Count the metaphors: “State Senator John Liu called the decision by Ms. Hochul a ‘Faustian bargain with President Trump.’ ‘This deal jeopardizes that firm footing by opening the door to a slippery slope where we risk diverting funding away from public education,’ Mr. Liu said in a statement.”

Overheard California word-of-the-day: Clamping — variant of Glamping but *city camping.* Guy working a retail job explained, “I removed the seats in a Honda Odyssey, put in a narrow mattress and now it’s home.”

Watch the social construction of “Western” identity at work

Have you met men?

“Our research suggests that Trump was not necessarily attracting male supporters who are as confidently masculine as the former president presented himself to be. Rather, our findings suggest that Trump appeared to appeal more to men who may be insecure about their manhood.” — Knowles & DiMuccio

Guilty as charged

“Less than 48 hours after the Post story, he called it a ‘coordinated political hit meant to drive me out of this race’ and his social media team posted a new ad of him in a tight black T-shirt that showed off his Marvel-worthy biceps. The slogan running across it read, ‘Make Politics Sexy Again.’”

This is a wonderful piece of writing and journalism on the murky world of American frat houses.

Author Suein Hwang?

WSJ 2005: “Whites aren't quitting the schools because the schools are failing academically. Quite the contrary: Many white parents say they're leaving because the schools are too academically driven and too narrowly invested in subjects such as math and science…” Gift link:

Schrödinger’s whiteness

LLMs definitely a challenge but method works on transcribed speech, works on nonresponse, and can be applied to more organic exchanges like texting. So, likely still useful in a variety of contexts. Also, challenge of LLMs is bigger than open-ended text so already a priority for survey industry.