Truest statement of the week

The CBC hasn’t improved any since that time. The annual conference host is the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation, which this year secured a sponsorship from Amazon, the corporation whose warehouse workers suffer injuries at double the rates of counterparts at other companies. Amazon’s low pay and working conditions churn out low income workers so rapidly that in many places their warehouses have run out of people to hire. The behemoth corporation fought tooth and nail against a successful Black led unionizing drive at one of their warehouses in New York.

As always the CBC conference was sponsored by corporate giants such as Amazon, Coca Cola, Pepsico, Delta airlines, Bank of America, fossil fuel corporations Dominion Energy, BP, Exxon Mobil, Conoco Phillips, and big pharma corporations such as Genentech, Johnson & Johnson, Ferring, and Bristol Meyers Squibb. It is no coincidence that Congressman Clyburn receives more campaign money from big pharma than any other member of the House of Representatives. As the House Whip he is unlikely to allow any legislation that his funders would not want to see realized.

Biden acted like the good white boss in his appearance, telling jokes about attending Howard University, bragging about appointing Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court and supporting Historically Black Colleges and Universities, “With the CBC, we invested an historic $5.8 billion dollars — that’s “B” with a — “B” — billion dollars…” He even told a story about the Voting Rights Act being passed when neither he nor CBC members seemed to be concerned about protecting it after SCOTUS made its most important provisions null and void. Biden bragged about Medicare negotiating drug prices but left out the fact that this won’t happen until 2026 and will apply to only ten drugs. Kingmaker Clyburn surely played a role in securing that outcome.

The Black political class is doing what it always does, serving as a prominent buffer class, and giving a pass to the democratic party. That is their most important function, not fighting for their constituents, but keeping their constituents in line by propping up Obama or Biden or any other democratic president while mouthing fake condemnation when republicans are in office.

-- Margaret Kimberley, "Congressional Black Caucus Continues Its Downward Spiral" (BLACK AGENDA REPORT).

A note to our readers

Hey -- 

Tuesday.

Let's thank all who participated this edition which includes Dallas and the following:


The Third Estate Sunday Review's Jim, Dona, Ty, Jess and Ava,
Rebecca of Sex and Politics and Screeds and Attitude,

Betty of Thomas Friedman Is a Great Man,
C.I. of The Common Ills and The Third Estate Sunday Review,
Kat of Kat's Korner (of The Common Ills),
Mike of Mikey Likes It!,
Elaine of Like Maria Said Paz),
Cedric of Cedric's Big Mix,
Ruth of Ruth's Report,
Wally of The Daily Jot,
Trina of Trina's Kitchen, 

Marcia of SICKOFITRDLZ,
Stan of Oh Boy It Never Ends,
Isaiah of The World Today Just Nuts,
and Ann of Ann's Mega Dub.

And what did we come up with?  

• Truest statement of the week
• Turkey murders again in Iraq
• TV: What they really think of the working class
• Roundtable
• Don't be a piece of Turley
• Book chat
• From The TESR Test Kitchen
• BROS
• Tweet of the week
• This edition's playlist

Peace,


-- Jim, Dona, Ty, Jess, Ava and C.I.

Turkey murders again in Iraq

From Monday's "Iraq snapshot:"

Monday, October 10, 2022.  A year later, the UN suddenly frets over Iraq -- and let's get honest about ourselves with regards to our lack of support for Will Lehman and the film BROS.

Last week, Tom O'Conner (NEWSWEEK) reported:

As U.S. officials roundly condemn the ongoing series of Iranian strikes against Kurdish rivals in northern Iraq, Washington has also expressed concern over a separate Turkish campaign against Kurdish forces in the same region.

[. . .]

"We have repeatedly expressed our concerns regarding Turkish operations in Iraq," a State Department spokesperson told Newsweek, "urging that the government of Turkey coordinate more closely with Iraqi authorities on cross-border military operations against terrorist targets."

Concerns.  Concerns?  Yeah.

According to RUDAW, the government of Turkey is admitting to the murder:

The Turkish ambassador to Iraq said Sunday that members of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and associates of the group are Ankara’s targets in response to the recent assassination of a women’s rights activist in the city of Sulaimani.

Rights activist Nagihan Akarsel, who had ideological ties to the PKK, was shot multiple times and killed in Sulaimani on Tuesday by assailants in the city’s Bakhtiyari neighborhood. Her ties to the Kurdish armed group quickly led droves of people on social media to blame Turkey for her death.

“Those who are affiliated with the PKK are indeed our targets,” Turkish Ambassador Ali Riza Guney said in response to a question from Rudaw’s Payam Sarbast during a press conference in the Kurdistan Region’s capital of Erbil.

It can't be used to promote war (the way a death in Iran has been), so Nagihan's murder doesn't get US press attention.   NEWS.AM notes:

Hakan Fidan, head of Turkey's National Intelligence Agency (MİT), met with the Iraqi Turkmen Front earlier this week, raising questions from Iraqi opposition politicians over his visit in mid-September, Ahval writes.

Fidan's visit to the capital of Iraq's semi-autonomous Kurdistan Region, Erbil, on Oct. 4 coincided with the killing of Kurdish figure Nagihan Akarsel in a shootout in Sulaymaniyah province, the Kurdish website Medya News reported.

The Iraqi coordination structure, an opposition body made up of Shiite parties, has called for an investigation, and a member of the structure, Turki Sedan, said the visit was organized without notifying Iraq's central government. 

TV: What they really think of the working class

Director Martin Ritt  died in 1990.  And it's hard to forget that when you watch any offering pretending to deal with the working class today.

Take SPRUNG -- or maybe take it off AMAZON?

SPRUNG is the latest offering from Greg Garcia.  Some reviewers have been very, very kind to it. Overly kind, in fact.  Maybe they're hoping that some of the smugness involved will tone down in future seasons?  Garcia's again mocking the working class as he did in RAISING HOPE -- portraying them all as idiots  is what each episode of SPRUNG telegraphs.

The series begins with Jack getting out of prison at the same time as Rooster.  Jack's family wants nothing to do with him so he ends up living with Rooster at Rooster's mother's home.  Mom Barb explains that he  and Gloria (another prisoner) can only stay if they take part in the criminal escapades she intends to carry out to afford basic necessities such as toilet paper.

Each episode exists to remind you of just how stupid these working class people are.

1973's STEELYARD BLUES dealt with ex-cons and others carrying out crimes but the characters played by Donald Sutherland, Jane Fonda, Peter Boyle and others were brought to life, not made into a mockery.

My how times have changed.  

The cast of SPRUNG  is strong.  But they can only do so much with the bad scripts they're provided.  We hope Martha Plimpton manages to find the humanity in Barb, for example.  She's an incredibly talented actress and she eventually brought so many levels to Virginia Chance on RAISING HOPE.   Garret Dillahunt brough levels to Burt Chance as well but we're not hopeful that will happen with  Jack, his new character on SPRUNG, because the character isn't written for levels.

Garcia's churned out another tale of scorn and laughter at the expense of the working class who, unlike him, have not attended college and are stupid people who believe stupid things and say even more stupid things.

RAISING HOPE took time to develop.  SPRUNG doesn't have that luxury.  All four seasons of RH were 22 episodes long.  AMAZON's just ordering nine episodes for season one of SPRUNG and episode nine is just as insulting as episode one was.

ROSEANNE was a show about the working class.  In all of  its original run and in the one season reboot, the characters were not the joke.  In fact, Roseanne Barr had knock-down-drag-out fights with Matt Williams during the start of the show as he offered one insulting take on the working class after another -- including wanting a joke about how someone had pissed into Roseanne's kitchen sink leading Roseanne to ask what kind of a family he grew up in?

Long before Sara Gilbert stole them, Roseanne created these characters and she gave them heart and she gave them purpose and she gave them minds.  Comparing those characters to the ones in SPRUNG left us scratching our heads over Martha's participation in this garbage -- it's not funny and it is so insulting to the working class.  

If THE CONNERS hadn't ripped off Roseanne's creations, Darlene wouldn't be a college graduate.  That's not what happens in Greg Garcia's sitcoms.  They're dumb and stupid, the working class, and they're a bunch of lazy crooks.  If Ronald Reagan were alive today, he could start a bidding war at all the networks by proposing a sitcom entitled WELFARE QUEENS -- because that is how the networks see the working class.

These content creators sneer at the working class while being smug about their own greatness.

We realized that while watching B.J. Novak's hideous film VENGEANCE 

VENGEANCE bombed.  Those attacking BROS need to take a gander at VENGENACE's low box office.  Novak's film deserved to fail.

Back in the 30s, Hollywood could have made VENGENACE and made it better.  They could have still mocked the characters -- the way BJ does -- but they wouldn't have glorified the lead character.   Ben Hecht, for example, wouldn't have made the lead character an idealistic sweetheart of a guy.  The journalist Novak plays would have, instead, been an example of an unethical journalist gladly prepared to do whatever to get the story.  Those are the characters of THE FRONT PAGE, HIS GIRL FRIDAY, etc.

But they are not the character BJ portrays.

And as if he wasn't soft and fluffy enough, leave it to THE NEW YORK TIMES to say the film starts with the death of a young woman that Novak's character was "dating."  He  didn't date her -- he f**ked her.  She was one of many.  She's still in his phone as a booty call.

She's dead.  He answers his phone to take her call when he's in bed with another pick up and it's her brother Ty explaining that she's dead and when her funeral is.  He thinks Novak was the love of his sister's life.

Novak ends up going to Texas for the funeral because he's too worried about a stranger's reaction to learning that he pumped and dumped the dead woman.  Once there, he marvels over the stupidity of her family.  And he finds a story in it for a podcast.  Then he finds another story, then another, things keep shifting regarding how the dead woman died.  

And then, because locals are so damn stupid, he 'saves' the day by killing the man responsible for the woman's death.   This self-important 'journalist' would rather cover up the truth -- and murder a person -- than let the truth come out because he doesn't believe the truth can stand up to spin.

It's an embarrassing movie and it never should have been filmed.  If it couldn't progress with its characterization, it should have been stranded permanently in development hell.

But the script was shot and the film came out and critics who seem to think they're reasonable people rushed to embrace the mockery of the working class and to embrace the message of the film -- that truth will lose out so do a DEATH WISH by murdering someone instead of calling the cops to have them arrested.

England has an open class system and their artists  comment on that.  In the US, we pretend there's not a class system but, more and more, not only are various creative types commenting on it, they're endorsing it.

Roundtable

Jim: It's roundtable time. Remember our e-mail address is thethirdestatesundayreview@yahoo.com but you can also use common_ills@yahoo.com and, in fact, should this week Participating in our roundtable are  The Third Estate Sunday Review's Dona, Ty, Jess, Ava, and me, Jim; Rebecca of Sex and Politics and Screeds and Attitude; Betty of Thomas Friedman Is a Great Man; C.I. of The Common Ills and The Third Estate Sunday Review; Kat of Kat's Korner (of The Common Ills); Cedric of Cedric's Big Mix; Mike of Mikey Likes It!; Elaine of Like Maria Said Paz); Ruth of Ruth's Report; Trina of Trina's Kitchen; Wally of The Daily Jot; Marcia of SICKOFITRDLZ; Stan of Oh Boy It Never Ends; Isaiah of The World Today Just Nuts and Ann of Ann's Mega Dub. Betty's kids did the illustration. You are reading a rush transcript.

Jim (Con't): The Congressional mid-terms are around the corner --

Ava: Tuesday, November 8th.

Jim (Con't): Thank you.  Who, if anyone, is excited?  And I've got dead silence.  Why?

Cedric: I canvass for the Democratic Party every election.  Not this go round.  I have no reason to.  I asked what we were doing -- message wise -- to turn out voters?  Nothing really.  People are suffering with inflation and you want me to go to their homes and offer them nothing?  I'm not bothering people.  It would be one thing if the party had a plan -- "Help us keep control of the House and we will pass legislation for stimulus checks," for example.  But they have no plan.  

Trina: I don't think DC gets how badly people in this country are hurting.  Or that Ukraine is not part of this country.

Marcia: Way too much money has gone to Ukraine to support a racist government.  I hope all those screaming their support for Ukraine grasp that there will be a reckoning.  We are not going to, five years from now, be kind about the idiots who gave billions of our tax dollars to racists who are so racist that the Peace Corps had to warn their volunteers.

Ann: Exactly.

Jim: At the end of last week, Joe Biden was talking Armageddon -- and I don't mean the Ben Affleck and Liv Tyler film.  

Kat (singing): "I could stay awake just to hear you breathing . . .  Watch your smile while you are sleeping . . . While you're far away and dreaming."

Jim: That's Kat offering her version of Aerosmith's "I Don't Want To Miss A Thing."

Ty: From the film ARMAGEDDON.

Jim: Yes, from that film.  But Joe was talking about a real life Armageddon.

Ruth: And acting as if this just developed and as though he had nothing to do with it.

Elaine: When he has led the world to this point.  JFK didn't act surprised by the Cuban Missile Crisis.  He took ownership of it.  He was something like 45 years old and he took ownership.  Joe Biden turns 80 next month and he can't take ownership.  

Trina: We have no leaders anymore -- just people who shuffle the blame.

Cedric: And that reality is another issue with the party and how they're not giving people anything to vote for.

Jim: What's one thing the Democratic Party should do immediately?

Mike: Retire the old folk.  Joe's too old to run for re-election.  Make the announcement.  Nancy Pelosi, Dianne Feinstein, Angus King, Ben Cardin, Mitch McConnell.  They need to get out of the Congress.  It's embarrassing.  We need mandatory retirement.

Ruth: And we need that for the Supreme Court as well.

Rebecca: That or term limits.  This can no longer be a lifetime appointment.  

Betty: I looked it up.  When the Constitution was written, the average life expectancy was 34 years old -- actually 34 and a 1/2.  Now?  78.79 years.  This far exceeds what anyone expected.  The Supreme Court is illegitimate and it doesn't represent the American people.  It's 2022.   Clarry Thomas is 74 years old, he needs to go.  We need people with experience, yes, but we also need mental fitness.  Mental fitness does not mean you haven't lost all of your faculties, it does mean you are able to think quickly and well.  I say a cap of 60 is required for the Supreme Court.  When you hit 60, get off the court.

Jim:  And those who would say that's too young?

Betty: Show me where in the Constitution it guarantees you the right to sit on the Supreme Court.   It doesn't.  It is a privilege and the privilege has been abused so it's time to rectify the matter.

Jim: You called it illegitimate.

Betty: The current Court is illegitimate.  It's made up of people who swore to uphold precedent.  But DOBBS tossed aside precedent.  It was an illegitimate decision from an illegitimate court.  And if that makes Jonathan Turley butt hurt, I don't give a damn.

Jess: Amen to that. 

Isaiah: They are woefully out of touch and they need to retire.  I think we need to do something like a ten year limit for Supreme Court justices.  These people are already out of touch and they just get more so the longer they remain on the bench.  DOBBS revealed that they are hacks.  They're not interested in the rule of law.  Get the hacks gone and let's have a faster turn over.

Jim: I can understand that.  What I don't understand is why they're not pushing to impeach Clarry Thomas?  That would be a winning, turn out the vote move.

Betty: Again, I looked it up before we got ready for the roundtable.  The House impeached Justice Samuel Chase in 1804.

Jim: Some would argue that if we start impeaching now, then it will be endless.

C.I.: Can I jump in?

Jim: Sure.

C.I.: I was asking Ava.

Jim: Ava and C.I. take notes for these transcript pieces. Ava's nodding yes.  The floor is yours.

C.I.: First off, one impeachment, in 1804, did not result in a slew of impeachments.  Second, impeaching Clarry Thomas is not impeaching the whole Court.  I think January 6th has been inflated but the Democratic Party members in Congress do not.  Okay then.  At the very least, it was an abuse of power for him not to recuse himself on matters relating to January 6th.  The committee has now heard from his wife, she was a part of those actions and he should have excused himself.  Strike one.  Strike two, we know he lied in Hill-Thomas.  If you lied in your confirmation hearing and you're found out?  Guess what: Impeach.  You misled everyone.  Anita Hill can offer testimony again and we can also hear from the women that Joe Biden refused to take testimony from.  Strike three?  You tossed aside precedent with DOBBS.  And we're still not done.  Not only did he toss aside precedent, he revealed that he planned to do it again with regards to marriage equality and birth control.  In a functioning world, having revealed his bias, he would now not be allowed to hear on those issues.  But, as evidenced by his failure to recuse himself from cases involving his wife Virginia Thomas, he has no ethics.  A strong case can be made for his removal and should be made. He harassed Anita Hill in the workplace.  That is no longer a question mark and he is unfit to serve on the Court as a result.

Jim: But retaliation --

C.I.: This is not remove all the conservative justices.  This is a case where one reeks of corruption and needs to be removed.  It would actually strengthen the Court because the American people would see that even members of the Court are held accountable.  And, again, this would not then move to target the majority on DOBBS.  There's a world of difference between them and Clarry Thomas.  

Jess: I agree.  And someone needs to be used to show that there is accountability.  The Court is now illegitimate.  A move like this could restore legitimacy.  

Jim: Illegitimate?

Jess: Yes.  When you toss aside past rulings because you didn't like them and just construct a 'verdict' out of thin air, you're illegitimate.  The Supreme Court is illegitimate.  

Dona: If the Democratic Party wanted to hold both houses of Congress, the easiest way in the world would be to announce that if they control both houses in 2023, they will move to impeach and remove Thomas.

Cedric: That's something I could go door to door and sell people on.  Even with the lousy economy, that is something tangible and something that they would see as a benefit for their lives.  

Jim: Okay.  Anyone concerned with the debt ceiling?  That's a topic that yet again is being raised on the Sunday chat & chews.

Wally:  I'm not worried about it.  If anyone is, I suggest the argument is that if we care about the debt ceiling, we don't give 80 or so billion to Ukraine.   I'm serious.  It's appalling that the federal government has done nothing for American citizens but Joe Biden's going to give $100 billion -- before this is all over -- to Ukraine.

Jim: Okay.  Kat and Stan we need you to weigh in.  Ty's got an e-mail that came in today.  Ty?

Ty: Jennifer-Ruth Green is running in Indiana's first Congressional district.  She's a Republican, she's African-American.  And she's the topic of George's e-mail because POLITICO outed her.  She was assaulted while serving in the US military and POLITICO contacted her before publishing.  She -- quote -- begged them not to publish the details.  They ignored her request and published.  George wants some sort of comment.

Kat: Me?  Okay.  POLITICO is in the wrong.  It was not their job to expose her.  She is a survivor.  Her being attacked is no one's business unless she decides to make it public.  Had she been the attacker, that's different.  In that case, she would have been a criminal committing a criminal act.  She is not a criminal.  And POLITICO should be ashamed of themselves.  It is neither their job nor their role to tell the world that Jennifer-Ruth Green was assaulted.  I will gladly stand with her and say this was wrong.  I don't care what political party she belongs to.  This was wrong.

Stan: I second everything Kat said.  I'll add something else, as an African-American male, I find it hard to believe that POLITICO would have done this to a woman belonging to the Democratic Party.  They need to be called out for what they did.  This is not a scoop, it is not anything that needs to be attached to Jennifer-Ruth Green -- I got her name right? --

Ty: You did.

Stan (Con't): It is not anything that needs to be attached to Jennifer-Ruth Green unless she decides to make it public.  This is awful.  This is like when Sally Field's awful character in ABSENCE OF MALICE exposes Melinda Dillon's abortion.  It was not Sally's character's business in the movie and it is not POLITICO's business in this real life example.  It's outrageous. 

Jim: Okay.  On that note, we'll need to wrap up.  This is a rush transcript.  Best e-mail to contact at us is common_ills@yahoo.com.  

 

 

 

Don't be a piece of Turley

Yonat Shimron (WASHINGTON POST) reports:

Three Jewish women in Kentucky have filed a lawsuit arguing that a set of state laws that ban most abortions violate their religious rights.

The lawsuit, filed in Jefferson Circuit Court in Louisville, is the third such suit brought by Jewish organizations or individuals since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the right to an abortion in its ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization. In all three suits — the first in Florida, the second in Indiana — the Jewish plaintiffs claim their state is infringing on their religious freedom by imposing a Christian understanding of when life begins.

Under current Kentucky laws, life begins at the moment of fertilization. Another law bans abortion after six weeks when cardiac activity is first detected.

That's a good way of reminding you that religious freedom applies to all, not just one group.  Freedom of speech applies to all as well.  

Religion and freedom of speech are not the same thing -- despite what Jonathan Turley now thinks.  He was once one of the leading legal minds.  What happened?  We'll blame it on Mad Cow   Symptoms of Mad Cow in humans include:

• loss of intellect and memory.
• changes in personality.
• loss of balance and co-ordination.
• slurred speech.
• vision problems and blindness.
• abnormal jerking movements.
• progressive loss of brain function and mobility.

We think Turley's clearly suffered from loss of intellect and memory, and his personality has changed, while his brain functions seem off.  

That would explain his defense of Colorado's Lorie Smith and his ignorant insisting that Lorie's free speech rights are being harmed.

Who is Lorie Smith?

A deeply pathetic and ugly individual.

As a sinner, Lorie feels it is wrong for her -- an apparent practicing illiterate -- to design websites for people who support marriage equality.  As a website designer -- and all around incompetent fool -- she says it is a violation of her free speech rights.

It's hard for us to see it as such because her lips are always flapping.  She designs websites.  She advertises for customers but she thinks she can refuse customers that she does not approve of. 

If you think about it, you may remember Lorie's ancestors and their religious troubles.  Lorie's ancestors didn't believe that African-Americans had equal rights either.  So they refused to, for example, let them sit at the counter in Woolworth cafes.  

If only Jonathan Turley could have been around back then to defend Lorie's ancestors -- we could have known he was full of garbage decades ago.

Do you know that there are religions that believe that a woman should not work.

That's their free speech.  And under Lorie and Jonathan's understanding of the 'law,' those people would be able to insist 'free speech' allows them not to have to hire women.

Lorie is entitled to all the crackpot, conspiracy theories her tiny mind can embrace.  What she's not entitled to is getting away with discrimination or pretending that her hatred is excused under the guise of 'free speech.'

Support equality and fairness.  In other words, don't be a piece of Turley.

---------------------

Illustration is Isaiah's THE WORLD TODAY JUST NUTS "Lorie Smith's Special Rights." 

Book chat

Dona: Doing a book chat.  Marcia's "David Spiller's Mabel Mercer book" posted last week.  David Spiller's BLAME IT ON MY YOUTH: A STORY ABOUT MABEL MERCER is a book she read via KINDLE UNLIMITED.  Marcia, Mabel Mercer.

Marcia: Mabel Mercer was a cabaret singer and one thing I've discovered since my book review is that there is The Mabel Mercer Foundation which was started in 1985.  The foundation notes:

Mabel Mercer -- arguably the supreme cabaret artist of the twentieth century — was born in England and performed in the United States, Britain, and across Europe to a large fan base including such big names as Frank Sinatra and Ernest Hemingway. She was a featured performer at Chez Bricktop in Paris, performed Le Ruban Bleu, Tony’s, the RSVP, the Carlyle, and the St Regis Hotel in New York, and eventually hosted her own room, the Byline club.
Mabel Mercer was born in 1900 in Staffordshire, England. After leaving a Manchester convent school at the age of fourteen, Miss Mercer joined her aunt in a vaudeville and music hall tour of Britain and the Continent. Her career quickly blossomed, and by the 1930s she was the toast of Paris, introducing her inimitable style of singing to adoring audiences and beguiling such steadfast admirers as Ernest Hemingway, Gertrude Stein, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Cole Porter, and the Prince of Wales.
The outbreak of World War II brought her to America where she began a series of engagements at New York’s finest supper clubs. Among the rooms she made her own were Le Ruban Bleu (a six-month stay), Tony’s (seven years), the RSVP (two years), and five years in her own Byline Club. Miss Mercer solidified her career with engagements at the Carlyle and St. Regis Hotels, and she enjoyed brilliant concert triumphs and record-breaking appearances across the United States.
The brilliance of Miss Mercer’s recordings have made both original albums and numerous reissues highly prized collectors’ items. To honor her 75th birthday in 1975, Atlantic Records assembled four classic early LPs and reissued them in a boxed set. In recognition of her life’s achievement, Stereo Review Magazine presented Miss Mercer with its first Award of Merit for “outstanding contributions to the quality of American musical life.” In 1984, the Award of Merit was officially renamed the Mabel Mercer Award. After an absence of 41 years, Miss Mercer made her long-awaited return to England on July 4, 1977, accompanied by her long-time friend and publicist, Donald Smith. So great was the public acclaim on her return to London that the BBC filmed three evenings of extraordinary footage of Miss Mercer’s performances. The BBC later devoted an entire week to a series of late-night half-hour television broadcasts—an honor never before bestowed upon an entertainer. In 1978, Miss Mercer’s new album, Midnight at Mabel Mercer’s, was hailed by Stereo Review as one of the best recordings of the past twenty years. To celebrate her 78th birthday later that year, Miss Mercer played a sold-out engagement at San Francisco’s Club Mocambo to enthusiastic audiences. Mabel Mercer was honored in January 1981 by the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York with An American Cabaret, the first musical celebration of its kind in the museum’s history. Created and produced by Donald Smith, the evening was dedicated to the artistry of Mabel Mercer. Miss Mercer next appeared as the first guest on Eileen Farrell’s new National Public Radio program featuring great popular singers, a program that was repeated in June 1992 at the Kool Jazz Festival.
In 1983, President Ronald Reagan presented Mabel Mercer with the Presidential Medal of Freedom at a White House ceremony. In bestowing America’s highest civilian honor upon Miss Mercer, the president described her as “a singer’s singer” and “a living testament to the artfulness of the American song.” Among Miss Mercer’s many other honors are two honorary Doctor of Music degrees from Boston’s Berklee College of Music and the New England Conservatory of Music. Mabel Mercer died on April 20, 1984. On Miss Mercer’s birthday the following year, February 3, 1985, The Mabel Mercer Foundation was formally established.

 

Dona: And what's the album you ended up getting?

Marica: Mabel Mercer and Bobby Short At Town Hall is the album I ended up getting.  I got it on vinyl.  It's a double disc.  They -- Mabel and Bobby -- did another At Town Hall album a little later but I have a copy of the first one.  She truly is an amazing singer.  Or was.  A real talent.

Dona: The book you read was basically a novel.

Marcia: Right.  There's not a lot known about her life.  She didn't share a great deal.  So the author took what was known and got creative.

Dona: But you didn't find that out until the end of the book.

Marcia: I did not.  And I'm glad.  It made me appreciate the life she lived even more.  I would strongly recommend this book.  Spiller took basic events and made Mabel come alive on the page.  

Dona: Alright, thank you so much.

From The TESR Test Kitchen

 

In Roman Polanski's ROSEMARY'S BABY, Guy tries to get Rosemary to eat a chocolate mousse that Minnie has made.  It has a chalky under-taste, insists Rosemary who refuses to eat it and dumps it into her napkin.  

We were reminded of that while sampling  Enlightened Mini Keto Chocolate Cheesecake.  The product comes two to a box.  Two individual servings, we may need to clarify.  They have a dollop of something white on top (whipped cream, the label insists, though it didn't taste like that to us) and they have an almond crust. 

There are worse things you could eat, we told ourselves.  And, indeed, there are.

If you're watching carbs, this isn't the perfect dessert but it might be the best you can hope for in 2022.

But there is a chalky under taste.  We're not saying that it will leave you pregnant with Satan's baby the way Minnie's mousse did.  We're just saying that they could have worked a little more on the taste of this item.