Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Ted Rall: You Know Your Country Sucks When You Look Wistfully Back at Stalin (Creators Syndicate)
You can tell a lot about the state of a country by comparing the state of its public and private infrastructure.
Felix Clay: 4 Reasons the World Has Never Been Better (Cracked)
If you're a regular reader of my work, you know I have a preoccupation with sex, awkwardness, and blowing sunshine up people's asses.
Froma Harrop: Hippies Under the Bed (Creators Syndicate)
On behalf of all liberals - living and dead - I'd like to apologize to Adam Bellow. In 1976, Bellow was at a Michigan State University writing workshop when a radical feminist publicly rebuked him for saying she had "balls." He says he meant that as a compliment.
Elizabeth Day: "Eve Branson: 'I was not saved by Kate Winslet!'" (Guardian)
Her billionaire son is used to making the news, but when Eve Branson had to escape a fire on Necker island, it was she who made the headlines. As she celebrates her 90th birthday, Elizabeth Day meets her.
Lauren Laverne: How Rolf Harris bit me and got away with it (Guardian)
It was partly the media that let the vileness of Harris and Savile go unremarked, but now Twitter can help us keep watch.
Henry Rollins: The Ramones Rescued Rock and Roll (LA Weekly)
Tommy Ramone passed away on July 11. He, Joey, Dee Dee and Johnny are all gone now. Losing the Ramones was a slow process, as prolonged as it was painful.
LOULLA-MAE ELEFTHERIOU-SMITH: "Tommy Ramone dead: Last surviving founder and drummer seminal punk band The Ramones dies aged 62" (Independent)
The band's official twitter account has been tweeting quotes from the Ramones, including Tommy's comments from 1976 that New York was the "perfect place to grow up neurotic".
Larry McShane: Drummer Tommy Ramone, last original member of the 1970s punk band The Ramones, dies at 65 (NY Daily News)
The Ridgewood, Queens, resident had been in hospice and suffering from bile duct cancer. Ramone was a drummer and producer who performed on the band's first three albums.
James Garner dead: Legendary TV and film actor passes away at 86 (NY Daily News)
The 'Maverick' star was found dead of natural causes at his home in the Brentwood area of Los Angeles Saturday evening, cops said Sunday. Police responded to a call around 8 p.m. PDT and confirmed Garner's identity from family members.
Laboratoire Ferdinand Lutz: STAY IN QUEUE (Vimeo)
If you leave your queue you will never be happy again. Stay in queue! A movie by Ferdinand Lutz. Music by Dominik Mueller. STAY IN QUEUE was shown on TV and many film festivals worldwide. 1st prize "Kurzfilmspiele", 2008.
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David Bruce has approximately 50 Kindle books on Amazon.com.
"Doug's Most Shared Facebook Post" Today
wrote:
took the day off.
has retired.
Reader Suggestion
Michelle in AZ
Reader Comment
"doing a Jim Rockford"
we used to call it "doing a Jim Rockford in the middle of the road"
gary in pa
Thanks, Gary!
And, I'll bet the road of preference is one where the driver takes their half right outta the middle. ; )
From The Creator of 'Avery Ant'
Reader Identification
The Plant
The plant in the picture is...
Sansevieria cylindrica
John I in Hawai'i
Thanks, John!
Reader Question
Miss Pure Pageant
Marty,
So, if you are the second best virgin in the country, what? Do you try harder? I'm confused.
-jw
Good question, Willow!
Wish I had a pithy response.
Guess in the old days, one would go to work for Avis - they tried harder.
from Marc Perkel
BartCop
Hello Bartcop fans,
As you all know the untimely passing of Terry was unexpected, even by
him. We all knew he had cancer but we all thought he had some years
left. So some of us who have worked closely with him over the years are
scrambling around trying to figure out what to do. My job, among other
things, is to establish communications with the Bartcop community and
provide email lists and groups for those who might put something
together. Those who want to play an active roll in something coming from
this, or if you are one of Bart's pillars, should send an email to
active@bartcop.com.
Bart's final wish was to pay off the house mortgage for Mrs. Bart who is
overwhelmed and so very grateful for the support she has received.
Anyone wanting to make a donation can click on this the yellow donate
button on bartcop.com
But - I need you all to help keep this going. This note
isn't going to directly reach all of Bart's fans. So if you can repost
it on blogs and discussion boards so people can sign up then when we
figure out what's next we can let more people know. This list is just
over 600 but like to get it up to at least 10,000 pretty quick. So
here's the signup link for this email list.
( mailman.bartcop.com/listinfo/bartnews )
Marc Perkel
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Not much of a marine layer.
Issues Apology
Sky News
British broadcaster Sky News apologised after one of its presenters searched through luggage at the crash site of downed flight MH17 live on air on Sunday.
In a news broadcast, presenter Colin Brazier was shown rooting through personal belongings in an opened suitcase at the site, picking up a set of keys before saying: "We shouldn't really be doing this."
The footage was greeted with anger on social media, including calls for Brazier to be sacked.
BBC presenter Jacqui Oatley tweeted that she was "astonished" while Joe Watson, a professor of Mass Media at Baker University described it as a "horrible moment for journalism".
Sky News
Another Day
Casey Kasem
The head of a Washington state funeral home that had initial responsibility for radio personality Casey Kasem says he personally made sure his remains were put on a flight to Montreal last Monday.
Corey Gaffney, the president of Gaffney Funeral Home of Tacoma, says he confirmed the remains arrived in Montreal and media reports suggesting they have disappeared are not true.
A death certificate filed in a Washington State court July 15 listed Montreal funeral home Urgel Bourgie as the place of disposition, and July 14 as the date of disposition.
The Montreal funeral home told The Canadian Press on Saturday it had no record of Kasem's remains as being at the facility or that they were supposed to arrive.
There was no immediate explanation for why Kasem's remains would have gone to Montreal. Gaffney said he couldn't comment on why Kasem's wife picked Montreal or why Urgel Bourgie had no record of receiving Kasem's remains.
Casey Kasem
Boosts Economy In West
National Parks
National parks and monuments boosted the economies of surrounding communities in Wyoming, Montana and Idaho by a combined $1.15 billion last year, according to a new study.
Wyoming saw $723.3 million in spending by visitors to parks and monuments run by the National Park Service; Montana, $397.3 million; and Idaho, $29.4 million.
On Friday, the National Park Service released a report that says spending on hotels, restaurants, gas and supplies by visitors to U.S. national parks in 2013 contributed $14.6 billion in economic benefits to communities within 60 miles of the parks nationwide.
Wyoming, Idaho and Montana share parts of Yellowstone National Park, where visitors spent almost $382 million in nearby communities. Yellowstone had 3.18 million visitors in 2013.
The study put total park visitors around the United States in 2013 at 273.6 million, down from 282.7 million in 2012. Total park-dependent visitor spending was put at $14.6 billion, slightly down from the year before. The survey said that around the country the national parks supported 237,599 jobs.
National Parks
'Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs' Billboard
Disney
A large, colorful billboard from the 1937 release of the animated film "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" has been sold at auction for $10,755.
In a statement, Heritage Auctions said it was not identifying the winning bidder. The Dallas-based auction house had said the rare billboard was expected to sell for at least $10,000 on Saturday.
The 20-by-9-foot billboard was printed in England to promote the Disney film there. It features three scenes, the main one showing a rosy-cheeked Snow White in front of a castle in her classic outfit with bright yellow skirt, surrounded by the dwarfs and other characters from the film.
The billboard had been in a private collection for more than a decade.
Disney
Carbon Tax Repeal
Australia
Australia's axing of its carbon tax and a plan to replace it by offering incentives to polluters to increase their energy efficiency is "the perfect storm of stupidity", scientists and academics argue.
The repeal of the divisive levy, a fundamental pledge of the conservative government at elections last year, has been warmly welcomed by farming, industry and mining groups.
Conservation groups have also been scathing, and many experts have been left scratching their heads.
Roger Jones, a Research Fellow at the Victoria Institute of Strategic Economic Studies, called the repeal "the perfect storm of stupidity".
Australia
Protest 'Everyday Sexism'
Women
When Laura Bates was followed home one night by a man from her bus, she didn't think much of it. Incidents like that just seemed to be part of living in London.
But the writer said several other similar situations followed within days: One stranger shouted obscenities at her out of a car window. Another propositioned her forcefully in a cafe. A third groped her on the bus, and commuters looked away when she spoke up. She was startled not so much by the incidents - but how accustomed she had become to brushing such behavior aside and not taking action.
"I started talking to other women, and I couldn't believe how many stories they had. I think many of us just think 'maybe I'm unlucky,'" said Bates, 27, in an interview. "Just like me, so many of them said 'until you asked me, I've never talked to anyone about this.'"
Those conversations triggered the birth of the Everyday Sexism project, a website that Bates set up for women to share their experiences of sexism and harassment in their daily lives - in the office, on the train, in school or on the street. Two years on, what started as a simple idea has become a movement that is steadily gaining momentum, galvanizing support from politicians, police and thousands of women and men from Britain and beyond.
The project has collected 70,000 posts from some 20 countries, describing a wide range of unwelcome behavior and offenses from a colleague's casual comment to unreported rapes. Many tell of assault, threats of violence and verbal abuse in public places. Others report seemingly innocuous behavior and comments: One woman tells how a sales assistant handed back her change to her male friend, after she had paid for the goods.
Women
Confederate White Housekeeper
Mary O'Melia
Mary O'Melia left Ireland for America as a young widow with three children before she was hired as housekeeper at the White House of the Confederacy. An intimate witness to history, she also has been much of a mystery.
That was until this year, when a woman with a distinctive Irish lilt to her voice called The American Civil War Museum. The housekeeper, the woman said, was related to her late husband, and she had in her possession a necklace that Confederate first lady Varina Davis gave O'Melia.
The tintype adds a human dimension to what is a tantalizing but frustrating portrait of a woman who left her children in Baltimore to oversee the White House in the capital of the Confederacy during the duration of the Civil War but publicly revealed little of the experience.
O'Melia was among a staff of 20, was a confidante to the first lady, and may have been in the mansion in April 1865 when President Abraham Lincoln visited after Confederate defenders left the city smoldering. Historical records are unclear on that point.
The discovery is important nonetheless because the museum, which is next door to the White House, has strived to piece together the often untold lives of the African-American slaves, free people of color and European immigrants who worked as domestics for the Davis family.
Mary O'Melia
Giant Ancient Virus
Pithovirus sibericum
It may not be a Jurassic Park giant, but French scientists managed to resurrect a monster on the microbial scale: a virus which scurried about when mammoths and Neanderthals roamed the Earth. Now it's expected that the recently discovered giant virus may hold clues to how life was born on our planet.
A couple of years ago researchers grabbed some 32,000 year old frozen soil from 30 meters below Siberian tundra, let it thaw and watched in surprise as ancient viruses including Pithovirus sibericum came to life. And when it comes to viruses, Pithovirus sibericum is a true leviathan, measuring some 1.5 micrometers long, it is 50 times bigger than the common cold virus and even bigger than some bacteria.
And viruses aren't the only ancient forms we have been able to bring back to life.
Back in 2000, scientists managed to do the seemingly impossible and revive a 250-million-year-old bacteria from salt crystals buried more than 560 metres below ground in New Mexico.
While most viruses take over their hosts' cellular machinery so that they can replicate, this giant has an unusually large number of its own DNA - 500 genes - about a hundred times more than its tinier cousins. This allows it to replicate on its own, opposite to what we've understood of these simple creatures.
Pithovirus sibericum
Weekend Box Office
"Dawn of the Planet of the Apes"
The summer box office continued to lack mojo, as the R-rated "Sex Tape" failed to turn on moviegoers over a weekend where "Dawn of the Planet of the Apes" maintained its rule.
20th Century Fox's science fiction sequel outmuscled a trio of new films to top the North American box office for the second-straight week with $36 million, according to studio estimates Sunday. The acclaimed sequel to 2011's reboot of the chimp franchise has now made $139 million domestically in two weeks.
Its closest completion over the weekend was the home-invasion horror thriller "The Purge: Anarchy," written and directed by James DeMoncaco. Universal's low-budget sequel to last year's surprise hit, "The Purge," opened with $28.4 million, down from the $34.1 million the original scared up on opening weekend.
The Jason Segel, Cameron Diaz R-rated comedy failed to entice moviegoers or critics. "Sex Tape," in which a married couple makes a pornographic home video to stoke the flames of their lagging sex life, came in fourth place behind Disney's "Planes: Fire & Rescue." The animated sequel to 2013's "Cars"-offshoot, "Planes," opened with $18 million.
Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Rentrak. Where available, latest international numbers are also included. Final domestic figures will be released on Monday.
1. "Dawn of the Planet of the Apes," $36 million ($61 million international).
2. "The Purge: Anarchy," $28.4 million ($420,000 international).
3. "Planes: Fire & Rescue," $18 million ($9 million international).
4. "Sex Tape," $15 million ($3 million international).
5. "Transformers: Age of Extinction," $10 million ($81.2 million international).
6. "Tammy," $7.6 million.
7. "22 Jump Street," $4.7 million ($3.2 million international).
8. "How to Train Your Dragon 2," $3.8 million ($14 million international).
9. "Maleficent," $3.3 million ($8 million international).
10. "Earth to Echo," $3.3 million.
"Dawn of the Planet of the Apes"
In Memory
Skye McCole Bartusiak
Actress Skye McCole Bartusiak, who portrayed Mel Gibson's young daughter in the 2000 film "The Patriot," died in her Houston home, her mother said Sunday. She was 21.
Bartusiak's mother, Helen Bartusiak, told The Associated Press the actress had been living in a garage apartment at her parents' home. She said the actress' boyfriend found her unresponsive on her bed Saturday.
Helen Bartusiak said she tried to resuscitate her daughter but could not. She said the actress had been healthy and did not drink or do drugs and the family did not yet know a cause of death.
Bartusiak made her acting debut in the television miniseries "Storm of the Century" in 1999 and also had a role on "24" in 2002-2003.
She made her film debut in the "The Cider House Rules" in 1999 and starred with Michael Douglas in "Don't Say a Word" in 2001. Her most recent move was "Sick Boy" in 2012.
Skye McCole Bartusiak
In Memory
James Garner
Actor James Garner, whose whimsical style in the 1950s TV Western "Maverick" led to a stellar career in TV and films such as "The Rockford Files" and his Oscar-nominated "Murphy's Romance," has died, police said. He was 86.
There was no immediate word on a more specific cause of death. Garner had suffered a stroke in May 2008, just weeks after his 80th birthday.
Although he was adept at drama and action, Garner was best known for his low-key, wisecracking style, especially with his hit TV series, "Maverick" and "The Rockford Files."
His quick-witted avoidance of conflict provided a refreshingly new take on the American hero, contrasting with the steely heroics of John Wayne and the fast trigger of Clint Eastwood.
Well into his 70s, the handsome Oklahoman remained active in both TV and film. In 2002, he was Sandra Bullock's father in the film "Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood." The following year, he joined the cast of "8 Simple Rules ... For Dating My Teenage Daughter," playing the grandfather on the sitcom after star John Ritter, who played the father, died during the show's second season.
It was in 1957 when the ABC network, desperate to compete on ratings-rich Sunday night, scheduled "Maverick" against CBS's powerhouse "The Ed Sullivan Show" and NBC's "The Steve Allen Show." ''Maverick" soon outpolled them both.
At a time when the networks were crowded with hard-eyed, traditional Western heroes, Bret Maverick provided a fresh breath of air. With his sardonic tone and his eagerness to talk his way out of a squabble rather than pull out his six-shooter, the con-artist Westerner seemed to scoff at the genre's values.
After a couple of years, Garner felt the series was losing its creative edge, and he found a legal loophole to escape his contract in 1960.
His first film after "Maverick" established him as a movie actor. It was "The Children's Hour," William Wyler's remake of Lillian Hellman's lesbian drama that co-starred Audrey Hepburn and Shirley MacLaine.
He followed in a successful comedy with Kim Novak, "Boys' Night Out," and then fully established his box-office appeal with the 1963 blockbuster war drama "The Great Escape" and two smash comedies with Doris Day - "The Thrill of It All" and "Move Over Darling."
Throughout his long film career, Garner demonstrated his versatility in comedies ("The Art of Love," ''A Man Could Get Killed," ''Skin Game"), suspense ("36 Hours," ''They Only Kill Their Masters," ''Marlowe"), Westerns ("Duel at Diablo," ''Hour of the Gun," ''Support Your Local Gunfighter").
In the 1980s and 1990s, when most stars his age were considered over the hill, Garner's career remained strong.
He played a supporting role as a marshal in the 1994 "Maverick," a big-screen return to the TV series with Mel Gibson in Garner's old title role. His only Oscar nomination came for the 1985 "Murphy's Romance," a comedy about a small-town love relationship in which he co-starred with Sally Field.
His favorite film, though, was the cynical 1964 war drama "The Americanization of Emily," which co-starred Julie Andrews.
Unlike most film stars, Garner made repeated returns to television. "Nichols" (1971-72) and "Bret Maverick" (1981-82) were short-lived, but "The Rockford Files" (1974-80) proved a solid hit, bringing him an Emmy.
Among his notable TV movies: "Barbarians at the Gate" (as tycoon F. Ross Johnson), "Breathing Lessons," ''Promise," ''My Name Is Bill W.," ''Streets of Laredo" and "One Special Night."
He said he learned about acting while playing a non-speaking role as a Navy juror in the 1954 Broadway hit play "The Caine Mutiny Court Martial," starring Henry Fonda and Lloyd Nolan.
After "Caine Mutiny," Garner found work in Hollywood as a bit player in the "Cheyenne" TV series. Warner Bros. gave him a screen test and signed him to a seven-year contract starting at $200 a week.
The studio cast him in supporting roles in three minor films, followed by the important break as Marlon Brando's sidekick in "Sayonara." When Charlton Heston declined a war movie, "Darby's Rangers," because of a money dispute, Garner assumed the role.
Maverick"," which co-starred Jack Kelly as brother Bart Maverick, made its debut on Sept. 22, 1957.
Garner was born James Scott Bumgarner (some references say Baumgarner) in Norman, Okla. His mother died when he was 5, and friends and relatives cared for him and his two brothers for a time while his father was to California.
In 1957, Garner married TV actress Lois Clarke, and the union prevailed despite some stormy patches. She had a daughter Kimberly from a previous marriage, and the Garners had another daughter, Gretta Scott. In the late 1990s, the Garners built a 12,000-square-foot house on a 400-acre ranch north of Santa Barbara.
James Garner
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