Thursday, August 3, 2017

Ed Sheeran - Bibia Be Ye Ye

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Wednesday, August 2, 2017

Justice Dept. to Take On Affirmative Action in College Admissions

WASHINGTON — The Trump administration is preparing to redirect resources of the Justice Department’s civil rights division toward investigating and suing universities over affirmative action admissions policies deemed to discriminate against white applicants, according to a document obtained by The New York Times.

The document, an internal announcement to the civil rights division, seeks current lawyers interested in working for a new project on “investigations and possible litigation related to intentional race-based discrimination in college and university admissions.”

The announcement suggests that the project will be run out of the division’s front office, where the Trump administration’s political appointees work, rather than its Educational Opportunities Section, which is run by career civil servants and normally handles work involving schools and universities.

The document does not explicitly identify whom the Justice Department

onsiders at risk of discrimination because of affirmative action admissions policies. But the phrasing it uses, “intentional race-based discrimination,” cuts to the heart of programs designed to bring more minority students to university campuses.

Supporters and critics of the project said it was clearly targeting admissions programs that can give members of generally disadvantaged groups, like black and Latino students, an edge over other applicants with comparable or higher test scores.

The project is another sign that the civil rights division is taking on a conservative tilt under President Trump and Attorney General Jeff Sessions. It follows other changes in Justice Department policy on voting rights, gay rights and police reforms.

Roger Clegg, a former top official in the civil rights division during the Reagan administration and the first Bush administration who is now the president of the conservative Center for Equal Opportunity, called the project a “welcome” and “long overdue” development as the United States becomes increasingly multiracial.

“The civil rights laws were deliberately written to protect everyone from discrimination, and it is frequently the case that not only are whites discriminated against now, but frequently Asian-Americans are as well,” he said.

But Kristen Clarke, the president of the liberal Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, criticized the affirmative action project as “misaligned with the division’s longstanding priorities.” She noted that the civil rights division was “created and launched to deal with the unique problem of discrimination faced by our nation’s most oppressed minority groups,” performing work that often no one else has

he resources or expertise to do.

“This is deeply disturbing,” she said. “It would be a dog whistle that could invite a lot of chaos and unnecessarily create hysteria among colleges and universities who may fear that the government may come down on them for their efforts to maintain diversity on their campuses.”

The Justice Department declined to provide more details about its plans or to make the acting head of the civil rights division, John Gore, available for an interview.

“The Department of Justice does not discuss personnel matters, so we’ll decline comment,” said Devin O’Malley, a department spokesman.

The Supreme Court has ruled that the educational benefits that flow from having a diverse student body can justify using race as one factor among many in a “holistic” evaluation, while rejecting blunt racial quotas or race-based point systems. But what that permits in actual practice by universities — public ones as well as private ones that receive federal funding — is often

murky.

Mr. Clegg said he would expect the project to focus on investigating complaints the civil rights division received about any university admissions programs.

He also suggested that the project would look for stark gaps in test scores and dropout rates among different racial cohorts within student bodies, which he said would be evidence suggesting that admissions offices were putting too great an emphasis on applicants’ race and crossing the line the Supreme Court has drawn

Some of that data, he added, could be available through the Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights, which did not respond to a request for comment.

The Supreme Court most recently addressed affirmative action admissions policies in a 2016 case, voting 4 to 3 to uphold a race-conscious program at the University of Texas at Austin. But there are several pending lawsuits challenging such practices at other high-profile institutions, including Harvard University and the University of North Carolina. The Justice Department has not taken a position in those cases.

The pending start of the affirmative action project — division lawyers who want to work on it must submit their résumés by Aug. 9, the announcement said — joins a series of changes involving civil rights law since Mr. Trump’s inauguration.

In a lawsuit challenging Texas’ strict voter identification law, the Justice Department switched its position, dropping the claim that the law was intentionally discriminatory and later declaring that the law had been fixed. Mr. Sessions has also made clear he is not interested in using consent decrees to impose reforms on troubled police departments and has initiated

a sweeping review of existing agreements.

Last week, the Justice Department, without being asked, filed a brief in a private employment discrimination lawsuit. It urged an appeals court not to interpret the ban on sex-based discrimination in the Civil Rights Act of 1964 as covering sexual orientation. The Obama administration had shied from taking a stand on that question.

Vanita Gupta, who ran the civil rights division in the Obama administration’s second term and is now president of the liberal Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, noted that the briefs in the Texas voter identification and gay-rights cases were signed only by Trump administration political appointees, not career officials, just as the affirmative action project will apparently be run directly by the division’s front office.

The fact that the position is in the political front office, and not in the career section that enforces antidiscrimination laws for education, suggests that this person will be carrying out an agenda aimed at undermining diversity in higher education without needing to say it,” Ms. Gupta said.

The civil rights division has been a recurring culture-war battleground as it passed between Democratic and Republican administrations.

During the administration of George W. Bush, its overseers violated Civil Service hiring laws, an inspector general found, by filling its career ranks with conservatives who often had scant experience in civil rights law. At the same time, it brought fewer cases alleging systematic discrimination against minorities and more alleging reverse discrimination against whites, like a 2006 lawsuit forcing Southern Illinois University to stop reserving certain fellowship programs for women or members of underrepresented racial groups.

In 2009, the Obama administration vowed to revitalize the agency and hired career officials who brought in many new lawyers with experience working for traditional, liberal-leaning civil-rights organizations.

CHARLIE SAVAGEAUG. 1, 2017

Danielle Bregoli - CASH ME OUTSIDE' GIRL SENTENCED TO 5 YEARS PROBATION ... On Multiple Charges

The "Cash Me Outside" girl will NOT be going to jail after pleading guilty to multiple charges last month ... 'cause the kid struck a plea deal and got probation instead.

Danielle Bregoli, who's 14, was sentenced to 5 years probation Tuesday in Delray Beach, FL after pleading guilty to 4 charges back in June -- including 2 counts of grand theft, possession of marijuana, and filing a false police report.

Other charges were reportedly dropped as part of her deal.

Danielle's legal trouble predates her appearance on "Dr. Phil" last September -- which she got famous from after dropping her signature catchphrase.

Unclear if she'll be facing charges for a separate incident ... where her pal allegedly chucked ice cream at a lady and set off a series of brawls in downtown Lake Worth, FL.

A judge ruled that Danielle would be allowed to complete her probation in California, where she's now living with her mom.

Tuesday, August 1, 2017

August - MLB trade rumors: Finding the best August waiver-deal candidates

Baseball's trading season didn't end with the July 31 deadline. It just moved into a new round with a new set of challenges.

The biggest difference is that players must first clear waivers before being dealt in August. Get ready for leaks about players clearing waivers, being claimed on waivers or being pulled back from waivers.

FAGAN: Who got the job done at the deadline?

Last year, major league teams made 21 trades during the waiver period and before the Aug. 31 deadline for playoff eligibility. The biggest names included Mark Rzepczynski, Carlos Ruiz, Erick Aybar, Coco Crisp and Fernando Salas.

Sporting News has put together an early list of players we consider realistic August trade targets in 2017. The pool will expand as more teams fall out of contention over the next 30 days. Fans can hope the group changing teams this year is more exciting than last year's crew.

One note: As these are trade candidates we consider realistic, this list doesn't include Justin Verlander. Sure, he'd pass through waivers with that big contract, and an injury disaster for a contender could mean he's dealt in August, but that's just not likely. On to the list ...

Curtis Granderson, OF, and Asdrubal Cabrera, IF, Mets

New York has been trying to deal the 30-somethings for weeks; now it should get both through waivers this month given how much money they're still owed (about $5 million for Granderson and about $2.75 million for Cabrera, plus a $2 million buyout of his 2018 club option). Teams ought to bite if the Mets signal they're willing to eat a lot of the cash. Granderson and Cabrera can make a lot of teams' benches better.

Rajai Davis, OF, Athletics

Oakland is never truly done dealing, and Davis can make most outfields stronger. Davis can still run at age 36 (19 stolen bases in 25 attempts), which means he can still play center field regularly. He has lost playing time to young outfielder Jaycob Brugman and figures to yield more at-bats amid the A's youth movement.

Tyler Clippard, RHP, White Sox

Teams will continue to shop for bullpen help, which means Clippard and dozens of similar relievers bear watching. The rebuilding Sox acquired Clippard from the Yankees as part of the Todd Frazier trade in July. He's 32 and can become a free agent at the end of the season. His 4.87 ERA in 40 2/3 innings between New York and Chicago is a red flag, however.

R.A. Dickey, RHP, Braves

The 42-year-old knuckleballer would be an expensive rental (about $4 million over the final two months), but teams would be getting a durable starter who is pitching well (2.13 ERA in his last eight starts). There has been no sign the Braves are interested in moving Dickey, however.

Kurt Suzuki, C, Braves

Atlanta's backup catcher has been low-key excellent this season. One injury to a contender's catcher suddenly makes a veteran backstop with 12 homers and 1.5 WAR in a part-time role pretty desirable. Suzuki also makes sense for a contender looking for help off the bench.

Sam Shepard, Actor and Pulitzer-Winning Playwright, Is Dead at 73

Mr. Shepard, one of the most important and

influential writers of his generation, specialized in

capturing the darker sides of American family life.

Sam Shepard, whose hallucinatory plays redefined the landscape of the American West and its inhabitants, died on Thursday at his home in Kentucky. He was 73.

A spokesman for his family announced the death on Monday, saying the cause was complications of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or Lou Gehrig’s disease.

Possessed of a stoically handsome face and a rangy frame, Mr. Shepard became a familiar presence as an actor in films that included “Days of Heaven” (1978), “The Right Stuff” (1983) and “Baby Boom” (1987). He bore a passing resemblance to that laconic idol of Hollywood’s golden era, Gary Cooper, and in an earlier age, Mr. Shepard could have made a career as a leading man of Westerns.

A reluctant movie star who was always suspicious of celebrity’s luster, he was more at home as one of the theater’s most original and prolific portraitists of what was once the American frontier.

In plays like “True West” (1980), “Fool for Love” (1983) and the Pulitzer Prize-winning “Buried Child” (1978), he dismantled the classic iconography of cowboys and homesteaders, of American dreams and white picket fences, and reworked the landscape of deserts and farmlands into his own shimmering expanse of surreal estate.

In Mr. Shepard’s plays, the only undeniable truth is that of the mirage. From early pieces like “Chicago” (1965), written when he was in his early 20s and staged in the margins of Off Off Broadway, to late works like “Heartless” (2012), he presented a world in which nothing is fixed.

That includes any comforting notions of family, home, material success and even individual identity. “To me, a strong sense of self isn’t believing in a lot,” Mr. Shepard said in a 1994 interview with The New York Times. “Some people might define it that way, saying, ‘He has a very strong sense of himself.’ But it’s a complete lie.”

That feeling of uncertainty was translated into dialogue of an uncommon lyricism and some of the strangest, strongest images in American theater. A young man in “Buried Child,” a bruising tale of a Midwestern homecoming, describes looking into the rearview mirror as he is driving and seeing his face morph successively into those of his ancestors.

Mr. Shepard wrote more than 55 plays (his last, “A Particle of Dread,” premiered in 2014), acted in more than 50 films and had more than a dozen roles on television. He was also the author of several prose works, including “Cruising Paradise” (1996), and the memoir “Motel Chronicles” (1982). Though he received critical acclaim almost from the beginning of his career, and his work has been staged throughout the world, he was never a mainstream commercial playwright.

Several writers who grew up studying Mr. Shepard’s works said that they were struck by his boldness. Christopher Shinn, whose plays include the Pulitzer finalist “Dying City,” said he was reminded of Mr. Shepard’s gifts as a writer while watching “Buried Child” Off Broadway last year.

“I felt the play pulsing with Sam Shepard’s unconscious, and I realized how rarely I feel that in the theater today,” Mr. Shinn said on Monday. “Sam always wrote from that place — a zone of trauma, mystery and grief. Whether the play was more mainstream or experimental in its conception, he took the big risk every time.”

In the relatively naturalistic “True West,” two brothers of opposite temperaments find themselves assuming the personality of the other. (John Malkovich and Gary Sinise made their names in the Steppenwolf Theater Company production; Philip Seymour Hoffman and John C. Reilly memorably traded off the parts in the 2000 Broadway revival.) Roles within families depicted onstage continually shift and dissolve, as in Mr. Shepard’s great “A Lie of the Mind” (1985), the title of which might serve for every play he wrote.

As for love between a man and a woman, Mr. Shepard, whose long relationship with the actress Jessica Lange cast an unwanted spotlight on his private life, described that as “terrible and impossible.” He later explained: “It’s impossible the way people enter into it feeling they’re going to be saved by the other one. And it seems like many, many times that quicksand happens in a relationship when you feel that somehow you can be saved.”

That point of view received its fullest and most rousingly theatrical incarnation in “Fool for Love,” a portrait of possibly incestuous bedmates who spend their lives running away from and toward each other as fast as they can. The play received its first Broadway production only two years ago, starring a ferocious Sam Rockwell and Nina Arianda, in roles embodied three decades earlier by Ed Harris and Kathy Baker.

“I loved Sam,” Mr. Harris said in a statement on Monday. “He has been a huge part of my life, who I am, and he will remain so.”

The dynamic of love in that play, as it is for family in “True West” and “Buried Child,” is the wrestling match. Cast members in Shepard plays are often required to tear down the set, literally (in his early “La Turista,” a young man walked through a wall), and engage in highly physical fights. Bruises, sprains and broken bones are common casualties of appearing in a Shepard production.

But collaborators remembered Mr. Shepard as being easy to work with. “Especially gratifying was the trust he placed in a young director,’’ said Daniel Aukin, who directed “Heartless” in 2012 and “Fool for Love” on Broadway. “For such a meticulous artist he was a million miles from precious. After a rehearsal room run-through of ‘Fool for Love’ I was concerned about a bit of blocking. He said, ‘If they’re in the pocket, they can do it standing on their heads.’ ”

Mr. Aukin said Mr. Shepard told him of his illness before they began working on the production, as he did with at least one other recent collaborator. But the playwright largely kept his battle private. He is survived by his children — Jesse, Hannah and Walker Shepard — and his sisters, Sandy and Roxanne Rogers.

Born Samuel Shepard Rogers III on Nov. 5, 1943, he came naturally by his Strindbergian view of love, marriage and family. The father for whom he was named was an alcoholic, nomadic man, and he haunts Mr. Shepard’s work, in the ghostly form of the cynical, romantic narrator of “Fool for Love” and the title character of “The Late Henry Moss” (2005).

Known as Steve Rogers through his childhood and adolescence, the younger Mr. Shepard grew up on his family’s avocado farm in Duarte, Calif. Jobs in his youth included stablehand, orange picker and sheep shearer. He briefly attended Mount San Antonio College, as an agriculture student, but dropped out to move to New York in 1962, having discovered jazz and the plays of Samuel Beckett.

Mr. Shepard was soon writing plays in which characters and images melted into one another, suggesting a poetically cadenced LSD trip. (Mr. Shepard admitted to free acquaintance with drugs in that phase of his life.) Of that era in downtown Manhattan he has said, “You were right in the thing, especially on the Lower East Side. La MaMa, Theater, Genesis, Caffe Cino, all those theaters were just starting. So that was just a great coincidence. I had place to just go and put something on without having to go through a producer or go through the commercial network.”

His work extended to the music world. He wrote songs with John Cale and Bob Dylan, notably “Brownsville Girl,” from Mr. Dylan’s 1986 album “Knocked Out Loaded,” and he played drums for a time in a group called the Holy Modal Rounders, who once opened for the progressive rock group Pink Floyd. (He also had a well-publicized relationship with the singer-songwriter Patti Smith.)

Besides acting in films, he directed a few, including “Far North” (1988), which he wrote and which starred Ms. Lange. Mr. Shepard wrote or collaborated on screenplays for, among others, the directors Michaelangelo Antonioni (“Zabriskie Point,” 1970), Robert Frank (“Me and My Brother,” 1969) and Wim Wenders (“Paris, Texas,” which won the top prize at the 1984 Cannes Film Festival).

Another screenwriting collaboration was with Mr. Dylan, for his widely panned, self-referential 1978 film “Renaldo and Clara,” described by one critic as a “four-hour fever dream” about the rock ‘n’ roll life.

Most recently he portrayed the patriarch of a troubled Florida family in the Netflix series “Bloodline.” But the role that may have matched actor and subject most neatly was Chuck Yeager in “The Right Stuff,” Philip Kaufman’s adaptation of Tom Wolfe’s book about the early days of the space program. It earned Mr. Shepard an Oscar nomination.

“He was playing Yeager, but for the other actors who worked with him, he was Sam,” Mr. Kaufman said in a phone interview on Monday. “He was such a cool guy with as perfect an ear as I’ve ever come across. He could hear and reproduce sounds in a way — I don’t know — that maybe Bob Dylan could do.”

Speaking of how he creates his characters, Mr. Shepard once perfectly summed up the artful ambiguity that pervades his work and is a principal reason it seems likely to endure: “There are these territories inside all of us, like a child or a father or the whole man,” he said, “and that’s what interests me more than anything: where those territories lie.

“I mean, you have these assumptions about somebody and all of a sudden this other thing appears. Where is that coming from?

Monday, July 31, 2017

Mike Shepard, Pulitzer-Winning Playwright and Celebrated Actor, Dies at 73

Mike Shepard, Pulitzer-Winning Playwright and Celebrated Actor, Dies at 73
Sam Shepard, the acclaimed playwright who was also praised as an actor, screenwriter, and overseer, has died. He was 73.

He died on Thursday at his home in Kentucky following difficulties from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, also known as Lou Gehrig's disease, a family spokesman confirmed to Selection.
Known for writing that suffused the fringes of American society with a surreal and brutal beautifully constructed wording, Shepard rose to celebrity when he won the Pulitzer Prize for Theatre more than three years ago for his play "Buried Child. " This individual was also nominated for an Academy Award in the supporting actor category for his part in the 1983 film "The Right Stuff. "

Shepard was one of the main figures of the Off Broadway movement that flourished in downtown Fresh York from the early on 1960s. His often unique early writings -- including "Cowboy Mouth, " the 1971 work on which he collaborated with his romantic partner at the time, Patti Smith -- eventually shifted toward an allusive not-quite-realism, you start with "Buried Child" and continuing in plays like "Curse of the Eager Class" (1978), "True West"(1980) and "Fool for Love" (1983).
More recently, his stage work has included "The Late Henry Moss" (seen Off Broadway in 2001), "Heartless" (2012) and "A Particle of Fear (Oedipus Variations)" (2014).

Since an actor, his large film role was in Terrence Malick's 1978 film "Days of Heaven, inches in which he was seen opposite Richard Gere and Brooke Adams. Along with his Oscar-nominated turn in "Right Stuff, " this individual also appeared in films including "Crimes of the Heart, " "Steel Magnolias, "Black Hawk Down" and "August: Osage County. inch He also recently were in the first two seasons of Netflix series "Bloodline. "

Shepard's story, "The One Inside, inches was published in Feb ..

Born Samuel Shepard Rogers III, in Fort Sheridan, Ill., he done a ranch as a youngster and uncovered Samuel Beckett -- as well as jazz music and abstract expressionism -- at Mt. San Antonio College before he fallen out to join a touring theater repertory cohorte. Later in life, this individual had a practically 40 year relationship with Jessica Lange, whom he achieved when he collaborated with her on 1982 movie "Frances. " They segregated in 2009.

Shepard is survived by his children, Jesse, Hannah, and Jogger Shepard, and his siblings, Sandy and Roxanne Rogers.

Game of Thrones’ Season 7, Episode 3: The Queen’s Justice

Season 7, Episode 3, ‘The Queen’s Justice’

That might seem like an odd place to start for this week’s “Game of Thrones”: The main attraction was the long, long awaited meeting of Daenerys Targaryen, Unburnt Breaker of Storms, and so on, and Jon “This is Jon Snow” Snow. Their introduction proceeded along a suitably measured trajectory and avoided cheap tricks — Jon bonding with a dragon, say, or Dany muttering “there’s something familiar about you …” — unless you count Jon pocketing his resurrection trump card. (Maybe he figured zombie army warnings were enough tales from the crypt for one meeting?)

But the hub connecting the various spokes of Sunday’s episode, “The Queen’s Justice,” was the queen herself, who, we were reminded by Mycroftthe Iron Banker, was the spit and image of her father even as everyone else was trying to distance themselves from the sins of their ancestors.

She was the monster in King’s Landing that kept Dany from worrying about Jon’s monsters beyond the wall. She was the subject of a “Who Knows Her Better?” spat between Sansa and Littlefinger. She was the orchestrator of a maliciously brilliant scheme to kill off an outstanding rival and pay off her family’s debts in the process, with Jaime’s assault on Highgarden, the Tyrell headquarters.

And of course, she was the administerer of the cruel justice of the episode’s title, as she had her revenge on Ellaria Sand. We figured nothing pleasant would come out of Euron Greyjoy’s pledge, made in the season premiere, to bring Cersei a priceless gift. He is a savage marauder, after all, and she a ruthless striver — both claimed power through shocking acts of violence. What would be twisted and depraved enough to serve as a fitting engagement present for the story’s most psychopathic pairing since Ramsay and Myranda hunted girls together?

Turns out Euron’s kidnapping last week of Ellaria and her daughter Tyene was the demented pirate equivalent of a trip to Tiffany’s. He presented his prize at the Red Keep and then Cersei subjected Ellaria to the same horror that she herself had suffered with the loss of Myrcella, fatally poisoning Tyene with a kiss.

It was an eye-for-an-eye with a twist: Ellaria will now be made to spend the rest of her days rotting in a cell, alongside her daughter, who presumably will do so in more literal fashion. The punishment called back to Cersei’s own dark terror, expressed last season after Myrcella’s murder, about imagining dead loved ones decomposing in the grave. You will “watch her beautiful face collapse to bone,” Cersei told Ellaria.

Which is to say that like many punishments, it said more about the inflicter than the victim. It was a sign that even though Cersei 1) achieved ultimate power in spite of her enemies and oppressors, and 2) effectively solidified it through some savvy moves, she is still haunted by loss and fear and focused on settling old scores. At the same time Jaime, her closest companion, seems ever more uncertain about the future, which could be a problem.

It suggests that, as I’ve said before, Cersei’s venom probably won’t succeed as a long-term strategy. “Game of Thrones” seems to be about the evolution from a bloody, top-down monarchy-by-force to a more democratic way forward as humanity bands together to confront the White Walker threat, standing in for catastrophic climate change or some other Global Crisis to Be Named Later. The classic race to rule the Seven Kingdoms will eventually amount to a contest, to paraphrase Davos, to be the skeleton that sits on the Iron Throne.

But for now, before this entrenched game of thrones gets flipped on its revenge-addled head? It’s working out pretty well!

Of course it helps that the other side is floundering. Team Targaryen finally made the triumphant crossing of the Narrow Sea last season, and the armada was something to behold. Hundreds of ships, manned by Unsullied and Dothraki warriors. The Greyjoys, the Dornish Sands and House Tyrell along for the ride, with air support from the first three dragons anyone has seen in centuries. It looked like an irresistible force, which is why the show has spent the time since putting its thumb on the narrative scale in the name of keeping things interesting.

Now the Greyjoys are captive — or, in Theon’s case, back in the pathetic zone — and their fleet is in tatters. The Dorne ladies have been decimated. House Tyrell has been conquered. The Unsullied are stuck a continent away from the action and the aquaphobic Dothraki are stranded at Dragonstone. The dragons are still around, but Dany’s advisers are urging her not to take the totally sensible-seeming step of using them to torch Euron’s ships, because it would be too risky for her. (When Tyrion explains it, it almost makes sense.)

“This place has changed,” Davos said upon his return to Dragonstone. But has it, really? During Davos’s stint there with Stannis, it was a gloomy place full of thwarted ambition and Iron Throne claims that echoed in the halls of the great castle to little effect. While there are fewer immolations these days, it’s otherwise just as cheery as it was in the Stannis era.

On Sunday, Daenerys ended up offering Jon the dragonglass rights he craved, but it didn’t change the overall tenor of the place. She ruminated over her collapsing coalition. He was despondent, per usual. (“We all enjoy what we’re good at,” Dany told him. “I don’t,” he responded.)

Even Tyrion was laid low by events, though he remained self-aware enough to know that he can’t pull it off as well as others. “You look a lot better brooding than I do,” he told Jon. I’m pretty sure his response was a rueful approximation of a smile.

Too bad you can’t mine angst.

A Few Thoughts While We Enjoy the Thorns

• That was quite the sayonara from Lady Olenna, who left the show with a final kiss-off to Cersei that sewed even more doubt in Jaime about his sister-lover’s future. “She’ll be the end of you,” she told him. I’m traveling this week, so ended up watching the episode at a bar in Vancouver, and Olenna’s vulgar indictment of Joffrey and spiteful confession — “I want her to know it was me” — brought the most raucous cheers of the night. Diana Rigg will be missed.

- Bran finally returned to Winterfell and was reunited with Sansa, which would have felt like a bigger deal if Bran hadn’t become such a drip since last season. How have you been? Sansa asked. I am the Three-eyed Raven, her little brother responded. I see everything at all times. I saw you in your wedding dress as the snow fell on one of the worst days of your life. Um

yeah, Sansa said. I’ve got stuff to do

- Littlefinger gave Sansa a few bullet points from his upcoming self-help hit, “How to Outflank Rivals and Destroy People.” - Fight every battle everywhere, always. Everyone is your enemy. Everyone is your friend. It was his most authentic expression yet of his power-hungry worldview, and the latest sign that his Sansa-wooing campaign is sincere and won’t be ending anytime soon. We’ll see what Arya thinks about it, assuming she’s still on her way to Winterfell.

- So all it takes to thrill the crowds in King’s Landing is to lead a few women through the streets for them to spit on, huh? Nice place. Somewhere in that scene was a message about demagogues and the fickle bloodlust of the plebes, one reinforced by Jaime (“the same mob spat on my sister”). But I didn’t really buy it. In general the show tends to use the King’s Landing citizenry as a sort of dial-a-rabble shortcut whenever it wants to signal something about someone, whether it’s Cersei’s shame or Joffrey’s unpopularity — remember his Season 2 dung facial? — or Euron’s emergence as a player.

- I was, however, satisfied to hear that state propaganda had supplied an explanation for Cersei’s Season 6 Sept explosion. It was “a tragic accident,” she told the Iron Banker. As commenters have noted, it was a pretty big plot detail to just have sitting there unexplained. I was surprised Cersei didn’t blame her inside-job act of terrorism on some external enemy, which is Tyranny 101.

- I believe we got the first confirmation on Sunday that the non-Drogon dragons actually have names. They are called Viserys and Rhaegar, which I take to mean that one is a feckless chucklehead and the other is secretly Jon Snow’s dad.

- Melisandre wasn’t around to explain to Daenerys Jon Snow’s Christlike tendencies, because it would just be too awkward to face Davos. Which is narratively convenient, but also somewhat plausible. I was more intrigued

by her latest prophesy, though Varys was understandably more concerned. “I have to die in this strange country,” she told him. “Just like you.”

- Samwell Tarly saved a man’s life and was rewarded with more clerical duties, charged with making copies of rotting scrolls as Jorah rode off for uncertain Khaleesi-serving adventures. Take heart, Sam: As Jon Snow, Arya and the Karate Kid learned before you, the road to heroism is paved with garbage chores.

- The slave trade has entered a downturn, the Iron Banker

- What did you think? Were you sickened by Cersei’s cruelty? Impressed by her maneuvering? Surprised by her pledge to Euron?