Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Noam Chomsky: How to destroy the future (Guardian)
From the Cuban missile crisis to a fossil fuels frenzy, the US is intent on winning the race to disaster.
Paul Krugman: Moral Derpitude (NY Times)
I feel for Barro; really I do. But he has no home in today's GOP, which simply has no room for the non-derpy, and to all appearances never will.
Interview by Laura Barnett: Lenny Henry, comedian and actor - portrait of the artist (Guardian)
'If I hadn't been able to make people laugh, I'd have ended up hitting someone with a brick.'
Donald Kagan: Ave atque vale (The New Criterion)
Upon his retirement from Yale, Donald Kagan considers the future of liberal education in this farewell speech.
David O'Hara and John Kaag: Friends With Benefits (Chronicle of Higher Education)
Helen Keller once said, "Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much."
Karl Webster: "Self-Publishing Masterclass :: Smashwords :: Mark Coker"
The rise and rise of a successful publishing business built on fun, problem-solving and putting people first…
David Barnett: "HP Lovecraft: the writer out of time" (Guardian)
He had one of the bleakest worldviews ever committed to paper, was racist - and could be a terrible writer. So why is HP Lovecraft more popular than ever?
Lucy Mangan: "Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë" (Guardian)
… it is one of my sister's favourite books. And she doesn't read. She can build a car from scratch or rewire your house blindfolded, but reading she does not do. Has never seen the point of it. She refers generally to books as "firewood". Except, except for Jane Eyre. She read it when she was 12 and it has never left her. She can't tell me why, and when I suggested the reasons outlined by others above she tried to reach down the phone and hit me for being such an arts graduate. But she is copper-bottomed proof of the fact that Jane has the power to seize even the most unlikely imaginations.
Drinking Shooters All Night Long (Not Always Right)
Cashier at a liquor store stops an attempted robbery. Funny.
David Bruce: Wise Up! Education (Athens News)
In the 1960s, David Zucker attended school in Milwaukee. Occasionally, he was a class clown, and a teacher once told him, "I know one day I'll be paying good money to see you make me laugh, but right now, get your *ss back in that chair and crack that book!" Later, Mr. Zucker co-directed and co-wrote "Airplane!"
David Bruce's Amazon Author Page
David Bruce's Smashwords Page
David Bruce's Blog
David Bruce's Lulu Storefront
David Bruce's Apple iBookstore
David Bruce has approximately 50 Kindle books on Amazon.com.
Bosko Suggests
Train Routes
Have a great day,
Bosko.
Thanks, Bosko!
is visiting the land of Jell-O and orderlies.
wrote:
answered:
Reader Suggestion
Michelle in AZ
David E Suggests
Bionic Animals
Thanks, David!
From The Creator of 'Avery Ant'
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Marine layer burned off mid-afternoon.
'Daily Show' Break
Jon Stewart
Jon Stewart is starting a summer-long break from anchoring "The Daily Show," but it will be no holiday. He'll be in the Middle East making his first movie.
While he's away, Stewart says he'll miss hosting the Comedy Central fake newscast.
Stewart will be directing and producing "Rosewater" from his own script, based on a memoir by Maziar Bahari. This Iranian journalist was falsely accused of being a spy and imprisoned by the Iranian government in 2009 while covering Iran's presidential election.
After Stewart signs off Thursday night until returning Sept. 3, correspondent John Oliver will handle anchor duties on the New York-based show.
Jon Stewart
Hosting TBS Baseball Studio Show
Keith Olbermann
Keith Olbermann is getting back into broadcasting to host TBS's post-season baseball studio show, staying away from politics for the moment.
Turner Sports said Wednesday that Olbermann will team with Hall of Fame pitcher Dennis Eckersley on its studio show during the baseball playoffs this October. It's a familiar role and corporate home for Olbermann, who hosted baseball post-season shows on NBC and Fox in the late 1990s and began his on-air career as a sports reporter for CNN, another Turner network.
Olbermann's last two politically oriented jobs ended poorly. He quit abruptly in January 2011 after eight years as a prime-time host at MSNBC, and his later tenure at Current TV lasted a year before he was taken off the air and responded with a lawsuit, settled out of court.
He said Wednesday that he wasn't making any predictions about whether he would get back into general news. He said he was open to pursuing other things besides the Turner baseball job, which will last about a month.
Keith Olbermann
Top-Rated Scripted Show
'The Walking Dead'
For the first time, a cable show is the top-rated scripted series on television - and we have zombies to thank. AMC's "The Walking Dead" was not only the highest-rated scripted show of the 2012-13 season, but the second highest-rated show overall, behind NBC's "Sunday Night Football."
It's a victory not just for cable, but for scripted TV. For nearly a decade, the reality competition "American Idol" was television's top-rated series. (It was only in 2011-12 that "Idol" was surpassed by football.)
With all the numbers in, CBS's "The Big Bang Theory" was the second-highest rated scripted show, after "The Walking Dead," and the third highest-rated series overall.
"Walking Dead" wasn't the top scripted show, however, in total viewers. That was CBS's "NCIS," which averaged 22.7 million viewers of all ages per episode. "Sunday Night Football" averaged 21.4 million, and "The Big Bang Theory" averaged 21.1 million.
'The Walking Dead'
Syracuse University
Dick Clark
Syracuse University is naming a renovated broadcast studio on its campus for the late television producer and host Dick Clark.
Clark's family donated $5 million to rebuild the studio at the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications, and his alma mater announced Wednesday that it will bear his name. The $18 million renovation is scheduled to be done in September 2014.
The studio was state of the art when it was constructed in 1974. But Dean Lorraine Branham says it is now putting the journalism school's radio and television broadcasting programs at a competitive disadvantage. The renovation will make production studios and classroom space fully digital.
Clark graduated from Syracuse in 1951 and went on to host "American Bandstand" and run a busy television production studio in California.
Dick Clark
U.S. Networks Bet On Comeback
TV Poker
Ten years ago, poker shows proliferated on TV and then faded but with several states and federal legislators moving to legalize the game online, some networks are betting that TV poker is back.
Off-shore poker websites such as PokerStars were the forces behind the poker TV boom, starting around 2003, serving as on-air sponsors and buying air time for their own shows.
But that all changed on April 15, 2011, known in the gaming industry as "Black Friday," when the U.S. Department of Justice indicted the founders of these sites on charges of bank fraud, money laundering and illegal gambling offenses.
The sites were closed to U.S. online players, sending shockwaves through the poker world and the TV industry.
Networks slashed shows. But then the DOJ in late 2011 clarified its stance on the Wire Act, enabling states to legalize online gambling.
TV Poker
Stands By TV Ad
Cheerios
A mom sits at her kitchen table when her grade schooler saunters up with a big box of Cheerios.
"Mom," says the girl. "Dad told me Cheerios is good for your heart. Is that true?"
Cut to dad waking from a nap on the living room couch with a pile of Cheerios on his chest (where his heart is) crunchily cascading to the floor.
The message is in line with the company's Heart Healthy campaign, except this 30-second ad features a black dad, white mom and biracial child and produced enough vitriol on YouTube last week that Cheerios requested the comments section be turned off.
This week, the company is standing by the fictitious family, which reflects a black-white racial mix uncommon in commercials today, especially in ads on TV, at a time when interracial and interethnic couples are on the rise in real life, according to 2010 U.S. Census data, brand strategists and marketing consultants.
Cheerios
Downsizing
Wayne Newton
"Mr. Las Vegas" Wayne Newton is moving out of his sprawling estate of 45 years.
The crooner's family members and a spokesman confirmed Wednesday that the downsizing to another mansion involving Newton, family members and a menagerie of exotic animals is taking place this week.
Property records show the move is to a $3 million mansion about a mile from Newton's beloved "Casa de Shenandoah."
The relocation comes as part of a Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization involving a partnership that bought Newton's nearly 40-acre estate for $19.5 million in June 2010.
Wayne Newton
Ending Run
'The Borgias'
Showtime's papal drama "The Borgias" will end its run at the end of its current third season, the network said Wednesday.
The series, which stars Jeremy Irons, Francois Arnaud, Holliday Grainger and others in the tale of Pope Alexander VI, who bribed, bullied and muscled his way into the papacy, will run its Season 3 finale - and, now, its series finale - on June 16 at 10 p.m.
Series creator Neil Jordan said that the series is ending for "a variety of reasons" but that the final episode, dubbed "The Prince," seemed "like the end of a journey" for the Borgia family.
So far in his current season, "The Borgias" has averaged 2.4 million total viewers across platforms, basically what it averaged for its second season in the same time frame.
'The Borgias'
Czech Court Clears US Musician
Lamb of God
An appeals court has upheld the acquittal of the frontman of a U.S. heavy metal band accused of causing a teenage fan's death at a concert in the Czech Republic.
Lamb of God's Randy Blythe was charged in December in Prague with causing bodily harm to another person with lethal consequences. Blythe was accused of pushing a 19-year-old who had climbed onto the stage during a 2010 concert by the Richmond, Virginia-based band at Prague's Abaton club.
The man's head hit the floor and he later died of a head injury.
Prague's Municipal court ruled March 5 that Blythe was not guilty but the state prosecutor appealed.
Spokesman Jan Fort says Prague's High Court upheld that verdict on Wednesday. Its decision is final.
Lamb of God
Will Make Satan Possess You
Yoga
E.W. Jackson is the Republican candidate for Virginia lieutenant governor, and he's a pretty interesting guy with a lot of opinions. Some of these opinions - especially on gays, like that they are "ikky" - have made him more famous than most candidates for lieutenant governor. On Wednesday, we learned that Jackson has some interesting ideas on a new topic: yoga. As The National Review's Betsy Woodruff reports, Jackson warns that yoga can put you at risk for satanic possession in his 2008 book, Ten Commandments to an Extraordinary Life: Making Your Dreams Come True.
When one hears the word meditation, it conjures an image of Maharishi Yoga talking about finding a mantra and striving for nirvana... The purpose of such meditation is to empty oneself... [Satan] is happy to invade the empty vacuum of your soul and possess it. That is why people serve Satan without ever knowing it or deciding to, but no one can be a child of God without making a decision to surrender to him. Beware of systems of spirituality which tell you to empty yourself. You will end up filled with something you probably do not want.
Jackson is a pastor who has never held elected office. If Virginia Republicans are looking to reach out to moderate suburban voters after their southern state voted for Obama for a second time, Jackson isn't helping. He has compared
In her longer profile of Jackson, Woodruff notes his interesting take on charitable giving. In his book, Jackson says, "While giving to the poor is important, the most powerful giving for wealth building is upward giving." What's upward giving? Giving money to E.W. Jackson.
Give me money, and God will make you rich. No wonder he's interested in elected office.
Yoga
Art History Under Hammer
Berlin Wall
Pieces of the Iron Curtain's most iconic symbol, the Berlin Wall, are being put up for auction in Paris after being decorated by some of the world's top artists.
Slabs of the smooth concrete that divided East and West Berlin from 1961 until 1989 totaling 60 meters (66 yards) were given to artists including France's Daniel Buren and the late Eduardo Chillida of Spain in the 1990s to be used as canvases.
The result of their unique work is going under the hammer in central Paris on Thursday, under the title "Artists of Freedom."
Chillida's piece - a simple but menacing brown-painted silhouette- is expecting to fetch the most, with estimates of up to 300,000 euros (nearly $400,000).
Berlin Wall
Loses Its Longest Word
Germany
The German language has one less long word to worry about.
"Rindfleischetikettierungsueberwachungsaufgabenuebertragungsgesetz," a 65-letter word meaning "law delegating beef label monitoring," has been dropped following changes to European Union law regulating the testing of cattle, the BBC reports.
The so-called "tapeworm" word-common in Germany-was introduced in 1999 during the bovine spongiform encephalopathy (aka "mad cow disease") crisis. But now that the EU has halted testing of "healthy cattle at abattoirs," the BBC said, "the need for the word vanished."
With "rindfleischetikettierungsueberwachungsaufgabenuebertragungsgesetz" ousted, the 49-letter "Donaudampfschifffahrtsgesellschaftskapitaenswitwe" ("widow of a Danube steamboat company captain") appears to have inherited the longest-word mantle, though it does not appear in the German standard language dictionary. The longest word found in there is "Kraftfahrzeughaftpflichtversicherung," or "automobile liability insurance."
Germany
Chimp's Pics Auctioned
Mikki
They're askew and out of focus, but a set of photos taken by a talented Russian chimpanzee sold at auction Wednesday for 50,000 pounds ($76,680).
The blurry images of Moscow's Red Square by simian snapper Mikki were part of a sale of Russian photography at Sotheby's in London.
Mikki, a performer with the Moscow Circus, was trained to take pictures in the 1990s by Russian conceptual artists Vitaly Komar and Alexander Melamid as part of a project to challenge concepts of artistic value.
The buyer, Russian art collector Kira Flanzaich, said the photos were a fine example of conceptual art.
Mikki
| CURRENT MOON lunar phases |
