I like that the acrylic blankets I have put on my bed are warmer than the wool ones they replaced. I like that they are fluffier. And I like that when I turn over on a dry, cold night, they shoot out tiny sparks.

The Has Been Guy Donald Trump was talking on Fox News, and I heard him say yet again that he got “almost 75 million votes, more than any other incumbent president.” In the last accounting I saw, Trump got 74,216,154 votes. Only with an unusual rounding technique does this become “almost 75 million.” More important, Trump was not asked why it is germane that he got the most votes of any sitting president when Joe Biden received the most votes ever for any presidential candidate. The germane fact, of course, is that 81,268,924 (almost 82 million by Trump’s reckoning) voted for his chief opponent. Add the three million votes cast for third party candidates, and you can say that 84 million people voted against the HBG, which should be considered a lot more important than that “almost 75 million” voted for him. The most important fact is that he lost, and that he is the Has Been Guy. It may be an interesting bar trivia question as to which NBA team scored the most points while losing, but in the standings all that matters is that they lost. Trump did get a lot of votes; he also lost — big time — hugely. That is what is germane. But the Fox “interviewer” never asked Trump about the importance of his spouting that he got more votes than any incumbent president. And America gets dumber.

Virtue and Vice look much the same,

If Truth is Naked, so is Shame.

                    W.S. Landor

After the author’s text concludes, many books contain a paragraph headed “About the Type.” Thus, a recently read volume had this just before the back cover, “This book was set in Sabon,” which was designed by a “well-known” (?) German twentieth-century typographer based on the work of a sixteenth-century French designer but was named for a Frankfurt typefounder in the 1550s. I, for unknown reasons, always read these paragraphs, but each time I wonder why and if anybody cares about this information. Does anyone ever pick up a book and say, “Oh, this is set in Sabon. It was a pleasure reading that typeface last month. That really makes me look forward to reading this book”?

I passed an eighteen-person line (I counted) waiting to make a purchase at a local coffee spot, and I realized that there is much I don’t understand in life. Anyone who needs a caffeine fix would find another source instead of waiting for a half hour to get it. And if they don’t tremble for the stimulant, why would they stand a half hour in line to buy coffee?

My governor is in political trouble. With each new revelation I think back to the early Covid-19 days when he was everyone’s darling. An astute friend then confidently said to me, “Soon we will all remember again why we hate Andrew Cuomo.” But the claims of sexual harassment always make me uneasy. I don’t think I ever did anything that could have been seen as sexual harassment, but I am never 100% confident that my perceptions and recollections on this front are correct. I know that over a lifetime my knowledge and sensitivities have changed. And I also wonder: What happens when you are bothered by sexual harassment at work, but you are self-employed?