Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Hadley Freeman: Margaret Thatcher was no feminist (Guardian)
One woman's success does not mean a step forward for women. Far from 'smashing the glass ceiling', Thatcher made it through and pulled the ladder up after her.
Tyler Kingkade: "Teacher Resignation Letter From Gerald Conti Says His Profession 'No Longer Exists'" (Huffington Post)
"Education to me is completely qualitative, it's not quantitative," Conti said. "It's about personal relationships, and it's about getting kids to be curious. And that's what I've been trying to do all my career."
Sam Wolfson: "Kate Tempest: the performance poet who can't be ignored" (Guardian)
Kate Tempest - the first person under 40 to win the Ted Hughes award for innovation in poetry - explains how hip-hop, rap and raves led her to write an hour-long spoken story set to music.
John Harris: "Tim Waterstone: 'If reading is going be all digital in 50 years, so be it'" (Guardian)
Thirty years ago, Tim Waterstone founded one of the UK's best-known booksellers, and is still in love with the idea of bookshops. So what is he doing starting a new ebooks venture?
Alison Baverstock: Ten ways self-publishing has changed the books world (Guardian)
As the DIY approach gains more and more writers and readers, traditional publishers must reinvent themselves.
Oscar Guardiola-Rivera: Pablo Neruda's importance was as much political as poetic (Guardian)
On top of this week's exhumation, research is underlining why the newly-installed junta was so keen to be rid of him.
Imogen Russell Williams: The books you cannot let go (Guardian)
They may be falling apart, you may know you'll never read them again. But as talismans they have an indispensable power.
Imogen Russell Williams: "Sob stories: classic books I'm too cowardly to finish" (Guardian)
Hardy's Tess, To Kill a Mockingbird, all of Steinbeck - these are the canonical works I can't complete due to the horrors incurred by blameless characters. Which are yours?
Emily Temple: The 25 Books Every Kid Should Have on Their Bookshelf (Flavorwire)
This month marks the 70th anniversary of one of our favorite children's books of all time, the beautiful, contemplative novella The Little Prince. To celebrate the book's legacy (and to encourage any parents currently dragging their feet to get it for their little ones), we've put together a list of 25 essential books that every kid should have on his or her bookshelf growing up.
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Reader Suggestion
Michelle in AZ
David E Suggests
Foreign Students
Thanks, David!
From The Creator of 'Avery Ant'
Sings Special Song
Conan
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Sunny and warmer than seasonal.
Loses Appeal
Howard Stern
A New York state appeals court declined to revive a $330 million lawsuit brought by disc jockey Howard Stern against satellite radio broadcaster Sirius XM Radio Inc for refusing to pay him stock awards he said he was due.
In a one-paragraph decision, the court on Thursday affirmed a trial judge's ruling last year that threw out Stern's lawsuit, finding that the 2004 deal that brought him from traditional radio to Sirius was "unambiguous."
Stern claimed that Sirius should count subscribers to the former XM Satellite Radio Inc, which Sirius bought in 2008, as well as its own subscribers in calculating performance-based awards for Stern and his production company, One Twelve Inc.
"The disputed term 'Sirius subscribers,' by which plaintiffs' performance-based compensation was measured, did not include subscribers to XM Radio," the appeals court wrote.
Howard Stern
Tops UK Music Rich List
Paul McCartney
Former Beatle Paul McCartney's 680-million-pound ($1.04 billion) fortune put him at the top of a list ranking the UK and Ireland's richest musicians that also highlighted Adele as the wealthiest young music millionaire.
McCartney was followed closely by music and stage impresario Andrew Lloyd-Webber at 620 million pounds, Irish rock band U2 and singer Elton John in the Sunday Times Rich List 2013 to be published on April 21, an emailed statement from the paper said.
Profits from Lloyd-Webber's hugely successful stage shows, such as "Phantom of the Opera", "Evita" and "Cats", helped to boost the composer and theatre owner's fortune to keep him in second place ahead of U2 at 520 million and "Candle in the Wind" singer John in third at 240 million pounds.
Rolling Stone Mick Jagger came joint fifth at 200 million pounds alongside former Spice Girl Victoria Beckham and her soccer player husband David Beckham.
Adele topped the 2013 Young Music Rich List of entertainers aged 30 and under with a 30 million pound fortune. With the continued worldwide success of her album "21", this was a 50 percent increase on the 20 million pounds which put the Oscar-winning singer-songwriter atop the list in 2012.
Paul McCartney
Woman's Wish
Bob Seger
Against the odds and "Against the Wind," one Michigan woman has come back from the brink to fulfill a rock n' roll fantasy.
In 2011, a Michigan woman awoke from a coma after five years and immediately had one simple request, "I want to go to a Bob Seger concert."
And now, two years later, she's going to be showing off her night moves in style with a limo and after-party tickets for Seger's upcoming concert on Thursday at the Palace in Auburn Hills.
The Detroit News reports that 79-year-old Evie Branan's first words upon regaining consciousness back in May, 2011, even took her by surprise.
Branan went into a coma after falling down a flight of stairs in 2007. Since awakening, she has been working on her physical therapy, recovering most of her memory and progressing to walking about 150 steps per day. She's even getting a new set of hearing aids in advance of the concert.
Bob Seger
Sell For $2.7M
Russian Vases
Randy Buttram never gave much thought to the two 4½-foot tall ornate vases that graced the elegant main entrance of his grandparents' Oklahoma City mansion and later were displayed around a fireplace facade at his parents' home.
The vases, which had been packed away for around a decade, turned out to be rare items from Russia dating back nearly two centuries - to the reign of Nicholas I.
It turned out they carried immense value, fetching $2.7 million Thursday in a private sale about a week before they were to be auctioned.
Officials with the auction company were evaluating items inherited by Buttram and his brother at their late parents' home when they noticed the top portion of one of the vases lying on a bed had the blue marking of Russia's Imperial Porcelain Factory used during the reign of Nicholas I and the date 1833 printed on it.
Russian Vases
Jury Rejects Claim
Junie Hoang
A federal jury in Seattle has rejected a claim brought by a little-known actress who sued Amazon.com and its Internet Movie Database for revealing her age.
Huong Hoang goes by the stage name Junie Hoang and has appeared in such films as "Gingerdead Man 3: Saturday Night Cleaver" and "Hoodrats 2: Hoodrat Warriors."
The 41-year-old says offers for roles dried up after the popular online movie database mined her account information to learn her true age.
She sued for breach of contract, and the case went to trial this week. The judge dismissed parent company Amazon as a defendant before the trial.
IMDb argued that it has a First Amendment right to publish accurate information and Hoang can't prove she lost any money because of it.
Junie Hoang
Reebok Drops Following Pro-Rape Lyrics
Rick Ross
Reebok has ended its relationship with Rick Ross following heavy criticism of lyrics by the rapper considered by some to be pro-rape.
The sneaker brand said in a statement Thursday that "Reebok holds our partners to a high standard and we expect them to live up to the values of our brand. Unfortunately, Rick Ross has failed to do so."
Ross formally apologized for his lyrics on Rocko's song "U.O.E.N.O." in a tweet last week. It came the same day a women's group, UltraViolet, protested outside of one Reebok's stores in Manhattan.
In Rocko's song, Ross raps about giving a woman the drug MDMA, known as Molly, and having his way with her.
"Put Molly all up in her champagne, she ain't even know it, I took her home and I enjoyed that, she ain't even know it," he says.
Rick Ross
China Pulls On Day Of Premiere
'Django Unchained'
"Django Unchained" became "Django Unscreened" on Thursday as Quentin Tarantino's violent slave-revenge saga was pulled from Chinese theaters on its opening day, with the importer blaming an unspecified technical problem.
The rare suspension order by China Film Group Corp. was confirmed by theater employees throughout China, and has led to speculation that the Hollywood film could have run afoul of Chinese censors despite weeks of promotion in the country.
Calls to the importer and to China's regulatory agency, the State Administration of Radio Film and Television, were unanswered. The China office of Sony Pictures, which released the film, refused to comment.
"Django Unchained" reportedly cut some violent scenes and had already been cleared by China's rigorous censors, who generally remove violence, sex and politically edgy content. With such an exacting system, suspension on a film's premiere date is unusual.
'Django Unchained'
Rupert Reboots
National Geographic Channel
David Lyle, CEO of the National Geographic Channel, has seen enough of the letters to know how they go. The writer is typically a longtime reader of the magazine, who perhaps recalls the times he leafed through its glossy pages while perched on grandpa's knee.
"The second paragraph," he said, "would always be, 'So you can imagine my disappointment when ...'"
Fill in the blank. Maybe the person saw the channel's documentary about escort services, or a show about a man who sculpts with a chain saw. Perhaps it was a show about gypsies, UFO hunters or people stocking up for the imminent end of the world. Maybe more letters will come after this Sunday, when narrator Rob Lowe starts a nostalgic three-day look at the 1980s.
The first three months of 2013 represented the network's best quarter since its launch in 2001. The National Geographic Channel averaged 554,000 viewers in prime time, propelled by "Doomsday Preppers," the "Wicked Tuna" series about fishermen in Gloucester, Mass., and a movie dramatization of Bill O'Reilly's book, "Killing Lincoln."
Before its makeover, NatGeo was a musty network that aired documentaries with "voice of God" narrators and few reasons for people to watch regularly, Lyle said. The "Great Migrations" miniseries about animal treks in 2010 had spectacular nature photography but wasn't the television event that executives hoped for.
National Geographic Channel
Rupert Wanted It
'The Bible'
Rupert Murdoch wanted Fox News to air The Bible, the hit miniseries on History with an Obama-esque Satan. Murdoch wanted the miniseries to run on a News Corp. channel-he just couldn't figure out how to fit it in among all the comedies, murder shows, and talent contests, the Los Angeles Times's Joe Flint reports. So Murdoch and Fox chief Roger Ailes planned on running The Bible on Fox News Sunday nights, presumably instead of Huckabee reruns. They thought it would appeal to its "older and more conservative audience," Flint reports. Alas, it didn't work out. News Corp. and The Bible's producers, including Survivor bigwig Mark Burnett, couldn't come to an agreement on the money or the rights.
This is an unsettling revelation. Usually we can count on the Bible being represented on Fox News in a big way. Fox often has an explicitly Christian message. There was the "War on Christmas," the time Varney & Co. played the Christian song "Our God Is an Awesome God," the time Fox declared "NBC Declares War on Christians," the time Bill O'Reilly condemned Catholics for voting for Obama as a sign of "creeping secularism on the religious vote." Here's hoping the absence of The Bible is not a sign of creeping secularism at Fox News.
'The Bible'
Removes Coulter Column
Rupert
The Fox Nation website has removed a column by conservative commentator Ann Coulter (R-Huckster) because it had a reference to killing the daughter of Sen. John McCain.
Fox said Thursday that the post was removed because of the reference. It had been posted Wednesday.
Coulter wrote about how MSNBC's Martin Bashir suggested Republican senators wouldn't support stronger gun control legislation until a member of their family was killed. She wrote: "Let's start with Meghan McCain!"
McCain tweeted on Thursday that she "couldn't imagine living a life that seems so void of love, compassion and perspective."
Rupert
Kim Jong Un's Less Responsible Older Brother
Kim Jong Nam
North Korea seems very keen of late to let everyone know that it is prepared to start a global thermonuclear war. The United States is taking the threat seriously, deploying antiballistic missile defenses along the Pacific Coast, and South Korea is threatening a "strong response in initial combat without any political considerations." There is some question as to whether North Korea is technically capable of actually waging such a war, and it seems that nobody has told Kim Jong Un, North Korea's Supreme Leader.
In 2001, it didn't seem that Kim Jong Un's fingerprints might one day adorn the red button. In those heady days, a different Kim was in line for the throne: Kim Jong Nam (above right), the eldest son of Kim Jong Il. Things went bad for Kim Jong Nam when he was detained at Narita International Airport in Tokyo. The charge: traveling with a fraudulent passport. Specifically, he attempted to pass himself off as a Dominican named Pang Xiong (which translates as "Fat Bear" in Chinese). Japanese authorities, who know a fake Dominican when they see one, deported the heir apparent of North Korea to China.
Kim Jong Nam and his immediate family were attempting to visit Tokyo Disneyland.
All of this was pretty embarrassing for Kim Jong Il, the Shining Star of Paektu Mountain, who thus canceled his own planned Chinese excursion. Kim Jong Nam quickly fell out of favor with his father, and was replaced by Kim Jong Un in the line of succession.
Kim Jong Nam and Kim Jong Un are half-brothers. The older brother was born to Song Hye-rim, mistress of Kim Jong Il. The younger of the two was born to Ko Young-hee, a Pyongyang opera star. There is a middle brother - Kim Jong Chol - but Dear Leader considered him too feminine to lead a manly state like North Korea.
Kim Jong Nam
In Memory
Mickey Rose
A childhood friend of Woody Allen who co-wrote his movies "Bananas" and "Take the Money and Run" has died. Mickey Rose was 77.
His daughter, Jennifer, tells the Los Angeles Times that he died Sunday from cancer at his home in Beverly Hills.
Rose and Allen met in high school in Brooklyn, N.Y., and became friends. They shared a love of playing jazz and baseball.
Rose met his late wife, Judy, through a blind date arranged by Allen.
Rose became a TV comedy writer. He wrote for Johnny Carson and Sid Caesar and for shows including "The Smothers Brothers," ''All in the Family" and "The Odd Couple."
In a statement, Allen says Rose was one of the funniest humans he's known - and a "wonderful first baseman."
Mickey Rose
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