Odds And Ends -- Late Evening -- Palindromic Friday -- 2-25-22

Market: 

US Supreme Court nominee:

• president interviews three African-American women; makes choice;
• seems that would give cover to those institutions that use gender, race to legitimize affirmative action;
• I'm not being facetious; I honestly don't understand how the President of the United States can flagrantly use race and gender in such a manner
  
• which, of course, assuming this nominee is confirmed, will she support affirmative action cases that come before her?

International:

• citizens of Finland, for sure, and possibly Sweden, may want to start learning Russian; and, fast.
• suggestion, free version of Duolingo, or ad-free Duolingo for ~ $89 / year 
• I'm not being facetious; I love Duolingo, and if you don't need to learn Russian, all other languages come at no extra cost.
  

Book recommendation for Kamala Harris: To the Finland Station: A Study in the Writing and Acting of History (1940). I'm sure Bernie Sanders has a copy. I've read the book; it's worth reading:

A book by American critic and historian Edmund Wilson. The work presents the history of revolutionary thought and the birth of socialism, from the French Revolution through the collaboration of Marx and Engels to the arrival of Lenin at the Finlyandsky Rail Terminal in St. Petersburg in 1917.

AP style: when did y'all start spelling the capital of Ukraine, Kyiv? There's much more to this than recent history, but most millennials have no interest going back more than a few years:

Kyiv is the romanized official Ukrainian name for the city, and it is used for legislative and official acts, Kiev is the traditional English name for the city, but because of its historical derivation from the Russian name, Kiev became disfavored in many Western media outlets after the outbreak of the Russo-Ukrainian War (began in 2014). 

"Many Western media outlets" is a euphemism for The New York Times, The Washington Post, and The Los Angeles Times. And just like the name was changed.

The tea leaves suggest a lot of folks are going to have to change the spelling again.

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A Musical Interlude

Nine Million Bicycles, Katie Melua

Questionable, The Mona Lisa Twins