Welcome to the weekend!
No updates yet on the new toilet other than the Home Depot thinks they need to text and email 8x to tell me they are making a delivery tomorrow.
Brain Drain will be along shortly to keep you further entertained.
The thought of Trump handling these types of calls is scary. We’d all be dust by now.
Biden uses call with Xi to lay out consequences for China if it supports Russia attack on Ukraine
https://www.cnn.com/2022/03/18/politics/joe-biden-xi-jinping-call/index.html
Sprots!
Deshaun Watson: Star quarterback to accept trade to Browns on $230m deal
https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2022/mar/18/deshaun-watson-traded-browns-texans
There’s also some basketball going on. I filled out 2 brackets at work, $10 each. Probably should’ve saved my money.
https://www.ncaa.com/march-madness-live/watch
Stonks!
Dow rallies more than 270 points Friday as stocks post their best week since 2020
https://www.cnbc.com/2022/03/17/stock-market-futures-open-to-close-news.html
I find the good threads for you!
Like I said, only the best…
Have a good Saturday!
From the Culture Desk:
https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/the-psychopath-who-wrecked-new-york
I don’t know how well this play will play in London, but I hope David Hare and Ralph Fiennes persevere and bring it to New York. There are enough of us old dinosaurs roaming the canyons who know who Robert Moses was and would like to see this.
Years ago I read an excellent book about L’Enfant’s plan for Washington, what the area was like before it was chosen for the capital, what L’Enfant really wanted, how much he got and why. The hook is the burning of the White House (and the Capitol and other things) during the War of 1812, but that’s a convenient year because things were either barely or half-finished. There’s a really fascinating section on where the Capitol might be sited, and the feverish land speculation that the choice generated (in more ways than one; George Washington may have liked the area but it was in many parts a malarial swamp.)
I wish there were more books about just how weird Washington is, putting the Federal government aside, if that’s at all possible. I’ve been told more than once that the British Foreign Office included hardship pay for Brits stationed there up until the 1950s or the 1960s. Its municipal government never ceases to fascinate, but with Barry long gone it has lost some of its Grand Guignol aspect, I suppose.
Yowza. Sorry about that huge image. What I posted was an absurdly long Amazon URL.
Your cat is ridiculously cute.
Canada’s trolling game is on point.
…think I read somewhere that russia bemoaned it being “kindergarten diplomacy”…as though somehow it should be viewed as unacceptably childish or something…rather than the sort of direct annotation pretty much everything they say could do with having as a matter of course
…come to that I don’t think I’d be averse to seeing that approach taken with pretty broad swathe of pronouncements by politicians?
They did.
Russia whines after Canadian diplomats bury them in ridicule over their Ukraine demands
According to the Beast’s reporting, Russian diplomats were infuriated by the Canadian Twitter trolling, with the report stating, “In response to the tweet, several Russian diplomats lashed out at the Canadians, accusing them of engaging in ‘kindergarten-level’ diplomacy and ‘Russophobic libel.'”
…must lose something in the translation…or possibly nobody explained to them that “it’s true” is generally considered a pretty impeccable defense against an accusation of libel?
A couple of days ago there was a link to an article about the potentially awkward ride back to earth for a US astronaut hitching a ride on a Russian ship.
Maybe it won’t be so awkward. Funny coincidence.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/03/19/ukraine-russia-international-space-station-flag/