Rick Davis

Ragtime.

Sugar cubes for me too, same time frame.

Thanks for bringing this forward! Close reading (and seeing) done right.

“You wonder how these things begin…” (Jerry Orbach, The Fantasticks) and, from a different part of Music Man, “Cracker barrel went out the window with the Mail Pouch cut plug chawin’ by the stove…” and ff.

When I led a Winter session London Theatre trip w/ George Mason University, we always began with a tour led by a Blue Badge guide. The first one (2013) was led by a gent named Michael who let slip that he had been in Les Mis for several years. The students paid closer attention after that. So, yes.

¡Feliz cumple!

Because I have seen "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington," there's a part of me that keeps hoping that someone on the floor of the House or Senate - ideally, Mike Johnson - will suddenly realize he's sunk so deep into the mire he can no longer breathe. Sob-wracked confession follows.

Watched it on July 4th and had the same surge of hope. Now we wait… and keep raising awareness of the film!

Vive Racine’

I know more about the effects of extreme heat on the human body--which is another form of "critical infrastructure"--so this graphic is helpful to me. Thanks for sharing.

@docsforclimate.bsky.social @gchalliance.bsky.social

Opinion | Melissa Hortman’s legacy is a ‘Minnesota Miracle’ The slain politician delivered on an astonishing number of progressive goals in a short period.

Melissa Hortman, the former Minnesota House speaker felled by an assassin’s bullet, understood what democracy looks like. She achieved far more using democracy’s humble but ultimately exhilarating tools than any violent fanatic ever will.
My column
www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/202...

Opinion | Universities and the government: Which needs the other more? From public health to high-tech innovation, universities are the workhorses of national progress.

"We frequently hear of late that universities are 'dependent on federal money,' as though they were passive beneficiaries of government largesse," Carole LaBonne writes.

"The reality is closer to the opposite." wapo.st/43GspCx

Václav Havel. The accent mark for respect, even if it adds nothing phonological for the English speaker.

Just a stunning verification of everything that's so wrong about AI

One of the several oddly useful things I remember from college Latin (thank you Dan Taylor) is that the final m is a marker of the accusative case in most Indo-European languages, even sometimes in beautiful, disorderly English. Now and again that helps me with whom.

Also perhaps the assonance of “its” and “hills,” not to mention the haunting power of the possessive. (What’s up with “not to mention” anyway?)

The rehearsal room looks like a “New Stagecraft” set design from 20-30 years in the future. Maybe for An Enemy of the People… or some Gorky play.

National Endowment for the Arts rescinds grants, dazing publishers and theaters Arts organizations across the country saw their grants pulled with little explanation, while a proposed federal budget sought to eliminate the arts funding agency altogether.

Arts organizations across the country saw their grants pulled with little explanation, while a proposed federal budget sought to eliminate the arts funding agency altogether.

Something about a rat-wife.

As Lady B. might put it…

Taking up space here now instead of the other place.