Recommended Reading
from Bruce
106 of the most beloved Street Art Photos - Year 2011 (Street Art Utopia)
Funniest Commercial Ever (YouTube)
Awe as in Awesome (YouTube)
Nearly five jaw-dropping minutes.
Caught On Tape: Clerk Punches, Knocks Out Armed Robber
Clerk Then Makes Suspect Clean Up His Own Blood.
Tom Danehy: Welcome to the best of 2011, Danehy style (Tucson Weekly)
Two Thousand Eleven wasn't a great year (mostly because of Republicans), but there were some bright spots for me. Among them: Favorite album: Adele's 21. Quick, when was the last time there was such a momentous convergence of talent and mass appeal? Or put it this way: When was the last time the best-selling album of the year was also the best album of the year?
Richard Eskow: "Notable Death of the Year: RIP Austerity Economics, 1921-2011" (Huffington Post)
Austerity economics died in 2011 and is survived by the British, German, and French governments as well as the GOP and large portions of the Democratic Party. Instead of sending flowers, the family has asked the public to abandon all hopes of future economic growth.
Froma Harrop: Middle Class Aided Its Own Decline (Creators Syndicate)
For those who remember the American middle's golden era of 40 years ago - or see it reconstructed on TV dramas - the cultural losses are pretty shocking. The middle managers in "Mad Men" returned to orderly homes with tidy children, even as their personal lives spun into chaos. While comfortable, their houses were modest by today's McMansion standards. That's because they were living within their means.
Robert Reich: Why the Republican Crackup is Bad For America
… the Republican crackup threatens the future of the Grand Old Party more profoundly than at any time since the GOP's eclipse in 1932. That's bad for America.
Kenneth Thomas: "U.S. Health Not #1: Deconstructing Legatum Part 1" (Middle Class Poliical Economist)
Spending almost exactly half what the U.S. spends, the French get an extra 3 years of healthy life, fewer than half the deaths from respiratory diseases, and less than half the infant mortality.
David Bruce: Wise Up! Authors (Athens News)
English novelist Anthony Trollope once heard a couple of clergymen complaining about a character who appeared frequently in his novels: Mrs. Proudie, whom they found annoying. Mr. Trollope introduced himself to the two clergymen, and he promised, "I will go home and kill her before the week is over." He then wrote her death scene in his newest novel.
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."
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Reader Suggestion
Michelle in AZ
From The Creator of 'Avery Ant'
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Sunny and mid-sixties, followed by a foggy, foggy night.
Krewe of Muses
Patricia Clarkson
Actress Patricia Clarkson will lead the Carnival parade of the Krewe of Muses in her hometown of New Orleans.
The star of the 2010 thriller "Shutter Island" and the 2003 drama "Pieces of April" will step into a whimsical limelight by riding on a red fiber-optic-lit float shaped like a high-heeled shoe.
The Krewe of Muses is an all-women's organization that parades through New Orleans on Feb. 16.
The krewe traditionally selects an honorary rider who exemplifies a muse from Greek mythology, such as dance, poetry or music. For 2012, the club said it chose Clarkson as its honorary "EveryMuse" because she embodies the spirit of all muses.
Patricia Clarkson
Settlement In Barbie Doll Suit
Elly Mae Clampett
The actress who played Elly May Clampett on the "The Beverly Hillbillies" has settled her lawsuit over a Barbie doll that uses the character's name and likeness.
An attorney for actress Donna Douglas says she settled with CBS and toymaker Mattel on Tuesday. Douglas' lawsuit had sought at least $75,000. Details of the settlement were confidential.
Douglas played the critter-loving tomboy for all nine seasons of the CBS comedy about a backwoods family that strikes oil and moves to Beverly Hills.
She claimed CBS Consumer Products Inc. and Mattel Inc. needed her approval for the Barbie. In court documents, CBS and Mattel said they didn't need her OK because the network holds exclusive rights to the character.
Elly Mae Clampett
Restores Order With Photoshop
North Korea
Vast Collection To Be Sold
Titanic
The biggest collection of Titanic artifacts is to be sold off as a single lot in an auction timed for the 100th anniversary in April of the sinking of the famed ocean liner.
The 5,500 item collection, valued in 2007 at $189 million, was recovered from seven research and recovery expeditions to the Titanic wreck site in the North Atlantic Ocean between 1987 and 2004, according to a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commision.
The seller is the Titanic's court-appointed salvor, Premier Exhibitions, a museum exhibition company, whose subsidiary RMS Titanic Inc. is the only company permitted by law to recover objects from the Titanic, the filing said.
The items, which were not identified in the filing, will be sold as a complete collection and offered for sale as one lot by Guernsey's Auctioneers in New York.
Titanic
New Job
Robert "Joe" Halderman
Robert "Joe" Halderman, the former CBS News producer who went to jail for trying to blackmail David Letterman, has secured a job at "On the Case with Paula Zahn," a weekly news magazine on the Investigation Discovery Channel.
Scott Weinberger, a former deputy sheriff and investigative reporter, is the show's creator alongside Scott Sternberg. A Discovery spokesperson noted that Halderman works for Weinberger's company, Weinberger Media, rather than the network.
Back in 2009, Halderman was a producer for "48 Hours" -- a show not unlike "On the case" -- when he approached Letterman with information he'd gathered regarding the late night-host's extramarital activities, which involved the news producer's girlfriend.
Halderman was sentenced to six months in jail in 2010, though he only served four months of the sentence.
Robert "Joe" Halderman
Endorses Ron Paul
Kelly Clarkson
"American Idol" winner Kelly Clarkson wandered into presidential politics with an endorsement of Ron Paul, then defended her candidate against accusations of racism.
"I love Ron Paul. I liked him a lot during the last Republican nomination and no one gave him a chance. If he wins the nomination for the Republican party in 2012 he's got my vote. Too bad he probably won't," Clarkson tweeted late Wednesday.
She said of her political views: "I am a Republican but I actually voted Democrat last election."
Kelly Clarkson
Heckuva A Job, Brownie!
FEMA
When the Federal Emergency Management Agency mailed out 83,000 debt notices this year to victims of Hurricane Katrina and other 2005 storms, one of the letters showed up in David Bellinger's mailbox. Bellinger, who is blind, needed a friend to read it and break the news that FEMA wants him to pay back more than $3,200 in federal aid he received after Katrina.
"I nearly had a stroke," recalls the 63-year-old, who moved to Atlanta after the storm wrecked his New Orleans home. "I'm totally blind. I subsist entirely on a Social Security disability check. If I have to pay this money back, it would pretty much wipe out all the savings I have."
Many other Gulf Coast hurricane victims are in the same position, angry and frustrated at the prospect of repaying money they spent years ago as they tried to rebuild their lives.
FEMA is seeking to recover more than $385 million it says was improperly paid to victims of hurricanes Katrina, Rita and Wilma. The debts, which average about $4,622 per recipient, represent slightly less than 5 percent of the roughly $8 billion that FEMA distributed after the storms. At least some of the overpayments were due to FEMA employees' own mistakes, ranging from clerical errors to failing to interview applicants, according to congressional testimony.
But the agency says it is required by law to make an effort to recover improper payments, even if the recipient wasn't at fault. Last week, however, Congress approved legislation that would allow FEMA to waive many of the debts. President Barack Obama signed the measure - part of a $1 trillion spending package - into law last Friday.
FEMA
Privatizing Prisons For Fun & Profit
Ohio
David Kah will report to the same job in the same training kitchen at Ohio's 17-year-old state prison in Marion in January - but much about his life will be changed.
Kah is leaving the public payroll and taking a job with Management & Training Corp., the Centerville, Utah-based prison vendor that takes over operation of North Central Correctional Institution on Saturday. The longtime culinary arts instructor, who's 67, says he'll see significant reductions in pay and vacation days, but he's looking forward to the new operator's plans for his program.
Ohio turns over the keys to MTC at 10 p.m. Dec. 31, the start of the last shift before the management transfer. The prison is among five state facilities seeing management or operations changes that night in a consolidation and privatization effort by Republican Gov. John Kasich.
Kasich put five state prisons on the block, but only the privately-run Lake Erie Correctional Institution in Conneaut was sold. It was bought by Corrections Corporation of America, the nation's largest prison vendor, for $72.7 million in the first deal of its kind in the nation. CCA already ran the facility.
Ohio
Rescue Group In Crisis Mode
Arizona Humane Society
Animal lovers threatened to pull donations to an animal rescue group and the public flooded the agency with scathing comments and calls after a man's cat was euthanized when he couldn't afford its medical care, prompting the Arizona Humane Society to go into damage-control mode Wednesday.
The group has hired a publicist, removed dozens of comments on its Facebook page and directed a team of five volunteers to respond to the overwhelming calls and emails it has received since The Arizona Republic published a weekend story about Daniel Dockery and his 9-month-old cat, Scruffy.
Dockery, a 49-year-old recovering heroin addict, told the Phoenix newspaper that he took Scruffy to a Humane Society center on Dec. 8 because she had a cut from a barbed-wire fence, an injury that he described as non-life-threatening. The agency said it would cost $400 to treat Scruffy, money he didn't have.
The Humane Society cited policy when it declined to accept a credit card over the phone from Dockery's mother in Michigan or to wait for her to wire the money. The staff said if he signed papers surrendering the cat, Scruffy would be treated and put in foster care, he said.
Instead, Scruffy was euthanized several hours later.
Arizona Humane Society
Prime-Time Nielsens
Ratings
Prime-time viewership numbers compiled by Nielsen for Dec. 19-25. Listings include the week's ranking and viewership.
1. NFL Football: Chicago at Green Bay, NBC, 24.02 million.
2. "Sunday Night NFL Pre-Kick," NBC, 18.67 million.
3. "Football Night in America," NBC, 14.73 million.
4. "The X-Factor" (Thursday), Fox, 12.59 million.
5. "NCIS," CBS, 12.37 million.
6. "NCIS: Los Angeles," CBS, 11.43 million.
7. "The X-Factor" (Wednesday), Fox, 11.23 million.
8. "The Big Bang Theory," CBS, 9.28 million.
9. "The Mentalist," CBS, 8.47 million.
10. "Person of Interest," CBS, 8.14 million.
11. "Unforgettable," CBS, 8.09 million.
12. "Two and a Half Men," CBS, 7.95 million.
13. "Mike & Molly," CBS, 7.77 million.
14. "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation," CBS, 7.35 million.
15. "CSI: NY," CBS, 7.33 million.
16. "Blue Bloods," CBS, 7.29 million.
17. "Terra Nova," Fox, 7.24 million.
18. "2 Broke Girls," CBS, 7.2 million.
19. "Hawaii Five-0," CBS, 7.03 million.
20. "Criminal Minds," CBS, 6.78 million.
Ratings
Cable Nielsens
Ratings
Rankings for the top 15 programs on cable networks as compiled by the Nielsen Co. for the week of Dec. 19-25. Day and start time (EST) are in parentheses:
1. NFL Football: Pittsburgh vs. San Francisco (Monday, 8:48 p.m.), ESPN, 11.61 million homes, 16.67 million viewers.
2. "The Closer" (Monday, 9 p.m.), TNT, 4.22 million homes, 5.81 million viewers.
3. "Rizzoli & Isles" (Monday, 10 p.m.), TNT, 3.94 million homes, 5.32 million viewers.
4. NBA Basketball: Boston vs. New York (Sunday, 12 p.m.), TNT, 3.92 million homes, 5.86 million viewers.
5. "Pawn Stars" (Monday, 10:30 p.m.), History, 3.7 million homes, 5.16 million viewers.
6. "SportsCenter" (Monday, 12:28 a.m.), ESPN, 3.59 million homes, 4.66 million viewers.
7. "Pawn Stars" (Monday, 10 p.m.), History, 3.58 million homes, 5.03 million viewers.
8. "Monday Night Countdown" (Monday, 7 p.m.), ESPN, 3.51 million homes, 5.9 million viewers.
9. "Storage Wars" (Tuesday, 10 p.m.), A&E, 3.28 million homes, 4.82 million viewers.
10. NFL Football: Houston vs. Indianapolis (Thursday, 8:30 p.m.), NFL Network, 3.21 million homes, 4.58 million viewers.
11. "WWE Raw" (Monday, 9 p.m.), USA, 3.02 million homes, 4.42 million viewers.
12. "American Pickers" (Monday, 9 p.m.), History, 2.99 million homes, 4.29 million viewers.
13. "Storage Wars Texas" (Tuesday 10:30 p.m.), A&E, 2.83 million homes, 4.03 million viewers.
14. "WWE Raw" (Monday, 10 p.m.), USA, 2.79 million homes, 4.16 million viewers.
15. "The O'Reilly Factor" (Tuesday, 8 p.m.), Fox News, 2.74 million homes, 3.6 million viewers.
Ratings
In Memory
Kaye Stevens
Singer and actress Kaye Stevens, a longtime South Florida resident who was a frequent guest on Johnny Carson's "The Tonight Show," has died at a central Florida hospital. She was 79.
Close friend Gerry Schweitzer confirmed that Stevens died Wednesday at the Villages Hospital north of Orlando following a battle with breast cancer and blood clots.
Stevens performed with Rat Pack members including Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr. and Joey Bishop. She also performed solo at venues like Caesar's Palace in Las Vegas and the Plaza Hotel's Persian Room in New York City.
During the Vietnam War era, Stevens performed for American soldiers in the war zone with Bob Hope's USO tour.
Stevens also acted in film and television, including a run on "Days of Our Lives" from 1974-79.
Kaye Stevens
In Memory
Leopold Hawelka
Andy Warhol stopped by for a cup of his coffee. So did princes, paupers, playwrights, poets and untold thousands for whom a visit to Vienna was unthinkable without a cup of steaming brew served by the bow-tied little man with the perpetual dancing smile.
In this city of more than 1,900 cafes, Leopold Hawelka was an icon, as much part of Cafe Hawelka as its tables - scarred by burned-out cigarettes, their marble tops worn smooth by the elbows of four generations. He served tourists, the rich and the famous, and the neediest of the needy - the ragged Viennese masses who crowded his establishment over a free glass of water to escape the cold of their bombed-out city after World War II.
Hawelka's daughter, Herta, said he died in his sleep and "without pain" Thursday aged 100 - leaving behind a legacy as intimately linked with the city as any of its splendid palaces or sumptuous art collections.
Cafe Hawelka was never posh. But while costly makeovers left other cafes soulless, Hawelka's grew in charm with each layer of patina laid down over the more then 70 years of ungentrified existence that left it little changed from the bleak postwar days.
Today - as generations ago - tuxedoed waiters flit around tables, precariously balancing countless Viennese coffee varieties and trademark yeast dumplings on silver trays. Wooden wall paneling is lovingly scarred by the initials of visitors and paintings exchanged for a cup of coffee by impoverished artists in the 1940s still hang on the walls.
Even the ashtrays survived Vienna's no-smoking laws - though staff put them out in recent years only when ordered to do so by Hawelka, keeping a sharp eye on things from a stuffed brocade couch in the back of his establishment.
It was this sense of tradition that made Cafe Hawelka special - along with reminiscences from the unassuming owner and his late wife, Josefine. Some of their best stories stretched back to the immediate postwar years, when - split into Soviet, United States, British and French zones - Vienna was the place of intrigue reflected by the film classic "The Third Man."
The son of a shoemaker, Hawelka opened the coffeehouse in 1938, only to close it a year later when he was drafted into Hitler's army. A survivor of the deadly Soviet front, he reopened in 1945 - to a cold and hungry clientele that reflected the grimness of those years.
"As soon as they saw smoke curling out of the stovepipe they came," Hawelka told The Associated Press in a 2001 interview. "It was a sign that we, at least, had it warm. Some of them sat there the whole day over a glass of water so that they could stay warm."
The Hawelkas themselves dealt in contraband cigarettes in those lean and hungry days, while recalling others selling black-market lard by the ton. Titles and possessions gone, the prince of Liechtenstein and other Austrian royalty held court in Cafe Hawelka and sold whatever they had been able to hide - carpets, paintings and anything else the Nazis and Soviets didn't get to first.
Until his wife's death at 91 in 2005, the couple worked up to 14 hour days. He would open early. She closed at 2 a.m and pored over the books until dawn.
The crowd changed - from the postwar displaced to the likes of Warhol, playwright Arthur Miller and local literary and artistic giants, to business travelers, students and tourists. But the sense of time at a near standstill stayed the same, with some guests lingering for hours over their cup of coffee and glass of water.
Although family members - the couple had two children - took over the business in recent years, Hawelka himself was a regular until his late 90s. Too weak to attend his 100th birthday party on April 11, 2011, his smiling portrait placed on his couch served as a reminder of his vigilant commitment to his guests and their welfare.
Leopold Hawelka
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