The Ledes

Tuesday, October 1, 2024

Washington Post: “ John Amos, a running back turned actor who appeared in scores of TV shows — including groundbreaking 1970s programs such as the sitcom 'Good Times' and the epic miniseries 'Roots' — and risked his career to protest demeaning portrayals of Black characters, died Aug. 21 in Los Angeles. He was 84.” Amos's New York Times obituary is here.

New York Times: “Pete Rose, one of baseball’s greatest players and most confounding characters, who earned glory as the game’s hit king and shame as a gambler and dissembler, died on Monday. He was 83.”

The Ledes

Monday, September 30, 2024

New York Times: “Kris Kristofferson, the singer and songwriter whose literary yet plain-spoken compositions infused country music with rarely heard candor and depth, and who later had a successful second career in movies, died at his home on Maui, Hawaii, on Saturday. He was 88.”

~~~ The New York Times highlights “twelve essential Kristofferson songs.”

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Public Service Announcement

Washington Post: "Americans can again order free rapid coronavirus tests by mail, the Biden administration announced Thursday. People can request four free at-home tests per household through covidtests.gov. They will begin shipping Monday. The move comes ahead of an expected winter wave of coronavirus cases. The September revival of the free testing program is in line with the Biden administration’s strategy to respond to the coronavirus as part of a broader public health campaign to protect Americans from respiratory viruses, including influenza and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), that surge every fall and winter. But free tests were not mailed during the summer wave, which wastewater surveillance data shows is now receding."

Washington Post: “Comedy news outlet the Onion — reinvigorated by new ownership over this year — is bringing back its once-popular video parodies of cable news. But this time, there’s someone with real news anchor experience in the chair. When the first episodes appear online Monday, former WAMU and MSNBC host Joshua Johnson will be the face of the resurrected 'Onion News Network.' Playing an ONN anchor character named Dwight Richmond, Johnson says he’s bringing a real anchor’s sense of clarity — and self-importance — to the job. 'If ONN is anything, it’s a news organization that is so unaware of its own ridiculousness that it has the confidence of a serial killer,' says Johnson, 44.” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: I'll be darned if I can figured out how to watch ONN. If anybody knows, do tell. Thanks.

Washington Post: “First came the surprising discovery that Earth’s atmosphere is leaking. But for roughly 60 years, the reason remained a mystery. Since the late 1960s, satellites over the poles detected an extremely fast flow of particles escaping into space — at speeds of 20 kilometers per second. Scientists suspected that gravity and the magnetic field alone could not fully explain the stream. There had to be another source creating this leaky faucet. It turns out the mysterious force is a previously undiscovered global electric field, a recent study found. The field is only about the strength of a watch battery — but it’s enough to thrust lighter ions from our atmosphere into space. It’s also generated unlike other electric fields on Earth. This newly discovered aspect of our planet provides clues about the evolution of our atmosphere, perhaps explaining why Earth is habitable. The electric field is 'an agent of chaos,' said Glyn Collinson, a NASA rocket scientist and lead author of the study. 'It undoes gravity.... Without it, Earth would be very different.'”

The New York Times lists Emmy winners. The AP has an overview story here.

New York Times: “Hvaldimir, a beluga whale who had captured the public’s imagination since 2019 after he was spotted wearing a harness seemingly designed for a camera, was found dead on Saturday in Norway, according to a nonprofit that worked to protect the whale.... [Hvaldimir] was wearing a harness that identified it as “equipment” from St. Petersburg. There also appeared to be a camera mount. Some wondered if the whale was on a Russian reconnaissance mission. Russia has never claimed ownership of the whale. If Hvaldimir was a spy, he was an exceptionally friendly one. The whale showed signs of domestication, and was comfortable around people. He remained in busier waters than are typical for belugas....” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Oh, Lord, do not let Bobby Kennedy, Jr., near that carcass. ~~~

     ~~~ AP Update: “There’s no evidence that a well-known beluga whale that lived off Norway’s coast and whose harness ignited speculation it was a Russian spy was shot to death last month as claimed by animal rights groups, Norwegian police said Monday.... Police said that the Norwegian Veterinary Institute conducted a preliminary autopsy on the animal, which was become known as 'Hvaldimir,' combining the Norwegian word for whale — hval — and the first name of Russian President Vladimir Putin. 'There are no findings from the autopsy that indicate that Hvaldimir has been shot,' police said in a statement.”

New York Times: Botswana's “President Mokgweetsi Masisi grinned as he lifted the diamond, a 2,492-carat stone that is the biggest diamond unearthed in more than a century and the second-largest ever found, according to the Vancouver-based mining operator Lucara, which owns the mine where it was found. This exceptional discovery could bring back the luster of the natural diamond mining industry, mining companies and experts say. The diamond was discovered in the same relatively small mine in northeastern Botswana that has produced several of the largest such stones in living memory. Such gemstones typically surface as a result of volcanic activity.... The diamond will likely sell in the range of tens of millions of dollars....”

Click on photo to enlarge.

~~~ Guardian: "On a distant reef 16,000km from Paris, surfer Gabriel Medina has given Olympic viewers one of the most memorable images of the Games yet, with an airborne celebration so well poised it looked too good to be true. The Brazilian took off a thundering wave at Teahupo’o in Tahiti on Monday, emerging from a barrelling section before soaring into the air and appearing to settle on a Pacific cloud, pointing to the sky with biblical serenity, his movements mirrored precisely by his surfboard. The shot was taken by Agence France-Presse photographer Jérôme Brouillet, who said “the conditions were perfect, the waves were taller than we expected”. He took the photo while aboard a boat nearby, capturing the surreal image with such accuracy that at first some suspected Photoshop or AI." 

Washington Post: “'Mary Cassatt at Work' is a large and mostly satisfying exhibition devoted to the career of the great American artist beloved for her sensitive and often sentimental views of family life. The 'at work' in the title of the Philadelphia Museum of Art show references the curators’ interest in Cassatt’s pioneering effort to establish herself as a professional artist within a male-dominated field. Throughout the show, which includes some 130 paintings, pastels, prints and drawings, the wall text and the art on view stresses Cassatt’s fixation on art as a career rather than a pastime.... Mary Cassatt at Work is on view at the Philadelphia Museum of Art through Sept. 8. philamuseum.org”

New York Times: “Bob Newhart, who died on Thursday at the age of 94, has been such a beloved giant of popular culture for so long that it’s easy to forget how unlikely it was that he became one of the founding fathers of stand-up comedy. Before basically inventing the hit stand-up special, with the 1960 Grammy-winning album 'The Button-Down Mind of Bob Newhart' — that doesn’t even count his pay-per-view event broadcast on Canadian television that some cite as the first filmed special — he was a soft-spoken accountant who had never done a set in a nightclub. That he made a classic with so little preparation is one of the great miracles in the history of comedy.... Bob Newhart holds up. In fact, it’s hard to think of a stand-up from that era who is a better argument against the commonplace idea that comedy does not age well.”

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Tuesday
May202014

The Commentariat -- May 21, 2014

Internal links removed.

AP: "Seeking to head off a growing furor over veterans’ health care, President Barack Obama declared Wednesday that allegations of misconduct at VA hospitals are 'dishonorable' and will be not be tolerated by his administration. 'I will not stand for it -- not as commander in chief but also not as an American,' Obama said following an Oval Office meeting with embattled VA Secretary Eric Shinseki."

Michael Shear & Jonathan Weisman of the New York Times: "The White House fought on Tuesday to contain the growing political furor over allegations of misconduct at the nation's veterans hospitals as Republicans, eager to use the issue in the midterm elections, seized on the reports as new evidence that President Obama is unable to govern effectively." ...

... Steve M.: Despite past evidence of VA mismanagement, wingers took no interest. But "the right is talking about the VA now. No, let me correct that: the right is talking about President Obama in relation to the VA. That's the hook. This isn't a scandal about mistreatment of veterans -- it's a scandal about Obama."

Karen DeYoung & Sari Horwitz of the Washington Post: "The Justice Department will publicly release a secret 2011 memo that provided the legal justification for the killing of American terrorism suspects overseas, according to a U.S. official, following extensive pressure on the administration to do so. The department had been weighing whether to appeal a court order to disclose the memo but informed the White House on Tuesday that it would not, the official said. The decision came on the eve of a Senate vote on President Obama's nomination of David J. Barron, one of the memo's authors, to a federal appeals court judgeship." ...

Should Go in "Infotainment." Brett Logiurato of Business Insider: "On Wednesday, Sen. Rand Paul ... will filibuster President Barack Obama's nomination of David Barron to fill a seat on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit.... According to his office, Paul will take to the Senate floor Wednesday morning to begin an old-fashioned, talking filibuster of Barron's nomination. Paul opposes Barron because of his concerns about legal opinions Barron wrote in support of the use of drones against U.S. citizens."

Spencer Ackerman of the Guardian: "Intense closed-door talks between lawmakers and Obama administration and intelligence officials that wrapped up Tuesday afternoon have finalised the language of the USA Freedom Act. The bill is expected to receive a vote on the House floor on Thursday. The latest twist for the bill is an expanded provision that would require the government to 'promptly' purge phone records that do not contain 'foreign intelligence information,' effectively pruning irrelevant records from the NSA's trees of analyzed phone data." ...

... Charlie Savage of the New York Times: "Leaders of both parties in the House of Representatives, at the Obama administration's request, have changed a surveillance overhaul bill that restricts the power of the government to obtain Americans' records in bulk.... Several civil liberties groups that had backed a previous version argued that the changes weakened the limits in a way that leaves the door open for the government to obtain enormous volumes of records. They said they were withdrawing their support."

Maureen Dowd: "Still stung by the overreaches of the N.S.A., collaborating with American tech companies, the Europeans are challenging what is far more accepted here: the right of Big Data to have All Data, the right of knowing to trump the right of privacy."

Ryan Devereaux, et al., of the Intercept: "The National Security Agency is secretly intercepting, recording, and archiving the audio of virtually every cell phone conversation on the island nation of the Bahamas. According to documents provided by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden, the surveillance is part of a top-secret system -- code-named SOMALGET -- that was implemented without the knowledge or consent of the Bahamian government. Instead, the agency appears to have used access legally obtained in cooperation with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration to open a backdoor to the country's cellular telephone network...."

Andrew Kramer of the New York Times: Rinat "Akhmetov, the son of a Soviet coal miner who amassed a fortune from contentious privatizations in the 1990s, is ranked by Forbes magazine as the 92nd richest man in the world and is by far the wealthiest person in Ukraine, with a net worth of $12.4 billion. He is now leading the charge against the separatists, calling for steelworkers and coal miners in his employ to resist, and pointing out that they would lose their export-dependent jobs if the region became an unrecognized splinter state."

** CW: I meant to link this excellent NYT op-ed by Corey Robin on "the Republican war on workers' rights." He cites one shocking state legislative action after another. I don't like to use the word "evil," but it's hard to think of a better word to describe the heartless bastards who make such efforts to cheat low-wage workers. (Then of course they complain that workers who need food stamps & other assistance to survive are lazy bums.)

If you see deer grazing on the grounds of an insane asylum, you just might be at Homeland Security HQ. Jerry Markon of the Washington Post: "The construction of a massive new headquarters for the Department of Homeland Security, billed as critical for national security and the revitalization of Southeast Washington, is running more than $1.5 billion over budget, is 11 years behind schedule and may never be completed, according to planning documents and federal officials."

Annals of Journalism. Caitlan MacNeal of TPM: "CNN Worldwide President Jeff Zucker on Monday said that the network probably won't be covering the House select committee to investigate Benghazi. 'We're not going to be shamed into it by others who have political beliefs that want to try to have temper tantrums to shame other news organizations into covering something,' he said when asked if CNN would cover the committee during an interview at a Deadline Club dinner, as recorded by Capital New York. 'If it's of real news value, we'll cover it.'"

Deirdre Walsh & Dana Davidsen of CNN: "House Speaker John Boehner said Tuesday the tea party and conservative Republicans are basically one in the same. [sic.]"

Philip Bump of the Washington Post: "Some businesses in states with pitched Republican primary fights are turning to a relatively new tool to help ensure the outcome they want: telling employees how they want them to vote. Thanks in part to Citizens United, it's perfectly legal -- but it probably doesn't do much good." ...

Senate Races

Philip Rucker & Robert Costa of the Washington Post: "Republicans' hopes of taking back the Senate received a big boost in primary elections Tuesday, with Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) easily winning and other candidates favored by the party establishment beating back tea party challengers." The New York Times story, by Jonathan Martin, is here.

Joseph Gerth of the Louisville Courier-Journal: "U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell has again won the Republican nomination for the U.S. Senate, and Kentucky Secretary of State Alison Lundergan Grimes has won the Democratic nomination, according to The Associated Press. Their victories set up a multimillion dollar battle in November."

AP: "U.S. Rep. Jack Kingston and former Dollar General CEO David Perdue have advanced to a Republican runoff in Georgia's hotly contested Senate race, which will eventually help determine which party controls Congress. In unofficial returns Tuesday, Perdue had more than 30 percent of the vote to Kingston's nearly 26 percent." ...

... CW: The ladies should love Perdue. My favorite bit: "Dollar General argued that the law does not prohibit retaliation against employees who take [Family Medical Leave Act] leave." Got that? Federal law requires us to grant you leave, but we can fire your ass for it.

The AP reports that Michelle Nunn has won the Democratic primary race for U.S. Senate.

House Race

Washington Post: "Former congresswoman Marjorie Margolies will not be making a return to Congress next year after a 20-year absence. Margolies, the mother-in-law of Chelsea Clinton, was defeated in the Democratic primary for the U.S. House in Pennsylvania's 13th district Tuesday by state Rep. Brendan Boyle...."

Gubernatorial Race

Trip Gabriel of the New York Times: "Tom Wolf, a wealthy businessman and a former Peace Corps volunteer, won the Democratic nomination for governor of Pennsylvania on Tuesday, setting up what his party hopes will be one of its best chances this fall to flip a governor's mansion now held by a Republican. Mr. Wolf, virtually anonymous before spending as much as $10 million of his own money on television ads, will face Gov. Tom Corbett, who has had difficulty convincing voters to credit him for an improving economy and to forgive him for a drop in education spending in his first year."

Beyond the Beltway

Erik Eckholm of the New York Times: "Continuing a rush of rulings that have struck down marriage limits across the country, a federal judge in Pennsylvania on Tuesday declared the state's ban on same-sex marriage to be unconstitutional. 'We are a better people than what these laws represent, and it is time to discard them into the ash heap of history,' wrote Judge John E. Jones III of Federal District Court in a decision posted on Tuesday afternoon.... Even as Gov. Tom Corbett said he was studying the decision and considering whether to appeal it, state officials began issuing marriage licenses on Tuesday afternoon to overjoyed gay couples." ...

     ... CW: You may find Judge Jones's biography of interest. A Dubya appointee, he is most famous for his 2005 ruling against the teaching of "intelligent design" in the Dover school district. The ruling may have cost him a spot on the Supreme Court; the country would certainly be better off were Jones on the Court in place of Roberts or Alito. ...

... Nino Called It. Sahil Kapur of TPM: "Upon striking down Pennsylvania's gay marriage ban Tuesday, a federal judge cited Justice Antonin Scalia's 'cogen[t]" argument that the Supreme Court had essentially paved the way for nationwide marriage equality last year.'"

AP: "No same-sex marriages will be allowed or recognized in Idaho until an appeal is decided, a federal appeals court ruled Tuesday. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals granted request for a stay from Gov. C.L. 'Butch' Otter and Idaho Attorney General Lawrence Wasden."

Joseph Ax of Reuters: "Conservative author and filmmaker Dinesh D'Souza pleaded guilty on Tuesday to a campaign finance law violation, avoiding a trial that had been expected to begin the same day in a Manhattan federal court. D'Souza, known for his biting criticism of President Barack Obama, pleaded guilty to one criminal count of making illegal contributions in the names of others. A second count concerning the making of false statements is expected to be dismissed once he is sentenced." ...

... Charles Pierce: "... the U.S. Supreme Court, John Roberts presiding, pretty much harshed my mellow by inaugurating our brave new world of legalized influence-peddling. I'm sorry but, in that context, sending D'Souza up the river for 16 months because he used straws to contribute to a losing senatorial campaign would strike me as fifty bucks worth of punishment for a 25-cent crime. Because that's where we are today. Thanks again, Chief John."

Now, here's an Indiana judge who thinks repeatedly drugging & raping one's wife isn't such a bad thing.

News Lede

New York Times: "China and Russia agreed to a major natural gas deal Wednesday that would send gas from Siberia by pipeline to China, according to the state-run news agency, Xinhua."

Comments Off

Reader Comments (13)

Thanks for featuring the Robin piece on wage theft. Apparently many employers feel that paying squat for wages is not enough; they compound the crime by stealing the squat, too. As I have said before, even a superficial glance at capitalism's mechanisms and their appeal suggests that if you want "fair" or "moral," not to mention "democratic," you've adopted the wrong system.

And for more morality, see Edsall on Republican reliance on racism. All pretense is gone. Both researchers and pundits acknowledge the repugnant strategy brought to us by Tricky Dick has escaped its boundaries and is no longer confined to the South.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/21/opinion/edsall-the-great-white-hope.html?comments&_r=0

May 21, 2014 | Unregistered CommenterKen Winkes

Yertle the Turtle won the Republican primary in Kentucky, but if you add up all the votes cast for McConnell and his competitors, you get about 353,000 votes. Alison Lundergan Grimes, if you add up her competitors' votes to her 309,000, comes up with just over 400,000.

But two things will impact those totals in November. First, Kentucky had a low turnout, about 26%. Second, the McConnell Dirty Tricks Machine has likely been in full swing for months looking for ways to smear Grimes. After his plan to paint Ashley Judd, an earlier possible candidate on the Democratic side, as a crazy, unstable person after digging into her medical history from years before were caught on tape, Yertle no doubt has pulled his head back into his shell where he can scheme out of sight of snoopers. The unconscionable attack planned against Judd is proof that McConnell sees no trick as too low or out of bounds. Just another Republican.

Word from Kentucky though, is that McConnell has so pissed off the far-right voters that some are saying they'd rather vote for a Democrat. The idea is that McConnell is a Democrat already, which shows you just how far they've gone in Kentucky. But I'm pretty sure that's not the case with most Republicans, and as long as influence can be bought and elections controlled by the GOP, EZ access for Republicans, long lines and plenty of challenges for Democrats, Yertle will always have an excellent chance of slithering back to DC, dragging his jowls behind him.

May 21, 2014 | Unregistered CommenterAkhilleus

While the GOP tries to score points off the Obama administration's handling of the VA situation, it might be instructive to see how the last Republican president (and current Republicans) treated veterans.
Bush repeatedly cut funds for veteran treatment and support.

And in order to make sure the agency didn't spend too much money, money better used for more Bush and Cheney bombs, Bush installed a worthless crony, former chair of the RNC, Jim Nicholson, as VA Secretary who proceeded to cut staffing for healthcare and services at the Board of Veterans Appeals. He also helped Bush block legislative improvements that would have streamlined backlogged claims by veterans. Anything to delay and confuse. After all, maybe they'll be dead soon. Why bother spending more money on them? And this during two raging wars begun by Bush himself.

In 2005, VA officials and advocates testified before congress that they would need at least a 13% increase in the VA budget to handle the overload of vets coming home injured from Bush's War. Bush gave them 0.5%. Oh, and he included a couple of middle fingers with that huge raise.

In 2007, the atrocious conditions at Walter Reed Army Medical Center were so bad the Washington Post did a multipart spotlight series that showed wounded vets housed in rooms with leaking plumbing and moldy walls. Some rooms had rats in them.

That same year, while killing any additional budget requests to aid veteran treatment, Bush crony Nicholson handed out $3.8 million in bonuses to top VA execs, all friends of Bush. The VA was dealing with a $1.3 billion shortfall by that time, courtesy of Bush intransigence to Americans injured while fighting his war.

Bush and his VA pals also tried to cover up a growing suicide epidemic, burying reports and massaging numbers. He also made light of the growing numbers of homeless veterans. Bush, always oblivious to the pain of others, was praising his own handling of veterans in the same way he declared a war over that would go on for another decade.

Aaron Glantz, at the time, a Rosalynn Carter Fellow for Mental Health Journalism asked " "'What kind of President pats himself on the back with 200,000 veterans sleeping homeless on the street every night?' Glantz said in an interview. 'What kind of administration puts out self-congratulatory press releases while over 6,000 veterans commit suicide every year?'"

And many of those now screaming at Obama about veteran care supported and or voted for many of those horrific Bush policies. In fact, they still vote regularly against veterans and yet have the gall to rip the president for his handling of the VA problems.

Clearly Obama should have done something to clean up the Bush mess long before it got to this, but two things happened. First, he was busy cleaning up all of Bush's other messes, ending two wars and trying to save a wrecked economy, all while attempting to enact the biggest healthcare reform legislation in US history. Second, each time he tried to float legislation to help veterans, over the last 6 years, Republicans voted it down.

So now, after making sure there is no water, the want to indict Obama for not being able to put out a fire they started.

The Modern GOP. Gotta love the balls on these guys, though. Ignorant, immoral, unethical, and treasonous, but plenty of balls.

May 21, 2014 | Unregistered CommenterAkhilleus

Decency and humanity in Pennsylvania. Gaudeamus hodie!

How in the hell did Judge Jones make it through the multiple Bush litmus tests for wingnut judges? A guy with a brain and a heart as well, and one who actually knows the law? How did that happen?

His decision in an earlier case that teaching Intelligent Design was a not very intelligent idea probably cost him a seat at the Supreme Court, as Marie mentions, (just imagine this guy in place of shit stain Alito) but it also gives me hope that all is not completely lost.

It doesn't surprise me that wingnuts threatened to kill him for that decision. What does surprise me is that he's still alive. As he himself once said "Enthusiasm is certainly a very good thing but religious enthusiasm is, at least, a dangerous instrument." You ain't kiddin' there judge.

So now marriage equality has been visited upon the residents of Pennsylvania. But not if their governor can help it. Tom Corbett (R-Middle Ages), is thinking about challenging the decision. This is the guy, don't forget, who decided that not only was fracking an okay idea in his state (after being paid off by the oil and gas industries--but look, Johnny Roberts says "no black bag full of money with a note, no corruption") it can also be done free of charge. Corbett repealed all taxes on the industries raping his state. He also helped aid the misery and ill health affects of residents by signing the "Marcellus Shale Law" which allows doctors to get a look at the eye-popping list of horrible chemicals being injected into the Pennsylvania biosphere, but prevents those doctors--by LAW--from discussing any such chemical substances with patients who show up bleeding from their eyeballs. 'Cause that's how they do what they do.

Anyway, a good day for human beings in Pennsylvania.

Wonder what Rick (Man on Dog) Santorum is doing today in the wake of the ruling that gay men and women in his state have the same rights he does?

Probably calculating how much legal santorum may now be available in PA. Ricky, maybe you can market it. It's already named for you.

Sucks to be ignorant, bigoted, hateful, a rejected (multiple times) candidate, AND on the wrong side of history and justice.

May 21, 2014 | Unregistered CommenterAkhilleus

Two great stories in a row, and both end with a kick in the ass to conservative scumbags. How great is that?

An 8 year old helps a fellow student who had been told by conservative finger-waggers that if he's just a no good lazy 8 year old moocher, he can't get a regular lunch. He'd have to eat wax paper on a slice of linoleum.

Human beings vs Teabaggers. No contest.

May 21, 2014 | Unregistered CommenterAkhilleus

Today in job opportunities:

http://motherboard.vice.com/read/the-fbi-cant-find-hackers-that-dont-smoke-pot

May 21, 2014 | Unregistered CommenterJames Singer

Just one more reason to love Paul Krugman, his blog takes a brief off topic break from political commentary. (136 comments thus far). http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/05/21/questions-about-student-writing/#commentsContainer

His Point 1 of 3, is one of my biggest grammar peeves! Damn it, impact is NOT A VERB. However, it is not only students who are to blame for improper use, as you'll hear it regularly on most newscasts. The storm impacted, the economy impacted, et al.

(Or, as George Bush put it, ""Rarely is the question asked: Is our children learning?") Asked. Answered. Nope!

Let's hope that Paul missed today's column on HuffPost, where some "bright, young thing" named Claire Fallon wrote: "It's Okay To End Your Sentences With 'But' Or 'So,' Right?" http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/05/15/its-okay-to-end-your-sent_n_5325324.html

Her argument begins with: "Increasingly, however, people are beginning sentences and even conversations with “so,” as in: “So, how was work today?” or “So, I had to cancel my credit card.”

"While Fast Company savaged this practice for insulting your audience and undermining your credibility, Business Insider’s Christina Sterbenz argues that it actually facilitates relationship-building...(next paragraph, Claire adds:) I couldn’t agree more, and frankly I think conjunctions are just too useful to be restricted to conjoining clauses."


P.S. don't get me started on the word du jour, 'curated.'

May 21, 2014 | Unregistered CommenterMAG

"So we'll go no more a-roving..."

The real Byron.

May 21, 2014 | Unregistered CommenterJames Singer

I'd say that Governor Corbett is one huge jerk, but best to keep that thought to myself—it's how he would do it, right?

Or...

"As a practicing Roman Catholic, Corbett has said that he personally opposes gay marriage, but on Wednesday he told a crowd in Pittsburgh that he wanted to keep his feelings about the issue "to myself." Great!

http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2014/05/pennsylvania-wont-fight-gay-marriage.html

May 21, 2014 | Unregistered CommenterMAG

James,

It's funny that the FBI can hire thugs, criminals, traitors, and murderers, but can't even consider anyone who sparks up a doobie.

Because, freedom, I guess.

Also, the wingnuts in congress would go apeshit if the FBI brought someone on board who didn't fit their description of "moral".

Like Dinesh D'Souza, I suppose.

Or George W. Bush.

May 21, 2014 | Unregistered CommenterAkhilleus

MAG:

Have a friend who delivered a memorable rant about another magic transformation of an established part of speech, "certificate" to "certificated." As he said, what a thing to do to TEACHERS of all people!

To peeve on: Now that the appearances of "iconic" seem to be waning (please say it's so), I'm wondering if anyone besides me becomes "fraught" at that word's daily use. It annoys me so much when I see it, I sometimes miss what it is I'm supposed to be fraught about. But that may be just me (I?).

More kudos to Krugman. It's a sorry world--let me proudly display my conservative credentials--when an economist has to do the job of an E. B. White or a Jacques Barzun.

May 21, 2014 | Unregistered CommenterKen Winkes

And regarding your assessment of Byron, I'm guessing your suggestion is that Childe Harold demurs...

A pity, that. Luckily, Byron did not.

May 21, 2014 | Unregistered CommenterAkhilleus

Ken,

I'm definitely stealing "peeve on". Sorry about that.

And I'm not entirely sure, but I think your old pal EB White would be vexed by anyone describing themselves as 'fraught with freight" or "freighted with fraught".

Or something.

I'm betting Dorothy Parker could drum up a satisfyingly piquant rejoinder here.

Or S.J. Perelman.

May 21, 2014 | Unregistered CommenterAkhilleus
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