Recommended Reading
from Bruce
The Ultimate in Dog Shaming (Imgur)
Being sent home with a note from the principal.
Jonathan Chait: The Republicans Bet Everything, and Obama Won It All (NY Magazine)
They shoved all their chips onto tonight's election. When the networks called it at 11:15 pm, the totality of the right's failure was clear. And because they bid up the stakes as high as they could, their loss was unusually devastating.
Elliott Carter remembered: 'Music seemed to erupt from his very being' (Guardian)
Elliott Carter, the great American composer, has died at the age of 103. Daniel Barenboim, Harrison Birtwistle and other musicians pay tribute to a master who wrote right to the end.
Amanda Holpuch: "MIA looks back to go forward : 'I'm making space for new thoughts'" (Guardian)
The London-born rapper and artist has a new book out, with a documentary and album forthcoming. She talks about cleaning out her past in order to forge a new chapter in her career.
Randy Lewis: Taylor Swift Raises the Bar with a Savvy 'Red' Marketing Campaign (Los Angeles Times)
When Taylor Swift's album "Red" was released last week, the pop singer's most ardent fans wasted no time downloading the digital edition on iTunes, vaulting it to No. 1 on the online retailer's Top Albums chart in a quick 36 minutes.
Michael Deeds: You Love Listening to Music, But Are You Cheating Yourself? (The Idaho Statesman)
Rifling through a drawer, I found a forgotten pair of Sennheiser HD-280 Pro headphones. I haven't used them as much as I'd hoped. I use earbuds. On a whim, I plugged them into my laptop. The first random song I clicked was by '90s ghoul-metal band White Zombie. What the - ? I did not remember White Zombie sounding anything like this: immersive, clear. I sampled another band: Steely Dan. Another: Rush. I clicked from song to song. Everything was so stunning. I finally forced myself to bed at 1:30 a.m.
Greg Kot: "Aretha Franklin, America and the origin of the 'spirit feel'" (Chicago Tribune)
The gospel-truth, if you believe most of the history books: Aretha Franklin didn't really find her true voice until she began working with producer Jerry Wexler at Atlantic Records in 1967.
Charlie Jane Anders: Strategies to Make Sure You Actually Finish That Novel (io9)
It's National Novel-Writing Month, which means you're starting a novel from scratch. And there's always one question that hangs over your head as you rush into the void - will you actually be able to finish this one?
David Bruce's Amazon Author Page
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David Bruce's Blog
David Bruce has 42 Kindle books on Amazon.com with 250 anecdotes in each book. Each book is $1, so for $42 you can buy 10,500 anecdotes. Search for "Funniest People," "Coolest People, "Most Interesting People," "Kindest People," "Religious Anecdotes," "Maximum Cool," and "Resist Psychic Death."
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Michelle in AZ
From The Creator of 'Avery Ant'
BadtotheboneBob
CG Service Award
The Coast Guard says, "You go, Al!"...
Al Roker, Staff Receive CG Service Award
WASHINGTON - The Coast Guard honored NBC weatherman Al Roker with the service's Meritorious Public Service Award at a ceremony August 21 at Coast Guard Headquarters.
Roker and staff from Al Roker Entertainment received the award for exceptional advocacy of the Coast Guard through broadcasts of The Weather Channel's popular prime time series "Coast Guard Alaska."
The program gives viewers an inside look into the world of Coast Guardsmen stationed in rugged Kodiak, Alaska, as they conduct dangerous search and rescue missions in the harsh environment...Al Roker, Staff Receive CG Service Award | Military.com
Alaska was the most popular place to be stationed for Coast Guardsmen during my career. Indeed, the largest CG base anywhere is on Kodiak Island. Then and now. However, it's all a matter of open billets. Come transfer time, you can have Alaska on your 'Dream Sheet', but if there's not an open billet there in your rate and rating, you ain't goin'... As a newly minted Boatswain's Mate 3/C and Honor Graduate of my BM class I was given my choice of assignments. I really wanted to go to Alaska. No billets open. I went to Maine instead (upon the hearty recommendation of a salty old Master Chief Petty Officer instructor who was from there. He 'arranged' it). I don't regret that at all... I loved Maine. Running SAR boats there is every bit as challenging as in Alaska... But, I sometimes wonder what if...
BadtotheboneBob
Rockland, Maine... Lobster Capital of the World - Seriously...
Thanks, B2tbBob!
Palm Springs Turns Blue
Mary Whitaker Bono (Baxley) Mack (McGillicudy)
Rep. Mary Bono Mack (R-Palm Springs) on Friday conceded defeat in her Coachella Valley congressional race against Democratic emergency room doctor Raul Ruiz.
Bono Mack fought the toughest battle of her 14-year political career, which began when she was elected to replace her husband, singer Sonny Bono, after his death in a skiing accident.
California's revised political districts, combined with a decline in GOP voter registration, turned the contest into a high-stakes tossup. The split between Republicans and Democrats in the district - which includes Palm Springs, Indio and Blythe - is less than 1 percentage point.
During the campaign, Bono Mack accused Ruiz of being a "radical" for taking part in a Native American protest of Thanksgiving when he was a Harvard medical student in the late 1990s.
Ruiz criticized Bono Mack for supporting the budget plan of GOP vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan; Ruiz said the plan would devastate Medicare.
Bono Mack concedes House race to Ruiz - latimes.com
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Clear, cool, and very windy.
Now A Pop-Culture Star
Nate Silver
The other night, Nate Silver got a little taste of what things are going to be like for him, post-Election 2012.
The 34-year-old statistician, unabashed numbers geek, author and creator of the much-read FiveThirtyEight blog at The New York Times had gone out for a drink with friends on Manhattan's Lower East Side. But he couldn't stay incognito; immediately, he says, people sitting at the bar recognized him.
He was surprised, but probably shouldn't have been. After all, for 24 hours, ever since his election forecasts had proved uncannily successful - he correctly predicted the presidential winner in all 50 states, and almost all the Senate races - he'd been hailed as the election's "other winner," who'd silenced doubters and proved the value of a cool-headed, math-based approach.
That very night, he'd appeared on Jon Stewart's "The Daily Show" for the second time in three weeks. "Don't you want to stand up and say, 'I am Nate Silver, bow down to me!!'" Stewart roared, as the bespectacled Silver sat and chuckled. His name was trending on Twitter and he was the subject of a satirical Twitter hashtag, "Drunk Nate Silver." The Hollywood Reporter said he'd "made statistics sexy again." Many called his story a real-life "Revenge of the Nerds" tale.
And, oh, his new book had soared to No. 2 on Amazon, after he linked to it on Twitter an hour after the first network call for President Barack Obama. ("This is probably a good time to link to my book," he'd tweeted at 12:13 a.m. - the closest he came to gloating.)
Nate Silver
Donates $500,000 To ASPCA
Rachael Ray
Rachael Ray is donating $500,000 to the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals to help pets and families who are struggling to rebound from Superstorm Sandy.
The Emmy-winning chef said Friday that her pet food brand, Nutrish, is also shipping 4 tons of wet and dry dog food for Sandy animals, and her Yum-o! organization is donating $100,000 to City Harvest and the Food Bank for New York City.
The ASPCA had rescued more than 250 animals and treated or provided supplies to nearly 6,000 in New York City and Long Island. It will use the money to lease a building that can be used as a central shelter for Sandy animals and to continue searching for lost pets, provide mobile veterinary services and hand out supplies.
Rachael Ray
Keeping Options Open
Ashley Judd
Actress Ashley Judd isn't ruling out a run for U.S. Senate in Kentucky.
The former Kentuckian is an active supporter of Tennessee Democrats. She said in a statement Friday that she's honored to be mentioned as a potential candidate, but she sidestepped the question of whether she would get into the race.
Judd lives in Tennessee and would have to re-establish a residence in Kentucky before she could challenge Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell in his 2014 re-election bid.
No Democrats have stepped forward to challenge McConnell, a political powerhouse who already has $6.8 million in the bank for his re-election.
In 2008, McConnell won re-election to a fifth term and became Kentucky's longest serving senator. McConnell spent some $20 million on his last election, beating Democrat Bruce Lunsford, a wealthy Kentucky businessman, by 6 percentage points.
Ashley Judd
Done Writing
Philip Roth
Exit, Philip Roth? Having conceived everything from turning into a breast to a polio epidemic in his native New Jersey, Roth has apparently given his imagination a rest.
The 79-year-old novelist recently told a French publication, Les inRocks, that his 2010 release "Nemesis" would be his last. Spokeswoman Lori Glazer of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt said Friday that she had spoken with Roth and that he confirmed his remarks. Roth's literary agent, Andrew Wylie, declined comment.
His name will remain on new releases, if only because the Library of America has been issuing hardcover volumes of his work. Roth also is cooperating with award-winning biographer Blake Bailey on a book about his life.
The author chose an unexpected forum to break the news, but he has been hinting at his departure for years. He has said that he no longer reads fiction and seemed to say goodbye to his fictional alterego, Nathan Zuckerman, in the 2007 novel "Exit Ghost."
Retirement is rarely the preferred option for writers, for whom the ability to tell stories or at least set down words is often synonymous with life itself. Poor health, discouragement and even madness are the more likely ways literary careers end. Roth apparently is fit and his recent novels had been received respectfully, if not with the awe of his most celebrated work.
Philip Roth
Will Is Valid
Sherman Hemsley
Deceased actor Sherman Hemsley's longtime friend can proceed with his burial and running his estate, a Texas judge ruled Friday over the objections of his half-brother from Philadelphia.
Hemsley, who played George Jefferson on the TV sitcom "The Jeffersons," died July 24 of lung cancer. His body has been in refrigerated storage at an El Paso funeral home since.
Judge Patricia B. Chew sided Friday with Flora Enchinton Bernal, who was named in Hemsley's will as the executor of his estate. Chew upheld the validity of his will and granted Enchinton "the authority to dispose, I shouldn't say dispose, to proceed with the remains of Sherman Hemsley in a manner as she wishes."
DNA tests showed Friday that 78-year-old Richard Thornton is Hemsley's half-brother. He wanted to bury his brother at a veterans' cemetery in Philadelphia, where Hemsley grew up.
During his testimony, Thornton said Hemsley, four years his junior, was born from an extramarital relationship his father had.
"He was a Methodist minister and would have been bad for his career," Thornton said of their father.
Sherman Hemsley
Love Letters To Auction
Mick Jagger
Love letters written by Rolling Stones frontman Mick Jagger to American singer Marsha Hunt, discussing poetry and his personal turmoil, will hit the auction block next month.
Hunt, with whom Jagger had his first child, Karis, told Britain's Guardian newspaper she was selling the letters, written in July and August 1969, because she had been unable to pay her bills.
Jagger wrote them to Hunt while filming the Tony Richardson movie "Ned Kelly" in Australia.
They are described as showing a sensitive side of the then-young singer, who wrote about the poetry of Emily Dickinson, meeting author Christopher Isherwood and an unrealized multimedia project.
Jagger's relationship with Hunt, who is African-American, was kept under wraps until 1972.
Mick Jagger
Dealer Gets Six Years
Stradivarius
A dealer in rare Stradivarius violins coveted by the world's top violinists was sentenced on Friday to six years in prison for embezzlement after his glittering global empire crumbled.
Dietmar Machold, 63, built his Bremen-based family business into a juggernaut with branches in Zurich, Vienna, New York and Chicago to serve elite musicians and collectors of the instruments that can command prices of several million dollars.
But the business collapsed in 2010, triggering claims against him worth tens of millions of euros (dollars) from creditors and clients who say they were bilked.
Prosecutor Herbert Harammer had traced the career of the fifth-generation violin expert who became one of the world's most influential dealers in instruments crafted by 18th-century masters like Antonio Stradivari, whose workshop in Cremona, Italy produced some of the finest violins and cellos ever made.
"This ascent was built on sand," Harammer had told the court, accusing Machold of leading a lifestyle that was a facade for a business that had actually been insolvent since mid-2006.
Stradivarius
Conservatives Behaving Badly
Sore Losers
Sean Hannity, Donald Trump, and Karl Rove are awfully unhappy that their guy lost - and they're not exactly bearing defeat with a stiff upper lip
Conservative America is understandably bummed that President Obama won re-election on Tuesday night. "Losing a presidential campaign just stinks," says Jonathan Chait at New York. "You feel like a stranger at home." And while most Republicans seem to be handling the defeat with relative grace and dignity, a number of conservative commentators and celebrities are engaging in whining, lashing out, wild finger-pointing, and general childishness. Here, six conservatives behaving like sore losers:
2. Sean Hannity - The uber-patriotic talk show host has taken to blaming his beloved country for Obama's victory. Americans have shown" bad judgment," he said on his radio show. "Americans, you get the government you deserve. And it pains me to say this, but America right now deserves Barack Obama. You deserve what you voted for…Four years ago, the public could be excused for voting for Obama because, frankly, he was a blank canvas…Now he is a known entity. And just barely over 50 percent looked at this pathetic record and decided they wanted more of the same."
3. Mary Matalin - The conservative pundit and political consultant is really, really mad that Obama won. In an interview on CNN, Matalin had a pouty party on set, while treating fellow guest Van Jones with no small measure of disrespect. "Matalin lost her ever-loving mind and basically responded to Jones like a spoiled brat," says Eton James White at The Root.
For the other 4 - Sore Losers
Quakes Travel Farther
East Coast
Data from the 2011 earthquake centered in Virginia shows East Coast tremors can travel much farther and cause damage over larger areas than previously thought, the U.S. Geological Survey said.
The agency estimated about one-third of the U.S. population could have felt the magnitude 5.8 tremor centered about 50 miles northwest of Richmond, which would mean more people were affected than any earthquake in U.S. history. Scientists also found the quake that caused more than $200 million in damage triggered landslides at distances four times farther and over an area 20 times larger than research from previous quakes has shown.
Researchers used landslides to see how far-reaching the shaking from East coast earthquakes could be. The unexpected jolt cracked the Washington Monument in spots and toppled delicate masonry high atop the National Cathedral. The shaking was felt from Georgia to New England.
According to the findings, the farthest landslide from the quake was 150 miles from the epicenter, a greater distance than any other similar-sized earthquake. Previous similar quakes have resulted in landslides no farther than 36 miles from the epicenter.
Additionally, the landslides from the 2011 tremor occurred in an area of about 12,895 square-miles - about the size of the state of Maryland. Previous studies indicated an area of about 580 square-miles - about the size of Houston - from an earthquake of similar magnitude.
East Coast
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