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Judge Awards Real Estate To Aretha Franklin’s Sons

DETROIT (AP) — A judge overseeing the estate of Aretha Franklin awarded real estate to the late star’s sons, citing a handwritten will from 2014 that was found between couch cushions. The decision Monday came four months after a Detroit-area jury said the document was a valid will under Michigan law, despite scribbles and many hard-to-read passages. Franklin had signed it and put a smiley face in the letter “A.” The papers will override a handwritten will from 2010 that was found at Franklin’s suburban Detroit home around the same time in 2019, the judge said. One of her ...

Truman Show: Another Uncool President Makes His Mark

On Dec. 26, 1972, hours after Harry Truman’s death, Senator-elect Joseph Biden sent Truman’s widow a condolence telegram. The 33rd American president, Biden wrote, had proved a historic leader, one who had “made his mark” for being “purposeful, smart and tough.” Truman had been bitterly attacked by Democrats and Republicans alike, belittled for his charisma-deficit and dull persona. Before the word “cool” entered our lexicon, Truman was uncool personified. Yet historians regularly rate Truman as among our finest presidents. C-SPAN’s surveys of presidential historians ...

Questions About a Shot in the Arm

“You should get a shingles vaccine,” said my doctor at my annual checkup. “You can get it at the same time you get your flu shot at the pharmacy.” “Does it hurt?” I asked as I slipped back into my boots. I knew it was kind of a dumb question, because of course it would hurt. I mean, come on; shots hurt. When your kids are little, you pretend that shots don’t hurt so they won’t be afraid of getting one. But on the inside, you know that when you get the shot, you’re like “Holy mother of Godzilla, that hurts!” “A little,” she said. “And will I get a ...

Stop Worshiping Ivy League

After Hamas massacred 1,200 Israelis, gang-raped teens and kidnapped hundreds of innocents, 30 student groups at Harvard issued a statement reading, “We, the undersigned student organizations, hold the Israeli regime entirely responsible for all unfolding violence.” The anger that followed went beyond this dismissal of Isis-type barbarity. It pursued Harvard president Claudine Gay after she issued a mealy-mouthed response. There was bit of a turnaround when prestigious law firms and other employers started rescinding job offers to students involved in these groups. Some ...

Irish Writer Paul Lynch Wins Booker Prize For ‘Prophet Song’

LONDON (AP) — Irish writer Paul Lynch won the Booker Prize for fiction on Sunday with what judges called a “soul-shattering” novel about a woman’s struggle to protect her family as Ireland collapses into totalitarianism and war. “Prophet Song,” set in a dystopian fictional version of Dublin, was awarded the 50,000-pound ($63,000) literary prize at a ceremony in London. Canadian writer Esi Edugyan, who chaired the judging panel, said the book is “a triumph of emotional storytelling, bracing and brave” in which Lynch “pulls off feats of language that are stunning to ...

Thanks Go Out to Women Voters

I admit I am not thankful for the climate change deniers, assault weapons supporters and election rejecters so prevalent on the American political scene. What I am thankful for this holiday season is that stalwart bloc of voters in favor of doing something about climate change, mass murders and attacks on democracy. Who are they? American women. The press tends to look at the November 2024 presidential election in terms of red versus blue states, college-educated versus non-college-educated voters, and white voters versus voters of color. Fair enough, but in my view even more ...