Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Names and faces
■ J.K. Rowling, the author of the Harry Potter series, made some contentious tweets disappear and apologized for alleging that U.S. President Donald Trump refused to shake the hand of a disabled boy. Rowling called Trump “horrible” after seeing footage of the president appearing to ignore the child’s outstretched hand last week during a White House event on repealing the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. But the boy’s mother, Marjorie Kelly Weer, posted on Facebook: “Trump didn’t snub my son & Monty wasn’t even trying to shake his hand.” In the footage, it appears Trump shakes hands with the participants at the event’s closing but that Monty’s outstretched palm is not met in kind with Trump’s handshake. Rowling took to Twitter on Friday in response, calling the perceived rebuke “stunning” and saying that Trump “cannot bring himself to shake the hand of a small boy who only wanted to touch the President,” according to now-deleted tweets quoted by CNN. However, the video Rowling appeared to have watched did not show the entire interaction. After an introduction by Vice President Mike Pence, Trump enters the frame and goes straight to Monty, and he crouches down to say something to the young boy. The video was made available by the White House on July 24, four days before Rowling’s tweets on the subject. Rowling deleted her original tweets and said she “apologized unreservedly.” She tweeted Monday that “I very clearly projected my own sensitivities around the issue of disabled people being overlooked or ignored onto the images I saw.”
■ A newborn calf in Texas has strikingly similar black-and-white facial markings to Kiss frontman Gene Simmons, and the rock star likes their shared look. Simmons’ onstage persona includes face paint, black leather clothing and wild hair. He tweeted his admiration for the calf named Genie, saying, “This is real, folks!!!” The female calf was born Friday at a ranch near Kerrville, 60 miles northwest of San Antonio. Heather Taccetta, who lives at the ranch with her family, said Tuesday that the calf belongs to her grandmother. The animal is named for Simmons. Taccetta found the calf in a pasture. She said Genie is a family favorite and won’t be sold for slaughter.