Why Is It ...

… that whenever someone says to me, “Your face looks very familiar,” I say, “I know, I’d had it my whole life.”

… that sometimes, in a stressful situation, I say to myself, “Stay calm, jessica.” I know my name isn’t Jessica, but anyway ….

… that I wish I had become a librarian just for the joy of telling people to shut up.

… that I sometimes wish I could meet someone again for the very first time … and walk right past them.

… that if people think I’m cool I tell them, Wake me up from a nap for no reason and see how uncool I can be.

… that I have decided to start telling people to “land your plane” if they’re going talk in circles.

… that I am humble enough to know that I am replaceable at work yet confident enough to know that it would take three or four people.

… that when people ask what sign I am, I say, “Stop sign. Leave me alone.”

… that people need to know they should never argue with me as the only difference between me and a psych ward patient is that I am at home!

I Didn't Say It ... The Resistance

Scott Pelley, American author and reporter for CBS News, speaking at Wake Forest University’s graduation, using the graduates to take a stand:

“I fear there are some people in the audience who don’t want to hear what I have to say today. But I appreciate your forbearance in this small act of liberty.

I’m a reporter so I won’t bury the lead. Your country needs you. The country that has given you so much is calling you, the Class of 2025. The country needs you, and it needs you today. As a reporter, I have learned to respect opinions. Reasonable people can differ about the life of our country. America works well when we listen to those with whom we disagree and when we listen and when we have common ground and we compromise. And one thing we can all agree on—one thing at least—is that America is at her best when everyone is included.

To move forward, we debate, not demonize. We discuss, not destroy. But in this moment—this moment, this morning—our sacred rule of law is under attack. Journalism is under attack. Universities are under attack. Freedom of speech is under attack. An insidious fear is reaching through our schools, our businesses, our homes and into our private thoughts. The fear to speak. In America? If our government is—in Lincoln’s words—“of the people, by the people and for the people”—then why are we afraid to speak?

The Wake Forest Class of 1861 did not choose their time of calling. The Class of 1941 did not choose. The Class of 1968 did not choose. History chose them. And now history is calling you, the Class of 2025. You may not feel prepared, but you are. You are not descended of fearful people. You brought your values to school with you and now Wake Forest has trained you to seek the truth, to find the meaning of life.

Let me tell you briefly about three people I have recently met who discovered the meaning of their lives in moments of crisis not unlike what we have today.

Volodymyr Zelenskyy, president of Ukraine, spent his entire career as an entertainer on television. His first elected office was president of Ukraine. And three years ago, the Russian army came at him from three directions. He had a decision to make. And so he reached for the most lethal weapon in the Ukranian arsenal: his cell phone. 

He walked out of front of the presidential offices in Kyiv and made a video selfie. He told his people, “I’m still here and your army is still here, and we are going to fight.” He galvanized 44 million people instantly. Today, three years later, he is all that stands between a murderous dictator in Russia and the rest of free Europe. I asked him, “Where did that come from?” And he said, “Well, you look in the mirror and you ask, ‘Who are you’”?

Nadia Marad, a woman whom we at 60 Minutes found in a refugee camp in Iraq. Her family was murdered by ISIS and she had been sold for money into slavery. We convinced her to tell her story on 60 Minutes, which she did and she found her voice. Then she began to write, and then she began to speak about the crimes that women suffer in war. And a few years later, this young woman who we had found in a refugee camp won the Nobel Peace Prize.

Who are you?

Finally, Dr. Samer Attar, an orthopedic surgeon in Chicago and a professor of surgery at Northwestern who volunteers to do surgery in war zones. In Gaza. In Ukraine. In To save lives of innocent people by using whatever meager supplies he has at hand. I asked him, “Where does this come from?” He told me, “It’s not much, but it beats burying your head in fear and ignorance.”

Who are you?

What is the meaning of life?

Today, great universities are threatened with ruin. So what did President Wente and Provost Gillespie do? They spoke out. They joined other institutions signing the call for constructive engagement, a declaration of the relationship between government and higher education. It reads in part, “Institutions of higher education share a commitment to serve as centers of open inquiry where, in their pursuit of truth, faculty, students, and staff are free to exchange ideas and opinions across a full range of viewpoints without fear of retribution, censorship, or deportation.”

Who are you? What does this make Wake Forest in this moment? Well, I think we know.

Did you hear that phrase in the Declaration? “Pursuit of truth?” Why attack universities? Why attack journalism? Because ignorance works for power.

First, make the truth seekers live in fear. Sue the journalists. For nothing. Then send masked agents to abduct a college student, a writer of her college paper who wrote an editorial supporting Palestinian rights, and send her to a prison in Louisiana and charge her with nothing. Then, move to destroy law firms that stand up for the rights of others.

With that done, power can rewrite history. With grotesque, false narratives, they can make heroes criminals and criminals heroes. And they can change the definition of the words we use to describe reality.

“Diversity” is now described as “illegal.” “Equity” is to be shunned. “Inclusion” is a dirty word. This is an old playbook, my friends. There is nothing new in this. George Orwell – who we met on the street in London – in 1949, he warned of what he called “new speak.” He understood that ignorance works for power.

But it is ignorance that you have repudiated every single day here at Wake Forest University. Who are you? I think we know.

Can just speaking the truth actually work? Well, consider this day. This day. May 19. May 19, 1963. Martin Luther King Jr.’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail” was published for the first time. In that letter, Dr. King says, “The first thing that has to be done in the pursuit of justice is collecting the facts.”

Power was telling him in a jail cell, “Do not speak the truth because power will crush you.”

But consider that just months before that letter was published, Wake Forest University became the first major private institution of higher education in the South to integrate. In 1962.

The year after Dr. King’s letter –1964 – the Civil Rights Act is passed. And the year after that – 1965 – the Voting Rights Act is passed. Now today both of those are under attack. But can the truth win? My friends, nothing else does. It may be a long road, but the truth is coming.

Did you hear the other phrase in the declaration that was signed by President Wente and Provost Gillespie? “Without fear.”

That does not mean there’s nothing to be afraid of. It’s an affirmation that you know who you are. That you know what you stand for. And that you know in the end – the long end – the Constitution will defend you even in the face of fearsome times.

In the words of one of your former Wake Forest professors:

‘You may write me down in history with your bitter, twisted lies.

You may tread me into the very dirt, but like dust, I’ll rise.

Leaving behind nights of terror and fear, I rise.

Into a daybreak that’s wonderfully clear, I rise.

Bringing the gifts my ancestors gave me, I am the dream and the hope of the slave.

I rise.

I rise.

I rise.’

The poet Maya Angelou taught at Wake Forest. She saw the fear that power sought to impose, yet in her famous phrase, she still knew why the caged bird sings.

This university, old and wise, has seen worse. It has overcome existential threats before to our country. You are not alone. A legion has gone before you. And now it is the Class of 2025 that is called in another extreme time.

Will you permit me another word of advice? I think this is how I created at least one astronomer.

Do not settle. You only get one pass at this. This world is going to tell you no a thousand times, but listen to the song in your heart. If they can’t hear it, that’s on them and not on you.

In the 1980s, I was rejected by CBS News over and over and over again over the years. They told me at one point, “Please stop applying.” They really did. And at the time, I thought “What’s wrong with these people?” They couldn’t hear the song in my heart. Maybe they were smarter. Every time I was rejected, I got better. Maybe that was the plan. But I finally made them hear the music in my heart.

You only lose if you quit. Do not settle.

What is the meaning of life? Who are you? You are the educated. You are the compassionate. You are the fierce defenders of democracy, the seekers of truth, the vanguards against ignorance. You are millions strong across our land.

You might be sorry that you were picked by history for this role. But maybe that was the plan. Hard times are going to make you better and stronger. In a few minutes, when that diploma hits your hand, it’s not a piece of paper you’re holding. We’re handing you a baton. Run with it.

Why am I here today? I’m 50 years farther down the trail than you are, and I have doubled back this morning to tell you the one thing I have learned from Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Nadia Marad and Samer Attar and a thousand others: In a moment like this, when our country is in peril, don’t ask the meaning of life. Life is asking, “What’s the meaning of you?”

With great admiration for your achievements and with confidence that you will rise to this occasion, I thank you very humbly for the honor of being with you.

Thank you very much.”

Fox News wants Pelley arrested for his words.

The DOJ may investigate Pelley for his words.

The Felon, already suing Paramount and CBS, is riled up AF for his words.

His words need to be spread because that is the Resistance.

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Bobservations

The other night Carlos nodded off in the evening and began snoring … like a chain saw … so loud that Rosita jumped from his lap and went to the back of the house … so rough that his head was vibrating like the couch came with an electric massage option … and when I said:

“Sweetie pie, go to bed. You’re snoring.”

And he said:

“I wasn’t asleep.”

Seriously.

This Tuxedo Says is from October 2020 … If you were looking for a good reason to vote, Tuxedo says you should think of it like this:

I have recently learned that crows can hold a grudge against a person for over 17 years and I have officially found my spirit animal.

Oh, and this is my bird call … and, yes, that’s the little dance I do.

The other day at The Adventures of Travel Penguin and he was discussing foods from his recent trip across the pond, specifically Haggis. I replied that I might try Haggis and then call it done, but it got me to thinking about trying new things so I asked people at work and they were less than enthused. Not one would try Haggis, or Sushi, or Offal, or Raw Oysters, and I berated them … politely … saying you should try something at least one before saying never, and a co-worker asked me:

“So, then you've had had sex with a woman?”

“Nope. There are times when you just know.”

I mean, as I like to say, the last time I was near a vagina I was being born, but that’s just me.

Apparently there’s a new word cruising the halls of DC and one reporter dared to use the word at The Felon’s press conference when she asked him about TACO … Trump Always Chickens Out. You know, because the tariffs are on, the tariffs are off; the tariffs are 150%, the tariffs are 50% ...

And the bloated gasbag had a fit and gargled and bubbled and stumbled over his word … singular … but did manage to confuse tariff with tax.

TACO.

Of note, Harvard has never been shut down for fraud, but The Felon’s eponymous university? Yeah, not so much.

First Lady and nude model, Melanie, is using AI to record the audio version of the book she wrote plagiarized:

“I am honored to bring you Melania—The  AI Audiobook—narrated entirely using artificial intelligence in my own voice.”

When I think of Melanie I do think “artificial” but I never think “intelligence.”

I love me some Kelly Clarkson because the girl can saaaaang … and can sing almost any genre. Still I was stunned when she trotted out this macabre and dark take on ‘If I Only Had a Brain’ from The Wizard of Oz.

Brilliant.

Ryan Ball is a model … that’s all I can find … but he looks good in clothes and out of clothes so, Would You Hit It?

Architecture Wednesday: Portland Storybook Home

This home—listed at $1.9M—was originally designed by renowned architect Wade Pipes and has recently been enhanced with over $500K in high-end upgrades; perched high on a hillside, and  flooded with natural light, it offers breathtaking views of four volcanoes—Mount Tabor, Mount Scott, Mount Bullard, and Mount Pitt—and Portland’s iconic bridges and is within walking distance of Forest Park.

The living room with its cozy wood-burning fireplace & bookshelves is the perfect gathering space for memorable parties and is accented by new matching French doors that open to the outdoor space and the views. The kitchen is a showpiece, boasting locally sourced handmade walnut cabinets & countertops & complemented by 200-year-old reclaimed terracotta flooring from France; the adjacent butler’s pantry with a refrigerator and freezer drawers is the ultimate smoothie and coffee bar. The main level also includes a striking new half bath with House of Hackney wallpaper. The sunroom was re-envisioned with all-new heated Moroccan tile floors, French doors & built-in shelving.

Upstairs are four bedrooms, two full bathrooms, and a laundry room with access to the third floor flax space, perfect for another bedroom, family room, office, or play area. The remodeled lower-level apartment—ideal for an au pair or extended family—features an exterior entrance, new concrete floors, a fully stocked kitchen, bedroom, its own laundry area, bathroom, living room and wine cellar!

Meticulously landscaped outdoor spaces include all-new limestone pavers and a 700-yr old fountain from Andalusia! Additional upgrades include a new electrical panel, 220V wiring on Summit for EV charger.

One quibble? The kitchen feels disjointed with part of it being walnut counters and deep green tile backsplash—which I love—and then stone tops on the kitchen counter and white appliances; half the room is dark, and half bright. Another quibble? That garage, down the hill, behind the house, with an apparent tunnel staircase that leads up to the basement level, feels a little escape from Alcatraz to me. But the garage is wired for EV and has ample storage for bikes & strollers.

One thing I like, though I know some of you don’t, is a wallpapered ceiling; shoot me.

As always click to emBIGGERate…

Dwell

Meme Dump