'Best of TBH Politoons'
Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Dee Hon: "Pay It off Later: Debt Is the New American Dream" (Adbusters; Posted on AlterNetorg)
The U.S. addicted to debt -- and the country and millions of its citizens are at the brink of bankruptcy.
Nat Hentoff: Bush's Man Mukasey (villagevoice.com)
Will the Supreme Court also bow low to the president?
RICHARD ROEPER: "Hatemongers: Let them fade into obscurity" (suntimes.com)
Maybe Fred Phelps can wind up like '70s Illinois Nazi leader
RICHARD ROEPER: Are we too caffeinated to think straight? (suntimes.com)
A new survey says Chicago is the most caffeinated city in the United States but I don't think that's true I mean sure we like our coffee and colas and chocolate and energy drinks but are we any more caffeinated than New York or Boston or Seattle or Detroit or Philadelphia I don't think so do you huh huh huh?????
Tom Robbins: "Fred W. McDarrah, 1926-2007" (villagevoice.com)
Veteran Village Voice photographer Fred W. McDarrah died in his sleep at home in Greenwich Village early Tuesday morning. He was 81.
TOM DANEHY: My friend is gone, three decades too early (tucsonweekly.com)
Customers would come in looking for Saw XXVII and would leave with Dial "M" for Murder. He'd follow people around the store and say, "Don't take that!" Then he'd find a gem in the "classics" section and thrust it into their hands, saying, "Trust me."
Colin Covert: Q&A with 'No Country for Old Men' makers Joel and Ethan Coen (popmatters.com)
Joel and Ethan Coen are in almost constant motion. Three days after completing photography in New York City on their upcoming spy comedy "Burn After Reading," in the lull before beginning preproduction on their spring feature "A Serious Man," they were in Los Angeles to discuss "No Country for Old Men," their working methods and the importance of movie stars' haircuts.
Steven Rea: Sidney Lumet knows how to get some satisfaction (The Philadelphia Inquirer; Posted on popmatters.com)
"It's not one of your average feel-good movies," says Sidney Lumet with a satisfied grin, speaking of his latest-the ferociously dark, wildly entertaining, "Before the Devil Knows You're Dead."
CONNIE TUTTLE: Once again, the lure of a red-eye flight draws me in (tucsonweekly.com)
Who among us, stoked by the idea of gaining more time away, hasn't opted for a red-eye flight in the self-deluding hope of arriving at our destination rested, relaxed and ready to enjoy a bonus day? Even when it doesn't happen, this fiction keeps us thinking: If only we try hard enough, eventually we'll get it right.
CONNIE TUTTLE: A Laugh at the Past (tucsonweekly.com)
Initially daunting experiences have a way of becoming funny stories.
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Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Sunny afternoon, but still on the cool side.
Day 5
Writers Strike
Ellen DeGeneres, who took Monday off, then continued to tape her syndicated chatfest, minus a monologue, was back on the air Friday amid an outpouring of dismay from the New York-based WGA East, which vowed to protest when her show tapes in the Big Apple on Nov.19-20 and urged her to stop showing up for work this minute.
"On her first show back, Ellen said she loves and supports her writers, but her actions prove otherwise," the WGAE said in a statement Friday. "We certainly intend to let Ellen know our dissatisfaction in person if she decides to proceed with the shows she has scheduled in New York…We find it sad that Ellen spent an entire week crying and fighting for a dog she gave away, yet she couldn't even stand by her writers for more than one day-writers who have helped make her extremely successful."
The closest NBC could get to a solution Friday was its decision to start firing The Tonight Show's nonwriting staff as early as next week if Leno persists in not crossing the picket line.
The staff of Late Night and Last Call with Carson Daly have also been warned of possible future firings.
Writers Strike
Thanksgiving Day Parade Gets New Tune
Macy's
When the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade gets under way this year, it will be to the rhythm of a Michael Feinstein song especially written for 600 dancing children.
The 81st annual parade's opening number - "Making Magic" - was choreographed by John Dietrich of the Radio City Rockettes, with lyrics by Bill Schermerhorn, the parade's creative director.
The children were trained by Camp Broadway, which offers summer programs for youngsters taught by theater professionals. Camp Broadway has created a special one-week program leading up to the Nov. 22 parade, including a series of workshops, classes and rehearsals for the children.
Macy's
Digital TV Transition Chief Resigns
John Kneuer
The Bush administration official who heads the agency charged with ensuring the smooth transition of the television industry to digital broadcasting is leaving that post.
John Kneuer was named administrator of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration in May 2006 by resident Bush. Kneuer will resign this month to pursue new opportunities, agency spokesman Todd Sedmak said Friday.
Kneuer's resignation as the president's top telecommunications adviser comes amid considerable concern on Capitol Hill over the manner in which the government is handling the conversion by television broadcasters from analog to digital broadcasting.
Kneuer joined NTIA in October 2003. Before his arrival, he was with the Washington law firm Piper Rudnick.
John Kneuer
Back From Dead?
Captain America
Captain America may not be back from the dead, but he's back - sort of. After Marvel Comics unexpectedly killed off the champion of liberty and the American way earlier this year, he appears in a comic made exclusively for U.S. soldiers. He is seen on a videotape made before his death.
One million copies of "The New Avengers: The Spirit of America," the fifth in Marvel's series for the military, will be available free starting Saturday at military base stores worldwide.
The star-spangled Avenger's appearance is expected to create a demand for the comic, once word spreads among collectors.
"If you really, really want one, you need to know someone in the military," said Jim Skibo, director of support for the Dallas-based Army & Air Force Exchange Service, which is distributing the comic.
Captain America
$¢hwarzenegger Has Surgery
Ahnold
Gov. Arnold $¢hwarzenegger underwent surgery Saturday to remove a metal plate and cables from his leg, a spokesman said.
The hardware was used to help $¢hwarzenegger's upper thigh bone heal after he broke it while skiing in Sun Valley, Idaho, last Dec. 23.
Dr. Kevin Ehrhart, who performed the 20-minute surgery at a Los Angeles hospital, said in a statement issued by the governor's office that there were no complications.
$¢hwarzenegger spokesman Aaron McLear said the governor turned over power to Lt. Gov. John Garamendi for 90 minutes during what he described as "minor surgery." $¢hwarzenegger was under general anesthesia for one hour during the procedure, McLear said.
Ahnold
Film Producer Accused Of Fraud
Gary Howsam
A film producer has been arrested on suspicion of using bogus contracts with foreign distributors to help secure more than $35 million in loans to finance movies, federal authorities said Thursday.
Gary Howsam, 56, was taken into custody Monday at Los Angeles International Airport on a criminal complaint accusing him of bank fraud, FBI spokeswoman Laura Eimiller said.
He was released on $500,000 bond and placed under house arrest with an electric monitoring at a friend's residence in Los Angeles. If convicted, he could face as many as 30 years in federal prison.
The former chief executive of Greenlight Film and Television, Howsam has helped produce dozens of films such as 2002's "Global Heresy" starring Peter O'Toole and 2001's "Ignition" with Bill Pullman. More recently, he was a producer on Showtime's "The Tudors."
Gary Howsam
Stagehands On Strike
Broadway
Broadway stagehands went on strike Saturday, shutting down more than two dozen plays and musicals on what is the most popular theatergoing day of the week.
Picket lines went up at theaters throughout the Times Square area. The first show to be affected was "Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas! The Musical," a holiday attraction for families that had an early 11 a.m. matinee.
Eight Broadway shows will not be affected by the strike, as they are playing in theaters with separate Local One contracts. They are "Young Frankenstein," "Mary Poppins," "Xanadu," "The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee," "Mauritius," "Pygmalion," "The Ritz" and "Cymbeline." Off-Broadway shows will also keep running.
But among the shows shut by the walkout are such popular attractions as "Wicked," "The Phantom of the Opera," "Rent," "Les Miserables," "Monty Python's Spamalot" and "Mamma Mia!"
Broadway
US Among Worst
Infant Death
The rate at which infants die in the United States has dropped substantially over the past half-century, but broad disparities remain among racial groups, and the country stacks up poorly next to other industrialized nations.
In 2004, the most recent year for which statistics are available, roughly seven babies died for every 1,000 live births before reaching their first birthday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says. That was down from about 26 in 1960.
The United States ranks near the bottom for infant survival rates among modernized nations. A Save the Children report last year placed the United States ahead of only Latvia, and tied with Hungary, Malta, Poland and Slovakia.
Doctors and analysts blame broad disparities in access to health care among racial and income groups in the United States.
Infant Death
Temple Unearthed
Peru
A 4,000-year-old temple filled with murals has been unearthed on the northern coast of Peru, making it one of the oldest finds in the Americas, a leading archaeologist said on Saturday.
The temple, inside a larger ruin, includes a staircase that leads up to an altar used for fire worship at a site scientists have called Ventarron, said Peruvian archaeologist Walter Alva, who led the dig.
It sits in the Lambayeque valley, near the ancient Sipan complex that Alva unearthed in the 1980s. Ventarron was built long before Sipan, about 2,000 years before Christ, he said.
"It's a temple that is about 4,000 years old," Alva, director of the Museum Tumbas Reales (Royal Tombs) of Sipan, told Reuters by telephone after announcing the results of carbon dating at a ceremony north of Lima sponsored by Peru's government.
Peru
In Memory
Marilyn Martinez
Marilyn Martinez, a sassy standup comic who performed with the Original Latin Divas of Comedy and other Latina troupes, has died, her husband said Friday. She was 52.
Raised in Denver, Martinez tap-danced on a local television show as a child before funneling her love of acting, and food, into standup routines, according to her longtime manager, Scott Montoya.
She moved to Los Angeles around 1989, he said. Her routines often included frank talk about sex and men.
In L.A., Martinez connected with her Mexican roots and in the mid-1990s joined Latina troupe the Hot and Spicy Mamitas, Montoya said.
She also became a member of the Hot Tamales with Eva Longoria and was "the anchor" of the Latin Divas of Comedy, with a Showtime special earlier this year in the same vein as the hit Latin Kings of Comedy, Montoya said.
Her screen credits include parts in 2003's "Pauly Shore Is Dead," 2002's "For Da Love of Money," the ABC television series "My Wife and Kids" in 2001, and the 2004 reality TV show "Urban Jungle" on SiTV.
Marilyn Martinez
In Memory
Norman Mailer
Norman Mailer, the pugnacious prince of American letters who for decades reigned as the country's literary conscience and provocateur with such books as "The Naked and the Dead" and "The Executioner's Song," has died at the age of 84.
From his classic debut novel to such masterworks of literary journalism as "The Armies of the Night," the two-time Pulitzer Prize winner always got credit for insight, passion and originality.
He had nine children, made a quixotic bid to become mayor of New York City on a "left conservative" platform, produced five forgettable films, dabbled in journalism, flew gliders, challenged professional boxers, was banned from a Manhattan YWHA for reciting obscene poetry, feuded publicly with writer Gore Vidal and crusaded against women's liberation.
Mailer had numerous minor run-ins with the law, usually for being drunk or disorderly, but was also jailed briefly during the Pentagon protests in the late 1960s. While directing the film "Maidstone" in 1968, the self-described "old club fighter" punched actor Lane Smith, breaking his jaw, and bit actor Rip Torn's ear in another scuffle.
Norman Mailer was born Jan. 31, 1923, in Long Branch, N.J. His father, Isaac, a South Africa-born accountant, and mother, Fanny, who ran a housekeeping and nursing agency, soon moved to Brooklyn.
Mailer earned an engineering science degree in 1943 from Harvard University, where he decided to become a writer, and was soon drafted into the Army. Sent to the Philippines as an infantryman, he saw enough of soldiering to provide a basis for his first book, "The Naked and the Dead," published in 1948 while he was a postgraduate student in Paris.
Buoyed by instant literary celebrity, Mailer embraced the early 1950s counterculture, defining "hip" in his essay "The White Negro," allying himself with Beat Generation gurus Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg, and writing social and political commentary for the Village Voice, which he helped found. He also churned out two more novels, "Barbary Shore" (1951) and "Deer Park" (1955), neither embraced kindly by readers or critics.
His 1968 account of the peace march on the Pentagon, "The Armies of the Night," won the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award and was listed in the top 20 on a 1999 New York University survey of 100 examples of the best journalism of the century.
Mailer's personal life was as turbulent as the times in which he lived. In 1960, at a party at his Brooklyn Heights home, he stabbed his second wife, Adele Morales, with a knife. She declined to press charges, and it was not until 1997 that she revealed in her memoir how close she had come to dying.
His other wives were: Beatrice Silverman, Lady Jeanne Campbell, Beverly Bentley, Carol Stevens and Norris Church. He had five daughters, three sons and a stepson.
Norman Mailer
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