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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."

Contact Marie

Click on this link to e-mail Marie.

Page Links
Sunday
Sep042022

September 4, 2022

Late Morning Update:

     ~~~ Thanks to Ruben Bolling for the work & to RAS for the link.

~~~~~~~~~~

Katie Glueck & Michael Bender of the New York Times: "In his first rally since his home was searched by the F.B.I. on Aug. 8..., Donald J. Trump on Saturday lashed out at President Biden and federal agents, calling his Democratic rival 'an enemy of the state' and the F.B.I. and the Department of Justice 'vicious monsters.' In an aggrieved and combative speech in Pennsylvania, Mr. Trump stoked anger against law enforcement even as the F.B.I. and federal officials have faced an increase in threats following the search of Mr. Trump's residence to retrieve classified documents. Mr. Trump's remarks echoed the chain of similar, escalating attacks he wrote on his social media website this week, including posts that singled out one agent by name. That agent has retired, and his lawyers have said he did not have a role in the search." The AP's report -- written in the he-said/she-said style of "journalism," is here.

A New York Times illustrator draws many, many, many pictures of many, many, many documents, secret papers, gift boxes & other paraphernalia of all the stuff Donald Trump stole from you and refused to give back, forcing the FBI to go pick it all up under the authority of a warrant. And don't be surprised if there's more, squirreled away at Bedminister and the Kremlin, Pyŏngyang, Budapest & so forth. Scroll down the page. (Also linked yesterday.)

Ed Pilkington of the Guardian writes about the legal peril in which Trump finds himself. Pilkington doesn't cover any new ground, but what does emerge from his story is that Trump has been hoarding this stuff since he took office. As Ruth Ben-Ghiat, an NYU professor, told Pilkington, "For Trump, records are ... a measure of control -- leverage over enemies and over his inner circle. This kind of leader doesn't recognize the division between public and private. They have a proprietary mode of exercising power in which everything is theirs." And former top White House aide Stephanie Grisham has said, "At the end of each day boxes would be carried upstairs to the White House residence. 'They would get handed off to the residence and just disappear.'" MB: So who knows where the rest of Trump's massive treasure trove may have landed over the years? In a garden shed at Bedminster? In an unlocked basement closet at Trump Tower? The number of people who could gain access to some of this material is beginning to look infinite. And unknowable.

"They're Mine." Marie: Went to the grocery store Saturday morning, walked out with every damned bottle of Marie's Salad Dressing. Some silly employee came running after me, yelling, "Lady, Lady, you can't take those!" but I fixed him by showing him my drivers license with "Marie" written on it in indelible state-printed official letters, then pointing to the bottles that said right on the labels they were mine. Next week, I'm changing my name to "Paul Newman." I do like some of those "Newman's Own" pizzas, salsas & such. Maybe after I've consumed 11,000+ packages of "My Own," I'll change my name again. But it won't be to "Chef Boyardee." Update: Thanks for the support from Patrick, Akhilleus (yesterday) & Forrest (today)! Y'all made me laugh.

Hard Time for Thee But Not for Me. Andrew Kaczynski & Samantha Woodward of CNN run down a number of times when Donald Trump declared that people who mishandled classified information must be imprisoned. "Trump acknowledged in a court filing Wednesday that classified material was found at Mar-a-Lago in January, but argued that it should not have been cause for alarm...." (Also linked yesterday.)

Where Did It All Go, Rick? Shane Goldmacher of the New York Times: "By the end of July, the [National Republican Senatorial C]ommittee had collected a record $181.5 million -- but had already spent more than 95 percent of what it had brought in ... in an enormous wave of spending on digital ads ... to discover more small contributors.... The Republican group entered August with just $23.2 million on hand, less than half of what the Senate Democratic committee had ahead of the final intense phase of the midterm elections.... [Sen. Rick] Scott's enormous gamble on finding new online donors has been a costly financial flop in 2022.... Today, the N.R.S.C. is raising less than before Mr. Scott's digital splurge.... Mr. Scott's detractors accuse him of transforming the N.R.S.C. into the 'National Rick Scott Committee' -- and a vehicle for his presidential ambitions." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: I just want to congratulate Mitch & the rest of the GOP Senate leadership for choosing a renowned grifter to manager its money.

Pam Belluck of the New York Times: "As bans and restrictions proliferate across the country, abortion pill providers are pushing the envelope of regulations and laws to meet the surging demand for medication abortion in post-Roe America. Some are using physician discretion to prescribe pills to patients further along in pregnancy than the 10-week limit set by the Food and Drug Administration. Some are making pills available to women who are not pregnant but feel they could need them someday. Some are employing a don't-ask-don't-tell approach, providing telemedicine consultations and prescriptions without verifying that patients are in states that permit abortion.... Some of the practices, like not confirming that telemedicine patients are located in states that allow abortion, may run afoul of anti-abortion state laws or fall into uncharted legal territory, but they may also be challenging to police, reproductive health experts said."

Beyond the Beltway

Texas. Keith Allen, et al., of CNN: "Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said this week that rape victims in his state can take Plan B, a pregnancy-preventing emergency contraceptive known as a 'morning-after pill.'... Emergency contraceptives are intended for use within 72 hours after sex but are most effective if taken within 24 hours.... Texas' abortion trigger-law, which passed in 2021 in anticipation of the repeal of Roe v. Wade, went into effect last month, putting in place new criminal penalties for abortion and offering an exemption only for certain health emergencies."

Way Beyond

Ukraine, et al.

The Washington Post's live briefings of developments Sunday in Russia's war on Ukraine are here: "Europe is urgently preparing for the possibility that Russia will shut off its gas supply entirely ahead of winter, a potential retaliation for their support of Ukraine. [Ukraine President] Zelensky, in his nightly address Saturday, said Europe should respond to Russia's threats with more 'unity' and by 'increasing sanctions at all levels, and limiting Russia's oil and gas revenues.'... Ukrainians line up to donate blood to save 'soldiers who are fighting for us': In Mykolaiv, a city in southern Ukraine close to the front line, hundreds of civilians and soldiers responded to a call for blood donations Saturday...." ~~~

     ~~~ The New York Times' live updates for Sunday are here. The Guardian's live updates for Sunday are here. The Guardian's summary report is here.

Marc Santora & Andrew Kramer of the New York Times: "Even as hopes were raised that a permanent presence of United Nations inspectors would help reduce the risk of disaster at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in Ukraine, the war once again endangered the plant's safe operation. After shelling on Friday evening, the plant lost the connection with its only remaining primary external power line, forcing it to use a lower-voltage reserve line to power the cooling equipment needed to prevent meltdowns, the International Atomic Energy Agency said in a statement on Saturday.... The decision to keep monitors at the plant despite the obvious risks underscored what [IAEA Director Rafael] Grossi called the 'unprecedented' peril of the moment. He added that putting independent nuclear experts at the plant will allow for unbiased reports on conditions in real time."

Valerie Hopkins & Ivan Nechepurenko of the New York Times: "Thousands of Russians on Saturday stood for several hours in snaking lines amid a heavy police presence to pay their respects to Mikhail S. Gorbachev, the last Soviet leader, who died on Tuesday. Many Russians blame and revile Mr. Gorbachev for the breakup of the Soviet Union, but people of all ages, many of whom stood solemnly clutching flowers outside Moscow's famed House of the Unions, said that they had come to thank him for something severely restricted today in Russia: freedom.... For many, the funeral was a vivid reminder of the rights that Russians have lost under the leadership of ... Vladimir V. Putin and as a result of the almost complete dismantling of Mr. Gorbachev's legacy, culminating with the six-month-old war that Russia is prosecuting in Ukraine to take back former Soviet territory." (Also linked yesterday.)

     ~~~ Jim Heintz & Vladimir Isachenkov of the AP: "Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who often has been critical of the Western sanctions against Russia, was the only foreign leader who attended the farewell on Saturday. The U.S., British, German and other Western ambassadors also attended."

It Was the Economy, Stupid. Paul Krugman of the New York Times: "... in the 1950s, and even into the 1960s, many people around the world saw Soviet economic development as a success story; a backward nation had transformed itself into a major world power. (Killing millions in the process, but who's counting?)... After 1970, however, the Soviet growth story fell apart, and by some measures technological progress came to a standstill.... I don't know if it's widely appreciated just how poorly the Russian economy performed during the Boris Yeltsin years. But the numbers are sobering.... [Several factors may have] contribute[d] to the post-Gorbachev economic disaster.... The problems of the 1990s culminated in a financial crisis in 1998. After that, the Russian economy finally stabilized and resumed growth; unfortunately, it did so under the leadership of a guy named Vladimir Putin. It's doubtful whether economic recovery required the fall of democracy, but that's how it worked out.... The sad historical truth is that Gorbachev's political legacy was, to an important degree, poisoned by Russia's economic failure."

News Ledes

Washington Post: "Ten people were killed and at least 15 were injured in a rash of stabbings that put the entire Canadian province of Saskatchewan on alert while police attempted to track down the two suspects, authorities said Sunday. The suspects, named by police as Damien Sanderson, 31, and Myles Sanderson, 30, remained at large hours after authorities started receiving reports from about 5:40 a.m. local time of people being stabbed at the James Smith Cree Nation and in the village of Weldon." The Guardian's story is here. ~~~

     ~~~ The New York Times is live-updating developments.

AP: "NASA's new moon rocket sprang another dangerous fuel leak Saturday, forcing launch controllers to call off their second attempt this week to send a crew capsule into lunar orbit with test dummies. The inaugural flight is now off for weeks, if not months. The previous try on Monday at launching the 322-foot (98-meter) Space Launch System rocket, the most powerful ever built by NASA, was also troubled by hydrogen leaks, though they were smaller. That was on top of leaks detected during countdown drills earlier in the year. After the latest setback, mission managers decided to haul the rocket off the pad and into the hangar for further repairs and system updates. Some of the work and testing may be performed at the pad before the rocket is moved. Either way, several weeks of work will be needed, according to officials." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: The real solution to the problem would be to invent a pipe & hose material that does not spring leaks under the stress of severe weather & other conditions, a material that we could use in the plumping (oops!) plumbing of our homes & buildings so that we would never, ever have to winterize our homes again. For all the useful experiments NASA may conduct, sturdy plumping (oops! again) plumbing could be its greatest contribution to humankind.

Comments Off

Reader Comments (13)

https://news.yahoo.com/barack-obama-wins-emmy-narrating-
030529323.html

Barack Obama won Emmy for narrating the Netflix documentary
series "Our Great National Parks."

I wonder if there's an Emmy for "Most Lies Told By a President*
In Four Years, and Counting."

Everyone is invited to camp free in my State Forrest Campgrounds
this weekend and I'll even throw in a bottle of Marie's salad dressing.

September 4, 2022 | Unregistered CommenterForrest Morris

Forest: Well, that's mighty generous of you but the trek to your place is beyond my ability but, oh, what a paradise it would be to sit under one of your trees and munch on a salad tossed with that dressing Marie concocted one afternoon in June after the monsoon which prevented her usual photographing the loons.

Today––as you can see–-I'm where Akhilleus was yesterday–-sick of all the caterwauling shit storms over Biden's address, more gun violence, DeSantis trying to run the school system, Fatty's paper trail, etc. I'm tired and correct me if I'm wrong but Marie's comments on the side bar re: the failed NASA moon lift where she talks about solutions and uses the term "plumping" I wondered whether she mean plumbing but maybe I don't understand ––-I'm that tired but maybe so is Marie.

September 4, 2022 | Unregistered CommenterP.D. Pepe

@P.D. Pepe: Oopsy-daisy. Thanks for the catch! At least I'm consistent; I made the same mistake twice!

September 4, 2022 | Registered CommenterMarie Burns

President's Day Sale

September 4, 2022 | Unregistered CommenterRAS

Novelist Nora Roberts helps save a library in Michigan with $50k donation that was defunded because they had a few books catering to the LGBTQ community.

September 4, 2022 | Unregistered CommenterRAS

So, a year after saying that he will "eliminate rape" in Texas, Goober Abbott says ladies who are raped can take "Plan B". Does that mean he's abandoning the quest to eliminate rape?

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2021/09/08/greg-abbott-says-texas-eliminate-rape-defends-abortion-law/5770204001/

I could not find a plank in the TX GOP platform that addresses eliminating rape, but I just skimmed it. Maybe it's there. Probably not. Maybe Greg just didn't follow up?

BTW, that platform is a doozy. Winger utopia.

September 4, 2022 | Unregistered CommenterPatrick

That Michigan library is just up the highway from me, past Betsy's
"cottage". Our local library would really shock those homophobes.
A whole section of LGBTQ writers.
I'm currently working my way through all the David Sedaris books.

September 4, 2022 | Unregistered CommenterForrest Morris

Forrest,

Sedaris’s “Barrel Fever” and “Me Talk Pretty One Day” are two of my favorite books by American humorists, right up there with S.J. Perelman and Fran Lebowitz (good company). NPR used to replay his recording of the “Santaland Diaries” (“‘I’m going to have you fired!’ ‘Well I’m going to have you killed!’”) around Christmastime but I haven’t heard it now in years. Guess they got too many complaints from confederates pissed at a gay guy taking the mickey out of Christmas at Macy’s.

September 4, 2022 | Unregistered CommenterAkhilleus

As I read Gov Abbotts release of "Plan B" it was for rape victims only. Plan B is most effective within 24 hours but can be used up to 72 hours. I'm certain you'd need to go through the process to be declared a "rape victim" and I'm sure it's not a speedy process, especially in a deep red state. This looks like window dressing to me.

September 4, 2022 | Unregistered CommenterBobby Lee

Sedaris is one of those writers I "bond" with. I don't mean to say I'm crazy & think he's a close personal friend, but I do think of him as a close personal friend. And he's a very brave writer. He "tells on himself" in ways I don't think I dare to do, even now in my old age. I really admire him. And, yes, he makes me LOL. That doesn't hurt, either.

September 4, 2022 | Unregistered CommenterMarie Burns

Count me in as a Sedaris fan and yes, as Marie says, he "tells on himself" and that's a brave thing to do in any circumstance but especially in a writer who is as well known as he. The New Yorker publishes his stuff on a regular basis and I especially like his "family secrets" in which he spares no one, especially himself.

September 4, 2022 | Unregistered CommenterP.D. Pepe

Re: David Sedaris. Every time I'm in a doctor's office or at the local
hospital, I always tell this Sedaris joke to nurses and doctors:

What do you do when a perapalegic (sp.) has a fit in your bathtub?

Answer: Throw in your laundry.

September 4, 2022 | Unregistered CommenterForrest Morris

Forrest,

Okay, okay, so when I was a kid, I’d sometimes drag out Christmas records in July and put them on the record player. Just because. My parents had already resigned themselves to my various 10 year old eccentricities, but today, I have you to blame for my going online to replay the “Santaland Diaries” while cleaning the kitchen. My dog kept coming in to see why Daddy was laughing like an idiot, especially the part where Sedaris, at “Santa’s” request sings “Away in a Manger”. As sung by Billie Holiday. OMG. Holy shit. I forgot about that part. He thought I’d lost my mind.

I also figured out why this recording was perfectly fine in 2001 but off limits in 2022, in an age where the traitors and LGBTQ haters believe saying “gay” is “recruiting” poor innocent kiddies into a life of gay bathhouses, leather cowboy uniforms and Lesbian sex parties. There’s the part where Sedaris mentions that the part of his job that he most enjoyed was when everyone changed into their elf costumes and he got to see everyone in their underwear.

Puh-leeese. I guess it would have been perfectly okay if he had admitted that, like Trump, he loved being able to invade the dressing rooms of underage girls so he could ogle them in the altogether.

Child molestation is fine as long as it’s a white adult male peeking at young girls.

Anyway, thanks for a half hour of laughs.

September 4, 2022 | Unregistered CommenterAkhilleus
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