Recommended Reading
from Bruce
People Who Got Owned By The Internet (ugo.com)
You really have to watch your back on the Internet -- it's capable of completely wrecking your life in literally milliseconds. In this article, we'll present some people, both famous and not, who saw their existences torn apart by the fury of the World Wide Web.
Milton Glaser: Ten Things I Have Learned
1) YOU CAN ONLY WORK FOR PEOPLE THAT YOU LIKE. This is a curious rule and it took me a long time to learn because in fact at the beginning of my practice I felt the opposite.
Ben Child: Michael Moore calls on Matt Damon to run for US president (Guardian)
Oscar-winning documentary maker impressed by Damon's star turn at teachers' protest about standardised testing.
Dustin Rowles: "Choke on Them Apples: Matt Damon's 5 Best Unscripted Political Moments" (Pajiba)
… when it comes to Matt Damon (and Ben Affleck to an almost equal extent), when they talk politics, they sound not only smarter than the politicians, but more likable. These are guys that not only pass the "beer test" but the IQ test, as well.
Tom Danehy: How Obama-who's our only hope-can make a comeback (Tucson Weekly)
If Lyndon Johnson had been president, the minute John Boehner walked into the White House conference room, he would have discovered a half-open folder full of 8-by-10 glossies of himself and the lobbyist he had been shtupping. The negotiations would have taken a different tone thereafter. And if the Tea Party crazies had threatened to shut down the government and the economy with Bill Clinton in office, the man from Arkansas would have said, "Go ahead, bitches; do your worst. We'll see who takes the blame and who comes out on top."
Paul Krugman's Blog: Utter Wrongness (New York Times)
… what really terrifies the markets, let alone the suffering unemployed, is the prospect of a second Great Depression - a prospect that has become much more likely thanks to the utter wrongness of elite policy priorities.
Barbara Ehrenreich: "Nickel and Dimed (2011 Version)"
A Florida woman wrote to tell me that, before reading it, she'd always been annoyed at the poor for what she saw as their self-inflicted obesity. Now she understood that a healthy diet wasn't always an option. And if I had a quarter for every person who's told me he or she now tipped more generously, I would be able to start my own foundation.
Andrew Tobias: The Infrastructure Deficit
While the Tea Party focuses on the budget deficit, channeling the ghost of Herbert Hoover, the nation's infrastructure slowly crumbles.
Jim Hightower: Grabbing earmarks while slashing spending
In last year's congressional elections, the loudest war cry of the Republican tea party contingent was: "Remember the Earmarks!" But, look - who's that scuttling down the dark corridors of the Capitol, stuffing their pockets with hundreds of millions of dollars in new federal earmarks for their districts? Why it's those same anti-spending tea party screechers.
Susan Estrich: I'm Worried for Our Country (Creators Syndicate)
Out of the blue, as I was modeling the now-affordable belt, she said to me: "I'm worried for our country."
Connie Schultz: It's Your War, Too (Creators Syndicate)
Some of us do remember what it was like to grow up in a working-class neighborhood full of boys who had no choice but to fight in Vietnam. Ashtabula County, Ohio, where I was a kid, lost 26 boys and the futures of countless others to that war. Every family on our block knew who was fighting there and who didn't make it home alive. It was a time of prayers and potlucks and parental warnings never to bring up the war in certain homes.
Susan Estrich: Heroes (Creators Syndicate)
I had dinner last week with a friend whose name, for reasons that will be obvious, I can't say.
David Bruce has 42 Kindle books on Amazon.com with 250 anecdotes in each book. Each book is $1, so for $42 you can buy 10,500 anecdotes. Search for "Funniest People," "Coolest People, "Most Interesting People," "Kindest People," "Religious Anecdotes," "Maximum Cool," and "Resist Psychic Death."
wrote:
is taking some time off to re-set his sleepy-time clock.
3 4 5 6 7 8 CaterpillarsGulf Fritillary Butterfly
Here are today's pictures:
Caterpillar #1 - pupated (7/24/11), died.
Caterpillar #2 - pupated (7/26/11) hatched 08/10/11
Caterpillar #3 - pupated (8/01/11)
Caterpillar #4 has disappeared. Don't know if it's pupating somewhere or if a wasp got it.
Caterpillar #5 died while pupating (08/07/11)
Caterpillar #6 - pupating 08/10/11
Caterpillar #7
Caterpillar #8
Caterpillar #9
Caterpillar #10 - the newest addition
Gulf Fritillary Butterfly Archive
Reader Suggestion
Michelle in AZ
From The Creator of 'Avery Ant'
BadtotheboneBob
Poet Laureate
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Lovely thick marine layer.
Ratings Drop To New Low
Keith Olbermann
Current TV has had a busy few weeks between the departure of its previous CEO and the creation of the position of president, but excitement among its viewership has not mirrored the bustle within the network's offices.
"Countdown With Keith Olbermann," the cornerstone of its new politics-focused slate, saw its ratings dip to a new low last week in the most important demo -- adults between the ages of 25 and 54.
Overall viewership was up over the prior week, but ratings have not sniffed the levels of Olbermann's debut frame, when he drew an average of 354,000 viewers and 131,000 in the demo. The numbers for last week were 208,000 overall and 85,000 in the demo.
Current has remained resolutely upbeat, noting that the channel still reaches far fewer homes than competitors like CNN, Fox News and MSNBC. Both co-founder and CEO Joel Hyatt and President David Bohrman told TheWrap ratings are exponentially higher than before Olbermann joined the network as Chief News Officer, and also identified numerous times when "Countdown" beat CNN in the demo.
Keith Olbermann
Concert To Note Anniversary
Monk Institute
Herbie Hancock, Stevie Wonder and Aretha Franklin will take part in the celebration of the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz's 25th anniversary.
A concert and a competition are the highlights of the two-day event in Washington on Sept. 11-12.
Wonder and Hancock will be among the judges for the Thelonious Monk International Jazz Competition. The winner will receive a recording contract with Concord Music Group and a scholarship.
Franklin, who sang jazz early in her career at Columbia Records, is being honored with the Institute Founder's Award.
Monk Institute
Sheen-Roast Host
Seth MacFarlane
Charlie Sheen's Comedy Central roast is bound to be an animated affair, now that its Roast Master is locked in.
Comedy Central announced on Thursday that "Family Guy" and "American Dad" honcho Seth MacFarlane has signed on for emcee duties on its "Comedy Central Roast of Charlie Sheen."
This will be the third time that MacFarlane has served as Roast Master, but the first time that he'll have the opportunity to rake the former "Two and a Half Men" star over the coals.
"I'm very excited to work with Comedy Central again on the roast," MacFarlane enthused. "Charlie is a true icon with a talent that is strong and pure and concentrated into small crystals which can be smoked or eaten."
Seth MacFarlane
Mexico Marks Century
Cantinflas
It is hard to think of a Mexican Everyman without turning to Cantinflas, the tattered, droopy-pants character created by comic Mario Moreno in the "tent theaters" of Mexico's slums in the 1930s.
With the approach of Friday's centenary of his birth, he has been celebrated as a touchstone of Mexican national identity, fondly remembered for his convoluted doublespeak and clever underdog persona he portrayed for neary six decades until his death in 1993.
He is best known in the rest of the world for his turn as David Niven's resourceful valet in "Around the World in Eighty Days," but the pencil-mustached Cantinflas contributed something much deeper in Mexico.
While leading man Pedro Infante represented Mexico's self-image as a brave, good-looking, velvet-voiced hero, Cantinflas reflected the poorer side of Mexico that gets by on its wits.
Cantinflas
USA Orders nother 16 Episodes
"Suits"
"Suits," a modest hit about slick Manhattan corporate lawyers, has been given a second season, USA Network announced Thursday.
The order is for 16 episodes, up four from its first-season commitment.
The series, which stars Gabriel Macht as a hotshot associate at a high-profile firm and Patrick J. Adams as his irrepressible new associate, has averaged a 6.3 rating in viewers overall and 2.8 in the 18-49 demographic.
The first-season finale of "Suits" airs September 8 at 10 p.m.
"Suits"
$500K To Namesake Rehab
Betty Ford
Betty Ford Center managers learned this week that the former first lady's final wishes call for the rehab center that bears her name to receive $500,000 in donations.
Betty Ford authorized a $400,000 donation in her final will, which was signed three weeks before her July 8 death, the center said in a statement released late Wednesday. The facility, which is based in Rancho Mirage, Calif., about 120 miles east of Los Angeles, will also receive another $100,000 from a foundation former President Gerald Ford and his wife founded a decade ago.
The center was co-founded by Betty Ford in 1982 and it has treated nearly 100,000 patients, including numerous Hollywood celebrities, for drug and alcohol dependency. Despite its high-profile clientele, the facility remains one of the most respected treatment centers in the United States.
The outspoken former first lady for years personally greeted patients at the center and remained a high-profile advocate for treatment solutions, especially for women.
Betty Ford
Burglary Suspect A Prostitute
Alex Trebek
The lawyer for a San Francisco woman charged with breaking into the hotel room of "Jeopardy!" host Alex Trebek says his client is a prostitute, not a thief.
The San Francisco Examiner reports that attorney Mark Jacobs says his client, 56-year-old Lucinda Moyers, is a prostitute and was in a downtown San Francisco hotel to meet a john on July 26.
Prosecutors say Moyers stole $650, a bracelet and other items from a hotel room where Trebek was staying with his wife. The cash and bracelet were not recovered.
Moyers has pleaded not guilty to felony charges of burglary and possession of stolen property.
Trebek says he chased Moyers out of his room and tore his Achilles tendon. Jacobs says Moyers was not in Trebek's room.
Alex Trebek
The System Is Broken
Mark Ciavarella Jr
A northeastern Pennsylvania judge was ordered Thursday to spend nearly three decades in prison for his role in a massive bribery scandal that prompted the state's high court to toss thousands of juvenile convictions and left lasting scars on the children who appeared in his courtroom and their hapless families.
Former Luzerne County Judge Mark Ciavarella Jr. was sentenced to 28 years in federal prison for taking a $1 million bribe from the builder of a pair of juvenile detention centers in a case that became known as "kids for cash."
Ciavarella, who denied locking up youths for money, had no reaction as the sentence was announced. From the gallery, which was crowded with family members of some of the children he incarcerated, someone shouted "Woo hoo!"
In the wake of the scandal, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court overturned about 4,000 convictions issued by Ciavarella between 2003 and 2008, saying he violated the constitutional rights of the juveniles, including the right to legal counsel and the right to intelligently enter a plea.
Ciavarella, 61, was tried and convicted of racketeering earlier this year. His attorneys had asked for a "reasonable" sentence in court papers, saying, in effect, that he'd already been punished enough.
Mark Ciavarella Jr
Upscale Over-Reaction
Beverly Hills
A writer desperate to get a movie script read suffered the ultimate rejection Thursday when police blew up a briefcase he said contained the screenplay after an agent refused to read it, police said.
The bizarre story was set in Beverly Hills, where a man visited the office of a literary agent and left behind a briefcase that he said contained a computer, police Sgt. Brad Cornelius said.
The man left instructions for it to be delivered to someone at the business, who told another person in the office, "This guy's been kind of pestering me to read his stuff" and said he neither asked for nor wanted the briefcase, Cornelius said.
A security guard took the case into an alley, and a bomb squad was sent to investigate the suspicious package.
Officials sealed off one square block and evacuated dozens of people from a handful of businesses on nearby Rodeo Drive and Santa Monica Boulevard before blowing open the briefcase, which contained no explosives.
Beverly Hills
Court Reverses Conviction
Dominic Carter
A domestic violence conviction that cost Dominic Carter an influential role as political anchor at the cable news outlet New York 1 has been reversed by an appeals court.
Carter is ecstatic and "looking forward to getting back into the world of journalism and political discussion," said his lawyer Julia Kuan.
The 46-year-old Carter was convicted in 2009 of attempted assault after his wife, Marilyn, told police he hit her. She recanted before trial, but Ramapo Town Judge Arnold Etelson called her story "preposterous." He also called Carter "a classic case of a domestic violence abuser."
Carter, who served 19 days in jail, had taken a leave from NY1 when the charges were made public. The station cut ties with him just before he was sentenced. His nightly "Inside City Hall" program was a mainstay for city politics junkies, and he had interviewed every major New York City and state politician.
Dominic Carter
Sues Old Navy
Kim Kardashian
Reality TV star Kim Kardashian (Ray-J Who?) sued retailer Old Navy on Wednesday to force the clothing store chain to quit using a look-alike model in advertisements the celebrity claims hijack her fame.
Attorneys for the star of TV show "Keeping Up with the Kardashians" on the E! cable network said in the lawsuit that Old Navy knew what it was doing when it launched the sales blitz in February using a woman with a striking resemblance to the fashion trendsetter.
Kardashian's suit was filed in U.S. District Court for the Central District of California against Delaware-based Gap Inc, the parent company of Old Navy, which also was named. A representative for Gap could not be reached on Wednesday night.
Canadian-born entertainer Melissa Molinaro, who was featured in the Old Navy advertising campaign and has been singled out in some media reports for her resemblance to Kardashian, was not named in the lawsuit.
Kim Kardashian
Kim K Trivia:
In February 2007, a pornographic home video he (Ray J) made with Kim Kardashian was leaked Kardashian sued Vivid Entertainment for ownership of the tape. In late April 2007, Kardashian dropped the suit and settled with Vivid Entertainment for $5 million.
Source
Bankruptcy Sale Sparks Bidding War
Crystal Cathedral
The bankruptcy sale of Crystal Cathedral, the glass-walled Orange County church known for its "Hour of Power" broadcasts, has touched off a bidding war between a Roman Catholic diocese and a local university.
The church's ministry, meanwhile, has announced that its campus is not for sale and launched a pledge drive to keep the cathedral, but that is a show of opposition that could put it on a legal collision course with creditors.
The fate of the towering, 31-year-old church, famed for its 10,000 panes of glass, is playing out in bankruptcy court, following the ministry's filing for Chapter 11 protection in October after falling $50 million in debt.
It marks a dramatic downturn for a congregation that got its start in 1955 when the Reverend Robert Schuller and his wife, Arvella, began holding services in an Orange County drive-in theater that they rented.
Crystal Cathedral
Cable Nielsens
Ratings
Rankings for the top 15 programs on cable networks as compiled by the Nielsen Co. for the week of Aug. 1-7. Day and start time (EDT) are in parentheses:
1. "Jersey Shore" (Thursday, 10 p.m.), MTV, 6.26 million homes, 8.78 million viewers.
2. "The Closer" (Monday, 9 p.m.), TNT, 4.84 million homes, 6.55 million viewers.
3. "Rizzoli& Isles" (Monday, 10 p.m.), TNT, 4.82 million homes, 6.45 million viewers.
4. Movie: "Phineas and Ferb Movie" (Friday, 8 p.m.), Disney, 4.63 million homes, 7.64 million viewers.
5. "Royal Pains" (Wednesday, 9 p.m.), USA, 4.15 million homes, 5.46 million viewers.
6. "Pawn Stars" (Monday, 10:30 p.m.), History, 4 million homes, 5.59 million viewers.
7. "Pawn Stars" (Monday, 10 p.m.), History, 3.99 million homes, 5.65 million viewers.
8. Auto Racing: NASCAR Sprint Cup (Sunday, 12:55 p.m.), ESPN, 3.92 million homes, 5.48 million viewers.
9. "Falling Skies" (Sunday, 9 p.m.), TNT, 3.91 million homes, 5.7 million viewers.
10. "Burn Notice" (Thursday, 9 p.m.), USA, 3.85 million homes, 5.21 million viewers.
11. "Falling Skies" (Sunday, 10 p.m.), TNT, 3.8 million homes, 5.54 million viewers.
12. "Storage Wars" (Wednesday, 10:30 p.m.), A&E, 3.68 million homes, 5.17 million viewers.
13. "American Pickers" (Monday, 9 p.m.), History, 3.6 million homes, 5.16 million viewers.
14. "Covert Affairs" (Tuesday, 10 p.m.), USA, 3.462 million homes, 4.6 million viewers.
15. Major League Baseball: N.Y. Yankees vs. Boston (Sunday, 7:58 p.m.), ESPN, 3.46 million homes, 4.72 million viewers.
Ratings
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