The Wednesday Curator – 11/18/2015

November 17, 2015

The Curator will not be sharing any pieces concerning Friday in Paris, or related matters. Look for a long essay, over the weekend, about the broad issue.

I know many people believe MRW is a Leftie site, committed to lots of bad stuff. (Truly, “committed to lots of bad stuff” is kind, compared with what some say about me and my site, To. My. Face.) Anyway, and in support of Slate—another site that many challenge for its general left of center POV—I offer you Phil Plait’s post, GOP Senators and Representatives Band Together to Combat Climate Change and Its Denial. Mr. Plait calls out Rs who are sensible about science. No, I don’t support Senator Kelly Ayotte (R-N.H.) because she has a brain in her head and a bit of intellectual honesty, but she and the several others mentioned by Mr. Plait deserve credit for being “of the 21st Century.”*

In the last few weeks the Curator offered up Parts I and II of Barack Obama, interviewer, interviewing Marilynne Robinson. Now we have POTUS on the other side, talking with a fellow named Bill Simmons—the web seems to think the Curator should know who this fellow, Simmons, is—in President Obama and Bill Simmons: The GQ Interview.

Will the “Tobacco Strategy” Work Against Big Oil? by Lincoln Caplan for the New Yorker posits the notion that Racketeering Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO), used to take down Big Tobacco, may work against Big Oil. Mr. Caplan is a fine writer, and this is a piece worth reading. The “controversy” about climate change is, truly, a plan which Exxon and its fellow travelers concocted in furtherance of selling more oil. Because, for all of the Sunday news show glossy ads, oil companies make more money when they sell more gasoline.

I heard Hannah Rosin on National Political Radio Tuesday night. Then I came home and read The Silicon Valley Suicides, written for The Atlantic. Not a story which you’ll read easily, but a story you need to read, whether you’re a young parent mapping out how you want your children’s lives to be, a mom or dad working on the whole college thing with your kid, or a grandparent wrestling with “I did it this way” and “I know the times have changed.” Simple message? We are not machines, placed on this Earth to meet the expectations of others!

Well, gee, did anyone see San Diego? How do I top that post for food pics and reporting? We have ways. Really. Here’s Bon Appétit, with its America’s Best New Restaurants 2015. I have been to none of the 10, but I expect reports if any readers have, and they’re on my traveling bucket list.

The Curator does like his adult beverages. And he’s fond of New Mexico, in kind of a “they’re cool, sort of in their one way” way. So I’ve been watching Billy Crews Dining Room for years. It’s had Wine Spectator’s Grand Award of Excellence—top rating—since 1986, and while it gets some so-so Internet ratings, I’ll take my chances with the Prions for one night, or maybe just eat seafood. If any MRW readers are interested in a weekend trip, contact me. In the meantime, here’s a sacrificed cow, with minimal accoutrements:

ls

*I have mentioned on many occasions my many friendships with sane people on the right. Truth be told, the environment is the issue on which we come together most readily. I think it relates to the fact that no one really wants really, really hot temperatures, dirty air, dirty water, etc. It’s a team thing with too many people: Libs are really Pinko-Commies, we believe in Bidness, and never the twain shall meet!

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