'Best of TBH Politoons'
Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Jim Hightower: THE RED MEAT CON (jimhightower.com)
The industry has come up with a fast-fingered deception that keeps the meat red not just for a few days - but for months! The meat can go bad, but you won't know it, because a little spritz of carbon monoxide and other gases inside the plastic-wrapped package prevents the tell-tale browning that's a sign of spoilage.
Mark Morford: You big, fat pile of bacteria (sfgate.com)
Go ahead, roll in it. Revel in it. You're made of it. What, you prefer a meek, sterile world?
Amos Oz: Literature's antidote to hate (latimes.com)
The literary world can encourage understanding between bitter enemies.
Patt Morrison: Are we Colbert's punch line? (latimes.com)
Will Rogers in '32, Pat Paulson in '68, and now Colbert -- dark-comic candidates tend to pop up in grim times.
Will Lawrence: Why Sam Raimi is the biggest bogeyman at the box office (entertainment.timesonline.co.uk)
If the Spider-Man bubble bursts - and it might - Sam Raimi will always have his horror empire to fall back on.
Whedon returns to TV with 'Dollhouse' (latimesblogs.latimes.com)
Joss Whedon's last experience with episodic TV left a bad taste in his mouth, but an old friend has coaxed him back. Whedon and "Buffy" buddy Eliza Dushku (Faith from the show) will be launching a new series, "Dollhouse," with Fox. The actress' Boston Diva Production and Whedon's Mutant Enemy will produce the show, which has gotten a seven-episode commitment. Though a writers' strike could delay production, it's scheduled for fall 2008.
Patrick Foster: Banksy caught in the act (entertainment.timesonline.co.uk)
A passer-by with a camera phone captured the elusive graffiti artist propelled to global fame by his street paintings.
Jean Bethke Elshtai: "You Kill It, You Eat It" and Other Lessons From My Thrifty Childhood (incharacter.org)
Those of us who were raised by male and female veterans of the Great Depression and World War II walk around with our heads stuffed full of injunctions calling us to thrift. In my own case, these injunctions take the form of my mother's voice enjoining me in a variety of ways.
Club Penguin: How I fell for our pet penguin (telegraph.co.uk)
As Club Penguin becomes the fastest-growing internet site for children, Alice Thomson tells how it has benefited her son.
Garry Reeder: When Honesty's Not Enough - candor is what matters most in the business world (incharacter.org)
There's honesty, and then there's candor. They are not the same thing. Here's what I mean. Eight years ago, I visited the doctor, complaining of fatigue and hot flashes. He looked at me, had me step on the scale, and then said confidently, "You're fat." Surprisingly, no one had mentioned this fact to me. I was five feet nine and I weighed 235 pounds.
Impropaganda
Zenarchy (impropaganda.net)
Reader Response
Re: Death of Halloween
Marty,
We took our kids to an old folks home. They had a ball, got loads of candy, and the elderly tenants seem to love it.
There's lots of things killing Halloween. Christian Fundamentalists are a big reason. In my immediate neighborhood, two churches were holding counter-Halloween events. One was a carnival and the other was something called Hallow Him.
Here's the thing about Christian fundamentalists - they will never be truly happy until everybody is dead.
A problem we've been seeing over the last few years is kids who don't even bother to dress up in costumes. I'd say half the kids who came to our door last year were wearing street clothes holding grocery bags or pillow cases. I feel rather inclined to ask them, why should I bother giving out candy if you can't be bothered to put on a mask? But I didn't.
Jeff
Thanks, Jeff!
The kids with no costumes bothered me for a while, but we border an area where a costume can be considered an extravagance.
At the kid's old middle school, over 98% of the kids qualified for a free lunch. Under the current administration, which doesn't believe poor kids deserve health insurance, do you realize how poor a kid has to be to qualify for a free lunch?
Over the years, we've had more than one kid crying in embarrassment over having no costume, although most of the no-costume offenders are older - teenagers.
And most of them seem to be a bit bored and perhaps trying to relive a sweet moment from their lives.
Or maybe they're high and looking for easy chocolate the one night of the year they can get away with it.
Reader Comment
Re: Killing of Halloween
Hi Marty,
Here in rural upstate New York, as of this year, Halloween was not observed in school. My daughters are 11 and 10 and Halloween is a huge deal to them. However, (sigh).......9/11 "changed everything". That first Halloween of 2001, was somber. The proclamation from the school district was thus: Honor people you respect in your community. Because there are so many firemen in our area, practically every kid went as a fireman or a policeman.
The following two years more of the same with a little ingenuity rearing its head: my daughters went as Karate teachers, one kid went as a bartender! The next year you could only wear orange and black pants and shirts. Last year, parents could bring in orange food. This year, as I said, nothing.
However, none of this infringed on our time honored tradition of dressing up and going door to door in our town. Hundreds upon hundreds of dressed up kids AND dressed up parents parade from door to door in a friendly, happy capacity for hours on end. Each house is decorated better than the one before. To close out the evening, we plop down in from of the tv and put on 'The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown' and laugh in exactly the same spots as always.
So, the public school can make choices that cave to the national phobia of all fear all the time. Fine. Maybe parents are supposed to be the center of their kids universe anyway.
Trick or Treat
Smell my feet!
Give me something
Good to eat!
Sara
Thanks, Sara!
Because so much of the kid's time revolves around school, and because of the numbers of kids there who don't speak English as a first language,
the Halloween celebration was a great social equalizer.
Each year, fewer neighbors participate, and our options are dwindling.
We're pretty much left with church-related 'fun' houses, all with a MESSAGE, and charity-sponsored 'haunted houses' with an admission.
Then there're the big ticket options - Knott's Scary Farm and Disneyland.
This year, a ticket to Disney Halloween was $91 for anyone over 10. Plus $10 parking. Way too much!
But then, I grew up in a very small town, and some stuff you did just because that's what you do.
Reader Comment
Re: Hallowe'en
Hi Marty,
I enjoyed your editorial on the killing of Hallowe'en. I live in a nice, older neighborhood in Columbus, Ohio. Big old trees. Perfect for Hallowe'en. I collect 16mm films. Every year I set up my 5 foot screen outdoors and show Hallowe'en themed cartoons for all the kids - cool old stuff with Bugs, Daffy, Mickey, etc. The kids love it. Often their parents have to drag them away. At one point this year I had 10 kids sitting in my driveway with parents nearby. One kid told me this is "the best house". I have people tell me the come from out of town to my neighborhood so they can see some of the cartoons. One neighbor told me this year that she used to ignore Hallowe'en until she saw what I was doing and now she hands out candy and then comes down to watch toons. Hallowe'en is my favorite holiday and I think everyone should go out of their way to give the kids a little fun.
Read your page every day.
Steve
Thanks, Steve!
And keep up the good work!
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Overcast til mid-day. Quite nice.
Warn They'll Strike
Hollywood Writers
Hollywood writers said they would strike for the first time in nearly 20 years but left open the door for last-minute talks to avert a crippling walkout.
Writers Guild of America President Patric Verrone drew loud cheers when he announced in closed-door session Thursday night that the union could strike as early as Sunday, several writers told The Associated Press.
However, guild officials said privately the strike would most likely start on Monday.
The first casualty of the strike will likely be late-night talk shows, which are dependent on current events to fuel monologues and other entertainment.
Hollywood Writers
Protests Japan Dolphin Hunt
Hayden Panettiere
Hayden Panettiere and some fellow animal rights activists drew angry shouts and some shoving from fishermen in Japan when they tried to interfere with a dolphin hunt, according to video footage shot by the protesters.
The six activists from the anti-whaling group Sea Shepherd paddled out on surfboards to a cove in the town of Taiji in southwestern Japan on Tuesday to interfere with the annual hunt.
Fishermen on a boat approached the activists and ordered them to leave, shoving some of them with a long pole. An angry fisherman later shouted in the face of one of the protesters on the road above the cove. There did not appear to be any injuries.
"This baby stuck its head out and kind of looked as us, and the thought that the baby is no longer with us is very difficult," Panettiere, who stars in the NBC show "Heroes," said after coming ashore.
Hayden Panettiere
The Subject Was Manatees
Jimmy Buffett
The subject was manatees when Jimmy Buffett and Gov. Charlie Crist got together to talk about environmental issues.
Crist met privately with the 60-year-old singer for about 10 minutes Thursday and then introduced him to nearly 20,000 fans at a concert, saying: "He has Florida in his heart and he loves her like I do."
The governor recently pushed state wildlife commissioners to delay a decision to downgrade protections for manatees.
Jimmy Buffett
Model Train Fan
Rod Stewart
Singer Rod Stewart once wanted to know if you thought he was sexy, but he is showing a less raunchy side of himself these days -- going public with a model railroad cityscape that took him 12 years to build.
Far from his hard-rocking, late-prowling early years on the road, Stewart, 62, has spent many nights tinkering with miniature buildings and other city fixtures to design a model-train layout that is 120 feet long and 24 feet wide.
The singer's creation, called Grand Street & Three Rivers RR, is featured in a Model RailRoader magazine's December issue that hits newsstands on November 6, along with an interview of Stewart.
Stewart has worked on the model steadily for 12 years, taking seven large cases of model kits and tools with him when he was on the road to set up a workshop in his hotel suite.
Rod Stewart
Museum Exhibits Little-Known Work
Vincent van Gogh
Dutch painter Vincent van Gogh owes much of his fame to his image as a troubled genius but a little-known work on display for the first time this fall shows the careful forethought that went into many of his compositions.
The vignette, "A Loving Couple," has been in private collections for decades and not accessible for the general public: it was most recently sold at auction at Sotheby's in 2001.
Painted in March 1888, when Van Gogh was near the height of his artistic powers - and two years before his suicide - the small piece is all that remains of a larger canvas that Van Gogh discarded as a flop.
"He cut it out carefully and kept it, so there must have been some element, something special that he saw in it," said Nienke Bakker, a researcher from at the Van Gogh Museum who co-organized the display and surrounding exhibition on Van Gogh's friendship with French painter Emile Bernard.
Vincent van Gogh
Defends Medical Marijuana
Drew Carey
Bob Barker famously closed each episode of "The Price Is Right" with a pitch to spay and neuter pets. His successor is taking a stand on a more controversial subject: marijuana. Drew Carey won't tout toking up on "Price," but he defends the use of medical marijuana in a video posted online Thursday on Reason.tv.
"Smell that smell," the 49-year-old comedian says as he walks into a Los Angeles medical marijuana dispensary. "That's the smell of freedom."
The video is one of 20 Carey will host for the Reason Foundation, a nonprofit educational group whose ideas "some people call libertarian" and whose mission is to "advance freedom," said president David Nott.
Drew Carey
Son Sold Tape
Duane "Dog" Chapman
Television bounty hunter Duane "Dog" Chapman's son Tucker taped a private phone conversation in which the reality star used a racial slur repeatedly, then sold it to a tabloid for "a lot of money," Chapman's lawyer Brook Hart said Thursday.
The National Enquirer on Wednesday posted on its Web site a clip of a conversation in which Duane Chapman, star of the hit A&E series "Dog the Bounty Hunter," repeatedly used the N-word in reference to Tucker's girlfriend.
In the conversation, Chapman urges Tucker to break up with his girlfriend. He also expresses concern about the girlfriend trying to tape and go public about the TV star's use of the N-word.
Duane "Dog" Chapman
A&E Pulls Series From Schedule
`Dog The Bounty Hunter'
Television bounty hunter Duane "Dog" Chapman's show has been pulled from the air indefinitely by A&E, two days after a private phone conversation in which the reality star used a racial slur repeatedly was posted online.
"In evaluating the circumstances of the last few days, A&E has decided to take `Dog The Bounty Hunter' off the network's schedule for the foreseeable future," the network said in a statement Friday. "We hope that Mr. Chapman continues the healing process that he has begun."
A&E officials said the series, one of the network's top-rated programs, has not been canceled.
At least two advertisers have pulled out from the show and civil rights groups have called for the show's cancellation.
`Dog The Bounty Hunter'
Pleads Guilty In `Indy Jones' Theft
Roderick Davis
A man who schemed to sell stolen computers and photographs used for Steven Spielberg's upcoming "Indiana Jones" movie has pleaded guilty to two felony counts.
Roderick Davis, 37, of Cerritos pleaded guilty Thursday to receiving stolen property and commercial burglary. As part of his plea deal, he will serve two years and four months in state prison.
He would have faced at least four years in prison if convicted of the charges, the District Attorney's Office said.
The items stolen from the Universal Studios lot were said to contain confidential materials related to the long-awaited fourth installment of the popular adventure series.
Roderick Davis
Texas Beastie Just A Coyote
Chupacabra
The results are in: The ugly, big-eared animal found this summer in southern Texas is not the mythical, bloodsucking chupacabra. It's just a plain old coyote.
Biologists at Texas State University announced Thursday night they had identified the hairless doglike creature.
KENS-TV of San Antonio provided a tissue sample from the animal for testing.
"The DNA sequence is a virtually identical match to DNA from the coyote," biologist Mike Forstner said in a statement. "This is probably the answer a lot of folks thought might be the outcome. I, myself, really thought it was a domestic dog, but the Cuero Chupacabra is a Texas Coyote."
Chupacabra
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