Campaign sightings

Posted on June 18, 2026 by Naomi

Tuesday, there was George Conway walking south on Broadway near Lincoln Center. He was rumpled and looked perplexed and somewhat down. Nobody but me noticed him.

Just a half hour ago, I spotted Micah Lasher in front of Fairway, a primary campaign stopping place on the Upper West Side. If you’re running for office in the 12th congressional district, you must must must take up a curb position at the front entrance to Fairway. That’s where I always used to see Jerry Nadler.

Micah was surrounded by quite a few neighbors. He looked much younger and sexier than his photos or TV ads.

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Let’s check up on those low approval ratings

Posted on June 18, 2026 by Naomi

From Harper’s Weekly Review:

[T]he Ukrainian president penned an open letter to his Moscow counterpart, inviting him to the negotiating table. “When you came to power in Russia more than twenty-six years ago, many people in Ukraine viewed you positively,” he wrote. “That is how it was. But that is now in the past.” The Russian statesman declined the overture, responding at his country’s annual economic forum in St. Petersburg, “I don’t see [the] point,” after he emerged from a weekslong disappearance into various bunkers, hermitages, and hideouts across Russia to hold a televised meeting with one of his old school teachers as his low domestic approval ratings were reported.

Just this morning, The New York Times reported that Ukrainian drones hit Moscow big-time, presumably to notify the Russian people that Putin can’t keep them safe from the war he started. (Especially not from his bunkers. Bad look, Vlad.)

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“Up to no good”

Posted on June 17, 2026 by Naomi

Harper’s Weekly Review produced this gem.

“I knew they were up to no good,” said the owner of an auto-repair shop in Queens, New York, after he witnessed three men lower themselves into the city’s sewers.

Now I want to know what “no good” they did because my local newspaper, which reports everything, did not report this. I mean, I’m pretty sure uncredentialed guys going into a sewer weren’t going down there to fix a water main but still. (And do not, do not, do not tell me to “research” this via AI. I’m taking a break from thinking about AI.)

But now I am thinking about what three guys could do in the New York City sewer system. Why does wrangling alligators come to mind? Speaking of which, have these guys been heard from since?

P.S. OK, I gave in and clicked on the Harper’s footnote number following this item. NBC News is responsible for the report. The news headline says this was one of several incidents and some official(s) say the sewers are dangerous. I didn’t listen to the full broadcast, although I was invited to do so. Free. And that’s all I want to know about that.

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