Good morning.
The work week ends with partly cloudy skies and a high of twenty-two. Sunrise is 7:14 AM and sunset is 4:20 PM, for 9h 06m 01s of daytime. The moon is a waxing gibbous with 73% of its visible disk illuminated.
On this day in 1907, Christmas Seals first went on sale in America to raise money for the fight against tuberculosis. On this day in 1844, Milwaukee’s first daily paper, The Daily Sentinel, begins publication.
Worth reading in full —
Sarah Kaplan writes of John Glenn and the courage of the Mercury Seven: “”Some fine early morning before another summer has come, one man chosen from the calmly intent seven . . . will embark on the greatest adventure man has ever dared to take. Dressed in an all-covering suit to protect him from explosive changes in pressure, strapped into a form-fitting couch to cushion him against the crushing forces of acceleration, surrounded in his tiny chamber by all manner of instruments designed to bring him safely home, he will catapult upward at the head of a rocket for more than 100 miles and then plunge down into the Atlantic Ocean. If he survives, he will be come the heroic symbol of a historic triumph; he will be the first American, perhaps the first man, to be rocketed into the dark stillness of space. If he does not survive, one of his six remaining comrades will go next.” This is how, in September 1959, Life Magazine introduced the Mercury Seven — NASA’s first astronauts. At that point, no person had even attempted to reach space.”
It’s not The Onion, but respected Hollywood trade sheet Variety, that reports Donald Trump to Remain Executive Producer on ‘Celebrity Apprentice’: “Donald Trump will remain an exec producer on NBC’s “Celebrity Apprentice,” which is returning Jan. 2 after a two-year hiatus with new host Arnold Schwarzenegger. MGM confirmed to Variety that Trump has retained his EP credit on the series. The president-elect’s status on the 15th season of the reality series that made him a household name has been a question since Trump launched his presidential campaign in June 2015. In the credit sequence, Trump’s name will air after that of “Apprentice” creator Mark Burnett and before Schwarzenegger, who is also an exec producer of the new incarnation along with Page Feldman and Eric Van Wagenen. The larger issue for MGM, NBC, and the White House is the payment that Trump will receive for the series. It’s unclear what his per-episode fee is, but it is likely to be in the low five-figures, at minimum. NBC has ordered eight episodes of “The New Celebrity Apprentice.” Trump’s fees will be paid through MGM, the production entity on the show, not NBC. MGM declined to comment on the financial terms of Trump’s deal. Trump spokeswoman Hope Hicks confirmed that Trump has maintained a financial interest in “Apprentice.””
At RadioFreeEurope and RadioLiberty, Brian Whitmore speaks of Putin’s Revenge:
The Empire State Building’s more like a city all its own —