I’m Back and Yes, There’s a Show Today

Plus, Jane Austen takes on the Prince of Wales

Good Morning:

I’m back in ‘murica, having missed the green slime and the cage fighting and the Kennedy Center drama too much to stay away any longer. The show will take place at its regular time and place today—and hereafter.

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Today’s #BeastOfTheDay is the giraffe. Not a giraffe from Kenya, but a giraffe that has been having its very own adventure in Texas. Here she is, spotted from a helicopter:

The New York Times reports:

When news emerged this week that a giraffe had escaped a private game reserve and was on the loose in Texas’ Hill Country, there were jokes, photoshops and memes.

But there was also concern. How would the giraffe, named Gracie, fare unsupervised? As roughly two weeks passed without verified sightings, that concerned deepened.

Good news finally came on Friday: Gracie was spotted alive just four miles from the ranch. Plans are now underway to try to bring her back home…

Gracie escaped after walking to a corner of the property to reach up and eat from tree limbs, Mr. Jones said previously. She came down on the wrong side of a gate and wandered off…

Sheriff Nathan T. Johnson of Real County told CBS Austin that the giraffe had been found “fat and happy.”

“She had a catch-me-if-you-can-sucker’s attitude,” he said.

In honor of today’s Beast, cultivate a catch-me-if-you-can-suckers attitude—but spell it correctly.

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Tell Me Something Interesting

I—EJ Wittes—took the opportunity of my father’s absence to reread all of Jane Austen’s novels in the order of their composition. Why? Because I have joy and whimsy in my soul, obviously. Don’t ask stupid questions.

I have, of course, found myself drawn down innumerable research rabbit-holes in the process, covering everything from the history of dueling codes to varying definitions of the word “gypsy,” and some of my results will no doubt make their way into TMSI pieces in the future. For today, however, I want to share a story about Jane Austen herself.

Let’s start out by saying that Jane Austen absolutely loathed the Prince Regent, the future George IV. She said so herself, repeatedly. For instance, in an 1813 letter discussing a scandal surrounding the Regent’s wife, she wrote: “I suppose all the World is sitting in Judgement upon the Princess of Wales’s letter. Poor Woman. I shall support her as long as I can because she is a Woman and because I hate her Husband.”

Unfortunately for Austen, the Prince Regent was a fan.