Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Michael Moore: "We the People" to "King of the World": "YOU'RE FIRED!"
Friends,
Nothing like it has ever happened. The President of the United States, the elected representative of the people, has just told the head of General Motors -- a company that's spent more years at #1 on the Fortune 500 list than anyone else -- "You're fired!"
Dan Dorfman: Will the Tanking Economy Ruin Your Sex Life? (Huffington Post. Posted on AlterNet.org)
Financial turmoil is taking its toll in the bedroom.
Confessions of a shrink (guardian.co.uk)
When psychotherapist Jane Haynes decided to expose the shocking details of her life and work in an autobiography, many of her peers were horrified. But her patients not only supported her, they even helped her write it. By Stuart Jeffries.
JOSEPH TARTAKOVSKY: Pun for the Ages (nytimes.com)
THE inglorious pun! Dryden called it the "lowest and most groveling kind of wit." To Ambrose Bierce it was a "form of wit to which wise men stoop and fools aspire." Universal experience confirms the adage that puns don't make us laugh, but groan. It is said that Caligula ordered an actor to be roasted alive for a bad pun. (Some believe he was inclined to extremes.)
Julia O'Malley: Gay bars change acts to appeal to straight customers (McClatchy Newspapers)
ANCHORAGE, Alaska - "Oh. My. God," he said, applying a ribbon of glue to a false eyelash. "Before is all like gay, gay, gay. Now would you believe? Our audience is all straight people. Couples!"
R. David Smola: A Chat with Ian Gillan, Singer/Songwriter, Deep Purple singer (bullz-eye.com)
On performing at the Butterfly Ball: Ronnie (James) Dio pulled out at the last minute on the basis that he was told by Ritchie Blackmore that he would be fired from Rainbow if he did the gig.
Walter Tunis: Indian classical music duo combats 'Ravi Shankar syndrome' (McClatchy Newspapers)
For well over three decades, Americans have viewed Zakir Hussain as one of the world's most prominent ambassadors of Indian classical music.
MICHAEL FRANCO: The Music - That's All It's About: An Interview with Butch Trucks (popmatters.com)
The drummer of the Allman Brothers Band talks to PopMatters about the band's 40th anniversary, their legendary runs at the Beacon, and embarking on a brand new way to distribute music.
Steve Paul: DJ Spooky draws on a sojourn in Antarctica for his latest multimedia landscape (McClatchy Newspapers)
Paul D. Miller is in a New York studio, a phone in one ear and sounds of a track he's making for his next disc in the other. The music is a digital remix of "No Quarter" by Led Zeppelin, one of the most-sampled bands in hip-hop, he says.
David Bruce: Wise Up! More Problem-Solving (athensnews.com)
Dr. Rosalyn S. Yalow, a Noble Prize winner, worked at a Veterans Administration hospital that required pregnant women to stop working during the fifth month of pregnancy; however, Dr. Yalow was so valuable to the hospital that the administrators did not want her to stop working. What to do? Answer: Fudge a few documents. According to the official records of the hospital, Dr. Yalow gave birth during the fifth month of two pregnancies - each "5-month-old" baby weighed a remarkable 8 pounds, 2 ounces.
Slideshow: The Rock Pulpit
ATC (A Touch of Class): Around The World La La La (youtube.com)
The Weekly Poll
The next Poll will be April 7th - BadToTheBoneBob's 'out state' on vacation.
wrote:
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Overcast til mid-afternoon. Quite nice.
Stars Stump For Union Bill
'West Wing'
Labour leaders may have a friend in the White House, but they are turning to a fictional president to energize their push for a bill that would make it easier to organize unions.
Martin Sheen, who played president Josiah Bartlet on TV's "The West Wing," was on Capitol Hill Tuesday to help launch a new ad campaign for the Employee Free Choice Act.
"It's a human rights issue," Sheen said. "It's just bottom line fair that workers should be paid for their labour fairly."
Sheen was joined by fellow actors Bradley Whitford and Richard Schiff, who starred on the show until it ended its run in 2006.
'West Wing'
Starts Monday On MSNBC
Ed Schultz
Veteran radio host Ed Schultz will have his own hourlong program on MSNBC, starting Monday.
MSNBC announced Wednesday that he'll replace a politically oriented show currently anchored by David Shuster at 6 p.m. on weekdays.
Schultz is another liberal voice for an MSNBC evening audience that's already used to a leftward tilt with Keith Olbermann and Rachel Maddow. MSNBC calls him an "avid voice for the middle class"
Shuster will work with Tamron Hall as a breaking news anchor from 3 to 5 p.m.
Ed Schultz
Wokring Weekends For Rupert
Wanda Sykes
Tart-tongued Wanda Sykes is returning to Fox TV with a late-night series offering a comedic look at current events.
The program, as yet untitled, will air on Saturdays and is scheduled to premiere this fall, the network said Wednesday.
While the airtime for Sykes' show was not announced, it likely will fill the 11 p.m. to midnight EDT slot now held by the sketch comedy series "MadTV," which wraps its 14-season run in May.
Fox says Sykes' show will include "biting" commentary, out-of-studio segments and panel discussions. Her short-lived comedy series "Wanda At Large" aired on Fox in 2003.
Wanda Sykes
Mark Twain Prize for American Humur
Bill Cosby
Bill Cosby will receive the top humour prize in the U.S. from the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts for a prolific career that often focused on race relations and breaking down stereotypes, the centre announced Wednesday.
Some of the biggest names in comedy will salute Cosby on Oct. 26 when the 71-year-old comedian, actor, television producer and author is honoured with the 12th annual Mark Twain Prize for American Humor.
The Kennedy Center board chooses the prize winner with recommendations from a committee that includes former Twain honorees, the show's producers and others.
Last year the Kennedy Center honoured the late George Carlin with the Mark Twain prize. Past honorees have also included Billy Crystal, Steve Martin and Whoopi Goldberg. The first honoree was Richard Pryor in 1998.
Bill Cosby
Making Grand Ole Opry Debut
Steve Martin
Comedian Steve Martin next month will make his debut on a new type of stage for the well-known television and movie star, plucking his banjo at country music's Grand Ole Opry.
Martin, a veteran of TV shows like "Saturday Night Live and films such as the recent "Pink Panther 2," has long been a banjo player. He even incorporated the instrument into his stand-up comedy act as he rose to stardom in the 1970s.
But only last month Martin released his first music CD, a bluegrass album called "The Crow: New Songs for the Five-String Banjo," which he will perform at country music's premiere venue on May 30, in Nashville.
Steve Martin
Brooch Collection Exhibit
Madeleine Albright
Former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, a tenacious negotiator, loved to communicate her mood and intentions in a more subtle way - through her brooches.
Now the Museum of Arts & Design in New York is planning the first ever exhibition of her pin collection, featuring some 200 of her favorites, including the golden snake pin she wore after Saddam Hussein's government called her a serpent.
Albright "found that what she wore and how she presented herself had a lot of interpretive meaning to those she was with," said Holly Hotchner, the museum's director. "The pins became an added way that she communicated as secretary of state."
"Read My Pins: The Madeleine Albright Collection," scheduled to open in September, comes 10 years after the museum presented "Brooching It Diplomatically," a show of pins created by contemporary artists inspired by the ones Albright wore.
Madeleine Albright
Young Dr. Kildare Celebrates His 75th
Richard Chamberlain
More than 3,000 theatergoers helped actor Richard Chamberlain ring in his 75th birthday during the opening night of "Spamalot" at the Palace Theater in Cleveland.
After the curtain fell, the audience rose to its feet and sang "Happy Birthday" while a fellow cast member presented Chamberlain with a cake on stage.
Chamberlain starred as the heartthrob in 1960s TV series "Dr. Kildare." His recent TV credits include appearances on "Will & Grace," "Desperate Housewives" and "Nip/Tuck."
The stage veteran plays King Arthur in the touring musical based on the movie "Monty Python and the Holy Grail."
Richard Chamberlain
£1.55 Million At Auction
Mamluk Glass Bucket
A 650-year-old decorated glass bucket from Syria or Egypt sold for 1.55 million pounds at auction Wednesday, around double the pre-sale estimate and 20 times what the same item fetched in 2000.
The Mamluk Glass Bucket dating from the middle of the 14th century was the top lot at Sotheby's Arts of the Islamic World sale in London, which raised 4.75 million pounds overall, below expectations of between 6.3 and 8.8 million.
The last time the bucket was sold nine years ago it raised 75,000 pounds at Christie's when it was believed to have been made in France in the second half of the 19th century.
Experts have since agreed that it is significantly older and from the Islamic world, and would have been used as a finger bowl passed around at the beginning or end of a meal for guests to rinse their hands.
Mamluk Glass Bucket
After 72 Years
`Guiding Light'
The soap opera "Guiding Light" is switching off after a 72-year run that predates television.
CBS says the show will have its final episode in September. Like most daytime dramas, "Guiding Light" has suffered from declining ratings and CBS is looking for a lower-cost alternative to the hour of programming.
The Guinness Book of World Records has cited it as the longest-running television drama.
It began as a 15-minute serial on NBC Radio in January 1937 and debuted on CBS television in 1952, focusing on the Bauer family of Springfield.
`Guiding Light'
Leaked Online
'X-Men Origins: Wolverine'
"X-Men Origins: Wolverine" isn't due in theaters until next month, but the prequel has already hacked its way online.
A high-quality, full-length work print of the 20th Century Fox film appeared online Tuesday evening. The studio said it had the file removed, but copies quickly propagated and continue to appear on several file-sharing Web sites.
Fox vowed in a statement Wednesday that the source of the "stolen, incomplete and early version" of the movie would be prosecuted and said the FBI and MPAA are investigating. The studio also insisted that the version of the film posted online was "was without many effects, had missing and unedited scenes and temporary sound and music."
'X-Men Origins: Wolverine'
Blocks German Site
The YouTubes
German music fans hoping to catch their idols' latest hits on video-sharing website YouTube are set for disappointment after the site on Wednesday blocked certain music videos over a licensing dispute.
GEMA, a body representing 60,000 German artists, said in a statement: "YouTube has announced that it is blocking videos from recording firms on the German YouTube platform -- similar to what happened in Britain two weeks ago."
Talks between GEMA and YouTube, owned by US Internet giant Google, about extending a licensing deal have collapsed for the time being, it said, although GEMA said it has signalled that it ready to resume talks.
GEMA said the parties were also "not in agreement over fees" levied for the publication of music videos online.
The YouTubes
Jumps Bud Light To No 1
Snow Beer
Chinese beer Snow leapt ahead of Bud Light to become the world's biggest selling beer as China stretches its lead as the largest beer market in the world, according to provisional data from researcher Plato Logic.
Snow, which is brewed by SABMiller and its Chinese partner China Resources Enterprises Ltd, saw its 2008 sales volumes jump 19.1 percent to 61 million hectoliters putting it well ahead of Bud Light and sister brew Budweiser.
Belgium-based InBev based in Belgium and brewer of Stella Artois and Beck's, took over Bud Light and Budweiser brewer Anheuser-Busch for $52 billion in November 2008 to create the world's largest brewer Anheuser-Busch InBev.
Plato lists the top six beer brands as the Snow range of beers followed by the Bud Light range, including Dry and Ice, at 55.6 million hectoliters, Budweiser at 43.4 million followed by AB-InBev's Brazilian beer Skol, Modelo's Mexican beer Corona and the Heineken brand.
Snow Beer
Postal Service Launching Stamps
"Simpsons"
"The Simpsons" will be immortalized on stamps to be issued by the U.S. Postal Service this year.
The 44-cent first-class mail stamps, designed by Simpsons creator and executive producer Matt Groening, will feature Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa and Maggie Simpson, the nuclear family at the center of the animated Fox series.
The stamps, a sneak peek of which will be unveiled April 9, also will help celebrate the longest-running primetime comedy's 20th anniversary this year.
"Simpsons"
Lands At Lifetime
'Project Runway'
After months in limbo, "Project Runway" has a new home at Lifetime. The design-competition series that originally aired on the Bravo network had been mired in a legal struggle involving NBC Universal, which owns Bravo, the Weinstein Co. and the Lifetime channel.
The dispute began last April after NBC Universal sued Weinstein after the production company made a reported $150 million deal with Lifetime for the series that features supermodel Heidi Klum as host.
That lawsuit has been settled. In a statement Wednesday, NBC Universal said Weinstein will pay the media company "for the right to move `Project Runway' to Lifetime. All parties are pleased with the outcome.'"
'Project Runway'
6,000 Found in South Asia
Irrawaddy Dolphins
A huge population of rare dolphins threatened by climate change and fishing nets has been discovered in South Asia.
Researchers with the Wildlife Conservation Society estimate that nearly 6,000 Irrawaddy dolphins, marine mammals that are related to orcas or killer whales, were found living in freshwater regions of Bangladesh's Sundarbans mangrove forest and adjacent waters of the Bay of Bengal.
Each discovery of Irrawaddy dolphins is important because scientists do not know how many remain on the planet. Prior to this study, the largest known populations of Irrawaddy dolphins numbered in the low hundreds or less.
Despite finding this extraordinarily large population, the study's authors warn that the dolphins are becoming increasingly threatened by accidental entanglement in fishing nets. During the study, researchers encountered two dolphins that had become entangled and subsequently drowned in fishing nets - a common occurrence according to local fishermen.
Irrawaddy Dolphins
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