'Best of TBH Politoons'
Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Joel Bleifuss: If the Paint Sticks, Sling It (inthesetimes.com)
Perhaps you have thought, "If the voters knew how venal a GOP member of Congress was, they could never get re-elected." MoveOn is testing that proposition with a public service ad campaign that targets four Republican candidates ...
Joe Hallett and Mark Niquette: How faith figures into the [Ohio] governor's race (dispatch.com)
Ohio's next governor will be a devout Christian who readily quotes Scripture and is compelled by faith to help the less fortunate. Even so, there is a dramatic difference in how the religious beliefs of Republican J. Kenneth Blackwell and Democrat Ted Strickland might influence public policies that affect the more than 11 million Ohioans. ... Blackwell said homosexuality "is a lifestyle, it's a choice, and that lifestyle can be changed. I think it's a transgression against God's law, God's will."
Annalee Newitz: Monstrous Politics (AlterNet.org)
I learned to navigate the cultural meaning of new technologies by analyzing movies about imaginary monsters.
Ted Cox: Denying Our Own Eyes (chicagoreader.com)
Sportswriters knew what steroids were doing to baseball long before we were willing to admit it.
Dave Jamieson: Requiem for a Rookie Card (slate.com)
How baseball cards lost their luster.
Sydney Spiesel :Your Health This Month (slate.com)
Why to drink lots of coffee, whether acupuncture works, and more.
Barbara Epstein (1928-2006)
Barbara Epstein did much to create The New York Review and she brought her remarkable intelligence and editorial skill to bear on everything that appeared in these pages. We publish here memoirs by some of the writers who worked closely with her and knew her well.
Lucinda Michele Knapp: Real Chick Lit (laalternative.com)
WriteGirl creates a safe space for girls to grow into themselves.
Welcome to WriteGirl (writegirl.org)
WriteGirl is a nonprofit organization for inner city high school girls centered on the craft of creative writing and empowerment through self-expression. Through one-on-one mentoring and monthly workshops, girls are given techniques, insights and hot tips for great writing in all genres from professional women writers.
Rip-off Report
Victim of a consumer Rip-off? Want justice? Rip-off Report is a worldwide consumer reporting Website & Publication, by consumers, for consumers, to file & document complaints about companies or individuals who ripoff consumers.
Purple Gene Reviews
'Terminal Justice'
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Still hot, still humid, still not cooling off at night.
Saw another version of the Hummer ad - this one's tagline is 'Restore The Balance'.
No new flags.
2nd Traverse City Film Festival
Michael Moore
Michael Moore has made a career of butting heads with bigwigs. His documentary films, laced with thigh-slapping satire on politics and society, have taken aim at General Motors Corp., the National Rifle Association and - of course - resident Bush. Still in the works is "Sicko," a none-too-flattering perspective on the U.S. health care system.
Now he's overseeing another project: the second annual Traverse City Film Festival, which he established last year with author Doug Stanton and photographer John Robert Williams. More than 70 films, many independently produced, will be shown next week in three indoor theaters and on a giant outdoor screen by Lake Michigan's Grand Traverse Bay.
This year's festival lineup is an eclectic mix - timeless classics such as "The Wizard of Oz" and little-known indies; comedy and drama; humor and tragedy.
Among the festival's themes is a salute to legendary director Stanley Kubrick, featuring the showing of his 11 films, from "2001: A Space Odyssey" to "Eyes Wide Shut." Moore said he first dreamed of being a filmmaker at age 17 after sneaking in to see "A Clockwork Orange," rated X when originally released.
Michael Moore
Uncensored Version To Be Published
'On the Road'
Jack Kerouac's "On the Road" will be published in its unedited original scroll version by Viking Press, which published the Beat Generation classic in September 1957.
John Sampas, executor of the writer's literary estate and brother of Stella Sampas, Kerouac's third wife, said he has signed a contract with Viking, an imprint of Penguin Group USA. He hopes the work will be out by the end of next year, the 50th anniversary of the publication.
"Incidents in the original were edited out of the published version because of the censorship of the time," said Sampas, who noted that some of the edited sections refer to drugs and sex. "On the scroll, entire paragraphs are crossed out and not included in the published version."
Sampras said the new version will be in book form, but taken from the original scroll. Any sections Kerouac had crossed out before turning it into the publisher will be excluded in the new edition.
'On the Road'
Tempers Comments
Ken Jennings
"Jeopardy!" ace Ken Jennings says recent comments he posted on his Web site about the long-running game show and host Alex Trebek weren't "bashing."
After reports of his comments appeared in the media Tuesday, Jennings countered on his Web site that his letter was meant to be "a humor piece."
Jennings also responded Tuesday to people who posted comments on his Web site's message board, calling them "humor-impaired sock puppet users."
Ken Jennings
Out Of The Closet
Lance Bass
Lance Bass, band member of 'N Sync, says he's gay and in a "very stable" relationship with a reality show star. Bass, who formed 'N Sync with Justin Timberlake, JC Chasez, Joey Fatone and Chris Kirkpatrick, tells People magazine that he didn't earlier disclose his sexuality because he didn't want to affect the group's popularity.
"I knew that I was in this popular band and I had four other guys' careers in my hand, and I knew that if I ever acted on it or even said (that I was gay), it would overpower everything," he tells the magazine.
The singer says he's in a "very stable" relationship with 32-year-old actor Reichen Lehmkuhl, winner of season four of CBS' "Amazing Race."
Lance Bass
Holly Golightly Dress To Be Sold
Audrey Hepburn
The dress that transformed actress Audrey Hepburn into one of cinema's most cherished characters is up for sale, London auction house Christie's said Wednesday.
The iconic black gown Hepburn wore for her role as Holly Golightly in the 1961 film "Breakfast at Tiffany's" will go under the hammer Dec. 5, the auction house said.
The Hubert de Givenchy-designed dress is expected to fetch 70,000 pounds (US$130,000, €102,500).
Audrey Hepburn
Thwart World Record Attempt
French Police
Police in France said they had thwarted an attempt by a group of marijuana smokers to roll the world's longest joint by seizing a work-in-progress measuring 80 centimetres (32 inches) in length.
"At some point, these young people had wanted to craft a joint of 1.12 metres to beat the world record in the discipline and get it officially registered," said a police officer in eastern France.
During an investigation targeting a group of four smokers in the eastern Vosges area of France, police discovered the giant joint containing 70 grams of marijuana resin. It had not been finished because of a lack of tobacco.
French Police
Sells Back Catalog
MC Hammer
MC Hammer's back catalog has been sold for almost $3 million, according to reports. The collection of music, which amounts to approximately 40,000 songs, including global hits "U Can't Touch This" and "Pray," has been bought by the music company Evergreen.
The sale of Hammer's music comes after he filed for bankruptcy in 1996, with debts in the region of $14 million.
MC Hammer, who has more recently taken on the role of minister, is apparently expected to release a new album, Look3X, in the coming months.
MC Hammer
Syndication Arrangement
'Arrested Development'
In an unusual syndication arrangement, the 53-episode library of the critically acclaimed Fox comedy "Arrested Development" has been sold to both Internet portal MSN and cable networks HDNet and G4.
The deal marks the first time a Web portal has grabbed a relatively recent piece of the rerun market, not to mention in a simultaneous agreement with other cable networks.
MSN will have the rights to the show for three years beginning later this year. The series will be made available for free to MSN subscribers. The portal plans to launch myriad interactive elements to build a community around the series.
HDNet, which will exhibit the series in high definition, will also get a three-year deal beginning in September. Comcast-owned G4 will get it in October.
'Arrested Development'
100 Items
Memorabilia Auction
Marlon Brando's annotated script of "The Godfather," letters from playwright Tennessee Williams and dozens of other personal items are going up for auction in the latest sale to open the door on the once highly reclusive actor.
Heritage Auction Galleries of Dallas said on Wednesday the October 6-7 sale comprised about 100 items ranging from Brando's harmonica to his BAFTA British film award for the 1952 movie "Viva Zapata!" and still photographs taken during the filming of "Apocalypse Now."
The auction also features clothes worn in the films "East of Eden" and "Rebel Without a Cause" by James Dean. They were consigned for auction by a recently closed James Dean museum in Indiana.
Memorabilia Auction
World Convention In Denmark
Santa Claus
Singing Christmas carols and bellowing ho-hos, dozens of Santa Clauses, Mrs. Clauses and their little elves ended the biggest ever World Santa Claus Convention in Denmark on a merry note Wednesday, voting en masse to make Christmas presents bigger.
Many of the Santas sweated profusely parading through an amusement park north of the Danish capital in their traditional winter garb in the 90-degree summer heat in this Scandinavian country.
Over the years, the event has grown from a local summer festivity into one attracting Santas from all over. This year, 171 Santas and their helpers from Scandinavia, Germany, Russia, United States and Japan attended the convention.
Santa Claus
Canary Islands Cave Art Museum
Cueva Pintada
A museum with cave paintings that may date from the sixth century reopened Wednesday in the Canary Islands after a 24-year closure, providing a rare glimpse at the art of the Spanish archipelago's early inhabitants.
The works at the so-called Cueva Pintada - red and white geometric patterns such as triangles and labyrinthlike spirals - are one of the few examples of painted caves in Europe that have survived to modern times.
Scientific analysis has dated parts of the art to the sixth century. The paintings were discovered by a farmer in 1873.
Cueva Pintada
Says Wedding Is Still On
George Michael
George Michael is denying that his wedding to longtime boyfriend Kenny Goss has been called off, despite the fact that photos of the former Wham! singer's alleged adulterous tryst were recently published in the British tabloid News Of The World.
News Of The World reported this week that Michael went "trawling for illegal gay sex thrills" in a public park in London's Hampstead Heath, and was seen emerging from the bushes "after cavorting with a pot-bellied, 58-year-old, jobless van driver" named Norman Kirtland. Apparently paparazzi from the tabloid caught the incident on camera, after which Michael took off, telling reporters: "I'm not doing anything illegal. The police don't even come up here anymore. I'm a free man, I can do whatever I want. I'm not harming anyone."
However, Michael insists he and boyfriend Goss are still getting married. Speaking on-air this week during a phone call to Britain's Richard & Judy daytime show, Michael said, "I've got no issue with cruising. I've talked about it many times. It's never been an issue between us [me and Goss]. We knew with all the rubbish between us that we couldn't get a nice private wedding, so we've postponed it. But we had a lovely 10th anniversary party. My present to him was a million quid [about $1.75 million], so I think I should get away with so-called fooling around."
George Michael
In Memory
Rupert Pole
Rupert Pole, husband of Anais Nin and guardian of the diarist's erotic literary legacy detailing her simultaneous marriages to men on different coasts, died July 15, two weeks after a stroke, his half brother said. He was 87.
After Nin's death in 1977, Pole oversaw the publication of four uncensored volumes of her journals detailing affairs with such men as novelist Henry Miller, psychoanalyst Otto Rank and her own father, Spanish composer Joaquin Nin.
Much of the erotic material as well as many of the references to her two husbands were purged from seven previously published volumes, which had established Nin as a feminist hero in the women's movement.
Weeks after meeting in New York in 1947, Pole and Nin drove to California and eventually married. Pole, an actor who left New York to become a forest ranger, didn't know that the woman who was 16 years older was already married to banker Hugh "Hugo" Guiler. Guiler and Nin had married in 1923.
Pole studied forestry at the University of California, Los Angeles, then transferred to UC, Berkeley. After graduating, he joined the U.S. Forest Service and was assigned to the San Gabriel Mountains where Nin lived with him in a Sierra Madre cabin.
She juggled her relationships with Pole and Guiler by shuttling between the two coasts every few weeks. She told Guiler she needed to spend time on the West Coast to escape the pressures of New York, while Pole was told she had writing assignments in New York.
Nin married Pole in 1955 in Quartzsite, Ariz., after she "exhausted all the defenses I could invent," according to a diary passage.
Fearful of the legal consequences of having two husbands who claimed her as a dependent on their tax returns, Nin invalidated her marriage to Pole in 1966 and told him about Guiler.
Nin ultimately chose Pole, spending her final years with him. She died in Los Angeles in 1977 at age 73.
Rupert Pole
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