'Best of TBH Politoons'
TODAY and FRIDAY
Erin Hart
Join
Erin Hart on
Progressive Talk AM 760 Thanksgiving and Friday
(Nov. 23rd and 24th) when she fills in for Jay Marvin from 6am - 10am MST (8am - noon EST / 7am - 11am CST / 5am - 9am PST).
Tune in if you're in the area, or listen online.
What a harvest! The first woman speaker (and YES, they made far too much of
her support of Murtha), a new day for the United States, IF Bush, Cheney and
all the Presidential henchmen LET change happen. And if they don't, history
and the country may just leave them in the dust.
Let's talk about new discoveries of worthy charities--this year one of mine is
Uplift International. We will talk to the founder and the vice-president on
Friday. So call from wherever you are digesting or shopping.
All that and some movie and entertainment surprises. Enjoy your family,
your food and the hope for change in America and around the world.
And a very Happy Thanksgiving!
Please keepin touch via erinhartshow.com.
Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Francis Moore Lappé: Buying Local Doesn't Hurt the Developing World (YES! Magazine; Posted on alternet.org)
Critics of "go local" movements warn that buying local deprives people in developing countries of jobs that could lift them out of poverty. But the global economy isn't that simple.
Frank Rich: It's Not the Democrats Who Are Divided (The New York Times)
Elections may come and go, but Washington remains incorrigible. Not even voters delivering a clear message can topple the town's conventional wisdom once it has been set in the stone of punditry.
Jim Webb: Class Struggle (The Wall Street Journal)
The most important-and unfortunately the least debated-issue in politics today is our society's steady drift toward a class-based system, the likes of which we have not seen since the 19th century.
Tim Adams: The interview: Robert Pirsig (observer.guardian.co.uk/)
The Seventies bestseller Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance was the biggest-selling philosophy book ever. But for the reclusive author life was bitter-sweet. Here, he talks frankly about anxiety, depression, the death of his son and the road trip that inspired a classic.
Annalee Newitz: Happiness Science (AlterNet.org)
There's a scientific basis to the truism that money can't buy happiness.
Marching to freedom (guardian.co.uk)
Thirty years after the first Reclaim the Night march, the event is now being revived by a new generation of young women who are speaking out against violence. Julie Bindel reports.
Phillip Inman: Is cash back? (guardian.co.uk)
Credit card fraud is turning us into plasticphobes. Britain might have more credit cards than any other European country but the rise and rise of credit-card fraud is turning people back into cash junkies.
If it's Tuesday, I must be Hamlet (guardian.co.uk)
How does an actor juggle playing two very different roles at once? Patrick Stewart, Simon Russell Beale and Tamsin Greig tell Hilary Whitney how they pull it off.
EDWARD ROTHSTEIN: Stop That Foolish Singing This Minute! Mary Poppins Would Be Appalled (nytimes.com)
In the late summer of 1926, when P. L. Travers was 27 - the age she later imagined for her seemingly ageless creation, Mary Poppins - she set out on a pilgrimage to see William Butler Yeats in Dublin. But this aspiring young poet first asked a boatman to take her across the lake Lough Gill, to the place described in Yeats's poem "The Lake Isle of Innisfree."
Tim PERLICH: Tom Waits: Haunted songster's revelatory dispatch from the Twilight Zone (nowtoronto.com)
Way out in rural Northern California where Tom Waits and his accomplice, Kathleen Brennan, are holed up on a converted chicken ranch, counting constellations qualifies as exciting nightlife. The only roadhouse for miles stopped booking mariachi bands when it lost its licence for live entertainment. Don't even ask.
Animated E-cards (jacquielawson.com)
The Wall St. Poet
A Black Friday Sonnet
For most Americans the big day this week is Thanksgiving. But for retailers and economists, it's the day after Thanksgiving. This is "Black Friday," the biggest shopping day of the year, the day retailers hope to get into the black, the harbinger of overall holiday sales strength. This sonnet is a paean to this retailing rite.
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Cool and cloudy.
Baked 5 pies - 2 apple, 3 pumpkin.
Celebrities Serve Meals
Thanksgiving Dinner
"Spartacus" star Kirk Douglas, who turns 90 next month, joined volunteers on Thanksgiving eve to dish up turkey feasts to thousands of street denizens outside the Los Angeles Mission.
Minnie Driver, Kevin Nealon, Sally Kirkland, Jason Ritter, Judy Tenuta and Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa were among those on hand Wednesday to help Douglas and his wife, Anne, deliver holiday cheer to the homeless and the less fortunate.
Turkey, mashed potatoes and gravy, cranberry sauce, rolls and pumpkin pie were on the menu for the four-hour 5th Street event held in the heart of downtown's Skid Row. More than 3,000 people were expected to be served.
The Los Angeles Mission has served Skid Row for more than a half-century, providing emergency services such as shelter, food, clothing and medical services. The mission also offers long-term residential rehabilitation programs, including job training, placement and counseling.
Thanksgiving Dinner
Assails 'Genocidal Violence'
Mia Farrow
Actress and UNICEF goodwill ambassador Mia Farrow called Wednesday for peacekeepers to be sent immediately to halt "genocidal violence" that she said was spreading from Sudan's Darfur province into neighboring eastern Chad.
"We're seeing atrocities of an indescribable kind," said Farrow, just back from a visit to Chad after an earlier trip to Darfur.
Farrow expressed outrage that no effective peacekeeping force has been sent to Darfur almost four years after atrocities started. According to some estimates, the violence in Darfur has killed 400,000 and left more than 2 million homeless.
Mia Farrow
Makes Surprise Visit To Cambodia
Angelina Jolie
Angelina Jolie has made an unannounced visit to Cambodia, a country where she is funding a nature conservation project, officials said Wednesday.
The 31-year-old actress briefly visited officials in Pailin, a former Khmer Rouge stronghold in northwestern Cambodia, said Keut Sothea, a deputy governor for the Pailin municipality.
He said Jolie had a brief discussion about a forest conservation project near Pailin with Ieng Vuth, another municipality deputy governor and the son of former Khmer Rouge Foreign Minister Ieng Sary.
Angelina Jolie
NBC Orders 3 More Scripts
'30 Rock'
NBC has ordered three additional scripts of freshman comedy "30 Rock," which got off to a lackluster start despite critical praise.
Created by and starring Tina Fey, "30 Rock" is set behind the scenes of a late-night sketch comedy show. Alec Baldwin, Tracy Morgan and Jane Krakowski co-star. It was moved from Wednesday to Thursday last week and averaged just 5.2 million viewers for a 40-minute episode.
"30 Rock" is one of three Nielsen-challenged new NBC series that received an order for three more scripts last month. The other two, the dramas "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip" and "Friday Night Lights," have since been picked up for a full season.
'30 Rock'
Barbara Calls A 'Time Out'
O'Donnell-Ripa Feud
Barbara Walters said Wednesday all is now "well with the world" following a flare-up earlier this week between Rosie O'Donnell and Kelly Ripa on "The View." Ripa called in to the ABC daytime talk show after co-host O'Donnell accused her of making a homophobic comment to Clay Aiken, a guest host on "Live With Regis and Kelly."
On Wednesday's "The View," Walters said, "Rosie O'Donnell is one of the kindest, most sensitive people I know. And so is our friend Kelly Ripa. And Rosie and Kelly talked yesterday after the show. Rosie and Clay Aiken have talked. And all is well with the world, and all is well with them."
Walters said her speech was unrehearsed and that O'Donnell was unaware she was going to say something.
O'Donnell-Ripa Feud
Charged With Drug Possession
Tawny Kitaen
Tawny Kitaen has been charged with felony drug possession after sheriff's deputies said they found cocaine in her apartment.
The 45-year-old actress, who co-starred in the 1984 comedy "Bachelor Party," is scheduled to be arraigned Dec. 18 at Harbor Justice Center in Laguna Niguel, said Susan Kang Schroeder, a spokeswoman for the Orange County district attorney's office.
Deputies responding to a request for a welfare check in May found 15 grams of cocaine in Kitaen's San Juan Capistrano apartment, authorities said. They said her two children were home at the time, and Kitaen had given deputies permission for the search.
Tawny Kitaen
Online Thieves Offer
Oprah Tickets
Online thieves are using the lure of tickets to "The Oprah Winfrey Show" to rip off the identities of consumers, officials said.
The thieves have been sending unsolicited e-mails asking people to send them personal information, verify financial information or wire money to a third party for tickets to the show, state Attorney General Lisa Madigan said.
The show, taped in Chicago, doesn't sell tickets. It takes reservations to attend tapings for free.
Oprah Tickets
Fox Calls Indecency Rules 'Radical'
FCC
The government is violating the First Amendment by embarking on a "radical reinterpretation and expansion" of its power to punish broadcasters for indecent speech, a federal court was told Wednesday by Fox Television Stations Inc.
Fox is challenging what it calls an unprecedented campaign by federal regulators to punish broadcasters for airing "unintentional and isolated expletives" during broadcasts.
"The result is the end of truly live television and a gross expansion of the FCC's intrusion into the creative and editorial process," Fox argued in its court filing.
FCC
Merger Deal Modified
ABC Radio
Citadel Broadcasting Corp. and Walt Disney Co. modified the terms of the merger between Citadel and ABC Radio, reducing the amount of cash to be retained by Disney by $300 million.
Of the total reduction, $100 million will be in cash. The remaining will be against increasing Disney shareholder's equity ownership in the combined company, Citadel said in a statement on Wednesday.
The modification will increase Disney shareholders' equity ownership in Citadel after the merger to about 57 percent from about 52 percent. The merger is not expected to close prior to May 31, 2007, the statement added.
ABC Radio
Robbed In Argentina
Not Jenna
U.S. and Argentine media reported that one of resident Bush's 24-year-old twin daughters had her purse stolen while being guarded by the Secret Service during a visit here.
ABC News, citing unidentified law enforcement reports, reported on its Web site Tuesday that Barbara Bush's purse and cell phone were taken while she was dining in a Buenos Aires restaurant.
Argentine police told The Associated Press they had no complaint of any such incident on file, and the U.S. Embassy in Buenos Aires said it would have no comment. In Washington, the White House, Secret Service and State Department also declined comment.
Barbara's twin, Jenna, visited neighboring Paraguay last month to take part in a UNICEF program for young professionals.
Not Jenna
Group Scraps Attempt
World's Largest Joint
A plan to roll and smoke the world's largest joint was cancelled at short notice in Amsterdam when the organizers realized they could be breaking the law.
The group had wanted to roll a five-foot-long pure-weed joint, stuffed with more than a pound of marijuana and containing no tobacco, and smoke it in a bar.
It had initially thought the attempt would be legal if 100 people each brought along the five grams of the drug tolerated by Dutch authorities for personal use.
World's Largest Joint
Thirty Years Later
The Last Waltz
It was 30 years ago that Canadian roots-rockers the Band staged a legendary mega-concert known as The Last Waltz, a celebratory send-off notoriously played through a haze of drugs, conflict and controversy.
This week, tribute concerts in Toronto and elsewhere commemorate that star-packed show.
Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell, Neil Young, Van Morrison, Eric Clapton, Dr. John, Ringo Starr, Ron Wood and Ronnie Hawkins were among the luminaries to appear alongside the Band at San Francisco's Winterland Ballroom on U.S. Thanksgiving, Nov. 25, 1976.
For a lot more - The Last Waltz
New Flavors
Jones Soda
After introducing the world to new soda flavors like fish taco and salmon, Seattle specialty beverage maker Jones Soda Co. is offering a new flavor: Green pea.
Green pea, along with other unusual sodas such as turkey and gravy, dinner roll, sweet potato and antacid flavor, will be part of the company's $10 to $15 "holiday pack" of bottled drinks available nationwide.
Peter van Stolk, chief executive of Jones Soda, said on Monday the collection of strange-flavored sodas usually sells out quickly, even though he can not stomach the drinks. Past flavors included broccoli casserole, corn on the cob and Brussel sprout.
Jones Soda
In Memory
Robert Lockwood Jr.
Robert Lockwood Jr., a pioneering Mississippi Delta blues guitarist and singer who forged a career in Cleveland, has died. He was 91.
Lockwood was born in Turkey Scratch, Ark. At 11, he started guitar lessons with legendary bluesman Robert Johnson, who briefly moved in with Lockwood's mother.
"He never showed me nothing two times," Lockwood said in a 2005 interview with The (Cleveland) Plain Dealer. "After I got the foundation of the way he played, everything was easy."
Lockwood worked on street corners and in bars and became a musical mentor to B.B. King, who listened to Lockwood in the 1940s on the "King Biscuit Time" radio show broadcast from Helena, Ark.
Lockwood moved to Chicago in the 1950s and was a session player on records by Little Walter, Sunnyland Slim, Roosevelt Sykes and other blues musicians. He branched out from the delta-style blues to jump blues, jazz and funk. In 1960, he moved to Cleveland and played in blues clubs for decades.
As a solo performer, Lockwood earned Grammy nominations for two albums: 1998's "I Got to Find Me a Woman" and 2000's "Delta Crossroads."
Robert Lockwood Jr.
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