American voters of different partisan stripes don't agree on much nowadays, but they can agree on this: most of them approve of US Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley.

A broad 63% of American voters approve of her job performance vs. only 17% who say they disapprove in a new Quinnipiac University poll.  Twenty percent had no opinion.  Her approval spans party lines: 75% of Republicans, 63% of independents and even 55% of Democrats say they approve of how she's handling her job.

Her support among Democrats is virtually identical to the share of Democrats who approve of Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (56%) and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (55%) in the same poll.

There are many versions of the story; this one comes from William Safire's New Political Dictionary.   A local candidate said:

"Why is it, Hymie, that your whole budget for posters and literature is for Governor Roosevelt, and nothing for the candidates on the local level?  I need to become better known, Roosevelt doesn't.  How about a few signs for me?"

Hymie did not answer directly.  "You ever watch the ferries come in from Staten Island?"  The candidate allowed as he had, and waited for Hymie's point.

"When that big ferry from Staten Island sails into the ferry slip, it never comes in strictly alone.  It drags in all the crap from the harbor behind it."   Hymie let the message sink in before adding, "FDR is our Staten Island ferry." (p. 346)

Isn't that a better metaphor than coattails?

Michelle Obama Rebukes Hillary Clinton’s Uncivil Advice for Liberals: Fear Is Not a Proper Motivator

Jones had noticed that his friend Smith had a happy marriage, so one day he asked Smith to tell him the secret.

"Well", Smith explained, "It's really very simple.  Several years ago, my wife and I came to an agreement; I would make the big decisions and she would make the small decisions.  For example, I decide what our strategy should be toward China, and how we should prevent Social Security and Medicare from going bankrupt, and she decides when it is time to buy a new car, and where little Johnny should go to school."

She still works in her office each day and hosts a weekly dinner and meeting on Wednesday nights at U.C.L.A. for graduate students and faculty, a tradition she started 33 years ago.

Which state has the best schools?  Traditional rankings, such as those in U.S. News, factor in school spending, write Stan Liebowitz and Matthew L. Kelly in Reason.  In their results-only rankings of education quality, based on National Assessment of Education Progress (NAEP) scores, Virginia is number one, with Massachusetts, almost always ranked first, in second place.  Florida, New Jersey and Texas round out the top five.  Here’s the table.

They also rate schools on efficiency:  Florida, Texas, Virginia, Arizona and Georgia get the most brains for the buck.

The fact that Hillary beat Donald by so many votes has tended to obscure how much the rest of the GOP beat him by and that they carried him to victory.

An estimated six feet of strands of DNA resides in each cell of the human body — a total of 67 billion miles if all the strands in the human body were unspooled and laid end to end.

Levitt & Sons built the community with an eye towards speed, efficiency, and cost-effective construction; these methods led to a production rate of 30 houses a day by July 1948.^[6]  They used pre-cut lumber and nails shipped from their own factories in Blue Lake, California, and built on concrete slabs, as they had done in a previous planned community in Norfolk, Virginia.  This necessitated negotiating a change in the building code, which prior to the building of this community, did not permit concrete slabs.

[The Manufactured Housing Institute’s National Communities Council] distinguishes among several types of factory-built housing: manufactured homes, modular homes, panelized homes, pre-cut homes, and mobile homes.

The detained Chinese head of Interpol, Meng Hongwei, is being investigated for alleged bribe-taking, Chinese authorities have announced.

Mr Meng was first reported missing in late September after travelling from Interpol HQ in France to China.

His wife has revealed that he sent her a text message with a knife emoji on the day he went missing.

Mr Meng is the latest high-profile target to be ensnared in China's sweeping anti-corruption campaign.

Almost no one in Illinois had more resources to devote to running for governor than J.B. Pritzker.  At 53, Pritzker is the billionaire scion of the state’s wealthiest family.  His sister, Penny, served as President Barack Obama’s commerce secretary.  The family name adorns the University of Chicago’s medical school, Northwestern University’s law school and the gleaming, Frank Gehry-designed band shell in Chicago’s Millennium Park, not to mention the country’s most prestigious prize for architecture.  Four of the dozen richest Illinoisans are Pritzkers, according to Forbes.  J.B. Pritzker’s share of the family fortune is estimated at $3.2 billion.

And yet when Pritzker started considering whether to challenge Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner in the aftermath of the 2016 election, he asked himself not only the questions that most would-be candidates do — Could he win?  How would running affect his wife and children?  His business? — but also a question most candidates never consider:  Was it even possible to fix the state he’d lead?

Why do KGB agents make the best taxi drivers?

Because as soon as you tell them your name, they know where you are going.