Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Paul Waldman: Once again, Republicans are waging war on democracy (Washington Post)
But there are times when the implementation of that principle is manifested in actions so appallingly contemptuous of every principle of democracy that the public just might take notice. What's happening right now, most notably in Wisconsin and Michigan but in other states as well, is a test. Republicans who suffered defeat at the polls are using lame-duck sessions in state legislatures to overturn the will of the voters and limit the powers of newly elected Democrats, unless public pressure grows so great in opposition that they back down.
Greg Sargent: Trump's fortress of corruption is cracking. Here are the latest signs. (Washington Post)
We don't have a full picture of what Trump's profiteering looks like, and we don't know whether his decisions are being influenced by that profiteering. But the point is that Trump essentially showed contempt for the very idea that he should divest from his private businesses precisely in order to give the public confidence that this is not happening.
Jonathan Chait: Michael Avenatti's Campaign Failed Because Democrats Don't Want Their Own Trump (NY Mag)
Michael Avenatti's dream of running for president as a Democrat was never going to end in anything other than total humiliation. This reality has finally dawned upon Avenatti himself, who made his departure from the race official. The more interesting question is why anybody thought a totally unqualified plaintiff's lawyer stood any chance in the first place.
Jonathan Chait: Mueller Reports Michael Flynn Is Singing Like a Canary (NY Mag)
Late on Tuesday night, the special counsel's office published its long-awaiting sentencing guidelines for Michael Flynn, Donald Trump's national security adviser during the 2016 campaign, as well as into a few weeks of his presidency. The memo, along with an addendum, says Flynn has given "substantial assistance" to "several ongoing investigations." It adds that Flynn has met with the investigators 19 times, and that Mueller is extremely satisfied with Flynn's cooperation. It further notes that Flynn's testimony "likely affected the decisions of related firsthand witnesses to be forthcoming with the special counsel office and cooperate."
Jennifer Rubin: Trump's not winning anything, anywhere (Washington Post)
Let's be blunt: The only significant foreign policy "achievements" Trump can claim are eviscerating our reputation as a reliable ally that defends human rights and giving autocrats the impression that they can get away with murder (and dismemberment and more) without paying any significant price. This is an administration that can claim not a single substantial foreign policy achievement.
Garrison Keillor: Having reached the end, he continues
The real news these days is about science, and last week the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that life expectancy is dropping in the U.S., and the American male's average life expectancy is 76.1 years, a figure I reached in October. My expiration date has passed. This comes as a shock, to think that I'm expected to die now, in a state of ignorance, still trying to figure out the basics (What am I here for? Why do rainy days make me happy? Where are my glasses?).
JONATHAN JONES: Fake views? What we can learn from the V&A's Cast Courts (The Guardian)
The V&A's restoration of its masterly collection of replicas of great European works of art - from Trajan's Column to Michelangelo's David - is a timely reminder of the Victorians' cultural Europhilia.
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Presenting
Michael Egan
wrote:
has returned to semi-retired status.
In memory.
Reader Suggestion
Michelle in AZ
David E Suggests
Santa Claus
David
Thanks, Dave!
Bonus Links
Jeannie the Teed-Off Temp
from Bruce
Anecdotes
While writing her children's book, The 18th Emergency, Betsy Byars wanted a good, original name for the bully - she felt that she had used the name "Bubba" too often for the bullies in her books, although she had known a real bully named Bubba when she was a child. She thought hard and came up with the name "Marv Hammerman," which she liked because of its hardness. Because she thought the name was original - after all, she had just thought it up - she wrote in the book, "There had been only one Hammerman, just as there had been only one Hitler." One day, she received a telephone call, and the caller told her that he was Marv Hammerman. At first, she thought that the caller was joking, but he was really named that. What's more, he was a teacher who had read her book to his class, and his young students were delighted to hear that there were two terrible Marv Hammermans.
Children's book author Tomie dePaola has an oddly spelled first name. At first, it was spelled the normal way, but little Tommy was a talented child who was sure to grow up to be famous, so a famous cousin of his mother - Irish tenor Morton Downey - gave him the new, unusual spelling. According to Mr. Downey, "He's got to have an unusual spelling for his first name so people will remember it." Everyone respected the new spelling for his name, except for his teachers at school, who made him spell it "Tommy," because that was the "correct" spelling.
Stanley Kirk Burrell is better known as rapper M.C. Hammer. "M.C." is a slang way of saying "Rapper," and "Hammer" is a nickname he was given when he became the Oakland Athletics batboy after Charley Finley, the owner of the Athletics, saw young Stanley singing and dancing in the Athletics parking lot. Stanley resembled home run hitter Hammerin' Hank Aaron, and so he was called Little Hammer.
Jazz singer Anita O'Day was named Anita Belle Colton when she was born. She took the name O'Day because in pig Latin it means "dough," and she hoped to make a lot of dough as a professional walkathon contestant. (During the Depression, people tried to make money winning marathon walks, where they walked for days in front of an audience with only occasional 15-minute breaks.)
Babe Ruth was terrible at remembering names, and he was sometimes terrible at remembering faces. Miles Thomas had been a Yankees pitcher for three or four years, but one day someone decided to have some fun and introduced Mr. Thomas to Babe as a new Yankee pitcher. Babe told Mr. Thomas, "Nice to see you, kid. Welcome to the Yankees."
Many people wonder where actor/writer Quentin Tarantino got the name for his hit movie Reservoir Dogs. It comes from the days he spent as a video store clerk when people often asked for Louis Malle's Au Revoir les Enfants. Mr. Tarantino had difficulty pronouncing the title, so he ended up calling it Reservoir Dogs.
Michelle Kwan's father, Danny, is a fan of music by the Beatles. In fact, he liked the Beatles' song "Michelle" so much that he named his second daughter after it.
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Current Events
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In The Chaos Household
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Andy Samberg And Sandra Oh Hosting
2019 Golden Globes
Actress Sandra Oh and comedian Andy Samberg will reunite onstage as hosts of the 2019 Golden Globe Awards, set to air Jan. 6 on NBC.
In an announcement on Wednesday, NBC Entertainment co-chairmen Paul Telegdy and George Cheeks called Oh and Samberg the "perfect choices" for the prestigious event.
The "Killing Eve" star and "Brooklyn Nine-Nine" comedian stole the show earlier this year while presenting an award at the Emmys together, leaving fans wanting more.
Both Oh and Samberg have won Golden Globes in the past: Oh's memorable performance in "Grey's Anatomy" won the award for best actress in a supporting role in 2006, and Samberg took home two Golden Globes as an actor and producer for "Brooklyn Nine-Nine."
Oh's latest leading role, in BBC America's critically acclaimed drama series "Killing Eve," for which she also serves as an executive producer, might just put her in the running for a second Golden Globe.
2019 Golden Globes
'Daily Show'
Trevor Noah
Fans of "The Daily Show" got to see Trevor Noah host Tuesday night's Comedy Central broadcast. But they didn't get to hear him.
The reason: Noah has lost his voice and is under doctor's orders not to utter a word.
The show began as usual, with the theme song playing and the audience cheering as the South African-born comedian walked onto the set and sat at his desk. But when the camera pointed at the desk, the TV audience saw comedian Michael Kosta already there.
Speaking for Noah, Kosta told the audience that, indeed, the show "was a little different" in that Noah was ordered not to speak - or risk needing surgery. He didn't elaborate on what caused the vocal problem or how long Noah will be unable to speak.
Kosta explained that Noah lost his voice after his visit to South Africa this past weekend to take part in events to mark the centennial birth of former president and anti-apartheid leader Nelson Mandela. Clips from the visit were featured on Monday's show.
Trevor Noah
Turner Prize 2018
Charlotte Prodger
Charlotte Prodger has won this year's Turner Prize for her film work examining landscapes and gender identity.
The Glasgow-based British artist has been awarded the prize of £25,000 for her films, which made use of clips shot on her iPhone overlaid with reflections on subjects surrounding queer identity.
Nigerian novelist Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie presented the award at a ceremony held at Tate Britain in London.
Prodger, 44, has been hailed for her work Bridgit, which was shot using her phone, and for the multi-format film Stoneymollan Trail, exhibited at Bergen Kunsthall.
Prodger, who was born in Bournemouth and studied at Goldsmiths, said following her nomination for the prize: "I was thinking about the importance of self-determination to histories of queer struggle.
Charlotte Prodger
LA Stage Show
'Star Wars Holiday Special'
In 1978, CBS broadcast "The Star Wars Holiday Special."
Unlike most things associated with the franchise, this made-for-TV movie was a flop, and it never aired again on TV.
Forty years on, a hilarious and loving salute by Boston-based playwright Andrew Osborne dubbed "Special" - a two-act comedy play on stage at Theatre of NOTE from Dec. 13 through Jan. 13 - attempts to make sense of "how it came together with all these talented people trying really hard to make something good and failing so spectacularly."
The play is an original comedy about the backstage drama behind the cult comedy classic, described by Osborne as "the worst variety show in the galaxy."
George Lucas made the film's stars agree to be in the special, and they were thrown together with Harvey Korman, Jefferson Starship and Bea Arthur. Years later, stories surfaced that got Osborne thinking it would make for a hilarious show.
'Star Wars Holiday Special'
Ice Sheet Melting
Greenland
Greenland's ice sheet is melting at a faster rate than previously thought and continued global warming will accelerate thawing and contribute to rising sea levels, scientists said in a paper published on Wednesday.
Rising seas threaten low-lying cities, islands and industries worldwide. Forecasts for how high and how soon the rise will come vary greatly, partly because scientists lack clarity on how fast warming oceans are melting polar ice sheets.
Melting ice in Greenland, home to the second largest mass of ice after Antarctica, is thought to add 0.8 millimetres of water to global ocean levels annually, more than any other region, according to NASA.
In a paper published in the journal Nature, scientists from the United States, Belgium and the Netherlands analysed melt layers in ice cores in western Greenland to develop a record spanning 350 years.
The magnitude of Greenland ice sheet melting is "exceptional" over at least the last 350 years and continued growth of global average temperature will accelerate the melting and contribute to sea level rise, the study said.
Greenland
"Knowledge is the Greatest Gift"
Springfield, Illinois
Illinois state capitol forced to display satanic statue alongside Nativity scene
A US state capitol has been forced to display a satanic statue alongside a scene of the Nativity to mark the festive season.
A local chapter of The Satanic Temple placed the 4ft statue, called "Knowledge is the Greatest Gift", in the Illinois capitol in Springfield this week after the group's application was accepted.
In its application for the display, The Satanic Temple-Chicago calls itself a nontheistic organisation that aims to "encourage benevolence and empathy among all people".
In 2008, a Springfield resident gained approval to install an aluminium Festivus pole in the rotunda, in part as a message to lawmakers that the statehouse should not feature religious displays.
Springfield, Illinois
Reboot in the Works
'Celebrity Deathmatch'
MTV Studios continues to mine its vault with the hopes of delivering a hit for a platform outside of Viacom.
The studio arm of the Viacom-owned cable network is reviving Celebrity Deathmatch, with Ice Cube joining as an exec producer and lead member of the voice cast. A network is not yet attached; MTV Studios will shop the revival to streaming, cable and broadcast networks.
Celebrity Deathmatch is following the same strategy the June-launched MTV Studios used for its revival of The Real World, which ultimately was picked up to series at Facebook Watch. It's part of a larger plan from Viacom CEO Bob Bakish to give new life to some of its better-known properties as a part of a company-wide mandate to further monetize library content as the media conglomerate looks to bolster its bottom line.
The stop-motion satire that took aim at stars, politicians and everyone in between was created by Eric Fogel, who will exec produce the revival alongside Cube and his Cube Vision partner Jeff Kwatinetz, with the company's Ben Hurwitz on board as a co-EP. Additional showrunners and talent will be named later.
Deathmatch ran for six seasons (totaling 93 episodes) from 1998 to 2002 and with a revival running from 2006 to 2007 on MTV2, featuring stop-motion versions of celebrities like Simon Cowell and Ryan Seacrest facing off in a boxing ring. The series became a pop culture phenomenon, complete with a video game. MTV2 attempted to revive the series a third time and filmed a pilot in 2015, but the new take was passed over a year later.
'Celebrity Deathmatch'
'Toxic Masculinity'
'The Little Mermaid'
A male a cappella group at Princeton University has pulled a Disney movie song from its act following a student newspaper column that suggested the lyrics helped promote "toxic masculinity."
The Princeton Tigertones have performed "Kiss the Girl," a song from "The Little Mermaid," for years. During performances at the Ivy League school, a female audience member would be brought onstage to decide whether or not a man from the crowd could kiss her.
Noa Wollstein, who wrote the column, claimed the song's message is misogynistic and that too many women have been pulled on stage for unwanted encounters.
"I have seen a queer student brought on stage have to uncomfortably push away her forced male companion," Wollstein, a sophomore from New York, wrote in her column. "I have heard of unwilling girls being subjected to their first kisses. I have watched mothers, who have come to see their child's performance, be pulled up to the stage only to have tension generated between them and the kid they came to support."
In a response published in the newspaper, Tigertones' President Wesley Brown apologized to anyone made uncomfortable by the tradition. He said the group won't perform the song until it can find a way to do so without offending any audience members.
'The Little Mermaid'
2019 Color Of The Year
Pantone
Pantone announced its 2019 color of the year on Wednesday and it's "Living Coral."
Following last year's activism-inspired "ultra violet" champion, this year's reigning color, Pantone 16-1546 or "Living Coral," is described as representative of both our changing social media-drenched environment and our physical one.
On one hand, the color is described as signifying a need for support, caring, and love within an often negative social media landscape.
"'Living Coral' embraces us with warmth and nourishment to provide comfort and buoyancy in our continually shifting environment," reads the optimistic statement.
Pantone
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