On this week’s Naked Lunch podcast, hosts Phil Rosenthal and David Wild sit down for lunch with Jeff Ross.  As they say on the site, “Phil and David have both known Jeff Ross for many years, so they are at ease with the comedian known around the world as The Roastmaster General. Over sandwiches, Jeff retraces how a kid from a family of caterers from New Jersey ended up following in the footsteps of the ‘rock stars’ of stand up he loved and bringing new life to the art of Roast Comedy, as well as befriending many of the legends who set the stage for his modern success story, including Don Rickles, Milton Berle, Joan Rivers and Pat Cooper, who died the day this episode was recorded and is remembered here. Jeff discusses touring with friends like Dave Chappelle, Chris Rock and John Mayer, and shares great stories about Ray Romano, Eddie Vedder and, as is ‘Naked Lunch’ tradition, Bruce Springsteen.”

From the fine folks at The Dodo, this is a wonderful story about how it took a year for a woman to get a feral dog inside the family’s house and how things built from there. 

No, I didn't watch the "impeachment hearing" (sic) yesterday.  Nor do I intend to in any coming days.  It's just too galling and reprehensible what Republicans are doing.  After nine months of the GOP holding an investigation and finding quite literally nothing, to now hold a "hearing" as if oh, now they'll find new, actual evidence is...well, I'd say "shameful," but it's pretty clear that most congressional Republicans today have long since given up on the concept of shame.  To hold these "hearings" only serves one purpose, to muddy the waters without actual evidence against President Biden and try to protect Trump with his four indictments, in order to move their fascist agenda.

And all this with the government set to shut down in just two days!

It was Shakespearean in the breadth of its repugnant emptiness.  Though more on that at the end.  How unearthly awful was it?  One of the Republicans' own witness, attorney Jonathan Turley, testified that there wasn't enough evidence for an impeachment.  Another of the witnesses, Eileen O'Connor, "left out" that when she introduced into "evidence" an article she had written about how if you were Biden and did this, you'd go to jail, she was referring to Hunter Biden.  (When questioned about her omission, she said she left it out to save on her limited, allotted time.  I believe she saved herself one second.)  And their own third witness didn't support impeachment.  In fact, even Neil Cavuto of Fox (!) said that after having watched the hearing all day -- "I don't know what was achieved over these past 6+ hours." 

Reading social media was difficult, too, since you see so much extreme-right commentary thinking that actual evidence is being introduced against the President.  But sorry, "Hunter Biden" and "if" are not actual evidence about what Joe Biden, in fact, did illegal, let alone as a high crime and misdemeanor.

Even watching the news coverage has been a challenge, and I've avoided most of it.  But there is one bright spot -- highlights of scathing, sarcastic, furious response from Democrats on the committee.  Jamie Raskin, not shockingly, was brilliant in his opening statement as Ranking Member.  

He had probably my two favorite lines of the day.  The best, I think, was -- "Like flying monkeys on a mission for the Wicked Witch of the West, Trump’s followers in the House now carry his messages out to the world."  A close second was -- "If the Republicans had a smoking gun or even a dripping water pistol, they would be presenting it today but they’ve got nothing on Joe Biden.”

His full statement was wonderful, but here are two, particularly-impactful minutes that stood out for me.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was superb, as well, in how she took down a smarmy congressman from Florida for using Photoshopped material, and she was prepared for it and had the evidence to use. 

There were others, but I particularly like this from Democratic Rep. Jasmine Crockett from Texas.  It didn't get as much attention as the others, so I thought I'd post two minutes of it here.  She was on fire.  And she has one sarcastic line near the beginning that’s hilarious.  (About the number of times “If” and “Hunter” were used.)
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And all this with the government set to shut down in -- say it together now -- just two days!

It was all so Shakespearean.

It is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury signifying nothing.

 
I generally like the RawStory website.  They tend to have a good compilation of news stories, including summaries of stories from websites that have pay walls I couldn’t otherwise read.  I do have a few quibbles with the site, though.
 
One is that they have far too many typos and mistakes than a respectable new site should have.  To their credit, they have a link after every story for readers to send in any corrections they think are needed.  I’ve used this often – so often I’ve thought of requested staff status – and to their addition credit, they not only tend to respond quickly and make the corrections.
 
The other is that they much too often have headlines that have absolutely nothing to do with the story itself.  There have been many times I’ll see a headline that looks interesting and read the article – and then skim it again and again for the point mentioned in the headline, only to realize it’s not there.  In the early days, I’d read an article that same “again and again,” and then again and again and again.  Over time, though, I eventually glommed on to this “quirk” of the site, and it's helped me cut down my “agains.”
 
Every once in a while, not often, they’ll do something pretty egregious that truly bothers me.  And that was the case yesterday.  It was this headline –

​This is a treat.  It's the original Sweeney Todd and Mrs. Lovett -- Len Cariou and Angela Lansbury -- recreating a song from Sweeney Todd.  This stands out because, although there was a taped TV production of the show with Lansbury, it had George Hearn in the title role.  He was excellent (I believe he's who I saw with on when the show played in Los Angeles), it's special to see the two originals.

This comes from a 75th birthday celebration for Stephen Sondheim at the Hollywood Bowl in 2005 -- a production I was happily at.  And it was all wonderful.  My recollection is that they taped it for possible broadcast on PBS, but for whatever reason it was never aired.

This is the song "A Little Priest," which is when Mrs. Lovett explains to Sweeney her idea of what to do with the bodies he's killed in revenge.

(I have a fond memory of this number when I saw the stage production.  I'd taken a date, and as the song went on, she started sinking lower in her seat.  And kept singing lower.  And lower.  I whispered to her, asking what the problem was.  I said I'd told her the show was dark.  "But I didn't know it was about this," she whispered back.  But I told you it was dark, I whispered.  "But  I didn't know it was about this," whispered.  But I told you it was dark.  "But I didn't know it was about this."  And that kept going on a few more times as she kept sinking lower in her seat.  Ending with, of course, "But I didn't know it was about this."

​Well, just so  you know, it's about this --