Welcome to Thursday, January 1, 2026, and a brand new year: 2026!!!!!!
Here is the January illustration from the Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry , with the Wikipedia caption, “the household of John, Duke of Berry exchanging New Year gifts. The Duke is seated at the right, in blue.” There appears to be some kind of battle going on in the background, and what looks like two cats on the right side of the table (I have circled them).
It’s also National Bloody Mary Day, the only drink some people will be able to stomach on New Year’s Day. Below is a new Orlans style Bloody Mary, complete with a crawfish!:
It’s also Ellis Island Day, Euro Day, National Black-eyed Peas Day (they’re traditionally eaten on New Year’s Day in parts of the American South, National Hangover Day, and Polar Bear Swim Day, when loons jump into frigid water. There’s a Wikipedia article on Polar bear plunge illustrated with several photos, and this one with the description, “Every New Year’s Day around 60,000 people dive collectively into the icy cold sea water at Scheveningen, a Dutch beach resort town, since 1960.” The plunge in the Netherlands is called the “Nieuwjaarsduik,” which I’ll translate as “The New Year’s Dunk.” Like all of these dunks, the participants are mostly men. Is this a form of sexual competition to impress women?
And an appropriate tweet sent by Matthew:
Readers are welcome to mark notable events, births, or deaths on this day by consulting the January 1 Wikipedia page.
Da Nooz:
*The U.S. Coast Guard is still chasing the empty oil tanker the Bella 1, into the Atlantic. I don’t understand why they haven’t boarded it yet. Now the tanker is claiming it’s protected by Russia!
The pursuit of the Bella 1, an aging oil tanker that has been evading the U.S. Coast Guard for nearly two weeks, was complicated after a Russian flag was sloppily painted on the side of the vessel in an apparent attempt to claim protection from Moscow, according to senior U.S. officials.
Coast Guard vessels have been tracking the very large crude carrier through the Atlantic Ocean, staying about a half-mile behind, according to the officials. They said that they are in a position to seize the tanker should the White House give the green light to proceed, more than 10 days into a pursuit that began around Venezuelan waters.
The vessel has been resisting the U.S. policy of seizing some sanctioned oil tankers heading in and out of Venezuela, a practice that President Trump has said will stop through a complete blockade of such sanctioned tankers. The move is designed to choke off Venezuela’s principal means of generating income.
The officials said there has been some debate within the Coast Guard and the Navy over whether the tanker should be captured, given that it is empty and old.
The Coast Guard and U.S. military have the manpower and weapons to board the vessel forcibly, the officials said. Among the units in the area is a Maritime Special Response Team, an elite force trained to board hostile ships, they said.
Under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, the Coast Guard has the right to board foreign vessels if they are stateless or if there are reasonable grounds for suspecting that they are engaged in deceptive practices, according to maritime-law experts.
When the U.S. began pursuing the Bella 1, the White House said it was a sanctioned vessel under a judicial seizure order and that it was flying a false flag.
If the ship is now legitimately registered in Russia, it could make it harder for the Coast Guard to board it forcibly, the experts said.
“The U.S. is likely working through diplomatic channels to determine if it’s actually registered in Russia,” said retired Rear Adm. Fred Kenney, former director of legal affairs and external relations at the International Maritime Organization. “Merely painting a flag on the side of a hull does not immediately grant that ship that nationality,” he said.
If they’re not going to seize the ship, they should stop the chase, but that would only promote other ships to do the same. And I doubt that you can register a ship as being Russian when it’s already afloat and apparently registered in Guyana. Painting a Russian flag on the side of the ship doesn’t make it Russian! The Coast Guard should either fish or cut bait
*Speaking of attacks on Venezuela and its ships, the AP has now figured out that the CIA was behind last week’s drone bombing of a Venezuelan docking area.
The CIA was behind a drone strike last week at a docking area believed to have been used by Venezuelan drug cartels, according to two people familiar with details of the operation who requested anonymity to discuss the classified matter.
The first known direct operation on Venezuelan soil since the U.S. began strikes in September marks a significant escalation in the administration’s months-long pressure campaign on Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro’s government. The strike has not been acknowledged by Venezuelan officials.
President Donald Trump first made reference to the operation in an interview Friday with John Catsimatidis on WABC radio in New York, saying the U.S. had knocked out some type of “big facility where ships come from.”
In an exchange with reporters Monday as he hosted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at his Mar-a-Lago resort, Trump added that the operation targeted a “ dock area where they load the boats up with drugs.” But the president declined to comment when asked whether the attack was conducted by the military or the CIA.
The strike escalates what began as a massive buildup of U.S. personnel in the Caribbean Sea starting in August, which has been followed by at least 30 U.S. military strikes on alleged drug boats in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific. More recently, Trump has ordered a quasi-blockade aimed at seizing sanctioned oil tankers coming in and out of Venezuela.
Now why does it matter if the CIA or the armed forces conducted the strike? Here’s one possible anwer:
The administration is required to report covert CIA actions to senior congressional officials, including the chair and ranking members of both the Senate and House intelligence committees. But Trump, by entrusting what appears to be the first land strike of the Venezuelan campaign to the intelligence agency, could be calculating that the action would face less scrutiny from lawmakers than a military strike.
“I authorized for two reasons, really. No. 1, they have emptied their prisons into the United States of America,” he said in October as he confirmed to reporters his approval for the CIA to act. “And the other thing, the drugs, we have a lot of drugs coming in from Venezuela, and a lot of the Venezuelan drugs come in through the sea.”
All the while, Trump has repeatedly said Maduro’s days in power are numbered. The Venezuelan leader and members of his inner circle have been under federal indictment in the United States since 2020 for narcoterrorism and other charges.
Another war without congressional approval. What’s next? I predict a joint strike on Iran with Israel, for the second time.
*You’ll recall that the Kennedy Center, a performing arts venue in Washington, D.C. was recently renamed “The Donald J. Trump and The John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts” by a vote of some board members. Not long ago a jazz concert was canceled by the bandmeister because of this name change, and now more acts are pulling out, though they don’t cite the re-naming:
The Kennedy Center is ending the year with a new round of artists saying they are canceling scheduled performances after President Donald Trump’s name was added to the facility, prompting the institution’s president to accuse the performers of making their decisions because of politics.
The Cookers, a jazz supergroup that has performed together for nearly two decades, announced their withdrawal from “A Jazz New Year’s Eve” on their website, saying the “decision has come together very quickly” and acknowledging frustration from those who may have planned to attend.
Doug Varone and Dancers, a dance group based in New York, said in an Instagram post late Monday they would pull out of a performance slated for April, saying they “can no longer permit ourselves nor ask our audiences to step inside this once great institution.”
Those moves come after musician Chuck Redd canceled a Christmas Eve performance last week. They also come amid declining sales for tickets to the venue, as well as news that viewership for the Dec. 23 broadcast of the Kennedy Center Honors — which Trump had predicted would soar — was down by about 35% compared to the 2024 show.
The announcements amount to a volatile calendar for one of the most prominent performing arts venues in the U.S. and cap a year of tension in which Trump ousted the Kennedy Center board and named himself the institution’s chairman. That led to an earlier round of artist pushback, with performer Issa Rae and the producers of “Hamilton” canceling scheduled engagements while musicians Ben Folds and Renee Fleming stepped down from advisory roles.
The Cookers didn’t mention the building’s renaming or the Trump administration but did say that, when they return to performing, they wanted to ensure that “the room is able to celebrate the full presence of the music and everyone in it,” reiterating a commitment “to playing music that reaches across divisions rather than deepening them.”
The group may not have addressed the Kennedy Center situation directly, but one of its members has. On Saturday, saxophone player Billy Harper said in comments posted on the Jazz Stage Facebook page that he “would never even consider performing in a venue bearing a name (and being controlled by the kind of board) that represents overt racism and deliberate destruction of African American music and culture. The same music I devoted my life to creating and advancing.”
According to the White House, Trump’s handpicked board approved the renaming. Harper said both the board “as well as the name displayed on the building itself represents a mentality and practices I always stood against. And still do, today more than ever.”
Richard Grenell, a Trump ally whom the president chose to head the Kennedy Center after he forced out the previous leadership, posted Monday night on X, “The artists who are now canceling shows were booked by the previous far left leadership,” intimating the bookings were made under the Biden administration.
We all know that this was done at the behest of Trump by board members he picked himself. Now the WaPo reports that the board rules were changed a while before the name—sllowing ONLY Trump appointees to vote:
Trump took over the Kennedy Center in February, purging its board of members he had not appointed. The months that followed saw struggling ticket sales and programming changes that began to align the arts complex with the Trump administration’s broader cultural aims, culminating with the annual Kennedy Center Honors hosted by the president.
Days later, on Dec. 18, the board voted to add the president’s name to the institution, and within 24 hours it was on the website and the building itself: “The Donald J. Trump and The John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts.”
Coincidence? I think not. This is the kind of behavior one expects from a seven year old, but of course that’s part of the President’s persona.
*Two NYT film critics independently rate the ten best movies of the year. I have seen none of them, but I will. Here are the ten best from Manohla Dargis, the chief film critic. The names of the movie go to her review in the paper:
1. ‘Sinners’ (Ryan Coogler)
2. ‘One Battle After Another’ (Paul Thomas Anderson)
3. ‘Marty Supreme’ (Josh Safdie)
4. ‘It Was Just an Accident’ (Jafar Panahi)
5. ‘BLKNWS: Terms & Conditions’ (Kahlil Joseph)
6. ‘My Undesirable Friends: Part I — Last Air in Moscow’ (Julia Loktev)
7. ‘Sorry, Baby’ (Eva Victor)
8. ‘The Secret Agent’ (Kleber Mendonça Filho)
9. ‘Caught by the Tides’ (Jia Zhangke)
10. ‘The Mastermind’ (Kelly Reichardt)
The other critic, Alissa Wilkinson, adds a movie that I already want to see: “Hamnet” (her review here), a movie that several of my friends have seen and all have loved. I read and applauded the book on this site in 2022. The the movie is supposed to be as good as (but different from) the book. For my benefit, and for that of other readers, if you’ve seen any of these movies and either agree or disagree with the approbation, weigh in below.
Here are the trailers of the two I want to see first:
“Marty Supreme”:
“Hamnet” (I’ve posted this before:
*I spent my lunch hour today having a look at Helen Pluckrose‘s site, “The overflowings of a liberal brain,” and I was pretty impressed at the topics she covers, the incisiveness of her writing, and her thoughtfulness. It’s a series of longish essays on things of interest to me—and I suspect to many others—and she writes from the viewpoint of an avowed liberal. This means that she criticizes illiberality when she sees it, whether it be in the gender-critical feminist movement or among the antiwoke. Her writings are free to read, but she is asking for donations if you read her frequently, and you should do both. You can read about her ideological stance here, , which includes this bit:
If you have been following my previous work, you will know that I have focused more on addressing a particular form of illiberalism coming from the identitarian left – that which is known colloquially as Critical Social Justice (CSJ) or ‘wokeism’. In the Grievance Studies Affair, my collaborators and I attempted to show the problem with scholarship coming out of certain identity studies fields. My co-authored book, Cynical Theories, broke down and explained the theories underlying CSJ activism, and my most recent book, The Counterweight Handbook, offers practical guidance and support with dealing with authoritarian CSJ policies and programmes in places of employment, universities and schools. I have focused more on addressing illiberalism on the left because I, myself, am left-wing, and also of the humanities where this particular illiberalism arose. I think liberals all over the political spectrum are often most effective at getting their own house in order. However, it is essential that liberals address illiberalism consistently and collaboratively so I also address the rising illiberalism on the right, and am delighted to do so with liberal conservatives whom I respect.
Yes, I know we’re all burdened by reading too many Substacks or Substack-like sites, but this is a good one, and right now you can get a 50% Christmas discount, which will run you only $35 for the first year. (Sign up here.) I’ll just mention a couple of her pieces that I looked at over lunch and found impressive. I’ll give a quote from each:
“Reform is not genocide“: a call for the liberalization of Islam.
If Sarah holds orthodox Muslim beliefs, she will wish everyone to become Muslim every bit as much as I wish everyone to become liberal. She will likely understand her own aim not as a desire to genocide non-Muslims, but as a desire for people to abandon false and harmful beliefs in favour of true and beneficial ones. That is exactly how I understand my own position.
The difference is that liberalism allows me to recognise this symmetry. I can cognitively grasp Sarah’s goals, defend her right to hold them, and support her freedom to argue for them so long as she does not seek to impose them by force, harm others with them or deny them the same freedom.
Whether Sarah can return that favour is far less clear. On the evidence I have so far, I am not optimistic. That, ultimately, is what makes belief systems that regard themselves as perfect, final, and divinely authored so troubling.
“Gender critical feminists, please hold the line.” A call for the end of the constant fractiousness and occurrence of schisms in the gender-critical feminist movement.
This is at the root of the problem with the authoritarian, purity-demanding, character-assassinating faction of the current Gender Critical Movement. It simply is not true that anybody who disagrees with the purists on any detail or fails to live up to their increasingly stringent demands is now a Trans Rights Activist who hates women and wants children to be mutilated. Calling Andrew Doyle a misogynist and pervert (because he is gay) is not a good faith attempt to persuade him that using female pronouns for trans women even in his private life is disrespectful to women & undermines gender critical aims. It’s homophobic abuse.
Similarly, repeatedly telling me that I am fat and generally physically repulsive and a ‘pick me,’ ‘handmaiden of the patriarchy’ or ‘dick panderer’ seemingly without a mind of my own if I say that men should be able to dress as they like, everybody should be able to choose their own words and nobody should be abusing trans people is not a good faith attempt to change my mind on any of those. It is misogynistic abuse. Behaviour like this is an attempt to intimidate someone out of ever expressing a dissenting opinion again as well as any witnesses who were thinking of it and create a cancel culture within the Gender Critical Feminist movement. That must not be allowed to happen, both because it is exceedingly unjust to individuals and because it will destroy the movement from the inside while losing the support of ethical people from the outside.
This “circular firing squad” mentality is one of the prime weaknesses of the Critical Social Justice movement and the one that will ultimately make it destroy itself.
“What is going on with the anti-woke?” People who are opposed to wokeness are a heterogeneous group. As with the pieces above, Pluckrose says we should realize this and at least avoid illiberal criticism of those who share our goals.
People whose stance is ‘anti’ one particular thing are very seldom a united collective of people with shared values because people can oppose a certain thing from any number of positions. “The enemy of your enemy is not your friend” is a truism because it is true but I think our tendency to think groupishly can, nevertheless, often often make this hard to grasp intuitively.
The New Atheist movement provided a good example of this. Some members of it, including me, but more notably Sam Harris and Richard Dawkins, primarily opposed religion on the grounds that they did not believe it to be true and thought faith to be a poor epistemology that impeded knowledge production and the development of universal human rights. Others, most notably those who formed Atheism+, opposed religion (often exclusively Christianity) much less on the grounds of truth and much more on the grounds of Social Justice based on the premise that (in the US, particularly) Christianity was a dominant, majority religion that oppressed specific identity groups like women, and sexual and religious minorities. Of course, there is truth in that and this was also what the truth-focused atheists were concerned about in the realm of human rights, although liberal Christians absolutely exist! Nevertheless, the social justice faction broke from the truth faction largely because the latter included Islam in its criticisms of religion and because it was critical of identity politics and anti-scientific concepts of “gender.”
You can also subscribe for free without obligation, just to see if you want to go to paid status (Helen says that fewer than 7% of her subscribers give any mone). To subscribe, go here.
I’d also have a look at the Substack site “The Gadfly”, by Frederick Alexander. It’s definitely antiwoke, and has articles like “Britain is losing its mind” and “The Moral Courage of JK Rowling“. I especially like the Rowling essay, which ends this way:
In a decade, even the yawning liberals, the “why do you care so much?” crowd, will look back at this period with clear-eyed horror; horror that it was allowed to happen, and fury at the institutions that enabled it. In time, they’ll ask where the safeguarding professionals were, why the medical ethicists were absent, and how the feminists let it pass. True, some were silenced, and others were afraid. But many went along because the social rewards of appearing compassionate outweighed the difficulty of defending unpopular truths.
Rowling made a different choice. She showed that moral courage isn’t about saying popular things loudly; it’s about saying necessary things when silence would be easier.
The professional activists and ideologically captured will move to their next cause when this one becomes unfashionable. The children harmed by their ideology will live with the consequences forever.
And history will remember who stood up when it mattered.
And Andrzej has moved “Listy z Naszego Sadu” the website he had with Malgorzata (Translation: “Letters from our orchard”), to a Substack site. I am delighted to see that Hili features prominently on the site AND she is still the editor! There will still be a Hili dialogue every day, and her position is on the site at a page labeled “Conversations with Hili” (in Polish), where all the Hili dialogues will be archived. The translation of the explanation below is:
Hili is the editor-in-chief of Letters from Our Orchard. She has been involved from the very beginning and she's the one in charge.
Now today’s dialogue. Over in Dobrzyn, Andrzej is looking ahead. It was indeed a bad year; a TERRIBLE year.
Hili: It was a bad year.
Andrzej: Let’s go home. We need to tidy up.
In Polish:
Hili: To nie był dobry rok.
Ja: Chodź do domu, trzeba posprzątać.
. . . and Andrzej posted this on Facebook (the upstairs lodgers have a new dog):
Sylwester jutro więc będzie tak.Dla młodej suki będzie to pierwsze takie doświadczenie i strach. Bo fajerwerki, więc błyskawice i huk.O godzinie 23:45 Wezmę kieliszek wina i słone paluszki, usiądę, żeby być blisko, kto wie, może nawet zapalę ognisko. A potem, jak się zacznie tych fajerwerków orgia wyjaśnię psinie, że to długa historia, że dureń jeden z drugim, nie myśli o psim strachu, że jesteśmy w plenerze, czyli na dworze, jak w kinie na horrorze.Może Gałczyński ją ukoi, podparty kawałkiem mięsa, może ręka tuląca złagodzi przerażenie. Tak, czy inaczej, we dwoje mniej rozpaczy i lęku.A gdyby ktoś z sąsiedztwa miał dość już samotności, to w przejście między latami zapraszam na werandy schodki, na kieliszek wina, ot tak, żeby złagodzić pieski strach.
New Year’s Eve tomorrow, so it’s gonna be like this.This will be the first experience and fear for a young bitch. Because fireworks, then lightning, and roar.At 23:45 I’ll have a glass of wine and salty fingers, sit down to be close, who knows, maybe even light a bonfire. And then, when the orgy fireworks start, I’ll explain to the dogs that it’s a long story, that the idiot faces each other, doesn’t think about the dog’s fear, that we are outdoors, that is, outside, like in a horror movie theater.Maybe Gałczy podski will soothe her, support her with a piece of meat, maybe a waving hand will soothe the fear. Yes, or otherwise, two less despair and afraid.And if anyone in the neighborhood is tired of loneliness, then, in the transition between the years, I invite you to the verandas of stairs, for a glass of wine, just to ease the fear of the dog.
I hope the dog was okay!
*******************
From CinEmma:
From Stacy:
From Animals in Random Places (get it?):
From Masih. The protests in Iran are spreading, and this one involves leadership by women:
Today Iranian women joined the uprising. See how they are at the frontline and one woman leads, others follow.
“Don’t be afraid, we are together.”When the currency collapses, the lies fall with it.
Let’s call on international media to be your voice. pic.twitter.com/iyfNDfIuoe— Masih Alinejad 🏳️ (@AlinejadMasih) December 30, 2025
Two Luana: the tweeter predicted a bomb threat but what happened was a burglary. “Bad Hombre” thinks that either would be a ruse. Here’s a local news report.
Did I call it or did I call it? https://t.co/q6yi4Qum4R pic.twitter.com/Ii9UyuehbE
— Bad Hombre (@Badhombre) December 31, 2025
Here’s another tweet that Luana sees as bogus and Smollet-like (same daycare center).
🤔 A manager at Nokomis Daycare Center in Minneapolis reported that someone broke into the facility and stole all of their documents.
Why would someone want a daycares documents?
— Breaking911 (@Breaking911) December 31, 2025
I found this funny tweet from Melissa Chen. You either understand it or you don’t:
Of all the letters to drop, it should’ve been the L
Earning Center pic.twitter.com/N09EMGazLR
— Melissa Chen (@MsMelChen) December 31, 2025
One from my feed. I love these old cartoons, and this one is “Flowers and trees.” I’ve put the full eight-minute cartoon below which is terrific:
This animation from 1932 is a masterpiece. It was the first cartoon to win an Oscar. pic.twitter.com/cT0vBx7ic9
— Today In History (@historigins) December 30, 2025
“Flowers and Trees”: an Oscar winner.
One I reposted from the Auschwitz Memorial:
This French Jewish girl was gassed as soon as she arrived in Auschwitz.. She was thirteen.
— Jerry Coyne (@evolutionistrue.bsky.social) 2026-01-01T11:41:10.995Z
Two fron Dr. Cobb. He asked me to judge the credibility of the first one, so I sent it to an ant biologist who knows Brits:
Can confirm, British people do be like this.#Meme #Funny #VennDiagram #British #Ant #Insects #BritishPeople #Joke #LOL #WhyDoHashtagsWorkWtf #LikeThisPostOrElseTheBritishAreComing #BritishPeopleBeLike
Some science for the New Year:
Planning on seeing in 2026 in with Champagne? Here's the science behind the celebratory bubbles! http://www.compoundchem.com/2014/12/30/c…#ChemSky 🧪
— Compound Interest | Chemistry infographics (@compoundchem.com) 2025-12-31T10:15:40.580Z
A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
We must be willing to let go of the life we have planned, so as to have the life that is waiting for us. -E.M. Forster, novelist (1 Jan 1879-1970)
Thank you for the nice write-up on Helen Pluckrose. I needed the reminder as after enjoying her “Cynical Theories” several years ago, for some reason I just lost touch with her writings…maybe so many substacks, so little time. But you have reconnected me. So thank you.
Some years ago, there was a critique of watching movies on a small screen (tv) as they were designed for the bigger than life large movie theatre screen. Does anyone know about the design of today’s movies? Do they lose anything when watched on a computer or 50-inch class home tv or are they designed with home consumption in mind?
Finally, I am glad that Hili will continue providing her guidance and hechsher for Andrzej into the new year.
I would imagine it has to do with the viewer’s field of view, ie, what percentage of ones total focal angle is taken up by the screen. So, so long as you sit close enough to a small screen to make it look to you to be the same size a huge movie theater screen looks like from a theater seat, you’re good.
Lucky for us, today’s large-screen 4K TV’s have such tiny pixels that you can not see them unless you are about a foot away. So, the old rules about TV sitting distance need to be tossed in the bin. I bought a 75″ 4K TV knowing I would be sitting only ten feet away. Most people think that TV is too big.
But it exactly reproduces the experience of sitting about 1/3 of the way up from the front in a big cinema (except the picture is sharper on the TV) and I love it.
Thanks Roger. Interesting analysis of your ten foot distance from your 75” screen. I think I will take some data on available screen at my local big box store. We have a NASA lab nearby so they expect data gathering engineers and scientists!
The reason cinephiles recommended seeing films made for the big screen on the big screen had less to do with bigness and more to do with aspect ratio. The director and cinematographer will have composed their shots for a certain width:height, and the aspect ratio of films (and their movie screens) were (and are) different from those of television screens. In olden days you’d get stretched-looking images, or part of the frame cut out.
To correct for this, at some point TV broadcasters began using the letterbox format (black bars at the top and bottom of the screen) when they broadcast movies.
Of course, some movies really are best seen on the BIG screen, because the experience is simply more immersive.
“Movies” are still made for theaters. That’s where they are expected to make the bulk of their money, after all! But streaming platforms do apparently not take the average screen into account, only the average attention span. The Game of Thrones episode “The Long Night” aired 6 years ago, and it was often so dark that many viewers could not see anything clearly. Since then, many other shows have disappointed viewers with the same problem, as great care is taken to achieve the optimum colours for very expensive screens unlike those that most viewers own.
Happy New Year, everyone!
Haven’t seen the latest but we’d be wise to respect the Russian flag on that sleezy oil tanker.
Recall the 1980s we and the Kuwaitis reflagged Kuwait bound tankers as “American” to keep the hooliganism of the Iranians harassing them at bay. It worked.
Later, our navy demolished a large part of the Iranian fleet (allowing the sailors to abandon them.) Took a few shots over the bow to convince them.. but the US Navy can be convincing. 🙂
D.A.
NYC
If I recall correctly, Sal Mercagliano in a recent episode of Whats going on With shipping?”, sized up the condition of the high-in-the-water, old ghost ship and figured it at moving at maybe 12-14 knots, a slow to easy cruise speed for the escorting/hanging-on US vessels. So he reckoned it not a chase but just a notice to this ship and others of its ilk, that the U.S. is watching closely.
Just Speaking softly and carrying a big stick as the old saying goes.
Sorry, Jerry, those are d*gs on the table. Unmistakeable when magnified. The ‘battle’ is probably the melee of a tournament, a sporting event, held in the Duke’s honour.
New Year felicitations to all. Planet Earth made it around the sun yet again. Be sure to also celebrate perihelion day on Jan 3. At about 12:15 PM EST on Jan 3 the earth will be closest to the sun for this orbital cycle.
I’ve been a fan of Helen Pluckrose and her eloquent defenses of classic liberalism for years. I’ve even been a subscriber — though not, alas, a paying subscriber.
However, reading those excellent excerpts from her work just now prompted me to break down and become a paying subscriber; I also finally bought her Cynical Theories book. New Year’s resolution and treat!
Right. Helen Pluckrose. I had learned of her work on the Grievance Studies Project and a few other items. Power of recommendations here, I just paid up for a year. So many good substacks — limited funds and only so much time.
I’m grateful to Jerry for this website, content, and freedom to comment.
And — Happy New Year, for those who celebrate. This last year was tough and this next one will be very difficult.
In other maritime news, Finland has detained a ship headed from St Petersburg to Haifa that was dragging its anchor in the Gulf of Finland.
“Nato has identified deep-sea cables as part of the world’s critical infrastructure and previously warned that adversaries could exploit them through sabotage . . . .”
Well, perhaps NATO will see fit to designate this Russian ship a prime suspect in the sabotage of the Nord Stream II pipeline, eh? No doubt Europeans are thankful for the Nord Stream sabotage and for the resulting “opportunity” (as thusly described by at-the-time U.S. Secretary of State Tony Blinken) to buy U.S. LNG for several times the price of “cheap” Russian gas. (Here in the U.S., who seeks the higher gas pump price?)
I gather that Russian and other tankers can’t enter Venezuela but can enter Haifa.
“The pursuit of the Bella 1, an aging oil tanker . . . .”
This article was written by an aging reporter and edited by an aging editor, working for a media outlet owned by aging stockholders, to be read by aging readers, all of whom reside on an aging planet, and all of whom were aging newborns upon being expelled from their mothers’ uteri (uteruses, in English). (Though one might reasonably make the argument that aging doesn’t start until one achieves full adulthood – whenever that is.)
(AI informs me that “uterus” is a 2nd declension MASCULINE noun. I find that rather ironic.)
“Aging” is a fatuous reportorial trope. (When does one become “an aging actor”? Apparently, only media types know. The same with the descriptor, “dated.”) How old is the U.S. Coast Guard cutter? Has it not been “aging” since or before its commissioning? Also, what is the fuel capacity of the cutter? Is there a U.S. Navy auxiliary refueling – and other supplies – ship close by? Were the tanker U.S.-flagged, would it be “aging” (not as much)? (“American Exceptionalism” and all that good stuff.)
I think you are a bit harsh with your literalist denunciation of ‘aging’ – a convenient term for a concept which, like many concepts, is somewhat elastic but usually clear in common use. An aging footballer is someone past the median age for that sport, probably past their peak performance and condition. The same can be used for machines with some additional meanings, eg, lacking the functions of more modern machines.
Of course, there are some alternative terms, but they too can be vague.
On another matter, yes please, use English grammatical forms. Those pedants who insist on importing Latin plurals, eg, ‘uteri’ into English sentences, invariably import only the nominative form rather than the correct Latin case ending, ablative ‘uteris’ in this particular example, IIRC.
“Painting a Russian flag on the side of the ship doesn’t make it Russian!”
In the same way that calling it the Donald J. Trump/Kennedy Center doesn’t make it Trump’s!
Thank you, Jerry! And welcome!
Thank YOU! Your writings have been very enlightening and important to those of us isolated in the U.S. countryside.
Helen:
Big fan of your work and your charming twitter “lifestyle”/family/ opinions etc.
Periodically you’d “go dark” which I thought was just “a huff” – until I learned why by reading the shocking amount of venom pointed your way. For pretty sane posts and opinions of yours.
I was talking about this with a female friend (pretty high profile) who schooled me (correctly it turns out) on how women …do …actually get more hostility online.
I have, like 2 followers on twitter/x (Hi Mum, Hi Joolz), I’m new, but my column is pretty well read and I get flack but not much and rarely so damn angry as your hate mail. There is definitely a gender divide in this.
Keep up the good work,
best,
D.A.
NYC https://x.com/DavidandersonJd
I follow you too, David! I’m @LadyMondegree
Re. the champagne chemical compounds and their flavor profiles- three are described as “waxy.” I’m having trouble deciphering that. Waxy like a non-scented candle? Waxy like the stuff I used to put on my braces to stop mouth abrasions (I can still smell it)? Both waxes smell similar, perhaps not unpleasant, but not a smell I would associate with champagne. Next time I uncork a bottle I’ll have to smell with “waxy” in mind.
There is a jigsaw puzzle of that particular “Heure” that is a pleasure to work.
Taking a dip in ultra-cold-water cannot possibly be intended to impress women given the usual outcome for a certain male organ.
While it seems paradoxical, I accept that a 0.75 L bottle of champagne can release 5 L of carbon dioxide. Well the gas is in the bottle, it’s compressed to a smaller volume. However, is the new volume of 5 L meaningful in the absence of a specification of temperature and pressure? I welcome comments from those familiar with the chemistry and physics of gases!