Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Andy Griffith Vs. The Patriot Act (Video)
Ted Rall: Thrifty Families and Other Lies
LIKE THEIR GOVERNMENT, AMERICANS LIVE ON DEBT.
Steve Lopez: Debunking the myth of Prop. 13 (Los Angeles Times)
A USC professor says young people who think the revered measure is a good thing really don't know much about it. 'Renters don't benefit and the majority of new home buyers don't benefit,' he points out.
Susan Estrich: For-Profit "Charter" Schools (Creators Syndicate)
Former tennis star Andre Agassi deserves enormous credit for recognizing that nothing is more important than ensuring every child gets the kind of quality education that is their best chance for success in a rapidly changing world. I know, there are high school dropouts who make it to the top. But all the ones I know were blessed with gifts that enabled them to do what the other 99 percent of high school dropouts don't.
Marc Dion: The End of the World is an Underdog (Creators Syndicate)
I have friends, and some of them are behind in the matter of rent or truck payments, who gamble on sporting events, or cards, or on the results of insignificant local elections. None of them, as far as I know, had any money on the recent possible end of the world.
Chuck Norris: Exposing Electrolytes, Increasing Energy (Creators Syndicate)
When in doubt, give nature a chance. Drink water to hydrate and rehydrate (including during exercise). Look to natural foods for energy during a workout and replenishing your expended electrolytes afterward. Go natural, and teach your kids to do the same.
Liam Jullian: Review of "Montaigne and Being in Touch with Life" by Saul Frampton (Weekly Standard)
Montaigne died at home on September 13, 1592, of complications from kidney stones. In his last essay, he had written, "Life should be an aim unto itself, a purpose unto itself." Virginia Woolf loved that line; she quoted it often. And Sarah Bakewell, in her own book on Montaigne, rightly calls it "as close as Montaigne ever came to a final or best answer to the question of how to live."
"I'll Never Get Out of this World Alive" by Steve Earle: A review by Don Waters
Everyone knows that terrible things happen in old country songs: A wife leaves her husband; a guy dies at war. Life's rough, times are hard. ??Steve Earle, the well-known singer-songwriter, embraces this heartbreaky landscape in his first novel, a rowdy country music song turned into narration. The book's title -- and what a superb title it is -- comes from Hank Williams' last No. 1 hit, before his death, at age 29, in 1953.
James Daunt: 'I don't recognise that books are dead' (Guardian)
Can the self-effacing owner of Daunt Books work his magic as the new boss of Waterstone's, asks Kate Kellaway.
Roger Ebert's Journal: It's going to be a bumpy night
The dismemberment of the traditional movie going experience continues. Can you imagine enduring this atrocity in addition to the horrors of 3D? Not only are pandas flying out of the screen at you, but you're pitching, rolling and heaving. I wonder if the seats come with a sick bag. I also wonder what it would be like to watch a movie while seated next to bored kids entertaining themselves with their joy sticks.
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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Michelle in AZ
From The Creator of 'Avery Ant'
BadtotheboneBob
Spoon-Billed Sandpiper
BadtotheboneBob
Detroit
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Mostly cloudy.
Stage Set For High-Stakes Bidding
US TV Rights
With Dick Ebersol out of the picture, NBC's multi-billion-dollar grip on the most valuable property in sports faces a serious challenge this week when U.S. networks bid on the next set of Olympic television rights.
NBC, the Olympic network in the United States for much of the past two decades, goes up against ESPN/ABC and Fox in a high-stakes auction that could potentially command fees of more than $2 billion for two games and more than $4 billion for four.
Network executives will make closed-door presentations and sealed bids to the International Olympic Committee on Monday and Tuesday, the first U.S. broadcast rights contest in eight years.
The implications are huge for both sides: The networks and their giant parent companies are weighing massive long-term investments in an uncertain economic climate, and the IOC is hoping for a bumper deal to keep the money flowing from one of its biggest sources of revenue.
Up for grabs are the exclusive rights to the 2014 Winter Games in Sochi, Russia, and 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. In a new twist, the networks are also free to bid on a four-games package including the 2018 and 2020 Games, whose sites have not yet been selected.
US TV Rights
Reenacts Puerto Rico Wire Walk
Nik Wallenda
Two members of a famed acrobatic family commemorated patriarch Karl Wallenda on Saturday by completing the stunt that killed him, walking between two towers of a seaside hotel on a wire 100 feet (31 meters) above the ground, without a net.
Nik Wallenda said he had planned to walk by himself across a 300-foot-long (91-meter-long) wire, but his mother convinced him to let her join him on the reconstruction of the fatal 1978 stunt.
"I've been mentally prepared my entire life for this," he said. "I've seen the video of my great-grandfather falling hundreds of times. It's something I've been wanting to do for all of us, for our family."
He said he initially rejected a request by his mother, Delilah Wallenda, to join him.
Nik Wallenda
Memorabilia Auction
Larry Hagman
Larry Hagman, who played the cold, conniving oil baron J.R. Ewing on the beloved 1980s series "Dallas," auctioned off many of his personal valuables Saturday in Beverly Hills.
Caroline Galloway of Julien's Auctions said a silver saddle was the priciest item sold, fetching $80,000.
Other big items included a portrait of Hagman's co-star Jim Davis that went for more than $38,000, a replica bottle from Hagman's earlier series "I Dream of Jeannie" that brought in more than $10,000, and a pair of pistols that fetched more than $4,000.
The collection brought in more than $500,000.
Larry Hagman
Launches Pirate Show
Dolly Parton
Dolly Parton has hoisted the Jolly Roger on the South Carolina coast with the opening of Pirates Voyage, the new dinner theater show that takes the place of her popular Western-themed Dixie Stampede.
"We just needed to do something new and different," the singer said Friday, in town for the first show in the production that features actors portraying pirates and mermaids and also has real horses and sea lions.
"We have been successful for 18 or 19 years but pirates is a great theme - children love it, seniors love it," Parton said, sitting on the set created in the building that housed the Stampede during its 19-year run.
That show closed last year. An $11 million renovation of the building includes a 15-foot, 750,000-gallon indoor pool. At either end are 30-foot pirate galleons while the sunken wreck of a third ship sits in the middle of the set.
Dolly Parton
More Revisionist History
Paul Revere
Sarah Palin insisted Sunday that history was on her side when she claimed that Paul Revere's famous ride was intended to warn both British soldiers and his fellow colonists.
"You realize that you messed up about Paul Revere, don't you?" "Fox News Sunday" anchor Chris Wallace asked the potential 2012 presidential candidate.
"I didn't mess up about Paul Revere," replied Palin, a paid contributor to the network.
"Part of his ride was to warn the British that were already there. That, hey, you're not going to succeed. You're not going to take American arms. You are not going to beat our own well-armed persons, individual, private militia that we have," she added. "He did warn the British."
Paul Revere
'16 and Pregnant' Mother
April Michelle Purvis
A Georgia mother who appeared on an episode of MTV's "16 and Pregnant" has been arrested on drug charges.
Authorities say 37-year-old April Michelle Purvis was arrested Sunday morning during a road check in Floyd County. Purvis is charged with felony possession of methamphetamine and misdemeanor possession of marijuana.
Purvis and her daughter Whitney were featured in the first season of the popular reality show about teenage pregnancy.
Police say a drug dog found the marijuana between the seats of the car and the meth in Purvis' pocket.
April Michelle Purvis
Abortion Showdown
Indiana
A looming showdown over Indiana's new law that cuts funding for the Planned Parenthood organization may test how far Republican-led states are willing to go in pressing their tough new anti-abortion agendas. The stakes are high. The future of health care for more than 1 million poor and elderly Indiana residents hangs in the balance.
Indiana became the first state this year to cut off all government funds to Planned Parenthood, fulfilling conservatives' goal of financially weakening organizations that provide abortions. Other conservative states have considered such action in recent years but backed away under the threat of loss of all federal money for their Medicaid programs.
The willingness of Indiana, led by a Republican governor and GOP-controlled Legislature, to challenge the federal government and risk a huge financial penalty could take the issue into uncharted legal and political territory. Conservative leaders in other states will be watching the confrontation as they plan their own action on abortion and other social issues.
Is Indiana willing to risk $4.3 billion in Medicaid money to strike a blow for the right-to-life anti-choice movement? Some conservative members of Republican-controlled legislatures argue it's time for states to risk serious penalties to defend their principles and throw off federal mandates. And the Medicaid program, with its rising costs and strict rules, has been a particular target of ire.
Indiana
Confirms Hacking
Sony Pictures
Sony Pictures Entertainment confirmed late Friday evening that some of its websites were breached and it was working with the Federal Bureau of Investigation to identify the attackers.
Sony Pictures, a unit of Sony, said it had begun an internal investigation into the breach.
On Thursday, a hacker group calling itself LulzSec said it broke into servers that run Sony Pictures Entertainment websites.
The breach is the latest of several security breaches undermining confidence in the company.
Sony Pictures
Raises Over $232,000
"Unabomber" Auction
An online auction of "Unabomber" Ted Kaczynski's personal belongings generated $232,246 to compensate his victims and their families, the U.S. Marshals Service said on Friday.
The federal government held the court-ordered sale from May 18 until Thursday, as bidders snapped up 58 lots of items seized from Kaczynski during a 1996 raid of his remote cabin.
The highest selling lot was a collection of 20 personal journals Kaczynski kept that described his thoughts about himself, society and life in the wilds of Montana. That went for $40,676, according to the Marshals Service.
His journals were just some of the 20,000 pages of written documents featured in the auction. Other sale items included his hoodie and sunglasses, which resemble those worn in a widely circulated sketch of the Unabomber suspect, and his typewriters, photographs and tools.
"Unabomber" Auction
Photos Inspire Adoptions
Heart Gallery
When Diane Granito was hired to recruit foster and adoptive parents in New Mexico, she was told to review the photos of children available for adoption.
The shots were "uniformly bad," Granito said.
She knew they had to be better if people were going to be drawn to adopt the children.
Granito, the adoption events manager for New Mexico's Children, Youth and Families Department, asked some of the state's most talented photographers to help capture the beauty and spirit of the state's foster children. A large-scale art show at a local gallery would help spread the word, she thought.
This weekend marks 10 years since the first exhibition of the Heart Gallery. There are now 130 different Heart Gallery organizations around the country, and two recently started in Ontario, Canada.
Heart Gallery
Weekend Box Office
'X-Men'
"X-Men: First Class" had a solid No. 1 opening with a $56 million weekend, according to studio estimates Sunday.
But the 20th Century Fox prequel chronicling the formative years of the comic-book mutants found smaller audiences than the franchise's first four big-screen adventures, which featured older versions of the X-Men.
Debut weekends for the last three "X-Men" flicks ranged from $85.1 million to $102.8 million. The original "X-Men" opened 11 years ago with $54.5 million, but that would amount to about $80 million today adjusting for ticket-price inflation.
The previous weekend's top movie, the Warner Bros. sequel "The Hangover Part II," fell to second-place with $32.4 million. That raised its domestic total to $186.9 million but represented a steep 62 percent drop from its huge opening weekend.
Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Hollywood.com. Final figures will be released Monday.
1. "X-Men: First Class," $56 million.
2. "The Hangover Part II," $32.4 million.
3. "Kung Fu Panda 2," $24.3 million.
4. "Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides," $18 million.
5. "Bridesmaids," $12.1 million.
6. "Thor," $4.2 million.
7. "Fast Five," $3.2 million.
8. "Midnight in Paris," $2.9 million.
9. "Jumping the Broom," $865,000.
10. "Something Borrowed," $835,000.
'X-Men'
In Memory
Betty Taylor
They shared a stage at Disneyland five days a week for nearly three decades and died within a day of each other.
Betty Taylor, who played Slue Foot Sue in Disney's long-running Golden Horseshoe Revue, passed away Saturday - one day after the death of Wally Boag, who played her character's sweetheart, Pecos Bill.
The 91-year-old Taylor died at her home in Washington state, Disneyland announced on its web site. Boag, who was 90, died Friday. He was a resident of Santa Monica, Calif.
Boag, a former vaudeville performer, signed a two-week contract with Walt Disney in 1955. He originated the role of Pecos Bill in the revue, taking the stage three times a day and logging nearly 40,000 performances before retiring in 1982.
Most of those shows were alongside Taylor, who joined the revue a year after Hoag. Her run on the show - which closed in 1986 - lasted nearly 45,000 performances.
The Golden Horseshoe Revue is listed in the Guinness Book of World Records as the longest running stage production in show business history.
Boag and Taylor both appeared on television in "Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color."
Born in Seattle, Taylor began taking dance lessons at age 3. At 14, she sang and danced in nightclubs across the country, and by 18, led her own band called Betty and Her Beaus, which included 16 male musicians and appeared regularly at the Trianon Ballroom in Seattle.
In 1956, while living in Los Angeles and performing as a drum player with a musical group, Taylor heard about auditions for a song-and-dance job at Disneyland. She got the gig, which she held for 30 years, leading to appearances on a USO tour of Greenland and Newfoundland and a show for President Richard Nixon and his family in The White House.
She performed at the park until 1987, but continued to appear in special events, such as Walt Disney's Wild West, a 1995 retrospective at the Gene Autry Museum of Western Heritage in Los Angeles.
Betty Taylor
In Memory
Wally Boag
They shared a stage at Disneyland five days a week for nearly three decades and died within a day of each other.
Betty Taylor, who played Slue Foot Sue in Disney's long-running Golden Horseshoe Revue, passed away Saturday - one day after the death of Wally Boag, who played her character's sweetheart, Pecos Bill.
The 91-year-old Taylor died at her home in Washington state, Disneyland announced on its web site. Boag, who was 90, died Friday. He was a resident of Santa Monica, Calif.
Boag, a former vaudeville performer, signed a two-week contract with Walt Disney in 1955. He originated the role of Pecos Bill in the revue, taking the stage three times a day and logging nearly 40,000 performances before retiring in 1982.
Most of those shows were alongside Taylor, who joined the revue a year after Hoag. Her run on the show - which closed in 1986 - lasted nearly 45,000 performances.
The Golden Horseshoe Revue is listed in the Guinness Book of World Records as the longest running stage production in show business history.
Boag's comedic timing influenced generations of performers, including actor Steve Martin, who called Boag his "hero." Martin tweeted Saturday that Boag was "the first comedian I ever saw live, my influence, a man to whom I aspired."
Boag and Taylor both appeared on television in "Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color."
And before joining Disney, Boag appeared in a number of films during the 1940s, including "Without Love," starring Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn, and "The Thrill of Romance," with Esther Williams.
He later appeared in Disney films such as "The Absent-Minded Professor," "Son of Flubber" and "The Love Bug."
Wally Boag
In Memory
Andrew Gold
Andrew Gold, a singer, songwriter and versatile musician who had a Top 10 hit in 1977 with "Lonely Boy" and was a vital component of Linda Ronstadt's pop success in the 1970s as a member of her band, has died. He was 59.
Gold died Friday in his sleep at his home in Encino, said his sister, Melani Gold Friedman. He had cancer but had been responding well to treatment, she said.
He played several instruments, did arrangements and sang on such Ronstadt albums as "Heart Like a Wheel" in 1974, "Prisoner in Disguise" in 1975 and "Hasten Down the Wind" in 1976. His versatility also made him a highly regarded session player for such folk-rock musicians as James Taylor, Carly Simon, Loudon Wainwright III and J.D. Souther as well as the producer of recordings by Stephen Bishop, Nicolette Larson and others.
He met Ronstadt as a high school student in the 1960s when her country-rock band the Stone Poneys performed at Oakwood School in North Hollywood. "He came up to talk," Ronstadt said. "He was so bubbly and so smart and we were so impressed with what a good musician he was."
After the Stone Poneys disbanded after their hit "Different Drum" in 1967, founding member Kenny Edwards teamed with Gold and singer-songwriters Wendy Waldman and Karla Bonoff to create the folk-rock band Bryndle.
Bryndle got a record deal, but the album wasn't released. The band broke up (but reunited in the 1990s). Edwards, who died in August, rejoined Ronstadt and Gold joined the band.
Gold was born Aug. 2, 1951, in Burbank to composer Ernest Gold and singer Marni Nixon. His father won an Academy Award for his score for the 1960 film "Exodus," and his mother sang for Natalie Wood in "West Side Story" and Audrey Hepburn in "My Fair Lady," among others.
Gold launched a solo career in the mid-1970s while still with Ronstadt's band. "Lonely Boy" was a hit on his second album, "What's Wrong With This Picture?" and the single "Thank You for Being a Friend" from 1978's "All This and Heaven Too" reached No. 25 on Billboard magazine's charts.
He recorded with English musician Graham Gouldman in the 1980s, then continued to write, record and work with a variety of artists. Gold also did commercial work and soundtracks, such as singing the theme to the NBC sitcom "Mad About You." His last release was 2008's "Copy Cat."
In addition to his sister, who lives in Tujunga, and his mother, Gold is survived by his wife, Leslie Kogan; daughters Emily, Victoria and Olivia from his marriage to Vanessa Gold, which ended in divorce; and sister Martha Carr of North Hollywood.
Andrew Gold
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