Atlantic Monthly Contributors's Blog, page 921

A Secret Plea for Help from Some Poor National Weather Service Forecaster

Like prisoners speaking in code, the National Weather Service hid a plea in one of their routine reports. If you take the first letter of every sentence in this official forecast, it spells out: Please Pay Us. 

The folks there are working without pay, or knowledge when they'll be paid. The Washington Post reports that this coded message is actually one of two forecasts the Weather Service issued. Here's that forecast without the plea for pay: 

"While National Weather Service employees are not sure when they will get paid, they say they will continue to work through the shutdown to keep all of us safe," reported WTKR-TV, which has a good explainer on why these government employees are being asked to work without pay. It isn't clear whether this desperate plea can change that.

       

The NSA Tried to Undermine Online Anonymity, and Failed

Yet another report on NSA activity from The Guardian indicates that the agency has tried repeatedly to unmask users of Tor, a system for anonymizing your identity online. For users of the system, there is good news: the agency has been unsuccessful.

Before going too far, it's important to understand what Tor does. The NSA created this graphic to help explain.

[image error]

The "terrorist," at left, is playing the role of a user. When he goes online, his requests for information are routed through a number of other servers before arriving at their destination. It's the online equivalent of trying to shake someone who's following you by running into stores and leaving out the back door. Except with a lot more stores and a lot more doors. In our guide to hiding from the NSA, we explained how Tor works (and linked to its toolset), noting that the size and distribution of how it routes information makes it very hard to work backward and see where someone started. In essence, you'd need to in advance know how everyone moved through every server — track the foot traffic of every store in a very, very big city — to figure that out. (The Washington Post has a good explainer on this whole thing.)

This is why Tor frustrates the NSA so much. The slideshow from which that image above is taken is called "Tor Stinks," which is partly a joke about how Tor used to be short for "The Onion Router" and is partly corny office humor. Using information found in that and another presentation provided by Edward Snowden, The Guardian explains what the NSA hoped to do.

The proof-of-concept attack demonstrated in the documents would rely on the NSA's cable-tapping operation, and the agency secretly operating computers, or 'nodes', in the Tor system. However, one presentation stated that the success of this technique was "negligible" because the NSA has "access to very few nodes" and that it is "difficult to combine meaningfully with passive Sigint". …

Other efforts mounted by the agencies include attempting to direct traffic toward NSA-operated servers, or attacking other software used by Tor users. One presentation, titled 'Tor: Overview of Existing Techniques', also refers to making efforts to "shape", or influence, the future development of Tor, in conjunction with GCHQ.

So that's a few things. One, they tried an attack that was based on de-anonymizing users — the let's-figure-out-everyone-in-every-store-retroactively approach. Then they tried including their own servers in the cloud, tried undermining the Tor software (available here), and tried to influence how Tor is developed in the future. That last strategy mirrors how the NSA weakened encryption standards, apparently successfully.

Over at its Tumblr, the Director of National Intelligence offers his thoughts on the report. "The articles fail to mention that the Intelligence Community is only interested in communication related to valid foreign intelligence and counterintelligence purposes," he writes, "and that we operate within a strict legal framework that prohibits accessing information related to the innocent online activities of US citizens."

One amusing point to emerge from the new reports is that the NSA, in another of its presentations, reproduces an instructional slideshow from the Electronic Frontier Foundation. The EFF responded to that by pointing out that the NSA's use violated the organization's Creative Commons license.

It's great even NSA is using our Tor explainer. But they're violating our CC license by classifying it Top Secret. https://t.co/m1B2kzsr0W

— EFF (@EFF) October 4, 2013

JUST KIDDING: @NSA you're free to use our materials for commentary and criticism just like everyone else. Hooray for fair use.

— EFF (@EFF) October 4, 2013

In short, then, the new Guardian story is this: The NSA considers the anonymity provided by Tor to be a threat, and is actively trying to figure out how it can engineer a way to track people's activity online. As of the point at which its presentations were created, it hadn't done so.

This new NSA story is actually good news: NSA has failed to crack Tor. It still works and is still the best way to provide anonymity online.

— Trevor Timm (@trevortimm) October 4, 2013

Photo: NSA chief Keith Alexander. (AP)

       

Halle Berry Will Become a TV Star

Today in show business news: Halle Berry joins the migration to television, HBO has a promising new show in the works, and a look at a horrible new Frankenstein movie.

Another movie star has decided to slum it in the wonderful world of television. Halle Berry has signed on to star in a thirteen-episode straight-to-series show called Extant. It's from Steven Spielberg and is about "an astronaut who returns home from a year-long solo mission in space and tries to reconnect with her husband and son in their everyday life. Her experiences in space and home lead to events that ultimately will change the course of human history." Ah, OK. Sure. The show will be on CBS, which showed with Under the Dome that they know how to start a sci-fi miniseries well and then end it terribly but not really end it actually because they want a second season of it. Halle, why aren't you doing cable? Still, welcome. You're gonna fit in just fine. [Deadline]

Over on cable, Topher Grace and Sarah Silverman have signed on to star in an HBO pilot. It's called People in New Jersey and it's about animals who live in Oregon. No! No that's not what it's about! It's about people, humans, who live in New Jersey. Specifically: "Carl Levin (Grace) is an affable locksmith who has a definite idea of how things and people should be and when the world doesn’t conform to his vision, he resists mightily. His sister Melanie (Silverman) is a former management consultant and a closet optimist who now works part-time at a department store. Their opinionated widowed mother Rachel (Lupone) focuses a lot of her energy on worrying about her children and why neither has settled down in a relationship." Oh, that "Lupone" in there is none other than Patti Ann LuPone, star of stage and sometimes screen but mostly stage. The show is going to be produced by Lorne Michaels, directed by Paul Feig, and written by Bruce Eric Kaplan, who has written for Girls and Six Feet Under and is the popular New Yorker cartoonist who signs his cartoons with "BEK." Wow! That is quite an assemblage of talented people. This should be good? How could this not be good? I mean, Topher Grace makes me a little nervous, but beyond that, yes. Approved. Would like to see. [Deadline]

Kathryn Hahn has taken a funny supporting role in Brad Bird's mysterious sci-fi thriller Tomorrowland, opposite George Clooney. At this point saying that Kathryn Hahn has taken a funny supporting role in something is like reporting that the sun has risen, but there it is anyway. Her character's name is Ursula. That's new at least, I think. [The Hollywood Reporter]

Here's a second trailer for Out of the Furnace, the blue collar workin' men thriller starring Christian Bale, Casey Affleck, and Woodrow Harrelson. Looks nice and gritty, just like Christian Bale likes it.

And here is a trailer for a movie called I, Frankenstein which I really hope is some sort of viral marketing joke thing because I'd really rather not think that Aaron Eckhart's career is going this badly. Because good lord. Also, Bill Nighy? Have you no shame? How many houses in the Lake District does one man need?

       

The Meanest Things Republicans Have Said About Republicans This Shutdown

It's not just the American public that blames Republicans for causing the shutdown, as polls have shown. Fellow Republicans, too, have turned on their own party, and they are doing so with some brutal takedowns usually reserved for Democrats.

As the government shutdown goes into its fourth day and threatens to bleed into a debt ceiling crisis, National Journal reported on Thursday that the Republican Party is more united than ever in its trust of Speaker John Boehner. And yet many members of Congress had felt free to express disunity — many times on the record, and even on camera. These callouts can be broken up into three key groups: conservatives angry at congressional Republicans, those angry at the hardline anti-Obamacare caucus, and those just mad at Texas Sen. Ted Cruz.

Anger target: All Washington Republicans Sen. John McCain has been his typical maverick self and criticized the Republican shutdown plan as "not rational" and "unnecessary." Rep. Jason Chaffetz fired back at those seemingly mild criticisms with a straight ad hominem attack. “I don’t care what John McCain thinks!” Chaffetz said to NBC’s Andrea Mitchell. “Andrea, I don’t care what John McCain thinks!” The 2008 election was a long time ago, it seems. Gov. Chris Christie took aim at the whole legislative branch, which he said is not "built to lead and take risks. What they’re built to do is say 'How many votes do we have?' and 'How many do we need?' and 'Do I have to give my vote now or can I hold back a little bit and wait to see which way the wind is blowing?'" Christie also added an implicit criticism in a political advertisement: "Compromise is not a dirty word." Gov. Bobby Jindal is tired of congressional Republicans soiling the party's name. "As governors, we have outsourced the Republican brand to D.C., and it’s time to stop that," he said. Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam said that the effort to connect Obamacare to funding the government takes away from attempts to revise the law. “This is a huge distraction,” he said in an interview with The New York Times . “Instead of that being the conversation, we’re talking about the government shutdown, and the average citizen can’t help but say the Republican Congress isn’t helping.” North Carolina Sen. Richard Burr said of shutting down the government over Obamacare, "I think it’s the dumbest idea I’ve ever heard."  Arizona Gov. Janet Brewer criticized both Republicans and Democrats for the shutdown: "I think it’s all of their faults. They’re all responsible." Sen. Richard Shelby called the plan "foolish." Conservative pundit David Frum gave one of the more scathing criticisms of the party as a whole at The Daily Beast : "It stumbles into fights it cannot win, gets mad, and then in its anger lurches into yet another fight that ends in yet another loss," he wrote. Anger target: The defund-Obamacare caucus California Rep. Devin Nunes termed the deal-averse section of the party "lemmings with suicide vests" earlier this week. "It’s kind of an insult to lemmings to call them lemmings, so they’d have to be more than just a lemming, because jumping to your death is not enough," he said. Nunes repeated his assertion that this "lemming caucus" was to blame on CNN on Thursday. "It's guys who meet privately. They're always conspiring. It's mostly just about power. And it's just gotten us nowhere," Nunes said. An anonymous House Republican thinks Boehner is being held at the whims of this small group. "I've been trying to figure this out," the congressperson said to the Washington Examiner. "It seems to me that Boehner could do whatever he wants with Democrats on the floor and still get about 180 or 190 of us. So why doesn't he do that?" Conservative columnist Charles Krauthammer of The Washington Post also called the hardline group a "suicide caucus." Former Bush spokesperson Nicolle Wallace compared this caucus to a two-year old child attempting to cross the street, in need of a parent to guide them. "When Republicans run into the street despite the fact there’s a flashing red light, they’re gonna get hit by the cars and killed." Anger target: Ted Cruz

For the past few weeks, much criticisms has been lobbied at Sen. Ted Cruz, who has taken the reins of the defund-Obamacare-or-face-shutdown caucus, particularly after his 21-hour faux-buster last week.

New York Rep. Peter King called Cruz a "fraud" and said he is utilizing a "form of governmental terrorism," to The New York Times. And in case you didn't get the hint, King said what he really thought to Yahoo News's Chris Moody:

NY GOP Rep. Peter King on who would be at fault for shutdown: "Ted Cruz should be blamed and any anybody that follows him."

— Chris Moody (@Chris_Moody) September 30, 2013

Tennessee Sen. Bob Corker took a shot at Cruz's education at Princeton and Harvard Law School for waging a plan without any chance of success.

I didn’t go to Harvard or Princeton, but I can count -- the defunding box canyon is a tactic that will fail and weaken our position. –BC

— Senator Bob Corker (@SenBobCorker) September 19, 2013

Anti-tax activist Grover Norquist added Cruz into the toddler-in-traffic analogy. "Cruz said he would deliver the votes and he didn’t deliver any Democratic votes. He pushed House Republicans into traffic and wandered away," Norquist told The Washington Post . Anonymous Republican senators took shots at Cruz after a bumbling meeting in which he couldn't lay out a plan to success for the shutdown move. As one senator told Politico:

“It was very evident to everyone in the room that Cruz doesn’t have a strategy – he never had a strategy, and could never answer a question about what the end-game was,” said one senator who attended the meeting. “I just wish the 35 House members that have bought the snake oil that was sold could witness what was witnessed today at lunch.”

New Hampshire Sen. Kelly Ayotte "was especially furious" at Cruz in a private meeting for attacks from a Cruz-supporting group targeting fellow Republicans. Cruz refused to rebuke the group, which started a chain reaction of criticisms from Senate Republicans Ron Johnson, Dan Coats and minority leader Mitch McConnell. “It just started a lynch mob,” a senator present told The New York Times.

So there you have it, Ted Cruz is a fraudulent snake oil salesman who pushes toddlers into traffic, the leader of a suicidal pack of lemmings, part of a foolish House Republican plan lurching from crisis to crisis. That is, if you take Republicans at their word.

       

Sarah Palin Is Wrong About the Constitution

Since the debate over the budget began, a common argument from conservatives — renewed today by Sarah Palin, the former governor of Alaska — suggests that only the House has the right to decide what the budget should look like. This is obviously incorrect and easily corrected.

Palin jumps into the fray in her most recent Facebook exposition. "Gee Whiz," she writes, "If Even Little Ol' Me Understands U.S. Government 101 but MSM Doesn't…" Then she links to an essay by Thomas Sowell, senior fellow at the conservative Hoover Foundation. It is titled, "Democrats Chose the Shutdown," and outlines a little of the ol' U.S. Government 101.

You can check the Constitution of the United States. All spending bills must originate in the House of Representatives, which means that congressmen there have a right to decide whether or not they want to spend money on a particular government activity. ...

[T]he whole point of having a division of powers within the federal government is that each branch can decide independently what it wants to do or not do, regardless of what the other branches do, when exercising the powers specifically granted to that branch by the Constitution.

A related Examiner.com post, titled "Obamacare can be defunded without Senate approval," has gone viral among some conservatives. It doesn't take a lot to understand why this argument is compelling to Republicans. The House is the one part of the legislative branch that the party controls, so an argument that the Senate only has veto power over what the House wants to do with money is compelling. Ergo, "Democrats chose the shutdown," because the branch of Congress that's allowed to decide how to spend had that decision rejected.

It also doesn't take a lot to see why this is wrong. Sowell's essay appeared at the National Review's website. As did two essays from Matthew Franck, pointing out that Sowell's thesis (as conveyed by another conservative writer) is entirely wrong, in letter and spirit. Here's the most recent, bearing the evocative title, "Yet Again on the Origination Clause." Franck's argument, in its shortest form: The House isn't given the power to originate spending bills and, even if it were, it's only in consensus with the Senate.

Don't believe us? Well, here is the actual handwritten language from the Constitution. (It's one line line on the parchment, so we pieced it together, below.) Article I, Section 7.

[image error]

All bills for raising Revenue shall originate in the House of Representatives; but the Senate may propose or concur with amendments as on other Bills.

As Franck notes, the resolutions under contention by Congress are not bills to raise revenue, they are measures to spend it. This isn't a tax bill, it's a how-do-we-spend-the-money-we've-got-bill. In another essay on the same subject, Franck's exasperation shows through: "I don’t see how [the writer] can quote the clause, which refers to 'All bills for raising Revenue,' and immediately thereafter say that it 'applies to all spending legislation.'" Which is what Sowell does, less egregiously. "You can check the Constitution of the United States," he writes. "All spending bills must originate in the House of Representatives …" We checked. That's not what it says.

Then there's the second part. Franck:

As for claim B, the clause continues after a semicolon: “but the Senate may propose or concur with Amendments as on other Bills.” So even if [the writer] were right and I wrong about claim A … it would nevertheless be constitutionally permissible for the Senate, when it “goes second” on consideration of a bill, to add new spending by way of amendment.

The Senate may propose or concur with amendments! That is literally exactly what the Constitution says. And it's reinforced in practice; the House and Senate are constantly amending and changing and eliminating parts of all sorts of legislation, including legislation on taxes. On January 1 of this year, the debate over extending the tax cuts initiated by President Bush passed the House after being amended by the Senate. That is how it works.

Point being: Sarah Palin is wrong. Whoever was screening students to see if they were ready for Constitution 101 fell down on the job.

       

How Samuel Clemens Actually Became Mark Twain: He Stole a Bad Joke

It only took us a century and a half, but we may have finally learned the real source of Samuel Clemens' ubiquitously recognizable nom de plume: he stole it from a humor journal so lame that he quickly invented a cooler story to pass off as true. But he wouldn't have gotten away with such a trick today.

The theory is according to a find by a Texas book dealer and scholar, who managed to stumble upon what seems to be the first recorded appearance of the name "Mark Twain"—in a humor journal called Vanity Fair (no, not the contemporary magazine) two years before Samuel Clemens adopted it. Thankfully, Austin's Kevin Mac Donnell was sharp enough to recognize the significance of his find, though he was really only poking around Google Books and modestly told the Los Angeles Review of Books that anyone could have done the same:

“I wasn’t looking for what I found. I stumbled across it,” Mac Donnell said in a phone interview. With a flair for folksy humor that made Twain famous, he also added that “you could train a cat to do what I did. You could train a garden slug to do what I did, but the cat would be quicker.”

[image error]Scholars have never been clear on the source of Twain's pseudonym, but stories emerged during his lifetime. One famously
    

Teen Pages Are Among the Overworked Shutdown Staff on Capitol Hill

You need a thick skin to work for a member of Congress during the shutdown. Among the indignities congressional staffers face is that while many have been deemed "nonessential" and furloughed like 800,000 other federal workers during the shutdown, some high school juniors remain at work. The 30 blue-blazered Senate pages were apparently deemed essential workers, and have remained on the Senate floor helping elected officials with their correspondence. So have some interns — though at least one congressman, Texas Rep. Blake Farenthold, is making his intern do the vacuuming. During the Capitol Hill shooting on Thursday, "somebody pounded on the door," Farenthold told CNN, "and it was our intern with a vacuum cleaner."

The staffers right under the lawmakers who caused the shutdown are the ones picking up the slack, and of course, a lot of staffers are sitting home without pay. Furloughed staffers are approaching their October 18 payday with little hope of seeing a check that day. But it's not because their bosses don't understand how important it is to get a regular paycheck. Republican Rep. Renee Ellmers told local news on Friday morning, "I need my paycheck. That's the bottom line." (CNN has a tally of lawmakers who plan to donate their paychecks from the shutdown.) 

One glimmer of hope: the White House endorsed a House bill this afternoon that guarantees federal workers will receive back pay when the shutdown ends. For those teenage pages, it won't be much. The 16-year-old employees are paid on the basis of an annual salary of $21,033 depending on how many weeks they work, which ends up being about minimum wage. The Sargeant-at-Arms office, which employs and pays the pages, could not comment on the pages' current workload. As for the interns, barely a third who work for senators are paid.

And let's not forget that one of the central debates in the shutdown has been whether or not Hill staffers should receive subsidies for their health care — Sen. David Vitter's proposed amendment would strip lawmakers and staff of those subsidies, resulting in what's essentially a big pay cut for staff.

To make up for furloughed staff, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney is answering his own phone, and so are some senators. Most of President Obama's senior advisers are going without their assistants. One official was let go before her big moment — Jessica Santillo, the White House spokeswoman for Obamacare media requests, was put on furlough as the insurance exchanges opened. 

Still, many federal workers are currently protesting the shutdown outside Capitol Hill. Natasha Rozier, an employee at the Census Bureau, spoke at the rally, stating that she had to tell her 5-year-old daughter why her parents aren't working this week:

With no money, Mommy is not able to take you to the places that you enjoy the most such as Chuck E. Cheese, going to the movies, going out to eat or even buying you books. This broke my heart.

And yet, the shutdown continues. If you see a federal worker — or a high school kid in a blue blazer — be nice.  

       

Reports: Man Set Himself on Fire at the National Mall

[image error]A man was on fire at the National Mall on Friday afternoon just before 4:30 p.m., according to multiple witnesses and authorities speaking to the media. The incident was at 7th and Jefferson, and the person at the center of the incident is reportedly alive and breathing, but with "life threatening" injuries. Many early reports, some citing witnesses, say that the man set himself on fire, but that is unconfirmed at this time. We'll add more as it comes in on this developing story. 

The Associated Press spoke to a witness who described the following series of events, not yet confirmed by authorities: 

 Katy Scheflen says she was walking along the Mall when she saw a man by himself pick up a can of gasoline and empty its contents on his head before setting himself ablaze.

She says passing joggers took off their shirts to help douse the flames.

Unnamed witnesses speaking to NBC Washington had similar accounts. The man was reportedly airlifted from the scene. A spokesperson for the Metropolitan Police told the Washington City Paper that "we have a report of a man on fire," adding, "he is conscious and breathing. MPD is on the scene." The Fire Department described the man's injuries to the Washington Post as "life threatening," adding that there was "no indication on our end of what caused the fire, the only thing we can pretty much comment on is we were dispatched to the call and responded to it." 

 

There were a number of partial witnesses to the incident: 

DC police and passerby help man who set himself on fire on the Mall this afternoon pic.twitter.com/XTZc6WaaA2

— Vanessa Sink (@LiveMusicGirl) October 4, 2013

Just witnessed the craziest thing ever... a man set himself on fire and danced down the Mall. #horrifying

— Vanessa Sink (@LiveMusicGirl) October 4, 2013

My mom was near the guy who lit himself on fire on the Mall. Says these guys put it out with their shirts pic.twitter.com/xJToYEurqI

— Justin Sink (@JTSTheHill) October 4, 2013

Holy shit, someone just lit himself on fire in the middle of the National Mall pic.twitter.com/qzGgl9OuUo

— Ellie Hess (@Smellie03) October 4, 2013

Other early reports cited information from the Metro police:

RT @Chris_Moody: DC Police tell me that the man who was on fire on the National Mall is conscious and breathing. Call came in at 4:24 PM.

— Benjy Sarlin (@BenjySarlin) October 4, 2013

Park Police are lead agency on National Mall scene.

— Benjamin R. Freed (@brfreed) October 4, 2013

Photos: AP.

       

The Fastest-Running Robot Is Proof Devil Magic Exists

We realize there's only so much time one can spend in a day watching new trailers, viral video clips, and shaky cellphone footage of people arguing on live television. This is why, every day, The Atlantic Wire highlights the videos that truly earn your five minutes (or less) of attention. Today:

This is the fastest running robot. It looks like a gimpy skinned animal. It is supremely terrifying and makes me scared for the future of technology and humanity itself: 

Today, we were introduced to the full grossness of the chicken nugget. We can't tell if that's any more or less appetizing than the fictional chuggable chicken from Jimmy Kimmel:

This is a white lion cub. She doesn't know how to roar. She does know how to be adorable. 

What's the saying? Some days you're the dog ... some days you're the broadcast news reporter? Either way, we're outta here. Have a great weekend. 

       

Why Ruth Bader Ginsburg Isn't Planning a Retirement Before 2016

Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg has dropped another hint that she's not planning a strategic, pre-2016 retirement: The justice believes that a Democrat will succeed President Obama when his second term ends. "I think it’s going to be another Democratic president," Ginsburg told The Washington Post in a lengthy profile, "the Democrats do fine in presidential elections; their problem is they can't get out the vote in the midterm elections.”

[image error]Ginsburg is one of the court's two older liberal-leaning justices, on a court teetering on the edge of leaning conservative. Given her history of cancer (she's had it twice), and her age (she's 80), some liberals have framed the prospect of a post-Obama Ginsburg retirement as an invitation to the Supreme Court apocalypse. But we've been over this before: Ruth Bader Ginsburg will not resign until she's good and ready to resign, so stop telling her what to do. Her decision, she's said repeatedly, will be determined by her ability to do her job well, and not by who's currently in the White House. Maybe she'll resign before 2016. Maybe not. Who knows? The only possible answer is Ruth Bader Ginsburg herself. Plus, Ginsburg is, in fact, irreplaceable on God's green earth, as evidenced by the rest of the Washington Post's completely delightful profile. Here are some highlights: 

All the other liberal justices wanna be her: "'We all laugh about how fast she is. And her work is just awesomely good,' said Elena Kagan, who, at 53, is the court’s newest and youngest justice. 'In my book, she’s the consummate judicial craftsman, and I learn something from her every time we sit.'"

She can't cook: "She is so unused to the kitchen that when Marty was sick, a friend who brought her a pan of pasta had to warn her not to put metal in the microwave." 

One of her 80-something friends regularly does splits at parties: The hostess, Winnie Klotz, a former dancer and for decades the photographer for the Metropolitan Opera, startles the gathering by grabbing her 84-year-old ankle and lifting it straight above her 84-year-old head. “Do I have your attention?” she asks. Apparently unsatisfied with the response, she slides into a split on the floor of Harry’s Roadhouse. Ginsburg says later: “She does that all the time.”

She loves the opera: "At night, there is always opera, which Ginsburg considers “the perfect art form,” and on this night, it is one that brings together Ginsburg’s worlds of law and culture." In the profile, RGB, who recently performed the first same-sex marriage of any Supreme Court justice, ever, was seeing Oscar, about Oscar Wilde's imprisonment on charges of “gross indecency.” There's even a new opera about her: Scalia/Ginsburg. Later, the post notes that "Ginsburg has often said she would have preferred life as a diva," if only she had the singing chops. 

Fashion: "She slips into the grand, open-air opera house through a side entrance, dressed in an elegant black jacket appliqued with white silk leaves. A tiny figure, hair as always pulled straight back and secured with a scrunchie, she is dwarfed by her security entourage." The '90s are back. Scrunchies forever. RBG is a tastemaker. 

Even Strom Thurmond liked her: "her key is on a plastic keychain with the words, 'With best wishes, Strom Thurmond.' The former segregationist and Dixiecrat from South Carolina was one of the 96 [Senators who voted her into office]." 

So does Justice Scalia: "She has a public image of being dour, and, you know, she’s not like that. ... I mean, she can be tough; you don’t push her, especially on those issues she cares a lot about. But she’s otherwise a very gentle, likable and sunny person.” 

Read the whole profile at the Post. 

(photo: AP)