Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Paul Krugman's Blog: The Fatalist Temptation (New York Times)
the truth about our slump - that we know how to fix it, that we could fix it in a year if we had the political will, but that bad ideas and worse politicians are standing in the way - makes people uncomfortable. They want to believe that we have a deep problem, and that's why we're in such a mess.
Simon Doonan: Fluffy Distractions (Slate)
A theory about what's really destroying the U.S. economy.
Will Durst: Pity the Poor Rich (Huffington Post)
People, settle down. The rich are just like the rest of us, only with access to a better class of orthodontists. They put their Egyptian silk trousers on one leg at a time, same as you and me.
Terry Savage: Payoff.com Gives Your Financial Motivation Strength in Numbers (Creators Syndicate)
There's a new money website launching this week. Payoff.com promises to make dealing with money "simple, social and fun." That's not my usual attitude toward personal finances. Yes, I try to make things simple, but I inherently believe that money management is also serious - and a very private matter.
Melissa Healy: America just keeps getting fatter (Los Angeles Times)
A comprehensive state-by-state report titled 'F as in Fat' shows that obesity rates continue to climb, along with diabetes and high blood pressure.
Marilynn Preston: "De-Aging: The Miracle of Each Moment" (Creators Syndicate)
I have a friend visiting me on this small, remote, glorious Greek island. He is a Zen master, a poet, a peace activist and a world-class calligrapher. His name is Kazuaki Tanahashi. Sometimes, when people say, "Hello, how are you?" Kaz will laugh and answer, "I am de-aging."
Meghan Daum: You pays your money … (Los Angeles Times)
We live in a world where everything's refundable, fast-forwardable or otherwise disposable. But it means shopping isn't what it once was: having to choose.
Bill Wyman: Groundhog Decade (Slate)
Hollywood is about to repeat the catastrophic mistakes of the music industry.
Steven Zeitchik and David Pierson: Chinese filmmakers struggle to woo the U.S. audience (Los Angeles Times)
When the Chow Yun-fat action-comedy epic "Let the Bullets Fly" opened in China last year, it quickly became a phenomenon. Lured by its splashy fight scenes and whip-snap dialogue, filmgoers swarmed theaters. The movie wound up taking in more than $100 million at the box office in China, the most for a homegrown film.
Roger Ebert: Review of "A.I. Artificial Intelligence" (2001; A Great Movie)
Stanley Kubrick always referred to the story as "Pinocchio." It mirrored the tale of a puppet who dreams of becoming a real boy. And what, after all, is an android but a puppet with a computer program pulling its strings? The project that eventually became Steven Spielberg's "A. I. Artificial Intelligence" (2001) was abandoned by Kubrick because he wasn't satisfied with his approaches to its central character, David, an android who appears to be a real little boy.
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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New Simon's Cat
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Lovely summer day.
We've been watching the fennel, hoping to find some caterpillars like last summer, but nothing so far.
Becomes First State To Mandate Paid Sick Time
Connecticut
Connecticut became the first state in the nation this month to mandate paid sick days for workers, a move advocates say could be a catalyst for similar campaigns in 20 other cities and states considering such a benefit.
Bartenders, librarians, dental hygienists and other service workers in Connecticut are poised to earn paid sick time at the start of 2012.
While San Francisco and Washington, D.C. currently guarantee paid sick days for workers, with some minor variations in the laws, Connecticut is the first state to follow their lead.
The move is being watched closely by Massachusetts and California and the cities of Philadelphia, Seattle and Denver, all of which are considering similar legislation or have active campaigns underway, according to the National Partnership for Women and Families.
Advocates say paid sick days reduce public health risks and provide job security for workers who need time off to care for themselves or a sick family member at relatively minimal cost to employers. Opponents say the costs are unaffordable.
Connecticut
Arrest In Break-In
Ed Sullivan Theater
Authorities say they have arrested a man on charges of burglary and criminal mischief in connection with a break-in at the New York City theater where David Letterman tapes his television show.
Police responded to a 911 call of a burglary at the historic Ed Sullivan Theater on Broadway around 7 a.m. Sunday. They took 22-year-old James Whittemore into custody. A number for Whittemore, of Upper Manhattan, could not be located.
A metal bar on the eight-panel glass doors at the entrance to the midtown Manhattan theater had been pried open. The glass on four of the panels was then smashed, and stanchions attached to ropes overturned inside the lobby.
CBS and Worldwide Pants said the show's set was undamaged and that the show would be taping as usual on Monday.
Ed Sullivan Theater
Wild-Horse Groups
Sheryl Crow
Sheryl Crow, hailed as a champion of wild horses that roam the range in the West, is being criticized by a national animal rights group that is calling her a hypocrite for performing at Wyoming rodeo.
The "All I Wanna Do" singer planned to donate a portion of the proceeds from her July 22 concert at the Cheyenne Frontier Days to a wild-horse protection group that's suing the government to try to halt a big mustang roundup in Nevada. Crow is the opening act for Kid Rock on a summer tour that includes the Wyoming gig.
But Showing Animals Respect and Kindness claimed that wild horses are abused at that event in a special race just for them.
Ginger Kathrens, executive director of the Colorado-based group, the Cloud Foundation, said she and other activists consider Crow a true champion of wild horses. Crow has adopted a wild horse and contributed time and money to the cause of keeping them on public lands, she said.
SHARK's criticism is unjustified because rodeos are prohibited under the 1971 federal Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act from using mustangs removed from the range by the government, Kathrens added.
Sheryl Crow
Baby News
Harper Seven Beckham
David Beckham's spokesman said that the soccer star's wife Victoria has given birth to a healthy baby girl on Sunday.
Simon Oliveira said that the celebrity couple are "delighted to announce the birth of their daughter."
The Beckhams, who married in 1999 and whose celebrity is entrenched on both sides of the Atlantic, already have three boys: Brooklyn, 11, Romeo, 8, and Cruz, 5.
On his Facebook page, David Beckham said the girl had been named Harper Seven Beckham.
Harper Seven Beckham
Government Lawyers To Block BSkyB Bid
UK
British government lawyers are drawing up a plan to block Rupert Murdoch's bid for the pay-TV operator BSkyB, the Independent newspaper reported on Monday.
Revelations that illegal voicemail hacking at one of Murdoch's papers, the News of the World, targeted a murdered girl and the relatives of victims of the 2005 London bomb attacks have stirred broad public and political anger, and given a boost to opponents of the BSkyB bid.
They have also raised questions about relations between politicians, including Prime Minister David Cameron -- who hired the paper's former editor Andy Coulson as his spin doctor -- and Murdoch.
As a result, Cameron has come under growing pressure to halt the deal, at least until an investigation into the phone-hacking has been completed.
UK
Rupert Protects
Rebekah Brooks
News Corp Chief Executive Rupert Murdoch exited his London home on Sunday with his arm around embattled newspaper chief Rebekah Brooks, and told Reuters that she was his first priority.
Murdoch, who flew into Britain earlier on Sunday to deal with an escalating phone-hacking scandal at his News of the World tabloid that Brooks used to edit, answered: "This one," gesturing at Brooks, when asked what his first priority was.
The two, both smiling, then went into the Stafford hotel opposite Murdoch's apartment in the upmarket Mayfair area of London.
Rebekah Brooks
Staff Mocks Rebekah Brooks In Final Crossword
News of the World
Orders from the top of News International allegedly tried to "ensure there were no libels or any hidden mocking messages of the chief executive" in the final edition of News of the World, the Daily Mail reports. But that didn't stop the paper's wily, bitter, and freshly unemployed staff from hiding clues mocking Rebekah Brooks in the crossword puzzle in the final issue of the paper.
Clues to the Quickie puzzle included: "Brook," "stink," "catastrophe," and "digital protection." Answers included "stench," "racket," and "tart." The Cryptic Crossword had clues ranging from "criminal enterprise," "mix in prison," and "string of recordings." If these still seems like mere coincidences, note the clue for 24 Across, which reads "Woman stares wildly at calamity." The Telegraph speculated that it was a reference to the photo of Brooks staring from the window of a car as she left News International's Wapping headquarters following the announcement the News of the World was to be shut down. The answer to that clue? "Disaster."
The paper's staff has been expressing their fury against Brooks, with one journalist scolding her for her "arrogance" in a brief speech, and another secretly making a recording of that off-the-record meeting. No doubt Brooks was on her guard: a source told the Daily Mail that she had ordered two "very senior" Sun journalists "to go through every line on every page with a fine toothcomb." But the source added, "But they failed and we've had the last laugh."
News of the World
Pakistani Couple Sues Airline
Profiling
The son of a Pakistani official who was assassinated by an Islamic extremist has filed a lawsuit against American Airlines after he and his wife were escorted from a plane in handcuffs in response to a telephone hijacking threat that turned out to be a hoax.
Shahbaz Ali Taseer and his wife, Maheen Ghani Taseer, claim they were victims of racial profiling by the airline and police when they were taken off the New York-bound flight at San Francisco's airport on Aug. 19, 2010.
"The only reason (police) went to them is because their names were Maheen Ghani Taseer and Shahbaz Ali Taseer," the couple's attorney Joel Siegal said Friday. "They were singled out and treated as the most vile terrorists."
The plane was diverted to a remote stretch of tarmac after authorities were notified of a telephone threat that it would be hijacked. The Taseers were the only passengers to be interrogated and held for hours, the lawsuit stated. The FBI later determined the threat was a hoax.
Profiling
Seems To Attract Metal Objects
"Magnet Boy"
An 11-year-old boy in Brazil's northeastern city of Mossoro is drawing attention with his purportedly magnet-like qualities.
The Globo TV network has broadcast images of Paulo David Amorim demonstrating how forks, knives, scissors, cooking pans, cameras and other metal objects seem drawn to his body and remain stuck on his chest, stomach and back.
The boy's father tells Globo that he decided to test his son after learning of a boy in Croatia with a similar ability. Junior Amorim says he was surprised to find "a fork and knife stuck to his body."
The youth says classmates call him "magnet boy."
"Magnet Boy"
Inebriate Service Van Taken On Drunken Joyride
Anchorage
Anchorage police say a city van used to pick up drunken people was taken on a joyride by a man suspected of drunken driving.
The Anchorage Daily News reports that 35-year-old Donny H. Weston was arrested late Thursday after police say he got into a Community Service Patrol van parked with the keys in the engine. Police say social workers were attending inebriated people when Weston got into the van.
Police say Weston drove the van for significant distance, including driving against traffic, and he eventually crashed the van into a bus and ditched it.
The van is part of a city program that picks up inebriated people and shuttles them to sleeping center.
Police say the inebriated men in the back of the van didn't notice the joyride.
Anchorage
Weekend Box Office
'Transformers'
"Transformers: Dark of the Moon" now rules this year's box office as the blockbuster sequel became 2011's top domestic hit with $261 million, according to studio estimates Sunday.
Paramount Pictures' sci-fi smash starring Shia LaBeouf remained No. 1 in its second weekend with $47 million and shot past "The Hangover Part II" to first-place on the domestic chart.
Debuting in second place with $28.1 million domestically was the Warner Bros. comedy "Horrible Bosses," featuring Jason Bateman, Charlie Day and Jason Sudeikis as bumblers plotting against their nasty supervisors.
Opening at No. 3 with $21 million was Sony Pictures' family tale "Zookeeper," with Kevin James as an animal tender who gets romantic advice from the talking critters in his care.
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. "Transformers: Dark of the Moon," $47 million ($93 million international).
2. "Horrible Bosses," $28.1 million.
3. "Zookeeper," $21 million ($7.5 million international).
4. "Cars 2," $15.2 million ($26.9 million international).
5. "Bad Teacher," $9 million.
6. "Larry Crowne," $6.3 million.
7. "Super 8," $4.8 million ($2.5 million international).
8. "Monte Carlo," $3.8 million.
9. "Green Lantern," $3.1 million.
10. "Mr. Popper's Penguins," $2.9 million.
'Transformers'
In Memory
Roland Petit
Acclaimed choreographer Roland Petit, whose creations dazzled stages from Paris to Hollywood and inspired dancers, writers and designers has died in Geneva, aged 87.
The Paris National Opera announced Petit's death Sunday after getting word from his wife, Zizi Jeanmaire, a ballerina turned music hall performer who collaborated with her husband.
French Culture Minister Frederic Mitterrand , paying tribute to Petit, said that some of his works brought together designers like Yves Saint-Laurent for costumes, Picasso for decor and writer and poet Jacques Prevert.
He created 11 works for the Paris Opera, including "Notre Dame de Paris," and choreographed for Rudolf Nureyev and Margot Fonteyn as well as for works like "Daddy Long Legs" with Fred Astaire in Hollywood.
Roland Petit
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