neo-Nazis can march through our streets with police protection, but students non-violently protesting against Israel’s actions in Gaza merit arrests by cops in riot gear and snipers on rooftops.
Strip Search Sammy Alito posits that a president needs total immunity in order to feel safe to leave office.
All the people who were upset that college campuses weren’t welcoming enough to Nazis are now super concerned about anti-semitism.
AG Sulzberger, the publisher of the NYTimes, is pissed at Biden because he hasn’t done a sit down interview with the Times, so that’s why the Times keeps banging on about Biden’s age.
I could go on, but it’s too depressing, and it’s just April. How am I going to get through this year?
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MarkH said on April 27, 2024 at 3:03 pm
On roadside service: we have been satisfied AAA customers for many years, and as we are in a rural area, more than a few times it has paid for itself with tow distances of as much as 200 miles. AAA vs. State Farm (or perhaps other insurance company roadside assistance): AAA is the only one the tow companies out here sign up with because reimbursement is quick. Show your card, sign and go. Wait times have been reasonable given our circumstances. State Farm in particular takes as much as 60 days if the company is signed up to get reimbursed. So they leave it to the customer to pay immediately and seek reimbursement. If your have the endorsement on your insurance card you will get reimbursed, but it could take a while.
bassett – Verify with your agent on how an animal collision affects your premium. Out here, animal collisions are more frequent, I’ve had my share, and here’s how State Farm has stipulated any claims: if you hit a deer from the front, even if it just jumps out in front of you, it’s considered an avoidable collision and your premium is at risk of an increase. In order for it to be considered comprehensive, no immediate premium increase risk, it has to hit your car in the side or perhaps front quarter to be considered unavoidable. I’ve had a few tussles with them on this and my wife is a former State Farm agent.
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Dave said on April 27, 2024 at 7:28 pm
Alex, what you said about the ads is true and I’m completely taken aback by the ads that are airing down here in the Indianapolis area. My Ukrainian congresswoman, who voted against more aid to Ukraine, has a picture of her posing with the Orange Blob and her ad calls her primary opponent bad because his company practiced equal opportunity employing. He calls her a congresswoman who is in with “The Squad”, that group of congresswomen who got that hung on them for their progressive viewpoints.
Meanwhile, in other races, the term RINO is thrown back and forth and these ads are non-stop. Being Indiana, I’ve seen no Democratic Party ads at all and they can’t even get people to run. A lady named Jennifer McCormick, from the education field, is running for governor and some poor person will be defeated by the completely despicable Banks.
I hit only one deer, that in 1977, I had Nationwide Insurance in those days, and they said it was the act of a dumb animal and was fully covered. I don’t know about today but we are longtime members of AAA, when we lived in Fort Wayne, we used it several times and they were reasonably responsive but we’ve not had reason to use it since. I can’t comment about Florida or here in Central Indiana and sometimes think of dropping it.
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Dexter Friend said on April 27, 2024 at 11:43 pm
One more thing about this: John Weaver was the local AAA hook-up. I have known him 47 years. He is the man who told me AAA wouldn’t reimburse him without many phone calls, and at times never paid him at all. Bryan has not had AAA for about 30 years, and the nearest one in Wauseon, 30 miles away, is a fucking joke. Here, any wrecker I call just asks me who my insurance company is, not even asking for a policy number, says they will take care of it, end of story. I don’t pay them anything and wait for State Farm to pay me back. Things are surely different in Georgia it appears.
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alex said on April 28, 2024 at 10:25 am
Dave, there’s a wide field of kooks running for Jim Banks’ congressional seat and promising to save our country from “Biden and the left” and “wokeism” and all the drugs and crime supposedly pouring into our state from Biden’s supposedly open borders. And they’re running attack ads in which they trash each other as “liberals” allied with Obama and Biden.
I guess they’re speaking in another language intended for another audience. Dahlia Lithwick’s Amicus concludes that Alito’s bizarre musings from the bench this week are proof positive that he’s fully living in MAGA World and its media bubble.
I hit a deer about ten years ago. It leapt over a snowbank at dusk and couldn’t have been seen or avoided, but State Farm treated me skeptically as if they thought they could get out of paying for it somehow. I also pleaded with State Farm to fix my truck rather than declare it totaled. The GM dealership body shop where it was being repaired tried to persuade State Farm to total it because used Toyota trucks are a hot commodity and they were bugging me to sell it to them, and continued to do so even after they fixed it. I had about 120K miles on it at the time. I have almost 300K now and it still runs like new.
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alex said on April 28, 2024 at 10:46 am
Here’s a free NYT link to an opinion piece on art which I’m sharing not only for its serendipitous graphic but its good message:
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/04/28/opinion/art-morality-discomfort.html?unlocked_article_code=1.n00.kAHO.xa7RZgk4_D60&smid=url-share
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Sherri said on April 28, 2024 at 1:09 pm
A good article about the protests at Columbia (free link): https://www.nytimes.com/2024/04/26/opinion/columbia-student-protests-israel.html?unlocked_article_code=1.n00.0blA.GPZhH3mLQFcj&smid=url-share
People are too quick to conflate discomfort with lack of safety, and too willing to sacrifice justice for order.
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