5 Things on a Friday: Follow the Money

This is kind of a last-minute effort.  Happy Friday!

This feels like it's been a long week, no?

5 Things on a Friday: Bucket Hats for Everyone

Let go!

5 Things on a Friday: Heading into the Doldrums of Sport

Happy Friday, folks!

Speaking personally, this has been an incredibly busy and often hectically stressful month.  I usually enjoy May, but right now I just want to see its backside.  

A Tough News Cycle

Woke to some tough news this morning.  For a switch, it made me glad that my father is no longer alive.

Breaking News: Trump said he wouldn't automatically defend NATO members like the Baltic States from a Russian attack https://t.co/8mFJ7zE1pE

— The New York Times (@nytimes) July 21, 2016

We're Home

If there's an upside to being back at home, it's that we have TV in the house.  I watched part of the Giants pre-season game last night while flipping back and forth to try and catch Johnny Manziel's debut for the Browns.  Sadly, the Browns put Manziel in too late, so that by the time he was in, Sally and I were already watching Suits.

I keep wanting to tell myself that it's good to be back, but I miss my beautiful lake view in the morning and the call of the loons.  I slept so well up there, but last night I was restless from the drive and--as often happens--couldn't stop thinking about the million-and-five things that I need to get back to now that we're home.

Heck, even our dog seems to miss Maine, but she's re-adjusting better than Sally and I are.

Saturday News & Notes: Remembering 9/11

My semi-regular look at stuff that catches my eye, now 100% more maudlin and self-reflective.

As 9/11 Museum Opens, These New Yorkers Will Stay Away (NY Times)
"But for some New Yorkers, the memories and stories are already too present, and despite the importance of the museum’s message — and despite its great reviews — they do not plan to visit when it opens to the public next week.

Some people said they did not need a public exhibition to remind them of a personal tragedy that they could not forget."

Sunday Morning News

I know, I know.  I'm supposed to be on hiatus.  But there were a few things that caught my eye this morning.

Xenophobic Chill Descends on Moscow (NYT)
'From the mo­ment that Rus­sia’s in­va­sion and an­nex­ation of Crimea cast a new, bit­ter chill over re­la­tions with the West, a sin­is­ter jingo­istic vibe has per­vad­ed this un­set­tled cap­i­tal — stirred up by state-con­trolled tele­vi­sion and Mr. Putin him­self.

“Some West­ern politi­cians are al­ready threat­en­ing us not just with sanc­tions but al­so the prospect of in­creas­ing­ly se­ri­ous prob­lems on the do­mes­tic front,” the pres­i­dent said in his speech an­nounc­ing plans to ab­sorb Crimea in­to the Russ­ian Fed­er­a­tion. “I would like to know what they have in mind ex­act­ly: ac­tion by a fifth col­umn, this dis­parate bunch of ‘na­tion­al trai­tors,’ or are they hop­ing to put us in a wors­en­ing so­cial and eco­nom­ic sit­u­a­tion so as to pro­voke pub­lic dis­con­tent?”'

Sunday News Clippings

Some of the stuff that caught my eye this morning.

When the Right to Bear Arms Includes the Mentally Ill (NY Times)
This article is horrifying.

"Last April, workers at Middlesex Hospital in Connecticut called the police to report that a psychiatric patient named Mark Russo had threatened to shoot his mother if officers tried to take the 18 rifles and shotguns he kept at her house. Mr. Russo, who was off his medication for paranoid schizophrenia, also talked about the recent elementary school massacre in Newtown and told a nurse that he “could take a chair and kill you or bash your head in between the eyes,” court records show...

Sunday Leisure Reading: Last Rants, Pleas, and Apologies

Here's the link:

NYTimes: From America’s Busiest Death Chamber, a Catalog of Last Rants, Pleas and Apologies 

Texas has the country's busiest death chamber, having put to death five hundred inmates since the Death Penalty was reinstated back in the 1980's.  In most cases, the appeals process takes decades, so the condemned have all had ample time to think about their crimes and their circumstances, and the state gives them a chance to speak before they die.  A court recorder takes down their words by hand, and then those words are published on the prison's official website.

That so-called Wall of Death has become a popular read.

I don't guess this story is anything more than a human interest piece, but it's easily the most fascinating thing I've read this week.  Most of the statements--at least the ones the Times focuses on--are simple apologies, as well they might be.  Any man with an ounce of humanity and ten years to think on what he's done seems likely to me to want to make some restitution in his last moments.  The rest are the ravings of madmen, the last drivel of the self-important, and probably at least a few last minutes pleas from the wrongly condemned.