Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Marc Dion: Where's the Doctor? (Creators Syndicate)
People who write, legislate and complain about health care have pretty obviously never been sick, had a bad cold or, well, been anywhere. "You can keep your doctor," Pres. Obama says. Hell, I'd like to SEE my doctor. You know who I see when I "go to the doctor?" I see a physician's assistant.
Lucy Mangan: In 2014, I shall endeavour to get out more. Maybe (Guardian)
'The older I get, it seems, the more freighted and significant New Year's resolutions become.'
Michele: "Experience: Muhammad Ali was my mentor" (Guardian)
'I went everywhere with him. I was like his court musician and performed for guests.'
Decca Aitkenhead: "Steve McQueen: my hidden shame" (Guardian)
His new film 12 Years A Slave is an unflinching look at human brutality. But director Steve McQueen's childhood contains a painful secret he has never confronted.
Oliver Burkeman: Can I increase my brain power? (Guardian)
A billion-dollar industry has grown up around our desire to be more intelligent. But is it really possible to make yourself smarter?
Marilyn Preston: "My 2014 Predictions: 5 Ways to Say Happy New Year" (Creators Syndicate)
I'm not a professional futurist, but as 2014 begins, it's only natural for me to take the moose head golf cover off my slightly cracked crystal ball and make a few healthy lifestyle predictions.
Mark Hill: 4 Creepy Ways 'Pokemon' Changed Since You Stopped Playing (Cracked)
Even if you've never played a Pokemon game in your life, you're probably familiar with the basic premise. You travel around the world to capture and battle fictional creatures, all of which love fighting and never suffer any harm when they get clawed in the face or blasted by fire because that would be sad. It's about as wholesome and innocent as a series about magical cock fights can get.
13 Most Influential 2013 Images from Imgur
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Reader Suggestion
Michelle in AZ
From The Creator of 'Avery Ant'
Reader Suggestion
Kids
Being a teenager is hard, no matter where you grew up or what kind of life you have. Take Rain, for example. Rain is a 16 year-old boy that is probably dealing with a lot of social stresses in high school…
and now, he deals with daily torture from his awesome father, Dale. When Dale and his wife Rochelle used to say goodbye to their son in the morning, they would wave as he left for school.Rain hated it and asked his mom, "Don't let dad go out there again." Dale saw that as a fatherly challenge...
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Foggy night.
NBC Rewrites History To Promote 'Tonight' Debut
Jimmy Fallon
NBC wants Jimmy Fallon to succeed so badly when he takes over its venerable "Tonight Show" in February that it is attempting to bend the rules of time.
In a promo unveiled Saturday evening, the Peacock depicts Fallon as the latest in the decades-old program's line of memorable hosts. A succession of graphics lists the famous names: Steve Allen. Jack Paar. Johnny Carson. Conan O'Brien, Jay Leno.
The problem? Leno has hosted the show before O'Brien did. Indeed, the veteran host has enjoyed two separate "Tonight" runs, from 1992 to 2009, as Johnny Carson's successor, and again starting in 2010, after a General Electric-controlled NBCUniversal attempted to move Conan O'Brien into the "Tonight" chair while keeping Leno affiliated with the network by placing him to a 10 p.m. time slot five days a week. The ill-fated effort sparked outcry from NBC affiliates who thought low ratings for Leno's 10 p.m. roost were wiping away viewership for late local news, a large contributor to stations' ad revenue. As a result, Leno returned to "Tonight" and O'Brien left the network altogether.
To be sure, the new promo shows Leno as heir to Carson's seat, even as it gives a brief spotlight to O'Brien (a signal, perhaps, that NBC's current owner, Comcast, takes a dim view of the debacle and would like nothing better than to sweep it under the rug). Yet the video also makes things seem as if O'Brien held sway well before Leno came on the scene. And the manner in which various clips are shown suggests Leno will have enjoyed an uninterrupted run before he hands Fallon the baton.
Jimmy Fallon
Angels Of Mercy
Pilots
When Ron Evenhaim flew his private plane on a volunteer mission of mercy from California to Oregon, he did not expect to adopt one of his passengers.
The wide, frightened eyes of Bambi the Chihuahua made her stand out among hundreds of homeless canines Evenhaim and other volunteer pilots flew out of California last month to states with high demand for dogs and shelters with policies against putting them to death.
The flights - one of the largest known airlifts of their kind - are part of a growing national effort to transport animals long distances as a way of saving them from so-called kill shelters, where abandoned pets or strays are euthanized to make room for incoming animals.
Last month, the nonprofit group run by volunteer pilots flew more than 500 abandoned small- to medium-size dogs from overcrowded California shelters to "no-kill" operations in the U.S. Northwest, where demand for smaller dogs is higher, said Wings of Rescue co-founder Cindy Smith.
The dozen December flights - to Oregon, Washington state, Idaho and Montana - were dubbed the "holiday airlift." It also appears to be the largest ever airlift of rescue dogs in the United States, said animal welfare experts.
Pilots
Reunite for 50th Anniversary?
The Kinks
Though talk of a reformed Kinks seems to hit the headlines every few years, frontman Ray Davies has given a clear indicator that his band's many patient fans could soon get their reward. This year, the Kinks hits the half-century milestone. And Davies has told British music magazine Uncut that a reunion is "as close as it's ever been to happening."
The three surviving members of the original lineup - the Ray and Dave Davies and drummer Mick Avory (bassist Pete Quaife died in 2010) - opened-up for the music title.
Dave Davies explains that he'd caught up with his brother last summer in a London pub, where they chatted about the possibility of reforming the band for their 50th anniversary.
In the issue, Dave also discusses the sometimes turbulent relationship he's endured with his sibling. "I said to Ray I thought that it'd be a great shame if we don't try and do something," he told Uncut. "I don't think our love has diminished. I think the stage-play has played itself out a bit, the pretense and the acting. I think it's time reality took over, and started directing the last years of … whatever it is. It's like Cain and Abel."
The Kinks
Author Of Mystery Letter Identified
Abraham Lincoln
It's been more than 25 years since workers renovating Abraham Lincoln's home in Springfield found a letter fragment in a mouse's nest inside a wall, but researchers think they've finally identified the mystery letter's author.
The clue was a mention of poetry.
Lincoln had exchanged several letters with a newspaper editor about poetry and politics. So Stacy Pratt McDermott, an associate editor of The Papers of Abraham Lincoln, set about comparing the handwriting on the fragment with a letter that Andrew Johnston had written to Lincoln in 1865 and a note that Johnston had written in 1872 on an old letter from Lincoln.
The match was unmistakable.
Besides solving a mystery, the discovery sheds light on a lesser explored aspect of Lincoln's character.
Abraham Lincoln
Hottest Year On Record
Australia
Australia experienced its hottest year on record in 2013, the Bureau of Meteorology said Friday, enduring the longest heatwave ever recorded Down Under as well as destructive bushfires.
"2013 was Australia's warmest year since records began in 1910," the bureau said in its annual climate statement, released as inland areas of the country suffer scorching heatwave conditions.
"Mean temperatures across Australia have generally been well above average since September 2012. Long periods of warmer-than-average days have been common, with a distinct lack of cold weather."
The bureau said that Australia's 2012-2013 summer was the warmest on record, and included a prolonged national heatwave which ended on January 19, 2013 -- the first day since 31 December, 2012 that it did not reach 45 degrees Celsius (113 F) somewhere in the nation.
Australia
Blood Alcohol Content Too High To Measure
Levi B. Carter
28-year-old Levi B. Carter's accomplishment is one that's truly horrifying. KCRG ABC 9 News is reporting that the Iowa City, Iowa man was so intoxicated that when given a breath test, the breathalyzer wasn't able to calculate it.
The Iowa City Press Citizen writes that the police responded to a call from a woman who claimed to be Carter's passenger at about 2am Friday morning. She told them he had driven off the road and hit a street sign. When the authorities arrived to Carter's home they found him in his basement, "talking to people that were not there." He wasn't able to stand without holding himself up, and if you can believe it, "smelled strongly of alcohol."
Mr. Carter told police he had drank two Bud Lights. Two. He failed an eye test and was unable to complete any other field sobriety tests. When they administered the breathalyzer test, the Press Citizen writes he, "…provided a weak breath into a preliminary breath test and the last reading was .467 before the PBT just read 'HI.'" Geez. I don't think you will be surprised to find out he was arrested for operating a vehicle while intoxicated.
This is not the only story of this nature to come out of Iowa this week. Just this past Thursday 40-year-old Chad Harvey blew .435 in the nearby city of North Liberty. WQAD News 8, which covered that story, pointed readers to breathalyzer information from Lifeloc Technologies, a company that, "…designs, engineers and manufactures precision fuel-cell based breath alcohol testing equipment."
On their site they discuss what happens with BAC's at these levels.
Levi B. Carter
Taking Over Troubled Privately-Run Prison
Idaho
Idaho will take over the operation of its largest prison from one of the nation's biggest corrections contractors, abruptly ending an experiment with privatization at a facility that has been plagued by understaffing, multiple lawsuits and allegations of contract fraud.
The state is expected to begin running the 2,080-bed Idaho Correctional Center, located just outside Boise, over the next several months, as its $29 million-a-year contract with the Corrections Corporation of America expires on June 30. Gov. C.L. "Butch" Otter made the announcement Friday, saying he is advising the state Board of Correction to shift focus from finding a new contractor to assuming control of the facility.
"In recognition of what's happened, what's happening, it's necessary. It's the right thing to do," said Otter, a longtime proponent of privatization who called the need to make the move "disappointing."
The move to end the contract comes months after an Associated Press report raised questions about how the Nashville, Tenn.,-based company was staffing the prison, and is part of a larger debate over whether prison privatization works.
The private prison contractors over the past several decades have been brought in to run prisons, federal lockups and county-level jails. The number of inmates housed in state and federal facilities grew from 85,500 in 2000 to more than 128,000 in 2012, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.
Idaho
Pentagon Cuts List
Danger Pay
The Pentagon said on Friday it had cut by about a third the list of places where U.S. troops would receive imminent danger pay, dropping locations like Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and the Gulf in a move expected to reduce costs by about $100 million a year.
Still on the list are countries like Afghanistan and Iraq, where the United States fought wars over the last decade, as well as Jordan and Turkey, which border Syria, where a civil war is raging.
The sea near Somalia, where pirates have been active, is on the list. So is Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, the home of the U.S. prison for captured enemy combatants, as well as Israel, Azerbaijan and the city of Athens, Greece.
But gone from the list are Bahrain, which is headquarters to the U.S. Fifth Fleet, plus the waterways of the neighboring Gulf, Arabian Sea and Red Sea, where the Navy regularly deploys its ships.
Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Oman, the United Arab Emirates, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan also were removed from the countries where U.S. forces receive imminent danger pay. The U.S. military has forces in several of those countries as well. In many cases, the airspace above the country or waterway also was removed from the list.
Danger Pay
Apartment Sales Jump
Manhattan
Sales volumes of Manhattan apartments jumped 30 percent in the fourth quarter, a report on Friday showed, as buyers put aside concerns about the strength of the overall economy and pushed inventory levels to historic lows.
The report by Douglas Elliman Real Estate showed there were 3,297 sales in the closing months of 2013, the most since the company's records began 25 years ago. The supply of units was down to 4,164, or its lowest level in 14 years.
The median sales price for condos in New York City hit $1.32 million, up 14.3 percent from last year. The median sales price for co-ops, which comprise the bulk of sales, was $680,000, up 4.6 percent since last year.
Experts said increasing mortgage rates and dwindling inventories had prompted many buyers to finally take the plunge.
Manhattan
In Memory
Alicia Rhett
Alicia Rhett, an actress who played one of the sisters of Ashley Wilkes in "Gone with the Wind," died Friday. She was 98.
Still-surviving cast members include Olivia de Havilland, 97, who played Ashley Wilkes' cousin and wife, Melanie Hamilton; Mary Anderson, 93, who played Maybelle Merriweather; and Mickey Kuhn, 81, who played Beau Wilkes, Farfone said.
Rhett was born Feb. 1, 1915, in Savannah, Ga., Farfone said. She had been living at the retirement community in Charleston since August 2002.
In the movie, India Wilkes is a sister of Ashley Wilkes, with whom Scarlett O'Hara is deeply in love before Ashley marries Melanie and Scarlett becomes involved with Rhett Butler.
In addition to being an actress, Alicia Rhett also was a portrait artist and illustrator. She sketched her fellow "Gone with the Wind" actors between takes of the film.
Alicia Rhett
In Memory
Barbara Lawrence
Actress Barbara Lawrence, who played Gertie Cummings in the 1955 movie "Oklahoma!", has died. She was 83.
Her daughter-in-law, Christy Nelson, said Friday that the actress died of kidney failure on Nov. 13.
Lawrence's career spanned the late 1940s through the early 1960s.
Her movies include "The Street with No Name," ''A Letter To Three Wives," and the 1957 sci-fi cult classic "Kronos."
Her TV work included episodes of "Perry Mason" and "Bonanza."
Lawrence later became an author, publicist and real estate agent in Beverly Hills.
She has a star on Hollywood's Walk of Fame.
Barbara Lawrence
In Memory
Saul Zaentz
Saul Zaentz, a music producer whose second career as a filmmaker brought him best-picture Academy Awards for "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest," ''Amadeus" and "The English Patient," has died. He was 92.
Zaentz died Friday at his San Francisco apartment after suffering from Alzheimer's disease, Paul Zaentz, the producer's nephew and longtime business partner told the Associated Press.
Since moving into film at age 50 with 1972's low-budget country-music drama "Payday," Zaentz made just 10 movies, giving him a remarkable three-for-10 batting average on best-picture wins at the Oscars.
Among Zaentz's other films were the 1978 animated version of "The Lord of the Rings," which later paved the way for the blockbuster live action trilogy.
He also brought out the 1986 Harrison Ford drama "The Mosquito Coast"; 1998's acclaimed "The Unbearable Lightness of Being," which co-starred "The English Patient" Oscar winner Juliette Binoche; and 1991's "At Play in the Fields of the Lord," a critical and commercial flop despite a cast that included Kathy Bates, Tom Berenger and John Lithgow.
Zaentz was a throwback to old Hollywood, a producer who cared tremendously about his films and would go to extremes to get them right, often putting his own money up to help finance them.
Anthony Minghella had made just two small films when Zaentz picked him to direct "The English Patient," whose awards included the best-director Oscar. Czech director Milos Forman had worked on films mostly in his home country when producers Zaentz and Michael Douglas chose him to make "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest." Forman also directed "Amadeus."
With "Lord of the Rings," whose film rights he acquired in the mid-1970s, Zaentz rejected all suitors interested in doing a live-action version until he saw New Zealand director Peter Jackson's visually striking "Heavenly Creatures."
Though Zaentz's involvement was limited and he did not share in the producing credits, he gave full blessing to Jackson's mammoth, three-film "Lord of the Rings" production. He later sued over royalties, however; the dispute was settled out of court in 2005.
Zaentz entered the movie business after growing bored with his successful recording-industry career, which included the Fantasy Records label he bought in 1967.
Largely a jazz label whose catalog includes albums by Miles Davis, John Coltrane and Sonny Rollins, Fantasy also released albums by Creedence Clearwater Revival, whose leader John Fogerty later feuded with Zaentz in bitter court fights.
Fogerty had to change the name of a song on his 1980s solo album, after Zaentz said he was being libeled. (It became "Vanz Kant Danz.") Zaentz lost his lawsuit against Fogerty claiming the musician's song "Old Man Down the Road" copied the melody from "Run Through the Jungle," a Creedence tune that remained in the Fantasy library.
After Zaentz sold Fantasy in 2004, Fogerty made peace with the label's new owners.
Born Feb. 28, 1921, in Passaic, N.J., Zaentz earned a degree in poultry husbandry from Rutgers University. He served in Africa and Sicily and aboard troop ships in the North Atlantic and Pacific during World War II.
After the war, Zaentz attended business college and moved to San Francisco, where he worked for a small record distributor and later joined jazz producer Norman Granz, working on recordings and concerts.
Saul Zaentz
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