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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.

OR you can always just block, copy and paste to your comment the URL (Web address) of the page you want to link.

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.

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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Sunday
Dec242023

The Conversation -- December 25, 2023

Marie: Say what you will in the Comments; here's something of a realist's view of Christmas from the ridiculous to the ordinary to -- if you click on the King's College Choir playlist -- the sublime.

Loudon Wainwright III looks forward to Christmas:

~~~ Then It's Here:

Merry Christmas from the Family in Houston:

And from Boston:

All Is Not Lost: Maybe the Best Popular Christmas Song Video Ever:

If you prefer something a tad more traditional, a YouTube playlist of carols performed by the King's College, Cambridge, Choir is here.

Comments Off

Reader Comments (17)

Merry Christmas, and stay safe. Our son came up from the City and is staying in an Air BnB near us so he an his partner can have their own space. He tested positive this afternoon. Daughter came home, recovering from her first infection two weeks ago. Wife caught it for the first time four weeks ago. I'm the last one standing here. It'll be yet another different Christmas this year.

Many thanks to all the contributors, and to Marie.

December 24, 2023 | Unregistered CommenterNiskyGuy

The smallest acts

December 25, 2023 | Unregistered CommenterRAS

@RAS: Thank you. It's probably hard to believe since I can be so acerbic in my writing (and when the occasion arises, in my speaking), but that monk's advice to the kids has been my modus operandi all of my adult life.

Now, the shoe is sometimes on the other foot. That is, I am the recipient of the "kindness of strangers." An extremely kindly person I knew because she was a friend of this site once wrote to me that she had a few heavy bags of mulch to move and didn't know if she could do it. Not only was she elderly, but she was very sick.

Many long-time readers will remember MAG, who died three years ago this month. I wrote back to MAG and advised her to approach some muscular-looking passerby and ask him to help. "Don't look upon it as an imposition. Assuming the person you ask is a decent guy, not in a terrible rush to get somewhere and in good physical shape, he will be happy to help you. In fact, he will not only get the job done in short order and with what is little effort for him, he will feel much better for having been of help." Most people like to perform those simple acts of kindness. Helping others with little things makes us feel like useful, decent people and reinforces the sense that we are part of a community.

MAG not only thanked me for my advice, she took it. And it worked.

Some months back, I heard someone say, "Receiving a story is a gift to the teller." It's the same principle.

A couple of winters ago, I was out in the driveway brushing the snow off my van. I did most of it, but I could neither see nor reach the center of the roof of the van, so the van looked like it had a mohawk. About that time, a tall, young Norwegian-looking guy walked past and asked if he could help. In earlier days, I would have said, "No, I can do it myself." But I said, "Sure, since you can reach it and I can't, could you brush that snow off the roof?" It probably took him two minutes, and as far as I could tell, he was more than glad to do it.

That's how it works.

December 25, 2023 | Registered CommenterMarie Burns

RAS, Marie and All.

I think that's pretty the or at least a major defining difference between the left and the right: the degree to which people notice others who need a little help, how far from their immediate family their altruistic vision extends, and their willingness to make an effort (physical, psychological, financial) to provide it.

That the giver might feel good about it is beside the point--or maybe it IS the point.

I have always thought the Pretender's now-defunct charity scam was the very definition of cynical, selfish disregard for others and a perfect emblem of what the man is: A Scrooge for our time, with no hope of redemption.

And now he has come to represent an entire political party.

(Watched the last part of a 1938 "Christmas Carol" last night and seen through the lens of my politics, as I see most things, it didn't seem all that dated to me.)

December 25, 2023 | Unregistered CommenterKen Winkes

“But you were always a good man of business, Jacob,” faltered Scrooge..."
“Business!” cried the Ghost, wringing its hands again. “Mankind was my business. The common welfare was my business; charity, mercy, forbearance, and benevolence, were, all, my business. The dealings of my trade were but a drop of water in the comprehensive ocean of my business!”

Let's all take care of business. Merry Chrismahanukwanzakah to everyone.

December 25, 2023 | Unregistered CommenterD in DC

Chrismahanukwanzakah?

Holy portmanteau, Batman!

No, Robin, a portmanteau combines two different words. D has whisked together three words. Perhaps triportmanteau? Or neologotriportmanteau? Oh look…the Bat Signal! Just in time. Happy batshit to all and to all a good night.

December 25, 2023 | Unregistered CommenterAkhilleus

Despite the fact that in the past I have admonished D in MD not to forget Festivus, it is once again missing from the triportmanteau. So I would wish everyone a Merry Christmafestihanukwanzakahivus, which I guess, according to Akhilleus' neological presumptions, is a quatreportmanteau. And -- whether you prefer D's greeting or mine -- you are so woke.

December 25, 2023 | Unregistered CommenterMarie Burns

Marie and AK,

Can we work Saturnalia in there as well?

December 25, 2023 | Unregistered CommenterD in MD

We can't leave out Yule, the ancient Christmastime holiday celebrated
by my northern and eastern (gypsies) European ancestors, the
Heathens and Wiccans.
However, I got none of that gypsy blood. I like to stay put in one place, since surviving those 16 childhood moves from state to state.
Dad was an oil and gas wildcatter.

December 25, 2023 | Unregistered CommenterForrestMorris

Thanks Forrest,

see

I am currently reading Kindred. Since Neanderthals were very intelligent and sophisticated, they doubtless observed and celebrated the winter solstice. I had my DNA tested specifically to find out how much neanderthal I have in me and was very gratified to learn that I am in the high end of the distribution.

December 25, 2023 | Unregistered CommenterD in MD

In a small act of kindness last week at the post office, the man in front of me invited me and the very elderly man behind me to go next when he reached the top of the 30 minute queue. I accepted and enjoyed that tiny spark of connection with a stranger but the elderly man stubbornly and awkwardly refused.
Maybe he never heard that story Marie quotes: "Receiving a story is a gift to the teller."
Happy holidays ya'll

December 25, 2023 | Unregistered Commenterlaura hunter

I see no reason not to include Saturnalia and Yule in out greeting. After all, those of us who celebrate Christmas to one extent or another follow in the Saturnalia & Yule traditions. So why not acknowledge them?

So Merry ChristmaSaturFestiHanuKwanzakaYulinalias! Admittedly, kind of hard to fit on a greeting card.

December 25, 2023 | Registered CommenterMarie Burns

We can just abbreviate it on our greeting cards:

SCHYKS, rhymes with chicks.

December 25, 2023 | Unregistered CommenterForrestMorris

I've got serious concerns over AI generated photographs but I saw one this morning I only hope will be shot in reality. Crooks and Liars had a shot of an orange suited, despondent, Donald Trump in a prison corridor, titled "A big, fat grifter."

I doubt I'll ever see a time where the stench of Trumpism and the dregs of his MAGA horde pollute the breeze, but I hope the nation can shake off the disease.

December 25, 2023 | Unregistered CommenterBobby Lee

Here's what Bobby Lee is referring to. Silly, but it made me smile.

December 25, 2023 | Unregistered Commenterunwashed

For more clarification on the festivities, or festivustivities as it were

This just in.

December 25, 2023 | Unregistered CommenterD in MD

D,

Re: your “this just in” link, my favorite is the Spanish translation of Christmas being “More Christ”.

How about Christnomas?

December 25, 2023 | Unregistered CommenterAkhilleus
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