'Best of TBH Politoons'
Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Nathan Dinsdale: Father Knows Best (Santa Fe Reporter)
To some Fred Phelps is a "walking hate crime." To others, he's the loving patriarch of a big family. Either way, the clan is coming to Santa Fe to protest the city's gay-friendly attitude.
Mark Morford: Bush Lies, America Cries (SF Gate)
This just in: Global terrorism rates are higher than any time since 1985. Thanks, Dubya!
Paul Krugman: Passing the Buck
(Click on "Columns," then on "Passing the Buck.")
The United States spends far more on health care than other advanced countries. Yet we don't appear to receive more medical services. And we have lower life-expectancy and higher infant-mortality rates than countries that spend less than half as much per person. How do we do it?
Bill Frost: Freakin' Sweet! (Salt Lake City Weekly)
The story (such as it is-this is "Family Guy," after all) centers around Peter and Lois (still voiced by Alex Borstein) going on a second honeymoon and conning their way into Mel Gibson's suite in a posh New York hotel.
ROGER EBERT: Kung Fu Hustle (3 Stars)
There is an opinion in some quarters that martial arts movies are violent. Many are, to be sure, but the best ones have the same relationship to violence that Astaire and Rogers have to romance ...
Enron Movie
US Department of Education
The Gateway to Educational Materials
Tonight
Erin Hart
Listen to Erin Hart from 9pm to 1am (pdt) tonight on
KIRO - streaming live.
Victor S. Navasky, publisher of The Nation, talks about his new book
about the media on Sunday night!
Other topics include: The Folly and Fall of Tom DeLay; Bush begs for
Bolton; are the Democrats showing signs of life?
Plus Geeks Alive--how to get revenge on your computer when it turns on
you--what have you done?
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Mostly cloudy, but no rain.
The neighbors across the street have 2 work crews going - one for a new cinder block fence and the other for a new roof.
The fence guys have been at it for over a week, but the roof guys started on Thursday. Tonight they were up there after dark, wrapping it in plastic in case it rains tonight.
There's a pretty good chance I'll be guest on the Erin Hart show tonight on KIRO, probably after 10pm (pdt). Listen live online & call in!
Show Proceeds Earmarked to Fight Hunger
Bruce Springsteen
Thursday night (April 21) in Asbury Park, N.J., Bruce Springsteen took a stand against hunger by donating all of the proceeds from a tour rehearsal show to World Hunger Year (WHY).
Springsteen has long been a supporter of the organization, which was co-founded in 1975 by late singer-songwriter Harry Chapin and Bill Ayres, a radio talk show host who is now WHY's executive director.
Springsteen will further his commitment to WHY by participating in its Artists Against Hunger & Poverty (AAHP) program throughout the U.S. leg of his solo tour, which opens Monday in Detroit. In each of the 13 cities on the itinerary, a pair of tickets will be auctioned to directly benefit a local community organization connected to WHY's Reinvesting in America network.
Bruce Springsteen
Microphone Sells for $50,787
Johnny Carson
An anonymous bidder Friday snatched a piece of TV history, offering $50,787 for the microphone that sat prominently on the desk of late-night king Johnny Carson until the 1980s. The offer was about twice that expected at auction.
The label on the 10-pound Shure model SM33 ribbon microphone bluntly declares: "Johnny's Mic... Not Ed's... Not Fred's" - a reference to announcer Ed McMahon and producer Fred DeCordova.
The microphone was saved from a trash bin two decades ago by "The Tonight Show" chief boom operator Stan Sweeney. It was taken out of retirement Friday to call the final session of a two-day auction of entertainment memorabilia. Petty said it still worked great.
Johnny Carson
Promotes AIDS Awareness in Vietnam
Jackie Chan
Action film star Jackie Chan took time out from jumping off buildings and beating up bad guys to play with children Saturday while promoting HIV/AIDS awareness in Vietnam, where health experts warn infection rates are on the verge of exploding.
Chan, 51, was in the communist country for the first time as a United Nations goodwill ambassador. He visited a communal health center and a support group session for people caring for family members with HIV/AIDS in northern Quang Ninh province, which has some of Vietnam's highest infection rates.
His four-day trip will also include visiting a Buddhist pagoda in Hanoi where monks help counsel young people infected with HIV/AIDS, along with a sunset cruise on picturesque Halong Bay, dotted with thousands of limestone islands.
The Hong Kong native and martial arts expert, well-known for his Hollywood hits "Rush Hour," "Rumble in the Bronx" and "Shanghai Noon," had flown in from Cambodia where he was raising awareness about land mines prior to visiting neighboring Vietnam.
Jackie Chan
Raps Canada Prime Minister Over Aid
Bono
Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin, fighting to save his government, took a hit from another corner on Saturday -- rock superstar Bono.
Bono said he was disappointed Martin had not kept an earlier promise to boost Canada's foreign aid to a level equivalent to 0.7 percent of gross domestic product.
Bono, a tireless campaigner on behalf of the poor in Africa and other regions, also read out the number of Martin's office and urged Canadians to flood his office with telephone calls.
Bono
Items Auctioned
John Entwistle
John Entwistle's skeleton has sold at auction. Actually, both of them. A pair of skeletons said to have been used by The Who bassist to play pranks on houseguests sold for $840 at an auction near his home in England, the BBC reported.
On sale were more than 700 items that belonged to Entwistle, who died at 57 after a heart attack in June 2002.
Other items revealed Entwistle's eccentric tastes: A snakeskin-covered tambourine went for $305 and a stained-glass chess board decorated with Union Jacks and swastikas fetched $1,500.
"It was sad to see this stuff go, but we've got no room," said Entwistle's son, Chris.
John Entwistle
At The James A. Michener Art Museum
Bugs Bunny
At the James A. Michener Art Museum, that question is answered with a new exhibit featuring more than 160 drawings, cels, paintings and related items from the golden era of Warner Bros. animation that made Bugs Bunny - now officially a senior citizen - and his fellow Looney Tuners into pop culture icons for generations.
That's All Folks! The Art of Warner Brothers Cartoons, on view at the Doylestown museum from Saturday through July 3, is an expanded version of a 1985 exhibit at New York's Museum of Modern Art.
It takes a comprehensive look at the history, artistry, humour and cultural commentary that breathed life into Bugs, Porky Pig, Elmer Fudd, Daffy Duck, Tweety Bird, Sylvester, Yosemite Sam, Foghorn Leghorn and the rest of the gang - with an emphasis on the "golden age" from 1938 to 1955, Schneider said.
Bugs Bunny
Warner Bros. Wins Lawsuit
'The Perfect Storm'
Actor George Clooney's portrayal of a down-and-out fisherman in the 2000 film "The Perfect Storm" may not have been accurate but it was not illegal, the Florida Supreme Court ruled on Thursday.
By 6-1 vote, the state's highest court ruled against the family of real-life swordfish captain Billy Tyne whose life and death at the helm of the Andrea Gail became the basis for the Warner Entertainment Co. movie that grossed more than $150 million.
Tyne's family sued shortly after the motion picture's release, claiming the company altered facts to make the movie more marketable. The family sought monetary damages under a Florida law against portraying someone in false light to promote a product or commercial enterprise.
Specifically, the family objected to the film's portrayal of Tyne as a quarrelsome captain who derided his crew and unnecessarily risked their lives in the quest to return his catch to port in the face of a once-in-a-century storm.
'The Perfect Storm'
Celebrates 80th Year
Grand Ole Opry
The Grand Ole Opry show turns 80 this year, and while the anniversary doesn't have the bang of a 75th or a 100th, the Opry is planning a big to-do, including a rare broadcast from New York's Carnegie Hall in November.
Like a classic country song, the Grand Ole Opry has endured despite changes in technology, musical tastes, ownership and location.
It's the longest continuously running radio show in the country, and though at times it's been derided as stale and antiquated, there's a certain charm when the house band begins to play and the burgundy curtain rises.
The feeling is one of seeing something authentic, down to the vintage microphone stands, live advertisements and corny jokes.
The homespun feel, however, belies the elaborate production. The show is marketed nationwide, streamed over Internet and satellite radio, shown on cable TV, broadcast on regular radio and reaches more than 2 million people a week.
Grand Ole Opry
Most Condoms Used to Make Saris
India
Only a quarter of condoms made in India are used for sex, most of the others are used to make saris, toys and bathroom slippers, a newspaper reported Saturday.
The condoms are valuable to manufacturers because of the lubricant on them. Sari weavers place the condoms on their thread spools and the lubricant on the prophylactics is rubbed off on the thread, making it move faster through their sewing machines, The Economic Times newspaper quoted an Indian industry official as saying.
Sari makers also turn the condom's inside out, place them on their fingers and use the high-quality lubricant to polish gold and silver threads used in the traditional Indian women's outfits.
India
Baffle German Experts
Exploding Toads
Hundreds of toads have met a bizarre and sinister end in Germany in recent days, it was reported: they exploded.
According to reports from animal welfare workers and veterinarians as many as a thousand of the amphibians have perished after their bodies swelled to bursting point and their entrails were propelled for up to a metre (three feet).
It is like "a science fiction film", according to Werner Smolnik of a nature protection society in the northern city of Hamburg, where the phenomenon of the exploding toad has been observed.
He said the bodies of the toads expanded to three and a half times their normal size.
Exploding Toads
Activist Remembered
Marla Ruzicka
An American activist who was killed by a car bomb in Iraq earlier this month was remembered Saturday for her dedication to humanitarian causes and her personal mission of counting civilian casualties of war.
Many of the more than 600 mourners, including friends, family, colleagues and journalists who traveled from around the world for her funeral, shared memories of Marla Ruzicka's boundless energy that helped her accomplish much in her 28 years.
Ruzicka traveled to Iraq before the March 2003 U.S.-led invasion and later founded a group called CIVIC, the Campaign for Innocent Victims in Conflict, whose aim was to tally the number of Iraqi civilian deaths in the conflict. She was also instrumental in securing millions of dollars in aid money from the federal government for distribution in Iraq.
On April 16, she became a statistic herself when she was killed in a car bombing in Baghdad, along with her interpreter and another foreigner.
The Rev. Ted Oswald, who conducted the Mass at St. Mary's Catholic Church, said it was sad that it took a tragedy to bring to light all the good Ruzicka did. Oswald said she usually accomplished things in her own quiet way, though there were exceptions.
The upbeat homily brought laughter from the audience, which included actor Sean Penn, who said he counted Ruzicka among his heroes, and U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer.
Ruzicka's activism began in this town 350 miles north of San Francisco, where she worked at a convalescent home, helped abused children and started a girl's soccer team in high school. Eventually, it led her around the world - to parts of Latin America, Africa and the Middle East, where she often traveled in harm's way.
With passion for her cause and an unbridled capacity for having fun, she was remembered as a force of nature, a cross between Mother Teresa and Buffy the Vampire Slayer, said Quill Lawrence, a radio reporter for the British Broadcasting Corp.
Bobby Muller, chairman of Vietnam Veterans of America Foundation, said the true value of Ruzicka's work was her ability to counter people's cynicism.
Marla Ruzicka
CIVIC
In Memory
Mary Dann
Activist Mary Dann, who with her sister helped represent the Shoshone Nation in its effort to reclaim millions of acres they claimed as their ancestral land, has died in an accident on her rural central Nevada ranch.
Dann apparently had an accident on an all-terrain vehicle while she was repairing fence on the Crescent Valley ranch Friday night, according to Julie Fishel of the Western Shoshone Defense Project.
Fishel said Dann was in her early 80s but had never disclosed her exact age.
Patricia Paul said her aunt "died as she would have wanted - with her boots on and hay in her pocket."
For more than a quarter century, Dann and her sister Carrie were at the forefront of efforts to reclaim a vast tract of land spreading across four states. They claimed it was their aboriginal land, which was seized by the United States under the Treaty of Ruby Valley, enacted two years before the end of the Civil War.
Mary Dann, who grew up with her sister on the 800-acre ranch once run by their father, usually sat quietly alongside more vocal Carrie in scores of public appearances and court hearings.
Carrie Dann said her sister would not want her death to interrupt the continuing court challenges over their land.
"This was Mary's life work," she said. "All these years we've been fighting and the courts still haven't done anything. As far as we're concerned we will live up to our spiritual beliefs and nothing will change that. Mary believed that and lived by it and so do I."
Mary Dann
Western Shoshone Defense Project
In Memory
Debralee Scott
Actress Debralee Scott, who appeared in the sitcom "Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman" and some of the "Police Academy" movies, has died, her family said. She was 52.
Scott died April 5 at her home in Amelia Island of natural causes, said her sister, Jeri Scott, a talent manager in Beverly Hills.
Scott came from a family of show-business insiders. Her eldest sister, Scott Bushnell, produced many of director Robert Altman's films.
Scott got her first major role at age 22, playing Cathy Shumway on "Mary Hartman." She later played the role of Hotsy Totsy on the show "Welcome Back, Kotter," and acted in 1984's "Police Academy" and 1986's "Police Academy 3: Back in Training."
She had been engaged to John Dennis Levi, a police officer with the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey who was killed in the 2001 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center.
Debralee Scott
In Memory
John Mills
Actor Sir John Mills, the quintessential British officer in scores of films, died Saturday after an Oscar-winning career spanning more than 50 years that included roles in "Gandhi" and "Ryan's Daughter." He was 97.
Mills died at home in Denham, west of London, after a short illness, a statement from his trustees said. Details of the illness were not given.
Mills' roles ranged from Pip in David Lean's "Great Expectations" to the village idiot in Lean's "Ryan's Daughter," for which he won his Academy Award as best supporting actor in 1971.
But he took his place in film history as soldier, sailor, airman and commanding officer, embodying the decency, humility and coolness under pressure so cherished in the British hero.
Small, fair-haired, with a boyish face and very blue eyes, he was the son, the brother, the boy next door who went off to fight the Germans and only sometimes came back.
In a recent survey of British film legends by Sky television, voters puts Mills in 8th place all-time among British male actors. But Mills started his career as a hoofer, a song and dance man in old Fred Astaire roles, far from the trenches.
Born Lewis Ernest Watts, the son of a Suffolk schoolmaster, he started work at 17 as a grain merchant's clerk but longed for the stage.
His older sister Annette, part of a dancing duo at Ciro's, the London nightclub, encouraged his ambitions and he moved to the capital and changed his name.
He was acting with a traveling troupe called The Quaints, in Singapore in 1929 when Noel Coward saw the show and suggested Mills look him up in London.
Mills was married first to actress Aileen Raymond, then in 1941 to Mary Hayley Bell, an actress-turned-playwright.
Their son Jonathan is a screenwriter and daughters Juliet and Hayley are actresses.
He was made a CBE, or Companion of the Order of British Empire, in 1960 and knighted in 1976.
Mills is survived by his wife and their children. The funeral service will be held on April 27 in Denham.
John Mills
