Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Michael Steele's First 100 Days: A Retrospective (senateguru.com)
In less than 100 days, Steele led the GOP to defeat in what should have been an easy pick-up in a House special election, lost a Senator to a Party switch, became the subject of no-confidence vote rumors, embarrassed himself over and over again, and convinced America that Rush Limbaugh controls the Republican Party. I'll give Steele considerable credit - one must keep extremely busy to fit that many "strategic" gaffes into less than 100 days.
SCOTT REYNOLDS NELSON: "Attribution Lacking: Or, the day a Dutch newspaper stole my grandmother" (chronicle.com)
Post-Google, plagiarism is a different art: add little observations that differ from the original. Reorder paragraphs, with new quotes, spurious or ad hoc...
Lucy Mangan: The top children's page-turners that the laureates overlooked (guardian.co.uk)
Michael Rosen and his four predecessors have chosen their favourites - and here are mine.
Jane Henderson: John Grisham makes social justice entertaining (St. Louis Post-Dispatch)
John Grisham calls himself a "low tech" guy.
J.D. BIERSDORFER: The Complete Shakespeare Reader (nytimes.com)
'The Complete Shakespeare Reader,' a free Windows program available at snipurl.com/g1e94, brings the text of the author's 38 plays to the desktop - great for netbook reading.
Connie Ogle: Fretting about fashion and fending off zombies (McClatchy Newspapers)
Screenwriter Seth Grahame-Smith likes his zombies slow and stupid. He prefers the lumbering George Romero menace to the speedy Michael Johnson brain-eaters terrorizing the populace in such films as "28 Days Later" and Zack Snyder's remake of "Dawn of the Dead."
Martin Wisckol: Jazz titan Sonny Rollins is at the top of his game (The Orange County Register)
Sonny Rollins is a model of aging with wisdom and grace, but even those qualities are overshadowed by a towering artistry that's as vibrant as ever. The 78-year-old tenor saxophonist may be the last of the jazz titans, but he plays like he still has something to prove.
Jonathan Cunningham: Seattle Hip-Hop Act Merges Old-School Swagger with New-School Appeal (Seattle Weekly)
Dyme Def lives on that thin line between cockiness and confidence. They fully embrace rap's boasting tradition, but they're comical enough with their punch lines and prose that it works.
Jonathan Cunningham: "Branford Marsalis: King of King" (seattleweekly.com)
Life with Leno, Sting, and a decade-old quartet.
John Nova Lomax: Más y Más (houstonpress.com)
Los Lobos leaves Disney to reembrace their Aztlán roots.
Rick Kogan: '70s superstar Dennis DeYoung still rocking, writing music (Chicago Tribune)
Mythologically, there is no life after Styx. You get to that legendary river and it's just a quick boat ride from the land of the living to the home of the dead ... oblivion, in other words. But for Dennis DeYoung, who started the band Styx with a couple of pals in a basement in the Roseland neighborhood nearly a half-century ago, life after Styx has been creatively rewarding - paradise, of a sort.
20 QUESTIONS: Ben Lee (popmatters.com)
Ben Lee chats with PopMatters 20 Questions about a very mushy (but he swears fabulous) food combo, the positive properties of ginger tea, and a surprising affinity for Dostoevsky's troubled Raskolnikov.
The Weekly Poll
The 'First 100 Days - Pluses and Minuses' Edition...
Well, Poll-fans, President Obama, aka 'The Man', has reached the first 100 days of his administration. We might as well jump on the wagon with everyone who is evaluating his work and make an assessment of our own...
What are the Pluses and the Minuses of The Man's First Hundred days?
Send your response, and a (short) reason why, to
On the old TV series Maverick there were 
replied:
Reader Suggestion
Mexico Senate
Mexico's Senate approved a bill on Tuesday decriminalizing possession of small amounts of narcotics for personal use, in order to free resources to fight violent drug cartels.
The bill, proposed by conservative President Felipe Calderon, would make it legal to carry up to 5 grams (0.18 ounces) of marijuana, 500 milligrams (0.018 ounces) of cocaine and tiny quantities of other drugs such as heroin and methamphetamines.
Mexico's Congress passed a similar proposal in 2006 but the bill was vetoed by Calderon's predecessor Vicente Fox, under pressure from the United States, which said it would increase drug abuse, but now is worried by the drug-related violence along its border.
Calderon has staked his presidency on curtailing the escalating violence between rival drug gangs as they fight over smuggling routes to the United States, with violence spilling into U.S. cities like Phoenix and Tucson.
Drug violence has killed 2,000 people this year across Mexico after 6,300 deaths in 2008.
For the rest - Mexico Senate OKs bill to legalize drug possesion
Tom Loud )O( Yer Friendly Neighborhood Folksinger
AKA: Obi-Zen Folksinger@bartblog.bartcop.com
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Of all tyrannies, a tyranny exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. … [T]hose who torment us for our own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their own conscience. -- C.S. Lewis
Thanks, Tom!
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Sunny, but cooler than seasonal.
Saturn Awards
Leonard Nimoy
Star Trek actor Leonard Nimoy is to receive a special gong at this year's Saturn Awards.
The 78-year-old actor will receive a lifetime achievement award in recognition of his work as an actor and director.
The Saturns are given out by the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Films.
The Saturn awards will also honour Jeffrey "Sparky" Katzenberg of DreamWorks Animation with the Visionary Award.
Leonard Nimoy
Fooled By Sacha Baron Cohen
Paula Abdul
Paula Abdul has admitted she was fooled by Sacha Baron Cohen's comedy creation Bruno, in his forthcoming movie.
The American Idol judge revealed to US radio's Johnjay and Rich Show, that last year she was told she had won an award for Artist of the Year in Germany and ended up taking part in a bizarre sit down interview with Sacha's alter ego, a camp Austrian designer.
"I'm greeted by this futuristic dude with a mohawk - and he's flaming," recalled Paula.
However, Paula only realised she had been the subject of a stunt when a reporter called her three weeks ago. "I said, 'I've never done anything with Sacha Cohen, they're wrong!'," she recalled.
"At 2 o'clock in the morning, I woke up in a cold sweat and I went, 'Oh my God!' And I'm dying. Because you don't expect it."
Paula Abdul
1st Edition Sold
Charles Darwin
A first edition of Charles Darwin's "On the Origin of Species" book sold for about 40,000 pounds ($60,000) Thursday, an auctioneer said.
The work, still in its original embossed green binding, was bought by local book dealer Hamish Riley-Smith, said Keys auctioneer Andrew Bullock.
Keys, a Norwich, England-based auction house, said the book was one of 1,250 copies first printed in 1859.
The 150th anniversary of the publication of "The Origin of Species" is Nov. 24.
Charles Darwin
Done With Men
Kelly McGillis
US actress Kelly McGillis has ended speculation about her sexuality, saying she is single but wants to share her life with a woman.
The 51-year-old, who starred as Tom Cruise's love interest in Top Gun, told website shewire's Girl Rock video blog: "I'm done with the man thing. I'm done with that and need to move on in life."
The twice married mother-of-two came to fame starring opposite Harrison Ford in Witness as Amish widow Rachel Lapp.
In 2007, the actress moved back into television, joining the cast of The L Word, a US drama based around the lives of a group of lesbian and bisexual friends in Los Angeles.
Kelly McGillis
Sacred Griddle
Virgin Mary
The hottest thing on the griddle at the Las Palmas restaurant these days isn't the food - it's the image of Our Lady of Guadalupe that a cook says she saw on the griddle.
Restaurant manager Brenda Martinez says more than 100 people have flocked to the small town of Calexico on the California-Mexico border to gaze at the likeness of the Virgin Mary since it was discovered as the griddle was being cleaned.
Among the awe-struck was a group of masked Mexican wrestlers who arrived Thursday for an exhibition at a nearby swap meet.
Since the discovery, the griddle has been taken out of service and placed in a shrine in a storage room.
Virgin Mary
Stalker Found Guilty
Tyra Banks
A man accused of stalking TV host and former supermodel Tyra Banks was found guilty of trespass, harassment and stalking on Thursday, prosecutors said.
A verdict against Brady Green came the day after Banks testified in New York State Supreme Court that she fears for her safety since Green threatened her assistant.
Green, 39, was arrested in March after, prosecutors say, he appeared twice at the Manhattan studio where "The Tyra Banks Show," a daytime talk show, is filmed.
He is accused of repeatedly contacting the show, sending Banks flowers with the note "When I see you, I love you," and threatening to slit the throat of her assistant.
Tyra Banks
Gets Rehab, Again
Redmond O'Neal
The son of Ryan O'Neal and Farrah Fawcett is getting a chance at a clean slate.
Redmond O'Neal was admitted into a drug court program on Thursday that could remove him from probation and wipe his record clear of previous drug convictions if he succeeds.
The 24-year-old will join an intense rehabilitation program that will include frequent drug tests and court appearances.
If he relapses or otherwise flunks the program, O'Neal faces several years in prison for a pair of drug convictions.
Redmond O'Neal
Embraces H8
Miss California
The reigning Miss California has gone to Washington to help launch a campaign opposing same-sex marriage.
Carrie Prejean told NBC's "Today" show Thursday that she'll be working with the National Organization for Marriage to "protect traditional marriages."
The 21-year-old says that marriage is "something that is very dear to my heart" and she's in Washington to help save it.
Miss California
Berlusconi Soap Opera Returns
Italy
Italy's first family soap opera was back on the front pages Wednesday after Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's wife said his party's selection of women to run in European elections was a "shamelessly trashy" process.
Veronica Berlusconi, who has publicly lamented her husband's eye for younger women in the past, also accused him of going to the birthday bash of an 18-year-old woman in Naples but not attending the coming-of-age-parties of his own children.
The controversy exploded earlier this week when an on-line magazine close to Berlusconi's main conservative ally, lower house speaker Gianfranco Fini, criticizedhow center-right women candidates were being chosen for the June European elections.
That article, seen by some media as a reference to Berlusconi's party, said women politicians could not be used like "pieces of costume jewelry" to attract votes.
Italy
8-Year-Old Girl Sheds 50-Year-Old Husband
Divorce
An 8-year-old Saudi girl has divorced her middle-aged husband after her father forced her to marry him last year in exchange for about $13,000, her lawyer said Thursday.
Saudi Arabia has come under increasing criticism at home and abroad for permitting child marriages. The United States, a close ally of the conservative Muslim kingdom, has called child marriage a "clear and unacceptable" violation of human rights.
A court in the central Oneiza region previously rejected a request by the girl's mother for a divorce and ruled that the girl would have to wait until she reached puberty to file a petition then.
There are no laws in Saudi Arabia defining the minimum age for marriage. Though a woman's consent is legally required, some marriage officials don't seek it.
Divorce
Batoned Muggers
Band Girl
Don't mess with the marching band. That's what California authorities are saying after a 17-year-old girl used her marching band baton to beat back two would-be muggers.
Los Angeles County sheriff's Deputy Michael Rust says the Quartz Hill girl was walking to school April 24 when two men approached her from behind, tried to grab her coat and demanded money.
Instead, one got a punch in the nose and the other a kick to the groin. Rust says the girl then beat both of them with her band baton before she ran away.
"The moral to this story is don't mess with the marching band girls, or you just might get what you deserve. Final score: marching band 2, thugs 0."
Band Girl
Cable Nielsens
Ratings
Rankings for the top 15 programs on cable networks as compiled by Nielsen Media Research for the week of April 20-26. Day and start time (EST) are in parentheses:
1. "NFL Draft" (Saturday, 4 p.m.), ESPN, 3.89 million homes, 5.05 million viewers.
2. "WWE Raw" (Monday, 10 p.m.), USA, 3.87 million homes, 5.49 million viewers.
3. "WWE Raw" (Monday, 9 p.m.), USA, 3.49 million homes, 5.1 million viewers.
4. Major League Baseball: N.Y. Yankees vs. Boston (Sunday, 8 p.m.), ESPN, 3.38 million homes, 4.59 million viewers.
5. "NCIS" (Monday, 7 p.m.), USA, 3.31 million homes, 4.33 million viewers.
6. "iCarly" (Wednesday, 8 p.m.), Nickelodeon, 3.26 million homes, 4.52 million viewers.
7. "SpongeBob SquarePants" (Saturday, 9:30 a.m.), Nickelodeon, 3.23 million homes, 3.99 million viewers.
8. "SpongeBob SquarePants" (Saturday, 9 a.m.), Nickelodeon, 3.1 million homes, 3.72 million viewers.
9. "Penguins of Madagascar" (Saturday, 10 a.m.), Nickelodeon, 3.07 million homes, 3.94 million viewers.
10. "NCIS" (Monday, 8 p.m.), USA, 3.019 million homes, 3.93 million viewers.
11. "For the Love of Ray J" (Monday, 10 p.m.), VH1, 3.018 million homes, 4.22 million viewers.
12. NBA Playoffs: L.A. Lakers vs. Utah (Thursday, 10:42 p.m.), TNT, 2.99 million homes, 3.82 million viewers.
13. "Law & Order: Criminal Intent" (Sunday, 8 p.m.), USA, 2.96 million homes, 4.1 million viewers.
14. "Hannah Montana" (Tuesday, 7 p.m.), Disney, 2.954 million homes, 3.74 million viewers.
15. NBA Playoffs: Chicago vs. Boston (Monday, 7:07 p.m.), TNT, 2.951 million homes, 3.76 million viewers.
Ratings
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