Uh-oh

It hasn't gotten a lot of play but Rick Santorum, the theocrat, religious zealot, and would be leader of angry white men everywhere, has a problem with black people. During the Iowa caucuses, he felt compelled to remind his white audience that their tax dollars were supporting black folks on the public dole. Here he all but calls President Obama a nigger.

The Party is Over

This blowhard's ill-fated campaign for the Republican presidential nomination is in such dire straits that he has dismissed half the paid staff and taken to selling photographs of himself for $50 a pop.

A Reminder

The shooting death of Trayvon Martin is a reminder that in this post-racial period, supposedly ushered in by the triumphal election of Barack Obama in 2008, that to be an African American male remains a status fraught with danger, irrespective of the steps one takes to avoid such danger.

Kay Davis 1920 - 2012

Kay Davis, a vocalist in the Duke Ellington Orchestra from 1944 to 1950, has died. She was renown for her wordless vocals. Ellington, in his memoir Music Is My Mistress, said of Davis:

Kay Davis was an honor student of Northwestern University, where she studied opera and majored in music. She had perfect pitch, could sight-read, and had all the gifts, so we decided to use her voice as an instrument. This was in addition to her interpretations of regular songs with words, and it proved very successful on several numbers. I shall never forget her first Carnegie Hall appearance in January 1946. Subtitled "A Blue Fog You Can Almost See Through," "Transbluency" was a last minute kind of composition, and the two featured musicians (Jimmy Hamilton on clarinet and Lawrence Brown on trombone) had to have music stands at the mike, because it had been completed too late for them to memorize. So we put Kay's part on a music stand at the mike, just like those of the musicians, and the performance was a smash.

Dick Anthony Williams 1934 - 2012

Actor and theater producer Dick Anthony Williams has died.

Whitney Houston 1963 - 2012

Rest in peace, Whitney.

Gisele Stands By Her Man

Gisele Bundchen makes the case that spouses of professional athletes should be seen rather than heard. Here she defends husband Tom Brady from the unsolicited observations of rabid New York Giants fans by scapegoating Patriot receivers for failing to catch balls thrown their way.