ERRATUM: Oops, I see the _New York_ magazine article is about how the photospread, which actually ran in _Harper's Bazaar_ came to be. Darnit, I wasn't expecting to become post-literate so fast and stop clicking links and reading before reacting to the pics, even if they're highly disturbing pics. 😥
For most people, changing Private Ryan to Private Equity would ruin --- ummm, spoiler alert for a 28 year old movie --- the dramatic last words of Captain Miller (Tom Hanks) to the eponymous Private Ryan (Matt Damon). But I imagine some private equity folks think, "Wow, A+ rewrite! 100% works!!"
static.klipy.com
Tom Hanks in Saving Private Ryan: Earn This
Alt: Tom Hanks as a (sorry, 28 year old spoiler alert) mortally wounded Captain Miller in _Saving Private Ryan_ (1998) dramatically saying with his final breaths "Earn this..." to Matt Damon's eponymous Private Ryan.
![David Brooks's most negative statement about Georgia GOP Senate nominee opposing the Democratic incumbent, Sen. Jon Ossoff:
"Like, Mike Collins, who's the Georgia Republican, I think what's accurate to say about him is, he has a disturbing number of young men on his --- around him who have ties to the alt-right and somem of the vile antisemitic stuff online."
From his usual weekly "Brooks and Capehart" segment on the the PBS NewsHour, in this case the rendition on Friday, Oct 9, 2026. You can see video at 3:46 in the official PBS NewsHour YouTube of this segment ["Brooks and Capehart on the fight for Senate control in battleground states" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CgWIxbB8f28 ]](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:ciqsnjujtkuawhr2asqfhd7j/bafkreigipguvbl27rfz5ulvwh46p6dqe7c5jlaf7pglle7n4fdahbmxs5u)
![The design of the "Propaganda Trek" t-shirt from sci-fi-focused cultural critic Damien Walter, aka "DAMO" [e.g., https://www.youtube.com/@DamienWalter for his video essays, has links to his writings and other work] Available for purchase at https://damosays-shop.fourthwall.com/products/propaganda-trek-2
The design is has a overwhelmingly red-and-black color scheme, befitting the topic advertised in big red text on a black background at bottom: FULLY AUTOMATED LUXURY SPACE COMMUNISM (a reference most directly to the ideas of the 2019 book with that title by Aaron Bastani, for summary see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fully_Automated_Luxury_Communism which in turn, IIRC, can be seen to be directly inspired by this essay by Peter Frase from 2011 (think "Occupy Wall Street" Era) and the line of work it inspired https://jacobin.com/2011/12/four-futures [novelty link to get around paywall if you're that type of Commie who opposes private *intellectual* property https://archive.ph/UljTT ]
The design has a very Leon-Trotsky-looking Mr. Spock on the left facing a Starfleet insignia in the center to which a sickle has been added to mash it up with the Hammer and Sickle that was the key symbol of the USSR's flag, and then mirroring Trotsky/Spock, we see a very Vladimir-Lenin-Looking Jean-Luc Picard looking at the Hammer andd Sickle Starfleet Insignia](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:ciqsnjujtkuawhr2asqfhd7j/bafkreidw7iladoox2qs6venglwhlts6oszeydg4qrindfhenu6ev6ahv3q)
![A modified (desecrated?) version that I made of the top half of the first page of the first officially published English translation of Albert Einstein's famous 1905 paper that derived E =mc^2, namely:
Einstein, Albert. "Ist die Trägheit eines Körpers von seinem Energieinhalt abhängig?" Annalen der Physik, vol. 323, no. 13, 1905, pp. 639–641. Reprinted in English translation as "Does the Inertia of a Body Depend Upon Its Energy-Content?" in _The Principle of Relativity: A Collection of Original Memoirs on the Special and General Theory of Relativity_, translated by W. Perrett and G. B. Jeffery, Methuen and Company, Ltd., London, 1923, pp. 67–71.
[Sidenote: The paper, being inarguably one of the top physics papers of all time, can be freely and legally obtained online from all sorts of places. The one I screenshot was: https://fermatslibrary.com/s/does-the-inertia-of-a-body-depend-upon-its-energy-content ]
My two modifications appear both in red pen (well, red pen digital effect from my Apple Pencil on my iPad):
1) The word "ENERGY" in the title has been crossed out and replaced with "MIDICHLORIAN"
2) "A. EINSTEIN" in the byline has been crossed out and replaced with "Me!"](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:ciqsnjujtkuawhr2asqfhd7j/bafkreibmited5ys2syub3o6ud4dckbrfuslhjet2jx3i2wdxljdcldthle)
![A picture of a lightsaber-brandishing Mickey Mouse as Darth Vader flanked by two cute-ified stormtroopers. Darth Mickey himself looks pretty stern though. Notably, Darth Mickey's helmet doesn't have a mask so you can see his face clearly and, of course, the helmet comically accomodates Mickey's iconic mouse ears.
Above the trio, the text of the classic Darth Vader quote to Lando in _The Empire Strikes Back_ appears: "I have altered the deal. Pray I don't alter it any further." It's a font very evocative of the characteristic cursive of Walt Disney himself that has been immortalized in Disney's corporate logo.
Copyright attribution: So, in what hopefully is fair use as both parody and non-commercial intent [note: I'm not a lawyer... also, I'm not rich, so please don't sue me ;) ], I should mentioned I made this the old-fashioned way in Microsoft Paint using:
1) This design from the Etsy store "TusemyDesign" https://www.etsy.com/listing/1860109406/disney-mickey-star-wars-png-star-wars for the primary picture of Darth Mickey and his 2 cute-ified stormtroopers,
and
2) https://fontmeme.com/disney-font/ to print the text above the trio: "I've altered the deal. Pray I don't alter it any further."](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:ciqsnjujtkuawhr2asqfhd7j/bafkreiacdtrh45byktk5rejux7j5ek3vsgwkw5rv636kh3vscj2dzba2sm)
