Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Rick Fowler: Two Observations from a Long-Time Teacher (irascibleprofessor.com)
Just how far our educational system has lapsed was reinforced the other day in a conversation I had with a younger colleague.
Tom Danehy: While in church, Tom wonders: Who's the baddest JB of them all? (tucsonweekly.com)
It is no secret that I'm a Catholic and that I attend Mass every week.
Mark Morford: Free indecent grope click here! (sfgate.com)
It has come to my attention that you are perhaps wildly understimulated. Or maybe just mildly? Whichever. Either way, not getting quite enough of the good stuff, the kick and juice that makes you feel alive and awake and happy to be barely surviving on this little blue speck of space lint we call home.
Garrison Keillor: Get to work, Democrats
It is a large moment for Democrats, learning to stick with a good man through a rough period when the people who crave disillusionment have become disillusioned. It's like a winter vacation in the Caribbean when it rains buckets and you eat some bad shellfish and a shrieky teenager says you've ruined her life forever. You smile, take a shower and organize a volleyball game. You have to work at it. It's work.
Paul Krugman: Clueless (nytimes.com)
I'm with Simon Johnson here: how is it possible, at this late date, for Obama to be this clueless?
Richard Roeper: Palin making ka-ching she can believe in (suntimes.com)
It was nearly a year ago when I first saw "How's that Hope and Change Working Out For You?" on a bumper sticker.
"Anna Karenina" by Leo Tolstoy: A review by Doug Brown
"All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way." Thus begins Tolstoy's classic tale of two extended families. I am not a fan of soap opera/romance as a genre, and the concept of reading an 800-page one only crossed my mind due to my classics year project. I knew I wanted to get some Tolstoy under my cultural belt, and when the choice came down to Anna Karenina vs. War and Peace, 800 pages won out over 1,200 pages. Yes, I'm that shallow.
Richard Brooks: British Library to offer free ebook downloads (timesonline.co.uk)
More than 65,000 19th-century works of fiction from the library's collection are to be made available for free downloads.
"Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea" by Barbara Demick: A review by Andrei Lankov
There is no shortage of books on North Korea. Thanks to its nuclear ambitions, it attracts a surprising amount of attention for a country whose population and economy are roughly the same size as Ghana's. But little is said about average North Koreans.
Rohan Preston: "Mel Brooks on his work: 'Time always wins'" (Star Tribune)
Brooklyn-reared funnyman Mel Brooks may be one of the most celebrated and decorated figures in entertainment history. In December the comedian, actor, director, producer, screenwriter and composer added the Kennedy Center Honors sash to a collection of awards that includes an Oscar, a Grammy, three Emmys and multiple Tonys.
Mary McNamara: Diane Sawyer, gilt-edged newswoman (Los Angeles Times)
Quietly taking over as anchor from Charles Gibson at "ABC World News" at the end of last year, Diane Sawyer brought with her not only an impressive resume, an excellent name-recognition rating and some pretty cool new graphics, but also a remarkably counterintuitive manner.
Roger Ebert: Review of "Fishtank" (4 stars)
Andrea Arnold's piercing "Fish Tank" is the portrait of an angry, isolated 15-year-old girl who is hurtling toward a lifetime of misery. She is so hurt and lonely, we pity her. Her mother barely even sees her. The film takes place in a bleak British public housing estate, and in the streets and fields around it. There is no suggestion of a place this girl can go to find help, care or encouragement.
Recommended VIEWING
from Bruce
RACHEL I - "CHECK!" (msnbc.msn.com)
"Here (after a quick ad and teaser) Rachel Maddow shows John Boehner ticking off the four things Republicans wanted in the health care reform bill - and, after each one, shows where it is in the Senate bill that they oppose."-Andrew Tobias
RACHEL II - KILLIBUSTER (msnbc.msn.com)
"This second clip highlights the Republican propensity to say no to everything - even things they themselves proposed. It will make you want to jump through the TV and put the filibuster back in its rightful, Jimmy Stewart place."-Andrew Tobias
RACHEL III - HYPOCRISY (msnbc.msn.com)
"Finally, there's this clip showing Republican after Republican trashing the stimulus package, voting against it, and then taking credit for the projects it financed."-Andrew Tobias
The Weekly Poll
Current Question
The 'Putting The Man on the Spot' Edition...
If you were given the opportunity to sit down with President Obama and ask him
three questions, what would they be?
1.) _____________
2.) _____________
3.) _____________
Send your response to
answered:
From The Creator of 'Avery Ant'
Reader Suggestion
Michelle in AZ
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
Billboard Poll
Sexiest Songs
Just in time for Valentine's Day, Billboard has ranked the 50 sexiest songs by popularity - and Barry White didn't even make the list.
Instead, it's Olivia Newton-John who is tops - her hit "Physical" is No. 1, followed by Rod Stewart's "Tonight's the Night (Gonna Be Alright)."
Rounding out the top five: Boyz II Men's ballad "I'll Make Love to You," Next's "Too Close" and Marvin Gaye's "Let's Get it On." (Gaye's "Sexual Healing" is No. 35)
Billboard's list, released Thursday, is based on the popularity of songs from 1958 until early January of this year.
Sexiest Songs
Fan Campaign
Betty White
More than 188,000 people on Facebook are urging "Saturday Night Live" to make Betty White a host.
The campaign has been gaining followers and attention, just as the 88-year-old actress has become more ubiquitous. She was given a lifetime achievement award at the Screen Actors Guild Awards and starred in a Super Bowl commercial for Snickers that has ranked as one of the game's most popular.
The Facebook page, which isn't affiliated with White, says she would be a "fantastic" host and that it would be a terrific way to honor her.
Representatives for White said she had no comment. NBC is also not commenting.
Betty White
50th TV Festival
Monte Carlo
Six scripted series -- three dramas and three comedies -- have been selected to represent the United States at the 50th Monte Carlo TV Festival, which will take place Jun. 6 -10.
Dramas "Mad Men," "Dexter" and "Lost" and comedies "30 Rock," "The Office" and "Entourage," designated by the Producers Guild of America, will compete with series from countries around the world.
The winners in each category will be chosen by an international jury and announced at the festival's Golden Nymph Award ceremony on June 10. In each category, four Golden Nymphs will be awarded: for best international producer, best European producer, best actor and best actress.
Monte Carlo
BAFTA Honor
Vanessa Redgrave
Veteran British actress Vanessa Redgrave will receive an Academy Fellowship from the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) later this month in honor of a career spanning six decades.
BAFTA said the fellowship was its highest honor, and Charlie Chaplin, Alfred Hitchcock, Steven Spielberg, Sean Connery, Elizabeth Taylor and Julie Christie are among the previous recipients.
Vanessa Redgrave, 73, has been nominated for an Oscar six times and won once for her performance in "Julia."
She is also well known for her political activism and campaigned against the wars in Vietnam and Iraq.
Vanessa Redgrave
Will Miss Genesis Rock Hall Induction
Peter Gabriel
When Genesis gets inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame next month, founding member Peter Gabriel won't be there.
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame president Joel Peresman said in a statement Thursday that Gabriel says he has a scheduling conflict with his tour that begins in Europe.
Along with Gabriel, the band's original lineup included Mike Rutherford, Tony Banks, Anthony Phillips and Steve Hackett. Phil Collins joined the band later and replaced Gabriel as lead vocalist in 1976.
The induction ceremony takes place March 15 in New York.
Peter Gabriel
Hospital News
Etta James
The son of Etta James says the R&B singer is making progress in fighting serious infections and has been moved to another hospital in Southern California.
Donto James says Thursday that his 72-year-old mother is improving and doctors have controlled infections that hospitalized her in Riverside about two weeks ago. He says she was transferred Tuesday to a medical center in the Los Angeles suburb of Hawaiian Gardens.
Etta James is best known for the hit "At Last." She was hospitalized late last month with sepsis caused by a urinary tract infection.
She entered a treatment program to shake a dependency on painkillers and was hospitalized when her condition worsened. Donto James says his mother wants to get back to performing, but it's unclear when she'll be released.
Etta James
Hospital News
Alec Baldwin
Emmy award-winning actor Alec Baldwin was taken to a hospital Thursday after his 14-year-old daughter called 911 saying he had threatened to take pills during an argument on the telephone, a law enforcement official said.
Baldwin's daughter, Ireland, told authorities that she was worried about her father after he said, "I'm tired of this. I'm going to take some pills. I'm going to end this," the official told The Associated Press, quoting from an official report on the matter.
Baldwin, 51, was released from the hospital in an hour and took no alcohol or pills, spokesman Matthew Hiltzik said.
"This was a misunderstanding on one person's part. Alec was quickly released from the hospital; he's completely fine and will be at work today," Hiltzik said in a statement.
Alec Baldwin
Judge Extends Custody Order
Courtney Love
A Los Angeles judge on Thursday extended a custody order restricting Courtney Love's access to her teenage daughter, Frances Bean, her child with late Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain.
Superior Court Judge Mitchell Beckloff ruled that an order issued in December, which transferred custody of the 17-year-old to Cobain's mother and sister, would remain in effect until April 9.
Reasons for the custody battle are unknown, but it isn't the first time Love, 45, has experienced such problems.
Bean was taken under the care of her grandmother in 2003 after Love was arrested for possession of drugs without a prescription.
Courtney Love
Italian Court Orders Statue Confiscated
Getty Museum
An Italian court on Thursday ordered an important ancient Greek statue bought by the J. Paul Getty Museum seized so it can be returned to Italy, officials said.
The Los Angeles museum said it would appeal the decision to Italy's highest court and would "vigorously defend" its right to keep the bronze "Victorious Youth" - a highlight of its collection.
The statue, which dates from 300 BC-100 BC, was pulled from the sea by Italian fishermen in 1964 off the eastern town of Fano, near Pesaro.
The Italian government, which has been on an international campaign to reclaim looted antiquities, says it was brought into Italy and then exported illegally.
Getty Museum
Texas Candidate
Debra Medina
A Republican gubernatorial candidate said Thursday she has questions about whether the U.S. government was involved in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks - a statement she swiftly backed away from and one that drew immediate criticism from her better-known rivals in the race.
Gov. Rick Perry and Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison dismissed the comments made by Debra Medina on the Glenn Beck Show that there were "some very good arguments" that the U.S. was involved in bringing down the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001.
Beck, who is influential among the Libertarian-leaning voters that Medina has attracted, said he had been flooded with mail since he announced she would be on the show. Medina said in the interview that she has not been questioning the attacks publicly.
"While I don't endorse anyone ... I think I can write her off the list," Beck said. "Let me take another look at Kay Bailey Hutchison if I have to. Rick, I think you and I could French kiss right now."
Debra Medina
Moves Villagers For Madonna School
Malawi
Malawian officials said on Thursday that they have moved scores of villagers from land where US pop diva Madonna plans to build a girls academy.
"The district commissioner for Lilongwe told the villagers to move off the land and (make) way for the construction of the academy because it was government land reserved for development projects," an official from the commissioner's office told AFP by telephone.
The official, who did not want to be named, said district commissioner Charles Kalemba told the nearly 200 villagers that they were lucky to have been "compensated for the houses, gardens and fruit trees."
The villagers had threatened to block the project unless they got more cash after being paid 500,000 dollars in compensation by Madonna's charity.
Malawi
Party Starting
Brazil Carnival
Rio de Janeiro's youngest Carnival queen, just 7 years old, is preparing to share the limelight with pop divas Madonna and Beyonce as Brazil's annual blow-out gets under way this week.
The choice of third-grader Julia Lira to lead the drum corps for the Viradouro samba group sparked controversy and a legal challenge by a children's rights group who said she risked being sexually exploited.
In Carnival capital Rio, which has extra reason to party after being awarded the 2016 Olympics last year, masks of late U.S. pop idol Michael Jackson have been flying off the shelves along with those of Brazilian politicians in an election year.
U.S. R&B stars Beyonce and Alicia Keys are also in Brazil to take part in the festival of hedonism before Lent that is thought to have its roots in pre-Christian spring festivals.
Brazil Carnival
Inuk's Gene Map
Greenland
Scientists have sequenced the DNA from four frozen hairs of a Greenlander who died 4,000 years ago in a study they say takes genetic technology into several new realms.
Surprisingly, the long-dead man appears to have originated in Siberia and is unrelated to modern Greenlanders, Morten Rasmussen of the University of Copenhagen and colleagues found.
Not only can the findings help transform the study of archeology, but they can help answer questions about the origins of modern populations and disease, they said.
The DNA gives strong hints about the man, nicknamed Inuk. "Brown eyes, brown skin, he had shovel-form front teeth," Eske Willerslev, who oversaw the study, told a telephone briefing. Such teeth are characteristic of East Asian and Native American populations.
Greenland
Back To Vegas
Celine Dion
Celine Dion is returning to the Las Vegas Strip in 2011 to begin a three-year run at Caesars Palace.
The Grammy award-winning singer announced Wednesday she'll return to the 4,300-seat Colosseum, home of her previous show, "A New Day." It grossed more than $400 million and was seen by nearly 3 million fans over five years before closing in December 2007.
The new show begins March 15, 2011, with tickets for the first 54 performances going on sale Friday. Officials say ticket prices will range from $55 to $250 before taxes and fees.
Dion says the new show will feature songs ranging from timeless classics to fan favorites, with a concept incorporating the romance of classic movies.
Celine Dion
End Of The Road
'American Chopper'
"American Chopper" is riding off into the sunset.
The popular TLC series based on the feuding Teutul family and their custom-built motorcycle business is going off the air after six seasons. TLC said Wednesday that the final episode will air Thursday.
The end isn't a surprise. Paul Teutul and his son, Paul Jr., have frequently fought on the air. The son recently left the New York-based Orange County Choppers to start his own business, and the two are in a court dispute over money.
'American Chopper'
Cowgirl Museum's New Exhibit
Georgia O'Keeffe
The elegant Georgia O'Keeffe is known for her large-scale paintings of vibrant flowers and trees, but inspiration for her other works came during many rustic camping trips out West.
That little-known side of O'Keeffe is the focus of a new exhibit at the National Cowgirl Museum and Hall of Fame. It features some never-before-displayed art, photographs, clothing and camping gear - including her tent, sleeping bag, lanterns and cooking utensils - from her time in New Mexico in the 1940s.
The "Georgia O'Keeffe and the Faraway: Nature and Image" exhibit opens Friday and runs through Sept. 6 at the museum in Fort Worth.
The 325-square-metre exhibit replicates an O'Keeffe campsite in great detail, but it also features nine of her paintings, six sketches and more than two dozen candid photos of her. It includes a few letters she wrote to her husband Alfred Stieglitz, known as the nation's first advocate of modern art, who stayed on the East Coast during her trips.
Georgia O'Keeffe
In Memory
Alexander McQueen
At the pinnacle of his success, British fashion designer Alexander McQueen was found dead in his home Thursday, days after posting anguished online remarks about the death of his mother. He was 40.
McQueen is credited with helping revive the once-moribund British fashion industry. His edgy pieces were coveted and treasured by stylish women across the globe and seen on numerous red carpets.
McQueen did not design for the celebrities, but they flocked to him for the sheer audacity of his creations, which were instantly recognizable for being dramatic, exquisitely tailored and oh-so sexy.
A stunning dress for Sandra Bullock? A special order for Madonna? Something special for Kate Moss or Naomi Campbell? All these feats seemed easy for the quiet, slim, bearded Englishman who shunned publicity and laughed off the limelight.
He was also responsible for one of history's most famous "wardrobe malfunctions." He designed Janet Jackson's Super Bowl outfit, which fell open while she was singing, revealing one of her breasts.
In the usually glad-handing fashion world, McQueen was known as a private man who shunned the limelight. He turned down most interview requests and did not cultivate a cult of personality or try do develop an air of mystery about his work.
McQueen, a trim, handsome man with startling gray-blue eyes, had an easy smile, but did not linger in the camera's glare.
McQueen was known for pushing the envelope. At his spring-summer 2010 collection, he featured sculptural cocktail dresses in psychedelic snakeskin prints, with the hoof-like platform booties that were worn by Lady Gaga. The show opened with huge screens projecting close-up images of a woman writhing among a den of snakes.
McQueen was the youngest of six children born to a taxi driver and a teacher. He received his early fashion training at the Central St. Martin's College of Art and Design, long recognized for its fashion-forward approach and encouragement of Britain's talented young designers.
He learned the finer points of traditional men's tailoring at two famous, conservative Savile Row houses: Anderson and Sheppard, and Gieves and Hawkes.
After his Savile Row stint, McQueen started to develop his trademark, more theatrical designs, working with several other brands before first starting his own label in 1992.
He quickly earned a reputation for innovation. The company he founded was purchased by the Gucci Group, and he retained creative control of his own brand. There were plans for stores in Paris, Milan and London, as well as Manhattan and San Francisco.
Alexander McQueen
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