Let’s get this out of the way. It’s disgusting. Per historian Heather Cox Richardson: Observers are noting that the reflecting pool fiasco, in which Trump created the idea there was an emergency, ignored experts, bypassed normal procedures to give a wildly inflated contract to a crony, bragged about his success, ignored the problems, claimed his enemies had sabotaged him, and finally stationed troops around the landmark he had turned into a swamp, represents the Trump administration perfectly.
But there are many many many other candidates.
Trump redirected taxpayer money from national parks around the country to his own projects, leaving the parks unable to make needed repairs or hire staff. Expected funding for more than 900 Park Service projects never arrived—including $424,000 to replace a guardrail on the edge of a cliff in Colorado’s Gunnison National Park identified as “a significant safety hazard for visitors.” For some parks, nearly 70% of approved funds have been pulled back.
Early this year, the Interior Department instructed its employees they could not share information about serious injuries or deaths on public lands. Over 300 million people visit America’s national parks each year, and about 350 of them die (not always from accidents). In the past, park service employees could identify deaths or injuries from unsafe conditions, warning others from the area. Now the Interior Department controls that information and does not always release it.
It did not release the information that a 72-year-old man died of extreme heat on a popular trail in the Grand Canyon on June 12 of this year. NPS employees wanted to warn other visitors, but the Interior Department did not release the information. Four days later a couple aged 67 and 68 also died of extreme heat on the same trail.
Linda! I’m turning on the AC!
We sent Phil out on assignment for the above story. He apparently learned that National Parks are great for surreptitiously photographing cute girls from behind. (We’re not complaining.)
Phil! Don’ t you dare follow her!! We talked about that!!
For a puzzle earlier this week, here’s my ridiculous wordplay and some “adjustments.”
Once he cleared the wading birds off the property, the developer said he had no EGRETs.
Julianne’s gender: Moore is LASS.
Skye’s hubby: IONE have eyes for you.
For the Jewish version of the puzzle, please make the following adjustments:
SMEAR — schmear
CBGB (Punk rock club) — Temple Beth Shalom
GIMLET — Manischewitz
CAVER — You go. I’ll stay here on the tour bus.
THONG — Seriously? You can’t go with us to the beach like that. AUNT Estelle will have another stroke.
The previous day’s nonsense:
When a whale gets the munchies he’ll move in for the KRILL.
What you wait for after stubbing it: Toe to HEAL.
What you see after dropping your bar of Lifebuoy and slamming your head into the shower wall bending over to retrieve it: SOAPSTARS.
When I’m driving in town and pass a buddy on the street, I will often use my horn to TOOTHY.
This “tiny love story” from the NYT yesterday cut straight to my heart. It’s by Corey Gerard Lambert.
I came out to my mom at 24, drunk and crying after a night with friends who already knew I was gay. I asked her not to tell my father. The next morning I awoke, hung over, to my dad rubbing my back. “Bud, that’s not the sort of thing you keep from your parents,” he said. “We’ll love you no matter what.” My mom, a vocal ally, outwardly carried the flag for the rest of her life. My dad offers equal, though quieter, support. I smile seeing him in the background of photos at my hometown’s Pride parades.
Look at these gorgeous punim!
The reason it got to me is we confronted the exact opposite in Robin’s dad two years ago. Robin’s not gay, not that there’s anything wrong with that, but she is an ally, keeps a pride flag in her room, and has trans friends. This was unacceptable to him and he began to abuse her psychologically: “to ‘beat’ the gay out of her,” as Caity put it. Long story short — the schmuck lost his daughter.
We love you Robin — that’s our tiny love story. As long as we live, we will never let anyone hurt you. George! Get off your fat ass and get the girl a fresca!
We’ve been enjoying the World Cup very much so far. Not so much that we stay up for the 9 pm games, but a lot. Watched all of Paraguay’s upset of Germany — yikes! And caught the end of Norway’s squeaker over Ivory Soap.
Generally not a soccer fan, but this is so compelling. And an insightful report just came in from our Owl Chatter sports consultant, the brilliant women’s ice hockey star, Sarah Fillier, noting that, except for goaltenders, soccer players cannot touch the ball with their hands. Thanks Babe! Appreciate the report! Love you!
In the puzzle yesterday, for the clue “Peter ____, physicist with a field and a particle named for him,” the answer, of course, was HIGGS. (Just kidding. Didn’t have the foggiest. Or figgiest.) He died two years ago. Won the Nobel in Physics for his work on the mass of subatomic particles. The Higgs Boson is named for him.
Hey, I bet you agree with us that it’s about time we added a bad physics joke to the repertoire. This is from Anony Mouse:
Did you hear about the Higgs Boson that walked into a Catholic Church? The priest said, “Hey, we don’t allow Higgs Bosons in here.” The Boson said, “ Hey … without me, you can’t have mass.”
Yesterday’s grid contained a lot of “empty words,” i.e., two-word phrases starting with the letters M and T. One of the theme answers was MAGIC TOUCH. Remember this one?
Back to you-know-whom and his henchpeople for just a sec before we close with a poem.
If you are among those who maintain an analogy of Trump to Hitler is apt, then, surely, Musk is his Eichmann.
Here’s Paul Krugman on Musk: Rep. Ro Khanna said there are credible estimates that the destruction by DOGE of USAID has led to millions of unnecessary deaths, including millions of children — which is exactly true. There are studies that say that there is both in the field evidence of widespread death as a result of the cancellation and, of course, reasonable health models. Because what do you think happens when you cut away tens of billions of dollars of aid to people who are living right on the edge? So of course it’s a reasonable thing to say.
Musk, of course, responded not by saying, no, it’s not true or something like that. (He did say that not a single person has died because of those cuts, which is utterly implausible.) But he went on to say that he was going to sue Khanna, not even for saying that Musk killed people, but that there are studies that say that he killed people. It’s quite evil and so much for free speech.
It’s not just that Musk more or less personally set out to destroy this aid agency, set out to cut off healthcare, nutritional assistance, just basic necessities of life for millions and millions of extremely desperate people. But he did so callously, carelessly, he even actually tweeted out, oh, “I just fed USAID to the wood chipper and I could have gone to some great parties instead.” What can you say? This is an extraordinarily evil act.
This poem by Brendan Galvin will close up for us today on a gentler note. It’s called “Two Birds in the Evening,” and is from today’s Writer’s Almanac. It took me several readings to absorb it. But I’m thick.
When that oriole whistled from the orchard
it seemed to be frankly asking, You got
a problem with that? Its orange and black
was brash as a high-school letter sweater.
No problem, no problem, except it seemed
like Saturday night under the old Rialto’s
marquee again. At least until a rubythroat
running a quality-control check
on a trumpetvine drew nearer and I thought,
This is what I’d like next time around,
to be one of the air’s accomplices,
too quick for boredom and
acrobatic in love.
See you tomorrow! Thanks for dropping by.
The Wellington Files 