OPEN THREAD: Tuesday’s groovy.

HMM: Scientists discover massive ‘thermal anomaly’ beneath the surface of Mars.

MARTINIS AND CULTURE WAR:

In a 1978 address to the National Restaurant Association, Gerald Ford summarized: “The three-martini lunch is the epitome of American efficiency—where else can you get an earful, a bellyful, and a snootful at the same time?” Businessmen claimed that their creativity increased post-three-martini lunch. At white tablecloth steakhouses, olives were served as martini accoutrements: as an imported European delicacy, the olive added to the martini’s high-class reputation. The early martinis were smaller at around two and a half ounces, only a third as intoxicating as contemporary versions. The three‑martini lunch emerged from this environment: a perfect accompaniment to a long midday meeting where deals were made and class distinctions affirmed. One can imagine going back into the office after a 1950s three-martini lunch (now equivalent to one martini in 2025) only slightly tipsy and ready to keep working.

But as the three-martini lunch became a symbol of pinstripe-suited corporate America, a target was placed on the martini’s back (and the back of the well-heeled executives who liked to charge their long lunches to the corporate account). In the 1970s, the three‑martini lunch also became a political symbol of runaway capitalism. When stagflation plagued the American economy, President Jimmy Carter denounced business meal deductions as an abuse of the upper class, saying that the “working class was subsidizing the $50 martini lunch.” Conservative writer William F. Buckley Jr. responded that the martini had become “a code word” used not to protect tax revenue, but to attack a pro-capitalist lifestyle that personally offended Carter, an especially prescient attack during the Cold War where being branded ‘anti-capitalist’ was a political liability. . . .

But the business lunch never left, it just changed clothes. Yes, Sweetgreen is less glamorous than the white-tablecloth settings of three-martini lunches. But, the kale salad is just the martini inverted: instead of demonstrating your immunity to toxins, you demonstrate your immunity to pleasure.

How far we have fallen.

UPDATE (From Ed): In his 1980 non-fiction anthology In Our Time, Tom Wolfe wrote:

In the fifties there was the martini. In the sixties there was vodka on ice. In the early seventies there was the glass of white wine. In the late seventies there was the bottle of Perrier, a French soda water. The fashionable American expense-account lunch drink became lighter and lighter, but not cheaper and cheaper. The soda water sold for $2.50 a glass in Manhattan restaurants.

Even someone as brilliant at spotting societal tends and obsessions as Wolfe had no idea of the insane heights where this fad would end up in the 21^st century: Would you pay $95 for a bottle of water?

WELL, KILL IT: This Metallic Green Beetle Is Quietly Killing Ash Trees Across Texas.

NEWS YOU CAN USE: GLP-1 pills are finally here. Here’s the tradeoff nobody’s advertising.

HMM: The Defender Dakar Concept Previews a Production-Ready, Street-Legal Rally Racer.

CHANGE: Surveillance: Responding to Their Customers, Gun Stores Take Down Their Flock Cameras.

Related: Gov. DeSantis bans Flock cameras from state highways.

METFORMIN UPDATE: ‘Wonder Drug’: Common Diabetes Pill Could Transform How We Age, Scientists Say.

ENVIRONMENTAL NEWS: Australia’s replaced aging solar panels could hit 99,000 tons a year, prompting calls for bottle-like $10 upfront recycling fee.

CAN YOU TAKE IT UNTIL YOU NEED GLASSES? A Popular ED Medication Was Just Linked to a Greater Risk of Blindness in Men Over 40.

NEWS YOU CAN USE: How Exercise Can Biologically Reprogram Aging Skin.

OH, CANADA:

🇨🇦 (this is real) pic.twitter.com/Ucx2FNdi1q

— Pete Hegseth (@PeteHegseth) September 1, 2026

MASSIVE RESISTANCE: U. Missouri suspends staffer who told undercover reporter DEI continues.

WEAPONIZED JUSTICE: Whistleblower: NY AG Ordered Vendettas on Political Opponents – Including Trump. “Two days ago, one of James’ assistant AGs went public to accuse her of ordering political vendettas, almost all of them without cause.”

MASSIVE RESISTANCE: HHS initiates civil rights investigation into OHSU after race-discrimination complaint.

THE ENEMY WITHIN: Higher Ed’s Secret Foreign Funding.

The Trump administration has made university accountability a signature issue, from combating discrimination to exposing foreign influence on campus. Now the higher-education lobby is trying to block the release of major foreign-donor names. The administration shouldn’t give in.

Universities receiving federal funds have been required by law since 1986 to report foreign gifts and contracts totaling $250,000 or more annually. They haven’t always done so. The first Trump administration uncovered nearly $6.5 billion in foreign gifts and contracts universities failed to disclose. The Biden administration failed to open any foreign-funding investigations, according to a September 2024 report from the House Select Committee on China. The second Trump administration restored enforcement and launched a public dashboard for reported foreign funding.

The disclosures show what’s at stake. In 2025 universities reported more than 8,300 foreign gifts and contracts, worth $5.2 billion, including $1.1 billion from Qatar and $528 million from China. The Education Department has identified roughly $380 million in historical university transactions with entities flagged by the U.S. government. That includes $158 million involving companies on the Defense Department’s Section 1286 list, which identifies foreign institutions and talent programs “confirmed to be engaging in activities that threaten U.S. national security interests.” Another $193 million involves entities on the Commerce Department’s Entity List, which restricts access to sensitive U.S. technology. Most of the flagged entities are Chinese, including organizations tied to Beijing’s military and nuclear program.

All foreign donors and contracting parties should be identified. In July the Education Department promised to publish “the names of all foreign sources from prior reporting cycles.” Yet it has repeatedly delayed doing so as higher-education groups press to keep those identities from public view.

Keep pushing. There’s no good reason for foreign influence-buying to be kept secret.

ANOTHER REASON WHY THE MIDTERMS MATTER: State Bailouts; Will They Come? How Will Senators and Representatives Vote?

REPORT FROM MY HOMETOWN: Knox County bans automated license plate readers; Demands removal and destruction of data within 30 days.

MASSIVE RESISTANCE (CONT’D): Even After Affirmative Action’s Fall, DEI Thrives at Elite Law Schools.

501(c)(3)s NEED TO BE REINED IN SHARPLY, OR JUST ABOLISHED:

One of the most galling aspects of all this lawfare is that so much of it is run through 501(c)(3) organizations, meaning organizations whose activities are effectively subsidized by taxpayers. They then use the aura of “IRS approved nonprofit” status to confer a kind of… https://t.co/KuttnwrLoX

— Hans Mahncke (@HansMahncke) August 31, 2026

EVERY LEFTY INSTITUTION IS CRUMBLING: Ailing Burning Man festival hit by another hammer blow as it’s revealed most attendees are now MIDDLE AGED. “Last year, the share of Burners in their 50s even surpassed those in their 20s.”

MASSIVE RESISTANCE: Inside Cal Berkeley Law Review’s Admissions Team, Where ‘Diverse Life Experience’ Matters More Than ‘Editing Abilities:’ Documents from the UC Berkeley law journal show how editors use personal statements to bypass bans on affirmative action.

IS ANYONE SURPRISED: SCOTUS: It’s It’s a Ballroom Blitz, 5-4; Roberts Hangs With the Hacks, As a Matter of Fact.

GOOD: Massive Nationwide Crackdown on Commercial Trucking Fraud: Federal agencies will work together to root out fraud as Secretary Sean Duffy ramps up his efforts to remove illegal and unqualified truck drivers from the road.

JOSH BLACKMAN: Making Sense Of The Chief Justice’s Tango In The Ballroom Case: It was the Chief, and not KBJ, who was holding up the case. Was he trying to flip ACB’s vote?

Roberts is such a disappointment.