Recommended Reading
from Bruce
The truth about Columbine (guardian.co.uk)
Andrew Gumbel, who reported on the aftermath of the Columbine massacre, explains what really happened that day - and why.
Jeremy Hsu: Why Dead Authors Can Thrill Modern Readers (livescience.com)
Classic stories still retain their storytelling power centuries later, and smart remakes do well to retain much of the original plot. That's the case in a new literary mash-up, "Pride and Prejudice and Zombies," where Elizabeth Bennett and Darcy take time away from courtship to hone their martial arts skills on the walking dead - a twist welcomed by both critics and "Janeite" fans of British author Jane Austen.
Chuck Barney: Scott Adams and 'Dilbert' are still going strong after 20 years (Contra Costa Times)
Scott Adams, the wry genius who, for 20 years has delivered daily doses of workplace farce via his "Dilbert" comic strip, is struggling with a case of writer's block. And quite frankly, he's ticked off about it.
Roger Ebert: "Parrot asks, 'What'd the frozen turkey want?'"
A joke should have the perfection of a haiku. Not one extra word. No wrong words. It should seem to have been discovered in its absolute form rather than created. The weight of the meaning should be at the end. The earlier words should prepare for the shift of the meaning. The ending must have absolute finality. It should present a world view only revealed at the last moment. Like knife-throwing, joke-telling should never be practiced except by experts.
JOEL STEIN: Charity should begin with the speaking fees (latimes.com)
Many celebrities are making a good buck at fundraisers.
BILL DWYRE: Oscar De La Hoya carried boxing (latimes.com)
Oscar De La Hoya spent the first day of the rest of his life making a speech from a lectern that faced across a street at a 20-foot statue of himself.
Mark Stryker: Kurt Elling takes on a classic jazz album (Detroit Free Press)
Kurt Elling can't remember when he first heard "John Coltrane and Johnny Hartman," the iconic 1963 album in which the exploratory saxophonist and bedroom balladeer created some of the sultriest jazz performances ever recorded. The sound of Hartman's suave baritone with Coltrane's magisterial quartet was, as Elling puts it, "always in the air, like ether."
Robert Kahn: Plain (talking) Jane Fonda, now appearing on Broadway, isn't shy (Newsday)
Jane Fonda walks into a 55th Street tea house carrying Tulea, her small, white canine companion. Where Fonda goes, Tulea follows. The bichon-like dog (officially a Coton de Tulear) recently ran onto the stage during one of her master's curtain calls, after a performance of "33 Variations."
Peter Whittle: The 400 Blows (timesonline)
Truffaut's rites-of-passage film was a huge critical hit when it first appeared at Cannes, and effectively heralded the beginning of the French New Wave. Reissued on its 50th anniversary, it provides modern audiences with what we might call a low-key viewing experience, although one can still see how its style de kitchen sink - all documentary realism and spontaneity - must have seemed revolutionary at the time.
Lewis Beale: Fast chat with 'American Violet' star Charles S. Dutton (Newsday)
Charles S. Dutton must have the most unique resume in show business. A felon who was jailed for manslaughter and then possession of a deadly weapon, he also was found guilty of assaulting a guard while in prison. But Dutton turned to theater while reading a book of plays in solitary confinement, founded a drama group in the slammer, and eventually wound up obtaining a master's in acting from the Yale School of Drama.
Werner Herzog encounters Antarctica (guardian.co.uk)
The director tells John Patterson about filming his new documentary "Encounters at the End of the World."
Will Harris: A Chat with Ron Perlman (bullz-eye.com)
You'd be forgiven for knowing Ron Perlman's name without actually knowing what Ron Perlman himself actually looking like. It's not that he hasn't succeeded as an actor in his own right, but to be fair, he has spent a heck of a lot of his career under makeup, given that two of his most famous roles have been Vincent, who put the "beast" in CBS's "Beauty and the Beast," and the titular character of the "Hellboy" franchise.
Michael Hann: Your next box set: My So-Called Life (guardian.co.uk)
My So-Called Life is the show that got away. It lasted just one season - 19 episodes - and while one would like to say it changed TV for ever, it didn't. If anything, its influence might be more evident in music: its unashamed teen self-regard, the wallowing in the intensity of one's feelings, seems to foreshadow the rise of emo.
The Weekly Poll
The 'Know thy Enemy' Edition...
The ancient Chinese military tactician Sun Tzu (400-320 BC) wrote in his acclaimed work, The Art of War...
"If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not your enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle."
I whole-heartedly believe in that wisdom and think that progressives should peruse conservative web sites regularly in order to keep up with current conservative trends, strategy and dogma. i.e Know thy Enemy.
That said, the question is... Do you read any conservative web sites and if so, which ones?
Send your response, and a (short) reason why, to
Results Tuesday
Note to DanD:
Hey Dan -
Only 1 person puts this page together, and only she controls the content.
If you expect something to show up, and it doesn't, there may be a variety of reasons why.
The most common is a lack of time - my time.
Sometimes it's the mood I'm in, and sometimes I don't like what I'm reading.
Sometimes it's because of the attitude projected, and sometimes it's just too damn long.
But, most of the time, it's because I'm flying around like an elf on acid just trying to get things done.
Yes, I understand you didn't like BttbB's response.
But do you really want me to go into a fine eyetalian whine about my week and where all my so-called free time went?
As I tell the kid, I'm doing the best that I can. Too bad if it's not good enough.
answered:
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
We're having a heat wave - argh.
Spanish Monument
Leslie Howard
"Gone With the Wind" actor Leslie Howard will be honored as a war hero with a monument in Spain near where his plane was shot down by Nazi fighter pilots during World War II, a historical association said Saturday.
The propeller-shaped sculpture will be unveiled in July near Cedeira bearing the names of those who died aboard the commercial flight from Portugal to Britain in 1943, said the Royal Green Jackets association and author Jose Rey Ximena.
Association President Manuel Santiago Arenas Roca said the London-born Howard joined the Allies and campaigned hard against the Axis powers. Ximena said Germany's government at the time apparently was worried about the negative impact the high-profile actor-director's anti-Nazi publicity was having on its cause.
Many books have been written about KLM flight 777 which was downed by a squadron of Junkers 88 fighter planes, said Ximena, who believes the star of the 1939 Academy-Award-winning "Gone with the Wind" and the 1934 movie "The Scarlet Pimpernel" had been on "a secret mission" to stop Spain joining Germany and Italy in combat.
Leslie Howard
Convictions Protested
Pirate Bay
Wearing bandanas and waving Jolly Roger flags, hundreds of supporters of file-sharing hub The Pirate Bay demonstrated on Saturday against a Swedish court's conviction of the Internet site's organizers.
The Stockholm district court on Friday sentenced Gottfrid Svartholm Warg, Peter Sunde, Fredrik Neij and Carl Lundstrom to one year in prison each for helping millions of Pirate Bay users commit copyright violations of movies, music and computer games.
The court also ordered them to pay 30 million kronor ($3.6 million) in damages to international entertainment companies, including Warner Bros., Sony Music Entertainment, EMI and Columbia Pictures.
The rallies against "judicial murder" occurred in Stockholm, Goteborg, Karlstad and Lund and were organized by The Pirate Party. The political party, which supports free file-sharing for noncommercial use, said its membership rose by more than 20 percent to about 20,000 after the court announced its verdict.
Pirate Bay
Brings Music To Life
Lang Lang
Chinese piano wizard Lang Lang says he brings music back to life. And if sponsorships help his reincarnations reach a younger, hipper audience, he's for them.
Having a pair of Adidas trainers named for him and Audi cars to chauffeur him around town is not selling out but, for Lang, a way to help keep Mozart and Chopin in the public eye.
"It's a very expensive form to be in...so when a brand like, for example, Adidas or Mont Blanc likes to work with classical musicians, not just great sports stars or big Hollywood actors or actresses, I think it's a great thing," he said.
Lang Lang
Old Duffer
Bill Murray
One day after she was plunked on the head by Bill Murray's wayward tee shot, Gayle DiMaggio had a request: a signed copy of his movie "Caddyshack."
The actor, meanwhile, was back on the course Saturday for the second round of the Outback Pro-Am. And the course marshals took no chances: They wore hard hats.
DiMaggio lives on the course where Murray hooked his shot far to the left of the No. 9 hole at TPC Tampa Bay. She was hit on the left temple Friday as she stood in her backyard to watch the first round. She never lost consciousness but needed stitches at a hospital.
"He came over and laid down on the ground with me and he was very concerned, asking if I was OK," she said. "Once he knew I was OK and not seriously hurt, then he started joking with me, asking how many fingers he was holding up."
Bill Murray
Iran Convicts Reporter
Roxana Saber
Iran convicted an American journalist of spying for the United States and sentenced her to eight years in prison, her lawyer said Saturday, complicating the Obama administration's efforts to break a 30-year-old diplomatic deadlock with Tehran.
The White House said President Barack Obama was "deeply disappointed" by the conviction, while the journalist's father told a radio station his daughter was tricked into making incriminating statements by officials who told her they would free her if she did.
It was the first time Iran has found an American journalist guilty of espionage - a crime that can carry the death penalty.
Roxana Saberi, a 31-year-old dual American-Iranian citizen, was arrested in late January and initially accused of working without press credentials. But earlier this month, an Iranian judge leveled a far more serious allegation, charging her with spying for the United States.
The Fargo, North Dakota native had been living in Iran for six years and had worked as a freelance reporter for several news organizations including National Public Radio and the British Broadcasting Corp.
Roxana Saber
Reviews 'Midnight' Endangered Species Rule
Ken Salazar
U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar says he will make a decision in the coming weeks on whether to overturn a controversial Bush administration regulation that limits the reach of the Endangered Species Act.
The outgoing administration finalized a rule in December that allows federal agencies to issue permits for mining, logging and other activities without consulting the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service or the National Marine Fisheries Service about endangered wildlife and plants.
President Barack Obama signed a memorandum in March to put the regulation on hold pending a review. Any action on the rule has to be taken by May 9. Salazar expects to make a decision before that.
"We have concerns about it and because of those concerns we're taking a very extensive review of the rule," he told The Associated Press during a visit Friday to Albuquerque.
Ken Salazar
Director Indicted
John McTiernan
A federal grand jury on Friday indicted a Hollywood director who had withdrawn a guilty plea to a charge accusing him of lying to federal agents investigating a celebrity wiretapping case.
John McTiernan, who directed "Die Hard" and "Predator," was indicted on two counts of making false statements to the FBI about private investigator Anthony Pellicano and one count of perjury for allegedly lying to a federal judge while trying to withdraw his guilty plea.
His attorney, S. Todd Neal, said the indictment is "really nothing new" and promised to rigorously defend his client.
"The prosecutor has taken one count and tried to expand it into more charges in a new indictment," he said. "There seems to be retribution because John refused to play ball the way the prosecutors wanted and because we were successful on appeal."
John McTiernan
Where Men Are Men & Sheep Lie
Northern Idaho
The Aryan Nations has returned to northern Idaho with what it is calling a "world headquarters" and a recruitment campaign.
Coeur d'Alene resident Jerald O'Brien, who has a large swastika tattoo on his scalp, is one of the leaders of the white supremacist group and said he expects membership to grow because of the election of President Barack Obama.
Residents of a Coeur d'Alene subdivision found recruitment fliers on their lawns Friday and O'Brien said more fliers will be distributed. He said the group has "several handfuls" of members in the city.
The Aryan Nations had a compound in northern Idaho until 2000, when the group lost a $6.3 million civil judgment in favor of two people who sued after being attacked by Aryan Nations' members.
Northern Idaho
Sets Longevity Record
Prince Philip
Prince Philip has set a record for the longest-serving consort of a British monarch.
Today, Philip overtook Queen Charlotte's mark of 57 years, 70 days.
Charlotte married King George III when he was already on the throne, and she died before him in 1818.
The 87-year-old prince long ago became the longest-serving husband of a monarch, easily passing Prince Albert's 21 years married to Queen Victoria.
Prince Philip
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