The Weekly Poll
This week's poll is... the Paul Newman 'Tribute' edition
What are your favorite Paul Newman movies and why?
I'd list them all for you to choose from, but why? You know what they are! You relish the memories of seeing them for the first time. You've looked forward to seeing them again and again since then... So, unload... Let it out... Let us remember a man who was not only a great actor, but a marvelous philanthropist and loyal husband, as well.
BadtotheboneBob
Send your responses to BadtotheBoneBob (BCEpoll (at) aol.com)
Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Wick Allison: A Conservative for Obama (dmagazine.com)
My party has slipped its moorings. It's time for a true pragmatist to lead the country.
Joel Stein: Bailout scare talk (latimes.com)
Politicians need to stop frightening us -- and stop giving stuff away.
David Letterman: Top Ten "Things Overheard At Palin Debate Camp"
David Letterman continued going after the McCain-Palin ticket Wednesday night, taking it hard to Sarah Palin.
Mark Morford: Witches Begone! (sfgate.com)
Sarah Palin was de-witched by nutball pastor? What a shame.
Judith Newmark: Gordon Lightfoot is nearly 70 but has recaptured the life of the working musician (St. Louis Post-Dispatch)
Here, according to Toronto troubadour Gordon Lightfoot, is what it's like to wake up from a coma: "It's like you've been lying in a great big box-and suddenly, the box is turned over. My eardrums were crashing, like a cupboard fell over in my head and all the plates and cups shattered at once." Lightfoot paused to take a sip of tea. "Two days later, I was thinking of music again."
John Mark Eberhart: A scholarly approach keeps novelist Philippa Gregory from veering off track
Gruesome it may be to ponder, but it is a matter of fact that Mary, Queen of Scots, lost her head on Feb. 8, 1587.
"Love Today" by Maxim Biller: A Review by Francesca Mari (New Republic; Posted on Powell's)
The Game, that infamous black-imitation-leather-bound book about the seduction community, is a novel of sorts. There is a narrative. But really the writer, Neil Strauss, produced a guidebook with a glossary. I remember -- the book appeared in 2005 -- how it spread through the dining halls and dormitories at Harvard, passed from one roommate to the next. This was not the game we played, or would ever play, or would ever want to play -- well, or so we said. Yet the book held a certain attraction. No matter how much mockery was in our laughter, we flipped through it. Many started skimming and ended up reading the whole thing.
Will Harris: A Chat with Ben Garant and Thomas Lennon, Co-stars of "Reno 911!"
Ben Garant: For the TV show, last season, we were contracted to do 13 episodes, and we turned in 16, just because it's improv people, and we end up having a lot more material than we plan.
Allison Kilkenny: "Religulous: Terrifyingly Hysterical" (huffingtonpost.com)
Maher's examination of religion (including his own religious past) is remarkably candid and sympathetic toward the victims of religious mythology.
DAVID GERMAIN: "Michael Cera: Nice Guy Turns Leading Man"
Michael Cera always seems to be pining for something: booze and a popular classmate in "Superbad"; the sly soul mate he impregnated in "Juno"; a lovely but forbidden cousin in TV's "Arrested Development."
Roger Ebert's Journal: "You wild, beautiful thing. You crazy handful of nothin'"
That's the hard-boiled Dragline, speaking of Cool Hand Luke. After she read my obituary of Paul Newman, my wife Chaz asked me, "Why didn't you write more about his acting?"
Rock the Vote
Homer Simpson Tries To Vote For Obama (VIDEO)
Reader Suggestion
'The Reckoning'
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Overcast and cool - had a few sprinkles, but no real rain.
Rocks Obama Rally in Philly
Bruce Springsteen
Bruce Springsteen called the Bush presidency "a disaster" and said many Americans have "justifiably lost faith" in the American dream.
The legendary rocker interrupted a seven-song acoustic set at a voter-registration rally in Philadelphia on Saturday to praise Democrat Barack Obama and bemoan the crises facing the next president. Springsteen said that America remains a house of dreams for some, but that too many people have given up on the promise of fairness and equality.
"I've spent 35 years writing about America and its people and the meaning of the American promise - a promise handed down right here in this city," said the New Jersey rocker, whose songs often depict down-on-their-luck, working-class dreamers. "Our everyday citizens ... have justifiably lost faith in its meaning."
The rally, planned by the Obama campaign a week ago, drew tens of thousands of people to the Benjamin Franklin Parkway. Springsteen approached the campaign and asked to help out, an Obama aide said. The Philadelphia event came just days before Monday's voter registration deadline in Pennsylvania.
Bruce Springsteen
Harlem, GA
Laurel and Hardy
A blink-and-you'll-miss-it town in rural east Georgia is the last place you'd expect to find the country's only museum dedicated to the classic comedy duo Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy.
But anyone driving along Interstate 20 near the South Carolina state line can't miss the big brown sign pointing to the museum in Harlem, a sleepy hamlet of 1,800 founded 140 years ago along the now-defunct Georgia Railroad line.
Hardy's mustachioed face is everywhere, from the water tower looming overhead to the sign welcoming visitors on the outskirts of town. Ollie's Laundry stands in place of the two-story house where the rotund comedian was born in 1892 just off the town's main drag.
On Saturday, Harlem will balloon to more than 20 times its size when 40,000 people arrive for the annual Oliver Hardy Festival, created two decades ago to raise money for the community. When the festival began in 1988, just a handful of booths were set up in Harlem's small downtown. But now the event draws 350 vendors and turns away dozens of others because there just isn't room.
Laurel and Hardy
Wedding News
Ostrosky - Stern
Shock jock Howard Stern has embraced tradition. The radio talk show host known for hosting porn stars married his longtime girlfriend, Beth Ostrosky, on Friday.
The bride wore a white chiffon gown with cutaway back and sides. Officiating at the ceremony was actor Mark Consuelos, Kelly Ripa's husband and an ordained minister.
The 180 guests included Joan Rivers, Barbara Walters, Billy Joel, Steve Schirripa, Chevy Chase, Tommy Mottola, and Donald and Melania Trump.
They dined on tuna tataki, scrambled eggs with white truffles and striped bass with caviar - washed down with wine and champagne. Songwriter Phoebe Snow serenaded the newlyweds with "You Send Me," and Joel crooned "The Stranger."
Ostrosky - Stern
Prepares To Unveil Face-Lift
Hollywood Palladium
Here in Hollywood, it's not news when an aging star has a little work done. Or a lot. But this is different. October marks the comeback of a showbiz veteran whose career includes Emmys and Grammys and playing host to showbiz legends: the Hollywood Palladium.
The venerable Sunset Boulevard hall, one block east of Vine, is reopening after a major year-plus restoration. Concert biz headliner Live Nation in June 2007 inked a long-term lease to run the Palladium, and work began soon after.
The renovation is a multimillion-dollar project that includes a new stage house, the refurbishing of the original chandeliers, new ambient lighting in the original art deco style and upgraded amenities including new bars and restrooms.
It's also part of Los Angeles' grand plan to reclaim some of Tinseltown's faded luster. The hall is in the heart of Hollywood -- pop "hollywood, ca" into Mapquest, and the red star just about lands atop the Palladium marquee -- and its surrounding area is a major focus of the restoration, including work on the Pantages Theater and the massive mixed-use Hollywood and Vine project.
Hollywood Palladium
Battle In PA
Voter Dress Code
Sue Nace thought election volunteers were joking when they told her she would have to remove her T-shirt to vote in the presidential primary last spring.
But it was no laughing matter to the poll workers-turned-fashion police, who said Nace's Obama shirt was inappropriate electioneering - and made her cover the writing before casting a ballot.
Now, a political fight over what voters can wear to the polls is headed to court in Pennsylvania - with the Republican Party favoring a dress code and Democrats opposed.
The political showdown was triggered by a Pennsylvania Department of State memo advising counties last month that voters' attire doesn't matter as long as the "voter takes no additional action to attempt to influence other voters."
Voter Dress Code
Tasteless Surgery Footage Barred
Anna Nicole Smith
A judge ordered a Texas doctor and his wife on Friday not to distribute videotaped footage of Anna Nicole Smith's breast augmentation surgery in 1994.
The order settles a lawsuit filed last year by Howard K. Stern, the executor of Smith's estate, who was trying to stop Dr. Gerald Johnson and his wife from distributing the tapes of the former Playboy Playmate.
Johnson has said he routinely records surgeries with the patient's permission and promises to keep the video confidential "during the patient's lifetime."
He said he gave Riccio permission to use the video after Smith died of a drug overdose in February 2007 in Florida. She was 39. Riccio's daughter edited the footage into a five-minute tape, scored with music similar to the theme from the film "Jaws."
Anna Nicole Smith
Special Rules For Special Fascists
Silvio Berlusconi
Milan judges decided Saturday to seek guidance from Italy's top court over a new law that would give legal immunity to Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, dealing a blow to his plans to dismiss a corruption case.
Berlusconi is charged in Milan with paying British lawyer David Mills $600,000 in 1997 from alleged "secret funds" held by Mediaset SpA, Italy's biggest private broadcaster controlled by Berlusconi's family, to withhold incriminating details of his business dealings.
Saturday, a Milan judge decided to ask Italy's constitutional court to rule on whether the immunity law -- which would have led to the suspension of the trial while Berlusconi is in office -- was constitutional, Berlusconi's lawyer Niccolo Ghedini said, confirming media reports.
Prosecutors at the trial had argued the "Alfano law," which suspends criminal cases against the prime minister, president and heads of both chambers of parliament while they are in office, was unconstitutional.
Silvio Berlusconi
More Right Wing Terrorists
'Modesty Patrols'
In Israel's ultra-Orthodox Jewish community, where the rule of law sometimes takes a back seat to the rule of God, zealots are on a campaign to stamp out behavior they consider unchaste. They hurl stones at women for such "sins" as wearing a red blouse, and attack stores selling devices that can access the Internet.
In recent weeks, self-styled "modesty patrols" have been accused of breaking into the apartment of a Jerusalem woman and beating her for allegedly consorting with men. They have torched a store that sells MP4 players, fearing devout Jews would use them to download pornography.
Many ultra-Orthodox Jews are dismayed by the violence, but the enforcers often enjoy quiet approval from rabbis eager to protect their own reputations as guardians of the faith, community members say. And while some welcome anything that keeps secular culture out of their cloistered world, others feel terrorized, knowing that the mere perception of impropriety could ruin their lives.
Religious vigilantes operate in a society that has granted their community influence well beyond its numbers - partly out of a commitment to revive the great centers of Jewish scholarship destroyed in the Holocaust, but also because the Orthodox are perennial king-makers in Israeli coalition politics.
'Modesty Patrols'
Wars of 2008
Taco Trucks
The great Taco Truck Wars of 2008 appear to have come to a close.
The Los Angeles County district attorney's office said Friday that it won't appeal a judge's ruling in August that threw out a law requiring taco truck operators to move every hour or face $1,000 fines and possible jail time.
The law was passed last spring after restaurateurs complained that taco trucks parking on the streets near their businesses were drawing away customers and forcing some businesses to the brink of bankruptcy.
The truck drivers, many of them immigrants, complained that they were unfairly singled out. The ban affected unincorporated sections of the county, including the vast, largely Latino East Los Angeles neighborhood where many of the trucks operate.
Taco Trucks
In Memory
George "Wydell" Jones
George "Wydell" Jones, who wrote the doo-wop hit "Rama Lama Ding Dong" and performed it as a member of the Edsels, has died. He was 71.
"Rama Lama Ding Dong" peaked at No. 21 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in 1961. The Youngstown, Ohio-based Edsels also included Jimmy Reynolds, Harry Green, Marshall Sewell and Larry Green.
During their heyday, the Edsels performed at the Apollo Theater in New York and appeared on "American Bandstand."
Jones was born in Richmond, Va., and as a child moved to Youngstown, where his father worked in a steel mill. After high school, Jones joined the Air Force, where he sang in a vocal group with other servicemen and wrote "Rama Lama Ding Dong."
George "Wydell" Jones
| CURRENT MOON lunar phases |
