Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Paul Krugman: Learning From Greece (nytimes.com)
The Greek debt crisis is a terrible, tragic story. It's an object lesson for the rest of us, but what does it say?
Mark Morford: One sandwich to kill you all (sfgate.com)
... when I sit back, sip my scotch and scan the newswires for sundry effluvia indicative of our culture's joyful hellbound deathspin, the realization soon dawns that I can think of few gigs more nightmare-inducingly, soul-deadeningly horrible than being an executive for garbage food megacorp.
CONNIE SCHULTZ: Non-Catholics Are Grieving, Too (creators.com)
As a columnist who isn't Catholic, I used to feel that whatever happened in the Church was a whole lot of none of my business.
SUSAN ESTRICH: The Woman with the Right Stuff (creators.com)
The Rev. Al Sharpton says she must have "mystical powers" - or the best luck anyone has ever seen. But if you ask me, there's nothing mystical about it. As for luck, if Kirsten Gillibrand has proved one thing during her brief tenure in the United States Senate, it is that you make your luck.
Froma Harrop: The Five Commandments of Tax Reform (creators.com)
Thou shall simplify with care: Rep. Paul Ryan, Republican of Wisconsin, proposes a much simplified income-tax system. Gosh darn, you can do your taxes on a postcard. His system is simple, all right. Simply put, working people pay all the income taxes, and the idle rich pay little or nothing.
Richard Roeper: ND tragedy: Teen loses life on spring break (suntimes.com)
When most of us tell our spring break stories involving marathon partying and daring stunts and momentary encounters, we finish by saying something like, "We were just crazy back then," or, "We're lucky nobody got hurt," or, "Geez, I don't know what we were thinking."
Gerrick D. Kennedy: "Robin Thicke: When I write my best, the soul is undeniable" (latimes.com)
It's safe to say that Robin Thicke is having a good year. The 33-year-old is riding high professionally, with his fourth album, "Sex Therapy," which peaked at No. 2 on the Billboard R&B/Hop-Hop albums charts, and personally -- he is expecting his first child with his wife, actress Paula Patton.
Judith Mackrell on Pina Bausch's Kontakthof (guardian.co.uk)
Give me an over-65 dancer any day, writes Judith Mackrell.
Ginny Dougary: Ricky Gervais's postmodern interview (timesonline.co.uk)
As his new film 'Cemetery Junction' hits cinemas, the comedian talks about relationship, body image and being interviewed.
Howard Reich: Capturing Holocaust memories on film a harrowing, 5-year journey (Chicago Tribune)
Slowly, we were sinking into the muck.
Susan King: Christina Ricci ponders the cold, hard truth of 'After.Life' (latimes.com)
Her character wakes up in a mortician's room after a car crash, not sure if she is dead or alive. To Ricci, the chilling film is 'a sort of character piece.'
Tina Dirmann: In HBO's new series 'Treme,' John Goodman looks back in anger (latimes.com)
The actor costars in the series set in post-Katrina New Orleans. As a resident himself, he hopes the gritty show strikes a realistic tone for the city.
Susan King: Raquel Welch takes herself seriously, and so should you (latimes.com)
Raquel Welch has made her peace with Loana, the scantily clad cave woman she played in the 1966 camp classic "One Million Years B.C."
The Weekly Poll
New Question
The 'Banning the Burka' Edition...
Belgium may be the first European country to ban the full-covering Islamic veils from being worn in public... The Belgian parliament's home affairs unanimously backed a proposal to ban the so-called burka and niqab, two forms of the Muslim veil covering the entire body and face. If the law is enacted, women who wear this in public would be fined 15-25 euros and may face a jail sentence of up to seven days.
EUobserver / Belgium moves towards banning the burka
Would you support or oppose such a ban here in the US? (and why?)
A.) Support ______
B.) Oppose ______
C.) WTF? I gots more important things to worry about, dagnabbit! _______
Send your response to
replied:
From The Creator of 'Avery Ant'
Links from RJ
Two-Fer
Hi there
Two possible links for you... quite different from each other! Hope you enjoy and thanks for looking!
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Sunny and cool.
Gay-Friendly Prom
Tupelo
Green Day, former 'N Sync member Lance Bass and celebrity chef Cat Cora are among those helping to pay for a gay-friendly prom in Mississippi next month.
Organizers say the event is open to everyone but geared toward gay students.
The American Humanist Association also will contribute $20,000 for the May 8 event in Tupelo.
The annual prom is organized by the Mississippi Safe Schools Coalition. This year's event has drawn attention because of the case of Constance McMillen, a high school senior who challenged her school district's rule banning same-sex dates at proms.
Tupelo
Want Picard's Chair?
"Star Trek"
"Star Trek" lovers looking for Enterprise chairs, Starfleet uniforms or a model Klingon Bird of Prey can seek out new life for the dismantled pieces of a closed Las Vegas attraction based on the famous franchise.
Chief Executive Officer Alec Peters of auctioneer Propworx Inc. says fans can buy any of roughly 1,000 items from Star Trek: The Experience at a warehouse sale Saturday in Las Vegas.
The attraction based on the science fiction television series and movies closed last year after a 10-year run.
Among the items for sale are three large models of spaceships, including the U.S.S. Enterprise A and the U.S.S. Voyager.
'
"Star Trek"
Post-`Tonight' Comedy Tour
Conan O'Brien
Laughter is the goal when a comedian steps in front of an audience. Conan O'Brien is in pursuit of that and more: the next stage of his career.
The former "Tonight" host, barred from appearing on TV until September by terms of his exit deal from NBC, kicks off a nationwide tour Monday in Eugene, Ore., that could highlight his popularity amid negotiations for a new talk show.
Dubbed "The Legally Prohibited From Being Funny on Television Tour," the two-month venture will take O'Brien, his former "Tonight" band and sidekick Andy Richter to about 30 U.S. and Canadian cities.
It's virtually sold out and extra dates have been added in a handful of larger markets. Many tickets were priced at a relatively low $40, although the resale market has boosted their value to, for example, as much as $2,000 for VIP seats and face time with O'Brien in Chicago.
His tour ranked as the top-seller on StubHub when it was announced last month, "which is unheard of for a comedian," said Glenn Lehrman, spokesman for the online ticket site. The No. 1 spot usually goes to a sports event or big-arena pop concert, he said.
Conan O'Brien
Home Movie Gets First US Showings
Charlie Chaplin
As she sorted through her father Alistair Cooke's belongings after his death, Susan Cooke Kittredge came across something odd: an old 8 mm film canister with yellow tape spelling out "Chaplin film."
What she found inside was intriguing: "All at Sea," an 11-minute home movie shot by a 24-year-old Cooke on a 1933 yacht cruise that included silent film great Charlie Chaplin, his "Modern Times" co-star Paulette Goddard and Alistair Cooke.
The black-and-white silent film, which shows a relaxed Chaplin aboard his boat "Panacea" miming Greta Garbo, the Prince of Wales and Napoleon, was apparently never seen, ending up amid piles of books, manuscripts and other knickknacks in the New York apartment where he lived for 55 years before his death.
Until recently, it had been shown only once - at a film festival in Italy, in 2007. On April 7, Kittredge, who lives in Shelburne, Vt., screened it again for about 100 people in a church in Vermont's capital, part of a Vermont Humanities Council series of events.
Charlie Chaplin
Cancels Engagements With Vienna Philharmonic
Seiji Ozawa
The Vienna Philharmonic says Japanese conductor Seiji Ozawa has canceled his fall engagements with the renowned orchestra in October and November to recover from cancer.
Ozawa, an icon in the classical music world, announced in January that he has esophageal cancer and called off all his concerts between January and June to receive treatment.
Philharmonic spokeswoman Yvonne Katzenberger said Friday that Ozawa is following his doctors' recommendations regarding the fall engagements. She said the concerts in question - slated for Vienna, the Vatican, China and Japan - will take place with another conductor.
In Tokyo, the Kyodo news agency reported that Ozawa also has canceled an opera engagement in Japan in August. However, it said he will serve as conductor for the Saito Kinen Orchestra as planned for four days in early September.
Seiji Ozawa
Free From Mexican Detention
Bruce Beresford-Redman
The producer of "Pimp My Ride" and formerly of "Survivor" was released from Mexican custody early Friday but remains under investigation after his wife's body was found in the sewer of a Cancun resort, a state official said.
Bruce Beresford-Redman is still a suspect and is barred from leaving Mexico, said Francisco Alor, the attorney general in Quintana Roo state, where Cancun is located. He was released just after midnight into the custody of U.S. consulate officials and taken to an undisclosed hotel.
Police detained the 38-year-old producer Thursday after finding the body of Monica Beresford-Redman in a sewer at the Moon Palace resort, where the family was on vacation.
Her body had scratches on the neck, signs of asphyxiation and evidence of a heavy blow to the right temple, Alor said. Investigators believe she was suffocated Monday night before being dumped in the sewer about 80 meters (yards) from her hotel room, he said.
Bruce Beresford-Redman
Estate Appeals Ruling
Anna Nicole Smith
Lawyers for the estate of Anna Nicole Smith are appealing a ruling that gave her none of her late billionaire husband's fortune.
The appeal filed Thursday seeks a full review by the San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals and continues a case that has outlived both parties.
In a March 19 ruling, a panel of the court sided with a Houston jury that decided in 2001 that Texas oil tycoon J. Howard Marshall never intended to leave any of his $1.6 billion estate to Smith.
Anna Nicole Smith
Stalled Pedophile Case
Vatican't
The future Pope Benedict XVI resisted pleas to defrock a California priest with a record of sexually molesting children, citing concerns including "the good of the universal church," according to a 1985 letter bearing his signature.
The letter, signed by then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, was typed in Latin and is part of years of correspondence between the Diocese of Oakland and the Vatican about the proposed defrocking of the Rev. Stephen Kiesle.
The diocese recommended removing Kiesle from the priesthood in 1981, the year Ratzinger was appointed to head the Vatican office that shared responsibility for disciplining abusive priests.
The case then languished for four years at the Vatican before Ratzinger finally wrote to Oakland Bishop John Cummins. It was two more years before Kiesle was removed; during that time Kiesle continued to do volunteer work with children through the church.
In the November 1985 letter, Ratzinger says the arguments for removing Kiesle are of "grave significance" but added that such actions required very careful review and more time. He also urged the bishop to provide Kiesle with "as much paternal care as possible" while awaiting the decision, according to a translation for AP by Professor Thomas Habinek, chairman of the University of Southern California Classics Department.
Vatican't
Promoter Accused Of Rigging Fight
Boxing
A celebrity boxing promoter has been charged with fixing fights and not having a license when he staged a bout between "Partridge Family" television star Danny Bonaduce and a comedian from the Howard Stern show.
Damon Feldman, who operates the Celebrity Boxing Federation, is charged with six counts of staging prohibited competitions without holding a promoter's license from the State Athletic Commission and six counts of rigging fights at those events during a 16-month period that ended in December, state Attorney General Tom Corbett said.
Feldman's events, held in the Philadelphia area, included a highly publicized 2008 fight between Bonaduce and Stern show comic the Reverend Bob Levy. The rigging charges aren't specific and don't necessarily involve that fight.
Feldman didn't dispute the allegations but contended he's the victim of a state boxing law that's tailored for professional boxing - something he says his events definitely aren't. He acknowledged results of some bouts were predetermined but said they're akin to pro wrestling, not professional boxing.
Boxing
Sanctimony Über Alles
Wisconsin
Juneau County District Attorney Scott Southworth last month sent a letter to area school districts warning that health teachers who tell students how to put on a condom or take birth-control pills could face criminal charges. The warning has left many teachers, school administrators and parents flabbergasted.
Southworth, a Republican and a Christian evangelical, took issue with a law Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle signed in February requiring schools that teach sexual education to adopt a comprehensive approach.
Southworth warned that teaching a student how to properly use contraceptives would be contributing to the delinquency of a minor, a misdemeanor punishable by up to nine months behind bars and a $10,000 fine. He said it would be promoting sex among minors, who are not legally allowed to have sex in Wisconsin.
Southworth said he doesn't want to drag teachers into court but feels he was ethically responsible for warning them of the new law's potential consequences. He urged the school districts to refrain from offering sex education courses until the Legislature repeals the law.
Wisconsin
Donating Movie Sets
Mel "Sugar Tits" Gibson
The governor of the Mexican Gulf coast state of Veracruz says Mel "Sugar Tits" Gibson will donate sets from the movie he's currently filming to a future museum.
Gov. Fidel Herrera says several sets were built inside the Ignacio Allende prison in the port city of Veracruz and that the jail will be converted into a museum once Gibson is done filming.
In January, 1,500 inmates were transferred out of the prison to make room for Gibson's film, which began production this week and is tentatively titled "How I Spent My Summer Vacation."
Gibson filmed his 2006 Mayan-language movie "Apocalypto" in Veracruz.
Mel "Sugar Tits" Gibson
France Gets Easter Island Snub
Moai
The Rapa Nui people on Easter Island are mobilizing to preserve their heritage and, in the latest twist, have refused to loan one of their renowned Moai statues for an exhibition in Paris.
During a referendum in early March, 89 percent of the islanders, most ethnic Polynesians, opposed transporting the ancient monolithic human rock figure 13,000 kilometers (8,080 miles) from the South Pacific to the Tuileries Gardens in Paris, where they were set to be put on display April 26-May 9.
Chile's National Monuments Council, which had initially backed loaning the Moai, said it would make its final decision April 14. But the "most likely" and "foreseeable" outcome is that it would abide by the islanders' choice, a source close to the institution said.
Moai
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