Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Paul Krugman: Socialism and the Self-Made Woman (NY Times Column)
What Ivanka Trump doesn't know about social mobility.
Andrew Tobias: Third Is Not First. Ask Any Bronze Medalist.
The ranking member of the House Oversight Committee, Jim Jordan, began Wednesday's excoriation of convicted liar Michael Cohen by castigating the chair, Elijah Cummings, for scheduling this as the very first hearing of his chairmanship. [But] this was the third, not the first, hearing of Cummings chairmanship, preceded by hearings on the opioid crisis and on a bill that deals with corruption and voting rights. In short: Jordan opened the Republicans' day-long castigation of a liar - with a lie. [
] If Jordan had not known his committee had held these two other important hearings, it would be merely a misstatement, not a lie. But he was at those hearings - watch him here and here. And because he had participated in them just weeks earlier - not years or decades - it is hard to accept he could have forgotten about them.
Paul Waldman: Conservative Christians are counting on the Supreme Court to stall their cultural losses (Washington Post)
The Supreme Court on Wednesday heard a lawsuit about a gigantic cross sitting on government property, and though the suit was actually brought by secular humanists who objected to the cross, it could well become a vehicle for the court's conservatives to take a significant chunk out of the wall separating church and state. At no time in decades has that wall been under more threat. Religious conservatives feel that they're losing the culture war - which they are - but with the Supreme Court firmly in conservative hands, they're winning the war in the courts.
Alexandra Petri: What is the truth you're most afraid of? The Cohen testimony, in brief. (Washington Post)
Michael Cohen's testimony Wednesday was a thrilling orgy of yelling, and it went roughly as follows: MICHAEL COHEN: Donald Trump is a racist, a con man and a cheat! I can say this for sure because I was indispensable to him for years. If this is a witch hunt, I was his familiar. For several years, he turned me into a toad, and I was honestly grateful.
Mary Beard: When is a temple not a temple? (TLS)
So what was the temple for? Well the bottom line was that it was a house for the statue of the deity or deities concerned. In fact the usual word in Latin for a temple was aedes or 'house'. But the internal space could be used for a lot of other things too. Take the Temple of Castor. It was used for meetings of the senate, its steps doubled as a speaking platform for orators and politicians, it served as a safe-deposit for valuables, and in its basement were a number of commercial units. One of these was a barber-cum-tooth-puller's establishment (as we can tell from the dozens of rotten teeth found in its drain).
Mary Beard: "When in Rome: some tips" (TLS)
I have been in Rome a few weeks and have observed a common touristic phenomenon found in plenty of other tourist cities. That is to say that some 'big' sites are absolutely heaving. Other sites, just as good but without the popular eclat, are almost empty. It is now mid February and the queue outside the Forum and Colosseum (even with a system of booking online) is something that you would imagine would be the case in mis-summer
not late winter. And the Vatican Museum is I think more the gate of hell than the entry to Christendom. But you go elsewhere and you have the place to yourself. So, at the risk of spoiling my own quiet patch, here are some recommendations for seeing great things, out of the crowds.
Mary Beard: Nero's Golden House (TLS)
Nero's Golden House is the vast and luxurious palace that the emperor built in Rome after the Fire of Rome in 64 CE (in fact one rumour had it that he started the fire in order to clear the ground to build his new residence).
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Presenting
Michael Egan
replied:
has returned to semi-retired status.
In memory.
Reader Suggestion
Michelle in AZ
Reader Comment
Michael Cohen
I probably won't be alive to see what happens to Michael Cohen in the decades after this current scandal plays out. Interesting perspective here.
from Bruce
Anecdotes
When it was time for the young Alicia Markova to learn to dance the adagio from Swan Lake, Sergei Diaghilev decided to have the great Matilda Kchessinska, of the Maryinsky Ballet, teach it to her. Later, Ms. Markova became ill with pneumonia and remained behind in Monte Carlo while Mr. Diaghilev and his dance company traveled abroad. Ms. Markova was feeling sad because she didn't know anyone in Monte Carlo, but then Ms. Kchessinska and her husband, the Grand Duke Andrι, visited her, bearing large gifts of fresh flowers and fresh fruit. Ms. Kchessinska had seen Mr. Diaghilev, inquired about the "Little One," and had learned she was ill.
Some people go to great lengths to protect the health of their pastor. Wesleyan preacher William Woughter once received a telephone call from a woman who wanted him to go to a hospital and pray with her father. The woman explained that she had gotten his name from a relative who attended his church, and she would have asked her own pastor to pray with her father - except that her father had a highly communicable disease that she didn't want her own pastor to catch. (Yes, Pastor William did go to the hospital to pray with the woman's father, and no, he didn't catch the highly communicable disease.)
Sir Rudolf Bing once had a problem when Birgit Nilsson made a huge success in Tristan und Isolde. Unfortunately, the three singers who could play Tristan to her Isolde fell ill. However, Sir Rudolf solved the problem when he discovered that although none of the male singers were well enough to perform the entire opera, each of them could perform one act. The audience laughed when they heard Sir Rudolf's announcement about the three Tristans they would see in one performance, and the performance was a success.
Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook was once ill in a hospital. He asked that the Shofar (ram's horn) be blown at the beginning of the Jewish month of Elul so that he might listen to it; however, his doctor was worried that the sound might have a bad effect on the rabbi. Therefore, one of the rabbi's pupils asked Rabbi Kook, "Won't the sound of the Shofar disturb the other patients in the hospital?" Rabbi Kook thought a moment and then said, "Perhaps you are right. Do not blow the Shofar."
Once, the Dalai Lama visited the Insight Meditation Society in Barre, Massachusetts. Sharon Salzberg was standing at the back of the audience waiting to see the Dalai Lama and feeling miserable because she was on crutches as the result of a bad car accident. The Dalai Lama walked into the room, swept his eyes over the crowd, saw her standing on crutches, then came over to her, held her hand, looked her in the eyes, and asked, "What happened?"
Mike Coglan was pastoring a small church at which he heard Jack, one of the parishioners, complain about back pain. Talking to Jack's wife, Pastor Mike discovered that Jack had recently had surgery. Therefore, during the service, Pastor Mike prayed for Jack, asking specifically that Jack be restored to full function. Pastor Mike was mystified by the smothered laughter that followed that request - until he discovered that Jack's operation had been a vasectomy.
When Whitney Houston (not the female singer) was a child, he was ill in bed when the great dancer Fred Astaire came to visit his parents. Whitney was a huge fan of Mr. Astaire's, and he asked Mr. Astaire to dance around his bed. When Mr. Astaire asked what he wanted him to dance, Whitney replied, "Anything from Top Hat. I've seen it 13 times." Mr. Astaire very happily obliged and danced around his bed - twice.
Early vaccinations sometimes left ugly scars. When Alicia Markova and other ballet dancers for the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo received vaccinations before an international tour, they were given them in the leg. In Ms. Markova's case, this was a bad mistake, as her leg swelled up in a reaction to the vaccination. Fortunately, she recovered and went on to extend her international reputation.
A woman once spent years studying meditation in India. While there, she contracted hepatitis, worms, and amoebic dysentery, yet still wanted to renew her visa. A doctor heard about this and asked, "You had all those diseases and you were trying to renew your visa! What were you doing, holding out for leprosy?"
Some people believe that God used AIDS to punish homosexuals, even though heterosexual women and babies get AIDS - and lesbians do not. However, according to Ellen Orleans, "AIDS is God's way of testing straight people for compassion and intelligence in dealing with a pandemic disease. So far, society isn't doing too well."
Baseball great Yogi Berra came home from the ballpark early one afternoon to find his wife Carmen and son Tim gone. When they returned, he asked where they had been. Carmen replied, "I took Tim to see Doctor Zhivago." Mr. Berra asked, "What the hell's wrong with him now?"
When actor Frank Benson was seriously ill, he grew a beard. However, when he began to get better, his wife, Constance, ordered a barber to come into the sickroom and give him a shave - she was afraid that if her husband saw himself in the mirror, he might suffer a relapse!
Sir John Gielgud once saw a performance of Richard Burton in Hamlet, after which Mr. Burton said he was experiencing a cold. Sir John replied that he would see the play again "when you're better - in health I mean, of course."
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Reader Comment
Current Events
His flimsy excuse is a lie too
From Politico this morning:
"President Donald Trump said he walked away from his second summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un because Kim demanded the U.S. lift all of its sanctions, a claim that North Korea's delegation called a rare news conference in the middle of the night to deny.
"So who's telling the truth? In this case, it seems that the North Koreans are.
Realizing that his stupid summit was not providing the distraction he thought it would be, he desperately needed a way to break off and get back here to do damage control. I would bet money Pompeo told him what he could say, and neither of them thought NK would refute their lie. But they did--as much as NK may lie, they are rank amateurs compared to the pathological liar and his government of enabling, sycophantic liars.
Linda >^..^<
We are all only temporarily able bodied.
Thanks, Linda!
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
JD is on vacation.
Visit JD's site - Kitty Litter Music
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Yee haw - more rain!
My Hero
Tabitha King
Tabitha and Stephen King - both acclaimed novelists - denounced news headlines about their recent $1.25 million donation to the New England Historic Genealogical Society. Though the gift was Tabitha's idea, the headlines led with Stephen's name - and only addressed her as his "wife."
"My wife is rightly pissed by headlines like this: 'Stephen King and his wife donate $1.25M to New England Historic Genealogical Society,'" Stephen, 71, wrote on Twitter on Thursday. "The gift was her original idea, and she has a name: TABITHA KING. Her response follows."
In recent media coverage of a gift that my husband (ironic usage) and I made to the New England Historical and Genealogical Society, we became Stephen King and his wife. Wife is a relationship or status. It is not an identity.
You could have made other choices. You could have referred to me as OfStephen. Or His Old Lady. Or His-Ball-And-Chain. I have sons. You could have referred to me as Mother-of-Novelists. I have a daughter but wouldn't it be just silly to refer to me as Mother-of-Clergy?
I'm seventy. I thought I would give you permission, if "OfTabitha" predeceases me, to title my obituary, Relick of Stephen King. In the meantime, you might consider the unconscious condescension in your style book, and give women their names.
Tabitha King
Regret About Playboy
Cindy Crawford
Cindy Crawford's only regret about posing nude is that she wished she had shown more when she was younger.
While discussing her decades-long career with Net-a-Porter, the supermodel extraordinaire opened up about her decision to go bare for photographer Russell James's new book, Angels, as well as taking it off early in her career for Playboy.
"Part of the reason I wanted to do it was that I thought, at what age is being naked not beautiful anymore?" she said of posing nude for James. "Is there a sell-by date on us? I don't look the same as I did at 20, 30 or even 40. If we take care of ourselves, why not? Am I frolicking on the beach in a string bikini? No. But there is a place where I want to feel beautiful naked, in my private life, with my husband. [Russell] was tapping into that real place - not high heels, not a lot of makeup, not coy, just a real woman who doesn't have clothes on."
Crawford said that she now questions why she didn't show more earlier as a young model. She first posed for Hugh Hefner's lad mag in 1988, when she was 20. It was a big deal at the time - she risked lucrative endorsement deals by showing as much as she did, but maintained full editorial control over the photos, she has said. Crawford also said that seeing fellow model Paulina Porizkova in the magazine, in 1987, inspired her to pose. (She did a second shoot for the magazine in 1998.
"I look back at some of my old Playboy pictures and I think, 'Why wasn't I walking around naked all the time?'" she said of the shoots she did with acclaimed shutterbug Herb Ritts. "I'm not getting younger. So I want to celebrate who I am today."
Cindy Crawford
Files Defamation Lawsuit
Johnny Depp
Johnny Depp is demanding damages from ex-wife Amber Heard after she wrote an op-ed characterizing herself as a domestic abuse victim.
Depp's lawsuit calls Heard's allegations of domestic violence against him a "hoax."
Heard "purported to write from the perspective of 'a public figure representing domestic abuse' and claimed that she 'felt the full force of our culture's wrath for women who speak out' when she 'spoke up against sexual violence,' " Depp's lawyers state in the lawsuit obtained by PEOPLE. "The op-ed depended on the central premise that Ms. Heard was a domestic abuse victim and that Mr. Depp perpetrated domestic violence against her."
The lawsuit additionally claims that Heard began a relationship with Tesla founder Elon Musk "no later than one month after" her and Depp wed. Depp claims Heard received "late night" visits from Musk, with his lawyers saying they've deposed members from the building's security team to testify.
He goes on to claim Musk was granted access to his home the same night "she presented her battered face to the public."
Johnny Depp
Suffers 'Minor' Stroke
Jerry Lee Lewis
Jerry Lee Lewis, the 83-year-old rock 'n' roll pioneer, suffered a minor stroke Thursday night, according to his representative.
"Right now we're just asking for prayers, and asking the media to express how important Jerry is," said Lewis' publicist, Zach Farnum. Asked by Variety if any of the singer's upcoming dates are being canceled (he's scheduled to play at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival April 28, followed by dates in Tennessee and Virginia in May and June), Farnum said, "As of now we don't see any reason we have to, which is a good sign."
A statement posted on Lewis' official Facebook page and to media said: "Last night, Jerry Lee Lewis suffered a minor stroke. He is with his family, recuperating in Memphis and the doctors expect a full recovery. The Killer looks forward to getting back into the studio soon to record a gospel record and on the road performing live for his fans. His family requests privacy at this time. Well wishes and prayers are greatly appreciated." The post ended with a Bible citation, Jeremiah 30:17: "'But I will restore you to health and heal your wounds,' declares the Lord."
Although Lewis has slowed his touring in recent years, he has averaged at least a gig a month in recent times, and was performing as recently as two weeks ago, doing a show Feb. 16 in Greenville, SC. He played the Riot Fest in Chicago last fall and the Stagecoach Festival in California the year before that. His most recent album, "Rock & Roll Time," which paired him with partners like Keith Richards, Robbie Robertson and Neil Young, came out in 2014.
Jerry Lee Lewis
NIH Letters Rattle
U.S. Universities
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has recently sent letters to dozens of major U.S. research universities asking them to provide information about specific faculty members with NIH funding who are believed to have links to foreign governments that the Bethesda, Maryland-based institute did not know about.
Universities are scrambling to respond to the unprecedented queries, which appear to be NIH's response to demands from members of Congress and national security officials that federal agencies do a better job of monitoring any foreign interactions fostered by U.S. government funding. The goal is to prevent the theft of intellectual property and the transfer of technologies that could threaten U.S. security. But some academic administrators worry the exercise could cast a chill over all types of international scientific collaborations.
"People have already told me that they are rethinking whether they should continue to work with someone from another country," says one administrator who requested anonymity. "They say, 'Maybe I should just do the work myself, or find a U.S.-based collaborator.'" The official was one of several who confirmed to ScienceInsider that their university had received such a letter; all requested anonymity.
Another fear is that the inquiry may become a vehicle to impugn the loyalty of any faculty member-and especially any foreign-born scientists-who maintains overseas ties. For example, ScienceInsider has learned that at some institutions, every researcher flagged by NIH is Chinese-American.
It is not clear how the agency developed its list of targeted researchers. One possibility is a data-mining exercise designed to flag cases in which a scientist cites a relationship to a foreign entity in a journal article or other public document that wasn't disclosed in their NIH grant application or annual progress report to the agency. University officials have told ScienceInsider that some allegations have turned out to be unfounded, either because no such relationship exists or because NIH was unaware that it had been disclosed.
U.S. Universities
Neo-Nazi Group's New Leader
James Stern
A black activist has seized control of a neo-Nazi group - and is now seeking to dismantle the organisation from within.
Legal documents filed in Michigan listed James Stern as the new "director and president" of the National Socialist Movement (NSM).
The NSM is one of several extremist groups being sued over violence at the notorious "Unite the Right" rally in Charlottesville, Virginia in 2017, which resulted in the death of one protester.
A set of court papers published on Thursday suggests Stern intends to use his new position to undermine the group's defence against the lawsuit.
Documents state the activist replaced Jeff Schoep as the NSM's leader in January. The records give no indication of how or why he has been able to wrest control of the group.
James Stern
Life Insurance Coverage
DNA Privacy
Family intrigue led Larry Guernsey to buy his wife a DNA test kit for the holidays.
But their curiosity twisted to suspicion when they read the fine print.
By taking the test they were giving Ancestry a "perpetual, royalty-free worldwide transferable license" to use their DNA, according to the company's contract.
"That entire phrase 'perpetual, royalty-free, worldwide, transferable' it just sounds like they've left it open to do anything that they want with it," Guernsey said.
Under federal law, companies are not allowed to use your genetic information against you for things like health insurance or a job.
But that protection does not apply to things like life insurance or long-term care insurance, and the laws are constantly changing.
DNA Privacy
'Gold Standard'
Climate Change
New analysis of 40 years' worth of satellite data shows that it's a near-certainty that humanity is actively causing global climate change.
Climate deniers often claim, in the face of overwhelming evidence, that the planet is heating up and natural disasters are becoming more intense and common just because that's the way it is - incorrectly insisting that humanity's love affair with fossil fuels has nothing to do with it.
Now, scientists say the chances that that's true are just one in a million.
According to the research by scientists at California's Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, that's because climate data has now reached a so-called "gold standard" of scientific evidence - there's only a one in a million chance that ongoing climate change could have been caused by anything other than humanity, reports Reuters.
The new analysis looked at the three largest satellite data sets used by climate scientists. It shows that two of those data sets reached the gold standard of certainty that humanity causes climate change back in 2005, and the third did in 2016.
Climate Change
New Book 'Horse Museum'
Dr. Seuss
Nearly two decades after his death, publishers are releasing a new book from legendary author Dr. Seuss, featuring the kind of fantastical drawings that have inspired children for years.
"Horse Museum," the never-before-released book from Dr. Seuss, whose real name was Theodor Geisel, will hit bookstores this September, and features the author tackling a topic that has always fascinated him: art.
"It is all about the creative process, how artists look at things, how they think about things and how they show us what they see," Cathy Goldsmith, one of the book's publishers and a former art director who worked directly with Geisel during his lifetime, told "GMA."
The manuscript and very rough sketches were discovered after Giesel's 1991 death, in the same box of papers that held what became the 2015 book, "What Pet Should I Get?"
"The manuscript for this book was about 80 percent complete," Goldsmith added. "We had no finished art whatsoever, so there was no possibility that this could be a book that we published with Ted's own art."
Dr. Seuss
In Memory
Katherine Helmond
Katherine Helmond, who played the ditzy Tate matriarch on the groundbreaking 1970s comedy Soap and later starred on Who's the Boss?, among many other roles, died February 23 of Alzheimer's complications at her home in Los Angeles. She was 89.
She received four Best Actress Emmy Award nominations for Soap and back-to-back noms for Who's the Boss? in 1988-89. Helmond also scored a Best Actress Golden Globe Award for Soap in 1981, another for Supporting Actress in Who's the Boss in 1989 and a second a Globes nom for the latter in 1986.
Helmond reprised her Jessica Tate role in two episodes of ABC's Soap spinoff series Benson, starring Robert Guillaume.
Helmond was also well-known for her recurring roles as Doris Sherman on ABC's Coach (1995-97) opposite Craig T. Nelson and Jerry Van Dyke, and as Debra Barone's mother Lois Whelan opposite Ray Romano and Patricia Heaton on the CBS hit series Everybody Loves Raymond (1996-2004). She also earned a Guest Actress Emmy nom for that role in 2002, giving her seven overall for her career.
More recent television credits included guest-starring roles on A&E's The Glades, as well as the role of Caroline Bellefleur on HBO's True Blood.
She also voiced Lizzie, the Radiator Springs original who was married to the town's founder and runs its curio shop in all three Disney/Pixar Cars movies. She appeared on the big screen in Family Plot - Alfred Hitchcock's final film - Garry Marshall's Overboard, Terry Gilliam's Time Bandits, Brazil and Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.
Helmond was born July 5, 1929, in Galveston, TX, and developed a love of theater early on. She appeared in numerous school plays before making her stage debut in Shakespeare's As You Like It in 1955. She would spend seven years performing at the renowned Hartford Stage Company in Hartford, CT, and Trinity Repertory Theater in Providence, RI. After winning the Drama Critics Award for her Off Broadway performance in the Pulitzer Prize-winning play The House of Blue Leaves by John Guare, Helmond followed the production to Los Angeles, where she was eventually discovered by talent scouts and landed her first television role guest-starring in an episode of Gunsmoke.
She would go on to guest on such memorable TV series as The F.B.I., The Bob Newhart Show, Mannix, Medical Center, Barnaby Jones, The Six Million Dollar Man, The Bionic Woman and The Love Boat.
She met her husband of 57 years, David Christian, at the Hampton Playhouse Summer Stock Theater, where he was the set designer and she was the leading lady. They were wed in 1962 and remained married until her death.
Katherine Helmond
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