Jack Kessler

Sorry!

Why John Major is forever 55 Assigned ages: a guide to the mind’s favourite trick

John Major is 82 which will come as a shock to those (me) who assigned him the age of 55 and never revisited the fact.

I wrote about the ages we cast friends, family... and prime ministers who deserved a working majority.

Strong 'Miss! You forgot to give us homework!" vibes here.

I like watching sport and don't like watching e.g. quasi scripted reality TV but I don't necessarily think the former is superior to the latter. Not least given when game itself is like 3% of all actual sport and the rest is pre/post/transfer gossip etc which is basically reality TV.

That too. My grandma was born the same year as Frank and I'd have lunch with her well into the 2020s which made her story feel like... not quite history.

Tbf that picture was taken the day in 1996 when the Tories lost their majority.

Just a terrific photo. You can smell the booze on Adams and Bould from here.

Why John Major is forever 55 Assigned ages: a guide to the mind’s favourite trick

Other weird warping thing about time is that Anne Frank, Martin Luther King Jr. and Barbara Walters were all born in the same year — yet occupy wholly different periods in our collective imaginations.

My hunch is that you don’t think about John Major as much as I think about John Major. And that’s okay — life is a rich tapestry and I’m sure you’re busy pursuing other, lesser interests. Which is precisely why you might enjoy the above interview. Major is at his charming, warm-beer-and-freshly-cut-grass best, while even Giles Brandreth is tolerable. I watched along somewhat absentmindedly while cooking, in the way the interwar generation listened to Muzak while browsing for nylons. I’d heard it all before: the music hall father, the two-room flat in Brixton and the love of cricket. Only one disclosure jolted me from my torpor — the revelation that Major is 82 years old. The way he said it — so matter-of-factly — precipitated something of a rupture to my nervous system. With the tomato sauce threatening to graduate from gentle simmer to low boil, I had to Google it quickly. How could this be? I had long ago assigned Major the age of 55 and never thought it necessary to revisit the matter.

BREAKING: John Major hasn't been 55 years old since 1999.

✍️ www.linestotake.com/p/why-john-m...

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Difference in time use between working parents of small children vs working non parents. Areas above zero are activities parents do more of; areas below are what they give up. Compiled by analyzing the Census Bureau’s American Time Use Survey. Analysis and chart by Aziz Sunderji, https://homeeconomics.substack.com/p/where-do-parents-find-the-time

Where do parents find the time to parent? Less sleep, work and screens.

Amazing chart feat. in @alphaville.ft.com Further Reading.

homeeconomics.substack.com/p/where-do-p...

My personal no this can't be rights:

John Major: 55 [actual: 82]
Dennis Bergkamp: 32 [actual: 56]
Meryl Streep: 65 [actual: 76]
Idris Elba: 35 [actual: 53]
David Beckham: 40 [actual: 50]
Shirley Bassey: 60 [actual: 89]

Partly, I think it’s a condition of something we take entirely for granted: ages change, but our birthdays stay the same. From a strict mathematical perspective, this makes a great deal of sense. But it does rather warp our relationship with age and time.

Similarly, Joe Biden and Neil Kinnock are the same age. Yet one led the world’s most powerful nation as recently as last year, while the other has been long filed away as 'man of the 1980s'.

But I think there's something broader going on here. For instance, Anne Frank, Martin Luther King Jr. and Barbara Walters were all born in the same year, yet occupy wholly different time periods in our collective imaginations.

There is, of course, a Major specific-element to this. He always appeared older than his years and was 1990s-coded to an almost cartoonish degree, up there with Nirvana and Absolutely Fabulous.

Why John Major is forever 55 Assigned ages: a guide to the mind’s favourite trick

John Major is 82 which will come as a shock to those (me) who assigned him the age of 55 and never revisited the fact.

I wrote about the ages we cast friends, family... and prime ministers who deserved a working majority.

Authoritarianism, incompetence — or both? US shuts airspace over El Paso: flights grounded, lasers fired, party balloons intercepted

One part of the US government tried to shut down a major airport for 10 days — without telling anyone else. Authoritarianism, incompetence — or both?

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Also, the scandal about staying overnight in hotels rather than on the mountain/in the rainforest.

Ok, I know you know this, but need to get it off my chest: at the simultaneously held London mayoral selection, Tessa Jowell, an actual Blairite (in that she owed her cabinet career to Tony Blair) secured 30% of first pref votes. Almost like candidate quality still matters!

Screeshot of a man in a blue jumper mid-word. A chiron says Josh Spero, wealth editor, FT. The subtitle says: Although I’m not much of a drinker myself

I made a video about billionaires buying up Britain’s pubs! www.instagram.com/reel/DUnOjxB...

TL;DR This is what happens when trust in government is reduced to a peppercorn. Something crazy and unprecedented occurs, and reasonable people are left to wonder not only whether it signals authoritarianism or incompetence, but why it has become so difficult to tell the difference.

Tbf this also happens, albeit to a lesser extent, in democratic systems. I mean, Theresa May had Chris Grayling.

Incompetence is the point Authoritarian leaders deliberately select subordinates for their stupidity

In other words, on this occasion it was bog standard incompetence, rather than creeping authoritarianism. Except, of course, these are far from mutually exclusive explanations. Despots deliberately hire morons as subordinates, in the expectation they will prove too dim-witted to bring them down.

Airspace closure followed spat over drone-related tests and party balloon shoot-down, sources say Pentagon officials had undertaken planning to use military technology near Fort Bliss, in El Paso, to practice downing drones.

It turns out that the airspace above El Paso was closed because bits of the federal government didn't talk to one another, the Pentagon wanted to try out some high-powered lasers and a *party balloon* was shot down.

Third immigrant detainee at facility in El Paso has died, ICE says Camp East Montana on Fort Bliss in El Paso is one of the largest ICE detention centers in the country.

El Paso, the second-largest absolute-majority-Hispanic city in the US, is also home to the Camp East Montana ICE detention facility. Bad things are happening there.

There was understandable confusion and even fear about what the Trump administration might have been up to. Not least when 1,300 miles north in Minneapolis, the US government has been deploying masked federal immigration agents and where two people have been shot and killed.

The nearest US commercial airport to El Pas is about a five-hour drive away (Texas is big!). As @airlineflyer.net bluntly put it prior to the revocation: “Anyone needing a lifeline flight to a hospital or outside El Paso will die.”

Hours later, following outcry, the restrictions were lifted. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy posted that the “threat has been neutralized,” but declined to reveal any further details, such as what the threats were and why such unusual steps had been taken.

Again, not normal.

Long-term parking at El Paso airport rises $2 to $9 a day beginning in March Starting in March, travelers using long-term parking at El Paso International Airport will face a $2 increase in daily parking rates, bringing the total to...

Until 48 hours ago, the biggest controversy surrounding El Paso Airport was the planned increase in parking charges, set to rise by $2 to $9 a day.

Then, the FAA abruptly announced it was shutting the airspace above the airport for 10 days(!), citing “special security reasons”.

This isn't normal.

Authoritarianism, incompetence — or both? US shuts airspace over El Paso: flights grounded, lasers fired, party balloons intercepted

One part of the US government tried to shut down a major airport for 10 days — without telling anyone else. Authoritarianism, incompetence — or both?

My newsletter, out now.