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 and ...... well, each of you at Cheers and Jeers. Have a fabulous weekend .... and week ahead.
ART NOTES— an exhibition entitled Mary Cassatt at Work— with over 130 of the prints, paintings, and pastels by the American woman accepted into the world of French Impressionism — opens at the Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Museum of Art this weekend through September 8th.
YOUR WEEKEND READ #1 is this essay by Miles Klee in Rolling Stone about the Harry Potter author J. K. Rowling— who went from merely being upset about trans women being in female-only spaces (yet otherwise maintaining a “live and let live” frame) — to angrily tweeting about nothing else, estranged from her films’ actors, and lashing out at others so much … that even Elon Musk (sympathetic to her views and estranged from his own trans daughter) has suggested she talk about other subjects.
WEDNESDAY's CHILD is named Pikachu the Cat - who went missing in an Oklahoma tornado that destroyed her family's home ... yet emerged from the rubble when her name was called.
TRANSPORTATION NOTES— subway riders in Argentina’s capital city of Buenos Aires were hit by an abrupt 360% increase in fares as part of libertarian President Javier Milei 's harsh budget austerity aimed at wooing foreign investors.
YOUR WEEKEND READ #2 is this essay in The American Prospect by Robert Kuttner, suggesting that this was a great week for Sen. Elizabeth Warren— rescuing Sec. Buttigieg’s airline refund policy from being scrapped in a Senate bill, helping protect the FDIC from elevating a GOP member, then working on legislation that would effectively get private equity out of the health care sector and most notably: having SCOTUS protect the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau by a 7-2 vote.
THURSDAY's CHILD is named Citrus the Cat - brought into a Rhode Island shelter, yet found to have a serious heart condition. Miraculously, the shelter was able to crowd-fund the $7k for the necessary operation due (in part) to ... her "stinking cuteness"... and now recuperating.
YOUR WEEKEND READ #3 is these essays in ProPublica about a Texas woman who campaigned for a school board seat as a GOP hardliner, then disavowed the far-right platform she campaigned on after finding no evidence that students were being indoctrinated by the district’s curriculum … and has identified the family behind the push.
BRAIN TEASER— try this Quiz of the Week's News from the BBC ...… and the usually easier, less UK-centered New York Times quiz.
SEPARATED at BIRTH— (Kristi Noem born 1971, Hope Hicks born 1988)
...... and finally, for a song of the week ...........................… the other night, yours truly (in the wake of alto saxophonist David Sanborn’s death earlier this week) — devoted my Top Comments diary to the wonderful job he did as host of the NBC program Night Music (1988-1990) — the best commercial TV music show since the dawn of the rock/R&B era. Some more of the show’s eclectic musical selections: