Recommended Reading
from Bruce
NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF: Unhealthy America (nytimes.com)
The United States ranks 31st in life expectancy (tied with Kuwait and Chile), according to the latest World Health Organization figures. We rank 37th in infant mortality (partly because of many premature births) and 34th in maternal mortality.
Ted Rall: DITHERING WHILE AMERICA SNEEZES
Failure on H1N1 Highlights a Bigger Crisis.
Paul Krugman: Obama Faces His Anzio (nytimes.com)
President Obama chose a cautious approach rather than bold action on the economy, and the decision may haunt Democrats for years to come.
Roger Ebert: THE YES MEN FIX THE WORLD (NO MPAA RATING; 3 stars)
The Yes Men are a New York political action cooperative specializing in hoaxes that embarrass corporations by dramatizing their evils and excesses.
Garrison Keillor: Life is just a variety pack
It costs $722 to fly from St. Paul/Minneapolis to Bismarck, N.D., and you can fly from St. Paul/Minneapolis to Paris for $754. Life is unfair; we all know this. Big prizes go to mediocrities while you struggle on, unappreciated. The righteous suffer while the wicked prosper.
Jason Richwine: Are Liberals Smarter Than Conservatives? (american.com)
What if we could know, scientifically, that one side has the edge in brainpower? Should that change how we think about political issues?
Farhad Manjoo: How To Charge Your Laptop (slate.com)
Four essential tips for extending the battery life of your computer, cell phone, and every other gadget.
Michael Agger: Awkward Suggestions (slate.com)
Let's have fun with the Google search box.
Madeleine Marr: Kym Whitley is having fun being funny (McClatchy Newspapers)
Since being funny comes naturally to comedian Kym Whitley, she couldn't imagine being anything else.
Daniel Bubbeo: Tony Curtis revisits 'Some Like It Hot' for his new book (Newsday)
For screen legend Tony Curtis, making his signature film, the cross-dressing comedy "Some Like It Hot," was anything but a drag.
Sue Nowicki: Anne Rice 'obsessed' with her new hero, a killer recruited to do God's work (McClatchy Newspapers)
The wildly popular vampire craze that has sunk its teeth into books, TV shows and movies started with Anne Rice.
Dianna Marder: Celebrating the memoir, fiction's day is done? (The Philadelphia Inquirer)
When browsing online or in a bookstore, one might easily conclude that every third person in the country is actively engaged in writing or reading a memoir. The rest have it on their to-do lists.
The Weekly Poll
Current Question
'The Devil is in the Details' Edition...
We all have had to make difficult decisions, from time to time, that involve compromises that can be distasteful. Such as...
A.) Would you take your dream job that has great pay and benefits, but you would have to relocate to an area that you'd loathe (such as Oklahoma)?
or...
B.) Would you live in an area that you've always wanted to but at a minimum wage, hand to mouth, subsistence level existence with no chance of improvement?
It's either A or B... No in between... Choose! Choose now! Ha Ha!
Send your response to
Results Tuesday
wrote:
From The Creator of 'Avery Ant'
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Back to sunny and seasonal.
BAFTA Honors
Kirk Douglas
Kirk Douglas, Robert De Niro, Emily Blunt, Colin Firth and Danny Boyle have been honoured by Bafta in Los Angeles.
Among the A-list stars in attendance were Amy Adams, Ewan McGregor and Benicio Del Toro who came along to celebrate the 18th Annual Britannia Awards.
Kirk Douglas received the Britannia Award For Worldwide Contribution To Filmed Entertainment, while Robert De Niro picked up the Stanley Kubrick Britannia Award For Excellence In Film.
Hosting the evening was comedian Stephen Fry, who said the LA ceremony was a lot easier than hosting the Baftas in London.
Kirk Douglas
Photos From Help!
Beatles
Seven black-and-white photographs of the Beatles sitting on a grassy field, taken by a teenage girl on the last day of filming for their movie Help!, will be sold next week, the auctioneer said.
Gwyn Blanchard, then a 13-year-old student, trudged half an hour in the rain with a group of friends to the set of the Fab Four's second film, hoping for an autograph, but wound up being invited for a chat with her idols.
Several days later she returned to the set, when the Beatles were filming the scene in which they play beside some tanks. Blanchard snapped some photographs as the band-members relaxed between takes.
Blanchard said she had kept the photos and signatures in a box for several decades, but had decided to sell them.
Beatles
'Top Earning Aussie Stars'
AC/DC
AC/DC have been named Australia's top earning entertainers, beating Kylie and Russell Crowe.
Despite never having released a greatest hits compilation album, the ageing rockers - formed in Sydney in 1973 - topped Australian business publication Business Review Weekly's poll, by pocketing an estimated 105 million Australian dollars in 2008 from their comeback album, Black Ice, and an 18-month world tour.
Kylie Minogue came second, with her earnings estimated to be around 47 million Australian dollars, while Oscar-winner Russell Crowe was in fourth place, with around 25 million Australian dollars.
In ninth place, Nicole Kidman was beaten by country musician husband Keith Urban, who was in fifth position, earning an estimated 20 million Australian dollars.
AC/DC
Leaves Hospital
Elton John
British singer Elton John left hospital on Thursday after being treated for a serious case of e-coli bacterial infection and influenza that forced him to cancel a string of concerts, his representative said on Thursday.
Spokesman Gary Farrow said the pop star known for hits including "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road" and "Rocket Man" was "fine", and he planned to join singer/songwriter Billy Joel on stage on November 14.
John, 62, was forced to postpone five gigs in England and Ireland starting with an October 23 date in Sheffield, and he also pulled out of three U.S. concerts scheduled for November 4, 7 and 10, at which he was to appear with Joel.
Elton John
Judge OKs Plea Deal
Joe Francis
A judge sentenced "Girls Gone Wild" founder Joe Francis on Friday to 301 days already served and a year of probation for filing false income tax returns and bribing Nevada jail workers.
U.S. District Judge S. James Otero accepted the terms of a plea deal between Francis and prosecutors, who struck the agreement after learning on the eve of trial that a key witness had withheld information from them.
Under the deal, Francis pleaded guilty in September to two misdemeanor counts of filing false tax returns and one count of bribing Nevada jail workers in exchange for food.
He acknowledged omitting more than $500,000 in interest income on his 2003 tax returns and said he gave more than $5,000 in goods to the jail employees.
Joe Francis
Sues Over 'Spy' Claims
Prince Albert
Monaco's royal palace said Friday it has filed suit against an American who claims to have run a private spy agency for Prince Albert II to keep tabs on powerful local personalities and media.
Robert Eringer, a US private eye who also claims to be a former FBI agent, alleged in an interview this week that he ran a service called the "Monaco Intelligence Service", reporting directly to the prince, from 2002 to 2007.
He claims he met Albert via billionaire mutual friends in 1991 and that the prince informally recruited him to brief him on key businessmen and potential investors in Monaco in an effort to "clean up" corruption in the principality.
Eringer has filed suit in California accusing the 51-year-old prince -- who as head of state has diplomatic immunity -- of wrongful contract termination.
Prince Albert
Gives Up Crown
Miss England
Beauty pageant winner Miss England gave up her title on Friday after reports she had been involved in a nightclub brawl with another beauty queen.
Rachel Christie, niece of former British Olympic gold medal sprinter Linford Christie, was arrested earlier this week after allegedly getting into a fight with Miss Manchester, Sara Jones, at a club in the northern English city, newspapers reported.
Christie, who had become the first black winner of the title in July, was accused of punching Jones in a row over her boyfriend who appears on the TV show "Gladiators," the papers said.
"Due to the media attention following the allegations against her, Rachel Christie has now decided to withdraw from the Miss World competition and relinquish her Miss England crown," the pageant organisers said in a statement on the Miss England website.
Miss England
Australian Lip Syncher
Britney Spears
Britney Spears' Australian tour ran into controversy before it even began, with an official suggesting concert goers should be told if the pop icon would be miming her songs.
Spears, who has rebuilt her career after myriad personal troubles in the wake of her 2006 divorce from ex-husband Kevin Federline, is due to kick off her Circus tour Down Under later Friday.
But reports that she will lip-sync during many of the concerts prompted the New South Wales Minister for Fair Trading to suggest tickets should carry disclaimers about whether parts of the concerts were pre-recorded.
Australians would not tolerate a "Mickey Mouse performance", Virginia Judge told Sydney's Daily Telegraph in reference to the US star's past as one of Disney's Mouseketeer personalities.
Britney Spears
950th Try Is The Charm
Cha Sa-soon
A woman in South Korea who tried to pass the written exam for a driver's license with near-daily attempts since April 2005 has finally succeeded on her 950th time. The aspiring driver spent more than 5 million won ($4,200) in application fees, but until now had failed to score the minimum 60 out of a possible 100 points needed to get behind the wheel for a driving test.
Cha Sa-soon, 68, finally passed the written exam with a score of 60 on Wednesday, said Choi Young-chul, a police official at the drivers' license agency in Jeonju, 130 miles (210 kilometers) south of Seoul.
Police said Cha took the test hundreds of times, but had no specific total. Local media said she took the test 950 times.
Now she must pass a driving test before getting her license, Choi said.
Cha Sa-soon
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