Workin’ for the Weekend #42: May the Fifth Be With You

Moynihan-Maher, Roundtable Live, RFK redux & more, on our one-year anniversary at Substack.

Getting an earlyish jump on the weekend links here, in part to take advantage of the waning holiday -- not just Cinco de Drinko, but also the one-year anniversary of us teaming up with this here Substack. I will have more to say about this subject in a bonus post this weekend, but for now just a big sloppy kiss of gratitude to the 4,000 or so of you who ported with us over from Patreon, and to the many multiples of that who have joined the fun since then. You have encouraged us to produce more, allowed us to weather some storms, and created the best damn comments section on the Internet. A sizeable percentage of you will be getting your annual re-up notices in the coming days; we hope to keep your business, and even remind you that the Never Fly Coach donation level is a floor and not a ceiling!

* Onward and upward with the arts, beginning with Moynihan’s Overtime segment on HBO’s Real Time with Bill Maher last Friday, as also broadcast live on CNN:

* And yes, Busty Wimsatt ripped and tweeted two other Moyni-Maher segments. He (Busty) also reminded us on Twitter this week that there are compilations of Fifth Column Members Only outro music available on both YouTube and Spotify.

* Thanks to all of you who came out to The Reason Roundtable live in New York City April 25; the video of me & Nick Gillespie (SD 72, #379) & Katherine Mangu-Ward (#75, #395) & Peter Suderman went live this week:

* Nancy Rommelmann (#79, #198, #203) and I made one of our semi-regular turns Wednesday on Compound Media’s Mornin!! show w/ Joanne Nosuchinsky & Bill Schulz (#79, SD 72), to talk (and occasionally stammer) about mailbox-peeing, male/female fashion/sexiness, and the profound grossness of Robert Kennedy, Jr.:

* Speaking of RFK 2.0, my Reason piece this week picks up a bit where Moynihan’s Maher commentary left off, in terms of Democratic denial about the popularity of anyone-but-Biden: “Joe Biden More Vulnerable in 2024 Primary Than Donald Trump Ever Was in 2020.”

* And speaking of Rommelmann, her Smoke ‘Em if You Got ‘Em partner Sarah Hepola (#354) went on the podcast of sports-pal pal Ethan Strauss (#185, #333, #383, M.O. 151) to talk about Hepola’s memoir Blackout: Remembering the Things I Drank to Forget and a bunch of other stuff.

* Ever-alert commenter L Brown has unearthed the Norman Finkelstein vs. Alan Dershowitz debate Moynihan was recently talking about.

* My God, speaking of commenter-resurfacing…. Remember how in M.O. 163 I was telling a story about somehow being an also-ran contestant/semi-finalist as a Ben Affleck lookalike in a crappy early aughts reality TV show? You can read about it here, and in fact I prefer that you do, because Mike Sanislo, damn him all to hell, has FOUND THE VIDEO of The Celebrity Lookalike Show, and yep, that’s me:

* Comment of the week comes from Cluis:

Kmele and I share the Steve Albini thing! Apparently back in the 90s-00s I talked to him frequently as a bunch of my friends were in bands that were tangential to him some how and I had no idea who he was. Events tend to be a crush of folks and I always just went along cause most of them couldn't lift their gear reliably :D They had this leslie (lesley?) tube amp that was fuggin huge and as far as I know none of them could move it on their own. Anywho, it wasn't until much later people told me A: who he was and B: that it was weird how nice he was to me and how we got on. Maybe its a case of everyone talks / talked to him about the same shit all the time and he was just exhausted by it? Also I lived in Wicker for a spell a few years back and ran into him at the doubledoor or Estelle's and he had to remind me we "knew" eachother. Was even super cool with me then, even though I was a total asshole for not remembering. Also was a huge fan of Shellac, so that makes the hole in my memory even more unforgiveable. :D

Only one real choice for outro music this week, after the death of Gordon Lightfoot (please do read this appropriately Canadian appreciation from Colby Cosh). This song, broken down nicely by Rick Beato, guts me like a trout: