Are you free this weekend? With the new USPS flag stamp, I’m free every weekend.
Plus: Michael Jordan's 1998 NBA Finals Air Jordan 13s just sold for a record $2.2 million
The U.S. Postal Service announced its 2023 U.S. flag stamp Monday: a straightforward depiction of the flag above the word “Freedom” written in all caps in a tall, sans-serif font in Pantone’s Cool Gray. “The manner in which the text is positioned suggests the endurance of freedom as a core value,” the Postal Service said.
The stamp was designed by USPS art director Antonio Alcalá with existing art by Hong Li. Such a direct take on the flag looks Y2K, and equally suitable for, say, an early ‘00s coffee table book on The American Century or a post-9/11 network TV benefit concert. Brother, these colors don't run.

It’s a different style than recent flag stamps, like last year’s, a painting based on a car dealership flag by Laura Stutzman. The 2019 stamp was a photo taken on a spring day at Chicago’s Navy Pier by Alcalá. While flag stamp designs tend to be traditional, Kit Hinrichs’ 2018 stamp was a fun, digital illustration of a bright zagging flag.
[Previously: The 2022 USPS flag stamp is based on a car dealership flag]
The Postal Service issued the 2023 flag stamp in Freedom, Maine, on Monday, and said it will print 1.9 billion stamps with the design.
Clarence Thomas’ billionaire has a unique taste in art
Republican billionaire megadonor Harlan Crow has for years gifted Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas with trips on private jets, yacht cruises, and stays at his luxury properties, which some sources said violates judicial ethics, according to a report last week from Propublica. The report also detailed money Crow donated for works of art.
Crow gave $105,000 to the Yale Law School for a portrait of Thomas, according to tax filings, and he paid for a 1,800-pound bronze statue of Thomas’ eighth grade teacher at a Catholic cemetery outside New York City. There’s also a painting at Camp Topridge, Crow’s home in Upstate New York, that’s mentioned in the report showing Crow and Thomas sitting outdoors smoking cigars with other guests under a statue of a Native American man. A “Washington Crossing the Delaware” of conservative elites.
In a statement, Thomas called Crow and his wife “dearest friends” and said he always tried to follow disclosure guidelines.
Crow made some interesting decor choices at his Dallas home, guest told Washingtonian. The megadonor collects historic artifacts, including some items guests found shocking: Nazi memorabilia and outdoor statues of dictators that were toppled after the fall of their regimes.
The source said it felt like “just a bunch of collectibles everywhere from major historical events” but it was “just strange—they had family photos in one room, then all this WWII stuff in another room, and dictators in the backyard.”
This Trump arraignment sketch is the first courtroom sketch on the cover of the New Yorker
Courtroom sketch artist Jane Rosenberg was one of three artists allowed in the Manhattan Criminal Courthouse last Tuesday for former President Donald Trump’s arraignment.
She made two sketches while he was in court, one of which is on the April 17, 2023 cover of the New Yorker, the first courtroom sketch to be on the cover in the magazine’s 98-year history.
“I have been doing this job for some forty-three years, but this was my most stressful assignment yet,” Rosenberg told the New Yorker.
Her resume includes courtroom sketches of people including Jeffrey Epstein, Ghislaine Maxwell, Harvey Weinstein, Bill Cosby, Steve Bannon, and Anthony Weiner.
Have you seen this?
Michael Jordan's 1998 NBA Finals Air Jordan 13s just sold for a record $2.2 million. The shoes, as seen in “The Last Dance,” set a new record for the highest publicly recorded price for a pair of sneakers today, breaking the previous record set by a pair of Nike Air Yeezy 1s, which sold for $1.8 million in 2021. [Hypebeast]
The first stained-glass depiction of Jesus as a Black man has been discovered in the window of a small Rhode Island church. The window was created by the studios of Henry Sharp, a 19th-century American stained glass maker. [Artnet News]
I was almost Elon Musk’s Twitter voice. “In 2018 a recruiter reached out to me about a possible position running Tesla’s social media channels, with an emphasis on Twitter. I came to realize that this was either an audition or rung on the ladder to likely help Elon Musk with his personal social media strategy.” [Defector]
How candidates are rebranding for 2024. U.S. Senate candidates are updating their logos, but they aren't always improvements. [𝘠𝘌𝘓𝘓𝘖]
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