Dr Seán Ketchem

The Salt Path: what did the publisher actually know? A long disclaimer and a medical note hint that Penguin had an inkling of problems ahead

"The disclaimer is unusual in scope and size. It includes a note warning the reader that the author and publishers take no legal responsibility.

“'The medical line does suggest that there were at least discussions in-house about the mysterious medical condition.'"
observer.co.uk/news/nationa...

It's Politico, Jake.

When I was back over the holidays it was still more or less 1:1, as of right now the rate is pushing $1.16 to the euro, that is a big difference in a short time. If it hits $1.20 that is going to be giant red flashing alarm button for the U.S. economy (like the revised jobs report from last week).

South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut is a 1999 American adult animated musical comedy film based on the animated sitcom South Park. The film was directed by series creator Trey Parker from a screenplay co-written with series co-creator Matt Stone and Pam Brady. It stars Parker, Stone, Mary Kay Bergman, and Isaac Hayes, all of whom reprise their roles from the series, with George Clooney, Eric Idle, and Mike Judge in supporting roles. The plot follows Stan Marsh, Kyle Broflovski, Eric Cartman, and Kenny McCormick as they sneak into an R-rated film starring the Canadian comedy duo Terrance and Phillip, after which they begin swearing. When the consequent moral panic culminates in the United States declaring war on Canada, Stan, Kyle and Cartman take it upon themselves to save Terrance and Phillip from execution, while Kenny tries to prevent a prophecy involving Satan and Saddam Hussein's intent to conquer the world. Primarily centered on themes of censorship and scapegoating, the film also parodies and satirizes the animated films of the Disney Renaissance, musicals such as Les Misérables, and controversies surrounding the series itself. The film also heavily satirizes the Motion Picture Association of America; during production, Parker and Stone disputed with the MPAA, which returned the film multiple times with an NC-17 rating due to its frequent use of profanity. The film's songs were written by Parker and Marc Shaiman, the latter of whom composed the score.

All the furor over South Park's Trump takedown reminded me that "South Park: The Movie" may be one of the funniest films ever made.

"You don't have to spend your life shooting up in the trash /
Homeless on the street and giving handjobs for cash."

(also Trump is the Saddam character in the movie)

Don't know about you guys but we have been way under normal summer temperatures here in Berlin for weeks, temps more like late March than high summer. Supposed to get better by the end of the week though probably 30C will not be seen again this year, we will be lucky to crack 25.

To be more precise: not a street party in Wedding, but a wedding party on the street (in Treptow-Köpenick).

Fauja Singh took up running somewhat late in life The world’s oldest marathon runner died on July 14th, probably aged 114

"On July 14 he was outside his house, about to start his walk, when a speeding SUV hit him.

The driver did not stop. And his family and friends could not help thinking, sadly, that Fauja Singh might not have stopped either, indeed gone on for years, but for that."

www.economist.com/obituary/202...

60 Jahre Berliner Fernsehturm: Vom DDR-Symbol zum Wahrzeichen für alle Vor genau 60 Jahren war Baubeginn und längst ist der Fernsehturm in Berlin-Mitte das Lieblingswahrzeichen der Metropole. Symbol sozialistischer Moderne, Touristenmagnet und beliebter Fotospot - das De...

Berlin's iconic TV tower (Fernsehturm), which broke ground 60 years ago today, was originally meant to be built far outside the city center on the Müggelberg hill, but it was discovered this would disrupt flight patterns around East Berlin's Schönefeld airport.
www.rbb24.de/panorama/bei...

A lot of rightwing media is dismissing the European tariffs as just blue state liberal wine and cheese (whatever that means) but the reality is US manufacturing is dependent on European-made precision equipment and that (and pharmaceutical) is actually the bulk of imports, not Hennessy and Bordeaux.

WKRP in Cincinnati is an American sitcom television series about the misadventures of the staff of a struggling fictional AM[1] radio station in Cincinnati, Ohio. The show was created by Hugh Wilson. It was based upon his experiences observing at Top 40 radio station WQXI in Atlanta. Many of the characters were based on people at that station.Wilson once told The Cincinnati Enquirer that he selected WKRP as the call sign to stand for C-R-A-P. The ensemble cast consists of Gary Sandy (as Andy Travis), Howard Hesseman (Dr. Johnny Fever), Gordon Jump (Arthur Carlson), Loni Anderson (Jennifer Marlowe), Tim Reid (Venus Flytrap), Jan Smithers (Bailey Quarters), Richard Sanders (Les Nessman) and Frank Bonner (Herb Tarlek). The series won a Humanitas Prize and received 10 Emmy Award nominations, including three for Outstanding Comedy Series. Andy Ackerman won an Emmy Award for Videotape Editing in Season 3. WKRP premiered on September 18, 1978, on the CBS television network and aired for four seasons and 90 episodes, ending on April 21, 1982. Starting in the middle of the second season, CBS repeatedly moved the show around its schedule, contributing to lower ratings and its eventual cancellation. When WKRP went into syndication, it became an unexpected success. For the next decade, it was one of the most popular sitcoms in syndication, outperforming many programs that had been more successful in prime time, including all the other MTM Enterprises sitcoms. Jump, Sanders, and Bonner reprised their roles as regular characters in a sequel series, The New WKRP in Cincinnati, which ran from 1991 to 1993 in syndication. Hesseman, Reid, and Anderson also reprised their roles as guest stars.

Many of the core ensemble of WKRP in Cincinnati are now no longer with us:

Gordon Jump (station manager Mr. Carlson)
Howard Hesseman (DJ Dr Johnny Fever)
Frank Bonner (sales manager Herb Talek)
Loni Anderson (receptionist Jennifer Marlowe)

Loni Anderson, Star of ‘WKRP in Cincinnati,’ Dies at 79

"Her big break came in 1978, when she was cast as Jennifer Marlowe, a receptionist, on “WKRP in Cincinnati.” The show, which aired on CBS from 1978 to 1982, was about an easy-listening local radio station in Cincinnati that switched to a rock format."

www.nytimes.com/2025/08/03/a...

Connections
Puzzle #785
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Then we all had to wait outside to climb the giant staircase up to the plane in lashing freezing rain (if you were disabled or elderly I guess you were effed). This wasn't easyJet, it was Air France no less. Worst flying experience of my life (the return sucked also but in its own unique way).

When I went back home to Texas over Christmas I changed at Paris CDG to Houston (which if I had researched I would have known was a mistake). They made us stand in not one but two security checkpoints, we were at the very furthest gate at the terminal, where we had to board a crowded overheated bus.

Ha! I only just today came back to it today when the Observer finally dropped their next installment of the saga of lies and deceit on the trail to spiritual redemption. I see you were in the U S and A. I went for Christmas and am afraid to go back now.

I'll never forget the Christmas when my parents told us kids we were old enough to know that Jesus didn't actually exist

Wedding street party in Berlin!

Ivan the Terrible and His Son Ivan on 16 November 1581 is a painting by Russian realist artist Ilya Repin made between 1883 and 1885. It depicts the grief-stricken Russian tsar Ivan the Terrible cradling his dying son, the Tsarevich Ivan Ivanovich, shortly after Ivan the Terrible had dealt a fatal blow to his son's head in a fit of anger. The painting portrays the anguish and remorse on the face of the elder Ivan and the shock and heartbreak of the dying Tsarevich, shedding a tear at the unexpected betrayal and shock of having been killed at his father's hands. Repin used Grigoriy Myasoyedov, his friend and fellow artist, as the model for Ivan the Terrible, and writer Vsevolod Garshin for the Tsarevich. In 1885, upon completion of the oil-on-canvas work, Repin sold it to Pavel Tretyakov for display in his Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow. It has been called one of Russia's most famous and controversial paintings, and is normally on display in the Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow.

I went to the Tretyakov Gallery ten years ago (when visiting Russia was still something you could justify to yourself) and that portrait of Ivan the Terrible, realizing after he killed his son what he had done, stops you dead in your tracks. That is Russian history.

Over here you can tune out a lot of it (but not all of it) if you want to much more easily. We have our problems too of course, but nothing like the firestorm of horrors than rains down daily from the U.S. government on its own people. People are withdrawing inward like they did in Communist states.

I decamped to Germany (I admit I'm a dual national, makes things a lot easier) in 2019 and thank God I did (It was originally for a short-term job opportunity, but the pandemic froze everything in place and I just stayed). When I go back to the US I don't know how people bear it. So much saner here.

And that was what the American Revolution was all about really, ensuring Americans will one day be ruled by the whims of an unchecked sovereign who can usurp the power of the purse from the people's representatives. You don't need some fancy woke Ivy League history degree to know that.

And on top of all of that, a major costcutting measure was to no longer preheat the pool water, relying on daily sunlight and warm temperatures to bring the pools up to a reasonable 25C. And of course that didn't happen, so a cold dip on an overcast drizzly day was even less of an attractive option.

To add insult to injury, many indoor pools close for regular maintain work in the months when the outdoor pools are open, giving many neighborhoods no enjoyable swimming option whatsoever. This falls particularly hard on the many households that can't afford a Ballermann or Greek beachfront getaway.

Regenreicher Juli macht Berliner Freibad-Betreibern zu schaffen Die Berliner Bäderbetriebe melden in einer Zwischenbilanz einen erheblichen Rückgang der Badegäste im Vergleich zum Vorjahr. Schuld sei der nasse Juli. Hoffnung macht ein Blick auf die Wettervorhersag...

The soggy cool July weather in Berlin resulted in a huge dropoff in visitors at the city's public pools, down by over 100,000 guests year over year. Warmer weather is coming, but alas the pools are closing early this year due to budget cuts (most by September 7).
www.rbb24.de/panorama/bei...

The Salt Path: portrayals that left a sour taste Locals speak of their shock at the way they have been characterised in the bestselling book

"Many of Winn’s portraits of the people they meet along the way tend to be ungenerous. Even in cases when people are offering the couple free places to stay, they are seen as wanting to take something from them, and invariably Winn and Moth are painted as victims."
observer.co.uk/news/nationa...

I know the downfall of the Salt Path fraudsters hardly ranks as a serious news item, and (while her next book is probably cancelled the pair are still sitting on millions from their work of fiction, but glad two con artists are getting their public comeuppance. They should apologize properly.

The German language is rich in colorful idioms that beggar translation into English. Here are just a few!

Connections
Puzzle #784
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Wordle 1,506 3/6

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Little CDU-AfD summer party going on. You know where that will lead. (Saskia Ludwig is the CDU MP who amplified far right media garbage about an SPD-nominated jurist, which lead to our washcloth Chancellor Merz postponing the vote).

1932 in sheep clothing.