The Ledes

Thursday, September 19, 2024

New York Times: “A body believed to be of the suspect in a Kentucky highway shooting that left five people seriously injured this month was found on Wednesday, the authorities said, ending a manhunt that stretched into a second week and set the local community on edge. The Kentucky State Police commissioner, Phillip Burnett Jr., said in a Wednesday night news conference that at approximately 3:30 p.m., two troopers and two civilians found an unidentified body in the brush behind the highway exit where the shooting occurred.... The police have identified the suspect of the shooting as Joseph A. Couch, 32. They said that on Sept. 7, Mr. Couch perched on a cliff overlooking Interstate 75 about eight miles north of London, Ky., and opened fire. One of the wounded was shot in the face, and another was shot in the chest. A dozen vehicles were riddled with gunfire.”

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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....”

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~~~ 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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Saturday
Nov122016

In Search of a Hero

What American voters want in a president is a hero, someone who will save us from whatever we may imagine ails us. If you look back at every election in modern times from Ike on forward, the candidate who won appeared more heroic, even if he wasn't, with the possible exception of the victory of Jimmy Carter over Gerald Ford, an election that followed the Watergate debacle & Ford's pardon of Nixon.

The athletic war hero JFK certainly looked more heroic than Nixon. Lyndon Johnson, who manufactured some WWII medals, looked more heroic than the white-haired Barry Goldwater. Although there was nothing heroic in Nixon's appearance, neither was there much in the appearance of his opponents, although George McGovern actually was a WWII hero. Nixon's "heroism" centered, like Trump's, on his promise to restore white America & "save us" from racial equality.

Jimmy Carter actually served on active military duty in WWII; Ronald Reagan served as a PR man, but he was a hero in war (and football) movies! Reagan promised to "save us" from both a horrible economy AND "welfare queens in pink Cadillacs." Bush I was a tall, WWII vet who beat a short guy who looked ridiculous wearing a military helmet while riding around in a tank. Bill Clinton won against two WWII vets, but his older opponents "looked" weak by comparison. Dubya, with his brushhogging swagger, appeared more heroic than the technocrat Al Gore. Barack Obama, whose opponent John McCain was also a real war hero while Obama was not, promised to "save us" from Dubya's recession & McCain's doddering lack of understanding of a free-falling economy. Mitt Romney, who looked the part of a presidential hero figure and came close to unseating a sitting president, still lacked the eloquence and authoritative posture of his opponent.

Donald Trump constantly portrayed himself as heroic -- "Only I can fix it" -- while Clinton appeared to be someone who merely "soldiered on" in the face of repeated adversity. Yes, "it's the economy, stupid," and yes, it's white supremacy, but it's also far less about policy and more about image. Trump won on image; certainly not on substance, because what substance there is, as Clinton might say, is deplorable.

If I were Hillary Clinton or Bernie Sanders, I would not have run for president in 2015-16. Rather, I would have looked, with the help of other party leaders, for another Obama -- someone who conveyed the qualities of the epic hero. It's time to do that now -- to cultivate and promote a core group of younger Democrats -- competent, handsome (or beautiful), and assertive. Skittish Democrats probably won't have the guts to go for it, but the person who replaced Hillary in the Senate, Kirsten Gillibrand, might replace her as the next nominee, too. There are others. I urge all of them to take elocution lessons (Bill Clinton practice by watching & emulating Reagan's style), polish their resumes, and practice looking heroic.

Marie

P.S. If you think this post suggests we want fake heroes rather than real ones -- well, yeah.

Comments Off

Reader Comments (8)

amen

November 12, 2016 | Unregistered CommenterNJC

Way back in the day there was a TV program - Marcus Welby. M.D. - starring Robert Young as a kindly family doctor who knew his patients personally and made house calls.
A lot of viewers would probably have leapt at the chance to have "Dr. Welby" treat them instead of, say, their regular highly qualified neurosurgeon.
In real life, Robert Young suffered from severe depression which he medicated with a bottle of vodka a day or something of the sort and a suicide attempt.
I believe the favored Wall Street expression for how to sell bad investments - "let's put some lipstick on this pig" - sums the whole thing up.

November 12, 2016 | Unregistered Commenterbowtiejack

I'm not sure that Jimmy Carter served in World War II. He graduated from the Naval Academy in 1946 and was commissioned as an ensign at that time. Before he attended the Naval Academy he was an engineering student at a two-year college in Georgia. He did, however, perform heroic work at the Chalk River nuclear plant in Canada when there was a meltdown there. That was in the early fifties.

November 12, 2016 | Unregistered CommenterFrank Myers

@Frank Myers. You're right. Thanks for the correction.

November 12, 2016 | Registered CommenterMarie Burns

Usually the taller candidate wins. Makes it harder for a woman, here.
How about Amy Klobuchar. Chris Murphy of Connecticut.
Elizabeth Warren is pretty tall.

November 12, 2016 | Unregistered CommenterJerry Wechsler

Heroes represent the values of their society.In earlier times these heroes were religious or god-directed; later they were secular or military. Soon they became the typical representatives of their society.Then we had what in literature is called the anti-hero. And now we really have no common basis for an heroic ideal but the followers of Trump found something in him that resinated. I think Marie is right about "saving the day" scenario. He, Trump, will change things–-the hero on horseback who rides into town, takes down all the bad guys and brings justice back into the fold. Imagine the fury when that doesn't happen.

November 12, 2016 | Unregistered CommenterPD Pepe

@Jerry Wechsler: I think you're right. I recall hearing, decades ago, that in the last umpteen elections, the only time a shorter candidate won was one who was perceived as taller.

Marie

November 12, 2016 | Unregistered CommenterMarie Burns

@jerry Interesting argument that with size. Au contraire, here in Europe we have and had to cope with the inferiority complexes plus corresponding compensations of many a short men: Berlusconi, Putin, Mussolini, Sarkozy ...
Does this different voting pattern make a difference to the political system?
This might be a point now, talking about leaders with complexes ...

November 13, 2016 | Unregistered Commenterstari
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