Workin’ for the Weekend #38: Not on Any Given (Easter) Second Sunday
But man, so many OTHER April events still TK
No, it’s not because we’re too busy getting our hotel-suite drinkylink on to meet our monthly Second Sunday obligation of recording whilst you paying customers lurk/harass us on Zoom, it’s that it’s EASTER, man. Those eggs and/or The Risen Christ aren’t gonna find themselves! So yeah, we’ll just do it on the Third Sunday.
* Speaking of Jews, some of us had a lovely Passover w/ Yael Bar Tur and her visiting Israeli parents; here is some exclusive Matt Welch photography:
* And speaking of Matt Welch photography, here is the (beginning of the) fateful moment described in M.O. #159:
* That was just outside a fab Reason Speakeasy event; I see via my employer’s snappy Events page that host Nick Gillespie (SD 72, #379) is putting together another banger May 1 with Semafor co-founder Ben Smith (#125, #227) about his forthcoming book Traffic: Genius, Rivalry, and Delusion in the Billion-Dollar Race To Go Viral. You will of course remember from last weekend’s notes that The Reason Roundtable podcast, featuring me & Nick & Katherine Mangu-Ward (#75, #395) & Peter Suderman, is doing a live show April 25. The night before, you could attend a Soho Forum debate on immigration between Manhattan Contrarian Francis Menton and the Cato Institute’s Alex Nowrasteh (#303). And of course you’ve already been well-warned about Kmele emceeing the annual gala for the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) April 18, with Killer Mike, Ilya Shapiro (#361), Greg Lukianoff (#216) and more. I know, I know, TOO MANY EVENTS, except also they produce Fifdom indie-rock combos:
* Here’s that Triumph the Insult Comic Dog bit w/ terrified college students Moynihan was talking about (h/t Ken Roucka).
* Did you think I’d let you escape without some baseball? Fif’ listener and awesome artist Dave Cicirelli this week digitized and posted his Dad’s old 8mm in-stadium footage of Roger Maris hitting his record-breaking 61st home run in 1961. More context over at The View Level.
* Comment of the Week comes from M M:
As a kid I was in the position of Moynihan’s daughter, obsessed with the unsavory parts of my Sicilian family. I used to ask my grandma if our family was part of the mob, and she told me “no of course not. We were just bootleggers.” I’m not sure why she assumed her family was freelancing in rum running business, but I know for a fact the house her dad grew up in had a tunnel from underneath the garage down to the Detroit river, to expedite the process...
Outro music, as recently threatened:
I just stumbled upon this great interview with/profile of Moynihan from 2007.
My favourite parts:
- “he’s been asking for a fight since infancy”
- “Moynihan is a natural wiseass, with a knack for tackling topics that allow him to show it.”
- “[David Cameron]’s not getting caught masturbating in public parks like half the Tories. They get caught with a stocking around their neck, poppers, and gay porn.”
- “There’s nothing more fun than writing about pathetic, delusional people.”
Our boy certainly hasn’t changed in the past 16 years.
I also really liked his reflection on defecting from the left:
- “My first reaction, having been a member of the left, was like this…self-criticism session where I said ‘Well, maybe I am. Maybe I have internalized the patriarchal hegemonic male…,’” he says. “And then I said, hang on, these people are absolutely out of their fucking minds.”
https://americasfuture.org/whats-your-story-michael-moynihan/
My band name pick was “The Invisible Hands”