Yesterday, the filing period for the New Hampshire primary began, which means candidates can now secure a place on the February ballot. But one important prediction of electoral success happens long before voters get to the polls. Today, the invisible endorsement primary. Then, climbing conditions can get rough at twenty three thousand feet, but as one climber tells us, human waste is the real problem when scaling Everest.
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The Invisible Primary
Although New Hampshire’s First in the Nation Primary is still months away, the invisible primary is in full swing, and many votes have already been cast – by endorsements. Just how important are these political endorsements? And who is leading the invisible primary? Well, Aaron Bycoffe is meticulously tracking the political endorsements of each presidential candidate for FiveThirtyEight, so he had some ideas for us.
Jacques Brel Is Alive and Well in Keene
In 1967, at the height of his success, one of the world's great singer songwriters, Jacques Brel, stopped singing. The following year, two New Yorkers put together a musical revue of Brel's work to remind the world that even though the great "chanteur" had retired - he was not dead.
Early reviews of the show - which premiered at the Village Gate in Greenwich Village in 1968 - were overwhelming terrible and the show's creators, Eric Blau and Mort Shuman nearly shut it down. But their main backer, Hank Hoffman, loved the show too much to let it die - and 47 years later Jacques Brel is Alive and Well and Living in Paris the musical is itself alive and well.
As Word of Mouth's Sean Hurley tells us, the show is coming for two nights only (November 8 & 9) to Fireworks in Keene, New Hampshire - a restaurant owned by Matt Blau, son of the show's co-creator and star.
Cleaning Up Everest
Climber Brent Bishop is on a tear about the decades worth of human feces left behind on the mountain considered to be the roof of the world. In an article for Outside online he asks, has Mount Everest reached peak poop?
Selling the Sizzle
Marketing is often about selling the experience that surrounds a product, as much as selling the product itself – as when Chili’s began selling the “sizzle” of their fajitas. Roman Mars is host of the podcast 99% Invisible, and he brought us this story.
You can listen to this story again at PRX.org.
Bloodletting Is Still Happening
Erika Engelhaupt is online science editor for National Geographic, where she wrote about the contemporary practice of bloodletting.
