“And their great power to manipulate.”

Okay, I’ve changed my mind — Walz is very cool. J.D, Vance is going to get slapped around during the forthcoming vp debate,

Governor Tim Walz, announced this morning as Kamala’s vp, looks less like a balding, white-haired Will Patton (a thought I shared earlier) and more like (a) a chubby Warren Buffett and (b) a clean-shaven Santa Claus.

43 years ago Conrad Dunn burned himself a hole in the screen legend fabric with this brief, extremely funny “Francis” bit in Stripes. This was his screen debut. Dunn was…what, in his mid to late 20s at the time? Most likely in his early 70s today. His acting credits stopped around 2012.

My pulse accelerated when my eyes feasted upon “Your Feet Are Killing Me,” an 8.2 N.Y. Times story by Guy Trebay.

Finally, I excitedly presumed, a Times writer might actually be standing up and saying publicly what I’ve been saying for decades and have known in my soul and bones since I was ten, which is that most human feet, visually, are somewhere between vaguely unsightly and flat-out repulsive.

97% of man-feet should be hidden from view (we all know this) and the same regretfully applies to roughly 85% of female peds. And no one ever admits this.

Alas, Trebay pulls his punches and and opts for a delicate, circumspect tone…wimps out.

From “Unspoken Taboo,” posted on 8.12.18 but originally written 16 years earlier:

“90% if not 95% of human feet are strange and alienating. But it goes farther than that. For me, bare feet are a contemporary pestilence that no culture since the sandal-wearing Greeks and Romans has had to deal with. Once upon a time sandled feet were a subject for light mockery, something that only eccentric beatniks went for. Exposed digits have been ubiquitous, of course, in warm weather months since the mid ’60s. I for one regret it.

“Is it allowable to acknowledge how unfortunate it is these days that virtually every American woman walks around these days in open-toed shoes or sandals, and that a good 70% should probably consider alternatives? I’ve seen some women’s feet that are drop-dead beautiful, but these are the exception. Most of the female feet I see are so-so or okay, at best. Some are dreadful. Most men over the age of 35 or 40 should just forget about going barefoot or wearing sandals, period.

“Every time I see a friend or acquaintance approach on a street or in a mall and I notice they’re wearing sandals, a little part of me dies inside. Or at the very least grims up and prepares.”

Excerpt from Trebay piece: “What is it about a display of digits in the city that people find unfortunate, if not quite egregious? Is it the feet themselves? (And here we are not speaking of those who wear sandals for cultural reasons or for ease of religious observance.) Or is it a creeping sensation that the line between what constitutes public and private spaces has become indistinguishable?

“I have never, ever worn slippers or sandals outside my house,” said Prasan Shah, a co-founder of the cult men’s wear label Original Madras Trading Company. He meant since coming to live in the United States. “I feel childish using this word, but it’s icky,” he said.

“Until Mr. Shah came to this country at 16, he lived mainly in the steamy tropical South Indian city of Chennai, where sandals are worn in almost every setting. He said: “When my father sees me now in sneakers and socks, he’s like: ‘What’s wrong with you? Aren’t you hot?’”

Worse yet, the nattily suited designer said last week, wearing sandals in the city is like giving up your urban cred.

“If I was living in New Jersey, I’d be happy wearing my flip-flops to Target,” Mr. Shah says. “But when I see flip-flops on the streets of New York City, am I rolling my eyes a little bit?”

Hollywood Elsewhere is underwhelmed and frankly depressed by Kamala Harris’s choice of Vice-presidential running mate — the four-eyed, verbally vigorous but staunchly unglammy Tim Walz, the Minnesota governor who looks like a dull middle-management guy, a bit overfed and a cross between a hardware store clerk and an owner of an upstate New York diner.

He could be played in a forthcoming Walz biopic by Will Patton with black hornrims and white hair dye.

He doesn’t even have that Paul Schrader glint-of-madness, soul-of-a-poet thing going on…Walz’s squinty eyes have nothing behind them, and his teeth appear small and worn down, and perhaps his soul is too…in his own quiet way he’s almost horrifying. Look at that homely face! His bland, greenish-gray suits and ties! Jesus, I’m freaking out here!

I would have been much, much happier with Sen. Mark Kelly (i.e., “Gollum).

I was looking for a little excitement and youthful urban pizazz from Pennsylvania governor Josh Shapiro, but Harris wimped…apparently afraid of pissing off the pro-Gaza progressives (Josh is too pro-Israel?) and with femme militants irate over his having stood by a colleague who was accused of sexual harassment.

Harris, in short, has failed to stand up to pressure from hardcore purist lefties. She needed to lean away from those loons and at least pretend to think and act like a sensible left-moderate, and now she’s blown her first test in that regard. Not cool!

Walz is apparently a good, reliable, highly regarded dude on his own terms but my God, why does his selection make me feel so badly?

He looks like a fringe character actor in Charlie Kaufman’s Synecdoche — your vaguely schlumpy, retirement-age uncle from Hartford or Richmond or Tampa, nothing close to a leading man type, a guy who exudes the very opposite of that Gavin Newsom-y quality, that vibe that seems to fit or fulfill that old JFK notion of an ace-level vote-getter…

He’s another Tim Kaine, whose selection as Hillary’s vp in ‘16 lit no fires and quickened no one’s pulse. In short Walz is an unthreatening No. 2 type, strictly backup, and right now I feel very flat and de-energized.

Walz’s two kids are named Hope and Gus — what does that tell you?

Nate Silver: