America's 60 Families is a
book by American journalist Ferdinand Lundberg published
in 1937 by Vanguard Press. It is an
argumentative analysis of wealth and class in the United States, and how they
are leveraged for purposes of political and economic power, specifically by what the
author contends is a "plutocratic circle"
composed of a tightly interlinked group of 60 families.
The controversial study has met with mixed reactions since its
publication. Though praised by some
contemporary and modern reviewers, and once cited in a speech by Harold L. Ickes, it has also been criticized
by others and was the subject of a 1938 libel suit
by DuPont over
factual inaccuracies contained in the text.
In 1968 Lundberg published The Rich and the Super-Rich,
described by some sources as a sequel to America's 60 Families. Ferdinand
Lundberg was an iconoclastic journalist and writer who spent his career
pillorying the American upper
class over what he charged was
its grip on the United States' economy. According to Lundberg, he quit
his job as a reporter at the New York Herald Tribune to pen his first book, Imperial Hearst:
A Social Biography, which was published in 1936. In America's 60 Families Lundberg
analyzes 1924 income tax payments to estimate levels of consolidated
familial wealth and to map networks of capital interconnectedness in the United
States. Using his findings, Lundberg
asserts that a small group of 60 interlinked American families control
the mainstream media,
the United States economy, and have unchecked influence over American political
institutions. He goes on to claim this
nucleus of 60 families is supported by a larger group of 440 families of
secondary prestige. According to
Lundberg, this situation is unique to the United States as the plutocracies of Europe had largely
disintegrated due to World War I. Lundberg later charged that the film Citizen Kane was an
unauthorized adaptation of Imperial Hearst and sued Orson
Welles. The case, which went to trial,
resulted in a hung jury.
bara brith noun A Welsh yeast bread enriched with dried fruit; also, a Welsh fruitcake made with self-raising flour but no yeast. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/bara_brith#English
“I think The Wizard of Oz is one of the best stories ever
told. The lesson of it, to me, is really
profound in its simplicity: You think
the answer lies in getting to the Emerald City, but it’s [really] the journey
to find courage, brain, heart and home.”
Jason Segel, actor, comedian,
screenwriter, singer, and producer. https://parade.com/1000946/walterscott/jason-segel-dispatches-from-elsewhere/
The Beer
Card is the seven of diamonds (♦7). It is not part of the official rules of
Bridge, but there is a tradition among some (typically younger) players that if
the declarer succeeds in making the contract and wins the last trick with
the ♦7, dummy must buy the declarer a beer
of the declarer's choice. In the same
way, if the opponents defeat the contract and one of them wins the last trick
with the ♦7, the opponent who wins the last
trick is bought a beer by the other opponent.
According to Bridge Guys, the Beer Card tradition originated in
Copenhagen in the 1950's or 1960's. It
was probably inspired by the large reward
for winning the last trick with a King or the Pagat (lowest trump) in the game
of Danish Tarok. Tarok (Danish style) is
a game for three persons played with a tarot deck of 78 cards. The fact
that the seven of diamonds is a valuable card in the system of bommelommer
points--a way of evaluating a bridge hand which has little or no connection
with its usefulness in the game of bridge, but was used in some Danish clubs as
the basis of a side-bet between partners.
Bommerlommer is a slightly old-fashioned Danish slang word for
money. https://thebeercard.blogspot.com/p/the-beer-card.html
The game of bridge is not
unlike other games or hobbies wherein participants and/or spectators, over
time, develop their own terminology or slang.
To “duck” is to refuse to take a trick for whatever reason but a “quack”
is a hand with lots of QUeens and jACKs and therefore probably not as good as
the point count may tend to indicate. On
the other hand an “ugly duckling” is a hand with 5-3-3-2 distribution while a
“swan” is a hand with 7-4-1-1 distribution.
A “moose” is a hand with lots of high cards in all the suits, but a
“dog” is just the opposite . . . thus few points. All the face cards can be called
“Rembrandts”. ©2006 Marilyn Hemenway http://www.omahabridge.org/Library/mh_Colorful_Bridge_Slang.pdf
The start of a new decade
has also brought a new wave of art entering the public domain.
And in France, a collective of 14 museums is starting this year by
placing over 100,000 pieces of art on its online portal—all of which are free
to download and use as you please. Paris Musées, which runs the 14 City of Paris
museums, uses the latest technology to digitize its work, ensuring high-quality
imagery. So if you are a lover of
Rembrandt, Cézanne, or Monet, get ready to start searching. These great painters are among the artists
whose work is available through the portal.
Aside from being able to download a high-resolution, 300-DPI
digitization of an artwork, the online collection includes basic
information about the piece, as well as instructions on how the public domain
license works. Jessica Stewart See graphics and link to related resources at
https://mymodernmet.com/paris-musees-public-domain-art/
March 26, 2020 We are in the very infancy of this epidemic’s
trajectory. That means even with these
measures we will see cases and deaths continue to rise globally, nationally,
and in our own communities in the coming weeks.
This may lead some people to think that the social distancing measures
are not working. They are. They may feel futile. They aren’t.
You will feel discouraged. You
should. This is normal in chaos. But this is normal epidemic trajectory. Stay calm.
This enemy that we are facing is very good at what it does; we are not
failing. We need everyone to hold the
line as the epidemic inevitably gets worse.
This is not my opinion; this is the unforgiving math of epidemics for
which I and my colleagues have dedicated our lives to understanding with great
nuance, and this disease is no exception.
I want to help the community brace for this impact. Stay strong and with solidarity knowing with
absolute certainty that what you are doing is saving lives, even as people
begin getting sick and dying. You may
feel like giving in. Don’t. Second, although social distancing measures
have been (at least temporarily) well-received, there is an
obvious-but-overlooked phenomenon when considering groups (i.e. families) in
transmission dynamics. While social
distancing decreases contact with members of society, it of course increases
your contacts with group (i.e. family) members.
This small and obvious fact has surprisingly profound implications on
disease transmission dynamics. Study
after study demonstrates that even if there is only a little bit of connection
between groups (i.e. social dinners, playdates/playgrounds, etc.), the epidemic
isn’t much different than if there was no measure in place. The same underlying fundamentals of disease transmission
apply, and the result is that the community is left with all of the social and
economic disruption but very little public health benefit. You should perceive your entire family to
function as a single individual unit; if one person puts themselves at risk,
everyone in the unit is at risk.
Seemingly small social chains get large and complex with alarming
speed. If your son visits his
girlfriend, and you later sneak over for coffee with a neighbor, your neighbor
is now connected to the infected office worker that your son’s girlfriend’s
mother shook hands with. This sounds
silly, it’s not. This is not a joke or a
hypothetical. We as epidemiologists see
it borne out in the data time and time again and no one listens. Conversely, any break in that chain breaks
disease transmission along that chain.
Jonathan Smith, infectious disease epidemiologist, Yale University http://www.politicalcortadito.com/2020/03/24/epidemiologist-explains-why-social-distancing-is-1-weapon-vs-covid19/ Thank you, Muse reader!
Vivek Hallegere Murthy (born July 10, 1977) is an American physician and
former vice admiral in the Public Health Service Commissioned Corps who served as the 19th Surgeon General of the
United States. Murthy, who founded the nonprofit Doctors for America, succeeded Boris Lushniak, who had been
Acting Surgeon General since 2013. Murthy was the first Surgeon General
of Indian descent and, while serving in office, was the youngest active
duty flag officer in federal uniformed
service. Murthy was born on July 10,
1977 in Huddersfield,
England to immigrants from Karnataka, India. When he was
three years old, the family relocated to Miami, Florida, where Murthy was raised and completed
his early education, graduating as valedictorian from Miami Palmetto
Senior High School in 1994. He
then attended college at Harvard University, where he graduated magna cum laude in
1997 with a Bachelor of Arts in Biochemical Sciences. In
2003, Murthy earned an MD from Yale School of Medicine and an MBA from Yale School of Management, where he was a recipient of The Paul & Daisy Soros Fellowships for New Americans. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vivek_Murthy In a March 26, 2020 statement Vivek Murthy
said that the greatest gift you can give a human is the gift of your full
attention.
The Internet Archive, a nonprofit
group, which has made some 4 million books available online for free, says that
it is suspending waitlists for the 1.4 million works in its lending library. The move expedites the borrowing process
through the end of June ("or the end of the US national emergency,
whichever is later") for anybody worldwide who'd like one of those
books—be they students, teachers or just average readers bored out of their
wits in quarantine. "The library
system, because of our national emergency, is coming to aid those that are forced
to learn at home," Brewster Kahle, the group's digital librarian, said in
a statement paired with the announcement. "This was our dream for the original
Internet coming to life: the Library at
everyone's fingertips." The
Internet Archive says its lending library has focused on digitizing 20th
century books—obtained through Marygrove College and other school
libraries—that otherwise would not be available with many physical libraries
closed to the public. The move has been
supported by scores of individuals and schools, such as the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology and Tom Blake of the Boston Public Library. Colin Dwyer
https://www.npr.org/sections/coronavirus-live-updates/2020/03/26/821925073/national-emergency-library-lends-a-hand-and-lots-of-books-during-pandemic
Good News on Coronavirus https://groovelife.com/blogs/news/good-news-on-coronavirus Thank you, Muse reader!
Word of the Day for March
27 paracosm noun A detailed imaginary world, especially one created by
a child. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/paracosm#English
http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com Issue 2247
March 27, 2020
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