'Best of TBH Politoons'
Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Bruce took a well deserved day off.
Reader Suggestion
Mon Valley Calendar
Uh... I don't know if this will catch on, but these
ladies took an idea from a movie and made their own
caldendar, "Vixens of the Valley".
www.post-gazette.com/pg/07161/792330-58.stm
Just thought I'd pass that along in case there are any
transplanted Pennsylvania folks that might be looking
for a unique Christmas gift.
Mick
Thanks, Mick!
Reader Suggestions
Links from Vic
In 1855, American whaler James Buddington came across an abandoned vessel stuck in the ice off Baffin Island in northeastern Canada. It was the HMS Resolute, a British exploration ship that had been abandoned two years earlier and drifted rudderless through 1200 miles of the Canadian Arctic.
The U.S. Congress returned the ship to Queen Victoria, and in 1879 its timbers were made into two desks with admirable pedigrees: One resides in Buckingham Palace … and the other is in the Oval Office, where it's been used by almost every president since Rutherford B. Hayes.
Ship of State
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
The local failed comics passing as TV weathermen failed to predict the biggest rainstorm in years. Yeah, media consolidation really works.
We're making one of our quick trips to Sacramento - Sunday's page will either be very early, or very late.
Memorabilia Sells Big
Jimi Hendrix
An auction at Christie's of rock 'n' roll memorabilia from some of the hottest bands of the 1960s and '70s hauled in big bucks Friday, including $20,000 for a Jimi Hendrix album and more than $4,000 for a Rolling Stones' T-shirt.
A copy of Hendrix's "Axis: Bold as Love" album from 1968 - inscribed "Thanks for everything" and accompanied by three color photos of the rock star - sold for double its pre-sale estimate of $10,000. Three cardboard posters for Hendrix concerts in 1968 and 1969 fetched $10,625, $16,250 and $18,750.
The limited edition, long-sleeved sweater designed to promote the Stones' 1973 "Goat's Head Soup" album sold for $4,750. Only about a dozen of them were produced.
Of the T-shirts, a Yardbirds shirt worn by rock journalist Greg Shaw to the 1967 Monterey Pop Festival brought $3,000 while a maroon Led Zeppelin 1973 shirt fetched $1,625.
Jimi Hendrix
Cervantes Prize
Juan Gelman
Argentine poet Juan Gelman, who wrote about the pain of loss under his country's military juntas, has won the Cervantes Prize, the Spanish-speaking world's top literary award.
The $133,000 award was announced Thursday by Spanish Culture Minister Cesar Antonio Molina.
Gelman, 77, has published more than 20 books of poetry since 1956, and is widely considered to be Argentina's leading contemporary poet. His poems address his Jewish heritage, family, Argentina and his painful experience as a political activist during his country's 1976-83 "dirty war" against leftist dissent, an ordeal that led to his fleeing Argentina for Europe.
Gelman's son and daughter-in-law vanished as part of the crackdown during Argentina's military dictatorship. In 2001, he managed to track down a granddaughter who was born in captivity and adopted by a military family from Uruguay.
Juan Gelman
Top-Earning Actress
Reese Witherspoon
31-year-old Academy Award winner Reese Witherspoon commands $15 million to $20 million a movie, placing her at the top of The Hollywood Reporter's annual list of the highest-paid actresses.
Angelina Jolie came in second with similar salary demands, though the animated "Beowulf" earned the 32-year-old actress far less - just $8 million.
Cameron Diaz was third, with a $15 million-per-movie price tag. Nicole Kidman dropped to fourth place, two spots lower than last year, with an asking price of $10 million to $15 million a film.
Renee Zellweger and Sandra Bullock also get $10 million to $15 million paychecks. So does Julia Roberts, who hasn't appeared on the big screen since 2004. Her next film, "Charlie Wilson's War," is due in theaters in December.
Rounding out the top 10 are Drew Barrymore and Jodie Foster, who ask $10 million to $12 million per project, and Halle Berry, who gets $10 million a picture.
Reese Witherspoon
More Fake Reality
NBC
With its stockpile of fresh episodes for scripted series running low as the Hollywood writers strike nears the end of its fourth week, NBC is adding three hours of reality programming in January. Its weekly schedule will include at least six hours of so-called unscripted fare.
The network's updated version of "American Gladiators" will launch with a two-hour premiere January 6 before moving into its regular Monday 8 p.m. time slot the next day.
"Gladiators," hosted by Hulk Hogan and Laila Ali, will replace promising freshman comedy-drama "Chuck," which recently was picked up for a full season but has only a few more episodes in the can. "Chuck" is scheduled to air original episodes through December 3. No decision has been made when and where the show's remaining couple of new segments will run.
Quiz show "1 vs. 100" will return January 4 and will air in its old Friday 8 p.m. slot, replacing "Deal or No Deal." ("Deal" will continue to run on Wednesdays.) The game show hosted by Bob Saget will kick off its second season with a "battle of the sexes" premiere episode that will feature one woman competing against 100 men and one man versus 100 women and a contestant winning the show's top prize of $1 million for the first time.
NBC
Sole Survivor Of Redding Crash
Ben Cauley
When Ben Cauley left Madison in 1967, he was a 20-year-old in shock.
The trumpeter was the only survivor of the plane crash that killed Otis Redding and other members of his band, The Bar-Kays.
They were on their way to a show in Madison before their twin-engine aircraft plunged into Lake Monona on Dec. 10, 1967, miles from the airport. Cauley was rescued from the lake's icy waters and suffered only minor injuries.
After being released from Methodist Hospital, Cauley left town so fast that he didn't pick up his trumpet or checkbook that authorities recovered from the water.
He has never returned - until now.
Ben Cauley
Estate Auction
Luther Vandross
From a Picasso charcoal drawing to diamond watches, mink coats and crystal vases, Luther Vandross lived large.
Fans of the legendary singer, who died in 2005 at 54, will have a chance to bid on more than 1,000 items that offer a glimpse into his superstar existence.
On Dec. 5-6, his estate will auction just about everything: his handwritten lyrics to "Love Forgot"; the army green thermoses from which he sipped hot tea during his concerts; designer loafers and boots; Lalique crystal vases, glasses and doorknobs.
The items come from his former homes in Beverly Hills, Calif.; Greenwich, Conn.; and New York City; and from his tours.
Luther Vandross
Sues Music Magazine For Defamation
Morrissey
Former Smiths frontman Morrissey is suing music magazine NME for defamation after it printed an article in which he discussed his views on immigration in Britain.
The magazine criticized the 48-year-old singer for allegedly saying Britain had lost its identity as a result of higher levels of immigration than other European countries.
In the interview, Morrissey was asked whether he would consider moving back to Britain from Italy. He is quoted as replying that high immigration levels meant England's identity was disappearing, unlike other countries like Germany or Sweden.
In a follow-up interview to discuss the original comments, Morrissey is quoted as saying that high immigration was not the reason he would not want to live in England, and that expense and pressure were important factors.
Morrissey
Nonwriting Staff Laid Off
`Tonight Show'
Nonwriting staff members of "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno" became the latest casualties of the four-week Hollywood writers strike when they were laid off Friday.
NBC confirmed the layoffs at the show without providing further details. The show went into reruns when the strike began on Nov. 5 and Leno honored the picket lines.
NBC had been covering the salaries of the nonwriting staffers. Conan O'Brien has promised to cover the salaries of about 75 nonstriking "Late Night" staffers next week.
`Tonight Show'
TMZ Is Reporting...
Wow. Thanks Jay.
Jay's rep tells us that he wishes he could do more, but it's not his show -- he's just the host. Having said that, he gave out his standard Christmas bonuses early to mitigate the effects of the strike -- nearly half a million bucks. The rep would not say, however, how the cash was distributed. As for not saying goodbye to the staff, Jay can't cross the picket line.
Staffers at the "Tonight Show" were just told they've been laid off because of the WGA strike. Happy F-ing Holidays
And that's not the only thing adding insult to penury around NBC. As TMZ reported earlier, we were told that Jay Leno was in a giving mood, offering the staff a "big" Christmas bonus to get them through the strike. This, instead of offering to pay their salaries like his counterparts Conan O'Brien and David Letterman. Well, someone just sent us a copy of their bonus check
Staffers were supposed to receive $100 for each year they've been on the show, but we're told some didn't even get that. We hear many staffers are more hurt than pissed, as there's been little communication from the top. One source says that they weren't too pleased about how Jay's handled the layoffs. He didn't even say goodbye, much less Merry Christmas. Grinch!
Wow. Thanks Jay.
Footprints Seen Around Mt.Everest
Yeti
A U.S.-based television channel investigating the existence of the legendary Yeti in Nepal has found footprints similar to those said to be that of the abominable snowman, the company said on Friday.
A team of nine producers from Destination Truth, armed with infrared cameras, spent a week in the icy Khumbu region where Mount Everest is located and found the footprints on the bank of Manju river at a height of 2,850 meters (9,350 feet).
One of the three footprints discovered on Wednesday is about one foot long, or is of similar size and appearance as shown in sketches of the mystical ape-like creature believed to live in snowy caves, the TV company said.
Destination Truth chronicles some of the world's notorious crypto-zoological creatures and unexplained phenomena.
Yeti
Santa Painting Fetches $2.17M
Norman Rockwell
A Norman Rockwell painting of Santa Claus perched on a stepladder sold for $2.17 million at auction.
The painting, "Extra Good Boys and Girls," is the original of a Saturday Evening Post cover from 1939.
Both the seller and the buyer were anonymous. The buyer was an American who was present at the Rockefeller Center auction house, according to Christie's.
The auction Thursday was part of Christie's sale of important American paintings, drawings and sculptures. The price includes the auction house's commission.
Norman Rockwell
In Memory
Evel Knievel
Evel Knievel, the red-white-and-blue-spangled motorcycle daredevil whose jumps over crazy obstacles including Greyhound buses, live sharks and Idaho's Snake River Canyon made him an international icon in the 1970s, died Friday. He was 69.
Immortalized in the Washington's Smithsonian Institution as "America's Legendary Daredevil," Knievel was best known for a failed 1974 attempt to jump Snake River Canyon on a rocket-powered cycle and a spectacular crash at Caesar's Palace in Las Vegas. He suffered nearly 40 broken bones before he retired in 1980.
His death came just two days after it was announced that he and rapper Kanye West had settled a federal lawsuit over the use of Knievel's trademarked image in a popular West music video.
Born Robert Craig Knievel in the copper mining town of Butte on Oct. 17, 1938, Knievel was raised by his grandparents. He traced his career choice back to the time he saw Joey Chitwood's Auto Daredevil Show at age 8.
Outstanding in track and field, ski jumping and ice hockey at Butte High School, Knievel went on to win the Northern Rocky Mountain Ski Association Class A Men's ski jumping championship in 1957 and played with the Charlotte Clippers of the Eastern Hockey League in 1959.
Evel Knievel married hometown girlfriend, Linda Joan Bork, in 1959. They separated in the early 1990s. They had four children, Kelly, Robbie, Tracey and Alicia.
Knievel lived with his longtime partner, Krystal Kennedy-Knievel, splitting his time between their Clearwater condo and Butte. They married in 1999 and divorced a few years later but remained together. Knievel had 10 grandchildren and a great-grandchild.
Evel Knievel
In Memory
Richard Leigh
Richard Leigh, a writer of alternative history who unsuccessfully sued for plagiarism over themes in Dan Brown's blockbuster novel "The Da Vinci Code," has died, his agent said Friday. He was 64.
U.S.-born Leigh, who had lived in Britain for three decades, died in London on Nov. 21 of causes related to a heart condition, the Jonathan Clowes Agency said.
Leigh was co-author of "The Holy Blood and The Holy Grail," a work of speculative nonfiction that claimed Jesus Christ fathered a child with Mary Magdalene and that the bloodline continues to this day.
Leigh and co-author Michael Baigent sued Brown's publisher Random House, claiming "The Da Vinci Code" "appropriated the architecture" of their book. A third "Holy Blood" author, Henry Lincoln, did not join the lawsuit.
Leigh, born in New Jersey in 1943 to a British father and Austrian mother, attended Tufts University in Boston, the University of Chicago and the State University of New York at Stony Brook. He worked as a university lecturer in the United States and Canada before settling in Britain.
In the mid-1970s he met Lincoln and Baigent, and the trio discovered a shared interest in the Medieval order known as the Knights Templar. They developed a thesis linking the knights with the Merovingian dynasty allegedly descended from Jesus.
Baigent and Leigh collaborated on several other books, including "Holy Blood" sequel "The Messianic Legacy"; "The Dead Sea Scrolls Deception," which alleged a Roman Catholic conspiracy to cover up the scrolls; and "Secret Germany," about a plot to kill Adolf Hitler.
He never married. A funeral was held Wednesday.
Richard Leigh
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