Quote: “I saw part of the deck rip away. I heard windows break from every corner. Cracks split the walls. We crashed into something, probably a tree. I don’t know how long it took—ten seconds, maybe fifteen—for the house to come apart.” An eyewitness story of the July 4 Texas flood, from Texas Monthly. Above, before and after photos of their cabin. (h/t The Best of Journalism)

So, not a bad guy, he joined DOGE because he thought maybe he could help eliminate waste, fraud, and abuse. Until he found out there wasn’t any and that the federal government works pretty well. And then of course he got fired. Listen here. (Planet Money Podcast)

Quote: “The original Hermès Birkin bag that was designed for the actress Jane Birkin was sold at auction in Paris on Thursday for more than $10 million.”
Ten million dollars for a black leather box with a strap and a buckle. Thorstein Veblen lives. (gift article)

Quote for the day:

And I said, my solution to the problem in the Middle East is this.
We erect a wall 26 miles high around the entire Middle East, about 14 miles deep. That’s Syria, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Iran, Israel, Egypt, all of you.
The whole bunch of you. Twenty-six miles high with one door, like a regular door in the foot of a house. Every ten years, we will open the door and look inside it.
If you’re still fighting… We close the door and as we say in Yiddish, lozengein, let be. You should live and be well. Go and fight and kill yourselves and no one will interfere.
But if we peek inside and it’s safe, if it’s nice and it’s comfy and there’s flowers growing, if you’re not fighting and you got peace and quiet, you can come out and play with the rest of us like human people.
—Harlan Ellison

Outro…I’m not much into punk or heavy metal or eating live bats on stage, but hey, it’s Jack Black and a bunch of kids we’re going to hear a lot more from, so…

(h/t Laughing Squid)

Chatter Lagniappe Sunday DOGE Jack Black planet money podcast