Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Garrison Keillor: The Quotable Keillor
"Forget everything you ever read about poetry, it doesn't matter-poetry is the last preserve of honest speech and the outspoken heart. All that I wrote about it as a grad student I hereby recant and abjure-all that matters about poetry to me is directness and clarity and truthfulness. All that is twittery and lit'ry: no thanks, pal. A person could perish of entertainment, especially comedy, so much of it casually nihilistic, hateful, glittering, cold, and in the end clueless. People in nursing homes die watching late-night television and if I were one of them, I'd be grateful when the darkness descends. Thank God if the pastor comes and offers a psalm and a prayer, and they can attain a glimmer of clarity at the end." ? Garrison Keillor
Jonathan Jones: For Robert Indiana, there was always power in LOVE (The Guardian)
The undying fame of Indiana's artwork is proof that love still has blazing energy as a political force.
Jonathan Jones: Antony Gormley: Subject review - this art thesis fails the viva (The Guardian)
Now, look here, young Gormley, some of this is very impressive but you will not progress until you get to grips with the difficulty and honesty of true art. What's that you say? You're 67 years old, a Turner prize winner, one of the most famous artists in the world? For God's sake, someone pour me a sherry.
Richard Lea: Philip Roth: Portnoy's Complaint and American Pastoral author dies at 85 (The Guardian)
Chronicler of American politics, Jewishness and male sexual desire was widely regarded as one of greatest novelists of the 20th century.
Eric Homberger: Philip Roth obituary (The Guardian)
Poignantly humane novelist set on emancipating American literature from respectability.
Jenny Stevens: "The friend effect: why the secret of health and happiness is surprisingly simple" (The Guardian)
A study has found that regularly eating meals alone is the biggest single factor for unhappiness, besides existing mental illness. Why is hanging out with friends so helpful?
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Presenting
Michael Egan
took the day off.
has returned to semi-retired status.
In memory.
Reader Suggestion
Michelle in AZ
Bonus Links
Jeannie the Teed-Off Temp
from Marc Perkel
Marc's Guide to Curing Cancer
So far so good on beating cancer for now. I'm doing fine. At the end of the month I'll be 16 months into an 8 month mean lifespan. And yesterday I went on a 7 mile hike and managed to keep up with the hiking group I was with. So, doing something right.
Still waiting for future test results and should see things headed in the right direction. I can say that it's not likely that anything dire happens in the short term so that means that I should have time to make several more attempts at this. So even if it doesn't work the first time there are a lot of variations to try. So if there's bad news it will help me pick the next radiation target.
I have written a "how to" guide for oncologists to perform the treatment that I got. I'm convinced that I'm definitely onto something and whether it works for me or not isn't the definitive test. I know if other people tried this that it would work for some of them, and if they improve it that it will work for a lot of them.
The guide is quite detailed and any doctor reading this can understand the procedure at every level. I also go into detail as to how it works, how I figured it out, and variations and improvements that could be tried to enhance it. I also introduce new ways to look at the problem. There is a lot of room for improvement and I think that doctors reading it will see what I'm talking about and want to build on it. And it's written so that if you're not a doctor you can still follow it. It also has a personal story revealing that I'm the class clown of cancer support group. I give great interviews and I look pretty hot in a lab coat.
So, feel free to read this and see what I'm talking about. But if any of you want to help then pass this around to both doctors and cancer patients. I need some media coverage. I'm looking for as many eyeballs as possible to read these ideas. Even if this isn't the solution, it's definitely on the right track. After all, I did hike 7 miles yesterday. And this hiking group wasn't moving slow. So if this isn't working then, why am I still here?
I also see curing cancer as more of an engineering problem that a medical problem. So if you are good at solving problems and most of what you know about medicine was watching the Dr. House MD TV show, then you're at the level I was at when I started. So anyone can jump in and be part of the solution.
Here is a link to my guide: Oncologists Guide to Curing Cancer using Abscopal Effect
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
"IT'S SPRINGTIME FOR ROBBER BARONS AGAIN."
"GOONS IN GUCCI"
"YOU CANNOT HAVE ONE WITHOUT THE OTHER!"
FUCK THE NFL!
HUMPING A ROCK!
THE RISE OF THE "NEO-NAZI" IN AMERICA!
REPUBLICANS ARE MORONS!
Visit JD's site - Kitty Litter Music
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
More May Gray - think I'm sensing a trend...
Mark Twain Prize
Julia Louis-Dreyfus
Julia Louis-Dreyfus is getting a major comedy honor.
The Veep star is set to receive the 21st annual Mark Twain Prize for American Humor, the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts announced Wednesday. The prize, which is "named to honor one of the world's greatest humorists," will be given to Louis-Dreyfus by her fellow entertainers at the Kennedy Center Concert Hall on Oct. 21.
Past recipients of the award include David Letterman, Bill Murray, Eddie Murphy, Tina Fey, Jay Leno and Carol Burnett. (In a first, the Kennedy Center recently revoked the award they gave to convicted star Bill Cosby in 2009, along with his 1998 Kennedy Center Honor.)
Louis-Dreyfus is the first woman to receive the award since Burnett earned the honor in 2013, and she is only the sixth woman to ever get the honor.
Louis-Dreyfus has won six straight Emmy Awards for lead actress in a comedy for her role as Selina Meyer in HBO's Veep. Previously, she won a leading-actress Emmy in 2006 for playing a divorced mom on CBS' The New Adventures Old Christine and a supporting-actress trophy in 1996 for her run as Elaine Benes on NBC's Seinfeld.
Julia Louis-Dreyfus
Wants To Apologize
Dave Grohl
Foo Fighters frontman Dave Grohl didn't hold back when asked about President Donald Trump in a recent interview.
"I am ashamed of our president," he told British GQ. "I feel apologetic for it when I travel."
"Listen, who cares what I think about guns or religion, but the thing about Trump that stings the most is this: he just seems like a massive jerk. Right?" Grohl added.
Read the full interview here.
Dave Grohl
First New Show In Two Decades
Matt Groening
It's been nearly 20 years since Matt Groening has given you a new show, so… it's time.
Netflix released the first images of Disenchantment, an animated fantasy series that features the voices of Abbi Jacobson, Nat Faxon, and Eric Andre. Created by Groening (The Simpsons, Futurama), the show takes place in the crumbling medieval kingdom named Dreamland and centers on the exploits of a hard-drinking princess named Bean (Jacobson), her plucky elf friend Elfo (Faxon), and her personal demon Luci (Andre) as they match wits with "ogres, sprites, harpies, imps, trolls, walruses, and lots of human fools."
The series, whose 10-episode first season launches Aug. 17, also will feature the voice talents of John DiMaggio, Billy West, Maurice LaMarche, Tress MacNeille, David Herman, Matt Berry, Jeny Batten, Rich Fulcher, Noel Fielding, and Lucy Montgomery.
"Ultimately, Disenchantment will be about life and death, love and sex, and how to keep laughing in a world full of suffering and idiots, despite what the elders and wizards and other jerks tell you," is how Groening described the show last year.
Matt Groening
Canceled After 7 Seasons
'The Chew'
ABC has canceled the daytime talk show "The Chew" after seven seasons and 1,454 episodes, the network announced on Wednesday.
The move comes as the Disney-owned network plans to expand "Good Morning America" to a third hour in the afternoons. "The Chew" will cease production at the end of this season, but will continue to air as planned until September with all-new episodes starting in June.
Hosted by celebrity chefs Michael Symon and Carla Hall and "entertaining expert" Clinton Kelly, "The Chew" is a hybrid talk/cooking show produced by Elliott's Chew Productions. The show has received six Daytime Emmy nominations, including a 2016 win for Outstanding Talk Show, Informative.
Mario Batali served as one of the show's co-hosts since its inception in 2011, until numerous women came forward with sexual misconduct allegations against the chef in December and he was asked to step aside.
ABC will replace the program with an afternoon hour of "Good Morning America," which the network says will consist of "news, pop culture, compelling interviews and the program's signature, epic live events." Further details about the new show, including the title and anchors, have not been announced.
'The Chew'
NASA's New Chief Changes Mind
Climate Change
NASA's new administrator, a former lawmaker nominated by President-for-now Donald Trump (R-Corrupt) to lead the US space agency, admitted Wednesday he has changed his mind about climate change and now believes that humans are the main driver of greenhouse gas emissions.
"The National Climate Assessment that includes NASA and it includes the Department of Energy, and it includes NOAA (the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration), has clearly stated that it is extremely likely... that human activity is the dominant cause of global warming, and I have no reason to doubt the science that comes from that," Jim Bridenstine said at a Senate hearing.
He was answering the first question posed by a Democratic senator, Brian Schatz, who went on to ask him to confirm that humans were indeed changing the climate.
"The science must not be partisan," said Bridenstine, a Republican who served as a representative for Oklahoma in the House from 2013 until earlier this year.
His nomination to head NASA raised alarm among scientists because not only did Bridenstine have no scientific background, he had also questioned, in 2013, whether global warming was real, saying that temperatures had ceased to rise about a decade earlier.
Climate Change
Contestant's Suit
'The Apprentice'
President-for-now Donald Trump (R-Crooked) wants New York's highest court to delay a defamation suit filed by a former "Apprentice" contestant who accused him of unwanted groping and kissing.
Trump's lawyers filed notice late Monday that they're asking the state Court of Appeals to freeze Summer Zervos' suit while a lower appellate court considers Trump's request to dismiss it or postpone it until after his presidency.
The president has denied Zervos' claims, and his lawyers formally did so in a filing late Tuesday. They also argue that he can't be sued in a state court while he's president.
Zervos' lawyer, Mariann Wang, said she looked forward "to proving that his denials are baseless."
She also noted that Trump has lost bids so far to delay the case.
'The Apprentice'
But Her Emails?
Cellphone Security
The Hillary Clinton email controversy received an enormous amount of coverage during the 2016 presidential election, dogging the former secretary of state's campaign for months amid allegations from Republicans that she broke laws and put national security at risk.
The apparent lack of security concerning President-for-now Donald Trump's communications, meanwhile, hardly got any attention on Capitol Hill this week.
Trump has been using a cellphone not equipped with top security features and has rejected repeated attempts by his staff to harden his devices against hackers, Politico reported Monday. The president reportedly uses two cellphones: one dedicated for his frequent Twitter use and another to make calls. The latter has a camera and microphone - features that security experts warn can be exploited by hackers.
According to the report, the GPS location trackers on both of Trump's devices have been deactivated. But he has reportedly gone for as long as five months without getting his Twitter phone checked by security experts, posing additional risks of hacking.
The significance of compromised presidential communications could be enormous. Trump often uses his cellphone to speak with friends, advisers, former business partners and lawmakers about the Russia investigation and sensitive issues like negotiations with North Korea. His reluctance to secure his personal communications could have already exposed him to domestic or foreign surveillance efforts.
Cellphone Security
Some Problems
Commemorative Coin
A commemorative coin released by the White House is drawing ire over its depiction of President Donald Trump face to face with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un.
The flashy coin, known as a challenge coin, shows the two men's portly profiles with the words "Peace talks" above them. Both men's names are printed along the coin's border, with Kim referred to as "Supreme Leader" ? a title that the U.S. government is not known to use.
The coin was released to memorialize the pair's planned peace summit - which, as of this week, may not happen.
White House press secretary Sarah Sanders waved off questions about the coin during a press briefing on Tuesday, saying the White House Communications Agency, a special military unit that provides support to the president and his staff, is the organization responsible for its design. The agency did not immediately respond to a request for comment from HuffPost.
In addition to the status of the two leaders' announced June 12 meeting in Singapore being up in the air as of this week, critics are expressing concern over Kim's being given such a prestigious recognition while sharing a platform with the U.S. president.
Commemorative Coin
Cake Censorship
'Summa Cum Laude'
The family of a graduating senior was left furious after a grocery store censored a personalized cake message celebrating his achievement of graduating summa cum laude.
Cara Kosinski, from South Carolina, ordered a cake for her son Jacob from Publix, which appeared unimpressed with one of the words she wanted to be displayed on the sheet cake.
When Kosinski placed the order online, she was not allowed to write her customized message of choice for the cake: "Congratulations Jacob. Summa Cum Laude class of 2018." Instead, when she typed the inscription into Publix's message box, the system starred out the word "cum," identifying it as a profanity, The Washington Post reported.
Despite Kosinski explaining in the special instructions box that "cum" is Latin for "with," the grocery store decided to replace the word with three dashes, leaving Kosinski and her son red-faced as they attempted to explain the mix-up to elderly relatives who had joined them to celebrate.
Speaking to ABC News 4 about the censorship of her son's cake, Kosinski said: "You would just think that the bakery has done many cakes before-this cannot be their first graduation. This can't be the first student to graduate summa cum laude."
'Summa Cum Laude'
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