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Weekend Butler: After 40 years, a District Attorney goes to jail. The Squirrel Olympics. That addictive chili sauce. Alfonso Cuarón’s hottest movie. Jason Isbell.
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Published: Aug 12, 2021
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Weekend
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COVID UPDATE: This Washington Post piece — ‘Goldilocks virus’: Delta vanquishes all variant rivals as scientists race to understand its tricks — begins: “The variant battle in the United States is over. Delta won.” And is winning bigger every day. Give it respect. Give it fear. Give it as much distance as you can. And stay strong. If nothing else, take a walk and clear your head. Once again, my other suggestions.
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THIS WEEK IN BUTLER
Susanne Bier: “After the Wedding” and “In a Better World”
The Vanishing Point: A Novel
Vegetable cookbooks
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AFTER 40 YEARS… JUSTICE
Johnny Pius, 13 years old, had 6 rocks stuffed down his throat in a Long Island schoolyard one night in 1979. Police quickly located four neighborhood teenagers. A confused 15-year-old confessed. All would be convicted. I wondered: How cold would a 13-year-old have to be to sit behind Johnny’s empty desk in homeroom without cracking? On my first day of reporting, I learned the answer: these boys couldn’t possibly have killed Johnny. And more: Suffolk County Assistant District Attorney Thomas Spota and the homicide squad built their case on a coerced confession and the testimony of some shaky kids. One of them, Jimmy Burke, would grow up to become Suffolk Chief of Police, where his criminality took new forms — he recently spent 46 months in jail. Thomas Spota, who became Suffolk County’s District Attorney, covered for Burke. Now 79, Spota (photo, above) has been sentenced to five years in jail and fined $100,000. Here’s the Times article on his sentencing. Here’s Part 1 of my two part New York Magazine piece about the Pius murder. (Part 2 isn’t online. Write me at HeadButlerNYC@AOL.com if you’d like it.) And the four kids who went to jail and served serious time? If they’re feeling anything like I’m feeling, “vindication” is no consolation. Finally, Peter Blauner used Jimmy Burke as the launch pad for a sensationally good novel.
THE SQUIRREL OLYMPICS
Courtesy of the Times, watch squirrels pick a launch spot, stick a landing, throw in a little parkour and recover from mistakes. How the piece ends:
“Squirrels are used to making mistakes (the leaps are split-second decisions after all),” Dr. Hu said, “but they succeed because they are experts at correcting themselves on the landing. I think there is a moral in there for us all — don’t worry so much about a wrong leap, as long as you can recover like a squirrel, you’ll be fine.”
LAO GAN MA CHILI CRISP SAUCE WITH ROASTED CHILI PEPPER FLAKES
Spicy, sweet, crispy, savory chili oil — I’ve just re-ordered, which means I’ve officially joined the cult. I’m not in a stoned daze, but…. (cue organ music)…do join me. To read the story of this wildly popular sauce and buy it from Amazon, click here.
ALFONSO CUARÓN’S HOTTEST MOVIE
Alfonso Cuarón is the first Mexico-born filmmaker to win the Academy Award for Best Director — and he’s won it twice, for “Roma” and “Gravity.” He has been nominated for Academy Awards in six different categories. In the heat of the summer, I’m thinking of a 2001 movie I liked much more, “Y tu mamá también.” It’s a Mexican version of an American road movie, only the kids are privileged and they have a sidekick, a late-20s woman who is leaving her husband. Here’s the trailer.
And here’s the scene. They’re in a dive bar on the beach. They’re drunk. Maybe she’s the most drunk, for a reason she doesn’t share and we won’t know until much later.
To rent the video stream from Amazon, click here.
JASON ISBELL: “THERE’S NO ‘FREEDOM’ IF YOU’RE DEAD”
No vaccination? Then you can’t get in to a Jason Isbell concert. There was some pushback — Texas, of course — but in the music business, he’s getting a Standing O. If you have somehow missed his astonishing music, start here and here.
