Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Paul Krugman: The Mistake of 2010 (New York Times)
Those who refuse to learn from history are condemned to repeat it; we did, and we are. What we're experiencing may not be a full replay of the Great Depression, but that's little consolation for the millions of American families suffering from a slump that just goes on and on.
Froma Harrop: "News" That Frees Up Time (Creators Syndicate)
Keeping up with the always-spinning news cycle can eat into a media hound's free time. Thus, I'm grateful when cable television plugs its news holes with stories of no consequence. One can safely check out, secure that nothing important has escaped notice.
Fiona Harvey: Worst ever carbon emissions leave climate on the brink (Guardian)
Record rise, despite recession, means 2C target almost out of reach.
Deborah Orr: Forget entrepreneurs, only banks can create wealth (Guardian)
We must hope the banks become less sick and less mad, and realise that to save themselves they must save everyone.
John Morrow: A Test Question -- Can You Spell 'Blackmail' (Huffington Post)
In 2006, according to California reporter John Fensterwald, students at a charter school in San Jose protested the dismissal of a couple of popular teachers by sabotaging a state test. The school's score on the all-important Academic Progress Index dropped 203 points, from 731 to 528.
Deborah Orr: Illiteracy in London's schools is a scandal (Guardian)
Books might be aplenty at Hay, but one in three of the capital's pupils don't own a single one.
Jim Hightower: "THE SIXTIES MADE ME DO IT"
I try to avoid religious commentary, but - Good God! - what is it about confession that the Catholic hierarchy can't seem to grasp?
The film that changed my life: Malcolm McDowell (Guardian)
James Cagney is the best actor ever, Malcolm McDowell tells Tom Lamont, and especially in 'Yankee Doodle Dandy.'
Steve Almond: "Winter in America: A Musical Lamentation Offered on the Passing of Gil Scott-Heron" (Rumpus)
Gil Scott-Heron died on May 27, at age 62. As I write this, there's no official cause of death. We'll know soon enough. This is America, after all. Whatever the medical details suggest, I'm listing his official cause of death as grief.
Jody Rosen: America the Not-So-Beautiful (Slate)
Gil Scott-Heron's sad, sharp vision of race and consumerism.
Greg Kot: Gil Scott-Heron was America's soul poet (Chicago Tribune)
Public Enemy's Chuck D once said hip-hop was black America's CNN. If so, Gil Scott-Heron was the network's first great anchorman, presaging hip-hop and infusing soul and jazz with poetry, humor and pointed political commentary.
Barbara Ellen: "Arctic Monkeys: 'We want to get better rather than get bigger'" (Guardian)
Their pitch-perfect songs about youth culture, Gordon Brown's namecheck and their huge internet popularity rocketed them to the top of the tree. Here, they talk candidly about fame, politics and falling in love.
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."
Hubert's Poetry Corner
"Racing Pelvic Thunder on the Appalachian Trail"
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Reader Suggestion
Michelle in AZ
From The Creator of 'Avery Ant'
Reader Comment
Paul & Sarah
Palin flubs explanation of Paul Revere's ride
i guess we attacked the japanese at pearl harbor too????
some guy
Thanks, guy!
Just jaw-dropping.
BadtotheboneBob
Automotive Business Report
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Still sunny, but on the cool side.
Hitchhiking In Hockey Country
Bono
Edmonton Oilers center Gilbert Brule stopped this week to pick up a most unlikely hitchhiker - rock star Bono.
The U2 frontman and his assistant were walking in West Vancouver, British Columbia, on Tuesday when they got caught in the rain. Fortunately for them, Brule and his girlfriend were driving by, taking their German shepherd to a park.
Bono hopped in for a ride. To thank them, he offered Brule and his girlfriend backstage passes for the U2 concert Wednesday night at Edmonton's Commonwealth Stadium. The couple sold their tickets to Game 1 of the Stanley Cup finals between Boston and Vancouver, took a flight back to Edmonton and went to the show with Brule's mom.
"I like people who play ice hockey - they stop for hitchhikers. I know this from experience," Bono told the concert crowd.
Bono
New Face, Voice Of Studio Tour
Jimmy Fallon
Jimmy Fallon has written a love song to the Universal Studios Tour.
Fallon wrote the tune, titled "Tram-tastic," as part of his role as the tour's new face and voice. Besides the song, the NBC late-night host created a series of video commentaries for the attraction.
Fallon, who describes himself as a big fan of the Universal tour, visited the studio Thursday with guitar in hand to perform his new song.
The Universal Studios Tour gives those dreaming of a show business career an "awesome" opportunity to peek inside back-lot life, he said.
Jimmy Fallon
Returns To London
Playboy Club
Hugh Hefner opens a new Playboy club in London's swanky Mayfair district on Saturday after an absence of 30 years, and the imminent return of the "bunny girls" has some feminist groups and commentators hopping mad.
The 85-year-old entrepreneur is in London to launch the new venue, where life membership costs 15,000 pounds ($25,000) and a single "Sazerac" cocktail will set a member back 2,000 pounds.
He expects a mixed welcome at the plush new club at its official launch, with up to 200 feminist protesters promising to make their objections felt under the banner "Eff Off Hefner!."
Inside, young women dressed in the famous Playboy rabbit ears, collars, cuffs and skimpy corsets will offer him and his guests champagne and deal cards at the gambling tables that will be the key economic ingredient to the venture.
Playboy Club
Continues To Thrive
Rock Radio
Despite shrinking ratings and a loss of stations, rock and alternative stations continue to thrive in about one-third of the top 35 markets, including Los Angeles, Houston and Philadelphia.
Most have decades in the format, deeply entrenched market positions and a full staff of live and local personalities, including a market-leading morning show with a larger audience than the rest of the station's programs.
Case in point: Greater Media's WMMR Philadelphia. No. 1 among listeners aged 18-34 and No. 3 in 25-54 in Arbitron's latest monthly ratings, the 43-year-old active rocker has the city's top-rated personality morning show ("Preston & Steve"), an iconic midday personality (Pierre Robert), an afternoon host connected with the local music scene (Jaxon) and a night jock who serves as the voice of the NBA's 76ers and is wired into Philly's other major sports franchises (Matt Cord).
"Personalities are the difference maker between us and Pandora or Spotify," WMMR PD Bill Weston says. "Having voices that help the audience identify with the community where they live and try to make them care about music as they get older is vitally important."
Rock Radio
Sues Audi Over Ad
Eminem
Eminem has filed a cease-and-desist order against Audi, alleging the German carmaker illegally used the rapper's Oscar-winning song "Lose Yourself" in a commercial for its new 2012 Audi A6 Avant.
"Lose Yourself" is the same music Eminem authorized Chrysler to use in its "Imported from Detroit" campaign for its new Chrysler 200 model.
Eminem starred in a spot for the campaign which debuted during the Super Bowl and has been viewed by more than 10 million people online. In addition to the use of the song, Audi's commercial, which has not aired in North America, uses very similar visuals to the Chrysler spot. In Chrysler's version, Eminem drives past Detroit's key landmarks. The car in the Audi commercial drives past Berlin's tourist sites.
Eminem's Detroit-based publisher, Eight Mile Style, filed the order against Audi in a Hamburg regional court this week. The company has also said it will seek damages. The order only makes reference to Audi's alleged unauthorized use of the song and does not include allegations that Audi may have copied the Chrysler campaign.
Eminem
Robbed In Prague
John Malkovich
Being John Malkovich proved to be rather less fun than the eponymous comedy movie on Friday after the American actor found out his Prague hotel room had been burgled.
The theft was an embarrassment to the historic Czech capital, a popular European tourist destination that still struggles with a post-communist legacy of taxi drivers and waiters fleecing foreign visitors.
"We can confirm than an investigation is under way in the case of the disappearance of Mr. Malkovich's personal belongings," said a spokeswoman for the Mandarin Oriental hotel.
Malkovich, 57, performed in the murder melodrama "Infernal Comedy," based on a real Austrian serial killer, at the Prague Spring music festival on Thursday, and was due to fly to Poland on Friday.
John Malkovich
Cancels Trip To Polish Film Festival
Roman Polanski
Roman Polanski has canceled his planned visit to the 36th Polish Film Festival in Gdynia. Just two days after confirming that Polanski would attend Gdynia to receive a lifetime achievement award and give a director's master class, festival organizers said the Oscar-winning director had changed his plans.
On their Web site, the festival gave no reason for Polanski's change of heart. Local commentators speculated the 76-year-old director may have been afraid crowds would protest his visit or that, as with a visit to the Zurich Film Festival two years ago, he would be arrested and face possible extradition to the United States.
Polanski still faces court proceedings linked to a 1977 case in which he is accused of sexually assaulting a 13-year-old girl. Several right-wing politicians in Poland have spoken out against his visit, saying Polanski is still a wanted man in the United States.
Though Polanski, a Polish-native, could theoretically travel safely to Poland, the director has been especially cautious after his release from Swiss incarceration last year. He was spotted at Switzerland's Montreaux Jazz Festival shortly after his release, but has not traveled widely outside his homes in France and Switzerland. He did not attend the European Film Awards in Estonia last December, instead accepting six prizes, including Best Film for The Ghostwriter via Skype.
Roman Polanski
Son Charged With Drunken Driving
Joe Montana
College football quarterback Nate Montana, son of NFL Hall of Fame star Joe Montana, was arrested early on Friday in Missoula, Montana, on suspicion of driving under the influence.
Nate Montana, 21, was stopped at about 4 a.m. local time for speeding and refused to submit to an alcohol breath test, but the arresting officer nevertheless found him to have been driving under the influence, said Jason Johnson a spokesman for the county sheriff's department.
The athlete was subsequently booked into the Missoula County Jail on a DUI first offense -- a misdemeanor traffic infraction -- and was released after posting a $685 bond, Johnson said.
Montana transferred from Notre Dame to the University of Montana in Missoula in February and is vying for the starting quarterback spot there.
Joe Montana
Judge Won't Stop Free Disney Movies
Dish
A federal judge has denied Walt Disney Co's attempt to block Dish Network Corp from distributing popular movies including Disney's "Toy Story 3" and "Alice in Wonderland" for free as part of a year-long promotional giveaway of its Starz channels.
The New York judge rejected Disney's request for a preliminary injunction against Dish without explanation in a one-line order issued on Thursday.
Disney filed a copyright infringement suit against Dish in May, accusing the satellite television provider of devaluing the rights to its movies and interfering with its licensing strategy. The media giant said it would suffer "irreparable harm" if the court did not intervene and stop Dish from providing free access to Starz in honor of its 30th anniversary.
Dish responded in its own court filing that Disney had failed to show sufficient urgency or immediate harm for the court to block the free promotion before a trial occurs in the case. The company pointed to Disney's four-month delay in filing the lawsuit.
Dish
In Memory
James Arness
Matt Dillon, the mythical marshal of Dodge City, stood tall - all 6 feet, 6 inches of him - on "Gunsmoke" from 1955 to 1975. He outlasted dozens of other Western heroes while making history on TV's longest-running dramatic series, a record that held until NBC's "Law & Order" tied the CBS Western's record in 2010.
Through all those gunslinging years, James Arness, who died Friday, kept Marshal Dillon righteous, peace-seeking and, most of all, believable.
In an era when TV actors typically chewed the scenery, Arness had a credible, commanding presence by hardly uttering a word. A typical scene found a dozen cowboys riding up to the town jail intent on busting out a prisoner pal.
No wonder "Gunsmoke" wore so well. And became the last word on a programming craze that some seasons found as many as 30 Westerns on the air. When "Gunsmoke" went off in 1975, it was the only Western left.
By the end of his career, Arness, who was 88 when he died at his home in Brentwood, Calif., seemed almost indistinguishable from Matt Dillon in the audience's mind.
In life, Arness was a quiet, intensely private man who preferred the outdoor life to Hollywood's party scene, rarely gave interviews, and refused to discuss his personal tragedies (his daughter and his former wife, Virginia, both died of drug overdoses).
The actor was 32 when friend John Wayne declined the lead role in "Gunsmoke" and recommended Arness instead. Afraid of being typecast, Arness initially rejected it.
Then Wayne filmed an introduction for the first episode of "Gunsmoke" to give the largely unknown Arness the proper send-off.
Born James Aurness in Minneapolis (he dropped the "u" for show business reasons), he and younger brother Peter enjoyed a "real Huckleberry Finn existence," Arness once recalled.
Peter, who changed his last name to Graves, went on to star in the TV series "Mission Impossible." (He died in 2010.)
A self-described drifter, Arness left home at age 18, hopping freight trains and Caribbean-bound freighters. He entered Beloit College in Wisconsin, but was drafted into the Army in his 1942-43 freshman year. Wounded in the leg during the 1944 invasion at Anzio, Italy, Arness was hospitalized for a year and left with a slight limp. He returned to Minneapolis to work as a radio announcer and in small theater roles.
He moved to Hollywood in 1946 at a friend's suggestion. After a slow start in which he took jobs as a carpenter and salesman, a role in MGM's "Battleground" (1949) was a career turning point. Parts in more than 20 films followed, including "The Thing," "Hellgate" and "Hondo" with Wayne. Then came "Gunsmoke," which proved a durable hit and a multimillion-dollar boon for Arness, who owned part of the series.
His longtime co-stars were Amanda Blake as saloon keeper Miss Kitty, Milburn Stone as Doc Adams, Dennis Weaver as the deputy, Chester Goode, and his replacement, Ken Curtis, as Deputy Festus Haggen.
The cancellation of "Gunsmoke" didn't keep Arness away from TV for long: He returned a few months later, in January 1976, in the TV movie "The Macahans," which led to the 1978-79 ABC series "How the West Was Won."
Arness took on a contemporary role as a police officer in the series "McClain's Law," which aired on NBC from 1981-82.
Arness met future wife Virginia Chapman while both were studying at Southern California's Pasadena Playhouse. They wed in 1948 and had two children, Jenny and Rolf. Chapman's son from her first marriage, Craig, was adopted by Arness.
The marriage foundered and in 1963 Arness sought a divorce and custody of the three children, which he was granted. He tried to guard them from the spotlight.
The emotionally troubled Virginia Arness attempted suicide twice, in 1959 and in 1960. In 1975, Jenny Arness died of an apparently deliberate drug overdose. Two years later, an overdose that police deemed accidental killed her mother.
James Arness
In Memory
Jack Kevorkian
Jack Kevorkian built his suicide machine using parts gathered from flea markets and stashed it in a rusty Volkswagen van. But it was Kevorkian's audacious attitude that set him apart in the debate over whether gravely ill people could seek help ending their lives. The retired pathologist who said he oversaw the deaths of 130 people burned state orders against him, showed up at court in costume and dared authorities to stop him or make his actions legal. He didn't give up until he was sent to prison.
Kevorkian, who died Friday at a Michigan hospital at 83, insisted suicide with the help of a medical professional was a civil right.
"Somebody has to do something for suffering humanity," he once said. "I put myself in my patients' place. This is something I would want."
Kevorkian jabbed his finger in the air as he publicly mocked politicians and religious leaders. He was a magnet for the news media, once talking to reporters with his head and wrists restrained in a stock reminiscent of the Medieval era.
His efforts put the medical establishment in knots: Here was a doctor admitting he had helped people die and urging others in the profession to do the same.
Those who sought Kevorkian's help typically suffered from cancer, Lou Gehrig's disease, multiple sclerosis or paralysis.
He catapulted into the public eye in 1990 when he used his machine to inject lethal drugs into an Alzheimer's patient. He typically would leave the bodies at emergency rooms.
For much of the decade, he escaped legal efforts to stop him. His first four trials, all on assisted-suicide charges, resulted in three acquittals and one mistrial. Murder charges in Kevorkian's first cases were thrown out because Michigan had no law against assisted suicide. The Legislature wrote one in response. He also was stripped of his medical license.
Kevorkian was freed in June 2007 after serving eight years of a 10- to 25-year sentence. His lawyers said he suffered from hepatitis C, diabetes and other problems, and he promised in affidavits that he would not assist in any more suicides if released.
Born in 1928, in the Detroit suburb of Pontiac, Kevorkian graduated from the University of Michigan's medical school in 1952 and went into pathology.
He said he first became interested in euthanasia during his internship year when he watched a middle-aged woman die of cancer. She was so emaciated, her sagging, discolored skin "covered her bones like a cheap, wrinkled frock," Kevorkian wrote.
Jack Kevorkian
In Memory
Julian and Adrian Riester
Identical twins Julian and Adrian Riester were born seconds apart 92 years ago. They died hours apart this week. The Buffalo-born brothers were also brothers in the Roman Catholic Order of Friars Minor. Professed friars for 65 years, they spent much of that time working together at St. Bonaventure University, doing carpentry work, gardening and driving visitors to and from the airport and around town.
They died Wednesday at St. Anthony Hospital in St. Petersburg, Fla., Brother Julian in the morning and Brother Adrian in the evening.
Both died of heart failure, said Father James Toal, guardian of St. Anthony Friary in St. Petersburg, where the inseparable twins lived since moving from western New York in 2008.
Julian and Adrian Riester were born Jerome and Irving on March 27, 1919, to a couple who already had five daughters. They took the names of saints upon their ordination in the Catholic church.
"Dad was a doctor and he said a prayer for a boy," Adrian once said, according to St. Bonaventure. "The Lord fooled him and sent two."
After attending St. Joseph's Collegiate Institute, the brothers were turned away by the military because of their eyesight, the university said. One had a bad left eye, the other a bad right eye.
Eventually they joined the friars of Holy Name Province in New York City. They received separate assignments before reuniting at the seminary at St. Bonaventure from 1951 to 1956. After serving parishes in Buffalo for 17 years, they returned to St. Bonaventure in 1973 and spent the next 35 years there.
They had separate rooms in the friary but one telephone extension that rang into both, Peace recalled. It was usually the more talkative Adrian who answered, though Julian possessed a quiet authority. They never said who was born first.
Funeral services are scheduled for Monday at St. Mary Our Lady of Grace Church in St. Petersburg. Afterward, the brothers' bodies will be flown to Buffalo and buried Wednesday at St. Bonaventure Cemetery, across the street from the university.
Julian and Adrian Riester
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