Recommended Reading
from Bruce
The Most LEGENDARY College Pranks (PHOTOS; huffingtonpost.com)
Some graduating college students feel it's a rite of passage to leave some kind of mark on campus before venturing off into the real world. This can mean anything from installing cars on top of campus landmarks to stealing a sacred cod. Here's a list of the most famous and outrageous pranks ever concocted.
Susan Esrich: The Business of Politics (creators.com)
Even prominent Republicans, such as former Attorney General Michael Mukasey, agree that you don't need a special prosecutor to investigate whether former President Bill Clinton can have a conversation with Congressman Joe Sestak about job possibilities other than running for Senate, or whether ...
Paul Krugman: Graduates Versus Oligarchs (nytimes.com; from February 27, 2006)
Ben Bernanke's maiden Congressional testimony as chairman of the Federal Reserve was, everyone agrees, superb. He didn't put a foot wrong on monetary or fiscal policy.
AARP'S "10 THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT THE NEW LAW"
1. Helps 32 million more Americans get insurance.
The Teachings of Jesus: Wealth (gospel-mysteries.net)
In Mark 10:25, Jesus says: "It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of God." Some scholars think that the word "camel" in this statement resulted from an accidental mis-copying of a very similar word which meant "rope". Thus, Jesus may have actually said "It is easier for a rope to go through the eye of a needle ...", which is a more natural metaphor.
Marilyn Preston: The Mediterranean Diet: Up Close and Personal (creators.com)
If everyone in the U.S. followed the basic characteristics of the Mediterranean, we'd solve the heath care crisis overnight. I am serious. Eating this way - adjusting for ethnic preferences and level of activity - would be hugely helpful for preventing cancer, heart disease, strokes, asthma, allergies, Alzheimer's and more. And there's no suffering involved. The Med-as-in-medicine diet is delicious.
"Although of Course You End Up Becoming Yourself: A Road Trip with David Foster Wallace" by David Lipsky: A review by Michael O'Donnell
One struggles to find a concise, representative anecdote about the late David Foster Wallace for an audience of politically minded readers.
JESSICA YADEGARAN: Graphic novelist Daniel Clowes mines his own life for art
In the mind of cartoonist Daniel Clowes, the modern egoist is a balding, middle-aged schlub named Wilson.
Troy Patterson: RIP, Rue McClanahan and Her Golden Age of Television (slate.com)
Why "The Golden Girls" was brilliant TV.
Faye Fiore: A town's 'Blair Witch' curse (Los Angeles Times)
In tiny Burkittsville, Md., the landmark horror film was nothing but a hassle for residents.
Roger Ebert: METROPOLIS [2010 RESTORATION] (UNRATED; 1927; A Great Movie)
The opening shots of the restored "Metropolis" are so crisp and clear they come as a jolt. This mistreated masterpiece has been seen until now mostly in battered prints missing footage that was, we now learn, essential. Because of a 16mm print discovered in 2008 in Buenos Aires, it stands before us as more or less the film that Fritz Lang originally made in 1927. It is, says expert David Bordwell, "one of the great sacred monsters of the cinema."
Alan Jackson: The happiness of Sam Taylor-Wood (timesonline.co.uk)
The artist and film director on finding love with Aaron Johnson, pregnancy at 43 and why she's never been more content.
The Weekly Poll
New Question
The 'Shut up and Pay up' Edition
Hillary Clinton struck a strong populist chord while wading into territory secretary of states rarely go last Thursday: Domestic policy... "The rich are not paying their fair share in any nation that is facing the kind of employment issues [like the U.S.] - whether it's individual, corporate or whatever the taxation forms are," ...
I think we can all agree that corporations are getting off easy, tax-wise, but what about 'rich' individuals? Two questions:
1.) What is your definition of 'rich' for an individual/family?
and
2.) What do you think their 'fair share' in taxes should be?
Send your response to
wrote:
From The Creator of 'Avery Ant'
Reader Suggestions
Michelle in AZ
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Summer's here.
Sweeps Annual Bollywood Roadshow
3 Idiots
Hit comedy film "3 Idiots" starring superstar Aamir Khan took home most of the awards on offer at the annual Bollywood "Oscars" at the weekend, including best Indian movie.
The film directed by Rajkumar Hirani that revolves around the lives of three engineering students won 16 out of 31 awards, including best director, at the International Indian Film Awards held in Sri Lanka's capital, Colombo, on Saturday.
It won eight of the 12 technical awards, including best screenplay, best cinematography and editing.
Kareena Kapoor, who starred in 3 Idiots, shared the best actress award with Vidya Balan who was in Paa, a film about a 12-year-old suffering from progeria, a rare, genetic disease that causes rapid aging.
3 Idiots
Purple Gene reviewed 3 Idiots in January - read it here.
Honored At NYC Science, Arts Gala
Stephen Hawking
Luminaries from the fields of physics, opera, poetry, theater, music and dance gathered to pay tribute to British physicist Stephen Hawking on Wednesday, with performances and speeches at a gala in his honor.
After outliving his predicted death from his degenerative disease by more than 40 years, Hawking told the audience filling Lincoln Center's Alice Tully Hall that he is thinking about what he will leave behind.
"As scientists, we step on the shoulders of science, building on the work that has come before us - aiming to inspire a new generation of young scientists to continue once we are gone," Hawking told the crowd with the help of an electronic speech synthesizer. "I am proud to have played a small role in this great story."
The gala merging the arts and science was the kickoff event for this year's World Science Festival, a five-day gathering meant to bring some of the universe's most complex topics to the masses.
Stephen Hawking
Opera House Dog Concert
Laurie Anderson
Some in the audience howled with glee, others stood on trembling legs and a few drooled in delight as famed performance artist Laurie Anderson debuted her original "Music for Dogs" composition outside the Sydney Opera House on Saturday.
Hundreds of dogs and their owners bounced around as Anderson entertained them with 20 minutes of thumping beats, whale calls, whistles and a few high-pitched electronic sounds imperceptible to human ears.
The performance was part of the city's Vivid art and music festival, which is being co-curated by Anderson and her husband, rock legend Lou Reed.
Anderson - who often plays music for her rat terrier Lollabelle - said the idea originated during a chat with cellist Yo-Yo Ma while the two were waiting backstage at a graduation ceremony.
Laurie Anderson
Live Impressionist Painting
Claude Monet
Some 1,250 people held enlarged fragments of a reproduction of a Claude Monet masterpiece above their heads Saturday in a bid to create the world's biggest live Impressionist painting.
The creation of a 600-square-metre (6,450-square-feet) version of a painting Monet made of Rouen's landmark Gothic cathedral kicked off a summer-long festival of Impressionist art.
Assembled in front of the city hall of Normandy's historic capital, the work dubbed "Monet vu du ciel" (Monet seen from the sky) was filmed and photographed from a helicopter in order to make the next edition of the Guinness Book of World Records.
The volunteers for the live painting included the region's top Socialist politicians, former prime minister Laurent Fabius and Rouen Mayor Valerie Fourneyron.
Claude Monet
Restored Theme Building
LAX
Believe it or not, LAX and its iconic spider-shaped terminal were once young and vibrant, a futuristic outpost at the edge of the Pacific in the glamorous Jet Age.
After a half-century and millions of travelers, Los Angeles International Airport is on the verge of reclaiming some of its lost luster and gaining a touch of the 21st century - a renovated landmark terminal, shorter check-in times and better restaurants.
Painters are putting the finishing touches on the Theme Building's soaring arches, which were shrouded in scaffolding for three years after a 1,000-pound chunk of stucco fell onto the roof of the flying-saucer-shaped Encounter restaurant below.
For passengers, the renovations are a long time coming. They ranked LAX, the world's sixth-busiest airport, near the bottom in a recent survey of U.S. airports, citing crowded old terminals and poor food and retail options.
LAX
Recounts Flotilla Ordeal
Video Producer
A Maine video producer recalled hearing shots amid the chaos that broke out as Israeli troops raided the aid flotilla he was on that was attempting to break Israel's blockade of Gaza.
Scott Hamann of South Portland arrived in Maine late Friday night, five days after the flotilla was intercepted by Israeli troops, resulting in the deaths of nine pro-Palestinian activists.
In a phone interview with The Associated Press, Hamann said troops that landed on the boat he was on fired high-powered paintball guns and threw a "stun grenade" that hit him on the foot before exploding behind him.
"As soon as we heard the real guns going off, that's when we knew things were different than what we thought they'd be," he said. "We knew they'd use excessive force, but it was a game changer when we heard they were shooting people."
David Rubinson, a former music producer in the U.S. who now lives in Eze, France, said he hired Hamann to ride aboard one of the six vessels in the flotilla, shoot video and photographs and post them on the website http://www.witnessgaza.com .
Video Producer
Lowest Total In Decades
Album Sales
Bad times just got worse. During the week ended May 30, the U.S. music industry sold a total of 4.98 million albums, according to Nielsen Soundscan.
That figure, which includes new and catalog releases, represents the fewest albums sold in one week since Soundscan began compiling this data in 1994.
By comparison, album sales for the week ended May 31, 2009, totaled 5.76 million. The highest one-week tally recorded during the Soundscan era is 45.4 million albums, in late December 2000.
This past week's record low comes as the major record companies continue to reckon with a decade-long decline in sales, and as other prominent sectors of the industry, such as the touring business, go through sea changes of their own.
Album Sales
Kellogg Drops Health Claims
Rice Krispies
Cereal maker Kellogg Co has agreed to drop advertising claims that Rice Krispies will strengthen children's immune systems.
The Federal Trade Commission said the company had agreed in February 2009 to stop claiming that its Frosted Mini Wheats were "clinically shown to improve kids' attentiveness by nearly 20 percent."
In an advertising campaign that began in about July 2009, Kellogg began advertising on cereal boxes that Rice Krispies "now helps support your child's immunity."
"What is particularly disconcerting to us is that at the same time that Kellogg was making promises to the commission regarding Frosted Mini-Wheats, the company was preparing to make problematic claims about Rice Krispies," FTC Chairman Jon Leibowitz and Commissioner Julie Brill wrote in a statement.
Rice Krispies
Vanity Plate Nixed
Michigan
A tree lover who wanted to honor Michigan's state tree with license plates bearing its Latin name has had his plans nixed for fear the tags could cause offense.
Sierra Club forestry expert Marvin Roberson had hoped for PINUS (PY'-nus) vanity plates, representing the white pine whose Latin name is pinus strobus.
The Department of State panel that vets vanity plate requests has voiced concern that the name could be confused with a word for the male sexual organ.
State spokeswoman Kelly Chesney says the Michigan Vehicle Code bans "letter combinations which might carry a connotation offensive to good taste and decency."
Michigan
Flowers For Swedish Royal Wedding
Colombia
Colombia will donate thousands of flowers for the upcoming wedding of Princess Victoria, heir to the Swedish throne, government and business officials said Saturday.
The crown princess, 32, is set to marry Daniel Westling at a June 19 wedding in Stockholm.
Flower growers and exporters, supported by the Colombian government, will send more than 40,000 flowers -- roses, carnations, hydrangeas, and irises -- to the wedding, said Nubia Martinez, president of the state-run Export Promotion Fund.,
Colombia is the world's second largest flower exporter, and the main supplier of flowers to the United States, said Agusto Solano, president of the Association of Colombian Flower Exporters (Asocolflores).
Colombia
In Memory
John Wooden
John Wooden, college basketball's gentlemanly Wizard of Westwood who built one of the greatest dynasties in all of sports at UCLA and became one of the most revered coaches ever, has died. He was 99.
With his signature rolled-up game program in hand, Wooden led the Bruins to 10 NCAA championships, including an unmatched streak of seven in a row from 1967 to 1973.
Over 27 years, he won 620 games, including 88 straight during one historic stretch, and coached many of the game's greatest players such as Walton and Lew Alcindor - later known as Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.
Wooden is the only person to be inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame as both a player and a coach.
Jim Wooden and Nancy Muehlhausen issued a statement after their father died, saying, "He has been, and always will be, the guiding light for our family.
Wooden was a groundbreaking trendsetter who demanded his players be in great condition so they could play an up-tempo style not well-known on the West Coast at the time.
He was the master of the simple one- or two-sentence homily, instructive little messages best presented in his famous "Pyramid of Success," which remains must-read material, not only for fellow coaches but for anyone in a leadership position in American business.
He taught the team game and had only three hard-and-fast rules - no profanity, tardiness or criticizing fellow teammates. Layered beneath that seeming simplicity, though, were a slew of life lessons - primers on everything from how to put on your socks correctly to how to maintain poise: "Not being thrown off stride in how you behave or what you believe because of outside events."
Wooden began his career as a teacher during the Great Depression and was still teaching others long past retirement. Up until about two years ago, he remained a fixture at UCLA games played on a court named after him and his late wife, Nell, and celebrated his 99th birthday with a book he co-authored on how to live life and raise children.
Born Oct. 14, 1910, near Martinsville, Ind., on a farm that didn't have electricity or indoor plumbing, Wooden's life revolved around sports from the time his father built a baseball diamond among his wheat, corn and alfalfa. Baseball was his favorite sport, but there was also a basketball hoop nailed in a hayloft. Wooden played there countless hours with his brother, Maurice, using any kind of ball they could find.
He led Martinsville High School to the Indiana state basketball championship in 1927 before heading to Purdue, where he was All-America from 1930-32. The Boilermakers were national champions his senior season, and Wooden, nicknamed "the Indiana Rubber Man" for his dives on the hardcourt, was college basketball's player of the year.
The bespectacled former high school teacher ended up at UCLA almost by accident. Wooden was awaiting a call from the University of Minnesota for its head coaching job and thought he had been passed over when it didn't come. In the meantime, UCLA called, and he accepted the job.
Minnesota officials called later that night, saying they couldn't get through earlier because of a snowstorm, and offered him the job. Though Wooden wanted it more than the UCLA job, he told them he already had given UCLA his word.
The Bruins were winners right away after Wooden took over as coach at UCLA's campus in Westwood in 1949. Still, it would be 16 seasons before Wooden won his first NCAA championship with a team featuring Walt Hazzard that went 30-0 in 1964. After that, they began arriving in bunches, with top players such as Alcindor, Walton, Wilkes, Lucius Allen, Gail Goodrich, Marques Johnson, Michael Warren and Sidney Wicks coming to Westwood.
Wooden never had to worry about his reputation. He didn't drink or swear or carouse with other coaches on the road, though he did have a penchant for berating referees.
The road to coaching greatness began after Wooden graduated with honors from Purdue and married Nell Riley, his high school sweetheart.
In a 2008 public appearance with Los Angeles Dodgers announcer Vin Scully, in which the men were interviewed in front of an audience, Wooden said he still wrote his late wife - the only girl he ever dated - a letter on the 21st of each month, the date she died. "She's still there to me," he said. "I talk to her every day."
Nell, Wooden's wife of 53 years, died of cancer in 1985. Besides his son and daughter, Wooden is survived by three grandsons, four granddaughters and 13 great-grandchildren.
John Wooden
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