Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Joe Bob Briggs: See NYC! Admission Price $11! (Taki's Mag)
Sometime in early 2020 it will cost $11.52 to enter the city of New York in a car-$25.34 for trucks-plus additional surcharges if you use a taxi or a car service. According to the Fix NYC Task Force, commissioned by Governor Andrew Cuomo, this is so that New York can "remain a world-class city and region" by reducing traffic congestion. Of course, as we all know, no policy ever reduces traffic congestion, it just makes it harder to do business. Any company that relies on deliveries will eventually look at that $25.34 entrance fee and start admiring real estate in Jersey City.
Greg Sargent: Trump is floundering disastrously on multiple fronts. Stop pretending he's in control. (Washington Post)
Because so many of us got it so wrong in 2016, there's a tendency among many commentators to reflexively assume President Trump possesses some kind of hidden, magical sway over the political environment that we're all missing. But if there's anything that should shatter this illusion, it's the events of this particular moment.
Alexandra Petri: Elites hate him! (Washington Post)
Are we not tired of such dull, in-the-box thinking dictated by elites who claim to possess specialized knowledge about the way things work? Have we considered that it might actually be a very pleasant experience to lose a hand to a leopard? I am sick of being told my opinion does not count because I am not an expert and think it might make the leopard loyal and grateful. How do we know that rabid bats are bad? Have you ever really seen a rabid bat? Can bats even get rabies? That is why I am putting Herman Cain on the board of the Federal Reserve! That is why I am putting Stephen Moore on the board of the Federal Reserve. That is why, soon, I will be putting my horse Incitatus on the board of the Federal Reserve. To shake things up.
Jonathan Chait: Trump Downgrades GOP Health Plan Status From 'Great' to 'Will Exist Soon' (NY Mag)
If Republicans have a plan to give everybody better health care for lower premiums and lower deductibles, it seems crazy that they would keep it under wraps until after the election. But maybe people just love surprises.
Matthew Dessem: "Presented for Your Approval: A Brief History of the Theme From The Twilight Zone" (Slate)
The theme from The Twilight Zone is one of the most easily recognizable pieces of music of the twentieth century, a four-note motif for electric guitar with hair-raising dissonances that conjure up the uncanny and the unknown in an almost Pavlovian way.
Michael Cragg: "Shawn Mendes: 'I'm 20. I want to have fun' (The Guardian)
Shawn Mendes is the red-hot poster boy of pop. His videos have been viewed 6bn times and he has more than 42m followers on Instagram. But don't worry if you haven't heard of him… just ask a teenager.
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Presenting
Michael Egan
answered:
has returned to semi-retired status.
In memory.
Reader Suggestion
Michelle in AZ
from Bruce
Anecdotes
• Women were a rare sight in the western frontier. Mark Twain relates in Roughing It that "once in Star City, in the Humboldt Mountains, I took my place in a sort of long, post-office single file of miners, to patiently await my chance to peep through a crack in the cabin and a sight of the splendid new sensation - a genuine, live Woman! And at the end of half of an hour my turn came, and I put my eye to the crack, and there she was, with one arm akimbo, and tossing flapjacks in a frying-pan with the other. And she was one hundred and sixty-five years old, and hadn't a tooth in her head." (In a footnote, Mr. Twain says that since he is now in a calmer mood, he would knock 100 years off her age.)
• Paul Douglas used to be a U.S. senator. When he was old, he suffered a stroke and was confined to a wheelchair. One day, while reaching for something, he fell out of his wheelchair. The only other person at home was his wife, who wasn't strong enough to pick him up and put him back in the wheelchair. She told her husband, "Paul, we haven't had a picnic in such a long time," then went into the kitchen and made some sandwiches. She brought out the sandwiches, put a few potted plants around to make the scene look more like the country, then she opened a bottle of wine. The two had their picnic, then read love poetry to each other until someone arrived to help pick up Mr. Douglas.
• Patrick Macnee, the actor who played the sartorially perfect John Steed in The Avengers and The New Avengers, once went on a cruise to St. Petersburg, Russia. Many of the passengers told him how much they had enjoyed his TV series. Mr. Macnee, who says that he is now old, fat, and grey (although his photographs show him looking very distinguished) says that many of the passengers recognized him by his voice.
• During the 1950s, an old man knocked on a door at Lancashire School and asked the two schoolboys who answered his knock if he could sit down in the room as he believed that long ago he had lived in this room at the school. After they had entertained the old man and he had left, the schoolboys were astonished to learn that their visitor had been the world-famous conductor Sir Thomas Beecham, who had attended Lancashire School as a teenager.
• A group of elderly Jews were discussing current world events and looking very worried. One man astonished the others by saying, "You know what - I'm an optimist." "You're an optimist!" exclaimed another man. "Then why do you look so worried?" "In today's world, you think it's easy to be an optimist?"
• For decades, Sir Thomas Beecham conducted from memory. However, in his old age he sometimes used a score while conducting. When Neville Cardus asked him about this, Sir Thomas replied, "I have been going through my scores recently, and I find that they hold my interest from the first page to the last."
• Natalie Schafer, who played Mrs. Thurston Howell on Gilligan's Island, kept her age strictly a secret. (When she died in 1990, she was 90 years old.) When her husband, Louis Calhern, was on his deathbed, he asked her to reveal her age to him. She looked her dying husband straight in the eyes and replied, "Never!"
• A friend asked me recently what I liked best in the world. I answered, "Either cleavage or chocolate chip cookies. I must be getting old, because I find it difficult to pick which I prefer."
• In 1962, when he was 70, violinist Mischa Elman said, "When I made my debut as a 12-year-old in Berlin, people used to say, 'Isn't he wonderful for his age?' Now they're beginning to say it again."
• At the age of 76, Chaim Weizmann, the first President of Israel, returned from a trip abroad, then said, "I've learned that there are certain things you can do at 70 that you can't so easily do at 76."
• On his 75th birthday, Sir Winston Churchill said, "I am ready to meet my Maker. Whether my Maker is ready to meet me is another matter."
• Bernie Bernheim began to study karate when he was 57. At the age of 61, he earned his black belt.
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In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Still trying to get caught up.
2nd Most 'Challenged' Book
John Oliver
Not everyone was amused by the John Oliver send-up of a picture book by the wife and daughter of Vice President Mike Pence.
"Last Week Tonight With John Oliver Presents A Day in the Life of Marlon Bundo," in which the Pence's family bunny turns out to be gay, was among the books most objected to in 2018 at the country's public libraries. The best-selling parody ranked No. 2 on the list of "challenged" books compiled by the American Library Association, with some complaining about its gay-themed content and political viewpoint.
Oliver's book, credited to staff writer Jill Twiss, was a response to the Pences' "A Day in the Life of Marlon Bundo" and to the family's conservative social viewpoint. The Pences themselves did not publicly object, and daughter Charlotte Pence has even said she purchased a copy of the "Last Week Tonight" book, noting that proceeds were going to charities for AIDS and suicide prevention for LGBTQ youth.
The library association announced Monday that Alex Gino's "George," a middle-grade novel about a transgender child, was No. 1 on its list. Others included Angie Thomas' best-seller about a teen girl whose friend is shot by police, "The Hate U Give" (drug use, profanity, "anti-cop" bias); and Dav Pilkey's "Captain Underpants" series (same-sex couple, "encouraging disruptive behavior").
The report also includes Raina Telgemeier's "Drama," Jay Asher's "Thirteen Reasons Why," Sherman Alexie's prize-winning ""The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian," Mariko and Jillian Tamaki's "This One Summer" and Judy Schachner's "Skippyjon Jones" series. Books included on the list in previous years range from "To Kill a Mockingbird" to the "Harry Potter" series.
John Oliver
Work Of Just One Author
Beowulf
The mystery of whether the Anglo-Saxon epic poem Beowulf was written by one person or stitched together from multiple sources may have finally been solved by Harvard University.
Researchers used a computer statistical method called stylometry to analyse meter, combinations of letters and frequency of words, and found that it is consistent throughout, suggesting just one person is behind the saga.
The story sees hero Beowulf come to the aid of Hrothgar, King of the Danes whose kingdom is under attack by a monster known as Grendel.
Many experts believed the poem was the work of several people because it seemed disjointed, and includes historical sections dating back hundreds of years which appear to add nothing to the narrative.
In the original manuscript, dating between 975AD and 1010AD, the handwriting also changes halfway through suggesting at least two people transcribed the work, although the poem is thought to date back much earlier.
Beowulf
Ending With Season 4
'Preacher'
The fourth season of AMC's "The Preacher" will also be its last, Variety has learned.
The series, based on the graphic novels by Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon, follows West Texas preacher Jesse Custer (Dominic Cooper), his badass ex-girlfriend Tulip (Ruth Negga), and an Irish vampire named Cassidy (Joseph Gilgun) as they embark on a road trip to find God and are thrust into a twisted battle spanning Heaven, Hell and everywhere in between.
Seth Rogen, who developed and executive produces the series, made the announcement via his Instagram.
Rogen also revealed in the post that the final season will premiere on August 8.
The news comes only a few days after Rogen's Point Grey Pictures signed a multi-platform production deal with Lionsgate, departing Sony Pictures TV.
'Preacher'
Reuniting
Rod Stewart & Jeff Beck
Rod Stewart and Jeff Beck are set to reunite later this year for a special concert in Los Angeles. It marks the first time the two musicians, who played together in The Jeff Beck Group, have shared the same stage in almost a decade.
Stewart and Beck are marked down to play the Hollywood Bowl on September 27th. A press statement describes the evening as "their most in depth concert in over 35 years," featuring a setlist of hits as well as "rare early classics."
The two legends formed The Jeff Beck Group in 1967. The English rock outfit, which also included Ronnie Wood, went on to release a handful of albums before disbanding in the early '70s. The former bandmates have re-teamed sporadically since then, but the last time they were spotted together was back in 2009, when Stewart dropped in on a Beck concert in LA; the pair performed their 1985 collaborative single "People Get Ready".
Tickets for their Hollywood Bowl show go on sale Friday, April 12th via LiveNation.
Stewart's last album, Blood Red Roses, hit shelves September 2018. Beck, meanwhile, put out Loud Hailer in 2016.
Rod Stewart & Jeff Beck
Several Mountain Ranges
Glaciers
Most glaciers in Central Europe, Western Canada and the United States would vanish in the second half of this century under the current rates of ice loss, according to a new report.
Glaciers have lost over 9,000 billion tons of ice between 1961 and 2016, according to a research letter published in the journal Nature on Monday. This amounts to a block of ice the size of Germany and almost 100 feet thick, or the size of the United States and 4 feet thick, said lead author Michael Zemp.
"Under current loss rates we are going to lose glaciers -- basically all glaciers -- in several mountain ranges," said Zemp, who is a lecturer in glaciology at the University of Zurich.
This ice loss has also meant global sea levels increased by up to 27 millimeters over the time period, said the letter, which was authored by 15 international scientists. This accounts for between 25% to 30% of the observed increase in global sea levels.
In this latest research, the team used data from over 19,000 glaciers, including satellite observation and 450 field visits. That's far more than previous studies, which Zemp said relied on data from around 500 glaciers.
Glaciers
'Alien' Lights
Norway
Auroras are spectacular light shows, but a recent display in the skies over northern Norway was out of this world - sort of.
On Friday (April 5), clusters of purple, blue and yellow lights appeared in the country's night sky; as the ghostly shapes hovered, their eerie glow and unusual formation invited speculation about visiting alien spacecraft.
But extraterrestrials weren't behind the demonstration. It was NASA, launching a new rocket system from Norway to study the flow of winds in Earth's upper atmosphere, representatives of the agency's Wallops Flight Facility in Wallops, Virginia, tweeted that day.
Following the appearance of an aurora that night, NASA created another spectacular light show with chemical compounds, expelled by the Auroral Zone Upwelling Rocket Experiment (AZURE). This is the first of eight rocket missions to launch from Norwegian bases in Andøya and Svalbard. The missions will analyze the interactions of Earth's magnetic field lines and particles from space that bombard our planet, according to a NASA statement.
During the launch, the rockets deployed chemical tracers - trimethylaluminum (TMA) and a barium-strontium mixture - that ionize in sunlight, enabling researchers to track the flow of neutral and charged particles. These tracers will help NASA measure the churning vertical winds that mix electrically charged particles and energy through the atmosphere, recording the winds' density and temperature, NASA said.
Norway
Liquid And Solid At The Same Time
"The Chain-Melted State"
Scientists have found a new state of physical matter - which allows atoms to exist as both solid and liquid at the same time.
Atoms in physical material have been typically thought to be in one of three states: they were either solid, liquid, or they were gas. But researchers have discovered some elements that can take on properties of two different states, posing a complication to that view.
Scientists have not been sure whether those intermediate states were their own state of matter, or if they just represented a transition between the two.
New research clears up that dispute, and point to the fact that it is a distinct state of matter, known as "the chain-melted state". And now researchers hope it can be further examined to find more uses for the unexpected discovery.
The study was supported by the European Research Council and the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, and the work was carried out in collaboration with scientists from Xi'an Jiantong University in China.
"The Chain-Melted State"
In Memory
Seymour Cassel
Prolific actor Seymour Cassel, who received an Academy Award nomination for "Faces" and appeared in Wes Anderson films including "Rushmore," died Sunday in Los Angeles of Alzheimer's disease. He was 84.
Cassel was a veteran of dozens of independent films, appearing in multiple roles in films directed by John Cassvetes and Anderson. In addition to playing Bert Fischer in "Rushmore," he appeared in "The Royal Tenenbaums" and "The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou."
Cassel was born in Detroit on Jan. 22, 1935. His early career was tied to Cassavetes and he made his movie debut in an uncredited role in Cassavetes' first film, "Shadows," in 1958 and became an associate producer on the project. He co-starred with Cassavetes in "Too Late Blues" and "The Webster Boy" and appeared on "The Lloyd Bridges Show" in the episode "A Pair of Boots" directed by Cassavetes. His early TV credits included "Twelve O'Clock High," "Combat!," "The F.B.I." and "Batman" in the episode "A Piece of the Action."
In 1968, Cassel was nominated for the Academy Award for supporting actor for his role as Chet in Cassavetes's cinema verite drama "Faces." He also won a National Society of Film Critics Award for the performance. Other collaborations with Cassavetes included the co-lead with Gena Rowlands in "Minnie and Moskowitz" as a free-spirited parking attendant, "The Killing of a Chinese Bookie," and "Love Streams."
He met Anderson through indie director Alexandre Rockwell, who cast Cassel in "In the Soup," for which he won a Sundance acting prize.
Other feature film credits include "Dick Tracy," "Tin Men," "Honeymoon in Vegas," "Indecent Proposal," and Steve Buscemi's directorial debut "Trees Lounge," followed by Buscemi's "Animal Factory" and "Lonesome Jim." Cassel appeared for four seasons in "Tracey Takes On…."
Cassel was also active in the Screen Actors Guild and was a member of the national board. He ran unsuccessfully for president in 2007 and 2009.
He is survived by his three children, Lisa Papciak, Matthew Cassel and Dilyn Cassel Murphy, seven grandchildren, and three great grandchildren.
Donations may be made to the Alzheimer's Foundation of America.
Seymour Cassel
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