Tom Danehy: It's another open letter from Tom, this time to the pistol-packin' contingent (Tucson Weekly)
DEAR GUN GUYS, I suppose that, by now, the giddiness of watching the NRA use its Senate lackeys to smack around the parents of those dead first-graders is dying down a bit, but y'all are probably still pretty pleased with yourselves. In the words of Jefferson Smith, your powerful gun lobby reached into that hallowed chamber and grabbed 46 sycophants by the scruff of the neck and forbade them to vote for legislation that the NRA was all for just 10 years ago. Pretty neat trick, but then, mind control does work best on the weak-willed.
Paul Krugman: The 1 Percent's Solution (New York Times)
The austerity agenda looks a lot like a simple expression of upper-class preferences, wrapped in a facade of academic rigor. What the top 1 percent wants becomes what economic science says we must do.
Paul Krugman: Academic Non-Obscurity (New York Times)
The important story isn't about the sins of the economists; it's about our warped economic discourse, in which important people seize on academic work that fits their preconceptions. Even if you don't think Reinhart-Rogoff made much difference to actual policy, the meteoric rise and catastrophic fall of their reputation speaks volumes about why this slump goes on and on.
Lucy Mangan: Enid Blyton (Guardian)
Ah, Enid. She still bestrides the world of children's books like a home counties colossus. At one point in her five-decade career she had 37 books published in a year. And I, like hundreds of thousands of children before me, and since, was only too glad of it.
Alfred Hitchcock regularly made cameo appearances in his films, so how many times did he appear in an installment of his Alfred Hitchcock Presents television show (aside from his personal introductions and closings)?
5062-5063 years Great Basin bristlecone pine (Pinus longaeva )
White Mountains, California
Oldest known currently living tree. Tree cored by Edmund Schulman, age determined by Tom Harlan.
Source
Alan J was first, and correct, with:
California
mj
said:
I'm pretty sure
It's a bristlecone pine somewhere in the Sierra Madres of California.
Maurice wrote:
Methinks Arizona
My guess wasn't even close…google says Sweden
Jim from CA, retired to ID, responded:
California
Charlie replied:
Great Basin Bristlecone Pine, California, is over 5000 years old.
Adam answered:
California.
Sally said:
The oldest living tree known is a Bristlecone Pine AKA the oldest living tree is located in Methusela Walk, California, USA and is either 4,767 years old or 4,789...
Let's hope some developer doesn't have his eye on the property, and then donates a lot of money to the politicians who will have the property condemned and sold for bupkis to said developer, yada, yada...
Marian responded:
California and it is over 5,000 years old...amazing.
Dale of Diamond Springs, Norcali, answered:
In the White Mountains of California an unnamed "bristlecone pine" in the southern part of the range is the oldest known living tree in the world, at 5062-5063 years old.
Deborah iPadded:
Probably too late but I'm saying California -- a giant Sequoia, I believe, named General Sherman.
Keep up the great work, Marty! I thoroughly enjoy your site.
Kenny replied:
Unless this is a trick question, it's got to be California.
MAM wrote:
California
Western bristlecone pine. One member of this species, at 5062 years (as of 2012), is the oldest known living non-clonal organism on Earth.
BttbBob responded:
Hmmm... I know that said tree is a Bristlecone pine, and I also know that they grow in several western states. So, this calls for a good ol' 'WAGM' and I will say Cali (or maybe Nevada)... I shan't look it up but I will obtain a photo cuz I also recall that they're damn'd ugly things, dontcha know... Yep, see?...
Well then, maybe they should be called 'bristle-crone' pines - Har!
Whadda ya think, eh? Pretty gosh darn droll, I'm thinkin'! I rather like it, I do!
(What? Er, sorry, ladies. Really, I am... Well, maybe not... Why?
Cuz I'm just teasin', dagnabbit!)
~~~~~
Happy Birthday this day to:
Casey Kasem (80) I know, I know... Schmaltzy dedications, but a radio
icon, nonetheless, and bazillions of people liked him. I'll give him his due.
Sheena Easton (53) [
SHEENA EASTON "FOR YOUR EYES ONLY - YouTube ] (nice video...)
Anouk Aimee (80) Renowned French actress in 70 films... A classic...
Cory Booker (43) Mayor of Newark, NJ and a pretty impressive guy...
Judy Carne (73) Rowan and Martin's British 'Eye Candy'... a real Cutie...
[ Judy Carne - Sock It To Me - YouTube ]
Born this day:
Ulysses S. Grant (1822-1895) - My Great-Great Grandfather, Henry Teachout (Anglicized Dutch name, Tiitsort) fought for him with the 12th Michigan Infantry at the Battle of Shiloh, April 1862, in southwestern Tennessee. Grant's first major victory versus the Confederates.
Coretta Scott King (1927-2006) A Civil Rights giant, herself...
Jack Klugman (1922-2012) [
Jack Klugman discusses being cast on "The Odd Couple" - EMMYTVLEGENDS - YouTube ]
~~~~~
Bruce link comment - The favorite books of 32 famous people - Tom Hanks likes all the books of Leon Uris. Guess what? So do I. My favorite is "Trinity". If you would ever want to understand why things are as they are in Ireland between the Catholics and Protestants, read that book. The same applies with "The Haj" and the conflict between the Jews and the Arabs in Israel (or Palestine, if you prefer). Both are novels, but very enlightening...
And, Joe S said:
California.
Methuselah
At 4,841 years old, this ancient bristlecone pine is the oldest known non-clonal organism on Earth. Located in the White Mountains of California, in Inyo National Forest, Methuselah's exact location is kept a close secret in order to protect it from the public. (An older specimen named Prometheus, which was more than 5,000 years old, was cut down by a U.S. Forest Service graduate student in 1964.) Today you can visit the grove where Methuselah hides, but you'll have to guess at which tree it is. Could this one be it?
This is my favorite George Jones song, and this one's for you Ol' Possum
Pretty soon all the real Country musicians will be gone and we'll be left with that crap you hear on the radio "country" stations.
CBS begins the night with some LIVE'PGA Tour Golf', followed by a RERUN'Criminal Minds', '48 Hours'.
NBC opens the night with a RERUN'The Voice', followed by a FRESH'Smash', then an hourlong RERUN'SNL'.
'SNL' is a RERUN, with Justin Timberlake.
ABC starts the night with a FRESH'Bet On Your Baby', followed by the movie 'Over The Hedge'.
The CW offers an old '2½ Men', followed by another '2½ Men', then an old 'Family Guy', followed by another old 'Family Guy'.
Faux has LIVE'NASCAR Sprint Cup', then pads the left coast with local crap.
MY has an old 'Burn Notice', followed by another old 'Burn Notice'.
A&E has 3 hours of old 'Storage Wars', 'American Hoggers', and another 'American Hoggers'.
AMC offers the movie 'Swordfish', followed by the movie 'The Italian Job', then the movie 'The Sentinel'.
BBC -
[6:00AM] BLAME IT ON RIO
[8:00AM] RAMSAY'S KITCHEN NIGHTMARES US - Season 1 - Ep 1 - The Secret Garden
[9:00AM] RAMSAY'S KITCHEN NIGHTMARES US - Season 4 - Ep 4 - Davide
[10:00AM] RAMSAY'S KITCHEN NIGHTMARES UK - Season 4 - Ep 4 - The Fish and Anchor
[11:00AM] RAMSAY'S KITCHEN NIGHTMARES REVISITED US - Season 2 - Ep 1 - Santa La Brea, Giuseppi's
[12:00PM] TOP GEAR: BEST OF 12-13 - Episode 2
[1:00PM] JAMES MAY'S MAN LAB - Season 2 - Episode 2
[2:00PM] TOP GEAR - Season 17 - Episode 3
[3:00PM] TOP GEAR - Season 17 - Episode 4
[4:00PM] STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION - Season 5 - Ep 7 - Unification - Part 1
[5:00PM] STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION - Season 5 - Ep 8 - Unification - Part 2
[6:00PM] STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION - Season 5 - Ep 9 - A Matter of Time
[7:00PM] DOCTOR WHO - Season 7 - Ep 9 - Hide
[8:00PM] DOCTOR WHO - Season 7 - Ep 10 - Journey to the Centre of the TARDIS NEW
[9:00PM] ORPHAN BLACK - Season 1 - Ep 5 - Conditions of Existence NEW
[10:00PM] THE NERDIST - Season 2 - Episode 5 NEW
[11:00PM] DOCTOR WHO - Season 7 - Ep 10 - Journey to the Centre of the TARDIS
[12:00AM] ORPHAN BLACK - Season 1 - Ep 5 - Conditions of Existence
[1:00AM] THE NERDIST - Season 2 - Episode 5
[2:00AM] DOCTOR WHO - Season 7 - Ep 10 - Journey to the Centre of the TARDIS
[3:00AM] ORPHAN BLACK - Season 1 - Ep 5 - Conditions of Existence
[4:00AM] THE NERDIST - Season 2 - Episode 5
[5:00AM] DOCTOR WHO - Season 7 - Ep 10 - Journey to the Centre of the TARDIS (ALL TIMES EST)
Bravo has 'Married To Medicine', another 'Married To Medicine', followed by the movie 'How To Lose A Guy In 10 Days'.
Comedy Central has the movie 'Dinner For Schmucks', 'Jeff Dunham: Minding The Monsters', 'Gabriel Iglesias: Aloha Fluffy'.
FX has the movie 'The A-Team', followed by a FRESH'UFC On FX', then the movie 'Spider-Man 3'.
IFC -
[6:00AM] Delirious
[8:15AM] The Three Stooges-Brideless Groom
[8:40AM] The Three Stooges-Crime on Their Hands
[9:05AM] The Three Stooges-Disorder in the Court
[9:30AM] The Three Stooges-Fuelin' Around
[9:55AM] The Three Stooges-Fiddlers Three
[10:20AM] The Three Stooges-Gents Without Cents
[10:45AM] The Three Stooges-Grips, Grunts and Groans
[11:10AM] The Three Stooges-Higher Than a Kite
[11:35AM] The Three Stooges-Hokus Pokus
[12:00PM] Arrested Development-Sad Sack
[12:30PM] Arrested Development-Afternoon Delight
[1:00PM] Arrested Development-Switch Hitter
[1:30PM] Arrested Development-Queen for a Day
[2:00PM] Arrested Development-Burning Love
[2:30PM] Arrested Development-Ready, Aim, Marry Me
[3:00PM] Arrested Development-Out on a Limb
[3:30PM] Arrested Development-My Hand to God
[4:00PM] Arrested Development-Motherboy XXX
[4:30PM] Arrested Development-Immaculate Election
[5:00PM] Arrested Development-The Sword of Destiny
[5:30PM] Arrested Development-Meet the Veals
[6:00PM] Arrested Development-Spring Breakout
[6:30PM] Arrested Development-Righteous Brothers
[7:00PM] Arrested Development-The Cabin Show
[7:30PM] Arrested Development-For British Eyes Only
[8:00PM] Lethal Weapon
[10:30PM] Lethal Weapon 2
[1:00AM] Lethal Weapon
[3:30AM] Lethal Weapon 2 (ALL TIMES EST)
Sundance -
[6:00AM] Freaks and Geeks-The Garage Door
[7:00AM] Freaks and Geeks-Chokin and Tokin
[8:00AM] Freaks and Geeks-Dead Dogs and Gym Teachers
[9:00AM] Freaks and Geeks-Noshing and Moshing
[10:00AM] Wendy and Lucy
[11:30AM] Happy-Go-Lucky
[1:30PM] Career Girls
[3:00PM] Wendy and Lucy
[4:30PM] The Haunting in Connecticut
[6:15PM] The Professional
[8:00PM] Barton Fink
[10:00PM] A River Runs Through It
[12:00AM] Sex Magic: Manifesting Maya
[1:30AM] Boogie Woogie
[3:15AM] A River Runs Through It
[5:15AM] A'mare
[5:30AM] Man Shops Globe-Turkey (ALL TIMES EST)
SyFy has the movie 'Swamp Shark', followed by the movie 'Swamp Volcano'.
Actress Eva Marie Saint, star of the 1959 film "North By Northwest", poses as she arrives at the opening night gala of the TCM Classic Film Festival in Hollywood April 25, 2013.
Photo by Fred Prouser
Supporters of folk singer Woody Guthrie say the opening of a center chronicling his storied life and career is long overdue in his native state of Oklahoma.
The 12,000-square-foot Woody Guthrie Center opens Saturday afternoon in Tulsa.
It features Oklahoma's only permanent exhibit on the Dust Bowl and also includes Guthrie's original handwritten copy of "This Land Is Your Land," perhaps his best-known song.
Guthrie's daughter Nora says Oklahomans should take pride in knowing that the core of who her father was as a man and a musician was determined in Oklahoma.
The center is also home to the Woody Guthrie Archives, a collection featuring nearly 3,000 song lyrics, hundreds of pieces of artwork, journal entries, postcards, manuscripts and more than 500 photographs, among other rare items.
Actor Theodore Bikel, star of the 1964 film "My Fair Lady", poses as he arrives at the opening night gala of the TCM Classic Film Festival in Hollywood April 25, 2013.
Photo by Fred Prouser
America loves its outlaws, and few are as admired and lionized as Willie Nelson.
As the enduring American icon's 80th birthday has approached, he's been honoured with lifetime achievement awards, serenaded at special performances and saluted by musicians from every genre of music. And Nelson has taken it all in with a bemused smile.
The singer whose birthday is Monday or Tuesday - Nelson says April 29, the state of Texas claims April 30 - occupies a unique space in America's cultural memory. A walking bag of contradictions, he wears his hair long in braids and has a penchant for pot smoking, yet remains arguably conservative country music's greatest songwriter. He's accepted by left and right, black and white and is instantly recognizable to a majority of Americans.
Like few other music stars, his image has grown to represent more than the notes he's played or the lyrics he's written. Like Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash or Frank Sinatra, he's become a figurehead for a uniquely American way of thinking. He represents the outlaw and the maverick. If Elvis was all about the pelvis and the sexual revolution, Nelson is American independence: the raised middle finger tossed with a twinkle in the eye.
Actress Lulu at the 2013 TCM Classic Film Festival's Opening Night Gala at the TCL Chinese Theatre on Thursday, April 25, 2013 in Los Angeles.
Photo by Alexandra Wyman
Television producer Dick Wolf will be busy next season.
NBC said Friday that it has renewed five of its dramas for next season. Two of them - the long-running "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit" and "Chicago Fire" - are made by Wolf and his team.
"Revolution," ''Parenthood" and "Grimm" were also given the guarantee that they will go on for another year. Each was given a full-season order of 22 new episodes.
It's less than a month before broadcast networks reveal next season's schedule to advertisers. NBC's announcement gives makers of these series some extra time to map out the stories going forward and to write scripts.
A Russian court on Friday rejected a plea for early release from prison by a member of the feminist punk band Pussy Riot, whose provocative songs and prosecution have made them a symbol of the country's opposition movement.
Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, who has been in custody since her arrest last March, is serving a two-year sentence handed down after the band staged an irreverent protest against President Vladimir Putin in Moscow's main cathedral.
She and two other band members were sentenced to prison terms on charges of hooliganism motivated by religious hatred. She sought early release after serving half her sentence, a provision allowed by law.
Tolokonnikova, dressed in a Soviet-style dark prison uniform with a white scarf around her neck, told the court that the prison colony where she is serving her sentence did not support her plea of early release because she "didn't repent." Russian law does not make repentance a condition for an early release.
Marvin Kaplan at the 2013 TCM Classic Film Festival's Opening Night Gala at the TCL Chinese Theatre on Thursday, April 25, 2013 in Los Angeles.
Photo by Alexandra Wyman
Lauryn Hill says she has signed with Sony to pay her overdue taxes.
Hill pleaded guilty last year to not paying federal taxes on $1.8 million earned from 2005 to 2007. The 37-year-old posted on her Tumblr blog late Thursday that she "signed a new record deal, and that I did this to pay taxes."
The total Hill owes is in dispute, but it is around $1 million. Her next sentencing date in New Jersey is May 6.
Hill writes that she's not only signing with Sony because of her legal woes, but also because she needs to express her creativity.
France Nuyen at the 2013 TCM Classic Film Festival's Opening Night Gala at the TCL Chinese Theatre on Thursday, April 25, 2013 in Los Angeles.
Photo by Alexandra Wyman
Before he suddenly surfaced in the race for mayor of this hardscrabble Los Angeles suburb, Rodney Allen Rippy's name was likely to evoke that question inspired by that class of former child stars who didn't die young, end up in jail or a celebrity rehab series: "Whatever happened to that guy?"
Rippy was just 3 in 1972, when he became the toast of a generation as the pint-sized TV pitchman for the Jack In The Box fast-food chain. When he picked up a hamburger that looked as a big as a hubcap and tried to cram it into his mouth, America was entranced. When he finally said, "Too bigga eat!" a national catchphrase was born.
Soon the cute, chubby-cheeked youngster with the Afro as big as his head was hanging out in Hollywood with Michael Jackson. He made movie cameos and recorded a hit album called "Take Life a Little Easier."
Then the 1970s ended, and so did Rippy's career.
More than 30 years, he resurfaced as a candidate for mayor in a city known variously over the years as the birthplace of gangsta rap, the murder capital of the country and the home of the drive-by shooting.
Actress Jane Withers, one of the cast members of the 1956 drama film "Giant", poses as she arrives at the opening night gala of the TCM Classic Film Festival in Hollywood April 25, 2013.
Photo by Fred Prouser
Truman Capote's 1958 typed manuscript of "Breakfast at Tiffany's" with the author's handwritten edits has sold for about $306,000 at auction to a Russian billionaire.
The manuscript, expected to net at least $250,000, was offered for sale online by Amherst-based auction house RR Auction.
RR Auction says the winning bidder is Russian retail billionaire Igor Sosin, who plans to display it in Moscow and Monaco.
Capote's handwritten notations include changing the femme fatale's name from Connie Gustafson to the now-iconic Holly Golightly.
Its plot - built around a woman who supports herself through trysts with wealthy lovers - was scandalous. Harper's Bazaar bought serialization rights, then balked at its explicit content. Esquire magazine purchased it from Harper's and launched it to its 1961 silver screen adaptation starring Audrey Hepburn.
Actor Leonard Maltin and actress Tippi Hedren at the 2013 TCM Classic Film Festival's Opening Night Gala at the TCL Chinese Theatre on Thursday, April 25, 2013 in Los Angeles.
Photo by Alexandra Wyman
They were feasts of sublime asparagus - laced with fear. And for more than half a century, Margot Woelk kept her secret hidden from the world, even from her husband. Then, a few months after her 95th birthday, she revealed the truth about her wartime role: Adolf Hitler's food taster.
Woelk, then in her mid-twenties, spent two and a half years as one of 15 young women who sampled Hitler's food to make sure it wasn't poisoned before it was served to the Nazi leader in his "Wolf's Lair," the heavily guarded command center in what is now Poland, where he spent much of his time in the final years of World War II.
"He was a vegetarian. He never ate any meat during the entire time I was there," Woelk said of the Nazi leader. "And Hitler was so paranoid that the British would poison him - that's why he had 15 girls taste the food before he ate it himself."
With many Germans contending with food shortages and a bland diet as the war dragged on, sampling Hitler's food had its advantages.
"The food was delicious, only the best vegetables, asparagus, bell peppers, everything you can imagine. And always with a side of rice or pasta," she recalled. "But this constant fear - we knew of all those poisoning rumors and could never enjoy the food. Every day we feared it was going to be our last meal."
Paris Brosnan, Pierce Brosnan and Dylan Brosnan attend the premiere Of Sony Picture Classics' "Love Is All You Need", on Thursday, April, 25, 2013 in Hollywood, California.
Photo by Todd Williamson
A massive, partly fossilized egg laid by a now-extinct elephant bird has sold for more than double its estimate at a London auction.
Christie's auction house said Wednesday that the foot-long, nearly nine-inches in diameter egg fetched 66,675 pounds ($101,813). It had been valued at 20,000 to 30,000 pounds pre-sale, and was sold to an anonymous buyer over the telephone after about 10 minutes of competitive bidding.
Elephant birds were wiped out several hundred years ago. The oversized ovum, laid on the island of Madagascar, is believed to date back before the 17th century.
Flightless, fruit-gobbling elephant birds resembled giant ostriches and could grow to be 11 feet high (3.4 meters). Christie's says their eggs are 100 times the size of an average chicken's.
This publicity image released by The O + M Company shows playwright Christopher Durang, left, with actress Sigourney Weaver at curtain call on opening night of "Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike".
Photo by Bruce Glikas
Scores of worried beekeepers - and a brace of fashionistas - have gathered outside Britain's Parliament in a bid to convince the government to back a ban on pesticides that have been blamed for a worrying drop in bee populations.
The demonstrators say they hope to influence Britain's vote next week on a proposed European Union ban on some pesticides.
Researcher Robert Mitton said Friday there has been a "rapid decline" in bee population and diversity since the pesticides came into use in the 1990s.
The British government has previously abstained from votes on the EU proposal.
George Jones, the peerless, hard-living country singer who recorded dozens of hits about good times and regrets and peaked with the heartbreaking classic "He Stopped Loving Her Today," has died. He was 81.
Publicist Kirt Webster says Jones died Friday at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville after being hospitalized with fever and irregular blood pressure.
Known for his clenched, precise baritone, Jones had No. 1 songs in five separate decades, 1950s to 1990s, and was idolized not just by fellow country singers, but by Frank Sinatra, Pete Townshend, Elvis Costello, James Taylor and countless others.
In a career that lasted more than 50 years, "Possum" recorded more than 150 albums and became the champion and symbol of traditional country music, a well-lined link to his hero, Hank Williams.
Bees are seen in their beehive in a garden in Saint-Aignan de Grand Lieu, western France, April 24, 2013. A global decline in the numbers of bees, the reasons for which are baffling scientists, is alarming everyone from farmers to European Union policy makers.
Photo by Stephane Mahe
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A massive, partly fossilized egg laid by a now-extinct elephant bird has sold for more than double its estimate at a London auction.
