Topline:
The new movie Marty Supreme recreates the gritty subculture of ... table tennis. The titular character is loosely based on a real person.
Who was he: In the 1940s and '50s, New York City table tennis was a gritty subculture full of misfits, gamblers, doctors, actors, students and more. In this world, a handsome, bespectacled Jewish teenager named Marty Reisman was a star.
Read on ... to learn more about the real Marty.
In the 1940s and '50s, New York City table tennis was a gritty subculture full of misfits, gamblers, doctors, actors, students and more. They competed, bet on the game or both at all-night spots like Lawrence's, a table tennis parlor in midtown Manhattan. A talented player could rake in hundreds in cash in one night. In this world, a handsome, bespectacled Jewish teenager named Marty Reisman was a star.
His game was electric. "Marty had a trigger in his thumb. He hit bullets. You could lose your eyebrows playing with him," someone identified only as "the shirt king" told author Jerome Charyn for his book Sizzling Chops and Devilish Spins: Ping-Pong and the Art of Staying Alive.
The new movie Marty Supreme recreates this world. Timothée Chalamet's character, table tennis whiz Marty Mauser, is loosely inspired by Reisman.
Nicknamed "The Needle" for his slender physique, Reisman represented the U.S. in tournaments around the world and won more than 20 major titles, including the 1949 English Open and two U.S. Opens.
Like Chalamet's Marty Mauser, Reisman was obsessed with the game. In his 1974 memoir The Money Player: The Confessions of America's Greatest Table Tennis Champion and Hustler, Reisman wrote that he was drawn to table tennis because it "involved anatomy and chemistry and physics."
Reisman was a daring, relentless showman, always dressed to the nines in elegant suits and hats. "His personality made him legendary," said Khaleel Asgarali, a professional player who owns Washington, D.C. Table Tennis. Asgarali would often see Reisman at tournaments. "The way he carried himself, his charisma, his flair, the clothing, the style … Marty was a sharp dresser, man."
He was also one of the game's "bad boys," just like the fictional Marty Mauser. In 1949 at the English Open, he and fellow American star Dick Miles moved from their modest London hotel into one that was much fancier. They ran up a tab on room service, dry cleaning and the like and then charged it all to the English Table Tennis Association. When the English officials refused to cover their costs, the players said they wouldn't show up for exhibition matches they knew were already sold out. The officials capitulated — but later fined the players $200 and suspended them "indefinitely from sanctioned table tennis" worldwide for breaking the sport's "courtesy code."
Reisman grew up on Manhattan's Lower East Side. His dad was a taxi driver and serious gambler. "It was feast or famine at our house, usually famine," Reisman wrote. His parents split when he was 10. His mother, who had emigrated from the Soviet Union, worked as a waitress and then in a garment factory. When he was 14, Marty went to live with his father at the Broadway Central Hotel.
Hustling was "just baked into his DNA," said Leo Leigh, director of a documentary about Reisman called Fact or Fiction: The Life and Times of a Ping Pong Hustler.
"I remember [Reisman] telling me that when he wanted to eat, he would wait until there was a wedding in the hotel, put on his best suit and just slip in and just sit and eat these massive, amazing meals," said Leigh, "And then he'd be ready for the night to go and hustle table tennis."
Reisman suffered panic attacks as early as nine years old. Playing ping pong helped with his anxiety. "The game so engrossed me, so filled my days, that I did not have time to worry," he wrote.
"Finding this game of table tennis — and finding that he had this amazing ability — became almost like an escape, a meditation," said Leigh.
Reisman wanted to be the best ping pong player in the world. "To be an Einstein in your field, or a Hemingway, or a Joe Louis — there could be nothing, I imagined, more noble," Reisman wrote. "And table tennis champions were to me Einstein, Hemingway, and Louis wrapped into one."
The game was respected throughout Europe and Asia, turning ping pong stars into big names: In Marty Supreme, one who was imprisoned at Auschwitz tells the story of being spared by Nazi guards who recognize him. (Reisman's memoir tells a similar true story of the Polish table tennis champion Alojzy "Alex" Ehrlich.)
But in the U.S., ping pong was considered a pastime people played in their basements. New York City was an exception: "Large sums of money were bet on a sport that had no standing at all in this country," wrote Reisman.
Reisman dazzled spectators with his flair on the table.
"If you look at footage of Marty in the '50s and '60s, you could almost compare it to the footage of Houdini," said Leigh. "He would blow the ball into the air and then he would, you know, knock it under his leg or just do some acrobats. It was almost like putting on a show."
One of his gimmick shots was breaking a cigarette in two with a slam.
Marty Supreme co-writer and director Josh Safdie grew up playing ping pong with his dad in New York City. "I had ADHD and found it to be quite helpful," he told NPR. "It's a sport that requires an intense amount of focus and an intense amount of precision." Safdie said his great uncle played at Lawrence's and used to tell him about the different characters he met there, including Reisman's friend and competitor Dick Miles.
It was Safdie's wife who found Reisman's book in a thrift store and gave it to him. When he read it, Safdie was finishing a dream project that was years in the making, the 2019 movie Uncut Gems starring Adam Sandler. "Every step of the way, there was either a hurdle or a stop gap or a laugh in my face," said Safdie, "And very few believers in that project."
Safdie likened the experience to Reisman's obsession with becoming a table tennis champion "who believed in this thing and had a dream that no one respected."
In 1952, Japanese player Hiroji Satoh stunned the table tennis world by winning the Men's Singles at the World Championships playing with a new type of racket that had thick foam rubber. Unlike the traditional hardbat, the sponge rubber silenced the pock of the ball hitting the racket. Reisman wrote that the new surface caused the ball "to take eerie flights … Sometimes it floated like a knuckleball, a dead ball with no spin whatsoever. On other occasions the spin was overpowering."
"Marty really liked the sound of the old hardbat," said Asgarali, "When the sponge racquet came out, Marty wasn't competitive anymore. He totally fell out of the game."
Leigh said Reisman would tell just about anyone who would listen how Hiroji Satoh destroyed his game.
He was "constantly analyzing and reanalyzing his personality, who he is, where he's going," said Leigh. He would "sit with all these academics and these writers and these almost philosophers and just talk for hours" about how the rubber bat "completely" ruined his game. "He was always searching for something."
In 1958, Reisman bought the Riverside Table Tennis Club on Manhattan's Upper West Side, a popular spot frequented by celebrities including Matthew Broderick and Dustin Hoffman. In 1997, at age 67, he won the United States Hardbat Championship.
Marty Reisman died in 2012 at age 82. A The New York Times profile of him less than a year prior started with the headline, "A Throwback Player, With a Wardrobe to Match."
Copyright 2025 NPR
Topline:
A bald eagle, believed to be Jackie, has been rescued in Big Bear after a brief fight with two other eagles, according to Friends of Big Bear Valley, the environmental nonprofit that runs a YouTube livestream of Jackie and Shadow’s famous nest.
Why it matters: The eagle was taken in by the L.A. County Department of Parks and Recreation’s San Dimas Raptor Rescue and transferred to a specialized rehabilitation facility for further care, according to county officials.
Why now: The eagle’s sex and identity have not been confirmed, but Friends of Big Bear Valley said “it is apparent that the rescued eagle is likely Jackie.”
The backstory: The last time Jackie was seen in the nest was July 12, according to organization records.
Go deeper: A $10M fundraiser could save the land around Big Bear's bald eagle nest. It's halfway over
A bald eagle believed to be Jackie has been rescued in Big Bear after a brief fight with two other eagles, according to Friends of Big Bear Valley, the environmental nonprofit that runs a YouTube livestream of Jackie and Shadow’s famous nest.
The rescued eagle was seen on the ground near Dana Point Park, a popular look-out spot in the area for fans hoping to see the feathered family.
The eagle was taken in by the L.A. County Department of Parks and Recreation’s San Dimas Raptor Rescue and transferred to a specialized rehabilitation facility for further care, according to county officials.
The eagle’s sex and identity have not been confirmed, but Friends of Big Bear Valley said “it is apparent that the rescued eagle is likely Jackie.” The last time Jackie was seen in the nest was July 12, according to organization records.
“She is in the best place she can be and getting the care she needs,” the nonprofit said to the 1.2 million followers of its Facebook page.
L.A. County and nonprofit officials are urging people not to contact the rescue or facility so it doesn’t interfere with the help they’re providing the eagle and other animals.
According to Friends of Big Bear Valley, cell phone video showed the rescued eagle fighting off the two other birds by using its talons, but it still couldn’t fly further away. The eagle was found near the park last Friday, but it was seen there Thursday too.
The eagle was picked up by wildlife rescuers, and the nonprofit said it has been in direct contact with them and the rehabilitation facility.
The first organization didn’t see any obvious injuries on the rescued eagle, but the bird was lethargic and yet still somewhat active, according to a Friends of Big Bear Valley post in its Facebook group, which has more than 485,000 members.
“The eagle is safe and receiving specialized care,” the L.A. County Department of Parks and Recreation said on social media Sunday. “We will share confirmed information as it becomes available.”
While Jackie has been away, Shadow is caring for their fledglings Sandy and Luna, which took their first flights nearly a month ago.
Sandy and Luna have been in and out of the nest in recent days, and Shadow delivered 11 fish this weekend while they continue to learn to hunt, according to organization records.
“Send your light and loving energy to all of them,” Jenny Voisard, media manager, said Saturday in the Facebook group. “It doesn’t do anyone any good to panic and remember to step away from the livestream as needed. Nature is naturing.”
Topline:
With uncertainty over when regulations on some of the most common of these cancer-causing pollutants, called per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances or PFAS, will take effect in California, lawmakers are floating alternative plans to remove them from the state’s tap water.
What is CA doing? California requires water systems to notify the public if PFAS levels reach a certain threshold. Some systems have already begun treating or blending the water with clean sources to make it safer to drink. The long-term goal in California is for these chemicals to be regulated 'as a class' rather than through 'individual' chemicals. AB 1603 would for the first time require that pesticides be categorized as containing PFAS chemicals by the state, and their use to be reported to authorities.
Why it matters: There are nearly 15,000 different PFAS chemicals, used in an array of everyday items like clothing, food packaging and cookware, as well as in fire-fighting foams, pesticides and many industrial processes. Regulators have found them around hundreds of landfills, airports, military bases and industrial sites across the state. Because they’re highly soluble, once they leach into the water table they’re extremely difficult to remove — and they can take thousands of years to break down. Nearly everyone in the U.S. has these chemicals in their blood, and exposure to some of the most studied PFAS chemicals has been linked to cancer, liver disease, immune system disruption and other chronic health problems.
As the Trump administration delays regulations on “forever chemicals” that pollute reservoirs, rivers and aquifers nationwide, California officials say they are unsure what the consequences will be for an estimated 1.5 million Californians served by utilities with contaminated sources of drinking water.
With uncertainty over when regulations on some of the most common of these cancer-causing pollutants, called per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances or PFAS, will take effect in California, lawmakers are floating alternative plans to remove them from the state’s tap water.
Among several forever chemical-related bills in Congress is one that would tax PFAS manufacturers to help utilities pay for expensive treatment technologies. State legislation that could have led to the ban of pesticides containing PFAS has been watered down by lawmakers, but environmental advocates still see the bill as an important first step.
“The corporations that contaminated our water rarely face accountability. My bill changes that by making them cover the cost of cleaning it up,” U.S. Rep. Linda Sánchez, an author of the federal bill, said in an email to Capital & Main. Pico Rivera and Downey are two cities in Sánchez’s Los Angeles-area district that are grappling with PFAS-contaminated water sources.
There are nearly 15,000 different PFAS chemicals, used in an array of everyday items like clothing, food packaging and cookware, as well as in fire-fighting foams, pesticides and many industrial processes. Regulators have found them around hundreds of landfills, airports, military bases and industrial sites across the state. Because they’re highly soluble, once they leach into the water table they’re extremely difficult to remove — and they can take thousands of years to break down. The chemicals can enter the body through contaminated water and accumulate over time.
Nearly everyone in the U.S. has these chemicals in their blood, and exposure to some of the most studied PFAS chemicals has been linked to cancer, liver disease, immune system disruption and other chronic health problems.
These chemicals are nearly ubiquitous in tap water. According to the consumer advocacy organization Environmental Working Group, 165 million Americans drink PFAS-laced tap water.
Under a plan established under the Biden administration, federal drinking water standards for perfluorooctanoic and perfluorooctane sulfonic acid (PFOA and PFOS), two of the most common forever chemicals, were set to be enforced in 2029. But under President Donald Trump, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has moved to delay those protections by offering water systems an opt-out until 2031. The EPA is also rescinding regulatory drinking water limits for four other forever chemicals.
Daniel Newton, assistant deputy director of the California Water Resources Control Board’s Division of Drinking Water, said state regulators are unsure whether impacted water systems in California would be eligible for the two-year delay — and, if they are, whether California would “allow that extension or not,” Newton said.
Of California’s 2,363 public water systems that have been tested since 2024, 466 had levels of either PFOA or PFOS above the federal regulatory limit, according to the water board. California requires water systems to notify the public if PFAS levels reach a certain threshold. Some systems have already begun treating or blending the water with clean sources to make it safer to drink.
Without federal drinking water limits for other PFAS substances, California has started the years-long process of adopting its own rules for one commonly used such chemical called PFHxS, which has been detected since 2024 in nearly 400 systems above the state notification level. Newton said the long-term goal in California is for these chemicals to be regulated “as a class” rather than through “individual” chemicals.
But environmental health advocates want California regulators to move faster.
“We’ve been monitoring these chemicals since 2019. That means that by 2029, we’ll have spent 10 years preparing,” said Andria Ventura, legislative and policy director with the nonprofit Clean Water Action. As such, she added, “California regulators should be more protective than the federal government by not delaying implementation.”
Some systems, especially smaller cash-strapped utilities, recommend a more cautious approach.
“It could potentially be advantageous to anybody dealing with this to wait,” said Carlos Quintero, general manager of the San Diego County-based Sweetwater Authority, pointing to high treatment costs and the evolution of new better treatment technologies.
Roughly 65% of Sweetwater Authority’s 200,000 customers live in areas designated by state agencies as suffering a combination of economic, health, and environmental burdens.. The utility is exploring different PFAS treatment technologies, the cheapest coming in at roughly $50 million. Quintero estimates ongoing operational and maintenance costs for the system alone could result in water rate increases of around 6%.
Rather than keep treating contaminated water, some lawmakers and advocacy groups want to remove the problem at the source.
In California, AB 1603 would for the first time require that pesticides be categorized as containing PFAS chemicals by the state, and their use to be reported to authorities. According to the Environmental Working Group, 37% of California grown nonorganic fruits and vegetables have PFAS-laced pesticide residues on them, while regulators found PFAS pesticides in roughly half of all surface water and sediment samples taken.
Under pressure from agricultural interests, lawmakers earlier this year stripped language from the legislation that would have eventually banned PFAS-based pesticides in California. But Susan Little, Environmental Working Group’s California legislative director, hopes this bill “sets the stage” for an outright ban in the future.
Last year, Gov. Gavin Newsom vetoed a bill that would have banned the sale of PFAS-laden cookware and other products, arguing it would restrict the availability of affordable cookware.
Many impacted states, municipalities and water systems have sought financial relief through lawsuits against chemical manufacturers like 3M and DuPont. Just this week, New York Attorney General Letitia James sued major PFAS chemical manufacturers alleging they had deceived the public about human exposure risks and threats to the environment. But for the most part, the public continues to bear the brunt of cleanup costs through rate increases and taxpayer-funded programs.
Even so, these pots of money “are not anywhere near what the actual cost of compliance is going to be,” said Ian Lyle, director of federal relations for the Association of California Water Agencies. The Orange County Water District alone estimates a cost to the county of $1.8 billion over 30 years to treat PFAS.
With the idea of alleviating the burden on water systems and the taxpayer, Rep. Sánchez’s federal bill would establish a 45% tax on the manufacturing of PFAS to provide a tax credit of up to 25% for public and private water agencies.
“I expect it will be enough to cover the direct pay credit that will fund water cleanup efforts for both public and private water municipalities,” Sánchez said.
Copyright 2026 Capital & Main
Topline:
A federal judge's ruling Monday in response to a major antitrust lawsuit filed by a dozen states has paused Paramount's acquisition of Warner Bros. discovery.
About the lawsuit: The attorneys general allege Paramount's purchase of Warner Bros. would reduce competition, hurting filmgoers, TV and news consumers and especially those who create the entertainment and other content they rely on.
Paramount's owners were planning to have secured firm control of Hollywood rival Warner Bros. Discovery by the end of this week.
Paramount's owners were planning to have secured firm control of Hollywood rival Warner Bros. Discovery by the end of this week.
A federal judge's ruling Monday in response to a major antitrust lawsuit filed by a dozen states has ground the process to a halt.
On Monday, U.S. District Judge Araceli Martínez-Olguín granted a temporary restraining order to the states to pause the acquisition. The attorneys general allege Paramount's purchase of Warner Bros. would reduce competition, hurting filmgoers, TV and news consumers and especially those who create the entertainment and other content they rely on.
The $111 billion deal would unite Paramount and Warner Bros. movie and television studios, streamers Paramount+ and HBO Max, the nation's most-watched broadcast outlet (CBS) with 50 cable channels, and CNN and CBS News under the same roof.
"This is a critical first win in our case to ensure this megamerger never sees the light of day," California Attorney General Rob Bonta said in a statement issued to the press.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
NPR's Mandalit Del Barco contributed to this story.
Copyright 2026 NPR
Topline:
On a Sunday morning, I walked into Coral Cafe in Burbank to have breakfast with a stranger. Here's how it went.
Why it matters: Raz, as he prefers to be called, has been meeting with different people — different strangers — over a cup of coffee and french toast almost every week for the past six months.
The backstory: The idea started when a solo meal turned into a spontaneous shared table with a woman who was also planning on eating alone.
Why now: So, he opened up the invite on Reddit. Nearly 20 neighbors have had a meal with him since then.
Read on... to learn more about the meals.
On a Sunday morning, I walked into Coral Cafe in Burbank to have breakfast with a stranger.
Raz, as he prefers to be called, has been meeting with different people — different strangers — over a cup of coffee and French toast almost every week for the past six months.
The idea started when a solo meal turned into a spontaneous shared table with a woman who was also planning on eating alone. Their hour-long conversation left a profound impact on Raz, and a lingering feeling that he wanted to have that kind of connection again.
So, he opened up the invite on Reddit. Nearly 20 neighbors have had a meal with him since then.
“For me, it's never been about who you are or the job you have,” he told LAist. “It's just more about the impact that we have on each other, and the impact that you have on me.”
I didn’t know much about Raz when I first got to the restaurant, not even his name.
I did know I was looking out for someone with shoulder length blonde hair and glasses, but I didn't need to guess much with the waiter in on the arrangement.
The waiter walked me right up to Raz at his usual table, and any of the awkwardness or strained small talk I expected evaporated almost immediately. Although we were more than 30 years apart in age, we had a lot in common.
The hour-long breakfast quickly turned into two as we talked about family, politics, relationships, work, childhood, religion and health, to name a few. We made tentative plans to see each other again at Raz’s weekly dance classes, hugged, and parted ways.
“We're a puzzle, right? And all the pieces are everywhere … but if you start laying them down into the puzzle, it starts to create a giant picture,” he told me over another plate of French toast last week. “And that's kind of what it is, you know? It's that connection and disconnection.”
Raz shares short posts on the Burbank subreddit about each breakfast, but he’s careful to avoid any identifying details of the neighbors he’s dining with or the conversations they have.
Instead, he refers to them as nicknames like the Artist, Captain Max and the Tornado.
Raz described the Artist in his post as a woman with “electric” energy who made the table seem “a little brighter from the moment she sat down.”
There was nothing pirate-like about Captain Max, but Raz wrote that he still found himself “on the ship, sitting on a barrel of rum, listening to our captain spin tales of the sea.”
The Tornado was a smart woman, “like big-brain, med-school smart,” who treated “life like a buffet,” Raz said in his post. After drinking an obscene amount of coffee together, they realized they still hadn’t gotten each other's names, but decided they didn’t need to, for the fun of it.
Southern California can feel lonely at times, which is why Raz said he went to the cafe to begin with. But he said he doesn’t feel that way anymore, at least since having Sunday breakfasts with strangers to look forward to.
“The more I get to know people, the more I want to know more people,” he said. “And to me, that's like a new feeling.”
There’s a history of having meals with strangers in Southern California, like with the Los Angeles Breakfast Club.
The club hosts weekly breakfasts at the Friendship Auditorium in Los Feliz — a storied tradition that dates back a century.
Anna Trumbo, vice president of the L.A. Breakfast Club, told LAist people often show up alone, and it’s a great opportunity to meet others outside of your age group.
“Everyone is so welcoming, and just immediately struck up conversations, and now these are some of my best friends,” Trumbo said. “But that first morning where it really was breakfast with strangers, felt very [much] like breathing a sigh of relief.”
