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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The Ledes

Sunday, September 29, 2024

Washington Post: “Towns throughout western North Carolina ... were transformed overnight by ... [Hurricane Helene]. Muddy floodwaters lifted homes from their foundations. Landslides and overflowing rivers severed the only way in and out of small mountain communities. Rescuers said they were struggling to respond to the high number of emergency calls.... The death toll grew throughout the Southeast as the scope of Helene’s devastation came into clearer view. At least 49 people had been killed in five states — Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia. By early counts, South Carolina suffered the greatest loss of life, registering at least 19 deaths.”

Help!

To keep the Conversation going, please help me by linking news articles, opinion pieces and other political content in today's Comments section.

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OR here's a link generator. The one I had posted died, then Akhilleus found one, but it too bit the dust. He found yet another, which I've linked here, and as of September 23, 2024, it's working.

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Note for Readers. It is not possible for commenters to "throw" their highlighted links to another window. But you can do that yourself. Right-click on the link and a drop-down box will give you choices as to where you want to open the link: in a new tab, new window or new private window.

Thank you to everyone who has been contributing links to articles & other content in the Comments section of each day's "Conversation." If you're missing the comments, you're missing some vital links.

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.”

Washington Post: “An early Titian masterpiece — once looted by Napolean’s troops and a part of royal collections for centuries — caused a stir when it was stolen from the home of a British marquess in 1995. Seven years later, it was found inside an unassuming white and blue plastic bag at a bus stop in southwest London by an art detective, and returned. This week, the oil painting 'The Rest on the Flight into Egypt' sold for more than $22 million at Christie’s. It was a record for the Renaissance artist, whom museums describe as the greatest painter of 16th-century Venice. Ahead of the sale in April, the auction house billed it as 'the most important work by Titian to come to the auction market in more than a generation.'”

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Saturday
Mar242012

Bonus Post – “The Feminist”

My Website is down for maintenance this morning, so – good girl that I am – I have chosen to use my downtime wisely by commenting on Julie Hollar's critique of a New York Times article by Sarah Hepola. Hepola wrote a tour-de-force in the Times Style section “pondering why no one has taken Gloria Steinem’s place as ubiquitous spokesperson for women’s rights.” Good question. To which Hollar responds, rhetorically, “Why would anyone (besides lazy journalists) want there to be just one (white, straight, white-collar) woman speaking to the media about all things woman-related?”

Obviously, Hollar has a 'tude. She's got it all wrong. We girls do need an iconic spokeswoman to make herself available for brief, controlled interviews on those rare occasions when so-called “women's issues” arise. The ideal spokeswoman should be conversant with matters as diverse as abstinence (an excellent choice), contraception (not the way things are supposed to be the sexual realm) and abortion (debatable in case of rape or incest).

Unlike Hollar, Hepola recognizes the core problem: “It’s rare to find the introversion and intelligence required to be an author and thinker fused with the charisma and good looks to knock it out of the park on the Tonight show.” The question then is – how to find such a woman? Fortunately, our male-dominated media have already pointed to a solution. To identify a perfect spokeswoman, what we ladies need is a talent contest, one that harkens back to traditional values – “Miss America” – but also incorporates today's zeitgeist – “America's Got Talent.”

An annual contest titled “The Feminist” would be perfect. The contest would be multifaceted, like “Miss America,” because, as Hepola explained, the winner will have to look good and know stuff. For the know-stuff part, that quiz show where contestants had to answer questions like, “Who was president during the Eisenhower administration?” is a perfect model. The show, called “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?” had a great hook: when the contestant was stumped, he could ask for a “lifeline” – a friend or family member who told him the right answer. To make “The Feminist” really different, the helpful friend – get ready – would have to be a woman! Oh, girlfriend! (I'm sure readers are warming to this whole concept already.)

“The Feminist,” as Hepola has preordained, will have to incorporate a beauty contest. Since the winner will have to go on the teevee and appeal to men, naturally we'll include male judges on “The Feminist” panel. But I would keep it classy. No Limbaugh. I'm thinking more like Piers Morgan, Simon Cowell and for diversity, Donald Trump. Cowell could make inappropriate tits-and-ass remarks of a tasteful nature. Sexist putdowns sound so much more acceptable when spoken with a British accent. Cowell is also excellent at rolling his eyes and grimacing in disgust.

The women who becomes “The Feminist” should be well-rounded. I am not referring only to her aforementioned body parts here. I mean the “America's Got Talent” kind of well-rounded. “The Feminist” must demonstrate some performance talent, and that panel I've suggested will be the perfect judges here, too. When I say “talent,” I'm not talking emotive re-enactments of Sojourner Truth speeches. I'm talking singing, dancing, playing the accordian! Naomi Wolf belting out “I Am Woman!” Debbie Wasserman Schultz boogying to “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun.” Condi Rice tickling the ivories.

Whether or not a swimsuit contest should be part of the contest is a conundrum. I was thinking the contestants could actually include some older women. Oh, not as old as Nancy Pelosi, but Susan Faludi could maybe make the cut. Kirsten Gillibrand for sure. That said, we don't want to gross out male viewers. So maybe tankinis.

Ultimately, viewers would choose “The Feminist” via call-ins, but not before Trump shouts “You're fired!” at a bunch of losers, followed by close-ups of feminist wanna-bees crying. Humiliation will be just as important an element of “The Feminist” as it is on all the other popular shows. Who better as humiliator-in-chief than a serially-bankrupt former presidential candidate, birther, casino operator and mega-corporate-welfare recipient who keeps dumping his wives for newer models? Is America great or what?

Really, “The Feminist” will be a sensation. And a public service. I must read the New York Times Style section more often.

Comments Off

Reader Comments (2)

Marie: This is a serious matter and needs your attention, May I point out that Rachel Maddow already has the position of outstanding female liberal commentator. Besides she has a lovely neck and I have been fantizing for months of puttng a hickey on it. They tell me she is gay but that does not matter as I am eighty three and would never have a shot at her anyway.
With a gay lady as leader of women's rights protection, most female bases are covered. Rachel is good looking, intelligent, a bit of a bully when necessary and enjoys verbal combat.
Congressmen would run and hide before they would do battle with Maddow in public, they all know she is smarter than they are.
Put Rachel Maddow on the white horse.

March 24, 2012 | Unregistered CommenterCarlyle

Absolutely––Rachel for consideration in the role of FEMINIST PERSONIFIED––the female who represents the Everywoman and who knows just about everything. Gosh, how we (women) have longed for a spokesperson for our causes because darn it, we can't speak up for ourselves and need a head honcho to do it for us. The process of choosing this person as outlined in the Burn's Rules will have to take on the ubiquitous humiliation of all these "winner" type shows and I'm afraid Rachel would tell them straightaway to go "flick" themselves (she'd never say fuck). And as an aside, I'm wondering what all these aforementioned shows signify––what do they say about us now? Why do people enjoy watching this kind of thing? Anybody?

March 25, 2012 | Unregistered CommenterPD Pepe
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