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 Words and Wonder: Rediscovering Children’s Literature— with works by early twentieth-century authors/illustrators who imagined fantasy worlds for young readers: slides from Aesop’s Fables and Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, celluloid paintings from Walt Disney’s animated adaptation of Alice in Wonderland, as well as illustrations from Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s Le Petit Prince— is at the Harry Ransom Center in Austin, Texas to August 17th.
YOUR WEEKEND READ #1 is this essay by Amanda Marcotte, showing how the MAGA faithful are getting riled-up at Pam Bondi’s not releasing the “Epstein Files” — which the southern Florida investigative reporter Julie Brown is convinced do not exist — in hopes that QAnon or various Democrats/Hollywood figures will finally be apprehended.
THURSDAY's CHILD is named Sweetie the Cat— who is an excellent mouser in a Chicago neighborhood and whose popularity helps fund local rescue groups.
YOUR WEEKEND READ #2 is this essay by the former GOP strategist Stuart Stevens (who had explained his abandonment of the party in It Was All a Lie) — on his most unlikely entry into politics: a straight man being asked to be a media consultant for a bisexual GOP candidate (in 1978) from ... Mississippi.
FRIDAY's CHILD is named Julio the Cat— a Canadian kitteh who went missing for seven years … now reunited due to his microchip.
BRAIN TEASER— try this Quiz of the Week's News from the BBC ...… and the usually easier, less UK-centered New York Times quiz.
THE OTHER NIGHT yours truly hosted the Top Comments diary with a look at three recent passings this past week; two of whom (sportswriter John Feinstein and former NBA player turned business mogul Junior Bridgeman) I have profiled in this space before … and the odd, yet enduring friendship between Prof. Robert Reich and the late Sen. Alan Simpson.
OLDER-YOUNGER BROTHERS?— guitarist Albert Castiglia (part of actor Bill Murray’s Blood Brothers performing blues band) and MSNBC host/legal analyst Ari Melber.
...... and finally, for a song of the week ...........................… no time for a profile: so this cover of the 1963 Jaynetts classic hit Sally Go Round the Roses— by the UK folk/rock band Pentangle in 1970 (featuring their twin guitar standouts Bert Jansch and John Renbourn).