The first study of the effects of the burqa ban is out.

The results are, frankly, not shocking. Turns out that the neoliberal idea that everybody is a freely choosing consumer is not true. Human beings are more complex than a collection of buying choices (which is what the defenders of “but it’s their choice to wear burqas!” propose).

How very unexpected.

There is a class at Yale that is so popular they had to move it to a concert venue. The number of students in it is 1,200. Students have been begging for this class for years. And now they have it, they can’t get enough. One little problem is that the class is in a totally quack field. A field that is less credible than astrology or alchemy.

Yes, you guessed right. It’s a class on happiness informed by the “positive psychology” movement.

Folks, how normal is it to invite people to your wedding through Facebook invites? The wedding in question is overseas, and I don’t mean Canada. I mean the kind of overseas I’ve never been to. The wedding will be a big fancy affair in December. The bride and groom are not eloping kids but serious folks in their thirties. Am I being a stuffy old fusspot to feel that it’s bizarre to get invited through FB?

I was excited to go (I knew I’d be invited, I’m a relative). But I don’t feel like responding to FB invites. FB invites are for local bake sales and pottery classes.

Maybe they are still planning to send out real invitations. In the meantime, I’ll sit here with the FB invite sticking in my craw.

No, this is not my beautiful fat baby I’m holding. Unfortunately. But what a great photo.

It was a very good party. Klara stunned everybody by making complex statements like “I’m having cake at my birthday party at the gym.” Plus, there were two actual babies there, so she was overjoyed.

There are no Russian-speakers in our small town but yesterday we came across a Russian woman who comes over from St Louis to help out at the accountant’s office during tax season.

“Oh, you are Russian!” she exclaimed. And proceeded to talk, in a very excited manner about medals and wins.

“And then did you see what happened yesterday?” she chattered. “I thought those guys would totally win but no, we still have a chance there.”

N and I stared in mute incomprehension.

Finally, I dredged something from the recesses of my memory.

“Oh, it’s the Olympics you are talking about!” I said.

“The what?” N asked.

The woman looked deeply wounded.

“Yes, the Olympics,” she said. “Don’t tell me you aren’t following it. What part of Russia are you, anyway?”

We hurried out of there before she it started to dawn on her that there is a big link between having no interest in the Olympics and a dislike of Putin.

N lost 40 lbs. No deprivation, diet, or struggle. This is a side effect (which he didn’t even seek) of his analysis. A healthy mind demands a healthy body.

I never thought I’d see him not end the day with a pint of ice-cream. And hey, his dad died at 56 of gastrointestinal troubles. So I’m beyond happy about this development. He also gave up gaming completely, gave away his humidor, and enjoys going to the gym. Again, no effort at self-control and no struggle. It just happened.

Nothing works (not just for weight but for anything) until the mind gets healthy.

Here are the origins of the cocaine scandal:

Russia needs money to fund all the marginal, divisive parties in Europe and pay all the trolls and provocateurs that stoke passions there and in the US. But where is the money supposed to come from? The country’s economy is pathetically weak and oil-dependent.

So Russian diplomats reach out to drug cartels in Latin American countries and help them move enormous quantities of product. And that’s how they make the money to pay for their propaganda.

That’s all there is to it.

So the “Asian Eats” restaurant proved phenomenal. It was so tasty that I hope I won’t end up in the ER tonight. Nothing good can be so delicious.

I had cucumber salad and fish tacos. N had Mongolian portobello mushrooms and mashed potatoes.

We are like monsieur Jourdain who was stunned to find out he spoke prose. We’ve been eating this kind of stuff forever and had no idea it’s Asian.

The menu also featured burger sliders, onion rings, and cheeseburgers. It makes sense because there’s sesame in the sesame buns, I guess.

What’s annoying is that whenever anybody writes about Basques, there’s always a discussion of their noses. Supposedly, they all have “prominent noses.” As if everybody else in Spain were challenged in the nose department.

I’m not reading tourist guides, you understand. I’m reading scholarly literature.

I’m now wondering what it is that scholarly sources say about Ukrainians.