How is everybody’s weekend going? One of the joys of early spring thus far…witnessing playing fields filled with kids, coaches and parents.
Driving around Saturday (when temperatures pushed north of 80 degrees), I did not encounter a single open land not populated by people. We’re in early May, the weather is nice, of course people should be outside, right?
But after a year of Covid-induced hibernation, what a pleasure to go for an afternoon drive and see little league baseball games, track meets or just folks out playing pick up soccer. Can’t wait to see more of this the rest of spring, rolling into summer (and unmasked athletic participants, please. Happy to see those off).
Let’s proceed with the Six.
President Biden Gave An Ideological Speech, Even For A Democrat.
The big news in Washington this week was President Biden’s first speech to Congress since being inaugurated in January. Americans were not that interested (ratings were almost half what they were for Trump’s first address in 2017) but what Biden said in his speech was significant. He plans to tax the rich and create blue collar jobs, a common agenda amongst Democratic-elects. This piece from Politico argues Biden’s talk to the joint session Congress was the most ambitious ideological statement made by any Democratic president in decades.
The Girl In the Kent State Photo.
Fifty-one years ago on May 4, one of the most tragic events of Vietnam-era American happened in an unlikely place, the campus of Kent State University in Ohio. On that day in 1970, four students were shot dead by national guardsman who opened fire during a Vietnam War protest. An iconic photo emerged from the mass shooting, that a of a young girl kneeling in front of one of the fallen students. The Washington Post Magazine tracks down the now 65-year-old Mary Ann Vecchio in a compelling profile of someone carrying the lifelong burden of being a national symbol of grief.
The King Of Absentees Who Skipped Work for 15 Years.
We’ve all probably called in sick at some point of our working lives when we really weren’t that sick. We’ve all benefitted from PTO (paid time off). But this Italian hospital employee managed to no show his job for 15 years without anyone noticing. 15 years! The Guardian explains how the man got away with it and how he finally got caught.
How Kate Winslet Mastered A Pennsylvania Accent For Her New Show.
I heard good things about this new show on HBO titled “Mare of Easttown,” DVR’d the first two episodes and finally watched them this past week. It’s fantastic—a old school, small town crime thriller. But Kate Winslet in the starring role? I was skeptical. But she pulls it off with a very authentic Pennsylvania accent and tremendous performance. The L.A. Times profiles the show and Winslet, the lead actor in the show and looks and sounds like someone who’s a police detective in a rural American city. Highly recommend the show for anyone who gets HBO.
A Hiker Was Lost And Desperate. He Got Helped By A Stranger.
This piece is a twist on the stranded-hiker-rescue story: the hero is a tech worker and amateur radio operator whose hobby is using satellite imagery to uncover information. And the only record of the lost hiker’s whereabouts was one low-res, texted photograph of his soot-stained legs hanging over a steep cascade of rocks. Some good narrative journalism in the Washington Post this week.
Ranking All 93 Best Picture Oscars.
I’m sure like a lot of readers of the Six, I didn’t watch a single second of the Oscars last Sunday. Could not have been less interested. But this ranking of all best pictures by Esquire makes me long for the days when the Oscars were an event worth spending a Sunday night investing time in. Could not disagree more with the author’s No. 2 and No. 1 list choices (trust me, read it and say, ‘are you high?’) but kudos to Esquire for putting this together and making us remember some of the great films that have won over the decades (“One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest” and “Amadeus” are examples of great films I’ll be re-watching).
Have a great rest of your weekend everybody. Thanks for reading as always.
Have a suggestion for the Sunday Six? Send email to jon@jonjkerr.com.