Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Marc Dion: A Small Band of Brothers (Creators Syndicate)
We lost the war in Vietnam. To counter that, in the decades following that war, we made two kinds of war movies.
Evan V. Symon, Kier Harris, Carolyn Burke, Simone B.: 5 Insane True Stories of Hostages Outsmarting Their Captors (Cracked)
Despite the fact that we already published an article about awesome ways hostages have freed themselves from their captors, kidnappings are still happening in the world. Dammit, we got into the dick joke business to make a difference. This is just unacceptable. We won't stop until kidnappers everywhere are too worried about their victims making them look like jackasses to ever nap a kid again.
Karl Smallwood: 6 Insane True Stories More Badass Than Any Action Movie (Cracked)
As we've previously discussed, like, a lot, movies are incredibly unrealistic when it comes to portraying everyday people defending themselves against crime. After all, when you look at real-life stories of self-defense, you realize their depictions are far, far too tame.
Adam Tod Brown: 5 Examples of Irresponsible Drinking Gone Terribly Awry (Cracked)
When was the last time you got so drunk you vomited? For me, about three weeks ago. Relax, I'm not even 40 yet, I still have decades of irresponsibility to burn through before I settle in and start making wise decisions.
Lucy Mangan: Top 10 characters that didn't make Roald Dahl's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (Guardian)
To celebrate Roald Dahl Day, Lucy Mangan reveals the names of the children who never made made it to Willy Wonka's chocolate factory (Roald Dahl's first version had 10 children) - and the original names of some of those who did!
Oliver Burkeman: "This column will change your life: the importance of temporal landmarks" (Guardian)
Build more temporal landmarks into your life, and you'll experience time differently than if your days and years are one undifferentiated mush.
Alison Flood: Ursula K Le Guin, rising above genre and so much else (Guardian)
It is entirely appropriate that her Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters places her among the greats.
Justine Jordan: "Winter reads: The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K Le Guin" (Guardian)
This Hugo-winning tale of an icebound planet is as remarkable for its subtley revolutionary portrait of a world in which gender is not fixed as it is for Le Guin's chilling descriptions of whirling snow and bitter cold.
Charlie Jane Anders: 10 Reasons Why Le Guin's Earthsea Books Can Still Change Your Life (io9)
We live in a time of riches, as far as fantasy book series go - tons of sprawling sagas are being told, by authors with a huge diversity of styles. But if you want a life-changing visit to a fantasy world, you can't do any better than Ursula K. Le Guin's Earthsea. Here are ten reasons Le Guin's fantasy series still rules.
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David Bruce has approximately 50 Kindle books on Amazon.com.
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Reader Suggestion
Michelle in AZ
From The Creator of 'Avery Ant'
from Marc Perkel
BartCop
Hello Bartcop fans,
As you all know the untimely passing of Terry was unexpected, even by
him. We all knew he had cancer but we all thought he had some years
left. So some of us who have worked closely with him over the years are
scrambling around trying to figure out what to do. My job, among other
things, is to establish communications with the Bartcop community and
provide email lists and groups for those who might put something
together. Those who want to play an active roll in something coming from
this, or if you are one of Bart's pillars, should send an email to
active@bartcop.com.
Bart's final wish was to pay off the house mortgage for Mrs. Bart who is
overwhelmed and so very grateful for the support she has received.
Anyone wanting to make a donation can click on this the yellow donate
button on bartcop.com
But - I need you all to help keep this going. This note
isn't going to directly reach all of Bart's fans. So if you can repost
it on blogs and discussion boards so people can sign up then when we
figure out what's next we can let more people know. This list is just
over 600 but like to get it up to at least 10,000 pretty quick. So
here's the signup link for this email list.
( mailman.bartcop.com/listinfo/bartnews )
Marc Perkel
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Hotter than yesterday.
Rails Against Late Night Men's Club:
Kathy Griffin
CBS's confirmation earlier this week that it had hired James Corden to replace Craig Ferguson at the "Late Late Show" has comedienne Kathy Griffin fuming.
Apparently, she had expressed an interest in the position.
"I was interested in the Ferguson spot long before it was announced because I had a feeling things might shift," Griffin told the AP. "My joke phrase is, 'I can start Monday.'"
In response, she said one unnamed executive told her, "They're not considering females at this time." Something she reminded the person was somewhat illegal to say. At least another executive had the good sense to describe their gender bias to Griffin as "embarrassing."
Kathy Griffin
Breaks Silence - Sorta
Cecily Strong
"Saturday Night Live" star Cecily Strong has broken her silence about being replaced by co-star Michael Che
"I don't see this as me leaving update, just as me being on update in a looser, goofier way that is a lot more fun for me and in a way I think I'm better at," she wrote on Instagram.
"SNL" creator and exec producer Lorne Michaels announced on Thursday that former "Daily Show" correspondent Che would be co-anchoring "Update" with Colin Jost during the show's upcoming 40th season.
"And now I get to do features with the very funny and wonderful Michael Che," Strong, who's best known for her character "The Girl You Wish You Hadn't Started a Conversation With at a Party," continued. "No point in being angry or sad for me for something I'm genuinely happy about!"
Cecily Strong
Won't Watch John Oliver's Show
Bill Maher
Bill Maher doesn't plan on watching John Oliver's late-night HBO show, "Last Week Tonight," but not because there is any bad blood between the two hosts.
Maher told Salon in an interview published Friday that he avoids it because he doesn't want to risk ripping Oliver and his writing staff off.
"I don't think that's a good idea. You know, George Carlin taught me that, years ago," he revealed of his advice from the veteran comedian.
Carlin told him, "'You know, I never look at other comedians because I don't want to be writing a bit and thinking, 'Oh wow, is the reason why this is in my head because I saw it on some other show?'" Maher explained. "I've been told by my producers, who do watch these other shows, that there really wouldn't be that much harm in it because they say that we almost never cover the same thing the same way. But I still think it's a good idea [to avoid them]."
"I've also heard from musician friends of mine that, you know, they get three-quarters the way through writing a song, and then they come into the studio and they play it and somebody goes, 'Oh yeah, Journey did that in 1978. You just wrote a hit song that's been a hit,'" Maher continued.
Bill Maher
Hospital News
Pia Zadora
Entertainer Pia Zadora has been hospitalized with serious head and leg injuries after a fall from a motorized golf cart driven by her teenage son near their northwest Las Vegas home.
Zadora's husband, Mike Jeffries, tells the Las Vegas Sun the singer-actress suffered a head injury and a compound ankle fracture in the Thursday evening accident. She's recovering in intensive care at University Medical Center.
Jeffries says Zadora's upcoming performances at Piero's Italian Restaurant in Las Vegas are cancelled.
A Las Vegas judge last year ordered her to complete alcohol and impulse-control counselling after a domestic squabble involving spraying her teenage son with a hose to get him to go to bed.
Pia Zadora
Rastas Ready For Decriminalization
Jamaica
Taking a deep draw on a pipe that glows with burning marijuana, reggae luminary Bunny Wailer gives a satisfied grin through a haze of aromatic smoke in his concrete yard painted in the red, green, gold and black colors identified with his Rastafarian faith.
These days, the baritone singer from the legendary Wailers, the group he formed in 1963 with late superstars Bob Marley and Peter Tosh, has reason to feel good. There is unprecedented traction building in Jamaica to decriminalize pot, meaning the dreadlocked Wailer and other adherents of Rastafari - a homegrown spiritual movement that considers the drug divine - may soon be able to smoke without fear of arrest.
"Rastas have treated marijuana as something legal all along, even though we have been sent to prison for using the herb in our prayer. But this is the time for all these pressures to stop. The world is catching up now," the 67-year-old three-time Grammy winner said at his modest Kingston home.
Jamaica is known internationally for its marijuana. The hardy plant grows easily on the tropical Caribbean island, where its use is culturally entrenched despite being legally banned for 100 years. Cultivation is kept hidden, with small patches tucked into mountainsides, in swamps and between rows of other crops. Wailer, himself, was convicted of possession in 1967 and did more than a year of hard labor.
Previous moves to decriminalize the drug failed to advance mainly because officials feared they would violate international treaties and bring sanctions from Washington. But now, with a number of U.S. states relaxing their marijuana laws - Colorado and Washington even allow recreational use - Jamaica is rethinking its position.
Jamaica
Feds Chase Treasure Hunter Turned Fugitive
Tommy Thompson
One of the last times anyone ever saw Tommy Thompson, he was walking on the pool deck of a Florida mansion wearing nothing but eye glasses, leather shoes, socks and underwear, his brown hair growing wild.
It was a far cry from the conquering hero who, almost two decades before, docked a ship in Norfolk, Virginia, loaded with what's been described as the greatest lost treasure in American history - thousands of pounds of gold that sat in the ocean for 131 years after the ship carrying it sank during a hurricane.
On that day in 1989, Thompson couldn't contain a grin as hundreds cheered his achievement. But his victory was short-lived.
For the past two years, the U.S. Marshals Service has hunted Thompson as a fugitive - wanted for skipping a court date to explain to investors what happened to the riches. The rise and fall of the intrepid explorer is the stuff of storybooks, a tale receiving renewed attention amid a new expedition begun this year to the sunken ship.
Tommy Thompson
2nd Amendment
Colorado
Sheriff's deputies in Colorado arrested a 60-year-old woman who pointed a rifle at her neighbor's 11-year-old son as he played his clarinet in the backyard, authorities said on Friday.
Officers were called to an address in the Rocky Mountain city of Grand Junction after Cheryl Pifer allegedly told the boy, who was doing his music class homework for school, to "get his ass back inside," the Mesa County Sheriff's Office said.
According to an arrest affidavit, there were five other children aged one to eleven in the backyard at the time of Wednesday's incident, and it said the boy's grandmother told them all to return to the house.
"When they were coming inside they saw Cheryl at the door with the gun aimed at them. (The boy) stated Cheryl yelled 'fire in the hole.' He stated all of the kids ran into the house and called 911," the affidavit added.
The deputy who filed the report, who said she was "very familiar" with Pifer and her address, said the woman appeared drunk when officers arrived, and that they found a 7 mm Mauser rifle by the door with two rounds in its magazine.
Colorado
Tiesto to Score
Bellagio Fountains
Las Vegas' Bellagio Fountains are about to get "Maximal Crazy," thanks to Tiesto.
The electronic music producer will debut a score for the Sin City attraction, which features choreographed water sequences set to lights and music -- usually from the likes of Frank Sinatra and Elvis Presley, as well as rotating headliners Elton John and Celine Dion.
To be fair, the hitmaker of "Red Lights" and "Wasted" also is a headliner at MGM Grand Hotel's Hakkasan nightclub and Wet Republic dayclub (Bellagio and MGM Grand are both MGM Resorts International properties). Earlier this year, Forbes named him the third-highest-paid DJ, tied with Avicii.
A Town Called Paradise, which was inspired by Vegas, reports Las Vegas Weekly. The attraction's first-ever EDM sequence also marks the first time that WET, the design firm that created the "dancing" fountains, will have collaborated with a song's artist on their specific show.
Bellagio Fountains
Doesn't Make People More Moral
Religion
The moral high ground seems to be a crowded place. A new study suggests that religious people aren't more likely to do good than their nonreligious counterparts. And while they may vehemently disagree with one another at times, liberals and conservatives also tend to be on par when it comes to behaving morally.
Researchers asked 1,252 adults of different religious and political backgrounds in the United States and Canada to record the good and bad deeds they committed, witnessed, learned about or were the target of throughout the day.
The goal of the study was to assess how morality plays out in everyday life for different people, said Dan Wisneski, a professor of psychology at Saint Peter's University in Jersey City, New Jersey, who helped conduct the study during his tenure at the University of Illinois at Chicago.
Wisneski and his fellow researchers found that religious and nonreligious people commit similar numbers of moral acts. The same was found to be true for people on both ends of the political spectrum. And regardless of their political or religious leanings, participants were all found to be more likely to report committing, or being the target of, a moral act rather than an immoral act. They were also much more likely to report having heard about immoral acts rather than moral acts.
However, there were some differences in how people in different groups responded emotionally to so-called "moral phenomena," Wisneski said. For example, religious people reported experiencing more intense self-conscious emotions - such as guilt, embarrassment, and disgust - after committing an immoral act than did nonreligious people. Religious people also reported experiencing a greater sense of pride and gratefulness after committing moral deeds than their nonreligious counterparts.
Religion
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