Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Paul Krugman: Medicare and Mediscares (New York Times)
Mr. Ryan may claim - and he may even believe - that he's facing a backlash because his opponents are lying about his proposals. But the reality is that the Ryan plan is turning into a political disaster for Republicans, not because the plan's critics are lying about it, but because they're describing it accurately.
Ezra Klein: "The GOP's jobs agenda: Now More Than Ever" (Washington Post)
As Mishel says, "if lower taxes and less regulation was such good policy, then George W. Bush's economy would have been a lot better. But under Bush, Republicans cut taxes on business and on investors and high-income people and they didn't add many regulations and that business cycle was the first one in the post-war period where the income for a typical working class family was lower at the end than at the beginning."
Froma Harrop: All Eyes on the Storm (Creators Syndicate)
In 1954, E.B. White wrote a piece in 'The New Yorker' about a hurricane hitting his part of Maine. The moment it left Boston, he notes in "The Eye of Edna," the radio voices declared the violent storm over - even as it continued barreling toward the coast of Maine. When the wind "began to tear everything to pieces, what we got on the radio was a man doing a whistling act and somebody playing the glockenspiel."
Jim Hightower: Academic Freedom for Sale Cheap!
Billionaires are different from you and me, for obvious reasons, including the fact that they buy much pricier baubles than we do.
Bobby White: Snack Trucks Thwart Nutrition Goals (Wall Street Journal)
After Novato banned junk food inside schools, vending trucks have moved in to sell snacks to students, frustrating officials trying to improve school nutrition.
Tamara Audi: As Their Work Gains Notice, These Painters Suffer for Their Art (Wall Street Journal)
Law-enforcement officials around the country are prosecuting graffiti artists with harsher sentences as they seek to wipe graffiti from the streets. At the same time, the art world and corporations are embracing the form like never before.
Rudolph Herzog: Punchlines from the abyss (Guardian)
Rudolph Herzog, son of Werner, tells Geoffrey Macnab what the Nazis did for joke-telling.
"The Man in the Gray Flannel Skirt" by Jon-Jon Goulian: A review by Dan Kois
Back in 1976, a 7-year-old boy named Jon-Jon Goulian wrote himself a postcard. He gave his postman strict instructions to arrange for the letter to be delivered 30 years later, to his grandfather's summer home in Vermont. As it happens, grownup Jon-Jon was in Vermont the day his directive was carried out, and received a message from his pint-sized self. Young Jon-Jon mostly wanted to know whether Older Jon-Jon had blossomed into a pro soccer player.
Dale Peck Criticizes Publishing Industry: Says Writers Must Stand Up (Daily Beast)
The literary press resounds with laments about the derelict state of contemporary literature and the urgent need to shore it up against bureaucracies, philistines, and other enemies of art.
'The Muppets' first trailer hits with a Jason Segel, Amy Adams spoof (Los Angeles Times)
A faux movie trailer for a project called "Green With Envy" hit YouTube on Monday, offering an embarrassing setup for a romantic comedy about a couple (Adams and Segel) trying to reconnect after moving to Los Angeles.
David Bruce has 42 Kindle books on Amazon.com with 250 anecdotes in each book. Each book is $1, so for $42 you can buy 10,500 anecdotes. Search for "Funniest People," "Coolest People, "Most Interesting People," "Kindest People," "Religious Anecdotes," "Maximum Cool," and "Resist Psychic Death."
The (Occasional) Weekly Poll Presents...
New Question(s)
The "That Was The Week That Was' Edition...
This past week we had a number of marvelously eclectic stories to captivate one's attention and give us some distractions to our otherwise hum-drum lives (haha) ...
Which, if any, of these stories piqued your interest the most this past week?
1.) Ah-nuld's 'Living Loving Maid' and 'Love Child'... (Why am I not amazed?)
2.) The Oprah 'I'll Always Love You' Fan-Fest count-down to her last show...(OMG! What to do? What to watch?... p.s. is she really a 'closet' Scientologist?)
3.) Saturday's 'Apocalypse Now' fizzle... (Good excuse fer a party, though, I'm sayin'...)
4.) Lizzie does Dublin... (No Sex Pistols singin', 'God Save the Queen', more's the pity...)
5.) Obama lectures Israel (Israel sez, "Get real, Dude") Obama then sings, 'We are Family' to AIPAC...
6.) 'When the Levee Breaks'..or, the Great American Flood, as it were...(Gators and snakes and bears, Oh My!)
7.) The 'Helter Skelter' hilarity of GOP presidential candidates doin' the 'You're Hot and then You're Cold' shuffle (featuring 'Newt the Hoot', so much the better...)
8.) Your pick... (Give us a thrill, would ya now, maybe?)
Well, then, Poll-fans... Have at it!
Send your response to
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From The Creator of 'Avery Ant'
Reader Update
Little Ricky
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Sunny with a nice breeze.
Coalition Battles Over Category Cuts
Grammys
A coalition of musicians is demanding the Recording Academy restore more than 30 categories cut from the Grammy Awards, alleging the reductions unfairly target ethnic music and were done without the input of its thousands of members.
A protest was planned Thursday in Beverly Hills, California, at an academy board meeting. It is part of a campaign by those upset by last month's decision to reduce the Grammy fields, which this year totaled 109, to 78.
Grammy President and CEO Neil Portnow said changes would be in effect for the 2012 Grammys. He urged dissenters to work with the academy, which would examine the effect of the changes for the 2013 awards.
But protesters hope the process could be reversed in time for next year's Grammy ceremony if at least one board member asks the academy to reconsider.
Grammys
Up For Auction
Movie Costumes
Iconic movie costumes worn by Charlie Chaplin, Judy Garland and Marilyn Monroe will go up for sale in June from a collection belonging to fellow actress Debbie Reynolds, California auction house Profiles in History said on Thursday.
Monroe's subway dress from "The Seven Year Itch," Judy Garland's blue cotton dress and ruby red slippers from "The Wizard of Oz" and Charlie Chaplin's "Tramp" bowler hat are among the 3,500 items up for auction in Beverly Hills on June 18.
Barbra Streisand's sleeveless gold velvet, jeweled gown from "Hello, Dolly" -- said to be the most expensive dress ever made for a film -- will also be up for sale as will Audrey Hepburn's Ascot dress from "My Fair Lady" and Julie Andrews' costumes from "The Sound of Music."
Reynolds, 79, who starred in such films as "Singin' in the Rain" and "The Unsinkable Molly Brown," has been collecting film memorabilia for more than 50 years.
Movie Costumes
Not So Hot In Pa. City
'Greatest Movie Ever Sold'
POM WONDERFUL PRESENTS: THE GREATEST MOVIE EVER SOLD, Pa. (AP) - The greatest movie ever sold hasn't sold many tickets in the Pennsylvania city that got a pretty penny for the naming rights.
The Altoona Mirror reports four people attended the city's first paid showing of "POM Wonderful Presents: The Greatest Movie Ever Sold."
The city of Altoona temporarily renamed itself after the movie at a ceremony last month with "Super Size Me" director Morgan Spurlock. Spurlock gave the city a $25,000 donation.
Gary and Daphne Gordon marked their 20th anniversary by attending Thursday afternoon's showing at the Carmike Park Hills Plaza 7 Theatre with their two sons.
'Greatest Movie Ever Sold'
Britain's Sweetheart Dumped In US
Cheryl Cole
In northeastern England they say she's a canny lass - and maybe that's the problem.
British sweetheart Cheryl Cole has reportedly been dumped from U.S. television, and tabloid media say she lost her big break in part over fears American audiences wouldn't understand her regional accent or the phrases unique to her corner of Britain.
Cole, whose rags-to-riches showbiz story has captivated her country, had been expected to appear as a judge on Simon Cowell's "The X Factor" due to premiere in the United States later this year. But on Friday Britain's tabloids announced the 27-year-old had been removed as a judge, and her official status with the program, which has already started shooting, remains unclear.
Ann-Marie Thomson, public relations chief for Cowell's entertainment company, declined comment when called by The Associated Press. But Sinitta Malone, a guest presenter on the British version of "X Factor," told ITV television that Cowell and Cole were in talks "trying to sort something out."
Cheryl Cole
California Coastal Commission Recommendation
The Edge
Officials for the state agency that oversees coastal development has again recommended denying a proposal led by U2 guitarist The Edge for a cluster of mansions overlooking Malibu.
California Coastal Commission staff on Friday recommended that the board reject the project's application at its June meeting. In February, officials made the same recommendation before the item was pulled from the agenda at the request of the musician and his partners. At the time, project manager Jim Vanden Berg expressed surprise but said he believed they could work with staff to "clarify misunderstandings."
The proposal includes five multilevel homes ranging from 7,220 to 12,785 square feet to be built on 156 acres in the Santa Monica Mountains.
The Edge
Court Refuses To Reconsider Appeal
Phil Spector
An appeals court has refused to reconsider music producer Phil Spector's appeal of his murder conviction, saying there was overwhelming evidence of his guilt.
The California 2nd District Court of Appeal panel acknowledged it did not consider an issue that defense lawyers now say was critical.
Attorneys said the trial judge prejudiced the case by allowing prosecutors to use pictures of him in closing argument as if he was a witness.
The denial, handed down Thursday, said the lawyers gave the issue only cursory treatment in their first appellate brief which was inadequate.
Phil Spector
Sued Again For Defamation On Twitter
Courtney Love
It's been only a few months since Courtney Love paid to settle that unique lawsuit claiming she defamed a fashion designer via Twitter. Now the rocker has been sued again for comments made online, this time by lawyers who represented her in an effort to pursue money allegedly stolen from the estate of her late husband, Kurt Cobain.
Gordon & Holmes, a San Diego-based law firm, filed suit Thursday in Los Angeles Superior Court claiming the firm represented Love from December 2008 to May 2009, but toward the end of the representation, Love allegedly became angry when the firm's partner Rhonda Holmes asked that Love refrain from "any and all substance abuse" during the attorney-client relationship, according to the suit.
Love allegedly fired the firm, but came back months later asking it to resume representing her. The firm declined, according to the suit, and soon after Love began making allegedly libelous statements on Twitter and elsewhere suggesting the lawyers had taken a bribe.
"I was f***ing devastated (sic) when Rhonda J Holmes Esq of San Diego was bought off" Love tweeted.
Courtney Love
Settles Suit
Lindsay Lohan
Lindsay Lohan has settled a lawsuit filed by a woman who was chased by the actress in a pre-dawn pursuit that has haunted the actress in civil and criminal courts for nearly three years.
The starlet on Wednesday settled the lawsuit filed by Tracie Rice, who claimed she was traumatized and lost a well-paying job because of the incident, court records show.
Rice was a passenger in a car driven by the mother of Lohan's former assistant, who the actress pursued down the scenic Pacific Coast Highway in July 2007. The chase ended with Lohan's arrest in the parking lot of the Santa Monica Police Department; Rice has said she thought the actress was trying to carjack her.
No details of the settlement, which was first reported Friday by celebrity website TMZ, were released.
Lindsay Lohan
Arrests American For Alleged King Insult
Thailand
Thai authorities said Friday they arrested an American citizen on charges he insulted the country's monarchy, in part by posting a link on his blog four years ago to a banned book about the Southeast Asian nation's ailing king.
The man is also suspected of translating, from English into Thai, portions of "The King Never Smiles" - an unauthorized biography of King Bhumibol Adulyadej - and posting them online along with articles he wrote that allegedly defame the royal family, said Tharit Pengdith, who heads the Department of Special Investigation, Thailand's equivalent of the FBI.
The American has denied the charges, according to the Thai-language prachatai.com news website, which tracks cases of lese majeste, as the crime of insulting the monarchy is known.
The 54-year-old Thai-born man lived in the U.S. state of Colorado for around 30 years before returning recently to Thailand for treatment for high blood pressure and gout, the website said. If the allegations are true, the infractions would have been committed while he lived in America - where they are legal - raising concern about the reach of Thai law and how it is applied to Thai nationals and foreign visitors.
Tharit said the man's Thai name was Lerpong Wichaikhammat. Walter M. Braunohler, the U.S. Embassy spokesman in Bangkok, identified the American as Joe Gordon and said a consular officer visited him on Friday morning. He declined comment further, saying only that officials were following the case "very closely."
Thailand
Anchor Recovered
Blackbeard
Archaeologists recovered the first anchor from what's believed to be the wreck of the pirate Blackbeard's flagship off the North Carolina coast Friday, a move that might change plans about how to save the rest of the almost 300-year-old artifacts from the central part of the ship.
Divers had planned to recover the second-largest artifact on what's believed to be the Queen Anne's Revenge but discovered it was too well-attached to other items in the ballast pile, said project Mark Wilde-Ramsing. Instead they pulled up another anchor that is the third-largest artifact and likely was the typical anchor for the ship.
Apparently, pirates had everyday anchors and special anchors just as the rest of us have everyday dishes and good china.
The anchor is 11 feet, 4 inches long with arms that are 7 feet, 7 inches across. It was covered with concretion - a mixture of shells, sand and other debris attracted by the leaching wrought iron - and a few sea squirts. Its weight was estimated at 2,500 to 3,000 pounds.
The anchor's size is typical for a ship the size of the Queen Anne's Revenge, while the two other anchors probably were used in emergencies, such as storms, Wilde-Ramsing said.
Blackbeard
Cable Nielsens
Ratings
Rankings for the top 15 programs on cable networks as compiled by the Nielsen Co. for the week of May 16-22. Day and start time (EDT) are in parentheses:
1. NBA Playoffs: Chicago vs. Miami (Sunday, 8:33 p.m.), TNT, 7.44 million homes, 10.88 million viewers.
2. NBA Playoffs: Miami vs. Chicago (Wednesday, 8:34 p.m.), TNT, 7.09 million homes, 10.03 million viewers.
3. NBA Playoffs: Oklahoma City vs. Dallas (Thursday, 8:55 p.m.), ESPN, 5.06 million homes, 7.04 million viewers.
4. NBA Playoffs: Oklahoma City vs. Dallas (Tuesday, 9:01 p.m.), ESPN, 4.98 million homes, 6.98 million viewers.
5. NBA Playoffs: Dallas vs. Oklahoma City (Saturday, 8:57 p.m.), ESPN, 4.27 million homes, 6.17 million viewers.
6. "SpongeBob SquarePants" (Saturday, 11 a.m.), Nickelodeon, 3.33 million homes, 4.66 million viewers.
7. "WWE Raw" (Monday, 10 p.m.), USA, 3.13 million homes, 4.7 million viewers.
8. Movie: "Sharpay's Fabulous Adventure" (Sunday, 8 p.m.), Disney, 3.11 million homes, 4.88 million viewers.
9. "SpongeBob SquarePants" (Saturday, 10:30 a.m.), Nickelodeon, 3.083 million homes, 4.38 million viewers.
10. "Inside the NBA Playoffs" (Sunday, 11:10 p.m.), TNT, 3.081 million homes, 4.06 million viewers.
11. "WWE Raw" (Monday, 9 p.m.), USA, 3.06 million homes, 4.68 million viewers.
12. "SpongeBob SquarePants" (Saturday, 11:30 a.m.), Nickelodeon, 3.04 million homes, 4.2 million viewers.
13. "Inside the NBA Playoffs" (Wednesday, 11:17 p.m.), TNT, 2.99 million homes, 4.03 million viewers.
14. "SpongeBob SquarePants" (Saturday, 10 a.m.), Nickelodeon, 2.98 million homes, 4.06 million viewers.
15. "A.N.T. Farm" (Sunday, 9:45 p.m.), Disney, 2.81 million homes, 4.27 million viewers.
Ratings
In Memory
Gil Scott-Heron
Musician Gil Scott-Heron, who helped lay the groundwork for rap by fusing minimalistic percussion, political expression and spoken-word poetry on songs such as "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised," died Friday at age 62.
A friend, Doris C. Nolan, who answered the telephone listed for his Manhattan recording company, said he died in the afternoon at St. Luke's Hospital after becoming sick upon returning from a European trip.
"We're all sort of shattered," she said.
Scott-Heron's influence on rap was such that he sometimes was referred to as the Godfather of Rap, a title he rejected.
He referred to his signature mix of percussion, politics and performed poetry as bluesology or Third World music. But then he said it was simply "black music or black American music."
"Because Black Americans are now a tremendously diverse essence of all the places we've come from and the music and rhythms we brought with us," he wrote.
Scott-Heron recorded the song that would make him famous, "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised," in the 1970s in Harlem. He followed up that recording with more than a dozen albums, initially collaborating with musician Brian Jackson. His most recent album was "I'm New Here," which he began recording in 2007 and was released in 2010
Scott-Heron was born in Chicago on April 1, 1949. He was raised in Jackson, Tenn., and in New York before attending college at Lincoln University in Pennsylvania.
Before turning to music, he was a novelist, at age 19, with the publication of "The Vulture," a murder mystery.
He also was the author of "The Nigger Factory," a social satire.
Gil Scott-Heron
In Memory
Jeff Conaway
Jeff Conaway, who starred in the sitcom "Taxi," played swaggering Kenickie in the movie musical "Grease" and publicly battled drug and alcohol addiction on "Celebrity Rehab," died Friday. He was 60.
The actor was taken off life support Thursday and died Friday morning at Encino Tarzana Medical Center, according to one of his managers, Kathryn Boole. He was taken there unconscious on May 11 and placed in a medically induced coma,
Conaway had been treating himself with pain pills and cold medicine while in weakened health, said Phil Brock, her business partner.
Conaway was born in New York City on Oct. 5, 1950, to parents who were in show business. His father was an actor, producer and agent and his mother was an actress.
He made his Broadway debut in 1960 at the age of 10 in the Pulitzer Prize-winning drama "All the Way Home." By then his parents were divorced, and Conaway had spent a great deal of time with his grandparents who lived in the Astoria section of Queens.
He toured in the national company of the comedy "Critic's Choice," then attended a professional high school for young actors, musicians and singers. After abandoning music he returned to acting with a two-year stint in "Grease," on Broadway (playing the lead role of Danny Zuko at one point) and eventually with the touring company.
The musical about high-school love brought Conaway to Los Angeles and television, including a small part on "Happy Days" that led to larger roles. He had roles in small films and then in the movie version of "Grease" (1978), although he lost the top-billed part to John Travolta.
In 1978, he won the "Taxi" job that put him in the company of Judd Hirsch, Danny de Vito and Andy Kaufman in what proved to be a hit for ABC.
But Conaway, who received two Golden Globe nominations for "Taxi," said he tired early of being a series regular, although he stayed with the series for three years, until 1981 ("Taxi" ended in 1983 after moving to NBC the year before).
His movie career failed to ignite, however, and Conaway shifted back to TV with the short-lived 1983 fantasy series "Wizards and Warriors," and the 1985 flop "Berrenger's," a drama set in a New York department store. He made a bid to return to Broadway in "The News," but the rock musical about tabloid journalism closed within days.
A 1994-98 stint in the sci-fi TV series "Babylon 5" as security chief Zack Allan proved successful, but it was followed by only scattered roles on stage, in films and TV shows. He was in the reality series "Celebrity Fit Club" in 2006 and then in "Celebrity Rehab," in which the frail Conaway used a wheelchair and blacked out on camera.
Conaway was wed twice, first to Kerri Young and then to Rona Newton-John, sister of pop star Olivia Newton-John. Both marriages ended in divorce.
Jeff Conaway
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