The comedian Steven Wright has an old joke in which he describes a light switch in his house that does nothing. Every now and then, he would just flick it up and down. As he explains, “About a month later, I got a letter from a woman in Germany ... saying, ‘Cut it out.’” I probably owe that same woman an apology, as I spent much of the last week hopelessly flicking many of the light switches in my house after suffering a system-wide software glitch. (Yes, my house features a layer of software between the switches and the lights because just turning them on and off seemed too efficient.) Faced with this challenge, I did what every modern, skill-free homeowner would do. I talked to ChatGPT. The responses were incredibly detailed, incredibly certain, and incredibly supportive of my efforts. I was doing all the right things, and there was no reason for me to get discouraged while dealing with a notoriously buggy software platform. It was the first time I attempted home improvement without anyone laughing. After I got the feedback from ChatGPT, I decided to check its work with Gemini. The advice about the next moves was largely confirmed. Both chat programs offered to summarize our discussion for my lighting contractor, in case I wanted to call in a professional. His human response went something like this: “None of that text from ChatGPT makes any sense at all. Be cautious asking it questions about that sort of thing. The answers it gives people are just ridiculous.” I took the human’s advice, which involved pushing one button for about ten seconds. And there was light, and it was good. While chat programs are at times amazing, I’ve realized through a series of exchanges that the programs are often simultaneously very certain and completely wrong. I think we’ve reached the Singularity, because that’s exactly how humans behave on the internet. 2The Wizard of StrawsThe Greenland insanity has reached a fever pitch, as it brings together so many of Trump’s greatest hits. Antagonizing allies, a mentally ill obsession with the Nobel prize, constant bluster, endless lies, a false reading of history, random word capitalizations, and so much more. In his first term, there were some guardrails. Now there are just guard dogs, preventing anyone from slowing down the crazy train. Anne Applebaum sums things up in The Atlantic (Gift Article): “Donald Trump now genuinely lives in a different reality, one in which neither grammar nor history nor the normal rules of human interaction now affect him. Also, he really is maniacally, unhealthily obsessive about the Nobel Prize. The Norwegian Nobel Committee, not the Norwegian government and certainly not the Danish government, determines the winner of that prize. Yet Trump now not only blames Norway for failing to give it to him, but is using it as a justification for an invasion of Greenland.” Trump’s Letter to Norway Should Be the Last Straw. “He is locked into a world of his own, determined to ‘win’ every encounter, whether in an imaginary competition for the Nobel Peace Prize or a protest from the mother of small children objecting to his masked, armed paramilitary in Minneapolis. These contests matter more to him than any long-term strategy. And of course, the need to appear victorious matters much more than Americans’ prosperity and well-being.” (When it comes to anyone, especially in the GOP Congress, standing up to Trump, I worry that we have infinite straws.) 3Darkness Visible“Suddenly, the tense scene dissolved into slapstick. The federal officer slipped on a patch of ice and tumbled to the ground. A raucous roar of laughter and jeers erupted from the protesters surrounding him. He scrambled to his feet and marched on. But a few seconds later one of the protesters shouted, ‘He dropped his magazine!’ And sure enough, lying on the patch of ice was a fully loaded magazine from his automatic weapon. Dan Engelhart, one of the city’s parks commissioners, was standing nearby. He grabbed the magazine and turned it over in his hands. Well, we’re fucking close to civil war,’ he told me.” Lydia Polgreen in the NYT (Gift Article): In Minneapolis, I Glimpsed a Civil War. “From afar, this tragic and possibly criminal act of violence could plausibly be seen as incidental to President Trump’s mission to deport undocumented people from the country. But when I landed in Minneapolis on Monday and saw the size, scope and lawlessness of the federal onslaught unfolding here, I understood that Good’s killing was emblematic of its true mission: to stage a spectacle of cruelty upon a city that stands in stark defiance against Trump’s dark vision of America.” 4Indiana’s Jones“Fueled by the perceived disrespect, desperate to prove it would not become a bottom dweller again, Indiana produced the football version of ‘Hoosiers,’ completing one of the most improbable turnarounds in sports history -- winning its first national championship while becoming the first major college team since Yale in 1894 to go 16-0.” Indiana competed its storybook season behind coach Curt Cignetti and QB Fernando Mendoza, who transfered from Berkeley before this season, proving once again the value of a Cal education. How Indiana won college football’s national championship. 5Extra, ExtraPocket Protector: “A review by the editorial board relying on analyses from news organizations shows that Mr. Trump has used the office of the presidency to make at least $1.4 billion. We know this number to be an underestimate because some of his profits remain hidden from public view. And they continue to grow.” NYT (Gift Article): How Trump Has Pocketed $1,408,500,000. 6Bottom of the News“For a cow, Veronika has had what might be considered an idyllic life. She lives in a picturesque town in Austria, surrounded by snow-capped mountains and glacial lakes. She is a beloved family pet, rather than a production animal, and spends her days ambling through tree-lined pastures. And when she has an itch, she scratches it — by expertly wielding a stick.” A pet cow named Veronika can scratch her own back with a broom — the first scientifically documented case of tool use in cows. (My beagles have mastered the art of getting others to scratch their backs. Who’s the tool now?)
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Tuesday, January 20, 2026
Let There Be Light
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