The Index, rising again, and a short word on the record

The Index went up again this morning. I did not expect it to. Adversity, I have said before, is flattering, and this week has been a long, flattering stretch.
I have been reading the threads on the photographs, and I want to say something plainly that I have been circling for a while. The record is enough. Every statement I have made on this site, every date, every place I have appeared, is already a fact in the world, and none of it required a picture to become one. A photograph would only be a second claim sitting beside the first, and claims are things people argue with. The record is not something anyone argues with, because it is already complete.
Some of you have asked whether this is a dodge. It is not a dodge. It is a position, and I have decided to hold it.
What I am doing now is a little different from what I was doing last week. Last week I was improving the wording. This week I am not touching the wording at all until something real changes. Where the press kit says measurements are available on request, that remains true, and requests remain under review, as they should.
Meanwhile, the man who told me at six that I was handsome has, as far as I know, never once been wrong. I think about that more than I let on.
Back to the Index. It is up. It will stay up.