'Best of TBH Politoons'
Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Liza Featherstone: Wage Against the Machine (slate.com)
IF COSTCO'S WORKER GENEROSITY IS SO GREAT, WHY DOESN'T WAL-MART IMITATE IT?
Joel Stein: Trading in politics? Don't sell it short (latimes.com)
Day-trading on elections.
Tom Danehy: 'Newsweek' magazine's list of top high schools is a load of garbage (tucsonweekly.com)
It was front-page news in May when Newsweek magazine named Tucson's BASIS charter school the top public high school in the entire country. BASIS had made the Top 10 the previous year and this year made the jump all the way to the top. Good for them ...
Mark Morford: Your dirty little iPhone (sfgate.com)
They say Apple's luscious new 3G gizmo is perfect for porn. But oh, just you wait.
CATHERINE O'SULLIVAN: For divorcees, modern-day dating is a whole new experience (tucsonweekly.com)
Craigslist has a dating section, and it's free. I've met some nice people on Craigslist, and I have also gotten some boffo descriptions of genitalia. I tend to delete the latter. Everybody's got a wotzit, and if it is a man's only sterling quality, it's probably easier to motor down to the local sex shop and pick up a dildo. They don't talk so much, rarely have criminal records and almost never turn into stalkers.
John Boudreau: Could old Macs be left behind by new operating system? (San Jose Mercury News)
SAN JOSE, Calif. - Apple's Leopard operating system isn't even a year old, but its offspring, Snow Leopard, is already preparing to prowl
GLENN MCDONALD: "The World Remade: An Interview with the Creators of Alpha Omega" (popmatters.com)
Glenn McDonald talks to the creators of Alpha Omega about their new table top game, the challenge of game development, and that little Cloverfield mix-up.
Greg Kot: Liz Phair takes to the stage as her once-controversial classic 'Exile in Guyville' is reissued (Chicago Tribune)
Now that Liz Phair's "Exile in Guyville" is being repackaged on its 15th anniversary as an indie-rock landmark, it's easy to forget what a ruckus it caused when it first came out.
Smells like teen spirit (music.guardian.co.uk)
Who better to do the PR for your band than your devoted fans? Dave Simpson goes out in Manchester with a 'street team' - the latest tactic for whipping up a word-of-mouth pop sensation.
Alex P. Kellogg: As Dwele releases his third album, the Grammy winner keeps to his Detroit roots (Detroit Free Press)
It's difficult to have your life in balance both as a famous musician and an everyday person: at once close enough to the top of your profession to kiss the sky, and solidly grounded to daily realities. Still, Dwele may just be in that spot right now.
Paul Krassner: Remembering George Carlin (huffingtonpost.com)
Carlin was uncompromising, knowing that his audience trusted him not to be afraid of offending them. Who else would have asked "Why are there no recreational drugs in suppository form?"
Michael Terry: George Carlin -- Genius, Inspiration & Hard Working Motherf**ker (huffingtonpost.com)
Carlin's comedy has always had anger underlying it; anger that people are so stupid and self-righteous. I'm embarrassed to see his career simplified into a thirty second sound bite.
Reader Contribution
Funny pic
A while back you had a link to a website where you could design magazine covers using pics from your own collection...here's one I did that I thought you might like:
Reader Comment
Re: Reader's Comment
Hi Marty,
Regarding the, "Reader's comment" which ran yesterday about the Exxon Valdez (oil tanker) oil spill in Prince William Sound, in Alaska, Vic wrote:
"With the horrible Supreme Court decision in favor of the resource raping Exxon Corp, I find this article even more horrific"
After further reading about this travesty of justice, it occurred to me that the judgment to reduce the Exxon, "fine," was based on MARITIME law - which means that if (when) offshore drilling is resumed (as McCain is pushing) any "leaks" or accidents would be using this decision as a precedent... Or, it could mean that Florida will have oil-slicked chicken's coming home to roost - which is probably what they deserve to reap after giving the Y2K election to that Supreme Court stacking idiot, GW Bush...
Sally P
Thanks, Sally!
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Still sunny and seasonal.
Calls For Unity
George Clooney
In a two-page letter, George Clooney adopted a neutral stance in the dispute between the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists and the Screen Actors Guild.
Clooney called the fight counterproductive.
"Because the one thing you can be sure of is that stories about Jack Nicholson vs. Tom Hanks only strengthens the negotiating power" of the studios, he said.
Clooney also called on higher-paid actors to chip in a greater share of union dues and for 10 A-listers - "people that the studio heads don't often say 'no' to," he suggested, listing only Nicholson and Hanks by name - to sit down with studio heads once a year to "adjust the pay for actors."
George Clooney
N.M. Court Refuses Name Change
'F--- Censorship'
A New Mexico appeals court on Friday ruled against a Los Alamos man who wanted to change his name to a phrase containing a popular four-letter obscenity.
The man appealed after a state district judge in Bernalillo County refused his request to change his name to "F--- Censorship!"
The man has the right to call himself whatever he wants, unless there's fraud or misrepresentation involved, the judges said.
But once he seeks court approval for a name change, the court has the authority to turn him down on several grounds, including if the name is offensive to common decency and good taste, the judges ruled.
'F--- Censorship'
Australian Official Takes Wombat Vacation
Ken Henry
Australia's treasury secretary is drawing opposition heat over his vacation plans - caring for a colony of endangered wombats in their remote forest home.
Treasury Secretary Ken Henry and his wife will soon begin a five-week stint looking after a group of the northern hairy-nosed wombats, newspapers reported Friday.
"These guys are on death row," Henry told Sydney's The Daily Telegraph newspaper. "There are 10 times as many giant pandas in the world as there are these guys."
The creature - a burrowing, bear-like marsupial that grows up to 88 pounds - is on the brink of extinction. Common wombats are not endangered.
Ken Henry
830 Miles Across Michigan On Stilts
Neil Sauter
A 24-year-old man has completed an 830-mile trek on aluminum stilts across Michigan's Upper and Lower Peninsulas to make people aware of cerebral palsy.
United Cerebral Palsy of Michigan reports that Neil Sauter ended his eight-week journey Friday in Ironwood, Mich., on the Upper Peninsula border with Wisconsin. He began walking in early May from southeast Michigan.
Sauter has raised $16,000 for United Cerebral Palsy of Michigan. A 3-to-1 matching federal grant pushes that total to $64,000.
Sauter has mild cerebral palsy and used three pairs of stilts on the walk.
Neil Sauter
Firm Scraps Ad
Japan
A Japanese mobile phone firm has halted an advertisement depicting a monkey as a political candidate after bloggers said the commercial was a racial slur against U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama.
An ad aired by the mobile unit of eAccess Ltd showed the firm's mascot, a monkey, addressing a political rally in Japanese and surrounded by supporters brandishing placards with the word "Change".
Some bloggers said the eMobile ad was racist because it seemed to refer to Obama and his campaign slogan advocating change. Earlier this week Britain's Telegraph newspaper ran a story saying the ad "apparently portraying Barack Obama as a monkey has provoked a new row about racial depictions of the Democratic candidate".
Monkeys, while revered in parts of Asia, are viewed in the United States as a racial slur if used to depict African Americans.
Japan
U.S. Army History
'On Point II'
A new Army history of the Iraq conflict faults the invasion's top U.S. commander for his sudden decision to overhaul the Baghdad-based military command, The New York Times said in its Sunday edition.
The 696-page report, set for release on Monday, focuses on the 18 months after U.S. resident George W. Bush announced in May 2003 that major combat operations in Iraq were over, the Times said.
"On Point II: Transitions to the New Campaign" concludes that Gen. Tommy R. Franks' decision, opposed by the Army's vice chief of staff, led to a short-staffed headquarters led by a newly promoted three-star general.
The unclassified study, based on 200 interviews conducted by military historians, also says the new headquarters "was not configured for the types of responsibilities it received."
'On Point II'
King Of The Ballhawks
Zack Hample
Zack Hample can beg for a baseball in 32 languages, including Swahili, Swedish and sign.
The baseball-seeking savant from Manhattan has tricks galore to help him snare a prized souvenir at a major league game, like lowering his glove on a string to pluck up a ball resting far below on the warning track during batting practice. Or his "fumbling with a slice of pizza" ploy to sneak past an usher and move closer to the dugout.
Not that he needs decoys, deceptions or dialects. Hample has a knack for properly positioning himself for wayward baseballs, gathering up, by his count, 3,494 over the last 19 years.
This year alone, he's averaging 7.8 balls a game over 28 contests, which takes into account homers from batting practice and games, foul balls and those flipped to him by players, coaches and umpires.
Zack Hample
Wisconsin's Cheesy Sculptor
Troy Landwehr
Troy Landwehr has carved a version of John Trumbull's painting "Declaration of Independence" in a 2,000-pound block of cheddar.
The cheesy version is to be displayed near Independence Mall in Philadelphia for July 4, then returned to Wisconsin to be shown at Landwehr's Kerrigan Brothers Winery.
The cheddar will eventually be cut up and sent to food pantries.
Troy Landwehr
Another Use For Stockings
'Manure Bombs'
A woman trying to make "manure bombs" using stockings, slipped into a slurry tank and fled the scene naked, German police said Friday.
Two women entered a farm in the northern village of Eberholzen Wednesday evening and started to fill the stockings with manure.
"One of them slipped into the manure tank, right into the cow muck," said a spokesman for local police. "The other one helped her out. We found their clothes in a field. One seems to have run off completely naked, the other in her underwear."
Police said it was unclear what the women had intended to do with the "manure bombs," but added the incident could be linked to victory celebrations surrounding the Euro 2008 semi-finals on Wednesday evening, when Germany beat Turkey 3-2.
'Manure Bombs'
In Memory
Leonard Pennario
Leonard Pennario, a Grammy-winning pianist and best-selling classical recording artist, has died. He was 83.
Pennario won a Grammy in the 1960s for his work with violinist Jascha Heifetz and cellist Gregor Piatigorsky.
Born in Buffalo on July 9, 1924, Pennario was 10 when he and his family moved to Los Angeles. At age 12, he learned the Grieg Concerto in a week so he could perform it from memory with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra.
Pennario never attended a music conservatory but at 19 made his debut at Carnegie Hall with the New York Philharmonic.
He made more than 40 recordings for the Capitol record label between 1950 and 1960. He went on to make more than 20 more for other labels.
Leonard Pennario
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