Home//The Week Magazine/February 17, 2017/In This Issue
The Week Magazine|February 17, 2017Editor’s letterA n extremely pregnant woman was standing in a crowded New York City subway car, hanging on with one hand as it swayed back and forth, waiting for some decent soul to offer her a seat. No one stood up. When the mom-to-be—The Week’s managing editor, Carolyn O’Hara—painted this grim tableau for me the other day, I was appalled but not surprised. It’s just another manifestation of what I’ve come to think of as our country’s “eff you” culture. Norms of civility are eroding at a galloping pace, and giving way to an unashamed rudeness—a me-first ethos in which people feel they owe nothing to anyone. You see it in every aspect of life: drivers who speed up as you try to merge onto a highway, blocking you from “getting…2 min
The Week Magazine|February 17, 2017Senate battles over DeVos, Sessions turn bitterWhat happenedThe Senate confirmed Betsy DeVos as Education secretary and was expected to approve Sen. Jeff Sessions this week as attorney general amid furious partisan clashes over President Trump’s Cabinet picks. Democrats attempted to delay the confirmation of DeVos, a billionaire school-choice advocate who supports taxpayer funding for religious schools as well as charter schools, by staging an all-night debate on the Senate floor. After being inundated with phone calls from constituents, two centrist GOP senators also opposed the nominee: Susan Collins of Maine and Alaska’s Lisa Murkowski. With a 50-50 Senate deadlock, Vice President Mike Pence cast the tie-breaking vote—the first time a vice president has decided a Cabinet confirmation.Democrats mounted another marathon debate on Sessions, which boiled over when Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren read a 1986 letter to…2 min
The Week Magazine|February 17, 2017The U.S. at a glance ...Jefferson City, Mo.Union battle: The “right-to-work” movement claimed another victory this week when Missouri became the 28th state to bar unions from requiring workers to join the organization or pay dues. Proponents of right-to-work laws, including Missouri’s Republican governor, Eric Greitens, say they create a business-friendly environment that helps bring jobs to the state. Signing the law, Greitens tweeted that “Missourians are ready to work and now our state is open for business!” Critics of the legislation say it strips labor unions of funding and weakens their ability to protect workers’ benefits, including higher wages. While businesses may grow, the critics say, individual workers make less money. Right-to-work advocates are now looking to New Hampshire, one of the last remaining strongholds for labor unions, where Republican lawmakers have recently advanced…4 min
The Week Magazine|February 17, 2017Gossip▪ Beyoncé plans to perform at the Coachella music festival in April even though she’s expecting twins and may be in her third trimester. A source close to Beyoncé, who is 35, tells TMZ.com she will keep her scheduled gig at the annual event in California’s,” wrote Beyoncé and husband Jay Z, whose daughter Blue turned 5 last month. “We have been blessed two times over. We are incredibly grateful that our family will be growing by two.”▪ David Beckham this week went into damage-control mode after leaked private emails revealed a nasty side to the British soccer icon. Russian hackers last year allegedly stole some 18 million emails from Beckham’s publicist, and released them after the superstar wouldn’t subCommittee “unappreciative c---s” and rejected a lesser honor: “Unless it’s a…1 min
The Week Magazine|February 17, 2017Best columns: The U.S.Colleges suppressing free speechGlenn ReynoldsUSA Today“America’s colleges and universities have a free speech problem,” said Glenn Reynolds. The same campus leftists who are frantically warning that Donald Trump is ushering in a fascist dystopia are trying to silence conservatives who dare to challenge their views. Consider the ugly spectacle last week at the University of California, Berkeley. Rightwing provocateur Milo Yiannopoulos “had to be evacuated, and his speech canceled, because masked rioters beat people, smashed windows, and started fires” on and off campus, causing $100,000 in damages. At Marquette University, an employee tried to shut down conservative speaker Ben Shapiro by encouraging people to reserve all the seats in the lecture hall—and then not show up. At New York University, rightwing Vice.com co-founder Gavin MacInnes “was met with an angry…3 min
The Week Magazine|February 17, 2017Best columns: EuropeSPAINTweeting can land you behind barsLa RazónA top Spanish rapper is going to prison for his tweets, said La Razón. The Supreme Court has overturned a lower court’s acquittal of César Strawberry for “glorifying terrorism” and “humiliating victims” in a series of tweets from 2013 and 2014. Strawberry, frontman of the polemical rap-rock group Def Con Dos, had tweeted that a prison guard kidnapped by the Basque terrorist group ETA in 1996 and held for a year and a half should be “kidnapped again.” He also said he wanted to send a “cake bomb” to the king of Spain for his birthday. The Supreme Court ruled Strawberry had caused ETA victims to relive painful memories, and therefore he deserved a year behind bars. But even ETA victims say they are…4 min
The Week Magazine|February 17, 2017Noted▪ Gaining refugee status in the U.S. takes an average of 18 to 24 months—most of it conducted abroad. It involves screening by the United Nations and eight different federal government agencies, as well as three face-to-face interviews, biometric security checks, background checks, and security database checks. CNN.com▪ About half of U.S. startups that are estimated to be worth more than $1 billion were founded by immigrants, according to the National Foundation for American Policy, a think tank. Apple co-founder Steve Jobs was the son of a Syrian immigrant, and Google co-founder Sergey Brin is a refugee from the former Soviet Union.WashingtonPost.com▪ In his first two weeks in office, President Trump attacked at least 23 people, places, and things on his Twitter account, including Women’s March protesters; Sens. John McCain,…1 min
The Week Magazine|February 17, 2017Putin: No more immoral than the U.S.?“I didn’t think I’d ever see the day when a Republican president equated America with Russia,” said David French in NationalReview.com. But President Trump actually espoused that “nonsensical moral relativism” during an interview with Fox News’ Bill O’Reilly last week. When Trump reiterated his “respect” for Russian president Vladimir Putin, O’Reilly noted the Russian president is “a killer”—a thug who invaded Ukraine, bombed Syrian civilians to defend a genocidal dictator, and routinely has journalists and opponents murdered. Trump shrugged it all off. “We’ve got a lot of killers,” he said. “What do you think? Our country’s so innocent?” Had Barack Obama answered that way, my fellow conservatives “would call it moral treason,” said Bret Stephens in The Wall Street Journal. Remember when Obama gave a series of speeches mildly regretting…2 min
The Week Magazine|February 17, 2017Social media: Activism on demandWelcome to the new age of social media– fueled protest, said Issie Lapowsky in Wired.com. Over the past few weeks, online organizers have swiftly mobilized huge marches for immigrants, refugees, and women’s rights. The Women’s March on Washington grew, over the course of two months, from a viral Facebook post by a woman in Hawaii into a worldwide day of mass protest that attracted more than 4 million demonstrators. One week later, thousands of protesters “descended almost instantly upon the nation’s airports” as word of President Trump’s travel ban spread through tweets, email blasts, and Facebook groups. Organizers say they will continue to use these “plug-and-play” networks of concerned citizens to rally protesters in “just a fraction of the time” it took activists to mobilize in the 1960s and ’70s.…2 min
The Week Magazine|February 17, 2017Lif e does flash before a dying person’s eyesPeople who are about to die really do see their life flash before their eyes—but not in the way it happens in the movies. That’s the conclusion of a new Israeli study into the phenomenon, which has labeled the pre-death flashbacks “life review experiences,” or LREs, says The Daily Telegraph (U.K.). Researchers from Jerusalem’s Hadassah University spoke to 271 people who had undergone a near-death experience and an LRE. Whereas flashbacks in the movies typically involve a sequential highlight reel of meaningful moments, study participants said their memories came at them in no particular order, often simultaneously. Some recalled reliving their own experiences from someone else’s perspective, and even said they could feel that other person’s pain. Many of the participants said they lost all sense of time during the…5 min
The Week Magazine|February 17, 2017Dust Bowl Girls: The Inspiring Story of the Team That Barnstormed Its Way to Basketball Glory“This is a book you can’t put down,” said Sandra Dallas in The Denver Post. Its protagonists, the young women who played basketball for tiny Oklahoma Presbyterian College in the early 1930s, are classic underdogs. Most were farmers’ daughters who’d grown up without running water or electricity, and few had expected to attend college. But in the middle of the Dust Bowl era, they were recruited to the church-funded school by an ambitious coach who held practice at 4 in the morning and insisted each player shoot 100 free throws a day. Between 1931 and 1934, the Lady Cardinals piled up 89 consecutive victories and won two national championships against teams stocked with more-seasoned players.Coach Sam Babb was fighting long odds himself, said Maureen McCarthy in the Minneapolis Star Tribune.…2 min
The Week Magazine|February 17, 2017Also of interest...in witnesses to historyHuman Actsby Han Kang (Hogarth, $22)Han Kang’s new novel is “ruthless in its refusal to look away from atrocity,” said Lara Palmqvist in The Washington Post. The South Korean writer, who last year won a Man Booker prize for The Vegetarian, here takes on the 1980 government massacre that ended a democratic uprising in the city of Kwangju. Following a teenager who volunteers to tend to the dead, the book forces readers into “achingly close” contact with violence, but also “wrenches the heart with its surprising tenderness.”The Men in My Lifeby Patricia Bosworth (Harper, $28)Patricia Bosworth’s early life provided some “ridiculously good” material, said Dwight Garner in The New York Times. Now an accomplished Hollywood biographer, Bosworth spent her 20s as a New York model and actress who escaped an…2 min
The Week Magazine|February 17, 2017New on DVD and Blu-rayLoving(Universal, $30)Joel Edgerton and Oscar nominee Ruth Negga are both superb in this “beautifully restrained” drama about the Virginia couple that brought down America’s antimiscegenation laws, said Time.com. When Negga’s Mildred realizes she must fight, “her resolve becomes quietly formidable.”Cameraperson(Criterion, $40)Kirsten Johnson’s collage-like autobiographical documentary is “unlike anything you’ve seen before,” said The New York Times. A cinematographer who has often worked in conflict zones, she has woven together outtakes to create an affecting memoir about the world she’s witnessed.Black Girl(Criterion, $40)In one of the first African films to score big in U.S. art houses, a Senegalese maid is surprised that her French employers treat her like a slave, said the Cherry Hill, N.J., Courier-Post. The “deceptively simple” 1966 drama “confronts themes of racism and colonialism with disarming perception.”…1 min
The Week Magazine|February 17, 2017Show of the weekPlanet Earth IITen years ago, the BBC’s Planet Earth raised the bar on nature documentaries to dizzying new heights, and the series was rewarded with the largest audiences cable TV had ever recorded. Now, the network’s brilliant Natural History Unit has done it again, assembling hour after hour of close-up high-definition footage that reminds us all of nature’s astonishing fecundity. The always charming David Attenborough, now 90, returns as narrator for the six-part series, which opens with a focus on islands, and how they can intensify the interspecies struggle for survival. Saturday, Feb. 18, at 9 p.m., BBC America• All listings are Eastern Time.…1 min
The Week Magazine|February 17, 2017Getting the flavor of...The Florida Keys, by bikeFor drivers, it’s one of America’s most epic road trips, said Lori Rackl in the Chicago Tribune. But I recently bicycled all 100-plus miles of roadway that link the Florida Keys, and the experience “spanned the spectrum from goose bumps–inducing euphoria to hair-raising fear.” Some stretches of U.S. Highway 1 simply push bikes too close to traffic. But at least the shoulders have been widened in recent years, and more and more cyclists are taking advantage. In December, my husband and I spent two days covering the full distance from Key Largo to Key West. Logging the miles at a leisurely pace, we stopped at Robbie’s Marina to feed massive tarpon by hand, poked around the beaches of Bahia Honda State Park, and ate a crispy…2 min
The Week Magazine|February 17, 2017The bottom line▪ At Google’s parent company, Alphabet, which is routinely ranked the best place to work in America, roughly half the workforce is outsourced and not employed directly by the company. About 70,000 temps, contractors, and vendors test self-driving cars, review legal documents, and manage marketing and data projects. The Wall Street Journal▪ Global use of ad blockers on smartphone s and computers increased 30 percent in 2016. About 11 percent of internet users worldwide employ some kind of ad blocking software while browsing the web—that’s more than 600 million devices. The New York Times▪ There are more than 1,300_apps devoted to mindfulness and meditation, including industry leader Headspace, which has been downloaded more than 11_million times. The Global Wellness Institute estimates that the mindfulness industry is worth about $3.7_trillion worldwide.…1 min
The Week Magazine|February 17, 2017Household budgets: Time to quit the gym?How’s that 2017 fitness regimen going? asked Catey Hill in Market Watch.com. Odds are, not great. More than one in three people have abandoned their New Year’s resolutions by the end of January, and more than half by the time June rolls around. With the most common resolutions having to do with health and weight loss, that means a lot of unused gym memberships right about now. While that’s not great for your waistline, it’s also equally hard on your wallet. Americans spend an average of $58 a month on gym memberships, and some 67 percent of us don’t even use them, according to data from statistics aggregator Statista.com. Researchers have found it takes two months on average for gym members to cancel their membership after they’ve stopped going. So,…2 min
The Week Magazine|February 17, 2017Charity of the weekAdvancements in archaeological technology, such as radiocarbon dating and traceelement analysis, have provided a wealth of knowledge about our country’s history. To ensure that we continue to learn and benefit from archaeological sites, some of them dating back thousands of years, The Archaeological Conservancy ( archaeological conservancy.com) works to acquire sites and protect their integrity by establishing them as permanent archaeological preserves. Since the organization’s inception in 1980, it has acquired 500 endangered sites in 43 states across the U.S. They range from the earliest habitation sites in North America to a 19th-century frontier army post, and nearly every major cultural period in between. Many conservancy sites have been incorporated into public parks like Arizona’s Petrified Forest and Chaco Culture National Historical Park in New Mexico.Each charity we feature has…1 min
The Week Magazine|February 17, 2017The satellite pioneer who got the world talkingHarold Rosen 1926–2017In 1957, Harold Rosen watched in awe as the Soviet Union’s Sputnik, the first man-made satellite to orbit Earth, streaked across the night sky above Los Angeles. Sputnik could only broadcast beeps back to Earth, but the young engineer imagined a future in which such technology relayed phone calls and video images around the globe. It was a fanciful notion in an era when undersea telephone cables and radio towers offered limited connectivity, leaving swaths of the world totally isolated. But by 1963, Rosen and his colleagues at Hughes Aircraft had developed Syncom, the world’s first geosynchronous communication satellite—a lightweight, solar-powered telephone switching station that traveled in perfect sync with Earth’s rotation. Today, some 600 geostationary signals handle all kinds of communications data, including international TV signals and…2 min
The Week Magazine|February 17, 2017The madcap comedian who mocked expertiseIrwin Corey 1914–2017Irwin Corey was the world’s foremost authority on intellectual doublespeak. Wearing a tuxedo jacket and string tie and looking like a wild-haired professor, the comedian was a familiar presence on TV talk shows in the 1960s and ’70s, where he’d deliver a stream of academic-sounding gobbledygook. “The indication,” he declared one election year, “is that there will be a turnout that won’t come up to the expectations of those who, through their own analyses, have proved the percentages will only relate to the outcome.” His mockery of the elite reached an absurdist peak in 1974, when he gave an off-the-wall acceptance speech at the National Book Awards on behalf of Thomas Pynchon. Since the reclusive author of Gravity’s Rainbow had never made a public appearance, many in the…1 min
The Week Magazine|February 17, 2017The Puzzle PageACROSS1 Canal that’s a Greek god spelled backward5 Mope around9 Far from farms, perhaps14 Rice-shaped pasta15 Singer who doesn’t do tours16 Destitute17 Card game named for ancient rulers18 Mary Kay rival19 Black jack, half the time20 Budget alternative23 Points24 Cycle start25 Al Gore’s choice33 Non-woods for Tiger Woods34 Cole ___35 Promise with a ring36 Broadcasts37 First show39 Printer problems40 Piece of hockey equipment41 Honduran’s house42 Ike liked her43 Lena Dunham graces the cover of its February issue47 Ailing48 Stan on saxophone49 Scattershot and inconsistent55 Smallest country in the European Union57 Ingredient in a Virginia brewery’s latest beer, as announced last month58 Moore of Ghost59 Cruise or Diesel60 Place61 Apartment or condo62 School leaders63 Try out64 “Dad humor,” all too oftenDOWN1 It has arms, legs, and a back2 Range or river…3 min
The Week Magazine|February 17, 2017Travel ban challenged in courtWhat happenedThe immediate fate of President Donald Trump’s executive order on immigration and refugees lay in the hands of a federal appeals court this week, with the case likely headed for the U.S. Supreme Court. Enforcement of the ban on immigration and travel from seven Muslimmajority countries was temporarily suspended last week by U.S. District Court Judge James Robart in Seattle, in response to a legal challenge by the attorneys general of Washington and Minnesota. That decision, which opened a window for immigrants from the blacklisted countries to enter the U.S., was immediately challenged by the Justice Department, and on Tuesday a three-judge panel from the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals heard oral arguments from both sides. The panel’s ruling on whether the travel ban should be suspended until its…3 min
The Week Magazine|February 17, 2017Trump takes aim at Dodd-FrankWhat happenedPresident Trump moved last week to unravel Wall Street restrictions and other financial regulations passed by Democrats in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis, signing an executive order that calls for a review of the sweeping Dodd-Frank Act. The 2010 law reined in risky mortgage practices and derivatives trading, and created the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Trump’s order can’t overturn the law, which was passed by Congress and can only be repealed by lawmakers. But it instructs the Treasury to meet with regulators to discuss possible changes. Trump said his planned overhaul would make it easier for Wall Street to approve loans to companies, allowing businesses to hire more workers. “I have so many people, friends of mine that had nice businesses, they can’t borrow money,” said the…2 min
The Week Magazine|February 17, 2017The world at a glance ...ParisLouvre attack: An Egyptian man brandishing two machetes and yelling “Allahu akbar!” was shot several times last week after he attempted to attack soldiers on a security patrol near the Louvre museum. Recovering in a Paris hospital, Abdullah Reda al- Hamamy, 28, said he wanted to deface paintings at the world-famous museum, a judicial source told Reuters.com, and also that he wanted to “avenge the Syrian people.” Spray-paint cans were found in his backpack. Prosecutors said al-Hamamy had arrived in the country a week before on a tourist visa and bought two military machetes at a Paris gun store. Shortly before the attack, he tweeted in Arabic: “No negotiation, no compromise, no letting up, certainly no climb down, relentless war.”ParisSarkozy on trial: Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy has been ordered…7 min
The Week Magazine|February 17, 2017The ‘sanctuary city’ showdownWhat is a sanctuary city?The term loosely applies to about 400 cities, counties, and states across the U.S. that limit local law enforcement cooperation with federal immigration officials. These jurisdictions range from sprawling metropolises like Los Angeles and Boston to smaller counties in rural Oregon and Kansas. These communities have varying policies: Most do not permit police to inquire about a person’s immigration status, and some do not turn over undocumented immigrants to federal officials even if they’re arrested. President Trump argues that sanctuary cities have become safe havens for criminals, and in January signed an executive order vowing to strip such jurisdictions of federal funding if they refuse to cooperate with federal immigration officials. That move has set up a legal showdown between the Trump administration and “every major…4 min
The Week Magazine|February 17, 2017It must be true... I read it in the tabloids▪ Russians who hate climbing into a cold bed at night can now hire a human hot-water bottle to make their sheets all warm and snuggly. Professional bed warmer Viktoria Ivachyova charges $80 a night to lie in her clients’ sheets in her pajamas for an hour and the following morning and told her, “Vika, you’re magic. Today I woke up, and I want to live.”▪ A Palestinian barber has developed an unusual way to straighten customers’ hair: He sets their locks on fire. Ramadan Edwan came up with his technique as a way to keep working during Gaza’s frequent power outages, which render traditional hair dryers uselessfor blood circulation.”▪ A 106-year-old Brazilian woman became the oldest person on record to get engaged, promising to marry the boy toy she…1 min
The Week Magazine|February 17, 2017How they see us: Australia stands up to TrumpDonald Trump has been “bested by Australia’s prime minister,” said Miranda Devine in The Daily Telegraph. Thanks to leaks, the world now knows the gist of the angry phone call last month between President Trump and our own Malcolm Turnbull. During their conversation, Turnbull tried to confirm that the U.S. would honor a refugee resettlement deal negotiated with the Obama administration. Under that agreement, up to 1,250 refugees Australia is currently housing in detention camps on Papua New Guinea and the Pacific island nation of Nauru are to be settled in the U.S. Some of the refugees are from Iran and Iraq, two of the seven Muslim-majority nations on Trump’s travel ban list, and the president was furious that he was being asked to weaken his executive order. “This is…2 min
The Week Magazine|February 17, 2017The White House: An internal power struggleThere’s only one word to describe the first couple of weeks in President Trump’s White House, said Sabrina Siddiqui and Ben Jacobs in The Guardian.com: “chaos.” As factions fight for Trump’s favor, the president’s “botched” executive order on travel and immigration created a legal and public relations nightmare—the result of Trump’s top aides deliberately excluding government agencies and lawyers from the drafting process. “A stream of leaks” flows from the White House every day, as senior aides Steve Bannon, Reince Priebus, and Jared Kushner jealously compete for influence over Trump, said Josh Dawsey in Politico.com. “People are just knifing each other,” one Trump staffer said.Two major strands of Trumpism are “vying for control,” said Ryan Lizza in NewYorker.com. On one side is chief strategist Bannon, the aggressive nationalist and former…2 min
The Week Magazine|February 17, 2017Wit & Wisdom“If you listen, you learn; if you talk, you don’t.”Actor John Hurt, quoted in The Telegraph (U.K.)“I believe that man will not merely endure: He will prevail. It is the writer’s privilege to help man endure by lifting his heart.”William Faulkner, quoted in Politico.com“A man who works hard stinks only to the ones that have nothing to do but smell.”Laura Ingalls Wilder, quoted in Biography.com“A first-rate soup is more creative than a second-rate painting.”Psychologist Abraham Maslow, quoted in Bustle.com“Ignorance allied with power is the most ferocious enemy justice can have.”James Baldwin, quoted in HuffingtonPost.com“No snowflake in an avalanche ever feels responsible.”Poet Stanis?aw Jerzy Lec, quoted in NewYorker.com“The world will be saved by beauty.”Fyodor Dostoyevsky, quoted in The Buffalo News…1 min
The Week Magazine|February 17, 2017Innovation of the week“It may not be long before the first robot helpers are spotted hasing their owners along sidewalks and bike paths,” said Will Knight in TechnologyReview.com. Gita, a spherical, two-wheeled robot, can lug up to 40 pounds of stuff, following behind its owner “like an eager puppy.” The robot navigates using its built-in cameras, plus a second set of cameras in a special belt worn by whomever it’s following, to cre ate a 3-D map of its environment. Gita is the creation of Piaggio, the Italian automotive company behind the Vespa scooter. While the company initially plans to test Gita in business settings like factories and theme parks, it hopes the robot will also appeal to consumers looking for a helping hand lugging groceries and other items. Piaggio has not yet…1 min
The Week Magazine|February 17, 2017Author of the weekScott CarneyIf you’ve seen Scott Carney jogging in Denver this winter, you probably remember him, said Lulu Garcia-Navarro in NPR.org. The 38-year-old investigative journalist makes a habit of running shirtless in sub-freezing temperatures because he believes exposure to extreme cold dramatically boosts health. Carney is a piker, though, compared with the man who made him a believer. Four years ago, Carney flew to Poland to meet with Dutch fitness guru Wim Hof, expecting to write a story debunking Hof’s claim that by submerging himself in ice water, he had gained control over his body temperature and immune system. Instead, Hof taught Carney some breathing exercises and forced him to stand in snow barefoot. Within five days of such training, the former skeptic could last an hour, and he’d also shed…1 min
The Week Magazine|February 17, 2017The Week’s guide to what’s worth watchingHumansThe robots are getting wise to people’s games in the second season of this stylish, subtly creepy sci-fi series. Niska, a “Synth” who’s hiding out in Berlin after murdering a man, decides to try spreading consciousness to every humanoid on earth by sharing stolen code online. The gambit doesn’t work exactly as planned, which adds to the suspense as The Matrix’s Carrie-Anne Moss joins the cast, playing an AI expert working a double game. Monday, Feb. 13, at 10 p.m., AMCChef’s TableStreaming TV’s most delectable docuseries returns with tours through the kitchens of six more of the world’s great chefs. The new season brings in more Asian flavor, with one episode devoted to ramen master Ivan Orkin and another to Buddhist nun Jeong Kwan, who’s gained international acclaim for the…2 min
The Week Magazine|February 17, 2017Critics’ choice: Haute hideaways in three citiesChumley’s New York City If you’ve heard that Chumley’s, the storied Greenwich Village ex-speakeasy, is open again, you’ve been misinformed, said Pete Wells in The New York Times. The windowless, beer-scented watering hole once frequented by Hemingway and Fitzgerald has actually been replaced— owing to a wall collapse in 2007—by a far pricier restaurant with the same name and same semihidden entrance. That said, the clubby new Chumley’s turns out to be “emphatically worth going to”—at least for as long as the current chef, Victoria Blamey, can put up with working in a tiny kitchen. Blamey makes a standout beef tartare, an “amazing” Dungeness crab potpie, and a $25 doubledecker topped with liquefied bone marrow that’s “like an erotic poem on the theme of fat.” Chumley’s is no longer a…3 min
The Week Magazine|February 17, 2017This week’s dream: A headlong plunge into Australia’s wild westEven we Australians fail to fully appreciate the “vast, bizarrely beautiful” continent we call home, said David Prior in Condé Nast Traveler. I moved from Australia to the U.S. 10 years ago, and I didn’t often look back. Recently, though, I began working through a bucket list of postcard Australian locales, from the tropical islands of Queensland to the forests of Tasmania. My final destination would be the country’s most remote region, the “mythical” northwest. Because I was seeking “the purest evocation of Australia’s outsize landscape,” I put both the wild Kimberley Plateau and the Ningaloo Reef on my itinerary and after flying to the Kimberley from Perth, set off on the twohour drive to a guest ranch.I wake before dawn on my first day at El Questro Homestead to…2 min
The Week Magazine|February 17, 2017Last-minute travel dealsBahamas for lessThe Warwick Paradise Island, an all-inclusive resort that faces Nassau across a narrow bay, is extending its grand-opening offer. Book by Feb. 28 to get 40 percent off stays through October. In May, doubles start at $321 with the discount.warwickhotels.comTwo-for-one safarisOn the Go Tours is offering two-for-one pricing on overland African safaris. The company’s 14-day Cape Town–to-Namibia expedition, for example, drops from $1,255 to $628 per person, double occupancy. Book by Feb. 15.onthegotours.comRoom upgrades at seaBook a 2017 or 2018 Holland America cruise by March 15 to lock in a stateroom upgrade, prepaid gratuities, and up to $500 per couple in onboard credit. For a 16-day Hawaiian cruise, rates start at $1,899 per person, double occupancy.hollandamerica.com…1 min
The Week Magazine|February 17, 2017Tip of the week...▪ As a mudroom throw: Keeping your entrance clean just got easier. A yoga mat— used as is or cut in half—can line a closet floor or just catch muddy boots near your busiest entrance.▪ As a bulletin board: Grab an old picture frame, cut the mat to fit, and hang it in a kid’s room or workshop. Just make sure to clean the mat first with mild soap.▪ As insulation: Gaps around pipes or at windows and doors can let in a lot of cold air. Cut the mat into strips and plug up those cracks.▪ As furniture pads: Make custom-trimmed pads and place them under the feet of your sofa and chairs to keep them from scratching wooden floors.▪ As a jar opener: Cut a 5-inch square out…1 min
The Week Magazine|February 17, 2017Best properties on the marketThis week: Rocky Mountain homes1 Durango, Colo. Thirty-five acres surround this six-bedroom contemporary house with a creek running underneath and a 2,200-square-foot guesthouse. The three-level main home has cathedral ceilings with timber beams, wood floors throughout, and curved architectural details. Outside, there’s a wraparound deck, a stacked-stone fireplace, and abundant woodland. $3,999,875. Samantha Gallant, Keller Williams Realty Southwest Associates, (970) 375-32992 Aspen, Colo. This remodeled one-bedroom downtown condo is in a building built in 1888. The main living space includes a fireplace, maple hardwood floors, and exposed brick walls. An upstairs loft bedroom has a marblewalled bathroom and a steel staircase that leads to a roof deck with mountain views. $3,995,000. Andrew Ernemann, Aspen Snowmass/Sotheby’s International, (970) 379-81253 Billings, Mont. This 2006 ranch house on a cul-de-sac is set on…2 min
The Week Magazine|February 17, 2017It wasn’t all bad▪ Kiersten Miles was three weeks into a new babysitting job when the University of Pennsylvania student discovered that her 9-month-old charge needed a liver transplant. Baby Talia Rosko was suffering from a rare disease that causes the liver’s ducts to back up with bice to pay [for] saving a life.”▪ An elephant sanctuary in northern India is using jumbo-size sweaters to keep its pachyderms warm during a cold snap. When the temperature plummeted, villagers near the Wildlife SOS Elephant Conservation and Care Center started knitting brightly colored winter garments for the pn, “as they are weak and vulnerable, having suffered so much abuse, making them susceptible to ailments such as pneumonia.”▪ Ray Johnstone was angling for some company when he posted an ad online for a new fishing buddy.…1 min
The Week Magazine|February 17, 2017Democrats: Should they become the ‘party of no’?“After three months wandering in a postelection wilderness,” said Doyle McManus in the Los Angeles Times, the Democratic Party seems finally to have settled on a strategy for surviving the Age of Trump: “Resist.” Last week, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi rallied her caucus to “stand our ground” against President Trump’s agenda, while Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer’s 48 Democrats are boycotting hearings on Trump’s Cabinet picks, using parliamentary tactics to delay confirmation votes, and threatening a filibuster of Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch. (See Talking Points.) To stop Trump’s aggressive attempt to remake Washington and the country in his own image, Democrats have decided to embrace a new brand: “the party of no.” That’s what the party’s base wants, said Ed Kilgore in NYMag.com. Right after the election, millions…5 min
The Week Magazine|February 17, 2017PeopleNegga’s path to gloryRuth Negga followed a tortuous road to Hollywood, said Tim Lewis in The Guardian (U.K.). Oscar-nominated for Loving, the true story of an interracial couple’s legal battle to end U.S. anti-miscegenation laws, the actress is herself the product of a mixed marriage between an Ethiopian doctor and a white Irish nurse. Negga was 4 when she and her mother fled the war-torn African nation for Limerick, Ireland; her father was supposed to join them, but died in a car accident. “I grew up eating Ethiopian food and listening to Ethiopian music and reading Ethiopian history, so it’s part of me,” says Negga, 35. A lack of job opportunities for her mom prompted another move, to London, where Negga disliked the schools. “It’s not that I have a…3 min
The Week Magazine|February 17, 2017The ‘name-and-shame’ listTrump’s executive measure on sanctuary cities includes another striking feature: It orders the Department of Homeland Security to publish a weekly “comprehensive list of criminal actions committed by aliens.” Trump’s name-and-shame list, as it’s called by critics, would reveal the identities of illegal immigrants released back into their communities by sanctuary cities, and their specific crime. The goal is to pressure sanctuary jurisdictions to accept more detention requests. Opponents say the list would serve only to stigmatize undocumented immigrants, who are about half as likely to be incarcerated as nativeborn citizens, according to census data. But Hans von Spakovsky of the conservative Heritage Foundation contends that the rate of crime among immigrants is irrelevant. “The point is that every crime that is committed by someone who is here illegally is…1 min
The Week Magazine|February 17, 2017Romania: Taking a stand against government corruptionPeople power has triumphed, said Andrei Plesu in Adevarul (Romania). Outraged by a government decree that would have gutted many penalties for corruption by public officials, effectively legalizing the misuse of public office for personal gain, half a million protesters thronged the freezing squares of Bucharest and other Romanian cities night after night last week. Chanting “Thieves! Thieves!” they held up cellphone flashlights in the darkness, symbolizing their intention to force corruption into the light. Stunned by this display of public anger, the leftist government revoked the decree. The protests—the largest since the 1989 demonstrations that toppled Nicolae Ceausescu’s Communist regime—show “a resurgent civic awareness, a promising social vitality” that this country has been lacking. The ruling Social Democratic Party that rammed through the decree only held on to power…2 min
The Week Magazine|February 17, 2017Gorsuch: Should Democrats filibuster?“To filibuster or not to filibuster?” That’s the question puzzling Senate Democrats now that President Donald Trump has nominated Neil Gorsuch, a conservative judge on the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals, to replace the late Justice Antonin Scalia on the Supreme Court, said Will Rahn in CBSNews.com. With Republicans holding a 52-48 seat majority, Democrats can’t stop Gorsuch’s eventual confirmation. But if they filibuster to block a vote on the nomination, Republicans will very probably turn to the “nuclear option”: changing the Senate rules to eliminate filibusters of Supreme Court nominees, so that the GOP could ram Gorsuch’s nomination through with a simple majority, rather than 60 votes. “Blocking Gorsuch would likely be just a symbolic gesture,” said Jason Sattler in USA Today. But Republicans stole this Supreme Court seat…2 min
The Week Magazine|February 17, 2017Melania Trump: An absent first lady“Where’s Melania?” said Krissah Thompson in The Washington Post. For the first few weeks of President Trump’s presidency, our reluctant new first lady has been “barely visible.” Her chief of staff sits alone in the East Wing while other key positions remain unfilled. Melania Trump has yet to officially announce any signature issue—a tradition for first ladies—and the Slovenian-born former model has decided to remain living in New York City’s Trump Tower until her 10-year-old son, Barron, finishes the school year. Then there is the viral Inauguration Day video capturing the first lady dutifully smiling at her husband, and when he turns his back, letting her face droop into a tragic mask of gloom and dread. The images spawned the trending topic #FreeMelania, as well as signs at the Women’s…2 min
The Week Magazine|February 17, 2017Poll watch▪ 42% approve of President Trump’s travel ban on seven Muslim-majority countries, while 55% do not. 38% approve of his order to build a border wall with Mexico, while 60% do not. Overall, 43% of Americans approve of the job Trump is doing, while 52% disapprove. Gallup▪ 27% of Americans think that the Senate should vote to confirm Neil Gorsuch for the Supreme Court. 14% disagree. 56% can’t yet say. 54% of Americans want the court to uphold Roe v. Wade, while 30% of people want to see the 1973 decision overturned. CBS News…1 min
The Week Magazine|February 17, 2017Novel of the week(Riverhead, $25)“No previous book has filled me with unease the way Fever Dream did,” said Jia Tolentino in NewYorker.com. In a clinic in rural Argentina, a woman lies dying while a boy she barely knows interrogates her about the past few days. Their conversation comprises the entire novella, and that conversation soon enough reveals that the boy’s own mother fears him. His questions are mostly about “the worms”—an apparent reference to what ails both speakers. We eventually intuit that the land has been poisoned, but as I read, I sensed at all times “that something terrible was happening just out of sight.” Before writing this slim novel, author Samanta Schweblin was “already a luminary of Argentine fiction,” said Ellie Robins in the Los Angeles Times. Her short stories offer no…1 min
The Week Magazine|February 17, 2017Best books...chosen by Lydia PeelleU.S.A. by John Dos Passos (Mariner, $39). A three-volume opus that runs more than 1,300 pages is bound to have slow moments. But the power of Dos Passos’ novel outweighs its occasional clunkiness. It vividly captures the political and cultural explosion caused by the First World War in the very form it assumes: a flurry of the scraps of modern life that everyday Americans saw sifting down around them.The People, Yes by Carl Sandburg (Mariner, $23). Sandburg was a rock star (Gene Kelly danced to one of his poems), but he has slipped from our collective consciousness. This 1930 ode to the powerless leaves me inspired by the courage Sandburg showed in taking on inequality and injustice. Besides, the poem simply sings.Ain’t I a Woman by Bell Hooks (Routledge, $28).…2 min
The Week Magazine|February 17, 2017Review of reviews: FilmI Am Not Your NegroDirected by Raoul Peck (PG-13)James Baldwin, resurrected“To call I Am Not Your Negro a movie about James Baldwin would be to understate Raoul Peck’s achievement,” said A.O. Scott in The New York Times. Less a traditional documentary than a “thrilling” collaboration between Peck and his long-deceased subject, it uses Baldwin’s notes from an unfinished book to speak uncomfortable, “life-altering” truths about race in America that are as relevant today as they were when Baldwin the writer was also a prominent social critic. As Peck weaves together news clips and footage of Baldwin’s TV appearances, the film becomes “an evocation of a passionate soul in a tumultuous era,” said Joe Morgenstern in The Wall Street Journal. Perhaps too much time is given to Baldwin’s commentary on the…3 min
The Week Magazine|February 17, 2017Movies on TVMonday, Feb. 13Inherit the WindSpencer Tracy and Fredric March clash in court in 1925’s Scopes Monkey Trial, which put a Tennessee high school instructor in the dock for teaching evolution. (1960) 8 p.m., TCMTuesday, Feb. 14The Remains of the DayAnthony Hopkins and Emma Thompson became Oscar contenders for their roles in this Merchant-Ivory drama about a butler and housekeeper who missed a chance at romance while serving under a Third Reich sympathizer. (1993) 9:55 p.m., MovieplexWednesday, Feb. 15Groundhog DayBill Murray plays a jaded TV weatherman who’s forced to live a dumb holiday over and over again in a comedy that reaches giddy philosophical heights. (1993) 9 p.m., SundanceThursday, Feb. 16Funny FaceAudrey Hepburn and Fred Astaire pair up for a quirky romantic comedy that borrows four George and Ira Gershwin tunes…1 min
The Week Magazine|February 17, 2017Recipe of the weekYotam Ottolenghi’s Moroccan carrot salad may look simple, but it’s “packed with bright and robust fiavors,” said Noelle Carter in the Los Angeles Times. The Israeli-born chef and cookbook author combines gently cooked carrots with garlic, caramelized onion, preserved lemon, chile, fresh cilantro, and an array of dry spices, creating a dish that’s great anytime, but “perfect for Meatless Monday.”Spicy Moroccan carrot salad2 lbs carrots • salt • ⅓ cup olive oil • 1 onion, finely chopped • 1 tsp sugar • 3 garlic cloves, crushed • 1 serrano chile, finely chopped • 1 green onion, finely chopped • ⅛ tsp ground cloves • ¼ tsp ground ginger • ½ tsp ground coriander • ¾ tsp ground cinnamon • 1 tsp sweet paprika • 1 tsp ground cumin • 1…1 min
The Week Magazine|February 17, 2017Hotel of the weekTimberline LodgeMount Hood, Ore.“As resorts go, Timberline is something of a rock star,” said Elizabeth Mehren in the Los Angeles Times. Its exterior will be familiar to anyone who’s seen Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining, and this stillstately mountain palace remains as stunning inside as it was when President Franklin Roosevelt dedicated it in 1937. Its rustic timber walls are adorned with “fabulous” Depression-era paintings and textiles, and the resort’s spa, restaurants, heated outdoor pool, and large central fireplace ensure that comfort’s easily found. Best of all: On Mount Hood, ski season lasts year-round. timberlinelodge.com; rooms from $190Courtesy of Sal Salis, courtesy of Timberline Lodge…1 min
The Week Magazine|February 17, 2017ConsumerThe 201 7 Subaru Impreza: What the critics sayConsumer Reports“It’s important to pay attention to the quiet ones.” Though the well-rounded Impreza has never been a compact that stands out in the crowd, the new edition “does nothing less than predict the future of the Subaru brand.” Built on a new platform that will soon undergird virtually all Subarus, today’s Impreza serves up a Goldilocks-like balance of price, features, and refinement. All-wheel drive is standard, as before. The overall level of polish, however, is up significantly.Motor TrendThe comprehensiveness of the Impreza’s makeover is almost thrilling. Gone is the “cut-rate” cabin of old, as well as the “dowdy driving dynamics.” Everything in the roomier new interior has a more solid feel, beginning with a thoroughly upgraded infotainment system. Meanwhile, handling has…1 min
The Week Magazine|February 17, 2017And for those who have everything...Back in the day, buying a computer meant you got a circuit board and some instructions. The Volta_V harks back to that minimalist 1970s aesthetic, when long-haired nerds had to build their own cases out of wood. Available in a fully assembled bamboo and walnut case, this “simple but elegant” desktop computer comes “packed with the latest technology,” including a high-end motherboard, graphics card, and solid-state hard drive. Like the DIY computers of yore, it has modular components that can be upgraded for years to come. Just lift the magnetized lid and swap parts as you please.Starting at $1,999, volta.computerSource: The Wall Street Journal…1 min
The Week Magazine|February 17, 2017Apple’s extreme home makeoverApple’s new doughnutshaped headquarters in Cupertino, Calif., is a “fitting tribute” to Steve Jobs’ legendary attention to detail, said Julia Love in Reuters.com. From the electrical wiring to the door handles, no aspect of the 2.8 million–square-foot campus, estimated to cost $5_billion, “has been too small to attract scrutiny.” Apple managers inspected each of the thousands of polished concrete ceiling panels individually, insisting they “be immaculate inside and out.” The world’s largest piece of curved glass wraps around the main building, and no vents or pipes can be reflected in it. The company also clashed with contractors over the doorways, which Apple insisted be “perfectly flat, with no threshold.” The reason? If engineers had to change their gait entering the building, they’d be distracted from their work. “The things you…1 min
The Week Magazine|February 17, 2017What the experts saySaving on car insuranceMany factors go into what you pay for car insurance, including your age, type of vehicle, and, of course, driving record, said Tobie Stanger in Consumer Reports. But car insurers also consider issues you may not even be aware of. A couple with poor credit and two cars, for example, “will pay an extra $2,090 a year, on average, compared with a family with excellent credit,” according to a Consumer Reports analysis of more than 2.7 billion premiums. That’s “more than what it usually costs to add a teen driver or even the penalty for having two DWIs.” Getting married knocks premiums down by an average of $535 a year; becoming a homeowner knocks $110 off an annual bill. Each insurer uses its own formula, however, so…2 min
The Week Magazine|February 17, 2017Issue of the week: Is Snap the next tech titan?“When Snapchat first became popular in 2013, many thought the messaging app would disappear almost as quickly as its vanishing messages,” said The Economist. Instead, it captured the imagination of tens of millions of Millennials. Now its parent company, Snap, is poised to go public in March at an expected valuation of roughly $20 billion, the biggest initial public offering for a U.S. tech company since Facebook. But unlike that social media juggernaut, which strives to create a record of its users’ lives, “Snapchat offers liberating impermanence.” Users love that they can share impromptu pictures and videos with groups of friends without worrying about them living online forever. About 41 percent of Americans ages 18 to 34 use Snapchat every day; about 161 million around the globe open the app…4 min
The Week Magazine|February 17, 2017The secretary who kept her Nazi past secretBrunhilde Pomsel 1911–2017Brunhilde Pomsel was 103 and nearly blind when her past finally caught up with her. From 1942 to 1945, she had worked as the private secretary for Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels—a fact she kept hidden from the world for nearly seven decades. But in 2016, Pomsel agreed to reveal all for a feature-length documentary, A German Life. On camera, Pomsel insisted that she “knew nothing” about the Holocaust—“the matter of the Jews,” as she called it—until after the end of World War II. Yet Pomsel also hinted that the truth was more complicated. Arguing that “nothing’s black and white,” she admitted she didn’t have the courage to resist and disobey an order. “I wouldn’t dare to,” she said. “I’m one of the cowards.”Raised in Berlin by “strict…2 min
The Week Magazine|February 17, 2017Opening my mind to psychedelicsARE YOU FEELING the plants?” Pluma Blanco whispered. It was nearly midnight, in the darkened great room of a mansion overlooking San Francisco. I was kneeling behind a makeshift altar arrayed with objects of spiritual significance set out by the 20 or so other houseguests lying prone on blankets on the floor. Beneath the entire slumber party stretched a large canvas drop cloth that was soiled with mahogany stains from the previous night’s bodily expulsions.“No,” I told the shaman, feeling a little ashamed.When the Uber driver dropped my girlfriend, Emma, and me off, it was a beautiful summer Saturday. The cars parked along the shady lane suggested a barbecue or dinner party. But inside the open door, we found an assemblage of alternative healers, PTSD sufferers, recovering opioid addicts, and…9 min
