Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Roger Ebert's Journal: The Texas School Book Repository
Do the schoolbook publishers of America have standards? Courage? Ethics? In what sense do they stand behind their product? For "product" they sometimes produce, and not textbooks in the traditional sense. I ask these questions for a reason.
Paul Krugman: Financial Reform 101 (nytimes.com)
Today, a brief guide to the debate over financial reform, which is a lot harder to follow than health reform was.
Ted Rall: OUT-REPUBLICANING THE REPUBLICANS
Obama Revives Clinton's Disastrous Triangulation Strategy.
Nick Owchra: In his new novel, 'The Exorcist' author balances philosophy and thrills (latimes.com)
William Peter Blatty's 'Dimiter' enfolds a message of faith in a fast-paced thriller set in the Holy Land -- just in time for Easter.
Tara Murtha: A Writer Finds Lust for Life in the Wake of Death (Philadelphia Weekly)
"Sauntering, in the best sense, is when you're walking the ground like it's holy, and that's how I wanted to view Philadelphia, and I do," says local poet CA Conrad. "It's not perfect. I've seen so many people kill themselves... die of murders."
Frank De Blase: "INTERVIEW: Manchester Orchestra" (rochestercitynewspaper.com)
The band may come from Atlanta, but its sound comes from Manchester, England.
BEN SCHUMER: Singing in Stairwells: An Interview with Julianna Barwick (popmatters.com)
Fresh off of her critically-acclaimed new EP, Julianna Barwick discusses how her album was informed by church choirs, Panda Bear, and the joys of sheep herding.
Much of a Dutchness: the Hotel Inntel Zaandam (guardian.co.uk)
The Netherlands was once a byword for architecture that was cool, calm and collected. Not any more. Jonathan Glancey is thrilled by a madcap new hotel.
Secrets of the 'Psycho' shower (guardian.co.uk)
It is one of the most notorious scenes ever filmed - yet Hitchcock and Janet Leigh didn't tell the truth about it. Will Hodgkinson on a real-life story of body doubles and murder.
Rosanna Greenstreet: "Q&A: Felicity Kendal" (guardian.co.uk)
'What is my most unappealing habit? Unappealing? Moi?'
Dara Nai: Interview with Jennifer Coolidge (afterellen.com)
The 'Best in Show'/'American Pie' actress talks about her new gig as a stand-up comic, other women in comedy, and the joy of playing Jane Lynch's girlfriend.
NPR: "South Park Celebrates 14 Years Of Fart Jokes" (npr.org)
Finding a way to sneak black-market arms trading into a cartoon about fourth-graders from Colorado wasn't exactly a challenge: For Eric Cartman - South Park's resident racist, anti-Semitic, power-hungry sociopath - gun running is a more likely after-school job than a paper route.
BEST CARD TRICK EVER (4 minutes of YouTube)
The Weekly Poll
New Question
The 'Ten Little Questions' Edition
It's Census time again! (What? Already? Didn't we just do this 10 years ago?)
so, just fer fun, I'll add four of my own...
1.) Did you fill out your census form and send it back yet?
2.) If not, will you?
3.) Did you answer all the questions?
4.) If not, what questions didn't you answer and why?
(Warning! Big Brother says we have to fill it out and return it otherwise we'll get a knock on the door from the friendly Census Police politely asking us to do so...
Go easy on the poor bastards, eh? They're mostly unemployed people trying to make a few bucks and probably are scared to death that they're gonna get slammed. It's not their fault, OK?... P.S. you answers here are entirely confidential and will not be shared with ANYBODY, especially You-Know-Who...)
BadtotheboneBigBrother...er, Bob
Send your response to
responded:
From The Creator of 'Avery Ant'
Reader Suggestion
Michelle in AZ
The Guanabee Guide
Easter
This Easter, Guanabee is hooking you up with all kinds of ideas for outrageous bonnets, evil cascarones and an epic film by Jack Tomás featuring a cast of thousands (of Peeps.) From the article:
It's Easter Time! A time when the Church appropriates the Springtime, Pagan festival of fertility to commemorate the resurrection of Christ. Which explains how the rebirth of Jesus = chocolate bunnies. Easter is like the Alice In Wonderland of holidays, full of florescent pink, cellophane grass and seersucker.
See the videos and read the article here:
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Sunny and seasonal.
I'm the proud owner of 2 new tires. Sigh.
Still can't get over how fast it went from 'tick-tick-tick' to 'thwack-thwack-clunk'.
Called Out Bigots
Obama
In an interview with Harry Smith on CBS' "Early Show" Friday morning, President Obama called out Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh as purveyors of "vitriol" - creating a climate in which he's called a "socialist" and even a "Nazi."
Smith asked the president if he was "aware of the level of enmity that crosses the airwaves and that people have made part of their daily conversation about you." Obama replied, "When you've listened to Rush Limbaugh or Glenn Beck it's pretty apparent." The rancor is "troublesome," he said, but he acknowledged it's also a recurring phenomenon.
"Keep in mind that there have been periods in American history where this kind of - this kind of vitriol comes out," he said. "It happens often when you've got an economy that is making people more anxious and people are feeling that there's a lot of change that needs to take place. But that's not the vast majority of Americans."
Walking with Smith on the grounds of the White House, the president said that he is "concerned about a political climate in which the other side is demonized" and that "everybody has a responsibility, Democrats or Republicans, to tone down some of this rhetoric." What's different about today, Obama suggested, is the way overheated rhetoric has moved into the mainstream.
Obama
Video Causes Site To Crash
Anna Paquin
A gay rights campaign that features a declaration of bisexuality by Anna Paquin has received so much traffic that its Web site crashed.
The campaign was launched Thursday by Cyndi Lauper's True Colors Fund. The Web-based initiative hopes to educate for "the advancement of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender equality."
The Web site, wegiveadamn.org, said Friday that it was "overwhelmed" by the "enormous traffic." Additional servers have been added.
The video also includes appearances by Elton John, Whoopi Goldberg, Jason Mraz, Cynthia Nixon and others.
Anna Paquin
Ohio Historical Society Donation
Devo
The oddball rock group Devo has donated one of the red conical hats from its hit video "Whip It" to an Ohio museum.
The Ohio Historical Society says it has received a small collection of artifacts from the band and its official archivist. The items include stickers, T-shirts, costumes and a flower pot-style hat worn in the band's memorable 1980 video.
Three of the band's founding members grew up in Akron and met at Kent State University in the 1970s.
The group's name came from a theory the human race is in a process of devolution, which members read about in an anti-Darwinism pamphlet.
Devo
Bolivia's Posthumous 'Ambassador'
Jaime Escalante
Bolivia announced plans Friday to honor its native son Jaime Escalante, whose success teaching advanced math at a tough Los Angeles high school inspired the movie "Stand and Deliver."
Escalante, who died Tuesday at his son's home near Sacramento, Calif., will be recognized posthumously as a "cultural ambassador" for his work on behalf of people who have suffered from discrimination, Culture Minister Zulma Yugar said.
"We know that at times when he was teaching, he would wear a Bolivian poncho to assert his national identity," Yugar told The Associated Press. "He spoke of Andean people as a strong people."
Escalante's siblings have said his wish was to be buried in La Paz. President Evo Morales' spokesman Ivan Canelas told state news agency ABI that the government is willing to help repatriate his remains from the United States.
Jaime Escalante
Spoof Pays Tribute To NH
"Granite State of Mind"
A spoof video that started with swapping "Salem" for "Harlem" has become a YouTube hit, at least in New Hampshire.
Christian Wisecarver's "Granite State of Mind" video has been viewed more than 200,000 times since he posted it online Wednesday. The video is a parody of "Empire State of Mind," rapper Jay-Z's tribute to New York.
Wisecarver lives in the small town Hampstead, N.H., and works for a video production company in Massachusetts. He says he knew the video would be popular but he's surprised at how fast it has spread. He says New Hampshire pride has played a big role.
The song highlights everything from the state liquor stores along the highway to the poetry of Robert Frost, who wrote "Mending Wall" and "Ghost House" while at his family farm in Derry, N.H.
"Granite State of Mind"
Writer Arrested In Pot Bust
Tom Stienstra
A popular California outdoors writer was free on bail after authorities said Friday they found a large marijuana growing operation in his barn in the town of Weed.
Deputies served a search warrant on 55-year-old Tom Stienstra's home last week and seized 60 plants and more than 11 pounds of processed marijuana, the Siskiyou County Sheriff's Office said.
Stienstra was arrested for investigation of possessing marijuana for sale and released March 26 on $75,000 bail. His wife and two other men were also arrested.
Prosecutors have sent the case back to the sheriff's office for further investigation and have not filed any charges, Siskiyou County District Attorney Kirk Andrus said.
Tom Stienstra
Charged Over Dallas Nude Video Shoot
Erykah Badu
Neosoul singer Erykah Badu faces a disorderly conduct charge for her nude music video shoot in downtown Dallas' Dealey Plaza, officials announced Friday.
Badu, a Dallas native, performed a walking striptease in front of tourists and pedestrians during the March 13 shoot for Badu's "Window Seat" music video. The performance ended with a nude Badu acting out receiving a fatal gunshot to the head at the spot where President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in 1963.
Sgt. Warren Mitchell said Friday the decision to cite Badu for disorderly conduct - a misdemeanor punishable by a fine of up to $500 - came after witness Ida Espinosa, 32, of Vernon, offered a sworn statement to police Thursday. Espinosa declined to comment to The Associated Press on Friday.
Mitchell said Badu can either fight the charge or pay the fine. He said a citation would be mailed to the singer.
Erykah Badu
Protecting The Predator
Vatican't
The future Pope Benedict XVI took over the abuse case of an Arizona priest, then let it languish at the Vatican for years despite repeated pleas from the bishop for the man to be removed from the priesthood, according to church correspondence.
Documents reviewed by The Associated Press show that in the 1990s, a church tribunal found that the Rev. Michael Teta of Tucson, Ariz., had molested children as far back as the late 1970s. The panel deemed his behavior - including allegations that he abused boys in a confessional - almost "satanic." The tribunal referred his case to then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, who would become pope in 2005.
But it took 12 years from the time Ratzinger assumed control of the case in a signed letter until Teta was formally removed from ministry, a step only the Vatican can take.
As abuse cases with the pontiff's fingerprints mushroom, Teta's case and that of another Arizona priest cast further doubt on the church's insistence that the future pope played no role in shielding pedophiles.
Vatican't
New Evidence
Raoul Wallenberg
New evidence from Russian archives suggests Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg, credited with rescuing tens of thousands of Hungarian Jews during the Holocaust, was alive after Soviets reported that he had died in a Moscow prison, a Swedish magazine and U.S. researchers reported Thursday.
The fate of Wallenberg, who was arrested in Budapest in January 1945 by the Soviet army, has remained one of the great mysteries of World War II.
The Soviets claimed he was executed July 17, 1947 but never produced a reliable death certificate or his remains. Witnesses claim he was seen in Soviet prisons or labor camps many years later, although those accounts were never verified.
Now, the archives of the Russian Security Services say a man identified only as Prisoner No. 7, who was interrogated six days after the diplomat's reported death, was "with great likelihood" Wallenberg.
Raoul Wallenberg
Family Approves
Sir Edmund Hillary
Plans to place the ashes of Mt Everest conqueror Sir Edmund Hillary on the summit of the world's tallest mountain next week were welcomed Saturday by the New Zealander's family and friends.
"It's a good move, I'd be totally happy with it," his son Peter Hillary told the New Zealand Press Association.
Fellow mountaineer Graeme Dingle told Radio New Zealand it was more appropriate that the remaining ashes were scattered on Mt Everest than kept in a Buddhist monastery.
After his death in 2008, most of Hillary's ashes were scattered in the sea off Auckland in his New Zealand homeland, with some kept in the monastery in the Himalayan village of Kunde in eastern Nepal.
Sir Edmund Hillary
In Memory
John Forsythe
John Forsythe, the handsome, smooth-voiced actor who made his fortune as the scheming oil tycoon in TV's "Dynasty" and the voice of the leader of "Charlie's Angels," has died after a yearlong battle with cancer. He was 92.
Despite his distinguished work in theater and films, Forsythe's greatest fame came from his role as Blake Carrington in producer Aaron Spelling's 1981-89 primetime soap opera "Dynasty."
Forsythe was an important part of another hit Spelling series without being seen. From 1976 to 1981 he played the voice of Charlie, the boss who delivered assignments to his beautiful detectives, including Farrah Fawcett and Cheryl Ladd, via telephone in "Charlie's Angels."
Forsythe evidenced little of the ego drive that motivates many actors. He viewed himself with a self-effacing humor, considering himself "a vastly usable, not wildly talented actor."
While he had small roles in a couple of films in the early 1940s, Forsythe's first successes were mainly on the stage. While serving during World War II, he was cast in Moss Hart's Air Force show "Winged Victory," along with many other future stars.
After the war, Forsythe became a founding member of the Actors Studio, recalling it as "a wildly stimulating place for a guy like me who was a babe in the woods. I never suspected there was that kind of artistry and psychological approach to acting."
The call to Hollywood was irresistible, and Forsythe came west to star in such films as "The Captive City," "The Glass Web" and "Escape from Fort Bravo." His best break came in 1955 when he starred in Alfred Hitchcock's one attempt at whimsy, "The Trouble with Harry," about a corpse that kept turning up in a New England town.
Forsythe's film roles were limited because he was already busy in television. The comedy "Bachelor Father," in which he played a Hollywood lawyer who cared for his teenage niece, lasted from 1957 to 1962.
His later films included "Madame X" (opposite Lana Turner), "In Cold Blood" and Hitchcock's spy thriller "Topaz."
"And Justice for All" in 1979 marked a departure for the actor. Director Norman Jewison cast him as a judge with a kinky sex life.
He was born John Lincoln Freund on Jan. 29, 1918, in Penn's Grove, N.J.
He won an athletic scholarship to the University of North Carolina, had a stint as public address announcer for the Brooklyn Dodgers, then launched his struggle to become an actor against the wishes of his father. Having had his name mispronounced all his life, he adopted the name of Forsythe, which came from his mother's family.
He toured the country in a children's theater troupe with his first wife, actress Parker McCormick, and began appearing in radio soap operas and Broadway plays.
His first marriage ended after the birth of a son, Dall. During the run of "Winged Victory," Forsythe married another actress, Julie Warren. They had two daughters, Page in 1950, Brooke in 1954.
When not acting, Forsythe maintained a strong interest in politics and sports, often playing in charity tennis tournaments. A devoted environmentalist, he also narrated a long-running outdoor series, "The World of Survival."
John Forsythe
| CURRENT MOON lunar phases |
