Faulkner

Yeah. He supplements that *other* business with personal training.

Mavis Staples remembers Aretha and mentions they she and Aretha were hurt that Quincy Jones didn’t ask them to participate in “We Are the World.”

Sabalenka is clutch. Saved 10 of 10 break points to beat Madison in Cincy.

That’s a funny story.

Haha. She can be overbearing, but I’d like to see how she behaves when it’s not 3-4 against one.

They have two solid liberals in Sunny and Joy. Whoopi seems a bit more centrist at times, but she definitely skews left. Of course, there are times when Sunny and Joy disagree, and Sunny can take an occasional by-the-book legal perspective, but Meghan is the only conservative at the table. I like her more than most people, but it’s such a heavy burden for her to carry to be the sole Republican on the panel IMO.

Rob Sheffield in Rolling Stone: Why Aretha was America’s greatest voice

Wesley Morris’s NYT piece.

I wish Bravo would do a special short all-stars series in which HWs from different franchises mixed it up on an island. Sort of like Bachelor in Paradise. As you say, a lot of the women have genuine friendships with ladies from other cities.

This piece about Aretha from Craig Jenkins is superb and one of the reasons I can’t completely hate the Vulture website in spite of the weak, pandering day-to-day news coverage. They have a roster of very fine writers.

Yeah. This strong season really went out with a whimper. I’m trying to remember any really good finales, but I’m blanking. These franchises so often try to wrap a hopeful bow on a turbulent season with some big event, but the interactions and confrontations between the women feel sort of forced and pat to me. It’s a problem I see with other reality shows too (Terrace House, etc.).

This is beautifully written: Ariana Grande sang “Natural Woman” with the Roots in tribute to Aretha on tonight’s Fallon. She does a pretty good job, although I’ve long been sick of renditions of that particular song: It certainly beats this:

I should really dig more into Carolyn’s work. I’ll save some albums on Spotify. I’m holding onto Stevie for dear life. At the end of 2016, which we all remember as such of rough year for legends, Slate.com decided to do a weeklong series of articles to appreciate an iconic older artist while they are still here, and they chose Stevie Wonder as the subject. http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/wonder_week.html Pitchfork did one of their recent weekly reviews on Aretha’s Spirit in the Dark, and their article is filled with some cool insights and biographical details that were new to me.

This is a beautiful story. Apparently this is the video of the event, which I haven’t had a chance to watch yet:

What a mess. So many matches backed up, and the weather in Mason, Ohio isn’t looking that great until *Saturday night.*

That song BUMPS. The Erotica era is low key one of my favorite Madonna eras.

That explains so much. That’s crazy. I will say a lot of people, including DramatistDreamer and others on Twitter, made the connection at least with the timing of the story. Why didn’t the tennis media, which has trafficked in so much innuendo around Venus’s car crash, Novak’s supposed family drama, etc? They wield this stuff when it suits them.