Grab Bag, one of several
Some quotes
Don’t disappear when you feel inadequate.
This is from the mediocre final episode of the rather forgettable fourth season
of Ted Lasso. In the show it is meant as advice for fathers.
Even though I’m not a father, lately I feel inadequate, and this quote served as
a pick-me-up, a reminder that I have worth even in low moments, that I can and
should be there for loved ones.
This next quote is a post on Bluesky:
Formats don’t make bad films “immersive”. The only thing that makes a film “immersive” is a good script performed by informed & talented actors. “Casablanca” is immersive FFS.
– Chris Weston @westonfront.bsky.social October 9, 2026 at 3:44 PM
Given the recent release of Nolan’s version of The Odyssey in the past summer, in glorious, immersive IMAX, I wonder if that is part of the intended target of “bad films” that can’t be saved by the format. I hope it is.
FFS: for fuck’s sake.
The housing market
The eviction of 86 year old Maricarmen in Madrid made news worldwide; for example see articles in the BBC1 and CNN2.
There has been a lot written and a lot said about this case. The Financial Times has a good article3 reminding us that there is a market involved, and that rising prices are explained by inadequate offer.
The specifics of such cases are very different but they all speak to the same problem: acute housing shortages. A landlord — whether the corporate or “mom-and-pop” variety — increases rents only when they are confident they will find someone willing to pay the higher price. The bidding wars resulting from shortages provide fertile ground. Spain has built fewer homes per capita than virtually any other high-income country over the past 10 years. More than 50 per cent of its young adults now live with their parents, up from 33 per cent in 2005, and rents have risen more steeply than almost anywhere else.
The article also explains that rent controls and other measures often end up having unwanted effects.
In this regard Spain may want to look to Ireland, where policymakers last year watered down rent controls over concerns they were contributing to weak rates of new construction in the rental sector, exacerbating the underlying causes of the disease whose symptoms they were intended to treat.
At the same time that I think the article is right, I think that leaving
everything to the market is a dereliction of duty on the part of governments. On
things that are as serious as housing or jobs or healthcare, one hopes that
speculation should be de-incentivized, that players in the market ought to be
made to act with a deep sense of responsibility.
But I don’t know what the right strategy is to achieve that.