Thomas Jefferson

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At twenty-eight, he married a young widow, Martha Wayles Skelton, who inherited 135 slaves after her father’s death. This loving ten-year marriage was marred by childhood mortality - only two of their six children reached maturity - and in September 1782 Martha herself died at thirty-four. Only thirty-nine at the time, Jefferson survived his wife by forty-four years but never remarried. Ensconced at Monticello with his books, inventions, and experiments, Jefferson became an unfathomable loner.

If the American Revolution had not supervened, Thomas Jefferson might well have whiled away his life on the mountaintop, a cultivated planter and philosopher. For Jefferson, the Revolution was an unwelcome distraction from a treasured private life, while for Hamilton it was a fantastic opportunity for escape and advancement. Like Hamilton, Jefferson rose in politics through sheer mastery of words - sunny, optimistic words that captured the hopefulness of a new country. Nobody gave more noble expression to the ideals of individual freedom and dignity or had a more devout faith in the wisdom of the common man.

-- Ron Chernow, Alexander Hamilton

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James Gandolfini

David Chase, creator of "The Sopranos", gives an interview on his relationship with the late Gandolfini

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On Inside the Actors Studio, he gave a great anecdote about how he felt he bungled his first audition for The Sopranos. How much of that was true?

He didn't bungle it. But what happened was really very funny to me. In the middle of this audition he says: "This is shit. I gotta stop." And he left the room, went down the street and disappeared. And so another audition was set up for four days hence. Then we heard someone in his family had died – when, in fact, no one had died. Finally, he came to my house, in my garage, and auditioned there. It went on tape, he did great – like we knew he would – and after I got to know him, I realised this was standard operating procedure for him. He approached things very warily. He would say he wanted to do something and then you'd see him start to rethink. And that's the way it went down: he wanted to back out and, as frustrating as it was, I didn't really get angry because I knew he would come round.

When and why did you decide that he was Tony Soprano, and no one else?

There weren't many other candidates. We read a lot of people but in television you have to do that: troop in 10 people so the network doesn't feel they're having it pushed down their throat and then, eventually, after wasting all that time, convincing them to go with the one you wanted anyway.

His working pattern and ethic was always reported as being quite erratic. One critic said, quite crassly, that he had a bipolar attention to what he did. What do you make of that?

Well, I'm not a clinician but, for what I do know of psychology, I would say that he was bipolar. But what do I know? He was an artist. He was not a kindergarten teacher; he was a complex guy who had a million universes inside him. And, like all artists, he struggled to get it out. We all had to work on that together. And it was tough. It's hard. I think he subscribed to that kind of thinking – I know I did for a very long time.

How much of him was in Tony Soprano? Did he ever help shape the writing of his character?

He didn't shape the storyline and he didn't shape the writing, but he taught me a hugely important lesson about the character on the first day of shooting. It was written in the script that Christopher was supposed to tell him that he had written a screenplay and he was sending it to his cousin in Hollywood. And it said in the screenplay that I had written: "Tony, I'm going to send this to my cousin in Hollywood.'" And Tony says, "What's the matter with you?" and slaps him across the face. When we staged the scene, Michael Imperioli – who plays Christopher – was drinking a beer and what Jim did was lift him out of his chair by his collar and slam him against a wall. Instead of slapping him lightly across the face, saying "are you out of your fucking mind?" – it was the same dialogue, but he delivered it with eight times the intensity. What I remember most is the beer bottle, rolling across the concrete, and thought to myself: "Yep. That's great. Yep, that's right. Let's really go for this. This guy is the part."

-- ONTD

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Miley and Race

In light of Miley's latest musical offering, "We Can't Stop", she has been drawing some heavy critical fire for what is being considered "cultural appropriation", a big subject in recent years among the politically correct crowd. This excerpt comes from Vice.com's interview with an expert in the subject matter, Professor Akil Houston of Ohio University's African American Studies Department.

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86. Cats

They say that insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. I am starting to feel the wisdom of that proverb down deep when it comes to herding these cats. I still call to them, as if one day they will suddenly respond to me with canine fondness and rush over. That never happens, of course. I should immediately go and pick them up, if I can catch them, or else try to chase them down the general direction I want them to go to.

It really wears down your patience. Sometimes I wonder if it would be best to just leave them outside and let them be more like the feral cats we first started caring for, and only let them inside when the weather is truly harsh, not fit for man or beast or cat. They are wild things at heart and are not your pets. They are not companion animals. They are just cute. And they want to be outside.

Daily Fun

This photograph, Lighthouse, Waves, and Sunset, was taken in Frankfort, Michigan by ETCphoto.

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