So I think we're paying an ungodly high premium to Allstate, and I want to shop around. But getting a quote means giving massive amounts of personal information to each of the companies. Reddit recommends using a local independent agent who will run all those quotes for you. It's hard to imagine that the insurance companies wouldn't then sell your data anyway, even if the independent agent doesn't.

- Is this a situation where my information is out there so much anyway that I should just give it to all these other insurance carriers because we're all swept up in this existential tidal wave already?
- Are local independent insurance agents really still a thing, or is that like using a travel agent in 2025?
- The hard part seems to be knowing which insurance companies will actually pay out without jacking you over, if you actually need something.

Do any of you actually like your insurance company?

LW writes: I hope you and yours are staying cool and sane is this hot and unhinged summer.

This beautiful 1964 version of Puppet on a String from Gino Washington is no longer on the streaming service I use for music (Spotify), so the obviously effective response to this is to try posting here.

I know about this version of the song from the great Megan Mathews, who died at 36 from an embolism, same thing that almost got me in 2017 while my dad was visiting. I can't find her column about this song, but here's an obituary of a lost talent.

Love and Happiness is coincidentally the Al Green song I listen to most often. There are lots of forgotten treasures in any culture, early 2000s blogging especially, blogging about sixties Detroit soul doubly so. If there's any place to share a memory of one it's probably here.

One living artist (aside from local talents- Joel Patterson plays the Green Mill in Chicago regularly, Proverbs is a DC-area fantastic reggae band, support your local musicians) I've been enjoying.

Heebie's take: LW has good taste.

So do you all watch this? Are you into it, in general?

Colbert teases a South Carolina senate run after getting fired. (I actually can't find that little clip anywhere else, so I don't trust it very much.)

Anyway, whether or not it's true, Colbert is certainly going to get amplified over the next year.

Mossy Character writes: Obligatory snark aside, a gorgeous 13 minutes; 2km train visible here.

Heebie's take: Beautiful and stark footage.

New Epstein thread, because hopefully this is not going away.

Krugman draws a parallel between the rage of the tech bro ultrawealthy today, and the rage of the wall street bros following the financial crisis. I buy it!

Side note: Krugman on Substack is way, way better than Krugman at the NYT. The NYT voice-of-decorum is always mildly boring, and blog-writing is so much more direct and snappy. Second, the length of what he writes is determined by the content of what he has to say, as opposed to being determined by the square inches of a print newspaper. I don't really understand why newspapers are so loyal to having categories of stories with pre-set length. It's a vast improvement to end a column when you've made your point.