Jack Kerouac’s ‘On the Road’ book agent, 102, dies in Florida
Winners of the Minimalist Photography Awards Show the Power of Simplicity
UN – Human Development Report – Uncertain times, unsettled lives – Shaping our future in a transforming world – “The global Human Development Index value has declined two years in a row, erasing the gains of the preceding five years…
Charles Waterstreet plotting comeback after his ‘fall from disgrace’
Five years since the firestorm of sexual harassment allegations that killed Charles Waterstreet’s high-flying legal career and left his reputation in tatters, the one-time king of the courtroom is living in a backpacker hostel plotting his comeback.
How to understand and navigate today’s uncertainty complex— driven by the Anthropocene, by purposeful societal transformation and by intensifying polarization is the topic of this year’s Human Development Report. Much attention over the past decade has been rightly paid to inequalities. Indeed, inequalities and their emerging dimensions were the focus of the 2019 Human Development Report, carried forward into the following year’s Report on the socioecological pressures of the Anthropocene.
The variations in opportunity and outcome among and within nations also happen within people’s lives, giving rise to more and new forms of insecurity, which were explored in the United Nations Development Programme’s Special Report on Human Security earlier this year. The 2021/2022 Human Development Report unites and extends these discussions under the theme of uncertainty—how it is changing, what it means for human development and how we can thrive in the face of it…
brilliant memoir from the writer who brought us Deadwood, NYPD Blue, and many other great TV shows.
Known for his gritty dialogue and reality-driven, richly meaningful plots, Milch (b. 1945), a consummate storyteller, sets himself up as an unreliable narrator from the start. In the prologue, he reveals that he has Alzheimer’s and that he is writing with the aid of his family’s recollections as well as transcripts of his writing sessions from the past 20 years. For most of the book, the author writes with a mix of authority and swagger about his early days—both his triumphs and missteps. While Milch was at Yale, his writing got the attention of Robert Penn Warren, who mentored him. Warren’s support continued even as he developed a heroin addiction, among other tribulations. Milch outlines all those issues, alongside his successes with Hill Street Blues and NYPD Blue (which created more issues), with the command and charm that so many of his memorable characters possess. He also provides interesting inside details about his classic shows. In one of his many asides about writing, Milch explains that he was writing more assuredly during Deadwood, which he says was inspired by the Apostle St. Paul, and he began using what he calls “God’s voice.” Using that voice, the author delivers several amazing passages—including one about Zenyatta, the famed racehorse—that beautifully encapsulate the power of sports and the experience of being a sports fan. “I really started pulling for that filly the last eighth of a mile, even as one had the sense that it didn’t look like she was going to get there,” he writes, setting the scene. That’s why when Milch’s formal writing voice begins to weaken, coinciding with his declining health and struggles with other issues, including the “corrosive” influence of gambling, the story becomes all the more poignant.
