i must confess i'm not myself a great fan of hockney's.it's not all that easy to say why, because clearly this is a splendid work. i think perhaps i find it a little bit too... diagrammatic. perhaps i feel he's got the world too intellectually ordered here for me to wholly respond to it as the real world. but i don't want to end on-- on a minor note, because this really is a major hockney and i get great pleasure out of it. among liverpool's many galleries is the tate of the north. they've a fascinating stanley spencer exhibition. and this will give me a very good opportunity to take a long, hard look at his work and try and make up my mind about it. well, this is a fair example of a strong spencer. i, too, think it's a strong spencer. in fact, i can leave out the qualifications. it's a strong picture. look at the wonderful wallpaper, those lovely curlicues on the bed, the wonderful sheets. i love his hair too, all the glistening strands. he was very proud of his hair was stanley spencer. and her hair... he's a bit unconvincing about her h

. >> david hockney was there as well and lester holt.e of the honorees have died and their spouses were there in their sped. >>> a government shut down has been averted. the government can raise its borrowing limit through march of 2017. it provides funding to protect senior citizens from a predicted spike in the cost of medicare premiums and it will make changes to social security. mainly, the disability program which shouldment a to about $168 billion in savings. the bill passed with a vote of 266 to 167. many conservative republicans opposed the bill but it was embraced by democrats and moderate republicans. wisconsin congressman paul ryan was nominated today by fellow house republicans to become the next speaker replacing outgoing john boehner. at 45 years old, ryan would be the youngest representative to become speaker since the civil war. he is expected to be elected by the full house tomorrow. >>> testing is about to begin on new bart cars with a crucial improvement to the door design. the new bombardier cars will have three doors