The following is a submission we received from a reader. The author throws a lot of kudos my way. Clearly, as those initiated with Irrationalist Modoxism are aware, Dr. Happygoluckypersonage and Rational Traditionalist are in fact the deserving recipients of the lion’s share of that praise. Towards the end, the author suggests we rename our blog to something less offensive. The truth is that this is something we have already taken into serious consideration, but for the time being we are keeping the name as it is.

When you fly into Auckland, this beautiful place in the world, you see the landscape, the unique colours and contours of the land and sea. You are not landing at a fully developed Europe destination where all the towns seem to join up as one, or a sweaty Asian city with skyscrapers reaching to the sky. It is not a North American landscape with deserts and mighty highways criss crossing the place.

I’ve been reading The Fug Girls, , pretty much as long as I’ve had INTERNET. For almost a decade, their celebrity fashion/pop culture blog, Go Fug Yourself, was the first thing I’d check when I got to the office early, keeping the browser tiny and in the lower left corner so as not to disrupt my daily performance of “busy theater.” I’d like to thank th…ncG1vNJzZmiZnZeys3rSrpmsrJGYuG%2BvzqZmqWenna61edOhnGaepZx6qLXRpapmmqWueri106FkraCVnr8%3D

Here’s a quick look at three things I think could decide the final series. The first leg is tonight at 10 p.m. ET and airs on TUDN in the U.S. The second leg is Sunday at 8:30 p.m. ET and also will be on TUDN. I hoped to go even longer on the series but was doing an in-person interview here in DFW for a newsletter I think you’ll really enjoy next week!

[Note: I have a piece in today’s Washington Post about “Perfect Days” and the small but potent genre of Zen movies. Yes, “Groundhog Day” makes the cut. Here’s a free link if you’d like to read it.] Having long been fascinated by the gulf between celebrity personas and the smaller, more complicated human beings that lurk behind the false fronts of fame, I find that “Joan Baez: I Am a Noise” (2023, ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ 1/2) is unexpectedly my jam.