Happy Thanksgiving Kennedy Assassination Anniversary Peter Jackson’s Let It Be Week Monday,

So this is the week when the newspapers tell us all about how this or that celebrity cooks a turkey, today’s case in point being Top Chef host Padma Lakshmi in The New York Times. It sounds fine and all, but these turkey photos always get me, a whole bird surrounded by (in this case) apples and sliced oranges and bay leaves and sprigs of thyme. No one in the real world has ever served turkey that way, right? We normal human beings carve it first. It’s the most egregious annual example of food porn that exists.

Now, more seriously: As closing arguments begin in the Ahmaud Arbery murder trial, the Times has a moving piece on how his death spurred his friends and extended family to become more politically aware. This seems a clearer case than the Kyle Rittenhouse matter, but as my trial lawyer father used to say, you never know what a jury will do. And this jury, like the Rittenhouse one, consists of 11 white people and one Black person. NPR reported that the defense attorneys kept striking potential Black jurors, which the judge acknowledged amounted to “intentional discrimination,” but he explained that his hands were tied because defense counsel kept giving race-neutral reasons for why each juror should be struck. This is in a county where 27 percent of the population is Black.

Troubling development in Chile, where hard-right candidate Jose Antonio Kast finished first in the first round of presidential voting. The second-place finisher was left-wing candidate Gabriel Boric, so this will be a real ideological showdown in the December 19 runoff. The bad news is that other center-right candidates did well, suggesting that more votes will go to Kast, who speaks fondly of Augusto Pinochet and is sounding all the usual and horrifying Trumpian tropes about immigrants and “real” Chileans and the rest. Keep an eye on this.

Finally, a wee bit of encouraging news from an unlikely place, as The New York Times’ Ben Smith reports that Jonah Goldberg and Stephen Hayes have resigned as Fox News contributors in protest of Tucker Carlson’s upcoming January 6 special, whose title says it all: Patriot Purge. Well, it took a while. But it’s a start.

Today at NewRepublic.com, start with Faiz Shakir’s bracing alternative explanation for why this inflation is really happening (it’s likely not a reason you’ve read about elsewhere). Then move to Matt Ford’s sharp analysis of how James O’Keefe is trying to have it both ways on press freedom issues. And check out Molly Osberg’s smart piece on the billionaire behind the possible 2022 California ballot initiative that would potentially cripple the state’s public-sector unions.

Happy Short Week,

Michael Tomasky, editor

Friday’s question: A Senate election in 2006 featured two candidates whose fathers had been Yale roommates in the 1940s. Name the 2006 Senate candidates. And for extra credit, tell us something about the Yale roommate fathers. Hint: The winner of that election is still in the Senate.

Answer: Sheldon Whitehouse defeated incumbent Lincoln Chafee in the 2006 Rhode Island Senate race. Their fathers were roommates at Yale after World War II. John Chafee went on to become a moderate Republican senator, and Charles Whitehouse, a career diplomat, was ambassador to Laos and then Thailand during the Nixon-Ford years. 

Today’s politics question: Since it is, as I noted, the anniversary of the Kennedy assassination: According to a 2019 poll, what percentage of Americans still believe that the assassination was a conspiracy of some kind and that Lee Harvey Oswald did not act alone?

Today’s Let It Be question, amateurs division: John Lennon was of course normally rhythm guitar, but he did play lead guitar on a handful of Beatles songs. Interestingly, two of those were featured on Let It Be. What were the songs?

Today’s Let It Be questions, professionals division: What unusual instrument did Lennon and George Harrison both play on different songs? And what unusual instrument did Lennon play on one Harrison song, and by what company was it manufactured?

Every day, our journalists are exposing the right’s assaults on our democracy—and pushing the Democrats to go bold to preserve the republic. Here’s a special offer from The New Republic so you won’t miss their scoops and sharp analysis.