Odds & Ends: News/Humor (with a "Who Lost the Week?" poll)

I post a weekly diary of historical notes, arts & science items, foreign news (often receiving little notice in the US) and whimsical pieces from the outside world that I often feature in "Cheers & Jeers".

OK, you've been warned - here is this week's tomfoolery material that I posted.

CHEERS to Bill and Michael in PWM, our Laramie, Wyoming-based friend Irish Patti and ...... well, each of you at Cheers and Jeers. Have a fabulous weekend .... and week ahead.

ART NOTES— an exhibition entitled American Perspectives: Stories from the American Folk Art Museum Collection will be at the Grand Rapids Art Museum through August 28th.

YOUR WEEKEND READ #1 is this essay in the American Prospect by Randall Kennedy, predicting that Stephen Breyer will in fact retire and his replacement will be Ketanji Brown Jackson— recently confirmed by the Senate to the United States Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit and was a district court judge since 2013.

THURSDAY's CHILD dashed in front of a police cruiser in South Bend, Indiana…. fortunately the frightened kitten was eventually coaxed out of hiding.

YOUR WEEKEND READ #2 is this essay in The Atlantic by Adam Serwer about police union bosses— who believe (in apocalyptic terms) that "victims of police misconduct are criminals who had it coming, and anyone who objects to such misconduct is probably also a criminal."

FRIDAY's CHILD is one of fifteen kittehs at the Bag of Nails Pub in Bristol, England— whose proprietor says is a “pub with cats, not a cat pub” and by not serving food, there aren’t health department issues — who also has signs reading “Racists, etc. can just sod-off!” and “If you don’t like Johnny Cash, shut up or go away.”

BRAIN TEASER— try this Quiz of the Week's News from the BBC ...… and the usually easier, less UK-centered New York Times quiz (no common questions).

THE OTHER NIGHT yours truly hosted the Top Comments diary with a look at a fifty-three year-old song, Hooked on a Feeling— that has found several new leases-on-life … not only via cover versions: but also by its use in television and film.

FIRST COUSINS?— Robert Chambers (convicted of manslaughter in 1988 as the NYC “preppy murderer”) and Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) … with an uncertain future.

...... and finally, for a song of the week ...........................… someone wrote a D/K diary on this a few months back (cannot locate it) but for those who haven’t heard this: a quick look at a song about our addiction to reality TV and its aftermath.

Todd Snider has been described as alt-country, folk, a troubadour …. and said he was inspired by the late Jerry Jeff Walker (releasing a 2013 tribute album to him). He spent time in jail for marijuana possession, having been in-and-out of rehab three times. When he was diagnosed with bipolar disorder, he said it finally explained his depression: "I don't know why a person with a job as good as mine, with as much freedom as me, would get as depressed as I can get".

He was mentored by the likes of a member of Jimmy Buffet’s band and also by John Prine and released his debut album in 1994 (with "Talkin' Seattle Grunge Rock Blues" among its songs). In 2000, he signed to John Prine’s Oh Boy label.

In addition to his solo albums, he also worked with a band from 2014-2016 called Hard Working Americans (including the bassist from Widespread Panic) that released several albums.

Todd Snider turns age fifty-five this October and released his nineteenth album earlier this year, entitled The First Agnostic Church of Hope and Wonder and begins touring again, from July through early December.

Although you may well remember him from songs like “What’s New, Pussycat” and “Delilah” or his TV variety show … over the past decades the Welsh-born singer Tom Jones has remade himself into a blues singer: appearing on the 2003 Martin Scorsese film series The Blues. In the film Red, White and Blues (about British blues, directed by Mike Figgis of “Leaving Las Vegas” fame) you can hear Tom sing old blues tunes Love Letters and Goin’ Down Slow (both with guitarist Jeff Beck).

This year, he released a new album Surrounded by Time— his forty-first album — and turned age eighty-one earlier this month.

One of the songs he performed on his new album — recited, not sang, to be clear — was Todd Snider’s Talking Reality Television Blues. With a musical arrangement reminiscent of the band Radiohead, it details the history of television and the last set of verses references FormerGuy.