Month: May 2023

Here is James Fallows:

I think this interp is correct.

—Thomas gets all the attention.

—But Alito is the one who has defined, and utterly discredited, the current court.

Both are resentment-driven. But Alito is resentful about ... what, exactly? https://t.co/9RJIs1DEpv

— James Fallows (@JamesFallows) May 1, 2023

Alito has always been by far the worst Supreme Court justice. Whatever their faults, the others have some kind of of ideology and some sort of animating force that drives their decisionmaking. Alito doesn't. He simply votes in support of the Republican Party view and barely even tries to disguise the fact. He is the very definition of a hack.

This is a pair of sculptures by Fred Eversley in the Orange County Museum of Art. Eversley, originally an engineer, did most of his work in Venice (California), though he now lives in New York. He is, according to the David Kordansky Gallery, "a key figure in the development of contemporary art from Los Angeles during the postwar period."

His pioneering use of plastic, polyester resin, and industrial dyes and pigments reflects the technological advances that define the postwar period even as his work reveals the timeless inner workings of the human eye and mind. Eversley’s abstract, three-dimensional meditations on color—including the luminous lens-like objects for which he is best known—entice the viewer to approach, prompting questions about how the biological and optical mechanics of sight determine how we see and understand each other, and communicating a kinetic, palpable sense of the mysterious presence of energy throughout the universe.

Roger that. These pieces will be on display in New York starting a couple of weeks from now.

My doctors have been insistent that if I spike a fever above 100.4 I should get myself down the ER. Last night that happened—though just barely. The ER thermometer clocked me at 100.6, and that set off a truly impressive blitzkrieg of testing. I didn't really understand it. They took blood tests by the dozens; two chest x-rays in case I had pneumonia; a COVID test; three different bacteriological tests to narrow down the source of any possible infection (in my blood, in PICC line #1, or in PICC line #2) even though there was no reason to think I had an infection in the first place.

I took all this with my usual sunny disposition¹ and eventually they let me go to sleep. It's now 6 am, my fever is gone, the tests have all come back negative, and I still have three hours before I report to the Day Hospital. It's Day +6! Only eight days to go.

Anyway, here's a picture of me in the ER last night. Happy May Day, everyone.

¹Ha ha ha. I bitched and moaned the entire time. I had been expecting a quick evaluation, maybe an antibiotic, and then back to the hotel. I was not expecting the Spanish Inquisition.

UPDATE: I have tested negative for every possible thing and my temperature is down to 98.4. I'm back in the hotel and things have returned to normal.