Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Mark Morford: Thank you very much, British Petrol (sfgate.com)
Please sit down. Take a deep breath. I am going to ask you to recall something very traumatic and painful, to take a moment and remember exactly how things were not all that long ago, how pathetic and lost it all seemed, for nearly a decade, one of the worst intervals in our nation's history, a period most of us have worked extremely hard via wine, drugs, scream therapy, sex and lots of deep and prayerful book-learnin' to block out, forget, heal.
Froma Harrop: Obama Should Leave Arizona Alone (creators.com)
The Obama administration is challenging Arizona's tough new immigration law, and that's too bad. It's not that the Arizona law is good policy, because it isn't. And it's not that President Obama doesn't have a better idea on immigration reform, because he does.
Connie Schultz: Dueling Bibles (creators.com)
The memory unspools like a film clip. My mother is seated in front of the computer in my living room. My 11-year-old daughter, Caitlin, stands next to her, one arm resting on her grandmother's shoulder. They are completely absorbed in each other and their latest round of a "Jeopardy"-like game that came with our computer in the late '90s.
Keith O'Brien: What happened to studying? (boston.com)
You won't hear this from the admissions office, but college students are cracking the books less and less.
MAX FISHER: 8 Theories on Why College Kids Are Studying Less (theatlanticwire.com)
College students today are spending less time studying than they did in the past, according to a recent report.
GAIL COLLINS: My Boyfriend's Back (nytimes.com)
The only person who's actually advancing the battle against teen pregnancy is Levi Johnston.
Paul Krugman: Pity the Poor C.E.O.'s (nytimes.com)
Business leaders may be feeling unloved, but giving them a group hug won't cure what ails the economy.
"The Second Sex" by Simone de Beauvoir: A review by Carlin Romano
A book is not born, but rather becomes, a translation. The latter may be a creative reimagining of the original, a faithful mirror image, an imperfect rendering, even a scandalous distortion. Depending on one's concrete connection to the act of literary alchemy -- professional translator, delighted or bemused author, satisfied or enraged publisher, savvy or naive reader -- serenity or mayhem may ensue.
John Timpane: E-readers are on the rise thanks to older readers (The Philadelphia Inquirer)
To e- or not to e-? That is the question facing millions of American book-lovers: Will you buy an e-reader to read booksŠ
PAUL CONSTANT: 'The Girl Who Played with Fire': Sophomore Slump (thestranger.com)
Even as America races to create our own film adaptation of Stieg Larsson's Millennium trilogy, one thing is already evident: We will never find an actress to play Lisbeth Salander who is as good as the actress in the Swedish adaptations, Noomi Rapace.
Roger Ebert: THE GIRL WHO PLAYED WITH FIRE (R; 3 1/2 stars)
The girl is an enigma. She has a dragon tattoo, she plays with fire, she kicks a hornet's nest. These are not personality traits. We learn in the second movie based on a Stieg Larsson thriller a little more about her childhood, and her fiery relationship with her father. What we don't learn is why she is content to live the life of a hermit ...
Roger Ebert: The Great Box-Office Scam (from 1985)
"Jeez, isn't it shocking, how bad 'Goonies' did?" How bad did it do? I asked. "Well," said the guy in the movie business, "on Saturday, it did $3,000 at the Esquire. At five bucks a pop, that's 600 people who went to see 'Goonies.' That's not even good for one showing, let alone the whole opening Saturday."
The Weekly Poll
Summer Sabbatical
Poll returns 13 July!
BadToTheBoneBob
wrote:
responded:
From The Creator of 'Avery Ant'
Answers 5 Questions
Carlos Santana
Carlos Santana, guitar legend, answers 5 questions
Latin-rock legend Carlos Santana was in an ebullient mood when he spoke to the Free Press a few days before starting his Universal Tone Tour with Steve Winwood. "I am in love, off the ground, and in that state of mind where you don't think about anything else, even food," said the leader of Santana, who plays DTE Energy Music Theatre on Saturday...
Carlos Santana, guitar legend, answers 5 questions | freep.com | Detroit Free Press
(Note to BCE fans: Santana's 'Abraxas' is on my 'Greatest Albums of All Time' list.)
~ BadtotheboneBob
Thanks, B2tbBob!
Suggests
Lady Gaga Parody
In case you haven't already seen it...Wonderful Lady Gaga Parody
From the students of the University of Oregon:
BadtotheboneBob
Sunday's Solar Eclipse
On Sunday the moon's shadow will sweep across Earth during one of the most remote
total solar eclipses of the century. The eclipse will be visible only along a narrow, 155-mile-wide (250-kilometer-wide) band that will cross the Pacific Ocean, starting north of
New Zealand at 2:15 p.m. ET and ending in the southernmost tip of South America at 4:52 p.m. ET.
Solar Eclipses, Total Eclipse Information, News, Facts, Photos -- National Geographic
~ BadtotheboneBob
Thanks, B2tbBob!
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Looks like the coastal eddy is moving on. Wah. Come back, Eddy!
Teams Up With UFW Over Immigration
"Colbert Report"
Stephen Colbert has a new job - farmworker.
A tongue-in-cheek offer - maybe.
But the host of Comedy Central's "Colbert Report" teamed up Thursday night with Arturo Rodriguez, the president of the United Farm Workers of America, in a challenge to unemployed Americans: Come on, take our jobs.
The union has been asking Americans to fill out an online form under the banner "I want to be a farm worker" at take our jobs. org, and they'll be trained and connected to farms.
"Colbert Report"
Marks 50 Years Of The Twist
Chubby Checker
Fifty years to the day after the release of the hip-swiveling tune "The Twist," the man who made it famous is celebrating in his hometown.
Chubby Checker performed Friday at a free noontime concert at Philadelphia City Hall. About 1,000 people enthusiastically joined in on the gyrations. The singer even invited some onstage.
The 68-year-old Checker says it's a celebration of 50 years of people dancing on the floor by themselves. He says it was the first time people danced without a partner.
Chubby Checker
Story Published As Graphic Novel
Anne Frank
The Anne Frank House Museum launched a graphic novel version of the teenage Jewish diarist's biography Friday, hoping to bring her story and death in a Nazi concentration camp to a wider audience.
Spokeswoman Annemarie Bekker said the publication is aimed at teenagers who might not otherwise read Anne Frank's diary, already the most widely read document to emerge from the Holocaust.
Using the style of comic books to illustrate serious historical topics, even genocide, is not new. "Maus," Art Spiegelman's graphic biography of his father, a survivor of the Auschwitz death camp, won a special Pulitzer Prize in 1992.
The Anne Frank biography, authorized by the museum, is a collaboration between American author Sid Jacobson and artist Ernest Colon. They also co-produced a best-selling graphic novel, The 9/11 Commission Report.
Anne Frank
Oracle Picks Spain
Paul the Octopus
here's been plenty of ink for Paul the octopus lately, and why not?
The octopus, also known as the "Oracle of Oberhausen," has successfully predicted the winner of six World Cup matches so far.
Now, Paul has forecast the winner of Sunday's championship match. And rather than go out on a limb - or maybe eight of them - the critter is sticking with the favorite, picking Spain over the Netherlands.
Handlers of the 2 1/2-year-old floppy octopus - a resident of the Oberhausen Sea Life aquarium - usually have him make predictions only for games in which Germany plays. But because of Paul's recent worldwide fame and demand for his pick for the final, they made an exception.
Paul the Octopus
Getting A "Glee"-Full Makeover
Britney Spears
Britney Spears is the latest mega pop star to be getting a "Glee"-full makeover.
"We are writing a Britney Spears episode," Ryan Murphy, creator of the hit musical comedy TV show, told celebrity news show Entertainment Tonight.
It was not clear whether Spears, 28, the biggest pop music phenomenon of the early 2000s with hits like "Oops!...I Did It Again" and "Piece of Me", would also appear in the episode planned for the new season which starts in the fall.
"Glee", which won 19 Emmy nominations on Thursday, based two episodes earlier this year on the music of Madonna and Lady Gaga but neither of the singers appeared on the show.
Britney Spears
Judge Cuts Penalty In Song-Sharing Case
Boston
A federal judge on Friday drastically trimmed a $675,000 verdict against a Boston University graduate student who was found guilty of illegally downloading and sharing 30 songs online, saying the jury damage award against a person who gained no financial benefit from his copyright infringement is "unconstitutionally excessive."
Joel Tenenbaum, from Providence, R.I., was sued by some of the largest music companies who said he violated copyright rules. He admitted in court to downloading songs between 1999 and 2007. The jury found him guilty and assessed the damage award last July.
His lawyers appealed, calling the award "severe" and "oppressive" and asking the court for a new trial or reduced damages.
Judge Nancy Gertner on Friday cut the damage award to $67,500 - three times the statutory minimum - and said the new the amount "not only adequately compensates the plaintiffs for the relatively minor harm that Tenenbaum caused them; it sends a strong message that those who exploit peer-to-peer networks to unlawfully download and distribute copyrighted works run the risk of incurring substantial damages awards."
Boston
Website Posts Recording
Mel 'Sugar Tits' Gibson
Mel Gibson is heard using a racial epithet and calling his ex-girlfriend a "whore" in a recording released by a celebrity news website Friday.
The two-minute recording posted by RadarOnline.com includes segments in which a voice sounding distinctively like the Academy Award-winner is heard telling his then-girlfriend, Oksana Grigorieva, that she is dressing too provocatively and that it would be her fault if she were raped. He uses the N-word at one point, and the recording is laced with his profanity.
Grigorieva recorded the actor-director because she was afraid he might harm her, the website reported. The actor is heard on the recording harshly criticizing Grigorieva for the way she dresses. He accuses her of lying to him about having breast implants.
"They just look stupid," Gibson tells her at one point in the recording. "Keep them if you want to. They look like a Vegas bitch, a Vegas whore."
"You look like a (expletive) bitch in heat, and if you get raped by a pack of (N-word), it will be your fault," Gibson is heard telling Grigorieva. "You provoked it. You are provocatively dressed."
Mel 'Sugar Tits' Gibson
Rahm's Little Brother Gets Even
Mel "Sugar Tits" Gibson
Mel Gibson has been dropped by William Morris Endeavor Entertainment.
Earlier this week, the agency's Patrick Whitesell informed the actors' representatives that he would no longer be represented by the agency.
Gibson's longtime agent, Ed Limato, died July 3, and a funeral will take place in New York next week.
William Morris Endeavor (WME) partner Ari Emanuel had previously expressed hostility toward Gibson after the actor made anti-Semitic remarks and made remarks implying skepticism about the Holocaust.
An agency source said the only reason the agency had represented Gibson in the first place was his association with Limato. "Mel was really important to Ed," an agency source said. "He was with him for 32 years and I think Ed saw him as a son." But he added, "The world knows how Ari feels and he has never changed that opinion."
Mel "Sugar Tits" Gibson
Analyst Held On Child Porn Charge
ESPN
Jeremy Green, an analyst for ESPN and son of former NFL coach Dennis Green, has been arrested on a child pornography charge in Connecticut.
Bristol police say Green was picked up on Thursday around 5 p.m. in a Southington hotel and charged with possession of child pornography, possession of narcotics and possession of drug paraphernalia.
He was being held on a $750,000 bond. Police are not releasing details and say the warrant is sealed.
ESPN spokesman Mike Soltys says Green has worked since 2005 as a contributor to ESPN.com. The company had no immediate comment on the arrest.
ESPN
Case Delayed Again
Charlie Sheen
Charlie Sheen's attempt to resolve charges of assaulting his wife ahead of taping for a new season of hit television comedy "Two and a Half Men" was dealt a setback on Friday when his planned court date was delayed three weeks.
Officials in Aspen, Colorado said a planned July 12 hearing had been re-scheduled for August 2 at the request of Sheen's lawyers to allow more time for both sides to negotiate a plea bargain.
Sheen's lawyers have been trying since June to nail down a deal under which the actor would serve 30 days in jail if he pleads guilty to an assault charge that includes allegations he pulled a knife on his wife Brooke Mueller on Christmas Day and threatened to have her killed.
CBS declined to comment on Friday. The network negotiated a new contract with Sheen in May that made him the highest-paid actor on U.S. television with a reported salary of $1.8 million per episode.
Charlie Sheen
Claims USA Stole "Royal Pains"
Hayden Christensen
Canadian actor Hayden Christensen, who played Anakin Skywalker in the "Star Wars" prequels, is suing USA Network over "Royal Pains," saying the cable network ripped off his idea for a show about a concierge doctor in Malibu who makes house calls to the rich and famous.
Christensen, along with his brother Tove and their Forest Park Pictures production company, filed the lawsuit on Tuesday in New York District Court.
The brothers allegedly brought the idea for a concierge doctor show titled "Housecall" to USA and met with Alex Pepiol, who at the time was manager of original scripted series programing at the network. They say they also sent him materials including a treatment, character biographies and show ideas.
The plaintiffs aren't suing for copyright infringement, though. Instead, they're following others who have found success in making idea theft claims by asserting breach of implied contract, unfair competition and unjust enrichment. Christensen is demanding profits received from the "Royal Pains" concept and damages "believed to be in the millions of dollars," according to the complaint.
Hayden Christensen
Bucharest Exhibition Debunks Myth
Dracula
An exhibition opened Friday in Bucharest that aims to debunk the myths surrounding Walachian prince Vlad Tepes (the Empaler), who inspired Bram Stoker's bloodsucking character Dracula.
"The exhibition is based on historical studies showing that the legends related to Vlad Dracula were aimed at presenting eastern Europe as a primitive land and a source of evil," Austrian curator Margot Rauch told AFP.
Entitled "Dracula - Voivode and Vampire", the exhibit for the first time puts on display in Romania portraits of Vlad Tepes (who reigned twice, between 1456-1462 and then in 1476) borrowed from the Kunsthistoriches Museum in Vienna and the Schloss Ambras museum in Innsbruck.
Manuscripts and engravings depicting him as a "blood-thirsty tyrant" are also on display.
Dracula
| CURRENT MOON lunar phases |
