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Happy Father's Day to all the dads out there, including my dad. I hope you know that I love you more than you love the U.S. Open.
Happy Father's Day to all the “bonus dads,” as social worker Keyonna Hall calls the men who have played fatherly roles in her sons' lives. For single mothers like Hall, the holiday can be an uncomfortable reminder that she's raising her kids alone. But over the past few years, she's come to realize that the holiday is also a celebration of the fact that she's never alone.
There's also Uncle Fred, who already has four kids, Uncle Theron, who is potty training, Uncle Avery, who is the barber, Uncle Christian, Uncle Bobby, Uncle Tonio, and Uncle Cedric, not to mention Hall's dad, Papa.
“This village”—yes, indeed!—”has my back, too,” Hall writes. “I can show my sons that asking for help is a strength, not a weakness.”
Like Hall, public relations adviser Brad Todd is paying tribute to a less traditional figure this Father's Day: grandpa.
Todd was quick to explain that he learned from his father as an adult, but many of his special lessons were passed down from previous generations. One particularly touching memory for Todd is learning to bake bread under the tutelage of his grandfather: “Stir until the dough clings to the fork, but no more.” His special tip for cornbread was, “Stir until the dough clings to the fork, but no more.”
Todd peppers this confection with the liberating realization that, although his grandfather was a saint, he was not perfect: “If we do not see the weaknesses of our idols,” he writes, “we may miss their humanity.”
But before you head into Father's Day, remember that today is still a holiday. Forgot? Think about it. Flag Day is often looked down upon by staff, and increasingly so. Between the adoption of the U.S. flag on June 14, 1777, and today, Flag Day has become uncomfortably synonymous with support for Donald Trump.
“Not easily surprised,” Rick Reilly wrote, was “stunned” when he discovered this for himself. “Go Trump!” erupted as an American flag fluttered on the back of his beach bike the other day, followed shortly thereafter by more vitriol from a passing MAGA counterprotester. Total hijacking.
Rick writes that this connection is ironic considering “Trump doesn't care about the flag any more than he cares about being a Republican; he cares about how he looks holding the flag.”
So Rick wants the country to reintroduce the flag: “The more we fly it on our porches, in our cars, and yes, on our bikes, the less it will look like Trump had Betsy Ross sew a flag for us.”
Luckily, we still have the uncorrupted trappings of patriotism: fireworks, bunting and, above all, hot dogs.
Sports journalist Will Leach was stunned by the news that Joey Chestnut, the all-time dog-destroyer, will be unable to compete in this summer's Coney Island tournament due to contractual issues. “Having won his first title at age 23 and only lost once in his 40s, Chestnut is unique in American sports, or any sports for that matter,” Leach wrote.
I devoured Leach's praise, which takes us back to the beginnings of the Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest (first won by a 400-pound truck driver in 1967), then to its revival by renegade Kobayashi Takeru, and ultimately to Chestnut's record-setting dominance.
But don't cry too much over your beer (or pitcher of water to soak your bread in): After Will's column was published, Netflix promised its own Labor Day showdown between Chestnut and Kobayashi. You'd better come on an empty stomach.
Fareed Zakaria's column states that Europe continues to fall further and further behind the “economic powerhouse” of the United States. (One should consider the UK to be no exception; if the UK were a country, it would certainly rank 51st in per capita income.)
The problem, Fareed diagnoses, is that “Europe remains a collection of countries pretending to have a unified approach to markets, defense, etc.” In reality, he writes, “entrepreneurs struggle to navigate 27 different markets with different regulations, authorities, standards and requirements.”
Fareed says the solution to Europe's problems “can be summed up in one line.” European politicians know this, but it's just one line most voters don't want to hear.
The Supreme Court unanimously ruled Thursday that anti-abortion plaintiffs lacked standing to sue, upholding access to the abortion drug mifepristone.
“Let's breathe a sigh of relief,” writes Ruth Marcus, whose latest decision gives her the impression that the Court “hoped the whole issue would go away…so we could do the important work of dismantling the regulatory state.”
But after that respite, pro-abortion advocates must prepare to take on the real threat to the abortion pill: Donald Trump himself. Ruth explains how as president, Trump was able to completely sidestep the courts and get rid of mifepristone.
Jeanne Robinson looks at new fronts in the so-called “war on women.” The Southern Baptist Convention's condemnation of IVF this week shows just how militant the Religious Right remains intent on asserting its will, regardless of what the majority believes.
Chaser: Dana Milbank has noticed that Trump has been spending a lot of time lately fantasizing about his own downfall, and honestly, you have no idea how tough things are for him these days.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been invited to speak in Parliament. Josh Rogin says Netanyahu could use this to interfere in US politics (more than ever before) and damage relations between the two countries. Katherine Rampell writes that Republicans are running a great campaign against President Biden in 2022. Unfortunately for them, much of the evidence to support their claims has vanished in the two years since! The Brits control US journalism, says Erik Wemple. And so does British journalism.
It's a goodbye. It's a haiku. It's… “goodbye.”
Dad hugging his wife with his arms around her
Spread throughout the village
Plus! Here's a rhyming Friday bye-ku (Fri-ku!) from reader Ray M.
“I have done nothing wrong.”
At least that was his only song.
Have a newsy haiku of your own? Email me with any questions, comments, concerns, etc. Have a great weekend!
