We had a close encounter with a weak tropical system this week. You may have heard of Big Bertha-the huge cannon deployed by the Germans during the Great War-this system was Little Bertha. We had only nuisance rain in New Orleans because the wet side was over the Gulf. It was a close call turned nothing burger.

Once Bertha blew by, the heat returned. Summers are 2-3 degrees hotter in New Orleans that they used to be. Does that qualify as climate change trivia? Discuss amongst yourselves. I’m just glad the storm bombed and we never lost power.

The featured image comes from Max Ernst’s American period. The surrealist genius was an odd fit in the Southwest but he did some interesting work while exiled there. Ernst was an artist of many styles, which is one reason that I’m such an admirer. Weird art suits me and Max was the ultimate weird artist. That’s good weird, not weird weird. I’ll leave the bad weird to MAGA.

This week’s theme song continues our summer theme. It was written in 1934 by George Gershwin, Ira Gershwin, Dorothy Heyward, and DuBose Heyward for their jazz opera Porgy & Bess. It evokes the heat and slow pace of summer as well as any song ever written.

We have two versions of Summertime for your listening pleasure: Sarah Vaughan and Oscar Peterson.

Have I told you lately how much I love Oscar Peterson?

I went on about TS Bertha at the top of the post. I could have called it Minor Bertha:

I hope Elmo didn’t mind his first name. It’s almost as bad as Elmore or Elmer. I’ll skip the glue jokes and move on.

Our second act goes all historical on your asses. We begin with a brilliant piece about Team MAGA’s attack on American history.

Smithsonian Blues: David Blight is a Yale historian and frequent guest on The Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell. He’s written a swell op-ed for the NYT about the Trump regime’s attempt to launder our history.

Here’s one of several money quotes from Blight:

When lies by smiling propagandists become official truths advanced by those who control government budgets, democratic culture dies. It is time, before it is too late, for Congress and the people to stand up to this attack on how we are to know and interpret our history. Defend the Smithsonian or lose it.”

Yeah you right, Professor Blight.

We’ll let Don Van Vliet DBA Captain Beefheart sing us out of this segment:

The Rosenberg Boys: Alert readers have surely noticed that I’m a history buff. I’m particularly interested in the early days of the Cold War and the entirety of the second Red Scare. One of the biggest stories of that era was the Rosenberg spy case, which was Roy Cohn’s introduction to the world. Oy, just oy.

I believe that Julius Rosenberg was a guilty of being an atomic spy but that Ethel Rosenberg’s involvement was peripheral. I think neither of them should have been executed. Of course, I don’t think anyone should be executed but the sentence was extra egregious in the Rosenberg’s case.

The Atlantic’s Amy Weiss-Meyer wrote an excellent profile of the brothers Rosenberg, Robby and Michael also known as the Meeropol brothers after their adoptive father Abel Meeropol. As Lewis Allen, Abel was a noted lefty songwriter. This is his best known tune:

I was, however, surprised that the Atlantic piece didn’t mention the fine documentary Heir To An Execution that was, uh, executed by Michael’s daughter Ivy Meeropol. Oh well, what the hell.

The last word of our second act goes to Peggy Lee with another fruity song written by Ivy’s adoptive grandad:

We begin our third act with our favorite stolen feature.

Separated At Birth Casting Edition: My countryman Michael Chiklis played Curly Howard in a mediocre 2000 Three Stooges biopic.

Chiklis was the best thing about the movie. I’m not just saying that because he’s Greek but it didn’t hurt, unlike this:

Your Basic Basie: A seasonal song from Bill Basie and his big band.

Have I told you lately how much I love Count Basie?

The Best Of TCM: Dancing Lady has nothing to do with today’s theme but it had a cast that included Gable, Crawford, Astaire, and the aforementioned Three Stooges. This TCM segment deals with cuts to the film by censors.

I feel a Bee Gees earworm coming on, YEAH:

Classic Movie Trailer: All this Stooges talk has me in the mood for comedy. Duck Soup is a genuinely bizarre movie that could even be called surrealistic. Max Ernst’s opinion of the movie is unknown.

Grading Time: I give Duck Soup 4 stars and an Adrastos grade of A. It’s a stone cold classic.

Saturday GIF Horse: See the Grouchos run. Run, Grouchos, run.

You say Groucho; I say Gaucho. Let’s play this Steely Dan tune:

Toon Time: My motto for this segment is, when in doubt look for Luckovich:

— Mike Luckovich (@mluckovich.bsky.social) 2026-07-22T17:30:56.204Z

Let’s close down this virtual honky tonk with some more music.

Saturday Closer: We opened with Tropical Storm Bertha, let’s close with a double dose of the classic Garcia-Hunter tune, Bertha.

That’s all for this week. The last word goes to Harpo Marx and Harry Truman. Did Harpo hand his leg to Harry?