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Broken Lizard plays Victor Hugo for laughs with ‘Quasi’

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 05:14:09 GMT

There’s a whole lot of torture – and comedy – going on in the merrily demented medieval doings of Thursday’s “Quasi.”A ridiculously silly send-up of Quasimodo, the doomed disabled hero of Victor Hugo’s immortal “The Hunchback of Notre Dame,” “Quasi,” from the comic collaborative Broken Lizard, sees the hunchback as not only a romantic hero but the inventor of The Rack, France’s Number One torture device.He’s also, it should be pointed out, hired as an assassin by both the King of France and the Pope.  Each monarch asks him to kill their rival.As what exactly is Broken Lizard, Kevin Heffernan – he’s Quasi’s best buddy and also directs – has the answer: “We’re a comedy group who started at Colgate University many years ago and have, obviously, made some movies.  The name comes from – where Jay?”Jay Chandrasekhar, who stars as the mad but merry King, recalled, “I wanted a name that would make people think of Monty Python. So I invented the name ‘Broken Lizard’ so that it would be this ...

Moir: How to win the fight to save lives of whales

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 05:14:09 GMT

Massachusetts officially declared April 24 as Right Whale Day to raise awareness about the endangered. North Atlantic right whales, the state’s official marine mammal.Right whales have been coming to Cape Cod Bay in April for as long as there has been a Cape Cod Bay. These sandy, shoaly waters warm faster than deeper, dark-bottom ocean realms. In the Gulf of Maine, a sea beside the Atlantic Ocean, seawater rotates counterclockwise fastest in April driven by river water coming off the land. Nutrient-rich waters are upwelled on the threshold of Stellwagen Bank, defining the East boundary of Massachusetts Bay and drift on into Cape Cod Bay where phytoplankton blooms, feeding zooplankton, feeding right and sei whales. Forage fish, including sand lance, herring, and mackerel eat zooplankton and are then scooped up by gaping-mouthed minke, fin, and humpback whales.It’s time for the National Marine Fisheries Service to slow down to 10 knots or less the speeds of all vessels. Ships were slo...

Editorial: Dems find their Eden for 2024 national convention

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 05:14:09 GMT

The state of Illinois recently lost three Fortune 500 companies, and its population has declined by more than 100,000 residents in the past two years. Meanwhile, its largest city is a poster child for rampant crime and a failing public education system.How fitting — and deliciously ironic — that Chicago was selected last week to host the 2024 Democratic national convention.The symbolism is rich. Illinois is a one-party state dominated by public-employee unions. Property taxes are among the highest in the nation. The state’s government pension system is a monument to red ink, running almost $140 billion in the hole. According to the Tax Foundation, Illinois ranks 36th in the country for its business tax climate, worst in the region.State Democrats have one answer for most issues: higher taxes and more regulation. Politicians in Springfield are contemplating a new “wealth” tax and a revamp of the state’s income tax system that will separate citizens from more of their hard-earned mone...

In-office workers spend more time on career development

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 05:14:09 GMT

Workers in the office spend 25% more time in career-development activities than their remote counterparts, according to new data from a team of economists who have analyzed working from home since the pandemic began.Those who came into work devoted about 40 more minutes a week to mentoring others, nearly 25 more in formal training and about 15 additional minutes each week doing professional development and learning activities, according to WFH Research, a group that includes Stanford University economist Nicholas Bloom.The figures, based on surveys of more than 2,400 US adults who are able to work from home, lend quantitative support to CEOs such as JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s Jamie Dimon and Morgan Stanley’s James Gorman, who have said that workers — particularly younger staff — need to be on-site more often than not to learn and develop alongside more experienced colleagues. Wall Street banks have been in the vanguard of corporate campaigns to get workers back to offices more often...

Dear Abby: Recovering addict caught smoking weed

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 05:14:09 GMT

Dear Abby: My fiance and I have been together for six years. We are in our late 40s. He’s a recovering alcoholic and former drug user from his late teens into his early 20s. He hasn’t touched drugs for 21 years. He often talked to people about his recovery, and I was beyond proud of him.I recently saw something that broke my heart. My neighbor has a security camera. I went over to check on him and he asked me to look at the camera he has for fear of strangers coming up to his door. My heart began to race as I saw my fiance in the background of the video smoking something. I watched the video at least 20 times and there he was, smoking a blunt! I was so shocked and disappointed that it took me an hour before I could text him.I sent him a clip of the video and asked how he could fall off the wagon and be so sneaky about it. I am no longer sure I want to marry him because — what’s next? Alcohol, more drugs? My father was an alcoholic, and I always told myself I ...

US sails warship through Taiwan Strait after China’s drills

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 05:14:09 GMT

TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — The United States Navy has sailed a warship through the Taiwan Strait in its first known transit since China carried out an encirclement exercise around self-ruled Taiwan. The U.S. 7th Fleet said the transit through the strait by the USS Milius on Sunday was routine. The cruisers “transited through a corridor in the Strait that is beyond the territorial sea of any coastal State,” the statement said.Last week China concluded large-scale air and sea drills in the strait in retaliation for Taiwan’s President Tsai Ing-wen meeting with U.S. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy on April 5 in California. China said Wednesday that the exercises simulating an encirclement of Taiwan were intended as a “serious warning” to pro-independence politicians on the self-governing island and their foreign supporters. China protested the transit Monday, saying the U.S. transit was a “public hype” and that the Eastern Theater Command was ready at any time to “resolutely safeguard the...

Texas freight train collision injures 2, no hazmat onboard

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 05:14:09 GMT

A train collision and subsequent derailment injured two rail employees in Texas Sunday night, according to a company official.A Union Pacific freight train collided with an unoccupied train that was parked on a siding around 7 p.m. in Chico, Texas, Union Pacific spokesperson Kristen South, said in an email to The Associated Press.A locomotive engineer and conductor were being treated for injuries after the southbound train derailed following the accident near County Road 1540. No one else was on board the freight train, South said.One patient was transported to a hospital by helicopter and the other was transported by ambulance to Wise Health System in Decatur, Texas, the Wise County Emergency Operations Center said in a statement.Three locomotives and about 15 grain cars derailed, but the train was not carrying any hazardous materials, South said. Asked about the speed of the train when the accident occurred, South said Union Pacific was investigating the cause of the accident and ...

US, allies conduct more drills in face of N. Korean threat

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 05:14:09 GMT

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — The United States, South Korea and Japan will conduct a joint missile defense exercise Monday in waters near the Korean Peninsula as they expand military training to counter the growing threats of North Korea’s nuclear-capable missiles, the South Korean navy said. Last week, North Korea conducted one of its most provocative weapons demonstrations in years by flight-testing for the first time an intercontinental ballistic missile powered by solid propellants, as it pursues a weapon that’s more responsive, harder to detect and could directly target the continental United States. North Korea’s unprecedented run of weapons tests has so far involved more than 100 missiles of various ranges fired into the sea since the start of 2022 as the country attempts to build a viable nuclear arsenal that could threaten its rival neighbors and the United States.The exercises Monday may trigger a belligerent response from North Korea, which condemns the United St...

Progressives focus on local-level wins to counter setbacks

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 05:14:09 GMT

CHICAGO (AP) — For many progressives, the past decade has been littered with disappointments. But recent down-ballot victories are providing hope of reshaping the Democratic Party from the bottom up, rather than from Washington. In Chicago earlier this month, a former teacher’s union organizer unexpectedly won the mayor’s race. In St. Louis, progressives secured a majority on the municipal board. The next opportunities could lie in Philadelphia and Houston, which also hold mayoral elections this year.The focus on lower-level contests already has helped progressives gain power and influence policy at a local level, organizers say, shaping issues such as the minimum wage. It also may help the movement find future stars, with today’s city and county officials becoming tomorrow’s breakout members of Congress and only moving further up the political ladder.“Progressives have taken a look at how to be strategic and how to build power,” said Sara Nelson, president of the Association of Fli...

Russia’s UN council presidency is most contentious in memory

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 05:14:09 GMT

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — First the Russians gave the U.N. spotlight to the commissioner of children’s rights accused with President Vladimir Putin of war crimes for deporting Ukrainian children to Russia, sparking a walkout by the U.S. and several others. Then Russia went after the West by claiming it is violating international laws in arming Ukraine, drawing blistering retorts that Ukraine has every right to defend itself against Putin’s invading army. So far, the Russian presidency of the U.N. Security Council has been the most contentious in the memory of longtime U.N. diplomats and officials. And it’s just at the midway point.More fireworks are to come later in the month when Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov presides over the premier event of the presidency — an open council meeting on defending the principles of the U.N. Charter. Russia is widely accused of violating the charter by invading Ukraine and flouting its underpinning principles of respecting sovereignty and ...