Morning Coffee (9/6/18)

The New York Times’s Trump-bashing op-ed from a senior Trump official, explained

Ayanna Pressley wins the Massachusetts 7th Congressional District primary in an upset

Trump suggests that protesting should be illegal

Salisbury poisonings: police name two Russian suspects

Kavanaugh Will Try to Hide His Views on Abortion. Here’s How to Not Be Fooled.

How Duterte Used Facebook To Fuel the Philippine Drug War

Democrats Are Pushing More Diverse Candidates. Behind The Scenes, Not So Much.

Amazing: Even Bears Respect Putin, New Russian State TV Show Declares

Hmm, interesting concept: ‘Serial’ Season 3 Podcast Premiere Date Set

Gwyneth Paltrow’s Goop Will Pay $145,000 For Misleading Customers About That Vagina Egg

Afternoon Tea (10/25/17)

Gossip Girl's Prophetic Relationship With Technology

Before There Was Bieber, the Monkees’ ‘Daydream Believer’ Took the Teen World by Storm

Sarah Koenig on the Popularity of Serial and the ‘Dark’ Reaction of Some of Its Fanatic Fans

Jo Nesbø’s 10 Favorite Books

In Memory Training Smackdown, One Method Dominates

Morning Coffee (10/25/16)

This is a big deal! Or at least it should be! Exclusive investigation: Donald Trump faces foreign donor fundraising scandal

Well, this is disappointing: Fearing Trump, Bar Association Stifles Report Calling Him a ‘Libel Bully’

It really is all a scam: Trump’s Donors Paid For His Jetliner, His Hotels And Now, His Books (Also, you can't just randomly say books are out of print when they're not! Words have meanings!)

The 281 People, Places and Things Donald Trump Has Insulted on Twitter: A Complete List

Serial’s Adnan Syed Could Be Freed on Bail

My friend Alyssa has a great series about the police in pop culture coming out this week at the post. Here's the first part: How Police Censorship Shaped Hollywood

Uh... Kansas Ends Bad Economic News by Not Reporting It

!!! Christopher Marlowe credited as Shakespeare's co-writer

Somehow that weird Wind in the Willows murder story got weirder.

Oooh: Archaeologist Finds Ancient Roman Coins in 12th-Century Japanese Castle

Morning Coffee (7/1/16)

HOW IS IT JULY? (I typed "6" in the title there and then glanced down at the date and realized.) There is A LOT GOING ON but as usual we will take a break for happy links today and return to the horrors of the world tomorrow.

Serial fans: Adnan is getting a new trial!!!

This Atlas Obscura piece made me realize I went to school near Ilvermorny! Am I magic??

!!! Crystal Pepsi Is Coming Back to Stores Nationwide AND there's an Oregon Trail-ish game, you guys!!

What a world: Hamilton Co-Stars Cover Arthur Theme

Garth Williams, Illustrator of American Childhood

From Arya to Zayn: The Rise and Fall of 100 Hollywood-Inspired Baby Names

What a delight: Adorable Midcentury Posters Teaching Kids How to Use the Library

I love reading about rich people in the summer.

This write-up is hilarious: Prince Harry Peruses Discounted Frozen Meals on His Latest Grocery Shopping Trip

Browse Nearly 1,000 Photo Postcards of Late-19th-Century Stage Productions of Shakespeare

Today is the last day of The Toast and I am bereft. Luckily for you, I have a few more things from them bookmarked to share over the next week two. Here's Things Lucy Maud Montgomery Lied To Me About

Morning Coffee (12/10/15)

New Serial alert! New Serial alert!

This is the most Donald Trump interview Donald Trump has ever given

And this piece from Vox makes important points about how Trump's racism and anti-Muslim rhetoric wouldn't be so successful if a lot of people other than him didn't, you know, believe it already.

What Exactly Does “One Person, One Vote” Mean, Anyway?

I still don't quite GET bitcoin, but the story about the hunt for the creator is wild.

Why do data journalists keep missing the political story of the year?

The Murky Origins of the Largest Dinosaur Museum in the World

Why your TV show doesn't have to be a novel: In defense of the episode

Barbra Streisand is directing a Catherine the Great movie?!?!

Levels of Purse Anxiety It Is Possible to Have

Morning Coffee (11/25/15)

Rabia Chaudry is writing a book on Adnan Syed's case! (I think this is good; I was talking to a friend the other day about how obviously SOMEONE would jump on this with a book, so I'm glad it's her and not an outsider who would be more sensationalist about it.)

First promo for Grease: Live! I may have said this before, but I'm ALL IN on this one: I like Grease but don't have a huge emotional attachment (as I do to Sound of Music, say) so I think I'll be able to enjoy it without getting UPSET AT THE DESECRATION.

John Gallagher, Jr. is putting out an album! I like his single. I miss The Newsroom. He was in that Green Day musical so now every time I hear Green Day - even actual Green Day, not the musical - I miss The Newsroom. Welcome to my brain.

Is anyone making a piecaken for Thanksgiving? I am kind of fascinated?

This Michael Phelps profile is very well done and maybe made me into a fan?

Huh: Anne Frank’s diary in a copyright law paradox 70 years after her death

Putin’s daughter, a young billionaire and the president’s friends

"Adoption can be a very good thing for an individual child, but it is not charity. It is not a religious crusade. It is never a 'miracle,' the hand of God at work, when a child ends up living without their original parents."

Learning to Be Beyoncé From Her Terrible Father

Perfect: Signs You’re About To Be In A Gay Subplot In A Period Drama

Morning Coffee (10/14/15)

Me elsewhere: The Last Kingdom is promising. As is the new Magicians trailer.

This is one of those headlines that makes you say "Wait, ALL options here are terrible:" Afghan ISIS Branch Makes Inroads in Battle Against Taliban

!!!! “Serial” Update: We Need To Talk About Hae’s Boyfriend Don

Well: "In August of last year, its website dispensed with nudity. As a result, Playboy executives said, the average age of its reader dropped from 47 to just over 30, and its web traffic jumped to about 16 million from about four million unique users per month."

Nobel Renews Debate on Chinese Medicine

Who Will Save the World's Chocolate? AN IMPORTANT QUESTION INDEED.

Happy belated Ada Lovelace Day! Here's a good book list.

This conversation between Ezra Klein and the CEO of Trello is great, if you, like me, are fascinated by productivity software and organization methods.

How a Fake Typhus Epidemic Saved a Polish City from the Nazis

Decades After Her Death, Mystery Still Surrounds Crime Novelist Josephine Tey

Perfect: A Harry Potter Where Hermione Doesn’t Do Anyone’s Homework For Them

Morning Coffee (10/1/15)

It's October?!?!

Me elsewhere: I liked Grandfathered and The Grinder!

After Decades of Peace, the Situation in Northern Ireland Is Looking Extremely Fragile (And that linked to this fascinating New Yorker piece from March, which I'd missed at the time.)

Todd VanDerWerff has a great take on the Pope meeting with Kim Davis.

This new people-rating Peeple app sounds so terrible that I kind of doubt it will ever get off the ground. But I'm VERY curious about their investors - these two people who made it not thinking it through is one thing, but the company is valued at $7.6 million?? Also: I was wondering to what extent the REAL plan was getting famous via this webseries they were making about making the app. Also: Last night they locked their Twitter account but this morning it's open again. ALSO: They are on Good Morning America this morning. ALSO ALSO: They have added an "Ode to Courage" to the front page of their site and it's hilarious. ALSO ALSO ALSO: They are doing really terribly with SEO because even with all the current coverage of them I had a hard time finding their various social media presences - I could only find their YouTube and Facebook pages once I'd found their website, not by searching YouTube and Facebook.

I am very curious to see how this prospective Serial TV show will turn out. (To head off the "We already have true crime shows" protests: this show is supposedly about the making of the podcast, not just the investigation.)

IMPORTANT CHEESE CRIME UPDATE

Ooh, they've recovered new artifacts from the Antikythera shipwreck.

If the Great British Baking Show got you, too, curious about traditional custard tarts: the Guardian is on it.

Yale Grapples With Ties to Slavery in Debate Over a College’s Name

Someone write me a novel about whomever takes this remote Scottish teaching post.

Two Monks Invent Religious Iconography

Morning Coffee (9/23/15)

New show reviews! I liked Life in Pieces. I did not like Scream Queens.

Sad news: Yogi Berra has died.

Huh. Serial's next season will be about Bowe Bergdahl.

There was clearly no GOOD way the Baby Doe case could end, but this story is just terrible.

Okay, some GOOD news: Ta-Nehisi Coates is writing a Black Panther comic!!

Alyssa Rosenberg's piece about world-building in Minority Report and The Man in the High Castle is fascinating. (My Minority Report review is going up today, so I'll link it for you tomorrow.)

At New York Private Schools, Challenging White Privilege From the Inside

"Happy Birthday" is now in the public domain and xkcd is on it.

Speaking of comics, I love Defunct's take on the Emmys.

Heh. The Onion: Pope Francis Reverses Position On Capitalism After Seeing Wide Variety Of American Oreos

Miserable Tambourine Players in Western Art History

Morning Coffee (2/10/15)

If you somehow managed not to see 3000 social media updates about this in the last few hours: Spider-Man is joining the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Adnan Syed Of “Serial” Wins Motion To Appeal Against His Murder Conviction

Female Leads A Hollywood Rarity, Study Finds

How Men's Rights Leader Paul Elam Turned Being A Deadbeat Dad Into A Moneymaking Movement

I love this word cloud of common passwords.

The Things Adaptations of King Arthur Should Be Including

Nifty: Cunard Ships Will Travel Back in Time

"If Stanley Tucci were your boyfriend, Nora Ephron would still be alive somehow."

Morning Coffee (12/3/14)

I know I'm the last person in the world to find this bandwagon, but I finally started listening to Serial and it's as compelling as everyone said.

Yay: Twitter is taking steps toward better harassment reporting and blocking.

Best birth announcement ever.

Aaaaaah, information about the Life After Life sequel!

Fascinating: Inside the Weird Brains of Real-Time Translators

I love books about books and I've somehow only read two of these, so I should get on that.

Why Don't You... Rent a Llama for Your Wedding? Why don't you... NOT DO THAT?

Unhappy Families in Western Art History