As someone who grew up reciting 10,000x as many prayers + Bible verses as current MAGA boss + team; but who has also studied concept of "separation of church and state" and worked in a White House led by true-believer Prez, let me say to whoever put this out: Unt-uh
WWJD? Not this
Just ask the Pope
If it's to a person I actually know, I'll begin: "Greetings [Joe/Sarah/Yang/ etc] — hope things are going well in [Portland / Venice / Beijing / etc] . I'm writing about..."
This is genuinely impressive. Ossoff knows what he is doing.
If it's someone I know, I open w things particular to that person. "Dear Sandy/Pierre: Hope things are going well in [Toronto/Rome/on your book/etc]. I'm writing..."
If it's someone I don't know, something like:
"Dear Mr/Mrs X:
"I send greetings from [Shanghai/ DC/etc] and am writing about.."
Badda-bing! Well done.
Tastes vary.
—I always use serial commas, but I realize that many people don't
—I genuinely don't remember *ever* getting a msg from a friend or biz colleague that began "...finds you well." For me, it's been a 100% tell of an unwanted promo letter, etc.
—If people want to use it, OK.
YMMV
I don't recall any email from a friend or someone with an idea that was interesting / provocative that began that way. I have never written those words myself.
But YMMV.
YMMV!
Lesson #1 from Our New Age of AI:
When you get a message beginning "I hope this email finds you well," stop reading.
There may be exceptions to this rule. But I can't think of any right now.
July 29, 1977 This Voyager spacecraft was constructed by the United States of America. We are a community of 240 million human beings among the more than 4 billion who inhabit the planet Earth. We human beings are still divided into nation states, but these states are rapidly becoming a single global civilization. We cast this message into the cosmos. It is likely to survive a billion years into our future, when our civilization is profoundly altered and the surface of the Earth may be vastly changed. Of the 200 billion stars in the Milky Way galaxy, some--perhaps many--may have inhabited planets and spacefaring civilizations. If one such civilization intercepts Voyager and can understand these recorded contents, here is our message: This is a present from a small distant world, a token of our sounds, our science, our images, our music, our thoughts, and our feelings. We are attempting to survive our time so we may live into yours. We hope someday, having solved the problems we face, to join a community of galactic civilizations. This record represents our hope and our determination, and our good will in a vast and awesome universe.
2/2
And, DAMHIK about that message from Carter:
Go Voyager!!!!
Its contents include a sample of global human culture as of its launch in 1977, and a powerful message from a president who believed in its mission, Jimmy Carter.
Things I genuinely don't get:
—Why veteran GOP figures, L Graham to M Johnson to Marco to others, are *so* afraid of Trump that they'll swallow everything they might have stood for, to humor him. C'mon! Mike Pence was way braver than this
—Why any journalist would go to WHCA dinner featuring Trump
Ossoff is good at this.
Jake, IMO: It would make a stronger statement, and make you prouder in the long run, just not to go.
Allowing priests to be married since the 1500s, and ordaining women as priests starting more than 50 years ago, would be pretty big (and consequential) differences.
3/3
"We do not presume to come to this thy table, O merciful Lord, trusting in our own righteousness, but in thy manifold and great mercies.
"We are not worthy so much as to gather up the crumbs under thy table. But thou art the same Lord, whose property is always to have mercy:.."
1549-style.
Same for the other member of our household here, who grew up Catholic but left that faith "for cause."
Mackenzie Scott for the Nobel Peace Prize.
2/2
Since I grew up hearing 1549-version 'Book of Common Prayer' verses maybe 3 zillion times in the Episcopal church, it's win-win:
The good parts of ritual, beauty, aspiration for universal love, etc.
Without, ummm, the bad parts institutional Catholicism has been coping with.
But, go Leo XIV!
There was a clip this evening of him saying it, in English. Unless that was AI'd
As a speechwriter for (the estimable, principled, noble, visionary, honored-by-history, etc but not silver-tongued) Jimmy Carter, I later imagined what it would be like to be a writer for Obama, or Reagan. Or Mark Carney.
Now: Imagine being Leo XIV's writer!
Dear Pope Leo:
I'll one-up this. I had never considered becoming a Catholic. But now ....
Just to go back to basics:
I once worked on a (winning) presidential campaign.
Something too obvious for anyone to mention was: "Don't get into a fight with the Pope over who knows more about Jesus."
These people are morons.
Another great story from student journalists at @theharvardcrimson.bsky.social
www.thecrimson.com/article/2026...
Through decades of modern US history, I did not find myself itching to say, "Good for the US Conference of Catholic Bishops."
Right now: Good for the US Conference of Catholic Bishops!!!
And good for the globally most influential living American, Leo XIV.
Story: In his second term, Mr. Trump seems even less restrained and more incoherent at times. He uses more profanity, speaks longer and regularly makes comments rooted in fantasy rather than fact. He keeps saying that his father was born in Germany when in fact he was born in the Bronx. He repeats an invented story about his uncle, an M.I.T. professor, telling him about teaching the terrorist known as the Unabomber. He wanders off into odd tangents — an eight-minute ramble at a Christmas reception about poisonous snakes in Peru, a long digression during a cabinet meeting about Sharpie pens, an interruption of an Iran war update to praise the White House drapes. He has confused Greenland with Iceland and more than once boasted of ending a fictional war between Cambodia and Azerbaijan, two countries separated by nearly 4,000 miles. (He evidently means Armenia and Azerbaijan). Even before lashing out at Pope Leo XIV on Sunday night, and then posting an image of himself as a Jesus-like figure before deleting it, Mr. Trump had shocked many with his outbursts at critics. He accuses those who anger him of sedition, a crime punishable by death. He claimed bizarrely that the Hollywood director Rob Reiner, who was allegedly stabbed to death by his son, was killed “due to the anger he caused” by opposing Mr. Trump. When Robert S. Mueller III, the former F.B.I. director and special counsel, died, Mr. Trump said, “Good, I’m glad he’s dead.”
Good to see this level of detail from @peterbakernyt.bsky.social in @nytimes.com
www.nytimes.com/2026/04/13/u...
As a Boomer-era person all too aware of the effects of interrupted and insufficient sleep, I see the list below as a ten-alarm fire.
Even for someone with 1,000,000x the equanimity, self-control, decency, empathy, knowledge, etc of Trump, such a list would constitute an emergency.
Trump without the "charm."
I believe what you're reporting, but can hardly believe anyone thinks that.
-First half of 70s: Still under shadow of Vietnam, Watergate. (Fall of Saigon: 1975.)
-Second half: Worldwide energy shock, stagflation, sky-high interest rates + prices. Urban crime.
Music and movies were great, though!
