"The German Parliament overwhelmingly adopted a symbolic but fraught resolution on Thursday declaring the killings of Armenians by Ottoman Turks in 1915 a genocide..."

"... a move that strains relations with Turkey at a time when the European Union urgently needs its help in managing the migrant crisis."

Response from Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim: "As they see it, they are trying to keep us responsible for the incidents in 1915.... Sometimes countries we know as friends come up with brilliant ideas for distraction when they feel desperate in domestic politics."

"Putin Calls Trump 'a Very Outstanding Man,' Accuses Turkey of Licking America’s Privates."

There's a headline. At Slate. Excerpt:

Putin returned the GOP front-runner’s compliments, calling Trump a “very outstanding man, unquestionably talented” and “the absolute leader of the presidential race.”...

Relations between Russia and Turkey have broken down since Turkish forces shot down a Russian fighter jet over the Syria-Turkey border last month. "The Turks decided to lick the Americans in a certain place," he said Thursday of the incident, a crude variation of his accusation that the U.S. is partly responsible. He also said he saw no prospect of improved ties between the two countries and decried the "creeping Islamization of Turkey that would have Ataturk rolling in his grave."

That reminds me, a new Marc Maron podcast went up this morning. The interviewee is one of my favorite performers, Eric Bogosian. Bogosian — of Armenian ancestry — has written a book about the Armenian genocide, and in the podcast he talks of his grandfather, who advised him that if he ever met a Turk, he should kill him. The book is "Operation Nemesis: The Assassination Plot that Avenged the Armenian Genocide." Bogosian does the reading in the audiobook, so I strongly recommend it.

"This beauty, this icon! I'm so so happy I met her!!!! We spoke about our amazing Armenian journeys!"

In case you're wondering what happened when Kim Kardashian met Cher: They talked about their amazing Armenian journeys!

In case you are wondering why I ended up there — at Cosmopolitan — this morning, it was a journey. Not an amazing journey, and certainly not an Armenian journey, but a journey nonetheless.

I was going through my email and saw another ad for one of these fashion catalog companies and I contemplated blogging something that I've been trying to figure out how to articulate, something about the radical difference between catalog models and runway models. Runway models look fierce, mean, contemptuous, ready for some nonexistent battle. These clothes are not for you. And I am not for you. Peasant! Something like that. By contrast, catalog models look bizarrely weak, as if they are swaying in the wind or about to fall over. They look sleepy and dreamy and so damned accessible I'd fear for their safety if they lived in reality.

I was distracted by the expression on one model's face. She's trying to smize. Remember smizing? It used to seem important to figure out how to get your eyes into the smiling shape without having your mouth smile. Nobody talks about smizing anymore. Or do they? That would be bloggable — if the expression that peaked in public consciousness around 2009 has faded utterly away. But it hasn't faded utterly away, because I found it in Cosmopolitian, which was trying to be cute and flippant. Blecch. Not bloggable.

And yet, I had found something that broke the bloggability barrier for me: the claim that Cher had deigned to share "amazing Armenian journeys!" with Kim Kardashian.

By the way, that phrase "Amazing Journey"... that's something from somewhere. Another non-amazing journey into Google immediately delivers the answer. It's one of the tracks on The Who's "Tommy": "Deaf, dumb and blind boy/He's in a quiet vibration land/Ten years old/With thoughts as bold/As thought can be/Loving life and becoming wise/In simplicity/Sickness can surely take the mind/Where minds can't usually go/Come on the amazing journey/And learn all you should know...."

"Journey" is a much-overused, trite word. (And that was already so back in 1973 when former members of Santana and Frumious Bandersnatch formed the band named Journey.) It's used to bullshit about one's personal narrative over the course of a lifetime, but the original meaning of the word "journey" is one day or one day's travel. (See the French word "jour" (day).) There's no way to return to that meaning. "Journey" has made a long journey from that literal place. But I'd be able to like it if it meant that. I'm oriented to living in the day, day by day. It's an orientation that blogging indulges.

The oldest leather shoe and skirt were found...

... in Armenia. Today's "History of" country.

"Kim Kardashian: How do Armenians feel about her fame?"

BBC homes in on the question everyone is asking.

"Kim is an Armenian and famous in the world, so this is enough for every Armenian to be proud of Kim. But because of cultural and traditional issues, they do not want to accept that she is an Armenian," [says BBC monitoring journalist Armen Shahbazian].

Stories about Kardashian are frequently a topic for comedy programmes, he says.

"They always compare the Armenian French singer Charles Aznavour, who they are proud of, with Kim Kardashian, who is seen in a more negative light. They don't want her to present their country," he says.

Deep into this article we get to some comparative material about what the people of Gibraltar think about fashion designer John Galliano and what the people of the Isle of Man think of Dan Quayle, who — "was internationally ridiculed when it appeared he could not spell the word 'potato.'"

"Let's believe in change" balloons explode, burning 144 people.

"Let's believe in change" is the slogan of the Republican Party, the governing party in Armenia.