Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Marc Dion: One of the Girls in the Office (Creators Syndicate)
My mother, Margaret Munroe Dion, who died Saturday [Feb 16] at 2:55 in the afternoon, was one of the girls in the office. That phrase, "one of the girls in the office," was how she described herself during a career of unnoticed, generally poorly paid, clerical work in banks and doctors' offices, as a payroll clerk in a factory, and in a public library. … She was very much like everyone else, and that is not meant to be demeaning. Members of her generation did not believe that everyone was "special" and "unique." They believed that it was best to fit in, to blend, to be like everyone else. It was perhaps their greatest strength, a strength that could be used to build armies, to man assembly lines and to construct stable 50-year marriages.
Ted Rall: Journalists Had Better Hope I Win My Case (Creators Syndicate)
I have written extensively about my lawsuit against the LA Times. As I prepare for the next, do-or-die, stage of my case, it's time to explain why Rall v. Los Angeles Times et al. has broad implications beyond me personally. Freedom of the press is at stake.
Mark Shields: Nobody Knows Who Will Be the 2020 Presidential Nominees (Creators Syndicate)
When the coalition he forged drove the invading Saddam Hussein out of Kuwait - in the short, decisive and successful Gulf War - President George H.W. Bush won the first (and only) clear-cut American military victory since World War II. In a Gallup Poll taken the same amount of time before Bush's next Election Day as this week is ahead of 2020 voting, Bush's 89 percent approval rating was an all-time high for any president. … On July 16, 1992, when Clinton accepted the Democratic presidential nomination, the formerly unbeatable President George Bush stood at just 29 percent approval in the Gallup Poll. Early numbers are indeed written in wet sand at the ocean's edge.
Froma Harrop: Bernie Sanders, It's Over (Creators Syndicate)
Before the 2016 presidential race, Bernie Sanders exuded some charm as an unapologetic lefty with a Brooklyn accent. But when his campaign gained traction, the authoritarian took over. Unwilling to concede that Democratic primary voters preferred Hillary Clinton to him - she had amassed nearly 4 million more votes - he continued to undermine her all the way up to the party convention. Without a doubt, he helped elect Donald Trump.
Lenore Skenazy: "Uber-Gullible: Was a Woman Nearly Sex Trafficked by Her Driver?" (Creators Syndicate)
And in fact, what actually happened at the Tampa airport was a big misunderstanding. "The person that posted [the account on Facebook about nearly being human trafficked by an Uber driver] got into the wrong car, and there was a language barrier. It's as simple as that. This had nothing to do with sex trafficking," said Tampa police spokesman Eddy Durkin to the Orlando Sentinel.
Connie Schultz: Grief, Revisited and Revised (Creators Syndicate)
Off we went, in a minivan with my daughter and three of our friends. At one point during the nine-hour drive, we were talking about horror movies, inexplicably my gentle mother's favorite genre. "Oh, you know which one I love?" she said, clapping her hands. "'Texas Jigsaw Massacre.'" Boy, did my students laugh. Mom loved that. Deep inside me, I could hear her laughing.
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Presenting
Michael Egan
took the day off.
has returned to semi-retired status.
In memory.
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from Bruce
Anecdotes - Gifts
• Oskar Schindler saved over 1,200 Jews during the Holocaust, but when the war was over, he was in danger of being executed. After all, he was a Nazi and a German, and the Russians wanted revenge for the millions of their people who had died during the war. The Jews whom Mr. Schindler had saved wanted to thank and help protect him. They drafted a letter in both Hebrew and German saying that Mr. Schindler had saved many Jews and that he deserved help. They also made a gold ring for him, using the gold teeth-donated-of a man named Szymon Jereth who was among the Jews saved by Mr. Schindler. The gold ring was inscribed with this verse from the Talmud: "He who saves a single life saves the world." That verse also appears on the medal designating Mr. Schindler a Righteous Gentile.
• Lois Lowry's first novel was A Summer to Die, which she sent to Melanie Kroupa, an editor at Houghton Mifflin Publishers. Instead of leaving for a scheduled vacation, Ms. Kroupa stayed in her office and read the entire book in one sitting, then shouted in a hallway, "We have to publish this!" Good choice. Ms. Lowry has won two Newbery Medals: one for Number the Stars, and one for The Giver. By the way, one good thing that came about from the publication of the novel was an important gift. She had typed the novel on a manual Smith Corona typewriter that her father had given her when she was 13 years old. To celebrate the publication of her first novel, he gave her an electric typewriter.
• In September of 1993, Colin Powell, a four-star general, formally retired as a United States Army officer. President Clinton presented the Medal of Freedom to General Powell, and he gave him the retirement gift that General Powell's friends had specially picked for him: a rusty 1966 Volvo. No, the rusted-out auto was not a joke. General Powell's friends knew that he enjoyed working on old Volvos and turning them into something that could be a source of pride to own-and to drive. The gift was much appreciated.
• Mary Richards, the character Mary Tyler Moore played on The Mary Tyler Moore Show, had a big M hanging on a wall of her apartment. After the TV series ended, Ms. Moore kept the M. Eventually, she gave it away to be sold at a charity fundraiser. Her husband, cardiologist S. Robert Levine, bought it and gave it back to her. By the way, Mary Tyler Moore started using her middle name professionally when she registered with the Actors Equity Association. This union already had five Mary Moores as members.
• In 1978, running back Preston Pearson and his Dallas Cowboys lost in the Super Bowl to the Pittsburgh Steelers. As it happened, Mr. Pearson and his wife lived in Pittsburgh, and he gave his check for playing in the Super Bowl to his wife to deposit in a Pittsburgh bank. The bank teller looked at the size of the check, then told Mrs. Pearson that she was entitled to a free gift, although she might not want it. She didn't. The free gift was a recording of the Pittsburgh Steelers fight song.
• Movie actress Marlene Dietrich could be very generous. In 1933, while working on the movie Song of Songs, she wanted celebrity photographer John Engstead to have a recording of her song "Johnny." He, however, did not want her to give him a present, so he told her, "Please don't, because I don't have a Victrola. Thanks anyway." Returning from lunch, Mr. Engstead found twogifts from Ms. Dietrich waiting for him: a copy of "Johnny" and a portable record player.
• The 18th-century French philosopher and writer Denis Diderot once received an elegant gift: a Chinese silk robe. He put it on and was delighted with it. But then he noticed that his slippers looked shabby, so he bought elegant new slippers. And when he wore the Chinese silk robe and sat down to write, he noticed that his desk looked shabby, so he bought an elegant new desk. And so it went until he had ended up completely renovating his entire writing room.
• In 1944, Laurence Olivier scored a major success while acting in Richard III. John Gielgud welcomed Mr. Olivier into the ranks of the truly great actors by giving him a special gift: the sword that Edmund Kean had used while playing the role of Richard III in the early 1800s. This sword has been passed down from Mr. Kean to Mr. Henry Irving to Mr. Gielgud to Mr. Olivier-truly great actors all.
• John Howard, a man who did much to reform the horrible conditions of jails in Europe in the 18th century, was a kind man. He used to go to his garden each morning just as the bread cart went by, buy a loaf of bread, toss it (well wrapped, of course), into his garden, then call to his gardener, "Harry, see if there is something for you there, among the cabbages."
• Some fans give good gifts. In Australia, Darryl McDaniels of Run-DMC fame received what he calls the "coolest" gift he has ever received. It came from a fan who gave him a stuffed Koala Bear that sported the Run-DMA look: a black hat, Adidas sneakers, and a gold chain.
• A man named Mark Gray once tried to shoot the 19th-century actor Edwin Booth. Mr. Booth took the bullet that Mr. Gray had fired at him and had it made into a watch-charm. He also had the watch-charm inscribed, "From Mark Gray to Edwin Booth."
• Gossip columnist Hedda Hopper was widely despised. For her birthday one year, actress Joan Bennett sent her a very special gift: a skunk that had been dead for a week. Enclosed with the gift was this note: "Happy birthday, dear. [Signed] Joan."
• Queen Margaret of Scotland, aka Saint Margaret, was much loved by her husband, Malcolm. Although he himself was illiterate, he knew that she loved her books, so he would have their bindings covered with jewels as a gift to her.
• "When your gift becomes a sacrifice, it will have value toward God." - Mother Teresa.
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'Holmes & Watson' Win Big
2019 Razzies
Donald Trump, Melissa McCarthy and Holmes & Watson were the big "winners" at the 39th annual Razzie Awards, which celebrated Hollywood's worst films and performances of 2018.
Holmes & Watson, the Sherlock spoof starring Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly, took home four Golden Raspberries, including Worst Picture, Worst Supporting Actor (Reilly), Worst Remake, Rip-Off or Sequel and Worst Director.
"Our next winner has said of himself, 'My whole life is about winning, I don't lose often, I almost never lose, I don't like losers.' So not surprisingly, he won. Again," the Razzies' announcement video said of Trump's win for both Worst Actor ("As himself" appearances" in Death of a Nation and Fahrenheit 11/9) and Worst Screen Combo (Trump and "his self-perpetuating pettiness").
Kellyanne Conway also won Best Supporting Actress for her appearance in Fahrenheit 11/9.
Despite an industry-leading six nominations, the John Travolta-starring biopic Gotti was snubbed in every category and received no Golden Raspberries. See all the winners below.
2019 Razzies
Aubrey Plaza's Monologue
2019 Indie Spirit Awards
(Aubrey) Plaza took to the Spirit Awards stage for a monologue that started off with a dig at the Oscars: "Welcome to the Spirit Awards, where we celebrate the movies that are too important to see," the comedian began. "The networks' first choice to host was no one, but they were already booked for tomorrow. So you got me!"
"60% of our director nominees are woman!" Plaza said. "Don't get too excited. In this case 60% just means three women. Calling 60% makes it seem way scarier to your uncles. Thats right, Uncle Jeff. Women are taking over!"
Next on Plaza's roasting list was Netflix: "I do love movies. I truly believe that people should see them how they are meant to be seen. In the theaters!" Plaza said as the audience cheered. "And I know, I know, if the movie you poured your soul into is on Netflix it will be seen by millions of people as they scroll past it finding the the show about folding socks into squares. 'Tidying up' or 'Roma'? Either way you're going to watch a show about people cleaning up shit so who cares."
Plaza also called out the Spirit Awards itself for giving just one nomination to Spike Lee's "BlacKkKlansman" and having it be the white cast member Adam Driver (he's nominated for Best Supporting Actor). "I'm sure they'll do the white thing," Plaza said.
A highlight of the monologue was when Plaza revealed John Waters was in the control room directing this year's telecast for television viewers. Waters delivered the best zinger of the opening: "It's television, Aubrey. Like 'Bohemian Rhapsody' it doesn't really have a director. It directs itself. "
2019 Indie Spirit Awards
NASA Names Facility
Katherine Johnson
Katherine Johnson, the "human computer" whose work was depicted in the 2016 film "Hidden Figures," was recognized on Friday as the agency renamed a building after the pioneer.
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration redesignated a building that houses programs essential to safety on space missions in the 100-year old mathematician's native West Virginia as the Katherine Johnson Independent Verification and Validation (IV&V) Facility.
The building aptly houses programs that support NASA's highest-profile missions "by assuring that mission software performs correctly," according to an agency statement.
In her three decades at NASA and its predecessor agency, the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, Johnson calculated trajectories for space missions including Alan Shepard's Freedom 7 mission in 1961, John Glenn's Friendship 7 mission in 1962 and several Apollo missions.
As a black woman, Johnson and fellow black mathematicians Dorothy Vaughan and Mary Jackson shattered racial and gender barriers and stereotypes during the height of the Civil Rights Era. Their story was documented in the 2016 film "Hidden Figures," which was based on the book by Margot Lee Shetterly. Johnson was portrayed by Taraji P. Henson.
Katherine Johnson
Upcoming Tour
Peter Frampton
English-American rocker Peter Frampton on Saturday revealed he has a rare degenerative muscular disease that could inhibit his ability to play the guitar, and that his upcoming tour will be his last.
The artist, whose 1976 album "Frampton Comes Alive" still reigns as one of the all-time best-selling live records, told CBS News he has been feverishly making music since his diagnosis with the incurable condition inclusion body myositis.
"Between October and two days ago, we've done like 33 new tracks," the Grammy-winning guitarist told the US television network. "I just want to record as much as I can, you know, now, for obvious reasons."
Frampton, 68, learned of his condition three-and-half years ago after a fall on stage, and last autumn began to feel his muscles lose strength more rapidly.
For now, Frampton said he can still play -- "but in a year's time, maybe not so good."
Peter Frampton
No More MOUs!
Trade Terminology
In trade talks between the United States and China, Memorandums of Understanding - the building blocks of what would be a historic deal - are officially out.
President-for-now Donald Trump (R-Dunce), in an extraordinary dispute with U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer on Friday, dismissed the MOUs that have formed the outline of a potential trade pact as a waste of time, despite protests from his chief negotiator.
Sitting in the Oval Office across from Lighthizer and his Chinese counterpart in the trade talks, Vice Premier Liu He, Trump unloaded about his feelings on MOUs, which Reuters reported on Wednesday had been drawn up in six critical areas to form the outline of a broad deal.
"An MOU is a contract. It's the way trade agreements are generally used ... A Memorandum of Understanding is a binding agreement between two people," Lighthizer said. "It's a legal term, it's a contract," he said.
Trump was not satisfied. "By the way, I disagree," he countered, addressing reporters as well as the Chinese delegation that has been negotiating the MOUs with the U.S. team. "I think that a Memorandum of Understanding is not a contract to the extent that we want. ... We're doing a Memorandum of Understanding that will be put into a final contract, I assume. But to me the final contract is really the thing, Bob, and I think you mean that too."
Trade Terminology
Adam Levine's Nipples
Super Bowl
Fifteen years after Janet Jackson's "wardrobe malfunction" during the Super Bowl halftime show, Adam Levine took off his shirt to reveal his own nipples during the Maroon 5's halftime gig.
While Levine's strip show didn't result in a nationwide uproar like the original Nipplegate, more than 50 viewers filed complaints to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) about the musician's nipples, according to The Hollywood Reporter, who obtained documentation on Friday.
"I want him banned, just like they did Janet," one consumer from Boise, Idaho wrote to the FCC; in fact, many of the complaints were filed by those who questioned why Jackson was rebuked for her accidental "wardrobe malfunction" yet Levine's intentional disrobing went unpunished.
"I am writing because I am upset about the half-naked stripper on stage of the halftime show," a Fremont, California viewer wrote.
The FCC also received more than two dozen complaints from parents who were mad that their children had to see the trailer for Jordan Peele's forthcoming horror film Us, which aired a Super Bowl ad.
Super Bowl
Passengers' Seats
Airlines
Three of the world's biggest airlines have admitted some of their planes have cameras installed on the backs of passenger seats.
American Airlines, United Airlines and Singapore Airlines have new seat-back entertainment systems that include cameras.
Companies that make the entertainment systems are fitting them with cameras to offer passengers options such as seat-to-seat video conferencing, according to an American Airlines spokesman.
But American, United and Singapore all say they have never activated the cameras and have no plans to use them.
The airlines stressed that they did not add the cameras - saying manufacturers embedded them in the entertainment systems.
Airlines
Workers Demand
Microsoft
Several Microsoft Corp employees on Friday demanded that the company cancel a $480 million hardware contract with the U.S. Army and stop developing "any and all weapons technologies."
The organising effort, described to Reuters by three Microsoft workers, offers the latest example in the last year of tech employees protesting cooperation with governments on emerging technologies.
Microsoft won a contract in November to supply the Army with at least 2,500 prototypes of augmented reality headsets, which digitally displays contextual information in front of a user's eyes. The government has said the devices would be used on the battlefield and in training to improve soldiers "lethality, mobility and situational awareness."
In a petition to Microsoft executives, posted on Twitter, workers said they "did not sign up to develop weapons, and we demand a say in how our work is used." They called on the company to develop "a public-facing acceptable use policy" for its technology and an external review board to publicly enforce it.
Worker pushback led Alphabet Inc last year to announce it would not renew a Pentagon contract in which its artificial intelligence technology is used to analyse drone imagery.
Microsoft
Sacred Meteorite
Tomanowos
A ceremony was held Friday morning at the Evergreen Aviation & Space Museum as a small piece of a sacred meteorite was returned to the people of the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde.
The piece of the sacred meteorite Tomanowos is thousands of years old and weighs 4.5 ounces.
The Grand Ronde Tribe said the meteorite came to Earth more than 13,000 years ago near western Montana and southern Alberta in Canada. It was transported by the glacial ice of the Bretz Flood to the Willamette Valley, home of the Clackamas people.
The meteorite became a part of the Evergreen Aviation & Space Museum collection in 2016 after it was purchased at auction by the founder of the museum.
"It was, we believed, was sent to us. Tomanowos basically means it's sent to you like your helper, and so Tomanowos has healing properties for us. So we would go there to have healing ceremonies, we would gather there, it was very sacred to us," said Grand Ronde Tribal Chairwoman Cheryle A. Kennedy.
Tomanowos
In Memory
Stanley Donen
Stanley Donen, the director of such stylish and exuberant films as "Singin' in the Rain," "Funny Face" and "Two for the Road" and the last surviving helmer of note from Hollywood's golden age, has died at 94.
Though he was never Oscar-nominated for any of the many films he directed, Donen received a lifetime achievement Oscar at the 1998 Academy Awards "in appreciation of a body of work marked by grace, elegance, wit and visual innovation."
In his early films, Donen's contributions were often overshadowed in the public eye by the prominent talents with whom he worked, including Gene Kelly and George Abbott. But Donen came into his own as an energetic director of popular entertainments with such musicals as "Seven Brides for Seven Brothers" as well as sophisticated romantic comedies ("Indiscreet") and romantic thrillers ("Charade").
Besides Kelly and Abbott, Donen worked with many of the major musical dancer-choreographers of the day, including Bob Fosse, Gower Champion and Michael Kidd, and he was a major creative force in MGM's musical halcyon days of the '40s and '50s under Arthur Freed.
Donen also had a talent for romantic comedy, as he proved over and over again; his "Two for the Road" was one of the great romantic films of the '60s.
Starting in 1946, he was choreographer on such pics as "Holiday in Mexico," "No Leave, No Love," "Big City," "A Date With Judy" and "The Kissing Bandit."
With Kelly he then co-wrote and choreographed "Take Me Out to the Ball Game," after which he gained co-director stripes on 1949's "On the Town." The New York City-set tuner was shot on location and in bright sunlight - a groundbreaker for screen musicals. While it was then considered the zenith of musical comedy, it also was a signal of the genre's eventual demise since it emphasized the artificiality of the form in a post-WWII era when audiences were losing their taste for such fare.
Donen and Kelly returned to a deliberately artificial environment in their other classic collaboration, "Singin' in the Rain," a set-bound, old-fashioned musical with its tongue firmly planted in cheek.
Paramount's stylish 1957 musical "Funny Face," using vintage George and Ira Gershwin tunes, remains a cult favorite thanks to several show-stopping turns by Astaire, Audrey Hepburn and Kay Thompson and a fashion montage sequence shot by Richard Avedon.
By the 1960s, the musical film was becoming an endangered species, and Donen transferred his talents to romantic comedy. Two of his best featured Cary Grant ("Indiscreet," "The Grass Is Greener"), and he teamed again with the actor and Hepburn in the 1963 "Charade," a model romantic comedy-suspenser.
The devil-may-care "Bedazzled," a spoofy Faustian update starring Peter Cook and Dudley Moore, and the romantic comedy-drama "Two for the Road" are two of the best non-musical films Donen directed. Though wildly different in style and subject matter, both boasted wit, charm and style.
His later efforts included "Staircase" (1969), "Lucky Lady," "Saturn 3" (1980) and his final feature film, Michael Caine-Demi Moore starrer "Blame It on Rio" (1984).
Donen was married five times, including to Jeanne Coyne, Marion Marshall and Yvette Mimieux.
He was the longtime companion of writer-director Elaine May. In addition to May, he is survived by two sons, "House of Cards" producer Josh Donen, and Mark Donen. Another son, Peter, a visual effects supervisor, died in 2003 of a heart attack at age 50.
Stanley Donen
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