Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Paul Krugman: China Goes to Nixon (New York Times)
China has stumbled into a monetary muddle that's getting worse with each passing month.
Jim Hightower: PLENTY OF AMERICAN JOBS - BUT NOT IN AMERICA
With unemployment and underemployment devastating millions of families in our country, perhaps you've assumed that U.S. corporations aren't hiring these days. Nonsense, they added 1.4 million jobs last year alone - overseas.
Gail Collins: Goodbye to a Guy Named Joe [Lieberman] (New York Times)
... he isn't really leaving. He's got two years of his term left, during which he will be looking for "new opportunities that will allow me to serve my country." Do you think that means something involving a large salary and a chance to make multitudinous TV appearances, or a Peace Corps stint in Burkina Faso? Let me see hands.
Froma Harrop: No Tears for Joe Lieberman (Creators Syndicate)
My eyes are dry as I ponder Joe Lieberman's decision to not seek re-election. Voices on the right regard Connecticut's independent senator as a victim of left-wing intolerance. I see him as a sanctimonious hypocrite, political opportunist and double-crosser. Guess I don't like him.
Bono: What I Learned From Sargent Shriver (New York Times)
He changed the world more than a few times and taught us all that love is a brave, bold act that requires toughness and sacrifice.
CHRISTINA BINKLEY: To Dress Well, a Woman Should Shop Like a Man (Wall Street Journal)
When it comes to shopping for fashion, women usually dominate, buying clothing for their men as well as themselves. But ladies, I have a gauntlet to throw down: Women have a lot to learn from the way men shop.
Gretchen Reynolds: Phys Ed: Brains and Brawn (New York Times)
The brain benefits from being used, so that, in a neat circle, resistance training may both demand and create additional brain circuitry. Imagine what someone like Einstein might have accomplished if he had occasionally gone to the gym.
Emily Yoffe: Exercise Time Warp?(Slate)
I spent a week with Jack LaLanne, Jane Fonda, and Jillian Michaels. Who's the best fitness guru of them all??
Scott Collins: Kids swoon as Miley Cyrus ends run on Disney Channel's 'Hannah Montana' (Los Angeles Times)
A darkness has fallen on the kingdom of the preteens: "Hannah Montana" is officially gone.
Ann Powers: In pop music, a whole new way of doing business (Los Angeles Times)
The Gorillaz, MIA and the Flaming Lips are among the acts finding creative methods to deliver their music to fans.
David Bruce has 39 Kindle books on Amazon.com with 250 anecdotes in each book. Each book is $1, so for $39 you can buy 9,750 anecdotes. Search for "Funniest People," "Coolest People, "Most Interesting People," "Kindest People," "Religious Anecdotes," and "Maximum Cool."
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From The Creator of 'Avery Ant'
Reader Sugestion
Michelle in AZ
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Sunny and seasonal.
Abrupt Goodbye
Keith Olbermann
Keith Olbermann, MSNBC's most successful and controversial personality for his outspoken liberal prime-time program, gave an abrupt goodbye to viewers and said Friday was his last show.
It was not immediately known if he quit or was fired. Olbermann did not address the question, and MSNBC said only that they and Olbermann had ended their contract. He signed a four-year contract two years ago.
A spokesman said Phil Griffin, MSNBC's president, would not comment on Olbermann's exit. Spokesman Jeremy Gaines would say only that the acquisition of NBC Universal by Comcast, which received regulatory approval this week, had nothing to do with the decision.
His exit was so sudden that MSNBC didn't have time to change its ads; a "Lean Forward" promotion for the network featuring Olbermann aired within a half-hour of his final goodbye.
Olbermann, before leaving the show with a final signature toss of his script toward the camera, thanked his audience for sticking with him and read a James Thurber poem.
Keith Olbermann
Heirs Win Image Case
Bob Marley
A federal jury has sided with Bob Marley's family in ruling against a Nevada company accused of making and selling apparel featuring the reggae icon's image.
The Las Vegas Review-Journal reported Friday that jurors ruled against AVELA and owner Leo Valencia, awarding $300,000 in damages to a company owned by Marley's family.
U.S. District Judge Philip Pro is expected to award more damages after determining how much profit was lost because of unfair competition.
A lawyer told the jury in Las Vegas that Bob Marley's children don't want to see the reggae legend portrayed as a bobblehead or a plush toy.
Bob Marley
Comedy's Highest Grossing Actress
Meryl Streep
Though Meryl Streep has won more Oscars for her dramatic roles, Forbes reports that over the last five years, her comedies -- "Mamma Mia," "The Devil Wears Prada," "Julie & Julia," "It's Complicated" -- have earned $1.3 billion at the box office worldwide.
Despite "Sex and the City 2" underperforming both commercially and critically, Sarah Jessica Parker ranked No. 2 with $916 million. (The SATC sequel may have earned $95 million in the U.S., but it raked in an impressive $193 million overseas.)
No. 3: Katherine Heigl, whose comedies have earned $773 million over the last five years. Though her recent big screen efforts have tanked ("Killers," "Life as We Know It"), she has a shot at a comeback with her next project, "One for the Money," based on the popular Janet Evanovich series of Stephanie Plum novels.
Cameron Diaz comes in fourth with $768 million (she'll test her comedic box office chops later this year when she debuts "Bad Teacher," costarring her ex Justin Timberlake).
Meryl Streep
Sharp Membership Declines
Unions
The nation's labor unions saw another steep decline in membership last year, even as the economy showed signs of recovery and job losses slowed.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Friday that unions lost 612,000 members in 2010, dropping the unionized share of the work force to 11.9 percent from 12.3 percent in 2009. That follows a loss of 771,000 workers in 2008, continuing a steady decline from the 1950s when more than a third of workers belonged to unions.
Union membership in the private sector fell from 7.2 percent to 6.9 percent, a low point not seen since the infancy of the labor movement in the 1930s. The steepest decline was seen in the construction industry, where unemployment remains around 20 percent.
Public employment unions saw a 1.2 percent decline, mostly from job cuts among state and local government workers. Those unions could see further declines this year, as states eliminate jobs in an effort to make up multibillion-dollar budget deficits.
Unions
Facial Prosthesis
Roger Ebert
Roger Ebert is debuting a facial prosthesis along with his new public television show on film criticism.
The veteran critic was left disfigured after surgeries for a cancerous growth in his salivary gland.
He wrote on his blog that he'll appear on his new "Ebert Presents at the Movies" in a prosthesis for his lower face and neck. Since the operations left him unable to speak, Ebert communicates through a voice in his laptop.
The 68-year-old Ebert says the prosthesis "will be a pleasant reminder of the person I was for 64 years."
Roger Ebert
U.S. Returns Stolen Painting
Edgar Degas
A stolen painting by French Impressionist Edgar Degas was formally returned to France at the residence of the French ambassador to the United States on Friday after it surfaced at an auction in New York.
The small painting "Blanchisseuses souffrant des dents," completed by Degas between 1870 and 1872, emerged in a Sotheby's auction 37 years after it was stolen from the Malraux Museum in Le Havre in Normandy.
The 6.25-inch by 8.5-inch piece is estimated to be worth between $350,000 and $450,000. The painting depicts the heads of two women and is known in English as "Laundry Women with Toothache."
The painting was consigned to the sale by Ronald Grelsamer, a well-known New York surgeon who said he had received the paining as a gift from his father. He and Sotheby's voluntarily surrendered the work after the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency gave proof of the decades-ago theft.
Edgar Degas
Lawyer Files Complaint
Pfc. Bradley Manning
The lawyer for a soldier suspected of passing classified information to the anti-secrecy website WikiLeaks is alleging wrongdoing by his jailer.
David Coombs of Fall River, Mass., said Friday he has filed a complaint with the commander of the Marine Corps base in Quantico, Va., where Army Pfc. Bradley Manning is being held, alleging a regulatory violation.
Coombs says Chief Warrant Officer 4 James Averhart abused his discretion by placing Manning on 24-hour suicide watch from Tuesday evening to Thursday afternoon over the recommendation of brig and defense psychiatrists.
Manning has been confined at least 23 hours day for nearly six months. His lawyer wants Manning's maximum-security status changed to medium-security.
Pfc. Bradley Manning
Oink. Oink. Oink.
Pigboy
Rush Limbaugh (R-Sex Tourist), the conservative radio host heard by millions of Americans, came under fire from Asian Americans after he mocked the way visiting Chinese President Hu Jintao speaks.
The commentator lampooned Hu -- who he called the "ChiCom dictator" -- over his joint news conference Wednesday with US President Barack Obama that was marred by a delay in translation.
"He was speaking and they weren't translating. They normally translate every couple of words, but Hu Jintao was just going, 'ching chong, ching chong, chong,'" Limbaugh said, continuing his imitation at length.
Representative David Wu, the first Chinese American to serve in Congress and a member of Obama's Democratic Party, criticized Limbaugh for his "pathetic childishness."
Pigboy
Legal Fight Over Song
"The Fighter"
If you've seen "The Fighter," you're likely familiar with the inspiring story of boxer Mickey Ward and great acting performances, particularly from Christian Bale, Amy Adams and Melissa Leo.
The super-catchy, definitely-funky guitar-and-horns riff that serves as the basis for the song, "How You Like Me Now?" played throughout the movie, might be on its way toward being the most litigated few notes of music...ever.
Before "The Fighter" featured the song "How You Like Me Now?" by the UK indie rock band The Heavy, the song served as the soundtrack to a commercial for Kia Motors that was run during last year's Super Bowl.
Drive-in Music Company, a small music publisher based in LA, heard the music and thought it sounded familiar.
In 1969, the funk band, Dyke & the Blazers, had its biggest hit, "Let a Woman Be a Woman And A Man Be A Man." The song was written by the band's front-man Arlester Christian. He assigned rights to the song to Drive-in Music Company. Two years later, Christian passed away.
"The Fighter"
Brother Jailed For Attack
Afshan Azad
The brother of Harry Potter actress Afshan Azad was jailed on Friday for six months for attacking his sister after discovering she was dating a non-Muslim.
Azad, 22, who played Padma Patil in the hit film franchise, feared for her life during the three-hour ordeal last year, Manchester Crown Court heard.
According to the Press Association, she was punched, dragged around by her hair and strangled by her brother Ashraf Azad, 28, who threatened to kill her after he found her talking on the phone to her Hindu boyfriend.
The assault occurred during a dispute at the family home in Longsight, Manchester, which also involved her mother and father. During the row she was branded a "slag" (slut) and a "prostitute" and told: "Marry a Muslim or you die!"
The actress, who now lives in London, had asked the court not to jail her older brother.
Afshan Azad
Plea Deals Reached In Sham Marriage Case
Fernanda Romero
A Mexican actress has agreed to plead guilty to lying in an immigration proceeding and will avoid a retrial on charges that she engaged in a sham marriage to remain in the United States.
Fernanda Romero will acknowledge she made a false statement on an immigration form in December 2007, according to court records filed in Los Angeles.
Her husband, Kent Stuart Ross, also agreed to plead guilty to falsely stating on immigration forms that he and Romero were living together in 2005 and 2006.
Romero had small roles in several films, including "Drag Me to Hell," but is best known for her role in the Mexican soap opera "Eternamente Tuya."
Prosecutors are not seeking jail time for the couple, although it will be up to a judge to determine any punishment.
Fernanda Romero
'Big Brother 9' Champ Gets 4 Years
Adam Jasinski
The winner of the CBS reality show "Big Brother 9" has been sentenced in Massachusetts to four years in prison on drug and tax charges.
Adam Jasinski, of Delray Beach, Fla., was sentenced Friday in a Boston federal court for attempting to sell 2,000 oxycodone pills in October 2009 to a witness cooperating with the government.
Jasinski pleaded guilty in October to possession with attempt to distribute oxycodone and failure to file a tax return for 2008, the year he won the television show's $500,000 prize. The series features contestants who live under constant surveillance and vote weekly to evict each other.
Before changing his plea to guilty, Jasinski told a judge he was being treated for bipolar disorder and drug addiction.
Adam Jasinski
Fails To Convince Judge
Sheri Gilbert
Remember the woman who sued Warner Bros., actresses Jennifer Lopez and Jane Fonda over the 2005 film "Monster-In-Law?"
The woman, Sheri Gilbert, has been ordered to pay them nearly a million dollars for bringing a meritless lawsuit.
As a refresher, Gilbert claimed there was something strangely familiar about the grating mother-in-law portrayed in the film. She felt like she could predict what was going to happen from one scene to the next in the film. And she believed the script had similarities to the one she wrote about her own mother-in-law problems. She felt entitled to a piece of the $155 million the film made in worldwide box office.
Not only did Gilbert lose, with the judge finding "vast differences in characters, plot, mood and theme" from her script and the film's script, but her claims were deemed so unworthy and motivated by "bad faith" that the judge last month ordered Gilbert to pay the defendant's legal tab.
The case took two years to litigate and there were 649 docket entries. The 50+ defendants cumulatively spent 4,000 billable hours. It ended up adding up to a judgment that Gilbert should pay $894,983 to the defendants!
Sheri Gilbert
Canada Watchdog Wants Review Of Ruling
Dire Straits
Canada's broadcast regulator has jumped into the furor surrounding a Grammy Award-winning Dire Straits song from the 1980s, calling on an industry watchdog to reconsider its decision that the lyrics should be censored.
The Canadian Broadcast Standards Council (CBSC) ruled that radio stations should cut the word "faggot" from the lyrics of "Money for Nothing" as the term was offensive to gay men.
The industry-sponsored agency made its ruling last week after a complaint to a radio station in Eastern Canada.
The federal broadcasting regulator, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC), asked the CBSC on Friday to revisit its ruling.
Dire Straits
Cable Nielsens
Ratings
Rankings for the top 15 programs on cable networks as compiled by the Nielsen Co. for the week of Jan. 10-16. Day and start time (EST) are in parentheses:
1. Bowl Championship Series: Auburn vs. Oregon (Monday, 8:33 p.m.), ESPN, 17.71 million homes, 27.31 million viewers.
2. "BCS Bowl Showcase" (Monday, 8:27 p.m.), ESPN, 10.92 million homes, 16.87 million viewers.
3. "BCS Bowl Studio" (Monday, 12:17 a.m.), ESPN, 8.25 million homes, 12.34 million viewers.
4. "BCS Bowl Studio" (Monday, 8 p.m.), ESPN, 7.7 million homes, 11.97 million viewers.
5. "Jersey Shore" (Thursday, 10 p.m.), MTV, 6.02 million homes, 8.56 million viewers.
6. "Suite Life on Deck" (Sunday, 8 p.m.), Disney, 4.43 million homes, 7.1 million viewers.
7. "The Game" (Tuesday, 10 p.m.), BET, 4.42 million homes, 7.68 million viewers.
8. "Good Luck Charlie" (Sunday, 8:30 p.m.), Disney, 4.14 million homes, 6.65 million viewers.
9. "Hannah Montana Forever" (Sunday, 7 p.m.), Disney, 4.01 million homes, 6.17 million viewers.
10. "Sportscenter" (Monday, 12:31 a.m.), ESPN, 3.57 million homes, 4.77 million viewers.
11. "SpongeBob SquarePants" (Saturday, 9:30 a.m.), Nickelodeon, 3.5 million homes, 4.7 million viewers.
12. "Suite Life on Deck" (Saturday, 8 p.m.), Disney, 3.25 million homes, 5.23 million viewers.
13. "WWE Raw" (Monday, 10 p.m.), USA, 3.13 million homes, 4.65 million viewers.
14. "NCIS" (Monday, 8 p.m.), USA, 3.02 million homes, 4.1 million viewers.
15. "Suite Life on Deck" (Friday, 8 p.m.), Disney, 3.01 million homes, 4.06 million viewers.
Ratings
In Memory
Theoni V. Aldredge
Theoni V. Aldredge, an award-winning costume designer who created memorable outfits for more than 300 stage and film projects, including "Gypsy," "A Chorus Line," "Dreamgirls" and "42nd Street," has died. She was 78.
Her husband, actor Tom Aldredge, said she died Friday at a hospice in Connecticut.
She won three Tonys for "Annie," "Barnum" and "La Cage aux Folles" and an Oscar in 1975 for designing costumes for "The Great Gatsby," starring Robert Redford.
Aldredge, known for her ability to go from Las Vegas stage shows to opera, and to create everything from Elizabethan period costumes to contemporary street fashion, was inducted into the Theater Hall of Fame.
She was the principal designer for Joseph Papp's New York Shakespeare Festival for many years.
Theoni V. Aldredge
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