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To keep the Conversation going, please help me by linking news articles, opinion pieces and other political content in today's Comments section.

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OR here's a link generator. The one I had posted died, then Akhilleus found one, but it too bit the dust. He found yet another, which I've linked here, and as of September 23, 2024, it's working.

OR you can always just block, copy and paste to your comment the URL (Web address) of the page you want to link.

Note for Readers. It is not possible for commenters to "throw" their highlighted links to another window. But you can do that yourself. Right-click on the link and a drop-down box will give you choices as to where you want to open the link: in a new tab, new window or new private window.

Thank you to everyone who has been contributing links to articles & other content in the Comments section of each day's "Conversation." If you're missing the comments, you're missing some vital links.

Marie: Sorry, my countdown clock was unreliable; then it became completely unreliable. I can't keep up with it. Maybe I'll try another one later.

 

Public Service Announcement

Zoë Schlanger in the Atlantic: "Throw out your black plastic spatula. In a world of plastic consumer goods, avoiding the material entirely requires the fervor of a religious conversion. But getting rid of black plastic kitchen utensils is a low-stakes move, and worth it. Cooking with any plastic is a dubious enterprise, because heat encourages potentially harmful plastic compounds to migrate out of the polymers and potentially into the food. But, as Andrew Turner, a biochemist at the University of Plymouth recently told me, black plastic is particularly crucial to avoid." This is a gift link from laura h.

Mashable: "Following the 2024 presidential election results and [Elon] Musk's support for ... Donald Trump, users have been deactivating en masse. And this time, it appears most everyone has settled on one particular X alternative: Bluesky.... Bluesky has gained more than 100,000 new sign ups per day since the U.S. election on Nov. 5. It now has over 15 million users. It's enjoyed a prolonged stay on the very top of Apple's App Store charts as well. Ready to join? Here's how to get started on Bluesky[.]"

Washington Post: "Americans can again order free rapid coronavirus tests by mail, the Biden administration announced Thursday. People can request four free at-home tests per household through covidtests.gov. They will begin shipping Monday. The move comes ahead of an expected winter wave of coronavirus cases. The September revival of the free testing program is in line with the Biden administration’s strategy to respond to the coronavirus as part of a broader public health campaign to protect Americans from respiratory viruses, including influenza and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), that surge every fall and winter. But free tests were not mailed during the summer wave, which wastewater surveillance data shows is now receding."

NPR lists all of the 2025 Pulitzer Prize winners. Poynter lists the prizes awarded in journalism as well as the finalists in these categories.

Wherein Michael McIntyre explains how Americans adapted English to their needs. With examples:

Beat the Buzzer. Some amazing young athletes:

     ~~~ Here's the WashPo story (March 23).

Back when the Washington Post had an owner/publisher who dared to stand up to a president:

Prime video is carrying the documentary. If you watch it, I suggest watching the Spielberg film "The Post" afterwards. There is currently a free copy (type "the post full movie" in the YouTube search box) on YouTube (or you can rent it on YouTube, on Prime & [I think] on Hulu). Near the end, Daniel Ellsberg (played by Matthew Rhys), says "I was struck in fact by the way President Johnson's reaction to these revelations was [that they were] 'close to treason,' because it reflected to me the sense that what was damaging to the reputation of a particular administration or a particular individual was in itself treason, which is very close to saying, 'I am the state.'" Sound familiar?

Out with the Black. In with the White. New York Times: “Lester Holt, the veteran NBC newscaster and anchor of the 'NBC Nightly News' over the last decade, announced on Monday that he will step down from the flagship evening newscast in the coming months. Mr. Holt told colleagues that he would remain at NBC, expanding his duties at 'Dateline,' where he serves as the show’s anchor.... He said that he would continue anchoring the evening news until 'the start of summer.' The network did not immediately name a successor.” ~~~

~~~ New York Times: “MSNBC said on Monday that Jen Psaki, the former White House press secretary who has become one of the most prominent hosts at the network, would anchor a nightly weekday show in prime time. Ms. Psaki, 46, will host a show at 9 p.m. Tuesday through Friday, replacing Alex Wagner, a longtime political journalist who has anchored that hour since 2022, according to a memo to staff from Rebecca Kutler, MSNBC’s president. Ms. Wagner will remain at MSNBC as an on-air correspondent. Rachel Maddow, MSNBC’s biggest star, has been anchoring the 9 p.m. hour on weeknights for the early days of ... [Donald] Trump’s administration but will return to hosting one night a week at the end of April.”

 

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Tuesday
Apr052011

Remembrances of Pantyhose Past

Since Frank Rich left the Times, Maureen Dowd has been trying to fill his shoes. Rich has a knack for seeing and exploiting the connections between retail politics and cultural fads and phenomena. Dowd does not, though evidently she thinks she does. In today's column, one of her lamest yet, she makes a stab at contrasting the demented, abusive Charlie Sheen with a fashion photographer named Bill Cunningham. She begins her essay by recounting an incident in which "a fashion designer" once "humiliated" her by publicly dissing her choice of pantyhose, after which Cunningham cheered her up by snapping her photo. Dowd ends her tour de faiblesse with Cunningham's remark, “As a kid, I went to church and all I did was look at women’s hats.”

Not surprisingly, the Times moderators rejected my comment, but I think it's a valid criticism. It probably is more worthwhile reading than Dowd's column. The terms of usage on your Adobe Flashdrive download are more worthwhile reading than Dowd's column. My comment:


This column would be appropriate to the "Style" section or perhaps even to the "Arts" section, but it does not belong on the op-ed page. The opposition you attempt to draw between Bill Cunningham and Charlie Sheen is thinner than a runway model. That both men have something to do with women is about as useful as contrasting the National Organization for Women with pantyhose, both of which have -- something to do with women.

Speaking of pantyhose, I don't know any adult women who would care if some evidently drunken and unquestionably boorish fashion designer didn't like theirs. I cannot think of anything any more trivial than the fashion correctness of pantyhose. I don't wear them. Besides, fashion designers are incapable of humiliating me. I don't care what they think because their entire frame of reference is superficial -- sort of like a guy who goes to church and thinks about hats.

If you want to write about how the world treats women, there are dozens of better ways to do so, and some of those better ways have come from you: for instance, your columns on the Roman Catholic Church's mistreatment of American nuns. Get back to journalism, please, Ms. Dowd, and leave the film reviews and fashion-world profiles for the pros in other sections of the paper.

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