Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Paul Krugman: The Forgotten Millions (New York Times)
More than three years after we entered the worst economic slump since the 1930s, a strange and disturbing thing has happened to our political discourse: Washington has lost interest in the unemployed.
Jim Hightower: FROM DEMOCRACY TO PLUTOCRACY
Call them what they are - not conservatives, but self-serving plutocrats. Or, nail them with another good word from the past: "Kleptocrats," government by thieves.
Froma Harrop: Politicians and Their Self-Serving Charities (Creators Syndicate)
The Supriya Jindal Foundation for Louisiana's Children is not the governor's charity, it's his wife's. Does that make it OK? It does not.
WILLIAM D. COHAN: Degrees of Influence? (New York Times)
As elite higher education turns prohibitively expensive and the job market shrinks, a reminder that dropping out is no guarantee of failure.
Swiftian Visionary
Vladimir Sorokin's novels meld epic science fiction with Russian satire. Paul Di Filippo reviews 'Day of the Oprichnik' and 'The Ice Trilogy.'
20 Questions: Hal Needham (PopMatters)
He was a paratrooper, a billboard model for Viceroy Cigarettes, he worked on ten films with John 'The Duke' Wayne, stunt doubled for Richard Boone in 'Have Gun, Will Travel,' wrote the screenplay for and directed 'Smokey and the Bandit' (and directed many other popular action films), and was the highest paid Stuntman in the movie industry for ten years. Along the way, he gives a bit of advice: "When they first light that match, hold your breath! If you inhale, you'll suck in the flames."
"Never Say Die: The Myth and Marketing of the New Old Age" by Susan Jacoby: A review by James Morris
In separate books, Ted C. Fishman and Susan Jacoby both cry crisis, but in different registers of alarm. Their common theme is the disruptive effects, on nations and individuals, of the coming worldwide increase in the ranks of the aged. Fishman tends toward dispassion; Jacoby, toward exasperation. He's a better guide to the scale of the changes; she's more adept at making them painful and personal. Both sound wake-up calls that go on till afternoon, long after they've made their points. But their troubling message needs to be heard. Take it in perhaps with a glass of aged scotch.
Allen Barra: "Flann O'Brien: Tall Tales, Long Drink" (Wall Street Journal)
Through his five novels and column in the Irish Times, Flann O'Brien built a cult following that included the likes of Samuel Beckett, James Joyce and John Updike.
Betsy Sharkey: "Movie review: 'Mars Needs Moms'" (Los Angeles Times)
What this animated tale - about a boy rescuing his mom from the red planet - needs is some absurd charm from Berkeley Breathed's original story.
Don Tresca: "The Three Faces of Anne: Identity Formation in 'Buffy' and 'Angel'" (Popmatters)
Such a minor character can easily be dismissed on most shows, but the fact that the writers kept returning to the character of Anne, even years after her original appearance, demonstrates something about the character that continued to fascinate both the writers and the audience.
David Bruce has 41 Kindle books on Amazon.com with 250 anecdotes in each book. Each book is $1, so for $41 you can buy 10,250 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 Suggestions
Michelle in AZ
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Still sunny and seasonal.
Would Consider Return To Hosting Oscars
Billy Crystal
Billy Crystal says he'd consider a return as Oscar host - if some changes are made to the show.
The eight-time Academy Awards host said he was moved by his warm reception at last month's ceremony and that "it might be fun" to host the show again.
"I think the show needs to change," he said. "There's too many awards and it has to sort of freshen itself up, and if I can be a part of that, that would be great."
The 63-year-old entertainer made the comments Thursday in an interview with The Associated Press as he prepared to join longtime friend Muhammad Ali at Saturday's Celebrity Fight Night in Phoenix. Crystal is set to introduce the Champ, who hosts the annual fundraising event to support the Muhammad Ali Parkinson Center and research toward a cure.
Billy Crystal
Approved For Porn Sites
Domain '.xxx'
You've heard of ".com" and ".org." Joining them soon will be their bawdy cousin: ".xxx."
On Friday, the board of directors of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, which oversees the Internet's naming system, approved the creation of a red-light district online for pornographic websites. It follows a decade-long battle over such a name.
Religious groups argue that giving adult websites their own corner of the Internet legitimizes the content.
Pornographers worry it will ghettoize their sites. Although it's meant to be voluntary, they fear governments could try to mandate the domain's use, so that pornographic content is more easily blocked.
Supporters have maintained that approving the domain is in keeping with the principle of openness that has fueled the Internet's growth.
Domain '.xxx'
Netflix Series To Star
Kevin Spacey
Netflix, which has become a US video giant streaming movies and TV shows, is getting behind a series of its own starring Oscar-winner Kevin Spacey as an ambitious US politician.
David Fincher, who was nominated for an Oscar for his Facebook movie "The Social Network," will be the executive producer of the political thriller "House of Cards," Netflix's first foray into original programming.
Ted Sarandos, Netflix's chief content officer, said in a blog post that the series will be available in late 2012 to Netflix members in the United States and Canada.
"We've committed to at least 26 episodes of the serialized drama," he said, which will be "the first exclusive TV series to originate on Netflix."
Kevin Spacey
New Postage Stamps Honor
Latin Music
Musical giants Tito Puente and Carmen Miranda are bringing some Latin flavor to U.S. postage stamps.
The new set of five forever stamps going on sale Wednesday also honors Celia Cruz, Selena and Carlos Gardel. They represent a range of Latin musical styles, including Tejano, tango, samba, Latin jazz and salsa.
Formal ceremonies for the release of the stamps were held in Austin, Texas, as the stamps went on sale across the country.
Latin Music
Professor Pulled From Class
Innocence Project
A Northwestern University journalism professor whose students are credited with helping to free more than 10 innocent men from prison - including death row - has been pulled from the class that made him famous amid allegations of ethics violations.
David Protess told the Chicago Tribune he was notified by email this week that he wouldn't be teaching the investigative journalism course for the upcoming quarter.
He will continue as director of the Medill Innocence Project, but he said he doesn't know whether the project will continue to be affiliated with the class. Investigative journalism students usually conduct the project's investigations.
Protess and his investigative reporting students have helped free more than 10 innocent men from prison, including death row, since 1996. Their work also is credited with prompting then-Gov. George Ryan to empty the state's death row in 2003, re-igniting a national debate on the death penalty and leading to the end of capital punishment in Illinois.
But the Innocence Project's recent investigation of Anthony McKinney, who is serving a life sentence for the 1978 murder of a security guard, has brought scrutiny of the students and their reporting methods. The Cook County State's Attorney's office has subpoenaed the students' notes and grades, suggesting that students may have received better grades from Protess for uncovering evidence of the man's innocence.
Innocence Project
Testifies In NYC Art Fraud Trial
Robert De Niro
It's a role that moviegoers might not know Robert De Niro plays: overseeing his painter father's estate.
The Academy Award-winning actor served as a star witness Friday in an art-fraud trial, testifying against a former gallery director accused of selling some of the late Robert De Niro Sr.'s works without paying his family its share.
Seeming as self-assured on the witness stand as his characters are on screen, De Niro told jurors about his family's dealings with the now-shuttered Salander-O'Reilly Galleries LLC, giving detailed answers and drawing laughs at times from a courtroom packed with reporters and onlookers.
"I wasn't watching as carefully as I probably should have" early in the estate's involvement with gallery owner Lawrence Salander," De Niro said. But "I trusted Larry implicitly. I thought that anything that he did, it was going to be good."
Salander pleaded guilty last year to bilking about $120 million from De Niro Sr.'s estate, John McEnroe and other clients. On trial is Salander's former gallery director, Leigh Morse.
Robert De Niro
Merchandise Clampdown Has Begun
Charlie Sheen
Now that Charlie Sheen is going on tour and selling merchandise bearing his famous slogans, his reps are clamping down on vendors selling goods that trade off the much-followed Sheen saga.
FEA Merchandising, a subsidiary of Live Nation, has been busy in the past 48 hours, sending takedown notices and cease-and-desist letters in an attempt to own the exclusive market on Charlie Sheen merchandise. In the process, the company has stepped on the toes of a woman's rights group protesting the Sheen saga with a charitable endeavor.
As we reported Thursday, a number of companies and individuals have already beaten Sheen to the trademark office, registering such catch-phrases as "winning," "tiger blood," and "Adonis DNA." Without a firm trademark stake over these marks, FEA has been exploiting a different protection maneuver -- claiming that products that bear Sheen's words violate his publicity rights.
For example, Kate Durkin says she was horrified by the reception that Charlie Sheen has been receiving in the media and among people on Twitter. So she, along with several others, set up an organization called Unfollow Charlie, intending to sell the t-shirt design bearing that slogan and donating the proceeds to the charity RAINN (Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network).
After setting up shop at Zazzle.com, an online retailer that allows users to upload images and create their own merchandise, Durkin was notified that the design would be taken down as the result of infringement.
Charlie Sheen
King Of TV Advertising Revenue
"American Idol"
"American Idol" is the darling of TV advertisers, dwarfing other TV shows by raking in an estimated $7.11 million every half hour last year for the Fox network, according to a Forbes.com survey.
The singing contest topped Forbes.com's list of TV's biggest moneymakers in 2010, despite sliding ratings last year and generally lackluster talent.
Far behind "Idol" was America's most-watched TV comedy "Two and A Half Men", with an estimated $2.89 million in advertising revenue for CBS per half hour show, according to Forbes.com.
ABC's "Desperate Housewives" and medical drama "Grey's Anatomy" came in third and fourth respectively with an estimated $2.74 and $2.67 million.
Reality show "Dancing with the Stars", also on ABC, rounded out the top five with an estimated $2.67 million.
"American Idol"
Adds 12 More Dates To Tour
Charlie Sheen
Charlie Sheen's "Torpedo of Truth" live tour will explode onto 12 more stages across the United States and into Canada, as reports surfaced on Thursday of sold-out shows at New York's Radio City Music Hall.
"Fastballs keep coming. 12 more shows on sale Sat.," Sheen tweeted. The new shows for the tour, dubbed "Charlie Sheen's Violent Torpedo of Truth Defeat Is Not an Option," are also listed on sales website Ticketmaster.com.
New cities include Atlantic City, Tampa, Dallas, Houston and Denver in the United States, as well as Toronto and Vancouver in Canada, where his last show plays on May 2.
Already, shows are sold out in cities such as Detroit and at New York City's Radio City Music Hall, according to media reports.
Charlie Sheen
In Memory
Lloyd Oliver
A member of an elite group of Marines who developed a code based on their native language during World War II has died.
Lloyd Oliver's death Wednesday means that only one of the original 29 Navajo Code Talkers survives.
Oliver's nephew, Lawrence, says his uncle died at a hospice center in the Phoenix suburb of Avondale, where he had been staying for about three weeks. He was 88 years old.
Hundreds of Navajos followed in their footsteps of the original 29, sending thousands of messages without error on Japanese troop movements, battlefield tactics and other communications critical to the war's ultimate outcome.
Navajo President Ben Shelly has ordered flags lowered across the reservation from Friday through Monday in honor of Oliver.
Lloyd Oliver
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