Weekly Rec: The Assassination

The BBC generally makes most of my favorite podcasts (I guess because what I actually like is radio documentaries), and they've just started a new one that's really great - The Assassination, about the assassination of Pakistani politician Benazir Bhutto, which took place ten years ago. It borrows a bit from the format popularized by Serial, with a whole series devoted to an in-depth look at a single crime, except in this case the murder in question is a world-shaking political assassination. It's hosted by Owen Bennett Jones, who knew and covered Bhutto for years and has clearly put a lot of time and effort into investigating her death, and he uses clips from archival recordings of his own BBC news reports as well as interviews that took place over decades as well as those done just for this project. There's a ton of useful background and context about Pakistani politics and history in general as well as this fascinating figure and her death. I followed the story of the assassination at the time and yet even in the first few episodes of this podcast I've learned a ton. If you're interested in recent history and how it intersects with current world affairs, give it a try!

Afternoon Tea (11/1/17)

What Once Was Lost: Unfinding and Refinding Music History

How To Cry At Bruckner's Fourth

How Flowers Manipulate Light to Send Secret Signals to Bees

This from historian Mary Beard is interesting: Who really makes a television documentary

The Establishment of BBC Arabic & Egyptian 'Nahwy'

Morning Coffee (10/13/17)

Whew, we definitely need some happy Friday links this week.

Aaaah, Rainbow Rowell book news! I'm so glad she's writing a book taking place in a pumpkin patch. That is the MOST RAINBOW.

And the cover and an excerpt from Sandhya Menon's upcoming From Twinkle, With Love!

And the Toast came back very briefly to tell us Hey Ladies! wrote a book too!

I will continue to be unreservedly excited about new X-Files because we need things to be happy about. Anyway, here's the trailer.

This new podcast sounds cool! British Museum and BBC team up to explore belief through objects

Hey, sometimes bears need pizza too.

11 Shearling Coats to Snuggle Up in This Fall (I am glad shearling is in this year because I am OBSESSED right now.)

Ooh, let's run away to Lego House.

31 Amazing Literary Halloween Costumes

I get annoyed at leaf-peepers in person but I don't mind if you do it VIRTUALLY: Breathtaking Fall Leaves Around the World

Morning Coffee (9/26/17)

Me elsewhere: My thoughts on Star Trek: Discovery!

Experts on North Korea’s latest threat: “This is how war by miscalculation starts”

Go Susan Collins! (Honestly I'm glad we get to praise someone other than McCain this time.) Health Bill Appears Dead as Pivotal G.O.P. Senator Declares Opposition

I just... At Least 6 White House Advisers Used Private Email Accounts

Germany’s Far Right Complicates Life for Merkel, and the E.U.

In case you want to catch up on what happened over the weekend: Donald Trump versus the NFL, explained

Related: Star Trek: Discovery cast takes a knee in premiere night protest

Related to that, Mallory Ortberg is recapping Discovery and I'm very excited about it.

Here's an interesting read in light of the upcoming Catalonia referendum: Domains Are Power

How Toys R Us Succumbed to Its Nasty Debt Problem

Local languages are driving the BBC’s expansion in Africa

Morning Coffee (7/20/17)

'People are getting poorer': hunger and homelessness as Brazil crisis deepens

A much-feared Taliban offshoot returns from the dead

Sad news: John McCain has brain cancer.

Sure, that doesn't sound important or anything: War Crimes Office May Be Closed in State Dept. Reorganization

Ugh, this guy: Citing Recusal, Trump Says He Wouldn’t Have Hired Sessions

Trump can’t make a health care deal because he doesn’t understand health care

This was very interesting and informative, and I now have a ticket to see it in IMAX 70mm. Dunkirk is playing in a lot of formats. Here’s how each affects your viewing experience.

BBC Publishes Pay of Top Stars, Revealing Gender Gap

!! 258-year-old cannonball unearthed in Quebec City may still be explosive

This Cave Holds a Spectacular Record of 5,000 Years of Tsunamis

Morning Coffee (7/7/17)

Time for our customary happy Friday links!

Ooh, more casting for the new Little Women, finally!

This is the kind of hard-hitting international news I want to see right now: Shetland Pony tries to eat The Queen’s flowers

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau Made the Queen of England Laugh (That was kind of him. Do you think we could get him to start traveling around making all of us laugh? That sounds useful.)

I know the person who sent me this amazing link yesterday TRULY LOVES ME: Use a Packing Grid to Ensure You Have Everything You Need for a Trip

This one I will absolutely try: Oreo Is Doing A Coffee-Flavored Collab With Dunkin' Donuts

Aw! This Aquarium Has a 'Naughty Penguin of the Month' Board

Let's go make some slab pie.

The Joy of Reading About Cooking

This is some impressive latte art: South Korean coffee artist recreates Munch's The Scream in cream

Heee: Artist Reimagines All 50 States As Food Puns

Morning Coffee (3/9/17)

British TV streaming service BritBox is here!!!

And we're getting a new Smiley novel!!!!

Okay, back to our regularly scheduled terrible news, I guess: Trump’s New Ban Leaves Few Spots for Refugees, Even the Hunted

Right-wing groups strongly oppose Trump’s healthcare plan, pretend Trump has nothing to do with it

The Republican plan to pay for their new health care plan is: ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Meet the Hundreds of Officials Trump Has Quietly Installed Across the Government (Click through and at least read the first paragraph. It's quite something.)

He ‘may not even understand Watergate’: Former Nixon lawyer schools Trump’s Obama-wiretap claim

Hm: Nigeria rejected British offer to rescue seized Chibok schoolgirls

Today in things I wish were surprising: STUDY: Women’s Voices Marginalized In 2016 News Coverage Of Foreign Affairs And National Security

Good for her: Chrissy Teigen Opens Up for the First Time About Her Postpartum Depression

!! Rabbit hole leads to 700-year-old Knights Templar cave

Huh: A Scottish-Style Whisky With Indian Characteristics

Morning Coffee (12/14/16)

The Battle for Aleppo Has Entered Its Bloody End Stage

This investigation is quite something: The Perfect Weapon: How Russian Cyberpower Invaded the U.S.

Is there still hope for Turkish democracy?

Donald Trump confirms he will violate Constitution his first day in office

A Guide to Donald Trump's Huge Debts—and the Conflicts They Present

Center for Reproductive Rights Sues Texas Over Fetal Burial Requirement

Good: Energy Dept. rejects Trump’s request to name climate-change workers, who remain worried

FINALLY!!! BBC and ITV to launch BritBox on-demand service in US

Heh: Why, Kanye? Why? (This story was better before the update was added.)

I love that they're still finding lost cities in Greece.

Fascinating: A Navajo Chef Looks to History in His Homage to Native Cuisine

Would You Like Book Recs from Margaret Atwood on Your Phone? WHO WOULDN'T?

Morning Coffee (11/18/16)

Let's take a break for some happy Friday links.

National Book Award winners! I want to read all of them.

I'm glad the BBC understands that what the world needs now is more Mary Berry.

Oh, this could be fun: Broadway's 'She Loves Me' to Screen in Movie Theaters (I went when they did something similar with Company and it was great.)

!!! Dan Stevens & Christopher Plummer To Star In Charles Dickens Tale ‘The Man Who Invented Christmas’

This is an amazing headline: Cats colonized most of the planet by boat

A great escapist read if you like this kind of thing: Sex, Drugs, and Bestsellers: The Legend of the Literary Brat Pack

I haven't had a change to start watching The Crown yet but here's some good background info.

Let's go curl up with some tea and blankets and read the books that shaped President Obama.

I bet you need to see a polar bear petting a dog.

MATH KNITTING

Morning Coffee (9/24/16)

FIRST THE TRULY IMPORTANT NEWS: Mary Berry 'to lead new rival' to the Great British Bake Off on the BBC Yes, Mel and Sue are supposedly involved. THANK GOODNESS.

So, this COULD be a gigantic thing, but what's getting lost in some of the discussion is that it is being LOOKED INTO, not definite, yet: U.S. intel officials probe ties between Trump adviser and Kremlin

This is horrible: Assad and Putin are bombing Syrian hospitals on purpose

"Finally, the lie here matters because it shows how shameless Trump is and how reckless. He told this lie even though he knew he was standing next to a credible witness—Bush—who could contradict him, and he gambled that no one would discover his sworn testimony."

Palmer Luckey: The Facebook Near-Billionaire Secretly Funding Trump’s Meme Machine

Oh: Ohio Trump campaign chair Kathy Miller says there was 'no racism' before Obama

This story about the Verge employee secretly working for Apple is SO wacky.

Hahahahahaha: Studio Notes on the 2016 Presidential-Election Screenplay

!!! Apocalypse Meow: How a Cult That Believes Cats Are Divine Beings Ended Up in Tennessee

The Obscure Ultra-Endurance Sport Women Are Quietly Dominating

Morning Coffee (6/12/16)

Woke up to terrible news about ANOTHER shooting in Florida, this one at an LGBT nightclub, with mass casualties. I'm still catching up on the details, but here's the Guardian's liveblog.

Two Bossy Dames on Lady Rage is a must-read.

For a bit of good news: The Great British Baking Show is returning to PBS on July 1st. (So it's going to be on Fridays now? Interesting.)

How N.H. Went from Deep Red to Swing State Over the Course of a Few Elections

I'd somehow never read about this Mickey Mouse cartoon that was the last thing the BBC aired before going off the air in WWII and the first thing they aired when they came back.

God, I'd sort of forgotten about the Lizzie Grubman thing.

More realness from The Onion: Elderly Voter Never Thought She’d Get To See Female Presidential Nominee Called Heartless Ice Bitch During Her Lifetime

This look at Beyonce fans is interesting but they don't seem more committed or "obsessive" than fans of lots of other things.

I just like this headline: Searching for Atlantis Really Isn't the Best Career Move

Why Everyone Is Attracted To Baristas (It’s Because Of Late-Stage Capitalism)

TV Recommendations: Shakespeare's Tomb & Vikings Unearthed

I don't pay as much attention to non-Sunday night PBS programming as I should - I love documentaries, so I don't know what my problem is - but recently two shows caught my eye and I'm very glad they did. They're both documentaries that combine traditional history and archaeology with new investigative methods made possible by SCIENCE!, and they're very well done.

Shakespeare's Tomb, hosted by the great Helen Castor, investigates, well, Shakespeare's tomb, and along with it the circumstances surrounding his death, his will, later rumors and myths about his skull, and more. They do some really incredible 3D scanning of a skull so that they can try to figure out whether it's Shakespeare's without disturbing the site where it was found, as well as tracing air pockets below the Shakespeare family's gravestones in the church floor to determine the configuration of their graves. You can watch it online here or check on demand or local listings - PBS varies a lot by local affiliate.

The second, Vikings Unearthed, was a BBC production aired as an episode of Nova, and it features historian Dan Snow, who you should be following on Twitter/Instagram, along with a bunch of other very interesting historians and archaeologists. They trace Viking expansion west, and specifically use satellite imaging to try to find undiscovered, buried Viking sites - including in North America. It's completely fascinating. Watch here or, again, check on demand or local listings for reruns.

Morning Coffee (2/5/16)

Oh, hey, it's Friday. I almost forgot and neglected to give you happy links. THE HORROR. Do I have enough happy links? Let's see! (And Patreon patrons, you should have gotten a notification yesterday about a post for you on the Patreon site. Let me know if you need help finding it.)

Me elsewhere: Let's talk about the Me Before You trailer!

ICYMI: Movie posts on 45 Years and Inside Out.

My delightful doppelganger (and friend) Kaite Welsh is writing a feminist Victorian mystery series and I am VERY EXCITED.

The BBC is making a Brooklyn spinoff TV show and that actually might work quite well!

I can't wait to go to this Temple of Dendur exhibit, I say knowing my father who has a Met membership is reading this.

Ooooh: London’s Big Dig Reveals Amazing Layers of History

LOOK AT THIS MAP OF A WRINKLE IN TIME

This gets at exactly why I like detective fiction: "What [T.S. Eliot] appreciated, in other words, was the genre’s capacity for conveying intensity of sentiment and human experience within taut formal designs—a quality that might just as soon apply to literary fiction or poetry."

Aah, there's a story coming out about Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes's wedding!

Aww: ‘The Force Awakens’ Reimagined As Calvin and Hobbes Will Make Your Heart Melt

SETTLERS OF CATAN NACHOS

Ayn Rand's Firefly is . . . not THAT different from actual Firefly at times.

Morning Coffee (12/30/15)

Me elsewhere: TV news for the week

A difficult but important read: Life as a "comfort woman": Survivors remember a WWII atrocity that was ignored for decades

The Big Short tells a complicated story, but the Great Recession is very simple

I hate everything about this: How to Make a Living by Returning Expensive Shit What entitled, immoral bullshit.

DRAMA IN MAINE: There's No IKEA Being Built in Portand, Sign Was a Hoax

Meet the author of ‘The Revenant’ — except you can’t because of his federal job

Cute idea: Netflix adds New Year’s Eve countdowns for kids

Let's read about the BBC's new drama slate!

Wondering what TV to catch up on from 2015? Start with Todd VanDerWerff's list.

This is right on: Why '80s Babies Are Different Than Other Millennials

France Is Making Thousands of Vichy-Era Documents Public

Morning Coffee (11/30/15)

Me elsewhere: TV news!

NEW PICTURES OF PRINCESS CHARLOTTE. SHE'S SO CUTE.

Make sure you spend some time on the Google homepage today - there are at least three different Anne of Green Gables animated doodles for L.M. Montgomery's birthday.

I saw Spotlight a few days ago and highly recommend it. And then check out the Globe's landing page for the movie - it's got coverage of the movie itself as well as links to the original Spotlight coverage talked about in the movie.

And this Q&A with the costume designer is interesting.

9 questions about ISIS you were too embarrassed to ask

Adele Mailer has died, and - wow. "Some guests recalled that the point of no return came when she told her husband that he was not as good as Dostoyevsky."

Why South African students have turned on their parents’ generation

BBC's Witness radio program is great in general, but look, they have a World War II collection!

Look at these book-shaped plates!

Heh: My Female Students Don’t Seem As Impressed With Me As They Used To

Morning Coffee (9/18/15)

Happy Friday! Let's ignore Trump for the moment.

!!!! The BBC is launching an online subscription service in the U.S. !!!!!!!

In other important import news: Canadian All-Dressed chips are coming! They are MY FAVORITE chip flavor. (It says for a limited time but maybe if we buy enough they will stay?)

Here's the National Book Award fiction longlist.

Sweden is a treasure.

I'd somehow missed the fact that Ryan Adams is doing a whole album of 1989 covers, but oh my God.

It's Friday. Let's look at how Minnie Mouse influenced fashion.

It's Friday. Let's ogle fall coats.

It's Friday. Here's a kitten and a baby waking up from a nap.

It's Friday. MORE KITTENS.

Morning Coffee (9/8/15)

Back to work!

A day late, but important: The Forgotten Radical History of Labor Day

YA (and some other) authors, led by Patrick Ness, have raised over £500,000 for refugees. I'm glad to have had a very small part in that. (It's still going! Not too late! Publishers are starting to kick in matching donations at certain milestones, so head over and give a little if you can.)

Ooh, the BBC World Service is expanding, including new plans for Russia and North Korea. (I love the BBC World Service. I have it on in my car almost all the time.)

I have somewhat mixed feelings about this Wikipedia scandal. I mean, obviously the extortion part is bad, but doesn't everyone assume any sensible person/company is policing (or paying someone to police) their entry??

This is indeed a good list of New England towns to visit, but BuzzFeed clearly has no idea what the word "tiny" means. Nor "hidden." PORTSMOUTH IS NOT A SECRET, YOU GUYS.

Seeing Freedom in Their Future, Psychics Reveal All: ‘It’s a Scam, Sir’

Let’s All Laugh At This Awful Casting Notice For Moment, Shall We?

Awesome: Book or Beer?

Morning Coffee (2/18/15)

Ooh, check out the Volta Google doodle.

Wow, divers found 1000-year-old Israeli gold coins.

You can read the first seven chapters of the Fug Girls' upcoming novel The Royal We!

11 Animals That Are Dealing With Winter Better Than You Are

Hallmark Channel is expanding their kitten sports season.

Bosch isn’t great TV, but that’s why it might be the hit Amazon desperately needs. (I'm looking forward to trying it!)

Anthony Horowitz (of Foyle's War) is writing a new BBC cop drama!

How to Tell If You Are in a Victor Hugo Novel

Morning Coffee (2/3/15)

More Women Than Ever in Congress, but With Less Power Than Before

Headline of the day: German neo-Nazi party cancels protest after boarding wrong train

The Psychopaths of GamerGate Are All That's Left, and They're Terrifying

Here are yesterday's ALA Youth Media Award winners!

Curious about this Classic Alice thing I keep talking about? They have a shiny new trailer for the show, so that's a good place to start!

These videos have me very excited for the Casual Vacancy miniseries.

Life-changing: Here’s How to Turn on Chrome’s Mute Button for Obnoxious Audio Tabs

Lip Smackers are no more. Nooooo.

My friend Daye did some of the voices for new game Life Is Strange, and it looks really neat!

Morning Coffee (1/7/15)

Ooooh: Tomb of unknown queen discovered in Egypt

Here's What Earth Looked Like at the Start of the New Year

BBC Radio 4 is doing a Magna Carta series hosted by Melvyn Bragg!!

Saudi Arabia’s Succession Time Bomb

This Is The Video CNN Will Play When The World Ends

Sarah MacLean, the Romance Writer Who Will Surprise You Every Time

This Is The Mad Tea Party Of Disney-Themed Weddings

i know im not wearing any pants
im a GOD
like from OLYMPUS
you think i cant tell if ive got pants on me?
dont be stuck up