2023 Current Events Study Guide

[Volante]

A thread for things that happen and are otherwise reported on during the year we think have a high chance of appearing on J! or LL

Past years:
2022: https://www.jboard.tv/viewtopic.php?t=6406
2021: https://www.jboard.tv/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=5957
2020: https://www.jboard.tv/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=5498
2019: https://www.jboard.tv/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=5002
2018: https://www.jboard.tv/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=4492
2017: https://www.jboard.tv/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=3951
2016: https://www.jboard.tv/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=3355

Commentary can be provided here: viewtopic.php?t=6898

[Bamaman]

The last of Sherlock Holmes, the first of the Hardy Boys and talkies are all now public domain.

https://web.law.duke.edu/cspd/publicdomainday/2023/

I think a Jeopardy category could be made of the new public domain works.

[teapot37]

The vote for Speaker of the House of Representatives, the first thing that must happen in each new session of Congress in the lower chamber, was not resolved on the first ballot. This is the first time this has happened since 1923, when the election was decided in the ninth round of voting.

[Robert K S]

Newly elected House Rep Robert Garcia (D-CA42), a Gen-Xer and self-described comic-book nerd, will be taking the oath of office on Superman #1, the first elected federal official (first elected official of any kind?) to take an oath of office on a comic book.

[Volante]

Newly elected House Rep Robert Garcia (D-CA42), a Gen-Xer and self-described comic-book nerd, will be taking the oath of office on Superman #1, the first elected federal official (first elected official of any kind?) to take an oath of office on a comic book.

https://twitter.com/MattLaslo/status/16 ... 46/photo/2

That's Superman 1 1 to be specific, from 1939.
https://dc.fandom.com/wiki/Superman_Vol_1_1

(I did a double take because Superman (but Vol 2) also contains the Death of Superman issue, #75)

[Bamaman]

Third vote is underway but Jim Jordan already has 13 votes so it looks like we won’t have a winner this round.

[Bamaman]

Senator Patty Murray (D-WA) is the new Senate president pro tem, the first woman to hold the largely ceremonial position. She is currently second in line of succession until a House speaker is chosen.

[MinnesotaMyron]

Senator Patty Murray (D-WA) is the new Senate president pro tem, the first woman to hold the largely ceremonial position. She is currently second in line of succession until a House speaker is chosen.

The role is usually given to the Senior Senator of the majority party. Murray is 2nd-senior, Dianne Feinstein has served longer than her. (Chuck Grassley and Mitch McConnell have both served longer still, but they are from the current minority party.)

[teapot37]

Kevin McCarthy, R-CA, is elected Speaker of the House on the 15th ballot.

[MarkBarrett]

Prince Harry memoir: Spare

[MinnesotaMyron]

"The Embrace", a statue/monument honoring Martin Luther King and Coretta Scott King was unveiled Friday in Boston. It was inspired by a photo of the 2 embracing after MLK was informed of his Nobel Peace Prize win. The couple met in Boston while MLK was pursuing his doctorate at Boston University.

The sculptor is Hank Willis Thomas.

https://www.boston.com/news/local-news/ ... on-common/

This story has a photo from a good angle. Other photos from other angles have been criticized on social media for being more, shall we say, "artistic".

This article also has a good reminder that the new Governor of Massachusetts is Maura Healy, and that the Mayor of Boston is Michelle Wu.

[MinnesotaMyron]

On January first, Croatia adopted the Euro as its official currency, replacing the kuna.

Among the designs on the new coins are a portrait of Nikola Tesla; a marten (a weasel-like mammal which had previously appeared on the kuna); and writing in Glagolitic script, the oldest known Slavic alphabet.

[MinnesotaMyron]

Upcoming albums:

ENDLESS SUMMER VACATION - Miley Cyrus (March 10)
DID YOU KNOW THAT THERE'S A TUNNEL UNDER OCEAN BLVD - Lana Del Rey (March 24)

[mfc248]

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announces her resignation, effective February 7 at the latest. The country's next general election is set for October 14.

[MinnesotaMyron]

THE LAST OF US - Post-apocalyptic HBO TV series based on a 2013 video game. Stars Pedro Pascal of The Mandalorian.

[MinnesotaMyron]

On January 10, the MIAMI HEAT set a new NBA record by going a perfect 40 for 40 from the free throw line in a single game. Jimmy Butler led the team with 23.

(The previous record was 39 set by Utah in 1982.)

[teapot37]

The nominations for the 95th Academy Awards were announced this morning. Leading the pack with 11 nominations was Everything Everywhere All At Once, including Best Picture, Director (Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert aka "Daniels"), Actress (Michelle Yeoh), Supporting Actor (Ke Huy Quan), and Supporting Actress (Jamie Lee Curtis and Stephanie Hsu). All four actors received their first acting nominations; in fact, of the 20 actors nominated this year, a whopping sixteen hadn't been nominated before (only Judd Hirsch and Michelle Williams (The Fabelmans), Angela Bassett (Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, the first acting nomination for a Marvel film), and Cate Blanchett (Tár) are repeat nominees).

Kazuo Ishiguro was nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay for Living. If he wins, he would be the third to have both a Nobel Prize and an Oscar (Bob Dylan and George Bernard Shaw are the other two).

Best Picture Nominees:
All Quiet on the Western Front (a new German-language adaptation of the Erich Maria Remarque novel)
Avatar: The Way of Water
The Banshees of Inisherin (a dysfunctional friendship between Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson in early 20th c. Ireland)
Elvis
Everything Everywhere All At Once
8mmThe Fabelmans (a quasi-autobiographical tale based on Steven Spielberg falling in love with movies and moviemaking as a kid)
Tár (Cate Blanchett is a tempestuous orchestra conductor)
Top Gun: Maverick
Triangle of Sadness (a satire about the wealthy elite after a shipwreck; director Ruben Östlund's previous 2 films were nominated for best Foreign Language Feature; this is his first English language film)
Women Talking (about a series of rapes in a Mennonite community)

[MinnesotaMyron]

New TV series: Mayfair Witches, based on a trilogy of novels by Anne Rice. Stars Alexandra Daddario and Harry Hamlin. Airs on AMC.

Wikipedia calls it "the second television series in Rice's Immortal Universe, following Interview with the Vampire."

[MinnesotaMyron]

For the second week in a row, the Number 1 song on the Billboard Hot 100 is "Flowers" by Miley Cyrus.

More interesting to me is that the Number 1 on the Hot Country Songs chart, "Something In The Orange" by Zack Bryan, is also Number 1 on the Hot Rock & Alternative Songs chart. That couldn't have happened before, could it?

[MinnesotaMyron]

The Los Angeles Dodgers have retired number 34 in honor of pitcher Fernando Valenzuela, who played with the team from 1980-90.

In 1981 he became the only person to win MLB Rookie of the Year and the Cy Young Award in the same year (for the National League).