Afternoon Tea (5/23/18)

The Huge Impact of Donated Bras

Balance the books: one woman's fight to keep great female writers on shelves

This on skater Yuzuru Hanyu's fans is very interesting: The crush of the crowd

Harry Potter, the Arthurian Romance

Little House on the Prairie and Cheesemaking in America’s Dairyland

Morning Coffee (4/14/18)

U.S., Britain and France Strike Syria Over Suspected Chemical Weapons Attack

Trump issues pardon to ‘Scooter’ Libby, former chief of staff to Vice President Cheney

The National Enquirer, a Trump Rumor, and Another Secret Payment to Buy Silence

Please Stop Playing Chicken with President Trump

It's horrifying that they let him out on bail: Man Charged With Killing Teen Girl Right Before She Was Scheduled to Testify Against Him for Rape

This is a great idea: Expropriation and social use of empty bank-owned flats to resume

This is quite the piece: Dog rescuers, flush with donations, buy animals from the breeders they scorn

Ooh, the Shibutanis are taking a season off from competition.

Sigh: NFL Safety Eric Reid Met With the Cincinnati Bengals and Everything Was Going Great Until They Got to the Protests

! Samuel Taylor Coleridge's remains rediscovered in wine cellar

Morning Coffee (9/17/16)

Will Syria’s ceasefire hold? The 3 signs to watch.

Candidates: They're just like us: "Now in an attempt to savor the series, Clinton explains that she’s 'rationing' out the second novel to make the four-part series last a little longer - and not keep her from the campaign."

Colin Kaepernick’s Protest Is Working

The secrets of David Fahrenthold's reporting on the Trump Foundation

Donald Trump fans have been sending me racist, hateful messages for months. Here's a sampling.

Lawsuits against the media aren’t new. But Thiel blueprint sets a disturbing precedent.

In Hollywood, people with disabilities are almost nonexistent

"Why use so much of Dia de Los Muertos and blatantly get it wrong? Borrowing from other cultures to tell your story may seem minor, but it can be harmful to people of that culture."

Everything's fine: Climate change could be to blame for an unusual avalanche in Tibet that can be seen from space

Aw: Choking Goldfish Gets Emergency Pebble Extraction

Morning Coffee (9/13/16)

My friend and boss Maureen Johnson has a new politics podcast! With the @MayorEmanuel guy!

Big news: "Based on the NCAA's commitment to fairness and inclusion, the Association will relocate all seven previously awarded championship events from North Carolina during the 2016-17 academic year. The NCAA Board of Governors made this decision because of the cumulative actions taken by the state concerning civil rights protections."

"Now imagine if Mitt Romney had run exactly Mitt Romney’s campaign but then suddenly in mid-September went on television and called Elizabeth Warren Pocahontas for no reason. It would have been huge."

This from Ta-Nehisi Coates is important, about how accusing anyone of bigotry is seen as unforgivable even when it's factually accurate: How Breitbart Conquered the Media

Fascinating and appalling: Inside the Federal Bureau Of Way Too Many Guns

"Elections are always imperfect, and infused with personality, tribal loyalties, and blind party affiliations as much as substance. But there's usually some substance."

Black Teachers Matter

This survey of women in tech has some interesting stuff even aside from the politics - I would not have guessed that Asian women hold the smallest percentage of leadership roles and Hispanic women the largest.

Awesome: D.C. will hide once-banned books throughout the city this month

I like Reese Witherspoon and Mindy Kaling but I'm dubious of them in these particular roles in A Wrinkle in Time.

Morning Coffee (8/19/15)

Wow: BuzzFeed gets $200 million from NBC

Yay: First Openly Transgender Official Hired at White House

I read Donald Trump's immigration plan, and it's even crueler than I expected

How Katrina Destroyed a Town - And Its Mayor

Ooh, let's go to Dover: Churchill’s wartime tunnels under white cliffs of Dover open to the public

Fascinating, and sad in a few different ways: Nepal's earthquake forces 'living goddess' to break decades of seclusion

Why 35 screenwriters worked on The Flintstones movie

KARL MARX: i have other friends
HENRIETTA MARX: “the workers” do not count as friends
KARL MARX: I AM A FRIEND TO EVERY WORKER IN THE WORLD
HENRIETTA MARX: then why didn’t any of them come to your birthday party
KARL MARX: because theyre ALIENATED, MOM
like me

Morning Coffee (8/18/15)

I'm all for natural ingredients, but the point of Pumpkin Spice Lattes is the SPICE, not the pumpkin.

"When Edward Thomas joined the Houston Police Department in 1948, he could not report for work through the front door. He could not drive a squad car, eat in the department cafeteria or arrest a white suspect."

This is smart: Donald Trump’s secret political weapon is his mastery of reality TV

As rape trial begins, elite St. Paul’s School in N.H. faces scrutiny of ‘sexual scoring’

I'm not sure what to think of the supposedly possibly supernatural aspects of this, but the story is fascinating regardless: Reburial of woman in native Ireland highlights 183-year-old murder mystery

How White And Male Are Digital Newsrooms? New Media’s Old Diversity Problem

"If you started on Jan. 1, 2016, and caught up with one scripted 2015 prime-time TV series per day, you could not finish by the end of the calendar year. Assign Jan. 1 to Mad Men, Jan. 2 to Orange Is the New Black, Jan. 3 to Modern Family and so on, knock out a whole show every single day, week in and week out, on Saturdays and Sundays and Flag Day and your birthday, and you will not make it."

They're doing a Star Trek cruise. Shatner is the host. Because of course he is.

Morning Coffee (5/11/15)

Me elsewhere: TV news for the week (THERE'S A LOT OF IT) and NBC's fall schedule.

I also have a public Google spreadsheet of TV info - premiere dates, pickups/renewals/cancellations, etc. I'll be updating it all week as upfronts progress.

Related: You may wish to look at descriptions of PBS's upcoming programming. There's some exciting stuff.

And in this TV finale season: Did you know the term "cliffhanger" apparently came from Thomas Hardy?

I haven't had a chance to read the Times nail salon series yet, but I'm glad to see it's getting real results.

Speaking of Cuomo: Sandra Lee is getting a lifestyle show. Will it answer our burning question of whether she makes tablescapes at the governor's mansion?

This piece on dogs waiting sadly outside polling stations is the most delightful coverage of the UK election you'll read.

I can't believe I kind of forgot about the Demon Sheep.

I'm not sure my brain is ready for Daniel Radcliffe playing Lee Atwater.