Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Tom Danehy: Finally, Tom has some hope for the Arizona Interscholastic Association (Tucson Weekly)
In our democracy, there are few things more potentially destructive than a bureaucracy without any oversight. One of the biggest problems with such an entity is that the old saying, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it" is considered heresy. To the bureaucrat, everything is broken and in need of fixing. Constantly.
Suzanne Moore: A hashtag shouldn't make men fear for their lives. They already have a safe space - most of the world (The Guardian)
Bahar Mustafa may have said stupid things on Twitter, but no one is mortally wounded by speech alone. Student unions involved in no-platforming should remember that.
Michael Billington: "Kenneth Branagh: can he succeed where Olivier failed?" (The Guardian)
He has always been compared to Laurence Olivier. But, as his star-laden season opens at the Garrick, can he now outdo him as actor-manager - and save the West End?
Alison Flood and David Crouch: Henning Mankell, Swedish author of Wallander, dies at 67 (The Guardian)
Diagnosed with cancer in 2014, writer was a leading figure in 'Nordic noir', and was best known for crime novels turned into TV hit.
Alison Flood: The Girl in the Spider's Web by David Lagercrantz review - Lisbeth lives… (The Guardian)
This continuation of Stieg Larsson's Salander-Blomkvist saga is welcome treat.
Felix Clay: 4 Harsh Truths That Will Improve How You Watch TV And Film (Cracked)
If you look at television and film in an objective way, step back and view it as an outsider, an alien, maybe, who has never seen such things, you would be forgiven for thinking most people in the world are crazy peoples who waste their time being infatuated with nothingness. Let's be honest: In the grand scheme of things and how you exist from birth to death, is TV or film necessary in any way at all? No. But, compared with every other nonessential aspect of our world, they probably take up more time than anything else.
David Bruce: Wise Up! Poetry (Athens News)
When he was a kid, author Stanley Kunitz sometimes climbed a cliff with a sheer granite face, testing himself by seeing how high he could go. Once, he got almost to the top but could go no higher. He also found out that he was too scared to climb back down. After several hours, fire fighters and police officers rescued him with a ladder. Mr. Kunitz says, "I must say my mother didn't appreciate that I was inventing a metaphor for poetry."
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Michelle in AZ
Randall Suggests
NRA Freedom Text
Randall
Thanks, Randall!
From The Creator of 'Avery Ant'
from Marc Perkel
Patriot Act
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
3-digits hot.
Writing Memoir
Al Franken
Sen. Al Franken is not done with his career as an author.
The second-term Minnesota Democrat, former "Saturday Night Live" writer-performer, and bestselling author is working on a memoir about his years in Washington. He is describing it as a "psychological thriller."
The 64-year-old Franken, whose previous books include "Rush Limbaugh is a Big Fat Idiot" and "Lies: And the Lying Liars Who Tell Them," doesn't have a title or publisher for the new book yet.
Franken is being represented by Washington attorney Robert Barnett.
Al Franken
Rudderless And Clueless
Republican'ts
In Washington, Republicans are rudderless after their candidate to lead the House of Representatives drops out. On the campaign trail, seasoned conservatives struggle in the presidential race while a reality TV star alienates the nation's fastest-growing slice of the electorate.
Since 2010, Republicans have harnessed the anti-establishment energy of the Tea Party movement to win control of Congress and recruit a deep field of candidates for the November 2016 presidential election.
Now that insurgent fervor threatens the party's ability to govern effectively and win over new voters, strategists warn. While many Americans share Republicans' skepticism of government, they also need to show they are capable of handling power responsibly - or else face punishment from voters next year.
It is not clear who will be in charge. House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy suddenly dropped out the race to succeed retiring Speaker John Boehner on Thursday, saying he was unable to unite moderates and conservatives who have clashed repeatedly over tactics.
Like Boehner, McCarthy faced skepticism from a group of 40 or so Tea Party lawmakers in the Freedom Caucus who viewed him as too willing to compromise with Democratic President Barack Obama.
Republican'ts
Straight Designers Face Discrimination
Kanye West
Rapper Kanye West, whose growing presence in the fashion world has drawn a mixed reaction, says he faces discrimination for being straight.
West last month suddenly announced a show of his military-inspired Yeezy line during New York Fashion Week, angering some more established designers.
"I felt that I got discriminated against in fashion also for not being gay, whereas in music you definitely get discriminated against if you are gay," West, who manages to stay persistently in the spotlight, told the fashion website Showstudio.com.
Unlike rappers who flaunt their wealth, West said he was out to prove himself as a "creative genius" who can succeed if he has the right resources.
Kanye West
Getting Booted From Canada
Randy Quaid
American actor Randy Quaid said in an interview that he could be deported from Canada next week and that he would like to resolve his legal issues in California and "move on with my life."
In a phone interview with The Associated Press on Wednesday from a detention center in Laval, Quebec, Quaid said he was arrested by Canada Border Services while doing a regular check-in on Tuesday.
"They won't allow me to remain," Quaid said.
The actor and his Canadian wife fled the U.S. in 2010, saying they were victims of persecution. Quaid has sought to stay in Canada, saying he was being hunted by "Hollywood star-whackers" who had killed his friends David Carradine and Heath Ledger.
Randy Quaid
Racist Back Tracks
Rupert
Rupert Murdoch (R-Evil Incarnate), who founded the News Corp. media empire that includes Fox News Channel, apologized on Thursday for a Twitter message suggesting that President Barack Obama isn't a "real black president."
Murdoch praised Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson (R-Malpractice) and his wife as terrific in a tweet Wednesday, adding, "what about a real black President who can properly address the racial divide?" In a separate message, he encouraged people to read a New York magazine article about disappointment among some blacks about the president.
Following a backlash, Murdoch tweeted Thursday: "Apologies! No offence meant. Personally find both men charming."
Former Obama aide and current CNN commentator Van Jones, said on that network that he found Murdoch's tweet "outrageous and disgusting," and said that Fox News had done more to undermine Obama than any news organization had ever done for a president.
Rupert
Major Bleaching Crisis Spreads Worldwide
Coral
The bleaching of colorful coral is spreading into a worldwide, devastating crisis, scientists say, and they predict it will likely get worse.
Triggered by global warming and the El Nino, record hot ocean water is causing fragile coral to go white and often die, threatening picturesque reefs that are hotspots of marine life, experts say.
The spread of sickly white started more than a year ago in Guam, then devastated Hawaii, infected the rest of the tropical Pacific and the Indian oceans and has now infested Florida and the Caribbean. On Thursday, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and international reef scientists pronounced it a global coral bleaching event, only the third in recorded history.
No place with coral has been spared, though some regions - such as Hawaii - have been hit harder than others, experts said. Excessive heat stresses the living coral, which turns white and then becomes vulnerable to disease.
Coral
Common Among Female Vets
PTSD
Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) may be more common than previously thought among female veterans of the Vietnam War era, suggests a new study.
Up to one in five women who served in the U.S. military during the 1960s and 1970s experienced PTSD at some point in their lives and many are still living with the condition, researchers found.
"We never expected the PTSD prevalence to be so high in those women who served in (Vietnam) - especially 40 years after the war ended," said lead author Kathryn Magruder, of the Johnson Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Charleston, South Carolina.
Magruder and her colleagues write in JAMA Psychiatry that PTSD was the signature illness for men who served in Vietnam, but less is known about its effect on women's health.
For the new study, the researchers used data collected from 1,956 women who served in Vietnam, 657 who served near Vietnam and 1,606 who served in the U.S. between 1965 and 1973.
PTSD
Controversial Papyrus
'Gospel of Jesus's Wife'
The search to uncover the true story behind the "Gospel of Jesus's Wife," a controversial papyrus that suggests that Jesus Christ had a wife, has extended beyond the theology halls of Harvard Divinity School, back to 1960s East Germany.
The origin of the papyrus has remained elusive, and many scholars debate the document's authenticity.
Now, records obtained from various sources by Live Science - many of which are publicly available online in databases in Florida and Germany, as well as on the Internet Archive - show that if the papyrus is authentic, the story behind how it came to the United States would be astounding. The records also describe how, if the papyrus is fake, the forger (or forgers) may have crafted such a realistic specimen.
Specifically, the documents provide a detailed account of the life of Hans-Ulrich Laukamp, the alleged former owner of the Gospel of Jesus's Wife. They describe a highly skilled industrialist who built a business with operations in Florida and Germany. Laukamp is a key figure in the debate of whether the papyrus is authentic, and may hold the key to solving this mystery.
Radiocarbon dating indicates that the papyrus dates to around A.D. 800, and tests on the papyrus's ink confirm that it could have been created at that time.
'Gospel of Jesus's Wife'
Stolen Book To Be Returned
Charles Darwin
Another valuable artifact, one of the many stolen by Nova Scotian antiquity thief John Mark Tillman, is trickling its way back to its rightful owner.
A rare first-edition copy of Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species, part of a huge cache of items stolen from museums and libraries, was handed over to Nova Scotia Mounties in a ceremony Thursday at the Canadian Consulate in New York.
The book will be returned to Mount Saint Vincent University library where it was taken from a locked glass cabinet by Tillman, 51, of Fall River. Two other Charles Darwin books Darwinism: An Exposition of the Theory of Natural Selection and The Effects of Cross and Self Fertilization in the Vegetable Kingdom were also taken in the heist.
Tillman sold the On the Origin of Species to a Canadian collector who then sold the book at a Sotheby's New York auction on June 15, 2012 for $42,500.
Charles Darwin
In Memory
Kevin Corcoran
Kevin Corcoran, who played the youngest son in the 1957 Disney kids classic Old Yeller, then became a producer on such TV series as The Shield and Sons of Anarchy, has died. He was 66.
Corcoran, who worked on many Disney movies and TV shows behind and in front of the camera, died Tuesday at Providence St. Joseph Medical Center in Burbank after a five-year battle with colorectal cancer, his wife, Laura, told The Hollywood Reporter.
Corcoran portrayed Arliss Coates, the youngest son of Jim (Fess Parker) and Katie (Dorothy McGuire) and the brother of Travis (Tommy Kirk), in the post-Civil War tear-jerker Old Yeller, which revolved around the family's heroic mastiff.
He and Kirk returned for the 1963 sequel Savage Sam, a tale about another courageous dog - Old Yeller's son.
Corcoran and Kirk made quite the team, also playing brothers in The Shaggy Dog (1959), Swiss Family Robinson (1960) and Bon Voyage! (1962), all at Disney. And he appeared in the studio's Pollyanna (1960) and Babes in Toyland (1961).
He also had the lead as a kid who runs away from home in Toby Tyler, or Ten Weeks with a Circus (1960).
A native of Santa Monica, Corcoran was one of eight children, all of whom acted in the 1950s and '60s. One of his sisters, Noreen Corcoran, played the niece of John Forsythe's character on the 1950s CBS-NBC series Bachelor Father.
Kevin made his movie debut in Anthony Mann's The Glenn Miller Story (1954), then played Moochie, an irrepressible sort who hates being treated like a little kid, on a pair of Spin and Marty TV series and on Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color.
After attending Cal State Northridge, Corcoran landed his first producing job on the 1978 Disney film Return From Witch Mountain and worked in that capacity for the studio on The North Avenue Irregulars (1979) and Herbie Goes Bananas (1980) and on the 1982 CBS show Herbie The Love Bug.
He produced the 1983 pilot episode of CBS' Scarecrow and Mrs. King and went on to serve as a second assistant director on that series as well as on other hourlong shows like Simon & Simon, Baywatch, Quantum Leap, Murder, She Wrote and Providence.
Corcoran was a co-producer on nine episodes of The Shield and on 14 installments of another FX drama, Sons of Anarchy, created by Kurt Sutter.
Kevin Corcoran
In Memory
Paul Prudhomme
Paul Prudhomme, one of America's best-known chefs who was credited with popularizing Louisiana's spicy Cajun cuisine, died on Thursday at age 75.
The star chef was in New Orleans when he died after a brief illness, a spokeswoman for his restaurant, K-Paul's Louisiana Kitchen, told AFP.
The rotund, bearded Prudhomme became a household name in the 1980s through countless television appearances -- including his own cooking shows -- in which he encouraged viewers to spice up their lives and expand their palates.
With a string of cookbooks and Cajun-themed products to his name, he was also the first American to receive prestigious France's Merite Agricole award for services to the farm world.
He was, in some ways, too successful. His blackened redfish recipe became so popular that the government imposed a ban on commercial fishing in 1987 to help stocks recover from near-collapse.
The youngest of 13 children, Prudhomme learned his love of fresh food from his mother, cooking at her side while growing up on their sharecropping farm in rural Louisiana, according to the introduction to his best-selling cookbook "Chef Paul Prudhomme's Louisiana Kitchen."
The family's poverty helped him learn the importance of truly fresh ingredients, he wrote. They didn't have a refrigerator, "so we'd go out in the fields to get what we needed."
In his early 20s, Prudhomme set off on a culinary journey working in restaurants across the United States where he was struck by the reactions people had to tasting his Cajun recipes.
Prudhomme returned home to New Orleans in 1975 to work at the prestigious Commander's Palace before opening his own restaurant, K-Paul's Louisiana Kitchen, in the French Quarter in 1979.
He was also one of the first American chefs to capitalize on his fame by selling his own line of spices -- Magic Seasonings Blend -- which are currently exported to 30 different countries and found in grocery stores across the United States.
Paul Prudhomme
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