Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Free Photo (Dreamstime)
Pretty girl in blue with sunglasses.
College Freshman Meme
Sheltering Suburban Mom Meme
Good Guy Greg Meme
Scumbag Steve Meme
Skeptical Baby Meme
Sheltered College Freshman Meme
Success Kid Meme
9 Regular People Who Became Memes
We may never know the true identities of Annoying Facebook Girl and Good Guy Greg, but we do know a little bit more about the people who inspired these memes.
Marc Dion: Keeping the Sluts in Line (Creators Syndicate)
Rush Limbaugh is very good at his job. He keeps 'em listening. There is no more to the job than that - nor, for any reason, should there be.
Farhad Manjoo: The iPad Is Unbeatable (Slate)
Why Apple's tablet competitors don't stand a chance-and maybe never will.
Paul Constant: Let's Talk About Us (The Stranger)
Not Your Average Book About Trying to Be a Better Conversationalist Than a Computer Program.
Thomas Meaney: "Slaughterhouse-Five: 'So it goes'" (Times Literary Supplement)
"Their combined labors killed 250,000 people in twenty-four hours and destroyed all of Dresden - possibly the world's most beautiful city", Vonnegut wrote. "But not me."
Interview by Laura Barnett: "Portrait of the artist: Doug Stanhope, comedian" (Guardian)
'Which other artists do I admire? The ones that quit at the top of their game.'
'Sailor Moon': Serena's arrival 20 years ago changed anime (LA Times)
Twenty years ago this week, a new face debuted on Japanese television: ditzy, often klutzy, the 14-year-old Serena had a disdain for homework, often overslept and seemed forever hungry, especially for desserts - hardly a prepossessing heroine.
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."
Hubert's Poetry Corner
"Secret Torment of Private Abner Tiner"
Recent sad events in Afghanistan come as no surprise.
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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 but on the cool side.
Facebook Co-Founder Buys New Republic
Chris Hughes
Chris Hughes, one of the co-founders of Facebook and a former online strategist for Barack Obama during the 2008 presidential campaign, has purchased a majority stake in The New Republic, the magazine said on Friday.
Hughes, 28, will become publisher and editor-in-chief of the nearly 100-year old magazine which covers American politics.
The New Republic currently publishes a daily Web magazine. The New Republic did not disclose the financial terms of the transaction or the exact size of the stake.
Hughes co-founded Facebook in 2004 at Harvard with his then- roommates Facebook Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg and Dustin Moskovitz.
Chris Hughes
Designed Doghouse
Frank Lloyd Wright
The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York City. The Fallingwater home in southwestern Pennsylvania. But a child's doghouse?
Frank Lloyd Wright designed hundreds of landmark buildings and homes during a prolific career that spanned more than seven decades. But in what is widely considered a first and only for the famed architect, Wright indulged a young boy's humble request for a dog house in 1956 and sent him designs for the structure.
"I was probably his youngest client and poorest client," Jim Berger, now 68, said during a recent phone interview.
Berger rebuilt the doghouse last year with his brother, using the original plans. It was featured in a documentary film and will be displayed during screenings starting this month.
Wright designed Berger's family's home in the Marin County town of San Anselmo, prompting the then-12 years old Berger to ask his dad if Wright would design a home for his black Labrador, Eddie.
Frank Lloyd Wright
Musicians Arrive In Paris
North Korea
A North Korea orchestra has arrived in Paris for a rare joint performance with a French orchestra led by a South Korean conductor.
North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency says the Unhasu Orchestra landed in Paris on Sunday.
They are to perform Wednesday with the Radio France Philharmonic Orchestra. Organizers say it will be the first performance by a North Korean orchestra in Europe.
South Korean Chung Myung-whun, the French orchestra's musical director, will be conducting.
North Korea and France do not have formal diplomatic relations, but France opened an office in the North last year to foster cultural exchanges.
North Korea
House Sold
'Home Alone'
The stately red brick house featured in the 1990 comedy film "Home Alone" has sold for nearly $1.6 million, a person involved in the transaction said on Saturday.
The 14-room, Georgian-style house, located in the northern Chicago suburb of Winnetka, Illinois, was originally priced at $2.4 million when it was first put up for sale 10 months ago. It sold earlier this week for $1.59 million.
"Home Alone" told the story of boy, played by Macaulay Culkin, who is accidentally left behind when his family goes on a Christmas holiday and has to fight off bungling burglars, played by Joe Pesci and Daniel Stern.
'Home Alone'
Religion In The Workplace
NASA
NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory has landed robotic explorers on the surface of Mars, sent probes to outer planets and operates a worldwide network of antennas that communicates with interplanetary spacecraft.
Its latest mission is defending itself in a workplace lawsuit filed by a former computer specialist who claims he was demoted - and then let go - for promoting his views on intelligent design, the belief that a higher power must have had a hand in creation because life is too complex to have developed through evolution alone.
David Coppedge, who worked as a "team lead" on the Cassini mission exploring Saturn and its many moons, alleges that he was discriminated against because he engaged his co-workers in conversations about intelligent design and handed out DVDs on the idea while at work. Coppedge lost his "team lead" title in 2009 and was let go last year after 15 years on the mission.
Opening statements are expected to begin Monday in Los Angeles Superior Court after two years of legal wrangling in a case that has generated interest among supporters of intelligent design. The Alliance Defense Fund, a Christian civil rights group, and the Discovery Institute, a proponent of intelligent design, are both supporting Coppedge's case.
Coppedge's attorney, William Becker, says his client was singled out by his bosses because they perceived his belief in intelligent design to be religious. Coppedge had a reputation around JPL as an evangelical Christian and other interactions with co-workers led some to label him as a Christian conservative, Becker said.
NASA
What Climate Change?
Kiribati
Fearing that climate change could wipe out their entire Pacific archipelago, the leaders of Kiribati are considering an unusual backup plan: moving the populace to Fiji.
Kiribati President Anote Tong told The Associated Press on Friday that his Cabinet this week endorsed a plan to buy nearly 6,000 acres on Fiji's main island, Viti Levu. He said the fertile land, being sold by a church group for about $9.6 million, could be insurance for Kiribati's entire population of 103,000, though he hopes it will never be necessary for everyone to leave.
"We would hope not to put everyone on one piece of land, but if it became absolutely necessary, yes, we could do it," Tong said. "It wouldn't be for me, personally, but would apply more to a younger generation. For them, moving won't be a matter of choice. It's basically going to be a matter of survival."
Kiribati, which straddles the equator near the international date line, has found itself at the leading edge of the debate on climate change because many of its atolls rise just a few feet above sea level.
Tong said some villages have already moved and there have been increasing instances of sea water contaminating the island's underground fresh water, which remains vital for trees and crops. He said changing rainfall, tidal and storm patterns pose as least as much threat as ocean levels, which so far have risen only slightly.
Kiribati
Fistfight Breaks Out
Chicago Symphony Orchestra
It was an unusual backdrop for a fistfight: Maestro Riccardo Muti was nearly through the second movement of Brahms Symphony No. 2 at the normally staid Chicago Symphony Orchestra when two patrons went at it.
Concert-goers at Orchestra Hall were all the more stunned Thursday because the two men were fighting in one of the boxes where the well-to-do normally sit in decorous self-restraint.
The Chicago Sun-Times reported Saturday that the ruckus began when a man in his 30s started punching a 67-year-old man in one of the boxes.
All the while, the concert went on. Though patrons said Music Director Muti gave the two men a sharp, irritated look - one person called it "dagger eyes" - before continuing on with the third movement.
Chicago Symphony Orchestra
Leaves Church Board
Robert $chuller
U.S. televangelist Robert $chuller and his wife have left the board of the California megachurch that they founded and made famous for the "Hour of Power" broadcasts, amid a financial dispute with its leaders.
The resignation of Robert and Arvella $chuller from the Crystal Cathedral board follows the $57.5 million bankruptcy sale in February of the towering, glass-walled church in the Southern California community of Garden Grove to a Roman Catholic diocese.
"We cannot continue to serve on the board in what has become an adversarial and negative atmosphere, especially since it now seems that it will not be ending anytime soon," Arvella Schuller said in a statement on Saturday.
The couple and their daughter, Carol Schuller Milner, have alleged in bankruptcy court that the church owes them money for copyright infringement, intellectual property violations and unpaid contracts, their attorney Carl Grumer said.
Their departure from the board marks the closing of a chapter for the embattled congregation, which began in 1955 when they started holding services in a rented drive-in theater.
Robert $chuller
Congregation Relocating
Crystal Cathedral
The Crystal Cathedral's pastor says her congregation will relocate and the Orange County megachurch will get a new name.
Senior Pastor Sheila Schuller Coleman said Sunday that the ministry will be renamed Hope Center Of Christ.
In a video posted on the Crystal Cathedral website, Schuller Coleman said an announcement regarding the new location will be made in the next few weeks.
The financially struggling church sold its iconic glass-paned home to the Roman Catholic Diocese of Orange County last month to emerge from federal bankruptcy protection.
Crystal Cathedral
Smoking Children Burn Down Castle
Krasna Horka Castle
Two Slovak children were suspected of burning down a large gothic castle in eastern Slovakia when their experimentation with smoking went wrong, police said on Sunday.
Police were investigating two boys on suspicion that they set grass at the foot of the Krasna Horka castle on fire on Saturday when they tried to light up cigarettes, said Jana Mesarova, police spokeswoman for the eastern Slovak region of Kosice. Children under the age of 15 cannot be prosecuted in Slovakia.
"A unit sent to the site found that two local boys aged 11 and 12 were trying to light up a cigarette and because of careless use of safety matches, they set grass at the castle hill on fire," Mesarova said.
The Slovak National Museum wrote on its Facebook page that damage to the castle was extensive but about 90 percent of historical collections were saved, including contemporary photographs of furnished castle premises from the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, oil paintings and various ornaments.
"The castle's roof burned down completely, as well as the new exhibition in the gothic palace and the bell tower. Three bells melted," the museum said.
Krasna Horka Castle
Weekend Box Office
'The Lorax'
"Dr. Seuss' the Lorax" has easily beaten Edgar Rice Burroughs' "John Carter" at the weekend box office.
Studio estimates Sunday put Universal Pictures' "The Lorax" at No. 1 for the second-straight weekend as the animated adventure based on the children's book took in $39.1 million. That raised its 10-day domestic total to $122 million, making "The Lorax" the top-grossing movie released this year.
"John Carter," based on "Tarzan" creator Burroughs' tales of the interplanetary adventurer, opened in second-place with $30.6 million. That's an awful start given the whopping $250 million that Disney reportedly spent to make "John Carter," which also earned generally poor reviews that will hurt its long-term prospects.
Eddie Murphy's comedy "A Thousand Words," a leftover shot in 2008 and finally dumped into theaters by distributor Paramount, was a dud at No. 6 with just $6.4 million.
"A Thousand Words" was so bad it had a perfect score on the film critic site Rottentomatoes.com: all of the 37 reviews compiled there for the movie were negative.
Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Hollywood.com. Where available, latest international numbers are also included. Final domestic figures will be released Monday.
1. "Dr. Seuss' the Lorax," $39.1 million ($1.4 million international).
2. "John Carter," $30.6 million ($70.6 million international).
3. "Project X," $11.6 million ($3 million international).
4. "Silent House," $7.01 million.
5. "Act of Valor," $7 million.
6. "A Thousand Words," $6.4 million.
7. "Safe House," $5 million ($6.1 million international).
8. "The Vow," $4 million ($2.4 million international).
9. "This Means War," $3.8 million ($9.4 million international).
10. "Journey 2: The Mysterious Island," $3.7 million ($9.2 million international).
'The Lorax'
In Memory
Peter Bergman
Peter Bergman, a founder of Firesign Theatre, the comic quartet that channeled the absurdist sensibility and chaotic impulses of the countercultural 1960s and '70s into a popular radio show and a series of cult-classic albums, has died at 72.
A longtime Los Angeles resident, Bergman died of complications of leukemia Friday at St. John's Health Center in Santa Monica, according to his former wife, Maryedith Burrell.
Bergman was hosting an alternative, late-night talk show on the Los Angeles Pacifica radio station KPFK-FM in 1966 when he started Firesign Theatre with Phillip Proctor, David Ossman and Phil Austin. Their stream-of-consciousness comedy, a blend of the daffy and the surreal, spoke to a generation in rebellion.
It also caught the attention of executives at Columbia Records, which released four albums between 1968 and 1972: "Waiting for the Electrician Or Someone Like Him," "Don't Crush That Dwarf, Hand Me the Pliers," "How Can You Be in Two Places At Once When You're Not Anywhere At All" and "I Think We're All Bozos on This Bus." Fans of the albums began to call themselves "Fireheads" and could recite long passages from memory.
The Washington Post once described the Firesign experience as "an impolite talk show where the host has lost control," with recurring characters with names like Nick Danger and Mudhead riffing off one another.
Bergman acknowledged the seemingly random nature of the group's shows, which, he told The Times in 1998, were "jazz-like performances, filled with hidden jokes and meanings that even we do not always intend when we write the material."
Bergman was born in Cleveland on Nov. 29, 1939, and by sixth grade was writing comic poems with his mother.
In high school, he was an announcer on the campus radio system, but was dismissed when he joked that Communists had taken over the school. The principal, Russell Rupp, who issued the discipline was the inspiration for the Firesign character Principal Poop.
At Yale, Bergman became managing editor of the campus comedy magazine and met one of his future Firesign collaborators, Proctor, an acting student.
After earning a degree in economics, Bergman remained at Yale for two years to pursue fellowships in teaching and playwriting. After a short stint in the Army, he went to Berlin on a Ford Foundation grant.
He returned to the U.S. in 1966 and became co-host of a show on KPFK called "Radio Free Oz," which started at midnight and featured four hours of music, comedy and phone-ins. It developed a following among hipsters, hippies and other night owls.
Bergman "talked to people who dropped acid and needed to talk to somebody. He did tarot card readings on air, read books and talked to people. He made people like me turn off the road and listen to the rest of broadcast," Ossman recalled.
Ossman, Austin and Proctor all found themselves in the studio with Bergman one night at the end of 1966 and improvised a show that spoofed film festivals. Thus was born Firesign Theatre, a name conceived by Bergman as a send-up of the vintage radio program Fireside Theatre and a nod to the fact that he and his comic comrades all had astrological signs associated with fire.
They were not only children of the '60s, but instigators of the era's free-flowing spirit. In April 1967, a few months after San Francisco's Human Be-in - the countercultural festival where guru Timothy Leary made his famous call for America's youth to "turn on, tune in, drop out" - Bergman organized L.A.'s first "love-in." What he envisioned as a picnic in Elysian Park for a few hundred fans turned into what The Times described as an "Easter Sunday freak-out" for 4,000.
" 'Love-in' was his expression," said Ossman, who was there.
Firesign's members split up and reunited several times over the ensuing decades, along the way producing shows on National Public Radio and HBO, as well as more than a dozen albums, including "Anythynge You Want To: Shakespeare's Lost Comedie," a parody of the great bard's language and characters that was written in iambic pentameter.
In 2010, Bergman revived the Firesign Theatre show online as a daily podcast available to subscribers.
He is survived by a daughter, Lily Oscar Bergman of Los Angeles.
Peter Bergman
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