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Weekend Butler: My search for a great 18-year-old female tennis player. Five-minute squash soup. A story about Princess Margaret that’s not in Tina Brown’s book. Stephen King’s writing secret. And more.
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Published: Apr 27, 2022
Category:
Weekend
HELP WANTED: I’m creating a character for my next novel: an 18-year-old girl from Brooklyn who’s the best young female tennis player in the East. In my novel, she gets a job at an elite tennis club teaching beginners and kids. I’d like to interview a young female tennis player who coaches. And also a more senior female tennis coach. If you know either of these women, would you point them in my direction, or make an introduction? As ever, I’m at HeadButlerNYC@AOL.com.
DON’T MISS VIDEO: MAVIS STAPLES AND LEVON HELM
from the Times: Back in 2011, Mavis Staples and her band visited Woodstock, N.Y., to perform at the barn-studio-theater of the Band’s drummer Levon Helm; they had appeared together at the Band’s “The Last Waltz,” in 1976. Helm’s band joined hers, which included her sister Yvonne Staples on backup vocals, and they recorded the show. More than a decade later, an album, “Carry Me Home,” is due May 20. Staples gave “You Got to Move,” a gospel standard, her full contralto commitment; the guitarists Rick Holmstrom and Larry Campbell traded blues twang and bluegrassy runs. It was just another good-timey show in two long careers, but it would be their last together; Helm died in 2012.
Back in 2011, Mavis Staples and her band visited Woodstock, N.Y., to perform at the barn-studio-theater of the Band’s drummer Levon Helm; they had appeared together at the Band’s “The Last Waltz,” in 1976. Helm’s band joined hers, which included her sister Yvonne Staples on backup vocals, and they recorded the show. More than a decade later, an album, “Carry Me Home,” is due May 20. Staples gave “You Got to Move,” a gospel standard, her full contralto commitment; the guitarists Rick Holmstrom and Larry Campbell traded blues twang and bluegrassy runs. It was just another good-timey show in two long careers, but it would be their last together; Helm died in 2012.
THE DARK SIDE OF FACEBOOK: HOW IT’S TRYING TO DAMAGE TIKTOK
from The Washington Post:
Facebook parent company Meta is paying one of the biggest Republican consulting firms in the country to orchestrate a nationwide campaign seeking to turn the public against TikTok. The campaign includes placing op-eds and letters to the editor in major regional news outlets, promoting dubious stories about alleged TikTok trends that actually originated on Facebook, and pushing to draw political reporters and local politicians into helping take down its biggest competitor.
Why is this happening?
In an internal report last year leaked by the whistleblower Frances Haugen, Facebook researchers said teens were spending “2-3X more time” on TikTok than Instagram, and that Facebook’s popularity among young people had plummeted.
Some of the emails targeting TikTok were sent in February, shortly after Meta announced that Facebook had lost users for the first time in its 18-year history.
STEPHEN KING ON WRITING
“A little talent is a good thing to have if you want to be a writer. But the only real requirement is the ability to remember every scar.”
YELLOW OR GREEN SQUASH SOUP
Prep Time: 5 minutes
Cook Time: 45 minutes
Serves 8
1 1/2 pounds yellow summer squash or zucchini
2 tablespoons butter
1 medium onion, sliced
6 cups chicken broth
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon white pepper
3 to 4 grinds of fresh nutmeg or dash of ground nutmeg
1 cup heavy cream
Wash, trim, and sliced squash.
In a large saucepan, melt butter; gently saute onion.
Add chicken broth gradually, then sliced squash, salt and pepper.
Simmer for 45 minutes.
Puree soup in blender or food processor. Add nutmeg.
To heat, stir in cream with a wire whisk and cook over low heat. Do not allow to boil.
It’s just as good served cold.
A STORY ABOUT PRINCESS MARGARET THAT’S NOT IN TINA BROWN’S BOOK
When she was presented to Robert Evans, the producer of Love Story, at the film’s London premiere, Princess Margaret said to him: “Tony [Lord Snowdon, her husband] saw Love Story in New York. Hated it.” Evans smiled back. “Fuck you too,” he replied – but, alas, only to himself. No one ever seems to have said it aloud to her – though a drunken Dudley Moore, deeply in character as Arthur, did once cross a restaurant and say to her, “G’d evenin’ your royal highness … I s’pose a blow-job is out of the question?”
