Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Garrison Keillor: A Farewell to a Gentle Swede (Tribune Media Services)
Mr. Ray Nilsson died in an upstairs bedroom in my house early Monday morning around 2:35 a.m., which was nothing he or I contemplated back when I married his daughter, but life takes us down some mighty interesting roads.
Tom Danehy: Tom's eight (mostly tongue-in-cheek) reasons to vote against the [Arizona] sales-tax increase (tucsonweekly.com)
Eight reasons why you should vote against Proposition 100 next Tuesday, May 18: ...
Denis Leary: I Feel Good (huffingtonpost.com)
I am of Irish descent. We have two traditional drugs: alcohol and religion. Both of which produce the same eventual side effects: dropping to your knees and feeling guilty.
"Stephen Jay Gould: Reflections on His View of Life" by Warren Allmon and Robert Ross and Patricia Kelley: A review by Kim Sterelny
Stephen Jay Gould was an immensely charismatic, insightful and influential, but ultimately ambiguous, figure in American academic life.
20 Questions: Cory Doctorow (popmatters.com)
The award-winning author, activist, journalist and blogger, Cory Doctorow, really "Š likes the way that video games became a natural way to tell a story about complex and important economic ideas, both traditional quantitative economics and neuroeconomics."
Nathaniel Rich: Mythologist of Our Age (slate.com)
Why Ray Bradbury's stories have seeped into the culture.
Madonna is my guru (guardian.co.uk)
Author Wendy Shanker has been obsessed with the pop icon since childhood, and even - briefly - became her assistant. Here she explains how Madonna transformed her life.
Joanna Newsom: 'Is it time for a glass of wine?' (guardian.co.uk)
She models for Armani, enjoys a game of baseball and likes to stay out drinking cocktails. Jude Rogers meets Joanna Newsom, the outspoken singer making harp-playing coo.
Peter Hook: 'I'm going to celebrate Ian Curtis. No one else will' (guardian.co.uk)
Thirty years after the death of Ian Curtis, Peter Hook brings his Joy Division pal to life, writes Luke Bainbridge.
Tom Horgen: Joel McHale dishes on chicken tetrazzini, Ryan Seacrest and more (Star Tribune)
Amid the deluge of soul-sucking reality shows flooding television these days, comedian Joel McHale is a voice of reason, skewering Orange County housewives and Jersey Shore juiceheads on E!'s "The Soup."
Sean O'Hagan: "Samantha Morton: 'I could play a prostitute convincingly because my best friend was one'" (guardian.co.uk)
Since she first made a name for herself at 16, Samantha Morton has been renowned for the intensity and intelligence of her work. She talks to Sean O'Hagan about her latest project - The Messenger, a drama about the Iraq war - and The Unloved, based on her own deprived childhood in Nottingham,
Ridley Scott: Creator of worlds (guardian.co.uk)
As his Robin Hood opens the Cannes film festival, Ridley Scott talks to John Patterson about showdowns with Russell Crowe, his favourite men in tights - and why Churchill was a geezer.
David Bruce: "Composition Project: Writing an Autobiographical Essay" (Lulu.com)
Free download at http://stores.lulu.com/bruceb. This free pdf download describes a composition assignment that I have used successfully during my years of teaching at Ohio University. Feel free to make as many copies as you want to for educational purposes. Feel free to distribute this little pamphlet as a pdf file. Other teachers are welcome to download and read this pdf file and decide whether this assignment will work in their classes.
The Sounds - Seven Days a Week (youtube.com)
The Weekly Poll
New Question
The 'Sympathy for the Devil' Edition...
Glen Beck(-elzebub) - or perhaps some unearthly entity clothed in Glenn Beck's skin - on Faux and Fiends, discussing the Miranda Rights of alleged Times Square car bomber Faisal Shahzad said… "He is a citizen of the United States, so I say we uphold the laws and the Constitution on citizens… If you are a citizen, you obey the law and follow the Constitution. He has all the rights under the Constitution… We don't shred the Constitution when it is popular. We do the right thing"...
You weren't expecting that, were you? I don't think anybody was...
Quote Unquote: Glenn Beck on Faisal Shahzad's Rights | Indecision Forever | Comedy Central
and Huff Post
Sooooooo....
Who among you has the courage to stand with Beck(-elzebub) and for the record
state that you agree with him on this issue?
(haha! This too delicious!)
I am SO Bad... totheboneBob
Send your response to
wrote:
From The Creator of 'Avery Ant'
Reader Suggestion
Michelle in AZ
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Sunny and warmer.
Makes Comedy Cameo
Mick Jagger
Mick Jagger and longtime Rolling Stones keyboard player Chuck Leavell wowed eagle-eyed rock fans on late-night TV in America on Tuesday when they made unannounced cameos on comedian Jimmy Fallon's Late Night show.
Leavell joined musical guest Keith Urban for a rendition of the Stones' Tumbling Dice - as part of Fallon's Rolling Stones week - and then frontman Jagger showed up in a comedy skit.
The rock legend popped up in an electrical closet in the latest installment of Fallon's Late - a spoof of TV drama Lost. He explained he had to shout, "Yeah, all right, c'mon, we can do this" into four microphones every six seconds "otherwise the world is gonna end".
Fallon's Friday episode will feature the premiere of the Stones' in Exile documentary.
Mick Jagger
Special Message To Obama
New York Review of Books
US actors and liberal intellectuals joined a list to be published Friday of nearly 2,000 people accusing President Barack Obama of allowing human rights violations and war crimes.
The statement, published as a paid advertisement, accuses Obama, who was elected in 2008 with the enthusiastic support of US liberals, of continuing Bush's controversial approach to human rights in Iraq and Afghanistan, and in domestic security.
"In some respects this is worse than Bush," the statement says. "First, because Obama has claimed the right to assassinate American citizens whom he suspects of 'terrorism,' merely on the grounds of his own suspicion or that of the CIA, something Bush never claimed publicly."
Among the signatories are linguist Noam Chomsky, "L.A. Confidential" actor James Cromwell, actor Mark Ruffalo and prominent Bush-era anti-war protestor Cindy Sheehan. By midday Thursday there were 1,804 signatures.
They also lambast Obama for having refused "to prosecute any members of the Bush regime who are responsible for war crimes, including some who admitted to waterboarding and other forms of torture, thereby making their actions acceptable for him."
New York Review of Books
Spend A Day With Bill
Help Hillary
Former US president Bill Clinton is raffling off a day with himself in New York to help his wife Hillary pay off a still hefty debt from her 2008 White House bid.
Anyone who fills in an online form or donates money by Monday on what used to be Hillary Clinton's campaign website -- hillarycampaign08.com -- will have their name put into a hat to win a day out with Bill in New York.
The donations will go to pay down what Bill Clinton described in an email sent out earlier this week as "a few vestiges of debt" still hanging over his wife's campaign.
A listing on the Federal Election Commission's website shows that Hillary Clinton's campaign is still carrying a debt of 771,000 dollars, owed to market research and consulting firm Penn, Schoen and Berland for "consulting polling/mail expenses."
Help Hillary
Grants Degrees to WWII Internees
Cal State
More than 70 Japanese-Americans whose college careers at California State University campuses were derailed when they were sent to World War II internment camps are getting their diplomas.
Six CSU campuses are awarding honorary degrees over the next three weeks to former students who were unable to complete their studies.
Some of the aging alumni plan to attend the special commencement ceremonies. Those who are deceased or unable to travel will be represented by their families.
Both the Cal State system and the University of California last year decided to belatedly honor the estimated 950 students who were forced to leave college in 1942 for internment camps throughout the West.
Cal State
Pick Ups, Renewals
Fox made its first wave of pilot pickups Wednesday, ordering five projects to series for next season and renewing modestly rated shows "Lie to Me" and "Human Target."
Fox Rupert
The network has greenlighted the police drama "RideAlong" and Texas-set drama "Midland" (now likely called "Lone Star"), as well as the comedies "Traffic Light," "Keep Hope Alive" and "Wilde Kingdom."
"RideAlong," set in Chicago, follows a rogue cowboy cop and the city's first female police chief as they try to clean up the streets. "Midland" is a dramatic soap about a con man in the oil industry.
Fox Rupert
Comic Strip Ending After 85 Years
"Little Orphan Annie"
The iconic redheaded orphan Annie is ending her time on newspaper comics pages after 85 years.
Tribune Media Services announced Thursday that it will cease syndication of the "Annie" strip on June 13.
The company said in a news release it is taking Annie into the Internet age by pursuing new audiences for her in digital media.
The comic strip "Little Orphan Annie" made its newspaper debut on August 5, 1924, first written and illustrated by creator Harold Gray. The strip later was renamed simply "Annie." The spunky orphan was adopted by Daddy Warbucks and later joined by her lovable dog Sandy.
"Little Orphan Annie"
NBC Refusing To Confirm Reports
'Law & Order'
Will the criminal justice system be alive on "Law & Order" next fall? It's down to the wire whether the venerable cop drama will be nabbing more bad guys in a history-making run.
With the official announcement of NBC's 2010-11 schedule due Sunday, the network on Thursday still wasn't handing down a verdict on the show.
NBC refused to confirm multiple reports that the show was being cancelled after 20 seasons on the air, one year short of an all-time record.
Meanwhile, a person close to the production said talks are still going on. The person spoke on the condition of anonymity because that person was not authorized to speak publicly about the negotiations.
'Law & Order'
New Space Plan 'Poorly Advised'
Neil Armstrong
Neil Armstrong, the first man to walk on the moon, blasted NASA's new plans for future space exploration Wednesday, adding that President Barack Obama was poorly advised when he canceled the space agency's previous course for U.S. human spaceflight earlier this year.
Armstrong, who commanded the historic Apollo 11 moon landing mission in July 1969, criticized what he billed as an air of secrecy that preceded Obama's February announcement which cancelled NASA's Constellation program aiming for the moon. That plan, he told a Senate subcommittee, was a surprise to many among NASA, academia and the military.
"A plan that was invisible to so many was likely contrived by a very small group in secret who persuaded the President that this was a unique opportunity to put his stamp on a new and innovative program," Armstrong, 79, said in a statement to a Senate subcommittee reviewing NASA's new space plan. "I believe the President was poorly advised."
The United States is risking losing its role as a leader in space exploration with its new plan, Armstrong said, adding that he was concerned with the looming gap in American human spaceflight.
Neil Armstrong
Music Biz Wins Big
LimeWire
The music industry has landed a major punch in its fight against LimeWire, one of the oldest file-sharing networks on the Internet.
In a 59-page decision issued Tuesday in New York, U.S. District Judge Kimba Wood has ruled on summary judgment that the peer-to-peer company is guilty of inducing copyright infringement, committed copyright infringement and practiced unfair competition.
The judge leaned heavily on one of the plaintiff's expert witnesses, Dr. Richard Waterman of the Wharton School, who testified that a random sample of 1800 files turned up copyright infringement in 93% of them, including 43.6 percent of copyrighted files owned by the plaintiff record labels. Based on the results, Dr. Waterman concluded that "98.8 percent of the files requested for download through LimeWire are copyright protected or highly likely copyright protected, and thus not authorized for free distribution."
The ruling is a huge victory for the content industry in its ongoing battle over web piracy. The judge dismissed LimeWire's contention that these stats weren't reliable and accepted evidence that the service was not only aware of the copyright abuse but actively tried to attract infringing users.
LimeWire
Directors Urge Swiss
Cannes
Some of the leading directors at this year's Cannes film festival have signed a petition urging Swiss authorities to reject a U.S. request to extradite Roman Polanski over a decades-old sex charge.
The petition, signed by France's Jean-Luc Godard, Mathieu Amalric and Xavier Beauvois among others, said that the United States' extradition request was "based upon a lie", a similar argument to that made in court recently by Polanski's lawyers.
The filmmakers are all part of the official selection at this year's Cannes film festival, which runs from May 12-23.
The petition, on the website of French philosopher Bernard-Henri Levy, said: "They hereby appeal to the Swiss authorities, entreating them not to believe the word of Governor $chwarzenegger and the prosecutors of the state of California."
Cannes
Movie Site For Sale
`Field of Dreams'
The owners of the Iowa farm where the "Field of Dreams" movie was filmed have put the place up for sale.
Don and Becky Lansing say they love the land, which has been in Don Lansing's family for more than a century, but they think it's time to give it up.
The movie, released in 1989 with Kevin Costner as its star, was based on the book "Shoeless Joe" by W.P. Kinsella. The site has been a popular tourist destination ever since, with the family maintaining the baseball diamond built by Universal Studios.
The Lansings haven't listed a price for the baseball diamond, two-bedroom house, six outbuildings and 78 hectares.
`Field of Dreams'
Belongings For Sale
Anna Nicole Smith
Anna Nicole Smith's former boyfriend is unloading 250 personal belongings from her estate at a Las Vegas auction.
The items Larry Birkhead is auctioning include outfits worn by the late model, paintings and a collection of Marilyn Monroe memorabilia.
Birkhead says it cost more than $100,000 to store Smith's things for three years so it makes sense to get rid of some. Proceeds will go to charity and a trust fund for the daughter Birkhead had with Smith, Dannielynn Birkhead.
Julien's Auctions will run the sale June 26 at Planet Hollywood.
Anna Nicole Smith
Art Exhibit Puts Face On
US-Japanese Internment Camps
Pendants, pins and ornamental objects made by Japanese-Americans in US World War II internment camps and on display in Washington highlight "gaman," a Japanese word that signifies suffering with dignity.
The exhibit which opened earlier this year at the Renwick Gallery and runs through January 30 includes more than 120 objects, most of which are on loan from former detainees or their families.
After the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor in December 1941, an estimated 120,000 ethnic Japanese on the West Coast, more than two-thirds of whom were American citizens, were ordered to move to 10 inland internment camps, where they remained for the duration of World War II.
At first, the internees made objects as a way to furnish their living quarters. More creative pursuits soon followed as a way to fill the days and to foster a spirit of cooperation. Each camp became known for decorative arts that were made from local materials found around the camp.
US-Japanese Internment Camps
Cases Triple in 10 Years
Peanut Allergy
More than 3 million Americans now have some kind of nut allergy, with cases of peanut allergy in children more than tripling between 1997 and 2008, according to a report released this week.
"These results show that there is an alarming increase in peanut allergies, consistent with a general, although less dramatic, rise in food allergies among children in studies reported by the [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention]," said lead researcher Dr. Scott Sicherer, professor of pediatrics at the Jaffe Food Allergy Institute at Mount Sinai School of Medicine. "The data underscore the need for more study of these dangerous allergies."
Sicherer and colleagues surveyed 5,300 households, representing 13,534 individuals in 2008, and compared the numbers with those from the same survey conducted in 1997 and 2002.
Peanut Allergy
Leaves Fortune To Butler
Ruth Ford
Hollywood actress Ruth Ford has left her entire £5.6m fortune to her Nepalese butler - cutting her family out of any inheritance.
Mrs Ford, who died last year at 98, owned two homes in New York's Dakota Building and they now belong to Indra Tamang, who was raised in a mud house in rural Nepal. He has spent the past three decades working as a loyal servant for the Ford family.
In her will, the actress, model and wife of film star Zachary Scott left her estate, which included the two flats and her valuable collection of Russian surrealist art, to Mr Tamang.
Mrs Ford barely spoke to her estranged daughter Shelley Scott and both she and the star's two grandchildren were written out of her will.
Mr Tamang, 57, cooked, cleaned and cared for Mrs Ford's brother, writer Charles Henri Ford, until his death and then did the same for her.
Ruth Ford
Bars Schools From Releasing Scores To Military
Maryland
A first-of-its-kind law bars public high schools in Maryland from automatically sending student scores on a widely used military aptitude test to recruiters, a practice that critics say was giving the armed forces backdoor access to young people without their parents' consent.
School districts around the country have the choice of whether to administer the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery exam, and ones that offer it typically pass the scores and students' contact information directly to the military. Topics on the test range from math and reading to knowledge of electronics and automobiles.
The Maryland law, the first in the nation after similar California legislation was vetoed, was signed last month and bars schools from automatically releasing the information to military recruiters. Instead, students, and their parents if they are under 18, will have to decide whether to give the information to the military. The law takes effect in July. One other state, Hawaii, has a similar policy for its schools, but not a law.
Roughly 650,000 U.S. high school students took the exam in the 2008-2009 school year, and the Department of Defense says scores for 92 percent of them were automatically sent to military recruiters. In the fiscal year that ended in September, 7.6 percent of those who enlisted in the military used scores from the test as part of their applications.
Maryland
Cable Nielsens
Ratings
Rankings for the top 15 programs on cable networks as compiled by the Nielsen Co. for the week of May 3-9. Day and start time (EDT) are in parentheses:
1. NBA Playoffs: Boston vs. Cleveland (Monday, 8:13 p.m.), TNT, 4 million homes, 5.49 million viewers.
2. NBA Playoffs: Utah vs. L.A. Lakers (Tuesday, 10:44 p.m.), TNT, 3.45 million homes, 4.66 million viewers.
3. NBA Playoffs: Phoenix vs. San Antonio (Sunday, 8:04 p.m.), TNT, 3.27 million homes, 4.57 million viewers.
4. "SpongeBob SquarePants" (Saturday, 9:30 a.m.), Nickelodeon, 3.21 million homes, 4 million viewers.
5. "WWE Raw" (Monday, 10 p.m.), USA, 3.16 million homes, 4.58 million viewers.
6. NBA Playoffs: Phoenix vs. San Antonio (Wednesday, 9:07 p.m.), TNT, 3.09 million homes, 3.99 million viewers.
7. NBA Playoffs: Phoenix vs. San Antonio (Monday, 10:54 p.m.), TNT, 3.072 million homes, 4.11 million viewers.
8. NBA Playoffs: Phoenix vs. San Antonio (Friday, 9:43 p.m.), ESPN, 3.071 million homes, 4.26 million viewers.
9. "ICarly" (Saturday, 8 p.m.), Nickelodeon, 2.94 million homes, 4.42 million viewers.
10. "Penguins of Madagascar" (Saturday, 10 a.m.), Nickelodeon, 2.9 million homes, 3.8 million viewers.
11. "WWE Raw" (Monday, 9 p.m.), USA, 2.856 million homes, 4.08 million viewers.
12. "NCIS" (Wednesday, 9 p.m.), USA, 2.854 million homes, 3.66 million viewers.
13. "NCIS" (Wednesday, 8 p.m.), USA, 2.802 million homes, 3.67 million viewers.
13. "NCIS" (Wednesday, 10 p.m.), USA, 2.802 million homes, 3.63 million viewers.
15. NBA Playoffs: Cleveland vs. Boston (Friday, 7 p.m.), ESPN, 2.75 million homes, 3.7 million viewers.
Ratings
In Memory
Dave Fisher
Dave Fisher, the lead singer of the Highwaymen, the popular 1960s folk group whose hit song "Michael, Row the Boat Ashore" soared to the top of the music charts, has died. He was 69.
Fisher was a freshman at Wesleyan University in Connecticut in 1958 when he and four other fellow students formed the band. United Artists released Fisher's arrangement of the spiritual "Michael, Row the Boat Ashore" while they were still in school. It soared to the top of the best-seller chart under the title "Michael," earning the group a gold record.
Other hits followed, including "Cotton Fields" and "The Gypsy Rover," as did appearances on Ed Sullivan's and Johnny Carson's shows.
The group began to frequently play the Gaslight Cafe in New York's Greenwich Village section and came into contact with such greats as Bob Dylan, Tom Paxton and Buffy Sainte Marie.
They disbanded in 1964 but came together again in 1987 for a concert for their 25th college reunion. Since then, they have performed 10-12 concerts a year, said Ken Greengrass, the group's longtime manager. The band last performed together in August in Massachusetts.
Band member Steve Butts, a retired university administrator who was the group's banjo player, said he and the other two surviving members were at Fisher's bedside the day before he died.
Dave Fisher
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