Historian Heather Cox Richardson’s newsletter is the opposite of Owl Chatter. Where we are devoted to nonsense, she is no-nonsense. So it says something when material in hers crosses over to be Chatter-worthy. This item’s hysterical, IMO.

“Today’s cabinet meeting was clearly designed to demonstrate that the president is alert, active, and on top of things. But Trump could not stay awake while his Cabinet members were praising him, and so we had the wild visual of Marco Rubio praising Trump as the only man who could end Russia’s war in Ukraine, gesturing at the president sitting next to him, who was sound asleep.”

HCR also shared a brilliant line of George Will’s on Hegseth: “Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth seems to be a war criminal. Without a war. An interesting achievement.”

Of course, since they are utterly dishonest and dishonorable, after lying about the killing only to see the proof emerge, Trump’s and Hegseth’s next step was to shift the blame, in this case, to Admiral Bradley. Richardson referred to it as “underbussing.”

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Antonín Dvořák popped in on the puzzle today, as composer of his Slavonic Dances. Shockingly, Malaika, the guest blogger for Rex, confessed that she didn’t know him. What!!?? He may not be one of Classical Music’s famous three B’s — Beethoven, Bach, and Mozart — but he’s darn close, IMO. (Just kidding with Mozart — I know the third B was Schubert.) Did you know that in 1943, the U.S. Navy named a ship in Dvořák’s honor? And his wife Anna said he was a wonderful Czech mate.

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PRELL was also in the puzzle today, albeit with a pretty clunky clue: “Shampoo often in a green bottle.” It’s still on the market. I remember the ads with the pearl slowly sinking to the bottom of the bottle. You can see the pearl dropping way at the end of this incredibly creepy ad. Jeez Louise!

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We’re all familiar with the QWERTY keyboard. I’m pounding away at it right now. But another one was developed that was touted by some as more efficient: faster and more ergonomic. It came up because it’s called DVORAK and Malaika noted that it’s the only Dvorak she’s heard of. (One of its developers was August Dvorak, no relation to the composer or the month.) It hasn’t caught on but it’s included as an option on most operating systems. It was patented in 1936.

Here’s August Dvorak with some of his typing students back at UWash in Seattle in 1932. He’s having them try out his new keyboard (really), while trying not to look down this student’s blouse. Look closely to see that his keyboard is written out on the blackboard in the rear.

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The YIVO Institute for Jewish Research is presenting a special showing of this film on 12/18 in NYC. We would go but it’s a tough schlep into the city from Owl Chatter headquarters.

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From The Onion:

And this:

Nature Begins Reclaiming Chuck Grassley

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Did you know that on this date in 1926 Agatha Christie mysteriously disappeared? Her car was found abandoned in a chalk pit seven miles from her house. I didn’t even know chalk had pits. England was mesmerized and citizens (as well as the police) organized huge search parties. She showed up after eleven days in a luxury hotel under a different name (Rabbi Chaim Lefkowitz), and claimed she could not remember what happened. It was a stressful year for her: her mother died, and her hubby left her for his young mistress. Ouch. It was never resolved as to whether it was all a publicity stunt. If it was, it worked. The popularity of her books soared.

Here’s a South Korean Ms. Marple. It’s Yunjin Kim. You may recognize her from Lost.

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Sirens are out in Seattle tonight. Puck drops at 10pm. Let’s go girls!

See you tomorrow!