Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Froma Harrop: Mueller Report Is What Democrats Needed (Creators Syndicate)
But now it's no more nice guy trying to discretely kill off the ACA. The Trump administration has just filed a motion to have the federal courts strike down the whole thing. Millions could lose their health coverage obtained under Medicaid or through subsidized private insurance. Protections for pre-existing medical conditions - gone. Better prescription coverage for Medicare beneficiaries - gone. [
] See the clever footwork? The Republican Congress threw out the individual mandate. No one wants to pay taxes, right? Now rather than forthrightly vote to take away health coverage, they're asking the courts to do the dirty deed.
Susan Estrich: Treasonous? Who? (Creators Syndicate)
Could Trump win again? Absolutely. And many, many Americans, especially those at the bottom, will suffer. "Meh" - you think it's all meh? Tell that to your constituents, the Americans who need help most and will get the least.
Lenore Skenazy: Helicopter Parenting Is Bad
No, Good! No, Bad (Creators Syndicate)
Just recently, I was talking to a high school teacher from an affluent suburb where the catchphrase is "Yale or jail." The teacher was hoping to figure out how to give younger kids some less helicoptered time - a chance for kids to just do what interests them without someone coaching or grading them, precisely so they can spend some time outside the Yale/jail rat race - because she said, "By high school, it's too late. Their anxiety is off the charts."
Connie Schultz: Now, More Than Ever, You Need a Rescue Pet (Creators Syndicate)
Why am I telling you about all of our rescue pets? To make you smile, maybe, and who doesn't need that right now? And to encourage you to adopt a rescue pet, too, if you're looking for high-quality non-human company. I'm not judging those who prefer purebreds or mix-a-doodles. I'm just trying to save a few lives. We're not talking about just dogs, of course.
Lucy Mangan: The self-help industry promotes an unattainable way of life that is outside the average human's remit (inews.uk)
The anxiety economy preys on us. It pathologises normal dips in mood, tells us that normal responses to bad things are wrong, persuades us that uncertainty is intolerable and promises us new products that will restore our equilibrium. In promising balance for our inner worlds, they are in essence denying the human condition and setting people - especially the young - up for failure.
Lucy Mangan: Santa Clarita Diet review - this tasty zomcom is back with more bite (The Guardian)
Drew Barrymore returns for more flesh-eating - and there's a chatty decapitated head in the basement and a Nazi-hunting neighbour doing God's work. Gobble it up.
Arwa Mahdawi; "'The Leggings problem': can we just never hear about them again?" (The Guardian)
The spandex-based controversy has been broiling in the west for years; and it's not just men policing women's bodies, women are doing it to themselves
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Presenting
Michael Egan
took the day off.
has returned to semi-retired status.
In memory.
Reader Suggestion
Michelle in AZ
from Bruce
Anecdotes
Senator Warren Magnuson, a Democrat from Washington, has the nickname "Maggie." At a dinner with President Franklin D. Roosevelt, he was referred to as Maggie constantly. Winston Churchill asked Senator Magnuson about the nickname, then told him, "Young man, if I were you, I wouldn't resent it. I really think the reason that I'm Prime Minister of England is I'm known as Winnie in every pub in the country." After speaking with Sir Winston, Senator Magnuson never worried about his nickname.
Jane Withers was a child actress who became famous because in the movie Bright Eyes, the character she played was mean to America's darling, Shirley Temple. Even before Jane was born, her mother wanted for her to be a star. She decided to name her daughter "Jane" because "Withers" was a long name for a movie marquee, so a short first name was needed so the entire name would fit on the marquee.
When Rudolf Bing became general manager of the Metropolitan Opera, his appointment was kept secret for a while. When he went to a photographer to have his portrait taken to accompany the press release that would announce his appointment, he used an assumed name. When the assumed name was called, he failed to stand up - because he had forgotten the name.
Richard Brinsley Sheridan was once asked, "How is it that your name has not an 'O' prefixed to it? Your family is Irish, and no doubt illustrious." Mr. Sheridan, who was chronically in debt, replied, "No family has a better right to an 'O' than our family, for in truth we owe everybody."
When Benjamin Disraeli grew old, he had trouble remembering names. Whenever he met someone whose name he had forgotten, he would give himself two minutes to try to remember the name. If he couldn't remember the name, he would simply ask, "And how is the old complaint?"
Hovis brown bread is famous in the United Kingdom. In 1890, it was named in a contest. "Hovis" is a shortened form of the Latin Hominis Vis, meaning "strength of man." During the 1950s, TV commercials made the slogan, "Don't Say Brown, Say Hovis," so well known that children with the last name of Brown were nicknamed Hovis.
Lillian Evanti (1890-1967) had an Italian-sounding name. Actually, she was an African-American diva who created the name by combining her real last name, Evans, with the last name of her husband, Roy Tibbs.
Comedian Judy Holliday starred in such classic comedies as Born Yesterday and The Solid Gold Cadillac. Her real name was Judith Tuvim - "tuvim" is Hebrew for holiday.
When Shirley Shrift changed her name to Shelley Winters, a friend named Josh Shelley told her, "Well, that does it. We can't get married. That would make you Shelley Shelley."
A dance writer once flattered Maria Tallchief by writing, "There's only oneTallchief." Other, more clever people reminded the writer that Ms. Tallchief's sister, Marjorie, was a ballerina, too.
Journalist H. Allen Smith once attended and wrote a story about a convention of people named Fred Smith. The byline of his story was "By H. Allen (Call Me Fred) Smith."
Vicki Crooks' four-year-old son asked her about God's name, so she explained that God has many names, and he answers to all of them: Father, Jehovah, Lord, etc. Her son asked, "Can I just call him Steve?"
Lιonide Massine once choreographed a dance with the title "Ya s komarisom pliasala," which means "I danced with a mosquito."
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In The Chaos Household
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Votes Overwhelmingly
Writers Guild
The Yes vote was 95.3 percent.
The Writers Guild of America overwhelmingly approved a new talent agency "Code of Conduct" Sunday by a vote of 95.3 percent (7,882) to 4.7 percent (392), paving the way for the union's leadership to order members to fire their agents en masse as early as April 7 if no deal is reached by then with the Association of Talent Agents. The turnout was over 50 percent, a high figure, and ratification above the ninety percent level is seen as a sign of strong support for leadership.
But the agencies are dug in as well, and a deal seems unlikely, with no new meetings currently planned between the WGA and the ATA. Seven previous bargaining sessions yielded little progress, and none on the key issues that divide the two sides, packaging fees and affiliate production.
The WGA had no comment beyond the election results. Whether there will indeed be a meeting this week is unknown, but what comes next may be chaotic as thousands of agentless writers look for work during staffing season.
The electronic balloting extended over five days and was open to the approximately 15,000 active members of the guild. Few agencies, and none of the large ones, are expected to sign the new code, in view of the practices it prohibits. That will make them off-limits to WGA members come April 7, as guild members are not allowed to sign with agencies that aren't signed to an agreement with the WGA. The guild has said it will order its members to fire their agents en masse.
Writers Guild
Center Opens In Cuba
Ernest Hemingway
A restoration center to preserve the work of Ernest Hemingway opened in Cuba on Saturday, highlighting an area of cooperation with the United States even as bilateral ties between the old Cold War foes have chilled again.
Hemingway, who won the Nobel prize for Literature in 1954, wrote some of his greatest books during the 21 years he lived at Finca Vigia, or Lookout Farm, now a museum in San Francisco de Paula on the outskirts of Havana.
The restoration center built by the Cuban National Cultural Heritage Council and Finca Vigia Foundation of the United States is located on the 15-acre (6-hectare) property where Hemingway lived in a tree-shaded, airy Spanish-style home.
Hemingway moved to Finca Vigia in 1939, the year before "For Whom the Bell Tolls" was published, and wrote "The Old Man and the Sea", "A Moveable Feast" and "Islands in the Stream" while he was there, according to local scholars.
He left Cuba in 1960, more than a year after the Cuban revolution and less than a year before he killed himself in Idaho at age 61 amid a struggle with depression.
Ernest Hemingway
New Japan Imperial Era
Reiwa
Japan's new imperial era to begin on May 1, when Crown Prince Naruhito becomes emperor, will be called Reiwa, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga announced on Monday, adding that Prime Minister Shinzo Abe would explain its meaning shortly in a national address.
The era name, or "gengo," is used widely in Japan - on coins, calendars, newspapers and in official paperwork. Although use of the Western calendar has become widespread, many Japanese count years by gengo or use the two systems interchangeably.
Naruhito's ascension to the Chrysanthemum Throne will come a day after his father, Emperor Akihito, abdicates on April 30, ending the Heisei era, which began in 1989. Akihito will be the first emperor to abdicate in Japan in over two centuries.
Reiwa
Rare Book Sold
Harry Potter
An auction house in London has sold a first-edition copy of "Harry Potter and The Philosopher's Stone" for more than $90,000.
Bonhams Auction House says it's one of about 500 copies of the book that exist - and it belonged to author JK Rowling's first literary agency.
This copy has a couple of typos: the word "philosopher" is misspelled on the back cover and Harry's list of required school supplies includes "1 wand" two times.
"Harry Potter and The Philosopher's Stone" - or the sorcerer's stone, as it's known in the U.S. - was published in 1997.
Harry Potter
Credit Union Shuts Down
CBS Employees
The longtime manager the CBS Employees Federal Credit Union has been arrested and charged with embezzling more than $40 million from his employer over the past 20 years. Edward Rostohar faces felony counts of bank fraud and aggravated identity theft.
In conjunction with the arrest, the National Credit Union Administration - a federal agency that regulates credit unions - announced Friday that it has liquidated the CBS Employees Federal Credit Union and shut down its operations. University Credit Union immediately assumed CBS Employees' assets.
Rostohar, 62, of Studio City, was arrested two weeks ago and remains in custody because he is considered a flight risk and an economic threat to the community, according to Nic Hanna, U.S. Attorney for the Central District of California, who announced the charges today. If convicted on both counts, Rostohar faces a maximum of 32 years in federal prison and a $1 million fine.
According to an affidavit filed with the criminal complaint, beginning before 2000 and continuing until this month, Rostohar used his position as a manager at the federally insured credit union to make online payments to himself or forged the signature of another employee on checks to himself. The feds allege that Rostohar spent the money on gambling, expensive cars and watches and travel by private jet.
The alleged scheme was exposed beginning on March 6 when a credit union employee found a $35,000 check made payable to Rostohar, and the check did not include the reason for the high dollar amount, according to court documents. The employee conducted an audit of the credit union checks issued since January 2018 and discovered $3,775,000 in checks made payable to Rostohar and which contained the forged signature of another employee without the employee's knowledge or consent. On March 12, the credit union informed Rostohar that he had been suspended from his job after an internal investigation uncovered "irregularities in the performance of your job duties," according to court documents. Later that day, Rostohar's wife called 911 and told the dispatcher that her husband had stolen money from work and was leaving the country, court papers state. Rostohar was taken into custody and admitted that he stole money from the credit union for 20 years, beginning by paying the monthly balances on his personal credit cards with funds from the credit union's online accounts or by forging checks, and later by forging his coworker's signature on credit union checks and depositing them into his personal accounts, court papers state. Rostohar allegedly estimated he stole $40 million from the credit union. An NCUA examination up to February 28 revealed a potential loss to the credit union of $40,541,130.
CBS Employees
Alzheimer's?
Dolphins
Over a dozen dolphins, stranded on the beaches of Florida and Massachusetts, have been found with brains full of amyloid plaques, a hallmark of Alzheimer's disease.
The scientists who made the discovery think it may be a warning to us all: alongside the Alzheimer's-like plaques, the team also found the environmental toxin BMAA.
Produced by blue-green algae blooms, this neurotoxin is easily caught up in the ocean food web, and chronic dietary exposure has long been suspected to be a cause of neurological disease, including Alzheimers, Parkinson's and Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS).
The presence of both BMAA and amyloid plaques in 13 stranded dolphins now adds even more weight to this hypothesis.
"Dolphins are an excellent sentinel species for toxic exposures in the marine environment," says neurologist Deborah Mash from the University of Miami.
Dolphins
Flocking to Mumbai
Flamingos
Around this time every year, tens of thousands of flamingos flock to Mumbai to feed. But this year, there are almost three times more than the normal amount in the city - about 120,000.
The reason for the influx is currently a mystery. But some scientists believe that pollution in the birds' natural habitat might be one factor at play.
As The Guardian reports, one of the best places to see large flocks of flamingos in Mumbai is near a water treatment plant alongside the city's Thane Creek. Now, an increase in sewage output and industrial runoff into the creek is thought by some to be fueling an uptick in the blue-green algae that the birds feed on.
"The scene in the Thane Creek when they are wading in the water is amazing," Rahul Khot, assistant director of the Bombay Natural History Society, says in an interview with NPR's Weekend Edition Sunday.
Khot and his team aren't convinced quite yet that sewage output and industrial runoff is why the flamingo population has spiked this year, but they welcome the attention the flamingos of Mumbai are getting right now.
Flamingos
Climate Change
Denali
There's good news and bad news at Denali, North America's tallest mountain.
The bad news is that the 66 tons of frozen feces left by climbers on the Alaska summit is expected to start melting out of the glacier sometime in the coming decades and potentially as soon as this summer, a process that's speeding up in part due to global warming.
The good news is that this year, for the first time, the guide companies that lead many of the 1,200 climbers who attempt the summit each year have voluntarily decided to start packing out their human waste. This comes just a year after the National Park Service instituted a policy that all such waste below 14,000 feet must be carried off the mountain.
The poop problem is very real. Climbers scaling Denali, previously known as Mount McKinley, generate close to 2 metric tons of human waste each year, according to the National Park Service. (The average human "deposit" weighs half a pound and the average length of a climber's stay on the mountain is 18 days, which is how researchers got the figure of 66 tons over the course of the past century.)
Initially, human waste was left in snow pits on the Kahiltna glacier, the most common route up, or thrown into deep crevasses at higher elevations. It was believed that the waste would be ground up in the ice over time.
Denali
Weekend Box Office
'Dumbo'
Disney's "Dumbo" isn't exactly taking flight at the North American box office the way its other live-action remakes of animated classics have.
The Walt Disney Co. said Sunday that the Tim Burton-directed film has earned an estimated $45 million domestically from 4,259 locations against a $170 million production budget. It's less than half of what "Beauty and the Beast," ''The Jungle Book" and Burton's own "Alice in Wonderland" opened to.
"Dumbo" did bump Jordan Peele's "Us" to second place. "Us" added $33.6 million, down only 53%, bringing its domestic total to $128.2 million in its second week. The Lupita Nyong'o doppelganger movie cost only $20 million to produce.
The teen drama/romance "Five Feet Apart" with Cole Sprouse and Haley Lu Richardson took fourth place with $6.3 million, down only 27% in its third week.
Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Comscore. Where available, the latest international numbers for Friday through Sunday are also included. Final domestic figures will be released Monday.
1."Dumbo," $45 million ($71 million international).
2."Us," $33.6 million ($22.6 million international).
3."Captain Marvel," $20.5 million ($26.4 million international).
4."Five Feet Apart," $6.3 million ($6.2 million international).
5."Unplanned," $6.1 million.
6."Wonder Park," $4.9 million ($2.5 million international).
7."How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World," $4.2 million ($2.6 million international).
8."Hotel Mumbai," $3.2 million ($640,227 international).
9.Tyler Perry's "A Madea Family Funeral," $2.7 million ($35,000 international).
10."The Beach Bum," $1.8 million ($427,000 international).
'Dumbo'
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