These days, I'd never quote a Woody Allen joke from his standup days, but if I did, it would be this one: "My father worked for the same firm for twelve years. They fired him. They replaced him with a tiny gadget - this big - that does everything my father does, only it does it much better. The depressing thing is, my mother ran out and bought one." For Gen X, this joke hits hard. But it doesn't quite get how bad some folks in creative fields feel. It's not just that they've been fired and replaced by technology. They were the generation that created the technologies that threaten their obsolescence. Steven Kurtz in the NYT (Gift Article): "It’s the end of work as we knew it ... and I feel... powerless to fight the technology that we pioneered ... nostalgic for a world that moved on without us ... after decades of paying our dues ... for a payday that never came ... so yeah, not exactly fine." The Gen X Career Meltdown. "Every generation has its burdens. The particular plight of Gen X is to have grown up in one world only to hit middle age in a strange new land. It’s as if they were making candlesticks when electricity came in. The market value of their skills plummeted." (And, of course, the pace of plummeting has reached escape velocity with the rise of AI. This is part of the reason why the only assistant I use is Siri. That way I still feel superior to the technology.)
2Lunch BreakingIn an interview with NBC, Trump wouldn't rule out seeking a third term in the White House. Hmm, I wonder if he'd cheat in an election, demand state officials find him thousands of votes, lie constantly about winning, lead an armed insurrection to keep his opponent's victory from being certified, pardon those insurrectionists, and then staff his new administration exclusively with loyalists, all of whom have repeated the Big Lie? Of course he's planning to stay in the White House, and of course no one in his current administration will try to stop him. The big question is how other government and corporate institutions will respond to threats to our democracy. The answers to that question so far have been decidedly mixed (at best). Politico: The Great Grovel: How Trump forced elite institutions to bend to his will. (As this article details, the word "forced" is not quite accurate.) "The details are varied but two themes are consistent. The first is an effort — far more organized and disciplined than any precedent from Trump’s first term — to bring institutions who have earned the president’s ire to heel. The second theme is even more surprising: The swiftness with which supposedly powerful and supposedly independent institutions have responded — with something akin to the trembling acquiescence of a child surrendering his lunch money to a big kid on the morning walk to school." (To hammer home the analogy, Trump is literally cutting school lunch funding.) 3Before the Partnership Sailed"In the early days after Russia’s armies crossed into Ukraine, two Ukrainian generals journeyed from Kyiv under diplomatic cover on a secret mission. At the U.S. military garrison in Wiesbaden, Germany, they sealed a partnership that would bring America into the war far more intimately than previously known." Adam Entous in the NYT (Gift Article): The Partnership: The Secret History of the War in Ukraine. "This is the untold story of America’s hidden role in Ukrainian military operations against Russia’s invading armies." (And a bygone era when American leaders blamed Russia and Putin for the war they started.) 4It's All About the Girth"Early in the 2023 season, Aaron Leanhardt started asking New York Yankees hitters what they needed to perform better ... An MIT-educated physics professor at the University of Michigan for seven years, Leanhardt left academia for athletics specifically to solve these sorts of problems. And as he spoke with more players, the framework of a solution began to reveal itself. With strikeouts at an all-time high, hitters wanted to counter that by making more contact. And the easiest way to do so, Leanhardt surmised, was to increase the size of the barrel on their bat ... The bat had its big debut over the weekend, as the Yankees tied a major league record with 15 home runs over their first three games." ESPN: What is a torpedo bat? Inside MLB's next big thing. (Finally, an edge for the Yankees...) 5Extra, ExtraJet Lag: "The F-35, a fifth-generation fighter, was developed in partnership with eight countries, making it a model of international cooperation. When President Trump introduced its successor, the F-47, he praised its strengths — and said the version sold to allies would be deliberately downgraded. That made sense, Mr. Trump said last week, 'because someday, maybe they’re not our allies.'" (Nothing can make that happen quicker than relentless talk like that.) NYT (Gift Article): How Trump Supercharged Distrust, Driving U.S. Allies Away. No ally has been more offended than our closest one. WSJ (Gift Article): No More Mr. Nice Guy. In Fighting Trump, Canada Presents Mr. Elbows. "Nation draws inspiration from hockey legend Gordie Howe’s rough style of play; Gretzky to the penalty box." 6Bottom of the News"The ferry ride from Helsinki’s city center to the island of Pihlajasaari takes only 10 minutes and deposits visitors at a playground of beaches, trails and rocky shoals excellent for sunbathing. But I had a different mission: to speak to a tree." Finland Says It Can Teach Tourists to Be Happy. Challenge Accepted.
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