First, the wonderful. The wonderful always should go first but rarely does, does it? Tonight, the Charlie Rose interview show on PBS stations (check local stations for times) will air “AN APPRECIATION OF WENDY WASSERSTEIN WITH FOUR OF HER FRIENDS AND COLLEAGUES.” I look forward to this hour. It’s bound to be full of laughter, tears, and rich conversation.
Wendy Wasserstein was a good friend to Seattle. Writes the Seattle Times of a former Seattle theatre director: “One thing theater director Daniel Sullivan will miss about famed playwright Wendy Wasserstein: her laugh, an infectious sound mingling a giggle with a guffaw … [and] Wasserstein’s answering machine. It featured ‘songs from Broadway musicals of the 1940s and ’50s, which she loved, sung by Wendy herself or with her daughter, Lucy Jane’.” (By the way, her daughter, born in 1999, is now living with Wendy’s brother, the owner of New York magazine.)
Over two decades, at Seattle Rep and in New York, [Sullivan] collaborated closely with Wasserstein, directing the debuts of several of her plays, including “The Heidi Chronicles,” “The Sisters Rosensweig” and, in 2005, “Third.”
Chicago, you make me miss “The Sopranos” (which finally starts again in March!): A special bulletin from the Chicago Tribune says that “Chicago City Clerk James Laski today turned in his resignation. … Laski was charged with soliciting $50,000 in bribes for steering city trucking business to a lifelong friend. Also charged in the scheme were John Briatta, a brother-in-law of Cook County Commissioner John Daley and two other city employees. John Daley is the mayor’s brother.”
Some headlines write the story: “Hawks flagged down in quest for first NFL title,” Seattle Times
Catch Glenn Greenwald on C-Span and in print: Washington Journal audio/video (archive up now) and “Live blogging the NSA hearing.”
The Carpetbagger Report, one of my newly favorite blogs, has a great political round-up today: “Monday’s political round-up … it’s an “installment of campaign-related news items that wouldn’t generate a post of their own, but may be of interest to political observers.” Like these gems:
… How bad are things going for Ralph Reed’s campaign in Georgia? On Friday, 21 of Georgia’s 34 Republican state senators signed a letter urging Reed to withdraw…
North Carolina Democratic congressional hopeful Heath Shuler has enjoyed unusually strong fundraising of late and seems to be raising concerns among Republicans who think he might win … Read ’em all
This Muslim cartoon controversy is idiotic, much ado over little (unless you’re a PC nazi), and has gone on long enough: Because, ugh, I’m compelled ethically and legally to support their right to free speech, I have to tolerate things I hate — like the barbaric, idiotic, inciteful speech of Bill O’Reilly and Michael Savage, and the incredibly annoying God- and Jesus-pandering of every politician in this country. The (thankfully few) Muslims who are rioting need to learn to get along with the rest of the world, even us who don’t share or even care for their religion. They need to lighten up. And it’s insane when four people die in the riots. Everybody gets ridiculed everyday. It’s part of living in a big, complex, diverse world that is enriching (if one but opens up to it, and can learn to laugh at one’s self too). Although we’re not a culture to advise any other on getting a sense of humor, I regret to say:
The NBC “Will and Grace” episode featuring Britney Spears hosting a cooking show called “Cruci-fixins” has been cancelled in the wake of Christian protests, but the term was actually recycled from a Fox network show. (CNS)
Cowards – and yet Chris Matthews, homophobe and right-wing shill, is still on the air. Funny how that works.
Apparently, the more “mental” you get on network news, the more you’re liked by execs.
this might be one case where we should thank the Religious Reich…Britney Spears acting is probably akin to me hosting a show on diet tips… 😉
Susan,
Wendy’s brother Bruce isn’t the editor of NY Magazine. He….er…..owns it (along with so much more, most of us have long since lost count)
Oops .. i should never trust my memory.
I’ll fix it. So, he’s a mogul? Little Lucy will have lots of material goodies … but I bet she misses her mommy so much :(:(
Yep. Let’s start by noting he sold his investment firm Wassersetin Parella to The Dresdner Bank for ….er…..$1,500,000,000. Currently he’s at Lazard Freres, and has completed a public offering there. Who knows what he’s worth, but something North of a billion sounds about right.
Yeah, it really is horrible that the Muslims… all a billion and some odd of them, can’t learn to get along with the rest of the world.
For fucks sake Susan, generalize much??
Not all Muslims. Just those who are rioting, burning down Danish embassies and consulates, and injuring and killing or being killed …
just like the whacked-out Christians who burn and bomb abortion clinics, etc.
they’re trying to impose their views on me. They can’t do that. I’m entitled to my own. If I find those cartoons funny, that’s my business.
And it’s a newspaper’s business to print the cartoons if it damn well wants to.
that’s fine, but that’s not what you implied by saying “the Muslims”… many, many Muslims have come out and spoken against the violence. Generalizing an entire religion as not being able to get along with the rest of the world does no one any good and in fact puts you in the same camp as them in terms of blaming an entire populace (i.e. what they are doing to the Danes).
Good point. It was a poor choice of words.
But, I hope you’ll recall that I’ve probably posted more friendly material about Muslims suffering from Western brutality than most people … well, even if I hadn’t, it’s beside the point … I didn’t mean to generalize, but did.
Thanks for revising the wording, I knew what you meant, but it is phrasing that can be misconstured or considered offensive by non-rioting Muslims… that’s why I pointed it out… in my own particular manner 😉
It’s cool!
I sure do like being given the benefit of the doubt though … BooMan and I write these stories in such a rush sometimes, and when we’re VERY tired, like I am now, because we need to post new material. We’re under a lot of pressure, and we miss things. It really HELPS US to have you so helpfully point out what we miss. Thank you.
the percentage of Muslims who are rioting is infinitesimal as compared to the pverall number. When dobson and Falwell and that crowd go bananas inciting hatred and violence do you make remarks about how Christians need to learn how to be more tolerant?
don’t fall into these traps set by the religious nuts who want to incite war. We all have much more in common than we do that separate us and we need to keep our focus on that. And if we’re going to identify where the differences are le’s be accurate.
I regard functional differences between the tolerant and the intolerant, the greedy and the needy, between those who have respect for equality and those who don’t, those who want to dominate and those who want to cooperate. And all of these divisive characteristics are completely independent of race religion nationality or ethnicity.
Personally, I accord no legitimacy to the absurd ideas of blasphemy or sacriledge or holy land or sacred this or sacred that, and I think it’s pathetic that such ideas create a context for the kind of murderous insanity and hatred and intolerance that has always accompanied religious fervor. But the illness is not central to the spirituality of those beliefs, it’s central to the lust for power that those who dominate those religious organizations have. It’s got nothing to do with Allah or Muhammad or Jesus or Buddha or Jesus or Yahweh or Shiva,; it’s a sickness that derives from the ambition of those who assert their own authority within these religious organizations.
I was really shocked to find that statement in your writing.
Unintended, I assure you.
Thankfully, this is a friendly place and I get a chance to correct poorly chosen text. It was not my intention to generalize. I’ll change it now.
That’s great. I’m glad for the change.
I agree people who become weaponized by such things need to understand that the world doesn’t revolve around their own sensitivities, and certainly, from my perspective, the idea that a religious custom has some sort of inherent authority in a secular society is a presumption that needs to be exposed as fraudulent.
While I have my own spiritual beliefs and understandings, thankfully they are not contingent upon my desire or ability to impose them on others, and I have no reason or desire to expect that anyone else is either bound by them or needs to accord me or my beliefs with respect. This is why, for me, a secular society is so important. Religious authority is always arbitrary, dictatorial, and self-appointed and therefore is never compatible with democracy as a governing mechanism.
I surely hope we’ll be able to keep the evangelical wingnut fascists here in the US from gaining any more power over our society here.
Also Susan, it never occurred to me that your comments were intentional in the sense that I thought you were disparaging Muslims in general. I was stunned just because it seemed careless, as though the simplicity of your phrasing was more the result of expediency and haste than it was of intent. I see by your response to spiderleaf above that this was so.
Lot’s of love and respect and all the mushy stuff.
sbj
This I’m worried about: In Al-Jazeera’s morning e-mail newsletter — they have SUCH GREAT NEWS CLIPS — they said that two editors in Jordan have been arrested for publishing the cartoons.
I’m very worried for those two editors. The Jordanians can be particularly vicious in their prisons.
Say, if you hear more about them, let me know. And I hope that editors around the world rally to their defense!
That is disturbing. My Al-Jazeera link doesn’t seem to be working right now and I haven’t found any other references to that story, but as charming and erudite as Kings Hussein and then Abdullah may be, their regime is still quite repressive and dismissive of democratic freedoms.
Funny how so many friends and allies of our US “lets spread democracy to everyone” government are tyrants.
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=1&categ_id=2&article_id=21994
Is nobody in all of the internets going to make the observation that Glen Greenwald is equal parts genius and GOOD LOOKING? Oops, I just did.