More Lost History Found in the Theater

From the NY Times:

For almost three decades beginning in 1936, many African-American travelers relied on a booklet to help them decide where they could comfortably eat, sleep, buy gas, find a tailor or beauty parlor, shop on a honeymoon to Niagara Falls, or go out at night. In addition to hotels, the guide often pointed them to “tourist homes,” privates residences made available by their African-American owners. Mr. Ramsey has written a play, “The Green Book,” about just such a home, in Jefferson City, Mo., where a black military officer and his wife and a Jewish Holocaust survivor all spend the night just before W. E. B. DuBois is scheduled to deliver a speech in town. The play will inaugurate a staged-reading series on Sept. 15 at the restored Lincoln Theater in Washington, itself once a fixture of that city’s “black Broadway” on U Street.

The Kansas Kochtopus

A long investigative piece about the tea-party funders, the Koch brothers of Koch Industries (headquartered in Wichita, KS) is in the New Yorker: The report showed that, from 2005 to 2008, the Kochs vastly outdid ExxonMobil in giving money to organizations fighting legislation related to climate change, underwriting a huge network of foundations, think tanks, and political front groups. Indeed, the brothers have funded opposition campaigns against so many Obama Administration policies—from health-care reform to the economic-stimulus program—that, in political circles, their ideological network is known as the Kochtopus.

Oh, and David H. Koch is a big-time philanthropist and arts enthusiast.

One Man's Garbage

From the London Guardian:

Bids are also being invited for Lennon's toilet from Tittenhurst Park, his Berkshire home between 1969 and 1972.

Lennon told a builder, John Hancock, to keep the porcelain lavatory and "use it as a plant pot" after he had installed a new one. It was stored in a shed at Hancock's home for 40 years until he died recently. The toilet is estimated to fetch £750 to £1,000.

The auction organiser, Stephen Bailey, said: "The toilet might be worth something, and it might not, but it is certainly one of the more unusual items we've sold."

Fighting for the Word

Author Stacy Schiff and NY Times columnist discuss Sarah Palin, Grizzlies and Feminism:

The issue is no longer first-rate intellect, or first-rate temperament, but first-rate opportunity. Which is where the Mama Grizzly business really falls down. An actual grizzly mom is a single mom. She lends a whole new definition to full-time homemaker. If Dad shows up it’s probably to eat the kids. What Mama Grizzly wouldn’t believe in school lunches, health insurance and quality childcare? Who’s going to look after the kids while she’s off hunting? It’s really, really clever to put this powerful vocabulary — pit bulls and grizzlies — in the service of disempowering people. Kind of like death panels in reverse.

When thinking about whether or not Sarah Palin is a feminist, my answer is "no." And I'm irritated that I might have to explain that.