Who can you trust?

 Pickled animals, anyone?  If you paid a lot for an animal in formaldehyde from the high period of Damien Hirst, check the receipt.  You may be in line for a refund.  Three of these objects -- he calls them sculptures -- dated from the 1990s (the era of his Turner Prize) were actually made by his assistants in 2017.  I have no idea whether the determination was made by an art historian or a chemist, but it's by far the most fascinating thing ever published about this overhyped taxidermist.

  

Cambodia went through hell in the last century courtesy of Henry Kissinger and Pol Pot, but now it faces another existential crisis:  musical car horns.  Prime Minister Hun Manet has ordered them torn out of all vehicles and replaced with the old, boring kind because people are dancing to the tunes they play, obstructing traffic and risking their safety.  Hun Manet is the kind of "strong man" Trump would love if he had ever heard of Cambodia.  He inherited the job from his father Hun Sen, who liked to be addressed as "Lord Prime Minister and Supreme Military Commander" and who dissolved the opposition party to make sure he stayed that way.  These types hate for anyone to have fun.

People who get paid to exaggerate the trivial have been examining all their royal photos under a microscope and report that a picture of the late Queen Elizabeth with some of her grandchildren and great-grandchildren has been altered.  Shock.  Perhaps she was already dead when it was taken, which explains her rigid facial expression.  Additionally and weirdly, Russian media exploded with the story that King Charles had died.  Someone checked and reported that this was not true.

If you have ever watched the air crash videos on YouTube, you know they always end with the narrator asserting that what was discovered in the course of the subsequent investigation has made flying safer than ever, if possible.  This sounds a little hollow as bits continue to fall off Boeing aircraft and a Boeing whistleblower dies after saying, "If anything happens, it's not suicide."  Here's one that Boeing doesn't have to worry about:  Captain Lawrence Russell was about to take control of a Delta flight from Edinburgh to New York when a bag search turned up a half-empty bottle of Jagermeister.  He was sentenced to ten months because his blood alcohol was twice the legal level.  Yes, it was a Boeing plane, so what?

Edward Sorel (this is how he depicted Trump during a 1990 bankruptcy) said, "Until I think of someone I want to kill, I can't get out of bed in the morning."  Trump gets up thinking of someone he wants to defame, sue, or both.  Today he's suing ABC News and George Stephanopoulos for defaming him.  He doesn't think they should be allowed to call him a rapist despite the jury and the judge finding that it's exactly what he is.  Then he went on the Seb Gorka Comedy Hour and defamed all American Jews who won't vote for him:  "Any Jewish person that votes for Democrats hates their religion, they hate everything about Israel, and they should be ashamed of themselves!"  It's the familiar Jews=Israel formulation which has led to a 360 percent increase in antisemitic incidents since October 7, according to the Anti-Defamation League.  Initial support for Israel has been replaced by outrage at the killing in Gaza and the refusal of the Netanyahu government to allow even humanitarian relief.  As a former New Yorker he is surely aware of the Hasidic community in Brooklyn which has no interest in Israel.  If they "hate their religion," the words have no meaning.  They live their religion.  Trump lives only Trump.

By the way, the Opperman Foundation has cancelled its RBG Awards.  Don't let anyone tell you that outrage and ridicule have no power.