Anthony Bourdain dead of suicide at 61

June 8, 2018 • 7:21 am

Oh dear; of all the food writers and broadcasters I know, Anthony Bourdain was my favorite. I remember reading Kitchen Confidential, and was both repulsed (at what goes on in kitchens) and enthralled (at the stories and his pull-no-punches prose).  After that I didn’t read any of his books, but I watched his various food-show series as often as I could.

Compared to all the mediocre video food bloggers out there, who roll their eyes and practically have an orgasm when they put a toothsome morsel in their gob, Bourdain simply let the food, and his low-key reactions, speak for itself. And his taste was impeccable: he liked a good burger as much as he liked gourmet food, and, to tell the truth, he was a writer about everyday food, not haute cuisine. I found that congenial, for I’m not a gourmet but, as A. J. Liebling said, “a feeder.”

For the last five years Bourdain worked for CNN, whose obituary is the longest this morning.

CNN confirmed Bourdain’s death on Friday and said the cause of death was suicide.

“It is with extraordinary sadness we can confirm the death of our friend and colleague, Anthony Bourdain,” the network said in a statement Friday morning. “His love of great adventure, new friends, fine food and drink and the remarkable stories of the world made him a unique storyteller. His talents never ceased to amaze us and we will miss him very much. Our thoughts and prayers are with his daughter and family at this incredibly difficult time.”

Bourdain was in France working on an upcoming episode of his award-winning CNN series “Parts Unknown.” His close friend Eric Ripert, the French chef, found Bourdain unresponsive in his hotel room Friday morning.

I can’t imagine why he would kill himself. Yes, depressives often “present well,” hiding their darkness from their friends and colleagues, but I’ve never heard a report that he was depressed, and, as far as I know, he didn’t admit it. He was a big druggie in his youth, and a smoker, but he kicked the drugs, as far as I know.  Perhaps we’ll know some day.

Business Insider reports that, like Kate Spade, the suicide was by hanging, and gives more details:

Bourdain was born in New York City and grew up in New Jersey. He would have been 62 on June 25. Despite his success, Bourdain was known to struggle with drug addiction and had a history of heroin use.

“I was an unhappy soul, with a huge heroin and then crack problem,” Bourdain said in The Guardian interview. “I hurt, disappointed and offended many, many, many people and I regret a lot. It’s a shame I have to live with.”

Bourdain is survived by a daughter and by his girlfriend, the Italian actress Asia Argento. Argento had become a vocal critic of the Hollywood film producer Harvey Weinstein, whom she accused of sexual assault.

His suicide would be the second high-profile such death in the first week of June, after the designer Kate Spade hanged herself on Tuesday.

In the meantime, here he is in his prime: in Paris for the “No Reservations” series. At 19:35 he goes to my favorite Paris bistro, Chez Denise, where I ate twice just a few weeks ago. After his huge blanquette de veau, he tucks into my favorite dessert there, the baba au rhum with whipped cream. The man knew quality food!

https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x28k243

Here’s his last original tweet from his Twitter feed (he had 7.4 million followers). It’s “The House of the Rising Sun” sung in Cantonese, apparently for one of his shows.

 

Friday: Hili dialogue

June 8, 2018 • 6:30 am

It’s Friday, June 8, 2018—one day until graduation (“Convocation“) at the University of Chicago. As usual, we don’t get famous people to speak, only scholars. It’s all part of our serious ethos—the same ethos that got rid of varsity sports and made this school dead last on the list of America’s 300 best party schools. Here are two photos of the set-up for graduation: the entire quad is filled with chairs, with the stage at the east end:

It’s also National Jelly Donut Day, and Bounty Day (named after the ship) on Norfolk Island.

On this day in 632 A.D., the prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) died in Mecca. But how do they know that?  On June 8, 1042, Edward the Confessor became King of England, one of its last Anglo-Saxon kings. On June 8, 1789, James Madison introduced into Congress twelve proposed amendments to the Constitution; ten of these became the Bill of Rights, including our great First Amendment and the ambiguous Second. On this day in 1856 (see above), 194 residents of Pitcairn Island, descended from the mutineers of HMS Bounty, arrived at Norfolk Island to settle it. And on June 8, 1949, an FBI report named Communist Party members, including, for crying out loud, Helen Keller, Dorothy Parker, Frederick March, Paul Muni, Danny Kaye, and Edward G. Robinson. Also on that day, ironically enough, Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four was published. On this day in 1953, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that restaurants in Washington, D. C. could not refuse to serve black customers. It was another 11 years before that became national policy. On June 8, 1972, as Wikipedia reports, “Vietnam War: Nine-year-old Phan Thị Kim Phúc is burned by napalm, an event captured by Associated Press photographer Nick Ut moments later while the young girl is seen running down a road, in what would become an iconic, Pulitzer Prize-winning photo. Here’s that photo, which did much to turn American sentiment against the war:

Finally, on this day in 1987, New Zealand established a national nuclear-free zone. No ship carrying nuclear weapons, including any from its ally the U.S., can stop in a New Zealand Port.

Notables born on June 8 include Robert Schumann (1810), Frank Lloyd Wright (1867), Francis Crick (1916), Barbara Bush (1925, died this year), Joan Rivers (1933, died 2014), Boz Scaggs (1944) and Julianna Margulies (1966). Those who sent to sleep on this day include Muhammad (632, see above), Thomas Paine (1809), Cochise (1874), George Sand (1876), Gerard Manley Hopkins (1889), and Satchel Paige (1982).

Here’s my favorite Boz Scaggs song: “Georgia“:

Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, the animals are reproaching Andrzej. As Malgorzata notes, “In case it’s not obvious: both animals are looking at Andrzej who is sitting at his desk instead of being in the kitchen and preparing breakfast.”

Hili: You were supposed to prepare a breakfast.
Cyrus: Exactly.
In Polish:
Hili: Miałeś robić śniadanie.
Cyrus: Właśnie

Up in Winnipeg, Gus’s staff played with him, including giving him the Dangerous Belly Rub. He takes a few retaliatory swipes:

Heather Hastie sent this tweet of my favorite bird. Be sure to read the thread following it to see how concerned Kiwis are about the world’s only flightless parrot. Each nest has a tent full of people and machines nearby to monitor the single egg!

From Matthew: Duck FTW!

A sad commentary on what’s happening in U.S. schools:

Two species, but so different!

More ducks FTW. They’re replacing pesticides and herbicides!

Monkey see, monkey do:

This is unbelievable: how do wombats do this:

Music once banned in the Soviet Union.  Tina Turner! Van Halen!

Read the whole thread following this tweet:

From Grania; the horrible moment of realization:

 

Thursday: Duck report

June 7, 2018 • 3:00 pm

We have a special treat today: a video of BATHTIME taken by Anna. You can see the little ones dunking and disporting themselves in “the tub”. First, though, some pictures:

There are still eight, and for the first time they look larger to me:

This morning it was sunny (I fed them late), and Frank joined the family at postprandial bathtime (they always bathe and preen after they eat). He’s being nicer to the ducklings now, and I haven’t seen him chase them for about two days:

When I met Anna at the pond at 2 p.m., she was completely surrounded by excited kids who wanted to feed the ducks. (School was over yesterday.) So she gave them mealworms and duckling starter food, and they all had a good time feeding Honey and the brood. Look closely between the kids and you can see them.

We kept Frank and Henry busy at the other end of the pond by feeding them. I feel sorry for Henry, who’s at the bottom of the pecking order. But he gets along with Frank, who’s at the top, so the order isn’t transitive. They were hungry!

After afternoon bathtime, the brood repaired to the island for some preening:

. . . while poor Henry, beleaguered by both Honey and humans (he’s very shy), retired to his secluded corner of the pond. Note his fully brown chest compared to Frank’s pale chest in the second picture above. Henry is not a hybrid, and I suspect Frank is. I find this picture sad, and wonder if he’s lonely:

And of course the turtles are everywhere. Here they’re trying to make a model of how the world is supported. So far it’s only two turtles all the way down:

And your special treat: a video of bathtime filmed by Anna on her cellphone. You can see Honey overlooking the fun, Frank on his way to join them and then, 12 seconds in, a duckling shakes his tiny little stubs of wings. Some day those wings will carry him hundreds of miles. Be sure to watch this with the picture enlarged!

Diversity in salads at Google

June 7, 2018 • 2:00 pm

Okay, the SJWs have won, and there’s no reason to live any more.  When I saw this tweet below, I thought it was a huge joke:

But no—no it isn’t a joke. It’s a serious attempt to promote “inclusion and diversity”. The Tweeter, Jennifer Daniel, is, as the Independent reports, ” a UX manager for Google emoji”. The report continues:

The latest Google emoji update for Android users includes a slight alteration to the salad emoji, which will see the eggs removed so that it’s suitable for vegans.

This change has come about in an effort to promote inclusivity among the plethora of smartphone users.

“There’s big talk about inclusion and diversity at Google,” Jennifer Daniel, a UX manager for Google emoji stated on Twitter.

She went on to explain that the updated emoji actually corresponds more accurately with its original description.

“Hello carnivores, vegans and everyone in between!” she wrote.

. . . Just want to clarify that the goal of salad emoji redesign was to create an image more faithful to unicode’s description.

“‘A bowl of healthy salad, containing lettuce, tomato, and other salad items such as cucumber.’ Bon appetite! [sic]”

While Google may have taken the step to consider the vegan community when updating its emojis, there are a number of emojis still available for Android and iOS users that haven’t followed suit when perhaps they could have.

The pizza emoji on Android and iOS depicts a slice with a topping of pepperoni, something which would undoubtedly not appeal to vegetarians.

The Google emoji for a “shallow pan of food” contains both prawns and mussels, despite the description mentioning neither, with the iOS version including a meat drumstick.

Furthermore, eggs are clearly visible in the Bento Box featured on the Google emoji list.

Hypocrites! Pepperoni on a pizza? Indeed—here it is (click on screenshot to go to the whole list of emojis. And there is NO vegetarian pizza—not just on Android and iOS, but on any platform!

The sausages of death!

 

Here’s the bento box for Apple:

 

Well, what I’ve learned today is how insane the world is, at least where human behavior is concerned. Right now I need to get some respite from the madness by communing with my ducks. Ducks aren’t interested in policing the behavior of other ducks, except when it comes to protecting their offspring.

 

Saudi Arabia features fashion show with no models, only drones flying clothes down the catwalk

June 7, 2018 • 12:45 pm

Well, Saudi Arabia, had a “Fashion Week” during Ramadan, but something was missing. Models—women models.  Instead of actual physical women wearing the clothes down the catwalk, they used drones.  Here you go. It’s creepy as all get out!

Now it’s true, as News.com.au noted, that handbags and clothes have been displayed in Italy and California via drones, but this case seems to be religious:

The city’s recent fashion week featured clothes from some of the world’s most expensive designers — including Dolce & Gabbana — all of which were awkwardly shown off and modelled down the catwalk by drones.

Because why would you need six-foot models to show off $1000-plus gowns when you can hang it on a coathanger and float it down a runway instead?

Saudi Arabia is still ultra-conservative, meaning Riyadh’s fashion week kept its audiences female-only and male fashion designers weren’t even allowed backstage at their own shows.

According to local news site The New Arab, organisers for the fashion show said the use of drones was a first for the Middle Eastern country and said the odd technique had been used to make sure the show was “Ramadan appropriate”.

The peculiar catwalk, which featured the clothes creepily billowing as they were driven throughout the room, has since been mercilessly mocked online.

Now there are clearly men and women watching these drones, so I’m not sure why they say the audiences were “female only”, even if the females were clad in abayas. 

https://twitter.com/wa7d_riyadh/status/1004528067354775552

In such cases, mockery is the only appropriate response. The Washington Post reports that the show took place in Jiddah, not Riyadh, as the News.com.au noted. There appears to have been a similar fashion show in Riyadh in April.) The post adds this:

The presentation was intended as a gimmick and designed to make the show stand out to buyers in the fashionable coastal city. However, in a country where women are still bound by conservative ideas about modesty, the replacement of women with flying robots prompted widespread mockery — and in some cases, outrage.

On social media, some posters compared video from the show unfavorably to a horror film, with users suggesting that the floating dresses looked as if they were being worn by ghosts.

The reaction to the show is probably not what the organizers intended.

. . . Traditionally, Saudi Arabia has set restrictions on the types of clothes women can wear. The country legally requires women to cover themselves while in public by wearing an abaya, a loosefitting cloak. Many Saudi women are also expected to wear some kind of hijab or head covering, and some opt to cover their face with a niqab. These expectations are more relaxed in Jiddah, a relatively liberal city.

Well, they weren’t relaxed vis-à-vis the damn drones! Seriously, what is the point of trying to sell, or even show, clothes that are supposed to look good on women if the women aren’t allowed to wear them on the catwalk.

Will you see any of this on the Western feminist websites? Don’t count on it.

https://twitter.com/OmarImranTweets/status/1004328170235891713

 

Woo from Dr. Oz and Everyday Feminism

June 7, 2018 • 10:45 am

Dr. Mehmet Oz was launched into public celebrity via promotions by Oprah Winfrey and Larry King. He still has a daily television show on Fox, “The Dr. Oz Show,” which I blessedly haven’t seen. But I have read about his various promotions of pseudoscience, including weight loss nostrums, alternative medicine, and even “reparative therapy” designed to turn gay people straight. He’s been called out for this many times, but now his wooish-ness has expanded, as the man is now into astrology and how it relates to your health.

Grania sent me one of Dr. Oz’s tweets yesterday, which was here, but somehow it’s mysteriously disappeared, maybe because Dr. Oz is taking a lot of flak for it. Fortunately, the Internet is forever, and there are screenshots online:

About our health? How can it be that the date and time on which we’re born gives us a propensity to this or that disease? Well, of course it wouldn’t, but that hasn’t stopped Dr. Oz, who has posted the article below on his t.v. show website. I’ve captured a screenshot in case he takes that down and linked it to the original site:

The “slideshow” goes through all the astrological signs one by one, so you can see how your stars affect your health. Here’s mine (I’m a Capricorn):

Well, I haven’t noticed any buckling or weakness in the knees, though I’m goal oriented (I’m sure many Capricorns are not). If you’re an Aries, you’re prone to migraines, the Taurus is liable to get a stiff neck, and Virgos can have gastrointestinal issues. Is there any research supporting these correlations? If there is, I’m not aware of it, and apparently neither is Dr. Oz or his astrologer factotum Rebecca Gordon.

The man is a fraud, and his show should be taken off the air. Sadly, many Americans like the kind of pablum he sells, so there’s no hope of that. All we can do is embarrass the hell out of him, as I will soon do on Twitter, and hope that he relents, as he has in part here. To call the man a quack is an insult to ducks.

UPDATE: I just heard from Grania that Dr. Oz has revised his astrology tweet, but it isn’t much better. There’s a video in it, too.

https://twitter.com/DrOz/status/1004332074319466501

*********

The ad below appeared on the execrable website Everyday Feminism, whose motto should be “Making you feel bad about yourself—24 hours a day.” You can find the full description of the course here. Thanks to reader Su, who added:

“As EvFem shows its true calling… making $.”

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, feminism has now incorporated the woo of tarot as a way of fighting the Patriarchy, and it will cost you a mere $35 to unlock your inner magic. Here’s some of the blurb from the website; the bolding is theirs.

As women, we’re often taught at an early age to ignore our intuition and to trust the wisdom of others. We’re told that we’re being too sensitive, emotional, illogical or dramatic when we operate off our intuition.

But intuition is an innate skill that’s accessible to everyone. Like a muscle, it can only be strengthened when used, but never lost. It’s the art of gaining knowledge without using any conscious understanding on how you got that information.

Tapping deeper into this ability and practicing daily, can help us to remove what blocks our abundance and success, clarify the energy that is going on around and within us, and bring an overall greater state of ease.

We’re naturally embedded with our own “gps” that shifts us toward where we need to be and how to best act, so that we can thrive and serve from a space of truth and integrity. We seldom trust our intuition because we’re used to thinking of it as figment of our imagination and quite often, our intuition speaks so softly that we ignore it.

Tarot cards are a phenomenal way to gain insight, guidance and clarity over feelings, actions and decisions to be. It serves as a tool to enhance self-awareness, intuitive/psychic abilities and self-trust.

Reading the Tarot and accessing your intuition is actually quite easy. You don’t have to rely on other spiritual guides for that information. With my help, after this webinar, you should be able to interpret energy and get those answers yourself.

What a shame that a good cause—women’s equality—has to be yoked to this kind of nonsense. But there’s always been a wing of feminism that touts the idea that women have “different ways of knowing” or even, as does postmodernism, claims that “objective truth” is a myth, sometimes perpetuated by white males. We’ll be talking about a new paper on the “female ways of knowing” canard in the next few days.

In the meantime, if you’re not game for tarot, you can always sign up for this social justice seminar.  Everyday Feminism is clearly hurting for money, as it’s announced several times before.

Chuckle of the day, but also sad

June 7, 2018 • 8:45 am

Reader Paul sent me this article from Canada’s National Post (click on screenshot to read it), noting that it was “not from The Onion, but real Canadian news.” It has to be real because even The Onion couldn’t make up stuff like this:

Get this:

A B.C. couple whose religious views are too extreme even for churches and pastors and put them at odds with family, doctors, social workers and anyone else trying to help them with their daughter, have lost their battle for custody of her.

The unusual child custody trial featured the couple speaking in tongues to a stuffed animal they said transmitted the word of God directly to them and refusing legal assistance because Jesus Christ — through the stuffed lion — was their lawyer, witness and judge.

Aslan! Here’s what else they did:

After the woman found she was pregnant, she told a social worker her husband sometimes choked her to make her stop crying, had once tied her hands and covered her mouth with tape, which scared her, and occasionally beat her, court heard.

She told the worker her husband grew up in a cult and believes sexual relations between children should be encouraged and that they “role-play” sins where she plays the victim and he plays the perpetrator, court heard.

But wait! There’s more:

After the birth of their daughter, the parents refused all medical tests and procedures for her, including a hearing test, blood test, eye drops and a vitamin K shot. The mother also said she was unwilling to have her vaccinated.

Because of concerns over family violence and mental health, the ministry monitored the family. The couple refused to have parental capacity assessments, despite a court order.

A month after the girl’s birth, she was removed from the home and the parents continued to have supervised access.

The mother applied to change her daughter’s name to Jesus JoyoftheLord and her own first name to Risen Lord Jesus, her middle name to Refinersfire and her last name to Christ (with a hyphenation including her real name.)

When their child custody case came to court, the couple refused legal aid.

They said they had legal help, however, which came in the formed of a stuffed lion. During trial, the couple spoke to the lion in non-discernible words, presented as “speaking in tongues,” and said that through the lion they heard directly from God.

They said Jesus Christ was their “lawyer, witness and judge.”

When they cross-examined witnesses, they told each witness that their lawyer Jesus was asking the questions through them.

The couple was apparently unstable, moving around, unable to hold jobs, and even disrupting the Christian churches they attended with their extreme behavior.

If they had been less demonstrative, of course, the kid would still be with them. And that’s the real tragedy of such situations: you can fill your kid’s head with all kinds of lies, fantasies, and false nonsense, but as long as you don’t make a public scene, that’s fine. There should be a law forbidding that brainwashing. As for withholding medical care and vaccinations, I suppose that that’s legal in some parts of Canada, as it is in many states in the U.S. And THAT should be illegal. The suffering and killing of children by withholding medical care in favor of “spiritual treatment” is one of the most horrible aspects of evangelical Christianity.

The judge found the parents unfit and ruled that the child should remain in foster care. Eventually, this could lead to its being adopted. It should be; people like the ones above (why aren’t their names given?) are unfit to be parents. Without religion, of course, the chances of this happening are severely reduced, though not completely eliminated.