How is everyone’s weekend going? Thanks for spending part of it with the Six.
Hope all of you had a terrific spring break. For travelers returning from more tropical locales, welcome back to the still-thawing tundra of the Midwest. We’re all reminded this time of year how the early spring climate can be no different than that of early winter (or January or February…) We just have to buck up and know things will get better.
Emails from Ravinia and Summerfest with their summer festival schedules provide perk ups – how being outside now may be aspirational, but will transition to a daily reality relatively soon (the rapper Pitbull at Ravinia this year? That’s a long way from the Irish Tenors).
Let’s proceed with the Six.
Comedians Still Rattled By The Slap.
We are week out from The Slap Heard ‘Round The World. I didn’t watch the Oscars (like most Six readers) and haven’t for many years. But the Will Smith on Chris Rock crime scene made the event infamous and drew its highest television ratings in years. There’s been so much commentary/analysis written about what happened through political/racial prisms, none of which I find all that interesting, quite frankly. But I did want to share this piece from The Washington Post that focuses on the impact of The Slap from the perspective of comedians. Rock is a comedian who at the Oscars, was doing the job he was hired to do – tell jokes. Smith reacted the way he did to a joke Rock directed to Smith’s wife. Should comedians be alarmed they could be assaulted on stage at future shows? WP takes a look.
Conservative Disney Employees Fear Retaliation Make Plea.
Whatever happened to the Mad Tea Party and Pirates of the Caribbean rides? The Disney of our youth is strictly a nostalgia trip now. As I wrote on Twitter earlier this week, leadership in that company are full blown convertists into the Temple of Wokeism. Unreal what’s going on at Disney, with events reaching Critical Mass Hysteria this past week as the company wades further into Florida politics over controversial education legislation. What about employees uneasy over the company’s public comments and announced directives? They wrote an open letter to their bosses saying how Disney is an “increasingly uncomfortable place to work for those of us whose political and religious views are not explicitly progressive.” The story from The Washington Examiner.
Silicon Valley Dreams, Ambition and Murder.
Readers of The Six know we like our stories about rises and falls of Silicon Valley entrepreneurs. Found this one about an Indian immigrant who was already wealthy from dotcom investments made in the 1990’s and 2000’s when he decided to jump into the cannibas boom about a half a decade ago. But a couple of years in, the investor turned up dead. What happened? A compelling read from Inc magazine.
Just How Many Planets Orbit Outside Solar System?
I’m not typically one to gaze at my navel and ponder our place in the galaxy. As the comedian Dennis Miller once famously said when compared with the infinitesimal galaxy, “humans are just an ant farm with beepers.” This news from NASA I found revelatory – outside the Milky Way galaxy, there are just over 5,000 exoplanets, or planets outside of our solar system. A recent tweet from NASA’s feed stated “There are planets everywhere we look: 5,000 and counting. Even with so many worlds discovered outside our solar system, Earth is still the only one we know of that’s just right for human life.” These ‘exoplanets?’ They are in a region thousands of light years away (that’s trillions and trillions of miles). Not even Jeff Bezos can build a contraption fast enough to get there.
Moms Fight For Female Athletes Amidst Transgender Controversy.
Much conversation in the culture now around the subject of transgenders competing in sports. The story that became famous is that of Lia Thomas, who last month, became the fist openly transgender athlete to win an NCAA championship. Thomas, born a man, competed in the event as a woman. Now an underground network of mothers are organizing in an attempt to argue for their daughter’s right to compete on a level playing field: “My daughter swam against Lia at Yale this year and it was just a miserable experience all around. We are literally bending over for male privilege. It’s humiliating,” is one quote from the article via the NY Post.
Tyson the Bison Returns to Chicago Suburbs.
The most famous bison in Chicagoland is back! Remember when “Tyson the Bison” surfaced last fall after escaping from a farm in Wauconda? Well, it appears Tyson has emerged from a winter hibernation. Video of Tyson wandering the streets of Hawthorn Woods was posted in the past few days. Authorities say they can’t confirm the animal is Tyson but how many homeless bison could there be in Lake County? Story and video from NBC Chicago.
Thanks for reading everybody and enjoy the rest of your weekend.
Have a suggestion for the Sunday Six? Send email to jon@jonjkerr.com