Getting the munchies in Mass.

Westborough mom charged after allegedly biting son's driving instructor
PITTSFIELD — A Westborough mom, and a member of the Westborough School Committee, faced charges that she bit a Pittsfield driving instructor on the arm when he canceled her son's driving test Thursday morning....
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The lakes they call Great

NYTimes: From Montreal to Minnesota, by Inland Sea

I was so used to driving and flying, my understanding of North America had become distorted. Then I took a slow boat through four Great Lakes. I saw every mile.

The Great Lakes basin spans 10 degrees of latitude and 18 degrees of longitude — set almost exactly between the Equator and the North Pole. The circumference of all five lakes combined is 10,500 miles, nearly half the distance around the world. An average of 200,000 cubic feet of precipitation falls somewhere on the lakes every second.

http://goo.gl/uyA1VJ

I'd sell my soul for a good grilled cheese sandwich

OK, half. Half a sandwich. That's fair, right?

I've been eating all this good-for-you blah blah whole wheat bread which is OK for regular things like, for example, Spam sandwiches but lousy for grilling. I don't know why. Some day I'm going to find a diner that'll make me a proper grilled cheese sandwich and order one right there on the spot. Hold the pickles, too.

I used to have a friend whose Mom made the best grilled peanut butter sandwiches I've ever tasted. I've tried for years to make one like them but it never works out. Not even with that white squishy bread, which is the only way to make decent grilled sandwiches, as everybody knows. If I could find a diner that would make them I'd eat there every day. 

Imagine our astonishment

Republicans Worry a Falling Donald Trump Tide Will Lower All Boats - The New York Times

"People are getting pretty nervous about our candidates…"

http://goo.gl/nX60iF

There's always one more chance to believe a Clinton

If Hillary Clinton Wins, Foundation Will Stop Accepting Foreign Donations - The New York Times

Mr. Clinton's announcement, which he relayed to foundation employees in a meeting on Thursday, followed the recent release of State Department emails mentioning donors to the Bill, Hillary & Chelsea Clinton Foundation who had contact with aides to Mrs. Clinton while she was the secretary of state.

http://goo.gl/2fFs7E

The way I learned it first

The Rules About How to Address the U.S. Flag Came About Because No One Wanted to Look Like a Nazi

Smithsonian …the Pledge of Allegiance—a ritual that used to involve a salute that required you to raise your right hand, flip your palm down, point it toward the flag in a salute and recite the words. These instructions might seem unthinkable today for obvious reasons—they're reminiscent of rows of Nazis saluting their Fuhrer. But believe it or not, they date from the beginning of the Pledge itself.…

http://goo.gl/zgCdMW

What is this ethics of which you speak?

No record that Clinton, aides took required ethics training
Miami Herald

There is no evidence that Hillary Clinton or her top aides completed ethics training when they started at the State Department as required by federal law. State Department records show … Click to Continue » Read the full story

Oh, that. 

Pass the ketchup

The campaign to get Americans to eat less meat has been a bust
Vox

If activists want to reduce the terrible impacts of the meat industry, they may need a new strategy.

"There's a roller-coaster effect here, and we are about to start an upswing," says Will Sawyer, an animal protein analyst with Rabobank and the author of the report.

  Read the full story

Too late

'I WILL NOT LIE TO YOU': Former Bush White House press secretary offers blunt assessment of election
Business Insider

 Read the full story

Shared from Apple News

Getting it right the second time

I was about to sup on a spam sandwich and potato chips when I thought, no, I really ought to eat something more nutritious.

So I'm having a spam sandwich and Brussels sprouts.

Brussels sprouts are sort of like edible penance.

I don't even want to think about this

Really. Not at all. I'm only posting it as a public service. You can go if you want to. (You don't.)

Becoming President: Conventions to Election | Video | Kids.gov | USAGov

Simply explains the steps of how to become president of the U.S. from the national conventions to the election.

https://goo.gl/W8Vuf8

But about the lobbyists we already knew

AP: Paul Manafort helped a pro-Russia political party in Ukraine secretly route at least $2.2M to DC lobbyists
Business Insider

"It…casts new light on the business practices of Paul Manafort."

Might be a good idea to dig your hole a little deeper

Trump to receive first classified intelligence briefing Wednesday
CNN

Donald Trump will receive his first classified national security briefing Wednesday in New York, two sources told CNN. Read the full story

Unless, of course, you're a Democrat

FBI sends heavily redacted Clinton interview documents to Congress
Fox News

A congressional source confirmed to Fox News Tuesday that the House Government Oversight Committee had received a heavily redacted FBI summary of Hillary Clinton's session last month with FBI agents who interviewed her about her use of a private server for government business. The agents' notes were provided as well.

"This information being highly classified according to the FBI is in direct conflict with what the State Department and Ms. Clinton have said is on the server. You could not have it both ways," former military intelligence officer Tony Shaffer said. "You cannot say one day this is unclassified 'nothing to see here' and the next day, only certain people can see this and you must not be able to take it outside of a secure facility."

  Read the full story

Putting on the squeeze

Today's men are not nearly as strong as their dads were, researchers say
Researchers tested whether millennial guys are as strong as their dads. Someone's not going to be happy with the answer.

https://goo.gl/kIV2GA

What goes around

Sailor guilty of mishandling classified info cites Clinton, seeks leniency

A sailor who pleaded guilty to photographing classified submarine systems hopes to receive leniency by comparing his case to Hillary Clinton's ongoing e-mail controversy, his lawyers said in a court document.

Read Full Story

Way to jump right in

Sessions: 'There's cheating in every election' - POLITICO 

Getting hot over heat

DIVIDED AMERICA: Global warming polarizes more than abortion

WASHINGTON (AP) - "It's more politically polarizing than abortion," says Anthony Leiserowitz, director of the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication. "It's more politically polarizing than gay marriage."

Read the full story

Let's get those little consumers started early

The Government's Using 'X-Ray Vision Carrots' To Fight Food Waste
The Huffington Post - US

WASHINGTON ― The U.S. government has a secret weapon in its battle against food waste in public schools: ADJECTIVES.…

Giving fun names to boring veggies, it turns out, makes kids much more likely to eat them ― so thousands of schools across the country are serving things like "X-Ray Vision Carrots" and "Championship Beets." ... Read the full story

Too much of a bad thing

Trump, Pelosi and "Watergate Revisited"
RealClearPolitics

Far be it from me to suggest that Nancy Pelosi and the Democratic Party leadership have gone off their collective rocker. But using the Russians as foils to deflect attention from the embarrassing content of hacked Democrats' emails was bad enough even before Pelosi played the Watergate card.… Read the full story

Shared from Apple News

Like I needed an excuse to go back to bed

Why all the practice in the world can't turn you into an Olympian

Research shows that even 10,000 hours of practice won't change your fortunes much…

http://wapo.st/2bh7nhr

Wait…I think I saw that movie

Pokémon Go's augmented reality is augmenting the reality of this small town
Occoquan, Va. (pop. 1,016), is an almost-perfect setting for the game. But droves of players have transformed the town. "It makes living here horrible," one resident said.

They stare at their phones and flick their fingers across the screens in a zombielike rhythm that easily could be mistaken for a scene from a dystopian, ­tech-addled future. 

https://goo.gl/1VwBWg

As long as we can keep talking about Russia we won't have to talk about Hillary. Whew.

Alleged Russian involvement in DNC hack gives U.S. a taste of Kremlin meddling

The tactics have long been used to influence politics in neighboring countries of Europe.

https://goo.gl/7U71up