My mother chose today’s photo. “Pick anything you want,” I said grandly. “Anything at all.” Naturally that meant she’d end up picking a picture much like yesterday’s. But I said anything, so what could I do?

Anyway, the two rightmost peaks (Modjeska and Santiago) form Saddleback, which is sort of a looming presence throughout Orange County. That is, it’s a looming presence unless you get up close and shoot it on an exceptionally clear day, as I did here. From this angle, in fact, you rightly wonder why anyone bothered to give it a name at all. Sometime in the future I’ll take a picture that shows Saddleback the way it’s more commonly seen, and its looming-ness will become a little more obvious.

December 27, 2019 — Lake Forest, California

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BEFORE YOU CLICK AWAY!

“Lying.” “Disgusting.” “Scum.” “Slime.” “Corrupt.” “Enemy of the people.” Donald Trump has always made clear what he thinks of journalists. And it’s plain now that his administration intends to do everything it can to stop journalists from reporting things they don’t like—which is most things that are true.

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