PicoBlog

February 20, 2024 I have been thinking about the potential conflict between laws that prohibit discrimination on the basis of “gender identity” in places of public accommodation and criminal laws that prohibit voyeurism and indecent exposure at least since 2021, when a man named Darren Merager decided to parade his naked body (complete with erection) around the women’s section of Wi Spa, a Korean-style nude spa in Los Angeles. A video of a woman named Cubana Angel complaining about the incident went viral.

Quality simply can’t be defined.  This is what Robert Pirsig concludes in his first book, Zen And the Art of Motorcycle maintenance.  Quality can’t be defined because definitions are products of “rigid, formal thinking” and Quality is recognized by a “non-thinking process”. In other words, Quality is a direct experience independent of and prior to intellectual abstractions.   In other, other words, Quality can’t be defined because it precedes definition altogether.

I am delighted to share part one of an interview I recently conducted with author Bill Porter, whose translations appear under the name Red Pine. Bill has been such an important figure on my path through East Asian spiritual practice ever since I started reading his books in my mid-teens. As I’ve become increasingly interested in the craft of writing and translation, I’ve been inspired by his mix of academic rigour, linguistic beauty and how the fruit of practice shines through in his writing.

Welcome to Original Jurisdiction, the latest legal publication by me, David Lat. You can learn more about Original Jurisdiction by reading its About page, and you can email me at davidlat@substack.com. This is a reader-supported publication; you can subscribe by clicking on the button below. Thanks! In the last episode of this podcast, I wondered: are boutiques the future of litigation? If you’re looking to make that case, today’s guest would be a star witness.

Welcome to Original Jurisdiction, the latest legal publication by me, David Lat. You can learn more about Original Jurisdiction by reading its About page, and you can email me at davidlat@substack.com. This is a reader-supported publication; you can subscribe by clicking here. Thanks! For the past 10 months, the legal world has been transfixed by the Pauline Newman saga. At 96, Judge Pauline Newman is the nation’s oldest active federal judge. Last March, her longtime colleague, Chief Judge Kimberly Moore, initiated an effort to remove Judge Newman from the Federal Circuit.

Hello and welcome to ZERO CRED (formerly REPLY ALT), the world’s only music newsletter. Subscriptions are free, but you can also upgrade to a paid subscription for just a couple bucks a month which helps me greatly. It also gets you my weekly book column and other fun stuff. I’m going hold a giveaway for a copy of today’s book, I Love You So Much It's Killing Us Both, for my paid subscribers after the interview.

Hello and welcome to ZERO CRED. In case you missed it, I changed the name of this newsletter last week (from REPLY ALT). Subscribe and get it delivered directly to your inbox. Mark McCoy and I used to eat BBQ and talk about art for hours. This was back when we were both living in Brooklyn. We’d meet up once a month, gorge on beef brisket, and catch each other up on what we were working on.

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(Premium subscribers: I updatedyesterday’s piece with a lengthy new bit at the bottom. Please check out the update if you get a chance.) Give a gift subscription I’d been meaning to interview Naama Kates forever. She’s a writer and producer who hosts Incel, a podcast I’ve been very impressed with ever since it launched.  A research paper we’ll return to shortly provides a pithy summary of her project: Incel is a podcast created by Naama Kates for Crawlspace Media.