Today’s quote

Ross Grossman on Ozempic:

The modern environment floods us with things designed to hijack our reward systems. Junk food engineered for maximum craveability. Social media designed for maximum addiction. Pornography available in infinite variety. Gambling apps in your pocket. The world has become a casino that follows you everywhere, and the house always wins.

Maybe pharmacologically dampening those circuits is reasonable adaptation.

Maybe it’s surrender.

Maybe — and I’m not sure I’m ready to say this out loud — it’s the beginning of a future where we chemically modify our capacity to want things because we’ve built a world with too many things to want—and we’ve decided it’s easier to fix the people than fix the world.

Think pink

The 12℉ freeze Monday morning blasted the new growth on the roses and brought the daffodil and hyacinth shows to a premature end. However, Phlox grayi1, one of last year’s experiments, brushed off the cold and is blooming now. It’s a mat former, and it should eventually get about three inches high and a foot across.

Update: Still going strong.