Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Tom Danehy: Tom is definitely not a fan of Thursday-night college football (Tucson Weekly)
No matter how much money ESPN and other networks throw at the schools, the guardians of college football should stand firm. Well, at least they should have tried to stand firm for a little while before eventually whoring themselves out. Tradition should mean something.
Henry Blodget: "DAVID FRUM: It's Time We Republicans Finally Admitted That Paul Krugman Might Be Right" (Business Insider)
Few w economists have been more correct about the economic crisis of the last several years than the proudly liberal Paul Krugman.
Peter Z. Scheer: "10 Non-Jobs: Career Alternatives in a Broken Economy" (Huffington Post)
The economy is getting better. Didn't you notice? We're in a "technical recovery," which is economist jargon for "screw you."
"Sadness is a strange companion" (Letters of Note)
Full marks go to Paul Banks, lead singer of Interpol, for the lovely, compassionate note seen below; written last year after a gig in Boston to a downbeat young lady. Letters of advice like this - particularly when written by 'celebrities' to their fans - can actually be life-changing for the recipient, and should be commended.
Neil Gaiman and Amanda Palmer are a content odd couple (LA Times)
Neil Gaiman and Amanda Palmer use Kickstarter.com to fund their West Coast tour, which begins at the Wilshire Ebell Theatre.
Torie Bosch: Why the zombie boom is really about the economic fears of white-collar workers (Slate)
The zombie apocalypse is the opposite scenario, in which our white-collar skills become worthless not through technical advance but through total system collapse. For blue-collar workers, the zombie stories are tales of comeuppance, of triumph: skills in auto maintenance, farming, plumbing, and electrical work-not to mention marksmanship-land blue-collar folks at the top of the new social order.
Paul Constant: We, the Living (The Stranger)
'Zone One' Flips the ?Zombie-pocalypse on Its Rotting Head.
Nosferatu the Vampyre (1979; A Great Movie)
It is a film of remarkable beauty, but makes no effort to attract or visually coddle us. The spectacular journey by foot and coach to Dracula's remote Transylvanian castle is deliberately not made to seem scenic.
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:
answered:
Reader Suggestions
Michelle in AZ
From The Creator of 'Avery Ant'
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Wind changed, so no marine layer, just hot, dry wind from inland.
Delivers Musical Instruments To Joplin
Barry Manilow
Singer-songwriter Barry Manilow has come through on his pledge to help schools in Joplin replace musical instruments lost in the tornado that devastated the town last spring.
The Joplin Globe reports) that hundreds of band, choir and orchestra students looked on Thursday as Manilow delivered $300,000 worth of musical instruments for the high school and middle school.
Manilow made the presentation inside a stadium on behalf of the Manilow Music Project, which works to highlight the importance of school music programs.
The May 22 tornado killed more than 160 people and destroyed thousands of homes as well as businesses and schools in the southwestern Missouri city.
Barry Manilow
Hackers Threaten Fox News Over Coverage
Occupy Wall Street
Anonymous, a group of hackers that has previously attacked Sony and Bay Area Rapid Transit, said it will shut down the Fox News website on November 5.
It announced its intentions in a video on YouTube, citing Fox News' propaganda against the Occupy Wall Street movement as reason.
"Anonymous introduces Occupation Fox Hunt," the video's disembodied voice says. "It intends on destroying the Fox News website because their continued right-wing conservative propaganda can no longer be tolerated."
The group, which is affiliated with fellow hacker group LulzSec, specifically mentions primetime host Sean Hannity for attacking the "character and credentials" of the occupiers. It makes no mention of parent company News Corp., which has had hacking problems of its own.
Occupy Wall Street
"Dracula" Cape Up For Auction
Bela Lugosi
The iconic cape worn by Bela Lugosi in "Dracula," one of Hollywood's earliest horror films based on the world's most famous mythical vampire, will go under the hammer in December and could fetch between $1.5 million and $2 million, auctioneer Profiles in History said on Thursday.
The "Icons of Hollywood" sale will feature many items from various Hollywood films, but the black cape worn by Lugosi in the classic 1931 horror flick is expected to be one of the biggest selling items.
Lugosi, who was among the top horror film actors in the early days of Hollywood in movies such as "Son of Frankenstein" and "Murders in the Rue Morgue," was buried in his "Dracula" costume after his death in 1956, except for the original cape, which he wanted his son to have, the auctioneer said.
The actor's family is selling the cape along with vintage memorabilia from Lugosi's films.
Bela Lugosi
New Sitcom On FX In 2012
Charlie Sheen
Fired "Two and a Half Men" star Charlie Sheen will try to return to a winning TV sitcom next summer in FX's new "Anger Management."
The cable channel said Thursday it has acquired the series loosely based on the 2003 Adam Sandler-Jack Nicholson movie of the same name, about a troubled therapist who disrupts his patients' lives.
FX ordered an initial 10 episodes of "Anger Management" starring Sheen, with production set to begin early next year. The series was announced in July by Lionsgate subsidiary Debmar-Mercury, which had shopped it to various broadcast and cable networks.
If the comedy catches on with viewers, FX will pick up an additional 90 episodes that will air first on the channel and then in broadcast syndication starting in fall 2014. The same model was used by Debmar-Mercury on the Ice Cube comedy series "Are We There Yet?" and on "Tyler Perry's House of Payne" and "Meet the Browns," all of which air on TBS.
Charlie Sheen
Elite Polish Cops Sacked
Paris Hilton
Protecting Paris Hilton on the side could put you in danger of losing your real job.
Three Polish police commandos will lose their posts in an elite anti-terrorist unit for serving as bodyguards for the controversial celebrity during a recent visit to Poland.
"If the policemen who protected Hilton do not leave on their own by the end of the week, they will be disciplinarily fired," Dariusz Biel, the head of the regional police where the three serve, was quoted as saying this week.
Members of the anti-terrorist unit usually conceal their faces and must seek permission for any outside work.
The three commandos, who appeared in various photos on gossip sites with the blond hotel heiress, were also said to have carried their police weapons when they served as Hilton's bodyguards during her appearance at an opening of a shopping mall in Katowice, in southern Poland.
Paris Hilton
AFTRA, Musician Union Raise Concerns
SiriusXM
Two labor groups say that satellite radio company SiriusXM is proposing a "blatantly anti-artist and anti-union" deal that would make it difficult for artists to recoup their royalties.
The American Federation of Television and Radio Artists and the American Federation of Musicians are asking their members to tell their labels they don't like the idea.
SiriusXM wants to implement what's called a "direct license" deal.
Under the current arrangement, SiriusXM pays the labels 50 percent of royalties, the independent organization SoundExchange 45 percent and the AFTRA/AFM intellectual property fund 5 percent. SoundExchange and the intellectual property fund then pay artists.
Under the "direct license" deal, Sirius XM would pay 100 percent of royalties to the labels. Artists who want royalties will then have to file a claim with the labels in order to be paid, according to AFTRA.
SiriusXM
Complains To FCC
DirecTV
DirecTV Group sent a letter to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) alleging that Fox Broadcasting Co was running misleading ads warning customers that the satellite TV network would pull their access to local Fox stations.
In its letter, DirecTV said the dispute over carriage fees with News Corp owned Fox would only result in customers no longer being able to access Fox's cable channels like FX and National Geographic, if the two companies were unable to agree to a new carriage deal by November 1.
"Fox, however, is running advertisements asserting that DirecTV viewers 'soon could even lose' the Fox broadcast stations in their local markets," DirecTV said in a letter to the FCC.
The current carriage agreement for the cable channels expired on September 30. However, Fox's broadcast stations are covered under a separate agreement, which does not expire until Dec 31.
DirecTV
Slaps Woman At Film Festival
Omar Sharif
Omar Sharif sure is a stickler for manners.
The 79-year-old "Lawrence of Arabia" star got a little too hands-on with a female fan Thursday morning at the Doha Tribeca Film Festival in Qatar, slapping the woman when she cut in line for a photograph with him, TMZ reports.
The exchange occurred after the woman approached Sharif on the red carpet and asked for a photograph -- despite the fact that there were other people waiting before her. Sharif didn't like it, and instead of rocking the Casbah he yelled at her in Arabic to wait her turn before letting fly with a hearty slap.
Amazingly, the fan not only didn't flee in terror, but stuck around to have her picture taken with the actor, plastering a smile on her face as if she hadn't just gotten pummeled by one of the foremost actors of his generation.
Omar Sharif
Bans Mom In Bad Move
McDonald's
An Arizona mother of four has received a hand-delivered letter from a lawyer prohibiting her from setting foot in eight Phoenix-area McDonald's and threatening her with criminal trespassing charges if she did.
Chandler resident Erin Carr-Jordan has been on a national crusade to clean up fast-food play areas, claiming the pathogens she found in them threaten children's health. She is also an Arizona State University Instructor.
Carr-Jordan tells The Arizona Republic the incident she believes led to the lawyer's letter happened during one of her repeated visits to a Gilbert McDonald's. Carr-Jordan alleges she discovered antibiotic-resistant Staph or MRSA, known to cause potentially life-threatening infections in the restaurant's PlayPlace.
A McDonald's spokeswoman in Illinois says the company has and will continue to talk with Carr-Jordan in an effort to address her concerns, but added that recent actions by Carr-Jordan have become disruptive to its employees and customers.
McDonald's
Claims Vlad The Impaler As Ancestor
Prince Charles
The truth is out: Prince Charles is related to Vlad the Impaler.
The heir to the British throne says he is related to Vlad the Impaler, the cruel 15th-Century Romanian warlord who helped inspire Bram Stoker's 1897 vampire novel "Dracula."
He makes the comments on an upcoming TV show to promote his interest in protecting the forests of Romania's Transylvania region.
Charles says genealogy shows that he is related to Vlad, giving him a stake in the future of Romania. The prince has long worked to conserve the forests and has bought a home in the region.
Prince Charles
More Squeamish Than Liberals
Conservatives
Most people would likely avert their eyes when passing by a man with a mouth full of writhing worms, or, say, the sight of a pile of excrement. But some are more disgusted than others, and new research suggests those individuals who respond with a more intense "yuck" are more likely to hold conservative political views and specifically are more likely to oppose same-sex marriage.
"This is one more piece of evidence that we, quite literally, have gut feelings about politics," said study researcher Kevin Smith, a political science professor at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. "Our political attitudes and behaviors are reflected in our biology."
For instance, a study by Cornell University's David Pizarro and his colleagues found that those people who scored high on the so-called disgust sensitivity scale tended to hold more politically conservative views . The findings, reported in 2009 in the journal Cognition & Emotion, relied on participants' reported level of disgust linked to various scenarios.
And a 2008 study by scientists at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL) found that people who are highly responsive to threatening images were likely to support defense spending, capital punishment , patriotism and the Iraq War.
The new study takes this link a step further by looking for actual physiological evidence of disgust and whether the evidence is linked to political leaning.
Conservatives
E-Poll
Creepy Celebs
Casey Anthony, the Florida mom acquitted in July of killing her child, has been voted the No. 2 creepiest celebrity, closely following shock rocker Marilyn Manson, according to a poll released on Thursday.
Anthony, 25, was voted 57 percent 'creepy' to Manson's 69 percent in a survey conducted by E-Poll Market Research ahead of the U.S. Halloween holiday on October 31.
America's fascination with crime is evident on the list, as Anthony is closely followed by former football player O.J. Simpson who was famously acquitted of murdering his ex-wife in 1995. He earned third place with a 56 percent creepy rating.
Rounding out the top five creepiest celebrities are returning entries from last year, "The Hills" reality star Spencer Pratt and 'Octomom' Nadya Suleman, who made headlines in 2009 when she gave birth to octuplets.
Creepy Celebs
Cable Nielsens
Ratings
Rankings for the top 15 programs on cable networks as compiled by Nielsen for the week of Oct. 17-23. Day and start time (EDT) are in parentheses:
1. NFL Football: Miami at N.Y. Jets (Monday, 8:30 p.m.), 8.95 million homes, 12.06 million viewers.
2. "Jersey Shore" (Thursday, 10 p.m.), MTV, 4.8 million homes, 6.83 million viewers.
3. "Walking Dead" (Sunday, 9 p.m.), AMC, 4.1 million homes, 6.7 million viewers.
4. "Western Republican Debate" (Tuesday, 8 p.m.), CNN, 3.91 million homes, 5.49 million viewers.
5. "Jersey Shore Season 4 Reunion" (Thursday, 11 p.m.), MTV, 3.68 million homes, 5.03 million viewers.
6. "Anderson Cooper 360" (Tuesday, 9:52 p.m.), CNN, 3.6 million homes, 5.08 million viewers.
7. Movie: "Fred 2: The Movie" (Saturday, 8 p.m.), Nickelodeon, 3.53 million homes, 5.73 million viewers.
8. College Football: Tennessee at Alabama (Saturday, 7:15 p.m.), ESPN2, 3.24 million homes, 4.99 million viewers.
9. "WWE Raw" (Monday, 10 p.m.), USA, 3.17 million homes, 4.63 million viewers.
10. "NCIS" (Wednesday, 8 p.m.), USA, 3.03 million homes, 3.84 million viewers.
11. "WWE Raw" (Monday, 9 p.m.), USA, 3.02 million homes, 4.31 million viewers.
12. "Storage Wars" (Wednesday, 9:30 p.m.), A&E, 2.988 million homes, 4.25 million viewers.
13. Movie: "Fred 2: The Movie" (Sunday, 11 a.m.), Nickelodeon, 2.980 million homes, 3.99 million viewers.
14. "NCIS" (Sunday, 8 p.m.), USA, 2.91 million homes, 3.86 million viewers.
15. Auto Racing: NASCAR Sprint Cup (Sunday, 2 p.m.), ESPN, 2.83 million homes, 4.07 million viewers.
Ratings
| CURRENT MOON lunar phases |
