Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Paul Krugman: The Big Inflation Scare (nytimes.com)
Does the big inflation scare make any sense? Basically, no. And I suspect that the scare is at least partly about politics rather than economics.
Daniel Gross: Good Luck With That 401(k)! (slate.com)
Medicare and Social Security are in terrible shape. Unfortunately, private-sector health and pension plans are doing even worse.
Catherine O'Sullivan: Ignore the economy as best you can, and concentrate on being happy (tucsonweekly.com)
... given the facts, it makes as much sense as anything else to live reasonably, take care of our needs, and strive to be happy.
Mark Morford: Apologies from California (sfgate.com)
Wow, did we ever botch the gay marriage thing! Sorry, world.
Tom Danehy: Tom learns lessons about men, gay mayors and stupid (tucsonweekly.com)
Guys are pigs. I was reading an article in Time magazine about this new, fake-ass societal subclass, people who refer to themselves as Committed Unmarrieds (CU). They're not the stereotypical commitment-phobes, but people who claim to have evolved past the stifling convention of marriage.
Irene Messina: Meet GiGi Farley, future president of the United States (tucsonweekly.com)
GiGi's interest in becoming president started when she was 7. Her interest in current affairs was already firmly established: During a trip to the movies, she chose to see 'An Inconvenient Truth' instead of 'Cars.' She also encouraged her father to purchase an eco-friendly Toyota Prius.
David Wolman: There's never a last word on spelling (latimes.com)
As Samuel Johnson and Noah Webster can attest, the test of time can be rough on dictionaries.
"Flannery: A Life of Flannery O'Connor" by Brad Gooch: A review by Christopher Benfey (powells.com)
She refused to participate in the Home Economics class, where the official "activity" was sewing. On examination day, when a finished outfit was required, Flannery arrived with her pet duckling "and a whole outfit of underwear and clothes, beautifully sewn to fit the duck."
SUSAN BERNOFSKY: Why Donald Duck Is the Jerry Lewis of Germany (wsj.com)
The cartoon character turns philosophical in translation; quoting Goethe.
Chris Suellentrop: The Slow Video Game Movement (slate.com)
The Path asks gamers to stop shooting and start soaking in their surroundings.
20 Questions: Bell X1 (popmatters.com)
Paul Noonan, the lead singer for Ireland's Bell X1, drops by 20 Questions and tells us why the Beatles killed music.
Lauren Smiley: Creators of Emily the Strange assert their character's lack of originality in court (sfweekly.com)
We all remember the moment in high school when we realized the goth kids at the next lunch table - in trying to prove they were oh-so-different by outfitting themselves in black T-shirts and lipstick from Hot Topic - were really just conformists of another kind.
The Weekly Poll
The 'Guilty TV Pleasures' Edition...
Are there any TV programs that you secretly feel sheepish about watching regularly, but do so anyway because you REALLY like them? C'mon now, fess up! I will!
I double-dog dare ya, haha!
Send your response to
Whose theme song had the chorus:
said:
From The Creator of 'Avery Ant'
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Marine layer was so thick we had no sun, so it was on the cool side, but pleasant.
Helps Honor Students
Muhammad Ali
Muhammad Ali posed for pictures, doled out hugs and helped honor elementary school students who raised $40,000 in a month for juvenile diabetes in his hometown of Louisville, Ky.
The former heavyweight champ and his wife, Lonnie, were joined by Olympic medalists Bill Evans and Doug Sharp on Thursday at Bloom Elementary School.
The school has raised more than $120,000 since 2005 to benefit the juvenile diabetes program at Kosair Children's Hospital. Students washed cars, manned lemonade stands and emptied their piggy banks to raise money.
Evans won a gold medal in 1956 in men's basketball and Sharp won a bronze in four-man bobsleigh in 2002. Ali, who has Parkinson's disease, won a gold medal in boxing in 1960.
Muhammad Ali
Toronto 'Conversation'
Ex US Presidents
A "conversation" here Friday between Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, the 42nd and 43rd US presidents, attracted some 6,000 beholders and a few hundred protestors in a carnival atmosphere.
The two former leaders were to share a stage for a 90-minute discussion about global and domestic challenges facing the United States and Canada, moderated by Frank McKenna, a former Canadian ambassador to Washington.
Outside the convention center where the event was being held at 3:30 pm (1930 GMT), amid heightened security, a few hundred protestors gathered, shouting "jail George Bush" and "war criminals not welcome here."
"Bush is kind of a lightning rod for a lot of things that are wrong, and so I think people want to express that," Nadine MacKinnon of the Coalition to Stop the War told public broadcaster CBC.
Ex US Presidents
Wedding News
Hargrove - Hyde Pierce
Former "Frasier" star David Hyde Pierce spoke candidly in an appearance on ABC's "The View." Wearing a wedding band, Hyde Pierce revealed he tied the knot "very quietly" in California on Oct. 24.
The actor and longtime partner Brian Hargrove, a producer, are still legally wed despite the California Supreme Court's decision Tuesday to uphold Proposition 8. The gay-marriage ban was approved by voters in November, stopping legal nuptials going forward.
Angered by the ruling, Hyde Pierce said Thursday: "It's like, `Oh great, we made the cut.'"
He called it a "very odd thing" that strangers have a vote on his private decision to marry.
Hargrove - Hyde Pierce
Numbers Expand Worldwide - U.S. Decline Continues
Honeybees
Despite serious losses to colonies in the U.S. and Europe, honeybees are on the rise in other parts of the world--although hardly keeping pace with growing demand
Even as U.S. honeybee populations have been hit hard by colony collapse disorder in recent years, domesticated beehives have been thriving elsewhere.
In an analysis of nearly 50 years of data on bees from the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, researchers found that domesticated honeybee populations have increased about 45 percent, thanks in large part to expansion of the bees into areas such as South America, eastern Asia and Africa. The results appear in the latest issue Current Biology.
The overall increase, however, is not what surprised Marcelo Aizen, a professor at the National University of Comahue in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and lead author of the study. Instead, he was taken aback by the sixfold increase in the growth rate of crops that depend on domesticated bees for pollination.
Honeybees
New Museum Opens In Hamburg
Beatles
A new museum dedicated to the Beatles opened in Hamburg on Friday, 49 years since the band, at that time a five-piece with no Ringo Starr, first played in a run-down strip club in the German city.
The museum, called Beatlemania, includes five floors of artefacts and interactive exhibits and is in the same seedy Reeperbahn area of Hamburg where the band appeared on five separate occasions between 1960 and 1962.
The Beatles -- at that time John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, Stuart Sutcliffe and Pete Best -- first took the stage at the Indra club on August 17, 1960.
It was also in Hamburg that the band first performed with Starr, at the time drummer with another English band.
Beatles
Poses For Vogue Magazine
Rachel Alexandra
She is a clotheshorse without the clothes: Rachel Alexandra has posed for a photo spread in Vogue.
Pictures of the Preakness-winning filly were shot Friday by fashion photographer Steven Klein for the magazine's August issue.
There was no star treatment for Mine That Bird. The Kentucky Derby winner and Preakness runner-up quietly galloped twice around the Churchill Downs track.
On Friday, it was decided Rachel Alexandra will not run in the June 6 Belmont Stakes. Co-owner Jess Jackson said the filly deserves a vacation. Mine That Bird is scheduled for his final workout Monday before the final leg of the Triple Crown.
Rachel Alexandra
U.S. Obscenity Conviction
Manga
In an obscenity first, a U.S. comic book collector has pleaded guilty to importing and possessing Japanese manga books depicting illustrations of child sex abuse and bestiality.
Christopher Handley, described by his lawyer as a "prolific collector" of manga, pleaded guilty last week to mailing obscene matter, and to "possession of obscene visual representations of the sexual abuse of children." Three other counts were dropped in a plea deal with prosecutors.
The 39-year-old office worker was charged under the 2003 Protect Act, which outlaws cartoons, drawings, sculptures or paintings depicting minors engaging in sexually explicit conduct, and which lack "serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value." Handley's guilty plea makes him the first to be convicted under that law for possessing cartoon art, without any evidence that he also collected or viewed genuine child pornography. He faces a maximum sentence of 15 years in prison.
"This art that this man possessed as part of a larger collection of manga … is now the basis for [a sentence] designed to protect children from abuse," says Charles Brownstein, executive director of the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund. "The drawings are not obscene and are not tantamount to pornography. They are lines on paper."
Manga
Sues Over Black Sabbath Name
Ozzy Osbourne
Black Sabbath frontman Ozzie Osbourne has sued his former band mate Tony Iommi over the ownership of the group's name.
Osbourne, 60, filed a lawsuit in federal court in New York, on Tuesday accusing the guitarist of falsely claiming to be the sole owner of the Black Sabbath name, his representatives said on Friday.
He is also seeking a share of the interest in the Black Sabbath trademark and a cut of the profits that Iommi earned while touring under the Black Sabbath name in the 1990s when the British heavy metal band was in disarray after numerous changes to their lineup.
Imommi performed in clubs under the Black Sabbath name after Osbourne was thrown out of the band. The original four members -- Osbourne, Iommi, Geezer Butler and Bill Ward -- reunited in 1997 and Black Sabbath was inducted in the UK and US Rock&Roll Hall of Fames in 2005 and 2006.
Ozzy Osbourne
Lawyer Wants Charges Filed
Duane "Dog" Chapman
A public defender is demanding that TV bounty hunter Duane "Dog" Chapman be charged with felonies for claiming that a man fired a gun at him and his crew while they were filming in Colorado Springs last month.
Attorney William Schoewe alleges Chapman and others made up the claim to boost publicity for the A&E reality show "Dog The Bounty Hunter." Prosecutors dropped charges against a suspect, saying the evidence was insufficient.
Schoewe filed a motion Friday asking a judge to force prosecutors to charge Chapman and others with attempting to influence a public servant and false reporting.
Duane "Dog" Chapman
19 Years To Life
Phil Specter
Phil Spector was sentenced Friday to 19 years to life in prison for the murder of actress Lana Clarkson, who was shot through the mouth in the music producer's home six years ago.
Spector, 69, looked straight forward and showed no emotion as Superior Court Judge Larry Paul Fidler ordered a term of 15 years to life for second-degree murder plus four years for personal use of a gun.
The judge also ordered Spector to pay $16,811 in funeral expenses, $9,740 to a state victims' restitution fund and other fees.
Spector, dressed in his customary dark pinstripe suit with a red silk tie, was led away immediately. His attorney asked that he be transferred immediately from county jail to a state prison. It was not immediately known to which prison Spector would be assigned.
Phil Specter
What Child Labor Laws?
'Jon & Kate'
Jon, Kate and their eight have attracted a huge TV audience, screaming tabloid headlines and, now, a state labor investigation.
In a possible wake-up call to reality TV, the Pennsylvania Department of Labor says it's looking into whether the hit show "Jon & Kate Plus 8" is complying with the state's child labor law. TLC said Friday it "fully complies" with state laws and regulations.
The TLC series follows Jon and Kate Gosselin as they raise their eight young children, including 8-year-old twins and sextuplets who just turned 5.
Child actors and other young performers are protected by Pennsylvania labor law, but it's not clear whether the law applies to reality TV. Investigators will have to decide whether the Gosselins' house in southeastern Pennsylvania is essentially a TV set where producers direct much of the action - in which case the law may apply - or a home where the kids aren't really working but are simply living their lives, albeit in front of the cameras.
'Jon & Kate'
Charged With Assault
John Rich
Country star John Rich is charged with assault and harassment in an ongoing dispute with a former "Nashville Star" contestant.
Rich says in a statement Thursday that he turned himself in to Nashville police to face the charges filed by Jared Ashley, a contestant during the fourth season of the TV show on the USA network.
The 35-year-old was charged with two misdemeanor counts of assault and one misdemeanor count of harassment. He was released on $3,000 bond.
In April, Rich sued Ashley, saying the aspiring singer defamed him by claiming Rich hit him in the face. Rich says the charges are false and he rejected a settlement offer to pay $2.9 million to have them dropped.
John Rich
Bans IP Addys
Wikipedia
In an unprecedented effort to crack down on self-serving edits, the Wikipedia supreme court has banned contributions from all IP addresses owned or operated by the Church of Scientology and its associates.
Closing out the longest-running court case in Wikiland history, the site's Arbitration Committee voted 10 to 0 (with one abstention) in favor of the move, which takes effect immediately.
The eighth most popular site on the web, Wikipedia bills itself as "the free encyclopedia anyone can edit." Administrators frequently ban individual Wikifiddlers for their individual Wikisins. And the site's UK press officer/resident goth once silenced an entire Utah mountain in a bizarre attempt to protect a sockpuppeting ex-BusinessWeek reporter. But according to multiple administrators speaking with The Reg, the muzzling of Scientology IPs marks the first time Wikipedia has officially barred edits from such a high-profile organization for allegedly pushing its own agenda on the site.
According to evidence turned up by admins in this long-running Wikiland court case, multiple editors have been "openly editing [Scientology-related articles] from Church of Scientology equipment and apparently coordinating their activities." Leaning on the famed WikiScanner, countless news stories have discussed the editing of Scientology articles from Scientology IPs, and some site admins are concerned this is "damaging Wikipedia's reputation for neutrality."
Wikipedia
In Memory
Mickey Ross
Comedy writer and producer Mickey Ross, an Emmy winner who worked on "All in the Family," "The Jeffersons" and "Three's Company," died Tuesday at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles of complications from a stroke and heart attack. He was 89.
In the 1950s, Ross formed a comedy partnership with fellow City College of New York alumnus Bernie West (Class of '39). They worked on "The Martha Raye Show" and there developed a relationship with Norman Lear and Bud Yorkin, the creators of the landmark "All in the Family" sitcom for CBS.
Ross was a writer, story editor and executive producer for 81 episodes of the show. He shared with West and Lee Kalcheim the 1973 Emmy for outstanding writing achievement in comedy for the episode "The Bunkers and the Swingers," in which Edith answers a magazine personal ad from a couple seeking new friends.
Ross and West also wrote for and executive produced "The Jeffersons," the "All in the Family" spin-off about an African-American family movin' on up, then wrote, produced and directed episodes of another hit sitcom, ABC's "Three's Company."
The pair also worked on two "Three's Company" spin-offs, "The Ropers" and "Three's a Crowd."
A bomber pilot during World War II, Ross got his show business start in the 1950s directing shows at the Green Mansions resort in the Adirondacks, working with the likes of Don Adams, Carl Reiner and Sid Caesar. He had his television debut during that decade as a stager/director for "The Garry Moore Show."
Last year, Ross created the Michael and Irene Ross Program in Jewish Studies at his alma mater and donated $4 million to endow an academic chair in Yiddish language and culture at UCLA. He also supported many animal-rights organizations such as the World Wildlife Fund, the Humane Society and Last Chance for Animals.
His wife, Irene, passed away in 2000. They had no children.
Mickey Ross
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