CELEBRITY FRIDAY: Lydia Polgreen, New Openly Lesbian Editor-in-Chief of Huffington Post

It's not every week our Celebrity Friday subject can be an out lesbian of color. However, that is the case this week since The Huffington Post has named an open lesbian of color to be their new Editor-in-Chief! Lydia Polgreen, 41, the editorial dirctor of NYT Global at the New York Times is replacing former editor-in-chief (and founder) Arianna Huffington as the head of one of the most significant digital publications in the world.

This is how the Huffington Post reported the news of Polgreen's appointment:

In an interview, Polgreen said it was difficult leaving the Times, where she spent nearly 15 years, but that the role at HuffPost was a “once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.”
“I feel like we’re living in a moment right now where media has to fundamentally rethink its position vis-a-vis power,” she said. “I think that the election of Donald Trump and the basic difficulty that the media had in anticipating it tells us something really profound about the echo chamber in which we live, the ways in which journalism has failed to reach beyond its own inner limits.”
Polgreen described HuffPost as a “truly great global, progressive news platform,” though not in a purely political sense. She said the site has the “potential and the possibility of really meeting this populist moment that we’re living in and meeting people where they actually are.”
“The DNA of The Huffington Post is fundamentally progressive, but I think that has a really capacious meaning and comes to include so many of the things that motivated not just the people who were rah rah Bernie or who voted for Hillary Clinton, but also many, many people in the United States who voted for Trump, who have fundamental concerns about the way the country is moving and the future,” she said.
Originally launched in 2005 as a progressive alternative to the Drudge Report, HuffPost has grown into a Pulitzer Prize-winning news and opinion site boasting 17 international editions, including its most recent launch in South Africa.
Polgreen has extensive international experience, including serving as the Times’ West Africa bureau chief, South Asia bureau chief and Johannesburg bureau chief, where she covered major events such as the death of Nelson Mandela. She has also served as deputy international editor and helped oversee the launch of The New York Times en Español. In April, Polgreen became editorial director for NYT Global, part of a $50 million investment to grow the paper’s reach into multiple international markets.

Hat/tip G-Listed

BOOK REVIEW: The Obelisk Gate by N.K. Jemisin

The Obelisk Gate is the sequel to the Hugo award-winning The Fifth Season, which overall I found difficult but after forcing myself to finish, I admired for its complexity, diversity and cleverness. 

Sadly, The Obelisk Gate still has the complexity (or a better term might by lexical density) of its predecessor but both the diversity of characters and cleverness of execution appears to be diminished in  this sequel to The Fifth Season. However, both books do share the ineffable quality of a good read: compulsion of the reader to want to find out what happens next.

One of the main problems I think the books have is that they are set in a world that Jemisin calls "The Broken Earth" where basically calamity is commonplace and even expected. Disasters happen, on the regular. These apocalyptic events are called seasons in Jemisin's creation. (I'm still not exactly sure what a "FIFTH season" is because there appear to be a lot more than four seasons described in the must-read appendix.) 

Instead of the story being told from three perspectives and time lines that eventually are weaved together (like in The Fifth Season), in The Obelisk Gate we primarily follow two distinct tales, one about what happens to Essun and the other about what happens to Nassun, her daughter. The first book was nominally about tracing Essun's journey as she searches for Nassun. The second book reveals what happened when Nassun fled with her murderous father Jija to a place he thought could/would/should cure his daughter so that he wouldn't murder her (for being a despicable orogene like her mother). 

Jemisin does an excellent job of depicting the ambivalence of contradictory feelings between Jija and Nassun, who both hate and love each other. It's not really too much of a surprise to discover that by the end of The Obelisk Gate  only one of them survives. (And it's not that much of a surprise to discover which one it is.) Jemisin also shows contradictory emotions in the relationship between Scaffa, who is a guardian (someone who hunts/controls/kills orogenes) and Nassun, who is an orogene (someone who can redirect the kinetic, thermal, potential energy of the world).

Orogenes are despised and feared in the society the Broken Earth trilogy is set in but also are very powerful and useful to have around when the world is falling apart. Essun, who is a very, very powerful orogene, gets a first-hand look at how a society can simultaneously desire and despise an entire class of people (orogenes) as she hunkers down in Castrima, an amazing underground cavern where she is relatively safe from the desolation and havoc occurring on land.

This all sounds interesting, and it is (in theory), but I wanted more story in The Obelisk Gate. There's not a lot that actually happens, to either Nassun or Essun, and because they are physically located only two locales for most of the book there is much less world-building in this book than there was in the first. (This is not too surprising since it is the middle book of a trilogy after all.) 

Happily, this time I did not have as much trouble finishing the book (there was never a time I thought "I really don't want to read this anymore") but there are passages of Jemisin's writing that still make my eyes itch. I am pretty sure that I will read the third book, mostly for completeness and out of a dutiful sense of finishing what you start (and yes, that curiosity of wanting to find out what happens next).

Overall, The Obelisk Gate is a worthy sequel to the award-winning The Fifth Season as it continues the story of what happens to Essun as her world falls apart after a personal and actual cataclysmic event.

Title: The Obelisk Gate (The Broken Earth, #2)
Author: N.K. Jemisin.
Paperback: 448 pages.
Publisher: Orbit.
Date Published: August 18, 2016.
Date Read: November 16, 2016.

GOODREADS RATING: 3.5 STARS.

OVERALL GRADE: A- (3.67/4.0).
PLOT: A-.
IMAGERY: A-.
IMPACT: B+.
WRITING: A.

Good Riddance! LGBT-Hating NC-Gov Concedes Defeat

Nearly four weeks after the election, North Carolina Governor Pat McRory has (finally!) conceded defeat in the last unresolved gubernatorial election of 2016. The Republican trailed Democrat North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper by just over 10,000 votes (out of nearly 4.5 million cast), which is just enough to forestall an automatic recount. McRory had claimed massive voter fraud and had initiated a recount in heavily Democratic Durham County but when few votes turned up he gave up on Monday. Republicans found the result in the Governor's race hard to swallow because Donald Trump won the state's 15 electoral votes by nearly 4 percentage points and U.S. Senator Richard Burr also won re-election. But McRory earned widespread notoriety and opprobrium for championing a controversial bill called HB-2 which overturned an LGBT civil rights ordinance in Charlotte, NC and explicitly permitted discrimination against LGBT individuals in the state.

Gee, maybe the difference between the electoral fortunes of Trump, Burr and McRory in North Carolina was a repudiation of explicit hostility to civil rights?

EYE CANDY: Daniel Norell (black/white)

Daniel Norrell has appeared as Eye Candy before (August 8, 2016, December 26, 2009 and December 14, 2009). He is a model and dee-jay who lives in Stockholm, Sweden. His Model Mayhem page says he is 34 years old and 5-foot-10-inches and 185 pounds. Nice!

Notoriously Homophobic Leader of The Gambia Defeated In Election

The surprising election results in 2016 keep coming. This week the little-known country of The Gambia, where Yahya Jammeh, the leader of the country for the last 22  years was defeated in an election. Jammeh is a virulent homophobe, notorious for his statements about LGBT people, especially gay men.

Joe Jervis blogs:

In November 2014, Jammeh made homosexuality punishable by life in prison. The following month the US dropped Gambia from an African free trade agreement in part over Jammeh’s anti-LGBT crackdown. Several months later Jammeh issued a public promise to “slit the throats” of all homosexuals, prompting a denouncement from UN national security advisor Susan Rice. It’s unknown if life for Gambia’s LGBT community will improve under the new president.

The winner of the election, John Barrow, is the president-elect  and is required  by the Gambian constitution to be sworn in within 60 days of the election, according to the Washington Blade. Hopefully life for all Gambians, and particularly LGBT individuals will improve once that happens.

Carlsen Retains World Chess Champion Title By Winning Tiebreak

Wow! On his 26th birthday, Magnus Carlsen was able to defend his world chess championship title over a challenge from Russian Sergey Karjakin by winning the 4-game rapid chess (25 minutes plus 10 seconds per move) match 3-1 today. After two draws, Carlsen won the last two games, finishing the very last game with a flashy Queen sacrifice which forces mate in two moves! (Do you see it?)

2016 World Chess Championship Tied At 6-All; Tiebreaker Games To Be Played Wednesday

The 2016 World Chess Championship is going on right now in New York City. The current champion Magnus Carlsen of Norway, who turns 26 on Wednesday while the challenger is Sergey Karjakin is already 26 and was born in the Ukraine but is representing Russia.

After 12 games (with only 2 decisive games, Karjakin won game 8 with Black while Carlsen won game 10 with white) the two are tied with 6 points each. On Wednesday, they will play in several short tiebreaker games to decide who the new World Champion is. Carlsen is expected to have the slight edge, since he has won the World Rapid Championship twice.

EYE CANDY: Fabrice Lemonnier (reprise)

Fabrice Lemonnier has appeared as Eye Candy once before (October 24, 2016). He is a bodybuider and model from France. He has accounts on Instagram (@fabricelemonnier) and snapchat (fabcherry78).  That last screenname would give the impression that he was born in 1978, which would make him 38 but I have no confirmation of any information (age, height, weight, sexual orientation) regarding Fabrice. (If you know any thing about him, drop a note in the comments!) Regardless, I love that ink!

2016 DAVIS CUP: Argentina Stuns Croatia As Delpo and Delbonis Win Last 2 Matches To Clinch Nation's 1st Win

Wow! The 2016 tennis season ended with a bang on Sunday as Argentina won its very first Davis Cup (in its 5th appearance in the final) when Juan Martin Del Potro and Federico Delbonis won two must-win matches to give their country a 3-2 win in the Davis Cup final over Croatia, in Zagreb.
The day began with Del Potro coming back from 2 sets to none down for the first time in his career against World #8 Marin Cilic to win in 5 sets: 6-7(4), 2-6, 7-5, 6-4, 6-3 in 4 hours 43 minutes. This is the third time this year Cilic has had a 2-0 set advantage in a five-set match and ended up losing it (Wimbledon quarterfinal against Roger Federer and the USA vs Croatia rubber versus Jack Sock.)

But Delbonis' feat was even more amazing. He had to win a live fifth rubber against a higher ranked opponent, playing at home. The 26-year-old lefty Argentine is ranked 41 in the world and is known as a solid clay court player but he defeated the 37-year-old 6-foot-11 Ivo Karlovic (World #20) in straight sets: 6-3 6-4 6-2. Karlovic leads the tour in aces and has the #2 best serve (behind John Isner) but it was Delbonis who never had his serve broken in the match.

Argentina was in the Davis Cup final in 1981, 2006, 2008, 2011, and 2016, finally winning it for the first time this year. Croatia won it once before in 2005. Last year Great Britain won

THE EXPANSE (S1E08): "Salvage"

The eighth episode of season 1 of The Expanse was titled "Salvage" and aired for the first time on January 26, 2016.  Here (finally!) is my review of this episode. I rewatched "Salvage" again the weekend after Thanksgiving

S1E08: Salvage.

The title of the episode most likely stems from the fact that the crew of the Rocinante finds a deserted ship, the Anubis, attached to a barren rock at the remote coordinates Fred Johnson sent them to on a rescue mission. On boarding the craft, which looks identical to the powerful and stealthy space ships which destroyed both the Canterbury in episode 1 ("Dulcinea")  and the Donnager in episode 4 ("CQB"), the crew discovers that it is abandoned and deserted. However, when they turn the power on, a strange blue glowing organism (which looks alien to my eyes but which no one on the show describes as such) appears to start growing (and glowing) more energetically. They hurriedly leave the ship and over the objections of the spy/hostage/stowaway Kenzo they fire a missile at the Anubis, turning it to fiery slag as they head towards Eros. 

Eros is where Miller is going, having been fired in episode 7, he is continuing with his obsession with finding out what happened to Julie Mao, albeit now as a private citizen with a lot of friends in law enforcement due to his status as an ex-cop himself. He runs into Sematimba, an Eros cop, who bails him out after Miller beats up a guy to get information on where Julie's ship, the Anubis 1A is docking and where the registered owner, "Lionel Polanski" is holed up. Of course, that's the same name of the person that Holden and crew are looking for and they both arrive at a flophouse where a bunch of very heavily armed thugs attempts to put bullets through every member of the crew. (Earlier in the episode we had seen that Errinwright on Earth confirmed to Avasarala that his attempt to assassinate Holden was going to take place on Eros, which he referred to as the murder capital of the Solar System.) Holden and his crew are saved by Amos' quick instincts and Miller's entry into the battle at a crucial moment. Finally, Miller and Holden,the two protagonists of the two key threads of the story meet, and of course immediately clash. The entire crew (plus Miller) go up to Polanski's room and there they find Julie, clearly dead for days, with very strange (clearly) alien growths coming out most of her orifices.

HIGHLIGHTS

• The fight sequence at the Blue Falcon Hotel is really well done, as the tension rises higher and higher as the audience knows that a "hit" is going to happen and so we view every passer-by with suspicion (which appears to be what Amos does as standard operating procedure). The eventual gun battle is bloody but exciting.
• The dialogue between Holden and Naomi as they navigate through the eerily empty (but clearly dangerous) environment of the Anubis is a fun signal of future development in their relationship because it shows they have clearly moved from blatant hostility to grudging respect and perhaps even camaraderie.

LOWLIGHTS

• Avarasala only appears in one scene this episode but she infuses it with great emotion as she discovers that her friend, the former Ambassador to Mars (whom she betrayed in order to get useful intelligence for Earth about Martian intelligence) has been found dead, listed as a suicide.

GRADE: 8/10.

CELEBRITY FRIDAY: Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson Is People's Sexiest Man Alive

Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson has been named the 2016 People magazine's Sexiest Man Alive. Johnson, 44, is 6-foot-5 and 245 pounds and is the largest person to receive this recognition. According to The New York Times, he is currently Hollywood's highest paid male actor. Interestingly, other people who have been named the Sexiest Man Alive are Bradley Cooper, Tom Cruise, Matt Damon and Denzel Washington.

BOOK REVIEW: A Night Without Stars (Chronicle of the Fallers, #2) by Peter F. Hamilton

A Night Without Stars is the sequel to The Abyss Beyond Dreams, which is the latest entry in Peter Hamilton's Commonwealth saga. The Commonwealth saga takes place in the fictional Universe of some of Hamilton's greatest works, whch include the great duopoly Pandora's Star / Judas Unchained and the Void trilogy (The Dreaming Void, The Temporal Void, The Evolutionary Void).

A Night Without Stars is a somewhat inconsistent but very enjoyable entry in the Commonwealth saga. There is a very strong ending (with cameo appearances by some of the most famous and beloved figures in Hamilton's recent oeuvre) rescues this entry in the Commonwealth saga from relative obscurity.

One of the most exciting aspects of this new duopoly is the completely new setting of the planet of Bienvenido and the interesting possibilities for new plots and characters this allows a grandmaster of science fiction like Hamilton to create. There is a huge twist that happens about halfway through A Night Without Stars that I kicked myself for not seeing (it's even hinted at in the prologue!) which guarantees that any Hamilton fan will enjoy reading this book. However, there are some definite drawbacks in the book as well. There are some clumsily written (heterosexual) sex scenes between some of the new primary characters that were a bit cringe worthy.

Hamilton's primary strength, in my opinion, has typically been his imaginative portrayals of a technologically complex world, coupled with intensely violent and action-packed conflicts between (often alien) intelligences with competing (and competitive) ideologies. There are definite stretches of the book which are pulse-pounding scenes of action, but there are also stretches of the book bogged down in prosaic depictions of political intrigue with one-dimensional characters.

Overall, I'm very glad that Hamilton is writing in the Commonwealth universe again and would LOVE him to write many more books in this series. However, the way the book ends, it feels like he is ready to move on to something else, However, for some reason this doesn't bring me sadness, it makes me feel gratitude at how much he has already created that I have enjoyed for so long.

Title: A Night Without Stars (Chronicle of the Fallers, #2).
Author: Peter F. Hamilton.
Paperback: 720 pages.
Publisher: Del Rey.
Date Published: September 27, 2016.
Date Read: October 13, 2016.

GOODREADS RATING: ****.

OVERALL GRADE: A- (3.67/4.0).
PLOT: A-.
IMAGERY: A-.
IMPACT: A-.
WRITING: A.

2016 ATP YEC: Murray Beats Djokovic To Win Title, Claim Year-End #1

Defying expectations and predictions, Andy Murray was able to defeat Novak Djokovic 6-3 6-4 to win his very first ATP World Tour Finals in London on Sunday. The win cemented the British player's hold at #1 and insured that he will end the year ranked #1 for the very first time. It was Murray's 24th consecutive match win and he now improves to 11-24 against his chief rival.

Amazingly, Andy's brother Jamie Murray is ranked #1 in doubles (with partner Bruno Soares), so the two have become the first brothers to simultaneously top the tennis rankings in singles and doubles.

This is how their mother Judy Murray marked the occasion:

The way they were....... pic.twitter.com/oSJVs5fEC9

— judy murray (@JudyMurray) November 20, 2016

Congrats, Andy!

EYE CANDY: Joshua Benoit (reprise)

Joshua Benoit has appeared as Eye Candy once before (October 17, 2016). He is a Haitian-American model and body-builder. Yes, those are 20" arms. Joshua is listed as being 6-feet tall and 215 pounds.

Enjoy!

2016 ATP YEC Final: Djokovic-Murray XXXV To Decide Year-End #1 Ranking

The race for the year-end #1 comes down to a historic meeting between world #1 Andy Murray and World #2 Novak Djokovic in the very last  tour match of the year! After playing against each other in two major finals (2016 Australian Open and 2016 French Open) this year the two will play their 35 career ATP match in the final of the 2016 ATP year-end championship. Murray is playing in his very first ATP Tour Finals final while Djokovic is trying to win his 6th year-end championship and for the fifth consecutive year!

Murray has won his last 23 matches in a row, which has led him to a career-high #1 ranking but in the last six months where he has been ascendant (winning Wimbledon, the Rio Olympics singles gold medal and multiple Masters shields) he has not had to face any other members of the big Four (Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal were injured and Djokovic was curiously  unproductive this fall). However, in his semifinal match, Murray played an intense 3-hour-38-minute match with Milos Raonic (who will end the year at World #3), saving 1 match point in the third-set tiebreaker and winning 5-7 7-6(5) 7-6(9) in what some are calling one of the best matches of the year. (It was the longest match ever at the year-ending championship, a record that Murray had set just a round before when he won another epic match in 3-hours-21 minutes against Nishikori. In contrast, Djokovic dismantled World #5 Kei Nishikori 6-1 6-1 in just over 66 minutes to get the right to retake the World #1 ranking and end the year at the top for the third consecutive year.

I'm glad that this is a 3-set match. Despite the fact that Djokovic has a 24-10 head-to-head record and appears to be playing some of his best tennis right now I still think this is Murray's best chance to beat him in a long time. It should be noted that 2 of the 3 major finals Murray has one he did it over Djokovic. But it will not be easy. I think the more likely result is a straight sets win by Djokovic. If Murray wins the first set, then I think he has a slightly better than 50% chance to win the match. But Djokovic has beaten Murray in all 4 indoor hard court matches they have played and leads him 3-1 in the four finals they played so far this year.

MadProfessah's pick: Djokovic.

2016 ATP YEC: Semifinals are Djokovic vs Nishikori, Murray vs Raonic

The semifinals of the ATP Tour Finals in London are now set with Novak Djokovic, Andy Murray, Milos Raonic and Kei Nishikori reaching the final four of the year's most prestigious tournament. Surprisingly, 2016 US Open champion Stan Wawrinka did not make the semifinal round for the first time in his five appearances in the year-end championships.

Both Murray and Djokovic won their respective groups by winning all three of their matches in the round-robin portion of the tournament. Murray beat Nishikori, Wawrinka and Marin Cilic while Djokovic beat Raonic, Dominic Thiem and David Goffin (who substituted for Gael Monfils). Murray is now on a 22nd match winning streak, and is now the #1 player in the world. He will face Raonic in the first semifinal (a reprise of the 2016 Wimbledon final won by Murray) and he has won their last 7 meetings and leads the head-to-head 8-3. Djokovic faces Nishikori, whom he has beaten 7 times in a row since losing the 2014 US Open semifinal match, and leads the head-to-head 10-2.

If they both win their semifinal matches the two will face each other for the 35th time, with the year-end #1 ranking going to the winner. Djokovic leads their rivalry 24-10 and has beaten Murray in most of their most crucial meetings (including in 4 major finals) but Murray is playing the best tennis of his life and if there's any time he can turn this rivalry around it is in London while riding a career-high win streak. An exciting end to the tennis year!

TENNIS TUESDAY: ATP YEC HALFWAY OVER, CZECH WIN FED CUP

ATP WORLD TOUR FINALS HALF OVER: Murray, Djokovic, Raonic, Thiem, Nishikori All Notch Victories
The year-end championships of the ATP tour are underway in London with the 8 players who had the best results in 2016. Novak Djokovic has won this tournament the last four consecutive years and needs to do so again in order to end the year ranked #1. Andy Murray, Kei Nishikori, Marin Cilic and Stan Wawrinka are in one round-robin group (named after JohnMcEnroe). The other round-robin group, which is named after Murray's coach Ivan Lendl, contains Djokovic, Milos Raonic, Dominic Thiem and Gael Monfils. Halfway through the tournament, everyone except Monfils, Cilic and Wawrinka have won at least one match.

Czech Republic Captures Fed Cup After Bravura Performance From Strycova
As I mentioned on Sunday, Babrora Strycova demonstrated her nerves of steel for the second consecutive year, coming up victorious in the fifth doubles rubber to power the Czech team for its 3rd consecutive Fed Cup and fifth title in 6 years. (In 2013 Italy beat Russia 4-0 to win the title.)

Andy Murray Relishes His 2nd Week As World #1, Trying To Win 9th Title in 2016
Andy Murray became World #1 last Monday after he reached the finals of the Paris Masters tournament. Murray eventually won his 8th title of the year by defeating John Isner in the final.

QUEER QUOTE: President-elect Trump Says His Position on Same-Sex Marriage is "Irrelevant"

Today's Queer Quote is from President-elect Donald Trump who  on said in an interview that aired on 60 Minutes last Sunday night that his position on marriage equality is "irrelevant" because the issue is "settled." He might want to alert Vice-President-elect Mike Pence of this public policy position.

This excerpt from the transcript of Trump's remarks regarding marriage equality are our Queer Quote for today:

LESLEY STAHL: Well, I guess the issue for them is marriage equality. Do you support marriage equality?
DONALD TRUMP: It---it's irrelevant because it was already settled. It's law. It was settled in the Supreme Court. I mean it's done.
LESLEY STAHL: So, even if you appoint a judge that---
DONALD TRUMP: It's done.  It -- you have -- these cases have gone to the Supreme Court. They've been settled. And--I'm--I'm fine with that.

The National Organization for Marriage clearly doesn't agree with Trump that this issue is "settled." We shall see!

EYE CANDY: Aaron Turner

D. Arnez is the name Aaron Turner seems to go under when he models. He is another find from the fine folks at Pop Glitz.  He is active on multiple social media platforms: Facebook, Twitter (@DeeoneeArnez) and Instagram (@d.arnez).

2016 Fed Cup: Czech Wins 3rd Year In A Row; 5 of last 6

For the third year in a row the Czech Republic won the Federation Cup, the annual country-based tennis competition on the women's tour. Just like last year, the title came down to the fifth tie, the doubles match, and again Barbora Strycova was the Most Valuable Player, in providing the third point for her team and country.

This year, Czech faced France, and although Caroline Garcia was able to upset 2-time major champion Petra Kvitova and 2016 US Open finalist Karolina Pliskova she was unable to win the doubles tie with her partner Kiki Mladenovic when Pliskova teamed with Strycova.

Czech Republic has now won the Fed Cup title every year except 2013 since 2011.