What I'm reading 10/1-10/8

2023-10-08

"How come they get to pretend they are soldiers?" Leach said. "The thing is, they aren't actually in the military. I ought to have Mike's Pirate School. The freshmen, all they get is the bandanna. When you're a senior, you get the sword and skull and crossbones. For homework, we'll work pirate maneuvers and stuff like that."
"Mike used to like to watch those simulcasts of Howard Stern. And those things would run till 4 in the morning. I'm in my bed trying to sleep. And here's Leach at 3 in the morning, he's laughing at Howard Stern, he's drinking a beer and he's having a good time."

"Arizona governor Katie Hobbs said this week her administration is terminating state land leases that for years have given a Saudi-owned farm nearly unfettered access to pump groundwater in the dry southwestern state."

"At the fair, I was offered water, lemonade, iced tea, beer, Gatorade, a souvenir apron, boiled shrimp, homemade ice cream, a pork chop, a taco, a bed, a toilet, the remains of a funnel cake, a book about doughnuts, an introduction to 'some really obnoxious cousins,' two ibuprofens, two more ibuprofens, help 'fixing' a traffic ticket (offer declined), and numerous iterations of chicken."
The previous night, a visitor from Los Angeles had stumbled, drunk, into a cabin at the north end of the racetrack and commented on all the "pretty bitches" he had seen. One of the men in residence informed him, "Down here, we refer to them as 'ladies.'"

"Mr. Noble still seemed stunned that in America in 2023, politics would drive a family to seek refuge across state lines."

"One of the algorithm's developers told ProPublica that leasing agents had 'too much empathy' compared to computer generated pricing."