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☆ Brandon Taylor Loves to Read Romances and European History
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-25 | by ( ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

What’s the last great book you read? Are there any classic novels that you only recently read for the first time? Most classic novels are classic novels I’ve only read recently for the first time. Like, bad prose isn’t the same thing as prose that isn’t brilliant or good or whatever. Bad prose, to me, is bad thinking.

☆ ‘Succession’ Season 4, Episode 9 Recap: Dearly Departed
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-21 | by ( Noel Murray | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

(Caroline introduces Sally Ann as “my Kerry.”) These ladies share the bond of having loved a very difficult man; and when Marcia reaches out for Kerry’s hand, Kerry sobs. Logan’s fiery liberal brother, Ewan (James Cromwell), ignores his grandson Greg’s attempt to stop him from taking the pulpit. Roman has never had this kind of spotlight; and now his siblings expect him to “say the other side” of the Logan Roy story. Roman starts to give his generic “great, great man” speech, but then freezes and asks his family to bail him out. He acknowledges the pain his father could cause but he also celebrates how Logan made “bloody, complicated life” happen.

☆ Eyeball to eyeball: Estonia stares down Russia
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-20 | by ( Jill Dougherty | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +9 min

It sits high on the western bank of the Narva River, its 13th-century castle proudly flying the blue, black and white flag of Estonia. We think we know roughly what makes them tick.”Like parts of Ukraine, Estonia was illegally annexed and occupied by the Soviet Union. Estonians at the conference were adamant: Unless Russia is utterly defeated in Ukraine, there is no reason to expect Putin will change his strategic objective. Jill Dougherty/CNNSeveral Russians at the conference said they feel personally responsible for the horrors Russia is unleashing on Ukraine. What’s more, Vladimir Putin is winning support for the war from so-called “swing states” and nations in the Global South.

☆ Opinion | The Flaws of Perfection
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-19 | by ( Warren Zanes | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +3 min

Mr. Springsteen’s prior release, “The River,” was his first No. “Nebraska” was dirty, kind of mumbled in sections, its hushed tones punctuated by a few screams; it told scary stories. Warren Zanes is the author of “Deliver Me From Nowhere: The Making of Bruce Springsteen’s ‘Nebraska’” and “Petty: The Biography.” A former member of the Del Fuegos, he teaches at N.Y.U. and continues to write and record music, sometimes with the poet Paul Muldoon’s Rogue Oliphant band, sometimes on his own. Follow The New York Times Opinion section on Facebook, Twitter (@NYTopinion) and Instagram.

☆ ‘White Men Can’t Jump’ Taught a Master Class in Talking Smack
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-19 | by ( Calum Marsh | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +3 min

What Billy understands, and what the movie so beautifully expresses, is that streetball is about more than merely who is the most accomplished player. When Billy drains a three-pointer in a shootout, Sidney nonetheless derides his style: “No aesthetic beauty whatsoever,” he jeers. Or as one of Sidney’s friend puts it, after Sidney’s more elegant three in reply: “A thing of beauty is a joy forever. Only “White Men Can’t Jump” has captured the power of talking smack. “You’d rather look good and lose,” he tells him, “than look bad and win.” It’s an apt diagnosis, but it cuts both ways.

☆ ‘Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny’ Premieres at Cannes: First Reaction
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-18 | by ( Manohla Dargis | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

On Thursday, Harrison Ford stood before a rapturous crowd at the Cannes Film Festival and reminded us that Tom Cruise isn’t the last movie star. That history was on display in a snappy, coherently edited homage that got the evening started. In the late 1960s, Demy had wanted to cast the then-unknown Ford in “Model Shop” but couldn’t convince the studio to hire him. Demy settled for another actor, but he and Varda remained friends with Ford. Rather anticlimactically, Frémaux also presented Ford an honorary Palme d’Or.

☆ You Don’t Need to Speak Another Language to Love a Bilingual Edition
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-16 | by ( Hasan Altaf | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +3 min

In “The Rebel’s Silhouette,” for example, an untitled Urdu poem by Faiz Ahmed Faiz on Page 50 is placed opposite its translation, by the Kashmiri American poet Agha Shahid Ali, on Page 51. Even if you don’t read Urdu, the original is sharply outlined: four lines in two couplets, taking up barely a third of the page. One great charm of a bilingual edition is that you don’t have to give up one for the other, as you would with a translation. You can have both at the same time, and treat language as a Jenga tower, moving its pieces but preserving its structure. Look at the beginning of another untitled poem and you can hear the music of “Passará/tem passado/passa com a sua fina faca” — the time-traveling verb, the echoing sibilants, the alliteration.

☆ A Family Drama Unfolds as Ecological Disasters Mount
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-11 | by ( Matt Bell | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

BLUE SKIES, by T.C. Boyle“Blue Skies,” T.C. Boyle’s 19th novel, opens with Cat, a would-be social media influencer living on the imperiled Florida coast, buying a pet Burmese python as a piece of “living jewelry” she hopes will boost her Instagram account. Willie, Cat’s Burmese python, is quickly lost and replaced by the even bigger Willie II, who, after the first Willie is found again, is forced to cohabitate with his smaller namesake. Cat, separated by a continent from her family for most of the novel, navigates a Florida downpour while being stalked by the “dull corrugated” shape of an eight-foot alligator.

☆ The Star Wars timeline: All movies and shows in chronological order
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-04 | by ( Scottie Andrew | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +15 min

These details are pulled from the official “Star Wars” resources “Ultimate Star Wars” and “Star Wars Character Encyclopedia,” as well as experts from outlets like USA Today and the AV Club. ‘Star Wars: The Clone Wars’ (animated series)Ahsoka is Anakin's padawan in "The Clone Wars," and he lovingly calls her "Snips." ‘Solo: A Star Wars Story’"Solo" shows how Han and Chewie became best friends. ‘Star Wars Rebels’Kanan Jarrus, Zeb Orrelios and Sabine Wren take on the Empire in "Star Wars Rebels." ‘Rogue One: A Star Wars Story’Heroes attempt to find the plans to blow up the Death Star in "Rogue One."

☆ ‘The Melt Goes On Forever’ Review: David Hammons Makes, and They Take
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-04 | by ( Wesley Morris | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

The title of this new documentary about the artist David Hammons is a mouthful: “The Melt Goes On Forever: The Art & Times of David Hammons.” It’s playing at Film Forum, and I don’t envy whoever has to make it fit the marquee. But they should figure that out because the title feels crucial to the aim of this movie, a sly, toasty, piquant consideration of Hammons’s conceptual art, the way it mocks and eludes easy ownership. Which is to say: the way his art is aware of — the way it’s often about — the stakes for Black people navigating the straits of the market. That piece is like a lot of Hammons’s work: tragicomic. It would have been enough to behold the assortment of thrilling footage of Hammons at work, in conversation and, in one contentious encounter, under interrogation by a group of students.

☆ Is Brazil Under Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva ‘Anti-American’? - The New York Times
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-02 | by ( Vanessa Barbara | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

When Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva took office in January, after defeating Mr. Bolsonaro, it was widely hoped that he would guide Brazil back to the international mainstream. The early signs were good: In November, even before assuming the presidency, Mr. Lula traveled to COP27 in Egypt, and there was an amiable visit to the United States in February. Then Mr. Lula started going off script. In line with the country’s history of multilateralism, and sensitive to its needs, Mr. Lula is charting his own course. Mr. Lula’s visit to Beijing in April, where he met President Xi Jinping amid much fanfare, put several noses out of joint.

☆ Opinion | Ted Lasso, Holy Fool
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-30 | by ( Tish Harrison Warren | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

Each Wednesday night my husband and I tune in to watch “Ted Lasso,” the Emmy award-winning Apple TV+ comedy series. They climb into an impossibly small car, and Ted calls out to Rebecca, his serious, conniving new boss, “Look! Holy fools dwell in ordinary, secular life, but they approach it with completely different values. Rejecting respectability and embracing humility and love, holy fools are so profoundly out of step with the broader world that they appear to be ridiculous or even insane and often invite ridicule. Early in the series, Ted tells a reporter named Trent Crimm: “For me, success is not about the wins and losses.

☆ The Mysteries of Ovulation Pain
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-27 | by ( Alisha Haridasani Gupta | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

That sensation is most likely pain associated with ovulation, or, as it’s known in the medical world, mittelschmerz (the German term for “middle pain”). It’s difficult to pin down just how prevalent ovulation pain is because, in most cases, it’s so mild that women don’t report it, said Dr. Jenna Turocy, an associate professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Columbia University. “And very little of the research has to do with the day-to-day experience.” It’s still unclear, for example, why some women don’t experience pain with ovulation at all. “Every ovulation is essentially a ruptured cyst,” Dr. Ginsburg said. Ultrasounds have shown that ovulation coincides with a small explosion of fluid and sometimes blood on the surface of the ovary, Dr. Ginsburg said.

☆ ‘Big George Foreman’ Review: Not the Biopic a Two-time Champ Deserves
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-27 | by ( Glenn Kenny | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The former boxer George Foreman’s late-20th-century popularity as a television pitchman for a line of cooking products has enabled a collective amnesia. Boxing has given us many fighters who have won world champion titles more than once. But Foreman won his first heavyweight title bout in 1973. Too bad “Big George Foreman,” directed by George Tillman, Jr., is so shockingly flat. George, who can wallop like no other boxer, almost obliviously moves from strength to strength.

☆ ‘Mott Street’ Chronicles 4 Generations of Chinese American Life
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-24 | by ( Dwight Garner | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

MOTT STREET: A Chinese American Family’s Story of Exclusion and Homecoming, by Ava ChinOld family stories are hard to revivify, even when they’re good family stories. This is the problem Ava Chin is up against in her sensitive, ambitious, well-reported, heavily peopled yet curiously remote memoir-cum-history, “Mott Street: A Chinese American Family’s Story of Exclusion and Homecoming.” It’s a book that has everything going for it except that intangible spark that crisp and confident storytelling throws off. The air is a bit still in this book, as if one is walking behind the docent on a long museum tour. Chin’s memoir takes its title from the narrow north-south road in Manhattan’s Chinatown that’s generally thought of as its Main Street, to which Chin’s family has a long and intricate and prosperous connection. When she’s on Mott Street, Chin feels she’s at home — except when she feels like an out-and-out alien (she can’t decide) because she and her mother were abandoned by her father and driven from the home place.

☆ Bank chiefs move fluttering interest-rate needle
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-19 | by ( John Foley | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

NEW YORK, April 19 (Reuters Breakingviews) - Bank bosses are adding some dramatic tension to the U.S. monetary policy saga. It’s a possibility rather than a prediction, but when Wall Street’s highest and mightiest opine, it pays to listen. At the same time, the bank chiefs may be talking their books. He added that interest rates of “high 5% or 6%” would be “not shocking.”JPMorgan on April 15 reported $12.3 billion of quarterly earnings, a 56% increase from a year earlier, driven by rising interest rates. Dimon has previously warned that rates could hit 6%, and said in April 2022 that the bank was prepared for “drastically” tighter monetary policy.

☆ Do I Need Rental Car Insurance?
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-17 | by ( ) www.wsj.com time to read: +10 min

By Ben LuthiWhen you rent a car, the most stressful decision just might be whether to accept the rental car insurance. Rental car insurance can provide short-term coverage if you need to rent a vehicle on vacation or while your car is in the shop. Types of rental car insuranceCar rental companies offer four different types of car rental insurance coverage, most of which may already be covered by your personal auto policy. However, note that liability protection and insurance for personal injuries or belongings are not included in credit card rental car insurance. When do you need rental car insurance?

☆ Opinion: I’m betting on Cousin Greg. But I’m not a serious person
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-12 | by ( Gene Seymour | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +6 min

By now, we should be used to HBO’s series pulling the rug out from beneath our expectations. Still, as more than one pundit observed of Logan’s death, this one shocked more than merely surprised. Not me, though I do miss Brian Cox already because few actors anywhere are as adroit at playing dyspeptic sociopaths. It would be at the very least ironic if “Greg the Egg,” the minion’s minion, stumbled into power as if he tripped on a sidewalk. I’ll say no more on this except to suggest that you all try to remember who in the end won that “Game of Thrones.” It’s not inevitable.

☆ How to Revamp Your Wardrobe Without Buying a Thing
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-08 | by ( Ann Binlot | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +1 min

BLESS THIS MESS A defeated Cher (Alicia Silverstone) tries to find a DMV-worthy outfit in 1995’s ‘Clueless.’“I HAVE nothing to wear.” It’s a common refrain heard in bedrooms nationwide. Who among us hasn’t peered into an overstuffed closet, sighed in disgust and struggled to find something—anything!—suitable? Even Cher Horowitz, Alicia Silverstone’s style-savvy character in the era-defining 1995 film “Clueless,” had an angst-addled relationship with her abundant wardrobe. Watch the scene depicted above, in which she seeks to assemble a “responsible-looking” outfit for her driver’s test. Our advice: Spend a few hundred to hire a wardrobe stylist for an hour or two and rediscover what you already have.

☆ ‘I Live in Hell’: The Psychic Wounds of Ukraine’s Soldiers
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-14 | by ( Photographs Antoine D Agata | Text Ellen Barry | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +15 min

The soldier’s ward is a quiet place, high-ceilinged, with chess boards and a Ping-Pong table; you could mistake it for a rest home, except that the door handles have been removed. Tap Click to read their stories Oleksandr, 21 Occupation: Soldier, former student “I finished school and joined the army in 2021. Now I’m mostly sad; I’m better off alone.” Yulia, 47 Occupation: Soldier; combat medic, independent forensic expert I’m a combat medic. Stanislav, 29 Occupation: Soldier, former cook “I didn’t plan to end up here. I adjust to each person in this way.” Serhii, 42 Occupation: Soldier, former employee at a shipping company On April 28 2022, I joined the air assault forces.

☆ Food is getting cheaper. But not for you
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-08 | by ( Danielle Wiener-Bronner | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +6 min

When food producers started raising prices a few years ago, they blamed their own costs, including higher ingredient prices. Many food companies are forecasting that they might slow down or pause price increases — but not lower them. But ingredients typically make up a small portion of overall food costs. Companies are maintaining elevated prices, or continuing to increase them, at a time when many Americans are already struggling to pay for food, especially as pandemic-era food stamp benefits expire. So people keep buying food at the grocery store, despite higher prices — giving producers an opportunity to convince retailers that those higher prices won’t drive customers away.

☆ Paul Ryan Says Even MAGA Diehards Believe Trump Can’t Win in 2024
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-06 | by ( David Marchese | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +23 min

Photo illustration by Bráulio Amado Talk Paul Ryan Says Even MAGA Diehards Believe Trump Can’t Win in 2024For a good long time during the George W. Bush and Obama presidencies, Paul Ryan was considered one of the intellectual leaders and shining stars of the Republican Party. Get out of this race.” But I don’t think Trump is going to get the nomination. I don’t think we want the lack of liberty that comes with government-made equality. Where I part company with the left is I don’t believe in socialism. I don’t believe in equality of outcomes.

New York CNN —Disneyland has removed the “zip-a-dee-doo-dah” lyric played during its park parades because it comes from a movie that has been criticized for racist portrayals of Black Americans. The lyric initially appeared in the “Magic Happens” parade when it debuted in March 2020. The song “Zip-a-dee-doo-dah” originated in the 1946 film “Song of the South” that has long been criticized for stereotypes of “spiritual” Black men and its seemingly nostalgic view of the antebellum South. Disneyland officials told the OC Register in 2020 that the removal of the “Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah” song from the theme park resort is part of a continuous process to deliver an environment that features stories that are relevant and inclusive. “Song of the South” is so controversial that Disney has locked it away for decades and even kept it off the extensive library of Disney+.

☆ Walter Mosley Thinks America Is Getting Dumber
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-06 | by ( David Marchese | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +17 min

Mamadi Doumbouya for The New York Times Talk Walter Mosley Thinks America Is Getting DumberWalter Mosley is best known as one of contemporary literature’s pre-eminent crime novelists, but he’s actually four or five different writers rolled into one. You have to tell stories about real people experiencing it and not real people with a Ph.D. People who are not stupid but ignorant, who don’t know things about the world. There are people who don’t know how to spell, they don’t know how to think. You have these people coming out into the world, and they don’t know what to do. That’s going to happen.

☆ Sheng Thao, once homeless and fleeing abuse, becomes the mayor of Oakland, California
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-09 | by ( Claire Wang | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +8 min

Thao spoke with NBC Asian American about her vision for Oakland and how her upbringing shaped her advocacy for working families. Mayor-elect Sheng Thao is greeted by supporters following a news conference at City Hall in downtown Oakland, Calif., on Nov. 23, 2022. Jane Tyska / East Bay Times via Getty ImagesNBC Asian America: You’re the first Hmong American to become mayor of a major city. The Hmong community itself is already politically engaged. That’s made a huge impact especially on our Hmong girls because the Hmong community is still quite patriarchal.

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