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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.'”

Washington Post: The Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, D.C., which houses the world's largest collection of Shakespeare material, has undergone a major renovation. "The change to the building is pervasive, both subtle and transformational."

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Frank Rich: The National Portrait Gallery has mounted an installation of same-sex themes in American portraiture. Included in the exhibit is a four-minute excerpt of a film by David Wojnarowicz titled "Fire in My Belly." Within the excerpt is an 11-second scene in which a "crucifix is besieged by ants that evoke frantic souls scurrying in panic as a seemingly impassive God looked on.... “Fire in My Belly” was removed from the exhibit ... some 10 days ago with the full approval, if not instigation, of ... the Smithsonian" because of a right-wing campaign against it, ginned up by, among others, "William Donohue, of the so-called Catholic League.... [Soon-to-be House Majority Leader] Eric Cantor called for the entire exhibit to be shut down and threatened to maim the Smithsonian’s taxpayer funding come January."

Here's video of the excerpt (I had to testify to Google that I was at least 18 years old to access it):

My comment:


The Smithsonian’s cowardice, I suspect, is its management's way of welcoming the new Congress & its official policy of medieval bigotry. Why is Defense Secretary Bob Gates so anxious to have DADT repealed within the week? Because the new Republican Congress will not repeal it. In the Senate, every Republican Senator but one voted against repeal last week, even though the public favors repeal, the majority of the military is cool with it (not that that matters), the top civilian and military leaders favor it, the courts will impose it, and basic human decency demands it. So the Smithsonian is falling into line with the political gang who are ready to take over Washington.

The Smithsonian management’s response to "the public" is not as dumb as you think. Its masters, after all, are the Congress, as Eric Cantor reminded them and us. Among the brilliant ideas of the Catfood Commission was this little-noticed one: charge entrance fees to the national museums. This of course would make the museums off-limits to many Americans who visit Washington, and other visitors would have to pick and choose carefully, skipping those museums they didn't consider must-sees. This is such a Republican idea: keep the riffraff out! Only the moneyed class will be allowed entree to the nation’s treasures.

Oh, and another thing – forget about women. Even though it is privately-funded, conservative legislators think a National Women's History Museum is superfluous. Right-wing Sens. Tom Coburn & Jim DeMint claim there are already enough museums about women -- like "the Quilters Hall of Fame in Indiana, the National Cowgirl Museum and Hall of Fame in Texas and the Hulda Klager Lilac Gardens in Washington." [Gail Collins, NYT, September 24] Really, girls, you've already got lilacs by the outhouse door!

So the Smithsonian poobahs bow first to anti-gay bias, and while they're at it, to fundamentalist Christian prejudices. Will we see an installation of anti-Semitic art next? Maybe a panoply of depictions of the devil looking ever-so-Jewish would fit the bill. How about a nice display of Confederate memorabilia to celebrate secession? Copies of some of the slave states' articles of secession would be great along with some tattered Stars & Bars and awesome portraits of Jeff Davis & Robert E. Lee. And by all means, let's have a paean to anti-feminist heroes. An audio-tour narrated by Sens. DeMint & Coburn would be a perfect accompaniment.

Our national museums are not repositories of cutting-edge art. Instead, they are reflections of who we are as a nation. And when our nation is operating under the thumb of right-wing prejudices, we are a nation of which real patriots must be ashamed.


     ... Washington Post Update: "The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, one of the principal sponsors of 'Hide/Seek: Difference and Desire in American Portraiture,' demanded Monday that the Smithsonian restore the David Wojnarowicz video or the foundation would not fund future projects.... The Warhol Foundation is the first major funder to publicly voice outrage" over the Smithsonian's removal of "the Wojnarowicz work, 'A Fire in My Belly,' [which] contains 11 seconds of an image of ants crawling on a crucifix."

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