there's no hope / for this kid
A Picardfacepalm post.
You reach for the last square of toilet roll and find only the cardboard tube. There is no one to call. You sit there and take stock of every decision that led to this moment. A customer asks for your name at the till, and you have to say it three times, spelling it twice, for a coffee that will arrive labelled "Bryan". You are not called Bryan. Someone tells you, with total confidence, that they've "restarted the programme" by holding the power button on a machine that was mid-save. Nobody speaks. The unsaved document does not return. The film adaptation has been announced, the casting is public, and your friend wants to know if you're "excited". You have opinions. They are long. You decide to keep them to yourself, briefly. **Why it caught on:** the picture shows Captain Jean-Luc Picard, played by Patrick Stewart, covering his face with one hand in an episode of *Star Trek: The Next Generation*. Fans pulled it out of the show as the ideal reaction to anything foolish, avoidable or announced with great confidence, and it spread because the gesture needs no translation: it fits a dropped phone and a corporate takeover equally well.