Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Daydream Believer: Literal Video Version (youtube.com)
Ever wish songs just sang what was happening in the music video? Well now they do, ...
Mark Morford: Obama the Muslim, extra lard (sfgate.com)
Good news! Across the country, a firm resolve that some things never change.
Garrison Keillor: Health-care controversy awaits the sausage mill
In the past two weeks, I've attended two benefit concerts to raise money for musicians to pay their medical bills, and that is just ridiculous. Why should anyone, least of all a valuable contributing member of society, have to pass the hat to pay the doctor? But there I was, watching ...
The lifestyle to beat Alzheimer's (guardian.co.uk)
Coffee drinkers will be clinking mugs in a toast to new research, says Peta Bee.
Janice Taylor: Is The Food Industry Manipulating Your Chemistry? An Interview With Dr. David Kessler (huffingtonpost.com)
If cake is your BFF (best friend forever), if the call of Cheeto sends you into an orange-stained spin, if you start to drool at the mere mention of Cinnabon, and/or if you are mad at yourself for giving in and diving into a vat of chocolate, then pull up a chair and start clicking for an interview that just may change your relationship to food and, in turn, your life.
20 QUESTIONS: Eleni Mandell (popmatters.com)
Acclaimed songwriter Eleni Mandell answers PopMatters 'Miss America'-like 20 Questions with self-deprecating humor.
Ben Wener: Prog-rock guitarist Steve Howe does double duty with Yes and Asia (The Orange County Register)
Steve Howe had gotten distracted again. "What's the word again? 'Taxing'?"
Charles P. Pierce: The Manny To End the Steroids Era (slate.com)
Manny Ramirez reveals our true attitude about baseball's drug war.
Luaine Lee: Having survived her initial success, Margaret Cho is ready to go back on TV (McClatchy-Tribune News Service)
Standup comedian Margaret Cho was never the polite, little Asian girl who covered her mouth when she laughed and made straight As. In fact, she was always the opposite.
"Bonsai" (Contemporary Art of the Novella) by Alejandro Zambra: A review by Marcela Valdes (The Nation; Posted on Powells.com)
When it was published in Spanish in 2006, Alejandro Zambra's novel Bonsai filled just ninety-four generously spaced pages, and its recent English translation by Carolina De Robertis stretches only to eighty-three. Still, each of these volumes should be considered a marvel of book design and production since in interviews the author has let slip that his original text ran only to forty sheets.
Bottom burps, stinky feet and other poems (guardian.co.uk)
Old Etonian, friend of David Cameron, the (very) wealthy man behind the Purple Ronnie franchise ... there are numerous reasons not to like Giles Andreae. But, warns Jon Henley you should never judge a book by its cover.
Laura Barnett: "Portrait of the artist: Prunella Scales, actor" (guardian.co.uk)
'In acting, you can keep going till you drop. I intend to die on the eighth curtain call.'
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From The Creator of 'Avery Ant'
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Still sunny and pleasant.
Took the Blue Line to the Red Line to Hollywood/Highland to gawk at the tourists, then came home.
Not Slang In Nevada
'HOE'
A Las Vegas man won a courtroom battle Wednesday with the Nevada Department of Motor Vehicles over his "HOE" license plate, which the agency tried to cancel on grounds that he was using a slang reference to prostitutes.
The high court said the DMV based its opposition to William Junge's plate on definitions found in the Web-based Urban Dictionary, which includes user contributions. Justices ruled that the contributed definitions "do not always reflect generally accepted definitions for words."
Junge, whose case was pursued by the American Civil Liberties Union of Nevada, said he got the "HOE" plate in 1999 for his Chevy Tahoe, after being told "TAHOE" wasn't available.
"It's nonsense," Junge said of the state agency's efforts to pull his plates. He said he was referring to his vehicle's model and not to prostitutes with his plates, adding: "That was their interpretation. Shame on them."
'HOE'
Resolution Faces GOP Opposition
Michael Jackson
Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee may have trouble keeping the promise she made at Michael Jackson's public memorial for a House resolution that "forever" honors the late pop star.
Jackson Lee, a Texas Democrat, took the stage Tuesday at the Staples Center in Los Angeles and hoisted a framed copy of the resolution, embossed with a gold seal. The measure will be debated on the House floor, she said.
Without mentioning Rep. Peter King (R-Self Righteous) by name, Jackson Lee noted at the memorial that Michael Jackson was acquitted of child molestation charges. She blasted critics who "don't understand the hearts of entertainers" and "don't know how they heal the world on behalf of America."
Her legislation, House Resolution 600, lists several charitable acts by Michael Jackson over his long career and proclaims him as an American legend, musical icon and world humanitarian. He is, Jackson Lee said, "someone who will be honored forever and forever and forever and forever and forever."
Michael Jackson
Rolling Out Collection
Jay Leno
When Jay Leno's new 10 p.m. show goes on air in September, some of his vintage cars will be making guest appearances. The host intends to drive his prized possessions onstage some nights.
The gambit is one reason NBC is using a larger venue than Leno has been accustomed to. Workers are busy customizing the soundstage once used by "The Ellen DeGeneres Show" and the Disney Channel sitcom "Sonny With a Chance," both of which have moved out.
Leno's primetime show will be taped on the NBC lot in Burbank on Stage 11, which is even larger than the 17,000-square-foot garage that houses Leno's car collection. The largest on the lot, Stage 11 is near Leno's former "Tonight Show" home at Stage 3, which is about 5,000 square feet smaller.
While Leno's plan to roll onstage in an expensive car could be viewed as an unnecessary display of opulence in the midst of a recession, he might be using his car collection as a Trojan horse to position his show as the place to advertise automobiles. Maybe he'll drive his 1906 Stanley Steamer onstage one night and the latest offering from Ford the next in a bit of high-octane product placement.
Jay Leno
Dole Sues Documentary Maker
"Bananas"
Dole Food Company Inc filed a defamation lawsuit on Wednesday against Swedish film makers it accuses of knowingly including "patent falsehoods" in a documentary about Nicaraguan banana workers who sued Dole for allegedly exposing them to pesticides on its plantations.
Dole said it repeatedly "implored" director Fredrik Gertten and producer Margarete Jangard to revise the film "Bananas!*" to show that the bananeros' lawsuits against Dole were thrown out in April by a Los Angeles judge who found a "pervasive conspiracy" to defraud U.S. courts by plaintiffs attorneys and Nicaraguan judges.
The film chronicles a "David versus Goliath" struggle by U.S. plaintiffs attorney Juan Dominguez to bring what he says in the film are the first ever claims by third-world farm workers in U.S. courts.
"Bananas!*" concludes with Dominguez winning a $2.5 million punitive damages verdict on behalf of five Nicaraguan plaintiffs, but leaves out what happened next, the suit said.
"Bananas"
Caught In Ponzi Scheme
Paris Hilton
In an odd intersection of showbiz and securities fraud, proving a claim that Paris Hilton was a lousy pitchwoman would benefit investors jilted by a Ponzi scheme she had no part in.
A federal lawsuit set to go to trial Thursday against Hilton contends she didn't do enough to promote the 2006 sorority hijinks movie "Pledge This!" and seeks about US$8 million in damages from Hilton and her company, Paris Hilton Entertainment Inc.
One of the main investors in the box-office bomb was once a high-flying concert and theatre promoter from Miami named Jack Utsick, who was listed as one of the movie's producers. When the admittedly bad movie lost money, his now-defunct Worldwide Entertainment Group took a financial hit.
But it's not Utsick who's suing Hilton. Rather, the lawsuit stems from an effort to repay people ripped off in what federal securities investigators say was a $300-million Ponzi scheme hatched by Utsick. Hilton's work on the film had nothing to do with the scheme.
Paris Hilton
Convicted
Jesse James Hollywood
Jesse James Hollywood was convicted Wednesday of the kidnap and murder of a 15-year-old boy that inspired the 2007 movie "Alpha Dog."
After deliberating about four days, a Santa Barbara Superior Court jury also found Hollywood, 29, guilty of the special circumstance allegation of being involved in a crime in which an assault weapon or machine gun was used, making him eligible for the death penalty.
The victim's parents said they were relieved but declined to comment further because of a gag order issued in the case.
The penalty phase of the case was scheduled to begin Monday.
Jesse James Hollywood
Vegas Action
Eddie Mekka
Laverne And Shirley actor Eddie Mekka was arrested in Las Vegas on Friday on suspicion of drink driving.
Mekka, who played Carmine 'The Big Ragu' Ragusa in the 1970s Happy Days spin-off, reportedly collided with another car.
According to TMZ.com, police rushed to the scene after receiving a tip-off and administered sobriety tests on the actor.
Mekka was subsequently arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence.
Eddie Mekka
Pickens Bails
Texas Wind Farm
Plans for the world's largest wind farm in the Texas Panhandle have been scrapped, energy baron T. Boone Pickens said Tuesday, and he's looking for a home for 687 giant wind turbines.
Pickens has already ordered the turbines, which can stand 400 feet tall - taller than most 30-story buildings.
Pickens' company Mesa Power ordered the turbines from General Electric Co. - a $2 billion investment - a little more than a year ago. Pickens said he has leases on about 200,000 acres in Texas that were planned for the project, and he might place some of the turbines there, but he's also looking for smaller wind projects to participate in. He said he's looking at potential sites in the Midwest and Canada.
In Texas, the problem lies in getting power from the proposed site in the Panhandle to a distribution system, Pickens said in an interview with The Associated Press in New York. He'd hoped to build his own transmission lines but he said there were technical problems.
Texas Wind Farm
Congestion Dips As Economy Falters
Traffic
Drivers are spending less time stuck in rush-hour traffic for a second straight year, the first-ever two-year decline in congestion as high gas prices and the economic downturn force many Americans to change how they commute.
In individual cities, Los Angeles traffic is getting better but is still the worst in the nation. Washington's is getting worse, now ranking second.
The average U.S. driver languished in rush-hour traffic for 36.1 hours in 2007, down from 36.6 hours in 2006 and a peak of 37.4 hours in 2005, according to a study being released Wednesday by the Texas Transportation Institute. Total wasted fuel also edged lower for the first time, from 2.85 billion gallons in 2006 to 2.81 billion, or roughly three weeks' worth of gas per traveler.
The last time traffic congestion had declined was in 1991 amid a spike in oil prices during the first Gulf War.
Traffic
Mount Rushmore Banner
Greenpeace
Greenpeace activists were arrested Wednesday for scaling Mount Rushmore and hanging a banner next to the carved face of Abraham Lincoln urging President Barack Obama to get tough on climate change.
A video posted on the environmental group's website showed the massive banner hanging on the South Dakota mountain face.
Its message -- "America honors leaders not politicians: Stop Global Warming" and an unfinished portrait of Obama -- was barely visible as it was whipped by wind.
Greenpeace said the 11 climbers "took special care not to damage the monument, using existing anchors placed by the National Park Service for periodic cleaning."
Greenpeace
From Pythons To Fungus
Invasion
A pet Burmese python broke out of a glass cage last week and killed a 2-year-old girl in her Florida bedroom. The tragedy became the latest and most graphic example of a problem that has plagued the state for more than a decade: a nonnative species that is wreaking havoc in the Everglades, threatening people, the environment and native wildlife.
From a mysterious fungus attacking bats in the Northeast to zebra mussels in the Great Lakes and snakehead fish in the Chesapeake Bay watershed, native wildlife is facing new threats nationwide.
Lawmakers are considering a variety of measures to address the problem, including a bill that would more closely regulate ballast water discharge to ensure that invasive species do not enter the country through oceangoing vessels. Ballast water, which keeps ships stable in rough seas, is blamed for carrying zebra mussels and many other invasive species into U.S. waters where they have overwhelmed native species and caused other environmental harm.
Lawmakers also discussed the fungus killing Northeastern bats. Since it was discovered in a cave in upstate New York in 2007, the so-called white-nose syndrome has spread to 65 caves in nine states, and killed at least 500,000 bats. The disease now ranges from West Virginia to Vermont and could expand across the country, officials said.
Invasion
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