Donald Hall, the 2006-2007 poet laureate, has died at age 89, his daughter, Philippa Smith, confirmed on Sunday. His poetry won him a National Book Critics Circle prize, membership in the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and a National Medal of Arts. He published more than 50 books, including everything from poetry to drama to memoirs. An avid baseball fan, he wrote odes to the Boston Red Sox and a book on pitcher Dock Ellis. He also contributed to Sports Illustrated, and wrote a prize-winning children's book, Ox-Cart Man. "He's really quite amazingly versatile," said Hall's long-time friend Mike Pride, editor emeritus of the Concord Monitor newspaper and a retired administrator of the Pulitzer Prizes.
Source: The Associated Press Drummer Vinnie Paul, a founding member of the metal band Pantera, has died, the band's Facebook page announced late Friday. He was 54. "Paul is best known for his work as the drummer in the bands Pantera and Hellyeah," the brief statement said. "No further details are available at this time. The family requests you please respect their privacy during this time." Paul cofounded Pantera with his brother, known as Dimebag Darrell, and vocalist Terry Glaze in 1981, and their work proved widely influential for heavy music in the following decades. The Texas-based group split in 2003.
Source: Rolling Stone, CNN The European Union on Friday imposed tariffs on $3.3 billion worth of U.S. imports in retaliation for President Trump's levies on steel and aluminum. The EU tariffs, most of them set at 25 percent, apply to such products as bourbon, orange juice, peanut butter, and motorcycles. The move was designed in part to "make noise" by targeting politically important states like Kentucky, Florida, and Wisconsin, EU trade commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom said. The EU implemented the tariffs a week earlier than expected in what was widely interpreted as a show of strength. India and Turkey are also retaliating against Trump's tariffs, as is China. By July 6, $75 billion in U.S. products will be hit by new foreign tariffs, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce estimates. [The Associated Press, The New York Times]
Some 1,768 immigrant families were separated by U.S. officials in the 17-month period from October 2016 to February 2018, Reuters reports, a span that includes time from both the Obama and Trump administrations. Since February, the pace of separations has increased thanks to the Trump administration's new "zero tolerance" policy, but Reuters' source, an unnamed government official, could not provide more recent statistics. Congressional testimony from a U.S. Customs and Border Protection official in May indicated 638 parents were separated from 658 children in a two-week span last month. Once separated, children are often moved to shelters hundreds of miles away from their families.
Source: Reuters, NPR Editor's Note: Mainly caught my attention by the headline's use of "nearly 1800". Actor Jerry Maren, the last surviving munchkin from the 1939 classic Wizard of Oz, died last month in San Diego, California, a family member confirmed Wednesday. He was 98. Maren, who stood 4 feet 3 inches, played one of the members of the Lollipop Guild in the film. In his big scene, he handed Judy Garland's Dorothy a giant lollipop and welcomed her to Munchkin Land. He appeared in scores of films, TV shows, and commercials over a seven-decade entertainment career, but told The Independent in 2009 that working on the movie as one of the 124 munchkins was "the greatest fun I ever had in my life." Garland, he said, was "an angel." In 2007, he and the other munchkins were honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Source: BBC News, Los Angeles Times Fashion designer Kate Spade was found dead in her Manhattan apartment Tuesday, hanged with a scarf in her bedroom in an apparent suicide. She was 55. Police said Spade left a note but they would not discuss what it said. TMZ reported that the note was addressed to her 13-year-old daughter. Spade's handbags became a symbol of status and good taste when she emerged in the 1990s, and became the foundation of an accessories empire. "Kate Spade had an enviable gift for understanding exactly what women the world over wanted to carry," said Anna Wintour, the editor-in-chief of Vogue and artistic director of Condé Nast. "There was a moment when you couldn't walk a block in New York without seeing one of her bags, which were just like her; colorful and unpretentious."
Source: The New York Times, TMZ Hamas said Wednesday it had agreed to a cease-fire with Israel in Gaza to halt the biggest outburst of violence between them since 2014. Israel's military struck dozens of militant targets in the Hamas-ruled Palestinian territory overnight as militants fired rockets at communities in southern Israel early Wednesday, before a tense calm took hold. Tensions have been high along the border in recent weeks as Palestinians protested an Israeli-Egyptian blockade imposed after Hamas took power in 2007. Israeli fire, mostly during the Hamas-led protests, killed more than 110 Palestinians. "If it will be quiet, we will respond with quiet," Israeli Cabinet minister Arieh Deri said.
Source: The Associated Press Philip Roth, one of the most prolific and celebrated writers of his generation, died Tuesday. He was 85. A close friend, Judith Thurman, said the cause of death was congestive heart failure. Between his first collection of stories, Goodbye, Columbus (1959), and his final novel, 2010's Nemesis, Roth won two National Book Awards, a Pulitzer Prize, the Man Booker International Prize, two National Book Critics Circle awards, and three PEN/Faulkner Awards. He is best known for 1969's Portnoy's Complaint, and his literary explorations of sex and life as an American, a Jew, and a man. Many of his protagonists were thinly veiled versions of himself — Nathan Zuckerman, Alexander Portnoy, David Kepesh — and his work explored and blurred the lines between truth and fiction.
Source: The New York Times Editor's Note: I know so many of you were shocked to hear Philip Roth had died. Seriously though, I feel like they are truly looking for certain numbers to publish. Just so you know, and to be clear, I get most of these stories from Ten Things You Need to Know Today, from The Week magazine. So, according to them, we need to know this. See also: futile.work/ten At least 11 people were killed and dozens more injured when suicide bombers targeted three churches in between services in Surabaya, Indonesia, on Sunday. The attacks have been claimed by the Islamic State and were perpetrated by members of a single family, the mother and two daughters at one church and the father with three sons at the other two. At least three of the attackers were killed; early reports do not make clear the status of the other four or the ages of the children involved. The explosions were timed within one minute of each other at different locations. This is the deadliest terror attack in Indonesia since 2005.
Source: The Wall Street Journal, BBC News Armed bandits killed at least 45 people in an attack on a remote village in northwest Nigeria, authorities said Sunday. The dead included women and children. The government deployed 200 police officers to the area in response to the attack. Bandits frequently target villagers to steal their cattle and other property. President Muhammadu Buhari has approved dispatching a permanent battalion of the Nigerian Army to the area to deal with the problem. The local government has been lobbying the national government for help dealing with the attacks.
Source: CNN, The Associated Press |
About This BlogCertain numerology has a strong connection with occultism. Various numbers from time-to-time appear in news articles, and one has to wonder if there isn't some occult significance behind this story. Archives
May 2021
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