Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Tom Danehy: Tom has complaints about Easter Mass and its attendees (Tucson Weekly)
My question is this: Can those of us who go to church the other 50 weeks of the year skip Easter and Christmas-like, maybe get a note from you saying that it's OK? I know that Easter is the holiest day of the year, but it gets kinda frustrating.
Connie Schultz: Stop Complaining and Slow Down (Creators Syndicate)
It's not often that a columnist has the opportunity to alienate friends, family and total strangers with the same 700 words, so I'm going to take a deep, cleansing breath and try to savor the synchronicity of it all. Listen: Stop whining about the traffic cameras.
Andrew Tobias: Revving the Engines of Capitalism
"You wrote yesterday that the stock market does better under Democats than Republicans. From 1929 to the end of Bush's second term, Dems and Reps have each had the White House for 40 years. During the Dems' 40 years, $10,000 in the S&P index would have grown to just over $300,000. Under the GOP presidents, to ... $11,000 and change. This is before Obama's bull market." - John Grow
MATT RIDLEY: Three Cheers for the Cheapeners and Cost-Cutters (Wall Street Journal)
A feature of innovation is that the greatest impact of a new idea comes not when the light bulb goes on over the geek's head, but when the resulting technology eventually becomes cheap enough for many people to use-perhaps decades later. The first plane at Kitty Hawk had zero impact on the world economy, but budget airlines have a huge impact; the first computer was a curiosity, but cheap laptops changed the world.
David Lazarus: Banks should cut fees, not pay for market research (Los Angeles Times)
I don't know how much money California Bank & Trust spent hiring an Omaha company called Customer Service Profiles to conduct this research. But I do know what bank customers really care about. They care about interest rates and fees. They care about loan processes that are fair and transparent. They care about being able to reach someone by phone who's actually capable of solving a problem.
Paul Krugman's Blog: Whiners (Creators Syndicate)
Aside from the chutzpah of winning an election by scaring seniors about Medicare, then demanding an end to scare tactics, isn't this just pathetic? Pleading with Democrats not to engage in politics? This brings "they can dish it out, but they can't take it" to a whole new level.
Susan Estrich: Newt and Callista (Creators Syndicate)
Apparently, former Speaker Gingrich was dating - or whatever you want to call it for a family paper - his now third wife, a congressional aide, while as Speaker he was pursuing the impeachment of President Clinton on charges growing out of the president's relationship with Monica Lewinsky.
Susan Estrich: The Fight Loses Its Fight (Creators Syndicate)
But the one thing that conservatives cannot rant and rave about is what has been their most predictable refrain since the Cold War: national security. Of all the things President Obama has done to conservatives in America, this may be the cruelest. He has taken away their national security argument.
Jim Hightower: RYAN IS PEDDLING A RAW DEAL FOR YOU
If you were being hustled to buy an insurance policy, would you trust a salesman who said, "Let's go to a bar, have a couple of drinks, and talk it over."? As we say in Texas: Never sign nothing by neon.
Rob Fitzpatrick: Rakim: still preaching 'not for profit' (Guardian)
Once in the vanguard of hip-hop's golden age, the rap legend remains a custodian of musical values long since lost to lucre.
Randy Lewis: America's record stash: Our recording legacy will soon be more accessible (Los Angeles Times)
About an hour south of Washington, D.C., deep beneath rolling hills near the verdant Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia, lies a storehouse filled with bounty.
David Bruce: Wise Up! Death (Athens News)
Claude Monet used brilliant colors and flowers in his paintings. When Mr. Monet lay dying, a telegram was sent to friend Dr. Georges Clemenceau, who traveled 700 kilometers (approximately 435 miles) to see him. He arrived too late to see him alive ... He tore from a window a flowered curtain and placed over Mr. Monet's face, crying, "No black for Claude Monet!" Art critic Jean-Paul Crespelle writes, "There could have been no better epitaph."
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 Suggestion
Michelle in AZ
From The Creator of 'Avery Ant'
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Sunny and breezy.
Mark Twain Prize for American Humor
Will Ferrell
Will Ferrell, who honed his impression of resident George W. Bush on "Saturday Night Live" and crossed over to make a career in movies, will win the nation's top humor prize from the Kennedy Center in Washington.
The 14th annual Mark Twain Prize for American Humor was announced Thursday. Ferrell will be honored Oct. 23 with a lineup of star comedy performances.
In a written statement, Ferrell says he is honored and will begin cultivating a "Mark Twain-esque mustache" for the event.
Ferrell starred for seven seasons on "Saturday Night Live." In 2007, he created the website FunnyorDie.com with collaborator Adam McKay. He has performed on Broadway and in movies including "Anchorman," "Old School" and "Zoolander."
Will Ferrell
Exhibit Opens
Bob Marley
Bob Marley's battle with cancer ended in a Miami hospital 30 years ago on Wednesday, bringing to a premature close the life of reggae music's most important standard-bearer.
His son, David "Ziggy" Marley, who was 12 at the time and has gone on to reggae stardom in his own right, considers the anniversary a day for celebration rather than mourning.
Marley was on hand at the Grammy Museum where an exhibit about his father opened on Wednesday and runs through October 2. The Marley family worked closely with the museum's curators, lending memorabilia from its personal collection.
Perhaps the most significant item in the display is Marley's primary guitar, a modified mahogany Gibson Les Paul. The curators said it has never been displayed in the United States. The guitar is part of the permanent collection at the Bob Marley Museum in Kingston, Jamaica.
Bob Marley
To Retire As Regular Anchor
Jim Lehrer
Jim Lehrer has been delivering the news each weeknight to PBS viewers since the Gerald Ford administration. Now he says it's time to step away.
He announced Thursday that he's leaving the "NewsHour" as a regular anchor effective the week of June 6, the final step in a carefully planned retirement that included the introduction of a rotating anchor team in December 2009.
Lehrer's 77th birthday is next week. He said he will still appear many Fridays to moderate an analysis of the week's news with columnists Mark Shields and David Brooks, and offer behind-the-scenes advice to the show's executive producer, Linda Winslow.
"It's not that I'm sick or tired or anything," said Lehrer. "It's just that I wanted to step back."
Jim Lehrer
Las Vegas Marks Opening
Neon Boneyard Park
Las Vegas marks opening of neon history
LAS VEGAS - Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman is celebrating the grand opening of a new city park dedicated to Sin City's historic neon signs.
Goodman will host a ribbon cutting Thursday at the Neon Boneyard Park in downtown Las Vegas.
The $2 million Neon Boneyard Park features a display of the museum's neon signs collected from historic Las Vegas buildings.
Goodman will also oversee the ceremonial groundbreaking for a new visitor's center at the adjacent Neon Museum.
Neon Boneyard Park
Hospital News
Mary Tyler Moore
A representative for Mary Tyler Moore says the veteran sitcom star will have surgery to remove a brain tumor.
Spokeswoman Alla Plotkin says Moore's doctors recommended the elective procedure after monitoring the tumor for some time. Plotkin did not say when the surgery would take place.
It would remove a meningioma (meh-NIN'-jee-OH'-muh), a slow-growing tumor in the membranes that cover the brain. Meningiomas usually occur in older adults and are mostly benign.
The 74-year-old Moore gained stardom as a modern suburban housewife on the 1960s comedy "The Dick Van Dyke Show," then went on to headline her own successful series as a single woman pursuing a career.
Mary Tyler Moore
Taking Break
Matthew Perry
Former "Friends" star Matthew Perry said on Thursday he is taking a break from show business to focus on his sobriety.
"I'm making plans to go away for a month to focus on my sobriety and to continue my life in recovery," Perry told celebrity news website TMZ.
Perry's publicist said the actor was going away but said he is not currently in rehab.
Perry's decision follows a disappointing reception for his new TV comedy "Mr. Sunshine". The 41 year-old actor starred, created and co-produced the show, which made its debut in February but is thought to be at risk of cancellation after low ratings.
Matthew Perry
"Like a Rolling Stone" Best Song
Bob Dylan
No reason to get excited, as Bob Dylan once sang, but the bard's 1965 anthem "Like a Rolling Stone" has been declared his greatest song by none other than Rolling Stone magazine.
I
ts latest cover story, marking Dylan's 70th birthday on May 24, lists his 70 greatest songs, as determined by an expert panel of writers, academics and musicians.
Additionally, celebrity rockers such as Bono, Mick Jagger and Lucinda Williams have weighed in with essays about various songs on the list.
Even though Dylan has enjoyed a resurgence in the past 14 years, the highest-ranking song from the era came in at a modest No. 21 -- "Mississippi," a tune from 2001's "Love and Theft." Sheryl Crow, who recorded the song three years before Dylan did, said it introduces him "as somebody facing mortality with an upbeat attitude."
Bob Dylan
Hat To Be Auctioned
Princess Beatrice
The eye-popping hat worn by Princess Beatrice at Britain's royal wedding is to be auctioned to raise money for charity, Buckingham Palace said Thursday.
The famous creation - which some said looked like antlers_ will be sold on eBay with the proceeds to go to the charities UNICEF and Children in Crisis.
The hat was the handiwork of Britain's leading milliner, Philip Treacy, who designed many of the ladies' hats worn at the April 29 nuptials of Prince William and Kate Middleton, now known as the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge.
The unusual design of the beige hat has sparked a Facebook fan page called "Princess Beatrice's ridiculous Royal Wedding hat," and one computer-altered picture showed President Barack Obama and his national security team all wearing the hat as they watched the commando raid on Osama bin Laden's compound in Pakistan.
Princess Beatrice
Replacing Charlie Sheen?
Ashton Kutcher
Ashton Kutcher appears to have won the "Two and a Half Men" competition to replace ousted star Charlie Sheen.
Two sources close to the deal-making tell The Hollywood Reporter that the former "That '70s Show" star is putting the final touches on a deal to join TV's No. 1 comedy.
CBS, studio Warner Bros. and Kutcher's reps at Creative Artists Agency declined to comment on the situation but a deal is said to be all but signed. The exact dollar figure he will be paid is not known, but a source says Kutcher is getting a "huge payday" to join the hit sitcom.
The deal came together quickly after Hugh Grant passed on the opportunity to join the show. Now sources say "Men" creator Chuck Lorre has crafted a storyline to introduce Kutcher in a way that satisfies the network and studio. "It's really funny," says one source. "People are going to love it."
Ashton Kutcher
Settles For $105M
LimeWire
File-sharing software company LimeWire, which shut down last year after being barred from allowing people to share copyright-protected files online, reached a $105 million out-of-court settlement with the major record labels Thursday, the labels said.
In a statement, Recording Industry Association of America Chairman Mitch Bainwol said his group, which represents the labels, is pleased with the settlement.
LimeWire, which had enabled people to share songs and other files over the Internet, had been fighting the RIAA for several years.
The RIAA argued LimeWire's software encouraged illegal sharing of copyrighted music. Last May LimeWire was found liable of copyright infringement, with a trial to follow early this year. That trial started last week.
LimeWire
Racism Trial Set For June 22
John Galliano
Fallen fashion designer John Galliano will stand trial on June 22 in Paris for hurling anti-Semitic insults at people in a Parisian bar in a case that has already cost him his job at luxury label Dior.
Galliano faces up to six months in prison and a fine of 22,500 euros ($31,430) if found guilty. He will attend the trials in person, his lawyer said.
A leading star in the fashion world just a few months ago, the British designer was sacked in March after a video clip emerged online showing him slurring abuse at fellow drinkers in a trendy bar and saying he loved Adolf Hitler.
Two people accused Galliano in February of making anti-Semitic insults. Following their accusations, a third person also claimed to be the victim of a similar outburst in October. At the time Galliano issued an apology.
John Galliano
Neruda Associate Claims Poet Killed By Pinochet
Pablo Neruda
A longtime associate of Pablo Neruda has caused a media stir claiming that the Nobel Prize-winning Chilean poet was assassinated by the regime of former dictator Augusto Pinochet.
The Pablo Neruda Foundation still insists the poet died on September 23, 1973, from prostate cancer aggravated by emotional distress, after seeing Pinochet overthrow Neruda's friend Salvador Allende in a coup 12 days earlier.
But Manuel Araya, Neruda's secretary, personal assistant and driver, has alleged in recent interviews that the poet was assassinated by the new military regime, which feared he would go into exile as a high-profile dissident.
"Pinochet was a murderer. He killed Neruda so he wouldn't leave the country, because he was an intellectual that (Pinochet) did not want to have as an opponent," Araya, 65, told AFP on Wednesday.
Pablo Neruda
Pays Tribute
Rock Hall
When Wanda Jackson was a girl with a gravelly voice who opened for Elvis Presley in the 1950s, nobody had ever heard a woman sing like that before.
By then, Presley was already gyrating his way to superstardom. But Jackson - called the "queen of rockabilly" for her gritty, feisty performances - couldn't even get her songs played on the radio.
"It's like they just got their heads together and said, `We will not help this girl do it,'" the 73-year-old Jackson recalls. "They just wouldn't play my records if it was the rock stuff. So it didn't take long before I was putting a country song on one side of a record and a rock song on the other."
Jackson's old acoustic guitar will be featured at a new exhibit dedicated to female artists that opens Friday at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in downtown Cleveland. "Women Who Rock: Vision, Passion, Power" chronicles the pioneering role of women in rock 'n' roll, from Ma Rainey and Bessie Smith to Bikini Kill and Lady GaGa.
Rock Hall
In Memory
Cornell Dupree Jr.
Cornell Dupree Jr., a guitarist who played on R&B and jazz hits with artists including Aretha Franklin and Miles Davis, has died. He was 68.
Just out of high school, he went to work in Manhattan with saxophonist King Curtis Ousley, another Fort Worth native.
Dupree, who went on to be a studio player, played guitar on "Respect" by Franklin, "Rainy Night in Georgia" by Brook Benton and "Memphis Soul Stew" by King Curtis.
He toured with Franklin's band from the late 1960s through the mid-1970s.
His son, Cornell Dupree III, tells the Fort Worth Star-Telegram says most people don't know his father, but "there's not too many musicians who don't know him."
Cornell Dupree Jr.
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