Tuesday’s Forum
Steven L. Taylor
·
Tuesday, June 23, 2026
·
20 comments
OTB relies on its readers to support it. Please consider helping by becoming a monthly contributor through Patreon or making a one-time contribution via PayPal. Thanks for your consideration.
About Steven L. Taylor
Steven L. Taylor is a Professor Emeritus of Political Science and former College of Arts and Sciences Dean. His main areas of expertise include parties, elections, and the institutional design of democracies. His most recent book is the co-authored
A Different Democracy: American Government in a 31-Country Perspective. He earned his Ph.D. from the University of Texas and his BA from the University of California, Irvine. He has been blogging since 2003 (originally at the now defunct Poliblog).
Follow Steven on
Twitter and/or
BlueSky.
A small article of very little consequence but it did make me laugh.
DubBot robot ‘retires’ from Dublin police after less than a year of service
Articles like this make me wonder whether our military, outside of the top levels of the Pentagon, are carrying on despite the Trump/Hegseth shitshow.
Highway patrol: US Marine F-35s conduct flight operations on Finnish roads
It has to make the Russian feel a little insecure.
An article of utter trivial concern.
Naming Your Kid ‘Donald’ Has Never Been So Unpopular
Scott, BTW, came in at 534.
@Scott: I’ve wondered for a while how much a name’s popularity is tied to a US president, in either direction. I’ve long assumed the name Chelsea became more popular following Bill Clinton’s presidency, but AI tells me it actually peaked in 1992. The name was given to a lot of girls born in the 1970s after the Joni Mitchell song “Chelsea Morning,” itself a reference to the Manhattan neighborhood of Chelsea. Some people believe it was a not a person’s name prior to that song, but there’s a famous author born in the 1940s named Chelsea Quinn Yarbro. You see something similar with Madison as a woman’s name, as it’s tied to the 1984 movie Splash, when in fact it predates the film, albeit rarely.
I have the sense (though I haven’t looked up whether this is accurate) that the most popular baby name from a Game of Thrones character is Khaleesi (even though that was the character’s title rather than name), and I wonder how much that was affected by what happens in the show’s final season.
Then, of course, there’s the name Karen.
@Scott:
From 1953, for 50 years, “Michael” was one of the top three names. For all but a handful of years, it was number one. I’ve gotten used to the fact that in a group of men around my age, there’s almost always another Michael besides me. I recall fencing at the gymnasium once, three bouts in progress. Someone from the front desk came to the door and yelled, “Hey, Mike! Telephone!” All three bouts stopped because there was a Michael on the strip.
“Jennifer” was the most popular girl’s name for about a decade.
No correlation to president’s names of course, because we have yet to elect a woman president in this country.
When I was teaching at Tufts (late seventies-early eighties) it was pretty much guaranteed that I’d have at least 4 young women named “Lisa” per class.
@Michael Cain: @Jen: For much of the 20th century, girl’s names tended to be more tied to specific eras than boy’s names, which tended to be relatively conservative. That seems to have been changing over the past few decades, where parents have gotten more creative about boy’s names, and more rebellious against tradition (as well as getting names thought to be associated with much older generations making a comeback).
@Scott: One of Knightscope’s first locations was a couple of blocks from our house, on the way to the main street and freeway. We drove by it every day. Every night they had the robots out in their parking lot, trundling along.
It gave us a good laugh because they looked like Daleks. I heard they patrolled the parking lots for a nearby Microsoft site. I know nothing at all about how effective they are, I would expect they are more deterrent than agent. I don’t think they are are armed, for instance.
By the way, that link is broken.
@Scott:
Bet most of those 400 Donalds were juniors.
@Jay L. Gischer: Did they go around shouting “Exterminate!”?
Here the link: https://www.wosu.org/politics-government/2026-06-17/dubbot-robot-retires-from-dublin-police-after-less-than-a-year-of-service
@Scott: No. But we sure did!
There were a lot of daughters named Michelle among my friends and work acquaintances in the late 60s and early 70s, I assume because of the Beatles song.
Obesity drug for one very special 79 YO man:
“Stat”
@charontwo: Hmmm. That senior clinician appears to be based in Bethesda, Maryland.
Today’s reflecting pool update: The National Guard troops deployed there are apparently putting up a fence around the pool.
@Jen: Also:
Dead ducks add to Trump’s reflecting pool drama
@Scott:
I understand that the wildlife organization is now being interrogated by the FBI as a potential terrorist organization linked to Antifa.
@Jen:
That won’t stop a caravan of armored SUVs from driving on the bottom of the pool. Complete waste of money.
I’m in the ER (heading into day 3) and the things I’ve noticed:
Why does staff greet you the first time with “how are you today?”. I really want to reply “I’m in the fucking ER, do you think I’d be here if I was okay?!”
At least half the incoming ambulance pages were “pediatric emergencies”. 🙁
As best as I can tell, they’re letting middle school girls become nurses.
Behind dependent on someone helping me stand up so I can pee puts things into perspective.
And while I never set out to find it, I know know my upper threshold for pain.