"Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May, And summer's lease hath all too short a date." - William Shakespeare May arrives cloudless and cool in Manhattan this morning. Ah, the first of May. Peg's favorite time of year, mine being the fall with all its orange and brown and gray mist. This isn't bad, however. In one season of my life I loved May because it was the very best sailing month in Florida, with steady shore breezes shifting into Gulf breezes in the afternoon, an

"The old world is dying, and the new world struggles to be born: now is the time of monsters.” -Antonio Gramsci So, I guess today's bombshell was the Supreme Court's expected gutting of the Voting Rights Act yesterday. The central holding, as I understand it, was that the Act wasn't necessary because we've achieved racial harmony in the U.S., while reiterating that partisan gerrymandering is more or less immune from judicial scrutiny. As one might expect, the political leader

"The megalomaniac differs from the narcissist by the fact that he wishes to be powerful rather than charming, and seeks to be feared rather than loved. To this type belong many lunatics and most of the great men of history." -Bertrand Russell The news this morning is so, so bad. I'm thankful that this study crunch has limited my time to bask in it. The Atlantic reports that DJT now sees himself as the next Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar, or Napoleon, unfettered in his pow

"AI will probably most likely lead to the end of the world, but in the meantime, there'll be great companies." -Sam Altman Pondering on how AI may destroy civilization as we know it. But first, a word about fried chicken. Yesterday after class P and I took the D train express all the way up to 145th Street, for the lunchtime treat of Charles Pan Fried Chicken at its flagship location in the heart of Harlem. The guy who owns the place is a James Beard nominated chef, and the c