The all-out regional war that the Biden administration and many other world leaders have spent a year trying to avoid moved to the razor's edge as Iran launched about 200 ballistic missiles at Israel. So far, there are no reports of injuries or significant damage. The only death reported was a Palestinian man "killed near the West Bank city of Jericho when a projectile landed nearby during the rocket barrage." It's notable (especially to Hezbollah being decimated in Lebanon) that the Iranians said the "missile attack had been in retaliation for the assassinations of Hezbollah’s leader, Hassan Nasrallah, Hamas’s political leader, Ismail Haniyeh, and an Iranian commander." That explanation makes the missile attack even more strategically curious. There's not much question about whether or not Israel will respond. The question is how big that response will be and whether it will tip things into full on war, one America's military would seemingly be unable to avoid. In terms of defense, America is already in the fight: US Navy warships shot down Iranian missiles fired at Israel in massive barrage. "Some residents of Dahiya, the area just south of Beirut that has been pounded by Israeli airstrikes in recent days, rejoiced at the news of the Iranian attack – lighting up the night’s sky with machine-gun fire and setting off fireworks. Others, however, feared it would only precipitate more bloodshed. 'I think it will be a very violent night,' said Hussein Awada, 54, who was sleeping in his car but had gone back to the area on Tuesday to check on his home. He added, 'You can smell the scent of war and death everywhere.'" Here's the latest from NYT, CNN, NBC, and Times of Israel. 2No Shelter From the Storm"The hollering went on for hours, barely audible over the roar of the thrashing French Broad River. 'Bruce!' people shouted from shore. One word was all Bruce Tipton could muster in response, and he repeated it agonizingly: 'Help!' Mr. Tipton, 75, was clinging to a tree, surrounded by a torrent of murky brown water that had just crushed his trailer home and flung him onto the tree. He was less than 50 yards from shore, but the way the river was moving, he seemed to be on a remote island." Like so many stories of Helene's destruction, this one ended in tragedy. NYT(Gift Article): For Hours, He Clung to a Tree and Cried for Help. But None Came. 3Going Off BookCollege lit courses often require "students to read a book, sometimes a very long and dense one, in just a week or two. But the student told Dames that, at her public high school, she had never been required to read an entire book. She had been assigned excerpts, poetry, and news articles, but not a single book cover to cover." Rose Horowitch on a trend I've seen play out in my kids' high school education, one that is shocking college professors. The Atlantic (Gift Article): The Elite College Students Who Can’t Read Books. (Soon, young people won't be able to concentrate enough to watch the Netflix series based on the book.) 4The Hustler"Pete lived his entire 83 years, not just his spectacular baseball career, like he was double-parked. He’d sprint to first base the instant the ump called ball four. Vin Scully once told his listeners, 'Pete Rose just beat out a walk.' I once saw him sprint off after striking out." Pete Rose who died yesterday at the age of 83 was known as Charlie Hustle. He hustled like no other player on the field, and the hustles he ran off the field never really stopped either. Rick Reilly in WaPo (Gift Article): Pete Rose finally stopped. (But the debate over his legacy will live on.) 5Extra, ExtraRobo Stop: "U.S. East Coast and Gulf Coast dockworkers began their first large-scale strike in nearly 50 years on Tuesday, halting the flow of about half the country's ocean shipping, after negotiations for a new labor contract broke down over wages." Given the timing of the strike, there could be political ramifications. But the bigger story is the one that pits human workers vs robots. "In a Facebook post before the strike, Jack Pennington, president of a local ILA group, wrote about 'the never ending threat of automation,' and how automation has left 'thousands of workers' in the automobile industry 'jobless.' He added the same is happening at major retail chains and grocery stores." Quartz: Robots are playing a big part in the U.S. port strike. Here's how. 6Bottom of the News"Those who are not particular about poultry terminology use tender to refer to any thin strip of boneless chicken. To people in Manchester and to chicken farmers, though, it means something specific: the tenderloin, a muscle along the backbone that gets very little exercise, hence its tenderness. Restaurants were cooking chicken sticks and chicken fingers before 1974. So far, though, nobody has seriously challenged Manchester’s status as first in the nation to embrace the true tender. Whether you fully accept the claim or not, though, the floppy strips of white meat in a deep-fried crust do seem to have first appeared around that time. If you were born in the United States more than 50 years ago, you can probably remember a world without chicken tenders. If you grew up later, you can’t." NYT: How Chicken Tenders Conquered America. (Technically, they conquered chickens...)
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