Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Lenore Skenazy: Does 'Sharing the Pain' Really Help Anyone? (Creators Syndicate)
"I want to share the pain," wrote a friend in Australia, where the Sandy Hook victims' photos dominated the front page. "The pain is gut-wrenching. It's in my heart, my head, my womb." One side of me knows just what she's saying: We are all connected, human-to-human.
Scott Burns: Bytes, BTUs, and Bullion (AssetBuilder)
I have a confession to make. Although I'm a devoted index fund investor who has kept the bulk of his retirement and taxable accounts allocated in a way that follows the Couch Potato investing suggestions I make in this column, I've also got a hidden, dumb side.
Charlotte Higgins: "Susan Cooper: a life in writing" (Guardian)
'I remember writing about the snow in 'The Dark Is Rising' with a lizard on my typewriter.'
NORMAN LEBRECHT: The Artistic Legacy of the Great War (Standpoint Magazine)
Proverbs can be misleading. The old Russian saying "when the guns talk, the muses fall silent" is generally disproved by history. Wars tend to stimulate a creative response from artists, as well as a public appetite for cultural reassurance. […] Sales of books and music rise in wartime. Theatres, where open, are packed. The Great War is the great exception.
Roger Ebert: Review of "MONSIEUR HIRE" (PG-13; 1989; A Great Movie)
Patrice Leconte's "Monsieur Hire" is a tragedy about loneliness and erotomania, told about two solitary people who have nothing else in common. It involves a murder, and the opening shot is of a corpse. Monsieur Hire is a scrawny, balding middle-aged tailor who lives by himself. Alice is a beautiful, tender-hearted 22-year-old blonde who lives alone across the courtyard from Hire in the same apartment building.
Felix Clay: The 5 Most Disturbing Tween TV Show Universes (Cracked)
5. iCarly: On the surface, this show is easily three full loads of fun. It's about a girl and her friends and brother -- and no parents at all. That's fun. Parents are a total drag. To not have to explain parthenogenesis to kids, Carly technically has a dad -- he's just in the military and opted to leave his children home alone while he serves an ever-ongoing term overseas. If Carly has a mother, no one cares to mention her at any time. Ever.
Elaine Lipworth: "Billy Connolly: My family values" (Guardian)
The actor and comedian talks about coming to terms with his children growing up and the joy of being a grandparent.
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David Bruce has approximately 50 Kindle books on Amazon.com.
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Michelle in AZ
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From The Creator of 'Avery Ant'
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Some rain, some sun, still cold.
Magic Mushrooms Explain?
'Flying' Reindeer
This Christmas, like many before it and many yet to come, the story of Santa and his flying reindeer will be told, including how the "jolly old elf" flies on his sleigh throughout the entire world in one night, giving gifts to all the good children.
But according to one theory, the story of Santa and his flying reindeer can be traced to an unlikely source: hallucinogenic or "magic" mushrooms.
"Santa is a modern counterpart of a shaman, who consumed mind-altering plants and fungi to commune with the spirit world," said John Rush, an anthropologist and instructor at Sierra College in Rocklin, Calif.
According to the theory, the legend of Santa derives from shamans in the Siberian and Arctic regions who dropped into locals' teepeelike homes with a bag full of hallucinatory mushrooms as presents in late December, Rush said.
"As the story goes, up until a few hundred years ago these practicing shamans or priests connected to the older traditions would collect Amanita muscaria (the Holy Mushroom), dry them, and then give them as gifts on the winter solstice," Rush told LiveScience. "Because snow is usually blocking doors, there was an opening in the roof through which people entered and exited, thus the chimney story."
'Flying' Reindeer
Donates $1.75M To Hospital
Rihanna
Pop star Rihanna has given $1.75 million to a hospital in her Caribbean homeland of Barbados in memory of her late grandmother.
Rihanna says the donation to buy three pieces of medical equipment was her way "giving back to Barbados."
She made the comments during a Saturday ceremony with relatives at the island's Queen Elizabeth Hospital. The hospital's radiotherapy unit has been renamed the Clara Braithwaite Center for Oncology and Nuclear Medicine after Rihanna's grandmother, who died in June.
Rihanna
Pacino Comments
Frank Serpico
New York City police whistle-blower Frank Serpico says Al Pacino played him better than he did himself.
Pacino played the detective who exposed widespread police corruption in the 1973 movie "Serpico." The Daily News interviewed the real-life Serpico in Ghent, in New York's Hudson Valley, for a story published Sunday.
The 76-year-old retiree spoke weeks after the death of fellow whistle-blowing ex-detective David Durk.
Serpico smiled as an interviewer noted he is ranked No. 41, just behind Lassie, on the American Film Institute's list of movie heroes. He says that's "good company."
Frank Serpico
Sunlight To Light An Underground Garden
"Lowline"
Imagine an inviting green park with tall, shady trees and wide swaths of grassy lawn where you can hear live music or see theater or simply sit quietly soaking up the noonday sun.
Now, imagine that all underground in an old disused parking garage … but still with trees and grass in the bright sunlight - a little less bright, of course, on cloudy days.
This paradoxical vision is already halfway to becoming a reality in downtown Manhattan, a dream made possible partly by fiber-optic technology that can capture sunlight on high rooftops and literally pipe it down to shine further from big underground "skylights."
Dan Barasch and James Ramsey envisioned it all in 2008 when they teamed up with an idea to transform an abandoned trolley terminal, a 1.5-acre lot underneath the Williamsburg Bridge and next to the Delancey St. subway station.
They dubbed their underground park the "Lowline," a nod to Manhattan's popular Highline Park that transformed another swatch of urban blight - in that case an unused and overgrown elevated rail bed.
"Lowline"
IOKIYAR DUI
Sen. Michael Crapo
U.S. Sen. Michael Crapo was arrested early Sunday morning and charged with driving under the influence in a Washington, D.C., suburb, authorities said.
Police in Alexandria, Va., said Sunday that the Idaho Republican was pulled over after his vehicle ran a red light. Police spokesman Jody Donaldson said Crapo failed field sobriety tests and was arrested at about 12:45 a.m. He was transported to the Alexandria jail and released on an unsecured $1,000 bond at about 5 a.m..
Police said Crapo, who was alone in his vehicle, registered a blood alcohol content of .110. The legal limit in Virginia, which has strict drunken driving laws, is .08.
In Congress, Crapo has built a reputation as a staunch social and fiscal conservative. It was expected he would take over the top Republican spot next year on the Senate Banking Committee. He also serves on the Senate's budget and finance panels. Crapo was a member of the so-called "Gang of Six" senators that worked in 2011 toward a deficit-reduction deal that was never adopted by Congress.
A Mormon who grew up in Idaho Falls, Idaho, Crapo was named a bishop in the church at age 31. He is an attorney who graduated from Brigham Young University and Harvard Law School. He has five children with his wife, Susan, and three grandchildren.
Sen. Michael Crapo
Mausoleums Destroyed
Timbuktu
A tourism official says that Islamist extremists destroyed four mausoleums in Timbuktu Sunday.
The director of Mali's Timbuktu tourism office, Sane Chirfi, said that Ansar Dine rebels linked to al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb tore down the mausoleums, which were historic but not included on the United Nations list of World Heritage sites. The mausoleums housed the remains of Muslim scholars and teachers who are revered by the Timbuktu population.
Since taking control of Timbuktu earlier this year, the Islamists have destroyed seven of the 16 mausoleums listed as world heritage sites. Some date back to the 14th century.
According to many residents, the destruction of the graves is the rebels' reaction to the recent U.N. resolution calling for an international military intervention to remove the Islamists from northern Mali.
Timbuktu
Subject Of Dispute
Machias Seal Island
A tiny island between New Brunswick and Maine is the subject of renewed calls from both sides of the border to settle a territorial dispute once and for all.
Machias Seal Island is a flat, treeless piece of rock located about 19 kilometres south of Grand Manan Island and 16 kilometres west of the Maine coast at the mouth of the Bay of Fundy.
The island is a sanctuary for many kinds of seabirds including the Atlantic Puffin and draws visitors from around the world to observe them in the summer.
There are no permanent human residents on the island, just pairs of lightkeepers who spend 28 days at a time maintaining a lighthouse operated by the Canadian Coast Guard. The original lighthouse was built by the British in 1832, and a lighthouse has been maintained there ever since.
So why would anyone even care which country gets title to Machias Seal Island?
The answer lies in the 720 square kilometres of water around the island in what's called a grey zone. Lobster fishermen from both Canada and the U.S. fish these waters.
Machias Seal Island
Spuds & In-Air Wi-Fi
Boeing
If the wireless Internet connection during your holiday flight seems more reliable than it used to, you could have the humble potato to thank.
While major airlines offer in-flight Wi-Fi on many flights, the signal strength can be spotty. Airlines and aircraft makers have been striving to improve this with the growing use of wireless devices and the number of people who don't want to be disconnected, even 35,000 feet up.
Engineers at Chicago-based Boeing Co. used sacks of potatoes as stand-ins for passengers as they worked to eliminate weak spots in in-flight wireless signals. They needed full planes to get accurate results during signal testing, but they couldn't ask people to sit motionless for days while data was gathered.
It turns out that potatoes - because of their water content and chemistry - absorb and reflect radio wave signals much the same way as the human body does, making them suitable substitutes for airline passengers.
Boeing
Weekend Box Office
"The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey"
Peter Jackson's "The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey" took in $36.7 million to remain No. 1 at the box office for the second-straight weekend, easily beating a rush of top-name holiday newcomers.
"The Hobbit" took a steep 57 percent drop from its domestic $84.6 million opening weekend, but business was soft in general as many people skipped movies in favor of last-minute Christmas preparations.
Tom Cruise's action thriller "Jack Reacher" debuted in second-place with a modest $15.6 million debut, according to studio estimates Sunday. Based on the Lee Child best-seller "One Shot," the Paramount Pictures release stars Cruise as a lone-wolf ex-military investigator tracking a sniper conspiracy.
Opening at No. 3 with $12 million was Judd Apatow's marital comedy "This Is 40," a Universal Pictures film featuring Paul Rudd and Leslie Mann reprising their roles from the director's 2007 hit "Knocked Up."
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. "The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey," $36.7 million ($91 million international).
2. "Jack Reacher," $15.6 million ($2.5 million international).
3. "This Is 40," $12 million.
4. "Rise of the Guardians," $5.9 million ($13.7 million international).
5. "Lincoln," $5.6 million.
6. "The Guilt Trip," $5.4 million.
7. "Monsters, Inc." in 3-D, $5 million.
8. "Skyfall," $4.7 million ($9 million international),
9. "Life of Pi," $3.8 million ($23.2 million international).
10. "The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 2," $2.6 million ($6.6 million international).
"The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey"
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