PicoBlog

I can’t believe I, a Jewish guy, was suckered into an antisemitic conspiracy theory. There I was, typing up an opinion piece on American rapper and fashion designer Kanye West. Back in 2005, in his hit Gold Digger, he complained women were after his wallet. Now he was airing grievances about another group of alleged gold diggers, the Jews. Having rechristened himself Ye, he posted on social media “…when I wake up I’m going death con 3 on JEWISH PEOPLE”, a threat in the form of a pun, DEFCON being the alert system that prepares the U.

Considering all the madness that accompanies modern Kanye West, there remain staples of predictability when it comes to a new Ye release: It will be immaculately produced alongside bold-face named collaborators, it will be dotted with salty lyrics designed to incite … and it will be late. It will always be late. “Vultures 1,” Ye’s latest project with Ty Dolla $ign, never had a chance of making the original fall drop date that was floated.

Kareem Abdul-JabbarSix-time NBA champion Kareem Abdul-Jabbar is also a 8x award-winning Columnist of the Year, best-selling author, social activist, and philanthropist. His Skyhook Foundation.org provides school children with outdoor STEM educational experiences. ncG1vNJzZmirpZfAta3CpGWcp51kjayt0Z6cpg%3D%3D

A Cattywampus reader wrote in for advice with the following question. You, too, can submit questions for me to answer here in my newsletter. Just email me and make sure the word ADVICE is in the subject line. I am heatherannehogan at gmail dot com. Dear Heather Hogan, You seem like a good person genuinely! I've been following you for over a decade. I don't know of a lot of writers who've managed to survive this long on the internet with their noses clean/reputations intact, and you've managed to do it while also escaping the burning flames of more than one publication.

This month the award-winning, Japanese-American bar Katana Kitten rings in its fifth anniversary on July 24. And to celebrate the occasion, tonight they’re hosting an open-to-all celebration from 5 p.m. - 2 a.m. Along with cocktails, bar snacks, and limited-edition merch for sale, there will be a rotating cast of bartenders joining the Katana Kitten team, including Kenta Goto (Bar Goto), Naren Young (Sweet Liberty), and Takuma Watanabe (Martiny’s) among others.

I live in Northern California, a vast geographical area a small part of which some people call Kate Wolf country. In a manner of speaking, I live here because of Kate Wolf, which is another way of saying I live here because of love. For fourteen years, I lived in Brooklyn, and most of that time in a quiet second-floor walkup in a neighborhood realtors called South Park Slope. I had moved there for my adult life, to be a writer in love.

I used to be quite fond of NPR. Each time I’d tune in, I’d be treated to calm, reassuring voices, occasional folk music and high-minded liberalism. Yes, it was biased — but in a tolerable, occasionally hilarious way, still relaying facts about the world, occasionally even letting an always-qualified “conservative” voice on its airwaves. Yes, we used to refer to “All Things Considered” as “All Things Distorted,” but it was a tease, not an indictment.

Is history, particularly the last thousand year history of North America, written by the victors? Perhaps. After all, as Kathleen DuVal, the author of NATIVE NATIONS reminds us, a thousand years ago, back in 1024, North America was inhabited by a rich mosaic of indigenous civilizations that in many ways mirrored European societies. Today, of course, things are quite different. But as DuVal, a much acclaimed historian at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, reminds us, in 1024, a sophisticated collection of North American indigenous communities inhabited advanced urban areas linked by diplomatic and trading networks.

I recently stopped at the Southern Tier Welcome Center in southern New York State, just over the Pennsylvania border. It wasn’t my first visit. It’s on the way to my son’s college. I like to stop there because they have a shop that sells nothing but food products made in New York State. Often there are things you can only get in New York State. There are mustards and potato chips and marinades and pasta sauces, all made by small and family outfits.