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 The Art of Judith Lowry is at the Nevada Museum of Art in Reno through November 16th.
YOUR WEEKEND READ #1 is this essay in Salon by Amanda Marcotte on how the MAGA crowd — in the wake of the suicide of Virginia Guiffre — is starting to turn on the Trump henchmen/women (Kash Patel, Pam Bondi and Dan Bongino) for not releasing the non-existent Epstein files (which they’re certain will prove the existence of QAnon).
THURSDAY's CHILD is a resident of the Literary Cat Company - a bookstore with adoptable foster cats (plus coffee/tea) in a small college town in southeast Kansas.
YOUR WEEKEND READ #2 is this essay from the Rick Steves travel blog, where Cameron Hewitt addresses the question Are Americans Still Welcome in Europe?
HAIL and FAREWELL to the veteran comic Ruth Buzzi, who has died at the age of eighty-eight. Along with the hosts Dan Rowan and Dick Martin (plus the announcer Gary Owens), this Rhode Island native was the only other performer to appear on every episode of Laugh-In (and also appeared on Sesame Street, Hee Haw and the Dean Martin celebrity roasts, among other shows). Goldie Hawn posted this Facebook tribute to her.
When her Laugh-In colleague Arte Johnson died in 2019, she posted this ...
…. referencing one particularly famous sketch they did together.
FRIDAY's CHILD is the late, great Humbert the Cat - a fourteen year-old who became the face of a convenience store in Montreal, Canada - and whose January death (after being hit by a car) was marked by a public ceremony: as an a-cappella group sang a cat-themed repertoire and residents crowded the sidewalk to take in the show and share their memories.
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 the multiplicity of green varieties in early spring in the Northeast … which I paid scant attention to in my youth .. and only now recognize as the equal of autumn foliage’s multiple colors.
FATHER-SON?— CBS News correspondent Lee Cowan and Mother Jones reporter Noah Lanard.
...... and finally, for two songs of the week ...........................… when asked if Bey was my favorite singer, I had to make a confession. While Ms. Knowles is fabulous (and I have little doubt her Cowboy Carter tour will be a smash) — it was the 4-octave baritone jazz singer Andy Bey who was my favorite Bey. Alas, he died this past week at the age of eighty-five: quite a lifespan for someone who became HIV-positive in the 1990’s yet went on to two Grammy nominations.
He was part of a family act with his sisters Salome and Geraldine in the 1950’s-60’s, worked as a sideman (on piano as well as vocals) beginning in the 1970’s and it was his 1996 breakout recording Ballads, Blues & Bey which ended his obscurity.
One song with his sisters
And following my springtime essay: this most recent solo work of his: