This year has highlighted the particularities of that thing called reading. Some found books impossible to pick up; sustained attention to text on a page is hard when the world is in so much pain. Others turned to literature anew, rediscovering the ways it can refresh and inspire.
“We can’t let closed nationalisms impede us from living as the true human family that we are,” the pope said.
The world-renowned British novelist John le Carré died on December 12 at the age of 89. Le Carré established himself as a master writer of spy novels in a career that spanned more than half a century. He worked in the British Secret Service from the late 1950s until the early ’60s, at the height of the Cold War — which was the topic of his early novels.
The legendary British author John le Carré has died at the age of 89. In the lead-up to the Iraq invasion, John le Carré was a fierce critic of President George W. Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair. In January 2003, he published a widely read essay called “The United States of America Has Gone Mad.” John le Carré read the essay during an appearance on Democracy Now! in 2010.
I got a call on a Wednesday morning from a number with a Long Island area code. Long Island? I picked up, because why not.“Emma? This is Santa speaking.”My caller, it turned out, was not just Santa but the National Santa™, a.k.a. Santa Tim Connaghan, the Big Daddy of American Saint Nicks. Santa Tim’s website features pictures of him posing with Giada De Laurentiis, Dr. Phil, and Jewel; he’s the guy Melania Trump called for help at a Toys for Tots event.
Nearly every day for the past nine months, I’ve spent the last few hours before I go to sleep or the first few hours after I wake up in the morning reading news stories about and personal remembrances of those we’ve lost to the coronavirus pandemic. I then share the stories on the FacesOfCOVID Twitter feed, which I run.
If Disney’s animated-movie formula relies on tales of heroes and princesses, of villains destroyed and personal freedom achieved, then Pixar’s formula is far more mundane. For decades, the computer-animation studio has made movies that portray transcendent feelings and experiences as the products of ordinary jobs, performed diligently by strange little beings behind the scenes. Monsters, Inc., in 2001, revealed that our fears were created by cuddly, blue-collar creatures.
Parenting advice on internet temptations, Santa delays, and Auntie worries.
If he’s willing to do a coup, he’s probably willing to do this.
Boosted unemployment insurance? Check. A continued eviction moratorium? Check. Checks? Check. But there’s still much more that we need.
It’ll only be enough if the vaccination effort doesn’t blow it.
America’s most populous state has become one of the nation’s worst epicenters for the coronavirus.
States last week were blindsided by lower-than-expected allocations of a Covid vaccine from Pfizer and BioNTech.
Even his therapist believes him!
I am getting depressed at the thought of being alone for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.
The problems of this system go a lot deeper than a new stimulus bill.
Congress curbed the central bank’s emergency lending despite the economy’s continuing struggles.
Biden added that the appointees have “broad viewpoints on how to build a stronger and more inclusive middle class.
Officials said they expect the U.S. economy to shrink by 2.4 percent this year, a brighter forecast than they offered just three months ago.
Vaccine euphoria is giving economic forecasters hope for a blockbuster 2021 and stretching stock market valuations to historic highs. It’s a setup that leaves no room for error.
California Secretary of State Alex Padilla has been named by Governor Gavin Newsom to replace Vice President-elect Kamala Harris in the U.S. Senate, making history as the first Latinx senator to represent the state. Padilla was first elected to public office at 26, when he joined the Los Angeles City Council, and went on to serve two terms in the state Senate, followed by two terms as the state’s secretary of state.
President-elect Joe Biden has nominated Connecticut public schools commissioner Miguel Cardona for secretary of education, tapping a third Latinx person to join his Cabinet. Cardona is a former teacher who represents a sharp break from outgoing Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, who urged career employees at the Education Department earlier this month to “be the resistance” to the incoming administration.
As the U.S. averages more than 200,000 new COVID-19 cases per day, we speak with Dr. Cleavon Gilman, an emergency physician who has been treating patients since the beginning of the U.S. outbreak, first in New York City and now in Yuma, Arizona. Dr. Gilman is also an Iraq War veteran who served as a Marine combat medic, and has kept a public diary of his experiences treating COVID-19 patients.
The CDC is guarding against a mutated strain.
The CDC is guarding against a mutated strain.
Night Owls, a themed open thread, appears at Daily Kos seven days a week
27 DAYS UNTIL JOE BIDEN AND KAMALA HARRIS TAKE THE OATH OF OFFICE
Scott Simon at NPR writes—’Twas The Night Before Christmas in 2020:
‘Twas the night before Christmas, and all o’er the house
Stirred the clicking — most frantic — of every mouse
All the stockings were hung by the TV with flair
But children played on apps in their rooms without care
Sneaking smart-pho
It’s that time. Time to settle down in front of the virtual fire and enjoy the quiet. Here it is, the granddaddy of the televised Yule logs from 1966, on a continuous loop to keep you mesmerized for hours. Well, minutes.
YouTube Video
In case you’re wondering, it was cooked up in 1966 by Fred M. Thrower, president and chief executive officer of WPIX, Inc. who wanted New Yorkers who lived without fireplaces to be able to enjoy the spectacle.
Recycling is a good thing … as long as it’s done right. Done wrong, you’re contaminating what your local trash system is trying to send for recycling and potentially getting a lot more than your stuff rejected. Christmas is a big time for some recycling problems, since gift wrap can generate a lot that we want to recycle, a lot of which, it turns out, we just need to throw out.
You cannot recycle glittery, metallic, or flocked wrapping paper. Do not do it.
