Some time ago—well, thirty years ago, more or less—I read a reminiscence on the journalism biz by Michael Kinsley, recalling the words of journalistic wisdom he received as a tyro from a legendary pundit whose name I have forgotten: “Always sell the same piece at least three times.” By that standard, I’m a motherfucking journalistic…
Author: Alan Vanneman
No Life? No Problem! Slate explains why you have to see the 12 precious additional minutes to “A Star Is Born” in the “A Star Is Born Encore” edition now playing in movie theaters across the country
Yes, you can fill up a good three hours of that empty void you call you by going to see A Star Is Born Encore, but you can also kill a good 20 minutes more just by reading “The Best and Worst New Scenes in A Star Is Born EncoreI” in Slate. Heather Schwedel ably,…
Trump stumbles his way to peace. Or not.
Donald Trump’s decision to “walk away” from his always dubious summit with North Korean strongman/torturer/mass murderer Kim Jong-un was greeted with sighs—indeed heartfelt gasps—of relief on the part of the MIC (Military Intellectual Complex), including the editors of the National Review who rightfully pummeled Trump for his obvious and continuing affection—and indeed admiration—for Little Kim,…
Ilhan Omar: The strange case of the little girl in the headscarf who noticed that the emperor has no clothes
Oh, Ilhan Omar, what have you done? Yes, speaking the truth in the halls of Congress has always been hazardous to your health, but when little Ilhan, newly elected representative for the fifth district of Minnesota (basically Minneapolis and environs), remarked that “I want to talk about the political influence in this country that says…
Nate Silver explains it all for me. Pretty much.
Before the 2016 election—before the death of reason—elections impresario and general numbers dude Nate Silver put together and posted on his fivethirtyeight website the video shown above, “Long Before Trump, There Was Ross Perot”. What was interesting to me was not so much Perot seen as a precursor to Herr Donald as the conviction expressed…
The dollar still sound as a dollar, studies show
If you search on the Internet for “Why the dollar will never collapse” or, conversely, “Why the dollar will collapse”, well, you’ll get a lot of hits. What you won’t find, unfortunately, is a piece I read in Bloomberg several weeks ago explaining, well, why the almighty dollar remains so goddamned almighty, and which I…
Karl Lagerfeld: No Gay Nazis need apply
OK, Karl Lagerfeld was not a Nazi, but he was born in Germany sometime between 1933 and 1935. What was it like living in Nazi Germany under Hitler as a boy? Was his dad a Nazi? A soldier? Was his home bombed? Invaded by Soviet troops? And what about the gay thing? Apparently, he had…
New York City to Amazon: Drop Dead
In a better universe than ours—there must be one—the provincial New York politicians and union leaders who cut off not their own noses but that of the city’s poor, and (to thoroughly manhandle the metaphor) not to spite their faces but to protect their power, would be punished—very indirectly—by a slow decline in the Great…
How to lie with statistics, Jennifer Rubin edition
Anyone who has read all my posts on Washpost opinion gal Jennifer Rubin would probably tell me to shut the fuck up. But this one’s different, because I agree with Jennie yet dispute her tactics. Jennie’s post of contention, “Graham sums up how stupid the GOP has become”, is an extended poke at South Carolina…
“Blue Monk”
The man himself, in Scandinavia in 1966, with Charlie Rouse on sax, Larry Gales on bass, and Ben Riley on drums. Posted (with misleading information) by Solo musica. I recently published a long (or longish) take on Monk here. For tons o’ Monk (and who could ask for anything more?), try Mostly Monk.