Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Mark Morford: Get Over Here and Touch Me Now (SF Gate)
Here's what I think. I think human touch is surely the most sublime sensation/activity ever invented by ecstatically drunken gods as they gently and ever so briefly encased us in these slippery filthy gorgeous mortal fleshforms.
Paul Krugman's Blog: Scribblers and Madmen (New York Times)
But where do these crude fallacies come from? It would be comforting, in a way, if they were solely the result of Republican anti-intellectualism - and surely there is plenty of that.
Simon Johnson: What if the Government Defaults? (Slate)
Economic chaos: Massive unemployment, no credit, depleted savings, long lines at ATMs.
Jim Hightower: CUTTING BACK THE MIDDLE CLASS TO SUBSIDIZE YACHT OWNERS
With a tsunami of economic pain swamping America's working families, our stalwart national leaders are rushing to provide aid and comfort. Unfortunately, not to workers, but to CEOs, Wall Street speculators, and every pampered plutocrat with a Gucci-clad lobbyist.
Froma Harrop: No New Pledges (Creators Syndicate)
Among the Republicans vying for their party's presidential nomination, only former New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson had the self-respect to denounce the ludicrous "Marriage Vow" pledge. Such pledges are a means through which small interest groups can make candidates crawl. The intimidation comes from their highly engaged members, who can affect the outcome of unrepresentative political contests - the upcoming Iowa caucuses being a good example.
CAITLIN FLANAGAN: The Do-Good Zeal of the College Bound (Wall Street Journal)
But, as ever, when it comes to college warriors and their exploits, the situation is more complex than it first appears. Admissions officers at elite colleges see these trips for exactly what they are: worthwhile endeavors undertaken by well-intentioned kids, but no different from a Grand Tour of Europe-just the current fashion for wealthy youngsters, who are supervised and pampered at every step.
Dr Luisa Dillner's guide to ... circumcision (Guardian)
Male circumcision is still a controversial topic - is it vaccination or mutilation?
Richard Corliss: "Harry Potter: Hail and Farewell to a Hallowed Franchise" (Time)
"It's very impressive, isn't it?" observes moony Luna Lovegood, the hippie Hogwarts student, in the early moments of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2. It is indeed impressive; and we mean not just this solid, satisfying final film - in which the Potter saga reaches its climax, if not quite its emotional apex - but the entirety of producer David Heyman's blockbuster franchise.
Roger Ebert: Review of "Blank City" (UNRTATED; 3 stars)
"Blank City" seems almost to argue that poverty is of great assistance to artists. Caeine Danhier's documentary revisits an era--actually, more of a moment--when the bankruptcy of New York City coincided with a no-budget flowering of film and music on the Lower East Side, which by then had already been giving birth or shelter to artists for most of a century.
Roger Ebert: Review of "FAST, CHEAP & OUT OF CONTROL" (PG; 4 stars; An Overlooked DVD)
Life is a little like lion taming, wouldn't you say? There we are in the cage of life, armed only with a chair and a whip, trying to outsmart the teeth and the claws. If we are smart enough or know the right lore, sometimes we survive, and are applauded.
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."
Recommended Reading - Tuesday, 07/19/11
from Bruce
Turns out Bruce didn't take Tuesday off after all. : )
Paul Krugman's Column: Letting Bankers Walk (New York Times)
Ever since the current economic crisis began, it has seemed that five words sum up the central principle of United States financial policy: go easy on the bankers.
Paul Krugman's Blog: Penny-Wise Policy (New York Times)
A weak stimulus together with caution on other fronts, including mortgage relief, led to a weak economy in 2010. This led to a big GOP victory in the midterms. And this led to Republican success in getting the high-end Bush tax cuts extended for two years and quite possibly indefinitely - which will do far more damage to the US debt position that a bigger stimulus in 2009 would have done.
Paul Krugman's Blog: The Political Economy of the Lesser Depression (New York Times)
But why do such arguments have so much traction, while everything economists have spent the last three generations learning is brushed aside? One answer is that macroeconomics is hard; the idea that if families are tightening their belts, the government should do the same, is as deeply intuitive as it is deeply wrong.
Jim Hightower: MICHIGAN LOCALS FIGHT FOR DEMOCRACY
This law allows him to seize control of any city, county, school district, etc. that he decides is in fiscal trouble, authorizing him to appoint an "emergency manager," which may be a private corporation, to run the entity. This autocratic regent is empowered to cancel labor contracts, repeal the public budget, privatize government assets, dismiss elected officials, and even dissolve the local entity.
Scott Burns: The Sublime Benefits of Death (assetbuilder.com)
When it comes to retirement and living without a paycheck, older people have a sublime advantage. It's called death.
Connie Schultz: Her Memory Is Gone, but His Love Remains (Creators Syndicate)
Every once in a while, 86-year-old Sue Williams looks in the mirror and is startled by the stranger staring back at her. "Who is that?" she'll ask. Chuck, her husband of 56 years, always gives the same answer. "That's you, Susie," he says. "That's what you look like now."
Reg Pomphrett: "Experience: My wife has a 90-second memory" (Guardian)
'She might look and sound like her old self, but the lively, intelligent personality that made her who she is isn't there.'
What I'm really thinking: The unpaid intern (Guardian)
'I'm in my mid-20s and still living with my mum - hardly the graduate dream.'
JOE QUEENAN: Can LaBeouf Pull a Connery? (Wall Street Journal)
At a time when 14.1 million Americans are out of work, millions more are underemployed and even more millions have stopped looking for gainful employment, Shia LaBeouf has announced that he is ditching the Transformers franchise, seeking to grow as an actor. Well, at least that frees up one job.
Roger Ebert: Review of "TABLOID" (UNRATED; 4 stars)
If "Tabloid" is a love story, it is one only Errol Morris could film. He says its subject, Joyce McKinney, is his favorite protagonist, which means she places ahead of Robert McNamara, Stephen Hawking and the expert on naked mole rats. Certainly she is the most enigmatic.
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."
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Reader Suggestion
Michelle in AZ
From The Creator of 'Avery Ant'
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Sunny and breezy.
Appearing On TV's "Extreme Makeover"
Michelle Obama
U.S. first lady Michelle Obama will appear on ABC show "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" as part of her initiative to support military families, the network said on Tuesday.
Michelle Obama's appearance on the show will be shot on Thursday in Fayetteville, North Carolina, and the episode will air in October, said Patrick Preblick, a spokesman for ABC.
The first lady is making the appearance as part of her Joining Forces initiative for military families.
The episode will focus on 15-year U.S. Navy veteran Barbara Marshall and her family. Michelle Obama and the "Extreme Makeover" team will help Marshall's mission of assisting homeless veterans by building a new house that will house several families, ABC said in a statement.
Michelle Obama
MSNBC Bids Adieu
Cenk Uygur
Cenk Uygur, host of "MSNBC Live" since January, will be leaving MSNBC after declining a shift to another timeslot.
"We have decided to make a change at 6 p.m.," an MSNBC spokesperson said. "It's unfortunate that Cenk has declined our offer to have him develop and host a program for another timeslot."
Ever since Keith Olbermann left and MSNBC had to reshuffle its primetime lineup, Uygur had been in the 6 p.m. slot. There have been reports Al Sharpton will be replacing him -- hence the request to shift slots -- but MSNBC has yet to confirm such a move.
Uygur is expected to hold a press conference Thursday.
Cenk Uygur
Back On Broadway
Cynthia Nixon
Cynthia Nixon will be returning to Broadway in the Pulitzer Prize-winning play "Wit."
Producers said Wednesday that the Tony and Emmy award winner will star in Margaret Edson's play about a poetry professor who undergoes experimental treatment for cancer.
"Wit" will begin previews Jan. 5 and open Jan. 26 at Manhattan Theatre Club's Samuel J. Friedman Theatre on 47th Street. It will be directed by Lynne Meadow, the club's artistic director.
Nixon won a Tony in 2006 in David Lindsay-Abaire's "Rabbit Hole." She is appearing in Showtime's series "The Big C" opposite Laura Linney, who plays a character battling cancer.
Cynthia Nixon
Iconic Dress Faded Forever
'Gone With the Wind'
Efforts to preserve and restore several iconic dresses from the Oscar-winning Civil War movie "Gone With the Wind" have uncovered what might be painful for die-hard fans: Some of them simply can't be made to look like they did on screen.
Stitching and holes can be repaired and extra feathers added years ago can be removed, but the dresses are old, badly faded in spots and in one case, just too fragile to handle.
The Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas announced a $30,000 effort last year to preserve five of the dresses acquired with the collection of film producer David O. Selznick in the 1980s. The goal is to have them ready for a 2014 exhibit to mark the film's 75th anniversary.
The costumes are among the most famous in Hollywood history and played a key role in one of the most popular films ever. The Ransom Center holds five dresses it wanted to restore for display: Scarlett O'Hara's green curtain dress, her green velvet gown, a burgundy ball gown, a blue velvet night gown and her wedding dress.
'Gone With the Wind'
'Thriller' Jacket On Tour For Charity
Michael Jackson
A famed red-and-black calfskin jacket Michael Jackson wore in the groundbreaking "Thriller" music video is going on tour.
The jacket's new owner, Texas commodities broker Milton Verret, said Tuesday he plans to take the classic clothing item around the world to raise money for charities that help sick children.
He purchased the jacket for $1.8 million last month at a Beverly Hills, California, auction.
The jacket is one of two Jackson wore during the filming of the 1983 video. Jackson can be seen wearing the jacket in a scene with a troupe of zombies who rise from their graves and break into a dance routine.
Michael Jackson
Hospital News
R. Kelly
A spokesman for R. Kelly says the R&B singer is in the hospital after emergency throat surgery.
Kelly publicist Allan Mayer said Wednesday that doctors drained an abscess on one of Kelly's tonsils on Tuesday and that the singer will be "laid up indefinitely" at Chicago's Northwestern Memorial Hospital.
Mayer says Kelly had been complaining of throat pain recently and was rushed to the hospital after a throat exam.
R. Kelly
Wins Legal Victory
Hugh Grant
A British judge has awarded "Notting Hill" actor Hugh Grant the right to see evidence that could reveal whether his voice mails were intercepted by journalists at the now-defunct News of the World.
A judge at Britain's High Court said police should disclose information to him that was allegedly gathered by private investigator Glenn Mulcaire and used by the Sunday tabloid and other newspapers.
Grant, who says he was told his phone was broken into by the News of the World, has been one of the most prominent celebrity critics of the 168-year-old tabloid, which was shut down earlier this month amid a widening scandal over its misdeeds.
Socialite Jemima Khan was also given the right to see the phone hacking evidence.
Hugh Grant
Suit Prompted Checks
'Happy Days'
"Happy Days" cast members who filed a multimillion dollar lawsuit against CBS over merchandise profits have received checks for a small fraction of the amount they say they are owed, their lawyer said Wednesday.
Attorney Jon Pfeiffer said the checks received after the case started were between $6,000 and $6,500 for each of the cast members and the wife of the late actor Tom Bosley.
The actors, who include Bosley's on-screen wife Marion Ross, Anson Williams, Don Most, and Erin Moran, sued CBS Studios in April seeking more than $10 million in profits for "Happy Days"-themed merchandise. The items marketed with the actors' likenesses include T-shirts, board games and even gambling machines.
CBS declined to comment Wednesday, but the network said in an earlier statement that it was aware of the issue and was seeking a resolution. "We agree that funds are owed to the actors and have been working with them for quite some time to resolve the issue," it said in April.
Pfeiffer said that when the payments were sent recently, the studio "claimed that is the full payment for all that was owed."
'Happy Days'
Another Alleged Sex Film Surfaces
Marilyn Monroe
A Spanish collector plans to auction what he claims is a newly discovered 8-mm version of a film purportedly showing Marilyn Monroe having sex when she was still an underage actress known as Norma Jean Baker.
A Marilyn Monroe expert, however, says the actress in the film is someone else, considerably heavier and less feminine than the legendary film star.
"That's not Marilyn. The chin is not the same, the lips are not the same, the teeth are not the same," said Scott Fortner, who has a sizeable collection of Monroe memorabilia, including a belt he said proves how much more petite she was. "Marilyn was a tiny little thing. And I know that for a fact. I own her clothing."
Collector Mikel Barsa said in an interview Wednesday that he wants at least $500,000 for the sexually explicit 6½-minute, grainy black-and-white film, which he says was made before 1947, when Monroe was not yet 21.
Marilyn Monroe
A Has-Been?
Paris Hilton
Don't try asking Paris Hilton if she is a has-been.
Hilton, 30, walked out of a television interview, portions of which aired on Wednesday, after being asked whether other reality TV stars have grabbed the celebutante limelight from her after 15 years of being famous for being famous.
The question by an ABC network reporter was prompted by dismal audiences for Hilton's latest TV reality show "The World According to Paris", which debuted to just 400,000 U.S. viewers on cable channel Oxygen in early June.
She later resumed the interview and said; "I've been doing this for 15 years now, so it's been a long time. So just like any other business person or someone in the industry, it's always important to reinvent yourself and come up with new projects."
Paris Hilton
Deadly Quake Uncovers Spy Ring
New Zealand
A New Zealand newspaper group is reporting that the deadly February earthquake in Christchurch unearthed a suspected Israeli spy ring.
Three Israelis died in the quake that killed 181 people. Other Israelis escaped the quake.
The Fairfax newspaper group, which didn't state how it obtained the information, said one of the Israelis who died was carrying at least five passports.
Fairfax said New Zealand Prime Minister John Key took four calls from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu following the quake, and that an unaccredited Israeli search and rescue squad searching a cordoned area in Christchurch was stopped by New Zealand officers.
New Zealand
Concert Photos Fetch $360K
Beatles
In 1964, an enterprising 18-year-old snapped pictures of the Beatles' momentous first U.S. concert in Washington, D.C.
On Wednesday, Christie's auction house said it sold 50 silver gelatin prints that the photographer, Mike Mitchell, made from the negatives for $361,938. The images, plus photos from another Beatles concert, had been estimated to fetch a total of $100,000.
The Beatles played their first U.S. concert at the Washington Coliseum on Feb. 11, 1964, two days after their debut on "The Ed Sullivan Show."
Among the highlights is a backlit shot of the band that he took while standing directly behind them. It sold on Wednesday for $68,500; its pre-sale estimate was $2,000 to $3,000.
An image of an animated Ringo Starr on the drums sold for $8,125. It was estimated to bring $3,000 to $5,000. Christie's said the shot depicts a rare moment where Starr was both drummer and lead singer on a song written by Paul McCartney and John Lennon, but made famous by The Rolling Stones: "I Wanna Be Your Man."
Beatles
Cable Nielsens
Ratings
Rankings for the top 15 programs on cable networks as compiled by the Nielsen Co. for the week of July 11-17. Day and start time (EDT) are in parentheses:
1. Women's World Cup Soccer (Sunday, 1:55 p.m.), ESPN, 8.58 million homes, 13.46 million viewers.
2. "The Closer" (Monday, 9 p.m.), TNT, 5.29 million homes, 7.23 million viewers.
3. "Pawn Stars" (Monday, 10:30 p.m.), History, 5.09 million homes, 7.58 million viewers.
4. "Rizzoli & Isles" (Monday, 10 p.m.), TNT, 4.681 million homes, 6.38 million viewers.
5. Home Run Derby (Monday, 8:15 p.m.), ESPN, 4.679 million homes, 6.69 million viewers.
6. "American Restoration" (Monday, 10 p.m.), History, 4.43 million homes, 6.74 million viewers.
7. "American Pickers" (Monday, 9 p.m.), History, 4.20 million homes, 6.31 million viewers.
8. World Cup Live (Sunday, 5:34 p.m.), ESPN, 3.87 million homes, 5.93 million viewers.
9. "Burn Notice" (Thursday, 9 p.m.), USA, 3.85 million homes, 5.39 million viewers.
10. "Royal Pains" (Wednesday, 9 p.m.), USA, 3.67 million homes, 4.92 million viewers.
11. "SpongeBob SquarePants" (Friday, 8 p.m.), Nickelodeon, 3.53 million homes, 5.76 million viewers.
12. Sprint Cup Racing/Loudon (Sunday, 12:59 p.m.), TNT, 3.31 million homes, 4.56 million viewers.
13. "SpongeBob SquarePants" (Saturday, 10 a.m.), Nickelodeon, 3.27 million homes, 4.66 million viewers.
14. "Suits" (Thursday, 10 p.m.), USA, 3.23 million homes, 4.38 million viewers.
15. "True Blood" (Sunday, 9:03 p.m.), HBO, 3.12 million homes, 5.10 million viewers.
Ratings
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