Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Froma Harrop: Women, Work, Jobs, and Time (Creators Syndicate)
To quote "Adelaide's Lament" from "Guys and Dolls," "You can feed her all day with the vitamin A and the bromofizz/ But the medicine never gets anywhere near where the trouble is." That's the sense one gets from the recent tone-challenged courting of women voters.
Your Tax Rate Versus Mitt's
David Bruce's Tax Rate is higher than Mitt's (so is marty's).
Tom Danehy: "Some words in praise of our governor (but only after some words that aren't so complimentary)" (Tucson Weekly)
In the early days of the Manhattan Project, nuclear scientists encountered a unique problem.
David Bainbridge: "Evolution has given humans a huge advantage over most other animals: middle age" (Washington Post)
We are used to dismissing our fifth and sixth decades as a negative chapter in our lives, perhaps even a cause for crisis. But recent scientific findings have shown just how important middle age is for every one of us, and how crucial it has been to the success of our species. Middle age is not just about wrinkles and worry. It is not about getting old. It is an ancient, pivotal episode in the human life span, preprogrammed into us by natural selection, an exceptional characteristic of an exceptional species.
Susan Estrich: Women's Work (Creators Syndicate)
… Romney was overheard by reporters at a fundraiser telling his supporters that he planned to slash government programs (and even departments), notably housing and education, but probably wouldn't tell voters until after the election.
Is Tennessee trying to ban hand-holding? (The Week)
Legislators want to expand their abstinence-only curriculum to discourage students from "gateway sexual activity" - maybe even kissing and holding hands.
Richard B. Woodward: When Bad is Good (ARTNews)
Artworks that mimic soft porn, showcase embalmed animals, mock the Pope, and otherwise offend propriety are filling auctions, museums, and galleries. Is there anything left to be upset about?
Brian Braiker, "London 2012 organisers wanted Keith Moon to play at Olympics ceremony: Drummer died from a drug overdose in 1978 at the age of 32" (Guardian)
The band's manager, Bill Curbishley, told the Sunday Times he had been approached to see if Moon "would be available" to play with the surviving members this summer. "I emailed back saying Keith now resides in Golders Green crematorium, having lived up to the Who's anthemic line 'I hope I die before I get old'," ….
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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Michelle in AZ
Bosko Suggests
Desert Images
Have a great day,
Bosko.
Thanks, Bosko!
From The Creator of 'Avery Ant'
PURPLE GENE
SO LONG...LEVON
BadtotheboneBob
Five Qs w/ William Shatner
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Marine layer morning, sunny afternoon.
Not Among Time's Most Influential People
Oprah
Oprah Winfrey has been on Time's list of the 100 Most Influential People in the World every year the magazine has published the list... until now. After being included by Time for nine years, more times than any other influencer, Winfrey is missing from the just-released 2012 list.
In the past year, Winfrey has ended her syndicated daytime talk show, pulled the plug on Rosie O'Donnell's OWN show, and announced layoffs as OWN struggles for ratings.
Among those who snagged spots on the list for the first time are Claire Danes, Mitt Romney, Tim Tebow, Louis C.K., Kristen Wiig, Jeremy Lin, Matt Lauer and "The Help" stars Jessica Chastain and Viola Davis.
Besides Winfrey, other people who've made multiple appearances on the Time list include Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton (seven times each), Steve Jobs (five times) and Bill Clinton (four times).
Oprah
Breaks "Today" Show's Streak
"Good Morning America"
ABC's "Good Morning America" outperformed NBC's the "Today" show for the first time in 16 years, drawing 31,000 more viewers last week than its rival in the lucrative television morning show market.
"Good Morning America," co-hosted by George Stephanopoulos and Robin Roberts, beat out "Today," drawing almost 5.17 million viewers and was ranked No. 1 in the morning slot for the week of April 9, according to Nielsen ratings data on Thursday.
"Today" co-host Matt Lauer was away on vacation during that week.
"Good Morning America"
Name Change Attempt Denied
SAG Merger
For the time being, at least, the newly rechristened Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists will have to go by its former name, the Screen Actors Guild, in a court battle with members protesting its recent merger.
A U.S. district court judge denied a stipulation this week to change the name of the defendant in the suit to reflect SAG-AFTRA's new moniker.
Unless the plaintiffs agree to refile their lawsuit listing SAG-AFTRA as the defendant, the old name will have to stand.
Last month, the union's membership voted overwhelmingly to approve joining together with AFTRA.
Among the 68 SAG members listed as plaintiffs are Martin Sheen, Ed Harris, Valerie Harper, Diane Ladd, Edward Asner, Joe Bologna and Nancy Sinatra.
SAG Merger
Future Of Author's House Uncertain
John Updike
Late author John Updike's childhood home is for sale and facing an uncertain future.
The nonprofit John Updike Society wants to buy the Pulitzer Prize-winning writer's house with a $200,000 foundation gift to preserve it as a museum and headquarters. But that's contingent upon Shillington borough granting a zoning variance, which takes time, to address potential parking and traffic concerns in the residential neighborhood.
Current owner Tracy Hoffmann, who runs an advertising and marketing firm in the house, about 60 miles northwest of Philadelphia, said he can't wait any longer for a sales agreement. He and seven employees plan to move their business next month to a new location.
"After a period of months, all I have is a gentleman's agreement, but nothing signed," he told the Reading Eagle newspaper for a story Wednesday. Several months ago, the owners unsuccessfully tried to sell the house on eBay with a $249,000 starting bid.
John Updike
Russian Court Extends Jail Time
Pussy Riot
Three female punk rockers who mocked Vladimir Putin in a surprise protest inside Russia's main Orthodox church will be kept in jail, a Moscow court ruled Thursday.
Five members of the feminist band Pussy Riot - clad in brightly colored homemade ski masks and miniskirts - briefly seized the pulpit of Moscow's Christ the Savior Cathedral in February and chanted "Mother Mary, drive Putin away."
Three band members have been in police custody since March and face up to seven years in jail on charges of hooliganism. Their cause - and the harsh response of the Russian Orthodox Church - has provoked a public outcry and criticism of Russia's largest religious institution.
Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, Maria Alekhina and Yekaterina Samutsevich will remain in detention until June 24, a Tagansky district court judge decided, after an investigator petitioned to keep them in prison while the police investigation continues.
Supporters of the band, including prominent artists, musicians and activists, organized a protest festival outside the court Thursday. About 200 people gathered in the courtyard, some carrying balloons and posters, and chanted "Freedom!" when the women were taken into the court.
Pussy Riot
Case Closed
Ted Nugent
After meeting with aging rocker Ted Nugent (R-Draft Dodger) on Thursday, the Secret Service says its probe into what he had to say about President Barack Obama is over.
Last weekend during a National Rifle Association meeting in St. Louis, Nugent rallied support for Republican presidential candidate Willard "Mitt" Romney and said of the Obama administration: "We need to ride into that battlefield and chop their heads off in November." He also said he would be "dead or in jail by this time next year" if Obama is re-elected.
In a statement on his website, Nugent called it a "good, solid, professional meeting concluding that I have never made any threats of violence towards anyone."
Ted Nugent
US Muslim Tortured At FBI's Behest In UAE
Yonas Fikre
His interrogators usually came in the morning. Peeking under a blindfold in a cold concrete cell, Yonas Fikre says he caught only glimpses of their shoes.
They beat the soles of his feet with hoses and sticks, asking him about his Portland, Ore., mosque and its imam. Each day, the men questioning him in a United Arab Emirates prison told the 33-year-old Fikre he would be released "tomorrow," according to an account he gave on Wednesday at a press conference in Sweden, where he has been since September.
"It was very hard, because you don't know why you are in there and the only person you speak to is either yourself, or the wall, or when you go to the restroom or when you go to the torture place," said Fikre, who was held for 106 days. "I have never been that isolated from human beings in my entire life."
An advocacy group alleges that over the past two years the FBI has been using aggressive tactics against Muslim-Americans travelling abroad to try to pressure them to become informants when they got home. Gadeir Abbas, staff attorney for the Council on American-Islamic Relations, says there have been several instances of FBI agents calling travelers into embassies or consulates for questioning.
Fikre, who converted to Islam in 2003, is the third Muslim man from Portland to publicly say he was detained while traveling abroad and questioned about Portland's Masjid as-Sabr mosque.
Yonas Fikre
Plead Not Guilty
Amish
Sixteen men and women pleaded not guilty Thursday in beard- and hair-cutting attacks against fellow Amish in Ohio.
The 10 men and six women and their attorneys overflowed defense tables and the jury box as they entered the pleas before U.S. District Court Judge Dan Polster in response to an updated indictment.
The latest indictment added new allegations that the suspects tried to hide or destroy evidence, including a disposable camera, shears and a bag of hair from the victims.
A feud over church discipline allegedly led to attacks in which the beards and hair of men and hair of women were cut, an act considered deeply offensive in Amish culture. The Amish believe the Bible instructs women to let their hair grow long and men to grow beards and stop shaving once they marry.
Amish
Fewer People Registering For Races
Susan G. Komen
For years, Katie Sanchez participated in her local Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure, raising money annually to honor her aunt, cousin and a male friend - all breast cancer survivors.
But when her local race rolls around this fall, she won't be there. She already donated her entry fee to Planned Parenthood.
"Pretty much everyone I walk with has decided to do something else," she said.
Sanchez and many other Komen supporters have abandoned the nation's largest breast-cancer charity since news emerged in late January that it had decided to stop making grants to Planned Parenthood for breast cancer-screening. Komen soon reversed that move following a three-day onslaught of criticism.
Organizers of individual Race for the Cure events - 5K runs and walks that account for most of the charity's fundraising - have seen participation decline by as much as 30 percent. Most also saw their fundraising numbers go down, although a couple of races brought in more money.
Susan G. Komen
Rebound In NY Caves
Bats
Researchers found substantially more bats in several caves that were the first ones struck by white-nose syndrome, giving them a glimmer of hope amid a scourge that has killed millions of bats in North America.
Figures released Thursday by the state Department of Environmental Conservation showed notable increases in the number of little brown bats in three out of five upstate New York hibernation caves where scientists first noticed white nose decimating winter bat populations six years ago. The largest cave saw an increase from 1,496 little browns last year to 2,402 this winter.
There are hopes this is an early sign that bats can adapt to a disease that has spread to 19 states and Canada. But scientists caution it's far too early to tell if it is the start of a trend or a statistical blip.
White-nose, named for the sugary smudges found on affected bats' snouts, prompts bats to wake from their winter hibernation and die when they fly into the winter landscape in a futile search for food. First detected in 2006, the fungal infection has killed more than 5.7 million bats as it spread from the Northeast. In recent weeks, the disease has shown up in Alabama and Missouri, marking its advance west of the Mississippi River.
The survey found that statewide losses of little browns, the most common bat species in New York before white-nose, remain at about 90 percent.
Bats
Fuckingers Are Tired
Name Change
Shakespeare said, "a rose by another other name would smell as sweet." The residents in a small village in Austria with the unfortunate name of Fucking think a place that's called any other other name would get less offensive treatment.
Moves are now afoot to change the village name to something less distinctive.
"The only problem is that we need all of the Fucking residents to agree to the name change," Mayor Franz Meindl said -speaking literally, you can assume, and not colloquially, in a recent TV interview. "Everyone needs to agree for it to happen."
Fuckingers - there are only 104 of them - have tired of the giggles and endless jokes that follow the mention of their village, which is properly pronounced Fooking.
The town of Effin, Ireland, can sympathize. Its residents found that Facebook was suspicious of the name and wouldn't allow it to be listed.
Name Change
In Memory
Jonathan Frid
Jonathan Frid, who played vampire Barnabas Collins on the cult classic TV show "Dark Shadows," has died. He was 87.
Frid died just weeks before the release of a feature film adaptation of the show starring Johnny Depp and directed by Tim Burton. His "Dark Shadows" co-star, Kathryn Leigh Scott, told TheWrap he died Friday - Friday the 13th, she wryly noted - and said his family had not wanted to release the news earlier.
Frid and Scott, along with their castmates, traveled to England in July to shoot cameos for the film, which will be released May 11. During the filming, Frid met Depp, who is taking on the role of Barnabas.
The new film is an update of a show as beloved for its spooky tone and languid pacing as it was for its sometimes slipshod production values. Fans obsess over mistakes that somehow made it to air. The daytime serial ran on ABC from 1966 to 1971.
Frid's Collins cut through the occasional silliness. A 200-year-old mourning the loss of his true love, Collins evolved during the show into an often sympathetic antihero, capable of kindness and bravery despite his bloodlust. His high cheekbones and modish haircut made him seem part tragic, part vampire of the '60s. Originally supposed to appear on the show only briefly, he soon became its main focus.
Though best known for "Dark Shadows," Frid also appeared in other television roles and in movies including Oliver Stone's directorial debut, the 1974 horror film "Seizure." He was praised for his work in a Broadway revival of "Arsenic and Old Lace."
He also performed readings at "Dark Shadows" conventions, which became increasingly popular beginning in the 1980s.
He moved back to Canada in his later years, where he continued to act in plays and keep fans informed of his daily life with an utterly charming website. His "Dark Shadows" cameo will be his last onscreen appearance.
Jonathan Frid
In Memory
Levon Helm
With songs like "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down," ''The Weight" and "Up on Cripple Creek," The Band fused rock, blues, folk and gospel to create a sound that seemed as authentically American as a Mathew Brady photograph or a Mark Twain short story.
In truth, the group had only one American - Levon Helm.
Helm, the drummer and singer who brought an urgent beat and a genuine Arkansas twang to some of The Band's best-known songs and helped turn a bunch of musicians known mostly as Bob Dylan's backup group into one of rock's most legendary acts, has died. He was 71.
Helm, who was found to have throat cancer in 1998, died Thursday afternoon of complications from cancer at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City, said Lucy Sabini of Vanguard Records. On Tuesday, a message on his website said he was in the final stages of cancer.
Helm and his bandmates - Canadians Rick Danko, Garth Hudson, Robbie Robertson and Richard Manuel - were musical virtuosos who returned to the roots of American music in the late 1960s as other rockers veered into psychedelia, heavy metal and jams. The group's 1968 debut, "Music From the Big Pink," and its follow-up, "The Band," remain landmark albums of the era, and songs such as "The Weight," ''Dixie Down" and "Cripple Creek" have become rock standards.
Early on, The Band backed Dylan on his sensational and controversial electric tours of 1965-66 and collaborated with him on the legendary "Basement Tapes," which produced "I Shall Be Released," ''Tears of Rage" and many other favorites.
The son of an Arkansas cotton farmer, Helm was just out of high school when he joined rocker Ronnie Hawkins for a tour of Canada in 1957 as the drummer for the Hawks. That band eventually recruited a group of Canadian musicians who, along with Helm, spent grueling years touring rough bars in Canada and the South.
They would split from Hawkins, hook up with Dylan and eventually call themselves The Band - because, as they explained many times, that's what everyone called them anyway.
The tall, lanky Robertson was an expert blues-rock guitarist and the group's best lyricist, his songs inspired in part by Dylan and by the stories Helm would tell him of the South. The baby-faced Danko was a fluid bassist, an accomplished singer and occasional writer. The bearish Hudson was a virtuoso and eccentric who could seemingly master any instrument, especially keyboards, while the sad-eyed Manuel's haunting falsetto on "Whispering Pines," ''Tears of Rage" and others led Helm to call him the group's lead singer.
But the group, especially Manuel, struggled with drugs and alcohol. While Danko and Manuel shared songwriting credits in the early years, Robertson was essentially the lone writer for the last few albums. By the middle of the decade, Robertson, especially, was burned out and wanted to get off the road.
They bid farewell to live shows with a bang with the famous "Last Waltz" concert in 1976. Eric Clapton, Neil Young, Joni Mitchell and Dylan were among the stars who played the show in San Francisco, filmed by Martin Scorsese for a movie of the same name, released in 1978.
"The Last Waltz" is regarded by many as the greatest of concert films, but it also helped lead to a bitter split between Robertson and Helm, once the best of friends.
Robertson became close to Scorsese during the production, and Helm believed the movie was structured to make Robertson the leader and advance his own movie career. They rarely spoke after, despite efforts by Hawkins and others to intervene.
While Helm would accuse Robertson of being on a star trip, Helm, ironically, was the more successful actor, with acclaimed roles in "Coal Miner's Daughter," ''The Right Stuff" and other films. And no one who watched "The Last Waltz" could forget Helm's performance of "Dixie Down," shot mostly in closeup, his face squeezed with emotion.
In his memoir, "This Wheel's on Fire," Helm said some hard feelings about Robertson also included his getting songwriting credits on Band songs that other members considered group efforts. Robertson would deny the allegations. On his Facebook page this week, he revealed that he had been devastated to learn of Helm's illness and visited him in the hospital.
Without Robertson, The Band reunited in the 1980s but never approached its early success. Manuel hanged himself in a Winter Park, Fla., hotel room in 1986. Danko died in his home near Woodstock in 1999, a day after his 56th birthday.
Highlights from the '90s did include playing at a Dylan tribute concert at Madison Square Garden in 1992 and a collaboration among Helm, Danko and Keith Richards on the rocker "Deuce and a Quarter."
While Helm's illness reduced his voice to something close to a whisper, it did not end his musical career. Beset by debt, in 2004 he began a series of free-wheeling late night shows in his barn in Woodstock that were patterned after medicine shows from his youth. Any night of the bi-weekly Midnight Rambles could feature Gillian Welch, Elvis Costello or his daughter Amy on vocals and violin.
He recorded "Dirt Farmer" in 2007, which was followed by "Electric Dirt" in 2009. Both albums won Grammys. He won another this year for "Ramble at the Ryman."
Original members of The Band were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1994.
Levon Helm
In Memory
Greg Ham
Greg Ham, a musician with the iconic Australian band Men at Work, was found dead in his Melbourne home on Thursday, Australian reports said.
Victoria state police confirmed that the deceased was the 58-year-old resident of the house but did not identify him by name, in keeping with local practice. Ham was 58 and neighbors said he was the lone occupant of the house.
Two concerned friends who had not heard from Ham in some time found the body after going to check on him, police said, declining to release any details on how Ham died or if the circumstances were suspicious.
Men at Work frontman Colin Hay issued a statement expressing a deep love for his longtime friend, whom he met in 1972 when they were seniors in high school. Hay recalled decades of shared experiences with Ham - from appearing on "Saturday Night Live," to flying through dust storms over the Grand Canyon, to getting lost in the rural Australian countryside.
Ham was perhaps best known for playing the famous flute riff in the band's smash 1980s hit "Down Under." But the beloved tune came under intense scrutiny in recent years after the band was accused of stealing the catchy riff from the children's campfire song "Kookaburra Sits in the Old Gum Tree." The publisher of "Kookaburra" sued Men at Work, and in 2010 a judge ruled the band had copied the melody. The group was ordered to hand over a portion of its royalties.
Ham later said the controversy had left him devastated, and he worried it would tarnish his legacy.
Ham also played the saxophone and keyboards, and more recently worked as a guitar teacher.
"Down Under" and the album it was on, "Business As Usual," topped the Australian, American and British charts in early 1983. The song remains an unofficial anthem for Australia and was ranked fourth in a 2001 music industry survey of the best Australian songs. Men at Work won the 1983 Grammy Award for Best New Artist.
Greg Ham
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