Recommended Reading
from Bruce
"Heart of Darkness and The Congo Diary" (Penguin Classics) by Joseph Conrad: A review by Doug Brown
The only film I ever faked an ID to get into was 'Apocalypse Now.' I spent half an hour in a social sciences class (ah, the irony) carefully altering the birth year on my learner's permit.
Tim Adams: Diana Athill: grand old lady of letters (guardian.co.uk)
The doyenne of English literature has fascinating tales to tell, not least of her dealings with some of the greatest writers of the century, and her own ménage à trois with a playwright and his young lover. Here she talks to Tim Adams with the same piercing candour she brings to her new volume of memoirs.
Darren Sextro: "Strokes of genius: Lydia Davis stories read like a collection of mini memoirs" (McClatchy Newspapers)
If it is true that an intellectual can intimidate - and who but another intellectual would deny this? - there is much about Lydia Davis that should scare you away.
"Ambrose Bierce's Write It Right: The Celebrated Cynic's Language Peeves Deciphered, Appraised, and Annotated for 21st-Century Readers" by Ambrose Bierce: A review by Elizabeth Bachner
With Ambrose Bierce, it's like you're either against him or you're against him. Even if you love his long-curdled, tireless bitchiness -- even if it validates you and vindicates you and just plain makes you feel better -- you know that if he met you at a party or read your short story in 'Harper's' or 'The New Yorker,' he would shrivel you and skewer you and make you sorry you'd ever tried to share his space on the planet. Meanwhile, Bierce's own life seems to have been a bitter, strife-filled stew of self-fulfilling prophecy.
Esmée Denters: 'What better mentor to have than Justin Timberlake?' (guardian.co.uk)
From working in a pancake house to becoming Justin Timberlake's protege, Dutch singer Esmée Denters's story is the stuff of Hollywood fantasy. But, she tells Angus Batey, she's no passing fad.
Luke Bainbridge: Interview with 50 Cent (guardian.co.uk)
The rapper, 34, in his own words.
Michael Ordoña: "Mo'Nique: She plays an abusive mother in 'Precious,' but she's not so mean in person" (latimes.com)
Mary Jones is a monster. Entering her living room, where she lurks in near-darkness watching television and seething with unquenchable rage, is like stepping into the dank lair of the hydra -- but so much worse, because it feels so real.
Gina Piccalo: Sandra Bullock, for real, has Oscar chance this year (latimes.com)
Sandra Bullock doesn't aim for critical acclaim, but now, with 'The Blind Side,' an Oscar is . . .
David Bruce: "How to Manage Your Money: A Guide for the Non-Rich" (lulu.com)
Free Download. This little document gives a number of common-sense tips for managing your money. It is not for rich people; however, students who are graduating from college and beginning their career will benefit from reading it, as will many other non-rich people.
David Bruce: " Writing Tips: How to Write Easier and Better" (lulu.com)
Free Download. This short document describes the writing process and gives a number of tips about how to improve your writing. Feel free to make copies and distribute them.
Joel Pett: Cartoon: "BIG-HOAX-CLIMATE-SUMMIT-COPENHAGEN-CAI-120709" (cartoons.nytimages.com)
The Weekly Poll
Current Question
The 'Making (Up) the Grade' Edition...
On Sunday night, Oprah's Christmas at the White House special aired; during her one-on-one conversation with the president, Oprah asked Obama what grade he would give himself for his first year in office. "A good solid B-plus," Obama answered... President Obama To Oprah: I Give Myself A Solid B+ (VIDEO)
What letter grade(s) would you give President Obama? Feel free to break it down into whatever categories you think are appropriate...
Send your response to
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From The Creator of 'Avery Ant'
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
School Team's Success Linked
Snoop Dogg
Football has long been the athletic stepchild at inner-city Crenshaw High School. Trophy cases are crammed with basketball awards. Gym walls are lined with hoops championship flags.
But the football team is undefeated this season and headed for the California state championship bowl game this weekend, and the coach attributes part of the success to an unlikely off-field source: rapper Snoop Dogg.
Nine of this year's Crenshaw High School Cougars went through the 5-year-old Snoop Youth Football League, representing the first crop of varsity players to cut their teeth in the program. The league has produced standouts at other schools, but none has more players or a better record than Crenshaw.
The league has made Snoop Dogg, whose real name is Calvin Broadus, a savior of sorts for football in an impoverished area of Los Angeles where gangs roam many of the streets.
Broadus, 38, launched the league in 2005 with $1 million of his own money after noticing that much of urban Los Angeles had no football for boys ages 5 to 13.
Snoop Dogg
Mississippi Museum of Art Exhibit
Jim Henson
In a scene that surely would have pleased Jim Henson, a group of children sang the "Sesame Street" theme song Friday to announce an exhibition of "The Muppet" creator's work in his native Mississippi.
Henson, a Greenville native who developed an astounding imagination exploring the wilderness near his childhood home in Leland, is the focus of an exhibition at the Mississippi Museum of Art.
A news conference on Friday at the museum in Jackson opened with a group of children from Galloway Elementary School singing the "Sesame Street" song. Henson was a driving force behind the successful children's program.
After Mississippi, the exhibit will travel to 12 other sites across the country.
Jim Henson
Wedding News
Gloria Trevi
Pop diva Gloria Trevi has married a lawyer in a cathedral ceremony in her northern Mexican hometown.
Trevi and attorney Armando Gomez exchanged vows Thursday in the Monterrey cathedral, which was decked with blue-and-white flowers and filled with other Mexican stars.
The smiling, tearful bride wore a white silk gown and a veil held in place by a crown.
Gloria Trevi
Matter Of Measurements
Beauty
Beauty is not so much in the eye of the beholder as in the measurements between the eyes, mouth and ears of the woman being observed, US and Canadian researchers have found.
In four experiments aimed at finding "an ideal facial feature arrangement," US and Canadian researchers asked students to compare color photographs of the same woman's face, in which the vertical distance between the eyes and mouth, and horizontal distance between the eyes, had been doctored using Photoshop.
The features -- eyes, mouth, nose, contour and hair -- remained the same and a woman's face was only compared to her own, never to another's.
In all four experiments, they chose the faces with specific proportions that the researchers have dubbed the "new golden ratio."
Beauty
Rupert Lies & Whines
Time Warner Cable
News Corp warned that testy carriage negotiations with Time Warner Cable Inc could leave viewers unable to see programing from its Fox broadcast network, including it blockbuster hit "American Idol" and NFL football.
Negotiations between the two sides have been primarily held up by a disagreement over the value of Fox's free-to-air broadcast network. Fox is asking Time Warner Cable for around $1 a subscriber in payment for the retransmission rights to carry its network, according to a person familiar with the talks.
Time Warner Cable executives have balked at paying that much and have claimed that negotiations with broadcast companies like Sinclair Broadcast Group Inc and Local TV which carry local affiliate stations are in the 25 cents to 50 cents a subscriber range.
CBS Corp CEO Les Moonves, who has been a very vocal supporter of getting pay-TV providers to pay cash for the right to carry his broadcast network, has publicly said he expects his company to be paid around 50 cents a subscriber.
The negotiations do not include Fox's news channels or National Geographic channel in which it has a 50 percent stake.
Time Warner Cable
French Court Rules Against
Google
A Paris court on Friday found U.S. Internet giant Google guilty of violating copyright by digitising books and putting extracts online, following a legal challenge by major French publishers.
The court ruled against Google's French unit after the La Martiniere group, which controls the highbrow Editions du Seuil publishing house, argued that publishers and authors were losing out in the latest stage of the digital revolution.
Google was ordered to pay 300,000 euros (266,600 pounds) in damages and interest, far less than the 15 million euro fine sought by plaintiffs. It must stop reproducing any copyrighted material by French publishers it has not struck deals with.
The popular search engine announced it would appeal, but Friday's ruling will be enforced immediately pending any further court action.
Google
CA Considers Requiring Condoms
Porn
State regulators have agreed to consider a request from an AIDS advocacy group calling for mandatory use of condoms in porn films.
The AIDS Healthcare Foundation submitted the request Thursday at a meeting of the California Occupational Safety and Health Standards Board.
The advocacy group wants current rules requiring healthcare workers to wear gear that prevents the spread of disease to extend to adult film sets.
The Cal/OSHA board has 60 days to evaluate the petition and issue a response.
Porn
Exhibition Reveals Nude Drawings Hobby
Stalin
An unprecedented exhibition opened in Moscow Friday of nude prints with scrawled comments apparently written by former Soviet leader Joseph Stalin that make ribald references to his party comrades.
Titled "Messages from the Great Leader: Stalin's Autographs," the week-long exhibition shows prints of 19th- and 20th-century art works that Stalin is said to have defaced with messages in coloured pencil.
"Ginger b..(expletive) Radek, if he hadn't p..(expletive) against the wind, if he hadn't been angry, he would be alive," he wrote across the leg of a weighty male nude.
Other comments are simply coarse jokes about nudity. "Don't sit with a bare arse on stones," Stalin writes on a drawing of a man sitting on a pedestal. "Give the boy some pants."
The collection was preserved by people who worked in Stalin's security service, said the organisers who include the popular online newspaper gazeta.ru. But the owner of the collection wants to remain anonymous.
Stalin
Sale Throws Industry For A Loop
Amusement Parks
The amusement park industry's bumpy ride this year took another twist as one of the nation's biggest park operators said it has reached a deal to be acquired by a private equity firm.
North America's third-largest chain, Ohio-based Cedar Fair LP, will turn over its 11 amusement parks, seven water parks and five hotels to Apollo Global Management for about $635 million in cash.
The deal announced late Wednesday tops off 12 months that have turned the industry upside down with declining attendance, private acquisitions and the bankruptcy of Six Flags Inc., the world's largest regional theme park company.
Cedar Fair's deal comes just two months after Anheuser-Busch InBev announced it would sell its 10 theme parks across the U.S., including the three SeaWorlds and two Busch Gardens, to private equity firm Blackstone Group for at least $2.3 billion.
Attendance and revenues at many big parks have flattened out in recent years and it's no longer a guarantee that opening an expensive roller coaster at a major theme park will bring in waves of new customers.
Amusement Parks
In Memory
C.D.B. Bryan
C.D.B. Bryan, whose 1976 book "Friendly Fire" about the accidental death of a soldier in Vietnam struck a chord with disillusioned Americans, has died at his Connecticut home. He was 73.
Bryan died Tuesday of cancer at his home in Guilford, said his wife, Mairi. He was holding one of his iconic shaken martinis when he died, she said.
Although Bryan wrote extensively for several magazines throughout his career, he was best known for "Friendly Fire."
The book, which started as an article for The New Yorker, is based on the 1970 friendly-fire shrapnel death of Iowa soldier Michael Eugene Mullen. It chronicled his parents' doubts about the Army's official account of the death, their quest for answers and the transformation of his mother, Peg Mullen, into an ardent anti-war activist. She died in October.
The book was turned into a 1979 Emmy-winning television movie starring Carol Burnett, Ned Beatty, Sam Waterston and Timothy Hutton.
C.D.B. Bryan, whose full name was Courtlandt Dixon Barnes Bryan, was born in New York City in 1936. He always enjoyed writing and credited his stepfather, novelist John O'Hara, with nurturing his interest in fiction.
Bryan, known to friends as Courty and Courtlandt, especially liked good conversation and good martinis - always shaken, never stirred, Mairi Bryan said.
Bryan used his storytelling skills in several magazines, including The New Yorker, Harper's and The New York Times Book Review, for which he did scores of reviews.
Bryan graduated from Yale University, was an Army veteran and was author of several books in addition to "Friendly Fire."
In addition to his wife, survivors include a son, daughter, stepson and stepdaughter.
C.D.B. Bryan
In Memory
Dan O'Bannon
Hollywood writer Dan O'Bannon, whose script for the hit space thriller "Alien" introduced some of the most terrifying creatures of science-fiction lore to the big screen, has died at age 63.
O'Bannon, who also co-wrote the Arnold $chwarzenegger sci-fi action film "Total Recall," died Thursday, the Writers Guild of America confirmed on Friday. Online media reports said he had suffered a brief, undisclosed illness.
A St. Louis native who grew up on horror films and monster comics like "Tales from the Crypt," O'Bannon got his start collaborating with director John Carpenter on the screenplay for the 1974 sci-fi cult parody "Dark Star."
O'Bannon also co-starred in the low-budget movie about four astronauts on a lengthy mission to clear a path through space by destroying planets that posed a navigation barrier.
His screenwriting credits also include the 1995 sci-fi thriller "Screamers," which he worked on for over a decade, and the 1997 horror film "Bleeders."
But his best known work was his screenplay for the 1979 space chiller "Alien," the first of a film series starring Sigourney Weaver as a tough space hero who battles a colony of slimy, parasitic, insect-like creatures with razor-sharp teeth and voracious appetites.
The original film, directed by Ridley Scott, garnered an Oscar for its visual effects. O'Bannon also shared credit in sequels for the characters he created. The first sequel, 1986's "Aliens," directed by James Cameron, won Oscars for best visual and best sound effects editing.
Dan O'Bannon
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