
Fun With Statistics
Straight Line of the Day: The Great Thing About Living With a Psychopath Is…
Bunches of Flotsam and Jetsam Appear on California and East Coast Shores, Decide To Run for President
Friday Night Open Thread: Wildcat Strike
Rorschach Test
Straight Line of the Day: Other Names To Appear on California Ballots: …
California’s governor race features 61 candidates — including a man who changed his name to Barack Obama
ConservativeInstitute.org | May 21, 2026 | Daniel Vaughan
California voters opening their ballots for the June 2 gubernatorial primary will find sixty-one names staring back at them, a field so bloated it reads less like a serious election and more like a monument to the state’s remarkably low barriers to entry.
Among the crowd: a man who legally changed his name to Barack D. Obama Shaw, a candidate who goes by “LivingForGod AndCountry DeMott,” and a former congressman who dropped out after sexual assault allegations but whose name remains printed on the ballot anyway.
Pottery Corner
Bond Girlathon Friday : Results from 5/22/2026 : New Matches for 5/29/2026

I see fun on the horizon.
Results for 5/22/2026
| Margaret Nolan | No Preference | Zena Marshall |
|---|---|---|
| 118 | 0 | 41 |
| (13) Claudine Auger | No Preference | Eunice Gayson |
|---|---|---|
| 136 | 1 | 27 |
New Matches for 5/29/2026
Match 1
Luciana Paluzzi (Fiona Volpe) vs (9) Lana Wood (Plenty O’Toole)
| Contestant | Record | Total Scores |
|---|---|---|
| Luciana Paluzzi | 3 – 3 – 0 | 569 – 9 – 669 |

Actress: Luciana Paluzzi Nationality: Italian Bond Movie: Thunderball (1965) Synopsis:
Fiona Volpe was the archtypical Bond henchwoman, with the task of seducing men into traps. She was feisty and more competent than many of the henchmen in the Bond films. She met her end while dancing with Bond; a henchman tried to shoot Bond in the back, but he quickly spun round and the bullet killed Fiona instead.

VS
| Contestant | Record | Total Scores |
|---|---|---|
| (9) Lana Wood | 5 – 1 – 0 | 832 – 2 – 498 |

Actress: Lana Wood Nationality: American Bond Movie: Diamonds Are Forever (1971) Synopsis:
Plenty O’Toole was a gold digger from Las Vegas. She helped a man gamble at the craps table, but when he lost all of his money, she lost interest. She turned to leave, but went back after hearing James Bond ask for $10,000 in chips. She helped Bond play craps, and after winning $50,000, she went back to Bond’s suite. Bond girl Tiffany Case was waiting there for Bond, and some mobsters threw Plenty out of the window into the pool below.

Match 2
Marye Guy Mitsouko (Mademoiselle La Porte) vs Trina Parks (Thumper)
| Contestant | Record | Total Scores |
|---|---|---|
| Marye Guy Mitsouko | 1 – 5 – 0 | 415 – 14 – 864 |

Actress: Maryse Guy Mitsouko Nationality: French Bond Movie: Thunderball (1965) Synopsis:
Mlle. La Porte was Bond’s French liaison during his attendance of SPECTRE agent Jacques Bouvar’s funeral. She informs Bond that Bouvar passed away in his sleep, and as the two leave the funeral she ends with “Is there anything else our French station can do for Monsieur Bond?”, to which Bond replies, “Later, perhaps.”

VS
| Contestant | Record | Total Scores |
|---|---|---|
| Trina Parks | 0 – 6 – 0 | 65 – 6 – 1013 |

Actress: Trina Parks Nationality: American Bond Movie: Diamonds Are Forever (1971) Synopsis:
Thumper and Bambi attack Bond, kicking him and using their martial art skills to overcome him. Bond was at a loss, the two girls too nimble for him. However, Thumper and Bambi then throw Bond into a pool, and they lose their advantage, Bond managing to push their heads underwater until they give in and reveal where Willard Whyte is being kept.

Straight Line of the Day: If You Were To Create a Summer of Chaos, How Would You Start?
Almost 700 migrants cross Channel in 48 hours as ‘summer of chaos’ warning issued
Express | Sun, May 24, 2026 | Katie Harris
Almost 700 small boat migrants have arrived in Britain in the past two days …
And more made the crossing today with migrants pictured making gestures after boarding a dinghy in Dunkirk, France.
I Figure I’m Wicked Smart
Cartoons and Memes
The View From Iran
Straight Line of the Day: Would You Have Had an A.I. Girlfriend? Why or Why Not?
The terrifying rise of schoolboys making AI girlfriends
The Telegraph | 05/25/2026 | Nicole Mowbray
2026
‘Twas in truth an hour
Of universal ferment; mildest men
Were agitated, and commotions, strife
Of passion and opinion, filled the walls
Of peaceful houses with unquiet sounds.
The soil of common life was, at that time,
Too hot to tread upon; oft said I then,
And not then only, “What a mockery this
Of history, the past and that to come!”
— Wordsworth, The Prelude, Book 9














