Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Photo: Apology Van (Telegraph)
A heartbroken van driver parked up next to a busy roundabout and poured out his feelings on the side of his vehicle in big orange letters. The silver VW vehicle was left parked prominently beside the George Reynolds Industrial Estate outside Shildon, County Durham, with an apology printed on the side.
Mark Morford: Jesus, I'm Married! (SF Gate)
Maybe this is just how it works. Maybe the more sublime cosmic messages, the more winking and tasty revelations come only when humanity is ready, when at least a sufficient portion of the population is educated and awake enough - and even then, the jolts only arrive in smallish portions we have the tentative capacity to stomach. You think?
Noah Smith: An Illustrated Bestiary of the Econ Blogworld
Republicans: "[T]here are 47 percent...who are dependent upon government, who believe that they are victims, who believe the government has a responsibility to care for them...And so my job is not to worry about those people."
GRANNY'S 'DO NOT RESUSCITATE' TATTOO (Shortlist)
After her husband suffered a slow and painful death, she made the decision to let doctors know that she doesn't want to suffer the same fate when her time comes. Although she doesn't suffer from any terminal illness, the grandmother-of-six visited a tattoo parlour earlier this year and spent £5 on the two tattoos, which can be seen below.
Sarah Silverman: Anti-Voter Fraud Laws Are Defrauding Voters (Gawker)
"This attempt to prevent voter fraud is itself the only voter fraud taking place," Silverman says in between yuks about her vagina.
Spooky: Chinese Festival Organizers Create Human Zoo for Beggars (Oddity Central)
According to a Nanchang official, in recent years the number of beggars turning up for the local religious festival has increased to a point where they're actually making temple visitors uncomfortable with their lamenting and pleading for some pocket change. So this year, to make sure everyone attending the festivities will be left alone, they decided to separate the hundreds of beggars in small metal cages around the festival grounds, where people can still give donations if they wish, but without being followed around and nagged while they're on a day out with their family.
Spooky: "Dashrath Manjhi - The Man Who Moved a Mountain" (Oddity Central)
Dasrath Manjhi, a landless farmer from India, made history after he spent over two decades chiseling away at a mountain with rudimentary tools, in order to create a road for his community, when the Government refused to.
David Bruce: Wise Up! Mothers (Athens News)
When he was a youngster, Billy Crystal loved the Beatles, and he wanted to grow his hair long like the Beatles wore their hair. Therefore, when he went to the barbershop, he always asked his barber to leave his hair long in back. Unfortunately, every time he went to the barbershop, the barber cut his hair short everywhere, including in back. When Billy complained, the barber would explain, "Your mother called."
David Bruce: "Dante's 'Divine Comedy': A Retelling in Prose" (Smashwords)
$3 eBook.
David Bruce's Amazon Author Page
David Bruce's Lulu Storefront
David Bruce's Smashwords Page
David Bruce's Blog
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."
"Doug's Most Shared Facebook Post" Today
wrote:
answered:
Reader Suggestion
Michelle in AZ
From The Creator of 'Avery Ant'
Team Coco
Conan
Obama Was Pretty Smooth On "The View"
Every response to Elisabeth Hasselbeck should be like this.
There was this followup (Aired Wednesday night, live online by 5:30am Thurs. morning)
Conan Announces The 28th Amendment To Ban Reality TV Losers From Interviewing US Presidents
Sign Conan's petition to ban reality TV losers from interviewing US Presidents!
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Another lovely marine layer.
'Steve Harvey' Show
Michelle Obama
First lady Michelle Obama will appear on Steve Harvey's new daytime talk show.
The show's producers say she will tape her appearance on Thursday. It's scheduled for broadcast on Oct. 3. "Steve Harvey" is taped before an audience at NBC's studios in Obama's hometown of Chicago.
The 55-year-old veteran comic's show debuted earlier this month.
Harvey said in a statement that he's honored to have Mrs. Obama as a guest.
Michelle Obama
Celebrity Challenge
'Words With Friends'
Edward Norton, Jonah Hill, Snoop Dogg and several other stars are slated to play in a celebrity tournament of the popular online game "Words With Friends" for charity. The celebs will begin facing off against each other in matches of Zynga's Scrabble-like word-building game on Thursday.
Norton, who is playing for the Maasai Wilderness Conservation Fund, is confident that he will dominate the tournament, which also includes such celebrity players as Eva Longoria, Kristen Bell and John Legend - but not Baldwin - vying for $500,000 in prize money for their charities from American Express.
"Words With Friends" players will be able to join their favorite stars' teams during the "Words With Friends Celebrity Challenge," as well as watch the celebrity matchups online and donate to their charities through Norton's fundraising site, CrowdRise.com.
The brainy "Moonrise Kingdom" and "The Bourne Legacy" actor, who graduated from Yale University with a history degree, said his stiffest competition might come from Snoop Dogg, who has recently been going by the name Snoop Lion, because of the rapper's experience with wordplay.
'Words With Friends'
Not Ruling Out Another Harry Potter Book
J.K. Rowling
J.K. Rowling plans to return to writing for young people - and the author says she doesn't rule out another book set in Harry Potter's magical world.
Rowling became the world's most successful living writer with her seven novels about a boy who discovers that he is a wizard and is pitched into battle against the forces of evil.
Rowling's first book for adults, "The Casual Vacancy," is being published Thursday, five years after the release of the last volume in the Potter saga.
The 47-year-old author told the BBC that her next book would be "for slightly younger children than the Potter books."
J.K. Rowling
Renewals
CW
Extreme musical-chairs competition 'Oh Sit!" and the ballet-centered reality show "Breaking Pointe" have both been renewed for second seasons, The CW said Wednesday.
"Oh Sit!" (pictured) pits a dozen contestants against each other in a race through obstacle course-style eliminations as they compete to claim a chair to the sounds of a live band and guest musical artists. The show premiered August 15.
"Breaking Pointe," which premiered May 31, centers on Salt Lake City's Ballet West, one of the most competitive ballet companies in the country, as its members strive to "find a perfect balance between their personal relationships and their unrelenting desire to be the absolute best ballet dancers in the world."
Premiere dates for the new seasons have not yet been announced.
CW
Pepper-Spray Settlement
U of Calif
The University of California is set to pay about $1 million to settle a lawsuit filed by demonstrators who were pepper-sprayed during an Occupy protest at UC Davis last fall.
UC and plaintiffs represented by the American Civil Liberties Union filed the preliminary settlement in federal court in Sacramento on Wednesday. The agreement is subject to the approval of a federal judge.
Under the proposal, UC will pay out $30,000 to each of 21 plaintiffs named in the complaint and an additional $250,000 for their attorneys to split.
The settlement also calls for the UC to set aside $100,000 to pay other individuals who can prove they were arrested or pepper-sprayed during the Nov. 18, 2011, incident.
U of Calif
Break Into Congressman's Office, Install Linux
Vandals
A US congressmen has been left incensed after miscreants installed Linux on computers at his campaign office, possibly thrashing some data in the process.
Michael Grimm, a Republican who represents a district in New York covering Staten Island and parts of Brooklyn, has slammed the weekend break-in to his offices on as a "politically motivated" crime against the democratic process.
"Whoever did this, the people responsible are very ignorant [sic], and they don't understand that this is not just an attack against me or my campaign," Grimm told the Staten Island Advance. "This is an attack against a federal campaign office, which is an attack on our democracy as a whole. It's an attack against what we stand for, for free elections."
Police sources told the New York Daily News that in the absence of evidence of forced entry to Grimm's campaign headquarters, the case is being investigated as an act of criminal mischief rather than a burglary. Three windows were broken at the offices, which were not fitted with a security alarm, on Saturday night. The damage was discovered by campaign staff on Sunday morning (23 September).
First term congressman Grimm, 42, a former FBI agent and Marine, is running for re-election in November against Democrat Mark Murphy. A Murphy spokesman condemned the break-in.
Vandals
Sues FBI Over Juggalos Report
Insane Clown Posse
Lawyers for rap-metal duo Insane Clown Posse have filed a lawsuit in Michigan seeking documents that would explain why the FBI considers its fans a gang.
The federal lawsuit says the FBI failed to timely respond to a 2011 request under the Freedom of Information Act.
Insane Clown Posse fans are known as Juggalos. Last year, the FBI included Juggalos in its national report on gangs.
The report doesn't mention a direct connection to Insane Clown Posse, but says many Juggalos have "gang-like behavior" and commit crimes and violence. The report includes a picture of a Juggalo wearing face paint and aiming a gun.
The group says its fans are a "family," not a gang.
Insane Clown Posse
Blocks Video
Turkey
A Turkish court issued an order on Wednesday allowing authorities in the country to block Internet access to the anti-Islam movie that has sparked violent protests across the Muslim world, an official said.
Binali Yildirim, the minister in charge of transportation and communications, told state-run TRT television that the injunction allows government telecommunications and information technology authorities to prevent access from Turkey to URL links to the film.
The move came a day after another government minister said Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who heads an Islam-based party, ordered officials to find ways of preventing access to videos of "Innocence of Muslims" movie.
Erdogan has criticized Western nations for not taking steps to prevent insults to Islamic values but also has criticized violent protests against the film saying they harm Islam.
Turkey
Heads To Swing States For Election
Weather Channel
Snowstorms, hurricanes and tornados are what usually put The Weather Channel's news team in motion. This November it will mobilize for the election.
The network plans to send some of its meteorologists to swing states on Election Day to monitor the weather's impact on voting. This comes after it commissioned a study on how many people might be dissuaded from going to the polls by bad weather.
About 25 percent of eligible voters surveyed said bad weather would affect their ability or desire to get to the polls on Nov. 6. Among undecided voters, that number jumped to 35 percent.
The Weather Channel said Wednesday its survey found President Barack Obama's supporters would be more likely to let bad weather affect their voting than would challenger Mitt Romney's supporters.
Weather Channel
"Isleworth Mona Lisa"
Leonardo Da Vinci
A Zurich-based foundation says it will prove to the world Thursday that Leonardo Da Vinci painted an earlier version of the Mona Lisa - a claim doubted by at least one expert on the multifaceted Renaissance artist.
The Mona Lisa Foundation, which has been working with the anonymous owners of the "Isleworth Mona Lisa," says that after 35 years of research, experts believe it predates the famed 16th-century masterpiece by some 11 or 12 years based on regression tests, mathematical comparisons and historical and archival records.
"So far, not one scientific test has been able to disprove that the painting is by Leonardo," said art historian Stanley Feldman, a foundation member and principal author of a foundation book entitled "Mona Lisa: Leonardo's Earlier Version" to be released Thursday. "We have used methods that were not available to Leonardo 500 years ago."
The Isleworth painting - likewise a portrait of a young woman with an enigmatic smile - is slightly larger, was painted on canvas and has brighter colors than the famed Louvre Museum masterpiece painted on wood. The posture, folded hand positions, faces, expressions and clothing are similar, while the landscape in the background is different.
Leonardo Da Vinci
Sells for $1 Million
1943 Penny
A 1943 Lincoln penny that soared in value because it was made from the "wrong" material reportedly has sold for $1 million.
The penny was erroneously made of bronze instead of zinc-coated steel at the San Francisco Mint, according to UPI news agency. Texas Rangers co-chairman Bob R. Simpson bought the coin from Legend Numismatics, a rare coin dealer in Lincroft, N.J.
Professional Coin Grading Service, an organization that evaluates and grades rare coins, certified the penny in question, grading it a 62 on a scale of 1 to 70.
"The Simpson collection now contains the finest known bronze cent from each mint, Philadelphia, San Francisco and Denver, including the unique 1943-D bronze cent that PCGS certified after Legend acquired and sold to him for a record $1.7 million in 2010," Willis said.
The U.S. Mint switched from bronze planchets to zinc-coated steel for cents in 1943 because copper was needed during World War II.
1943 Penny
In Memory
Andy Williams
With a string of gold albums, a hit TV series and the signature "Moon River," Andy Williams was a voice of the 1960s, although not the '60s we usually hear about.
Williams' plaintive tenor, boyish features and clean-cut demeanor helped him outlast many of the decade's rock stars and fellow crooners such as Frank Sinatra and Perry Como. He remained on the charts into the 1970s, hosting hugely popular Christmas television specials and becoming closely associated with the holiday standard "The Most Wonderful Time of the Year."
Williams, who continued to perform into his 80s at the Moon River Theatre he built in Branson, Mo., announced in November 2011 that he had been diagnosed with bladder cancer and vowed to return to performing the following year, his 75th in show business.
The 84-year-old entertainer died Tuesday night at his Branson home following a year long battle with the disease, his Los Angeles-based publicist, Paul Shefrin, said Wednesday.
Williams became a major star in 1956, the same year as Elvis Presley, with the Sinatra-like swing number "Canadian Sunset." For a time, he was pushed into such Presley imitations as "Lips of Wine" and the No. 1 smash "Butterfly."
But he mostly stuck to what he called his "natural style" and kept it up throughout his career. In 1970, when even Sinatra had temporarily retired, Williams was in the top 10 with the theme from "Love Story," the Oscar-winning tearjerker. He had 18 gold records, three platinum and five Grammy award nominations.
Williams was also the first host of the live Grammy awards telecast and hosted the show for seven consecutive years, beginning in 1971.
Movie songs became a specialty, including his signature "Moon River." The longing Johnny Mercer-Henry Mancini ballad was his most famous song, even though he never released it as a single because his record company feared such lines as "my huckleberry friend" were too confusing and old-fashioned for teens.
His wholesome image endured one jarring interlude.
In 1976, his ex-wife, former Las Vegas showgirl Claudine Longet, shot and killed her lover, skiing champion Spider Sabich. The Rolling Stones mocked the tragedy in "Claudine," a song so pitiless that it wasn't released until decades later. Longet, who said it was an accident, spent only a week in jail. Williams stood by her. He escorted her to the courthouse, testified on her behalf and provided support for her and their children, Noelle, Christian and Robert.
Also in the 1970s, Williams was seen frequently in the company of Ethel Kennedy, Robert Kennedy's widow. The singer denied any romantic involvement.
Williams was a lifelong Republican who once accused President Obama of "following Marxist theory." But he acknowledged experimenting with LSD, opposed the Nixon administration's efforts in the 1970s to deport John Lennon and in 1968 was an energetic supporter of Robert Kennedy's presidential campaign. When Kennedy was assassinated in Los Angeles in June 1968, just after winning the California Democratic primary, Williams sang "The Battle Hymn of the Republic" at his funeral.
Williams is survived by his wife, Debbie, and his three children, Robert, Noelle and Christian.
Andy Williams
| CURRENT MOON lunar phases |
