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☆ President Biden to skip second consecutive Super Bowl interview, citing Americans’ politics fatigue
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-03 | by ( Edward-Isaac Dovere | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

The pregame presidential interview is a relatively young tradition, stretching back only to Barack Obama’s first year in office, and one that Donald Trump skipped once himself. “We hope viewers enjoy watching what they tuned in for — the game,” White House communications director Ben LaBolt told CNN. In past years, the Super Bowl presidential interviews often drove news coverage for days. But the Biden White House has always been skeptical of the value of doing so, in part due to anxiety that a flub could become an unwanted distraction. Biden’s last major interview was on comedian Conan O’Brien’s podcast, recorded at the White House in December.

Persons: Joe Biden, Biden, Taylor Swift, Travis Kelce, Barack Obama’s, Donald Trump, It’s, ” Biden, Kamala Harris, Ben LaBolt, Conan O’Brien’s Organizations: CNN, Advisers, Kansas City Chiefs, Super, San Francisco 49ers, MAGA, NFL, Democratic Party, White House, White, Saturday’s South Carolina Democratic, House, Chiefs, Detroit Lions, Lions, Green Bay Packers, Biden White Locations: Saturday’s, Wilmington , Delaware

☆ ‘SmartLess’ podcast is going to SiriusXM for $100 million
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-29 | by ( Ramishah Maruf | Elizabeth Wagmeister | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +2 min

New York CNN —Will Arnett, Jason Bateman and Sean Hayes are ditching Amazon and taking their popular podcast “SmartLess” to SiriusXM, the satellite radio network said Monday. SiriusXM gained exclusive rights to the hit podcast as part of a larger deal with SmartLess Media, according to an announcement Monday. The deal keeps the podcast widely available, but brings perks to SiriusXM subscribers – and could possibly encourage more to join. SiriusXM has about 34 million subscribers, according to its October 2023 earnings report. The “SmartLess” podcast is among the top listened to in the country.

Persons: Will Arnett, Jason Bateman, Sean Hayes, SiriusXM, ”, Will, O’Brien’s, Conan, Joe Biden, Bradley Cooper, Emma Stone, Greta Gerwig, Idris Elba, Pedro Pascal, Selena Gomez, ” Scott Greenstein, ‘, CNN’s Sergio Padilla Organizations: New, New York CNN, CNN, SmartLess Media, Sirius, Bloomberg, Amazon, “, Spotify Locations: New York, SiriusXM

☆ David Letterman Ends Conspicuous Absence From ‘The Late Show’
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-21 | by ( John Koblin | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

It started much like the way it ended for David Letterman. There he came, striding onto the stage at the Ed Sullivan Theater on Monday night, to a standing ovation and a chorus of chants of “Da-vid! “Stephen,” Mr. Letterman said as he sat down. Mr. Letterman has been no stranger to the limelight since he stepped down from his late-night gig. He has done Jimmy Kimmel’s ABC show several times; Seth Meyers’s late night show; Ellen DeGeneres’s daytime talk show; Howard Stern’s radio show; Dax Shepard’s podcast; Marc Maron’s podcast; Conan O’Brien’s podcast.

Persons: David Letterman, striding, Ed Sullivan, “, Letterman, ”, Stephen Colbert, “ Stephen, ” Mr, Colbert, —, Jimmy Kimmel’s, Seth Meyers’s, Ellen DeGeneres’s, Howard, Dax Shepard’s, Marc Maron’s, Conan O’Brien’s Organizations: “, CBS, Netflix, Jimmy Kimmel’s ABC, Philipps

☆ A Swift, Opinionated Portrait of Willa Cather (She Would Have Approved)
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-12 | by ( Andrea Barrett | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

CHASING BRIGHT MEDUSAS: A Life of Willa Cather, by Benjamin TaylorDuring the difficult months of 2020, a writer friend and I decided to read Willa Cather’s fiction together. Much of it was rereading, but I’d missed some stories and novels, and I’d never read them sequentially or with a clear sense of Cather’s life. Tonally and politically different, written with obvious adoration or apparent dislike, focusing intently on Cather’s work or scrutinizing her private life — so many biographies! From Edith Lewis’s “personal record” in “Willa Cather Living” (1953) to the massive, almost day-by-day accounting of James Woodress’s “Willa Cather: A Literary Life” (1987) and the detailed critical readings of Hermione Lee’s “Willa Cather: Double Lives” (1989), I learned lots about Cather, and sometimes more than I wanted about her biographers. A fresh perspective on Cather’s sexuality came from Sharon O’Brien’s “Willa Cather: The Emerging Voice” (1986), while Joan Acocella provided a witty, abrasive take on academic analyses of Cather’s work in “Willa Cather and the Politics of Criticism” (2000).

Persons: Willa Cather, Benjamin Taylor, Willa Cather’s, I’d, Edith Lewis’s “, “ Willa Cather, ”, James Woodress’s “ Willa Cather, Hermione Lee’s “ Willa Cather, Cather, Sharon O’Brien’s “ Willa Cather, Joan Acocella, Proust, Philip Roth, “, Taylor Locations: “

☆ 17 Best Dress Shoes for Men, According to Style Experts
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-03 | by ( Leah Melclinton | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +8 min

The laces and classic body shape are characteristic of traditional men’s dress shoes, while the rugged rubber soles still make a statement with any formal outfit. “Good leather shoes are not an arena in which it pays to cut costs,” he says, recommending investing in “the pair of a decade” from this made-in-England favorite. (Crockett & Jones has regal and Hollywood credentials: the brand received a Royal Warrant of Appointment in 2017, and this is the style of dress shoes worn by Daniel Craig’s James Bond). Sleek sneakersThe key to dressed-up sneakers is finding a leather pair free of busy accents or logos. The style is “acceptable to wear with dress clothes,” confirms Los Angeles-based personal stylist Rayne Parvis, who advises people to wear these sneakers in place of brown lace-up dress shoes.

Persons: Leah Melby Clinton You’ve, Magnanni Marco, Jim O’Brien, O’Brien, Wes Sharpton, Cole Myers, ”, Jones, Daniel Craig’s James Bond, Nolan Beck, Rivera, suede Myers, Myers, cushioned, ’, ” Beck, Johnny Cash, Saint Laurent, “ They’re, Beck, Rayne Parvis Organizations: Huntington, Cleobella, Kansas, Monroe, Crockett, Chelsea Boots Locations: Huntington Beach, Calif, Catskill, N.Y, New York City, Paris, Kansas City, Mo, England, Polish, Richmond, Va, Montreal, French, Alsace, ”, Mexico, Nisolo, Los Angeles

☆ Lying All the Way to the Bank in ‘America Fantastica’
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-23 | by ( Noah Hawley | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

AMERICA FANTASTICA, by Tim O’BrienWhen scientists take a core sample of fiction from the post-Trump era, they will discover American novelists struggling to unpack the political and social repercussions of his reign. Just as historians work to document the facts of the last 10 years, so, too, do novelists try to reveal their meaning. In “America Fantastica,” a manic road-trip-meets-crime-spree novel, O’Brien — the award-winning author of “The Things They Carried” and “Going After Cacciato” — speaks through an omniscient narrator, one who regularly interrupts the story to describe the spread of this so-called disease:Bullyism skyrocketed. husband, her scheming billionaire father, the married owners of the bank in question (who don’t report the robbery because they’re too busy robbing the bank themselves) and Angie’s homicidal, reality-challenged fiancé, who sets off in pursuit. But by adding a veneer of topicality, O’Brien aims to turn his characters into case studies for a nation’s moral failure.

Persons: Tim O’Brien, Tim O’Brien’s, Trump, O’Brien, ” —, Boyd Halverson, Penney, Angie Bing, they’re, fiancé, Elmore Leonard Locations: America, Fulda, Calif, Texas, Minnesota

Unions have nowhere near the pull, or members, that they did decades ago, yet something has changed. Fain became president of United Auto Workers this year, but his time with the union began at that then-Chrysler plant in 1994. He vowed to clean up the union and unite members following a wide-ranging scandal that landed two former presidents in prison. The union under Fain has threatened to hit more plants if there is not enough movement from automakers during negotiations. Corporate greed is the problem.”Sean O'Brien, International Brotherhood of TeamstersMuch of what you need to know about Teamsters president Sean O'Brien is right there in his handle for X/Twitter: @TeamstersSOB.

Persons: Shawn Fain, Fain, Fain “, ” Fain, “ We’re, ” Sean O'Brien, Sean O'Brien, James Hoffa, Jimmy Hoffa, Hoffa, O’Brien, O'Brien, ” O’Brien, Fran Drescher, AFTRA Fran Drescher, ”, She's, they're, Drescher, “, —, Television Producers, Michael Winship, Lisa Takeuchi Cullen, WGAE’s, Takeuchi Cullen, ” Meredith Stiehm, Rich Talarico, Peele Organizations: Unions, Hollywood, UPS, United Auto Workers, Chrysler, UAW, General Motors, Ford, Fiat Chrysler, Detroit, Brotherhood, Teamsters, Amazon, Screen Actors, American Federation of Television, Radio Artists, SAG, Associated Press, Alliance, Television Producers, Writers Guild of America, WGA, Television, Writers Guild of America East, “, CBS, Writers Guild of America West Locations: Missouri , Michigan, Ohio, Kokomo , Indiana, Boston, Hollywood

☆ The Talk Shows Have Labor Pains
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-18 | by ( James Poniewozik | More About James Poniewozik | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

But as this year’s strike went on, the guild and its vocal supporters made clear that any hosts restarting their shows during this walkout would not be showered with likes. members have said that something like his return to air would today be considered strikebreaking because airing the show inevitably involves creative work that constitutes writing. The producers of today’s returning talk shows, of course, disagree. Regardless, I don’t think today’s backlash is the result of contract wording or a philosophical shift on the nature of the scribe’s craft. (David Letterman returned to air with a full staff because his production company, Worldwide Pants, struck its own deal with the writers.)

Persons: Conan O’Brien’s, NBC’s, ’, O’Brien, ”, —, today’s, peck, Ellen DeGeneres, Jay Leno, David Letterman, Jon Stewart, aughts iconhood Organizations: Gallup Locations: Kentucky, America

☆ Trump Oval Office meeting: Special counsel prosecutors question witnesses about chaotic December 2020 meeting in election probe
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-06 | by ( Kaitlan Collins Zachary Cohen Paula Reid Sara Murray Katelyn Polantz | Kaitlan Collins | Zachary Cohen | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

Multiple sources told CNN that investigators have asked several witnesses before the grand jury and during interviews about the meeting, which happened about six weeks after Donald Trump lost the 2020 election. Some witnesses were asked about the meeting months ago, while several others have faced questions about it more recently, including Rudy Giuliani. Prosecutors have specifically inquired about three outside Trump advisers who participated in the meeting: former Trump lawyer Sidney Powell, one-time national security adviser Michael Flynn and former Overstock CEO Patrick Byrne, sources said. They also discussed naming Powell as special counsel to investigate supposed voter fraud, and Trump invoking martial law as part of his efforts to overturn the election. The December 14 date is of particular interest to prosecutors, sources told CNN.

Persons: Jack Smith’s, Trump, Donald Trump, Rudy Giuliani, Giuliani, Sidney Powell, Michael Flynn, Patrick Byrne, Byrne, Jack Smith, ”, Robert Costello, Powell, Flynn, Robert O’Brien, Joe Biden, Mike Pence, Pence Organizations: CNN, Prosecutors, Trump, Twitter, West Wing, White House, Electoral College Locations: Washington ,

☆ Elon Musk's Twitter faces censorship allegations in India free speech battle
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-25 | by ( David Ingram | David Ingram Covers Tech For Nbc News. | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +5 min

Elon Musk is facing allegations of being complicit with state censorship after Twitter appeared to take sides with India’s government in a turbulent free speech fight over a documentary critical of the country’s prime minister. Musk’s brief answer was in contrast to the sometimes-detailed, personalized responses he has given to other people who complain to him about Twitter. Within India, Twitter said it complied 5.6% of the time. “The BBC has not asked Twitter to remove any content relating to the documentary,” the British broadcaster said in a statement. “The IT Rules are being exploited, handing authorities license to pressure platforms to censor content in ‘emergency’ cases,” he said in a Twitter thread.

☆ It Would Be Hard for Ukraine to Lose the War to Russia
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-07 | by ( Holman W. Jenkins | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

World War II revisionist historian Phillips O’Brien has been fighting the good fight lately on Twitter, upholding the thesis of his 2015 magnum opus, “How the War Was Won.” To wit, Russia’s contribution to victory in the world war was relatively minor after all. German weapons and materiel consumed in battle on the eastern front calculate out to a modest fraction of those destroyed or prevented from being created by the Western air and naval war against Germany’s productive capacity. He turns on its head an old belief that allied bombing was ineffective because Nazi production for a time continued to grow in absolute terms. Mr. O’Brien suggests the effect on potential output is what matters. According to Mr. O’Brien’s figures, the lion’s share of resources went to the Luftwaffe and German navy even at the height of the ground campaign in the east.

☆ 15 Best Dress Shoes for Men, According to Style Experts
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-22 | by ( ) www.wsj.com time to read: +8 min

The laces and classic body shape are characteristic of traditional men’s dress shoes, while the rugged rubber soles still make a statement with any formal outfit. “Good leather shoes are not an arena in which it pays to cut costs,” he says, recommending investing in “the pair of a decade” from this made-in-England favorite. (Crockett & Jones has regal and Hollywood credentials: the brand received a Royal Warrant of Appointment in 2017, and this is the style of dress shoes worn by Daniel Craig’s James Bond). Sleek sneakersEcco Soft 7 City Sneaker $170 at NordstromThe key to dressed-up sneakers is finding a leather pair free of busy accents or logos. The style is “acceptable to wear with dress clothes,” confirms Los Angeles-based personal stylist Rayne Parvis, who advises people to wear these sneakers in place of brown lace-up dress shoes.

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