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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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Tuesday
May242011

The Commentariat -- May 25

President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama greet Britain's Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh, for a reciprocal dinner at the Winfield House in London. Getty image.President Obama addresses the British Parliament:

     ... Here's the full text of his speech, via the White House.

President Obama & British Prime Minister Cameron hold a joint press conference:

Maureen Dowd: "Obama had to take a foreign trip to seem less foreign to Americans." ...

... I've posted a comments page on Off Times Square for Dowd. Karen Garcia and I have added our comments.

While making baseless claims might be shrewd tactics for those who want to undermine the bureau’s work, they are flatly wrong. -- Elizabeth Warren, in testimony before the House Oversight Committee

Ben Protess of the New York Times writes a plain-vanilla report on yet another committee grilling of Elizabeth Warren, the head of the not-yet-operational Financial Consumer Protection Bureau. ...

... Karen Garcia is less sanguine, comparing the hearing to the Spanish Inquisition, as Chairman Patrick McHenry (R-NC) repeatedly accused Warren of lying under oath & ironically, seldom let her finish a sentence. You can watch the hearing on C-SPAN. Here's the final exchange -- my guess is that twit McHenry doesn't consult his own staff:

     ... Video via Dave Weigel. Ari Berman of The Nation has more on the hearing.

Unretouched photo of David Brooks in London by renowned celebrity photographer Lord Driftglass of High Mockeryshire.Glenn Greenwald does a nice job of whacking Our Oligarchical Mister Brooks in his Adoration of the Elites. ...

... AND so, of course does Driftglass. ...

... Update. Commenter P. D. Pepe recommends this commentary on Brooks' column by British writer Daniel Knowles. So do I. Here's a taste: "... his column is laughably ignorant of British history and bizarrely naive about British political culture.... This self-indulgent ego-boosting nonsense is just what we need to get away from. While our politicos go around slapping themselves on the backs about how utterly indescribably and uniquely brilliant they all are, the British public hates them more than ever."

... An American Disgrace. Glenn Greenwald on reaction to Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu's speech yesterday before a joint session of Congress: "... the super-patriots of the American Right..., the same faction that spent the last decade demanding fealty to the Commander-in-Chief in a Time of War upon pain of being accused of a lack of patriotism (or worse) now openly sides with a foreign leader over their own President.  The U.S. Congress humiliates itself by expressing greater admiration for and loyalty to this foreign leader than their own country's."

You know, we don't do elaborate things.... We are very frugal. -- Newt Gingrich

Here are a few Gingrich frugalities: "His flagship political operation, a tax-exempt conservative group called American Solutions for Winning the Future, has spent at least $2.2 million over the past two years on private jets and executive chauffeur services"; a million-dollar-plus home; dining at the chic La Sponda in Amalfi; dining at the upscale Cafe Milano in Georgetown; the Newt wearing a $15-20,000 Patek Philippie Calatrava watch; "a $450 bottle of 1983 Chateau Latour." More to come, I'm sure.

Sheryl Gay Stolberg of the New York Times: "To the long list of rich-guy foibles that turned into defining campaign moments — John Edwards’s $400 haircut, John Kerry’s kite-surfing,* John McCain’s inability to remember how many homes he owns — let us now add Newt Gingrich’s $500,000 revolving line of credit at the luxury jeweler Tiffany & Company.... The way some voters out in the rest of America might see it, he’s a guy who paid more for jewelry than some people pay for their houses." ...

... Time has a slideshow of Callista's Tiffany trove. ...

... Jeff Stein of SpyTalk: " At the same time Tiffany & Co. was extending Callista (Bisek) Gingrich a virtual interest-free loan of tens of thousands of dollars, the diamond and silverware firm was spending big bucks to influence mining policy in Congress and in agencies over which the House Agriculture Committee -- where she worked -- had jurisdiction, official records show."

Glenn Kessler, the Washington Post fact-checker was "puzzled by his claim that he [Gingrich] had a 'standard, no-interest account' at Tiffany & Co." Uh, there's no such thing. Tiffany's "standard" account charges 21 percent interest. Read Kessler's whole article. It's a hoot. Kessler has an update here, the crux of which is that Tiffany's confirmed that the Gingriches now have a zero balance at Tiffany's. Kessler doesn't change his three Pinocchios rating.

* A friend writes, "Wind-surfing is like a half-million dollar Tiffany's account? Really? A friend writes, "... the Kerry thing is just stupid. You know what? I've gone wind surfing. It was a blast. I'm an ocean guy, and I like doing stuff like parachuting and para-sailing and wind surfing....when I get a chance to do it and I'm on vacation and I have an extra $50 to do it. It is NOT something restricted to rich guys. In no way could you ever mistake me for a rich guy."

News Ledes

New York Times: "A federal judge on Wednesday ruled that Jared L. Loughner was not mentally competent to stand trial on charges of opening fire at a constituent event for an Arizona congresswoman in January, killing 6 and injuring 13."

Slate: "Goodwin Liu, President Obama's nominee for a seat on the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, sent a letter to the president ... officially withdrawing his name from consideration. Liu's nomination was filibustered in the Senate last week, when Republicans (and one Democrat) refused to give Liu an up-or-down vote."

New York Times: "The Justice Department plans to move ahead with criminal charges against John Edwards, the former senator and presidential candidate, contending that he misused campaign funds to cover up an affair, a person close to Mr. Edwards said on Wednesday morning."

NBC News: "As residents in three states picked through rubble, looking for victims and belongings buried by storms that killed 14 people, twisters were reported in the Kansas City area and an even broader round of severe weather was expected throughout Wednesday." With video.

PM & Mrs. Obamas spent their second day in London today.

Reuters: "Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said Israel was offering 'nothing we can build on' for peace and that without progress he will seek U.N. recognition of Palestinian statehood in September." ...

... Washington Post: "Top Democrats have joined a number of Republicans in challenging President Obama’s policy toward Israel, further exposing rifts that the White House and its allies will seek to mend before next year’s election." CW: ... evidently because "top Democrats" and "a number of Republicans" claim not to know Netanyahu agreed to Obama's stated terms last November.

Washington Post: "... when pressed to name their biggest concern, nearly half of [American] respondents say they are alarmed by the prospect that the debt could grow beyond its current limit of $14.3 trillion, according to a new Washington Post-Pew Research Center poll. Only 35 percent say they are more worried about the risk of default and economic destabilization if Congress does not raise the debt limit." CW: the President has utterly failed to explain to the American people why raising the debt ceiling is necessary. He hasn't even addressed it.

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