Wait for divine intervention

I love this breakdown about thoughtful opinion writing with The Guardian’s Suzanne Moore:

“It’s not that hard to have opinions — look at the acceleration of the news cycle. What is hard is to differentiate your opinion from all else and for it to be authentic. The other bit is to entertain people and not take it all so seriously and to pace yourself. Some weeks it may be the end of the world and, at other times, I may write about moths and how in fact that can feel like the same thing. A good columns is sometimes like an antenna that has just picked up the background noise out there.”

 Decker was an artist, art forger, and drinking companion of W.C. Fields, John Barrymore, and other famous boozers. He may or may not have been a spy. He may or may not have forged the Head of Christ attributed to Rembrandt that hangs in Harvard’s Fogg Museum. He certainly did a famous portrait of W.C. Fields as Queen Victoria. Any of these accomplishments are enough to make a man interestingPictures I Like: John Decker — Shrine of Dreams

The Singing Nuns: In 17th-Century Italy, Convent Choirs Were Practically An Industry

“Music was really profitable for convents: it brought in money from the community, donating to hear mass on their behalf, while a great musical reputation brought in girls of higher status and wealth.” Cloistered life meant choirs sang together for many years, and while only aristocrats could hear the chapel choirs of royals and nobles, while anyone could listen to convent services — so the best nuns’ choirs became genuine tourist attractions. – Bachtrack

Britney Spears, The Musical?

The show will have its world premiere this fall in Chicago at the James M. Nederlander Theatre. Previews begin in October. The show’s story centers on classic fairytale princesses like Cinderella and Snow White learning that being happy ever after may take some work. –Washington Post (AP)

Brain Scans Of Actors Find Different Neural Functioning When They’re In Character

“Writing in the journalRoyal Society Open Science, [Canadian researchers] report how 15 method actors, mainly theatre students, were trained to take on a Shakespeare role – either Romeo or Juliet – in a theatre workshop, and were asked various questions, to which they responded in character. They were then invited into the laboratory, where their brains were scanned in a series of experiments.” – The Guardian

A Plague Of Insta-Poets?

Often described as “Instapoets”, there are several writers sharing short fragments online to enormous followings. The biggest of these audiences belongs to 26-year-old Rupi Kaur: the author of two poetry collections, she has 3.5 million Instagram followers and has received by far the most media attention of any Instapoet. On her Instagram account, she alternates beautiful pictures of herself in elegant outfits with short poems written entirely in lower-case; many young, attractive poets have followed this winning template. – New Statesman

Stalin’s Scheherazade: Was Nobel Prize-Winner Mikhail Sholokhov a Brilliant Writer or a Communist Con Man?

A Mission From God: Blues Brothers and Tax

By Sam Brunson On February 1, Amazon Prime Video started streaming Blues Brothers. Now, in spite of its being one of the great movies of the 20th century, and having one of the greatest soundtracks ever, I hadn't seen it in years, and definitely not since I moved to Chicago. So I decided to … Continue reading →

Donald Trump shouldn't be impeached because he's 'not worth it', says Nancy Pelosi - ABC News

Robots aren't just stealing human jobs, they're after man's best friend too - now there's a drone that can bark like a Sheep Dog.

How to Quit Your Job in 837 Easy Steps

I found myself Googling whether to leave my job — while leading PR at Google

Making the Most of Your First Three Months as a New Manager

Don’t waste this short window of time when you can play the newbie card to your advantage

Creative writing......As a source of pleasure

“No one knows how much a writer is worth, you know,” one writing organisation representative said. “They really don’t. They don’t know whether it’s worth £10 an hour or £100 an hour, and wildly differing payments are made.”

Why it matters

Happy Wednesday. Let’s see if we can get through a newsletter without mentioning Fox News, the Democratic National Committee, Tucker Carlson, Jeanine Pirro, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez or Bubba the Love Sponge.

Instead, let’s start with … Aunt Becky from “Full House”?

That was the big story Tuesday as Lori Loughlin, the actress best known for playing Rebecca on “Full House,” and “Desperate Housewives” star Felicity Huffman were among dozens charged by the Justice Department of being part of a scheme to bribe and cheat to get kids into colleges and universities. The defendants are accused of paying off college entrance exam administrators to help cheat on tests in a variety of ways. In the case of Loughlin, she and her husband are accused of paying $500,000 so their two daughters would be designated as recruits to the University of Southern California crew team even though they were not part of the team. That designation, however, helped get the daughters into USC ahead of, one might assume, more qualified candidates.

Here’s the journalism question that arises in stories such as this: Should famous people such as Loughlin and Huffman be singled out — and presumably mocked on social media and talk shows — when there were dozens of others involved in a fraud, including CEOs, lawyers, school administrators and coaches?

The answer is absolutely. The media doesn’t do it to set up punchlines for Jimmy Fallon or Stephen Colbert, but to put a recognizable face on a shameful crime in which real people, who don’t come from affluent families, were denied fair opportunities.

Is there a fascination with celebrity? Of course. Is this story more interesting because it involved a couple of famous actresses? Undeniably. Does the media feed the public’s appetite to see celebrities fall? Unfortunately, yes.

But leading this story with Loughlin and Huffman is not out of bounds. It serves the greater point of highlighting injustices, and pointing out injustices is one of the media’s biggest responsibilities.

A big victory

The Louisville (Kentucky) Courier Journal and all of journalism won a big court battle Tuesday when a Franklin Circuit Court judge ruled the Kentucky State Police must provide the Courier Journal with its entire database of 8 million citations and arrests since 2003. The state police agency said it would have been too time-consuming to go through all the records and redact confidential information and that it would cost too much to create a new system to do it electronically.

But Judge Thomas Wingate affirmed the attorney general’s opinion that the excuses weren’t good enough. Wingate wrote, “ … an agency should not be able to rely on any inefficiency in its own internal record keeping system to thwart an otherwise proper open records request.”

Fittingly, the decision comes during Sunshine Week, which focuses attention on access to public information, open government and journalism’s role in promoting transparency.




How governments are putting the brakes on wage growth
WAGE GROWTH: The slow wage growth that is the norm for Australia affects the public sector too. Most governments have a hard ceiling on pay rises.

Australia needs one million new affordable and social homes
HOUSING: Addressing the shortfall in affordable and social housing is “entirely doable with political will”.

New Transparency Portal set to transform APS reporting
TRANSPARENCY: The shift to online planning and performance reporting will be made by the end of 2019, which could see the end of printed annual reports.

Bring back permanent secretaries, argues 1980s Treasury dep sec
DAVID MORGAN: The Hawke-era Treasury deputy secretary on the need for Australian Public Service leaders who don’t fear the axe. 

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Transparency, privacy and data for good
ONLINE MANDARIN EVENT: How do we demonstrate that data aggregation has widespread benefits for citizens and consumers, and can empower personalised and customised services? This and more will be discussed on Wednesday 20 March. Find out more.

Michael Pezzullo: national security in the 2020s

"A dark kaleidoscope of future stormy possibilities threaten the nation" — the Department of Home Affairs secretary warns the barbarians are the gates, but we must stick to the rule of law.

Young voters may hold the key to the NSW state election: here’s why

Philippa Collin & Katie Acheson, The Conversation

Young Australians are more connected, educated and informed than previous generations. They are also more likely to have higher debt and less economic independence into their 30s. Many feel excluded from traditional politics and policy making and are turning to local action and global issues to express their political views.

Backing the strengths of Aboriginal young people

Sandra Eades, Pursuit

For Aboriginal people, connection to our country, culture and family can be profoundly healing. But in the many decades we’ve spent working to improve the health of Australia’s first peoples, it’s a strength that has too often been ignored and squandered.