Recommended Reading
from Bruce
David Bruce: Wise Up! Books (athensnews.com)
When Joan Lowery Nixon, who wrote many mysteries for young readers, won her second Edgar Award for outstanding mystery writing, a woman asked her, "You've done so well with your books for children - why don't you try writing a real book?" However, Ms. Nixon felt that children's books are real books, and that they are harder to write than books for adults. After all, when a child grows bored with a book, the child stops reading it, so Ms. Nixon constantly revised her books until she knew that they would keep a child's interest.
Mark Morford: How to properly mount your deity (sfgate.com)
The 5,000-year-old god arrived in an enormous, heavy-duty cardboard box -- as gods are wont to do -- nearly four feet high and two feet deep, weighing nearly 100 pounds, packed like an incandescent rock in dense industrial Styrofoam, because that's just the way he roll
Paul Krugman: Addicted to Bush (nytimes.com)
Republican leaders seem to want a complete return to the Bush agenda, but how can they embrace Bush's policies given his record?
Jim Hightower: WIMPY LEADERS IGNORE A STRONG PEOPLE (jimhightower.com)
Right-wing Republicans and corporate Democrats have become a pathetic bunch of "No-can-do Nancys."
Jim Hightower: DELL'S DECEPTIVE "GENIUS" (jimhightower.com)
But - oops - turns out that Michael's genius has a few unsightly hickies on it. His corporation is now being sued by some of its biggest customers for peddling shoddy products, then deliberately deceiving buyers about the shoddiness.
Sandy Banks: First, hire the best teachers (latimes.com)
New schools are gorgeous, but who's in the classroom matters more.
ERIC WILSON: Shoppers on a 'Diet' Tame the Urge to Buy (nytimes.com)
This self-imposed exercise in frugality was prompted by a Web challenge called Six Items or Less (sixitemsorless.com). The premise was to go an entire month wearing only six items already found in your closet (not counting shoes, underwear or accessories).
Devra Maza: "A 'Twilight' Seduction: What Men Can Learn From Edward" (huffingtonpost.com)
Kiss: Tenderly, urgently, to communicate, to explore, and for no reason at all.
Smolder: Look into our eyes like you want to learn us, then ask us what we're thinking. We're going to tell you anyway, so you might as well get credit for it.
Robert Pinsky: Wild Child (slate.com)
The best poems for kids aren't the soft and saccharine ones.
Jonathan Ross meets Jim Steranko, his comic-book hero (guardian.co.uk)
The TV presenter and comic-book obsessive on the extraordinary work of graphic storyteller Jim Steranko.
David Michael: Review of "A Rat Is a Pig Is a Dog Is a Boy: The Human Cost of the Animal Rights Movement" by Wesley J. Smith (tnr.com)
In 2003, PETA launched its "Holocaust on Your Plate" campaign. For two years, the group disseminated brochures and exhibited posters that juxtaposed pictures of concentration camp victims with pictures from factory farms and abattoirs. The most insidious of these images showed a pile of human corpses next to a pile of dead pigs. PETA's message was clear: using animal products is a kind of Shoah.
Colin Robinson: The Trouble With Amazon (thenation.com)
Jeff Bezos loves numbers. In a speech in May to graduates at his alma mater, Princeton University, he recounted a childhood memory: when, driving with his grandmother, a heavy smoker, he calculated by how many years her addiction would reduce her life expectancy. Announcing the result from the back seat, he expected praise for his deft math. But his grandmother just burst into tears.
The Weekly Poll
Current Question
The 'Mad Mel' Edition...
Mel Gibson has been called a religiously insane, anti-Semitic, misogynistic, racist by a great many people. His actions and words certainly point to that as being the case. However, he has made movies that have been very popular and, in some instances, awarded and/or critically acclaimed...
So...
What is your view of Gibson as an actor and are there any of his movies that you have enjoyed?
Send your response to
wrote:
replied:
From The Creator of 'Avery Ant'
Reader Comment
'Chompie'
Hi Marty,
That shark pic in a building reminded me of the Headington shark that I
saw last year in Oxford, England.
Reader Suggestion
Palin 2012
Hi there,
You might be amused by a CGI animation of Sarah Palin's latest antics, plus a fexw greatest hits:
Reader Comment
Caterpillars
Hey Marty,
Thought you might enjoy seeing how these guys act up when they're pissed.
When they extrude those little bags it gets really stinky.
Check out the .wmv file too.
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Bit warmer, lot more humid.
Australian Film Probes Mystery
Dangling Shoes
An Australian filmmaker intrigued by the mysterious sight of sneakers dangling from power lines said Thursday he became so "obsessed" by the practice he decided to document its myths and meanings.
Matthew Bate's film "The Mystery of Flying Kicks" examines what he calls the "global Chinese whisper" of sneaker tossing, and was conceived during a visit to the United States in 2006.
It explores the mythology of slinging sneakers over power lines -- or "shoefiti" -- a pop culture phenomenon which Bate said had different meanings in different countries, stretching as far back as 1890.
An ubiquitous urban symbol with wildly diverging legends about its meaning and origin, Bate said there were hundreds of thousands of blogs and websites devoted to shoefiti and its perennial question: why?
Dangling Shoes
Collapses Onstage
Billy Corgan
Smashing Pumpkins frontman Billy Corgan collapsed onstage Thursday night in Tampa, Fla., falling into his drummer's kit as the band performed its 1995 hard rock hit "Bullet with Butterfly Wings."
Almost immediately after falling, Corgan got back to his feet and continued playing. The lead singer and guitarist later commented on the incident on his Twitter page.
"For those that saw me fall last night during Bullet, that wasn't a stage move or clumsiness, that was me blacking out and wiping out," Corgan wrote. "I have no memory of falling against the drum riser and my guitar cabinet, but I can tell you I've got quite a good bruise + am moving slow."
Billy Corgan
Hospital News
Al Jarreau
U.S. jazz singer Al Jarreau was in a critical condition in hospital in France on Friday after collapsing on stage the previous evening, hospital sources said.
The 70-year-old singer collapsed during a concert in Barcelonnette in the southeast of France, and was suffering from respiratory problems.
"He was rushed to hospital ... his condition is critical. He's in intensive care," said Maurice Marchetti, deputy head of the hospital at Gap.
Al Jarreau
Hospital News - One View
Zsa Zsa
Actress Zsa Zsa Gabor was in critical condition Friday after undergoing hip replacement surgery earlier in the week, her husband said Friday.
Gabor's husband, Prince Frederic von Anhalt, said his wife had injuries to the right side of her body, including a broken hip, after she fell out of her bed last weekend trying to get into a wheelchair at her Bel-Air home.
Gabor, 93, initially appeared to be recovering after the hip surgery Monday at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center, Gabor's publicist John Blanchette said.
He said Friday the actress may have suffered a stroke during surgery, but von Anhalt said doctors have not confirmed there was a stroke.
Zsa Zsa
Hospital News - Another View
Zsa Zsa
Zsa Zsa Gabor's daughter on Friday denied a report that her mother was critically ill and not responding to human contact.
"She is not in a coma. She is not on any kind of death watch. She is responsive and on medications. All vital signs are still going strong, and she is talking," Constance Francesca Hilton said in a statement to Reuters.
Hilton issued her statement while visiting her mother at the Los Angeles hospital where Gabor is recovering from hip surgery earlier this week.
Gabor's ninth husband Prince Frederic von Anhalt told Reuters earlier on Friday that Gabor, who is in her 90s, was in critical condition and was unresponsive, adding "it is not looking good."
Zsa Zsa
Tries To Limit Release Of Research
BP
Faced with hundreds of lawsuits and a deep need for experts, BP has been offering some Gulf Coast scientists lucrative consulting contracts that bar them from releasing their findings on the company's massive oil spill for three years.
Some scientists say the contracts constrain academic freedom. A few signed the agreements, then changed their minds.
And others argue BP's contract is standard, and with little federal funding available to study the spill's impact, Gulf Coast researchers have few other options.
American Association of University Professors President Cary Nelson said the three-year limitation could suppress information key to restoring the environment.
BP
Sued For Sexual Harassment
Casey Affleck
A producer of Casey Affleck's upcoming documentary about Joaquin Phoenix has dropped a bombshell $2 million lawsuit on the filmmaker/actor, claiming she was subjected to lurid sexual harassment and denied her producing fee after she refused to spend the night in a hotel room with him.
Amanda White alleges in a lawsuit filed Friday afternoon in Los Angeles Superior Court that she was forced to endure debauched behavior during production of "I'm Still Here: The Lost Year of Joaquin Phoenix," including "uninvited and unwelcome sexual advances in the workplace" and an impromptu shoot in a Las Vegas hotel room filled with hookers and transvestites.
White, who worked on "Good Will Hunting" with Affleck and his brother, actor/filmmaker Ben Affleck, and later collaborated with producer Chris Moore on several projects, says she agreed orally to a $50,000 fee to help produce the unconventional documentary about the attempts of actor Phoenix (Affleck's brother-in-law) to reinvent himself as a rap artist. But the offensive behavior allegedly began almost immediately.
"On one occasion, Affleck instructed a crew member to take off his pants in order to show (White) his penis, even after (White) objected," the complaint alleges. "Affleck repeatedly referred to women as 'cows'; he discussed his sexual exploits and those of other celebrities that he allegedly witnessed; and asked (White), after learning her age, 'Isn't it about time you get pregnant?'"
Casey Affleck
Sarkozy's Scapegoats
France
During his rise to and occupancy of the French presidency, Nicolas Sarkozy has regularly announced new law-and-order offensives in the hopes of stoking support among the majority of French voters who say they're scared of crime. Typically, those policies have taken aim at Sarkozy's preferred target: the banlieues, the troubled suburban housing projects that ring most French cities and are populated by a disproportionately high number of minorities.
Though divisive, the policies have usually worked - first fueling Sarkozy's rise from crusading Interior Minister to master of the ElysÉe, then serving as his trump card whenever his support slumped. But this week, Sarkozy turned on a community that has long been the default object of suspicion and disdain throughout Europe: itinerant people including gypsies, travelers and Roma. And by using that small, ostracized group as easy prey in a new anticrime push, Sarkozy has critics charging him with manipulating public concerns of security and immigration for cynical political gain.
On Wednesday, Sarkozy told members of his conservative government that he intends to look into "the problems created by the behavior of certain travelers and Roma," whose nomadic lifestyle leaves them with "no assimilation into [the] communities" they live near. He also said he'd gather with advisers on July 28 for a special ElysÉe meeting on the issue, which he said falls under the "implacable struggle the government is leading against crime, [and the] veritable war we're going to wage against traffickers and delinquents."
Though the vast majority of the (very roughly) estimated 400,000 travelers in France are either French citizens or residents of E.U. countries, critics accuse government officials who have made statements linking the issue to immigration of trying to drum up nationalist support by playing the antiforeigner card. "You can very well be Roma, a traveler, even, at times, French within these communities," government spokesman Luc Chatel said to the press on Wednesday as he explained Sarkozy's motives. "But you'll have to respect the law of the republic."
France
Authenticity Af Autopsy Tools Questioned
Elvis
The authenticity of tools supposedly used in Elvis Presley's autopsy and embalming is being questioned, and the items have been withdrawn from a Chicago auction.
Memphis Funeral Home president E.C. Daves told The Commercial Appeal newspaper in Tennessee that there's no way to tell whether the items being offered for sale through Leslie Hindman Auctioneers are authentic.
Daves says a retired embalmer claims he took the items after Presley's embalming Aug. 16, 1977. But Daves says another employee told him the equipment was sterilized and used again.
The items included rubber gloves, forceps, a comb, a toe tag and eye liner. They were to be auction in two sets valued at $8,000 and $6,000.
Elvis
Suggests Diverse Migration
Ancient Woman
A scientific reconstruction of one of the oldest sets of human remains found in the Americas appears to support theories that the first people who came to the hemisphere migrated from a broader area than once thought, researchers say.
Mexico's National Institute of Anthropology and History on Thursday released photos of the reconstructed image of a woman who probably lived on Mexico's Caribbean coast 10,000 to 12,000 years ago. She peeks out of the picture as a short, spry-looking woman with slightly graying hair.
Anthropologists had long believed humans migrated to the Americas in a relatively short period from a limited area in northeast Asia across a temporary land corridor that opened across the Bering Strait during an ice age.
But government archaeologist Alejandro Terrazas says the picture has now become more complicated, because the reconstruction more resembles people from southeastern Asian areas like Indonesia.
Ancient Woman
Cat Ashes Fetch 844 Pounds
Coronation Street
The ashes of Frisky, the cat who starred in the opening credits of soap opera Coronation Street, have sold to a British buyer for 844 pounds ($1,279), the auctioneers told Reuters.
Dominic Winter auctioneers expected the cat's remains to fetch between 100 and 150 pounds.
Frisky died in 2000, aged 14, after appearing in the credits of the long-running soap for 11 years.
Coronation Street
Hot Weather Shrinks Germany's Fries
Pommes Frites
French fries in Germany could be significantly shorter this year due to the heatwave that has baked Germany and much of Europe this month, the German Farmers' Association (DBV) said on Friday.
Hot and dry weather has led to a meager harvest of extra-large potatoes used to produce the ideal-length French fry.
"The French fries industry and consumers will have to brace themselves for shorter fries," said spokeswoman Verena Telaar, adding that smaller potatoes mean that fries will probably be 45 millimeters (1.8 inches) long at best, down from the usual 55 mm (2.2 inches).
Pommes Frites
In Memory
Daniel Schorr
Veteran reporter and commentator Daniel Schorr, whose hard-hitting reporting for CBS got him on President Richard Nixon's notorious "enemies list" in the 1970s, has died. He was 93.
Daniel Schorr's career of more than six decades spanned the spectrum of journalism - beginning in print, then moving to television where he spent 23 years with CBS News and ending with National Public Radio, where he worked until he died. He also wrote several books, including his memoir, "Staying Tuned: A Life in Journalism."
The famed political reporter nearly became a music reviewer instead. Beyond the dogged reporting, though, Jonathan Schorr, 42, said his father was warm, caring and someone who taught by example.
During the Nixon years, Schorr not only covered the news as CBS' chief Watergate correspondent, but he also became part of the story. Hoping to beat the competition, he rushed to the air with Nixon's famous "enemies list" and began reading the list of 20 to viewers before previewing it. As he got to No. 17, he discovered his name.
"I remember that my first thought was that I must go on reading without any pause, or gasp or look of wild surmise," he wrote in his book "Clearing the Air."
Schorr's stories pointing out weaknesses of the administration's programs so angered Nixon that he ordered an FBI investigation of the reporter - saying he was being considered for a top federal job. That investigation was later mentioned in one of the three articles of impeachment - "abuse of a federal agency" - adopted by the House Judiciary Committee against Nixon.
Schorr became part of the story once again in 1976, when he arranged for the publication of an advance copy of a suppressed House Intelligence Committee report on illegal CIA and FBI findings.
At the time, Schorr called it "an inescapable decision of journalistic conscience" to see that the report ended up in print. To his surprise, reaction from his own colleagues in the media was negative, because Schorr had handed the report over in exchange for a donation to a group that aids journalists in First Amendment issues.
He was last heard on the air waves July 10, on NPR's "Weekend Edition" with Scott Simon in a discussion of the U.S.-Russia spy swap, the Justice Department's lawsuit against Arizona and other news of the week.
Schorr spoke in a thick New York accent he never lost, a voice that contrasted sharply with the drama-school quality of many newscasters of the 1950s and '60s. It made his delivery all the more compelling.
Born in New York City to Russian-Jewish immigrant parents, Schorr began his career in journalism while he was still in high school. When he wasn't working on the student newspaper, he spent his free time as a stringer for the Bronx Home News and the Jewish Daily Bulletin. During college, Schorr also worked part-time for several metropolitan dailies.
Schorr first caught the eye of famed CBS newsman Edward R. Murrow during his vivid reports on devastating flooding in the Netherlands in 1953. Murrow persuaded him to join the network, where he started out covering Capitol Hill and the State Department.
After CBS, Schorr taught journalism at the University of California at Berkeley, and then in 1979 he joined Ted Turner's newly created CNN as its senior correspondent in Washington.
Soon after leaving the cable station in 1985 over differences with Turner, Schorr found a home at National Public Radio as a senior news analyst. He contributed regularly to "All Things Considered," and other NPR programs.
He received three Emmy Awards, among other honors that include a Peabody in 1992 for "a lifetime of uncompromising reporting of the highest integrity." He was inducted into the Hall of Fame of the Society of Professional Journalists in 1991.
Schorr is survived by his wife, Lisbeth, his son, Jonathan Schorr, daughter, Lisa Kaplan, and one grandchild. Memorial plans have not been set.
Daniel Schorr
In Memory
Margaret Ann Rich
Songwriter Margaret Ann Rich, widow of country music star Charlie Rich, died on Thursday at her home near Memphis, following a struggle with Alzheimer's disease. She was 76.
Her husband, who died in 1995, recorded several of her songs including "Life Has Its Little Ups and Downs" and "Field of Yellow Daisies." Her songs were also covered by Tom Jones, Kris Kristofferson, Rita Coolidge, Bobby "Blue" Bland and Ricky Van Shelton.
Two of her songs, "A Sunday Kind of Woman" and "Nothing In the World," appeared on Rich's biggest album, 1973's "Behind Closed Doors."
The couple married in 1952 and raised four children in Benton, Arkansas, and Memphis. Charlie Rich, perhaps best known for the hit tunes "Behind Closed Doors" and "The Most Beautiful Girl in the World," credited his wife for much of his success.
A graduate of the Arkansas State Teachers College, Margaret Ann Rich was a founding member of the Memphis chapter of the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences and a member of the Screen Actors Guild.
Survivors include two of her children, six grandchildren and four great-grandchildren. The funeral will take place in Memphis on Monday.
Margaret Ann Rich
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