Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Steve Benen: Must-See Video
And the Obama campaign unveiled a new video this morning, making the case for the president's re-election bid by highlighting his first-term accomplishments.
E.L. Doctorow: "Unexceptionalism: A Primer" (New York Times)
To achieve unexceptionalism, the political ideal that would render the United States indistinguishable from the impoverished, traditionally undemocratic, brutal or catatonic countries of the world, do the following: PHASE ONE: If you're a justice of the Supreme Court, ignore the first sacrament of a democracy and suspend the counting of ballots in a presidential election. Appoint the candidate of your choice as president.
Stephen King: Tax Me, for F@%&'s Sake! (Daily Beast)
The iconic writer scolds the superrich (including himself-and Mitt Romney) for not giving back, and warns of a Kingsian apocalyptic scenario if inequality is not addressed in America.
A Point of View: In defence of obscure words (BBC Magazine)
We chase "fast culture" at our peril - unusual words and difficult art are good for us, says Will Self.
Liz Else: Altruism and the New Enlightenment (Slate)
An interview with E.O. Wilson.
Charles Wheelan: 10 Things Your Commencement Speaker Won't Tell You (Wall Street Journal)
3. Don't make the world worse. … Everyone will tell you that you can change the world. They are right, but remember that "changing the world" also can include things like skirting financial regulations and selling unhealthy foods to increasingly obese children. I am not asking you to cure cancer. I am just asking you not to spread it.
NEAL KARLINSKY and MEREDITH FROST: "Real 'Beautiful Mind': College Dropout Became Mathematical Genius After Mugging" (ABC News)
At the time, doctors said he had a concussion, but within a day or two, Padgett began to notice something remarkable. This college dropout who couldn't draw became obsessed with drawing intricate diagrams, but didn't know what they were.
Spotlight: Joss Whedon (PopMatters)
PopMatters' latest book, Joss Whedon: The Complete Companion, releases … in the US and Friday in the rest of the world. To give you a preview, you can sample many of the book's articles here….
David Bruce has 42 Kindle books on Amazon.com with 250 anecdotes in each book. Each book is $1, so for $42 you can buy 10,500 anecdotes. Search for "Funniest People," "Coolest People, "Most Interesting People," "Kindest People," "Religious Anecdotes," "Maximum Cool," and "Resist Psychic Death."
wrote:
answered:
Reader Suggestion
Michelle in AZ
From The Creator of 'Avery Ant'
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Another marine layer failed to burn off, so no afternoon sun-bath for Jo, the (lucky) lizard.
'We Reported A True Story'
Dan Rather
Dan Rather, former "CBS Evening News" host and current star of Mark Cuban's HDNet, has been out promoting his new book, "Rather Outspoken."
In an interview with Piers Morgan on Tuesday, Rather recalled the last conversation he had with George W. Bush after his controversial 2004 CBS News report on the former president's Air National Guard service record.
"I was at the White House for a briefing for reporters, and I asked him a couple of questions and he answered the questions," Rather said. "And then afterward he said to me, 'I hope you'll be happy retired in Austin.' That's my home. I had no intention of retiring in Austin. I have a passion for my work and I plunged myself back into doing work. But that's the only conversation I've had with him since."
Rather also defended the report that led to the end of his network news career.
"We reported a true story," he said. "That's why I'm no longer with CBS News."
Dan Rather
Rejects Jason Segel
Hillary Clinton
Jason Segel, the "Five Year Engagement" star, will have to wait a lot longer than five years to team up with his dream co-star, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
Back in March, Segel told Us Weekly he thinks Clinton would be "good at comedy," and even picked out a title for their future film: "Sarah Marshall 2: This Time It's Personal."
Last week, Segel admitted to Jimmy Fallon that he often tells people that Clinton is the mysterious, unnamed mother on his hit sitcom, "How I Met Your Mother."
Unfortunately for Segel, Clinton is a busy woman - but she took the time to let him down gently in a rejection letter.
I was delighted to read about your interest in sharing the big screen with me. As you can imagine, I am a little occupied at the moment, but perhaps someday I can help you forget Sarah Marshall … again. My only condition is that there be Muppets involved, and that is non-negotiable. In the meantime, you have my best wishes for continued success with your career.
Hillary Clinton
Fetches Record $119.9M At Auction
'The Scream'
One of the art world's most recognizable images - Edvard Munch's "The Scream" - sold Wednesday for a record $119,922,500 at auction in New York City.
The 1895 artwork - a modern symbol of human anxiety - was sold at Sotheby's. Neither the buyer's name nor any details about the buyer was released.
The previous record for an artwork sold at auction was $106.5 million for Picasso's "Nude, Green Leaves, and Bust," sold by Christie's in 2010.
Munch's image of a man holding his head and screaming under a streaked, blood-red sky is one of four versions by the Norwegian expressionist painter. The auctioned piece at Sotheby's is the only one left in private hands.
'The Scream'
High-Wire Feat Set For June 15
Niagara Falls
High-wire performer Nik Wallenda announced on Wednesday that June 15 is the day his boyhood dream to walk a tightrope over Niagara Falls will become a reality.
Wallenda, 33, a seventh-generation member of the famed "Flying Wallendas" family of circus performers, is set to walk a 2-inch cable strung 1,800 feet across Niagara Falls gorge - the first such tight rope feat between the United States and Canada in more than a century.
This has been his dream since he was 6 years old, Wallenda said during a news conference held near the falls in upstate New York.
Wallenda, of Sarasota, Florida, said he will train publicly for 10 days prior to the walk, from May 12 to 22, in a parking lot used by the Seneca Niagara Casino, located less than a mile from the gorge.
As for which country Wallenda will be in when he steps out onto the wire, he said weather will dictate that and a decision will be made closer to June 15. He said it's likely the walk, which is expected to take 30 to 40 minutes, will take place in the early evening, when colored lights are used to illuminate the huge waterfalls.
Niagara Falls
Giant Statue Hits Road
Marilyn Monroe
Forget the Tupac hologram - there's a new deceased celebrity coming to the Palm Desert area in spectacular fashion.
"Forever Marilyn," a 26-foot statue of actress Marilyn Monroe, is coming to Palm Springs at the end of May, NBC Chicago reports. The statue, which has been installed at Pioneer Court in Chicago since last year, is expected to stay at the corner of Tahquitz Canyon and Palm Canyon drives until next June.
The statue, created by J. Seward Johnson, depicts Monroe in an iconic scene from the 1955 Billy Wilder film "The Seven Year Itch," when Monroe's dress is blown up by air from a subway grate. The work was the source of some controversy, with some detractors calling the statue sexist and others deriding it as just plain ugly. Nonetheless, it became a popular landmark for photo opportunities - a fact in itself that drew jeers from film critic Richard Roeper.
"Even worse than the sculpture itself is the photo-op behavior it's inspiring," Roeper wrote in the Chicago Sun-Times. "Men (and women) licking Marilyn's leg, gawking up her skirt, pointing at her giant panties as they leer and laugh. It's not that the sculpture is shocking or sexist or obscene - but it's definitely bringing out the juvenile goofball in many of us."
Marilyn Monroe
Unite For Lawsuit
Clooney & Roberts
George Clooney and Julia Roberts are collaborating - on a lawsuit against a pair of audio-visual companies that have allegedly used the actors' images without their permission.
"The Descendants" star Clooney and "Mirror Mirror" star Roberts filed suit against Digital Projection Inc. and Beyond Audio Inc. in Los Angeles Superior Court in Santa Monica on Friday. The suit alleges misappropriation of right of publicity/right of privacy, misappropriation of common law right of publicity/right of privacy, trademark infringement and negligence.
The complaint claims that Digital Projection and Beyond Audio "prominently used large photographs of plaintiffs in defendants' advertising, marketing and promotions including print advertisements published in numerous magazines over the past several months; defendants' respective web sites... defendants' printed brochures, newsletters, and "e-mail blasts" distributed to their customers and prospective customers; and within defendants' large video displays at major international trade shows."
Clooney and Roberts - who filed under her married name, Julia Moder - are seeking unspecified general, special and punitive damages, plus an injunction preventing the companies from using their images in the future, plus attorney fees and interest.
Clooney & Roberts
Fake Jefferson Wine Whine
William I. Koch
The clock could be running out for billionaire William I. Koch (R-Greedy Bastard) in a lawsuit against Christie's in which he accused the auction house of fraud over his purchase of wines said to have been owned by third American president Thomas Jefferson.
A federal appeals court panel in New York on Wednesday questioned whether Koch had conducted timely due diligence when doubts were raised about four bottles of 1787 wine engraved "Th.J" that were sold to him in 1987 and 1988 by dealer Hardy Rodenstock through intermediaries.
In March last year, U.S. District Judge Barbara Jones threw out the lawsuit Koch filed in Manhattan federal court in 2010, ruling that his claim of fraudulent concealment was barred by the statute of limitations.
The founder of Oxbow Group energy company appealed the decision, saying that Rodenstock and long time head of Christie's wine department, Michael Broadbent, were associates in the purported fraud.
Christie's fought the lawsuit, arguing that Koch falsely claimed he did not learn about credible issues of the authenticity of the wine until 2005.
William I. Koch
Blaze Hits Atlanta Studios
Tyler Perry
Investigators were trying Wednesday to find the cause of a fire that ripped through a simulated streetscape at Tyler Perry's Atlanta studios, sending flames soaring into the night sky.
There were no reports of injuries from the blaze that began shortly before 9 p.m. Tuesday and burned through the exterior facade of a large building, Atlanta Fire Capt. Jolyon Bundrige said.
More than 100 firefighters responded to the four-alarm blaze.
The fire never reached inside the building because of its concrete masonry construction behind the facade. However, there was some water damage inside, Bundrige told The Associated Press Wednesday morning.
Tyler Perry
Banana Republican Tactics
DEA
The Drug Enforcement Administration issued an apology Wednesday to a California student who was picked up during a drug raid and left in a holding cell for four days without food, water or access to a toilet.
DEA San Diego Acting Special Agent-In-Charge William R. Sherman said in a statement that he was troubled by the treatment of Daniel Chong and extended his "deepest apologies" to him.
Chong, 23, was never arrested, was not going to be charged with a crime and should have been released, said a law enforcement official who was briefed on the DEA case and spoke on the condition of anonymity.
The engineering student at the University of California, San Diego, told U-T San Diego that he drank his own urine to survive and that he bit into his glasses to break them and tried to use a shard to scratch "Sorry Mom" into his arm.
He remained in the 5-by-10-foot cell from April 21 until April 25, when he was taken out on a gurney by paramedics.
When he was found on April 25, paramedics took him to a hospital where he was treated for cramps, dehydration, a perforated esophagus and kidney failure, his lawyer said. He spent three days in intensive care and five total at the hospital before leaving Sunday.
DEA
Family Dispute
Zsa Zsa
The husband and estranged daughter of 95-year-old actress Zsa Zsa Gabor, whom a doctor described as bedridden and mostly unresponsive, said on Wednesday they will try to settle their dispute over her affairs outside a courtroom.
Gabor's only child, Francesca Hilton, had asked a Los Angeles judge to appoint a conservator for her mother claiming the actress's 9th husband, Frederic Prinz Von Anhalt, had isolated her and may be mishandling Gabor's financial matters.
Attorneys for Hilton and von Anhalt on Wednesday asked the judge to delay a hearing on the matter, saying they hoped to resolve the issue on their own. "Miracles happen in mediation," Hilton's attorney Kenneth Kossof said.
Hilton, 64, Gabor's daughter from her second marriage to hotel baron Conrad Hilton, said in court documents that on two recent visits her mother seemed heavily sedated. She claims that Anhalt, 68, isolated Gabor from her friends and family and that Gabor's home was in default over missed mortgage payments.
In the past year, von Anhalt has put Gabor's mansion up for sale, announced plans to auction her fur coats to help pay for her medical care, and claimed he wanted make the ailing actress a mother again through egg donation, artificial insemination and a surrogate.
Zsa Zsa
Arts Under Pressure From Conservatives
Turkey
In a recent play in Turkey, two actors wore trench coats in their role as assassins posing as perverts planning to flash girls near a school.
The scene and its themes of nudity and sexual depravity are at the center of a debate over freedom of expression in Turkish arts, where the Islamic-rooted ruling party has become increasingly critical of plays and television shows deemed to violate moral or religious values.
Turkey, a candidate for European Union membership, is less strict than many other nations in the Muslim world. But Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Sunday backed a move by Istanbul's Islamist mayor to take over decision-making at Istanbul City Theaters, a theater troupe which is funded by the city and staged the play that outraged conservative critics.
Erdogan also threatened to privatize state-run theaters - essentially cutting their funding - in response to resignations and protests by secular-minded artists against alleged political interference.
That stoked fears that the government, which has a strong electoral mandate, might be seeking to put an Islamic stamp on daily life in this predominantly Muslim country that has long been proud of its secular political system.
Turkey
Water Guns Banned, Handguns Allowed
GOP Convention
In the politically-charged and likely protest-filled streets of Tampa, Fla., during the Republican National Convention in August, water guns will be strictly prohibited. Concealed handguns , on the other hand, will be perfectly legal.
Florida Gov. Rick Scott said this week that banning handguns from downtown Tampa during the convention, as the city's Mayor Bob Buckhorn requested, "would surely violate the Second Amendment."
Tampa officials are expecting thousands of protesters to descend on the Florida metropolis for the GOP convention. While no handguns will be allowed inside the convention, which is being protected by the Secret Service, concealed carry license-holders will be able to carry their weapons in the streets surrounding the convention.
They will not, however, be able to have "super soaker" water guns, sticks, poles, portable shields or glass bottles.
GOP Convention
In Memory
Patricia Medina
The actress who became a leading lady of Hollywood films in the 1950s opposite Glenn Ford, Alan Ladd, Karl Malden and Fernando Lamas has died in Los Angeles. Patricia Medina was 92.
Her friend, Meredith Silverbach, told the Los Angeles Times that Medina had been in declining health and that she died Saturday at Barlow Respiratory Hospital.
The British-born actress was the widow of actor Joseph Cotten. She arrived in Hollywood after World War II and signed with the MGM studios.
She had lead roles in "Abbott and Costello in the Foreign Legion" in 1950, "Sangaree" with Lamas in 1953, "Plunder of the Sun" with Ford in 1953, "Botany Bay" with Ladd in 1953 and "Phantom of the Rue Morgue" with Malden in 1954.
Medina wrote an autobiography, "Laid Back in Hollywood," in 1998.
Patricia Medina
| CURRENT MOON lunar phases |
