Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Marc Dion: Have an American Beer, You Sap! (Creators Syndicate)
I went out to dinner the other night, to a local place, a Portuguese-American social club with a restaurant. Servings are large, prices are low, and the dining room is luxuriously paneled in circa 1970 fake pine. It's a good place. I ordered the baked stuffed shrimp and a Budweiser. I don't drink a lot of Budweiser, but I've always liked it with seafood.
What I'm really thinking: the adult with autism (The Guardian)
I don't want a cure: I value the unique insights, talents and attention to detail.
Kiefer Sutherland: 'The best kiss of my life? I haven't had it yet - I hope' (The Guardian)
The actor talks about the smell of the woods, saying sorry and wishing he was taller.
Kathy Iandoli: "Blurred lines: why Taylor Swift and Ed Sheeran are paying homage to pop's past" (The Guardian)
After Swift's Right Said Fred reference, we look into the world of artists interpolating previously released music.
David Barnett: "The Hobbit at 80: much more than a childish prequel to The Lord of the Rings" (The Guardian)
It was deemed 'juvenile trash' when first published and, yes, the dwarves' songs do irritate some - but ideas laid down in JRR Tolkien's The Hobbit shape fantasy to this day.
David Barnett: Why are comic cons no longer about comics? (The Guardian)
More and more of these events pay less and less attention to the form they are supposed to be about. Thank goodness for the Leeds event that lives up to the name.
David Barnett: "From She to Sheena: can modern audiences ignore the jungle queen's racist roots?" (The Guardian)
A scantily-clad white woman ruling over black men titillated Victorian readers - and minted an archetype still used in comics, novels and movies. But should it be?
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Presenting
Michael Egan
"Doug's Most Shared Facebook Post" Today
Reader Suggestion
Michelle in AZ
Lake Huron's 'Shipwreck Alley'
BadtotheboneBob
Lake Huron's 'Shipwreck Alley'...
Freighter missing in Lake Huron since 1924 found
"A renowned, local shipwreck hunter has found a freighter that was lost 93 years ago on Lake Huron. The S.S. Clifton disappeared in a storm while sailing from Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin, to Detroit on Sept. 21, 1924. The wooden (308') freighter was carrying a crew of 25 and a cargo of crushed stone. There were no survivors..."
The exact position of the wreck has not been given out other than off Thunder Bay Island, an area so notorious that a National Marine Sanctuary has been established to protect the many wrecks in that area...
Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary | Home
The map shows major wrecks, but there's reportedly 116 historically significant wrecks within the sanctuary - from wooden schooners and paddle wheelers to steel motor vessels, including a German freighter that a lake reef took in '66, the SS Nordmeer. This photo soon after she ran aground...
52 years later there's nothing visible due to pounding waves and crushing ice... The USCG cutter BRAMBLE, while I was aboard, set a large, lighted 'Wreck Buoy' near the remains to warn off mariners. I've been right up close to the wreck in BRAMBLE's 25' cargo boat, which at that time was still showing... Eerie... It wasn't quite this bad, but almost...
Thunder Bay is a diver's paradise for wrecks and the sanctuary monitors the diving and tourist business that has emerged out of the city of Alpena to view the wrecks under Thunder Bay (some in shallow water viewable by glass-bottomed boats). I later was on a CG team that maintained Thunder Bay Island Lighthouse, the 3rd lighthouse established on the Great Lakes in 1832. Note the solar array. My team solarized many large and small lights in the mid-80's. Before that this Light was powered by 2 generators which we could, and did, rebuild onsite as needed. I enjoyed camping out on the island for 2-3 days at a time when we visited for that mission... The island is a wild, windswept, lonely place and is a good locale to experience how powerful and dangerous Lake Huron can be...
There are two unmarked graves near the the old, abandoned Lifeboat station on the island that we also unofficially tended because we felt the responsibility to do so. The island is uninhabited and is part of the Michigan Islands National Wildlife Refuge under the watchful eyes of the US Fish and Wildlife Service... and the Coast Guard.
BadtotheboneBob
Thanks, Thanks, B2tBBob!
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Jeannie the Teed-Off Temp
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Current Events
Linda >^..^<
We are all only temporarily able bodied.
Thanks, Linda!
from Marc Perkel
Patriot Act
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
WAKE UP AND PEE! THE WORLDS ON FIRE!
REMOVE THE "ET".
"PLASTIC, FANTASTIC LOVER".
JOHNNY GOT HIS GUN.
THIS IS ALL GETTING STRANGE!
THE REPUBLICANS REALLY SUCK!
THE REPUBLICAN HEALTH CARE PLAN.
"THEN IT'S NAMBIA, HERE I COME!"
Visit JD's site - Kitty Litter Music
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Christmas stuff is already out at CostCo.
Man With An Opinion
Jay Z
While Jay Z has always taken an interest in politics - both he and wife Beyoncécampaigned for both Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton in past elections - he's been particularly outspoken recently about causes he feels passionately about, whether it's the war on drugs or jail system.
It appears that the Brooklyn rapper, whose real name is Shawn Carter, is now taking the same vocal approach when it comes to President-for-now Donald Trump (R-Racist) and his administration. In an interview with BBC Radio 1 on Friday, he shared that he found the Trump presidency to be "a joke," but that he remains hopeful looking to the future.
"I believe that we are resilient, especially us as black people and especially the culture. We've been through so much more than this guy," Jay Z said. "This guy, I'm looking at him like, man, this is a joke, with all - I can't even say with all due respect - with all disrespect."
However, Jay reiterated that he thinks that the current state of affairs, especially when it comes to racial politics in the U.S., will change in the future.
"I don't think that this is happening if we weren't prepared to handle it," he said. "I'm just looking forward to what's next after that, because usually when things are darkest, then light is on its way. I'm not fearful."
Jay Z
Becomes Italian Citizen
Colin Firth
Colin Firth, the star of Pride and Prejudice and the Bridget Jones films, has been granted Italian citizenship.
Confirming the granting of citizenship, the Italian interior ministry said the "celebrated" 57-year-old British actor "has married a citizen of our nation and has expressed on many occasions his love for our country."
Mr Firth has spoken publically of his dismay over Brexit, calling it "a disaster of unexpected proportions".
Mr Firth's wife, film producer and fashion consultant Livia Giuggioli, 48, is Italian and the couple have two children, Luca and Matteo, who are also Italian citizens.
Mr Firth said he "married into Italy" and "when you marry an Italian you don't just marry one person; you marry a family and perhaps an entire country".
Colin Firth
From Behind The Orange Curtain
'Emergency Alert'
Residents in Orange County were alarmed when their television programming was interrupted by a doomsday message.
Shocked viewers saw an emergency banner flash across their screen accompanied by a man's voice informing them that the end of the world was near.
The ominous message was in fact due to a glitch at a local radio station and affected more than one television provider.
A Christian radio station, KWVE-FM, released a statement taking responsibility for the interruption: "During a regularly scheduled test of the Emergency Alert System for Orange County, KWVE-FM experienced an equipment failure that resulted in KWVE-FM not sending the end-of-message tones that would disconnect those media entities participating in the Emergency Alert System test."
'Emergency Alert'
Monument Depicts German Rifle
Kalashnikov
The monument in the heart of Moscow was supposed to be a tribute to Mikhail Kalashnikov, the creator of the AK-47 assault rifle.
Unfortunately, things went wrong, spectacularly so. The etching on the plinth was not of a Kalashnikov but the StG 44 rifle used by the Nazis during WWII.
The mistake was spotted by arms experts, the BBC reported. It left the authorities having to use an angle grinder to remove the offending image.
The AK-47 was, in fact, the Soviet answer to the Sturmgewehr 44 (StG44), which the German forces used from 1944.
Determined to find an equally effective weapon, the Soviet Union launched a competition, which was won by Mikhail Kalashnikov.
Kalashnikov
Cowardly, Uninspiring and Inconsistent
T-rump
President-for-now Donald Trump (R-Crooked) lacks courage and is generally unprepared as a leader, say a majority of Americans, but the leader of the free world does get some credit for being competitive, according to a new Gallup poll.
Overall, just 22 percent of Americans describe Trump as prepared; 25 percent said he's consistent; 28 percent said he's inspiring; and only 32 percent feel he's courageous. But 84 percent said he's competitive; 73 percent feel he's intense; and 53 percent describe Trump as enthusiastic.
Comparatively, President Barack Obama was described by 66 percent of Americans as a "strong and decisive" leader, and by 72 percent as a man "willing to make hard decisions" in a Gallup poll released at the same point in his first term, back in 2009.
The new Gallup poll follows up on a survey conducted just before the presidential election and measures candidates on 12 leadership qualities. Gallup wanted to asses how people's views on Trump have or have not shifted over time.
T-rump
Tainted By Government Misconduct
Orange County, California
Scott Dekraai, the shooter in the worst mass killing in Orange County, California, history, was sentenced on Friday to eight consecutive life terms in prison without the possibility of parole, rather than receiving the death penalty, because of government misconduct linked to a jail informant program.
The sentence handed down by Superior Court Judge Thomas Goethals amounted to one life term for each person Dekraai shot and killed at a Seal Beach salon in 2011. He received an additional seven years to life for the victim who survived his rampage.
Last month, in a rare move, Goethals had excluded the death penalty as a punishment option after concluding that county prosecutors and sheriff's deputies had engaged in misconduct in the use of the county's now-notorious jail informant program. The sentencing comes after Goethals held weeks of hearings centered on whether the Orange County Sheriff's Department could be trusted to turn over all records in the case.
"I have seen some extraordinary events in my time, but nothing like what has unfolded in this courtroom - crimes and investigative conduct like I've seen here," Goethals said from the bench before he read out the full sentence.
Deputy Attorney General Michael Murphy - the state prosecutor who took over the Dekraai case after Goethals recused the entire Orange County District Attorney's office due to misconduct - told the court that the California Attorney General's office would not appeal the sentence.
Orange County, California
R. Scott Moxley, a damn fine reporter at the OC Weekly has been on top of this case for years - for some history:
California Deputy Attorney General Bungles Non-Investigation of OC Jailhouse-Snitch Scandal | OC Weekly
Orange County Sheriff Sandra Hutchens Failed To Discredit Her Jailhouse Snitch Scandal with Testimony | OC Weekly
In Orange County's Courthouse Scandals, Prosecutors and Sheriff Unite in Cover-Ups | OC Weekly
Anything Mr. Moxley writes is worth reading.
US Forces Receive Fake, Urgent Message
South Korea
US troops in South Korea have been sent an urgent message telling their families to flee the country. But soon after it was revealed as fake.
The US Army has now been forced to send out a message telling troops to check any messages and ensure that they are legitimate.
Officials have so far not been able to publicly confirm where the messages came from, or whether they are related at all to ongoing tensions with North Korea.
The hoax messages were sent by SMS and Facebook, to "multiple service members and spouses in the Republic of Korea", according to an official warning sent to the army. Troops have now been asked to report any information they find to counter-intelligence officials, apparently to try and stop the spread of the fake messages.
The military isn't thought to have a secure or authenticated way of spreading such messages legitimately, and instead just tells troops to "verify the legitimacy of the sender".
South Korea
Brings Back Artificial Colors
Trix Cereal
Trix just isn't the same without artificial colors.
That's what customers told General Mills, Inc. after it cut artificial ingredients from Trix in 2016. The company has been listening to these complaints and says that it will be bringing back artificial colors and flavors to the cereal.
According to General Mills, a version of the cereal called "Classic Trix" will start showing up on store shelves in October. This version of the cereal will return to the rainbow colors and artificial flavors that many customers grew up with.
While the classic version of the cereal is making a return, the current version will also still be available. It will go under the name "No No No Trix." This version of the cereal will continue to be made without artificial colors or flavors, reports CNNMoney.
General Mills' decision to remove artificial colors and flavors from Trix was made back in 2015. This was part of a larger effort to remove all artificial ingredients from its cereals by the end of 2017. The change to Trix meant that the company had to remove the green and blue pieces from the cereal.
Trix Cereal
Mistakenly Tweets Wrong Number
FEMA
Several Hurricane Irma victims called a 1-800 number for help and were offered phone sex instead of hurricane relief assistance.
The Miami Herald reported that the Federal Emergency Management Agency's Region 4 office accidentally tweeted the number Wednesday, which offered assistance to people dealing with damaged roofs.
The number was supposed to be a "1-888" number, not a "1-800" number.
"Welcome to America's hottest talk line. Guys, hot ladies are waiting to talk to you. Press '1' to connect, free, now," said the recording of the 1-800 number.
The original tweet has since been deleted and reposted with the right number.
FEMA
In Memory
Charles Bradley
Charles Bradley, the soul singer whose robust voice and defiantly upbeat outlook won him stardom in his final years after a life of poverty, died Saturday from cancer. He was 68.
Bradley, who for years had scraped by as a James Brown impersonator, had pulled off another battle against the odds earlier this year when he triumphantly returned from cancer treatment.
But the disease had spread to his liver and he recently canceled months of shows. He died at his Brooklyn home surrounded by family, friends and bandmates, his publicist said.
After years of taking odd jobs across the United States and drifting into homelessness, Bradley was discovered by the co-founder of Brooklyn-based Daptone Records, which put out his debut album in 2011 when he was 62.
With a rich, brassy voice that evoked Otis Redding coupled with the body-shaking screams of Brown and a relentless positivity, Bradley at last found commercial success.
Bradley found an enthusiastic, and much younger, audience as he was booked for leading festivals such as Coachella and Glastonbury.
Playing James Brown under the stage name "Black Velvet," Bradley had his break when he was spotted by Daptone co-founder Gabriel Roth whose label specializes in reviving retro soul and funk.
Charles Bradley
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