Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Fear or fury? The choice is ours.

Fight them, without becoming them!

Not rolling over. fuck you, make me.

We are aware of all internet traditions.

A fool as well as an oath-breaker.

“Everybody’s entitled to be an idiot.”

Every one of the “Roberts Six” lied to get on the court.

A democracy can’t function when people can’t distinguish facts from lies.

The gop is a fucking disgrace.

fuckem (in honor of the late great efgoldman)

This must be what justice looks like, not vengeful, just peaceful exuberance.

Trumpflation is an intolerable hardship for every American, and it’s Trump’s fault.

Cancel the cowardly Times and Post and set up an equivalent monthly donation to ProPublica.

We’re watching the self-immolation of the leading world power on a level unprecedented in human history.

The fundamental promise of conservatism all over the world is a return to an idealized past that never existed.

They think we are photo bombing their nice little lives.

Jack be nimble, jack be quick, hurry up and indict this prick.

The snowflake in chief appeared visibly frustrated when questioned by a reporter about egg prices.

Michigan is a great lesson for Dems everywhere: when you have power…use it!

They fucked up the fucking up of the fuckup!

Come on, man.

You can’t attract Republican voters. You can only out organize them.

The worst democrat is better than the best republican.

I really should read my own blog.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / If True, Devastating News about Rob Reiner and His Wife

If True, Devastating News about Rob Reiner and His Wife

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Update: Now confirmed.

Rob Reiner, Oscar-Nominated Second-Generation Filmmaker, Dead at 78

They are not naming names, but these are the ages of Rob Reiner and his wife, and this happened in their home.  I feel sick about this.

NBC

Two people were found dead Sunday afternoon inside a Brentwood home owned by director and actor Rob Reiner, the victims of an ‘apparent homicide,’ the LAPD said.

The LA Fire Department said a man and a woman were found deceased inside, approximately 78 and 68 years old, around 3:30 p.m.

The LAPD said in a brief statement that two people were found deceased inside the home, and detectives from the Robbery Homicide Division were handling the case.

“At this time, no further details are available as this is an ongoing RHD investigation, into an apparent homicide,” the statement said.

There is a very large police presence at the home Sunday evening.

LAFD paramedics were called to the home on Chadbourne Avenue around 3:30 p.m.

LAPD officers were dispatched to the home shortly after paramedics for a report of an, “ambulance death investigation,” which is LAPD terminology when officers are called by firefighters to the discovery of a death.

Jackie saw the sad news and alerted me.

Reader Interactions

105Comments

  1. 1.

    cain

    I dont think it is Rob and his wife, right? They haven’t released the names but goddam I hope it is not them. Horrible. Rob and his wife are good people.

  9. 9.

    Elizabelle

    So sad.  Rob Reiner brought so much humanity and laughs and entertainment to people, and did so much good politically.  Amazing career, and such a lot of excellent movies he directed.

  11. 11.

    Elizabelle

    The Reiners have a son who has struggled with homelessness and drug abuse in the past.  I hope this has nothing to do with him.

  12. 12.

    SpaceUnit

    Don’t want to go off the conspiracy ledge, but Reiner’s recent podcast series about the JFK assassination was some pretty serious and gripping stuff.  He was pointing a finger at specific individuals, agencies and organizations.  People you don’t lightly mess with.

  13. 13.

    Scout211

    Oh gawd.

    People Magazine.

    Rob Reiner and his wife, Michele Singer Reiner, were killed by their son, Nick, multiple sources confirm to PEOPLE.

    On Sunday, Dec. 14, at about 3:30 p.m., the Los Angeles Fire Department (LAFD) was called to a home to provide medical aid, the LAFD told PEOPLE. Upon arrival, they found a man, 78, and a woman, 68, dead. Sources confirm the victims were Rob and Michele.

  17. 17.

    eclare

    @Scout211:

    That was my first thought when I read about his addiction struggles.  Plus it had to be someone Rob would let into his home (I assume it was gated).  So not random.

    I would not be surprised if police find Nick dead from suicide.

  18. 18.

    dnfree

    Family was my first guess. These aren’t the first parents to be killed by a mentally ill child, even this week. That part of our mental health system is broken. There was a reason for locked wards at the old mental hospitals. The vast majority of the mentally ill are not violent, but we have no good system currently for handling those who are.

  19. 19.

    Yutsano

    I did not have Rob Reiner dying by patricide on my 2025 bingo card. I’m in shock. This is a person who made one of my favourite movies of all time. I’m running out of things to say.

  21. 21.

    geg6

    This is just horrible news.  So tragic.  He’s one of my all time favorite people in entertainment.  I’m feeling quite devastated.  He did so much great work and made some of my most treasured movies.  (This Is) Spinal Tap, The Princess Bride, When Harry Met Sally, A Few Good Men…and more.  And his political activism was sincere and needed.  I’m so saddened by this.

  23. 23.

    Scout211

    People

    Rob Reiner and his wife Michele were found slain in their Los Angeles home by their daughter, Romy, multiple sources tell PEOPLE.

    According to the sources, the couple was killed by their son, Nick.

    Calls about the tragedy first came into the Los Angeles Fire Department at about 3:30 p.m. on Sunday, Dec. 14. First responders arriving at the home said they found a man and woman dead — and the victims were later identified as Rob and Michele.

    Nick, in a 2016 interview with PEOPLE, spoke about his long struggle with drug addiction, which ultimately led to him being homeless at one time.

    Nick told PEOPLE that his years of addiction formed the basis for the semi-autobiographical film Being Charlie, which he co-wrote. 

  24. 24.

    Elizabelle

    @HumboldtBlue:  And it’s using a weapon found at hand. Perhaps.

    Very, very sad.

    Too many violent deaths in this, what, 30 hour span?  Brown U, Bondi Beach, and now this very personal attack.

  27. 27.

    Jackie

    @HumboldtBlue:

    Stabbing is a very personal attack, it’s not a shot from distance, it’s very, very personal.

    I can’t even digest that. You’re absolutely right. I hope their son has already been arrested. He has siblings he might also have grievances with.

  29. 29.

    Elizabelle

    @Yutsano:  Which one movie?  He made so many good ones.

    Guessing The Princess Bride?

    I always think of him first with Spinal Tap, but he had such a range as a director.

  31. 31.

    Elizabelle

    His dad lived such a good long life.  I am relieved he was gone before this. Mel Brooks is still with us, though.  Love and sympathy to all the family and friends and associates and fans.

  34. 34.

    Yutsano

    @Elizabelle: Yep. Not only is it a wonderful movie in its own right, but it’s also a movie my family has bonded over to the point we still quote it to each other quite frequently. So I definitely love that work.

  35. 35.

    Jackie

    @Elizabelle: It’s not on CNN and MSNOW. They are covering their scheduled programs as usual. It might be covered by late night news.
    I’m screaming at the TV right now. We can’t be the only ones devastated by this.

  36. 36.

    Elizabelle

    The thing is, Rob Reiner was 78.  And probably still had another good movie or two to be made.  He has, I believe, a Spinal Tap concert movie, filmed at Stonehenge (the full sized OG one)  being released this summer?

    He would have had a lot more to say.

  41. 41.

    Elizabelle

    @Yutsano:  Princess Bride is going to be so bittersweet. But talk about a movie that stands the test of time.

    I think all of his movies do.

  42. 42.

    eclare

    FTFNYT reporting that police have released the person of interest and are still looking for the Brown shooter.

  45. 45.

    Jackie

    @eclare:

    FTFNYT reporting that police have released the person of interest and are still looking for the Brown shooter.

    Seriously? I thought the weapons were found with him in his hotel room?

  46. 46.

    Ramona

    ABC Los Angeles reported that Larry David and Billy Crystal arrived at the scene at the Reiner home and Billy was in tears.

  48. 48.

    mvr

    @Jackie: ​ In America lots of people have weapons. These must not have been those weapons.​
     

    Been a tough weekend for anyone with any empathy.

  50. 50.

    Elizabelle

    NY Post reporting the son is a person of interest.  I hope they have him in custody, if only for his own protection.  (Suicide risk.)

  51. 51.

    Jackie

    @Elizabelle: One of my fondest memories as a young teen was watching All in the Family with my dad. Dad wasn’t prone to belly laughing, but Archie Bunker and MIchael Stivic’s heated battles made him laugh. That show and The Smothers Brothers were “our bonding” shows. That’s when I learned what the difference between Democrats and Republicans were – symbolically through comedy.

  52. 52.

    Soprano2

    We’re watching the local NBC news, they switched to the live national news feed. I’m in shock over this, what a horrible tragedy for everyone.

  54. 54.

    Elizabelle

    @Trivia Man:  Oooh, had not even heard there was one.

    And, not to mention by name the Orange Horror Show:  he gets to watch days and days of actual grieving over an actual Very Good Person.  That Rob Reiner, and his wife Michele, were loved, and were people who did good and mattered.

  55. 55.

    Elizabelle

    The Guardian:

    Reiner made his directorial film debut in 1984 with much loved mockumentary This Is Spinal Tap, following a dopey British heavy metal band. He followed it with a rapid run of hits including Stand by Me (1986), The Princess Bride (1987), When Harry Met Sally (1989), which is often ranked among the best romantic comedies of all time, Misery (1990), and A Few Good Men (1992), which was nominated for an Oscar for best picture.

    Reiner was particularly proud of Stand By Me, as he felt it was the first thing he made outside of his father’s shadow. “Spinal Tap was satire, and I love satire, but that was something my father had done. And The Sure Thing was romantic comedy and he had done those. So Stand By Me was the first thing I did that was purely an extension of myself, and that meant a lot to me,” he told the Guardian in 2018.

    Look at that 8-year run of movies.

  56. 56.

    MazeDancer

    Any one of Reiner’s films would be enough for a director to be famed forever.

    What a loss.

    In Brentwood, where it’s wall-to-wall security on every house, on the first night of Hanukkah, when all the neighbors are home? Feels like they might have known the killer.

    Horrible. No matter what, truly horrible.

  57. 57.

    Elizabelle

    Also from The Guardian.  I had not realized that Rob Reiner cofounded Castle Rock.

    Reiner also cofounded Castle Rock Entertainment, the production company behind hits including The Shawshank Redemption, Seinfeld, In the Line of Fire, City Slickers, Lone Star and Miss Congeniality. He would later say that it became harder to get funding for smaller films in the 2000s, “I mean, I’m making the movies I want to make, but it’s not with the same kind of support system that I had, and so it’s much more difficult,” he told the Guardian in 2018. “Studios are looking for hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars in profit and you’re not going to get it with a little movie … I came into this business to express myself and tell stories, not just churn out a product.”

  59. 59.

    RaflW

    @Elizabelle: I watched The Princess Bride on a flight a few months ago. Hadn’t seen it in decades. Still a great movie!

    I’m just sick over all this violence. I won’t say there’s a specific link, but I think the Trump Admin using violence as a first resort over and over in so many settings is accelerating the general violent tenor of this time.

    And it has to stop. I’m not naive, I know we can’t stop all violence. But we can begin to really demand change. Not ever give in and accept that this slide is inevitable/unavoidable.

    We have had periods of relatively less violence. Heck, despite the misleading coverage, murder rates in major US cities have (had?) improved a lot in recent years.

    But the vile shift since January 20 must be repelled.

  60. 60.

    Gretchen

    @SpaceUnit: What was the name of his podcast?

    When medium cool asked tonight what work holds up? I thought of When Harry Met Sally. The only thing that movie got wrong was when Harry and Sally left the U of Chicago campus (where my husband and I went to grad school) to drive to New York, they passed through downtown Chicago. The Loop is north of U of C, and you need to drive south to get around Lake Michigan and drive east.

    Very sad news. I’m sorry to hear that they had a son who struggled with drugs – that’s a tough situation for parents.

  62. 62.

    Gretchen

    My son has struggled with drugs, alcohol, mental illness. It’s so hard as a parent to know what’s best to do. We have people tell us that we enable him by helping too much, but my husband has said that when he’s out on his bike he sees homeless people living in boxes under bridges and no son of his is going to live in a box under a bridge if he can help it. But if you give them money they have less incentive to figure it out. Or they figure it out in a permanent way. I rushed down to stay with him last summer when it sounded like he was thinking that way.

    I have a friend with a son who has had struggles with drugs and alcohol. Her sister used to say that she was too easy on him, helped when she should have let him struggle. That sister’s son died by suicide, and now she now says, well, your son is still alive and mine isn’t, so maybe I was wrong.

    It’s really impossible to know the best course of action in that situation. Our guy is currently doing pretty well, holding down a good job, living on his own, but there are still requests for money. And I noticed a pharmacy charge on my card from his town tonight. He says he thought the card on file was his girlfriend’s. Maybe.

  65. 65.

    Elizabelle

    That 2018 Guardian interview is really good.  First.  Oh Lord:

    As it happens, his wife Michele is a photographer and back in the 80s she took the photo of Trump for the cover of his self-mythologising book The Art of the Deal. “So she has a lot to atone for,” says Reiner with mock severity.

    And about working with Stephen King, who is undoubtedly devastated tonight:

    [About Stand by Me:]

    It was also the beginning of Reiner’s long alliance with Stephen King, who wrote the short story, The Body, on which Stand By Me was based. King liked the adaptation so much that Reiner was the only film-maker he would allow to take on his beloved novel Misery. The two have since worked together on The Shawshank Redemption, Dolores Claiborne and The Green Mile, and Reiner named Castle Rock after the town where many King books are set. Few people would have put the genial Reiner and the king of horror together, I say.
    “I’m always interested in the script and the story, and Stephen King is a great American novelist. We’ve tended to stay away from his more supernatural books, but in everything he writes, the characters are great, the dialogue is great and the storytelling is incredible,” he says.

    They are both mensches.

    FWIW, re King’s book of 4 novellas, “Different Seasons”:  three of them were made into movies.  Stand by Me, The Shawshank Redemption, and Apt Pupil.

  66. 66.

    Sister Golden Bear

    Definitely true.

    every post is like i bet you didn’t know this absolutely wonderful thing about rob reiner and each one is different
    — Marisa Kabas (@marisakabas.bsky.social) December 14, 2025 at 8:42 PM

    Such as this:

    Rob Reiner was one of the key people behind the effort to go to court to overturn California’s anti-marriage equality Proposition 8 when it passed in 2008.
    Working with Chad Griffin, they founded the American Foundation for Equal Rights and got Ted Olson and David Boies to team up to fight Prop 8.

    — Chris Geidner (@chrisgeidner.bsky.social) December 14, 2025 at 7:55 PM

    May his memory be a blessing.

  70. 70.

    Jackie

    @eclare: Can you share Obama’s remarks for those of us who aren’t subscribed to X? We open to a “wall to wall gigantic X.” Thanks in advance.

  73. 73.

    RaflW

    I have a beloved cousin who has an adult son with serious chemical health problems. He’s done several stints in prison, but also a couple of rehabs. He’s a mess, and selfish, and caused a lot of heartache.

    She’s talked to me about the challenge between setting limits, and having thoughts like “I may never see him alive again.” I think he’s doing somewhat better now, but I hear less about him in recent years – I think 20 years of him not finding a path out has exhausted her.

    I’m in recovery myself, but I was a run of the mill drunk (and 23 years sober). So glad I steered clear of opioids. I think the way that seems to rewire the brain (or connect more powerfully to an addiction-leaning brain?) is terrifying.

  75. 75.

    eclare

    @Jackie:

    Obama is on Bluesky, I don’t know why he hasn’t posted remarks there, but he hasn’t yet.  Once he does I’ll post here.

  76. 76.

    Jackie

    @eclare: Thanks. This blog is my only social media network. Well, FB, too, but not politically. Long distance family connecting only.

  77. 77.

    eclare

    @RaflW:

    A good friend of mine fell down a flight of stairs and did serious internal damage.  She was only on opioids for a few weeks, but she had to taper to get off, and even then she said it was hard.

    If I ever have surgery I’m going to have to think long and hard about what to do for pain relief.  Like you said, those pills seem extra dangerous.

  79. 79.

    SpaceUnit

    @Gretchen:

    It was simply called Who Killed JFK? (f I remember correctly).  It was Rob Reiner and Soledad O’Brien.  Really interesting stuff.  Deep shit.  Apparently Reiner had been obsessed with the assassination all his life, and he really did his homework.

    When that podcast was wrapping up I remember thinking that Reiner was going to need to keep his head on a swivel.  A lot of CIA and organized crime shit.  Not saying his death is connected to that, but honestly it was the first thing that came to mind.

    Sounds like this was the work of an unstable family member, but we’re living in some pretty freaky times.

  80. 80.

    Jay

    So, back in the day, I ran “security” for a bunch of the “War in the Woods” environmental groups, ran unpaid escort services for the Gay Clubs, getting customers safely out to their cars or busses, did security for a bunch of punk Anti-Nazi groups It’s not like I had a “day job”, there were no “day jobs”. Reagan.

    And ran security for the Woodward’s Building Flop. Woodward’s, the iconic department store chain, had gone bankrupt. Empty muli- story building, the flagship store on the edge of Vancouver’s Down Town East Side that was taken over by activists and the unhoused, as a flop. Power was jerry rigged, water and sewage worked.

    All but one of the Army and Navy , (another Department Store Chain) kids, came through, shooting drugs, crashing out. Multimillionaires, shooting heroin and crashing in a flop. One drove her Ferrari into oncoming traffic on the Lions Gate Bridge, killing 4 innocent others.

    How Fucked Up is that. Every advantage, and just wastes of meat.

  82. 82.

    John Revolta

    @Gretchen:The only thing that movie got wrong was when Harry and Sally left the U of Chicago campus (where my husband and I went to grad school) to drive to New York, they passed through downtown Chicago. The Loop is north of U of C, and you need to drive south to get around Lake Michigan and drive east.

    Good visuals trump (small t) strict geography (in movies, anyway!)

  83. 83.

    Chris T.

    @eclare:

    A good friend of mine fell down a flight of stairs and did serious internal damage. She was only on opioids for a few weeks, but she had to taper to get off, and even then she said it was hard.

    If I ever have surgery I’m going to have to think long and hard about what to do for pain relief. Like you said, those pills seem extra dangerous.

    It seems highly individual. I have had them for broken bones and some oral surgery and I had no trouble stopping. I never took all of the first batch because the constipation side effect was just as bad as the pain it relieved. (Or rather, made me not care about…)

  84. 84.

    Gretchen

    @eclare:

     

    @Elizabelle: thank you. He’s not really in recovery, still seems to be drinking some, but he’s functioning so that’s progress. Sometimes holding steady is good for now.

  85. 85.

    Gloria DryGarden

    @eclare: I had oxycodone after surgery for a broken ankle, and they got me tapered down long before it could be addictive. By the time I went home from my 3 nights in the hospital, I was already down to half a pill- they gave me a pill splitter- and by the 2 weeks mark, when stitches were coming out, when the doc asked was I still taking any oxy, I was only taking half a pill at night, just to be sure I could sleep. He said, we like you to come off it. Like, it’s time, in a calm sort of implacable tone; it was gently done, but clearly a command.  And I never got any addictive reaction, thank goddess.
    You may be safe, it may be ok for super short term use. But  I don’t know the time ranges for how long it takes to become addictive. Guessing, since they told me to get off it, that two weeks is about max. Maybe ask some questions. I’m just writing all this to say, if it’s short term, and managed, it could be ok.

    Right after surgery they gave me some fentanyl, and I really hated what it did to me, don’t know why anyone would want it in their body. Perhaps one of my worst medical drug experiences. The optional nerve blocker made my lower leg strangely numb and tickled for about half a year, I wasn’t expecting that. The oxy worked great, really helped, those first nights after surgery. and they were great about making sure I got off of it.

  86. 86.

    Bruce K in ATH-GR

    @Chris T.: I can attest to that – in the wake of my major surgery, I was prescribed oxycodone as needed, and over a month and a half, I think I took a grand total of three doses, with no desire to repeat. The sensation it gave me is probably best described as “unpleasantly loopy”; it completely disrupted my thinking, left me groggy, but didn’t give me the illusion that I was thinking straight. I think it did dull the pain, but my head was so fuzzy I couldn’t really tell. I might have been dosed with narcotics while in the hospital; I couldn’t tell you for sure.

    A lot of people aren’t as lucky. The compulsion to chase the next high, of whatever sort (or just as likely, hold off the next crash) has destroyed a lot of lives.

  87. 87.

    Gloria DryGarden

    @Bruce K in ATH-GR: everyone is so different in their response to drugs. Luckily, the oxy didn’t make me loopy or fuzzy, it just knocked out the pain. I knew when it wore off, too. One time I called the nurse station, 2 am, and said it’s time for my next dose. They thought it had been administered, and I said, well come see if it’s logged into my records, I’m pretty sure of this.  And sure enough, no they hadn’t. It sounds like I dodged a bullet, from what others are saying. I’m glad something worked for me, without adverse effects. Within a few days my dose was way less, the pain was way less; phew!
    but omg, I could continue to bitch about fentanyl, which I only had twice, in the ER, and right after surgery, in the recovery room. It’s just not for me. It cut the pain, but the layers of dizziness were beyond too much. Horrible.

    Are you healing well from your recent surgery?

  88. 88.

    Rusty

    @Elizabelle: Movies and literature are at their most powerful when they showbtou something about the world you didn’t anticipate.   That is even more true when they tell you something about yourself.   I have this vivid memory of watching Stand By Me with some friends at a movie theater during the original release.  There is the scene of the boy standing on the tracks as the train approaches, and as is by shear will he is going to make it stop.  He is rescued only by his friend pulling him off the tracks.  My friend leaned over and said,  “that is you” (the boy on the tracks).

  89. 89.

    Bruce K in ATH-GR

    @Gloria DryGarden: For the most recent thing (the throat), the healing process is … well, it’s a process. Still some pain (which can be knocked back with over-the-counter stuff) and discomfort and coughing, but I’ve got my voice back, which is not nothing.

    I’ve been thinking about addiction in a more general sense, too. About how many people get caught up in chasing the next high or outrunning the next crash. And it occurs to me that there are a number of people in positions of power who seem to be addicted to a high that comes from … hurting other people. Look at Bovino. Look at Hegseth. Hell, look at the First Felon.

  90. 90.

    Princess

    @Gretchen: I’m so sorry, Gretchen. I think they is one of the very hardest things as a parent. There’s  a saying that you’re only ever as happy as your least happy child.

  91. 91.

    gene108

    @eclare:

    A good friend of mine fell down a flight of stairs and did serious internal damage. She was only on opioids for a few weeks, but she had to taper to get off, and even then she said it was hard.

    I had surgery, where I was awake but sedated. I was administered fentanyl.

    I wanted the high from fentanyl back for months after the surgery. The feeling was incredible.

  95. 95.

    JML

    I’m crushed at the Reiner news. You look at the movies he made in the prime of his career as a director and they’re all still just so watchable. He had incredible taste. First guy to really adapt Stephen King well, and did it brilliantly. Launched Aaron Sorkin as a going concern. Without him we probably never get Seinfeld, and as a result never get Curb. Arguably relaunched the romantic comedy. Do we get all the wonderful Chris Guest & Co mockumentary style comedies without Spinal Tap?

    A legendary career. A horrific ending. Just gutted.

  96. 96.

    TerryC

    This is telling me more about myself than I was conscious of. I have never watched a Rob Reiner movie. Not once. I don’t like watching video, I’d rather read, but not a single one of those classics? Boy, am I weird.

  97. 97.

    piratedan

    when we go back to some of the ills of our society, how men see and interact with women, his film The Sure Thing comes to mind (John Cusack, Daphne Zuniga) in that it shows us how men should act, when faced with that choice of how to live/behave.  Seriously underrated in how some men never grow up to see women as people instead of things.  It could be used as a primer for women to separate the wheat from chaff.  Good storytelling, pretty good acting and handled deftly.

  99. 99.

    Miss Bianca

    @RaflW:

    I won’t say there’s a specific link, but I think the Trump Admin using violence as a first resort over and over in so many settings is accelerating the general violent tenor of this time.

    I agree. At least, that’s what it seems like, to me.

    Lord, what a loss. Just waking up this morning to this news.

  100. 100.

    Miss Bianca

    @John Revolta: I always ret-conned that scene in my head as being that, for some reason (maybe Sally had some shopping to do), they had to go uptown to the Loop before they left Chicago.

  101. 101.

    Jerszy

    I wouldn’t claim to have been close to him, but I was honored to be production counsel on 2 of Rob Reiner’s recent films, and even got to pitch an animated project to him. It was all thrilling & special, a never-forget experience. It’s been absolutely gutting since last night,.. he & Michelle were both such wonderful, classy people, 2 of the finest mensches you could ever hope to meet in this business. Sometimes it can work out to meet your heroes. But I’m gonna need to log off at least the rest of the day. What a brutal world.

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