THE BEST OF THE U.S. AND INTERNATIONAL MEDIA The faces of 2017
FINAL ART TK
DECEMBER 22/DECEMBER 29, 2017 VOLUME 17 ISSUE 853-854
ALL YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT EVERYTHING THAT MATTERS WWW.THEWEEK.COM
01 cover.indd 1 12/13/17 6:41 PM THE BEST OF THE U.S. AND INTERNATIONAL MEDIA The faces of 2017
FINAL ART TK
DECEMBER 22/DECEMBER 29, 2017 VOLUME 17 ISSUE 853-854
ALL YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT EVERYTHING THAT MATTERS WWW.THEWEEK.COM
01 cover.indd 1 12/13/17 5:54 PM
Contents 3
Editor’s letter This is the 16th time since The Week launched in 2001 that I’ve Never in my lifetime, even in the 1960s, has the country felt so used this little space to try to make some sense of the world at fractured—so close to a civil war. Our one nation, allegedly in- year’s end. Through this exercise, I’ve been surprised to discover divisible, has cracked open along fault lines of culture, class, re- that I’m an optimist, despite my veneer of journalistic cynicism. ligion, and partisan identity, creating chasms of mutual incom- My livelihood has immersed me in the rich, colorful evidence of prehension and disdain. Politics has devolved into a winner-take- our species’ foolishness, selfishness, and cruelty—sins I some- all blood sport. Virtually everything is politicized, from foot- times suffer from myself. Yet like many Americans, I am the de- ball to wedding cakes. In the coming year, special counsel Rob- scendant of immigrant strivers, bred to believe that tomorrow ert Mueller would seem likely to conclude that President Trump will be better than today, that human ingenuity can surmount obstructed justice in the Russia investigation. Mueller may point all obstacles, that goodness wins out over evil in the end. (A cor- to other high crimes and misdemeanors as well. It’s impossible to ollary: Bad people eventually get what’s coming to them. Right, predict how Congress and the nation will respond—or what will Harvey?) Even when confronted with evidence that the universe happen if Trump decides to fire Mueller—except that what fol- is not just, I cling to my core conviction the way a shipwrecked lows will be convulsive. Our democracy will be sorely tested; in man hugs a chunk of floating wood. But after one of the strang- the crucible, we will discover whether character, decency, truth, est, most tumultuous, and most disorienting years in our history, and the rule o f law still matter. I’d like to think William Falk I must confess to moments of doubt and fear. we will pass the test. Happy New Year, friends. Editor-in-chief
NEWS 4 Main stories Democrats win Alabama Editor-in-chief: William Falk Senate seat; President Managing editors: Theunis Bates, Trump’s #MeToo moment; Carolyn O’Hara Deputy editor/International: Susan Caskie the GOP tax plan moves Deputy editor/Arts: Chris Mitchell Senior editors: Harry Byford, Alex closer to passage Dalenberg, Andrew Murfett, Dale Obbie, Hallie Stiller, Frances Weaver 6 Controversy of the week Art director: Dan Josephs Photo editor: Loren Talbot Is Robert Mueller’s Copy editors: Jane A. Halsey, Jay Wilkins Russia investigation Researchers: Christina Colizza, Joyce Chu Contributing editors: Ryan Devlin, politically tainted? Bruno Maddox 7 The U.S. at a glance EVP, publisher: John Guehl Botched suicide bombing Sales development director: Samuel Homburger in New York City; Account directors: Shelley Adler, Lauren Peterson wildfi res rage in California Account manager: Alison Fernandez Midwest director: Lauren Ross 8 The world at a glance Southeast directors: Jana Robinson, Anti-Semitic attacks in Corinne Smith The Capitol Christmas Tree in Washington, D.C. (p.11) West Coast directors: James Horan, Sweden; China prepares Rebecca Treadwell Integrated marketing director: Jennifer Freire for North Korean refugees ARTS LEISURE Integrated marketing managers: Kelly Dyer, Caila Litman 10 People 30 Books 37 Food & Drink Marketing design director: Joshua Moore Pamela Anderson on her Marketing designer: Triona Moynihan The best fi ction and From caulifl ower to keto, Research and insights manager: Joan Cheung pal Julian Assange; why Sales & marketing coordinator: nonfi ction of 2017 2017’s top eating trends Alma Heredia Amber Heard hates to be Senior digital account manager: called “bisexual” 32 Film 38 Travel Yuliya Spektorsky Critics’ 10 must-see An evening of cocktails and Programmatic manager: George Porter 11 Briefi ng Digital planners: Jennifer Riddell, Talia Sabag movies of the past year kitsch in Great Falls, Mont. Chief operating & financial officer: A history of the Christmas Kevin E. Morgan tree, from pagan Europe 34 Music 39 Consumer Director of financial reporting: Holiday gifts for those Arielle Starkman to the White House The best albums and EVP, consumer marketing & products: singles of the past who have everything Sara O’Connor 16 Talking points Consumer marketing director: 12 months Why Sen. Al Franken had Leslie Guarnieri BUSINESS HR manager: Joy Hart to go; Trump’s Jerusalem 35 Art Operations manager: Cassandra Mondonedo declaration; does the Art-world 42 News at a glance Adviser: Ian Leggett president deserve credit stories that Apple snaps up Shazam; Chairman: John M. Lagana for the economy? had everyone Ford moves electric-car U.K. founding editor: Jolyon Connell Company founder: Felix Dennis 18 Year in review talking manufacturing to Mexico A look back at 2017’s 44 Making money biggest news stories Money moves to make Visit us at TheWeek.com. before Dec. 31 For customer service go to www 26 Health & Science .TheWeek.com/service or phone us Everything that was 45 Best columns at 1-877-245-8151. good and bad for us this Pamela 21st Century Fox plots a Renew a subscription at www .RenewTheWeek.com or give a gift year; major scientifi c Anderson sale to Disney; why big at www.GiveTheWeek.com.
Getty (2) Getty breakthroughs (p.10) brands fear Amazon
THE WEEK December 22/December 29, 2017
03 TOC.indd 3 12/13/17 6:26 PM 4 NEWS The main stories... The Democrats’ shocking win in Alabama What happened sexual abuse of women seriously. Moore’s In a stunning setback for President Trump defeat provides heartening evidence that and the Republican Party, Democrat Doug partisanship in America “still has limits.” Jones this week beat scandal-ridden former judge Roy Moore to become Alabama’s Republicans dodged a bullet in Alabama, next U.S. senator. The first Democrat to said The Wall Street Journal. Sure, win a Senate seat in the deep-red state since there will be a “cost of defeat”—with 1992, Jones secured just under 50 percent a reduced majority, the party will find of the vote, about 1.5 percent more than his it harder to pass major legislation. But opponent. When he is sworn in, likely in had Moore won, Democrats would have early January, it will reduce the GOP’s Senate made him “a national symbol of sexual majority to 51-49. Alabama’s special election harassment” for the 2018 midterms. to fill Attorney General =Jeff Sessions’ old GOP lawmakers would have been under seat burst into the national spotlight in No- Jones: A victory for ‘dignity and respect’ heavy pressure to expel him from the vember, when The Washington Post reported Senate, in addition to facing distracting that Moore was accused of making sexual advances to teenage questions about his toxic views “every day.” girls—one as young as 14, another who said he sexually assaulted her at 16—when he was in his 30s. The allegations prompted Senate What the columnists said Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and other Republicans to drop Well, Bannon really can achieve the impossible, said Marc Thies- their support and funding. But Trump, encouraged by his firebrand sen in The Washington Post: He somehow got a “pro-abortion” former strategist Steve Bannon, stuck by the controversial candidate Democrat elected in “one of the most reliably Republican states in and strongly urged his supporters to back him. After Jones’ vic- the country.” As part of his destructive quest to depose McConnell tory, Trump claimed that he had supported incumbent Sen. Luther and upend “the establishment,” the former White House strategist Strange in the GOP primary because he thought Moore would has promised to support “Moore-like challengers” against almost struggle in the general election. “I was right!” he tweeted. every GOP senator up for re-election next year. If he doesn’t want more Democrats elected, Trump better tell his pal to “back off.” Jones, a 63-year-old former prosecutor, overcame Alabama’s deep- red demographics with a large turnout by African-Americans and Despite Moore’s uniquely awful track record, his defeat indicates strong support from affluent suburban residents. Jones, who will that “the GOP is in deep trouble,” said Alex Shephard in New hold the seat until Sessions’ original term expires in 2020, said the Republic.com. Alabama hasn’t had a competitive race for national race had been about “dignity and respect,” and “the rule of law.” office for decades, and Trump won the state last year by 28 points. Moore called for a recount and said he would “wait on God.” This year, the Democrats have overperformed in elections all across the country—in Virginia, Georgia, even Montana. With Trump’s ap- What the editorials said proval ratings sinking to record lows, “Republican voters are stay- Long before he was accused of being a “child molester,” Roy ing home,” and Democrats are voting “at unprecedented levels.” Moore “had disqualified himself from serving in public office,” said The Washington Post. An unabashed theocrat, he was twice Jones’ triumph is “a dark portent indeed for Republicans in 2018,” removed as Alabama’s Supreme Court chief justice—once for said John Podhoretz in the New York Post. Democrats now need a installing a Ten Commandments monument in the courthouse, net gain of only two seats to take back control of the Senate; recap- once for refusing to marry gay couples. He said Muslims shouldn’t turing the House increasingly looks within reach; and the party is be seated in Congress, equated homosexuality with bestiality, and already running 13 points ahead in generic preference polls. Trump even “waxed nostalgic for the era of slavery,” calling it a time has to do something to “get people beyond his solid one-third of the when “families were strong.” But the child-molesting allegations nation to think well of him.” If he doesn’t, “the GOP is going to be were the last straw at a time when Americans are finally taking smashed into a million pieces.”
It wasn’t all bad■■Chandler Self was mere yards from the Dallas Marathon finish Note to readers line when disaster struck. The 32-year-old doctor had been lead- ■■A single mom in Florida worked ing the pack for the final 8 miles of the 26.2-mile race when her The Week’s staff overtime just so she could give a legs started to buckle from exhaustion. Luckily, Ariana Luterman, is taking a break local robbery victim his lost $500. a 17-year-old high school athlete who was anchoring her team’s Charles Reynolds, 60, was already relay, was there to for the holidays. struggling financially when he was lend a hand. Luterman Your next issue mugged after cashing his paycheck helped Self to her feet will arrive in three at a local Walmart. When Kari Diaz, several times and gen- who until recently had been living tly pushed the winner weeks. Our next in low-income housing, heard across the finish line: a edition will be dated about Reynolds’ plight, she decided display of sportsman- Jan. 12, and should to help—clocking 10-hour days at ship that has since her job so she could replace the gone viral. “The only begin arriving on stolen check. “I know what it is to thing I could think of Jan. 5. The Week be poor,” says Diaz, who embraced to do was to pick her currently publishes Reynolds after handing him the up,” says Luterman, cash at the police station. Self and Luterman cross the finish line. “so I picked her up.” 48 issues a year. Reuters, BMW Dallas Marathon Reuters, Illustration by Howard McWilliam. The faces of 2017: Kim Jong Un, Jared Kushner, Ivanka Trump, THE WEEK December 22/December 29, 2017 Colin Kaepernick, President Donald Trump, President Vladimir Putin, President Xi Jinping, Gen. Michael Flynn, special counsel Robert Mueller, Rose McGowan, Ashley Judd, and Harvey Weinstein
04 main 1.indd 4 12/13/17 6:30 PM ... and how they were covered NEWS 5 Trump faces a #MeToo moment What happened What the columnists said President Trump was pulled back into the The #MeToo movement is coming for Trump, national debate over sexual harassment said Michelle Cottle in TheAtlantic.com. this week after three women who accused Unsurprisingly, the president has responded him during the 2016 campaign of grop- with his characteristic sexism, insinuating that ing or forcibly kissing them renewed their Gillibrand is “an actual prostitute.” Trump allegations, leading New York Sen. Kirsten also retreated further into his own spin, claim- Gillibrand and other Democrats to call for ing he has never met his accusers despite video the president’s resignation. The three wom- and photographic evidence proving otherwise. en, among more than a dozen to accuse That duplicity makes this moment “both Trump of sexual harassment and assault fascinating and terrifying. Just how much of a during his real estate and reality-TV career, The president’s accusers: ‘Let’s try round two.’ reality distortion field can Trump maintain?” told their stories again on Megyn Kelly’s NBC show and at a joint news conference, where they asked Con- Forgive me for detecting a touch of political cynicism in Gillibrand’s gress to investigate Trump’s alleged misconduct. One accuser, Jes- campaign, said Harmeet Dhillon in DailyCaller.com. For years, sica Leeds, said Trump had tried to put his hand up her skirt during she was “happy to benefit from her symbiotic relationship with the a flight to New York some three decades ago. Another, former Miss Clintons,” despite numerous sexual accusations against Bill. But USA contestant Samantha Holvey, said it was “heartbreaking” with a 2020 presidential bid on her mind, Gillibrand has suddenly to watch Trump’s electoral victory last year. “Now it’s just like, changed her tune—attacking former President Clinton, fellow Dem- ‘Alright, let’s try round two.’ The environment’s different.” ocratic Sen. Al Franken, and Trump for their alleged misbehavior.
Gillibrand said the allegations were “very credible” and demanded The president, for his part, believes that his 2016 victory “exoner- Trump resign. The president struck back with tweets dismiss- ates” him, said Robert Schlesinger in USNews.com. Hardly. “The ing the women as fabricators and Gillibrand as a “lightweight.” American people did not support Trump’s election”: He got 46 per- He claimed the senator “would come to my office ‘begging’ for cent of the popular vote, 2 points less than Hillary Clinton. And even campaign contributions not so long ago (and would do anything if Trump could claim a “popular mandate,” he can’t be “suggesting for them).” Gillibrand and other Democrats said Trump’s comment that an election inoculates him against new developments or new was laden with sexual innuendo and denounced it as a “sexist evidence?” A congressional investigation is the only way to resolve smear.” The White House rebuffed the criticism as well as calls for this issue, said Matthew Yglesias in Vox.com. Surely the president a congressional investigation, saying the accusations had already would agree? After all, if he is as innocent as he insists, “a proper been litigated in Trump’s favor “in a decisive election.” investigation would give Trump a chance to clear his name.” GOP tax bill nears the finish line What happened accountants. The pass-through loophole, for example, will allow Republican leaders in the House and Senate struck a tentative highly paid professionals to pay 20 percent—nearly half of what deal on a final tax bill this week, putting the most significant tax they would owe as individuals—by declaring themselves to be overhaul in more than 30 years on track to be signed by President businesses. In many ways, “a badly botched tax bill helps con- Trump before Christmas. The agreement slashes the corporate servatives,” said David Dayen in NewRepublic.com. The more tax rate from 35 percent to 21 percent and makes it effective money the federal government loses to tax avoidance, the less in 2018. It also lowers the top individual income tax rate from there is to spend on social programs. “That’s the real game here.” 39.6 percent to 37 percent, a move meant to soothe high-earning taxpayers in blue states who face the loss of deductions for state “There are plenty of understandable objections to the tax bill and local taxes. The Senate bill capped or eliminated such deduc- sailing through Congress,” said Tony Mecia in WeeklyStandard tions, but taxpayers will now be allowed to deduct up to $10,000 .com. You can make a case that it’s being rushed, or that it will add in state income or property taxes. $1.5 trillion to the deficit. But what it doesn’t do is punish the poor and middle class to benefit the wealthy. The bill cuts taxes for “the It remains to be seen whether the handful of Republican swing majority of Americans at every income level,” according to Con- votes in the Senate will embrace the final bill. Sen. Susan Collins gress’ Joint Committee on Taxation, with 62 percent of taxpayers of Maine voted for the initial Senate bill in exchange for promises seeing a tax cut of $100 or more in 2019 under the Senate version. to stabilize the health-care insurance exchanges and add protec- That isn’t likely to change much under the final agreement. tions for Medicare—changes that House leaders don’t support. She has also opposed lowering the top individual income tax Still, this tax plan is wildly unpopular, with just 35 percent of rate. Republicans can afford to lose only one more vote if Collins Americans’ support, said Jonah Goldberg in NationalReview.com. rejects the bill along with Sen. Bob Corker, provided the Senate Republicans are hoping that the middle-class tax cuts, “combined votes before Democrat Doug Jones of Alabama is seated. with an expected boost in economic growth,” will give them a political windfall in the years to come. Democrats tried a similar What the columnists said strategy with Obamacare, which also passed along party lines “in “What Congress is prepared to pass is not tax reform,” said Jona- the face of public opposition.” Their gamble failed spectacularly, than Chait in NYMag.com. “It is tax un-reform.” The slapdash with furious voters handing control of Congress to Republicans legislation is shot through with loopholes, giveaways, and glitches and sweeping Donald Trump into office. “Will the tax reform ef- that will overwhelmingly benefit wealthy taxpayers with skilled fort be the GOP’s version of Obamacare?” Only time will tell. Reuters
THE WEEK December 22/December 29, 2017
05 main 2.indd 5 12/13/17 6:20 PM 6 NEWS Controversy of the week Mueller: Is his Russia probe tainted?
Special counsel Robert Mueller “has some explaining to do,” is a man whose reputation for integrity Republicans praised said Ed Rogers in WashingtonPost.com. Seven months into when he was named special counsel. When Mueller found his probe of alleged collusion between President Trump’s out about Strzok’s texts, he fired him. Besides, prosecutors campaign and Russia, it was revealed last week that over the and FBI agents are allowed to hold and express political summer Mueller quietly fired one of his lead inves- beliefs in their private lives; they are required only to keep tigators, Peter Strzok, after learning that Strzok had those beliefs separate from their work. Since expressed anti-Trump opinions. In thousands of text the investigation began, it has yielded a messages with an FBI lawyer named Lisa Page, with mountain of evidence of contacts between whom Strzok was conducting an affair, the pair Trump’s campaign and the Russians, two agreed that Trump is “an idiot” and “a loathsome indictments, and two plea deals with cooper- human being,” and the prospect of his election ating witnesses. No amount of bias can “create” to the presidency was “f---ing terrifying.” That’s evidence of crimes that weren’t committed. not the only evidence that this investigation is Mueller: Fox News wants him fired. tainted. A key member of Mueller’s team, Andrew Weissmann, not Trump’s defenders are only taking a page only attended Hillary Clinton’s election-night party but also sent a from the Bill Clinton playbook, said Byron York in Washington gushing-fan email to acting Attorney General Sally Yates when she Examiner.com. When Clinton was being stalked by special refused to implement Trump’s travel ban. Enough is enough, said prosecutor Kenneth Starr, a Republican, his team conducted a James Robbins in USAToday.com. The stakes in Mueller’s investi- scorched-earth campaign to portray the investigation as a politi- gation are too high to let it be conducted by a “clique of politicized cally motivated “witch hunt.” That made it easy for Democrats to government agents.” The probe must be suspended. acquit Clinton during his impeachment trial. The current attacks on Mueller aren’t designed to justify a firing, which would be as Well, this was utterly predictable, said Will Bunch in Philly.com. “disastrous” for Trump. It’s to give congressional Republicans As Mueller closes in on Trump, the panicked president and his who’d vote on impeachment “a ready, cable-TV-tested line of toadies in the right-wing media are teeing up justifications for him defense focusing on the unfairness of the prosecutor.” to fire the special counsel. During Watergate, Richard Nixon did fire the special prosecutor, but got major pushback from principled Don’t pretend we’ve been here before, said E.J. Dionne in The Republicans. Nixon also didn’t have the support of today’s “state- Washington Post. Remember why Trump and his team are being run media”—Fox News, whose foaming-at-the-mouth commenta- investigated: for possible cooperation with a foreign power’s inter- tors are now howling that Mueller is “illegitimate and corrupt,” ference in our presidential election. Republicans seem to be saying, and that anti-Trump agents at the FBI and Department of Justice “Too bad the president lied or broke the law, or that Russia tried should be “taken out in handcuffs.” That hysteria has no founda- to tilt our election”—since one investigator called Trump an idiot, tion in fact, said David Graham in TheAtlantic.com. Mueller, a “let’s just forget the whole thing.” If Republicans pull off a cover-up registered Republican appointed FBI director by George W. Bush, this brazen, we’re in big trouble. “This is a recipe for autocracy.”
Good week for: Only in America Kids’ health program The search for E.T., when billionaire astronomer Yuri Milner on the brink ■ Oregon officials refunded a announced an effort to detect any radio signals being emitted by the Congress isn’t expected to $500 fine and admitted they strange, cigar-shaped object that recently whizzed through our solar renew funding for the popular violated the free speech rights system. Some astronomers wonder if it’s an alien space probe. Children’s Health Insurance of a resident who showed Kim Jong Un, whose hackers have reportedly stolen an unknown Program until at least January, their red-light cameras were Axios.com reported this week, poorly timed. Mats Järlström, quantity of bitcoin from online exchanges as a way to raise funds for the North Korean regime. The value of the so-called cryptocur- leaving many state programs an engineer, was originally in imminent danger of run- penalized by the state for “un- rency has soared by more than 1,500 percent this year. ning out of money. Funding licensed practice of engineer- Holy copy editing, with Pope Francis’ suggestion that the phrase for the joint state-federal pro- ing” after he publicized his “Lead us not into temptation” in the English version of the Lord’s gram, which provides health analysis of traffic-light patterns Prayer might be better translated as “Do not let us fall into tempta- insurance for 9 million low- to help his wife fight a traffic income children, expired at ticket. After a four-year legal tion,” so as to remove any suggestion that God might be tempting us on purpose. the end of September. Some battle, state officials admitted states, including Virginia they were wrong to attempt to Bad week for: and Colorado, have warned silence him. Helpful ideas, after Australian army Capt. Sally Williamson pro- families that their children’s ■ With California facing more posed having sex workers “service” troops in combat zones to ease coverage will end by Jan. 31 if frequent wildfires, state of- Congress doesn’t renew fund- ficials are encouraging prison their loneliness and “help combat veterans with PTSD.” After com- plaints from outraged spouses, the suggestion was withdrawn. ing, and Connecticut and Utah inmates to volunteer as fire- are expected to send similar fighters. Inmates already make Popularity, after Richard Klose, 74, was elected to the Laurel, notifications this month. up a third of California’s 10,000 Mont., City Council even though he didn’t run. Klose, who won Congress included temporary firefighters, and officials are with three write-in votes, says he’ll serve “since I have the time.” measures to keep CHIP run- trying to educate more in- Self-incrimination, when a Long Island, N.Y., woman due in ning for the rest of the year mates about the “many advan- court on marijuana charges parked in the spot reserved for the chief in its most recent stopgap tages” of the dangerous work. of police, where she was found smoking marijuana and ticketed spending bill, but lawmakers “You’re more out in the open,” again. “It was like Cheech and Chong, all the smoke coming out of have yet to fund the program explained a spokesman. for 2018.
the car,” said Chief of Police Bill Ricca. Getty
THE WEEK December 22/December 29, 2017
06 controversy.indd 6 12/13/17 6:12 PM The U.S. at a glance ... NEWS 7
San Francisco Ely, Nev., and Tecumseh, Neb. New York City Judge accused: Six women have accused Opioid executions: Officials in Nevada Botched bombing: A 27-year-old man a prominent and Nebraska plan to use the opiate who said he was inspired by ISIS tried to federal appeals fentanyl as the key ingredient in upcom- blow himself court judge of ing lethal injections, after being unable up with a making sexually to obtain the drugs normally used for pipe bomb in suggestive com- executions. Both states say the first one of New ments and other fentanyl-assisted executions could take York City’s inappropriate place in early 2018. Fentanyl, which has busiest transit behavior, The been blamed for thousands of overdose hubs during Kozinski Washington Post deaths nationwide, is 100 times more the Monday- reported this week. Most of the women, powerful than morphine and relatively morning rush Police at the scene four of whom remained anonymous, are easy to obtain. “We simply ordered it hour this week, former clerks or junior staffers for Alex through our pharmaceutical distribu- injuring himself and four other people. Kozinski, who was appointed by President tor, just like every other medication we Akayed Ullah, who emigrated from Reagan and has served for 32 years on the purchase, and it was delivered,” said Bangladesh in 2011 on a visa for rela- 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which Brooke Keast, a spokeswoman for the tives of U.S. citizens, detonated the crude handles cases for a large swath of the Nevada Department of Corrections. The device strapped to his body shortly after western U.S. and Hawaii and Alaska. Two shortage of lethal injection drugs has 7 a.m. in a passageway in the city’s Port of the women said the 67-year-old jurist prompted other states to explore alterna- Authority Bus Terminal. Ullah later told showed them pornography in his cham- tives. Mississippi legalized nitrogen gas investigators he’d been radicalized online, bers. Heidi Bond, who clerked for the for executions this year, something that and shortly before the attack, he posted judge from 2006 to 2007, said Kozinski has never been attempted by any state or on Facebook: “Trump you failed to pro- showed her pornography unrelated country. tect your nation.” Although the to any case at least three times and bombing created lengthy transit asked if the images aroused her. delays, many New Yorkers Another former clerk said the appeared unfazed. “Does it judge repeatedly suggested at a look like people are staying out social function that she should of the subway?” said Carolina exercise naked. Asked about Selia, crammed into a standing- the allegations, Kozinski told a room-only train later that morning. reporter, “If this is all they are able to dredge up after 35 years, I am not too worried.” Washington, D.C. Mueller eyes obstruction: Montecito, Calif. Special counsel Robert Wildfires worsen: The biggest of five wild- Mueller is piecing together a fires raging across Southern California timeline of 18 days early in consumed Trump’s presidency, between another the day senior administration 50,000 Mesa, Ariz. officials were warned that acres this Police video: A graphic video of a police Gen. Michael Flynn could week, officer shooting an unarmed man who be susceptible to Russian making it had been sobbing and pleading for his life blackmail and Flynn’s firing the fifth- sparked outrage this week, and renewed on Feb. 13, NBCNews.com Trump Jr. largest calls for excessive-force training for law reported this week. Mueller in the enforcement. The bodycam footage was has reportedly questioned officials about state’s his- why Flynn was allowed to stay in his post The Thomas Fire near Ojai released a day after a jury acquitted the tory. The white officer, Philip Brailsford, of murder despite warnings from acting Attorney Thomas Fire, driven by dry conditions and manslaughter charges in the 2016 General Sally Yates that Flynn had lied and high winds, has now scorched more shooting death of 26-year-old Daniel about his contacts with Russian ambassa- than 230,000 acres, destroying some 700 Shaver, also a white man. The video, dor Sergey Kislyak. Mueller also appears homes and displacing 94,000 people. which was shown during Brailsford’s trial, to be investigating whether Trump himself Nearly 8,000 firefighters are battling the shows police confronting Shaver, who had ordered Flynn to lie about those contacts blaze, which has been only 25 percent been drinking, in the hallway of a Mesa to the FBI and other officials. Meanwhile, contained. After ripping through Ventura hotel, where guests had reported seeing a congressional investigators continue to County, the flames are now threatening man with a gun. Shaver is seen crying and probe possible campaign connections with communities along the coast in Santa complying with commands from multiple Russia. The House Intelligence Committee Barbara County. In the upscale town of officers, saying, “Please do not shoot pressed Donald Trump Jr. last week for Montecito, celebrities such as Rob Lowe me.” Brailsford then shoots Shaver five details about a phone conversation with
, Getty and Ellen DeGeneres joined the tens times shortly after ordering him to crawl his father following a 2016 meeting with of thousands under evacuation orders. toward him. It later emerged that Shaver Russian intermediaries. Trump Jr. refused “Praying for my town,” Lowe tweeted. had been showing off a pellet gun he used to discuss the call, citing attorney-client “Firefighters making brave stands. Could for his job as exterminator, but wasn’t privilege, which he said applied because
Getty, Newscom, AP Newscom, Getty, go either way. Packing to leave now.” carrying a weapon at the time. lawyers were listening in on the line.
THE WEEK December 22/December 29, 2017
07 us map.indd 7 12/13/17 6:25 PM 8 NEWS The world at a glance ...
Gothenburg, Sweden Warsaw Synagogue firebombed: A gang of Crackdown on press: Poland’s government has fined the country’s masked attackers threw Molotov most-watched private TV station $420,000 for its coverage of cocktails at a synagogue in opposition protests in Parliament last year—news reports that Gothenburg this week, just hours officials said encouraged behavior that threatened the nation’s after protests in the city against the security. Critics said that the penalty, exceedingly steep by Polish U.S.’s recognition of Jerusalem as standards, is intended to make the U.S.-owned TVN24 curb its Israel’s capital. Police arrested three criticism of the ruling nationalist Law and Justice party. The migrants, ages 18, 20, and 21, in channel extensively covered last year’s demonstrations, when Attacked by anti-Semites connection with the arson. Two of thousands of Poles rallied outside Parliament and liberal opposi- the men are reported to be from Syria and one from the Palestinian tion lawmakers occupied the legislature’s main chamber to protest territories; all deny any wrongdoing. Firebombs were also thrown a Law and Justice plan to ban journalists from the building. The at a chapel in a Jewish cemetery in Malmo, days after 200 people government later dropped the proposal. protested the Jerusalem declaration in the city by chanting, “We’re going to shoot the Jews.” Muslim and Christian faith leaders con- demned the attacks. “There is no place for anti-Semitism in our Swedish society,” said Prime Minister Stefan Lofven.
Paris Macron leads on climate: In a rebuke to President Trump, who pulled the U.S. out of the Paris Agreement on climate change, French President Emmanuel Macron has awarded $70 mil- lion in grants to climate researchers under the rubric Make Our Planet Great Again. Of the 18 grants, 13 went to Americans who will be expected to con- duct their research in France. Macron made the announcement at a summit this week in Paris, where business and government leaders dis- cussed how to reduce carbon emissions. The U.S. is now the only nation to have rejected the Paris pact. “We must all act,” said Macron, Wooing Americans “because we will all be held to account.”
Havana What hurt U.S. diplomats? Doctors have found brain abnor- malities in the victims of a series of invisible attacks on the U.S. Embassy in Cuba, casting doubt on investigators’ initial theory that they were targeted with a sonic weapon. At least 24 govern- ment officials and their spouses reported hearing loud, mysterious sounds while in Cuba, and soon after suffered hearing and memory loss. Doctors have now found changes to the white-matter tracts in a number of the victims—the substance that helps brain cells communicate—suggesting that the sounds victims heard were not generated by an acoustic weapon but were a byproduct of whatever agent caused the harm. Havana denies involvement, but Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said last week that he’s told the Cuban authorities, “You’ve got a sophisticated intelligence appara- tus. You probably know who’s doing it. You can stop it.” Tegucigalpa, Honduras Buenos Aires Election mayhem: Honduras called out the army this week to Kirchner charged with treason: quell protests over the country’s disputed Nov. 26 presidential Former Argentine President election. Election officials say incumbent right-wing President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner has Juan Orlando Hernández has a 1.6 percentage point lead over been charged with treason for allegedly leftist challenger Salvador Nasralla, but they stopped short of covering up Iran’s role in the 1994 ter- declaring him the winner, because rorist attack on a Buenos Aires Jewish Did she cover up for Iran? international observers have center. In court documents, a federal judge accused Kirchner of reported massive irregularities in blurring Iran’s involvement in the attack, which killed 85 people, the count. At least 14 people have in return for a potentially massive trade deal. Prosecutors say died in clashes between protesters they see vindication for Alberto Nisman, the prosecutor who first and security forces, and thousands accused Kirchner and was scheduled to testify before the National of pro-Nasralla demonstrators Congress in 2015 when he was found dead of a gunshot wound marched on the U.S. Embassy this in his home. At the time Kirchner, then president, said the death week, calling for the U.S.—which was suicide, but a new investigation under President Mauricio gives the country military aid—to Macri found that Nisman was murdered. Kirchner is now a sena-
Nasralla rallies his supporters. pressure Hernández to step down. tor and can’t be tried unless Congress lifts her immunity. AP Newscom, AP, Newscom,
THE WEEK December 22/December 29, 2017
08-09 world map.indd 8 12/13/17 5:50 PM The world at a glance ... NEWS 9
Moscow Riyadh Ballet protest: The most controversial Russian ballet Going to the movies: Saudi Arabia in years, Nureyev, debuted at the Bolshoi Theater says it will allow movie theaters to this week—and ended with production staff com- open in the country for the first time ing out for a curtain call in T-shirts emblazoned in 35 years, part of a wide-ranging with the face of the Bolshoi’s detained director, modernization push led by Crown Kirill Serebrennikov, and the slogan “Freedom to Prince Mohammed bin Salman. the director!” The ballet, which traces the life of Theaters have been banned there famed Russian dancer Rudolf Nureyev, was sup- since the 1980s, when the kingdom Serebrennikov posed to open in July but was abruptly canceled, began enforcing an ultraconservative The world is watching and a month later Serebrennikov, Russia’s most famous film and version of Islam that prohibits mixing between men and women. theater artist, was placed under house arrest on charges of embez- The government said films shown in cinemas would be censored zling $1.1 million. Serebrennikov denies any wrongdoing. Many to comply with strict moral codes, including a ban on nudity and in the Russian art world believe the charges were invented to sex, and there could be political restrictions. Wonder Woman, for punish Serebrennikov because his production portrays Nureyev’s example, was banned in several Arab countries because the block- homosexuality, his 1961 defection from the Soviet Union to the buster’s star, actress Gal Gadot, is from Israel. Prince Mohammed’s West, and his death from AIDS at age 54. reform may face resistance. The grand mufti, Saudi Arabia’s top Islamic authority, has called cinemas “a depravity.” Changbai, China Preparing for influx: In a sign that Beijing thinks war on the Korean Peninsula may be coming, China has begun building refugee camps along its 880-mile border with North Korea. The existence of the camps was revealed in a leaked document from a state-run telecom firm that had been tasked with providing the camps with internet services. “Because the situation on the China–North Korea border has intensified lately,” China Mobile said in the document, “Changbai Border guards County government plans to set up five refugee sites in Changbai.” China’s foreign ministry has refused to confirm or deny the camps’ existence. Beijing has for decades helped prop up the North Korean government over fears that regime collapse would spark an exodus of refugees into China.
Udumalpet, India First caste killing conviction: Six people were sentenced to death this week for hacking to death a low-caste Dalit man who married a Hindu woman of a higher caste. The brutal March 2016 slaying outside a shopping mall in Tamil Nadu state was captured on secu- rity cameras as the man, Sankar, 22, collapsed in a pool of blood and his wife, Kausalya, who was severely wounded, screamed for help. The footage sparked protests in Tamil Nadu and calls for punishment. Indian media said the sentence was the first time the death penalty had been imposed on those involved in a so-called honor killing of a member of the Dalit caste, formerly known as Cairo untouchables. Kausalya’s father was among those convicted. Russian nuclear plant: Russian President Vladimir Putin got a red-carpet welcome this week in Egypt, where he cemented a Sydney $21 billion deal to build the country’s first nuclear power plant. Pedophile flight ban: A convicted child molester was stopped A Russian loan is expected to cover 85 percent of the project’s from flying abroad from Sydney Airport this week on the first bill; Egypt will pick up the rest of the tab. Relations between the day that a new Australian law intended to curb child sex tour- two countries have warmed since 2013, when then–President ism in Southeast Asia went into effect. The law states that the Obama temporarily halted U.S. arms shipments to Egypt after the 20,000 convicted pedophiles in Australia’s child sex military-dominated government shot dead more than 1,000 of offender register cannot leave the country unless its opponents. Egyptian President law enforcement signs off on their travel plans. Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi then visited Australian pedophiles often take low-cost trips to Moscow, and agreed to buy more Thailand, Cambodia, and elsewhere in Southeast than $3.5 billion in Russian arms. Asia, where they rape children in brothels. “For While in Cairo, Putin said his coun- too long, these predators have traveled try would also soon restore civilian overseas undetected,” Foreign Minister flights to Egypt, canceled two years Julie Bishop said, “including to coun- ago after Islamist militants downed tries where weaker laws mean they a Russian airliner over the Sinai, have opportunities to commit hei-
Newscom, Getty, Newscom (2), AP (2), Newscom Getty, Newscom, Putin and el-Sissi: Allies killing all 224 people on board. nous crimes.” Bishop: Cracking down
THE WEEK December 22/December 29, 2017
08-09 world map.indd 9 12/13/17 6:15 PM 10 NEWS People
Amber Heard is openly herself Amber Heard hates the term “bisexual,” said Danielle Pergament in Allure. “I don’t identify as anything,” she says. “I’m a person. I like who I like.” But when the 31-year-old actress was pho- tographed on a date with a woman, she realized she had two options. “I can let go of her hand, and when asked about it, I can say that my pri- vate life is my private life. Or I could not let go and own it.” Heard chose the latter, even though friends warned her that it might hurt her film career, which blossomed when she played the romantic partners of Nicolas Cage and her now ex-husband, Johnny Depp. “They pointed to no other working romantic lead, no other actress, that was out,” she says. “Everyone said, ‘You’re throwing it all away. You can’t do this.’ And I said, ‘I cannot do this any other way. Watch me.’” Heard said she has neither sought to publicize her relationships with women or hide them. “I never came out. I was never in. It’s limiting, that LGBTQ thing.” She wants nuance not just in her personal life, but in the roles she chooses. “I started saying to my agents, ‘Don’t send me scripts where the first adjective in the female description is “beauti- ful.” And if the second is “enigmatic,” throw it in the trash.’ The word ‘enigmatic’ means ‘Her backstory doesn’t matter.’” A voice actor’s close call Rob Paulsen has made his living with his voice, said Lynn Elber in the Associated Press, so it was a double blow when he was When Pamela met Julian diagnosed with throat cancer in 2016. The 60-year-old voice actor Pamela Anderson has struck up an unlikely friendship with Julian has carved out a major if invisible niche in Hollywood, starring in Assange, said Charlotte Edwardes in The Times (U.K.). The former more than 2,500 episodes of animated TV series over the past three Baywatch bombshell sees the WikiLeaks founder every time she decades. It may not be as glamorous as onscreen roles, but Paulsen visits London, where the Australian activist lives in exile inside says it has its advantages. “Here I am at 60, and not one person the Ecuadorean Embassy. “He doesn’t see too many people, and gave a damn about how old I am.” When he got the cancer diag- he looks forward to me coming,” says Anderson. “America is nosis, he says, he refused to feel sorry for himself. “I never once pretty angry with him. Actually he’s a good person, sensitive and had a moment where I said, ‘Oh, no, I’m a voice actor. Why me?’” funny. He’s a testament to what a person can be in a situation so dire, so uncomfortable. He’s still smiling. And he’s always very During his career, he says, he’s been asked to call “hundreds of sweet, asking about my kids and my life.” Anderson, 50, sought children and their parents as the character that a little boy or girl is out Assange hoping to learn how to become a more effective a fan of while they’re going through treatment for illness.” If they activist for her causes: animal rights, domestic violence victims, endured it, he could, too. Radiation and chemotherapy left him 50 and the perils of online porn. She says the pair often spends up pounds lighter, but doctors were able to save his vocal cords, and to five hours at a time “brainstorming” in Assange’s dank base- he has no plans to retire. Although some of his colleagues in the ment quarters, with Anderson bringing a takeout lunch. “He’s voice business get irritated when onscreen celebrities snag animated very pale,” she said, but “100 percent committed” to his work. The roles, Paulsen says it doesn’t bother him. “If you’re a producer and tabloid caricature of her as a blonde bubblehead has its advan- you feel that having Brad Pitt be the talking chicken in your next tages when it comes to such serious pursuits, Anderson says. movie (is right), hey, man, it’s your dime. I totally get it.” “When you form a full sentence everyone thinks you’re a genius.”
the company began receiving complaints in and propositioning them. He denies the October, it required Batali to undergo training. allegations. The chef himself said the allegations “match ■ Celebrity chef Mario Batali is taking ■ Carrie Fisher’s beloved dog, Gary, is at the a leave of absence from his restaurant up” with his own memory of the incidents. center of a bitter custody dispute between empire and ABC show after being “That behavior was wrong,” said Batali. the late actress’ daughter and assistant. The accused by four women of inap- ■ A third woman has accused Dustin Hoff- tongue-lolling French bulldog became a fan propriate touching over at least man of sexual misconduct, claiming the favorite in recent years after accompanying two decades. Three of the women Hollywood star carried out a “horrific, de- Fisher on Star Wars media appearances. worked for Batali and claimed he moralizing, and abusive” campaign against When Fisher died last December, the dog grabbed them from behind or her during a 1984 Broadway production. went to assistant Corby McCoin, who con- ordered them to straddle him. Kathryn Rossetter, who starred with Hoffman tinued Gary’s public tour—angering Fisher’s Another woman, a chef, told in Death of a Salesman, said that the actor daughter, Billie Lourd, who reportedly be- Eater she was at a party talking regularly put his hands under her slip and lieves McCoin is exploiting and cheapening to the restaurateur when some- groped her when they stood in the wings. her mother’s memory. Lourd even offered the one spilled wine on her chest. Batali Rossetter said that she thought of reporting assistant $250 a month to stop the appear- began rubbing her breasts with his Hoffman to Actors Equity, but was told she ances and delete the pooch’s Instagram ac- bare hands, she said. “He just went to would probably lose “any hope of a career” count, says TMZ.com. But McCoin declined, town.” A spokesman for Batali & Basti- if she did. A television intern and playwright and Lucasfilm has been calling event orga- anich Hospitality Group said that after have separately accused Hoffman of groping nizers to block planned Gary appearances. Emily Berl/The New York Times/Redux, Newscom, Getty Newscom, Times/Redux, York New Emily Berl/The
THE WEEK December 22/December 29, 2017
10 people.indd 10 12/13/17 5:48 PM Briefing NEWS 11 O Christmas tree For most Americans, a tinsel-decked tree is a holiday essential. But why do we put decorated firs in our homes?
How did the custom start? When did the trees arrive in the U.S.? As with many Christmas traditions, its roots They were brought to Pennsylvania by German go back to pagan times. Some Northern settlers and may have even played a part in European pagans believed that the sun was a the Revolutionary War. Legend has it that as god and that he went through a yearly period George Washington was crossing the Delaware of ill health in winter. They put up evergreen River on Dec. 25, 1776, Hessian mercenaries boughs on the winter solstice, around Dec. 21, fighting for the British were busy decorating the shortest day of the year—the evergreens trees and getting drunk. Suffice to say, they reminding them of all the greenery that would were in no state to fight the ensuing battle, grow again when the sun god regained his and lost. But Christmas trees didn’t become strength and spring arrived. Ancient Egyptians de rigueur among fashionable society until they followed a similar tradition, adorning their were granted the royal seal of approval. In homes with green palm fronds to mark the 1848, the Illustrated London News published return of Ra, a hawk-headed god who wore a sketch of Queen Victoria’s Christmas tree at the sun as a blazing crown. And ancient Windsor Castle, a gift from her German con- Romans used fir trees to decorate their temples sort, Prince Albert. The image was reprinted during Satur na lia, a winter festival in honor in Philadelphia’s Godey’s Lady’s Book, with of Saturn, the god of agriculture. Early Chris- the queen’s crown and Albert’s moustache tian theologian Tertullian wasn’t a fan; in removed to make it look more “American.” the 2nd century, he told his fellow believers East Coast ladies went wild for the heartwarm- Victoria and Albert’s trendsetting tree to leave the plants and trees to the heathens, ing scene—and Christmas trees became a “over whom the fires of hell are imminent.” staple of the American home.
When did Christians get on board? What about decorations? That’s a matter of ongoing dispute. The Eastern European cit- Thomas Edison’s assistant, Edward Johnson, was the bright spark ies of Tallinn and Riga both claim to have hosted the first who dreamed up electric Christmas tree lights. In 1882, not long Christmas tree: Tallinn in 1441, Riga in 1510. Each city says the after Edison had invented the light bulb, Johnson hung a string Brotherhood of Blackheads—an association of local unmarried of 80 red, white, and blue bulbs on the tree in his New York City merchants, shipowners, and foreigners in Livonia (now modern- home and invited journalists to come and gawk at the illumina- day Estonia and Latvia)—erected a tree in their town square over tions. Some four decades later, on Dec. 24, 1923, President Calvin Christmas, danced around it, and then set it alight. Around the Coolidge lit the National Christmas Tree, a 48-foot balsam fir dec- same time, medieval Germans were incorporating evergreens into orated with 2,500 colored bulbs. Department of Commerce official their own Christmastime rituals, via the “Paradise Tree”: an apple- Frederick Feiker had conceived the ceremony, hoping it would boost adorned fir that represented the Tree of Knowledge in the Garden the burgeoning electricity industry. It did, and started a custom that’s of Eden. But Christmas trees didn’t make it into the home until been observed by the White House every year since—except dur- Martin Luther, the founder of the Protestant Reformation, suppos- ing World War II, when the tree wasn’t lit, and in 1979, when only edly experienced a very special yuletide “vision” in 1536. its topper was illuminated in honor of American hostages in Iran. Feiker was always confident of success. What did Luther see? An upside-down controversy “If you get the president of the United The German theologian was taking a A new front has opened up in the so-called War States two years in succession to do a nighttime stroll through a pine forest on Christmas: the upside-down Christmas tree. thing,” he said, “he will always do it.” near his home in Wittenberg when “Hanging” Christmas trees are the yuletide deco- he glanced up and was awestruck ration trend of 2017, according to interior design- What do other countries do? by the thousands of stars twinkling ers. London’s Claridge’s, a 161-year-old hotel, In Japan, you might find origami through the branches. The wondrous sports one designed by Karl Lagerfeld; Target is swans, paper fans, and wind chimes sight reminded him of Jesus departing selling them for as much as $1,000. Some conser- hanging from the branches; in Spain, heaven for Earth at Christmas, and vatives see upside-down trees as yet more proof a tree trunk is filled with goodies, like Luther raced home to re-create the of liberals’ politically correct war on Christian tradi- toffees, nougats, almonds, and dates, holy scene for his family—dragging tions. “It’s like an upside-down world...the bizarro and children take turns whacking the a tree into their parlor and decorat- world,” said Corey Lewandowski, President Trump’s stump with a stick to dislodge the ing its branches with lighted candles. former campaign manager. “I am sure that [the treats. In Brazil, Christmas lands in Other Germans started covering their first family] will not be turning the tree upside summer, but some people cover pine own Christmas firs with gingerbread, down. They like this country’s traditions.” But trees with little pieces of white cotton gilded apples, and other trinkets. Some upside-down trees actually have deep Christian to simulate falling snow. Traditions roots. Eastern Europeans hung their trees from the preferred to deck a single yew branch vary widely, but across the world, ceiling during the Middle Ages, to represent the with colored paper and ribbons, a rit- Holy Trinity. In Poland, the podlazniczka loomed Christmas trees are a universal symbol ual witnessed by English poet Samuel directly over the Christmas Eve dinner right into of festive joy. “There’s a kind of glory Taylor Coleridge in 1798. “Under this the 20th century. “It always made my grandfather to them when they’re all lit up,” said bough,” wrote Coleridge, children and crabby,” says author Sophie Hodorwicz Knab. “He humorist Andy Rooney, “that exceeds parents exchange presents “with kisses used to complain because his head kept hitting it.” anything all the money in the world
Getty and embraces.” could buy.”
THE WEEK December 22/December 29, 2017
11 briefing.indd 11 12/13/17 12:18 PM 12 NEWS Best columns: The U.S.
“You can find deeply footnoted legal arguments on both sides” of the Calling Supreme Court case concerning a Colorado baker’s refusal to make It must be true... a wedding cake for a same-sex couple, said Ross Douthat. But politi- I read it in the tabloids a partisan cally, “our country would be better off if he were left alone to bake his truce cakes.” With our sprawling democracy deeply divided on race, religion, ■■An Oklahoma veterinarian and culture, Americans increasingly fear that political defeat will leave found 21 pacifiers inside an Ross Douthat their faction “routed and destroyed” by their adversaries. After same- ailing dog that was brought The New York Times sex marriage was legalized, my fellow religious conservatives worried in after she swallowed a that we’d become pariahs if we didn’t surrender our traditional beliefs baby’s binkie. The 4-year-old on sex and marriage—that we’d lose our jobs, that our schools and shar-pei, named Dovey, was charities would be fined and disaccredited. That’s one reason why so brought in by her family many evangelicals voted for “a celebrity strongman named Donald after throwing up a pacifier. Trump.” Now it’s liberals who see existential threats in the administra- Dovey had been vomiting tion’s every move, and conservatives who can’t understand “why blacks and losing weight recently, leading the family to suspect and Hispanics and Muslims might feel threatened by the new presi- that she might be behind a dent.” This is unsustainable. Living together requires “compromise and rash of missing binkies at magnanimity”—not forcing people different from us to submit to our the house. An initial X-ray will. “Please, for the sake of the country, leave the baker alone.” showed seven to nine paci- fiers in Dovey’s stomach, but In the fight against the country’s devastating opioid epidemic, President the operation turned up Trump’s even more. “In 20 years, this Trump “is a no-show,” said Albert Hunt. Most of the 175 Americans is the craziest surgery I’ve inaction on who die each day from overdoses are from the “working-class and rural ever done,” said veterinarian communities” that pushed Trump to election victory. Yet since his com- Chris Rispoli. mission on the opioid crisis called for dramatic action in its report on opioids Nov. 1, the president has sat on his hands. He hasn’t asked Congress for Albert Hunt additional funding for desperately needed addiction treatment and pre- Bloomberg.com vention; in fact, he has endorsed GOP proposals to cut funding to Med- icaid, which provides addiction treatment to the poor. Trump’s nominee to head the Office of National Drug Control Policy, Pennsylvania Rep. Tom Marino, had to withdraw after revelations he sponsored opioid legislation that Big Pharma essentially wrote; the president then named as his opioids “point person” White House senior adviser Kellyanne ■■In Japan’s latest cultural Conway—a pollster and spin doctor with none of the required expertise. fad, drivers dressed up like What’s Trump thinking? Mounting a serious battle against the opioid Super Mario, Donkey Kong, crisis would be a win-win—a bipartisan move that would garner him and other Nintendo char- both great press and gratitude from his base. Yet the president seems to acters are zipping through think declaring opioid addiction “a national emergency” will suffice. the streets of Tokyo in low- riding go-karts—causing a spate of accidents. The When Donald Trump goes for his first medical checkup as president early fad, inspired by the popular A president’s next year, we’ll probably be told that he’s in good health—and little else, racing game Mario Kart, is said Olga Khazan. Presidents aren’t legally required to release full medical possible because of a legal health information, even though many past presidents have concealed serious loophole that allows go-karts illnesses from the public. Woodrow Wilson had a debilitating stroke in in Tokyo’s hectic traffic. After isn’t private 1919 that his staff hid for two years. In 1944, doctors covered up Frank- many accidents, city officials lin Roosevelt’s deteriorating health in proclaiming him fit to serve—and will require go-kart drivers to Olga Khazan wear seat belts and helmets TheAtlantic.com he died a few months later. Many observers believe Ronald Reagan over their costumes and “began showing signs of Alzheimer’s long before he left office,” including install fenders to stop cos- episodes of confusion, forgetfulness, and more simplistic language. There tumes from getting caught in is real reason to worry about Trump’s health: “He’s the oldest president the wheels. ever elected,” is overweight, reportedly subsists on junk food and steaks, ■■An Indian driver received and avoids exercise. A study has shown a marked decline in his language an award for not honking complexity since the 1980s, and last week, Trump had an alarming once in the past 18 years. episode of slurring during a speech about Israel. (His aides blamed “dry Dipak Das, a Kolkata-based mouth.”) Shouldn’t every president be required to undergo a full medical chauffeur, observes a strict exam every year, with all results fully disclosed to the public? no-horn policy to help cut down on the noise pollution that plagues the country’s “I don’t actually think that there has ever been a huge cohort of people out Viewpoint chaotic, traffic-clogged there who are gravely offended by hearing the words ‘Merry Christmas.’ streets. Indian motorists honk President Trump, however, wants to make the Christian greeting exclusive. ‘Merry Christmas’ constantly, but Das hopes to becomes, in this cynical understanding, exactly what oversensitive secularists have always claimed: an intentional affront. Everything discernibly and beautifully Christian about Christmas and its tradi- inspire others with his exam- tions is drained from the words, and what is left is only a base expression of power: ‘I can say this ple. His car carries a placard to you, and there’s nothing you can do about it. I win. You lose. Ho ho ho.’” reading “Horn is a concept. I Brandon McGinley in WashingtonPost.com care for your heart.” Getty
THE WEEK December 22/December 29, 2017
12 us columns.indd 12 12/13/17 5:45 PM THE PAST. JUST BECAME PLANNED FOR FUTURE YOU NOW, BUT THE DON’T LOOK sap.com/growth falling behind. can grow together. Without functions anddepartments in themoment. So allyour business processes –live and automate andintegrate small andmidsize companies easy-to-usehelps solutions SAP’s suite of affordable, Work, grow, andevolve asone. GROWTH ISLIVE. © 2'17 SAP SE or an SAP affil`ate company. All r`ghts reserved. 14 NEWS Best columns: Europe
Is the European Union trying to push the Swiss on its way to full tax compliance. Yet EU officials SWITZERLAND toward the far right? asked Philippe Kenel. Because continue to see Switzerland’s financial apparatus that could well be the effect of the bloc putting as it once was, “like a star whose light continues No longer Switzerland on its “gray list” of countries that only to shine though it has been dead for thousands of partly comply with the EU on tax matters. This years.” Switzerland, though not a member, has a a tax insult is apparently meant to punish Swiss voters uniquely close relationship with the EU, and we for rejecting, in a referendum last February, the abide by most EU norms on the free movement of haven government’s attempt to bring Swiss corporate tax people. To preserve this status, it’s vital that the EU law fully in line with international standards. Yet not only “be seen as a reliable neighbor, but also Philippe Kenel all this labeling will do is alienate them from the perceived emotionally as a true partner.” Putting us Le Temps EU, further emboldening the xenophobic Swiss on a gray list, under financial surveillance, is like People’s Party. The truth is that Switzerland began “hiring a private detective to spy on your spouse.” dismantling banking secrecy in 2009 and is well At that point, the marriage is surely in trouble.
ITALY Neapolitan pizza is now officially a world trea- anchovies, oil, garlic, and oregano. The buyers sure, said Elisabetta Moro. UNESCO, the United were “the workers of the poorer classes, such as Pizza: Nations’ cultural agency, has just added the carters, bricklayers, and washerwomen.” Pizza was Naples-born art of the pizzaiuolo to the list of a cheap street food that could keep you satisfied our gift the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. It’s all day. Beloved by all, affordable to all, it is ideal a welcome recognition of how a people “trans- for sharing, which “makes it an authentic com- to the world formed a meal born of poverty into the most fa- munity product.” That—more than its inherent mous comfort food in the world.” Mediterranean deliciousness—is what the heritage award honors. Elisabetta Moro peoples have for centuries baked quick-fired bread, Pizza is a food that “creates forms of conviviality, La Stampa “but only the Neapolitan pizza makers made it a exchange, and mutuality.” It is now made all over masterpiece of taste.” The breakthrough came in the globe, and while every culture has adapted it, the 18th century, when bakers in Naples began none has improved upon it. Thanks to UNESCO, selling a flattened, round focaccia topped with “we know that the only authentic one is ours.” United Kingdom: A betrayal of Brexit? Theresa May has let the country a single discussion on what the down, said Charles Moore in final deal should look like. Some The Daily Telegraph. In a frenzy Brexiteers say we can strike a of 11th-hour diplomacy, the Canadian-style trade deal with prime minister last week secured the EU, said The Independent an initial agreement with the in an editorial. But Canada’s European Union on the terms agreement focuses heavily on of Britain’s exit from the bloc in physical goods, which make up March 2019—an essential step only about 10 percent of the U.K. before talks can proceed to dis- economy. We specialize in high- cussions on the future of trade re- value services such as finance, lations between the U.K. and EU. architecture, and software, which But May struck that deal only by rely on “the free movement making massive concessions. She of people and the provision of doubled her offer on our so-called professional and other services divorce bill—the amount the U.K. across national borders.” That must pay the EU to cover its out- May: Struck a deal that angered both Brexiteers and Remainers is why the EU single market is standing financial liabilities—to “such a precious national asset $52 billion. She “compromised the future independence of our for Britain,” and why even a carefully negotiated exit will wreck courts” by agreeing that EU citizens in the U.K. can appeal to jobs and prove to be “an unpleasant and painful experience.” the European Court of Justice for eight years after Brexit. And she has kicked the crucial question of the Irish border—whether We’re still better out than in, said Rod Liddle in The Times. Any there will be EU-British checkpoints between the Republic of Ire- disappointment over the poor terms May struck was alleviated land and Northern Ireland—down the road. Unless May shows when I heard that Germany’s Social Democrats—who are about some spine, we can expect a similarly one-sided deal on trade. to join Merkel’s Christian Democrats in a coalition government— are proposing a “European superstate by 2025, and that all Leaving the EU has “never looked a dafter act of national self- countries who disagree be booted out.” EU bureaucrats are harm,” said Kevin Maguire in the Daily Mirror. We have just already bullies—just look at how they have tried to force the agreed to hand over piles of cash to “quit a hugely successful governments of Hungary and Poland to swallow a refugee policy free trade area on our doorstep” and reduce our influence in their voters have rejected. That undemocratic tendency will only Europe. Things will get even worse in the next phase, because grow worse in a superstate. The point of Brexit is that we will we’ll be negotiating the trade bill blind: In the 18 months since have more control over our lives “outside this aloof, greedy, and the Brexit referendum, the prime minister’s cabinet has not held overweening bureaucracy.” Isn’t that worth any price? Getty
THE WEEK December 22/December 29, 2017
14 eu columns.indd 14 12/13/17 12:16 PM Best columns: International NEWS 15
How they see us: Joy and anger over Jerusalem decision U.S. President Donald Trump’s an- has merely succeeded in destroying nouncement on Jerusalem is a victory whatever remaining veneer of cred- for Israel and especially for the Jew- ibility the U.S. had as a fair mediator ish settlers’ movement, said Nadav between Israelis and Palestinians. Shragai in Israel Hayom (Israel). By formally recognizing Jerusalem as That means the two-state solution the capital of Israel last week and is dead, said Hani Awkal in the Ra- by pledging to move the U.S. Em- mallah, West Bank–based Al-Ayyam. bassy there from Tel Aviv, Trump The main rival Palestinian factions, has “poured a bucket of ice” on the Hamas and Fatah, now have but heads of those who wish to keep Je- one path forward: They must end rusalem divided. As Israeli President their squabbling and “launch an Reuven Rivlin said, “There is no intifada” against the occupation. But better or more beautiful present for where is the Arab world? asked The Jordanians protest Trump’s declaration in Amman. the state of Israel in its 70th year of Daily Star (Lebanon) in an editorial. independence.” Trump has recognized the “facts on the ground Protests against Trump’s declaration were perfunctory affairs ex- produced by Israel over time”: that the seat of the Israeli govern- cept in Jordan and Lebanon, which both have large Palestinian ment is in Jerusalem and that some 200,000 Jews now live in populations. And while the Arab League condemned the U.S., it East Jerusalem, annexed from Jordan in the 1967 Six-Day War. failed to take “any punitive steps,” such as ordering “a boycott “Now we must capitalize on this recognition” and “return to of American products or the suspension or downgrading of ties build in Jerusalem,” our eternal and undivided capital. with Washington.”
Facts on the ground do not justify the recognition of an illegal Perhaps the Arabs realize Trump’s declaration “is sort of fake occupation, said Khalaf Ahmad Al-Habtoor in Arab News (Saudi news,” said Itamar Eichner in Yedioth Ahronoth (Israel). Had Arabia). There’s a reason why no other country has its embassy Trump really wanted to move the U.S. Embassy, “he could have in Jerusalem and why the United Nations has refused to recognize announced its relocation to a temporary residence in the capital Israel’s annexation of Arab-majority East Jerusalem—seen by the very next day.” Instead, he said his team would look into it Palestinians as the capital of a future Palestinian state. If an armed and maybe break ground some years hence, when a new president man broke into a house and threw the owners out, “no court may be in office. His grand gesture, then, was simply words to would legitimize the theft on the grounds that the thief’s slippers placate evangelical Christians in his base—some of whom believe under the bed signified a new reality.” No nation will follow the that Jewish control of Jerusalem is key to the fulfillment of bibli- U.S. in this provocative and counterproductive outrage. Trump cal prophecy about the End Times. “Trump fooled everyone.”
Quebec is earning a reputation as a humorless larger and more prominent than those in any other CANADA province that detests English speakers, said Tasha language. It became an international laughingstock Kheiriddin. Last week, in a unanimous motion a few years ago with “Pastagate,” when an Italian The province after hours of debate, Quebec’s National Assembly restaurant “was told to change its menu items from passed a resolution urging all merchants and their the language of Dante to that of Molière.” Banning where you staff to greet customers with a simple “Bonjour,” “hi” is worse still. “A greeting designed to make rather than the now-common variant, “Bonjour, a customer feel welcome, to show openness to a can’t say ‘hi’ hi.” The leader of the Parti Québécois, Jean Fran- tourist, or simply to be polite” is now becoming “a cois Lisée, said adding the “hi” was “an irritant and symbol of repression.” Quebec had largely gotten Tasha Kheiriddin an example of galloping bilingualism.” No, mon- over its separatist impulses after voting in 1995 to GlobalNews.ca sieur, but banning it is certainly “risible, sad, and remain in Canada. The “Bonjour, hi” flap turns petty.” Quebec already forces people to measure the the clock back decades, reviving “the old debate of print on their signs to ensure words in French are Franco vs. Anglo, Quebec vs. Canada, us vs. them.”
INDONESIA There’s a lot of nostalgia these days for the Suharto them miss “the certainty, the swift way decisions era, said Endy Bayuni. As Indonesia begins to were made. They miss the effectiveness and effi- Dictatorship search for candidates for the next presidential elec- ciency that an authoritarian regime can deliver.” In tion, in 2019, posters and memes of the dictator— our 20 years of free elections, we’ve seen decision- is so much who ruled from 1967 to 1998—have gone viral. making become “an arduous and cumbersome The most common features a photo of the late process,” involving “noisy public debates and end- easier general smiling, with the Javanese caption “Bet- less deliberation by legislators.” We’ve also seen a ter in my era, wasn’t it?” No, it wasn’t: There was rise in anti-Chinese and anti-Shiite sentiment, which Endy Bayuni political repression, corruption, gross inequality, a Suharto never would have tolerated. But we have The Jakarta Post stagnant economy, and none of the public goods to remember that our young democracy “is still a we now enjoy, such as free health care and free work in progress,” and we’re improving every year. education for all. So what are people remembering Governing ourselves may be harder than just doing
Getty so fondly? Our sloppy, slow democracy has made what we’re told, but it is labor worth performing.
THE WEEK December 22/December 29, 2017
15 inter columns.indd 15 12/13/17 12:16 PM 16 NEWS Talking points
Noted Franken: Why Democrats forced him out ■■President Trump watch- As the sexual harassment process on the basis of es at least four hours and tidal wave hits Washington, unproven allegations simply as many as eight hours of “only one party is doing so that Democrats could cable TV news a day, and the right thing,” said Paul try to “make the GOP look often keeps a TV on during Waldman in The Wash- bad.” This from the party meetings, with the sound ington Post. Last week, that excused or ignored Bill muted, according to 60 in- Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) Clinton’s “indiscretions” for terviews with advisers, announced his resignation decades. The Democrats now friends, and members of after an eighth woman want “to create a precedent Congress. The shows on accused him of unwanted that all politicians accused Fox News reassure him, touching or kissing. In of sexual misconduct of any while those on CNN and MSNBC get him fired up a “surprisingly defiant” Franken: Sacrificial lamb? kind must resign,” regardless for combat in what he speech, the former comedian of the strength of the evi- views as a daily battle for said some of the allegations were “simply not dence, so that they can apply this new standard self-preservation. true,” but that the scandal prevented him from “to President Trump in 2020 or earlier.” The New York Times doing an effective job. As Franken noted, said Jeet Heer in NewRepublic.com, it’s ironic that There’s nothing wrong with claiming “the moral ■■As of this week, there were 369 women running he was forced out while a man accused of grop- high ground,” said Christina Cauterucci in Slate or planning to run for Con- ing, kissing, and assaulting more than a dozen .com. Some Democrats are complaining the party gress in 2018, which would women occupies the Oval Office, and accused is engaging in “unilateral disarmament” by purg- be the most women House child molester Roy Moore, another Republican, ing its accused officeholders while Republicans candidates ever. President had his party’s support in Alabama’s Senate race. refuse to hold themselves “to the same standards Trump’s election—coupled But Democrats really had little choice. It’s a party of behavior.” But Democrats are playing a “lon- with the country’s sexual that heavily relies on the votes of women and has ger game.” If Franken kept his seat, Democrats harassment awakening— positioned itself as a champion of women’s rights. would alienate women who “currently feel are believed to be driving Republicans, meanwhile, are solidifying their role empowered by the #MeToo movement,” while factors in this surge. as “the party of gender reactionaries.” “young people who already think the Democratic Axios.com Party is a corrupt instrument of the bourgeoisie Franken’s removal was “hardly a profile in politi- would have one more reason to write it off for cal courage,” said Ford O’Connell in TheHill good.” By sacrificing Franken, Democrats have .com. Until now a “darling of the Left,” he was set themselves up to win big among women in “dispatched to the wood chipper” without due 2018 and 2020. It was “the right call.” Jerusalem: Is a peace deal now dead? Ignore the howls of protest from the diplomatic Nonetheless, there will be a steep price to pay for establishment and the anti-Israel Left, said Mat- Trump’s announcement, said Aaron David Miller thew Continetti in FreeBeacon.com. President in Politico.com. In his “bone-headed” speech, Trump’s decision to recognize Jerusalem as the he failed to acknowledge the Palestinians’ claim capital of Israel is “one of the boldest moves of to East Jerusalem as their capital. That ends any ■■Australia became the his presidency.” For years, the elite consensus has chance they would see his administration as a 26th nation in the world to been that recognizing Jerusalem should be one trustworthy broker of a two-state solution. legalize same-sex marriage of the final steps in the Israeli-Palestinian “peace last week. The Netherlands process.” In reality, however, “there is no peace Trump, in fact, “insulted Palestinians to the very was the first country to process to wreck.” Meanwhile, the Jewish state core of their beings,” said David Shulman in The take this step, in 2000. has the right to choose its own capital. The Sen- New York Review of Books. Jerusalem, with its Fortune.com ate voted 90-0 to move our embassy to Jerusalem many holy sites, is “the only inviolable asset Pal- ■■Leaders or state media only six months ago, but for some reason, official estinians feel they still have.” Trump could have in at least 15 countries recognition remains taboo. Trump, who has no included some platitudes about working toward have used the term “fake use for this kind of diplomatic “doublethink,” a shared capital, but chose instead to embrace the news” to quell dissent and is simply stating the truth that others prefer to Israeli right wing’s vision of permanent Palestin- discredit reports of human avoid: “Jerusalem is Israel’s capital, full stop.” ian displacement and subjugation. “Poor, pale” rights violations. Among Jared Kushner, said Roger Cohen in The New those who’ve embraced the term are Syrian Despite warnings that Trump’s announcement York Times. Trump’s son-in-law is supposedly President Bashar al-Assad, would ignite “Armageddon,” said Ralph Peters in working with the Saudis and Israelis to forge the Philippines President Ro- the New York Post, the Arab world reacted with “ultimate” peace deal. But to please his evangeli- drigo Duterte, Venezuelan a few scattered protests. Arab leaders are no lon- cal base, Trump has now clearly allied his admin- President Nicolás Maduro, ger focused on the “Palestinian question”; they istration with those Israelis who believe Jerusalem and China’s official news- have more pressing concerns, such as how to con- is theirs and that the West Bank “was deeded to paper, People’s Daily. tain the growing power of Iran. In that struggle, Israel in the Bible.” There is no longer anything Politico.com Israel has emerged as an “indispensable, if quiet, to trade for peace; “the Greater Israel project has
ally” of Saudi Arabia and other Sunni states. gone too far.” Getty Newscom,
THE WEEK December 22/December 29, 2017
16 TP 1.indd 16 12/13/17 12:15 PM Talking points NEWS 17
The economy: Should Trump get credit? Wit & It’s been a chaotic first year Recession and halved unem- for President Trump, said John ployment to below 5 percent. Wisdom Crudele in the New York Post. The truth is that Trump “A life spent making mistakes But for all the sideshows, such inherited “a stable economy is not only more honorable, as the Russia investigation in the midst of the longest but more useful, than a life spent doing nothing.” and Trump’s “big mouth,” the streak in history of consecu- George Bernard Shaw, quoted president has an “ace in the tive monthly job growth.” As in The Wall Street Journal hole”: the economy. Under for the stock market boom, “The responsibility of a cre- Trump, the stock market is that’s an unsustainable ative life is both a curse and booming, while gross domes- “sugar high,” said Lawrence a blessing. It’s the thing that tic product has expanded at Summers in The Washington gives you life and is killing A Wall Street trader: High on optimism an annual rate of more than Post. Investors are giddy over you at the same time.” 3 percent for two straight quarters, following eight Trump’s financial deregulation and the GOP’s Daniel Day-Lewis, years of anemic growth under President Barack deficit-busting tax cuts for corporations. But pro- quoted in W magazine Obama. The unemployment rate has dropped to ductivity growth remains slow, and so does wage “Sometimes you can only 4.1 percent—a 17-year low. Trump took office growth for the middle class. The so-called boom is find heaven by slowly back- ing away from hell.” vowing to “create jobs, bring businesses back to built on a “weak foundation.” Carrie Fisher, quoted in the the U.S., and loosen the regulatory noose created Montreal Gazette by Obama,” said Liz Peek in FoxNews.com. His Still, the economy’s “vital signs are stronger than “We have grasped the mys- pro-business attitude unleashed “a sea change in they have been in years,” said Ben Casselman in tery of the atom and rejected expectations” among businesses, investors, and The New York Times. Consumer confidence is the Sermon on the Mount. consumers—and their newfound optimism has at an all-time high. Household income is rising, Ours is a world of nuclear Americans buying and investing again. largely because more people have jobs and are giants and ethical infants.” Omar Bradley, working more hours. Most economists say Trump quoted in Chattanooga, Tenn., The economy is certainly humming, said Keith “has had little to do with the rebound,” but voters Times Free Press Boykin in CNN.com. But job growth under don’t understand the subtleties of economic policy “Some will not look on suf- Trump—averaging 174,000 jobs per month—is and usually associate the weight of their purse with fering because it creates actually lower than the 2016 monthly average of the man in the White House. Look—if the econ- responsibility.” 190,000 under Obama. When Obama took office, omy were now slumping, everyone would be blam- Fulton Sheen, quoted in the economy was losing 800,000 jobs a month ing Trump, said Monica Showalter in American ArtsJournal.com and the Dow Jones had plunged to below 8,000; Thinker.com. Since it’s doing so well, it’s only fair “Language is not just it was he who pulled the country out of the Great to say that “this economy is Trump’s economy.” a creation of humanity. It is humanity.” Biologist E.O. Wilson, quoted in The American Scholar The media: A damaging spate of mistakes “We construct borders, President Trump spent last weekend “moonlighting errors weren’t “remotely malicious,” and they were literally and figuratively, to fortify our sense in one of his favorite jobs: media critic,” said Brent quickly corrected. Trump, in contrast, has spewed of who we are.” Griffiths in Politico.com. The president seized on out hundreds of falsehoods—claiming President Historian Frances Stonor three reporting mistakes by news organizations Obama tapped his phones, for example, or that Saunders, quoted in that he described as “purposely false” and a “stain millions of people voted illegally in the election— The New York Times on America.” The biggest blunder came from and has never corrected a single one. How can you CNN, whose source wrongly claimed that Trump shriek “Fake News!” when you’re a fake yourself? campaign officials were emailed an encryption key Trump’s only goal is to delegitimize the press—one Poll watch to access hacked Democratic National Committee of the few institutions capable of constraining ■■70% of Americans think emails before WikiLeaks published them online. his power, said Damon Linker in TheWeek.com. that Congress should In fact, the email had been sent the day after their That’s “authoritarian” behavior, “more common investigate the accusations publication. Trump called CNN “out of control” to dictators than American presidents.” of sexual harassment and and demanded that ABC fire reporter Brian Ross, assault against President who was suspended for botching the timing of Trump’s attacks on the media often go too far, Trump, while 25% disagree. events in another Russia-related report. The presi- said Mary Katherine Ham in TheFederalist.com, Just 39% of Republicans dent also called for the firing of a Washington but they’re effective because trust in the media think Congress should Post reporter who had tweeted—and then quickly is already low. Most conservatives gave up on investigate, compared with deleted—a misleading photo of a near-empty arena CNN, ABC News, The Washington Post, and 86% of Democrats. Quinnipiac University at a recent Trump rally. Trump is “winning the other mainstream news organizations years ago. Fake News wars,” said Adriana Cohen in the Bos- Clustered in big coastal cities, these organizations ■■69% of Americans would ton Herald. He has always insisted the mainstream are staffed by reporters and editors who “share skip exchanging Christmas media is biased against him—and these rushed the same viewpoints and biases” and show little gifts if their friends and “botch jobs” prove him right. interest in representing the views and problems of family agreed to it. 43% people in rural red states. Unless media companies say they feel pressured by the tradition to spend more “These were big mistakes, no question,” said Rex realize that their trust and credibility problem than they can afford to. Huppke in the Chicago Tribune. “But in journal- “predates” Trump—and take steps to address it— Harris Poll
Getty ism, as in any business, mistakes happen.” The it will remain long after he leaves office.
THE WEEK December 22/December 29, 2017
17 TP 2.indd 17 12/13/17 12:14 PM 18 NEWS The year in review
is broken in our country can be fixed,” obstructed Trump tells lawmakers. “The time for justice. In a trivial fights is behind us.” meeting in the Oval Office, MARCH Trump report- Trump fires off a string of early-morning edly tells two tweets alleging that his predecessor, Russian offi- President Obama, “had my ‘wires tapped’ cials, “I faced in Trump Tower just before the victory... great pressure Bad (or sick) guy!” FBI Director James because of Comey testifies before Congress that there Russia,” and by Trump and the Saudi orb firing “nut job” Trump at his inauguration: ‘America first’ is “no evidence” of improper wiretapping by the Obama administration, but confirms Comey, “that’s taken off.” The pressure that the FBI is investigating possible col- returns when Deputy Attorney General JANUARY Rod Rosenstein appoints former FBI In Washington, D.C., beneath a cold lusion between the Trump campaign and Director Robert Mueller as special counsel drizzle, Donald J. Trump, 70, is sworn in Russia. Meanwhile, lack of support forces to pick up the investigation. As the political as 45th president of the United States. In Speaker Paul Ryan to withdraw a draft storm clouds gather, Trump departs on a his inaugural address, Trump vows always bill to repeal and replace the Affordable whirlwind tour of the Middle East, where to put “America first” and paints a dark Care Act, aka Obamacare, which candidate he enjoys a lavish red-carpet reception in picture of a nation overrun with drugs, Trump had promised to repeal on “Day Saudi Arabia and joins King Salman in crime, and violence. “This American car- One.” The Congressional Budget Office embracing a glowing orb symbolizing unity. nage stops right here and stops right now,” had estimated the House bill would leave he pledges. “That was some weird s--t,” 24 million more mutters former President George W. Bush Americans without JUNE as dignitaries file off the dais. In his first health insurance Comey: In Virginia, a leftist gunman opens fire briefing, press secretary Sean Spicer lacer- than the current Fired over on GOP House members practicing for ates the media for reporting that Trump’s law. “Doing big ‘this Russia the annual congressional baseball game, inauguration crowd was far smaller than things is thing’ wounding five before police shoot him President Barack Obama’s and insists hard,” dead. Most seriously injured is Rep. Steve (falsely) that this was “the largest audience Ryan con- Scalise, House Majority Whip, who is hos- ever to witness an inauguration, period.” cedes. pitalized in critical condition. In congressio- The day following the inauguration, an nal testimony, Comey gives his account of estimated 500,000 marchers descend on APRIL the events that led to his firing, saying that Washington to protest the new president. In Syria, President Bashar al-Assad orders shortly after the inauguration, the president Fearing that it undermines his legitimacy, a nerve-gas attack that kills more than 80 asked for his “loyalty.” At a subsequent the new president heatedly disputes the civilians, including many children. While meeting in the Oval Office, Comey claims, conclusion of U.S. intelligence services having dinner at Mar-a-Lago, his Florida Trump cleared the room and told Comey, that Russia worked to help Trump win club, President Trump responds by ordering “I hope you can see your way clear to let- the 2016 election over Hillary Clinton, a cruise-missile strike on a Syrian airfield. ting this go, to letting Flynn go.” The presi- partly by stealing and leaking emails stolen In Washington, the Senate votes 54-45 to dent’s lawyers dispute Comey’s story, and from the Democratic National Committee. confirm Gorsuch to the Supreme Court. on Twitter Trump declares, “You are wit- Trump says reports of possible collusion As promised, President Trump withdraws nessing the single greatest WITCH HUNT between his campaign staff and Russia are the U.S. from the so-called Paris accord in American political history.” “fake news,” adding via Twitter: “I have limiting carbon emissions, explaining, “I nothing to do with Russia!” was elected to represent the citizens of JULY Pittsburgh, not Paris.” The witch hunt gains more traction with FEBRUARY the news that Trump’s son, Donald Jr., Trump declares war on the press, tweeting MAY arranged a meeting at Trump Tower in that the mainstream media is “the enemy In Washington, the House passes the lat- June 2016 between campaign staff and of the American People.” Undeterred, est GOP health-care bill. Even though a Russian lawyer who claimed to have The Washington Post reports that wiretap the Senate has not yet weighed in, Trump damaging information about Clinton. evidence shows that Gen. Michael Flynn, marks its passage with a celebration in the “I love it!” Trump Jr. responded to the Trump’s national security adviser, had dis- White House Rose Garden, telling assem- offer of dirt. In Iraq, U.S. air cussed the lifting of sanctions with Russia’s bled Republicans, “I’m the president. Can power helps Iraqi security ambassador prior to the inauguration—and you believe it?” Behind the scenes, Trump forces recapture the city of lied about it. Flynn submits his resignation. fumes over the ongoing Russia probe and Mosul, seized by ISIS fight- Trump delights conservatives by nominat- decides to fire Comey as FBI director. The ers three years earlier— ing Neil Gorsuch, 49, to fill the late Justice White House offers shifting explanations a major blow to the terror- Antonin Scalia’s seat on the Supreme for Comey’s dismissal—with Spicer, ist group. In Washington, Court; Gorsuch restores the shaky, 5-4 con- at one point, hiding in the bushes in servative advantage on the court. After a the White House garden to escape tumultuous first month in office, the presi- reporters. But Trump tells NBC’s dent addresses a joint session of Congress, Lester Holt that “this Russia thing” winning praise for his upbeat rhetoric and motivated his decision, which crit- The
presidential demeanor. “Everything that ics say is an admission that he Mooch AP (4)
THE WEEK December 22/December 29, 2017
18-19 Year in Review.indd 18 12/13/17 12:26 PM The year in review NEWS 19
Obamacare wins another reprieve when and buildings, and James Toback, and comedian Louis Sen. John McCain gives a dramatic then slams C.K. In the world of television, CBS thumbs-down to the latest Senate repeal into Florida, fires veteran interviewer Charlie bill. Trump hires Anthony Scaramucci, prompt- Rose for sexual misconduct, while 53, a colorful Wall Street trading legend, ing the NBC severs ties with political con- as communications director, prompting largest mass tributor Mark Halperin and Matt After Maria’s devastation Sean Spicer to resign. Scaramucci gives evacuation in Lauer, longtime host of the Today show. an unguarded, expletive-riddled interview state history. A new hurricane, Maria, then The spreading scandal also reaches into to The New Yorker, saying that unlike devastates Puerto Rico, leaving most of the the world of politics. Democratic Sen. Al Steve Bannon, Trump’s self-promoting island without electricity or running water. Franken faces allegations of groping and chief strategist, “I’m not trying to suck forcible kissing, while veteran Democrat my own c--k.” Trump fires Scaramucci OCTOBER Rep. John Conyers is revealed to have and also dismisses embattled White House In Las Vegas, professional gambler Stephen used taxpayer funds to pay off a staff Chief of Staff Reince Priebus, a man Paddock, 64, breaks the windows of his member who alleged sexual harassment. Scaramucci described as a “f---ing paranoid suite at the Mandalay Bay hotel and rains In Alabama, ahead of a special election schizophrenic.” gunfire down into the crowd at an open- to fill Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ air country music festival. Before taking vacated Senate seat, Republican candidate his own life, Paddock kills 58 and injures Roy Moore denies reports that in his 30s 564 in the deadliest mass he was a predator of shooting by a single gunman high-school girls; two in U.S. history. In Syria, a women say he molested U.S.-backed militia group them, one when she recaptures the city of Raqqa, was 14. The Republican the Islamic State’s de facto National Committee capital. ISIS now controls initially cuts off funding only about 10 percent of the to Moore’s campaign, White supremacists march into Charlottesville. territory it held at its peak but reverses that deci- in 2014. President Trump sion after President AUGUST travels to Puerto Rico, which Women at a #MeToo march Trump endorses Moore. Trump taps retired Marine Gen. John Kelly is still without power, and is “Roy Moore denies it,” to be his new chief of staff, and Bannon— criticized for telling locals that the cost of explains Trump. “He totally denies it.” who had encouraged Trump’s nationalist helping the struggling island has “thrown and anti-establishment rhetoric—announces our budget a little out of whack.” Wildfires DECEMBER his resignation. Both moves raise hopes rip through the winemaking region of The White House is rocked by the news of a new stability in the president’s inner Northern California. Special counsel that Gen. Flynn is pleading guilty to having circle. North Korea develops a miniaturized Mueller files the first charges in the Russia lied to the FBI and says he is cooperating nuclear weapon that can fit atop a missile, probe, indicting former Trump campaign with Mueller’s investigation. Amid reports and Trump vows to unleash a “fire and manager Paul Manafort on money- that Mueller is examining team Trump’s fury like the world has never seen.” The laundering and conspiracy charges. George financial records, the president’s defenders president ignites a new political firestorm Papadopoulos, a former foreign policy on Fox News and in other conservative after a “Unite the Right” rally of white adviser to the campaign, pleads guilty to media question Mueller’s integrity and supremacists in Charlottesville, Va., where lying to the FBI and reveals he’s cooperat- fairness and call for him to be fired. The a neo-Nazi drives a car into a crowd of ing with the investigation. Hollywood is House and Senate, meanwhile, pass two anti-racist protesters, killing Heather Heyer, rocked when The New York Times and slightly different tax-cut bills that would 32. Trump blames “both sides” for the vio- The New Yorker detail decades of sexual mostly benefit corporations and businesses, lence and says that among the “alt-right” harassment, assault, and rape allegations and race to reconcile them. Democratic marchers were some “very fine people.” against powerful Miramax producer Sen. Franken and Rep. Conyers both Hurricane Harvey barrels into Texas and Harvey Weinstein. As if a dam has broken, announce they’re stepping down—as does Louisiana, unleashing more than 50 inches hundreds of women come forward with GOP Rep. Trent Franks, who admits hav- of rain and submerging much of Houston. tales of abuse by powerful men in many ing asked female staffers if they would More than 50 people are killed and industries, using the hashtag #MeToo to bear his children as surrogate mothers. In a 200,000 homes damaged or destroyed. share their stories on social media. move that shakes the Middle East, Trump delivers on a campaign promise and for- SEPTEMBER NOVEMBER mally recognizes Jerusalem as the capital of The name-calling between Trump and The American carnage continues. At a Israel. He also makes good on his pledge Kim Jong Un escalates. In a speech to the church in Sutherland Springs, Texas, to wish the nation “Merry U.N. General Assembly, Trump refers to Devin Patrick Kelley, 26, shoots dead 25 Christmas,” rather than Kim as “Little Rocket Man” and threatens men, women, and children with a semi- “Happy Holidays.” to “totally destroy” North Korea. Kim automatic rifle. After an armed civilian fires “Christmas is back,” responds by promising to “tame the men- at him outside the church, Kelley flees and says Trump tally deranged U.S. dotard with fire.” In is later found dead of a self-inflicted gun- in Utah, the Caribbean and the south Atlantic, a shot. Meanwhile, the #MeToo movement “bigger brutal hurricane season reaches its peak. gains momentum, as people step forward and better Hurricane Irma devastates the U.S. Virgin with stories of harassment and abuse by than ever
AP, Getty, Newscom, AP Newscom, Getty, AP, Islands, damaging 95 percent of roads actor Kevin Spacey, directors Brett Ratner before.” The Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem
THE WEEK December 22/December 29, 2017
18-19 Year in Review.indd 19 12/12/17 3:49 PM 20 NEWS End-of-year quiz Here are 40 questions to test your knowledge of the year’s events
Making America Great Whose campaign does Dunham 1. President Trump’s infamous line say ignored her warning? “You’re fired!” was taken to another level this year, as more than a dozen Oddities high-ranking advisers and Cabinet 10. Which airline was widely officials were forced out or quit. criticized after security officers Name the outspoken White House were videoed forcibly dragging official who was fastest to be ushered a screaming, bloodied passenger out, after just 10 days. off an overbooked flight when he refused to give up his seat? 2. In June, Trump explained a major reversal of previous U.S. policy by 11. Americans became reac- saying, “I was elected to represent quainted with this 14th-century the citizens of Pittsburgh, not Paris.” English term for a senile old per- To what was he referring? son after North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un used the word to 3. After the Trump administration’s insult Trump. first two travel bans were blocked in Kim: Nuclear tests, ICBM launches, and colorful insults the courts, the White House added these 12. This foreign leader engaged in two non-Muslim nations to counter argu- 6. Name the targets of the following a bizarre handshake with Trump ments the order was motivated by animus tweeted Trump insults: that turned into a 29-second against a particular religion. “The WORST abuser of women in U.S. wrestling match of yanking and political history” pulling in which neither man 4. When Trump fired FBI Director James “One of the most over-rated actresses would let go. Comey, what reason did the president in Hollywood” originally cite in the letter he released to “The enemy of the American People” 13. Who coined the the public? phrase “alternative facts” (a) Comey had refused to drop an inves- The partisan fray in defending Trump’s tigation into national security adviser 7. Who was the Republican who gave insistence that his inaugural Michael Flynn. a dramatic thumbs-down to defeat the crowd was far larger than (b) Comey had publicly criticized Hillary GOP’s “Skinny Repeal” bill to undo the photos would indicate? Clinton during the campaign for her use of large parts of Obamacare? a private email server. 14. Two protesters stormed the (c) Comey was “biased” 8. Danica Roem, who campaigned mostly stage during a play in Central against Russia. on local issues, was elected to the Virginia Park’s Delacorte Theater this House of Delegates this year, defeating an summer, shouting, “This is vio- 5. Several Trump cam- incumbent who called himself the state’s lence against Donald Trump!” paign associates found “chief homophobe.” What made Roem’s What was the play? themselves in hot water election historic? after failing to 15. Which former profes- disclose meet- 9. Writer and actress Lena Dunham says sional wrestler and current film ings with the that in 2016 she warned top aides to this star was touted by columnists then Russian prominent politician not to accept support on both the Left and Right as a ambassador and contributions from producer Harvey Making “self-made American hero” and to the U.S. Weinstein because “Harvey’s a rapist, and history potential presidential candidate You’re all fired! Name him. it’s going to come out at some point.” in Virginia in 2020?
The year in covers 1 2 3 4
Name the news stories from 2017 that inspired these covers of The Week. AP (2), Getty
THE WEEK December 22/December 29, 2017
20-21 Quiz.indd 20 12/12/17 2:27 PM End-of-year quiz NEWS 21
Whose Wit & Wisdom?
George Orwell Marilynne Robinson Samuel Adams Annie Proulx James Baldwin 1. “There is nothing so fretting and vexatious, nothing so justly terrible to tyrants, and their tools and abettors, as a free press.” 2. “You think your pain and your heartbreak are unprecedented in the history of the world, but then you read.” 3. “There is no crime, absolutely none, that cannot be condoned when ‘our’ side commits it.” 4. “The happy ending still beckons, and it is in great hope of grasping it that we go on.” 5. “A society is moving toward dangerous ground when loyalty to the truth is seen as disloyalty to some supposedly higher interest.”
International Arts and letters 25. A worker at what major tech firm set 16. How many intercontinental ballistic 20. After a historic mix-up at the 2017 off a firestorm of outrage this summer by missiles did the “Little Rocket Man” in Oscars led to three premature acceptance authoring a memo arguing that hiring or North Korea test this year? speeches from the producers of La La promoting people to create gender and Land, this film was named the real winner racial diversity is “unfair, divisive, and bad 17. There was a celebration in the parlia- of the Academy Award for Best Picture. for business”? ment and dancing in the streets when this southern African leader resigned after 21. Historian Ron Chernow this year pub- 26. Which U.S. state agreed to give 37 years in power. Who is he and what lished an acclaimed biography that largely Taiwan-based Foxconn $3 billion in tax country did he lead? rehabilitates the reputation of which breaks, subsidies, and other incentives to American president? build a factory there to make LCD panels 18. What European region voted for inde- for TVs and computers? pendence, prompting a police crackdown 22. Salvator Mundi, a painting dating to and sending the separatist leaders fleeing circa 1500, smashed auction records in 27. Which major credit bureau suffered to Brussels? November when a Saudi Arabian buyer a massive cyberhack, exposing the Social bid a whopping $450.3 million for it. Security numbers, birthdays, and other Who supposedly painted it? personal data of 143 million Americans?
23. In March, the iconic They said it Wall Street bull got 28. “It’s a shame the White House has company: a bronze statue become an adult day-care center.” commissioned by invest- ment firm State Street 29. “The statue of justice has a blindfold Global Advisors to on because you’re not supposed to be publicize the need peeking out to see if your patron is pleased for more women on with what you’re doing.” corporate boards of directors. What is the 30. “No parent should ever have to decide statue called? if they can afford to save their child’s life. Rohingya refugees awaiting a food distribution It just shouldn’t happen. Not here.” Dollars and cents 19. More than half a million Rohingya, a 24. Apple’s iPhone celebrated 31. “Women have been talking about Muslim minority group, fled a brutal cam- what milestone this year? Harvey [Weinstein] amongst ourselves for paign of ethnic cleansing in Myanmar this a long time, and it’s simply beyond time to
year. Where did they go? Taking no bull from Wall Street have the conversation publicly.”
The Harv Harv The massacre shooting Vegas Las The indictment of Paul Manafort Paul of indictment The erupts scandal assault sexual Weinstein ey 3. 3. 4. 4.
The The accord climate Paris the of out U.S. the pulling he’s announces Trump Robinson Marilynne Novelist Proulx Annie 2. 1. covers in year The 5.
Novelist Novelist Orwell George Author Baldwin James Author Adams Samuel father Founding Judd Ashley Kimmel 4. 3. 2. 1. Wisdom? ’n’ Wit Whose 31.
Jimmy Jimmy Comey James Director FBI Former Corker Bob Sen. Equifax Wisconsin Google birthday 10th Its 30. 30. 29. 28. it said They 27. 26. 25. 24.
Girl Fearless Vinci da Leonardo Grant S. Ulysses Moonlight Bangladesh in camp refugee massive Dollars and cents and Dollars 23. 22. 21. 20. letters and Arts
To a a To Spain Catalonia, Zimbabwe Mugabe, Robert Three Johnson Rock” “The Dwayne Caesar Julius Conway 19. 18. 17. 16. International 15. 14.
Kellyanne Kellyanne Macron Emmanuel President French Dotard Airlines United Clinton Hillary transgender She’s McCain 13. 12. 11. 10. Oddities 9. 8.
John John media news” “fake the Streep, Meryl Clinton, Bill President Former Kislyak Sergey (b) Venezuela and Korea . 7. fray partisan The 6. 5. 4.
North North agreement climate Paris the from Withdrawing Scaramucci Anthony director Communications 3. 2. 1. Great America Making ANSWERS Newscom (2), AP, Newscom (2), Reuters, AP (2), Reuters, Newscom AP, (2), Newscom
THE WEEK December 22/December 29, 2017
20-21 Quiz.indd 21 12/12/17 2:27 PM 22 NEWS Pick of the week’s cartoons
THE WEEK December 22/December 29, 2017 For more political cartoons, visit: www.theweek.com/cartoons.
22-23 cartoon spread.indd 22 12/12/17 2:31 PM Pick of the week’s cartoons NEWS 23
THE WEEK December 22/December 29, 2017
22-23 cartoon spread.indd 23 12/12/17 2:31 PM 24 NEWS Poll watch The way we were in 2017 We lost faith in our leaders and football, but remained loyal to snacks and TV
How are we feeling? racism is a big problem in the U.S., Troubled. 59% of Americans say a 30-point rise from 2011 (Pew Re- we’re at the lowest point in our coun- search Center). 64% say the same try’s history that they can remember, about sexual harassment in the and 63% say concerns about the workplace (Washington Post/ABC nation’s future are a major source of News). Many worry about how au- stress in their lives (American Psycho- tomation is shaking up society: 35% logical Association). Many fear that think they might lose their job to a partisan politics is splitting the coun- robot (Ipsos). Still, some seem happy try in two: 70% say the nation’s po- to outsource human tasks to autom- litical divide is at least as big as dur- atons: If it were possible to have sex ing the Vietnam War and 39% think with robots, 24% of men would con- this lack of unity is the new normal sider taking one to bed (YouGov). (Washington Post/University of Mary- land). If the Founding Fathers were How do we relax? alive today, 79% think, they’d be dis- By grabbing a bite. 55% snack two Clockwise: Division, the divider, North Korean launch, bingeing appointed with the U.S. (Fox News). to three times a day—up from 50% Yet there are some causes for optimism. 43% believe the economy in 2015—and 24% admit they reach for the cookies when they is good or excellent, the highest number in a decade (CNBC), and need to de-stress (Mintel). TV also helps us chill out. 73% engage 58% say they’re moving closer to realizing their career and financial in epic binge-watching sessions, staying glued to the screen for three aspirations—the highest number since 2013 (Bloomberg). hours or more (Deloitte). And we don’t just do our watching at home: 37% of Netflix subscribers have used the streaming service Whom do we blame for America’s problems? to catch up on a show while ostensibly at work, and 12% while in For many, it’s the man in the Oval Office. 66% say he’s done more a public bathroom (SurveyMonkey). For many Americans, football to divide than unite the country (ABC News/Washington Post). Yet no longer serves as a diversion from politics: 77% say it’s wrong his core support remains solid: 22% of Americans say they’d still for players to take the knee during the national anthem, and 62% approve of Trump even if he shot someone on Manhattan’s 5th say they plan to watch less pro football because of the controversy Avenue (Public Policy Polling). The presidency isn’t the only institu- (Yahoo Finance). tion that’s slumped in the eyes of the public. 81% have an unfavor- able opinion of Congress (Gallup) and 45% say they have almost What are we afraid of? no confidence in the press (Reuters/Ipsos). Indeed, 65% think the A lot. 73% are concerned that North Korea will launch a nuclear mainstream media is filled with “fake news” produced by agenda- attack on the U.S. or its allies (Investor’s Business Daily/TIPP), and driven partisans on both the left and right (Harvard-Harris). But 76% are worried the U.S. will become involved in a major war many Americans might not accept that finding: 61% say they don’t in the next three years (NBC News/SurveyMonkey). 38% are less trust public opinion polls (NPR/PBS News Hour/Marist). likely to attend events that draw large crowds because of their fear of terrorism, and 46% are afraid to travel overseas for the same How has society changed? reason (Gallup). Some fears are a bit more irrational: 48% believe a In some areas, we’re more accepting of diversity. A record 60% “deep state” of bureaucrats and intelligence officials is trying to ma- support same-sex marriage (NBC News/Wall Street Journal), and nipulate national policy (Washington Post/ABC News). And 28% 61% are OK with transgender people serving in the military (CBS worry that a worldwide epidemic of an as yet unknown disease News/YouGov). But discrimination hasn’t disappeared: 58% say might turn people into zombie-like creatures (YouGov).
It must be true...The best of the tabloids in 2017 ■ An Arizona man has put his family ranch says Seary (pronounced SEER-ey), 21, co- hair. He ignites the mixture with a lighter, up for sale because he’s fed up with extra- workers and friends have been giving her and quickly styles the blazing hairdo with terrestrial intruders. John Edmonds claims orders as if she were a machine. “It would his hands and two combs. Edwan, 37, says he’s encountered dozens of aliens trespass- be, ‘Siri, do this, Siri do that,’ and now they his technique stimulates the scalp, because ing on his 10-acre desert property over the do the same thing with Alexa,” she says. heat is “good for blood circulation.” past 20 years, and that they once attempted Seary says she laughed the first few times, ■ Brazil’s worst soccer team has started to abduct his wife “and tried to draw her but the joke got old fast. winning games—and its fans are furious. up into the craft.” Edmonds recommends ■ A Palestinian barber has Íbis Sport’s supporters are proud of its that anyone interested in the $5 million developed an unusual way reputation as the “worst team in the world” ranch “be very well grounded, because the to straighten customers’ and were shocked when the club energy here has the tendency to manifest hair: He sets their locks broke its two-year losing streak by with whatever is going on with you.” on fire. Lacking reliable winning three straight matches. Fans ■ A New Jersey woman says her life is a electricity for a hair dry- stormed a bar where players were “waking nightmare” because her name— er, Ramadan Edwan celebrating and demanded they stop Alexa Seary—sounds identical to the two starts by pouring flam- scoring goals. A fan complained Íbis most popular virtual assistants: Amazon mable powder and was becoming “just another winning Echo’s Alexa and Apple’s Siri. For years, liquid onto a customer’s team,” adding, “It’s the coach’s fault.” AP (2), Getty, AP, Alamy AP, AP (2), Getty,
THE WEEK December 22/December 29, 2017
24 PollWatch.indd 24 12/12/17 2:45 PM
26 NEWS Health... Some of the things they said were good for us... hear a lot of people talk about light at night never married had a 42 percent higher risk being bad,” says study author Kenneth for this form of mental decline than those Wright. “We think a lack of light during the who tied the knot. Married couples tend to day might be just as harmful.” encourage each other to stay active, follow a healthy diet, limit alcohol consumption, Chile peppers may help you live longer. and stop smoking—habits associated with a In a study involving 16,000 people over reduced risk for dementia. “Staying physi- about two decades, University of Vermont cally, mentally, and socially active are all researchers found that those who important aspects of a healthy lifestyle,” routinely ate the hot pods were says Laura Phipps of Alzheimer’s 13 percent less likely to die Research U.K. “These are things during that period than those everyone, regardless of their marital Dogs help their owners live longer, who didn’t. They suspect that status, can work towards.” healthier lives. A Swedish study involving capsaicin, the active ingredi- more than 3.4 million participants found ent that gives peppers their Breakfast could be the most that people with a pooch had a lower risk heat, might boost metabolism important meal of the day. A study of cardiovascular disease and premature and help prevent obesity, high involving 4,052 healthy men and death. The link was especially pronounced blood pressure, inflammation, women found that those who gen- among people who lived alone: Those and cancer. Co-author Mustafa erally didn’t eat when they got up with dogs were 33 percent less likely to die Chopan says eating chiles, or in the morning were more likely to early, and 11 percent less likely to suffer a even just spicy food, “may become a develop atherosclerosis, or clogged arter- heart attack. Co-author Tove Fall says dog dietary recommendation.” ies. Researchers say this is likely because owners are likely healthier because their breakfast-skippers tend to eat more calories pets are a “good motivation to get out and Coffee does more than wake you up. Two and unhealthy foods later in the day. “If exercise.” Dogs may also strengthen the large studies involving diverse groups of you have a heartier breakfast,” says co- immune system; a separate study found that adults found that people with a daily cof- author Prakash Deedwania, “you will have babies exposed to canine pets have higher fee habit were less likely to die from heart healthier arteries.” levels of gut bacteria associated with a disease, stroke, diabetes, or cancer. Over reduced risk for allergies and obesity. a study period of 16 years, people who Running for a couple of hours each week drank two to four cups of joe a day—decaf could reduce the risk of early death by Camping could help cure the grogginess or regular—were 18 percent less likely to nearly 40 percent. After analyzing existing and lethargy associated with poor sleep. In die. Researchers believe the drink’s health evidence on the link between exercise and a University of Colorado, Boulder study, benefits stem from its complex mixture longevity, researchers calculated that one volunteers who went camping for a week- of powerful disease-fighting antioxidants. hour of running—even at a slow pace— end slept almost two hours longer than “Drinking a couple cups of coffee a day lengthens life expectancy by seven hours. normal during the trip; on their return, their doesn’t do you any harm,” says study This adds up over time; people who run melatonin levels started rising more than author Marc Gunter, “and actually, it might regularly tend to live about three years lon- two and a half hours earlier than before. be doing you some good.” ger than their nonrunning peers, the study Researchers believe this is because increased found. Co-author Duck-chul Lee cautions exposure to natural light helps reverse the Marriage could help ward off dementia. that these gains “are not infinite”—life adverse effects that modern indoor lifestyles An analysis of 15 studies involving more expectancy improvements plateau after have on the body’s internal clock. “You than 800,000 people found that those who about four hours of running a week.
The big scientific breakthroughs of 2017... Landmark gene therapy Paralyzed man moves thought about moving my arm and I could The Food and Drink Administration An experimental brain implant has enabled move it,” says Kochevar. “I’m still wowed approved the first “living drug,” a medi- a man who is paralyzed from the neck every time I do something.” cine that genetically reprograms patients’ down to pick up a coffee and take a sip. immune cells to seek and destroy cancer. Bill Kochevar, 56, had been unable to Curing peanut allergies The gene-altering therapy, which is mar- move his hands or arms after suffering a New research into a promising keted as Kymriah, was cleared as a last- cycling accident eight years ago. Scientists form of treatment for peanut resort treatment for children and young fitted him with two sets of electrodes—one allergy suggests this common adults with an aggressive form of leukemia. in his brain, the other in his arm—and and potentially fatal condition The decision came after a pivotal clinical linked them to a computer. The com- could one day be a thing of the trial in which 83 percent of 63 critically puter then turned his brain signals into past. Back in 2013, scientists in ill patients who were given the treatment electrical impulses and sent them to the Australia gave 56 children with rapidly became cancer-free. “We’re entering muscle-stimulating electrodes in his arm. the allergy either a daily dose a new frontier in medical innovation,” says This “neuro-prosthetic” system effectively of peanut protein combined
FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb. bypasses his damaged spinal cord. “I with probiotics, or a placebo. (2), Getty Newscom
THE WEEK December 22/December 29, 2017
26-27 HeathScience.indd 26 12/12/17 2:39 PM ...& Science NEWS 27 ...and some of the things we were told to avoid Diet fads may be doing more harm than depression, memory loss, and problems good. In a bid to clear up the confusion with speech and vision. A separate study over what is and isn’t healthy, research- found that children who play youth football ers examined 25 studies involving tens of are twice as likely to have problems with thousands of participants. They found that self-control, judgment, and problem solving. many of the latest nutritional trends involve “Head impacts can lead to long-term conse- significant health risks: Coconut oil is high quences,” says co-author Robert Stern. “We in artery-clogging saturated fat; juicing con- should be doing what we can at all levels in centrates sugars and makes it easier to con- all sports to minimize these repeated hits.” sume too many calories; and many gluten- free foods are high in processed carbohy- Tattoo ink contains dangerous contami- drates, which are linked to a higher risk for nants that can potentially affect the body’s type 2 diabetes. Andrew Freeman, who led immune system. In a small study involving the research, says the ideal diet is “mostly six subjects, French researchers found that Binge-watching leads to sleep prob- plant based,” predominantly consisting of those with tattoos had elevated levels of lems. American and Belgian researchers “fruits, vegetables, [and] whole grains.” various metals—including titanium, alumi- asked 423 young adults about their TV num, chromium, iron, nickel, and copper— and sleeping habits. They found that those Social media is making people lonely. in their skin and lymph nodes. These who watched back-to-back episodes of Sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and findings suggest that potentially harmful their favorite shows in one sitting had a Instagram were designed to help people pigment particles go much deeper than the 98 percent higher risk for poor sleep, and connect, but a University of Pittsburgh skin. “When someone wants to get a tattoo, were more likely to suffer from fatigue and study found that spending too much time they are often vary careful in choosing a insomnia. “Bingeable TV shows have plots on them could intensify feelings of isolation. parlor where they use sterile needles,” says that keep the viewer tied to the screen,” When researchers surveyed 1,787 adults, co-author Hiram Castillo. “No one checks says lead author Liese Exelmans. “We think ages 19 to 32, they found that those who the chemical composition of the colors.” they become intensely involved with the used social media for more than two hours content, and may keep thinking about it a day were twice as likely to report high Keeping secrets can lead to stress, when they want to go to sleep.” levels of loneliness than those who did so sleep loss, and other unhealthy conse- for less than 30 minutes a day. Study leader quences. Researchers at Columbia University Red meat increases the risk of death Brian Primack describes his findings as a asked 2,000 people what secrets they kept from eight major diseases. In a National “cautionary tale” for social media users. and how often they thought about them. Cancer Institute study of 537,000 adults On average, participants kept 13, between ages 50 and 71 over 16 years, Football is even more danger- including five they never revealed researchers found that those who ate the ous than previously thought. A to anyone. The more time most red meat had a 26 percent greater risk Boston University study found they spent ruminating over of dying from cancer, heart disease, stroke, that 110 of 111 NFL players these secrets, the less healthy diabetes, kidney disease, liver disease, or who donated their brains to they said they were. “When lung disease. They speculate that heme iron science had chronic traumatic people were thinking about in red meats and nitrates in cured meats encephalopathy, a disease their secrets,” says lead author trigger oxidative stress, which damages that causes the brain to waste Michael Slepian, “they actually cells. “Mortality is higher with higher meat away over time, and which acted as if they were burdened intake for every major cause of death except has been linked to aggression, by physical weight.” Alzheimer’s,” says researcher John Potter. ...from gene therapy to a peanut allergy cure After 18 months, 82 percent of those who known as a kilonova, took place 130 mil- Giza’s hidden chamber received the treatment could tolerate pea- lion years ago. It created a flash of intense The Great Pyramid of Giza is still revealing nuts, compared with just 4 percent of the light and a burst of gravitational waves— its secrets, more than 4,500 years after it placebo group. A follow-up this year found faint ripples in the fabric of space-time— was built. Using a new imaging technique that 70 percent of those who had received that reached Earth in August. Until then, called muon radiography, scientists detected the protein-probiotic were still essentially astronomers had identified gravitational a massive void inside the Egyptian structure allergy-free. The treatment, which needs waves only from the collision of black measuring 98 feet long and 26 feet high. larger trials, reprograms the body’s immune holes, which aren’t visible. But the kilonova The purpose of this hidden space, which system to become tolerant of peanuts. produced a cosmic fireworks display of is situated above two burial chambers, gamma rays, radio waves, X-rays, and vis- remains a mystery. But the researchers who Seeing the universe ible light. Researcher Laura Cadonati said discovered it believe it must be there for a Astronomers this year watched two neutron it was like “the transition from looking at a reason. “When you know the pyramid, and stars colliding in a far-off galaxy, a land- black-and-white picture of a volcano to sit- you know the perfection of the pyramid,” mark moment that ushers in a new era for ting in a 3-D IMAX movie that shows the they wrote, “it’s very strange to imagine
Newscom, Getty Newscom, space research. The cataclysmic collision, explosion of Mount Vesuvius.” that [this was an] accident.”
THE WEEK December 22/December 29, 2017
26-27 HeathScience.indd 27 12/12/17 2:39 PM 28 NEWS Technology
Cryptocurrencies: The incredible bitcoin bubble “It’s a bull market with few precedents in also a factor in the enthusiasm. But it’s also recent investing history,” said Nathaniel very possible that this is simply an “unprec- Popper in The New York Times. The digital edentedly dumb bubble built on ludicrous currency bitcoin has “skyrocketed” over speculation.” Whatever the reason, the days the past two months, leaving even its big- when bitcoin was associated with online gest champions “dumbstruck.” This week, drug dealers and others who prized its ano- the value of a single bitcoin briefly topped nymity feel long gone, said Renae Merle $17,000, just two months after it crossed in The Washington Post. Last week, the $5,000 for the first time; in January, it accounting firm PwC said it had accepted was trading for about $800. An electronic bitcoin as payment for services for the first crypto cur rency with no physical denomi- time. This week brought another “land- nations, bitcoin exists and changes hands mark” event: The Chicago Board Options via the internet, with new coins created by Even believers anticipate a crash. Exchange began trading bitcoin futures for “miners” all over the world who use powerful computers to the first time. These developments give the currency a “veneer of verify and approve other users’ bitcoin transactions on what’s legitimacy” and will only push it further “into the mainstream.” known as the blockchain. Most people now buying bitcoin are doing so in the belief that it will only increase in popularity and If you ask me, bitcoin is “still a dumb investment. In fact, desirability. “The gains, though, have many people, even bitcoin dumber than ever,” said Michael Hiltzik in the Los Angeles believers, anticipating a big crash.” Times. Its recent rise “has outpaced almost all the great bubbles of the past,” from the 1990s dot-com bubble to the 1980s There are “countless theories about why bitcoin’s valuation has boom-bust in Japanese stocks, and even the 1720 crash of the gone berserk,” said Derek Thompson in The Atlantic. The most South Sea Co. “The only investment craze that has outpaced important one is probably the entrance into the market of Wall bitcoin thus far is thought to be the Dutch tulip mania of the Street firms, hedge funds, and other institutional investors, who 1630s.” I understand that its champions love it for its inde- still see bitcoin as fringe but have come to consider the underly- pendence from any central bank, but when a price can swing ing blockchain as a “potentially transformative technology.” 20 percent “in a matter of hours,” all I see are red flags. “For Bitcoin’s status as a kind of “digital gold,” which could be used now, the rise of bitcoin seems divorced from any fundamental as a hedge against inflation or trouble in the global economy, is rationale.” And that feels like reason enough to steer clear.
Innovation of the week Bytes: What’s new in tech
“In real YouTube to hire 10,000 moderators e-commerce giant not stocking several Google- life, we YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki has vowed to branded products. Apple TV is popular with see objects deploy 10,000 human moderators “to keep cord cutters, as it provides connected televi- block other tabs on videos and comments submitted to sions with access to most streaming platforms objects the site,” said Brian Feldman in NYMag.com. via pre-loaded apps, and Prime’s inclusion is all the In recent weeks, the video platform has been likely to vastly increase its audience. Unlike time,” said Rachel Metz in grappling with a controversy over “violent and with Netflix, most Prime subscribers pay the TechnologyReview.com. “It helps us believe that the things in front of disturbing videos apparently aimed at, and $99 annual fee for the free shipping and con- us are actually there.” But for devel- sometimes even about, children.” Several thou- sider its film and TV offerings as “a bonus.” opers working on augmented reality sand videos appearing to “exploit children, technology, mixing virtual objects either as viewers or, in some cases, as video The bots that stole Christmas with real ones is one of the biggest subjects,” have been expunged as “nervous U.S. lawmakers plan to introduce legislation challenges in “achieving realism.” advertisers” have pulled campaigns. Until to combat the “plague of bots” exasperating So far, advances have been limited: now, YouTube has “primarily relied on user online holiday shoppers, said Christina Caron Current AR experiences can place reporting as a first line of defense” and used in The New York Times. The proliferation of digital objects only in front of real the bots has rendered some sought-after toys ones. Researchers at the University that data to inform algorithms that flag violent of Arizona believe they’ve had a and offensive content. But hiring thousands of exceedingly difficult to secure at face value. breakthrough, developing a proto- moderators, nearly all of whom are likely to Fingerlings—the colorful, chirping monkeys, type AR display that can “show a be overseas contract workers, is a recognition sloths, and unicorns “that wrap around your virtual image that both blocks the that too many disturbing videos escape notice. finger”—are 2017’s blockbuster toy. Yet the real-world objects sitting behind it only place parents can find them online is on and can itself be blocked by other Amazon Prime arrives on Apple TV reseller sites, at “double, triple, and quadruple real-world objects placed in front Marking another “small quake in the internet their original price.” One brazen eBay seller is of it.” They say the display “is kind of streaming landscape,” Amazon Prime is finally even touting Fingerlings for $5,000. The bots like a telescope system,” with lenses that control light “pixel by pixel” to available on Apple TV, said Jefferson Graham constantly “ping retail websites, searching for manipulate what the eyes see. As a in USA Today. The change conspicuously ar- sales and analyzing URLs.” As soon as an in- result, digital images can be nestled rived just a day after Apple’s archrival Google demand item becomes available, the software “into real life way more accurately.” “yanked its YouTube network from Ama- burns through the checkout process at a speed
zon’s FireTV platform” in retaliation for the experts describe as “completely inhuman.” Arizona of University Alamy,
THE WEEK December 22/December 29, 2017
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Lincoln in the Bardo 13-year-old Jojo to shed light on how the voice of a blues singer mysteriously winds by George Saunders (Random House, $28) family’s troubles are rooted in the legacy of up on a street recording made by Seth, 1 Jim Crow. The risk pays off: It “deepens the “some really strange things happen,” said George Saunders has ghostly sense of the past reaching out to Anthony Domestico in The Boston Globe. delivered a first novel so touch—or even strangle—the present.” The friends decide to fraudulently market profound, “it seems like A dissent: So many stories get rolling, said the recording as a lost classic, but soon after an act of grace,” said Alex Ismail Muhammad in Slate.com, that “the the song gains attention, Carter is beaten Preston in the Financial novel can’t satisfactorily resolve them all.” into a coma under mysterious circum- Times. A “strange and stances, prompting Seth to embark on a brilliant” mix of American Exit West journey to the Deep South to make sense of history, Buddhist-inspired 3by Mohsin Hamid (Riverhead, $26) it all. Once Seth reaches Mississippi, “time spirituality, and allegorical and identity begin to bleed and blur,” and surrealism, it grows out of Mohsin Hamid’s poignant the voices of the black artists exploited by a tale from history: that Abraham Lincoln love story achieves “an whites finally have their say. The last was so stricken by the death of his 11-year- astonishing synthesis of 100 pages are simultaneously “hallucinatory old son that he visited the boy’s corpse in a political commentary and and revelatory,” delivering a superb balanc- Washington cemetery for one last embrace. vivid imagery,” said Elena ing of “the nightmarish and the clear-eyed.” Saunders’ tale is primarily set in the after- Bruess in AVClub.com. Its A dissent: The punishment that the novel life, in a limbo inhabited by ghosts who are protagonists, Saeed and visits on its protagonists, said Marion cracking jokes and reminiscing about life Nadia, meet in a city tum- Winik in Newsday, “seems to outweigh when they’re joined by Lincoln’s forlorn bling into the chaos of their crime.” child. Given the odd rules of this realm, “it civil war, and when the may take a few pages to get your footing,” rising violence compels them to flee, they Manhattan Beach said Colson Whitehead in The New York escape through a magic door that trans- by Jennifer Egan (Scribner, $28) Times. But the payoff is tremendous: an ports them instantly to a Greek island 5 oblique but potent portrait of a president crowded with other refugees. They soon Whatever storytelling coming to terms with the unique burdens pass through other magic doors, first to mode she chooses, he bears while offering a model for all of us London and then to California’s Marin Jennifer Egan “works a who have anxieties to put aside if we’re to County, and their once passionate relation- formidable kind of help America find its proper course. ship “hardens and cracks” the farther they magic,” said Dwight Saunders has been rightly acclaimed for his move from home. “This is the best writing Garner in The New York wry short stories; here, he’s attained “an of Hamid’s career,” said Michael Schaub in Times. The Pulitzer Prize– even higher level.” NPR.org. The Pakistani-born author of The winning author of A Visit A dissent: The novel’s “salty-sweet mix Reluctant Fundamentalist “captures the From the Goon Squad has of cruelty and sappiness” won’t please all feeling of being displaced beautifully,” with now written “an old- tastes, said Caleb Crain in The Atlantic. long, poetic sentences that manage never to fashioned page-turner,” a big, “immensely waste a word. And he offers no false uplift satisfying” World War II–era story that Sing, Unburied, Sing in a story that, for most of Saeed and revolves around a young woman from 2 by Jesmyn Ward (Scribner, $26) Nadia’s real-world counterparts, remains Brooklyn who works as a welder in a war- without an ending. “It’s a breathtaking time shipyard before becoming the Navy’s “As long as America has novel by one of the world’s most fascinating first female diver. Egan crosscuts frequently novelists such as Jesmyn young writers, and it arrives at an urgent to follow the connected stories of a father’s Ward, it will not lose its time.” disappearance and a mobster’s rise, yet “the soul,” said Pamela Miller A dissent: In later chapters, the narrative pieces fit together neatly,” said Rayyan in the Minneapolis Star sometimes becomes “more perfunctory than Al-Shawaf in The Philadelphia Inquirer. Tribune. In Ward’s second artfully spare,” said Michael Upchurch in What’s more, Egan explores “with keen National Book Award– the Chicago Tribune. insight and tremendous sensitivity” a host winning novel, a young of larger issues—including war, racism, and black woman brings along White Tears the wonder and terror of the sea. her two children when she by Hari Kunzru (Knopf, $27) A dissent: “The novel so elegantly repre- makes a road trip through Mississippi to 4 sents the past that it doesn’t have any sense pick up her white husband from prison. Hari Kunzru’s “transfix- of friction,” said Michelle Dean in The The journey doesn’t go smoothly, but join- ing” novel has more than New Republic. ing the ride “illuminates the love-hate tug a few tricks up its sleeve, between the races in a way that we seem said Gene Seymour in incapable of doing anywhere else but in the Bookforum. It begins as a How the books were chosen To create our list, we weighted the rankings of most blessed works of art.” Sing, Unburied, satire about two young 23 other print sources, including AVClub.com, Sing is Ward’s “riskiest work yet,” said white guys, Seth and CSMonitor.com, The Economist, Entertainment Sarah Begley in Time. Though it begins in Carter, who bond in col- Weekly, the Financial Times, the Los Angeles the same fictional Gulf Coast town featured lege over a love of Times, The New York Times, O magazine, early-20th-century Publishers Weekly, Time, USA Today, The Wall in Salvage the Bones, this novel takes a Street Journal, The Washington Post, and The supernatural turn when two tormented spir- African-American music before opening a Weekly Standard. its join the travelers, communicating with recording studio in Brooklyn. But once the
THE WEEK December 22/December 29, 2017
30-31 Books.indd 30 12/12/17 2:43 PM Review of reviews: Books ARTS 31 ...and the year’s best nonfiction
Killers of the Flower Moon “harrowing, compassionate, and important and Chernow’s big and rich biography by David Grann (Doubleday, $29) book” is among the best places to turn. becomes “far more fascinating” after 1 A dissent: Gessen’s argument that “totali- Grant wins his greatest battlefield victories. Give David Grann’s latest tarian” is the perfect word to describe He “makes a convincing case that Grant a chance to get its hooks today’s Russia “rings hollow,” said The behaved nobly, even heroically, while in in you, and “it will sear Economist. “Language matters.” the White House,” said Adam Gopnik in your soul,” said Dave The New Yorker. The Ohio-born son of a Eggers in The New York We Were Eight Years in Power tanner suffered the derision of opinion Times. A “riveting” true- 3 by Ta-Nehisi Coates (One World, $28) leaders in both the South and the crime tale, Killers of the Northeast establishment, but he fought Flower Moon revisits a Any book Ta-Nehisi hard to secure rights for the freed slaves spate of 1920s Oklahoma Coates publishes these and he defeated the Ku Klux Klan—at murders that terrorized days qualifies as “a bor- least for a generation. The real knock on members of the Osage tribe shortly after an derline cultural phenome- Grant’s relative standing among our oil strike turned them overnight into the non,” said Carlos Lozada nation’s presidents is that much of the wealthiest people in the world. When local in The Washington Post. good he accomplished was later undone. law enforcement failed to identify any of the That’s even true when the In fact, the divided America that the reader perpetrators, J. Edgar Hoover’s fledgling FBI book is mostly a collec- encounters in Chernow’s account “is, in pulled together an undercover team that tion of essays that have certain respects, painfully familiar.” unearthed a disturbing conspiracy rooted in previously appeared in A dissent: At 1,100 pages, Grant “may white resentment. And until the big reveal The Atlantic, because, besides being a great- prove a lumbering journey for casual con- arrives, “you will not see it coming.” But est hits collection by one of the country’s sumers of American history,” said Matt Hoover didn’t even get the whole story, said most important voices on race, We Were Damsker in USA Today. Tom Drury in Slate.com. Grann, whose pre- Eight Years in Power offers a candid inside vious book was The Lost City of Z, spends look at his growth as a person and as a Hunger the last 70 pages of this one laying out evi- writer. Coates exhibits an appealing humil- by Roxane Gay (Harper, $26) dence that entire communities had actively ity in the essays’ introductions, said Chris 5 “Every woman who supported the killings. “This is a book that Hartman in CSMonitor.com. He confesses reads Hunger will recog- may significantly alter your view of to now being ashamed that in a long 2008 nize herself in it,” said American history.” essay on Bill Cosby, he included only one Cathleen Schine in The A dissent: Grann’s wishy-washy final sum- sentence about rape allegations against the New York Review of mation proves “as frustrating as what star. But on matters related to race, Coates Books. Novelist and comes before it is compelling,” said Dara “writes with uncommon vibrancy.” These essayist Roxane Gay Lind in Vox.com. are the essays that made his reputation, all might appear to have of them illuminating the ways that racism lived an uncommon life: The Future Is History remains a defining force in America, espe- Gang-raped at 12, she by Masha Gessen (Riverhead, $28) cially in the lives of its targets. At a stormy 2 semiconsciously began converting her body moment in racial politics, this timely work “If I could get you to into a fortress, gaining weight until, in her “adds considerable intellectual ballast to an read just one book on late 20s, she touched 577 pounds. unsteady American ship.” this list, this is it,” said Somehow, though, the Nebraska-born A dissent: Coates’ fetishization of white and Mary Ann Gwinn in The author of 2014’s Bad Feminist writes about black racial identities “mirrors ideas that Seattle Times. “An the rape “with such wounded, intelligent white supremacist thinkers cherish,” said extraordinary work, told anger” that the crime “becomes our reality Thomas Chatterton Williams in The New with authority, compas- as well as hers,” and she writes about the York Times. sion, and sorrowful judgments her obesity continues to inspire anger,” Masha Gessen’s Grant in a way that reveals “a country we pretend National Book Award we don’t know, one where women struggle by Ron Chernow (Penguin, $40) winner offers a view from the inside of how 4 every day for dignity, safety, and simple post-Soviet Russia so quickly forfeited its A reappraisal of Ulysses elbow room.” Gay has withering words for chance at democracy and embraced Putin- S. Grant is long overdue, the celebrities who peddle miracle weight- style totalitarianism. Gessen, who was born said Thomas Ricks in loss programs but also makes clear that she in Moscow and educated in the U.S., covers ForeignPolicy.com. has internalized some of the shame about Russia’s history since 1989 by deftly weav- “Easily the most under- her body that their work exploits. Her can- ing together the individual stories of seven rated and enigmatic of dor here “eviscerates existing taboos,” said well-educated Russians. “Her analysis of all U.S. presidents,” Estelle Tang in Elle. No triumph awaits at Putin’s malevolent administration is just as Grant has too often been the story’s end, and that makes Hunger “an effective,” said Kevin Canfield in the San downgraded because of extraordinary book: an account of a person Francisco Chronicle. He has consolidated underlings’ scandals and in progress.” power by launching military campaigns and because he liked whiskey. But historian A dissent: Gay’s writing, prone to rep- by targeting homosexuals and intellectuals. Ron Chernow recognizes that the greatest etition, “can feel circular and sometimes At a moment when many Americans won- general of the Civil War was also an contradictory,” said Leah Greenblatt in der what type of threat Putin poses, this immensely consequential political leader, Entertainment Weekly.
THE WEEK December 22/December 29, 2017
30-31 Books.indd 31 12/12/17 2:43 PM 32 ARTS Review of reviews: Film
Get Out Lady Bird Phantom Thread Critics’ choice: The best movies of 2017 Get Out Armie Hammer co-stars with Timothée so thoroughly plunges viewers into the 1 Jordan Peele’s surprise hit “worked on Chalamet, who delivers “the year’s best chaos of war that it redefines film’s capac- a dizzying number of levels at once,” said performance” as a 17-year-old who falls in ity to re-create the experience of combat. Ann Hornaday in The Washington Post. A love with his father’s 24-year-old research “Dunkirk is visceral, big-budget filmmaking satirical horror thriller about a young black assistant. Few movies before have so well that can truly be called art.” man who uncovers a sickening conspiracy captured “the essence of midsummer.” The when he joins his white girlfriend for a mood is lazy, but “so vivid that every sound Good Time weekend at her parents’ house, Get Out registers”—even the wind. 8 Robert Pattinson’s latest movie is “des- proved “genuinely funny, scary, thoughtful, tined to be a classic,” said K. Austin Collins provocative, and politically resonant, often Faces Places in TheRinger.com. “A smooth gloss on the all at the same time.” In 2017, it captured 5 In a trying year, “what a blessing gritty crime movies of yore,” it presents “what it feels like to be alive in America to have a movie that not only celebrates the former Twilight heartthrob as a two-bit right this minute—when it hurts to laugh art and community, but creates it,” said criminal who, after a botched bank robbery but does no good to cry.” Richard Lawson in VanityFair.com. A attempt, spends a long night racing about road-trip documentary made by 89-year-old New York City’s underworld in a bid to Lady Bird Agnès Varda, it follows the great French spring his younger brother (and accomplice) 2 Greta Gerwig’s own debut as a solo director as she and the street artist JR travel from jail. Good Time is slyly political, and director “goes way beyond good into all- rural France and create art installations by “it’s as lively, weird, and unpredictable as round wonderfulness,” said Joe Morgenstern photographing people and putting enormous any movie released this or any other year.” in The Wall Street Journal. A coming-of-age prints of their faces on local buildings. The comedy that’s “wise and funny and full of pair discuss life and art as they go, and “it’s The Lost City of Z grace,” it presents each of its characters as a all very French and very winning.” Truly, 9 Working from David Grann’s 2009 mystery for viewers to explore, starting with “how often do we get films like this, pleas- nonfiction best-seller, director James Gray Saoirse Ronan’s charmingly headstrong high ant and accessible, and yet so philosophical, made the sort of “resplendent, symphonic” schooler. Laurie Metcalf adds a “heartbreak- so ruminative?” adventure movie your grandparents might ingly beautiful” turn as the girl’s loving but have loved, said Stephanie Zacharek in disapproving mother. The result: “one of the The Florida Project Time. Charlie Hunnam plays Percy Fawcett, most endearing movies I’ve seen in years.” 6 Sean Baker’s drama about a girl grow- a British explorer who disappeared in 1925 ing up in a neglected corner of Florida while on a quest to find a mythical lost city Phantom Thread “managed to be both the most joyful and in the Amazon. “Films with this kind of 3 Paul Thomas Anderson’s “unashamedly the most heartbreaking movie of the year,” grand sweep and dreamy energy don’t come gorgeous” new drama is “a handcrafted, said A.O. Scott in The New York Times. along every day.” one-of-a-kind object,” said Dana Stevens Willem Dafoe hit a career peak playing the in Slate.com. Daniel Day-Lewis, in the kindhearted manager of a budget motel in A Ghost Story screen role he insists will be his last, plays the shadow of Disney World, but it was 10 No other director this year offered an exacting haute couture designer in 6-year-old Brooklynn Prince who was the as singular a creation as David Lowery’s, 1950s London, while co-stars Vicky Krieps eyes through which audiences entered a said Richard Brody in The New Yorker. In and Les ley Man ville complete “an acting world at once shabby and magical. Her a simple drama whose “audacious original- power trio on the order of Lau rence Oli- character, Moonee, “has earned a place in ity” is on view from the start, Casey Affleck vier, Judith Anderson, and Joan Fontaine in the canon of American mischief alongside plays a man who, after dying in a car acci- Alfred Hitch cock’s Rebecca.” Set to open the likes of Eloise and Tom Sawyer.” dent, lingers on in spirit to watch his lover on Christ mas Day, Phantom Thread is “a (Rooney Mara) carry on with life. The result masterpiece, a collaboration among great Dunkirk is “a metaphysical vision of love” whose artists at the top of their form.” 7 Christopher Nolan’s kinetic World dramatic power is inseparable from its War II thriller is “an epic achievement— “hushed, sensuous splendor.” Call Me by Your Name the very definition of what cinema can 4 Luca Guadagnino’s drama about a and should be,” said Chris Nashawaty in The 14 sources used to establish our rankings 1980s romance between two young Amer- Entertainment Weekly. A dramatization of include Entertainment Weekly, The New York i can men in Italy “creates a mood in which the moment in 1940 when 300,000 Allied Times, The New Yorker, Rolling Stone, Time, every moment is suffused with sexual long- troops were trapped on a beach in France Vanity Fair, The Wall Street Journal, and The Washington Post.
ing,” said David Edelstein in NYMag.com. facing almost certain annihilation, the movie Features A24, Laurie Sparham/Focus Lubin, Justin
THE WEEK December 22/December 29, 2017
32 Film.indd 32 12/12/17 3:51 PM Greek 101: Learning an Ancient Language TIME Taught by Professor Hans-Friedrich Mueller ED O T FF UNION COLLEGE (SCHENECTADY, NEW YORK) I E IM R L LESSON TITLES 70% 1. The Greek Alphabet & Pronunciation 2. First-Declension Nouns
5 3. Basic Rules of Greek Accentuation O off R Y 4. Additional Patterns of the First Declension D R 5. Verbs in the Present Tense ER UA BY JAN 6. Adjective Forms & Second-Declension Nouns 7. Building Basic Translation Skills 8. First- & Second-Declension Pronouns 9. Verbs in the Imperfect Tense 10. Verbs in the Future & Aorist Tenses 11. First-Declension Masculine Nouns 12. The Root Aorist 13. Third-Declension Nouns 14. Understanding Dactylic Hexameter 15. Practicing Dactylic Hexameter 16. The Middle/Passive Voice: Present & Future 17. Aorist & Imperfect Middle/Passive 18. Perfect & Pluperfect Active 19. Forming and Using Infi nitives 20. Active Participles 21. Middle/Passive Participles 22. The Perfect System in the Middle/Passive 23. The Subjunctive Mood 24. The Imperative Mood, Active 25. The Imperative Mood, Middle/Passive 26. The Optative Mood 27. The Aorist Passive 28. Third-Declension Adjectives 29. Demonstrative Adjectives & Pronouns 30. Personal & Possessive Pronouns 31. Relative, Interrogative & Indefi nite Pronouns 32. Regular -μι Verbs in the Active 33. Regular -μι Verbs in the Middle/Passive 34. Review of Regular -μι Verbs 35. The Verb εỉμί Learn Greek with 36. Irregular Verbs & Tips for Further Study Homer and the Apostles Greek 101: Learning an Ancient Language Greek poets and thinkers laid the foundation for Western culture. The Course no. 2280 | 36 lessons (30 minutes/lesson) greatest poetry, tragedy, comedy, history, philosophy, oratory, and the foundational text of Christianity—all are in ancient Greek. Discover SAVE UP TO $270 beauty that no translation can capture, and learn to truly appreciate these achievements. Greek 101: Learning an Ancient Language introduces you to the ancient language using two great masterworks: DVD $384.95 NOW $114.95 Homer’s Iliad and the New Testament. 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Over 600 1-800-832-2412 courses available at www.TheGreatCourses.com. 34 ARTS Review of reviews: Music Critics’ choice: The top five albums of 2017 Kendrick Lamar 11 songs, all built atop “oddball” synth- artistic mission “with all the warmth 1DAMN. pop beats, end up telling the story of a and precision of a razor blade,” splicing Two years ago, Kendrick long night out, and as that story unfolds, together fuzzed-out synth riffs, compressed Lamar was crowned the it “reminds us what a privilege it is to feel guitar, and icy mezzo-soprano vocals to king of hip-hop. This year, anything as strongly and as messily as you insist she’s a woman to be feared. The Kendrick secured his hold did when you were young.” The album’s work completes her metamorphosis from on the throne with an effort greatest achievement, said Will Hermes in indie-pop guitarist to “genre-transcending that “thumps, grooves, Rolling Stone, is that it proved 21st-century auteur” and “cements her status as David spits, and rips like nothing else in his pop can be at once “genuinely intimate” Bowie’s successor.” Listen closely, though, already masterful catalog,” said Lake Schatz and huge on our speakers and headphones. and Masseduction begins to sound like in ConsequenceOfSound.net. Proving he’s Clark’s “most naked work yet,” said Jill still evolving, “in a way few musicians do,” SZA Krajewski in Vice.com. If she’s a drug- the 30-year-old wordsmith dropped the 3 CTRL addled, sex-mad monster, it’s because she’s high-concept jazz-hop that had won him “One of the best things to heartbroken—after a gossip-page affair a 2016 Grammy. Instead, the beats here happen in music in the past with model Cara Delevingne. Masseduction are as bare-bones as the one-word song decade has been R&B’s is cold self-portraiture—“of a woman who titles, and as Lamar wrestles with mortality, grand sonic flowering,” fell—no, face-planted—to earth.” racism, a conflicted faith, and a divided said Clayton Purdom in America, it’s his piercing self-awareness AVClub.com. On her long- Vince Staples that “stokes the fire at DAMN.’s volcanic awaited debut album, the neo-soul singer- 5 Big Fish Theory core.” He’s grappling with “questions of songwriter SZA consolidates and builds on Vince Staples’ second album biblical significance,” but “the genius of the those gains while proving to be a lyricist of proved to be “a profoundly enterprise” is that he’s simultaneously serv- “disarming honesty and clarity.” Singing unsettling good time,” said ing up “some of the tightest hooks of his about desire, insecurities, and the messiness Rob Harvilla in TheRinger career,” said Craig Jenkins in NYMag.com. of post-hookup politics, she coolly unspools .com. The 24-year-old rap- “An album about religion that bangs in “an endless string of sticky hooks”—and no per’s “deceptively casual” the club,” DAMN. is a reminder that false drama. “Pop music doesn’t get much observations “deconstruct everything from music about faith can be “more than just a more sumptuous—or purely enjoyable— rap stardom to the prison-industrial com- shower of thanks and praises.” than this.” SZA is sharing with listeners plex” while the music “clatters and lurches exactly what it’s like to be a black, creative, and mesmerizes,” grabbing its beats from Lorde 20-something woman from northern New subgenres of rap and electronica as diverse 2 Melodrama Jersey, said Raisa Bruner in Time.com. as trance, house, hyphy, and grime. Over Lorde’s second album “Like all the best artists,” though, “her the sonic experimentation, Staples main- captures the rush of young experience is so specific that it rises to the tains a grim deadpan, said Josh Goller in love with such precision level of universality.” SlantMagazine.com. But he moves with that “even the most jaded the shifting soundscape, creating “an among us will feel the St. Vincent album that’s perpetually changing shape— flicker of butterfly wings 4 Masseduction aggressive and urgent one moment, finessed in their guts as they listen,” said Nolan “If Masseduction had to be and introspective the next.” Feeney in Entertainment Weekly. The labeled with a genre, it’d be New Zealander was 17 when her single ‘terror pop,’” said Maeve The 19 sources used to establish our music “Royals” blew up. Now 21, she’s matured McDermott in USA Today. rankings include AVClub.com, Entertainment to the point that she can make us feel true On the fifth album she’s Weekly, The New York Times, NYMag.com, TheRinger.com, Rolling Stone, Time, USA heartbreak in one line, then poke fun at her recorded as St.˛Vincent, Today, Vice.com, and The Washington Post. emotional fragility in the next. Melodrama’s 35-year-old Annie Clark executes her
Singles of the year: The critics’ top three “Bodak Yellow” Cardi B “Humble” Kendrick Lamar “Green Light” Lorde In a year that underscored how often With DAMN., Kendrick Lamar flipped Lorde has thoroughly dispelled the notion society treats women like dirt, “Cardi the script from cerebral complexity to that she was a one-hit wonder, said Ben has given women, particularly women of short-fused intensity. And particularly Beaumont-Thomas in TheGuardian.com. color, a song to hold close,” said Tshepo on the lead single, “the menace appears Melodrama’s lead single about waiting Mokoena in Vice.com. The former strip- front and center,” said Jesse Cataldo desperately for the moment when she per and reality-TV star from the Bronx in SlantMagazine.com. Lamar growls can speed off and away from heartbreak rose to the top of the charts with her over a “crudely effective” piano stomp, proves that she’s “as adept at savage “husky-voiced, hi-hat-tapping” anthem spitting “dense lyrical torrents” about detail as she is at the unifying power of of female empowerment, which “has his own achievements before breaking a simple chorus.” Lorde remains popular all the elegant menace of a long acrylic for the chorus and its reminder to be for good reason: “She’s a star who can nail’s curve.” If you haven’t shouted along humble. Speaking as much to himself as do one of the most valuable things in to “Bodak Yellow” at least once, “then to listeners, Lamar “both complicates the pop—articulate and clarify the feelings you’ve had an empty year.” message and sharpens the barb.” of˛millions.”
THE WEEK December 22/December 29, 2017
34 music.indd 34 12/12/17 2:48 PM Year in review: Art ARTS 35 Five stories that had the art world talking others are in private hands. But the buyer, Jordan Wolfson created a very different kind who was first identified as an obscure of VR experience for the Whitney Biennial, Saudi prince, then the Saudi crown prince, shocking many museum visitors who then Abu Dhabi’s ministry of culture, may donned goggles to experience a two-minute want to scrutinize the purchase closely spectacle called Real Violence, in which before that city’s branch of the Louvre a bat-wielding young man beats another museum puts it on display. Not all experts human figure to a pulp on a city street. accept that Salvator Mundi is a genuine On the Leonardo, given that the portrait is more opposite primitive than his previously known works. coast, movie In 1958, it was sold for just $125, and as director recently as 12 years ago, it was attributed Alejandro to one of Leonardo’s students. Iñárritu won far broader THE PEOPLE’S CHOICE praise for Yayoi Kusama is a proving to be a vision- Carne y Arena, a VR experience in which ary in more ways than one. Plagued by hal- the viewer steps into a nighttime desert THE TRUMP EFFECT lucinations since childhood, the Tokyo art- landscape to witness a clash between Only time will tell if Donald Trump can migrants and U.S. border agents. The make protest art great again. But in a year possibilities appear to be endless. when many blue-chip artists were inspired to express dissent but failed to create work A NEW BARRIER that seized the public’s imagination, people Maybe there’s one ideological line on the streets came through. A day after a contemporary artist can’t cross. the president’s Jan. 20 inauguration, the Many of Dana Schutz’s peers Women’s March drew a record number of howled in protest when a new work demonstrators to Washington, D.C., and a by the celebrated painter debuted total of more than 4 million in cities around at the Whitney Biennial in March. the world. Many carried handmade signs Open Casket reinterprets a famous (reflected by a spike in January sales at photo of the battered face of black America’s arts-and-crafts stores) and many teenager Emmett Till after the wore pussyhats, the knitted pink cap that 14-year-old was beaten and fatally was inspired by a crass Trump boast and ist seems to have foreseen the rise of mobile shot by white men in 1955 Mississippi. became the lasting symbol of an event that phones and social media way back in 1965, The disturbing original photo, once pub- helped inspire a record number of women when she installed her first Infinity Mirror lished, helped galvanize the civil rights to run for public office. Many other anti- Room. To step into one today is to enter a movement, and Schutz, who’s white, said Trump demonstrations and works of art glowing, candy-colored environment per- she had created her abstracted version would follow, but as New York Times fectly tailored for selfies, as Kusama-mad of the image in an act of empathy. That art critic Holland Cotter wrote: “If art can crowds in four U.S. cities could attest. A wasn’t enough for 28 artists who signed be defined as form shaped by the pressure retrospective that gathered six of the artist’s a petition demanding that the painting be of ideas, beliefs, and emotions, the Women’s infinity rooms traveled from Washington, destroyed because no white artist should March might be seen as the largest work of D.C., to Los Angeles to Seattle this year, be allowed to exploit the violence vis- political performance art ever.” drawing 160,000 visitors at the Hirshhorn ited on a victim of white racism. Schutz Museum and forcing 150,000 Angelenos immediately promised she’d never sell the A RECORD onto a waiting list just hours after tickets painting, and some black artists defended SALE for its Broad museum engagement went her. But that didn’t prevent protesters from Jesus, that once on sale. Two new infinity rooms that trying to halt a Schutz retrospective at humble carpen- debuted at a New York City gallery in the Boston’s Institute of Contemporary Art, by ter, is suddenly fall allowed visitors a minute alone in each which time art’s boundaries, arguably, had the art world’s installation, resulting in four-hour-long already been redrawn. richest trophy. lines. Kusama, who’s 88 and has lived in a Last month, Tokyo mental hospital since 1977, is still following tense working, and still on the rise. bidding dur- ing an auction A NEW MEDIUM at Christie’s in A headset, it turns out, can be a great can- New York City, vas, as virtual reality emerged this year as a small painting of Christianity’s central fig- a medium of enormous promise. Dozens ure sold for $450 million, making it by far of artists took tentative steps forward with the most expensive work of art ever sold. Tilt Brush, a Google program—now avail- Salvator Mundi, created circa 1500, is one able on consumer-grade VR headsets—that of only about 20 paintings in the world allows users to paint on air in three dimen-
Michael S. Williamson/The Washington Post, LACMA, Newscom, AP, Newscom AP, Newscom, LACMA, Post, Washington Williamson/The S. Michael credited to Leonardo da Vinci, and no sions and lets viewers step inside. But THE WEEK December 22/December 29, 2017
35 art.indd 35 12/13/17 12:32 PM 36 ARTS Television
Movies on TV The Week’s guide to what’s worth watching
Tuesday, Dec. 19 Bright Bonnie and Clyde Los Angeles is La La Land like never before in Warren Beatty and Faye Netflix’s $90 million supernatural action thriller. Dunaway star as notori- The streaming network’s most expensive original ous bank robbers in the feature film to date stars Will Smith as Ward, a crime drama that heralded cop in an L.A. where humans coexist uneasily a New Hollywood. (1967) with orcs, fairies, and elves. The trouble escalates 5:30 p.m., SundanceTV when Ward and his orc partner (Joel Edgerton) Thursday, Dec. 21 come into possession of a magic wand with the Crouching Tiger, destructive power of a nuclear bomb. Available Hidden Dragon for streaming Friday, Dec. 22, Netflix Director Ang Lee intro- duced a wide audience to The Last Post Tensions are running high at a British outpost on “wire fu” with his Oscar- Bright: Edgerton and Smith with Noomi Rapace winning action drama dis- the Gulf of Aden. In this soapy but stirring BBC- tinguished by its balletic, produced series, it’s 1965 and a newlywed cap- Hope’s sometimes forgotten talents and remark- aerial martial-arts scenes. tain has arrived at Britain’s military police base in able legacy. Friday, Dec. 29, at 9 p.m., PBS; (2001) 5:05 p.m., Encore Aden as a local insurgency mounts. The six-part check local listings series keeps one eye on the base’s restless young Saturday, Dec. 23 9-1-1 The Zookeeper’s Wife wives while the officers cope on the fly with the rising threat to Britain’s centuries-long hold on Is there any TV genre Ryan Murphy can’t do Jessica Chastain stars in well? The creator of such diverse shows as Glee, a fact-based drama about the Middle East port. Available for streaming Friday, Dec. 22, Amazon American Horror Story, and The People v. O.J. a husband and wife who Simpson is now trying his hand at a procedural sheltered Jewish families Doctor Who: Twice Upon a Time at the Warsaw Zoo during in a series focused on a handful of Los Angeles Whovians will have a chance to ring out Christ- firefighters, cops, and EMTs. Expect good things the brutal German occupa- mas Day and say goodbye to old television tion. (2017) 8 p.m., HBO from Murphy and his crack cast, headlined by friends in one sitting. This year’s Doctor Who Angela Bassett, Peter Krause (Parenthood, Six Sunday, Dec. 24 holiday special will be the last episode for long- Feet Under), and Connie Britton. Wednesday, Die Hard time showrunner Steven Moffat and for star Jan. 3, at 9 p.m., Fox “Yippee-ki-yay!” for Bruce Peter Capaldi, the 12th actor to play the titular Willis’ John McClane, a Time Lord. The special will tie together past and Other highlights The Toys That Made Us cop who saves his wife’s present, with an appearance by the first Doctor holiday office party when (played by David Bradley) and the introduction Ghosts of Christmases past reappear in a docu- German terrorists seize mentary celebrating the most memorable toys control of an L.A. sky- of Jodie Whittaker as the first female incarnation of the time-traveling Doctor. Monday, Dec. 25, at of the 1980s. Available for streaming Friday, scraper. (1988) 8 p.m., Dec. 22, Netflix Cinemax 9 p.m., BBC America American Masters: This Is Bob Hope The X-Files Monday, Dec. 25 The iconic sci-fi series begins a second season Rear Window For most of the American Century, Bob Hope was America’s irreplaceable celebrity comedian. since its revival, with David Duchovny and A Hitchcock marathon Gillian Anderson still working to restore the old begins with Jimmy Stew- This new documentary follows his eight-decade magic. Wednesday, Jan. 3, at 8 p.m., Fox art’s iconic turn as a pho- career from his early days in vaudeville, tracking tographer who believes his work on radio and Broadway, savoring the 75th Annual Golden Globe Awards he’s witnessed a murder Road movies he made with Bing Crosby and his Seth Meyers hosts the kickoff event of awards in a neighboring building. long run as host of the Oscars and USO Tour season as the Hollywood Foreign Press Associ- (1954) 8 p.m., TCM ambassador. Dick Cavett, Brooke Shields, Conan ation fetes its picks for the best in movies and Monday, Jan. 1 O’Brien, and many other celebrities weigh in on television. Sunday, Jan. 7, at 8 p.m., NBC Charade Cary Grant and Audrey Hepburn co-star in a styl- Show of the week ish caper about a woman Gunpowder pursued by villains seeking He’s not playing Jon Snow, but Kit Harington her dead husband’s looted does enough brooding in this three-part historical fortune. (1963) 8 p.m., TCM drama to keep his Game of Thrones fans tempo- rarily sated. Harington stars as his own distant Saturday, Jan. 6 forebear, Robert Catesby, who with Guy Fawkes Rocky and other Catholics plotted in 1605 to blow up Sylvester Stallone punched England’s House of Lords and assassinate King his way to stardom as James I. It was a violent time, violent enough that Rocky Balboa, a low-rent the scenes of torture and execution shocked Brit- Philadelphia boxer who ish viewers when Gunpowder aired in the U.K. lucks into a bout against Still, Harington’s passion project captures the fu- the heavyweight champ. ries unleashed by any existential threat to faith and (1976) 7 p.m., Showtime Harington: A terrorist for Christ family. Begins Monday, Dec. 18, at 10 p.m., HBO Matt Kennedy/Netflix, HBO Kennedy/Netflix, Matt
THE WEEK December 22/December 29, 2017 • All listings are Eastern Time.
36 tv.indd 36 12/13/17 12:33 PM LEISURE 37 Food & Drink Trend watch: Seven ways 2017 changed how we eat Cauliflower is in Destroyer. At New Image first Broccoli’s once unsexy sibling is York City’s De Maria, In the pre- suddenly everywhere—thanks where breakfast is Instagram era, to its shape-shifting superpow- served until 4 p.m. and restaurants loved ers. Cauliflower “rice” has cocktails all day, chef- dark wood and become new staple in super- owner Camille Becerra dim Edison bulbs. market freezers, and a low-cal, says it’s all about But dark rooms low-carb go-to for lunch bowls. giving regulars what don’t photograph Cauliflower flour is the new star they need. As she told well, so restau- of gluten-free pizzas. And plenty Eater.com: “I like to rateurs seeking of kitchens are think of the restaurant social media buzz deep-frying as a third space—apart are now creating the cru- from the home or the spaces flooded with ciferous office—where people natural light and veggie can come together for packed with unique and as much or as little touches. Tiki and serving time as they please.” tropical are hot, it with The bigwigs at Houston’s Holy Roller as are colorful Buffalo Women ruling the kitchen midcentury furnish- Big Sugar’s game. Author Gary sauce as a The boys’ club is finally break- ings. For Madelyn Markoe’s Taubes sounded the alarm at substitute for ing up. Though celebrated Media Noche in San Francisco, the start of 2017 with his best- chicken wings. In New York, female chefs are nothing new, designer Hannah Collins chose seller The Case Against Sugar, Jean-Georges Vongerichten’s more women than ever are dramatic pink-and-green- arguing that the sugar industry abcV roasts it whole and serves teaming up to launch game- patterned tiles for the floor and has long covered up research it with a steak knife. And forget changing restaurants on their banana-print wallpaper for the pointing to the sweetener’s the steamed or boiled versions own. The five-woman team who bathroom. Both features now central role in heart disease, you once hated. “That’s not the created Houston’s Holy Roller inspire customers—some from Alzheimer’s, and many com- way you get people excited,” could be the movement’s flag as far away as Japan—to spend mon cancers. Taubes didn’t Philadelphia chef Michael bearers, but there are rising stars up to 10 minutes snapping win the debate outright; global Solmonov told Time. “Roasting everywhere. Sarah Hymanson photos before ordering food. sugar consumption is up once the s--- out of it is exciting.” and Sara Kramer’s Kismet has As Markoe told TheVerge.com, again. But U.S. consumption quickly become one of “It’s just really insane.” L.A.’s essential restaurants, has drifted downward, aided by while Jess Shadbolt and food companies who’ve dialed Clare de Boer of King down the sugar content in are modeling an egoless processed foods. Unfortunately, approach to exceptional as a new federal study reports, cooking. Men still get most manufacturers seem to be mak- of the awards and most of ing up for the decline in sugar the reviews, it’s true. But in appeal by adding saturated fats. a year when the toppling of New Orleans celebrity From Paleo to keto chef John Besh opened up Tired of eating like a caveman? The year’s trendiest diet took The all-day crowd at De Maria a dialogue about sexual harassment in the food low-carb eating to an extreme. Edible charcoal Round-the-clock dining industry, the women stepping Based on an eating regimen Last year, it was rainbow bagels Why wait until dinner to have into the spotlight are bringing developed to reduce epileptic and unicorn grilled cheeses. truly memorable food? Top with them a welcome change seizures, the ketogenic diet had This year, everything went chefs around the country are in kitchen culture. “There’s weight-loss seekers and Silicon black, as “activated charcoal” waking up to the value of serv- less screaming than you would Valley biohackers going against jumped from water purifiers ing paying customers from imagine in [a] high-stress envi- instinct and embracing bacon, into food and beverages. Pitch- the first coffee of the day. In ronment,” Holy Roller’s Callie burgers, and other high-fat colored burger buns, lattes, San Francisco, long morn- Speer told TastingTable.com. foods. The idea is to starve the and ice cream (above) flooded ing lines greeted the open- “I look forward to seeing these body of glucose to turn it into a Instagram feeds, and many ing of the gourmet bazaar girls every day.” fat-burning machine. Converts fans claimed health benefits. Tartine Manufactory. In Los claim higher energy levels, but That’s questionable: Doctors Angeles, hungry patrons trav- A war on sugar there are side effects— say charcoal absorbs just about eled out of their way for the Maybe we’ve including an adjust- anything that’s in the gut, Instagrammable offerings at finally got- ment phase known as including helpful medications
Robert Jacob Lerma, Getty, Molly DeCoudreaux, Alamy, Media Bakery Alamy, Molly DeCoudreaux, Getty, Lerma, Jacob Robert Jordan Kahn’s avant-garde ten wise to the “keto flu.” and nutrients.
THE WEEK December 22/December 29, 2017
37 food.indd 37 12/13/17 12:34 PM 38 LEISURE Travel
This week’s dream: An evening at the campiest bar in America
You wouldn’t necessarily think that his Speedo if the state’s attorney gen- visiting Great Falls, Mont., could eral really intended to give it a go. renew your faith in America, said Brooks Barnes in The New York As it happens, “the mermaids alone Times. “A soul-deadening place,” do not make the Sip ’n Dip the the city of 59,000 spreads out from campiest cocktail lounge in the his- a weary main drag lined with chain tory of campy cocktail lounges.” restaurants, and digging deeper Velvet paintings, fake ferns, and reveals that the largest local employer seashell lights abound. Three nights is an Air Force base that services a week, Pat Spoonheim, a retired nuclear missile silos. But Great Falls church organist with towering hair, is home to a bar that for good reason sits down at a big electric keyboard, has made it onto many Americans’ adjusts the Ace bandage on her wrist, bucket lists. The Sip ’n Dip, a “kitsch- and starts playing. “We love you, tastic” tiki bar nestled on the second Piano Pat!” yell two guys in cow- floor of the family-owned O’Haire The mermaid hour: Customers relax as the show unfolds. boy hats, lifting their blue umbrella Motor Inn, is proof, if nothing else, that the motel’s pool. Starting at happy hour drinks. Pat, a shout-singer, has been per- life is a tenacious force. Indeed, “it always six days a week, women in mermaid out- forming at the Sip ’n Dip since 1978. On a breaks through—sometimes in uninten- fits swim past, doing flips and blowing good night, the scent of chicken-fried steak tionally hilarious ways—even in the most bubbles. “I’m hiring,” says the bar manager will hang in the air as Pat starts singing a unlikely places.” who dreamed up the idea about 20 years jazzy rendition of Toby Keith’s “I Love This ago, and she’s serious. Recently, she posted Bar.” For fans of “Americana run amok,” Climb the carpeted stairs to the Sip ’n her first ad for mermen, and every pol in there’s no better place to be. Dip and you enter a cave-like room with Montana tweeted about it. U.S. Secretary of Rooms for two at the O’Haire Motor Inn two large windows that look directly into the Interior Ryan Zinke offered to lend out (ohairemotorinn.com) start at $90.
Hotel of the week Christmas around the world, all right here at home You never have to wander very far to experience visitors each year. Plan to spend the whole day how the rest of the world celebrates Christmas, shopping, eating, and drinking. said Larry Bleiberg in USA Today. Though the holiday, in all its frenzy, “can seem like an Dutch American invention,” people all over the world Holland, Mich., a lakefront city known for its have been cultivating traditions of their own for springtime tulip festival, holds a Dutch-themed centuries, and some of those traditions have made winter fest that features strolling carolers and a it to these shores almost unadulterated. Below are European-style gift and food market. Kids can several small-world celebrations worth seeing: pet reindeer and visit with Sinterklaas, the Dutch A view to the slopes St. Nicholas, who arrives on a white horse. Mexican The Little Nell San Antonio’s Amish Aspen, Colo. famous River Walk Christmas in Lancaster, Penn., is like a “Luxury hotels don’t come (right) offers a visit to a simpler time. Visitors can eat much subtler than the Little big light display breakfast with Santa at Kitchen Kettle Nell,” said Everett Potter in all season, but Village, a collection of shops and restau- Forbes.com. “Arguably the it’s most magi- rants. At the Landis Valley Village & Farm best luxury ski hotel in the Museum, meet Old Country characters United States,” this discreet cal on December weekends, when like Belsnickel, St. Nicholas’ crotchety ski-in/ski-out affair at the foot companion. of Aspen Mountain has a it’s lined with lobby that looks like a cozy 3,000 luminarias, or paper lanterns, and sing- Fictional living room and a staff that’s ing carolers drift past on boats. Stop by Market One otherworldly holiday tradition debuted eager to please. “Your boots Square for tamales, a Mexican Noel staple. will be warm and ready in just last month, said Arthur Levine, also in USA the morning and yes, they Native American Today. Universal Studios’ popular Harry Potter will assist you in getting Spanish and Native American traditions mingle theme parks in Hollywood and Orlando have them on.” Many famous chefs in Taos, N.M., where December street fests for the first time been done up for Christmas. and sommeliers got their might include bonfires and Aztec dancers, and Lights and garlands now adorn the snow- start at the Nell, and with Christmas Eve is a blowout, with a huge blaze covered shops on Diagon Alley, where the pubs 50 in-house sommeliers now sell hot (non-alcoholic) butterbeer. Meanwhile, a giving private cellar tastings, at the ancient Taos Pueblo, a procession of the Virgin Mary, and rooftop rifle salutes. “stunning” animated light show is projected on the hotel’s wine game “has the walls and turrets of Hogwarts Castle, show- entered the stratosphere.” thelittlenell.com; doubles German ing fairies using their magic to conjure an enor- from $1,190 Chicago now hosts one of the largest Christkindl mous Christmas tree. The finale earns “oohs,
markets in the U.S., drawing more than a million ahs, and applause.” Alamy O’Connor, Shawn Times/Redux, York New Addicks/The Rich
THE WEEK December 22/December 29, 2017
38 travel.indd 38 12/13/17 1:17 PM Consumer LEISURE 39 Holiday gifts...for those who have everything
PuttSkee No more need to practice putting using just paper cups. The PuttSkee mixes mini golf and Skee-Ball, and it folds up to go wherever you want to play. $500, theputtskee.com Source: HiConsumption.com
Infinite Roses Give the roses that will last the whole year through. Treated with a special solution, Infi nite Roses need no water and maintain their color and texture for up to 12 months. $250 for 16, onlyroses.com Source: Los Angeles Times
Stalvey Crocodile Teddy Bear Don’t forget about the kids! A little more than a century after the fi rst teddy bear was sold, a New York luxury label has created the ulti- mate iteration of the plush toy: This one is Corkcicle Cigar Glass made with crocodile skin that has been Whiskey and cigars go together like embedded with 24-karat gold. peanut butter and jelly. That’s why every $32,000, modaoperandi.com afi cionado should have a handmade tumbler that Source: Town & Country makes it easy to hold both with one hand. $20, corkcicle.com Source: HiConsumption.com
Hôtel le Flaine Cuckoo Clock German sculptor Guido Zimmer- mann is reinvent- ing the cuckoo clock by making con- Gucci Velvet Cushion crete replicas of “Praise be to the fashion famous brutalist and home-decor gods.” buildings— Gucci’s launched a including Marcel home collection this Breuer’s acclaimed year and included a luxury hotel in the select group of the French Alps. embroidered throw pil- Prices upon request, lows the fashion house guidozimmermann-art.com has been handing out at Source: IfItsHipItsHere.com runway shows. $1,150, Gucci.com Source: Vogue.com
THE WEEK December 22/December 29, 2017
39 consumer.indd 39 12/13/17 12:41 PM 40 Best properties on the market This week: The best homes of the year
1 Eagle Island, Tower, Minn. This 5.5-acre Lake Vermilion island comes with membership in a near- by marina. Built in 2016 of locally sourced stone and wood, the rustic-modern, custom-furnished three-bedroom house features a double-height living room with floor-to-ceiling fireplace, an open kitchen with island, an elevator, and a crow’s nest with wa- ter and island views. The grounds include a yard and a dock. $1,995,000. Mike Lynch, Lakes Sotheby’s International Realty, (612) 619-8227 Status: Same
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2 Garrison, N.Y. This cantilevered steel, glass, and wood home sits on 12.2 acres overlooking the Catskill Mountains. The five-bedroom house boasts marble fireplaces, a floating staircase, glass walls, a 4,500-bottle wine cellar, and a master suite with doors opening to a full-length balcony. The property has a green roof with native plant- ings, a barbecue area, and a four-car garage. $4,750,000. Melissa Carlton, Houlihan Lawrence, (914) 474-0111 Status: Under contract
3 Portland, Maine Known as the West Mansion, this 1912 Geor- gian Revival home spans four stories, 17 rooms, and 13,674 square feet. Designed by Frederick Tompson, the nine- bedroom house boasts nine fire- places and original details like hand-painted wallpaper, custom built-ins and wainscoting, Tiffany lamps, and a central staircase made of tiger maple. The 0.6-acre property includes mountain views, a terrace, and a three-car garage. $2,650,000. Ed Gardner, Ocean Gate Realty, (207) 415-4493 Status: Off market
THE WEEK December 22/December 29, 2017
40-41 properties.indd 40 12/13/17 4:57 PM Best properties on the market 41
4 Venice, Calif. Mario Romano built the Preston House, a six-bedroom home with an aluminum façade. The interior in- cludes organic forms, new environmentally sensitive materials, wood details, and a large great room. The property boasts an outdoor cinema with a fire- place, a heated pool with a spa, and five large palm trees. $5,445,000. The Alt- man Brothers Team, Doug- las Elliman Real Estate, (310) 819-3250 Status: Reduced to $4,850,000
Steal of the week
6 Seattle Named Seaweed, this house- boat floats on Lake 5 Houston This 1939 neoclassical house overlooks Mary El- Union. Built in 2000, liott Park. The five-bedroom home has a library, a media room, the one-bedroom, a wine room, and a master suite with a coffee bar. Additional wood-and-fiberglass home is 33 feet by 12 feet. There’s a full details include ornate molding, an elevator, two staircases, and a kitchen, a bathroom with a jet tub, a washer-dryer combo, and three-car garage. $3,995,000. Ruthie Porterfield, Sotheby’s Inter- custom built-in cabinetry. $325,000. Linda and Kevin Bagley, national Realty, (713) 558-3247 Status: Reduced to $3,750,000 Special Agents Realty, (206) 915-3766 Status: Sold
THE WEEK December 22/December 29, 2017
40-41 properties.indd 41 12/13/17 4:58 PM 42 BUSINESS The news at a glance
The bottom line Tech: Apple buys music discovery app Shazam ■ The average Medicare Apple is scooping up the pioneering “Apple’s Shazam deal is a sneak attack recipient receives treatment music-recognition app Shazam for a to hit Spotify where it hurts,” said totaling the full amount of bargain price, said Micah Singleton in Kif Leswing in BusinessInsider.com. his or her lifetime contribu- tions, plus a market rate of TheVerge.com. Apple confirmed this Apple Music, Apple’s music-streaming return, within the first two week it had acquired Shazam for a service and live radio station, has just years after retirement. rumored $400 million—a steep decline over 30 million subscribers, half as The Atlantic from the $1 billion valuation Shazam many as rival Spotify. But Shazam had at its last funding round in 2012. offers a diverse global customer base ■ Revenue from sports Despite a groundbreaking technology of hundreds of millions, and more media rights in North America will likely overtake able to identify a song playing on the than a decade’s worth of data on ticket revenue next year for radio or elsewhere, and 1 billion down- which songs listeners are interested the first time ever. Media loads since 2008, Shazam has “had in. It can also help Apple “discover rights revenue is expected a hard time finding a viable business songs that are starting to get popu- to come in at $20.1 billion model,” banking just $54 million in lar” around the world—a kind of compared with gate revenue revenue last year. The company’s tech- Name that tune. “early warning system” for hits. at $19.6 billion. One reason nology, which is already integrated with That will help Apple Music compete for the increase in media Apple’s Siri interface, will now gain a “deeper with Spotify’s popular “handpicked playlists” rights sales is that more bid- integration” with Apple’s operating system. and other data-oriented tools. ders, including Twitter and Amazon, are in the mix. The Hollywood Reporter Model holiday Autos: In shift, Ford to assemble electric cars in Mexico party behavior Ford “changed its plans” this week, announcing that it will manufac- ture its new battery-powered cars in Mexico, rather than in Michigan, Silicon Valley’s homo- said Neal Boudette in The New York Times. Last year, “after heavy geneity has long had a “trivial side effect: criticism” from then–President-elect Trump, Ford canceled plans to boring holiday par- build a $1.6 billion electric-car plant in Mexico and said it would ties,” said Sarah Frier in assemble the cars in Michigan instead. The company now says it will Bloomberg Business- build the electric vehicles in Mexico after all, and provide the Flat week. But this year’s Rock, Mich., factory with “an even larger investment than previously fetes have seen “a planned,” focusing instead on “making a range of self-driving cars.” surprising influx of attractive women, and Economy: Federal Reserve bumps up rates a few pretty men” min- In a widely expected move, the Federal Reserve raised short-term ■ UPS expects to deliver gling with the mostly 750 million packages be- interest rates this week by a quarter percentage point, into a range male engineers. Why? tween Thanksgiving and between 1.25 percent and 1.5 percent, signaling its confidence in “They’re being paid to.” Christmas Day, a 5 percent the strength of the economy, said Nick Timiraos in The Wall Street Local modeling agen- increase over last year. The Journal. The increase was the fifth since the central bank began rais- cies say tech companies company delivered 440 mil- ing rates from near zero two years ago. Jerome Powell, the nominee have approached them lion packages in the same to replace current chair Janet Yellen, is expected to take over in in “record numbers” period in 2010. February, pending Senate confirmation. this holiday season The New York Times and are “quietly paying Autos: Seven-year sentence for VW manager $50 to $200 an hour” ■ The S&P 500 has returned Volkswagen’s “massive diesel emissions cheating scandal” has landed per model to chat up nearly 20 percent in 2017. a former executive in prison, said Eric Lawrence in the Detroit Free party attendees. A typi- If the gains continue, this Press. Oliver Schmidt, the former manager of VW’s Engineering and cal shindig last week year will mark the seventh featured 25 female and year out of the past nine the Environmental Office in Auburn Hills, Mich., was sentenced last five male models paid market has closed with a week to seven years in prison and ordered to pay $400,000. Federal to hang out with “pretty double-digit increase. Judge Sean Cox in Detroit described Schmidt as a significant player in much all men” working Bloomberg.com VW’s attempted cover-up of its decade-long scheme to cheat on diesel for a large gaming com- emissions tests. Schmidt, a German national, is the highest-ranking ■ Amazon dominates the pany in San Francisco. voice-assistant market, ac- VW employee to be convicted in the scheme in the U.S. The tech firms make the cording to market research Health care: Hospital merger could create huge chain models sign nondisclo- firm eMarketer. Amazon’s Hospital operators Ascension Health and Providence St. Joseph Health sure agreements “and Echo smart speaker has a are in talks to merge in a deal “that would create the largest U.S. owner give them names of 70.6 percent share of the of hospitals,” said Melanie Evans and Anna Wilde Mathews in The employees to pretend market, ahead of Google they’re friends with.” Home’s 23.8 percent. Use Wall Street Journal. The combined entity of the two nonprofits would Requests for cleav- of a voice-enabled device generate roughly $45 billion in annual revenue and create a chain of 191 age and short-shorts at least once a month is up hospitals with “unprecedented reach” across 27 states. If the deal goes are rejected, said Olya 130 percent over last year. through, it “would up the ante” in the face-off between big hospitals Ishchukova, CEO of Axios.com and health insurers; both groups are trying to gain the advantage “in Models in Tech.
negotiations over the cost of care and greater control over patients.” AP Spotify,
THE WEEK December 22/December 29, 2017
42 biz news.indd 42 12/13/17 6:16 PM Outsmart Burglars The Moment You Plug It In
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SimpliSafe.com/WEEK 44 BUSINESS Making money
Personal finance: Money moves to make by Dec. 31 Amid the hullabaloo of the holi- ing on your situation, prepaying days, “it’s easy to forget one very 2018 property taxes this year important activity that must be could make sense.” Keep in mind, on your to-do list: an end-of-year though, that merely putting the financial check-in,” said Chris money into an escrow account Hogan in FoxBusiness.com. Before isn’t enough; the funds have to be Dec. 31 rolls around, “you need to disbursed to the tax authority this make sure you’ve done everything year in order to qualify. You also you can to maximize your retire- “might have to plan on staying ment savings and minimize the put longer.” Homeowners can cur- taxes you’ll pay in 2018.” If you rently avoid capital gains taxes on haven’t hit your $18,000 annual the first $250,000 (or $500,000 401(k) cap (or $24,000 if you’re for joint filers) they make when 50 or over), consider increasing they sell their home, if they’ve your contribution in the last pay- Before the year ends, max out your retirement savings. lived there for two of the past checks of 2017. “You can even five years. Both tax bills increase have your yearly bonus go into your 401(k).” Minimizing your that to five of the past eight years. taxes “is more complicated,” thanks to the tax reform bill being hashed out in Congress, said Jill Schlesinger in the Chicago Tri- The stock market’s bumper year also makes it “a good time bune. This will probably be the last year that you will be able to to revisit some key investment lessons,” said Russ Wiles in deduct state and local taxes and also take advantage of miscel- AZCentral.com. In 2017, the market has “gone entirely in one laneous deductions, such as tax-prep fees and professional dues, direction: up.” Don’t let this breed complacency or overconfi- if they exceed 2 percent of your adjusted gross income. “If pos- dence; the market will not “deliver such a smooth ride” every sible, try to bunch as many of these costs into 2017 as you can year. “Take some profits off the table and reinvest the proceeds in order to exceed the 2 percent floor.” in assets” that haven’t done as well. Perhaps your goal is to have a 60-40 mix of stocks and bonds. “If the lengthy stock- Property owners have a lot to consider, said Sarah O’Brien market rally has pushed your ratio to 65-35, it might be time to in CNBC.com. The Senate and House tax reform bills both sell a portion of your stocks and reinvest the proceeds in bonds, allow property tax deductions only up to $10,000. “Depend- to get the mix back to 60-40.”
What the experts say Charity of the week Vacation guilt keeps us at work by someone 75 or older. Nearly 49 percent In the U.S., “While many workers are eagerly anticipating of those households own stocks, up from low-income their winter vacations, just as many have noth- 40 percent in 2007, just before the financial students are ing on their calendars but work,” said Jessica crisis. Analysts say that’s because bonds—long less likely to attend Dickler in CNBC.com. U.S. workers surren- a staple of retirees’ portfolios—are offering college, dered roughly 206 million vacation days last near-record-low yields. As a result, retirees are and only year, equivalent to about $66.4 billion in lost turning to dividend-paying stocks for income. 14 percent receive a bachelor’s degree or benefits, or $604 per worker. Just 23 percent of Remarkably, young Americans are now less higher within eight years of graduating from high school. Let’s Get Ready (lets employees used their full allotment of paid time likely to own stocks than seniors are. Experts getready.org) aims to close the achieve- off. “Those forfeited days aren’t the only sign say record levels of student debt, “sluggish ment gap by helping low-income and of workers’ vacation guilt.” The average vaca- wage growth,” and the “lingering trauma of first-generation-to-college students get tion break is also shrinking, down to 1.4 weeks the financial crisis” help explain the shift. admitted to and graduate from univer- sity. High school juniors and seniors can this year, and nearly half of us admit to check- enroll in the organization’s free college- ing work emails while on break. Though it When you’re approaching retirement prep program—a nine-week curriculum may be too late to “swing a last-minute get- “Many retirees are caught off guard by the where they receive intensive SAT prepa- away” this year, you should check with human facts of their new life,” said Chuck Saletta in ration, assistance with college applica- tions, and post-enrollment mentorship. resources regarding your company’s policy. Money.com. Among the things that I wish Let’s Get Ready helps nearly 10,000 stu- “You may be able to roll over at least some of people would tell those heading into retirement dents in the Northeast enroll in college those unused days to 2018, or cash them out.” is that required minimum distributions “can se- every year, and participants’ college riously raise your costs.” The withdrawals from graduation rate is five times higher than Seniors embrace stocks the national rate for students of similar your 401(k) or IRA after age 70 ½ are treated economic backgrounds. Although the U.S. stock market has tripled in as taxable income, which means you “may ex- value since 2009, “the bull market has left a lot pose your Social Security benefits to taxation as Each charity we feature has earned a of Americans behind,” said Jordan Yadoo and well.” Increases in your Medicare premiums can four-star overall rating from Charity Ben Steverman in Bloomberg.com. In nearly also eat significantly into your Social Security Navigator, which rates not-for-profit every age group, the share of families owning benefits. The good news? “Other than health- organizations on the strength of their stocks—either directly or through funds and related costs, your expenses may actually go finances, their governance practices, and the transparency of their operations. retirement accounts—declined from 2007 to down.” So take advantage of your nest egg early Four stars is the group’s highest rating.
2016. The one exception? Households headed on, when you can still enjoy it “to the fullest.” Getty
THE WEEK December 22/December 29, 2017
44 making money.indd 44 12/13/17 5:41 PM Best columns: Business 45
Media: 21st Century Fox plots a sale to Disney “A disturbance in the force has the cable TV market. Disney could emerged in the entertainment indus- theoretically threaten to pull ESPN, try,” said Miles Surrey in TheRinger for instance, if a cable company re- .com. Disney’s $60 billion proposed fused to pay a higher price to carry, deal to acquire 21st Century Fox say, FX. Disney’s counter could be could have “major implications that combining its own 30 percent for the TV and film industry.” The stake in Hulu with Fox’s 30 percent union would give Disney Fox’s film will give the streaming service new studio (home to the valuable X-Men life, and “put pressure on Netflix franchise), its stakes in the stream- and Amazon to lower their prices,” ing service Hulu and the British TV Mickey and the X-Men: A match made in media heaven? to consumers’ benefit. But that argu- company Sky, plus its cable networks such as FX and National ment “might not pass regulatory muster in the new antitrust era.” Geographic; Fox would keep its news and sports channels. The deal would also dramatically bolster Disney’s planned streaming To some, this potential sale looks like an “admission of defeat” service, giving it a library of both new and classic television series for Fox’s 86-year-old chief, Rupert Murdoch, said Dominic (think The Americans and The Simpsons) to take on Netflix. Dis- Rushe and Edward Helmore in The Guardian. Most Murdoch ney was already “the Galactic Empire of the entertainment indus- watchers have long assumed that after 50 years of tirelessly try,” with the Marvel franchise, Star Wars, Pixar, and ESPN. Fox constructing a media goliath, he’d want to pass on an intact joining its stable is “like giving Disney a Death Star.” empire to his sons, Lachlan and James. But selling Fox’s en- tertainment business would make his family “wealthy for the The Justice Department should “take a long look” at this deal, ages” and allow Rupert “to return to his first love: news.” said Derek Thompson in TheAtlantic.com. Last year, studios James would likely take a senior role at Disney, and could be under Disney and Fox together accounted for more than 40 per- in the running to take over as Disney CEO when Robert Iger cent of the U.S. domestic box office. That figure could easily reach steps down in 2019. Murdoch wants to make sure his business 50 percent “in a good year.” That’s just one of the ways a Disney- outlives him, said Steven Zeitchik in The Washington Post. Far Fox union “poses more antitrust problems than a combination of from merely cashing in and downsizing, the mogul stands to AT&T and Time Warner,” which the Justice Department has sued gain “a large stake in Disney, a potential board seat, and a shot to stop, said David Goldman in CNN.com. Regulators will have at a family member running it all.” Viewed from that angle, this to ponder “to what extent the new company could dominate” move is “as much an expansion of power as a shedding of it.”
Local retailers have long worried about Amazon put- long-term success is to build a brand so they can sell Amazon’s ting them out of business, said Farhad Manjoo. Now other gadgets in the future. And that’s “the second it’s time for major global brands to feel anxious, too. place Amazon comes in.” Wyze relies on its Amazon threat to big I recently received a small internet-connected camera, storefront to “establish an instant presence next to the kind you might use to keep tabs on your dog at the big guys,” knowing that Amazon reviews “have brands home, with a “groundbreaking feature that no rival become just about the most important factor in how Farhad Manjoo can match”: a $20 price tag. Sold by Seattle-based consumers buy electronics products.” Helping newer The New York Times startup Wyze Labs, the high-quality camera demon- manufacturers get a leg up on bigger rivals may not strates how Amazon is helping newer companies sell be what Amazon set out to do, but that’s what’s hap- “better products for ludicrously low prices.” Wyze’s pening: Half of the e-retailer’s products now come founders used to work at Amazon, and they were from small businesses, which are rewarded by the inspired by the e-retailer’s “high-volume, low-margin nature of Amazon’s platform for selling high-quality, approach to sales.” Wyze uses quality components low-priced merchandise. This shift is “unquestion- sourced from China and its own software, but the ably good for consumers.” Not so much for “the firm still only breaks even. Its founders’ strategy for Nests and Netgears of the world.”
“Self-driving finance” has quietly come to dominate ments has taken place with minimal public debate. Finance’s our markets, said Gillian Tett, and if we aren’t care- Imagine if we gave driverless cars as little scrutiny; ful, it “could turn into a runaway train.” Today, just an outcry would rightly ensue. Yet this trading tech- computing 10 percent of U.S. stock-market trading is conducted nology is moving “faster than politicians and voters by human brokers; the rest is driven by automatic understand” and overtaking “legal and regulatory revolution systems, such as computerized high-speed trading frameworks.” If a “self-learning financial program Gillian Tett programs. “Humans write this code, and sometimes goes haywire,” who exactly will be left holding the Financial Times oversee trades,” but machines are increasingly tak- bag? Regulators can’t keep up, and they are find- ing on even those roles. Regulators estimate that ing it difficult to even assess how a computer-driven computers are now generating 50 to 70 percent of flash crash might spread throughout markets. Digital trading in equity markets and 60 percent of futures, devotees will no doubt argue that the benefits of in- with artificial intelligence and machine learning novation “more than offset the risks.” But we need being applied to huge amounts of data to produce to have “a public debate about the computing revo-
Everett Collection (2) Everett investment advice. This shift to self-driving invest- lution in finance” before it’s too late.
THE WEEK December 22/December 29, 2017
45 business cols.indd 45 12/13/17 5:20 PM 46 Farewell
Among those who died in 2017...
Media and publishing Stage and screen Jerry Lewis, slapstick comedian who Clare Hollingworth, intrepid British journal- John Hurt, British actor found fame with Dean Martin and later ist who broke the news of Nazi Germany’s who played the cruelly directed a string of madcap movies, died 1939 invasion of Poland and the start of deformed Joseph Merrick Aug. 20, age 91. World War II, died Jan. 10, age 105. in The Elephant Man, died Jan. 25, age 77. Music and the arts William Peter Blatty, author and screen- Roberta Peters, Bronx-born soprano writer who spooked readers with his novel Mary Tyler Moore who sang at the Metropolitan The Exorcist, died Jan. 12, age 89. (pictured), spunky Opera for more than 30 years, died sitcom star who Jan. 18, age 86. Robert James Waller, author whose debut defined the modern novel, The Bridges of Madison County, working woman Al Jarreau, vocal virtuoso who spent 164 weeks on The New York Times on The Mary Tyler won Grammys in jazz, best-seller list, died March 10, age 77. Moore Show, died pop, and R&B, died Jan. 25, age 80. Feb. 12, age 75. Jimmy Breslin (pictured), Pulitzer Prize–winning Don Rickles, acidic stand-up comedian who Chuck Berry (pictured), New York Daily News mercilessly pelted his audience with insults, rock ’n’ roll’s first guitar columnist who died April 6, age 90. hero, who fused blues and championed the country music in hits such underdog and Erin Moran, child star who played Joanie as “Johnny B. Goode” bedeviled the Cunningham on Happy Days, died April 22, and “Maybellene,” died powerful, died age 56. March 18, age 90. March 19, age 88. Jonathan Demme, Oscar-winning Silence John Geils, guitarist and of the Lambs director who revolutionized longtime leader of the Robert Pirsig, philosopher of the open road concert films with Talking Heads’ Stop J. Geils Band, who found who wrote Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Making Sense, died April 26, age 73. fame with hit single Maintenance, died April 24, age 88. “Centerfold,” died April 11, age 71. Roger Moore, debonair British actor who Anne Morrissy Merick, trailblazing jour- charmed as superspy James Bond, died Sylvia Moy, Motown songwriter who nalist who overcame sexism to cover the May 23, age 89. co-wrote a string of Stevie Wonder hits, Vietnam War from the front lines, died including “Uptight (Everything’s Alright)” May 2, age 83. Adam West, square-jawed star of the kitsch and “My Cherie Amour,” died April 15, 1960s TV series Batman, who brought age 78. Roger Ailes, Fox News chairman who deadpan comedy to the role of the Caped exerted wide influence on conservative poli- Crusader, died June 9, age 88. Chris Cornell, Soundgarden frontman tics, died May 18, age 77. whose octave-jumping vocals elevated the Martin Landau, actor who played ace band above its grunge roots, died May 18, Louise Hay, best-selling self-help impersonator Rollin Hand on TV’s Mission age 52. guru who pushed positive think- Impossible, died July 15, age 89. ing, died Aug. 30, age 90. Gregg Allman, hard-living Allman Brothers George Romero, horror visionary who Band leader who shaped the sound of Kate Millett, activist and invented the zombie movie with 1968’s Southern rock, died May 27, age 69. writer whose 1970 book Night of the Living Dead, died July 16, Sexual Politics became a age 77. Kenneth Jay Lane, designer and bon vivant feminist manifesto, died who made fake jewelry fabulous, died Sept. 6, age 82. June Foray, virtuoso of cartoon voices who July 20, age 85. gave life to Cindy Lou Who and Rocky Hugh Hefner (pictured), the Squirrel, died July 26, age 99. Glen Campbell, singer-guitarist Playboy founder who whose easy blend of country combined photos of Sam Shepard, Pulitzer Prize– and pop made for hits such as naked women with winning playwright who reluc- “Rhinestone Cowboy” and high-minded journal- tantly became a Hollywood “Wichita Lineman,” ism and created a star, died July 27, age 73. died Aug. 8, age 81. business empire, died Sept. 27, age 91. Dick Gregory (pictured), Walter Becker, guitar- black stand-up comedian ist and songwriter Liz Smith, syndicated gossip columnist who who smashed through the who crafted complex, befriended the famous and broke news color barrier and became dark-humored pop of Donald and Ivana Trump’s split, died a civil rights leader, died with Steely Dan, died
Nov. 12, age 94. Aug. 19, age 84. Sept. 3, age 67. Getty AP, (2), Collection, Getty Everett
THE WEEK December 22/December 29, 2017
46-47 Farewell.indd 46 12/13/17 1:03 PM Farewell 47
Tom Petty, Heartbreakers frontman and Frank Kush, coach who made Arizona Arthur Cinader, solo artist who crafted classic rock hits State University a football powerhouse and J. Crew founder who including “Refugee” and “Free Fallin’,” guided the Sun Devils to win 176 games in sold America on a died Oct. 2, age 66. 22 seasons, died June 22, age 88. preppy lifestyle, died Oct. 11, age 90. Fats Domino, pioneering rock ’n’ roll Margaret Bergmann Lambert, talented pianist who provided a soundtrack to the German-Jewish high jumper who was General late ’50s and early ’60s with hits such barred from the 1936 Berlin Games by the Eugene Cernan as “Blueberry Hill” and “Ain’t That a Nazis, died July 25, age 103. (pictured), Shame,” died Oct. 24, age 89. commander of Betty Cuthbert, sprinter known as NASA’s 1972 Mel Tillis, country music Hall of Famer Australia’s “golden girl,” who became the Apollo 17 who wrote enduring songs like “Ruby, first athlete to win gold in four different mission and Don’t Take Your Love to Town,” died Olympic events, died Aug. 7, age 79. the last man Nov. 19, age 85. to walk on Ken Kaiser, confrontational MLB umpire the moon, Politics who enjoyed putting players and managers died Jan. 16, Norma McCorvey, the anonymous “Jane in their place, died Aug. 8, age 72. age 82. Roe” plaintiff in Roe v. Wade, the 1973 Supreme Court ruling that legalized abor- Gene Michael, former New York Yankees Peter Mansfield, British scientist who tion in the U.S., died Feb. 18, age 69. shortstop turned general manager, who helped develop the MRI scanner, a break- built the club’s late-1990s dynasty teams, through that earned him the 2003 Nobel Gilbert Baker, gay rights activist who cre- died Sept. 7, age 79. Prize in medicine, died Feb. 8, age 83. ated the first rainbow flag, died March 31, age 65. Bobby Heenan, trash-talking pro-wrestling Mildred Dresselhaus, nano- manager, who oversaw the careers science pioneer who was nick- Zbigniew Brzezinski, combative Polish- of Andre the Giant and Ric Flair, named the Queen of Carbon for American political scientist who served as died Sept. 17, age 72. her research on the element, died Jimmy Carter’s national security adviser, Feb. 20, age 86. died May 26, age 89. Jake LaMotta (pictured), scrappy middleweight Thomas Starzl, surgeon who con- Helmut Kohl, German chancellor who championship fighter, who ducted the first successful human oversaw his country’s reunification in 1990, inspired director Martin liver and heart-liver transplants, died June 16, age 87. Scorsese’s Raging Bull, died died March 4, age 90. Sept. 19, age 96. Yuri Drozdov, Soviet spymaster who trained Nicholas Sand, Brooklyn-born chemist undercover agents and planted them across Jana Novotna, Czech ten- who sought to turn the world on to LSD, the West during the Cold War, nis player who won 17 Grand Slam titles died April 24, age 75. died June 21, age 91. over her career, died Nov. 19, age 49. Frédérick Leboyer, French obstetrician who Edith Windsor (pictured), Business pushed for birthing methods that were gay rights activist whose Mike Ilitch, Little Caesars pizza-chain gentler on babies, died May 25, age 98. landmark case led founder who owned the Detroit Red Wings the Supreme Court and Detroit Tigers, died Feb. 10, age 87. Sam Panopoulos, Canadian pizzeria owner in 2013 to grant who put pineapple on a pie and created the same-sex couples Joe Rogers, Waffle House Hawaiian, died June 8, age 83. federal recogni- co-founder who served up tion for the first Southern-style hospitality, died Sheila Michaels, feminist who encouraged time, died Sept. 12, March 6, age 97. women to adopt the honorific “Ms.” age 88. regardless of their marital status, Stanley Weston, died June 22, age 78. John Anderson, liberal Republican who inventor who cre- challenged the two-party system by running ated the concept Arthur Janov, psychologist as an independent in the 1980 presidential of the action- who urged his patients to election, died Dec. 3, age 95. figure toy with let it all out and overcome his G.I. Joe doll, childhood traumas with Sports died May 1, age 84. “primal scream” therapy, died Oct. 1, Lou Duva, tough-talking boxing manager age 93. who trained Evander Holyfield and other Jack O’Neill (pictured), champion fighters, died March 8, age 94. Californian surfer who Dennis Banks, co-founder of the invented the modern neo- American Indian Movement, who led the Dallas Green, loud, no-nonsense base- prene wetsuit and made 1973 armed occupation of Wounded ball manager who led the Philadelphia the O’Neill brand into a Knee, S.D., to highlight the U.S.’s mis- Phillies to a 1980 World Series title, died water-sports giant, died treatment of its indigenous peoples, died Oct. 29, age 80. NASA, Getty (2), Dan Coyro/The Santa Cruz Sentinel/AP Santa Cruz (2), Dan Coyro/The Getty NASA, March 22, age 82. June 2, age 94.
THE WEEK December 22/December 29, 2017
46-47 Farewell.indd 47 12/13/17 1:00 PM 48 The last word Getting my attention back Like many people, I felt as if technology had sapped my ability to focus on anything, said writer Craig Mod. So I went on a month-long retreat from all digital input. What followed was a revelation.
HERE ARE A thousand grueling. The closer I got beautiful ways to start to the goal, the more the Tthe day that don’t algorithm would knock begin with looking at your me down, set me up with phone. And yet so few of us what appeared to be choose to do so. easy wins only to have For 28 days last fall I lived on me lose. Disheartened, the grounds of an old estate I’d try again, this time in central Virginia, next to a beating someone against town called Lynchburg, mak- whom I should have lost. ing good on a residency I had Over and over this been offered by the Virginia continued. It was so per- Center for Creative Arts. I fectly tuned to my most had done other residencies primitive set of chemical and knew in order to eke out desires that it was actu- maximum productivity, inter- ally beautiful—a thing net disconnection was non- of beauty. I could feel negotiable. And so it began, it moving beneath the the day after the election: my screen. Its tendrils and month without the internet. my neurons moving with It felt like a cop-out—like I ‘It had been a long time since my attention was mine.’ an eerie synchronic- wasn’t allowed to escape the ity. But of course, the “real world” so easily. But the quieter my passion. But the network never meant to lock-step relationship was weighted heavily mind became, and the deeper I went into harm us. toward the house; just as victory was once my own work, the more I realized how my again in sight, I was back to my position 10 Regardless, down in Virginia, on a repur- moves and an hour prior. Where did it end? always-on, always-connected state had ren- posed plantation: I want my attention back. dered me largely useless. The thought wouldn’t let go. It was ridiculous. I was ridiculous. And maybe I was just a bad player. But I “All of humanity’s problems stem from N THE LAST year I had gotten myself man’s inability to sit quietly in a room couldn’t help shake that I was caught in a addicted to the game Clash of Clans. con, a long and s----y con. alone,” wrote Blaise Pascal. Did any of us INot purposely. I was in Myanmar on remember how to sit quietly, alone, without a research job and noticed all the farm- I pulled the plug. Deleted the app. Deleted a phone in hand? I certainly didn’t. I had ers were playing it, atop their buffalo in the Game Center account. The data was long since lost control of my attention. the fields (where the 3G was strongest). I gone (I hoped, I haven’t checked). A weight I want my attention back. wanted to understand what compelled them was temporarily lifted. to never put down their phones. N 1992, BILL MCKIBBEN “spent many It had been a long time since my attention months of 40-hour weeks” attempt- was mine. I tried to think back to when my Five months into it and I was fully hooked. ing to watch 24 hours of television as attention was something I could manipulate I set a goal—some level, some league that I recorded on 91 cable stations in Virginia (at confidently. I couldn’t remember. seemed just on the edge of “enough.” Make it over that line and I’d pull the plug. What the time, the most in the world). He wrote Was it pre-Snapchat or Instagram Stories? makes Clash of Clans so treacherous is that up his findings in the book The Age of Before everything was filtered through a you are always building, sculpting. Five Missing Information. real-time performance? Before every meal months of work is really five months of “We believe that we live in the ‘age of infor- and outfit had to be posed, captured, and work. Each additional day of play makes it mation,’” he writes. “That there has been an #tagged. Or pre-Grindr and pre-Tinder? that much more difficult to abandon. information ‘explosion,’ an information ‘rev- When fantasies born on the crucible of olution.’ While in a certain narrow sense this YouPorn (or is it Pornhub?) weren’t so easy As I got closer to my goal—that mythical is the case, in many important ways just the to make real, nightly? league on the horizon—I felt the algorithms turn on me. I sensed they knew I had a opposite is true. We also live at a moment of Was I being too hard on technology? goal, and they turned that goal into an deep ignorance, when vital knowledge that Technology is such an easy scapegoat. But unobtainable carrot. Was I being paranoid? humans have always possessed about who it feels so right to point our fingers: It must Maybe. The last day I played, I played for we are and where we live seems beyond our have been the fake news. It must have been 10 hours straight. Play the game slowly, a reach. An Unenlightenment. An age of miss- Facebook. It must have been Twitter. It few minutes a day over months, and the ing information.” must have been Reddit forums. algorithms are insidious. Play the game in Today, I could live on Twitter all day, every- It was none of these things. It was all of a manic burst, and suddenly the algorithms day, convincing myself I was being produc- these things. Whatever it was, it robbed us feel laid bare. I spent only $40 over those tive. Or at least inducing the chemicals in
of our attention and, with that, our com- five months, but those last 10 hours were the mind that make me feel like I’m being Death to Stock
THE WEEK December 22/December 29, 2017
48-49 last word.indd 48 12/13/17 5:21 PM The last word 49
productive. Read more news. Send more always-availability. Nobody held a gun to ference between a day that begins with a replies. Start more threads. Each incoming our head. We put our own mouths on the little exercise, a book, meditation, a good reply activating a corresponding dopamine spigot every single day. meal, a thoughtful walk, and the start of a day that begins with a smartphone in bed. pop. Pushing nothing in the world forward. But it’s so delicious. That spigot goo— Maybe I lost my attention because I’m buoyed by pull-to-refreshes and pings and Work began early, continued long into the weak, lonely, pathetic. Maybe everyone wily dots. Giving up attention, so seductive. night after dinner. Wintry stars falling to else has total control; they can resist all the the horizon were scrutinized. Breaks were information spun by algorithms—all the had without phone in hand. Acres of woods delicious dopamine hits in the form of red were available to be walked in. Everyone circles. Bing! Maybe it’s just me. was largely offline, although there were Did I really have it before Facebook? Think- no strict rules about connectivity. We all ing back, the early versions of Facebook worked on things that had no immediate were adorable. Benign. No tagging. No value, and spent time thinking over prob- timelines. Just The Wall. A way to say: Hey, lems that were perversely meta. what’s shaking, dorm buddy? Poke. No And yet, the quietude of those discon- algorithms. A human scale. nected days evaporated as soon as I came The more I thought about my attention, the back online. It was a shock to feel my more I thought about the limits to human mind returning so quickly to where it was scale. How technologies amplify ourselves— before—namely, away. Elsewhere. My atten- the best and worst parts—in a way that is tion so eager to latch onto whatever cleverly almost impossible for us to comprehend. architected spaceship of dopamine was fly- How that scale is so easily co-opted to atten- ing out from my consciousness. It was clear uate our attention with the worst possible that vigilance was required, some set of diet of high-sugar, high-carb nothingness. rules. And so here are mine: Last year, Nintendo released its first iPhone The internet goes off before bed. The inter- game, Mario Run. It feels uncommonly net doesn’t return until after lunch. fresh. I’m not a big gamer (Clash of Clans That’s it. Reasonable rules. I’m too weak to and Mario Run are the only two mobile Without the web, my mind was clear, optimistic. handle the unreasonable. titles I’ve picked up in earnest in the last, say, 20 years), but the difference between Tristan Harris and Joe Edelman’s Time Well Total disconnection is a privilege, certainly. CoC and Mario couldn’t be starker. Mario Spent project takes aim at this thoughtless But I found it necessary to retreat and reset. is finite, bounded. The edges are clear. You allure. Bianca Bosker’s entire Atlantic profile To feel once again what it was like to have pay once, and there’s no other way for of the crew is worth a read, but this passage an attention without fighting for it each Nintendo to extract money from you. In really cuts to the heart of their work: minute. In short: I recognized the need for Mario you can not only see the end but self-care, and thankfully, the residency came While some blame our collective tech get there. Your points max out at 9,999. along at just the right time. addiction on personal failings, like weak Mario Run is human scale. Clash of Clans is willpower, Harris points a finger at the soft- Attention is a muscle. It must be exercised. machine scale, network scale. ware itself. That itch to glance at our phone Though, attention is duplicitous—it doesn’t When the scale of our systems with which is a natural reaction to apps and websites feel like a muscle. And exercising it doesn’t we interact breaches our comprehension, engineered to get us scrolling as frequently result in an appreciably healthier-looking and control of attention is weakened en as possible. body. But it does result in a sense of masse, the opportunity for manipulation grounding, feeling rational, control of your “You could say that it’s my responsibility” arises. emotions—a healthy mind. Our measur- to exert self-control when it comes to digital ing sticks for life tend to be optimized I want my attention back. usage, he says, “but that’s not acknowledg- for material things, things easy to count. OR THAT MONTH in Virginia, I took ing that there’s 1,000 people on the other Houses, cars, husbands, babies, dollar bills. it back. I did the thing only the mega- side of the screen whose job is to break Attention is immaterial, difficult to track. down whatever responsibility I can main- Fentitled are allowed to do: I went We deserve our attention. offline. A scant 20 years ago, the entitled tain.” In short, we’ve lost control of our went online. Today, we go dark. A true relationship with technology because tech- Disconnection helped me remember what privilege. I say “only the entitled” because nology has become better at controlling us. the mind felt like before I had lost my atten- that seems to be the pervasive notion. Fifty years ago, you could read all of the tion. Reminded me how it felt to wash off Oh? You get to stop checking email for a news in a single day. Grab the two or three that funereal glaze that seemed to coat us few days? Lucky you! Friends say to me. papers and read. The information had all, and to return to the world—however Strangers say worse. edges; it could be understood by a single thick the gloom—with clarity and purpose, human over one cup of first-wave coffee. able to help out in far better ways than I If I tell people I went offline for a month, could have had I stayed online. it’s like telling them I set up camp on Mars. HE VIRGINIA RESIDENCY was a It hints of apostasy, paganism. Tribes seem balm. It kept me sane at a moment I wanted my attention back, and I’ve got to find pleasure in knowing all members Twhere I was close to folding. As the it...for now. suffer equally. But, really, is the situa- month stretched on, I found my mind clear, tion so dire that we can’t wrangle a little excited, optimistic. Excerpted from an article that originally more control? We’ve opted into this baf- appeared on Backchannel.com, now part of
Pawel Bukowski/Unsplash Pawel fling baseline of infinite information suck, There is a qualitative and quantitative dif- Wired.com. Reprinted with permission.
THE WEEK December 22/December 29, 2017
48-49 last word.indd 49 12/13/17 5:22 PM 50 The Puzzle Page
Crossword No. 437: Capital Flows by Matt Gaffney The Week Contest 1234 5678 9 10111213 This week’s question: Residents of the Irish village of 14 15 16 Ringaskiddy claim that fumes from a nearby Viagra fac- tory make the locals unusually frisky. If a movie studio 17 18 19 were to make a romantic comedy about this village, what PG-rated title could it give the film? 20 21 22 23 Last week’s contest: A California man is fighting the government for the right to fire himself 1,800 feet above 24 25 26 27 28 29 the Mojave Desert in a homemade rocket so he can take a photo of Earth and prove that the planet is flat. If 30 31 32 33 Hollywood were to make a film about this Flat Earther’s madcap project, what would it be called? 34 35 36 37 38 39 THE WINNER: “One Cuckoo Flew Over the West” 40 41 42 43 John Fessler, Chino Hills, Calif. SECOND PLACE: “The Wrong Stuff” 44 45 46 47 Neil Ludlam, Sky Valley, Calif. THIRD PLACE: “High Loon” 48 49 50 51 52 Joel Conarroe, New York City
53 54 55 56 57 For runners-up and complete contest rules, please go to theweek.com/contest. 58 59 60 61 How to enter: Submissions should be emailed to [email protected]. Please include your name, 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 address, and daytime telephone number for verification; this week, type “Viagra village” in the subject line. Entries 69 70 71 are due by noon, Eastern Time, Tuesday, Jan. 2. Winners will appear on the Puzzle Page next 72 73 74 issue and at theweek.com/puzzles on Friday, Jan. 5. In the case of identical or similar entries, the first one received ACROSS 50 Lagerfeld of fashion 12 Best Actor nominee for gets credit. 1 Coastless country 52 America’s largest labor Love Story, 1971 t The winner gets a one-year 5 New horse union 13 Like characters on The subscription to The Week. 9 Strips at breakfast 53 Striking out Big Bang Theory 14 Very dry 56 Like some sales 18 NYC neighborhood 15 Currency replaced by 58 Stylistically emulating next to Little Italy the euro 59 Reach the clouds 22 Airline that had a red 16 River of Lyon and 61 Biblical priest logo Sudoku Avignon 62 Troubled, as with 24 Her elbows are on the 17 President Trump problems table Fill in all the announced on Dec. 5 64 Pennsylvania’s capital 25 Mournful poem boxes so that that the U.S. would was this city from 1799 26 Rulers who moved each row, column, recognize this city as to 1812, when it moved China’s capital from and outlined the capital of Israel and to Harrisburg Nanjing to Beijing in square includes soon move the U.S. 69 At additional cost 1421 all the numbers Embassy there 70 “Voulez-Vous” band, 27 Plant store packetful from 1 through 9. 19 Elf actor 1979 29 Knox and Hood, for two 20 Tattletale’s shout, 71 Toy in a tree, maybe (abbr.) Difficulty: maybe 72 Silk look-alike 32 Shady character hard 21 Many S.F. residences 73 Cook quickly 36 Think piece 23 Feeling low 74 Gym, often 38 Like medieval tables, 24 Grizzlies play there often 28 Without delay DOWN 39 “Don’t ___ on me” 30 Movie that earned 1 36th of 45 41 This country moved Jon Voight an Oscar 2 Form of “to be” its capital inland to nomination 3 ___ Town Islamabad in 1967 31 Change bills 4 Get with a tough trivia 42 Large, as a garage 33 Resort near Park City question 45 Charged particle 34 Stiller before the 5 Bird that’s also a Vegas 49 See 48-Across Find the solutions to all The Week’s puzzles online: www.theweek.com/puzzle. cameras casino 51 A chorus line? 35 Trait carrier 6 Stuff in a pan 53 Pencil brand 37 7 54 Amazon aide Fails to be Geometry class ©2017. All rights reserved. 40 Food cracked before measurement 55 Charity events, often The Week is a registered trademark owned by the Executors of the Felix Dennis Estate. consumption 8 Light sources 57 Far from a sure thing The Week (ISSN 1533-8304) is published weekly except for one week in each 41 Clinton campaign 9 This planned city 60 Broccoli ___ January, July, August and December. The Week is published by The Week Publications, Inc., 55 West 39th Street, New chairman replaced Rio de Janeiro 63 Suffix with ranch York, NY 10018. Periodicals postage paid at New York, N.Y., and at additional 43 Highway cover as its country’s capital 65 Org. for dunkers mailing offices. POSTMASTER: Send change of address to The Week, PO Box 62290, Tampa, FL 33662-2290. One-year subscription rates: U.S. $75; Canada $90; 44 Pride and Prejudice in 1960 66 Senator Kaine all other countries $128 in prepaid U.S. funds. Publications Mail Agreement No. teenager 10 Relaxed sounds 67 “I could name more 40031590, Registration No. 140467846. Return Undeliverable Canadian Addresses 46 Beauty pageant wear 11 In A.D. 330, this ruler examples” to P.O. Box 503, RPO West Beaver Creek, Richmond Hill, ON L4B 4R6. The Week is a member of The New York Times News Service, The Washington Post/ 47 Harry’s successor moved the capital of 68 Stephen of Michael Bloomberg News Service, McClatchy-Tribune Information Services, and subscribes 48 With 49-Down, “Kiss the Roman Empire from Collins to The Associated Press.
Kiss Kiss” singer Rome to Byzantium H M O R S
THE WEEK December 22/December 29, 2017 Sources: A complete list of publications cited in The Week can be found at theweek.com/sources.
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