So I had a masectomy in December 2015. (Prophylactic, no actual cancer.) It was very stressful. My plan was to not have reconstruction, but then to wear prosthetics in public. Jammies and I squared away our personal lives. I was 100% on board with this plan.

It turned out post-mastectomy that I was unable to wear prosthetics. They were too painful in multiple places, in different ways. This was a giant problem for me because I really did not like how I looked in clothes being flat. The two situations that bother me the most are being around strangers and teaching. Especially when teaching - I want my chest to be nondescript and not call attention in any way. But also did not want implants, and anyway it seemed likely that I'd be an unlucky person who found implants painful.

Mostly I coped by extremely restricting my wardrobe to boxy structured things that didn't lay too flat, and felt bummed out about it. After about 6-7 years, I invented a tank top with ruffles that would serve to keep boxy structured things looking a little more shaped correctly, which helped. (Every year or so I was trying to invent different prosthetic hacks, but most failed.)

I rarely thought about it anymore and was pretty used to my life at this point.

Then this past summer, I unexpectedly solved all the problems. Part of it is that I eventually got a tad less sensitive. A much bigger part is that I discovered these compression tops from a brand for transmasc folks or anyone who wants to be compressed. The fabric is SUPER thick and double layered. The third part is my latest hack ended up working perfectly: I deconstructed one of these bras and just attached the front face of it to the compression top, to hold the prosthetics.

So finally I have the solution that I assumed I'd have, back in 2015: I can just look normal in clothes again, without being distracted by wearing something uncomfortable. It's wild to give up and resign yourself to having an uncooperative body, and live like that for years, and then unexpectedly get what you wanted all along. It's really great!

It's possible that Trump will lose badly. It's possible that it'll be clear a few weeks before the election that that will happen. Without the levers of the state or MAGA-Court immunity at his disposal, he'll have a much harder time trying to manipulate the outcome. What do you think he'll do? Ride it out and turn the grievance up to 1000? Drop out? Make JD the scapegoat? Try to foment violence? It's hard to see him just taking it and going away.

One variable: what will other Republicans do?

1. Do we all agree that Kamala Harris is in a much stronger position to win the general than if Joe had said two years ago that he wasn't going to re-run? You can't orchestrate this kind of cinematic narrative.

2. I know RBG was waiting to step down under Clinton's presidency. But I do want to point out one thing to restore part of her damaged legacy: by the summer 2016, McConnell had been sitting on Scalia's supreme court vacancy for 6 months. The Rubicon of when she would have had to step down was far earlier than anyone could have possibly known. Summer of 2015? If she was open to the idea of stepping down during Obama's administration, those conversations would have happened during 2016, at which point it was becoming increasingly clear that Scalia's vacancy was not going well. So I'm just saying it wasn't just a terrible decision on her part - she was somewhat boxed into a corner by everyone allowing McConnell to delay bringing nominees to the floor and I hate that man so much.

3. So who do you like for VP? It feels like all likely candidates have been deemed unlikely after all.

You know the rough cliche about immigrant generations: the first generation busts their ass to provide opportunity to the second generation. The second generation works hard and is successful. The third generation takes it for granted and is a lazy punk.

I have a theory that you can say a similar thing about many TV show series. The first season is a triumph over long odds. The second season knows where it came from, and hustles to be the best it can. The third season starts to relax and rest into whatever it's going to be.

Maybe it's just a general thing about life. The first time you teach a class, you make a bunch of mistakes. The second time, you fix those mistakes and introduce new ones. The third time, you actually develop a course that runs pretty smoothly.

Maybe this is just a theory that says "humans improve over time, sometimes. Or else they don't."

Mossy Character writes: AP:

The world's population is expected to grow by more than 2 billion people in the next decades and peak in the 2080s at around 10.3 billion, a major shift from a decade ago, a new report by the United Nations said Thursday.
[...]
the earlier-than-anticipated population peak is due to several factors, including lower fertility levels in some of the world's largest countries, especially China, whose population is projected to drop dramatically from 1.4 billion in 2024 to 633 million in 2100.

More than a quarter, or 28 percent, of the world's population now lives in one of 63 countries or areas where the population has already peaked, including China, Russia, Japan and Germany, the report said. Nearly 50 other countries should join that group over the next 30 years, including Brazil, Iran and Turkey. But population growth will continue in more than 120 countries beyond 2054. These include India, Indonesia, Nigeria, Pakistan and the United States

So by the end of the century, India is projected to be around 1.5 billion, but still the largest country in the world by a large margin." The report said that China's population, currently 1.41 billion in 2024, will fall to 1.21 billion in 2054 and further decline to 633 million by 2100.

Heebie's take: Greetings from Lubbock!

Nick S writes: This profile of a former NBA player who has reinvented himself as a beach volleyball player is impressive:

Given all the injuries he had already endured, he knew the arduous rehab process that lay ahead. "I didn't want to grind to stay in basketball anymore," he says. "I still felt like I could play basketball at a high level and still compete, and probably could have done it for a few more years, could have gone to Europe and played. Maybe even got back into the NBA. But it would've had to be a lot of hard work."

Emotionally, it was tough, finally deciding to retire. But as he thought about what to do next, his mind kept drifting to beach volleyball. Maybe the sand could help heal his achy joints, he thought.

He returned to his home in Hermosa Beach, determined to learn as much as possible about the sport since indoor and beach volleyball are completely different. The balls are bigger and lighter in beach volleyball and travel with less velocity than in the indoor game; matches are played in teams of two--with no substitutions. The court is smaller on the beach than indoors, leaving less room for players to maneuver and for shots to stay in bounds.

Also, unrelated by fun, a ranking of ALA celebrity "Read" posters.

You know how when you're a certain kind of bookish kid, there's about ten years between your tweens and twenties when for the holidays, you'll get gifted almost exclusively fancy notebooks?

Well, [the Orlando Bloom poster] looks like me at 14, posing with my brand new, leather-bound journal with a button stud closure and uncut page edges, so that my mom can send my aunt an email on AOL with the subject line: "he loves it!"

Heebie's take: Greetings from Douglas, Wyoming!