Afternoon Tea (9/6/18)

Spain Exhumes Its Painful Past

Do Inmates Have Access to Crime Novels?: Crime Fiction, Banned Books, and the Prison-Industrial Complex

Welcome To Nemesis Twitter, Where Phantom Beefs Run Wild And Free

The shady world of beauty influencers and the brands that pay them, explained

A very useful piece by my friend Katie for any writers out there: How to Grow an Audience as a Newer Author

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 (9/5/18)

The dark secret of Thailand’s child brides

Overlooked No More: Ruby Payne-Scott, Who Explored Space With Radio Waves

Lego Wants to Completely Remake Its Toy Bricks (Without Anyone Noticing)

The Crime Fiction of Oslo

Violent times? MPs as victims of murder in the mid-fifteenth century

Morning Coffee (9/5/18)

Women caned in Malaysia for attempting to have lesbian sex

All of Africa is now competing for Chinese money. Except for one country.

The 6 key themes of Kavanaugh’s first day of confirmation hearings

Whoa: Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel Not Seeking Re-Election

Steve Bannon's New Yorker Festival backlash is a reminder that not everyone deserves a platform

Deb Haaland could make history as the first Native American woman in Congress

Federal Workers Brace for New Push on Trump Anti-Labor Goals

Netflix and Amazon spent £150m on British-made shows last year

Dorothy’s Ruby Slippers Were Stolen 13 Years Ago. Now They’ve Been Found.

Hmm: NBC Orders ‘Law & Order: Hate Crimes’ Series From Dick Wolf & Warren Leight

Afternoon Tea (9/4/18)

I'm so excited for Courtney Summers new book Sadie, and this is very interesting: A Flick of the Switch: What Drew Me to Reading and Ultimately Writing Dark, Gritty Stories

Baseball Positions Are Starting To Lose Their Meaning

This is incredibly sweet: Son, Placed for Adoption, Leads Birth Parents to Altar 36 Years Later

Bengal’s Durga puja: a Hindu festival in full flow – in pictures

How the Press Created ‘Jack the Ripper’

Weekly Rec: Juliet, Naked

I read Nick Hornby's novel Juliet, Naked back when it came out and loved it a lot, so I was both excited and worried about the new movie adaptation. Since I haven't read the book in a while, I didn't remember all the details, but rather just the feeling of it, and as I think I've said before I find that's often the best way to go into an adaptation: with affection for the original but without it being so fresh that I can't see the adaptation on its own terms.

And this definitely worked out for me this time, because seen this way the Juliet, Naked movie was virtually perfect. The cast, led by Rose Byrne, Ethan Hawke, and Chris O'Dowd, is incredible, and the script and adaptation choices really work. It's about a British woman whose longtime boyfriend is obsessed with a nineties American alt-rock musician who has vanished from the limelight. She and the musician sort of accidentally start an email correspondence just when their lives are each going through a lot of upheaval, and it plays out sort of as you'd expect but also not. It's a romance and it's funny but it's not exactly a romcom; the movie is warm but complicated, with no easy happy endings for anyone. I loved every moment of it.

Juliet, Naked is currently in theaters, though you may have to do a little digging to find it.

Morning Coffee (9/4/18)

This is heartbreaking: Brazil Museum Fire Threatens Hundreds of Years of History

LET'S NOT COUNT CHICKENS but yes good: Democrats, Eyeing a Majority, Prepare an Investigative Onslaught

Agents Tried to Flip Russian Oligarchs. The Fallout Spread to Trump.

The 10 most important Senate elections, briefly explained

Sigh: Republican official resigns after calling kneeling NFL players 'baboons'

But this is great: Colin Kaepernick Named Face of Nike's 30th Anniversary of 'Just Do It' Campaign

The Shaming of Geoffrey Owens and the Inability to See Actors as Laborers, Too

Do Sustainable Certifications For Coffee Really Help Coffee Growers?

Ooh, the trailer for The Front Runner - Hugh Jackman as Gary Hart - looks great.

Scientists hunt mysterious 'dark force' to explain hidden realm of the cosmos

Morning Coffee (9/3/18)

Happy Labor Day! We're on a holiday schedule today, so just the one post.

Me elsewhere: TV news for the week.

Not good! U.S. to End Funding to U.N. Agency That Helps Palestinian Refugees

In Chemnitz, anti-fascists stand up to the Nazi salutes of Germany's far right

How Brett Kavanaugh Would Transform the Supreme Court

A grand jury will investigate whether Kris Kobach intentionally botched voter registration in 2016

The new Democratic plan to protect preexisting conditions ahead of the 2018 midterms

USA Gymnastics Is Imploding

Feeling Suicidal, Students Turned to Their College. They Were Told to Go Home.

Schindler's List will return to theaters for its 25th anniversary

George IV's restored Brighton pavilion saloon unveiled

Ugh: Shadowhunters Auction Accidentally Spoils Final Season Twists for Fans

Morning Coffee (9/2/18)

New documents: White House persuaded DHS to cut short Nicaraguans’ humanitarian protection

Court Rules Trump Can't Use Pregnancy Prevention Funds on Abstinence Orgs

Important background here: Trump’s stripping of passports from some Texas Latinos, explained

Southerners Tore Down Silent Sam. Now Northerners Need to Tear Down Confederate Flags.

Good: The Cave Rescuer Elon Musk Called A "Pedo" Has Lawyered Up And Is Preparing A Libel Claim

Why Did a Naval Mine Show Up Off the Coast of Washington?

Whoa: New England's beloved soda Moxie sold to soft drink giant Coca-Cola

This is a GREAT bad book review: Is This the Stupidest Book Ever Written About Socialism?

MoviePass Board Member Quits In Blaze Of Glory As Company Offers New Contest For A One Year Subscription

Women Chefs Still Walk 'A Fine Line' In The Kitchen

Morning Coffee (9/1/18)

Donald Trump Is Setting Up a Lame-Duck Crisis

This isn't surprising, but it's interesting that people are SAYING it: AP sources: Lawyer was told Russia had ‘Trump over a barrel’

It's not an ACCIDENT that this keeps happening: Homeland Security staffer with white nationalist ties attended White House policy meetings

Vermont's Only Black Female Lawmaker Withdraws Re-Election Bid After Racist Attacks

Of course: New U.S. Sexual Misconduct Rules Bolster Rights of Accused and Protect Colleges

Roger Stone’s public antics about the Mueller investigation continue

This is alarming: Bank of America freezing accounts of customers suspected of not being US citizens

I love this: Why Do the Bad Men Think We Need Them?

Good: Microsoft to business partners: If you want to work with us, offer paid family leave

I know this cat!!! Or his people, anyway: It’s Cute, but This Cat Probably Wasn’t Feeding Its Toy Kittens