Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Tom Danehy: A very bad day at the corner of Park and Speedway (Tucson Weekly)
It's not very often that a man gets to drive his adult son to school, so the day started off kinda strangely and then went from there.
Paul Krugman's Blog: Obama, Ryan, and the Shape of the Planet (New York Times)
I'm already hearing some people saying, "Why don't you subject Obama to the same kind of criticism you leveled at Ryan?' The answer is, because Obama doesn't deserve it.
Ted Rall: Zero Salary for Congress
Most Americans don't like Moammar Kadafi or Mahmoud Ahmedinejad. But that might change if they knew their paychecks. The leaders of Libya and Iran get $9,516 and $3,000 a year annually, respectively. Obama collects $5,505,509-a whopping $22,022 per day.
Annie Lowrey: The Do-Nothing Plan (Slate)
How Congress can balance the budget in eight years by literally doing nothing. This is not a joke.
Jim Hightower: GUBERNATORIAL GOOFINESS IN MAINE
Here's a bit of political trivia: Three of the goofiest, most anti-worker governors in America are named Rick. What're the odds of that? They are Scott of Florida, Snyder of Michigan, and Perry of Texas. But all three Ricardos are in danger of being out-goofyfied by Paul LePage of Maine.
Maggie Mayhem: Dear Sex Worker Hater (therumpus.net)
Hello Sex Worker Hater, So, we meet again. You're a shape shifter and I feel like I see you everywhere I go. I've spotted you on police forms for recovered bodies which had two categories: human and non-human. Guess which category specifically listed prostitutes? I don't have to tell you, hater, you already know where you think sex workers belong.
Connie Schultz: Here's to the Poets Who Share Our Secrets (Creators Syndicate)
Maybe you don't know this: We're in the middle of National Poetry Month. I hesitated before telling you. Part of me winces at such contrived celebrations. So often they end up lofty intentions run to ground.
Jonathan Franklin: 20 Questions (Popmatters)
Award-winning investigative journalist and Hugh Laurie-kinda lookalike Jonathan Franklin has a knack for finding humor in the funniest places. Hugo Chavez as stand-up comedian we get. But Patrick Buchanan...?
Jessa Crispin: A Sea of Words (The Smart Set/Bookslut)
Publishing isn't dead. Smart publishing, well, that's a different story.
Jackie Collins: Queen of the bonkbuster (Guardian)
There's the big house (inspired by a Hockney painting), the 'signature animal' (a panther) and the estimated fortune of £90m. So what got Jackie Collins to where she is today? Interview by Emma Brockes.
Spring makeover: bin the books (Guardian)
Author Stuart Walton on a life-changing decision to get rid of his books.
CHRISTOPHER F. CHABRIS: Knowing What Isn't So (Wall Street Journal)
How does a brand suddenly become popular? Why is the "Mona Lisa" the most famous painting in the world? In "Everything Is Obvious," Duncan J. Watts asks us to reconsider the explanations we give ourselves for the phenomena we observe around us, arguing that common sense can often be misleading.
David Bruce has 41 Kindle books on Amazon.com with 250 anecdotes in each book. Each book is $1, so for $41 you can buy 10,250 anecdotes. Search for "Funniest People," "Coolest People, "Most Interesting People," "Kindest People," "Religious Anecdotes," and "Maximum Cool."
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Reader Suggestions
Michelle in AZ
From The Creator of 'Avery Ant'
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Sunny and warm.
CA Senate Bill Mandates
Gay History
Gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transgender people would be added to the lengthy list of social and ethnic groups that public schools must include in social studies lessons under a landmark bill passed Thursday by the California Senate.
If the bill is adopted by the state Assembly and signed by Gov. Jerry Brown, California would become the first state to require the teaching of gay history.
Supporters say the move is needed to counter anti-gay stereotypes and beliefs that make children in those groups vulnerable to bullying and suicide.
The legislation, sponsored by Democratic Sen. Mark Leno of San Francisco, passed on a 23-14 party line vote. It also would add disabled people to the curriculum.
Gay History
Cancels 2 Longtime Soaps
ABC
ABC is canceling the soap operas "All My Children" and "One Life to Live," both programs that have been on the network's daytime lineup for more than 40 years.
The move leaves "General Hospital" as ABC's only daytime drama.
ABC's daytime department president Brian Frons said Thursday that "viewers are looking for different types of programming these days."
Soap operas have slowly been fading as a TV force, with many of the women who made up the target audience now in the work force. ABC will air two new shows, one about food and the other about lifestyle transformations.
ABC
"Lucy in the Sky" Lyrics Up For Auction
John Lennon
John Lennon's handwritten lyrics for the song "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" are up for auction, in the latest episode for a storied Beatles classic.
Auction house Profiles in History said on Wednesday that it expects the draft lyric sheet to sell for more than $200,000 at a sale next month in Beverly Hills.
It has the opening lyrics for the song, and a rough sketch by of four people in a room with windows draped in curtains.
The draft "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" lyrics will be sold at an auction scheduled for May 14 and 15 at the Saban Theater in Beverly Hills.
John Lennon
New Orleans Homes Torn Down
'Treme'
Several ramshackle houses featured on advertisements for the HBO series "Treme" were demolished Thursday, despite efforts by preservationists and show producers who wanted the row homes renovated.
The houses had roofs that were barely there and chunks of siding missing. They needed to be torn down because they were dangerous and an eyesore, Mayor Mitch Landrieu and several neighbors said. The buildings, which sit across from a playground and park, have long been havens for criminals and drug users, they said.
The producers of the television show, set in New Orleans in the months after Hurricane Katrina, asked the mayor in a letter to hold off on razing the homes.
Landrieu said he was making good on his promise to rid the city of an estimated 50,000 to 60,000 blighted properties. Two homes had been flattened by the time Landrieu held an afternoon news conference at the site, having sometimes testy exchanges with local preservationists.
'Treme'
Broadway Debut
Samuel L. Jackson
Samuel L. Jackson will make his Broadway debut this fall as the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.
Producers of "The Mountaintop" said Thursday that the Academy Award-nominated actor will star in the play that reimagines the night before the civil rights leader's assassination.
The play, by Katori Hall, made its debut in London in 2009. It had been rumored that Halle Berry would join Jackson but producers said "child custody issues" ruled her out.
Jackson, known for films like "Pulp Fiction" and "Snakes on a Plane," originated roles in two of August Wilson's plays at Yale Repertory Theatre and appeared at the New York Shakespeare Festival.
Samuel L. Jackson
Movie Theater Run
Sondheim's 'Company'
The New York Philharmonic's star-studded production of Stephen Sondheim's "Company" is heading to a movie screen near you.
The distributor Screenvision said Thursday that starting June 15 it will broadcast a taped production of the musical featuring Craig Bierko, Stephen Colbert, Jon Cryer, Katie Finneran, Neil Patrick Harris, Christina Hendricks Patti LuPone, Martha Plimpton and Anika Noni Rose, among others.
The production, which was staged at Lincoln Center in early April under the direction of Lony Price, boasts the songs "Ladies Who Lunch" and "Side by Side by Side."
Screenvision has a network of more than 2,400 theaters in 50 states. Dates and locations of the "Company" broadcast were still to be announced.
Sondheim's 'Company'
Contestants Sued For Revealing Outcome
Reality TV
Reality TV producers often make contestants sign confidentiality agreements and enact high penalties should secrets be leaked. So what happens when contestants have legitimate gripes and must go to court to air their grievances? Do they then have the right to air the show's dirty laundry?
That tricky question is the subject of a legal complaint filed on Tuesday, in which a producer claims that contestants who blabbed about the show's outcome in a legal filing "destroyed the commercial value" of a series.
Sean Morrison says in his lawsuit that he was the financier of a reality television series known as "Ultimate Women's Challenge" and foreclosed on rights to the show after the original producer, LHP Entertainment, didn't pay back a $600,000 loan.
The financial problems associated with Ultimate Women's Challenge also presented difficulties for seven female contestants who agreed to appear on the show for $100 per day, with the competition's champion being promised $50,000 in cash and prizes, and runners-up being promised other amounts.
The women allegedly didn't get their money, so last month they filed a breach of contract claim against the producer. In the complaint, the plaintiffs detailed who was owed what -- allegations which, of course, revealed who had emerged victorious.
Reality TV
Sells Naming Rights
Altoona, Pa
Later this month, there will still be a city with roughly 31,000 residents in the Allegheny Mountains east of Pittsburgh. What there won't be is a city named Altoona.
That's because the city has sold its name to make some money - and to help independent filmmaker Morgan Spurlock make a point.
City Council on Wednesday approved a deal to change Altoona's name to "POM Wonderful Presents: The Greatest Movie Ever Sold" for 60 days. Spurlock will pay the city an unspecified amount that will benefit its police department.
The film will screen in Altoona on April 27, the day the name change takes effect.
Altoona, Pa
Publisher Admits False Statement
Carib News
A newspaper publisher pleaded guilty Thursday to filing a false statement with the U. S. House of Representatives about the source of funds used to pay for a trip in 2007 by members of Congress, including Rep. Charles Rangel.
Karl Rodney, the publisher of Carib News, admitted that he failed to list a foreign country and a private company as providing round-trip airfare, hotels and meals for members of Congress to attend an annual Caribbean multinational business conference. Rodney entered his plea in U.S. District Court in Washington.
On his financial disclosure form for 2007, Rangel, D-N.Y., said he attended the Carib News Foundation event in Antigua and Barbuda from Nov. 8-11. According to court papers in the case, Rodney is the foundation's chief executive officer.
Starting in 2007, the House required advance approval by the ethics committee for privately financed travel and required trip sponsors to file trip forms saying who would pay for transportation, lodging and meals.
Rodney faces up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine and sentencing is scheduled for July 22. Federal sentencing guidelines for this charge call for jail time of up to six months.
Carib News
Pays Off Tax Debts
Ozzy Osbourne
Heavy metal icon Ozzy Osbourne and his wife have quickly paid off their $1.7 million U.S. tax debts, a week after learning about their financial troubles from the news media.
Sharon Osbourne, a tough-talking reality TV personality who also manages her husband's career, said on Thursday the federal tax bill had been paid, and she was now on a mission to find out why the Internal Revenue Service filed a lien on one of the British couple's Los Angeles-area residences.
"At 4:00 p.m. on Friday afternoon I received a phone call from my publicist who had a reporter on the other line informing her that the IRS had just put a lien on one of our properties," Osbourne said in a statement released to gossip writer Perez Hilton. She linked to it from her Twitter feed.
"I then contacted my accountant who said they knew nothing about any lien. The lien has been paid. I do intend to find out how this lien happened without the knowledge of myself or my accountants. I hope none of this reflects negatively on mine and Ozzy's moral character."
Ozzy Osbourne
Admits Abusing Second Nephew
Belgian Bishop
A former Belgian bishop at the center of one of the Roman Catholic church's biggest pedophile scandals said Thursday that he had abused two nephews and insisted he had no plans to abandon the priesthood.
In his first television interview since the scandal broke a year ago, Roger Vangheluwe claimed he paid one nephew he abused for years tens of thousands of euros in support, but denied it was meant to keep him silent.
He called 13 years of sexual abuse of one nephew which started at age 5 as no more than "a little piece of intimacy." He said the abuse of a second nephew was very short.
He said he fully realized what he did was wrong, and often went to confession about it. The 74-year-old Vangheluwe resigned a year ago, just as the sex abuse scandal was spreading across Europe.
"I had the strong impression that my nephew didn't mind at all. To the contrary," he said. "It was not brutal sex," Vangheluwe said. "I never used bodily, physical violence."
Belgian Bishop
Philippine Growth Industry
Exorcism
A blood-curdling scream echoes through the Roman Catholic chapel in Manila as Father Jose Francisco Syquia says a prayer of exorcism over a Satanic cult member believed to be possessed by the devil.
"It's very painful," the woman cries in an unearthly voice, her body contorting in an attempt to break free from the tight grasp of Syquia's assistants. After a few minutes she falls silent, her limp body exhausted.
The case is among hundreds documented on video and kept by Syquia, who heads the Manila Archdiocese's Office of Exorcism -- the only one that exists in the Catholic nation of 94 million people.
Syquia said a conspiracy of silence had permeated the church in the past, with its leaders wary of being branded as mediaeval as modern science tended to classify possessions as medical conditions.
But Pope Benedict XVI had recently issued fresh guidelines encouraging more exorcisms and for the church to be more open about the issue, he said.
Exorcism
'World's First 3D Porn Film' Opens in Hong Kong
Zen: Extreme Ecstasy
Movie-goers flocked to see what is billed as the world's first 3D porn film as it opened to packed cinemas across Hong Kong on Thursday, with some screenings selling out completely.
Loosely based on a piece of classical Chinese erotic literature, the $3.2-million Cantonese-language movie "3-D Sex and Zen: Extreme Ecstasy" features orgies, swinging and some very graphic sex scenes.
Curious movie-goers from all walks of life -- office workers, retirees and students -- formed long queues outside cinemas in the southern Chinese city, eager to catch an eyeful of steamy 3D action.
The movie will open in Taiwan on Friday and has sparked strong interest in many Asian markets, including Japan and South Korea, as well Europe and the United States, according to the producer.
Zen: Extreme Ecstasy
Korean Books Returned
Oegyujanggak
A collection of centuries-old Korean royal documents, taken by French troops when they invaded an island off the peninsula nearly 150 years ago, are being returned to Seoul after a presidential agreement.
The Oegyujanggak books contain rare hand-written stories and pictures of major royal events that took place in the last Joseon Dynasty from 1392-1910.
The 297-volume set was stolen by French soldiers in 1866 when they invaded Kangwha Island in retaliation for Korea's persecution of French Catholic missionaries. The books were then kept at the National Library of France.
Seventy-five books arrived back in Seoul on Thursday, and the rest would be returned by the end of May in three further shipments.
Oegyujanggak
Cable Nielsens
Ratings
Rankings for the top 15 programs on cable networks as compiled by the Nielsen Co. for the week of April 4-10. Day and start time (EDT) are in parentheses:
1. "ICarly" (Saturday, 8 p.m.), Nickelodeon, 4.59 million homes, 7.35 million viewers.
2. "Pawn Stars" (Monday, 10:30 p.m.), History, 4.07 million homes, 5.94 million viewers.
3. "WWE Raw" (Monday, 10 p.m.), USA, 3.946 million homes, 5.78 million viewers.
4. "Pawn Stars" (Monday, 10 p.m.), History, 3.94 million homes, 5.68 million viewers.
5. "WWE Raw" (Monday, 9 p.m.), USA, 3.72 million homes, 5.41 million viewers.
6. "Big Time Rush" (Saturday, 8:30 p.m.), Nickelodeon, 3.67 million homes, 5.68 million viewers.
7. "American Pickers" (Monday, 9 p.m.), History, 3.63 million homes, 5.18 million viewers.
8. Major League Baseball: N.Y. Yankees vs Boston (Sunday, 7:59 p.m.), ESPN, 3.38 million homes, 4.69 million viewers.
9. "SpongeBob SquarePants" (Sunday, 10:30 a.m.), Nickelodeon, 3.17 million homes, 4.21 million viewers.
10. "SpongeBob SquarePants" (Saturday, 9 a.m.), Nickelodeon, 3.14 million homes, 4.18 million viewers.
11. "SpongeBob SquarePants" (Saturday, 9:30 a.m.), Nickelodeon, 3.13 million homes, 4.21 million viewers.
12. "SpongeBob SquarePants" (Sunday, 10 a.m.), Nickelodeon, 3.1 million homes, 4.23 million viewers.
13. "ICarly" (Sunday, 7 p.m.), Nickelodeon, 3.01 million homes, 4.34 million viewers.
14. "SpongeBob SquarePants" (Sunday, 9:30 a.m.), Nickelodeon, 2.97 million homes, 3.86 million viewers.
15. "Teen Mom 2: Check Up Special" (Tuesday, 10 p.m.), MTV, 2.91 million homes, 3.64 million viewers.
Ratings
In Memory
Randy Wood
The founder of Dot Records who helped introduce black rhythm-and-blues to white audiences in the early rock era has died in California. Randy Wood was 94.
His son, John, tells the Los Angeles Times that Wood died on Saturday at his La Jolla home from injuries he suffered in a fall downstairs.
Dot Records grew out of a record shop that Wood owned in Tennessee. In the 1950s, Wood made white covers of songs by Fats Domino and other musicians whose so-called "race records" were hits in the black community but largely unknown to whites.
Singer Pat Boone says Wood picked out all of his early hits.
Dot eventually included artists in a range of styles, from Louis Armstrong to Lawrence Welk. It went out of business in the 1970s.
Randy Wood
In Memory
Charles Laufer
Charles Laufer, who published Tiger Beat and other fan magazines that breathlessly covered the doings of teen idols, has died at age 87.
His daughter, Teena Naumann, tells the Los Angeles Times that Laufer died of natural causes on April 5 at Northridge Hospital Medical Center.
Laufer was teaching at a Norwalk, Calif., high school in the 1950s when he came up with the idea for a student-oriented magazine called Coaster. He later changed the name to Teen.
In 1965, he launched Tiger Beat, which covered the likes of the Beatles and teen heartthrob David Cassidy. At its peak, the magazine sold hundreds of thousands of copies.
His other magazines included Gossip and Rona Barrett's Hollywood.
Laufer sold his company in 1978.
Charles Laufer
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