Morning Coffee (5/21/19)

In Syria, Reports Of 19 Medical Facilities Bombed Since April 28

Accountants Must Turn Over Trump’s Financial Records, Lower-Court Judge Rules

White House blocks former counsel McGahn from testifying to Congress

THIS IS ASTONISHING, even by our current dismal standards: The Century-Old ‘Science Fiction’ Behind Ohio Rep’s Bill Covering Nonexistent Ectopic Pregnancy Treatment

Disgusting: Trump’s pick for ICE director: I can tell which migrant children will become gang members by looking into their eyes

Elizabeth Warren Has a Plan to Save Abortion Rights Of course she does.

Niki Lauda, Austrian Formula 1 legend, dies at 70

This sounds great! Berkley Has Acquired Its First Queer Female Romance and We Have All The Details!

Citrus Farmers Facing Deadly Bacteria Turn to Antibiotics, Alarming Health Officials

The new kilogram just debuted. It’s a massive achievement.

Afternoon Tea (5/31/18)

Escape from the Nazis: Anna Seghers’s Suspenseful Classic

Who’s The Best Formula One Driver Of All Time?

Mormon Funeral Potatoes: The Carb-Heavy Meal For The End of The World

The mystical expatriates and the invention of Californian spirituality

When Paper Clothing Was the Perfect Fit

Morning Coffee (3/31/18)

(I'm away for Easter, so I wrote this during my lunch break Friday, a.k.a. 8 news cycles ago. Back to live on Monday!)

Malala Yousafzai Returns to Pakistan for First Time Since Attack

Fired VA Secretary Says White House Muzzled Him

This seems fine: Trump’s Lawyer Raised Prospect of Pardons for Flynn and Manafort

IN A SEWAGE BILL: Kentucky Lawmakers Pass Last-Minute Pension Overhaul

!! New Trial Upheld for Adnan Syed of ‘Serial’

Progress! Kids Are Drawing Women Scientists More Often Than They Did Decades Ago

FX Wins Appellate Court 'Feud' With Olivia de Havilland

Ooh: Getty Completes Study of Paintings at King Tut’s Tomb

HS2 excavations uncover prehistoric subtropical coastline in Ruislip, west London

Hmm: Netflix Teams With Formula 1 Racing For New Series

Afternoon Tea (8/14/17)

What a Fraternity Hazing Death Revealed About the Painful Search for an Asian-American Identity

The Women of Formula One

This is great: Explore Smiley's London

Time-Travelling with Merriam-Webster's Dictionary

The 1922 Eclipse Adventure That Sought to Confirm the Theory of Relativity

Morning Coffee (1/25/17)

Malnutrition Wiping Out Children in Northern Nigeria, Aid Workers Say

Here we go: Trump expected to order temporary ban on refugees

Trump’s National Security Nominees Rejected His Most Extreme Positions. Don’t Be Reassured.

Trump Aides Keep Leaking Embarrassing Stories About How He Can’t Handle Embarrassment

Donald Trump is getting ready to hammer the EPA

Donald Trump Is Apparently Debating Whether to Throw the Insurance Market Into Chaos

Trump Repeats Lie About Popular Vote in Meeting With Lawmakers (Good for the Times for finally saying "lie.")

Okay. Something else. Oscar nominations! (Since a few of you have asked: I'm taking a break from my full Oscar project this year, as there are other ways I want to use my time and energy and money, but I'm going to see what I can and I'll post my picks before the ceremony.)

Whoa: Bernie Ecclestone Ends 40-Year Reign as Formula One Boss

Publishers Encounter Political Storms in Turn to Right

Betsy DeVos’ Big Education Idea Doesn’t Work

Let's take a break and look at the British Library's digitized Greek manuscripts.

Morning Coffee (5/20/15)

Important: America Snores When Christian Terrorist Threatens to Massacre Muslims

In case you, like me, had NO IDEA what this Mad Max thing was, Todd VanDerWerff is on it.

More Todd: I'm waiting to read this until after I see the new Avengers movie (Friday! Finally!) but since you have probably seen it already: Superhero movies have become an endless attempt to rewrite 9/11

Tragic but fascinating: Buried In Baltimore: The Mysterious Murder Of A Nun Who Knew Too Much

The end of an era: F. A. O. Schwarz to Close Its Doors on Fifth Avenue

I hope you're ALWAYS reading Gail Collins, of course, but here's a good one: Wow, Jeb Bush Is Awful

Apparently Michael Schumacher's son was racing under a fake name for a while. Did that WORK? I mean, I clearly didn't know, but was anyone actually involved in the sport fooled?

Report: Putting Head In Hands And Moaning Quietly Still Best Way To Get Through Next Several Seconds

Morning Coffee (10/3/14)

Happy Friday!

More of my new show reviews: Happyland (cute!), A to Z (very good with one big caveat), Stalker (NO NO NO DO NOT WATCH).

I have never seen Murder, She Wrote, but this makes me want to watch it all.

Likewise, I don't have a waffle iron, but these latke waffles make me want to get one.

This is quite the combination of things I like: The creator of Foyle's War is writing a new authorized James Bond novel about Formula One.

They found a lost Sherlock Holmes film!

Would an excerpt from a Christmas historical romance by a writer I like improve your Friday? Of course it would.

Have they discovered "Dracula's Dungeon"?

This was a great read: Who Killed Bugsy Siegel?

The Reclusive, Doll-Collecting Copper Queen of Fifth Avenue

Secret societies are fascinating, even ones that sound terrible.

what if a duck was sad
i don’t know
what if a pine tree were lonely

Morning Coffee (8/20/14)

Pemberley Digital's new show Frankenstein, MD has released its first three episodes, and I'm hooked already. Start here.

Formula 1 is getting its youngest ever driver.

Interesting: Harry Potter did help shape the political culture of a generation

LFO's "Summer Girls," painstakingly annotated

TV fans, check out my friend Holly's new blog, The Common Sense Fangirl.

Jane Austen Used Pins to Edit Her Abandoned Manuscript, The Watsons

The Humble WWI Biplane That Helped Launch Commercial Flight

Victorian Strangeness: Seven singular sports from the Victorian era

Morning Coffee (1/8/13)

I've never really watched soaps, but the online revival of One Life to Live and All My Children is huge, huge news.

And so is Warner Bros. finally licensing eight shows (including Fringe and The West Wing) to Netflix.

I don't really care about Superman, but I care about Superman with a voice cast of Matt Bomer, John Noble, Stana Katic, and Molly Quinn.

Richard Ben Cramer, political reporter and author of What It Takes, has died.

One of these will be the next Olympic sport.

Fascinating and heartbreaking: The Children Who Went Up in Smoke

Oh my gosh, it's a Hulk stapler.

"For a sport timed down to the thousandth of a second and measured in millimetres, Formula One seems to be finding it surprisingly difficult to get to grips with a calendar." Heh.