Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Hadley Freeman: After six months of #MeToo, the burning question seems to be: how soon can these guys come back? (The Guardian)
Months are like dog years for men, so four months on the sidelines for a man is definitely the same as decades of groping for a woman.
Daniel Politi: Rachel Maddow Joins More Than 60 Women Supporting Tom Brokaw Amid Harassment Claims (Slate)
While the letter is careful to note that "as professional women, we fully endorse the conversation around abuse of power in the workplace" it goes on to say that "we would like to share our perspectives on working with Tom Brokaw." Brokaw "has treated each of us with fairness and respect." The women who signed the letter went on to note that Brokaw had given them opportunities to advance in their careers and "championed our successes."
April Glaser: After Backpage (Slate)
The feds shuttered the website for facilitating sex trafficking-but it also gave sex workers a home off the streets. Thanks to a new law, that may be the only place for some of them to go.
Rachelle Hampton: Let's Embrace Our Blubbering and Make Cry Closets Happen (Slate)
To help students over the last hurdle of the academic school year and assist them in regurgitating 15 weeks' worth of knowledge in five days, one university has allowed a student to install an inventive coping method in the campus' library. Devised by University of Utah student and visual artist Nemo Miller, the "cry closet" is pretty self-explanatory. The closet, outfitted with black felt, stuffed animals and a strict ten-minute cry-policy, is a self-described "safe space for stressed-out students" to have a breakdown in the privacy of large wooden box.
Felix Salmon: The Media Narrative Around Amazon Is Out of Control (Slate)
The best gift you can give to any CEO is an overvalued stock. An ever-rising share price effectively obscures any number of sins: It cheapens the cost of debt, makes it easy to keep your employees happy by giving them options, and reassures the market that everything is fine. It also sets the tone for media coverage, which can then provide a tailwind, helping the company do even better on the stock market
Richard Gunderman: As the Royal Wedding approaches, what can one of the world's greatest novels teach us about marriage? (The Conversation)
Fortunately, one of the greatest novels ever published - Tolstoy's "Anna Karenina," which I teach regularly to my ethics students at Indiana University - provides deep insights on why some marriages thrive and others don't.
Oliver Burkeman: Your success isn't down to free will - luck determines everything (The Guardian)
Your social situation is a matter of luck, but then so are your underlying skills and character.
Rachael Popow: "Book Review of Bookworm: A Memoir of Childhood Reading by Lucy Mangan" (Yorkshire Magazine)
And while Bookworm definitely made me want to raid my parents' loft for some old favourites, it also made me want to go back and fill a few gaps in my own childhood reading - based on this book, I've downloaded The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster. You're never too old for a good children's book.
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Presenting
Michael Egan
took the day off.
has returned to semi-retired status.
In memory.
Reader Suggestion
Michelle in AZ
Reader Comment
Re: El Segundo
Marty
As I got the story, the name doesn't go back to the days of Spanish,
then Mexican California - it was added by Standard Oil or similar, to
denote it's second oil refinery in the region...
Speaking of Mexican California, when the infant US stole territory the
size of India, back in the midle of the 19th century, a treaty was
signed (Guadalupe Hidalgo), one that protected the Spansh language here,
the Catholic religion, and ... the right to cross the new border freely...
Will Rogers said, "The US never lost a war (true in his day) nor honored
a treaty" - so the once-open border between Mexico and territory stolen
from it is not part of Trump's pitch for his wall...
Concerned Citizen
Thanks, Citizen!
Think my favorite is San Pedro - seems like it should be "San Pay-Dro", but the locals say "San Pee-Dro".
Bonus Links
Jeannie the Teed-Off Temp
from Marc Perkel
Marc's Guide to Curing Cancer
So far so good on beating cancer for now. I'm doing fine. At the end of the month I'll be 16 months into an 8 month mean lifespan. And yesterday I went on a 7 mile hike and managed to keep up with the hiking group I was with. So, doing something right.
Still waiting for future test results and should see things headed in the right direction. I can say that it's not likely that anything dire happens in the short term so that means that I should have time to make several more attempts at this. So even if it doesn't work the first time there are a lot of variations to try. So if there's bad news it will help me pick the next radiation target.
I have written a "how to" guide for oncologists to perform the treatment that I got. I'm convinced that I'm definitely onto something and whether it works for me or not isn't the definitive test. I know if other people tried this that it would work for some of them, and if they improve it that it will work for a lot of them.
The guide is quite detailed and any doctor reading this can understand the procedure at every level. I also go into detail as to how it works, how I figured it out, and variations and improvements that could be tried to enhance it. I also introduce new ways to look at the problem. There is a lot of room for improvement and I think that doctors reading it will see what I'm talking about and want to build on it. And it's written so that if you're not a doctor you can still follow it. It also has a personal story revealing that I'm the class clown of cancer support group. I give great interviews and I look pretty hot in a lab coat.
So, feel free to read this and see what I'm talking about. But if any of you want to help then pass this around to both doctors and cancer patients. I need some media coverage. I'm looking for as many eyeballs as possible to read these ideas. Even if this isn't the solution, it's definitely on the right track. After all, I did hike 7 miles yesterday. And this hiking group wasn't moving slow. So if this isn't working then, why am I still here?
I also see curing cancer as more of an engineering problem that a medical problem. So if you are good at solving problems and most of what you know about medicine was watching the Dr. House MD TV show, then you're at the level I was at when I started. So anyone can jump in and be part of the solution.
Here is a link to my guide: Oncologists Guide to Curing Cancer using Abscopal Effect
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
SATANS LITTLE HELPER.
"TANGLED UP IN BOOZE."
THE ATTACK OF THE 'JESUS FREAKS'.
JUST DO IT!
WHAT'S THE PLAN?
THE MAN WITH A PLAN.
Visit JD's site - Kitty Litter Music
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Sunny and seasonal.
Gun-Free Zone
NRA Convention
Guns will be barred during Vice President Mike Pence's appearance at an upcoming National Rifle Association convention to protect his safety - prompting survivors of the Parkland school shooting in Florida to wonder why the gun group won't agree to gun restrictions elsewhere to protect children.
Those attending the NRA Leadership Conference in Dallas are on notice that no firearms or "weapons of any kind," or ammunition, will be allowed in the Kay Bailey Hutchinson Convention Center "prior to and during" Pence's appearance on May 4. The NRA posted the restrictions ? a requirement of the Secret Service ? on a website announcing the conference.
"There will be no storage for firearms," the NRA says in the announcement. Knife Rights, a knife advocacy group, will provide "complimentary storage" for knives, the NRA adds.
Teens who survived the Feb. 14 mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, where 17 people were killed, are wondering why the NRA fiercely resists extending the same safety considerations to other areas to safeguard children. The NRA wants "guns everywhere" when it comes to kids, tweeted Matt Deitsch, a Parkland student who helped organize the March for Our Lives rally for stricter gun laws in Washington.
Fred Guttenberg, father of 14-year-old Parkland victim Jaime Guttenberg, also mocked the NRA convention gun ban: "I thought giving everyone a gun was to enhance safety," he wrote on Twitter.
NRA Convention
1,300-Pound Great White Shark
Hilton
A Twitter-famous shark turned up in a new location on Friday - near the Florida panhandle in the Gulf of Mexico.
The shark, named Hilton by scientists, is a 12.5-foot, 1,326-pound great white that has been tracked by shark research organization Ocearch since he was tagged in March 2017, according to the Pensacola News Journal.
Hilton, named because he was caught and tagged near Hilton Head, South Carolina, "recently pinged in" from the Gulf of Mexico, Ocearch wrote in a Facebook post on Wednesday. The group hadn't tracked him to the Gulf previously.
The group also posted a photo of a map showing Hilton's known locations connected by lines. However, because the locations are linked by straight lines - not necessarily the exact routes that Hilton actually took - one of the lines shows a route that crosses from the west side of Florida to the east side over land.
The implication that Hilton traveled over land did not go unnoticed by people on social media, who joked about the "land shark."
Hilton
Worthless Fakes
Terrus Museum
A state-owned French art museum has discovered that more than half of its collection consists of worthless fakes and experts fear that other public galleries may also be stuffed with forgeries.
An art historian raised the alarm after noticing that paintings attributed to Etienne Terrus showed buildings that were only constructed after the artist's death in 1922.
Experts confirmed that 82 of the 140 works displayed at the Terrus museum in Elne, the artist's birthplace in southern France, were fakes.
Many of the forged oil paintings, watercolours and drawings were bought with £140,000 of municipal funds over the past few decades. Others were given to the museum by two local groups that raised money to buy them by appealing for donations. Some were bequeathed by a private collector.
Art experts estimate that at least 20 per cent of paintings owned by major museums across the world may not be the work of the purported artists.
Terrus Museum
Australia Pledges
Great Barrier Reef
Australia pledged half a billion dollars to restore and protect the Great Barrier Reef Sunday in what it said would be a game-changer for the embattled natural wonder, but conservationists were not convinced.
The World Heritage-listed site, which attracts millions of tourists, is reeling from significant bouts of coral bleaching due to warming sea temperatures linked to climate change.
It is also under threat from the coral-eating crown-of-thorns starfish, which has proliferated due to pollution and agricultural runoff.
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said more than Aus$500 million ($400 million) would go towards improving water quality, tackling predators, and expanding restoration efforts.
Turnbull said it was the "largest ever single investment -- to protect the reef, secure its viability and the 64,000 jobs that rely on the reef".
Canberra has previously committed more than Aus$2.0 billion to protect the site over the next decade, but has been criticised for backing a huge coal project by Indian mining giant Adani nearby.
Great Barrier Reef
Offended By Vulgarity
'Pussy'
The presidency of Donald Trump (R-Crooked) has apparently not coarsened the sensibilities of this city's movers and shakers, as political and media figures are in the throes of a not-quite-annual tradition of taking umbrage over jokes at the White House Correspondents' Association dinner.
Comedian Michelle Wolf on Saturday night fantasized about a tree falling on Trump advisor Kellyanne Conway and likened White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders to a butch softball coach.
A consensus emerged Sunday morning that Wolf "took it too far," as Politico's Playbook newsletter put it. Several prominent journalists shared similar sentiments on Twitter.
But the criticism extended past the Sanders jokes. The Drudge Report hyperventilated that Wolf made light of abortion and used the words "orgasm" and "Nazi." In his morning newsletter for Axios, Mike Allen declared the event a "win" for Trump over the media. Among other things, Allen complained that Wolf used the word "pussy."
Of course, nobody in American media or politics has done more to inject the word "pussy" into political discourse than Trump himself, owner of the infamous boast caught on video in 2005 that he liked to "grab 'em by the pussy" and got away with it because he was a star.
'Pussy'
'Lousy' US Embassy
London
Donald Trump (R-Corrupt) launched a fresh attack on the location of the new US embassy in London, calling it "lousy" and "horrible", ahead of a planned visit to the UK this summer.
The US president-for-now also attacked the European Union over trade, threatening to "take on" the bloc which he said was "formed to take advantage of the US".
In wide-ranging remarks during a campaign Nuremberg-style rally in Michigan, Mr Trump said a meeting with North Korea could happen over the next three to four weeks.
Mr Trump told a crowd of supporters the Nine Elms site was in a "lousy" and "horrible" location and cost too much.
Mr Trump blamed his predecessors for the project, calling it a "Bush-Obama special", adding later: "Hopefully we'll have many years of success with that embassy."
London
Rescinds Honorary Degree
Temple University
Temple University on Friday rescinded an honorary doctorate it had awarded to Bill Cosby, a longtime fundraiser and graduate of the Philadelphia school, where years later he met the victim of the sexual assault that resulted in his conviction this week.
Temple joined several other major U.S. universities that have taken back honorary degrees since Thursday's verdict, reflecting a broader reappraisal of the 80-year-old comedian's place in American culture.
The announcement by Temple followed withdrawals by Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Notre Dame in South Bend, Indiana and Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh. All embraced Cosby years ago when he was celebrated as a beloved black comedian who had transcended racial divides to become "America's Dad."
Following the decision by Temple, Boston College said on Twitter it had also decided to rescind the honorary degree it awarded to Cosby in 1996 due to his conviction.
A question mark also hovers over the presence of the actor-comedian at the National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington. Before his conviction, the museum had grappled with how best to highlight Cosby's impact on the culture while acknowledging the accusations against him.
Temple University
Protections Won't Be Restored
Yellowstone Grizzly Bear
U.S. officials will not restore federal protections for Yellowstone-area grizzly bears, despite a court ruling that called into question the government's rationale for turning grizzly management over to states that are now planning public hunts for the animals, according to an announcement Friday in in the Federal Register.
The disclosure from the Interior Department follows a months-long review of a decision last year to lift protections in place since 1975 for about 700 bears in and around Yellowstone National Park.
That review was launched when a federal appeals court said in a case involving gray wolves in the Great Lakes that the Interior Department needed to give more consideration to how a species' loss of historical habitat affects its recovery.
Like wolves, grizzly bears in some parts of the U.S. have bounced back from widespread extermination, yet remain absent from most of their historical range.
Interior officials said in Friday's filing that they disagreed with the ruling in the wolf case. They said Yellowstone's grizzly bear population has recovered and noted that other populations of the animals living outside the three-state Yellowstone region remain protected as a threatened species.
Yellowstone Grizzly Bear
Weekend Box Office
"Avengers: Infinity Wars"
A whole lot of superheroes added up to a whole lot of ticket sales. The superhero smorgasbord "Avengers: Infinity Wars" opened with predictable shock-and-awe, earning $250 million in box office over the weekend and edging past "Star Wars: The Force Awakens" to set the highest opening weekend of all-time.
"Infinity War," which brings together some two dozen superheroes in the 10-year culmination of Marvel Studio's "cinematic universe," also set a new global opening record with $630 million even though it's yet to open in China, the world's second-largest movie market. It opens there May 11.
According to the Walt Disney Co.'s estimates Sunday, "Infinity War" overwhelmed the previous global best ("The Fate of the Furious" with $541.9 million) but narrowly topped "The Force Awakens" in North America. The "Star Wars" reboot debuted with $248 million in 2015, which would translate to about $260 million accounting for inflation.
No new wide releases dared to compete with "Infinity War," which played at 4,474 theaters in North America. In a very distant second place was John Krasinski's "A Quiet Place" with $10.7 million in its fourth week. With $148.2 million in total ticket sales, the Paramount Pictures thriller had topped the box office three of the last four weekends.
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. "Avengers: Infinity War," $250 million ($380 million international).
2. "A Quiet Place," $10.7 million ($6.6 million international).
3. "I Feel Pretty," $8.1 million ($1.4 million international).
4. "Rampage," $7.1 million ($16.2 million international).
5. "Black Panther," $4.4 million.
6. "Super Troopers 2," $3.6 million.
7. "Truth or Dare," $3.2 million ($2.8 million international).
8. "Blockers," $2.9 million ($1.6 million international).
9. "Ready Player One," $2.4 million ($8.6 million international).
10. "Traffik," $1.6 million.
"Avengers: Infinity Wars"
In Memory
Paul Junger Witt
Paul Junger Witt, who produced such hit TV shows as The Golden Girls, Here Come the Brides and features Dead Poets Society, Three Kings and Insomnia, among others, died Friday morning at his home after a long battle with cancer, his publicist said. He was 77.
Witt, who began his career in the mailroom at Columbia Pictures, rose to become a producer of some TV's most beloved and successful shows. Witt was behind such hits as The Partridge Family, The Golden Girls, Here Come the Brides, Soap, its spinoff Benson, Empty Nest, Blossom and the original Beauty and the Beast.
In addition to his TV work, Witt also was a producer of features Dead Poets Society and Insomnia, both starring Robin Williams; Three Kings; and critically praised A Better Life, along with the classic 1971 TV movie Brian's Song.
With his producing partner Tony Thomas, Witt ran Witt/Thomas Productions in the 1970s and '80s. In 1983, Witt married writer-producer Susan Harris, creator of NBC's The Golden Girls, and the company expanded as Witt/Thomas/Harris Productions, a partnership which exists to this day.
In addition to his producing career, Witt had a passion for the environment and devoted a significant amount of time to environmental causes. He served on the California State Park and Recreation Commission as Chairman, Vice-Chairman and Commissioner for nearly 16 years. He also was a member of the boards of ecoAmerica, the Environmental Media Association, the Emmett Institute on Climate Change, Environmental Defense Fund and the Santa Barbara Channelkeeper.
Witt also served on the USC School of Cinematic Arts Board of Councilors and the University of Virginia Council of the Arts, where he was a graduate in 1963.
Witt is survived by his wife, Harris, and their children Christopher, Anthony, Genevieve, Oliver and Sam.
Paul Junger Witt
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