by John Walters
Tweet Me Right
Starting Five
The Breakup
The photo above suggests that Robert Mueller has been casting a wary eye over his erstwhile friend and boss William Barr for decades. Barr was once Mueller’s boss at the Department of Justice and during his Attorney General confirmation hearings last summer, Barr said, “I told [President Trump] how well I knew Bob Mueller and that the Barrs and Muellers were good friends and would be good friends when this was all over.”
Not so fast, my fiend. Turns out that Bob is P.O.’d over how Bill summarized his two years of investigating. Mueller in fact wrote a letter to Barr earlier this month criticizing his former boss’ “lack of context” in mansplaining the Special Counsel report.
Barr heads to the hill to obfuscate testify before Congress.
Polls By Brooks
For five years or so, seminal sport blogger Brooks Melchior disappeared from the social media landscape, a place where he had once promulgated ideas prolifically. Now he’s finally back, and almost all of his tweets are straight-up polls. To wit…
I guess the responsible thing to do here would be to take a poll on whether or not we’re disenchanted with Brooks’ polls. That said, I’ll take these over anything emanating from Nate Silver and 538.
Castor Cast Out
By a 2-1 ruling, the Swiss-based Court of Arbitration for Sport decided that females with naturally elevated levels of testosterone, such as two-time Olympic 800 meters gold medalist Castor Semenya, must take suppressants if they wish to compete at major national events.
I mean, it’s right in the surname, no? Next week we hope the Court addresses traveling in the NBA and maybe even James Harden’s flopping.
Blimey!
Most of us don’t make it to southwestern England, but if you do, be sure and visit Exmoor National Park. Located on the southern shore of Bristol Channel, across from Wales, it is 18,000 acres of magical moor land.
Exmoor was once a royal hunting forest. Some day the judges may just up and leave and run a pub in the English countryside. But they’ll still rule on headlines daily.
Good Job, America
Reserves
Dear Lord: Notre Dame whiffs on a four-star offensive lineman named Jimmy Christ…ESPN the Magazine to publish its last issue in September. A lot of good folks from SI jumped ship to that mag when it launched in 1999…Meanwhile, SI is in danger of being sold to yet another vulture capital firm that seems intent on using SI more as a brand than as a journalistic publication. Are its days as a mag numbered?….Also, proving that it will not be out-woke by ESPN, SI will have a burkha-clad model in this month’s swimsuit issue, because men only read it for the beautiful faces.
Hot Power Couple
Granted, one power couple was battling it out with a zombie dragon on Sunday night and the other was retelling tales in the crypt. Still, were the producers of Game Of Thrones subtly suggesting that Sansa and Tyrion might make a better ruling couple over a united Westeros than Dany and/or Jon Snow.
Consider: No mortal has played the game of thrones more successfully, absent the aid of dragons or reincarnation, than Sansa Stark. And no mortal has combined cleverness with good ol’ fashioned decency better than Tyrion Lannister. She’s a beauty, and he’s a dwarf (a handsome dwarf, no less). She’s from the North, he’s from the South. They both despite his sister.
This could work.
Might Dany and/or Jon eat it in the final battle of Westeros? Possible. Either way, a Sansa-Tyrion ticket could be just what a united Westeros needs going forward.
Music 101
The Great Escape
Lots of just-under-stardom bands such as We Are Scientists toiling out there. The Brooklyn-based band met at Pomona College in Claremont, Calif., in the late Nineties, then formed in Berkeley, Calif., before making the great migration to Gabe Kotter’s native digs.
Remote Patrol
Champions League Semis: Liverpool at Barcelona
3 p.m. TNT
The Liverpudlians, with Mohamed Salah, are currently atop the Premier League standings. Barcelona, with Lionel Messi, are atop La Liga. If you want to claim these are currently the two top clubs in the world, no beef here.