Want a three-minute love story?  Just to make you smile?  Click here.

Like so many of life’s basic rules (a watched pot sometimes does boil), “never date an actor” turns out to have its exceptions.

Want to spend more money on ice cream than you ever thought possible? 

I scream, you scream and now the Milk Maids are shipping nationwide (at increasingly prohibitive cost as you get further and further from Brooklyn).  I scream because for quite a few years I’ve owned a scoopful of the company and the business has had its challenges.  My only dividends so far: two new generally amazing flavors delivered each month, with dry ice I like to watch skitter in the sink.  You scream because — whaaaaaat?  The pints cost hoooooow much?  But think of the Valentine’s Day cards you can include.  They practically write themselves.  “You melt my heart!”  “Won’t you be my guilty pleasure?”

Want yet more on “the conversation“?  This time from outgoing Congressman (and former South Carolina governor) Mark Sanford, defeated by a Trumper in the primary (who herself then lost to a Democrat)?

He writes: ” . . . What happened to Ronald Reagan’s notion of being a happy warrior? Like his policies or not, he was pleasant. He smiled. He joked. He played to optimism rather than fear. He and Tip O’Neill, the speaker of the House, had a famously strong working relationship despite their political differences. The Republican Party that so many of us care deeply about continues to be held hostage these days, and what I saw last week in a district I grew up in and know well is that there is a half-life to insults, bullying and an embrace of a post-truth world. . . .”

If you favor civility and rational governance, his op-ed will resonate.

Want a seven-part podcast that will widen even the droopiest eyes?  (Not to say yours are anything but wide and bright and filled with the kind of intelligence that makes me want to write these posts for you each day — they are!  they do!  But that’s how stunning this podcast is.)  In Bag Man, Rachel Maddow and her team tell the story of Spiro Agnew — corruption in the White House that led to demonization of the press and discrediting of the prosecutors but, ultimately, to the Vice President of the United States resigning and inexplicably escaping prison.  (Later, the President would resign over a different matter.)

It has been said that the Trump Administration is guilty of corruption on a scale never previously imagined.  Even in light of Bag Man, that’s likely true in terms of amount.  There are only so many $100 bills you can stuff into an envelope.  But in terms of flagrancy?  Cash-stuffed envelopes delivered to the White House are perhaps as flagrant as it gets.

I’m not sure which is more eye-widening: what Agnew did, or the parallels to today.

Have a great weekend!