Five Questions With Ronald H. Balson

Who was the first tortured poet? Maybe the ancient Egyptian who wrote, sometime in the 15th century BCE, “My beloved stirs my heart with his voice. He causes illness to seize me…. My heart is smitten.” Maybe the poet Catullus, whose heartbreaks lit up ancient Rome: “I hate and love,” he explained in Latin, “and it’s excruciating,” or (depending on the translator) “it crucifies me.” Petrarch’s sonnets, in 14th century Italy, complained that love both scorched and chilled.

Breaking up is hard to do, but music may just make getting over your ex a little easier. The best breakup songs provide a source of comfort to those dealing with the many stages of heartbreak. But just as no breakup is exactly the same, the same can be said of breakup songs.

8212; College football is ready to put the signs away. Following a sign-stealing scandal that rocked the sport and hung over Michigan’s championship run in 2023, the NCAA’s football oversight committee approved Friday the use of coach-to-player helmet communications in games for the 2024 season. The football rules committee last month made a recommendation to allow — but not require — teams at the highest tier of Division I to use radio technology similar to what NFL teams use. Only one player for each team will be permitted to be in communication with coaches while on the field.

A man set himself on fire on Friday afternoon outside the Lower Manhattan courthouse where former President Donald Trump’s historic criminal trial is taking place. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] Witnesses say the man doused himself with liquid in Collect Pond Park, a designated protest area across the street from the courthouse, before orange flames soon engulfed him.

WASHINGTON — With rare bipartisan momentum, the House pushed ahead Friday on a foreign aid package of $95 billion for Ukraine, Israel, Taiwan and humanitarian support as a robust coalition of lawmakers helped it clear a procedural hurdle to reach final votes this weekend. Friday’s vote produced a seldom-seen outcome in the typically hyper-partisan House, with Democrats helping Republican Speaker Mike Johnson’s plan advance overwhelmingly 316-94.

Coban Porter, the brother of Denver Nuggets star Michael Porter Jr., was sentenced to six years in prison Friday for killing a woman in a drunk-driving crash last year. Porter, 22, pleaded guilty to vehicular homicide and vehicular assault in February on the condition that he would be sentenced to no more than eight years in prison.