Recommended Reading
from Bruce
What If Obama Loses? (Washington Monthly)
Imagining the consequences of a GOP victory. (Executive summary: If you liked the Bush years, you'll love a rightwing House, Senate, White House, and Supreme Court. - Andrew Tobias.)
Tom Danehy: Tom has scores to settle with a couple of his readers and their online comments (Tucson Weekly)
I love to read the comments that people post after my column comes out, even (or, perhaps, especially) the mean ones. I almost never respond to those, because I've already had my say, and then it's everybody else's turn. But this past week, people just plain got stuff wrong, and it has to be addressed.
Susan Estrich: Echoes of World War II in Normandy (Creators Syndicate)
Omaha Beach is quiet. Even on a rainy day, it is beautiful. But it was not beautiful on D-Day. The ocean was dyed red with the blood of brave Americans who waded from their boats into enemy fire - kids who gave their lives to save each other, to liberate the French, to defeat evil.
The Guilty Pleasure Films of 2011 (PopMatters)
10. "Drive Angry." Leave it to Patrick Lussier, director of 2009's guilty pleasure gorefest "My Bloody Valentine," to strike guilty pleasure gold again in 2011.
Roger Ebert: Review of "The Killing" (A Great Movie; 1956)
Stanley Kubrick considered "The Killing" (1956) to be his first mature feature, after a couple of short warm-ups. He was 28 when it was released, having already been an obsessed chess player, a photographer for Look magazine and a director of "March of Time" newsreels.
John Farr: For His Upcoming Birthday, the Top Ten Cary Grant Movies by Farr
As great as he was, in his time people sensed he was always playing Cary Grant, and for this he was marginalized slightly, never winning an Oscar over a thirty-five year career. Of course, Oscar has most always lacked a funny bone, so humorous films have often received short shrift in the nominations. This is, of course, ridiculous, since comedies are the most difficult form to bring off successfully.
Geoff Boucher: "'Hunger Games': Woody Harrelson on Haymitch and film's 'mind-blowing' sets" (LA Times)
"He's got a drinking problem and he's got some issues and he's damaged, but I didn't want to do it totally like your typical version of an alcoholic in a movie," Harrelson said Monday. "So I tried to keep him a little put-together. I dressed him up from what you would expect, too. That was one of my things I wanted - to make him, particularly in the Capitol, a bit of a snazzy dresser - or at least a dresser with his own style."
Amanda Stern: Interview with LAURIE ANDERSON (Believer Magazine)
[Andy Kaufman] was a genius of disrupted expectation. For example, we'd go out to Coney Island to just practice situations, and we'd get on the roto-whirl where the bottom drops out, and we'd just be spinning around, so there's a minute where everyone's locked in- And that's when he began to freak out: "I think we're all going to die on this ride! Look at the way the belts are done, they're really flimsy!" And everyone is like, "Who is this moron?" and second, "Maybe the belts aren't attached that well," and it was chaos.
David Bruce has 42 Kindle books on Amazon.com with 250 anecdotes in each book. Each book is $1, so for $42 you can buy 10,500 anecdotes. Search for "Funniest People," "Coolest People, "Most Interesting People," "Kindest People," "Religious Anecdotes," "Maximum Cool," and "Resist Psychic Death."
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Selected Readings
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In The Chaos Household
Last Night
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A Welcome Return To Weekly TV
Bill Moyers
Wearing what is meant to be a sheepish smile, Bill Moyers greets a reporter by acknowledging that, yes, twice before just in the past decade, he has launched a much-acclaimed public affairs TV series, then called it quits, professing to be done with television - only to launch yet another such show a couple of years later.
He is doing it again. At age 77, this self-proclaimed "citizen journalist" re-engages with his audience when "Moyers & Company" premieres on public television stations across the country this weekend (check listings for time, day and channel).
"We will not be doing the extensive field reporting; we will not be doing the high-production-value stories this time," he notes, conceding that "Moyers & Company" will be a bit more lean-and-mean than such past series as "Bill Moyers Journal" (2007-2010) and, before it, "Now With Bill Moyers" (2002 to 2004).
"I couldn't exactly tell you why I came back," Moyers says now, during a chat in the mid-Manhattan offices of Public Affairs Television, the production company he founded a quarter-century ago with his wife, Judith Davidson Moyers. "Except, nothing else was as interesting. I had done some writing and speaking, but I love television. It lets me work with colleagues and comrades. And I had breath and I had energy and I had funders."
"Moyers & Company" is thus funded for two years, at which point, Moyers declares, he'll be 80 and will definitely, finally retire (believe that, or not).
Bill Moyers
Transfers PAC To Jon Stewart
Stephen Colbert
During Thursday night's episode of "The Colbert Report," Stephen Colbert legally transferred his super political action committee to his friend and Comedy Central cohort Jon Stewart. Dropping by from "The Daily Show," Stewart happily signed the documents and accepted the post, which was ceremonially observed by the two holding hands and bodily transferring the PAC powers.
The move potentially paves the way for Colbert to enter the Republican presidential primary in South Carolina, his home state. Campaigning politicians are prohibited from simultaneously running super PACs.
But Colbert only hinted at such a decision, which he had grandly hyped ahead of Thursday's show. In flirting candidate style, he announced that he is forming "an exploratory committee to lay the groundwork for my possible candidacy for the president of the United States of South Carolina."
Stewart and Colbert hashed out the peculiar legalities of their arrangement. With Colbert's lawyer (and former chairman of the Federal Election Commission) Trevor Potter on hand, they spelled out that while Colbert was legally forbidden from participating in strategy and advertising with the super PAC, he could still talk about his plans on his TV show and even volunteer for the super PAC.
Stewart declared Colbert vice president of youth outreach for the super PAC, which was renamed The Definitely Not Coordinated with Stephen Colbert Super PAC. Along with Potter, the three joined hands like a sports team and - with thick irony - cheered in unison: "Non-coordination!"
Stephen Colbert
Gives Guitars To LA-Area Schools
Eddie Van Halen
Rocker Eddie Van Halen has donated 75 electric guitars to Los Angeles-area high schools as a way to inspire music in kids.
Tricia Steel of the Mr. Holland's Opus Foundation says the Van Halen lead-guitarist came with the brand-new guitars this week, saying he wanted them used in schools and not sold.
The non-profit Los Angeles foundation has distributed the guitars to seven schools serving mostly low-income students that needed them to replace broken instruments or build music enrollment.
Schools were not told where the guitars came from until they arrived, and then they were advised to keep them under tight lock and key.
Eddie Van Halen
Two More Seasons
"Dexter"
Showtime just made a deal for two more "Dexter" seasons that were widely expected to bring the series to its end, but Showtime entertainment president David Nevins says he reserves the right to keep it going beyond that.
"This is the likely endpoint, but I'm leaving open the possibility that plans could change," he said at the Television Critics Association winter press tour. He also hinted that going forward on the show, Dexter may not be "such a lone wolf."
The show's sixth season ended (spoiler alert) with Dexter's adopted sister Deborah accepting that she's in love with him and catching him committing a murder. Her confronting her feelings, and discovery, will shake up the dynamics between her and Dexter, Nevins said.
The presumed ending of the show also gives the writers a clear arc -- if the show does end after its eighth season.
"Dexter"
Hospital News
Heather Locklear
Authorities say Heather Locklear was taken to a Southern California hospital for precautionary reasons after an emergency call was made from her home.
Paramedics and sheriff's deputies responded Thursday afternoon to Locklear's home in Westlake Village, which is 35 miles northwest of Los Angeles.
Ventura County sheriff's Capt. Mike Aranda says he did not know Locklear's condition but deputies are not investigating the incident.
Locklear has been hospitalized several times over the years and in 2009 pleaded no contest to reckless driving after being arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence of prescription medication.
Heather Locklear
Jury Will Hear Deputy's Case
James Mee
A jury should decide whether the sheriff's deputy who arrested Mel "Sugar Tits" Gibson for drunken driving suffered workplace discrimination, a judge ruled Thursday despite expressing serious concerns about whether the man can win his case.
Superior Court Judge Barbara Scheper said James Mee should be allowed to argue to jurors that he suffered discrimination and a hostile work environment after arresting Gibson in Malibu in 2006.
Mee, who is Jewish, claims his Christian superior officers ordered him to remove Gibson's anti-Semitic remarks from a report and then ostracized him and blocked his chances for a promotion.
Attorneys for the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department have denied any wrongdoing and written in court filings that the deputy was insubordinate at times after Gibson's arrest and subjected to the same discipline as others.
Mee was investigated as the potential source who leaked his initial report containing Gibson's anti-Semitic rant, but after a lengthy investigation prosecutors found no evidence that he provided the details to celebrity website TMZ.
James Mee
Tancredo-Loving Racist At Work
Bounty Hunter
Duane "Dog" Chapman may get the last word in a spat with a Colorado sheriff over an arrest involving pepper spray.
The "Dog the Bounty Hunter" episode broadcast Wednesday on A&E omits the dispute he had with Mesa County Sheriff Stan Hilkey after a fugitive's arrest.
The sheriff criticized Chapman last summer, saying he excessively pepper-sprayed a fugitive and then took him into the sheriff's office without first decontaminating the man.
Surveillance videos in the Grand Junction sheriff's lobby show people having coughing fits, backing up Hilkey's claim.
Though the show made no mention of the squabble, Chapman's wife, Beth Chapman, tweeted Thursday: "So does anyone think the Mesa sheriff was right?"
Bounty Hunter
Gets Jail For Pointing Laser
Clark James Gable
Clark Gable's 23-year-old grandson has been sentenced to 10 days in jail for pointing a green laser at a Los Angeles police helicopter as it flew 800 feet (244 meters) over Hollywood.
City News Service says the judge, who gave Clark James Gable credit for one day already served in jail, also placed him on three years' probation. He was sentenced Thursday.
He flashed the laser three times at the helicopter while riding as a passenger in a car on July 28.
Officers aboard the helicopter pinpointed the source of the 52-milliwatt laser and directed officers on the ground to make an arrest.
Clark James Gable
Home Ec?
Missouri
Missouri gubernatorial candidate Dave Spence changed his online biography Thursday to fix a claim about a college economics degree and acknowledged that his campaign also had distributed fliers wrongly asserting that he attended business school at the University of Missouri.
The biographical adjustments come as Spence - a St. Louis businessman making his first political campaign - has been traveling the state trying to ramp up his challenge to Democratic Gov. Jay Nixon in 2012 elections. Spence's campaign has emphasized his business acumen.
Spence, 53, has a degree in home economics from the University of Missouri-Columbia. But the biography on his campaign website originally omitted the word "home" while describing his economics degree - a fact first reported earlier this week by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Spence acknowledged that the description may have been misleading.
His website biography now states: "After high school, Dave attended the University of Missouri-Columbia where he majored in family economics and management (also known as consumer economics) and earned a Bachelor's of Science degree in Home Economics."
The Associated Press obtained a copy Thursday of a Spence campaign flier that had been distributed at a Republican Party event that Spence attended Dec. 6 in the St. Louis area. The flier claimed: "After high school, Dave attended University of Missouri-Columbia School of Business and earned a degree in Economics."
Missouri
Ex-Curator Guilty In Theft
Money Museum
A former curator has pleaded guilty to embezzling almost $1 million in rare coins from a Colorado museum and selling them at auctions, federal prosecutors said on Thursday.
Wyatt Yeager, 33, of California, stole the coins from the American Numismatic Association's Money Museum in Colorado Springs when he worked there in 2007, Charles Oberly, the U.S. attorney for Delaware, said in a statement.
Yeager embezzled $492,205 in rare coins and sold them at several auctions in 2007, including in St. Louis, Baltimore and Melbourne, Australia, the statement said.
Yeager also admitted to embezzling another $492,355 in rare coins and selling them at an auction in Germany in 2008, according to the plea agreement.
Yeager has pleaded guilty to one count of theft of major artwork. He faces up to 10 years in prison, a $250,000 fine, three years of supervised release after prison, restitution, forfeiture and a $100,000 special assessment.
Money Museum
Italian Photographer Launches Calendar
Oliviero Toscani
Italian shock photographer Oliviero Toscani has done it again -- this time with a calendar featuring 12 penis close-ups in an ad for a group of companies that make naturally-tanned leather.
The flamboyant photographer launched the calendar at an event in Florence also attended by famously well-endowed Italian porn star Rocco Siffredi, who said that people should "de-dramatise" sex and put an end to "bigotry".
Toscani last year focused on women's genitalia for a calendar for the same Vera Pelle consortium, which brought censure from Italy's advertising watchdog.
Philippe Daverio, an art critic, said: "Naked women are tolerated in calendars but unfortunately men aren't. We are here to defend men's rights."
Oliviero Toscani
Complete Civil War Submarine Unveiled
H.L. Hunley
Confederate Civil War vessel H.L. Hunley, the world's first successful combat submarine when it sank a Union ship in 1864, was unveiled in full and unobstructed for the first time on Thursday, capping a decade of careful preservation.
About 20 engineers and scientists applauded as they caught the first glimpse of the intact 42-foot-long narrow iron cylinder, which was raised from the ocean floor near Charleston more than a decade ago. The public will see the same view but in a water tank to keep it from rusting.
"It's like looking at the sub for the first time. It's like the end of a long night," said Paul Mardikian, senior conservator since 1999 of the project to raise, excavate and conserve the Hunley.
In the summer of 2000, an expedition led by adventurer Clive Cussler raised the Hunley and delivered it to the conservatory on Charleston's old Navy base, where it sat in a 90,000-gallon tank of fresh water to leech salt out of its iron hull.
The narrow, top-secret "torpedo fish," built in Mobile, Alabama by Horace Hunley from cast iron and wrought iron with a hand-cranked propeller, arrived in Charleston in 1863 while the city was under siege by Union troops and ships.
H.L. Hunley
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