'Best of TBH Politoons'
Contributor Comment
"Updated Daily"
Marty:
I don't think you need to reset your "Updated
Daily" counter to 0. 1056 Days in a Row is a
terrific record for a one person operation, and
we can cut you some slack. I suggest that
instead of "0 Days in a Row" you simply say
"Issue 1057". If anyone delves into the math to
find the issue number doesn't match the calendar
days, modestly admit to a vacation or two.
TTFN,
Baron Dave (on hiatus after 28 years of a live weekly radio program)
--
"[A]s one grows older, one lives more and more
off the little signs of whatever community ones
moves through day to day and less and less of the
gifts that fall out of individual relationships.
If one does not prepare for this change in youth,
then age becomes a bitter time." -- Samuel R.
Delany, Neveryóna p. 129
Thanks, Baron Dave!
Not a bad idea!
Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Amy Goodman: Children's Healthcare Is a No-Brainer
Congress is considering bipartisan legislation that will cover poor children in the U.S. The major obstacle? President Bush is vowing to veto the bill.
Jim Hightower: UNFRIENDLY SKIES (jimhightower.com)
Travel in some primitive parts of the world is a nightmare - passengers are treated like livestock, service is surly, rules are ridiculous, delays are common, and the whole experience is dreadful. Luckily, here in sophisticated America, we have modern airlines - on which passengers are treated like livestock, service is surly, rules are ridiculous, delays are common, and the whole experience is dreadful.
Patt Morrison: Buy a card, mock a president (latimes.com)
You know the country has come a long way since 9/11 when Bush's face graces humorous greeting cards.
Froma Harrop: Lady Bird's Beauty Treatment (creators.com)
Jackie Kennedy made herself a beautiful woman, but Lady Bird Johnson did her one better. She made a beautiful America - or at least tried. The 1965 Highway Beautification Act, which her husband, Lyndon Johnson, pushed through Congress at her insistence, dramatically limited billboards alongside federal highways. The billboard industry since has bored enormous loopholes into the restrictions - witness the monsters now sitting atop tall monopoles and visible half a mile away.
Froma Harrop: Courage About Population Needed (creators.com)
"Population Explosion" was a call to arms for American environmentalists 40 years ago, amid fears that baby boomers would have big families. That didn't happen, but hyper-population-growth is occurring now due to large-scale immigration. California has just projected a population of 60 million by mid-century, up 5 million from its forecast of only three years ago. We're talking about a 75 percent leap between 2000 and 2050 - by any measure, a population explosion.
STEVE APPLEFORD: Patti Smith's Revolutions (lacitybeat.com)
The singer, writer, artist, and muse on a life of invention.
Joel Stein: Ode to the enhanced (latimes.com)
When Hank Aaron broke Babe Ruth's all-time home run record in 1974, it was a thrilling civil rights victory. Despite some death threats, the vast majority of Americans proudly affirmed the right of one black man to hit slightly more home runs than one white man who had died three decades earlier. No one even questions that anymore.
Roger Ebert: The Simpsons Movie (PG-13; 3 stars)
The Simpsons are fairly surprised to find themselves in a movie; they can't believe "anyone would pay to see what we did on TV for free." But I suspect a lot of people will. Here is a feature-length version of what Time magazine, no less, called "the 20th century's best television series." That may say more about Time magazine and the 20th century than it does about the Simpsons, but never mind: The movie is funny, sassy and intelligent in that moronic Simpsons' way.
Roger Ebert: Games vs. Art: Ebert vs. Barker
A year or so ago, I rashly wrote that video games could not be art. That inspired a firestorm among gamers, who wrote me countless messages explaining why I was wrong, and urging me to play their favorite games. Of course, I was asking for it. Anything can be art. Even a can of Campbell's soup. What I should have said is that games could not be high art, as I understand it.
Reader Suggestion
MaoMart Flip Flops
Reader Recommendation
'Burn Notice'
BURN NOTICE is a new HOT show on USA, smart and funny, which airs on Thursdays at 10 and repeats at various times during the week. It is worth mentioning, as is the DEAD ZONE on Sundays at 10, on the same channel.
Increasingly, the networks' reality (gag me) shows are becoming not worth looking at a schedule for, and these alternative channels hold the true TV dramas. In addition to the above two shows, there is The Closer on TNT on Mondays, all of the wonderful FX shows, and the HBO series Big Love which is awesome. Those who look at your site might benefit from a listing of all of the above..........especially those who like myself are deadly bored with network programming.
Sarah
Thanks, Sarah!
I agree with you about network programming - will add 'Burn Notice', 'Dead Zone', 'The Closer', and 'Big Love' next week.
Anybody have any other suggestions?
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Still hot, still humid, still cranky.
Campaign Against Fox 'News' Advertisers
Liberals
Liberal activists are stepping up their campaign against Fox News Channel by pressuring advertisers not to patronize the network.
MoveOn.org, the Campaign for America's Future and liberal blogs like DailyKos.com are asking thousands of supporters to monitor who is advertising on the network. Once a database is gathered, an organized phone-calling campaign will begin, said Jim Gilliam, vice president of media strategy for Brave New Films, a company that has made anti-Fox videos.
The groups have successfully pressured Democratic presidential candidates not to appear at any debate sponsored by Fox, and are also trying to get Home Depot Inc. to stop advertising there.
At least 5,000 people nationwide have signed up to compile logs on who is running commercials on Fox, Gilliam said. The groups want to first concentrate on businesses running local ads, as opposed to national commercials.
Liberals
May Quit Beijing Olympics Over Darfur
Steven Spielberg
Director Steven Spielberg may step down as artistic adviser to the 2008 Beijing Olympics unless China adopts a tougher stance towards Sudan over the conflict in Darfur, ABC television said Friday.
"Steven will make a determination in the next few weeks regarding his work with the Chinese," Spielberg's spokesman Andy Spahn told ABC television.
"Our main interest is ending the genocide. No one is clear on the best way to do this," said Spahn in an article appearing on the network's website Friday.
He said "all options were on the table," including resigning. The director's final decision would depend also on a statement on Sudan by the Chinese government expected in the coming days, Spahn was quoted as saying.
Steven Spielberg
Direct-To-DVD Release
'Futurama'
"Futurama: Bender's Big Score" will be released November 27 directly to DVD. It's the first full-length "Futurama" feature based on the animated Fox TV series, which went off the air in 2003; three additional films will be released individually through 2008, all with the original creative team and voice cast on board.
The plot centers on the "Futurama" crew fighting to save Earth in an epic battle against nudist alien Internet scammers. Bender the robot soon comes under the alien's spell and is sent back in time to loot the Earth of its greatest treasures; at one point he runs into Al Gore, who guest stars as himself, during the 2000 presidential recount. Other guest stars include rapper Coolio and comedian Sarah Silverman.
20th Century Fox Home Entertainment was expected to announce the details at the Comic-Con International convention underway in San Diego.
'Futurama'
TV Land Statue In Hawaii
Elvis Presley
A life-sized statue of Elvis Presley was unveiled Thursday at the site of his legendary 1973 "Aloha from Hawaii," looking much as he did 34 years ago. His hair is slicked back, vest plastered on, microphone tilted toward his lips and flared pants draped to the floor.
The bronze statue of the King, commissioned by TV Land, is meant as a tribute to the classic show at the Neal Blaisdell Center. It was the first concert to be broadcast via satellite, reaching more than a billion viewers.
The sculpture shows Presley at his prime, slim and big-buckled with his collar turned up. As it was unveiled, "See See Rider" and "American Trilogy" played over the loudspeakers.
TV Land has dedicated five other statues, all of characters from TV shows: Ralph Kramden of "The Honeymooners" in New York; Mary Tyler Moore in Minneapolis; Andy Griffith in Raleigh, N.C.; Bob Newhart in Chicago, and Samantha Stevens of "Bewitched" in Salem, Mass.
Elvis Presley
Reprising Spock
Leonard Nimoy
Leonard Nimoy isn't through with Spock yet. The 76-year-old actor will don his famous pointy ears again to play the role in an upcoming "Star Trek" film due out Christmas 2008.
"This is really going to be a great movie. And I don't say things like that lightly," Nimoy told a gathering of 6,500 fans Thursday at Comic-Con, the nation's largest pop-culture convention.
Nimoy was joined by the newly named young Spock, "Heroes" star Zachary Quinto, who bears an uncanny resemblance to Nimoy.
Both Spocks were introduced by the film's director and co-producer, J.J. Abrams.
Leonard Nimoy
Breaks Wrist On Set
Stephen Colbert
Stephen Colbert's disdain for all things left is growing.
The host of "The Colbert Report" revealed on Thursday night's show that he broke his left wrist while running around the New York studio before taping a recent episode. Colbert removed a large "No. 1" foam hand to unmask a small cast.
The fall happened June 27, before the show went on a two-week hiatus, a spokesman for Comedy Central said Friday. Colbert, 43, was only recently fitted with a cast.
Stephen Colbert
Baby News
Alexander Pete Schreiber
Naomi Watts has given birth to a baby boy.
Alexander Pete Schreiber was born Wednesday in Los Angeles and weighed 8 pounds, 4 ounces, Watts' publicist, Robin Baum, said Thursday.
It's the first child for the Australian actress and her boyfriend, Liev Schreiber.
Alexander Pete Schreiber
Laughter Is The Best Medicine
'My Left Nut'
On the premise that laughter is the best medicine for testicular cancer, a Toronto actor has developed a one-man show, "My Left Nut", that he hopes to tour across Canada later this year.
Daniel Schneiderman, 29, originally chronicled his experience with the disease from diagnosis, to surgery (his left testicle was removed), to treatment in candid and humorous e-mails sent to friends and family in late 2005. Urged by the several friends and his mother, he has now turned the material into a show.
"My Left Nut" is being performed as part of next week's Help Kick Cancer in the Balls! fund-raiser in Toronto. The event also features stand-up comedians and a giant testicle-shaped pinata.
'My Left Nut'
Sentenced, Fined For DUI
Nicole Richie
Nicole Richie pleaded guilty Friday to driving under the influence of drugs and was sentenced to about four days in jail and fined by a court commissioner who said she was lucky nobody was killed when she drove the wrong way on a freeway.
Richie, the 25-year-old daughter of pop singer Lionel Richie, was subdued and somber as she was lectured about her driving. She entered court on the arm of boyfriend Joel Madden.
She nodded when asked if she understood terms of the plea agreement (including 90 hours in jail and a fine of $2,048) worked out between her lawyers and prosecutors. Superior Court Commissioner Steven K. Lubell also gave Richie three years of probation and warned that she would go to county jail for a year if she violates it.
She must complete her sentence by Sept. 28. She can serve it in either a city or a county jail.
Nicole Richie
Preps Video Fingerprinting
YouTube
Google Inc.'s YouTube hopes recognition technology will be in place in September to stop the posting of copyrighted videos on the popular Web site, a lawyer Friday told a judge presiding over copyright lawsuits.
The lawyer, Philip S. Beck, told U.S. District Judge Louis L. Stanton in Manhattan that YouTube was working "very intensely and cooperating" with major content providers on a video recognition technology as sophisticated as fingerprint technology the FBI uses.
Beck said the video recognition technology will allow those holding copyrights on videos to provide a digital fingerprint so that if anyone tries to share a copyrighted video, the system will shut it down within a minute or so.
YouTube
Subpoena In His Future?
Michael Moore
Federal officials may be planning to subpoena filmmaker Michael Moore seeking information about a trip he took to Cuba for his documentary, "Sicko," a source close to the situation said on Friday.
In a late Thursday appearance on NBC's "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno," Moore said he was notified at the TV studio in Burbank, California, that a subpoena had already been issued.
But the source, who declined to be identified, said Moore had not actually been served with the request. Rather, the office of his attorney, David Boies, was contacted by a division of the U.S. Department of Commerce seeking the name of a person who would accept a subpoena on Moore's behalf.
Michael Moore
Talks With CBS Continue
Don Imus
The legal struggle between Don Imus and CBS Radio is nearing a settlement that would pre-empt the dismissed DJ's threatened $120 million breach of contract lawsuit, a person familiar with the case said Friday.
Neither Imus' attorney nor CBS Radio would comment on any aspect of the case, but the person said the two sides were in the process of reaching an agreement. The person, who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity, is not authorized to speak publicly about the dispute.
It was unclear whether a deal would return Imus to the airwaves, where he worked for 40 years before his April firing after directing a sexist, racial insult at the Rutgers University women's basketball team.
The possible settlement, first reported Friday in the New York Post, was the latest indication that the Hall of Fame broadcaster's dramatic broadcasting demise could be reversed. The Rev. Al Sharpton, who spearheaded the "Fire Imus" movement, said last week that he would not oppose the 67-year-old DJ's return to radio.
Don Imus
Found Naked In Car
Frederic Von Anhalt
Zsa Zsa Gabor's husband, who made headlines earlier this year when he claimed to be the father of Anna Nicole Smith's baby, said Friday he was stripped, robbed and left naked in his Rolls-Royce by three women.
Frederic Von Anhalt called police about 10 a.m. Thursday to say he'd been driving on Bellagio Road behind the Bel Air Country Club when he was flagged down by three women in a white Chrysler convertible with Florida plates, said Los Angeles Police Department spokesman Kevin Maiberger.
Von Anhalt said he thought the three women wanted to pose for a photograph with him, but when he started talking to them, one of them pushed a gun into his neck.
"And then they took everything off me. Took my watch off, my expensive watch. I'm completely in the nude," said Von Anhalt, who uses the royal title prince, which he says was given to him by a German princess who adopted him.
Frederic Von Anhalt
California Auction
Jerry Garcia
This should be music to any Deadhead's ears. A California man is auctioning items from the former home of Grateful Dead guitarist Jerry Garcia, including his stereo speakers.
Henry Koltys, 55, of Marin County, California, purchased the home of the deceased singer and songwriter 10 years ago, and early next month, Koltys is holding an online auction of items that were removed during renovations.
At the top of the list are the stereo speakers and cabinets, a two-person Jacuzzi, bidet and even the kitchen sink once owned by the member of the rock band whose hits include "Truckin.'"
The auction is planned from August 12 to 19 on eBay. Proceeds will benefit the non-profit Sophia Foundation, which supports family law and kids and families dealing with separation or divorce.
Jerry Garcia
New "Last Supper" Theory
Leonardo DaVinci
A new theory that Leonardo's "Last Supper" might hide within it a depiction of Christ blessing the bread and wine has triggered so much interest that Web sites connected to the picture have crashed.
The famous fresco is already the focus of mythical speculation after author Dan Brown based his "The Da Vinci Code" book around the painting, arguing in the novel that Jesus married his follower, Mary Magdelene, and fathered a child.
Now Slavisa Pesci, an information technologist and amateur scholar, says superimposing the "Last Supper" with its mirror-image throws up another picture containing a figure who looks like a Templar knight and another holding a small baby.
Websites leonardodavinci.tv, codicedavinci.tv, cenacolo.biz and leonardo2007.com had 15 million hits on Thursday morning alone, organizers said, adding they were trying to provide a more powerful server for the sites.
Leonardo DaVinci
Dodge Sex Charges
Grave Robbers
Three men who dug up a young woman's corpse to have sex with it after seeing her obituary photo cannot be charged with attempted sexual assault because Wisconsin has no law against necrophilia, an appeals court ruled Thursday.
A judge was correct to dismiss the charges against twin brothers Nicholas and Alexander Grunke and Dustin Radke, all 21, because lawmakers never intended to criminalize sex with a corpse, the District 4 Court of Appeals said in a 3-0 ruling.
The three men went to a cemetery in Cassville in southwestern Wisconsin on Sept. 2 to remove the body of Laura Tennessen, 20, who had been killed the week before in a motorcycle crash.
The men used shovels to reach her grave. They abandoned their plan and were eventually arrested after a vehicle drove into the cemetery and reported suspicious behavior, authorities said.
Grave Robbers
Billboards Spur Earnings
Clear Channel
Radio and billboard giant Clear Channel Communications Inc. earned $236 million during the second quarter, 19 percent more than the same period last year, as outdoor advertising continued to post strong growth.
Revenue from the company's radio business, which has faced stiff competition from satellite and digital music players in the last several years, continued to be nearly flat, but billboards and outdoor displays posted 12 percent gains, according to the earnings report released Friday.
Clear Channel is the nation's largest radio station operator, and it owns 90 percent of a billboard business that is the world's largest. The other 10 percent trades as a separate stock and will continue to do so even if the buyout is approved.
The company has been divesting some of its broadcasting operation. Its 56 television stations were sold in April, and sales deals have been reached on 402 of its radio stations. It is still trying to sell an additional 46 stations but plans to keep about 675 stations, mostly in larger metro areas.
Clear Channel
Blasts American 'Imperialism'
Mikhail Gorbachev
Former President Mikhail Gorbachev said Friday that the fall of the Soviet Union, which he helped bring about, ushered in an era of U.S. imperialism responsible for many of the world's gravest problems.
Gorbachev is lauded in the West for ushering in democratic reforms but widely despised in Russia for paving the way to the economic free-for-all of the 1990s, which brought fabulous wealth for a well-connected few while plunging much of the country into humiliating poverty.
He has since became a supporter of President Vladimir Putin's assertive foreign policy and resistance to American power - calling occasional news conferences to praise Putin's policies - but his criticism of the United States on Friday was especially harsh.
"The Americans want so much to be the winners. The fact that they are sick with this illness, this winners' complex, is the main reason why everything in the world is so confused and so complicated," he told the packed news conference.
Mikhail Gorbachev
Student Preservationists
Shaker Barn
Taller than the trees and built to last ages, the Shakers' stone barn towered over the rolling fields east of the Hudson River and symbolized the religious group's tireless industry.
A suspicious fire in 1972 gutted the barn and left the 62-foot high stone walls open to the sky.
Enter the student preservationists.
The Shaker Museum and Library is hosting a half-dozen college students in hopes of figuring out how best to save the barn. Under careful guidance, they chisel out old mortar chip by chip, trowel in new stuff and figure out how to refortify the stone walls that were first laid in 1859.
Shaker Barn
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