Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Oliver Burkeman: Advice from the dying (Guardian)
Before you go, make a to-do list...
BOB HERBERT: Losing Our Way (New York Times)
The U.S. can find the resources for endless warfare, but not for nation-building here at home.
Paul Krugman: Academic Intimidation (New York Times)
But then, we know perfectly well what's going on here. Republicans aren't looking for some abuse of Cronon's position; they're hoping to find some statement that can be quoted out of context to discredit him. At the very least, they hope that other academics will henceforth feel intimidated. And somehow, we can be sure that people like, say, Richard Vedder [conservative Republican] of Ohio University wouldn't be subject to equivalent scrutiny.
Marc Dion: All Gave Some (Creators Syndicate)
Let me note first that, despite the fact that 9/11 "changed everything," one thing it did not change. I still have a much better chance of being shot in the head by a low-on-cash crack addict than I do of dying in any kind of terrorist attack.
Hector Tobar: Blogger curates L.A.'s street art (Los Angeles Times)
Greg Linton extends the lives of works created by night, erased by day.
Hector Tobar: Street art: Some second thoughts (Los Angeles Times)
Yes, street art has a right to exist. Just not everywhere.
Roger Ebert's Blog
Now that I've been fired by Amazon, my brief career in retailing seems to be at an end. Was it only last November I was assuring Chaz I could make a quarter of a million, easy, in Amazon commissions? After all, between Twitter and Facebook I had 440,000 customers in the store every day, and if 2% of them bought a DVD, that would work out to...
Elaine F. Weiss: Shy school librarian finds success as author (Christian Science Monitor; from 2008)
Laura Schlitz lives out her own real-life fable - her children's book is 'discovered,' wins a prestigious award, and fame comes knocking.
DICK CAVETT: "My Liz: The Fantasy" (New York Times)
Elizabeth Taylor's brief career as a magician's assistant.
Leo Robson: Accountant's Truth Versus Ecstatic Truth (Slate)
Werner Herzog's approach to documentary filmmaking.
Interview by Scott Preston: Interview with Henry Rollins - Performs to a sold out crowd at The Museum of Art in Cleveland on 3/25 (Cleveland Groove Magazine)
When Henry Rollins turned 50 this past February, he celebrated in the usual way: He set off on a whirlwind, two-month spoken word tour, commissioning renowned street artist Shepard Fairey to create a poster for the event that depicted the Angel of Death hovering just over his shoulder.
Dana Raidt: "Henry Rollins: 50 Years Old, '80 Percent Bastard'" (Twin Cities Metro)
The hardworking musician, actor, author and self-proclaimed nature geek on how he staves off working for minimum wage, Iggy Pop and why evolving sometimes feels 'like ripping a molar out.'
David Bruce has 41 Kindle books on Amazon.com with 250 anecdotes in each book. Each book is $1, so for $41 you can buy 10,250 anecdotes. Search for "Funniest People," "Coolest People, "Most Interesting People," "Kindest People," "Religious Anecdotes," and "Maximum Cool."
The Weekly Poll
New Question
The 'Devil Spawns' Special Edition...
Hey, Poll-fans... Back for one that I couldn't resist...
Glenn Beck Contemplates Starting Own Channel
The possibility that Beck-elzebub will exit the Faux News Channel at the end of the year has prompted a big question in media circles: if he leaves, how will he bring his demonically possessed minions with him? Two of the options His Evilness has contemplated, according to people who have spoken about it with him, are a partial or wholesale takeover of a cable channel, or an expansion of his subscription video service on the Web...
Glenn Beck Contemplates Starting His Own Channel - NYTimes.com
What would be an appropriate name for a Beck-elzebub cable channel?
Results Tuesday, March 29...
Cut-off 8pm EDT Today - Monday (03/28)
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Michelle in AZ
From The Creator of 'Avery Ant'
BadtotheboneBob
Asparagus Wine
Asparagus wine? Why not, Michigan producers say
Michigan grows asparagus. Michigan makes wine. Now comes a twist in agritourism ingenuity -- asparagus wine. (Go ahead... You first...)
"It has a mild asparagus aroma and flavor with a little hint of sweetness," says Kellie Fox of the Fox Barn Market & Winery in Shelby, near Pentwater. "And it is really clear." Admitting that asparagus wine sounds, well, pretty awful, (Ya think?) Fox says it all started when her husband, Todd Fox, gave her a challenge...
Asparagus wine? Why not, Michigan producers say | Detroit Free Press | freep.com
BadtotheboneBob
Thanks, B2tbBob!
After garlic ice cream, asparagus wine doesn't sound that bad. ; )
OTOH, turned out the garlic ice cream was much better than anticipated.
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Misty morning, overcast afternoon.
In the last two weeks 2 of our cats got sick. One had a hematoma on her left ear and it needed to be removed surgically. She spent the night at the kitty hospital and came home wearing, what the vet's bill calls an "elizabethan collar" (sans ruffle), and needs to be dosed with meds every 12 hours.
The other kitty wasn't eating much and a lot more lethargic than usual - then she started drooling. Serious drooling. Turns out she had an intestinal infection and ended up spending 5 nights in the kitty hospital, tethered to an IV full of antibiotics. She has 2 prescriptions - one, an antibiotic every 8 hours, and every 12 hours, she gets drops up her nose.
I now have a new curse to hurl - "may you be required to put drops up a cat's nose".
Founder Wants To Donate National Park
Burt's Bees
Maine sportsmen were outraged when Roxanne Quimby, the conservation-minded founder of Burt's Bees cosmetics, bought up tens of thousands of acres of Maine's fabled North Woods - and had the audacity to forbid hunters, loggers, snowmobiles and all-terrain vehicles on the expanses.
Quimby confronted the hornet's nest she'd stirred up head-on - calling one of her sharpest critics, George Smith, then-executive director of the Sportsman's Alliance of Maine. Smith couldn't believe his ears. The back-to-the-earth advocate who made millions with her eco-friendly line of personal care products was calling him at home, on a Saturday morning?
That call in 2006 opened a face-to-face dialogue with some of her biggest critics over the land she's bought - more than 120,000 acres of woodlands.
Quimby wants to give more than 70,000 wild acres next to Maine's cherished Baxter State Park to the federal government, hoping to create a Maine Woods National Park. She envisions a visitor center dedicated to Henry David Thoreau, the naturalist who made three trips to Maine in the 1800s.
In a giveback to sportsmen, her vision is to set aside another 30,000 acres of woodlands north of Dover-Foxcroft to be managed like a state park, with hunting and snowmobiling allowed.
Burt's Bees
Band To Gather For Screening
Hole
Courtney Love's 1990s rock band Hole will gather publicly for the first time in over a decade.
The group's original members will attend the screening of David Ebersole's documentary on former Hole drummer Patty Schemel on Monday at the Museum of Modern Art. The film, "Hit So Hard," is screening as part of the Film Society of Lincoln Center's annual New Directors/New Films series.
Band members Love, Schemel, Eric Erlandson and Melissa auf der Maur will sit with Ebersole for a Q&A following the screening.
Hole released three albums in the `90s before splitting up in 2002. Love released a 2010 album, "Nobody's Daughter," under the Hole name. Erlandson disputed that Love could claim the name without his involvement.
Hole
Wedding News
Witherspoon - Toth
Reese Witherspoon has walked down the aisle.
A spokeswoman for the actress says the "Walk the Line" star wed her fiancé, Hollywood agent Jim Toth, in Ojai, Calif., about 90 miles north of Los Angeles. Publicist Nicole Perna did not reveal details about the Saturday ceremony.
Toth is an agent for Creative Artists Agency, which represents Witherspoon through another agent.
She was previously married to actor Ryan Phillippe, with whom she has two children: 11-year-old daughter Ava and 7-year-old son Deacon.
Witherspoon - Toth
NFL's Oldest Cheerleader
Laura Vikmanis
The story of Laura Vikmanis, who at 42 is the oldest cheerleader in NFL history, is getting the big-screen treatment.
New Line has picked up the story of Vikmanis, acquiring her life rights as well as a pitch by scribes Emily Cook and Kathy Greenberg, whose credits include "Gnomeo & Juliet" and "Ratatouille."
Vikmanis, a mother with two teenage daughters, was shaken after her husband left her for a younger woman. At a Cincinnati Bengals game, her sister suggested she find something to make her happy, and Vikmanis, who had been a dancer, looked to the field and said being a cheerleader looked like fun.
At age 39, she tried out for the Ben-Gals squad but failed. Vikmanis, however, spent a year improving her fitness and working on routines and returned to tryouts the following year. She made the squad, thus serving as an inspiration to her daughters and as a mother figure to the cheerleaders, many of them 20 years her junior.
Laura Vikmanis
Malawi Charity Workers Sue
Malawi
Eight workers at Madonna's Malawi charity are suing the pop star for unfair dismissal and non-payment of their benefits, their lawyer said on Sunday.
The board of the charity, Raising Malawi, was sacked after abandoning plans to build a state of the art girls' school just outside the capital Lilongwe due to mismanagement, the New York Times newspaper reported on Saturday.
Madonna, who has adopted two children from Malawi, lent $11 million to the organization and is now on the board.
The New York Times said the plan to build the school had collapsed after $3.8 million was spent with little to show for it. Its executive director left in October amid criticism of his management style and cost overruns.
Madonna
Unconstitutional Law Remains on the Books
Texas
A law banning "homosexual conduct" is still on the books in Texas, even though the law was declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court eight years ago and therefore cannot be enforced. Efforts to expunge the law are getting nowhere, however.
The law states that it is a Class C misdemeanor punishable by a $500 fine for people to engage in "deviate sexual intercourse with another individual of the same sex." In the landmark case of Lawrence v Texas, the Supreme Court found the anti-sodomy statute to be unconstitutional, mainly due to the equal protection clause as the law did not apply to different sex couples as well as the right to privacy.
Even though all so called anti-sodomy laws are unconstitutional and thus unenforceable thanks to the Supreme Court decision, the Texas law remains on the books. The reason is either to express moral disapproval, according to some, or as an excuse to harass gay people, according to others.
According to the Austin American Statesman, as late as 2009, a gay couple was booted out of an El Paso restaurant allegedly for publicly kissing, with the unconstitutional law being cited by the police. Thus the argument for expunging the law has some validity.
The main argument for expunging the law is the question of whether it is the business of the state to pass laws based solely on moral disapproval. Acceptance of gays and rights for gays have become so widespread that the number of people who still have moral qualms are in a distinct minority. The Washington Post reports that a new poll shows that a slim majority of Americans now favor same sex marriage, an issue that has proven contentious, even in blue state California.
Texas
Film Embroiled In Legal Tussle
"Arbitrage"
Nicholas Jarecki, a writer/director about to embark on his first major film project, is tangled in the sort of dispute that might serve as a lesson for young artists. On Tuesday Jarecki filed a lawsuit in New York federal court against a producer he claims is attempting to hijack his coming film about, of all things, a big financial mistake.
Jarecki is the author of the book, "Breaking In: How 20 Film Directors Got Their Start" and is the brother of noted filmmakers Andrew Jarecki ("Capturing the Friedmans") and Eugene Jarecki ("Why We Fight"). He's currently at work on his first major feature, titled "Arbitrage," said to star Richard Gere and Susan Sarandon, with a plot described this way: "A troubled hedge fund magnate desperate to complete the sale of his trading empire makes an error that forces him to turn to an unlikely person for help."
To get his own start turning this film into reality, Jarecki turned to Michael Ohoven at Infinity Media, who has produced such films as "Capote," "Saved!" and "The Devil's Rejects."
In late 2010, however, Jarecki and Ohoven had a disagreement about the film's future, and Jarecki says he let Ohoven and Infinity know that he would be financing and producing the film without their assistance or involvement. Jarecki stresses that he had no written agreements assigning, licensing or otherwise transferring to them any copyright rights in the screenplay or film. (No word on disclaimers signed by the parties either.)
Ohoven's lawyer is said to have sent a letter to Jarecki's representatives contending he had the exclusive right to produce and distribute a film, and that he was "a co-author and co-owner of the Screenplay by virtue of contributions purportedly made to the screenplay by Turen on Infinity's behalf."
"Arbitrage"
Legal Spat Still Simmering
Campbell Soup
A federal judge has allowed a lawsuit to go ahead against Campbell Soup Co, the world's largest soup-maker, over whether its purported "low-sodium" tomato soup really has less sodium.
Four New Jersey women had sued the company last year, contending they were misled into paying more for the "low sodium" brand. They say it had almost as much sodium as Campbell's regular tomato soup.
U.S. District Judge Jerome Simandle on Wednesday denied a motion to dismiss the case, saying the women could press claims under New Jersey's consumer fraud act because reasonable consumers could have found Campbell's labels misleading.
The lawsuit, which is seeking class-action status, said Campbell's "less sodium" claim was a comparison to a collection of the company's regular soups, not the tomato soup, but that was not clearly labeled.
Campbell Soup
Roost On Platte River
Sandhill Cranes
Thousands of sandhill cranes and their fans are flocking to central Nebraska for the birds' annual mid-migration refueling stop.
About half a million of the light gray, heron-like birds stop along an 80-mile stretch of the Platte River for three to four weeks each spring in March and April before continuing their journey to Canada, Alaska and Siberia.
Bird watchers from all over the country delight in watching cranes dance to impress their fellow birds and take off and land in large groups.
The cranes are attracted to the flat, shallow Platte River and its surrounding corn fields and pastureland because it doesn't offer many hiding places to predators. The birds dine on corn left in fields, insects and other grain to build reserves before departing.
Sandhill Cranes
Museum Seeks To Identify Children
Remember Me Project
The U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum is trying to identify more than 1,000 children in photos that date from when they were scattered across Europe at the end of World War II and taken in by relief agencies.
The museum's "Remember Me" project seeks the public's help in identifying 1,100 children among tens of thousands who were uprooted by the war. The museum is posting the pictures online and plans to publish many images in newspapers and online forums.
The images come from the Holocaust Museum's collections, as well as the American Jewish Archives and the Museum of Jewish Heritage in New York.
Museum officials hope to learn who the children are, what happened to them and help reconnect them to relatives who may also have been scattered.
Remember Me Project
Weekend Box Office
'Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules'
The 20th Century Fox family sequel "Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules" debuted as the No. 1 movie with $24.4 million, according to studio estimates Sunday. The girl-power action fantasy "Sucker Punch," released by Warner Bros., opened at No. 2 with $19 million.
The previous weekend's top movie, Relativity Media's sci-fi thriller "Limitless," slipped to third with $15.2 million, raising its total to $41.3 million.
Domestic revenues this year are dragging at $2.2 billion, a 19 percent drop from 2010, whose first quarter was unusually strong because of big business from 2009 holdover "Avatar" and a few other hits.
Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Hollywood.com. Final figures will be released Monday.
1. "Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules," $24.4 million.
2. "Sucker Punch," $19 million.
3. "Limitless," $15.2 million.
4. "The Lincoln Lawyer," $11 million.
5. "Rango," $9.8 million.
6. "Battle: Los Angeles," $7.6 million.
7. "Paul," $7.5 million.
8. "Red Riding Hood," $4.3 million.
9. "The Adjustment Bureau," $4.2 million.
10. "Mars Needs Moms!", $2.2 million.
'Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules'
In Memory
Harry Coover
Harry Wesley Coover Jr., known as the inventor of Super Glue, has died at his home in Kingsport, Tenn. He was 94.
Coover was working for Tennessee Eastman Company when an accident resulted in Super Glue, according to his grandson, Adam Paul of South Carolina. An assistant was distressed that some brand new refractometer prisms were ruined when they were glued together, marking the invention of the popular cyanoacrylate adhesive.
President Barack Obama honored Coover in 2010 with the National Medal of Science.
Coover was born in Newark, Del. He received a degree in chemistry from Hobart College in New York before getting a master's degree and Ph.D., from Cornell.
Harry Coover
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