'Best of TBH Politoons'
Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Blake Morrison: The Booker prize boosts the paltry sales of literary fiction. But I wonder how most authors keep going (guardian.co.uk)
You know that feeling you get when you seem to be the only guest at a hotel, and you think: how can they afford to keep going? Where's the income coming from? The figures don't add up. The business looks doomed.
Bill Maher: American Flag Pins Are For Idiots (commondreams.org)
Show me a man wearing an American flag pin in his lapel, and I'll show you an asshole. I'm sure there are exceptions, but in general people need to remember that lapels aren't for wearing pins to create the illusion that you're supporting the troops. They're for wearing ribbons to create the illusion that you're helping cure a disease.
Joseph Lelyveld: The Adventures of Arthur (nybooks.com)
... his Journals deserve to be welcomed as an unexpected gift. Dense with anecdotes, gossip, and cameo portraits drawn from the overlapping political, literary, and social circles in which he was a fixture for the half-century it spans, the volume stands as something more than a substitute for the second volume of Schlesinger's memoir (which could hardly have been contained, at the rate he was going, in two volumes).
Larry McMurtry: Diane Keaton on Photography (nybooks.com)
Over the years, Diane Keaton has sniffed out collections or archives of photographs that she feels are unjustly overlooked, neglected, or lost-like, very often, the tarnished human beings who appear in them. Once convinced, she mothers these archives and attempts to arrange for their exhibition and safekeeping and, so far, publication in five books to which she's written prefaces.
How manga is conquering Britain (entertainment.timesonline.co.uk)
Once it was strictly Japanese only. But the cult comics are now everywhere, Paul Gravett says.
Men only? You must be joking (news.independent.co.uk)
A new survey has named the nation's top 10 wits - and there isn't a woman among them. But as Emily Dugan discovers, female humour has helped define our life and culture for centuries.
Andrew Gumbel: Stalemate over Leno's late-night chat show could cost NBC dear (news.independent.co.uk)
If Leno does fight to stay on, NBC has a big problem. The network can choose to find another slot for him, knowing he will more than likely bolt to another network, taking his large audience with him. Or it can renege on its deal with O'Brien, giving him a reported $40m and, more than likely, waving goodbye.
The essential guide to DIY dentistry (news.independent.co.uk)
With NHS treatment becoming increasingly scarce, Esther Walker highlights the simple steps you can take to help keep your mouth healthy - and avoid all the pain and expense
Green Halloween
Reader Comment
Maricopa Co., AZ
Joe Arpaio Loony sheriff of Maricopa Co., AZ
America's Most Cowardly Sheriff
Sheriff Joe Arpaio Wants to Know What Websites You've Visited
Phoenix Times
Executives Arrested in 'Phoenix New Times' Legal Dispute
Marty, This is not America
Take Care,
KevKev in Apache Junction, Arizona
Thanks, KevKev!
In what may be an instance of synchronicity, at the same time you wrote, Michelle in Gilbert sent this link - Amid uproar, county attorney drops charges against 'New Times'
Bet Sherriff Joe would be fetching in pink.
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Sunny and windy.
Outs Dumbledore
J.K. Rowling
Harry Potter fans, the rumors are true: Albus Dumbledore, master wizard and Headmaster of Hogwarts, is gay. J.K. Rowling, author of the mega-selling fantasy series that ended last summer, outed the beloved character Friday night while appearing before a full house at Carnegie Hall.
After reading briefly from the final book, "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows," she took questions from audience members.
She was asked by one young fan whether Dumbledore finds "true love."
"Dumbledore is gay," the author responded to gasps and applause.
She then explained that Dumbledore was smitten with rival Gellert Grindelwald, whom he defeated long ago in a battle between good and bad wizards. "Falling in love can blind us to an extent," Rowling said of Dumbledore's feelings, adding that Dumbledore was "horribly, terribly let down."
J.K. Rowling
Hollywood Union Authorizes Strike
Writers Guild of America
Members of Hollywood's film and television writers union have overwhelmingly voted to authorize a strike anytime after their contract expires at the end of the month.
More than 5,000 members of the Writers Guild of America cast ballots, with 90 percent voting in favor of authorizing the strike, the union said Friday evening. Members voted Thursday.
The writers' current three-year contract expires Oct. 31, and their vote gives the union's leaders authorization to call a strike anytime after that day.
The last strike in 1988 lasted 22 weeks. Losses to the industry were put at $500 million.
Writers Guild of America
Nashville Bound
Yusuf Islam
British folk singer Yusuf Islam hopes to return to the United States in December to record a song inspired by his deportation three years ago, he said on Friday.
Islam, who changed his name from Cat Stevens after he became a Muslim in 1978, was denied entry to the United States "on national security grounds" in September 2004. His inbound flight was diverted to Maine and he and his daughter were taken off the plane. Islam had been planning to record in Nashville with country artists, including Dolly Parton.
Apparently no longer considered a terrorist, the peace activist's visa situation has been cleared up, and he later returned to the United States to promote his 2006 comeback "Another Cup," his first mainstream pop album in 28 years.
The 59-year-old London resident has started work on a follow-up, and has written a song about "my little excursion" called "Boots and Sand." Another attempt at Nashville is in the cards.
Yusuf Islam
Muy Macho
Bill Maher
Bill Maher helped security remove a rowdy protester from the studio during his weekly HBO show "Real Time with Bill Maher," and it was all captured on live television.
Maher was talking science during one of his weekly panel discussions when a protester in his audience stood up, held up a smuggled-in sign reading "9/11 is a cover up fraud" and shouted comments to the same effect.
"Do we have some (expletive) security in this building," Maher yelled, "or do I have to come down there and kick his (expletive)?"
When security reached the man's aisle and the man resisted leaving, Maher ran into the seats and helped them push him out the door, shouting "Out! Out! Out!"
Several other protesters, sprinkled throughout the audience, then stood up and shouted.
After the instigators were ejected, Maher told his panelists - MSGOP's Chris Matthews, Los Angeles Times columnist Joel Stein and Congresswoman Sheila Jackson - that they often linger outside his studio to share 9/11 conspiracy theories with him and try to get into the show.
Bill Maher
Vendor Of Verse
William Chrome
With his manual typewriter outside a downtown Manhattan supermarket, William Chrome forges poems on the spot from bystanders' requests, sentiments and dares. He does it for the creative challenge, plus the donations.
In his carbon-copied pages is a mental panorama of New York, or anywhere. Write me a poem to honour Jesus. Eulogize my dog. Celebrate my grandmother's birthday. Win back my girlfriend.
Chrome is not without compatriots, whether online or on other street corners. Reference points range from European court poets to "The Typing Explosion," a trio of typewriter-toting performance artists based in Seattle and Los Angeles who team-write poems for an audience that chooses titles. Created in 1998, the group performed regularly until 2004 and continues occasional appearances now, said Sierra Nelson, a member who lives in Seattle.
Chrome was directly inspired by a friend - artist/poet Zach Houston, who started plying his poetic trade in the San Francisco Bay area last year.
William Chrome
Turn To Furry Forecasters
U.S. Weather Watchers
With confidence in private weather forecasters slipping in the wake of some prediction gaffes during the past couple of years, perhaps woolly worms and groundhogs can take up the slack.
For instance, predictions for a severe winter didn't pan out the last time around, nor did projections for a brutal 2006 hurricane season.
So as weather forecasters have begun releasing their predictions for winter, trying to give some early insight into the season's likely demand scenario for heating fuels, some analysts are eyeing those predictions with a bit more scepticism than usual.
According to Roy Krege, the coordinator of the annual Woolly Worm Festival held in Banner Elk, North Carolina, a woolly worm can tell the winter with 87 percent accuracy.
U.S. Weather Watchers
Stolen Soapbox Racer Found
Toilet
It was just a routine patrol until a King County sheriff's deputy lifted a tarp and found a soapbox derby racer built to look like a giant toilet. A giant, stolen toilet - measuring about 7 feet high and 7 feet long.
The massive commode - white with a blue velour seat and tank cover and a red flush handle - was found Wednesday in a rural area of southeast King County.
Sheriff's Sgt. John Urquhart said the toilet facsimile was built by five friends in Colorado Springs, Colo., and was brought to Seattle late last month for a race. It was stolen out of the back of a truck, which was also stolen.
Urquhart says the truck has not been found.
Toilet
Less Popular
Brits
A poll of Europeans showed people of different nationalities liked each other more after getting to know each other, except in the case of the British -- who became less popular.
A project organized by the Notre Europe think tank brought together 362 citizens from 27 EU states for two days of deliberations in Brussels last weekend.
The Spaniards were most popular with 78.6 percent approval at the end of the weekend. The Poles the least with 67 percent.
But all nationalities gained in popularity, bar the British who went from a 70.3 percent approval rating at the start of the weekend to 68.1 percent by the end.
Brits
'Least' Winner
Philadelphia
Philadelphia is home to the least attractive people in the United States, a survey of visitors and residents showed on Friday.
The city of more than 1.5 million people was also found to be among the least stylish, least active, least friendly and least worldly, according to the "America's Favourite Cities" survey by Travel & Leisure magazine and CNN Headline News.
About 60,000 people responded to the online survey -- at www.travelandleisure.com -- which ranked 25 cities in categories including shopping, food, culture, and cityscape, said Amy Farley, senior editor at the magazine.
For unattractiveness, Philadelphia just beat out Washington DC and Dallas/Fort Worth for the bottom spot. Miami and San Diego are home to the most attractive people, the poll found.
Philadelphia
What Are They Up To Now?
Knights Templar
The Vatican's recent decision to release documents on the persecution of the Knights Templar in the 14th Century has piqued interest in the mysterious order. But what are the latter-day Templars up to?
There are lots of organisations today that bear the Templar name, but for the most part they are in the business of charitable works inspired by the original order. Secret documents about Mary Magdalene are not the order of the day.
The original Templars were founded in the 12th Century to guard pilgrims on their way along the dangerous roads that led to Jerusalem. Its members were effectively armed monk-like knights who were granted certain legal privileges and whose status was backed by the church. They were reputed to be the possessors of great wealth and power.
The major non-Masonic, non-Catholic affiliated, ecumenical Templar organisation is the Ordo Supremus Militaris Templi Hierosolymitani. Tracing its ancestry back to 1804, the group stresses that "it reclaims the spirit of, but does not assert any direct descent from the ancient Order". Full members are Christians, but non-Christians are welcomed as "friends and supporters".
Knights Templar
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