Recommended Reading
from Bruce
RICHARD ROEPER: Never a right place, time when criminals strike (suntimes.com)
The best we all can do is live to the fullest with fewest regrets.
Tom Danehy: Text your friends: Tom thinks something's wrong with youngsters today (tucsonweekly.com)
I was running a basketball tournament recently, and I hired a young woman who is a member of the Pima Community College team to operate the scoreboard for me.
Michele Hanson: Hands up, and no shouting. Do teachers really have pets? (guardian.co.uk)
Academics claim to have discovered that teachers show favouritism. Of course I had favourites when I taught - but I certainly didn't discriminate.
Peter Walker: Philanderer suffers superglued penis (guardian.co.uk)
Man found himself tied up with penis stuck to his middle with glue after wife and girlfriends' revenge, US court documents say
ALLEN SALKIN: For Annie Leibovitz, a Fuzzy Financial Picture (nytimes.com)
IF money and fame are the yardsticks, Annie Leibovitz is one of the most successful photographers of all time. She has a seven-figure salary from Vanity Fair and commands tens of thousands of dollars a day from commercial clients like Louis Vuitton.
Terry Smith: HILARITY AND BARKING UP THE WRONG TREE (athensnews.com)
You might recall the stories about an ornery neighborhood cat that I regaled readers of my column with over the past two years. Alas, Diego has retired from the outlaw life, and no longer bedevils my cats. So no more cat stories. But don't worry. I wouldn't needlessly raise your hopes without delivering something. So here's a dog story you might like. But don't look for any ulterior message or point - this is a straight shot, no chaser or mixer.
John Timpane: Vampires, zombies, the occult: When life is in tumult, pop-cult goes undead (The Philadelphia Inquirer)
Pop culture is dripping, dripping, with the occult.
Robert Pinsky: Same-Old, Same-Old (slate.com)
Alexander Pope's "Epistle" and the art of making poetry from normal, banal, petty life.
Danny Westneat: "Hey, Amazon: Keep your ads out of our books!" (The Seattle Times)
Recently Amazon founder Jeff Bezos was asked whether he still reads books on paper, what the techies call "physical books."
Laura Casey: New book on the Black Panthers shows revolutionaries' humanity (Contra Costa Times)
It was the summer of 1968. Oakland was the epicenter of the Black Panther Party movement, and its members were fighting for the release of party co-founder Huey P. Newton, jailed after being accused of shooting an Oakland police officer to death.
Erica Wagner: The best novels since 1949 (timesonline.co.uk)
Whether 'Watership Down' or Harry Potter got you started, a look not so very far back digs up some real treasures.
The best 60 books of the past 60 years (timesonline.co.uk)
The Times team has compiled its favourites to celebrate the Cheltenham Literary Festival anniversary. Do you agree?
Judith Thurman: WILDER WOMEN (newyorker.com)
The mother and daughter behind the Little House stories.
20 QUESTIONS: James Rollins (popmatters.com)
Best-selling author James Rollins reveals a talent to PopMatters 20 Questions not otherwise seen in his many books -- beware, kitties and politicians, lest he approach you wielding a scalpel.
The Weekly Poll
Current Question
The "A little better all the time (It can't get no worse)" Edition
How would you rate the particulars of your personal financial/material situation compared to 6 months ago?
1.) Better
2.) Worse
3.) About the same
Feel free to comment along with yer answer
Send your response to
answered:
From The Creator of 'Avery Ant'
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Still having ftp/computer problems.
So, if the page goes static, you'll know why.
But I really don't expect that to happen.
Birthers Used His Birth Certificate
David Bomford
An Australian man who unwittingly found himself embroiled in a conspiracy to oust US President Barack Obama has vowed to be more careful about what he posts on the Internet.
Adelaide public servant David Bomford was plucked from obscurity when US political campaigners released a copy of a birth certificate at the weekend that supposedly showed Obama was born in Kenya.
The campaigners, known as "birthers," point out that if Obama was born in Africa, rather than Hawaii as US records show, he would not be eligible to be president, since only natural-born US citizens can hold the top office.
However, the document they released turned out to be a fake based on a copy of Bomford's birth certificate that he had posted on a friend's genealogy website.
Bomford said it was hard to believe "a grey-haired old guy sitting in a corner in quiet old Adelaide" had been swept up in a push to unseat the most powerful man in the world.
David Bomford
Moving To Nighttime
Spirit Awards
The Hollywood awards show honoring independent film is moving to nighttime.
The Spirit Awards are marking their 25th anniversary next March with an evening ceremony instead of their traditional afternoon show. The ceremony will air live starting at 8 p.m. PST on the Independent Film Channel on March 5, two nights before the Academy Awards.
A venue has not been announced for the Spirit Awards, which usually are presented the day before the Oscars at a laid-back luncheon ceremony in a tent on the beach in Santa Monica. A spokeswoman says the show will maintain its loose and casual air.
Spirit Award nominations will be announced Dec. 1.
Spirit Awards
Rihanna, Kanye & Jay-Z
Jay Leno
R&B stars Rihanna, Kanye West and Jay-Z will perform on the premiere of Jay Leno's comedy and chat show in September, in a apparent bid to grab hip, young viewers to NBC's new primetime experiment.
NBC said on Thursday that the trio would perform "Run This Town" from Jay-Z's new album, "The Blueprint 3," when "The Jay Leno Show" makes its debut on September 14 at 10pm.
NBC's decision to move the popular late night talk show host to the primetime slot five days a week is being closely watched by the U.S. TV industry as it seeks to trim costs and retain audiences.
Leno told reporters this week that his show would have more comedy and less chat. New features include a "green car" challenge in which celebrities will be invited to race a high-tech electric car round a track built outside Leno's new studio.
Jay Leno
Overtaking Rove's Dancing Partner
Judas Stephanopoulos
ABC's "This Week" beat NBC's "Meet the Press" in a clean ratings fight for the first time in a decade, Nielsen Media Research said on Thursday.
It was June 1999 when ABC's show last beat NBC's program in a contest without substitute hosts, sports pre-emptions or presidential visits.
It's an ominous sign for David Gregory, who was called upon to take over NBC's long dominant Sunday morning show following Tim Russert's death from a heart attack last year. While it's only one Sunday in August, "This Week" has been steadily gaining ground since the beginning of the year.
The ABC show had 2.8 million viewers on Sunday, compared to 2.77 million for "Meet the Press," Nielsen said. CBS' "Face the Nation" with Bob Schieffer had 2.3 million viewers and "Fox News Sunday" with Chris Wallace had 920,000.
Judas Stephanopoulos
TV's Elly May Clampett
Donna Douglas
Donna Douglas still embodies Elly May Clampett, the critter-loving beauty from "The Beverly Hillbillies."
"Elly has always been good for me," says Douglas. "That was a slice out of my life, a very happy slice out of my life."
Douglas returned from California to her native Louisiana a few years ago. She lives just outside Baton Rouge near her only child, a son who owns horses and several acres of land. Douglas likes to help him bale hay.
Douglas, now 76, was chosen for the part of Elly May from more than 500 other actresses. She says she felt at ease playing the role because, like her character, she grew up a poor Southern tomboy. The experience came in handy when she was asked during her audition to milk a goat.
"I had milked cows before," she says. "I figured they were equipped the same, so I just went on over and did it."
Donna Douglas
Rhode Island International Film Festival
Ernest Borgnine
Actor Ernest Borgnine will receive a lifetime achievement award from the Rhode Island International Film Festival.
The star of television's "McHale's Navy" will receive the award Friday at a Providence screening of his new film, "Another Harvest Moon."
His other film credits include "From Here to Eternity," "The Dirty Dozen," and "Marty," which earned him an Academy Award.
Borgnine served in the Navy for a decade before turning to show business. In Rhode Island on Wednesday, he toured Naval Station Newport, where he once trained to become a sailor.
Ernest Borgnine
Wrigley Drops
Chris Brown
Chewing gum maker Wrigley said on Thursday it had ended a commercial deal with R&B star Chris Brown, following his guilty plea on charges of assaulting former girlfriend and pop star Rihanna.
Brown had been a spokesman for Doublemint gum and his hit song "Forever" was part of Wrigley's advertising campaign.
Following Brown's February arrest on suspicion of attacking Rihanna in Los Angeles on the eve of the Grammy Awards, Wrigley said it was "concerned" by the allegations against him.
Maintaining that Brown, 20, deserved due legal process, Wrigley said at the time it was suspending its commercial featuring the singer until the matter was "resolved."
Chris Brown
Great Train Robber To Be Freed
Ronnie Biggs
Ronnie Biggs, who spent 35 years on the run for his part in the 1963 heist known as the Great Train Robbery, is to be released from jail, the government said, as his son said he was close to death.
Justice Secretary Jack Straw said 79-year-old Biggs, once a celebrity fugitive, was being released on compassionate grounds because his condition had deteriorated and was unlikely to improve.
Biggs is in a prison hospital in Norwich with pneumonia. A series of strokes has also left him bedridden and barely able to communicate.
Straw last month rejected Biggs's application for parole on the grounds that the robber was "wholly unrepentant" about his crimes, but he said the decision on compassionate release was based on "different considerations."
Ronnie Biggs
Domestic Violence
Tom Sizemore
Actor Tom Sizemore has been arrested in Los Angeles for alleged domestic violence.
Police spokesman Richard French says the 47-year-old actor was arrested Wednesday night in the downtown area. French did not have details of the incident.
Jail records show Sizemore was released Thursday morning. His bail had been set at $20,000.
Sizemore, who appeared in "Black Hawk Down" and "Saving Private Ryan," was convicted in 2003 of domestic violence involving his ex-girlfriend, former "Hollywood Madam" Heidi Fleiss.
Tom Sizemore
Meth Mule
Cameron Douglas
Michael Douglas' son traveled coast to coast dealing large quantities of methamphetamine before his arrest last month, according to a criminal complaint made public Thursday.
The complaint in federal court in Manhattan alleges that Cameron Douglas was paid tens of thousands of dollars trafficking the drug - referred to in transactions by the code words "pastry" or "bath salts" - since 2006. Cash and drugs were routinely exchanged through shippers like FedEx, the court papers said.
The 30-year-old son of the Oscar-winning actor was arrested July 28 at the trendy Hotel Gansevoort in Manhattan. His attorney, Nicholas DeFeis, declined to comment Thursday.
Federal authorities have refused to discuss whether Cameron Douglas remains behind bars or any other aspect of the case.
Cameron Douglas
Stage Accident
Steven Tyler
Aerosmith's Steven Tyler suffered head, neck and shoulder injuries in a tumble from the stage at a South Dakota show, a concert spokesman said Thursday, and the audience thought it was part of his hipshaking act until he didn't get up.
Tyler, 61, fell while entertaining the crowd by dancing around after the sound system failed during the song "Love in an Elevator," said Mike Sanborn, spokesman for the Buffalo Chip Campground, which hosted the Wednesday night concert. An amateur video showed him spinning around before falling off the stage.
It wasn't immediately clear how seriously he was hurt. He was airlifted to Rapid City Regional Hospital, Sanborn said, the only major hospital in western South Dakota. A hospital spokeswoman would not confirm whether Tyler was there, and a representative for Aerosmith's publicity firm said the company was gathering information about the accident.
Tyler, whose performances often include swaying and grinding on microphone stands adorned with scarves, was dancing on a catwalk that was connected to the main stage. Many in the crowd were surprised and thought it was part of the act, said Jessica Kokesh, a University of South Dakota journalism student who covered the concert for the Rapid City Journal.
Steven Tyler
Twitter, Facebook Attacked
Hackers
A hacker attack Thursday shut down the fast-growing messaging service Twitter for hours, while Facebook experienced intermittent access problems.
Twitter said in its status blog Thursday morning it was "defending against a denial-of-service attack," in which hackers command scores of computers to a single site at the same time, preventing legitimate traffic from getting through.
The fact that a relatively common attack could disable such a well-known Web site shows just how young and vulnerable Twitter still is, even as it quickly becomes a household name used by celebrities, large corporations, small businesses and even protesters in Iran.
Earlier this week, Gawker Media, which owns the eponymous media commentary blog and other sites, was also attacked. In a blog post, Gawker said Tuesday it was attacked by "dastardly hackers," leading to server problems that caused network-wide outages Sunday and Monday. It was not immediately clear whether those attacks were related to Twitter's.
Hackers
Fable May Be True
Aesop
From the goose that laid the golden egg to the race between the tortoise and the hare, Aesop's fables are known for teaching moral lessons rather than literally being true. But a new study says at least one such tale might really have happened.
It's the fable about a thirsty crow. The bird comes across a pitcher with the water level too low for him to reach. The crow raises the water level by dropping stones into the pitcher. (Moral: Little by little does the trick, or in other retellings, necessity is the mother of invention.)
Now, scientists report that some relatives of crows called rooks used the same stone-dropping strategy to get at a floating worm. Results of experiments with three birds were published online Thursday by the journal Current Biology.
Christopher Bird of Cambridge University and a colleague exposed the rooks to a 6-inch-tall clear plastic tube containing water, with a worm on its surface. The birds used the stone-dropping trick spontaneously and appeared to estimate how many stones they would need. They learned quickly that larger stones work better.
Aesop
In Memory
John Hughes
Writer-director John Hughes, Hollywood's youth impresario of the 1980s and '90s who captured the teen and preteen market with such favorites as "Home Alone," "The Breakfast Club" and "Ferris Bueller's Day Off," died Thursday, a spokeswoman said. He was 59.
Hughes died of a heart attack during a morning walk in Manhattan, Michelle Bega said. He was in New York to visit family.
A native of Lansing, Mich., who later moved to suburban Chicago and set much of his work there, Hughes rose from ad writer to comedy writer to silver screen champ with his affectionate and idealized portraits of teens, whether the romantic and sexual insecurity of "Sixteen Candles," or the J.D. Salinger-esque rebellion against conformity in "The Breakfast Club."
Hughes' ensemble comedies helped make stars out of Molly Ringwald, Anthony Michael Hall, Ally Sheedy and many other young performers. He also scripted the phenomenally popular "Home Alone," which made little-known Macaulay Culkin a sensation as the 8-year-old accidentally abandoned by his vacationing family, and wrote or directed such hits as "National Lampoon's Vacation," "Pretty in Pink," "Planes, Trains & Automobiles" and "Uncle Buck."
As Hughes advanced into middle age, his commercial touch faded and, in Salinger style, he increasingly withdrew from public life. His last directing credit was in 1991, for "Curly Sue," and he wrote just a handful of scripts over the past decade. He was rarely interviewed or photographed.
John Hughes
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