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John Gierach, Fly Fishing Author With Wit and Wisdom, Dies at 77

Writing for anglers and amateurs alike, he found that the sport can reveal as much about people as it does about fish.

John Gierach, a fly fisherman who was as skilled with a rod and reel as he was with words, producing hundreds of articles and more than 20 books, including “Even Brook Trout Get the Blues” and “Sex, Death and Fly-Fishing,” died on Oct. 3 in Longmont, Colo. He was 77.

His wife, Susan de Castro Gierach, said the death, in a hospital, was caused by cardiac arrest.

Avuncular and white-whiskered, Mr. Gierach celebrated the everyday foibles and frustrations that make up the fly-fishing life, as well as the occasional triumph over an aggravating trout.

In a sport often considered a pastime for the well-to-do, he spoke to fly fishing’s everyman appeal. He was, as one of his book titles suggested, a “trout bum.” The expensive outfitters, private rivers and $700-a-day guides? Not for him. To have a good day in the stream, all he needed was a decent rod, the right fly and a strong cup of coffee.

When he began writing, in the 1970s, the voluminous literature around fly fishing tended to the self-serious, reverent and snobbish. Mr. Gierach brought something different: humor, irony and self-awareness.

“Trout are wonderfully hydrodynamic creatures who can dart and hover in currents in which we humans have trouble just keeping our footing,” he wrote in “Trout Bum” (1986), his third book. “They are torpedo shaped, designed for moving water, and behave like eyewitnesses say U.F.O.s do.”

Although he wrote the occasional technical article or book, most of his work was reflective, experiential and broadly accessible. He was an inveterate storyteller; many of his best articles seem at first to be rangy shaggy-dog tales about a recent fishing trip, only to reveal, upon further examination, a piquant life lesson poking through the fish tales.

Optimism Foundation Agreed to Give Kraken $42.5M of OP Tokens in Layer-2 Deal

Crypto exchange Kraken announced last week that it will build a layer-2 network atop Optimism’s OP Stack blockchain framework. CoinDesk is first to report that the deal was reached early this year, involving a grant of 25 million OP tokens, at the time worth roughly $100 million.

Kraken, a major U.S. crypto exchange, shared last week that it would launch a layer-2 called Ink, relying upon the Optimism’s blockchain ecosystem’s OP Stack framework – and become part of the fast-growing “Superchain” that also includes layer-2 networks from the crypto exchange Coinbase along with the electronics giant Sony and decentralized exchange Uniswap.

But there was a price: Both projects have confirmed to CoinDesk that the Optimism Foundation agreed to provide grants to Kraken in the amount of 25 million OP tokens – worth roughly $100 million earlier this year, when the deal was struck, and now valued at about $42.5 million.

The deal, which was finalized around January or February, paved the way for Kraken to use Optimism’s OP Stack, a customizable toolkit that lets users create their own layer-2 rollups based on Optimism’s technology.

Kraken clarified with CoinDesk that under the deal, the token allocation would be paid to Kraken in grants over a time period. On Jan. 1 , the OP token was worth $3.99, according to CoinGecko, reaching a high of $4.06 on Feb. 20 during that time period. It now trades around $1.70.

The Optimism Foundation confirmed the number of tokens involved in the deal and declined to comment further.”

According to Andrew Koller, founder of Ink, the number is similar to various other deals that are part of the Superchain ecosystem.

“And it was actually Optimism that proposed that number first, and it was very in line with what other Superchain participants have gotten,” Koller told CoinDesk in an interview.

Optimism’s growth

Layer-2 networks have been popping up all over the Ethereum ecosystem over the past year. Crypto exchange Coinbase famously launched their Base layer-2 network in August of 2023 with OP Stack. Since then, decentralized exchange Uniswap shared that it would launch a layer-2 on OP Stack called Unichain, and electronics giant Sony shared it was also coming out with a layer-2 called Soneium based on Optimism’s technology.

AI pioneer Sam Altman’s blockchain project, World, known for its controversial iris-scanning orbs, went live with its layer-2 Worldchain in August, also built on OP Stack.

“I think for some of the big partners that really sign in and do this, this massive commitment that, again, we are spending our money and resources to be able to contribute to the Superchain, of which is not something that, you know, we built, and we’re technically making money on, you know, like the actual open source repos,” Kroller added.

According to Koller, the grant with OP Labs is based on transactions per month, “each time you achieve one, then there’s different tranches that get unlocked, and there’s an initial unlock, and then the rest gets unlocked at each month.”

Base has a slightly different setup, being one of the first in the space under this program. Base disclosed in a blog post in August 2023 that it would receive up to 2.75% of the OP token supply over a six-year period. The total supply of OP tokens is currently close to 4.3 billion, which makes Base eligible to receive up to 118 million OP tokens.

For newer layer-2s in the Superchain, “it’s just like a time-lock thing. And after them [Base], I think all Superchain participants are really driving that around activity,” Koller said.

Paid deals

Deals between layer-2 projects and big firms are not unheard of in the blockchain industry. In 2022, Polygon paid Starbucks $4 million in grants to build an NFT-powered loyalty program. The program was shuttered 18 months later.

At the time of the Starbucks deal, Polygon was led by Ryan Wyatt, who was ousted in 2023, according to a CoinDesk report. Wyatt joined the Optimism Foundation in November 2023, where he is the chief growth officer, in charge of onboarding more developers to build across the Optimism ecosystem.

“There’s no blueprints of this stuff, so you’re gonna make good decisions and bad decisions in this space. There’s not a lot you can lend at,” Wyatt told CoinDesk in an interview this week, conducted before CoinDesk learned about the Kraken deal.

Read more: Kraken Picks Optimism for New Layer-2 Network, Joining Coinbase’s Base on ‘Superchain’

Why I Changed My Birth Certificate 25 Years After I Transitioned

My wife was the one who told me that the birth certificate for Baby Girl Boylan had finally arrived in the mail in late summer. It had been a long time coming — 66 years, in fact — because Baby Girl Boylan, of course, was me. When I transitioned …

When I transitioned nearly 25 years ago, changing my birth certificate didn’t seem necessary: I’d been able to have all my other vital records altered, from my driver’s license to my Social Security card, without that step.

I’d also declined to get my birth certificate changed because it seemed like a rewriting of the historical record. To all of the onlookers on the day I arrived — my parents, the labor and delivery nurses at Bryn Mawr Hospital — the child they delivered appeared to be male. Everything else came later, as I gained consciousness, and clarity, about who I really was.

When I thought about it (if I thought about it), I wondered what a birth certificate is for. Is it a living document that can be amended in years to come, like the Constitution, as the person it belongs to gains agency and insight? Or is it a simple statement of long-past fact — like whether, on the day I was born, it was hot or cold?

But the threat of a second Trump presidency means that having my birth certificate reflect present reality has turned into a matter of grave importance. Quite frankly, whatever is on that document may in the not so distant future determine whether one can live one’s life in peace.

In the years since my transition, many states have formalized processes by which the gender on one’s birth certificate may be changed — while others have enacted laws to make such changes impossible. In August the Texas Department of State Health Services imposed a policy that blocks transgender people from making the change, even if they have a court order allowing them to do so. It was yet another salvo in the fight against trans rights and lives, an ongoing effort to render us invisible and to make our lives as difficult as possible.

For Trump and Harris, the Media Future Is Now

In 2015, Barack Obama submitted to interviews with three YouTube stars, one of whom was notable for eating cereal out of a bathtub. It was a moment that opened a window into the media landscape of the future, after the mainstream media as we have …

A year later Donald Trump won the White House, and there was a rush to find the sources of his victory in the darker reaches of the internet, in misinformation factories and troll farms. It was another window into the media future — but this time the future seemed dystopian, a realm of propaganda and manipulation.

In 2024, the media future doesn’t need to be seen through a glass darkly: For the younger generation of news consumers, it has basically arrived. But it isn’t embodied by cereal-eating YouTubers, Russian-funded disinformation operations or even the Silicon Valley-enforced progressive censorship that many conservatives feared four years ago.

Instead it’s embodied by the sex-and-relationships podcaster and the bro comedians who scored important interviews with Kamala Harris and Donald Trump this month — with the host of “Call Her Daddy,” Alex Cooper, tossing Harris questions about abortion and student loans, while the comics Andrew Schulz and Akaash Singh chatted with Trump about his nicknaming strategy on their show, “Flagrant.”

As a conservative with an interest in moral decline, I was familiar with “Call Her Daddy,” but I confess I had never heard of “Flagrant” before clips from the Trump interview started populating my social media feed. Which is par for the course for this campaign: The nominees and their running mates have consistently submitted to interviews with shows and personalities who were barely on my radar screen.

There’s an impulse to interpret these media arrivistes as reinventions of the prior media dispensation — to cast a big podcaster like Joe Rogan as a muscled Walter Cronkite for the online age, or to frame appearances on “Call Her Daddy” and “Flagrant” as base mobilization operations, akin to appearing on “The Rachel Maddow Show” or “Hannity.”

Allan Blye, 87, Dies; ‘Smothers Brothers’ Writer and ‘Super Dave’ Creator

In his wide-ranging career, he also helped write Elvis Presley’s comeback special and appeared on an early version of “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood.”

Allan Blye, a television comedy writer and producer who helped cement the Smothers Brothers’ reputation for irreverence in the late 1960s and later collaborated with Bob Einstein to create the hapless daredevil character Super Dave Osborne, died on Oct. 4 at his home in Palm Desert, Calif. He was 87.

His wife, Rita Blye, confirmed the death. She said he had been in hospice care for Parkinson’s disease.

Mr. Blye was a writer and singer on variety shows in Canada when he received a surprise call in 1967 from Tom Smothers asking him to join the writing staff of the series that he and his and his brother, Dick, would be hosting on CBS.

“I couldn’t believe it was Tom Smothers,” Mr. Blye said in an interview with the Television Academy in 2019. “I thought it was Rich Little doing an impression of Tom Smothers.”

Tom, left, and Dick Smothers on the set of “The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour” in 1967. Mr. Blye helped establish the show’s outspoken tone. Credit…CBS, via Getty Images

“The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour” was unlike any other variety show. The brothers were renowned as a comical folk-singing duo: Tom played the naïve, guitar-playing buffoon, and Dick, who played the double bass, was the wise straight man. They had creative control of the series, which emboldened them and their writers to be more outspoken as they addressed politics, the Vietnam War, religion and civil rights — and their forthrightness during a divisive era increasingly angered some viewers, CBS censors, some of the network’s affiliates and conservative groups.

Kim Jones Leaving Fendi

From fashion world rumor to reality, another industry shake-up.

The tectonic plates of the fashion world are shifting once again.

On Friday, LVMH confirmed that Kim Jones would be stepping down from his post as women’s wear designer at Fendi after four years, but that he would remain as artistic director of Dior men’s wear, a job he has held since 2018.

The news comes just over a week after LVMH, the world’s largest luxury group, announced that Hedi Slimane would be leaving Celine and would be replaced by Michael Rider. News that itself came after LVMH’s decision to sell Off-White, the brand founded by Virgil Abloh, to the American firm Bluestar Alliance, the owner of brands like Limited Too; buy the celebrity magazine Paris Match; and sign a 10-year deal with Formula One.

The Fendi announcement provides resolution to at least one of the maelstrom of rumors that have been swirling around the fashion world all summer, roiling the industry to such an extent that they practically overshadowed the clothes during the recent round of ready-to-wear shows.

For seasons, whispers had held that Mr. Jones was not long for Fendi, creating a cloud of doubt that hung over the brand no matter what was actually going on. And despite the against-the-odds nature of the task Mr. Jones had been given.

A celebrated men’s wear designer whose work for Dior — and Vuitton before that — had been transformative for both brands, Mr. Jones had never done women’s wear before taking on Fendi. And he wasn’t just trying his hand at a new discipline; he was splitting his time (and mind) between two different houses and stepping into the footsteps of Karl Lagerfeld, the mythic designer who had transformed both Fendi, where he worked for 54 years, and Chanel. Even if Mr. Lagerfeld’s work for Fendi was less definitive than his work for Chanel — other than creating the concept of “fun fur,” he had never really established a recognizable identity for the brand —, his profile was so high it obscured the creative confusion.

Looks from Mr. Jones’s spring 2023 Dior men’s collection.Credit…Yannis Vlamos

Credit…Yannis Vlamos

Salman Rushdie Will Testify at Trial of Man Accused of Stabbing Him

Hadi Matar is charged with attempted murder and assault in connection with an attack in western New York that left the author blind in one eye.

The author Salman Rushdie, who was stabbed and blinded in one eye two years ago by an attacker who rushed him onstage in front of hundreds of people, will testify at the man’s trial, prosecutors said on Friday.

The assailant, Hadi Matar, is charged with second-degree attempted murder and assault with a weapon in connection with the August 2022 attack, in Chautauqua County, in western New York. Prosecutors say the attack, during which Mr. Rushdie was stabbed about 10 times, was premeditated. Mr. Matar has pleaded not guilty.

The trial, which could last up to seven weeks, had been scheduled to begin on Tuesday. But on Friday, a state appeals court judge granted a defense request to delay the trial while the court considers a separate defense motion to move it out of Chautauqua County.

Nathaniel Barone, a public defender who is representing Mr. Matar, said it was important that the proceedings be moved “to preserve my client’s right to a fair trial,” which, he added, was impossible in Chautauqua County because of the publicity surrounding the case and the lack of a local Arab American community.

Mr. Rushdie, who spent years in hiding after Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini of Iran ordered Muslims to kill the author following the 1988 publication of his novel “The Satanic Verses,” will most likely testify during the first two days of the prosecution’s case, officials said on Friday. He is one of about 15 witnesses who are expected to testify, officials said.

Mr. Matar also faces federal terrorism charges, including providing “material support and resources” to Hezbollah, an Iran-backed militia in Lebanon. He and his family moved from Lebanon to the United States when he was a child. He was living in New Jersey and working at a clothing store at the time of the attack.

‘Pod Save America’ Won’t Quit

The hosts of the political podcast have outlasted the wave of anti-Trump #Resistance that made it popular. That’s where things get complicated.

It was past midnight on June 28, and four podcast hosts were wide awake in a hotel suite in Boston.

Hours earlier, Democrats around the nation had gone to bed stunned after President Biden fumbled through his debate against former President Donald J. Trump. Crowded around a table in a dimly lit room, the four men, hosts of the popular podcast “Pod Save America,” were trying to process what they had just seen — not only for themselves but also for their millions of listeners.

“It would be silly not to have this conversation,” one of the show’s hosts, Jon Favreau, said on the recording.

“A Brutally Honest Debate Recap,” the 892nd episode of the seven-year-old political podcast hosted by four former Obama administration officials, was a turning point in what Democrats were willing to say about Mr. Biden’s chances in the 2024 race.

For months, the hosts had acknowledged polling and reporting that showed Mr. Biden’s age was a sticking point for voters. Last year on the show, they hosted Dean Phillips, the Minnesota congressman who had wanted to challenge Mr. Biden for the Democratic nomination largely because of concerns about his age.

But like most mainstream, high-profile Democrats, the men of “Pod Save America” had stopped well short of suggesting Mr. Biden should step aside.

Before the post-debate episode aired, anyone discussing the possibility of replacing Mr. Biden was seen as a “bad Democrat,” said Alyssa Cass, a Democratic strategist who has been a guest on one of the hosts’ spinoff podcast, “Pollercoaster.” But coming from “Pod Save America,” the case for a new candidate wasn’t so easily dismissed.

Evan Gershkovich, U.S. Journalist Imprisoned in Russia, Will Publish a Memoir

The memoir, which will cover his time in prison and Russia’s move toward autocracy, will be published by Crown, an imprint of Penguin Random House.

Evan Gershkovich, a reporter for The Wall Street Journal who was imprisoned in Russia for more than a year, is writing a memoir about his time in prison, his five years living in Moscow and Russia’s slide toward autocracy.

The memoir will be published in the United States by Crown, an imprint of Penguin Random House, with a tentative publication date in 2026.

Paul Whitlatch, the editorial director for Crown, called the book “a testament to human resilience and a work of first-person reportage with few precedents in modern times.”

His statement continued, “During those sixteen months in Russian prisons, he never stopped being a reporter, even as he faced a reality few of us can imagine.”

Mr. Gershkovich, 32, was detained in March 2023 while on a reporting trip, becoming the first American journalist arrested in Russia on a spying charge since the end of the Cold War. His detention marked an escalation in President Vladimir V. Putin’s crackdown on independent media in Russia.

The Russian authorities accused Mr. Gershkovich, who had reported on Russia for The Journal since 2022, of being a spy for the U.S. government. The charges were vehemently denied by the White House, Mr. Gershkovich and The Journal, which said he was an accredited journalist doing his job. The U.S. government designated him as “wrongfully detained.”

Mr. Gershkovich was held in Moscow’s notorious Lefortovo Prison, where he spent 23 hours a day inside a small cell and communicated with his family and friends through letters.

After a closed-door trial on the fabricated espionage charges, Mr. Gershkovich was sentenced in July to 16 years in a high-security penal colony.

He was freed on Aug. 1 as part of a sweeping prisoner swap that involved seven countries and led to the release of 15 people imprisoned in Russia.

Mr. Gershkovich is the son of Soviet émigrés, Mikhail Gershkovich and Ella Milman, who both left the country in 1979 for the United States. They raised their children in New Jersey, speaking Russian at home and instilling in them an appreciation for their Russian heritage.

Mr. Gershkovich, who previously worked for The New York Times as a news assistant, moved to Russia in 2017 to work for The Moscow Times, later joining The Wall Street Journal as a foreign correspondent.

In addition to Crown, the memoir has been sold to the publishing house William Collins in Britain, and to Meulenhoff, a publisher in the Netherlands, according to Mr. Gershkovich’s agent, Adam Eaglin.

“Evan is an extraordinary journalist and writer,” Mr. Eaglin said. “He will offer a powerful new perspective on Russia and its relationship to the West in the 21st century.”

Funeral Home Sent a Grandmother’s Body to the Wrong Country, Suit Claims

Carmen Maldonado, 96, of Queens, died on May 18. She was supposed to be buried in Ecuador, but her body was sent to Guatemala, a lawsuit contends.

A Queens family filed a lawsuit this week against a funeral home, accusing it of sending their loved one’s body to the wrong country, according to court records.

The lawsuit, filed on Tuesday by Carlos Minchala and his siblings, says that the Rivera Funeral Home in Corona, N.Y., wrongly sent their mother, Carmen Maldonado, to Guatemala instead of Ecuador.

Ms. Maldonado, 96, died on May 18 in Queens. After a funeral service on May 22, her body was supposed to be sent to Ecuador for a second funeral and for burial, the lawsuit says.

But instead of being sent to Ecuador, the lawsuit says that Ms. Maldonado’s body was sent to Guatemala. Family members later learned that her body had been sent to the wrong country by watching a video they found on TikTok.

The video was a clip of a news report about a family in Guatemala that had received the remains of the wrong person. In the video, Leonor Valencia said she was expecting the remains of her husband, who had died in New York. Instead, Ms. Valencia said she had received the remains of Ms. Maldonado.

It was unclear how the body of Ms. Maldonado was sent to Guatemala. Ms. Valencia could not immediately be reached on Friday. It was not immediately clear where her husband’s body ended up.