How alarmed are we, on the spectrum of constitutional crises? Moderately worried, seriously worried, or stocking up on canned food?

I think I'm mild-to-moderate, but more worried than I've ever felt about the actual election outcome.

His podcast is surprisingly listenable! And good!

E. Messily writes: Kissing with those grass masks seems like it would be unsatisfying, or it could be alfalfa sprouts.

Heebie's take: What's ecosexuality?

On one end, it encompasses people who try to use sustainable sex products, or who enjoy skinny dipping and naked hiking. On the other are "people who roll around in the dirt having an orgasm covered in potting soil," she said. "There are people who fuck trees, or masturbate under a waterfall."

A story I heard secondhand: a group of 20-somethings was camping. In the course of a drinking game or some variation of Truth of Dare, someone was dared to fuck a melon. He complied. This was a hippie group of friends - I knew the participants - it didn't seem that farfetched that the individual would be willing to hack of the side of the melon and give it some thrusts for attention and laughs. Then others in the group gave it a go, and the poor melon sort of got passed around. Everyone was drunk and yukking it up. One guy, "John", refused to play along, and everyone teased him for it a bit. Then the evening moved on to other topics.

Awhile later, things were quieting down, and they heard some nearby rustling. They got their flashlights, and checked the nearby area, and lo: there was John, porking the melon. He had been curious after all, but just wanted to make sweet, sweet love privately. Is that so wrong? Jeez guys, get off his case.

Lurid Keyaki writes: For consideration:

Remarkably, the number of errors students made in their papers stayed consistent over the past 100 years. Students in 2006 committed roughly the same number of errors as students did in 1917. The average has stayed at about 2 errors per 100 words.

...

The study found no evidence for claims that kids are increasingly using "text speak" or emojis in their papers. Lunsford and Lunsford did not find a single such instance of this digital-era error. Ironically, they did find such text speak and emoticons in teachers' comments to students.

"LOL, even Wikipedia doesn't say that, try again :\"

Heebie's take: Until college, I basically never wrote anything outside of school. Occasionally I wrote (mandatory, stilted) letters home from summer camp. Occasionally I wrote stories for fun. Occasionally I kept a journal, for venting. But nothing anywhere close to the amount of communication-by-writing that kids today do.

I got a little more consistent about journal writing and creative writing during college, but did no voluntary writing for an audience until I started blogging and commenting. All of a sudden my voluntary output of written communication skyrocketed, circa 2005.

Today's kids, they're going to be brilliant.

One of the most perplexing things about the asymmetry of coverage this election is the whole tone in which the media has generally covered the Trump-Putin connection and Russian meddling. At best you get articles which are thorough and damning, but they're never breathless and emotional, the way that Cilizza WaPo article was on Clinton last Friday.

If this were one of my first few election cycles, I would have concluded that this flavor of meddling occurs every election, maybe with different details, and that we're all used to it. That it was a perennial concern, but not an urgent one.

Down to the wire: what are the best races to donate money towards, in the final sprint? God I hope we can eke out the Senate. But also, anyone have a local pet cause they want to promote?

Chris Arnade is a physics PhD who became a trader, and is now a photographer of down-on-their-luck Americans. He's not an artful writer, but I really like his attempted reconciliation of the "economic anxiety, no! racism!" debate.

11. Into that environment of anxiety, hopelessness, depression, loss of identity -- anger, drugs & racism are quick fixes that enter easily 12. It isn't surprising that everything we equate with financial scams - lotto, ponzi schemes, gold, etc - also do well in these places 13. Racism is akin to a scam - a cheap and easy (and ugly) way to sell meaning, importance, and identity to people hungry for it.

Part of me wants to resist any explanation of why piece of shit racists are racist, but "racism as scam" is worth thinking about.

Is the Dakota pipeline situation cut and dried? Or is it more complicated than I realize? All I see are things that make my sympathies pretty straightforward. This makes it seem uncomplicated, in the sense of identifying good guys and bad guys.