Recommended Reading
from Bruce
David Bruce: Wise Up! Children (athensnews.com)
In the fifth grade, his teacher asked future author Jon Scieszka, "What's so funny?" Jon replied with a story about a man who had no arms but made his living as a bell-ringer by hitting the bell with his head. Someone asked, "What's that guy's name?" Someone else answered, "I don't know, but his face sure rings a bell." The students laughed; the teacher didn't.
Froma Harrop: For Some, Manufacturing Can Be a Marvelous Career (creators.com)
While fewer Americans work in factories, U.S. factories still make lots of stuff. Many have computerized their operations to shrink the advantage of competitors in low-wage countries. They still need people to operate the computers and will pay them handsomely. But applicants with the proper skills aren't showing up at their door.
Daniel Gross: I See America Spending (slate.com)
Retail sales are higher than they were a year ago, despite the fact that revolving credit, which fuels such spending, is down significantly. The fact that people are buying more-but doing it with more cash and savings rather than debt-should be regarded as a sign of strength, not weakness.
Jim Hightower: ECONOMISTS WHISTLING PAST THE GRAVEYARD (jimhightower.com)
The good news is that America's economy continues to grow. The bad news is that most people's personal economies continue to shrivel.
Aida Edemariam: "Villain to hero: thoughts on Raoul Moat" (guardian.co.uk)
The death of Raoul Moat has led to an outpouring of contrasting emotions on messageboards, blogs and newspaper websites.
Joanna Connors: Harvey Pekar, 'American Splendor' author, dies at 70 (cleveland.com)
Harvey Pekar's life was not an open book. It was an open comic book.
David Ulin: "Harvey Pekar: An Appreciation" (latimes.com)
The iconoclastic comics writer turned the mundane into 'American Splendor.'
DEAN HASPIEL: Harvey Pekar's testament to life -- with no apologies (latimes.com)
When I was a teenager, "American Splendor" was the first independently published comic book I ever picked up and Harvey Pekar proved to me that comics could tell any kind of story. Literally. Plus, seeing him do his thing on David Letterman, with no permissions and no apologies, was awe-inspiring.
Memories of my friend, Harvey Pekar (latimes.com)
Culture Monster contributor and dance reviewer Victoria Looseleaf remembers here how she befriended Harvey Pekar, who died early Monday at age 70, and of the day the comic book writer was almost kicked off "Late Night with David Letterman."
Interview by Imogen Tilden: "Portrait of the artist: Renée Fleming, soprano" (guardian.co.uk)
The worst thing anyone's ever said about me? A review once said I wasn't "feminine". That was a bit of a low blow.'
Irish America and the siege of Hollywood (guardian.co.uk)
The Irish were seen as pariahs in Depression-era American. So how did they end up taking over Hollywood almost overnight, asks Joe Queenan.
Jeff Goldblum: the Buddha of Hollywood (guardian.co.uk)
He plays jazz piano, thinks acting is a 'magical, mystical journey' - and couldn't care less about the money. Kira Cochrane talks to Jeff Goldblum as he hits the West End.
The Weekly Poll
New Question
The 'Brother, Can You Spare a Dime' Edition
ST. PETERSBURG - Three homeless men bearing cardboard signs near Interstate 275 were not pleased when they read the newspaper Friday morning. That's how they learned the City Council, with the mayor's support, unanimously voted to ban street solicitation on St. Petersburg's busiest streets...
Panhandlers say St. Petersburg street solicitation ban will make things worse - St. Petersburg Times
Do you give money to panhandlers?
a.) Yes, always, there but for fate go I...
b.) No, never, they're just lazy bums and it only goes to their substance abuse...
c.) Sometimes, depends on the circumstances...
Send your response to
answered:
replied:
From The Creator of 'Avery Ant'
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Sunny and unpleasantly hot.
Roy Rogers' Horse Sold
Trigger
Roy Rogers' stuffed horse, Trigger, has been sold at auction in New York City for more than $266,000.
Christie's says Rogers' faithful companion was bought by RFD-TV in Omaha, Neb., at an auction Wednesday of items from the now-closed Roy Rogers and Dale Evans Museum in Branson, Mo.
The television network's chief financial officer says Rogers reflects the company's values. The station calls itself "Rural America's Most Important Network."
Rogers had Trigger preserved with taxidermy in 1965. The presale estimate for the horse was $100,000 to $200,000.
Trigger
Battle Brewing Over Auction
Lucille Ball
Heirs of the late Lucille Ball and her second husband are sparring over the planned auction of the some of the couple's prized possessions.
Among the items on the auction block are love letters between Ball and Gary Morton, a Rolls Royce and some of the actress' awards. Morton was the comedienne's second husband.
The items were consigned to Heritage Auction Galleries by Susie Morton, who married Gary Morton after Ball's death in 1989.
Ball's daughter from her first marriage with co-star Desi Arnaz wants some of the items returned. An attorney for Lucie Arnaz Luckinbill says she will go to court Friday to try to block the sale if the items are not returned.
Lucille Ball
Syfy Movie
Micky Dolenz
Syfy found a way to make its Debbie Gibson-vs.-Tiffany movie a little more weird: adding a Monkee.
Micky Dolenz, a former member of the popular made-for-TV 1960s group the Monkees, has been added to the cast of Syfy's "Mega Python vs. Gatoroid," in which 1980s pop stars Gibson and Tiffany have been cast as dueling rivals.
Dolenz's post-Monkees career has included directing for TV and theater. The 65-year-old most recently appeared in Rob Zombie's remake of "Halloween." "Mega Python" is about to start production.
Micky Dolenz
Paintings Returned
Pirmasens
Eleven oil paintings taken by U.S. soldiers from an air raid shelter in Germany during World War Two have been returned to a German museum, U.S. officials said on Wednesday.
The paintings, worth a total of about $200,000, were among 50 taken in 1945 from the municipal museum of the German town of Pirmasens, near the French border, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials said.
Several of the returned paintings were by Heinrich Buerkel, a Pirmasens-born 19th century painter.
The origin of the paintings was discovered by a U.S. woman who inherited some of the paintings from her great uncle, a U.S. soldier who had been stationed near Pirmasens.
Pirmasens
Announce Engagement
Palin - Johnston
Bristol Palin and Levi Johnston say they're engaged and hope to get married within six weeks in Alaska, an abrupt turnaround for the couple that just months ago was fighting over child support and Johnston's critical comments about the family.
Palin, the daughter of 2008 vice-presidential candidate and former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin (R-Quitter), is featured on the cover of Us Weekly with Johnston, holding their 18-month-old son, Tripp.
The couple tells the magazine they reconnected while working out a custody plan and became engaged two weeks ago.
Palin - Johnston
Takes On Harry Potter
Willy Wizard
The battle between Willy the Wizard and Harry Potter has moved to U.S. shores.
The estate of Adrian Jacobs, who authored the 1987 book "The Adventures of Willy the Wizard," has filed a lawsuit in New York district court against Scholastic Inc., publisher of "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire." The lawsuit claims that J.K. Rowling misappropriated copyrighted elements from Jacobs' book.
Jacobs estate trustee Paul Allen said in a statement the estate is contemplating legal action in key territories worldwide and the "USA being the world's largest market for Potter books means that our first overseas action is brought here in America."
The plaintiff is seeking an injunction against further sale of the "Goblet" book, destruction of remaining inventory of the books, and profits from lucrative sales.
Willy Wizard
Feds Rest Case
John Stamos
Federal prosecutors rested their case Wednesday in the trial of two people accused of plotting to extort $680,000 from actor John Stamos after investigators explained how they arrested the pair and found no unflattering photos during a search of a house.
Police officers and FBI agents denied that anything was destroyed during the search, a recurring theme by lawyers for Allison Coss, 24, and Scott Sippola, 31.
The two are accused of threatening Stamos through e-mail that he give them money or they would peddle six-year-old photos of him with strippers and cocaine to magazines. The defense says it's not a crime to make a business deal. Prosecutors, however, say it was a ruse and the photos didn't exist.
The 46-year-old "Full House" and "ER" star who is preparing to join the Fox show "Glee" watched the trial from the front row, a day after telling jurors how he met Coss in Orlando, Fla., in 2004 while separated from wife and supermodel Rebecca Romijn.
John Stamos
Sex Harassment Suit Dismissed
Steven Seagal
Court records show a $1 million sexual harassment lawsuit filed by a former assistant against Steven Seagal has been dismissed in Los Angeles.
Kayden Nguyen had claimed Seagal forced her to stay in a Louisiana home and that the action star repeatedly fondled her. The allegations led to the suspension of filming on the reality series "Steven Seagal Lawman."
No reason was given for the dismissal granted Tuesday. Seagal's attorneys had been trying to resolve the case through private arbitration.
Steven Seagal
Work Permits
'Kate Plus 8'
A Pennsylvania lawmaker questioned the legality of work permits issued to reality TV star Kate Gosselin's 6-year-old sextuplets, saying state law allows children under 7 to work in movies but not television.
Rep. Thomas Murt (R-Publicity Whore) asked for an explanation from the state attorney general and labor secretary, neither of whom immediately offered a response on Wednesday.
The TLC program "Kate Plus 8" is filmed in Wernersville, Pa., about 55 miles northwest of Philadelphia, and follows the lives of Gosselin and her twins and sextuplets. Its predecessor, the popular "Jon & Kate Plus 8," featured the family before the parents divorced.
Murt, a Republican from suburban Philadelphia, held a legislative hearing in April on the need to update child labor laws in the age of reality TV and Internet entertainment. Kate Gosselin's estranged brother testified that he worried about the psychological effects that constant filming might have on his nieces and nephews.
'Kate Plus 8'
Judges May Limit Raw Footage
Joseph Berlinger
A federal appeals court on Wednesday raised the possibility that it might order a filmmaker to turn over only some of the raw footage from his documentary about a legal dispute between Chevron and Ecuadoreans over oil contamination.
Members of a three-judge panel of the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan showed little sympathy for arguments by a lawyer for filmmaker Joseph Berlinger who said Chevron had no right to obtain outtakes of Berlinger's work on the documentary "Crude," released last year.
In May, U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan ordered the filmmaker to turn over about 600 hours of raw footage from the film. Kaplan said Berlinger could not use the First Amendment to shield himself from the effort by Chevron to get the footage.
The appeals judges seemed to agree with Kaplan, though they suggested that they might limit the amount of raw footage that must be turned over to ensure it is necessary for Chevron's litigation and cannot be gotten elsewhere. Though they did not immediately rule, the judges seemed poised to issue a decision quickly.
Joseph Berlinger
Date Vacated
Sweat Lodge Trial
The trial date for a motivational speaker charged in the deaths of three people following a sweat lodge ceremony he led in Arizona won't start next month as planned.
James Arthur Ray's trial had been scheduled to begin Aug. 31. A court document released Wednesday says the date has been vacated. No new date was set.
YavapaiCounty Superior Court Judge Warren Darrow recently was assigned to another trial that was expected to overlap with the starting date for Ray's trial.
A hearing on pending motions is set for Aug. 10. That includes one to move the trial out of Camp Verde.
Sweat Lodge Trial
Director Quits Troubled Movie
David O. Russell
Add another nail in the coffin of the long-delayed political satire/romantic comedy "Nailed," starring Jessica Biel and Jake Gyllenhaal.
Writer-director David O. Russell has withdrawn from the $26 million production after negotiations broke down with the financier, the prospective new owner of Miramax Films.
The movie was shut down four times during production in 2008 when wages were not paid on time. Each time it restarted, there were guild penalties and extra costs to retain the crew. After production in South Carolina halted, the movie sat on the shelf for months.
"Nailed" originally was financed by a company controlled by Los Angeles construction magnate Ron Tutor and his now-estranged friend David Bergstein. Tutor earlier this year paid additional millions to get "Nailed" and several other films out of a foreclosure action.
David O. Russell
UK Denies Iroquois Team
Lacrosse
An American Indian lacrosse team will not be allowed entry into England for the world championship of the sport the Iroquois helped invent unless members accept U.S. or Canadian passports, the British government said Wednesday.
The Iroquois Nationals team won't be attending the world championship in Manchester unless the British government reverses its decision and allows them to use passports issued by the Iroquois Confederacy, said Tonya Gonnella Frichner, a lawyer for the team.
The team's 23 players - who are all eligible for passports issued by those nations - say that accepting them would be a strike against their identity.
The British government's decision was announced hours after the U.S. cleared the team for travel on a one-time waiver at the behest of Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton. U.S. authorities initially had refused to accept the passports issued by the Iroquois Confederacy, which lack new security features now required for border crossings because of post-Sept. 11 crackdowns on document fraud and illegal immigration.
Lacrosse
Restoration Reveals Hidden Details
Leonardo da Vinci
An 18-month project to restore Leonardo da Vinci's "Virgin of the Rocks" revealed the Renaissance artist likely painted the entire work himself rather than, as previously thought, with the help of his assistants.
The painting, a later version of one on display in the Louvre in Paris, also appears to have never been fully finished, according to the conservation team at Britain's National Gallery where the work will go back on display on Wednesday.
The cleaning process revealed details long hidden under a coat of varnish applied in 1948-9 and since badly degraded, which had reduced the picture's subtle shading, particularly in darker areas, and impacted its intended sense of space.
The conservation work and study of materials and techniques showed different parts of the painting reached different stages of completion, the gallery said, with the angel's hand barely sketched while the heads of the main figures appear completely finished.
Leonardo da Vinci
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