Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Paul Krugmn: Bad Faith, Pathos and G.O.P. Economics (NY Times)
On professionals who sold their integrity, and got nothing in return.
Paul Waldman: How Trump's crass selfishness could make the GOP less dangerous (Washington Post)
Just to be clear, I'm not arguing that this is all going to work out. I have no idea if it will - in Syria, Afghanistan or anywhere else - or if it will create new disasters, which it well might. Trump certainly can't be trusted to manage any emerging crises with a shred of skill or foresight. But it's at least possible he has injected a skepticism about overly ambitious military interventions into the GOP that could outlast his presidency. Which wouldn't be a bad thing.
Mary Beard: Loose-talk democracy (TLS)
When I was a first year student at Cambridge, one of the most memorable eye-opening moments came in the middle of the Moses Finley's introductory course of lectures on Greek history. He pointed out that there wasn't a regime, nasty or nice, in modern geo-politics that didn't call themselves a 'democracy'. I was a no doubt naïve, lefty teenager, who had somehow intuited late Cold War divisions of the world into free democracies and dictatorships - and Finley showed me exactly how naïve I was. I might not like the East German regime, but it certainly did call itself a democracy.
Alexandra Petri: An appraisal of my data, for the companies who now own it (Washington Post)
First, congratulations, (Name of Company)! Either through shrewd negotiation, or completely by accident because you did not realize Facebook had decided to give you this access until the New York Times called, you have successfully acquired all my personal data! I am sure that, like any good collector, you are wondering: What makes this addition to your portfolio special? What value does it bring? I have taken the liberty of annotating each item.
Mary Beard: News from Pompeii (TLS)
There has been all kinds of "good news" from Pompeii over the last few months: the graffito that may or may not help pin down the date of the eruption, the newly discovered painting of Leda and the Swan, and now […] the discovery of horse skeletons and trappings.
Nicko Feinberg: Experience: my Airbnb guests threw a New Year party for 300 people (The Guardian)
My artwork was not on the walls, there was furniture missing, the glass panel on my staircase was shattered.
Evan Kindley: Strange Ambitions (New Republic)
Edward Gorey's lifelong experiments in the absurd and unsettling
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Presenting
Michael Egan
took the day off.
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In memory.
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from Bruce
Anecdotes
• Comedian Tim Conway served as producer-director of an Ohio TV program titled Ernie's Place, which featured Ernie Anderson. The program had no budget, and so each week Mr. Conway appeared as a guest on the show. One of the things that he and Mr. Anderson would do was to announce that a local notable such as the Mayor was going to appear on the show and be interviewed, but none of the local notables actually wanted to be on the show. When Mr. Conway and Mr. Anderson would announce that the Mayor was going to be on the show, the Mayor would telephone them and say that there was no way he would be on the show. But Mr. Conway and Mr. Anderson would announce on air that the Mayor had telephoned to say that he was on his way. They would keep teasing the audience like that until they would say that the Mayor had finally arrived, but it was too late to interview him. Because they did this so frequently, Mr. Conway says, "The audience soon got on to us." By the way, Mr. Conway married his own godmother. In 1958, he converted to Catholicism, and when the priest asked him who would serve as his godmother, Mr. Conway suggested the young woman he was dating. The priest advised against that because perhaps Mr. Conway and the young woman would get married and then Mr. Conway would be marrying his own godmother. So the priest suggested that Mary Anne Dalton, a friend of the couple, should be Mr. Conway's godmother. This suggestion was accepted, and she became Mr. Conway's godmother. However, he broke up with his girlfriend and started dating Ms. Dalton, and on May 27, 1961, he married his own godmother.
• Johnny Carson, host of The Tonight Showfor many years, was a quick-witted man who came up with his own jokes - and who delivered expertly the jokes his writers came up with. Joan Embrey of the San Diego Zoo often brought exotic animals on his show, and a marmoset once climbed onto Johnny and sat on Johnny's head. Johnny looked into the camera and said, "Tell me one other place in this whole world of seven billion people where a man is sitting with a marmoset on his head." A man once asked him, "What made you a star?" Johnny replied, "I started out in a gaseous state and then I cooled." Ed McMahon, Johnny's Tonight Show sidekick and friend, was often the good-natured recipient of Johnny's jokes about his supposedly excessive intake of alcohol. Once, Johnny said, "Actually, Ed has good control of his drinking. He drinks only in places that have walls." Of course, funny things sometimes happened to him. Fairly early in his career, he and Mr. McMahon were sitting together in a restaurant when they noticed two elderly ladies looking at them and smiling. One elderly lady told the other, "You go." The other elderly lady replied, "No, you go." When they had settled who should go, one elderly lady approached their table. Mr. Carson and Mr. McMahon thought that she was going to ask them for autographs, but the elderly lady said, "If you're not using the cream, may we have it?")
• In 1986, Marlo Thomas was nominated for an Emmy for Best Dramatic Actress for her performance in the TV movie Nobody's Child. In the same year, The Golden Girls, a TV series produced by Tony Thomas, her brother, was nominated for Best Comedy Series. Their parents, comedian Danny Thomas and Rose Marie Thomas, decided not to attend the Emmy Awards that year because they knew that they would be devastated if one of their children won an Emmy and the other lost, so they watched the awards program on TV. A neighbor, Ted Mann, had a satellite dish with a feed from the East Coast, so when he was watching the middle of the Emmy Awards show other people on the West Coast, such as the Thomases, were watching the beginning. Mr. Mann called the Thomases with good news: "Tony just won the Emmy!" This was good news, and the Thomases threw coats over their pajamas and went to Mr. Mann's house to watch the rest of the Emmy Awards show. More good news: Marlo won the Emmy. The Thomases then got dressed up so they could celebrate that night with Tony and Marlo.
• Sometimes, you need the courage to stand up for your beliefs. When Mel Brooks was a comedy writer for Sid Caesar, Mr. Brooks wrote a sketch featuring Mr. Caesar as a German professor, but Mr. Caesar did not want to do it. As they walked together on the street, Mr. Caesar kept saying, "No," as Mr. Brooks tried to convince him to do the sketch. Finally, out of frustration, Mr. Brooks, who is a small man, hit Mr. Caesar, who is a big man, in the face. Mr. Caesar looked at Mr. Brooks and said, "I'll let you live." However, Mr. Caesar was impressed that Mr. Brooks believed so strongly in the sketch, so he did it on TV and discovered that Mr. Brooks was correct about the funniness of the German professor and the sketch. Thereafter, Mr. Caesar appeared on his TV show as the German professor many times.
• Leonard Nimoy has accomplished much in his long life, but he will be especially remembered for acting the role of Mr. Spock, science officer of the starship Enterprise in Star Trek.Of course, fans identify him with the role-so much so that they think he knows a lot more about science than he actually knows. Once, he visited the California Institute of Technology, where students told him about their extremely sophisticated science projects. Mr. Nimoy says, "They were explaining these things to me. It was not my language. I didn't have a clue what they were talking about, but I nodded very sagely, stroked my chin a little bit, and was very thoughtful. They said, 'What do you think?' And I said, 'You're on the right track.'"
• "I wish there was a knob on the TV so you could turn up the intelligence. They got one marked 'brightness' but it don't work, does it?" - Leo Anthony Gallagher?
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Current Events
Predator is the second most admired man according to a recent poll?! If I could list and rank every man, living and dead, Predator's only hope would be to rank second from the bottom. Last place--Hitler; penultimate--Predator.
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We are all only temporarily able bodied.
Thanks, Linda!
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In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Gas is under $3/gal for the first time this year.
Twiggy, Monty Python's Michael Palin
New Year's Honors List
British divers who rescued young soccer players trapped in a flooded cave in Thailand are among those being recognized in Britain's New Year's Honors List, along with 1960s model Twiggy and Monty Python star Michael Palin.
Twiggy, a model who shot to stardom during the Beatles era, will become a "dame" - the female equivalent of a knight - while Palin, whose second career has seen him become an acclaimed travel documentary maker, receives a knighthood.
Jim Carter, who played the acerbic Mr. Carson in "Downton Abbey," was also recognized, as was filmmaker Christopher Nolan, director of "Inception" and "Dunkirk" (named a Commander of the Order of the British Empire, or CBE) and best-selling author Philip Pullman (creator of the Dark Materials trilogy).
The list released Friday also named 43 people who responded quickly to the extremist attacks in Manchester and London in 2017.
Canadian author Margaret Atwood ("The Handmaid's Tale") was also named a recipient of the Order of the Companions of Honor, bestowed upon citizens of the Commonwealth realms.
New Year's Honors
2019 Rose Queen
Louise Deser Siskel
The 2019 Rose Queen said she is the first queen with glasses, who is Jewish and a member of the LGBTQ community.
Louise Deser Siskel was named the Rose Queen in October after a monthslong selection process. She is a senior at Sequoyah High School and lives in San Marino.
The Tournament of Roses Association confirmed Siskel made the statement about herself, but said they do not ask Royal Court participants to disclose information about race, ethnicity, religion or sexual orientation.
Queen Siskel and her court will reign over the Rose Parade live from Pasadena. You can watch it on ABC7, when coverage begins at 8 a.m. New Year's Day.
Louise Deser Siskel
Legally Changing His Middle Name
Macaulay Culkin
Macaulay Culkin's middle name is Carson, but not for long. The "Home Alone" star - whose more recent endeavors lean toward the offbeat end of things, including a podcast and occasional pro-wrestling appearances - has announced that, by popular demand, he's changing his middle name to Macaulay Culkin. That's right: His legal name will soon be Macaulay Macaulay Culkin Culkin.
"Macaulay Culkin" won a fan poll over "Shark Week," "Kieran" (his brother's first name), "The McRib Is Back," and "Publicity Stunt." "Merry Christmas to me, from all of you!" he tweeted in announcing the results. "My new middle name has been chosen. You voted and the winner is clear. In 2019 my new legal name will be: Macaulay Macaulay Culkin Culkin. It has a nice ring to it (if you like my name)."
The contest was announced on November 26, with Culkin writing, "My middle name is something dumb. Larry? Orange? Honestly, I can't even remember it. So I asked you all to send in some better options so I can go down to the court house and explain to a judge why I need to change my middle name to something cool."
No word yet on when the actor will make the change official, but one imagines the many people who voted in the poll will hold him to his word.
Macaulay Culkin
2018
Top Baby Names
The experts at Nameberry released their annual list of top baby names this week, with Olivia and Atticus in the top spots yet again.
The names lead the baby name site's rankings for the second year in a row. New arrivals include Genevieve and Rose for girls and Finn for boys. Seven of the top 10 girls' names end in the letter "a."
Nameberry's year-end popularity list is based on which names attracted the most page views in 2018, out of a total of 250 million views.
"It's a measure of parents' interest in baby names and a predictor of which names will become more popular in the future," the site's report states. "While the latest national list measures 2017 popularity, Nameberry's list gives a more current sense of what parents are considering NOW."
Top Baby Names
Halts Civil Court Cases
Shutdown
The partial government shutdown prompted the chief judge of Manhattan federal courts Thursday to suspend work on civil cases involving U.S. government lawyers, giving President-for-now Donald Trump (R-Grifter) a reprieve from the progress of some litigation he faces.
U.S. District Judge Colleen McMahon said in a written order that the suspension, requested by U.S. attorneys, will remain in effect for civil litigation involving the United States, its agencies, and its employees until the business day after Trump signs a budget appropriation law restoring Justice Department funding.
The Manhattan courts, with several dozen judges, are among the nation's busiest courts.
In the Eastern District of New York in Brooklyn, Chief Judge Dora L. Irizarry issued an order Wednesday saying the court "will continue to hear and decide cases without disruption."
Consistent with that order, Judge William F. Kuntz II on Wednesday denied without comment a request by U.S. government lawyers to delay work on a lawsuit against Trump and other defendants. The government had said in court papers that Justice Department attorneys are prohibited from working, "even on a voluntary basis, except in very limited circumstances."
Shutdown
One-Time Paycheck On New Year's Eve
Coast Guard
Roughly 42,000 active-duty military members of the Coast Guard will receive paychecks on Dec. 31 despite the federal government shutdown, a Coast Guard spokesman told NBC News on Friday night.
The one-time payment for active-duty members, reservists who were active in December, and retirees is part of a short-term solution agreed upon by the Trump administration, the Department of Homeland Security, and the Coast Guard, according to a blog operated by the Coast Guard.
"The circumstances of this lapse are unique because of the timeline of the lapse in relation to the military pay process," the blog, published Friday, read. "Ultimately, extensive research and legal analysis between the Coast Guard, DHS, and [Office of Management and Budget] determined the Coast Guard has the authority to execute the remainder of pay and allowances for December."
The Coast Guard is the only part of the military under DHS, rather than the Department of Defense which continues to be funded during the shutdown.
Coast Guard members are still working to provide essential services such as search-and-rescue operations during the shutdown but will not be paid into January unless Trump and Congress can agree to an appropriations bill before the next pay period or provide an alternative solution.
Coast Guard
Dropped The F-Bomb?
Grover
Prepare yourself, people: Yanny vs. Laurel 2.0 may be upon us.
A clip from "Sesame Street," is circulating online and sparking a debate as to whether the iconic children's character Grover is saying something perfectly acceptable or has fully embraced the show's partnership with HBO.
To some, it sounds like, "Yes, yes that's a fucking excellent idea!"
Other people hear a much more innocent exclamation, with Grover saying, "Yes, yes that sounds like an excellent idea!"
Many are just baffled.
Grover
Even Netflix Passed
Holmes & Watson
If reported walk outs don't have you convinced, perhaps this does: even Netflix passed on Holmes & Watson.
Yes, according to Deadline and a tweet from The Wrap's Alonso Duralde, the streaming giant, who put the stamp on Bright, The Cloverfield Paradox, and this month's Bird Box, said no to the Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly vehicle.
Reportedly, Sony tried to offload the movie following terrible reactions from test screenings, and clearly Netflix took one look around and balked at the offer. Good on them, seeing how the film currently has a CinemaScore rating of D+.
Of course, it's not all bad news for the two bumbling detectives. The film happened to scrounge up 10 million bucks in the first two days of its release, so at least we're not talking about a Marwen situation here. Ah, poor Robert Zemeckis.
Still, it's a crime that anyone wasted this reunion between Ferrell and Reilly. Fans of Adam McKay's Step Brothers have waited to see these two reunite again for over a decade, and given their chemistry, it's a mystery how it winded up this bad.
Holmes & Watson
Left $11 Million
Alan Naiman
Alan Naiman, a Washington state social worker, died of cancer this year. All his life, the 63-year-old was known for his thriftiness, but those closest to him had no clue there was a reason to his frugality. They found out after his death -- when Naiman left a surprising $11 million estate to children's charities, The Associated Press reported.
Naiman's beneficiaries and best friends were shocked by the amount of money he had saved up. For two decades, he worked for the state Department of Social and Health Services making $67,234 a year. He also worked side gigs to earn extra cash. Sometimes, he worked three jobs at a time.
He repaired his old, battered shoes with duct tape. He bought clothes from the grocery story. He loved cars but drove beat up ones on solo road trips.
Before working at the state Department of Social and Health Services, handling after-hours calls, Naiman was a banker. His friend from his banking days, Shashi Karan, said he inherited millions from his parents, and saved millions from his own jobs.
He saved $11 million by the time he died in January 2018, and all of that money was given to charities that help poor, sick, disabled and abandoned children, the AP reported.
Alan Naiman
In Memory
Amos Oz
Israeli author Amos Oz, one of the country's most widely acclaimed writers and a pre-eminent voice in its embattled peace movement, died on Friday after a battle with cancer, his family announced. He was 79.
Oz was known around the world for his dozens of novels, essays and prose about life in Israel, including a well-received memoir, "A Tale of Love and Darkness." He won some of the literary world's most prestigious honors, including the Goethe Prize and the French Knight's Cross of the Legion D'Honneur, received honorary doctorates and was a perennial candidate for the Nobel Prize in literature.
Oz was born in Jerusalem in 1939, the son of immigrants from eastern Europe. As a teen he rebelled against his upbringing, looking to put behind what he felt was his parents' world that glamorized Europe and the West and instead was drawn to the young pioneers who built the early state.
He would complete high school at Kibbutz Hulda in central Israel, and return to the kibbutz after completing his mandatory military service in 1961. While working in the farming community's cotton fields, he published his first short stories.
After earning a degree in literature from Jerusalem's Hebrew University, he would spend 25 years on the kibbutz, dividing his time between writing, farming and teaching at the community's high school, according to his website.
In a career spanning half a century, Oz published over 35 books, including 13 novels as well as children's books and collections of short stories, and hundreds of articles on literary and political topics. His works were translated into more than 40 languages.
Oz was a leading voice in Israel's peace movement and a friend of the late Shimon Peres, a former prime minister and legendary politician who won the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to reach a deal with the Palestinians. Oz frequently wrote essays and delivered lectures urging the country's leaders to establish a Palestinian state as part of a peace agreement with Israel.
He was among the founders of Peace Now, a leftist organization that opposes Israeli settlements in the West Bank, and was a leading voice in the 2003 "Geneva Initiative," an unofficial peace plan reached by leading Israeli and Palestinians. He also was a supporter and activist in Meretz, a dovish Israeli political party.
In recent years, he, along with fellow authors David Grossman and A.B. Yehoshua, became pillars of the country's peace movement, which has grown increasingly marginalized over the past two decades.
Amos Oz
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