'Best of TBH Politoons'
Recommended Reading
from Bruce
P.J. O'Rourke: Fairness, idealism and other atrocities (latimes.com)
Commencement advice you're unlikely to hear elsewhere.
Billy Manes: If Obesity is a Choice, It's Not One the Poor Get to Make (Orlando Weekly)
A recent study put grocery prices to the test. Among the 370 foods sampled, it found that energy-dense junk food cost an average of $1.76 per 1,000 calories, while nutritious, unprocessed foods came in at a whopping $18.16 per 1,000 calories.
Annabelle Gurwitch: Empty Wallet? Not to Worry -- Poor Is the New Rich! (The Nation)
As waves of poverty wash over the once-affluent, it's nice to know that you can share the pain.
Jim Hightower: REPRESSIONS R US (jimhightower.com)
Trade shows can be fun. There are shows for boats, gardening, beer, and just about every other line of products, allowing attendees to look and learn, shop and sample. Imagine the excitement then, when a major trade show recently opened in China, showing off a cornucopia of consumer goods to eager buyers. Only, these were not your ordinary shoppers. They were Chinese police officials, noted for their authoritarian crack-downs on people striving for democratic freedoms there - and this trade show presented a vast array of the latest tools of repression made by manufactures from the U.S. and elsewhere.
Mark Morford: 10 ways to blow your tax rebate (SF Gate)
Gas, video games, meditation, booze. What, you were planning on paying bills? As if
EVAN DAVIES: Robyn repositioned (nowtoronto.com)
Before the interview even starts, a publicist jumps on the line. Robyn's been doing phoners all day from London ahead of her first full North American tour, and things are running behind schedule. People on this side of the pond are finally catching on to the reinvented Swedish future-pop darling; her latest album, Robyn (Konichiwa), is getting a proper release here after much hype and blog love from the likes of Perez Hilton and hipster music sites like Pitchforkmedia.
Rob Harvilla: The Gospel According to Dolly Parton (villagevoice.com)
"People ask me, 'Dolly, why don't you run for president?' And I say, 'Don't you think we've had enough boobs in the White House?' "
Lee Zimmerman: From Boca to Big Time (browardpalmbeach.com)
Starbucks subsidiary has big plans brewing for Hilary McRae
Keeping up with Indiana Jones (film.guardian.co.uk)
He was voted the world's sexiest man and is the only actor to have banked $100m for every decade on screen. Now, as he dusts down Indiana Jones for his fourth adventure, Harrison Ford tells Chrissy Iley about car crashes, kids and Calista Flockhart.
Charles Taylor: The "Duke" and Democracy: On John Wayne (dissentmagazine.org)
ONE OF THE great joys of the movies is their ability to convince us that we know the people on screen. Even the varied performances of the most versatile stars are often not strong enough to prevail against the overarching image we've formed of them. When Joan Didion met John Wayne on the set of the 1965 The Sons of Katie Elder, she wrote of having the sense that his face was more familiar to her than her husband's.
Roya Nikkhah: TV historian Neil Oliver wants to resurrect the 'manly man' by telling tales of old-fashioned heroism (telegraph.co.uk)
Shackleton's heroic but ill-fated expedition is one of the stories retold in Oliver's new book, Amazing Tales for Making Men Out of Boys, which revives historic acts of bravery from the Battle of Thermopylae to the Penlee lifeboat rescue mission - tales that Oliver hopes will remind boys that "becoming a man was once about comradeship and standing by your friends whatever the circumstances" and that "sometimes it was more important to die a hero's death than live a coward's life".
The baron of bibliomania (books.guardian.co.uk)
A love of books is mostly a good thing, except when it leads to the ruin of your home and family, writes David McKie.
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Marine layer burned off around 3-ish.
Ponders Political Career
Alec Baldwin
Alec Baldwin, who has played all kinds of heroes and villains on stage and screen, says he may be ready to take on a new role -- that of real-life politician.
Baldwin told "60 Minutes" television news program in a segment to be aired on Sunday that he is thinking about pursuing his longtime dream of becoming an elected official, CBS said on Thursday.
The New York resident is known for political activism. In 2006 he told The New York Times that if he were a public official, he might like to be governor of his home state.
Baldwin told "60 Minutes" he would be ready to face the public and the press, in part because of the scrutiny that accompanied his divorce and custody battle with actress Kim Basinger.
Alec Baldwin
Hosting 2008 Tony Awards
Whoopi Goldberg
Whoopi Goldberg will serve as host of the 2008 Tony Awards June 15 at Radio City Music Hall, the show's executive producers, Ricky Kirshner and Glenn Weiss, announced Thursday.
"I love Broadway and I'm thrilled to be doing anything for the first time," said Goldberg, who's hosted the Academy Awards four times. "I'm gonna have a blast."
Goldberg, a regular on ABC's "The View," has been on Broadway with her own one-woman show as well as in revivals of "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum" and "Ma Rainey's Black Bottom."
Whoopi Goldberg
Widow Supports Baltimore Bust
Gail Zappa
Frank Zappa's widow is on board with plans for a bust of the eccentric rocker in his hometown of Baltimore.
Gail Zappa tells The Associated Press that she supports the project, which was spearheaded by Zappa fans from Lithuania.
Baltimore's public art commission has accepted the gift of the bronze bust, which will sit atop a stainless steel pole. It's a replica of a bust that went up in 1995 in Vilnius, Lithuania.
Zappa writes in an e-mail that the creators of the bust "have gone about this in the right way, with total respect for the composer."
She hopes Baltimore will benefit from commemorating its association with her husband along with other famous artists associated with the city such as Upton Sinclair, Edgar Allan Poe and John Waters.
Gail Zappa
Object Of Study
'The Daily Show'
A journalism think tank studying "The Daily Show" doesn't believe many people get their news from Jon Stewart - because otherwise they wouldn't get the jokes.
The Project for Excellence in Journalism also said it was surprised at how much the Comedy Central late-night program resembles "The O'Reilly Factor," "Hardball" and other cable news shows in content.
"They're not making jokes about Dan Quayle is dumb or Gerald Ford is clumsy," Tom Rosenstiel, the project's director, said. "They're not making jokes that you could get if you live in the country but don't read the news ... . You can't get the jokes if you're not watching the news. The jokes are designed to make you think more about the news."
Politics, government and the Bush administration's policies in Iraq accounted for about half of the show's content, making it quite similar to the focus of serious cable news shows, the study said. About 8 percent of the show's time is spent looking at the behavior of the press.
'The Daily Show'
Renewed For 2nd Season
"Breaking Bad"
AMC has renewed "Breaking Bad" for a second season. The cable network ordered 13 new episodes of the series, which stars Bryan Cranston as a chemistry teacher who begins cooking up crystal meth to make some extra money after he's diagnosed with cancer.
Wednesday's official renewal of "Breaking Bad," AMC's second original drama series after "Mad Men," follows months of expectation.
The series premiered in January to 1.6 million total viewers and went on to average 1.4 million total viewers per episode, according to Nielsen Media Research. By comparison, "Mad Men," which also has been picked up for a second season, averaged 1.1 million viewers.
"Breaking Bad"
Indian Court Clears Exiled Painter
Maqbool Fida Husain
An Indian court cleared controversial painter Maqbool Fida Husain Thursday of obscenity charges over his depiction of India as a nude woman.
The painter left India in 2006 after right-wing groups threatened him over his paintings of Hindu gods and goddesses and filed at least half a dozen criminal cases against him. He lives in self-imposed exile in Dubai.
He was charged with obscenity and hurting the feelings of a religious community, both offences for which you can be jailed in India, among other charges.
The 92-year-old painter -- considered India's foremost artist and known for large canvasses that have fetched millions of dollars at auctions -- has often been at the centre of controversy.
Maqbool Fida Husain
Pleads Guilty In BlackBerry Case
Foxy Brown
Less than a month after being released from prison, U.S. rapper Foxy Brown pleaded guilty on Thursday to menacing a woman with her BlackBerry phone and avoided another possible prison sentence.
Brown, 29, whose real name is Inga Marchand, pleaded guilty to menacing a Brooklyn woman, a misdemeanor, in July 2007 while on probation for assaulting two nail salon stylists over a $20 manicure, a court spokesman said.
By pleading guilty, Brown avoided going on trial for assault, a felony charge that carries a maximum sentence of seven years in prison.
Brown was accused of bruising the eye and chipping the tooth of her longtime neighbor Arlene Raymond when she struck the woman with the handheld communications device.
Foxy Brown
Lancome Contract Dispute
Uma Thurman
French cosmetics giant Lancome and Uma Thurman are wrangling over the use of her name and image in an advertising campaign.
The company asked for a ruling against the actress, who it says is demanding $1 million for unauthorized use of her name and face on Canadian billboards and Asian Web sites after her contract expired.
"I'm delighted that the case will go before a jury," Thurman's lawyer, Bertram Fields, said. "They got an enormous benefit throughout the world after the contract was over, and $1 million doesn't begin to do it."
Uma Thurman
Provides Clues
Seaweed
Remains of meals that included seaweed are helping confirm the date of a settlement in southern Chile that may offer the earliest evidence of humans in the Americas.
Researchers date the seaweed found at Monte Verde to more than 14,000 years ago, 1,000 years earlier than the well-studied Clovis culture.
And the report comes just a month after other scientists announced they had found coprolites - fossilized human feces - dating to about 14,000 years ago in a cave in Oregon.
Taken together, the finds move back evidence of people in the Americas by a millennium or more, with settlements in northern and southern coastal areas.
Seaweed
Cable Nielsens
Ratings
Rankings for the top 15 programs on cable networks as compiled by Nielsen Media Research for the week of April 28-May 4. Day and start time (EDT) are in parentheses:
1. NBA Playoffs: Phoenix vs. San Antonio (Tuesday, 9:39 p.m.), TNT, 3.53 million homes, 4.66 million viewers.
2. Movie: "Chasing Zoey" (Friday, 8 p.m.), Nickelodeon, 3.51 million homes, 5.1 million viewers.
3. "Zoey 101" (Friday, 9 p.m.), Nickelodeon, 3.45 million homes, 5.04 million viewers.
4. "WWE Raw" (Monday, 10 p.m.), USA, 3.32 million homes, 4.85 million viewers.
5. NBA Playoffs: L.A. Lakers vs. Denver (Monday, 10:58 p.m.), TNT, 3.14 million homes, 3.87 million viewers.
6. "WWE Raw" (Monday, 9 p.m.), USA, 3 million homes, 4.44 million viewers.
7. "The Hills" (Monday, 10 p.m.), MTV, 2.98 million homes, 4.03 million viewers.
8. NBA Playoffs: Atlanta vs. Boston (Wednesday, 8:48 p.m.), TNT, 2.96 million homes, 3.68 million viewers.
9. "SpongeBob SquarePants" (Saturday, 11:30 a.m.), Nickelodeon, 2.94 million homes, 3.85 million viewers.
10. NBA Playoffs: San Antonio vs. New Orleans (Saturday, 10:10 p.m.), TNT, 2.9, 3.85 million homes.
11. "SpongeBob SquarePants" (Saturday, 9:30 a.m.), Nickelodeon, 2.87 million homes, 3.71 million viewers.
12. "The O'Reilly Factor" (Wednesday, 8 p.m.), Fox News Channel, 2.84 million homes, 3.66 million viewers.
13. "iCarly" (Monday, 5:30 p.m.), Nickelodeon, 2.81 million homes, 3.85 million viewers.
14. "iCarly" (Monday, 5 p.m.), Nickelodeon, 2.8 million homes, 3.89 million viewers.
15. "SpongeBob SquarePants" (Saturday, 12 p.m.), Nickelodeon, 2.77 million homes, 3.58 million viewers.
Ratings
In Memory
Eddy Arnold
Eddy Arnold, whose mellow baritone on songs like "Make the World Go Away" made him one of the most successful country singers in history, died Thursday morning, days short of his 90th birthday.
Arnold died at a care facility near Nashville, said Don Cusic, a professor at Belmont University and author of the biography "Eddy Arnold: I'll Hold You in My Heart." His wife of 66 years, Sally, had died in March, and in the same month, Arnold fell outside his home, injuring his hip.
Folksy yet sophisticated, he became a pioneer of "The Nashville Sound," also called "countrypolitan," a mixture of country and pop styles. His crossover success paved the way for later singers such as Kenny Rogers.
He was elected to the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1966. The following year he was the first person to receive the entertainer of the year award from the Country Music Association.
The reference book "Top Country Singles 1944-1993,'" by Joel Whitburn, ranked Arnold the No. 1 country singer in terms of overall success on the Billboard country charts.
Nicknamed "The Tennessee Plowboy," Arnold first gained notice with appearances on the Grand Ole Opry in the early 1940s. He debuted on the charts in 1945 with "Each Minute Seems a Million Years," and began his string of 28 No. 1 country hits with "What Is Life Without Love" in early 1947. His success helped make Nashville an important recording industry hub, according to Sony BMG Nashville, parent of his longtime label, RCA.
Arnold was born May 15, 1918, on a farm near Henderson, Tenn., the son of a sharecropper. He sang on radio stations in Jackson, Tenn., Memphis, Tenn., and St. Louis before becoming nationally known.
Early in his career, his manager was Col. Tom Parker, who later became Elvis Presley's manager.
Arnold lived in Brentwood, a Nashville suburb. Survivors include a son, Richard Edward Arnold Jr., and daughter, Jo Ann Pollard, both of Brentwood.
Eddy Arnold
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