'Best of TBH Politoons'
Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Sean Gonsalves: Laughing To Keep From Crying
Whether we agree on the precise nature of the legacy of 9/11, one thing's hard to dispute: terrorism is the sun of the U.S. political universe - The Issue around which all other issues orbit. And now, along comes Zack and Larry Arnstein's book The Ultimate Counterterrorist Home Companion - a welcome gift for the citizen-soldier. ... "9/11 has changed everything. No longer can America live the peaceful culture of mutual respect that we have been blessed with since the beginning of our nation," begins the first chapter, exposing the absurdity "changed everything" with another absurdity.
Mark Morford: Welcome home, have some gunfire (sfgate.com)
Nothing like returning from vacation to the dulcet sounds of hardcore street violence, no?
Jim Hightower: THE BUST IN BUSH'S BOOM (jimhightower.com)
Boom times! crowed George W as he hailed the latest economic report from the Census Bureau. "More of our citizen are doing better in this economy, with continued rising incomes," he exulted. But Bush - never an in-depth kind of guy - apparently didn't probe beneath the happy-face surface numbers of the Census report.
Scott Burns: Inflation a fickle friend (dallasnews.com)
This year may be the first since 1991 with a 4 percent inflation rate. After years of running just under 3 percent, inflation at 4 percent will be a shock, particularly since it won't apply to home prices.
Aaron Sarver: Creating the 21st Century Library (inthesetimes.com)
When you enter the Prelinger Library in San Francisco, the first thing you notice is "rock star" librarian Nancy Pearl-in action figure form.
Michael Roberts: The Funnies Aren't Anymore (westword.com)
Not long ago, I was a zealous reader of daily newspaper comics, devouring at least a dozen strips per day, more when I had the time. But somewhere along the line, that number began to dwindle, with my enthusiasm waning each time favorites such as Gary Larson ("The Far Side"), Bill Watterson ("Calvin and Hobbes"), Bill Amend ("FoxTrot") and Aaron McGruder ("Boondocks") either quit, cut back or went on indefinite hiatus.
Annalee Newitz: The Secret Messages NASA Sent to Aliens
When NASA sent the Voyager into space 30 years ago, it contained record albums intended for alien consumption.
Deb Price: Lessons From the Sen. Craig Calamity
Longtime gay activist Michael Rogers said, "It was simply no longer acceptable for me to sit there and watch a political party filled with so many closeted gay men beat up on gay Americans."
Roger Ebert: Paparazzo goes the weasel (3 1/2 stars)
If he had not been an actor, Steve Buscemi could have been a paparazzi. But then you can keep saying that about Buscemi. If he had not been an actor, he could have been an incompetent kidnapper ("Fargo"), or a cynical journalist ("Interview"), or a gangster (Tony Blundetto on "The Sopranos"), or a coffee house owner ("Art School Confidential"), or a fanatic record collector ("Ghost World"), or a drunk ("Trees Lounge"), or a director (which he was on "Trees Lounge," "Interview" and "Lonesome Jim"). Here's an actor who has 104 movie and TV roles listed on IMDB, and he could have been any of those characters.
Comment From Jeff Crook
Coincidence Theory
Purple Gene Reviews
Worst Movie Ever
PURPLE GENE FINDS THE WORST MOVIE EVER MADE....
I USED TO THINK THAT THE WORST MOVIE EVER MADE WAS....."THE CLAN OF THE CAVE BEAR" (1986) STARRING DARRYL HANNAH.
THEN I THOUGHT IT WAS......."REPOSSESSED" (1990) STARRING LINDA BLAIR.
BUT TODAY I SAW......"SIMON SEZ" (1999) STARRING DENNIS "THE WORM" RODMAN.
"SIMON SEZ" IS WITHOUT A DOUBT...THE WORST MOVIE EVER MADE.....FAR WORSE THAN ANY OF THESE.
PURPLE GENE GIVES "SIMON SEZ" ..."LESS THAN ZERO" (1989) OUT OF "10" (1979).
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Sunny and pleasant.
Here's the Complete List Of Creative Emmy Winners (And A Complete List Of Primetime Emmy Nominations)
Hosting Academy Awards
Jon Stewart
Jon Stewart will return as host of the Academy Awards.
The star of Comedy Central's "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart" will get his second shot at hosting Hollywood's premiere event, which will be held on Feb. 24 at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood. He hosted the 78th annual awards show in 2006.
Stewart was "a terrific host" for that event, Oscar telecast producer Gil Cates said Wednesday, announcing the selection in a statement from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences.
The academy didn't indicate why it decided to go with Stewart after using comedian Ellen DeGeneres this year.
Jon Stewart
Reuniting For Ertegun Tribute
Led Zeppelin
Led Zeppelin will perform a one-time comeback concert in memory of Ahmet Ertegun, a co-founder of Atlantic Records.
The band will perform together for the first time in 19 years on Nov. 26, at London's The O2 venue, on the banks of the River Thames.
"During the Zeppelin years, Ahmet Ertegun was a major foundation of solidarity and accord," Led Zeppelin singer Robert Plant said in a statement. "For us he was Atlantic Records and remained a close friend and conspirator."
Led Zeppelin's remaining original members Plant, guitarist Jimmy Page and bassist John Paul Jones will headline the concert with late drummer John Bonham's son, Jason, on drums, organizers said Wednesday.
Led Zeppelin
Bill Would Make Permanent
'Do Not Call' List
A Pennsylvania congressman wants to help preserve your sanity with a bill that would make permanent the government's do-not-call list for telemarketers.
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) in 2003 set up a registry of phone numbers that did not wish to receive telemarketing calls. Consumers entered their home, mobile or work phones numbers on the FTC Web site or called the agency to sign up for the list. Exceptions are made for certain charity or political calls or for companies that have a prior relationship with the customer.
Submitted numbers, however, expire after five years, so numbers currently in the registry are set to be deleted beginning next year.
Legislation introduced Monday by Rep. Mike Doyle, D-Pa., would ensure that entries are never deleted. "It makes no sense to force people to sign up again every couple of years," he said in a statement.
"I suspect very few people are saying, 'Gee, I really miss getting those telemarketing calls at dinner time - I wish the government would take me off the do not call list," Doyle said.
'Do Not Call' List
Rare Proof To Be Auctioned
Ernest Hemingway
A signed proof of Ernest Hemingway's novel, "For Whom the Bell Tolls," will be offered at auction in November.
The proof, which contains Hemingway's handwritten corrections, will be offered at Swann Galleries' auction of 19th and 20th century literature on Nov. 29. The auctioneer says it is the first signed advance proof copy of the novel ever to surface.
It includes a handwritten dedication to Hemingway's fiancee, Martha Gellhorn, and is signed and inscribed to his longtime friend and employee, Toby Otto Bruce.
Bruce served as Hemingway's driver, secretary and handyman in Key West, Fla. He regularly proofread manuscripts for Hemingway, and read "For Whom the Bell Tolls" as each chapter was written. He also helped Hemingway with personal problems. Hemingway dubbed Bruce "The Iron Man," and rewarded him with the commission to design the book's dust jacket, according to Swann.
Ernest Hemingway
Not Pregnant
Foxy Brown
Jail officials will not need to make maternity accommodations for Foxy Brown - her manager says the rapper isn't pregnant, despite her lawyer's courtroom contention that she was.
The revelation came Wednesday as her manager and Koch Records announced that Brown would release a new album while serving a one-year jail sentence.
Brown, who hasn't released an album since 2001's "Broken Silence," was sentenced Friday to one year in jail for violating probation that stemmed from a fight with two manicurists in a New York City nail salon three years ago.
In August, defense lawyers told the court that Brown was three months pregnant. But in a statement released Wednesday, her manager, Chaz Williams, said: "And to the pregnancy rumors, this is the official statement: She is not pregnant."
Foxy Brown
Rutgers Player Withdraws Lawsuit
Don Imus
A Rutgers University basketball player on Tuesday withdrew a slander and defamation lawsuit she had filed against Don Imus and CBS Radio, among others, after the shock jock called the team "nappy headed hos."
Kia Vaughn had contended in the lawsuit filed in August in New York state Supreme Court that the comments made by Imus had damaged her reputation. The lawsuit also named various media outlets that broadcast Imus' show.
Marti McKenzie, a spokeswoman for Vaughn's attorney, Richard Ancowitz, said in a statement that Vaughn had chosen to focus on her education at New Jersey's Rutgers University as a journalism major and as an athlete with the basketball team.
A lawyer for Imus, Martin Garbus, said his client had paid no money to Vaughn. CBS Radio did not immediately return a message requesting comment.
Don Imus
Crash Lawsuit To Trial
Lindsay Lohan
Lindsay Lohan has another court date. A judge Tuesday refused to dismiss portions of a lawsuit against the 21-year-old actress over an October 2005 accident in which her Mercedes-Benz collided with a van.
Superior Court Judge Michael L. Stern rejected a motion that argued the lawsuit lacked legal sufficiency, and set April 7 for the trial.
The California Highway Patrol concluded that Raymundo Ortega, a busboy, caused the accident by making an illegal U-turn, but he sued Lohan and is seeking at least $200,000 in damages.
Ortega's suit contends that Lohan was fleeing paparazzi and was under the influence of alcohol at the time of the crash.
Lindsay Lohan
'Critically Endangered'
Gorillas
The most common type of gorilla is now "critically endangered," one step away from global extinction, according to the 2007 Red List of Threatened Species released Wednesday by the World Conservation Union.
The Ebola virus is depleting Western Gorilla populations to a point where it might become impossible for them to recover.
Commercial hunting, civil unrest and habitat loss due to logging and forest clearance for palm oil plantations are compounding the problem, said the Swiss-based group known by its acronym IUCN.
In all, 16,306 species are threatened with extinction, 188 more than last year, IUCN said. One in four mammals are in jeopardy, as are one in eight birds, a third of all amphibians and 70 percent of the plants that have been studied.
Gorillas
Mysteriously Loses Weight
Kilo Prototype
The 118-year-old cylinder that is the international prototype for the metric mass, kept tightly under lock and key outside Paris, is mysteriously losing weight - if ever so slightly. Physicist Richard Davis of the International Bureau of Weights and Measures in Sevres, southwest of Paris, says the reference kilo appears to have lost 50 micrograms compared with the average of dozens of copies.
"The mystery is that they were all made of the same material, and many were made at the same time and kept under the same conditions, and yet the masses among them are slowly drifting apart," he said. "We don't really have a good hypothesis for it."
Of all the world's kilograms, only the one in Sevres really counts. It is kept in a triple-locked safe at a chateau and rarely sees the light of day - mostly for comparison with other cylinders shipped in periodically from around the world.
Kilo Prototype
1-Pound Root Found
Ginseng
A nearly one-pound wild ginseng root found in western Maryland is a rarity that could be worth thousands of dollars, according to a local dealer and market reports. The lumpy tan root with multiple twisted arms was the biggest Roger Welch has found in 45 years of ginseng hunting.
The root weighed just under 16 ounces. Welch said it usually takes 40 to 60 average-sized roots to make a pound.
Prices for dried wild roots - which weigh about one-third as much as fresh roots - are over $400 a pound and could reach $600 this season, said Larry Harding of Harding's Ginseng Farm, which cultivates ginseng near Friendsville.
An unusual root like Welch's could fetch a premium because ginseng's purported healthful properties are believed to increase with the plant's age, Harding said. He estimated Welch's root is 100 years old.
Ginseng
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