Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Tom Danehy: Guilty White Liberals are running amok with their political correctness (tucsonweekly.com)
This Thanksgiving, I would like to point out that I'm thankful for Guilty White Liberals.
Craig Welch: An interview with Al Gore (The Seattle Times)
"Don't forget, the Environmental Protection Agency just enacted a binding rule that requires CO2 reductions whether legislation passes or not. All major CO2 emitters will have to publicly report their emissions. ..."
Mark Morford: Top 10 uses for "Going Rogue" (sfgate.com)
You have found/run over a copy of Sarah Palin's "book." Now what?
Hadley Freeman: Thanksgiving's making me feel queasy (guardian.co.uk)
But with Sarah Palin eyeing the presidency and Scientology in trouble there are at least reasons to celebrate.
Laura Barnett: "Portrait of the artist: Michael Landy, artist" (guardian.co.uk)
'The art world isn't commercially motivated enough. I have no problem with people making money from art.'
Allen Pierleoni: "Barbara Taylor Bradford: a real 'Woman of Substance'" (McClatchy Newspapers)
Barbara Taylor Bradford, 76, is entitled to continue "Breaking the Rules," as the name of her 25th novel suggests. After all, in the multifaceted world of romance writing, she wrote many of them.
"Memories of the Future" by Sigizmund Krzhizhanovsky: A review by Elaine Blair (New York Review Books Classics)
Sigizmund Krzhizhanovsky is a writer even most Russians knew nothing about until his work was resurrected from Soviet archives and published -- most of it for the first time -- in the late 1980s.
20 Questions: Sandra Brown (popmatters.com)
Known for her taut thrillers, Sandra Brown is a perennial presence on the New York Times fiction bestseller list. With 70 million copies of her novels in print, Brown has delighted readers and critics alike with her brand of blistering suspense.
"The Case for Books: Past, Present, and Future" by Robert Darnton: A review by Gerry Donaghy
At a recent Book Expo America, author Sherman Alexie, in speaking to an audience of independent booksellers, expressed his desire to hit a woman who he saw using Amazon's Kindle on his flight to New York. I wonder if Alexie would have been so quick to resort to fisticuffs if the woman in question was reading one of his books (he claims to refuse to allow electronic versions of his novels to exist, but he seems okay with his poetry on the Kindle).
Katha Pollitt: The Real Secret of Feminism (slate.com)
Gail Collins reveals who actually made change happen.
Winona RYDER: Interviewed By STEPHEN MOOALLEM (interviewmagazine.com)
There was a time when Winona Ryder changed everything.
Jim Carnes: Tom Arnold is a lovable loser, and open about it (McClatchy Newspapers)
Tom Arnold is not just a walking contradiction. He's a sitting, standing, walking and talking contradiction.
The Weekly Poll
New Question
New Question
The "Shady in Red' Edition...
Publisher Harper Collins said Friday that Sarah Palin's memoir sold 300,000 copies its first day, among the best openings ever for a nonfiction book. Its print run already has been increased from 1.5 million copies to 2.5 million... In 2004, Bill Clinton's "My Life" debuted with sales of 400,000 copies. The year before, Hillary Rodham Clinton's "Living History" started at 200,000... The Wingnuts are going bonkers!
Do you consider Sarah Palin a legitimate political threat or merely a ditzy cultural doofus and a rabble-rousing, egotistical, power-broker wannabe?
Send your response to
Results Tuesday
answered:
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 very warm - damn near hot.
Delivers Seasonal Cheer
Kirk Douglas
Hollywood icon Kirk Douglas served up seasonal cheer to homeless people in Los Angeles on Wednesday, dishing up Thanksgiving turkey dinners to the needy for the fifth year in a row.
The 92-year-old star of "Spartacus" and his wife Anne were joined by hundreds of volunteers to distribute free meals to thousands of people at the Los Angeles Mission on the city's skid row.
The couple are the founders of the mission's Anne Douglas Center, which helps train homeless women for employment.
Organizers said more than a ton of turkey, 750 pounds of mashed potatoes, 90 gallons of gravy and 800 pounds of mixed vegetables were distributed at Wednesday's event.
Kirk Douglas
Tops Guitar Riff Poll
Jimi Hendrix
Jimi Hendrix's Voodoo Child has been named the greatest guitar riff of all time, more than 40 years after he first recorded the classic cosmic jam.
Late guitar guru Hendrix, who topped the singles chart with the track in 1970, triumphed in a poll of musicians.
The track - full title Voodoo Child (Slight Return) - edged past Guns N'Roses song Sweet Child O'Mine which finished second in the poll by musicians' website MusicRadar.com.
When the site's sister magazine Total Guitar last conducted the survey five years ago, the list was headed by the Guns N'Roses song.
Jimi Hendrix
Memorial Dedicated
Freddie Mercury
Eighteen years since he died, an unglamorous London suburb has unveiled Britain's first memorial to Freddie Mercury, hoping it will inspire other local British Asians to take the world by storm.
Mercury, the lead singer of rock legends Queen, is remembered for his captivating live performances, spellbinding vocals and enduring hits like "Bohemian Rhapsody", "Don't Stop Me Now" and "We Are The Champions".
But few know of him as a shy teenage immigrant from India via Zanzibar who blossomed in the unremarkable dormitory town of Feltham -- and the local area is now putting that right by celebrating Mercury as one of their own.
On Tuesday, the 18th anniversary of his death, his sprightly 87-year-old mother and Queen guitarist Brian May -- a fellow Feltham lad -- were given a rock star's welcome as they unveiled a quartz memorial star in the shopping precinct.
"I'm Jer Bulsara and Freddie was my boy," Mercury's mother told the 2,000-strong crowd.
Freddie Mercury
Hospital News
Ronnie James Dio
Former Black Sabbath star Ronnie James Dio has been diagnosed with stomach cancer.
The heavy metal rocker was due to begin a tour across Europe with his band Dio last week but he was forced to call off the trek after doctors told him he must begin treatment to combat the disease.
A statement released to Blabbermouth.net from his wife and manager Wendy reads, "Ronnie has been diagnosed with the early stages of stomach cancer. We are starting treatment immediately at the Mayo Clinic. After he kills this dragon, Ronnie will be back on stage, where he belongs, doing what he loves best, performing for his fans. Long live rock and roll, long live Ronnie James Dio. Thanks to all the friends and fans from all over the world that have sent well wishes. This has really helped to keep his spirit up."
Ronnie James Dio
Nobel Peace Medal Seized
Shirin Ebadi
Iranian authorities have confiscated Nobel Peace laureate Shirin Ebadi's medal, the human rights lawyer said Thursday, in a sign of the increasingly drastic steps Tehran is taking against any dissent.
In Norway, where the peace prize is awarded, the government said the confiscation of the gold medal was a shocking first in the history of the 108-year-old prize.
Ebadi won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2003 for her efforts in promoting democracy. She has long faced harassment from Iranian authorities for her activities - including threats against her relatives and a raid on her office last year in which files were confiscated.
The seizure of her prize is an expression of the Iranian government's harsh approach to anyone it considers an opponent - particularly since the massive street protests triggered by hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's disputed June 12 re-election.
Shirin Ebadi
Covered Up
Irish Bishops
Roman Catholic Church leaders in Dublin spent decades sheltering child-abusing priests from the law and most fellow clerics turned a blind eye, an investigation ordered by Ireland's government concluded Thursday.
Dublin Archbishop Diarmuid Martin, who handed over more than 60,000 previously secret church files to the three-year investigation, said he felt deep shame and sorrow for how previous archbishops presided over endemic child abuse - yet claimed afterward not to understand the gravity of their sins.
Martin said his four predecessors in Ireland's capital, including retired Cardinal Desmond Connell, must have understood that priests' molestation and rape of boys and girls "was a crime in both civil and canon law. For some reason or another they felt they could deal with all this in little worlds of their own.
Thursday's report detailed "sample" cases of 46 priests who faced 320 documented complaints, although the investigators said they were confident that the priests had abused many more children than that. They cited testimony from one priest who admitted abusing more than 100 children, and another priest who said he abused a child approximately every two weeks for 25 years.
Irish Bishops
Loses Bid
Gary McKinnon
A Briton accused of hacking into US military and NASA computers faces extradition to the United States after the British government Thursday rejected last-ditch requests to block the move.
Home Secretary Alan Johnson decided not to intervene in Gary McKinnon's case, saying he had concluded that his extradition to the United States would not breach his human rights.
McKinnon, who suffers from a form of autism, could spend life in prison if convicted by a US court of gaining access to 97 computers in 2001 and 2002 in the aftermath of the September 11, 2001 attacks.
McKinnon says he was only looking for evidence of unidentified flying objects (UFOs) when he hacked into the US Navy and NASA space agency computers.
Gary McKinnon
Found On Colorado Ranch
Calf Mutilations
A creepy string of calf mutilations in southern Colorado has a rancher and sheriff's officials mystified. Four calves were found dead in a pasture just north of the New Mexico state line in recent weeks. The dead calves had their skins peeled back and organs cleared from the rib cage. One calf had its tongue removed.
But rancher Manuel Sanchez has found no signs of human attackers, such as footprints or ATV tracks. And there are no signs of an animal attack by a coyote or mountain lion. Usually predators leave pools of blood or drag marks from carrying away the livestock.
A spokesman for the sheriff's office told The Pueblo Chieftain that investigators doubt a person butchered the calves because there is no blood at the scene.
Some in the area believe the mutilations are the work of aliens. An area UFO chaser, Chuck Zukowski of Colorado Springs, has been to the Costilla County pasture to investigate.
Calf Mutilations
Metal-Detector Enthusiast
Terry Herbert
The largest haul of Anglo-Saxon gold ever discovered, unearthed by a metal-detector enthusiast in a farmer's field, has been valued at 3.28 million pounds ($5.5 million) by a committee of experts.
The Staffordshire Hoard, found by Terry Herbert in central England in July, comprises over 1,500 mainly gold and silver items thought to date back to the 7th century.
Under Treasure Trove laws, the money will be split between the finder, Herbert, and the landowner, Fred Johnson.
The find has been compared in importance to the spectacular Sutton Hoo burial site, a huge ship grave in eastern England excavated in 1939.
Terry Herbert
Berlusconi's Estranged Wife
Veronica Lario
Veronica Lario, the wife of Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, is seeking 43 million euros (65 million dollars) a year in a divorce settlement, the Corriere della Sera newspaper said Thursday.
Berlusconi had rebuffed her demand, amounting to 3.5 millions euro per month, and countered with an offer of 200,000 euros a month, although he is ready to go as high as 300,000, the newspaper said.
With a fortune of around 6.5 billion dollars, media magnate Berlusconi is Italy's second-richest man and 70th in the world, according to this year's Forbes magazine.
Veronica Lario
Cable Nielsens
Ratings
Rankings for the top 15 programs on cable networks as compiled by the Nielsen Co. for the week of Nov. 16-22. Day and start time (EST) are in parentheses:
1. NFL Football: Baltimore vs. Cleveland (Monday, 8:30 p.m.), ESPN, 7.48 million homes, 10.19 million viewers.
2. "Monk" (Friday, 9 p.m.), USA, 3.74 million homes, 5.29 million viewers.
3. "Sportscenter" (Monday, 11:39 p.m.), ESPN, 3.67 million homes, 4.53 million viewers.
4. "WWE Raw" (Monday, 10 p.m.), USA, 3.53 million homes, 5.18 million viewers.
5. "White Collar" (Friday, 10 p.m.), USA, 3.38 million homes, 4.55 million viewers.
6. "Project Runway" (Thursday, 10 p.m), Lifetime, 3.36 million homes, 4.27 million viewers.
7. "WWE Raw" (Monday, 9 p.m.), USA, 3.34 million homes, 4.91 million viewers.
8. "NCIS" (Wednesday, 8 p.m.), USA, 3.32 million homes, 4.49 million viewers.
9. "SpongeBob SquarePants" (Sunday, 9:30 a.m.), Nickelodeon, 3.24 million homes, 4.18 million viewers.
10. "Hannity" (Wednesday, 9 p.m.), Fox News Channel, 3.15 million homes, 4.2 million viewers.
11. "SpongeBob SquarePants" (Saturday, 9:30 a.m.), Nickelodeon, 3.136 million homes, 4.17 million viewers.
12. "SpongeBob SquarePants" (Sunday, 9 a.m.), Nickelodeon, 3.13 million homes, 4.16 million viewers.
13. "Suite Life on Deck" (Friday, 8:30 p.m.), Disney, 3.1 million homes, 4.41 million viewers.
14. "The O'Reilly Factor" (Thursday, 8 p.m.), Fox News Channel, 3.08 million homes, 4.12 million viewers.
15. "NCIS" (Wednesday, 7 p.m.), USA, 3.05 million homes, 3.85 million viewers.
Ratings
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