"Russell Brand, the comedian and actor, has been charged with one count each of rape, indecent assault and oral rape, as well as two counts of sexual assault...."

The London Times reports.

Scotland Yard said the charges related to alleged historical sex offences against four separate women, between 1999 and 2005, and are alleged to have taken place in Bournemouth and London....

The Times gets into some of Brand's "historical" bad behavior: 

In 2000, Brand took a presenting job on MTV. He was sacked a year later after he arrived at work the day after 9/11 dressed as Osama bin Laden....

"This is a patient that was very sick.... It went through an operation on Liberation Day, and it's going to be... a very booming country."

"It's going to be amazing, actually.... The operation's over, and now we let it settle in. You see the plants are starting to construction, already. We have many plants — Indiana massive auto plant...."

Do you like the reasoning through analogy? The economy is a person, its supposed problem is a sickness, the tariffs are a surgical procedure, and the patient is in the post-op stage. That might be a difficult stage, with various pains and struggles. Even if this is a good analogy — economies are like human bodies, and tariffs are like an operation for an illness, and the immediate effect is a stage in the recovery from surgery — we still don't know if the right medical treatment was chosen and performed successfully.

For the annals of Things I Asked Grok: "Could you summarize the Susan Sontag book 'Illness as Metaphor' and say whether it has some use in critiquing the above-stated analogy about the economy?"

That book is less about using illness as a metaphor to explain something other than illness and more about using something other than illness to explain illness. From "Illness as Metaphor" (commission earned):

"Their first words to each other when they met were “I love your teeth!' 'I love YOUR teeth!' And then Mike White wrote it as their first lines of dialogue."

A discussion on the "White Lotus" subreddit draws attention to Charlotte Le Bon’s (Chloe’s) teeth, which are odd, but not as odd Aimee Lou Wood’s (Chelsea’s) teeth, which are very conspicuously odd and are the "White Lotus" teeth that get the most attention. 

The photo at the link is of Le Bon, so if you don't know what I'm talking about and you need to see Aimee Lou Wood, here's a clip:

Lots of people are enjoying the off-the-norm teeth, and I hope this is part of a trend toward seeing beauty in what is natural and not trying to "fix" everything. 

"Cory Booker didn’t go to the bathroom for 25 hours. Is that … OK?"

Headline at The Guardian, where we're told..

[H]e seemingly didn’t pee once the whole time. (A rep for Booker confirmed to TMZ that he did not wear a diaper during his speech.)

I would have written: A rep for Booker confirmed to TMZ that Booker claimed he did not wear a diaper during his speech. Or, if the rep claimed personal knowledge of which unseen garments Booker wore: A rep for Booker corroborated Booker's claim that he did not wear a diaper during his speech.

Does anyone believe that? It seems reckless. Does Booker want to appear reckless? He may think that appearing reckless is better than being thought of as having worn a diaper. But the fear of being thought of as having worn a diaper is ableist and ageist. And yet, look at our Congress.

For the annals of Things I Asked Grok: "At the State of the Union speech in 2025 — I know it wasn't officially a 'State of the Union' — what percentage of those in the audience were wearing diapers — in your estimation? Consider how long in advance they needed to get to and remain in their seats, the expected length of the speech, the length of time after the speech before access to facilities, and the age and frailty of the members of Congress."

Anyway, the Guardian's answer to its question — "Is that … OK?" — is no.

Sunrise — 6:14, 6:33, 6:25.

Talk about whatever you want in the comments. And support the Althouse blog by doing your Amazon shopping going in through the Althouse Amazon link.

"Turns out they were watching 'The Death of a Unicorn'...."

Who knew Tesla vandals were into unicorns?

Man gets caught kicking a Cybertruck. It doesn't end well for him. pic.twitter.com/LD7hNtPDQM

— Thomas Sowell Quotes (@ThomasSowell) April 3, 2025

ADDED: Strangely enough, this is not my first post that has both my "Tesla" and my "unicorns" tags. The other one, back in 2018, was about settling a lawsuit about a drawing of a farting unicorn that Tesla used as an icon on its video screen and Musk put in a Christmas message to customers. 

"These men are all caught with their pants down, and Theissen marvels at how well-endowed they are."

That's the top-rated comment at Marc Thiessen's Washington Post column "The Signal chat’s big takeaway? Trump has built an effective team. Americans got a fly-on-the-wall view of a group working together to execute the president’s policy."

Men. Always trying to "solve" the "problem."

Charlie Kirk is all "White college indoctrinated women will ruin America if we let them. They are brainwashed. They are completely indoctrinated. The worldview that is being uploaded to young women on a daily basis is hyper-narcissistic, hyper-selfish. I am the only one that matters. Who are you to tell me how I should act? And it makes them miserable. I do not know how to solve this problem. I am open to suggestions."

 

Charlie Kirk “I do not know how to solve this problem. I am open to suggestion”

“White college indoctrinated women will ruin America if we let them. They are brainwashed. They are completely indoctrinated. The worldview that is being uploaded to young women on a daily basis is… pic.twitter.com/OaHPpuffKq

— Wall Street Apes (@WallStreetApes) April 3, 2025

I'll give you a suggestion, Charlie. Women are not a "problem" to be "solved." Framing things as problems and going right for the solution is, stereotypically, male. Let your male stereotypicality be the problem you can solve, Charlie, and open the door to a clearer view of the female mind. Step through that door and there is no longer a problem to be solved. Problem solved.

Just a suggestion!

"The rich are punishing Trump for siding with the neglected, humiliated working class.... People cannot believe that there is a President working for them... and telling Wall Street to go screw itself."

No matter what the screeching drama club says - Trump will be remembered well for trying to save the working class at a time when everyone is about to be replaced by robots. https://t.co/yJmmZU6UHc

— Sasha Stone (@realsashastone) April 3, 2025

At the Wednesday Night Café...

... you can talk about whatever you want.

"When he lit a cigarette, a nurse in blue scrubs appeared over his shoulder, peering at Hockney with apparent concern."

"But by staying silent, the nurse respected the buttons that both he and Hockney wore, reading 'End Bossiness Soon.' The artist made those after the British government banned smoking in public spaces in 2007. These days, Hockney has 24-hour medical care, and ensuring that he will be well enough to go to Paris for the exhibition opening has been a priority for his team. He planned to travel by car, with his dachshund, Tess; his doctor would travel separately, he said. 'I am looking forward to it, because it is the largest exhibition I’ve ever had. Which it should be,' Hockney said with a wry smile. 'Shouldn’t it, really?'"

From "David Hockney Wants His Biggest Ever Show to Bring You Joy/The artist is 87 now and under constant medical care. But he was determined to make it to Paris for the exhibition of his life" (NYT)(free-access link).

"[Al] Gore said he believed the courts would prevent Trump from implementing some of his most extreme moves."

"I don’t think he’s going to be able to get away with that,' he said. 'I think we’re more resilient as a constitutional, representative democracy than a lot of people of fear.'"

From "Why Al Gore Is Shifting His Climate Activism Abroad/Given the Trump administration’s recent moves relating to climate, the former vice president is looking to the developing world for the next generation of climate activism" (NYT).

When Biden was President, "democracy" meant gracefully accepting the result of the election and working on winning the next election. But with Trump as President, "democracy" means stopping the duly elected President from doing what voters heard him promise he'd do.

I'm just asking for a stable definition of "democracy" to go along with the demand for our devotion to it. I agree with Gore that the courts have role to play. But it's a counter-majoritarian role. And we can argue about the scope of their role and whether they are doing too much or too little. We'll see how they do.

"The tape sat unremarkably on a shelf behind the counter, collecting dust for five, maybe 10 years — so much time that Rob Frith says he lost track."

"Frith, 69, could not seem to recall how it had found its way to Neptoon Records, his store in Vancouver, British Columbia, which in its 44 years has become a repository for tens of thousands of vinyl records and other musical relics.... "

So begins "Rare Beatles Audition Tape Surfaces in a Vancouver Record Shop/The recording appears to be from the band’s 1962 audition for Decca Records, which notably rejected the group" (NYT).

"As the men began posting about their discovery on social media, clues about the provenance of the recording began to emerge. Jack Herschorn, the former president and founder of Can-Base Records, a Vancouver label, said that a producer at Decca gave him the tape in the early 1970s and suggested that he could use it to make bootleg recordings. But he said he had qualms about doing so. 'I adored the Beatles,' Herschorn said. 'I wasn’t going to do anything that was not morally correct in my mind.' Herschorn, who now lives in Mexico, said that he put the tape into storage before leaving the record label, which later went bankrupt."

"While in [Justice] Kavanaugh’s neighborhood, Roske kept the gun, unloaded, in a locked box in the suitcase."

"When police searched the luggage, they also found 37 rounds of ammunition, according to earlier court filings, along with a tactical flashlight with a laser that could be mounted on the gun, a 'James Bond' lock pick set, a black face mask, a pair of 'hard-knuckled' tactical gloves, four black zip ties and hiking boots with padded soles affixed to their bottoms that police earlier said were for stealthy movement...."

From "Man accused in 2022 Kavanaugh assassination plot to plead guilty, lawyers say/Nicholas Roske, 29, was accused of flying from California and approaching Brett Kavanaugh’s Maryland home with a gun before turning himself in" (WaPo).

A quote from Roske: "I was under the delusion that I could make the world a better place by killing him."

"I told my lawyer, I said, ‘Yeah, I’m not doing that.’ He said, ‘Well, you know, you’ll be in contempt of court’ and this and that."

"I go, ‘OK. Well, how about this? I dare the judge to put me in jail for not wanting to visit [my] abusive father. I actually, I’m gonna double down on that. I double-dare him to arrest the most famous kid in the world."

Said Macaulay Culkin, quoted in "Macaulay Culkin makes scathing remarks about estranged ‘narcissistic’ dad Kit" (NY Post).

Things not found on eBay.

I see Pete Townshend recently said, "Four and a half weeks ago, I had my left knee replaced.... Maybe I should auction off the old one."

Quoted in "The Who singer Roger Daltrey going deaf and blind at 81: ‘The joys of getting old’" (NY Post)(I think Daltrey was just setting up a "Tommy" joke: He still has his voice or he'd "have a full Tommy.")

Do they let you take your old knee home with you after a replacement? I'm picturing Pete Townshend's knee in a glass case at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame labeled with some riff on "hope I die before I get old." It would be like those relics of saints you might see in an old cathedral. I'm not Catholic, but I've wondered about the inconsistency with the visualization of Judgment Day of bodies rising up out of graves — as depicted in the "Last Judgment" mural in the Sistine Chapel.

Isn't this why some people don't want to donate their organs — they think they might need them in the afterlife? Wouldn't it be a kick in the head if failing to check the organ-donor box on your driver's license turned out to be the shortcoming that barred you from heaven?