Mary Beard: Blog News (TLS)
The bottom line is that the blog will go behind an adjusted paywall, which will allow free access to articles (a handful per month), though without commenting facilities. But blog readers are getting a special subscription offer to launch the new system (and then you will get everything!). No, I am not sure either, but let's give it a go.
Mary Beard: "The next day of Christmas (preparation)" (TLS)
The "woman's work is never done" view of Christmas is upon me again (or, you might say, self-imposed victimhood). Once you have spent one Sunday cooking up the Christmas cake, you still have the Christmas pudding to make.
Mary Beard: Picturing Homer (TLS)
You see represented in a single image the giant Cyclops on the right eating a couple of Odysseus' companions (he's holding a pair of legs); at the same time Odysseus is handing him a goblet of wine, which is going to get the Cyclops insensibly drunk, which will enable Odysseus and his men to skewer the giant's single eye out - so blinding him. Once he cannot see, they can escape from the cave in which has them penned.
Inkoo Kang: Frozen 2's Bizarre Storyline About Reparations, Explained (Slate)
When Frozen debuted in 2013, it threw audiences for a loop by having a damsel-saving "act of true love" take place between two sisters. Given the franchise's history-and Disney's recent trend of subverting its own princess tradition-savvy viewers would be right to go into Frozen 2 expecting another curveball. But the wildest of guesses couldn't have predicted that directors Chris Buck and Jennifer Lee, the creative duo behind the first film, would make their sequel about … reparations?! As my postcolonial studies professors loved to say, let's unpack this.
Nepal, officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal, is a landlocked sovereign state located in South Asia between two mighty countries; China at north and India at east, west and south.
Cattle (colloquially cows) are the most common type of large domesticated ungulates. They are a prominent modern member of the subfamily Bovinae, are the most widespread species of the genus Bos, and are most commonly classified collectively as Bos primigenius. Cows are not raised as livestock for meat (beef and veal), but as dairy animals for milk and other dairy products, and as draft animals (oxen or bullocks) (pulling carts, plows and the like). The national breed Achham cattle which falls in the Bos indicus species is understood to be the national animal.
Source
Mark. was first, and correct, with:
Cow.
Randall wrote:
COW
Alan J answered:
A Cow.
Kevin K. in Washington, DC, replied:
The Cow is the national animal of Nepal. Devin Nunes is considering suing Nepal for harboring a fugitive. #DevinNunesIsAnIdiot
Dave said:
Cow. Considered sacred by Hindus, the national animal status is supposed to eliminate the slaughter of cows. It is unclear if cattle as a whole are protected, or just the female Bovine?
Photos: Rep. Devin Nunes (R-COW) has so little respect for cows he's filed suit against one. Our favorite Trump lickspittle and Ukraine conspiracy theorist charges that his cow is harassing him on Twitter.
zorch responded:
The Cow is the national animal of Nepal. Mooooo
Cal in Vermont said:
The cow. Very a-moo-sing, that.
Jim from CA, retired to ID, wrote:
Cow is the national animal of Nepal. Most of the people of Nepal are Hindus and cow is worshipped as the goddess of wealth
Adam answered:
The Cow
But then, I think Devin Nunes knows that...
Deborah responded:
The national animal of Nepal is the Himalayan monel, a kind of pheasant. Alrighty, then.
Daniel in The City replied:
Cow
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BttbBob has returned to semi-retired status.
~~~~~
Music: "Big Boss" from the album THE CHESS ALLSTARS, BLUES HARMONICA (INSTRUMENTAL BLUES)
Artist: The Chess All Stars, or The Chess Allstars
Bandcamp Site Owner: Eddie Matthews
Eddie Matthews Location: Whiting, Indiana
Info: "These songs were recorded from the backing tracks that are on our Bandcamp page. The album showcases Chicago blues harmonica. Please download our music. I would download your music." - Eddie Matthews
Eddie Matthews has other albums that are backing tracks. You can use the backing tracks to practice your own harmonica, guitar, or vocals (write your own lyrics). Eddie Matthews writes, "These are backing tracks for musicians to jam, play and even perform with."
Price: $1 (USD) for song; $10 (USD) for 20-track album
If you are OK with paying for it, you can use PAYPAL or CREDIT CARD.
• Some people are fortunate in that they know what they want to do at an early age. When she was six, lesbian comedian Liz Feldman saw a Purim play at her synagogue in which her 11-year-old sister played Queen Esther. After the show, Liz pointed to the stage and told her mother, "That's what I want to do!" At age 10, she asked her parents for an agent for her birthday. Unfortunately, she got a 10-speed bicycle instead. At age 12, she started auditioning in Manhattan. At age 15, she answered an ad looking for children who wrote and performed their own stand-up material, so she wrote three minutes of material and got a role in a play about very young stand-up comedians. One of the jokes she wrote - which she now considers "so bad" and yet "so gay" - is this: "You know how some kids will get embarrassed when their moms will spit on a napkin to wipe the dirt off their face? My mom just licks my face."
• Jim Carrey was funny even as a youngster. One of his "acts" was to put a lot of colored candies in his mouth, chew them up, and then pretend to vomit. His very young audience loved it. In school, he once got in trouble when his teacher saw him mocking some musicians on a record. Fortunately, all turned out well. Thinking to embarrass him, his teacher ordered him to do what he was doing in front of the class. Young Jim did, and he was so funny that his teacher invited him to do the act at the school's Christmas assembly. And when his mother became ill, Jim's comedy cheered her up - sometimes at odd times. Occasionally, his father would wake him up and say, "Sorry to wake you up in the middle of the night, but your mother and I could use a good laugh. You're on in five."
• As you may expect, comedian George Carlin took too many illegal drugs in his life. According to journalist David Hochman, when Mr. Carlin and his 11-year-old daughter took a vacation to Hawaii, she made him sign a contract stating that he wouldn't snort cocaine for the duration of the vacation. Despite his illegal drug use, and despite his heart problems, he got old, something that really wasn't a problem for him. He stated that "the richness of memory, the richness of acquired and accumulated experience and wisdom, I won't trade that. At 67, I'm every age I ever was. I always think of that. I'm not just 67. I'm also 55 and 21 and three. Oh, especially three."
• David Letterman was an original even in high school. For an English assignment he was required to write about an important event in a person's life, so he wrote about a man who had swallowed paper towels - his way of committing suicide. While working at a grocery store, David once put cornhusks in a box of cornflakes and put it on the shelf. Not everyone was impressed by him - or his sense of humor. His high-school guidance counselor, Marilyn Dearing, wrote that he was "a run-of-the-mill ordinary average kid." In an interview after he became famous, she said, "I didn't think David was funny then, and I still don't think he is funny."
• George Burns was Jewish, but once he wanted to become Presbyterian. Why? As a small child, he was a member of a singing group that sang in an amateur talent contest at a church picnic. They won first prize - each boy received a watch. Young George was so excited that he ran home and told his mother that he wanted to become a Presbyterian - he had been a Jew all seven years of his life and never gotten anything, and he had been a Presbyterian for 15 minutes and gotten a watch. His mother told him, "First help me hang up the wash, then you can be a Presbyterian."
• Frank Sinatra loved his kids. Sometimes, he took daughter Tina out to eat. She was surprised that so many people stared at her in restaurants. Frank was embarrassed as he said to her, "They're not staring at you, Pigeon. They're staring at me." Frank's love for Tina worked out well for television comedian Soupy Sales, who was happy to get a telephone call one day from a major, major star: "I'm Frank Sinatra. My kid wants me to do your show."
CBS begins the night with a RERUN'The Neighborhood', followed by a RERUN'Bob Hearts Abishola', then a RERUN'NCIS: The 3rd One', followed by a '48 Hours'.
NBC opens the night on the East Coast with a RERUN'The Voice', followed by an old 'SNL', while on the left coast where there's a LIVE'SNL', followed by an old 'SNL'.
'SNL' is FRESH with Will Ferrell hosting, music by King Princess.
ABC fills the night with LIVE'College Football', then pads the left coast with local crap and maybe 'Nightline'.
The CW offers a buncha '2½ Men'.
Faux fills the night with LIVE'College Football', then pads the left coast with local crap.
MY recycles an old 'Major Crimes', followed by another old 'Major Crimes'.
A&E has 'Live PD', followed by a FRESH'Live PD: Rewind', then a FRESH'Live PD'.
AMC offers the movie 'Forrest Gump', followed by the movie 'Cast Away'.
BBC -
[6:00AM] WEIRD WONDERS - SEASON 2 - EPISODE 1
[7:00AM] WEIRD WONDERS - SEASON 2 - EPISODE 2
[8:00AM] WEIRD WONDERS - SEASON 2 - EPISODE 3
[9:00AM] WEIRD WONDERS - SEASON 2 - EPISODE 4
[10:00AM] WEIRD WONDERS - SEASON 2 - EPISODE 5
[11:00AM] WEIRD WONDERS - SEASON 2 - EPISODE 6
[12:00PM] WEIRD WONDERS - SEASON 2 - EPISODE 7
[1:00PM] WEIRD WONDERS - SEASON 2 - EPISODE 8
[2:00PM] PLANET EARTH: LIFE - SEASON 1 - EPISODE 4-Fish
[3:00PM] PLANET EARTH: LIFE - SEASON 1 - EPISODE 5-Birds
[4:00PM] PLANET EARTH: LIFE - SEASON 1 - EPISODE 6-Insects
[5:00PM] PLANET EARTH: LIFE - SEASON 1 - EPISODE 7-Hunters and Hunted
[6:00PM] PLANET EARTH: LIFE - SEASON 1 - EPISODE 8-Creatures of the Deep
[7:00PM] PLANET EARTH: LIFE - SEASON 1 - EPISODE 9-Plants
[8:00PM] PLANET EARTH: LIFE - SEASON 1 - EPISODE 10-Primates
[9:00PM] PLANET EARTH: BLUE PLANET II - SEASON 2 - EPISODE 3-Blue Planet Now: Wonders of the Reef
[10:00PM] PLANET EARTH: LIFE - SEASON 1 - EPISODE 4-Fish
[11:00PM] PLANET EARTH: LIFE - SEASON 1 - EPISODE 5-Birds
[12:00AM] PLANET EARTH: LIFE - SEASON 1 - EPISODE 6-Insects
[1:00AM] PLANET EARTH: LIFE - SEASON 1 - EPISODE 7-Hunters and Hunted
[2:00AM] PLANET EARTH: LIFE - SEASON 1 - EPISODE 8-Creatures of the Deep
[3:00AM] PLANET EARTH: LIFE - SEASON 1 - EPISODE 9-Plants
[4:00AM] PLANET EARTH: BLUE PLANET II - SEASON 2 - EPISODE 3-Blue Planet Now: Wonders of the Reef
[5:00AM] PLANET EARTH: LIFE - SEASON 1 - EPISODE 10-Primates (ALL TIMES EST)
Bravo has 2 hours of 'Chrisley Knows Best', followed by the movie 'Sex & The City'.
Comedy Central has the movie '21 Jump Street', followed by the movie '21 Jump Street', again.
FX has the movie 'Kingsman: The Golden Circle', followed by the movie 'War For The Planet Of The Apes'.
History has 'In Search Of', followed by the FRESH'In Search Of: Secrets Unearthed'.
IFC -
[6:00A] Batman - The Foggiest Notion
[6:33A] Batman - The Bloody Tower
[7:06A] Batman - Catwoman's Dressed to Kill
[7:39A] Batman - The Ogg Couple
[8:12A] Batman - The Funny Feline Felonies
[8:45A] The Three Stooges - Income-Tax Sappy
[9:00A] Behind Enemy Lines
[11:30A] We Were Soldiers -
[2:30P] First Blood
[4:30P] Rambo: First Blood Part II
[6:45P] Rambo III
[9:00P] Gladiator
[12:30A] We Were Soldiers
[3:30A] Planet of the Apes (ALL TIMES EST)
Sundance -
[6:15am] The Andy Griffith Show
[6:50am] The Andy Griffith Show
[7:25am] The Andy Griffith Show
[8:00am] The Andy Griffith Show
[8:30am] The Andy Griffith Show
[9:00am] The Andy Griffith Show
[9:30am] The Andy Griffith Show
[10:00am] The Andy Griffith Show
[10:30am] The Andy Griffith Show
[11:00am] M*A*S*H
[11:30am] M*A*S*H
[12:00pm] M*A*S*H
[12:30pm] M*A*S*H
[1:00pm] M*A*S*H
[1:30pm] M*A*S*H
[2:00pm] M*A*S*H
[2:30pm] M*A*S*H
[3:00pm] M*A*S*H
[3:30pm] M*A*S*H
[4:00pm] M*A*S*H
[4:30pm] M*A*S*H
[5:00pm] M*A*S*H
[5:30pm] M*A*S*H
[6:00pm] M*A*S*H
[6:30pm] M*A*S*H
[7:00pm] M*A*S*H
[7:30pm] M*A*S*H
[8:00pm] M*A*S*H
[8:30pm] M*A*S*H
[9:00pm] Caddyshack
[11:00pm] Blazing Saddles
[1:00am] Ferris Bueller's Day Off
[3:30am] Cliffhanger
[5:30am] Law & Order (ALL TIMES EST)
SyFy has the movie 'Harry Potter & The Prisoner Of Azkaban', followed by the movie 'Harry Potter & The Goblet Of Fire'.
Actresses Diane Lane, Piper Perabo and model Amber Valletta were among those arrested on Friday in the latest climate protest led by Jane Fonda.
Demonstrators chanted, "the waters are rising, and so are we," as the seventh week of the protests focused on clean safe water.
Fonda herself was not arrested. After her fourth arrest, she spent the night in jail and organizers fear that she would risk a longer sentence of 30 or even 90 days that would keep her from participating. She has said that she wants to use her celebrity to draw interest in the demonstrations.
The protesters who were arrested on Friday were detained after they blocked traffic in front of the Supreme Court.
This was the seventh week of demonstrations. Other celebrities who have been arrested include San Waterston, Ted Danson, Marg Helgenberger, Robert Kennedy Jr., Rosanna Arquette and Catherine Keener.
The first comic book produced by Marvel, the famed US publisher behind Spider-Man, X-Men and The Avengers, went under the hammer Thursday, fetching a record $1.26 million, Heritage Auctions said.
"This is a historic copy of a historic comic book," Ed Jaster, auction house senior vice president, said of the book, which was published in 1939 by Timely Comics, which later became Marvel.
Under the direction of screenwriter Stan Lee, Marvel in the 1960s created superheroes which have become iconic today and whose cinema adaptations have conquered box offices worldwide.
The first copy of "Marvel Comics" was sold in very good condition and well above the price of 10 cents it fetched back in 1939.
The most expensive comic book in history remains the first issue of "Action Comics" published in 1938 in which Superman makes his debut. It sold for $3.2 million in 2014.
On an April 2000 episode of Saturday Night Live, a sketch starring host Christopher Walken would become a pop-culture staple with an iconic, often repeated line: "More cowbell!"
It seems the sketch is so beloved (and quoted ad nauseam) that Walken once told Will Ferrell that it ruined his life.
Ferrell talked about the skit Thursday when he dropped by The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. Fellow SNL alum Fallon was also in the classic sketch about a studio recording session for Blue Oyster Cult's hit single "(Don't Fear) The Reaper," a song that needed something a little extra according to the band's manager, played by Walken.
"Here's the crazy thing," Ferrell begins, "years later, I go to see Christopher Walken in a play, I say hello to him backstage and he's like, 'You know, you've ruined my life. People, during the curtain call, bring cowbells and ring them. The other day, I went for an Italian food lunch, and the waiter asked if I wanted more cowbell with my pasta bolognese.'"
Ferrell continued, "I think he was really mad at me - he had a little smile."
A Missouri anchorman's email to call in sick from work has become a viral internet sensation after he accidentally sent it to about 200 television stations.
Nick Vasos of Kansas City's Fox4 was not feeling well on Thursday after some oral surgery. Like many workers, he sent his bosses an email to inform them.
Perhaps it was the pain or the lingering after effects of anesthetics, but Vasos sent his email to the entire Nexstar Media Group, comprising 197 TV stations across the US.
An outpouring of faux sympathy followed, then escalated into an ongoing Twitter message thread and meme explosion. A hashtag, #PrayersForNick, soon followed.
The Trump administration is withholding more than $100 million in U.S. military assistance to Lebanon that has been approved by Congress and is favored by his national security team, an assertion of executive control of foreign aid that is similar to the delay in support for Ukraine at the center of the impeachment inquiry.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Friday congratulated Lebanon as the country marked its independence day but made no mention of the hold-up in aid that State Department and Pentagon officials have complained about for weeks.
It came up in impeachment testimony by David Hale, the No. 3 official in the State Department, according to the transcript of the closed-door hearing released this week. He described growing consternation among diplomats as the administration would neither release the aid nor provide an explanation for the hold.
The $105 million in Foreign Military Funding for the Lebanese Armed Forces has languished for months, awaiting approval from the Office of Management and Budget despite congressional approval, an early September notification to lawmakers that it would be spent and overwhelming support for it from the Pentagon, State Department and National Security Council.
As with the Ukraine assistance, OMB has not explained the reason for the delay. However, unlike Ukraine, there is no suggestion that President Donald Trump (R-Corrupt) is seeking "a favor" from Lebanon to release it, according to five officials familiar with the matter.
President Trump (R-Owned) attacked former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch on Friday, saying she was "not an angel" and claiming she refused to hang his framed photograph in the embassy in Kiev for at least a year.
A member of Yovanovitch's legal team said the embassy hung photos of Mr. Trump, Vice President Mike Pence and the secretary of state "as soon as they arrived from Washington, D.C." The embassy in Kiev did not return a request for comment.
Mr. Trump told "Fox and Friends" he questioned why House Republicans were being "nice" to Yovanovitch during her testimony.
"I said 'why are you being so kind?' 'Well, sir, she's a woman. We have to be nice,'" the president claimed lied. "She's very tough."
While Mr. Trump claimed Yovanovitch refused to hang his portrait, the Washington Post reported in September 2017 federal buildings around the world, including U.S. embassies, were missing pictures of him and Pence because they hadn't yet decided when to sit for the photos.
Two amateur British treasure-hunters were sentenced Friday to long prison terms for stealing a hoard of 1,100-year-old Anglo-Saxon coins and jewelry valued at millions of pounds (dollars).
Experts say the hoard - much of which is still missing - could shed new light on a period when Saxons were battling the Vikings for control of England. The trove is thought to have been buried in the late 9th century by a member of a Viking army that was being pushed east across England by an alliance of Saxon forces.
The collection of gold and silver jewelry and up to 300 coins was dug up in 2015 on farmland in central England by metal detectorists George Powell and Layton Davies. They were convicted this week of failing to report the hoard, as required by law.
Instead, they tried to sell some of the bounty through antiquities dealers. Some of the jewelry and about 30 coins are all that have been recovered.
Judge Nicholas Cartwright said the irony was that if the two treasure-hunters had just reported the find to the authorities, they would have been in line for a reward of a third to half of its value.
The Boy Scouts of America has mortgaged one of the most spectacular properties it owns, the vast Philmont Scout Ranch in New Mexico, to help secure a line of credit as the financially strapped organization faces a growing wave of new sex-abuse lawsuits.
The BSA said Friday that it has no plans to sell the property, and that the land is being used as collateral to help meet financial needs that include rising insurance costs related to sex-abuse litigation.
However, the move dismayed a member of Philmont's oversight committee, who says it violates agreements made when the land was donated in 1938. The BSA disputed his assertion.
Top BSA officials signed the document in March, but members of the Philmont Ranch Committee only recently learned of the development, according to committee member Mark Stinnett.
In a memo sent to his fellow members, Stinnett - a Colorado-based lawyer - decried the financial maneuver and the lack of consultation with the committee.
At the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts in Richmond, there's a particularly interactive exhibition involving famous American realist artist Edward Hopper. The special exhibit runs through February 23 and includes, for a lucky number of guests, an overnight in a Hopper painting.
"Western Motel," is the painting-turned-hotel room at the center of the months-long exhibition titled "Hopper Hotel Experience."
In total, the museum is showing 60 works of art by the artist, who's known for depicting American landscapes and cities - and often for capturing a certain loneliness or detachment one feels in a big, bustling city.
Other notable American artists, including John Singer Sargent, David Hockney and Berenice Abbott, also have works on display, but the centerpiece is undoubtedly the three-dimensional living space, resurrected in minute detail - save for the woman dressed in a sleeveless burgundy dress with matching pumps.
This, of course, is no ordinary accommodation - not least of all because of the unusual check-in and check-out times of 9 p.m. and 8 a.m. respectively. But then, this is a stay in a museum with a single temporary motel room.
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