Who isn’t running for re-election in the House and Senate in 2024
A deluge of violent messages: How a surge in threats to public officials could disrupt American democracy
What Sandra Day O’Connor, the first woman on the Supreme Court, could teach today’s SCOTUS: Her embrace of the rule of law and empathetic jurisprudence are sorely missed.
Will Henry Kissinger, the Secretary of State under Nixon and Ford, actually RIP?
Jewish American Families Confront a Generational Divide Over Israel
Comics For Ukraine, the benefit hardcover comic anthology to benefit folks in Ukraine, which I got in its original crowdfunding push – it’s very good – is still available for purchase
How Much Pain Is ‘Enough‘ to Prescribe Opioids?
Massive Tuberculosis News
Don’t Neglect Tobacco Use in People Experiencing Homelessness — Cessation programs can save lives and improve financial stability.
Organ & Body Donations: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver
Why Do You Get to Do That? A few words on your “rights”
Truth-telling
Watch videos from the November 17, 2023 Telling the Truth conversations by the NYS Writer’s Institute. The fifth Telling the Truth event, this 2023 edition featured two panels.
The American Presidency: A conversation about the Biden administration and the prospect of a second Trump administration with Miles Taylor, former Trump Administration staffer and author of Blowback: A Warning to Save Democracy from the Next Trump and Franklin Foer, author of The Last Politician: Inside Joe Biden’s White House and the Struggle for America’s Future.
Also, The American Backlash: A conversation about the politics of revenge, and the impulse to punish ‘out groups’ who have made political gains — particularly racial, sexual, and cultural minorities, and women with Jeff Sharlet, author of The Undertow: Scenes from a Slow Civil War and Juliet Hooker, author of Black Grief/White Grievance: The Politics of Loss.
I attended these seasons in person.
That’s Entertainment
I was on a team for Any Questions Live! WAMC‘s Inaugural Trivia Challenge on December 7. The final question was that five of the 15 largest cities in the United States are in one state. Of THOSE five cities, which one is the smallest in population? Answer below.
2023’s TIME Person of the Year. I was totally off; I thought it’d be Bibi.
The 100 Most Powerful Women in Entertainment of 2023
Everybody knows Flo from Progressive. Who is Stephanie Courtney?
Actor Andre Braugher Dies at 61. I was a massive fan of the NBC series Homicide: Life on the Street; the episode for which he won an Emmy was gutwrenching. He appeared in six episodes of Law and Order: SVU, including this one featuring Mike Tyson. He appeared in the movies Glory, Salt, and She Said, all of which I saw. I occasionally watched him on Brooklyn Nine-Nine and some Kojak TV movies.
Marty Krofft, the Brains Behind a Kids TV Empire, Dies at 86
Ryan O’Neal, Star of ‘Love Story,’ ‘What’s Up, Doc?’ and ‘Paper Moon,’ Dies at 82. I never saw Love Story, but I saw the others and the evening soap opera Peyton Place.
The Ritz Brothers, comedy pioneers: A Retrospective.
‘Doctor Who’ Doctors: Every Actor Who Has Played the Part
‘Home Alone,’ ‘Terminator 2,’ ‘Love and Basketball,’ ‘Desperately Seeking Susan,’ ‘Fame,’ ‘Apollo 13’ Enter National Film Registry. Of these, I specifically recommend 20 Feet from Stardom.
Why Do Airplanes Dim the Cabin Lights During Takeoff and Landing?
Hinsdale, NH, man had no car and no furniture but died, leaving his town millions.
Now I Know: A Creative Way to Stop a Celebrity Stalker and The Great Puffin Toss and You Is Now Welcome in Sweden and Pokémon Go to Jail and The Politician Who (Technically) Kept His Pledge and The American Enclave That Pretended to Want to Join Canada
To a deluxe apartment in the sky
Norman Lear, the legendary television producer and inclusive storyteller, died at 101. Here’s the family tree for All in the Family and its spinoffs, all of which I watched, at least for a time, as well as Sanford and Son; One Day at a Time, both iterations; Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman, and ITS spinoffs, and others. Heck, I even saw his less successful ventures, such as a.k.a. Pablo, Hot L Baltimore, the underestimated The Powers That Be, and the movie The Night They Raided Minsky’s.
Performers and critics lauded him not just for his contributions to entertainment but also for his activism with People for the American Way and other avenues.
His son-in-law, Dr. Jon LaPook, gave some personal insights. I recommend you check out If You’re Not in the Obit, Eat Breakfast, the late Carl Reiner’s 2017 documentary where he “tracks down several nonagenarians” – including his friend Lear – “to show how the twilight years can be rewarding.”
This is what I wrote way back when Norman Lear turned 100.
Music
John Williams’s score to Nixon: “The 1960s: The Turbulent Years
Coverville 1467: The Damien Rice Cover Story and 1468: The Shane MacGowan Tribute
Save Me – Jelly Roll
Rossini: La Cenerentola – Overture
The ten most overplayed piano pieces
Paul McCartney Photographs 1963–64: Eyes of the Storm is now open at the Chrysler Museum of Art in Norfolk, Virginia, through April 7, 2024
Denny Laine (1944-2023): a remembrance
The answer to the question above is #15 here. (We got the correct state but the wrong city.)