Yesterday, I ran into another verbal pet peeve of mine – confusing or conflating “ancestors” with “descendants.I” I’m not going to share who did this, because I truly believe he is smarter then that (at least about linguistics.) I will mention that I own a Match-3 computer game which has a plot requiring the protagonist to prove his descent from Moctezuma in order to recover custody of an artifact which was taken from him forcibly on the grounds that the thief claims direvt descent from Hernan Cortez. It’s mostly very well done, including portraits of everyone in the family tree (as well as some distant cousins he meets while tracking his tree all over the world), and there is impressive art for each of the locations also. But the word “descendant” is never used in it – only the word “ancestor,” which leads to some rather ridiculous misstatements. The match-3 boards get more and more difficult as the player goes – but at least it doesn’t kick the player out if she or he fails to solve a board withi the time limit three times in a row, which some do. So I keep playing it when I have time.
I share this because Newsom is virtually certain to fun for President. And no, I don’t expect any president to be perfect. But I do excpect voters to be able to see them “warts and all” before we decide how to vote in 2028.
https://steveschmidt.substack.com/p/jfks-four-tests-of-leadership-and
Steve Schmidt writes about integrity, and quotes a JFK speech as a demonstration. Between the intro, the speech, and Steve’s ending remarks, it’s longish – but impressive.
https://joycevance.substack.com/p/the-week-ahead-5c9
For once, I got, and was able to at least skim, “The Week Ahead” in time to put it up before the beginning of the week. I don’t expct that to happen again any time soon, but this a good week for it to happen.
Mayo Clinic
Just to give you an idea of the scale – the pumpkin starts out at 210 pounds (95+ kilos)
