February 27, 2026: Christiano’s Supermarket at 21st and Kearney in Racine, Wisconsin.
Another Week: Number 166
We did not get a historic blizzard this week like the East Coast did on Monday. We got to watch it on TV.
My TV is on much of the time for companionship, but I’m not always focussed on it. Organizing and streamlining my workflow is taking attention lately.
For example, I purchased Scrivener years ago on the recommendation of James Fallows, but I’m only now starting to appreciate its genius.
Meanwhile, the lags and squirrelliness of Apple’s Notes have been getting very annoying, so I have switched my note-taking to Obsidian, which similarly syncs between my MacBook and iPhone using iCloud. There is a learning curve, but now I have a cleaner and more satisfying solution.
Donald Trump gave his State of the Union address on Tuesday night, but I read my book. The new rule in my household is that whenever a channel puts Donald J. Trump on their air live, I am out. Nothing but horseshit comes out of his mouth, and platforming him is harmful. Viewership is voting. I vote “Nope.”
On Wednesday, the Senate held a confirmation hearing for social media influencer Casey Means to become our Surgeon General. As one headline put it, “The US doesn’t need another quack in charge of public health policy.”
In the high-stakes bidding for Warner Bros Discovery, Netflix folded Thursday, likely handing CNN, HBO and all the rest to David Ellison — who has already lobotomized CBS in the last year. We have lost CBS, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, the Voice of America, and the Washington Post since Trump took office, and here goes CNN. As Wolf Blitzer repeats ad nauseam, “May its memory be a blessing to you.”
There were a couple of entertaining basketball games at Carver–Hawkeye Arena. On Sunday, the Hawkeyes beat Michigan 62 to 44 on Senior Day, and then on Thursday, they beat Illinois 82 to 78 in a thoroughly thrilling battle. This is my second year following Iowa. I tune in for UConn games too — but UConn is so dominant they’re almost unwatchable.
I walked 3.19 miles this week.
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Jeffrey Epstein shell game accelerates
This week, the misdirection regarding the Jeffrey Epstein scandal clicked into a new gear. Republican Rep. James Comer’s House Oversight Committee finally conducted its attention-getting depositions of Hillary (Thursday) and Bill Clinton (Friday) at the Chappaqua Performing Arts Center.
The former president embarrassingly appears in some hot tub photos — but questioning Mrs. Clinton, who testified that she “never met Jeffrey Epstein,” was a sideshow clearly designed just to humiliate her. Nevertheless, it raised a serious question that I heard asked only by CNN’s John Berman: Shouldn’t Melania Trump be deposed? After all, she clearly did meet Jeffrey Epstein.
Meanwhile, an NPR report found some pivotal Epstein files to be missing. According to Rep. Robert Garcia, they are “FBI interviews with this survivor who accused President Trump of heinous crimes.”
Lindsey Slater suddenly gone from WISN 12 News
On Friday, scrolling Google News, I was stunned by a story that said meteorologist Lindsey Slater is “no longer with” WISN 12 News. Her departure was abrupt, the station was curt, and she was scrubbed from their website.
I have no idea what happened, but she’s a national-level talent gracing the #38 market, and that station has been shedding parts for years as it tumbles off the road, with student spotlights and canned segments from Consumer Reports where news used to air.
Earlier in this century, 12 News was a beacon compared to the bumbling, amateurish operations at competing stations. People like Jerry Taff, Joyce Garbaciak, and Toya Washington radiated a reassuring professionalism.
Lindsey Slater was the last of them. Her quick sense of humor and poise were trimmings on top of her comprehensive understanding of meteorology and a knack for translating that jargon into plain language. Her forecasts of what would happen 36 hours later were often uncanny. One evening two Junes ago, my mom and I watched as she commandeered the studio and ad-libbed for over an hour, tracking tornados headed our way.
After this latest loss, I think I’m done with 12 News.
Trump takes us to war with Iran
I went to sleep Friday night with the radio on, suspecting that something would be happening soon regarding our enormous military buildup near Iran. When I woke up before five, we were at war. Donald. J. Trump had published a video on social media recorded at his Florida palace. In it, he wore a ridiculous white “USA” hat and explained — like a two-year-old — that the Iranian nuclear program we “totally obliterated” eight months ago would now be “totally again obliterated.”
Benjamin Netanyahu has been dancing Trump into war with Iran from the get-go. The June bombing was the cuddle. Now we get the full Princess Dip.
With an administration this corrupt, we’ll likely never know what golden cargo or digital payoffs incentivized this move. Trump wants to build a triumphal arch, but to date he has no triumphs. Snatching a dictator and his wife from their bedroom is the closest he’s gotten.
I can see ways this whole mess turns out to be an improvement in the end, and I hope that happens. I can also see myself winning the Powerball jackpot every Monday, Wednesday, or Saturday night.
I cannot, however, see the Islamic Revolutionary Guard laying down their weapons and the unarmed citizens of Iran seizing control of their destiny to “unleash the prosperous and glorious future.”
The Fall Guy (2024)
The Fall Guy was a TV series starring Lee Majors back in the 1980s.
This 2024 movie, starring Ryan Gosling as Colt Seavers and Emily Blunt as Jody, uses those names and the same title. It also involves Hollywood stunt performers, but has little else to do with the TV show.
There’s a lot going on here — a romance between Colt and Jody, Jody’s directorial debut on a big-budget sci-fi film, a crime mystery involving that movie’s sketchy star, and a ton of action and stunts. The Rotten Tomatoes “Critics Consensus” said it “might be the rare mainstream movie with something to entertain everyone.” So, at my suggestion, my mom rented it for us to watch on Saturday night.
Altogether, it was too much — particularly the intentionally overblown, rapid-fire action sequences. The dialogue was overly clever, jokes got overwhelmed by explosions, and the storyline became exhausting.
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