'Best of TBH Politoons'
Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Howard Zinn: Impeachment by the People (AlterNet.org)
Remembering our country's history of grassroots movements can energize calls for impeachment of Bush and Cheney.
SAXON BURNS: A Big Burden (tucsonweekly.com)
Are student-loan creditors sucking the blood of freshly minted college grads?
PAUL KRUGMAN: Missing Molly Ivins (The New York Times)
Molly Ivins, the Texas columnist, died of breast cancer on Wednesday. I first met her more than three years ago, when our book tours crossed. She was, as she wrote, "a card-carrying member of The Great Liberal Backlash of 2003, one of the half-dozen or so writers now schlepping around the country promoting books that do not speak kindly of Our Leader's record."
Arianna Huffington: Good Golly, How We'll Miss Molly
Unlike so many of the smart-assed satirists of our day, she was a woman. A classy lady with a pair of brass cojones.
Pretty vacant (guardian.co.uk)
For decades feminists have tried to bring down the beauty contest. But now it is breaking up under the weight of its own scandals. Kira Cochrane reports.
BRENDAN BERNHARD: The Supermodel School of Poetry (nysun.com)
Emily Dickinson, W.B. Yeats, Christina Rosetti, W.H. Auden: you might think they could never be set to pop music. You might be wrong...
GODFREY CHESHIRE: Notes on a Scandal (A diamond in the rough of a dismal Oscar season)
... Notes on a Scandal ... turns out to be one of the few Oscar candidates that I think richly deserves all of its nominations: Best Actress (Judi Dench), Supporting Actress (Cate Blanchett), Score (Philip Glass) and, yes, Adapted Screenplay (Marber). In fact, I'd throw in two more nominations of my own: Best Picture and Cinematography (the brilliant Chris Menges).
Signe Wilkinson: Cartoon: Molly Ivins (philly.com)
Signe Wilkinson: Signe's Cartoon Archive (philly.com)
Carla Bruni
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Sunny and warm with a nice breeze.
Finally Conducts In US
Ennio Morricone
Ennio Morricone, who has been performing for some six decades and is heading to Hollywood to pick up a long-awaited Academy Award, finally made his conducting debut on the shores of the United States.
The night before his first official U.S. concert at Radio City, the 78-year-old Italian conducted the Rome Sinfonietta Orchestra on Friday in a performance for invited guests who filled the U.N. General Assembly hall.
Morricone, whose iconic theme from "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly" is among his more than 400 film scores, picks up an honorary Oscar at the end of the month after having been passed over by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences five times.
On Friday night, his mission was to honor the United Nations. Morricone dedicated the performance to the U.N. staff and their labors for peace.
Ennio Morricone
Justin Timberlake Hosting
Kids' Choice Awards
He's an actor, Grammy-winning singer and two-time Best Burp Award-winner. Now Justin Timberlake can add another title to his resume: awards-show host.
Timberlake has been tapped to host Nickelodeon's 20th annual Kids' Choice Awards on March 31 at the University of California, Los Angeles.
Timberlake previously won three Kids' Choice Awards, including favorite musical group ('N Sync) in 1999 and best burp in 2003 and 2006.
Kids' Choice Awards
Back With Van Halen
David Lee Roth
The rumors were true. Van Halen will reunite with original singer David Lee Roth for a summer tour of North America.
It will be the first time that Roth performs live with the band since 1984, when he was replaced by Sammy Hagar. A brief reunion with Roth in 1996 resulted in two new songs but no tour.
Original bassist Michael Anthony will not be a part of the reunion. Late last year he was replaced by Eddie Van Halen's 15-year-old son Wolfgang.
David Lee Roth
Renewed Through 2010
'Extra'
"Extra" has been renewed through the 2009-10 season, while co-hosts Dayna Devon and Mark McGrath have also extended their contracts with the syndicated gossip show.
"Extra" has been cleared in more than 95% of the country through 2009-10, including the NBC-owned outlets in New York, Los Angeles and Chicago.
Now in its 13th season, "Extra" is averaging a 2.2 household rating season-to-date, down 4% from the same period a year ago, according to Nielsen Media Research. However, most syndicated shows are down year-to-year, many posting double-digit declines.
'Extra'
Judge Issues Temporary Injunction
Paris Hilton
A federal judge has issued a temporary injunction against a Web site peddling personal pictures, videos, diaries, and other items that heiress Paris Hilton once kept at a storage facility.
Hilton sued the Web site ParisExposed.com last month, accusing it of exploiting her private personal belongings for commercial gain. The injunction issued Friday temporarily bars the Web site from releasing Hilton's Social Security number, health data and other personal information.
The lawsuit alleges two defendants paid $2,775 for the contents of the storage unit and later sold the items for $10 million to entrepreneur Bardia Persa, who created the Web site.
Paris Hilton
Doesn't Play There
Peoria
On Tuesday, resident Bush popped in for a surprise visit to the Sterling Family Restaurant, a homey diner in Peoria, Ill. It's a scene that has been played out many times before by this White House and others: a president mingling among regular Americans, who, no matter what they might think of his policies, are usually humbled and shocked to see the leader of the free world standing 10 feet in front of them.
But on Tuesday, the surprise was on Bush. In town to deliver remarks on the economy, the president walked into the diner, where he was greeted with what can only be described as a sedate reception. No one rushed to shake his hand. There were no audible gasps or yelps of excitement that usually accompany visits like this. Last summer, a woman nearly fainted when Bush made an unscheduled visit for some donut holes at the legendary Lou Mitchell's Restaurant in Chicago. In Peoria this week, many patrons found their pancakes more interesting. Except for the click of news cameras and the clang of a dish from the kitchen, the quiet was deafening.
"Sorry to interrupt you," Bush said to a group of women, who were sitting in a booth with their young kids. "How's the service?" As Bush signed a few autographs and shook hands, a man sitting at the counter lit a cigarette and asked for more coffee. Another woman, eyeing Bush and his entourage, sighed heavily and went back to her paper. She was reading the obituaries. "Sorry to interrupt your breakfast," a White House aide told her. "No problem," she huffed, in a not-so-friendly way. "Life goes on, I guess."
Peoria
Sub For Sale
The Dolphin
Free to a good home: vintage submarine, recently restored. One prior owner.
That's not quite how the notice is worded, but that's the message from the Navy, which is looking for someone to take over the USS Dolphin, one of the oldest submarines in its fleet.
The Dolphin, a one-of-a-kind research vessel, was commissioned in 1968. In a notice published in this week's Federal Register, the Navy said it will accept offers from government agencies, nonprofit groups or other institutions willing to make the submarine into a museum.
The Navy hopes to keep the vessel in its home port of San Diego. Any new owner will also be required to keep the 165-foot sub in good condition.
The Dolphin
Victims Of Storm
Whooping Cranes
All 18 endangered young whooping cranes that were led south from Wisconsin last fall as part of a project to create a second migratory flock of the birds were killed in storms in Florida, a spokesman said.
The cranes were being kept in an enclosure at the Chassahowitzka National Wildlife Refuge near Crystal River, Fla., when violent storms moved in Thursday night, said Joe Duff, co-founder of Operation Migration, the organization coordinating the project.
He speculated that a strong storm surge drew the tide in and overwhelmed the birds, or they were electrocuted from lightning strikes reported in the area. The official cause of the deaths was not immediately known.
For the past six years, whooping cranes hatched in captivity have been raised at the Necedah National Wildlife Refuge in central Wisconsin by workers who wear crane-like costumes to keep the birds wary of humans.
Ultralight aircraft are used to teach new groups of young cranes the migration route to Florida. Then the birds migrate north in the spring and south in the fall on their own.
Whooping Cranes
Getting New Fence
Sappaya Spa
A Thai spa has agreed to re-model its penis-shaped fence into lotus flowers after it offended neighbours, a government official said on Monday.
The Sappaya Spa, located near the entrance of a small village and near a beach on the southern tourist island of Phuket, upset locals this month when builders erected the 18 Hindu Shiva Lingas around the property.
After weeks of negotiations, the spa owner, a staunch Hindu follower, bowed to the outcry over the sculptures, which he thought would bring him good luck in business.
Shiva Linga is the holy symbol of Lord Shiva, which religious scholars have given various interpretations of, including the symbol of copulation.
Sappaya Spa
In Memory
Joe Hunter
Joe Hunter, Motown's first bandleader and a three-time Grammy winner with the Funk Brothers, has died. He was 79.
Hunter was a diabetic, but the cause of his death on Friday was not immediately known, his son, Joe Hunter Jr., told The Detroit News.
Hunter was Motown legend Berry Gordy Jr.'s first hire. He backed up acts such as Smokey Robinson and the Miracles on piano in the late 1950s, as Gordy mustered a staff for what would become Motown Records. Hunter also served as Motown's first bandleader in the early days.
The Funk Brothers played backup on many Motown recordings. Hunter's piano work was an integral part of such songs as Martha and the Vandellas' "Heat Wave" and "Come and Get These Memories," and Marvin Gaye's "Pride and Joy." After Motown left Detroit in 1972, like many musicians, Hunter took what gigs he could.
When Philadelphia musician and historian Allan Slutsky set out to find all the Funk Brothers in the 1980s, he found Hunter playing for tips at the Troy Marriott.
After the documentary film "Standing in the Shadows of Motown" was released in 2002, the Funk Brothers' soundtrack album won two Grammy awards in 2003. In 2004, Hunter and the Funks were awarded with a Lifetime Achievement Award at the Grammys, and the group toured for several years.
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Joe Hunter
In Memory
Eric von Schmidt
Guitarist and painter Eric von Schmidt, a player in the U.S. Northeast's blues and folk scene in the 1950s and 1960s who influenced Bob Dylan, has died. He was 75.
Von Schmidt met Dylan in the early '60s at his apartment in Harvard Square in Cambridge, Mass., where a folk scene developed and featured the likes of Joan Baez and Tom Rush. He told the Boston Globe newspaper in an interview in 1996 that he played several songs for Dylan that day.
Dylan wrote liner notes for von Schmidt's 1969 album, "Who Knocked the Brains Out of the Sky."
On Dylan's first album, "Bob Dylan," in 1962, he said at the beginning of "Baby, Let Me Follow You Down," that he first heard the song from von Schmidt. The song was based on one recorded by Blind Dog Fuller.
Von Schmidt began playing guitar when he was 17 and said he was inspired when he heard bluesman Leadbelly on the radio. He said he listened to many folk and blues recordings at the Library of Congress, where his father - Harold von Schmidt, who was noted for his illustrations for the Saturday Evening Post magazine - would drop him off during trips to Washington.
He went to Italy in 1955 to study art on a Fulbright scholarship before landing in Cambridge. His first album, "The Folk Blues of Eric von Schmidt," was released in 1963.
One of his better-known songs was "Joshua Gone Barbados," which has been performed by several other artists. The ASCAP Foundation, which promotes music education, gave him its Lifetime Achievement Award in 2000. He also painted album covers for Baez and other folk musicians.
Eric von Schmidt
In Memory
Billy Henderson
Singer Billy Henderson, a member of the band the Spinners who sang "I'll Be Around" and other hits, has died. He was 67.
Henderson died Friday of complications from diabetes at a Daytona Beach health care facility, his wife, Barbara, said.
The 1972 song "I'll Be Around" was part of a string of Top 20 Spinners hits that included "Could It Be I'm Falling in Love," "Then Came You" and "The Rubberband Man."
The five-member band of high school friends formed in 1954 in Ferndale, Mich., a Detroit suburb. They went on to be nominated for six Grammy Awards and became the second black musical group to get a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Four of the original band members, including Henderson, continued to perform together until recently. He was dismissed from the group in 2004 after suing the group's corporation and business manager to obtain financial records.
Billy Henderson
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