'TBH Politoons'
Reader Contribution
Granola Recipe
Marty,
I've been making this granola for my family and me for years, and I
finally decided it was time to share it with the world:
David Dvorkin's Granola Recipe
~ David Dvorkin
Business Secrets From the Stars (a novel)
Why I'm Glad I Had Breast Cancer (by Leonore Dvorkin)
Thanks, David!
Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Senate G.O.P. Blocks Tight Budget Rule
Senate Republicans ... narrowly defeated an effort to impose budget rules that would make it harder to increase spending or cut taxes, a move that critics said that showed Republicans were posturing in their calls for greater fiscal restraint.
Emily Amick: Auntie Em! It's Not Just About Kansas Anymore (campusprogress.org)
Since when did sex between two consenting teens become "sexual abuse"?
Ellen Goodman: Lowered expectations?
Look deeper into new study suggesting wives should expect less from husbands
Beyond Their Means: Today's young adults are in a bind: so much to buy, so little money.
The underlying ideas are -- or should be -- intuitive: Spend less than you earn. Make a budget. Save, save, save. There are also guidelines for dealing with specific situations, such as harassment by creditors or identity theft, and day-to-day tips for staying out of money trouble. Leave those credit and debit cards at home when you go out, for one thing, and it'll be a lot harder to blow your budget.
RICHARD ROEPER: Don't fall for false mask being put on 'Vendetta' (suntimes.com)
Headline from ... Drudge Report: "In the Wachowskis' bizarre V FOR VENDETTA, the hero -- yes, hero -- wants to blow up London." Technically accurate. Journalistically? Wildly misleading. Imagine that.
Troy Patterson: Geeks in Love, The new Dr. Who (slate.com)
Billie Piper-a British pop star soon to be adorning screensavers at finer engineering schools everywhere-brings limitless pluck to her portrayal of Rose.
RICHARD ROEPER: Job stinks? At least you're not a paparazzo (suntimes.com)
Maybe you're reading this as you're on the bus to work. You're squeezed between a raging anti-soapite and a guy who's unfazed by the crumbs collecting in his beard as he wolfs down his McBreakfast. As you gaze at the ad above you, you swear it says, "Kill Me Now." But that's just how you feel inside. The ad actually says, "Want To Get Away?" and all you can do is silently think, "YES!"
Another Rant
Avery Ant
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Overcast most of the day, rainy night.
The local Toys 'R Us closed. The employees said they were given 3 weeks notice, and they sold everything, including the fixtures, in those 3 weeks.
We stopped by during week 2 & the pickings were mighty slim, but the kid found a 'bug vacuum' (at 40% off).
Had thought it was one of those goofy-boy-toys til tonight - he used it to catch a roach in the bathroom. And not just any damn roach - a freaking albino cockroach. Ewwwwwww.
No new flags.
Speaks Out Against Bush
Carlos Santana
Carlos Santana quoted his old friend Jimi Hendrix in an anti-war message here Monday and said his philosophy is the antithesis of resident George W. Bush's.
"I have wisdom. I feel love. I live in the present and I try to present a dimension that brings harmony and healing," the 58-year-old rock icon said. "My concept is the opposite of George W. Bush."
Santana, speaking to Peruvian journalists ahead of a Tuesday concert, said young people's opposition to the war in Iraq is reaching the dimensions of the anti-Vietnam war sentiment in the 1970s.
"There is more value in placing a flower in a rifle barrel than making war," he said. "As Jimi Hendrix used to say, musical notes have more importance than bullets."
Carlos Santana
Sells Items From TV Shows
StarStyle
A new Web site could carry America's fascination with celebrities and the art of product placement on TV to dizzying levels.
The site, StarStyle, allows fans of shows including "American Idol" and "What I Like About You" to buy clothing, furniture and other items they see on the programs, New York-based Entertainment Media Works said Monday.
StarStyle has deals with companies including Sony, Warner Bros., ABC, Procter & Gamble and FremantleMedia and 19 Entertainment, the producers of "American Idol," said Entertainment Media Works Chairman Jim Rosenfield.
StarStyle
Levies Fine For 'Indecent' TV Ad
FCC
Advertising lobby groups were up in arms last week after the Federal Communications Commission fined a Puerto Rican TV station for a video clip promoting a reggae CD that it deemed "indecent"-the first time in memory the FCC has fined a station for a promo. The lobbyists say this could set a precedent for increased scrutiny of all ads.
WSJU-TV, owned by Aerco Broadcasting Corp., was fined $220,000 for airing the ad and other indecent programming, according to the FCC's decision last Wednesday. The promotional clip featured "scantily clad women fondling themselves and each other in a sexual fashion," the FCC said in its decision.
If some commissioners have their way, such fines may soon be imposed for not just sexual content, but violence. "Even though the Commission's authority is limited ... to indecent, profane and obscene content, and thus does not extend to violent matter, the use of violence as the 'punch line' of titillating sexual innuendo should not insulate broadcast licensees from our authority," said FCC Commissioner Deborah Taylor Tate.
FCC
Elvis' Tribute To Robert Goulet
Shot-Out TV
Elvis Presley had a reputation as a night owl and a new exhibit that opened Monday at Graceland gives a peek into his nocturnal activities.
There's the jukebox, wrapped in yellow and green neon, that provided him with a steady supply of popular music. There are film clips that show family and friends discussing late-night excursions to an amusement park or his favorite movie theater, which he would rent for the night.
And then there's the television with a bullet hole in the screen.
As the story goes, entertainer Robert Goulet was performing on TV when Presley blasted the 25-inch RCA that's part of the exhibit called "Elvis After Dark."
Shot-Out TV
Case Ends - Ruling By Early April
'Da Vinci Code'
The copyright case brought by two historians who accuse Dan Brown of plagiarizing their work in "The Da Vinci Code" ended on Monday, and the presiding judge said he hoped to give a ruling by early April.
Lasting more than three weeks, the closely watched hearings featured a tetchy Brown in the witness box, debate about the Merovingian monarchy, the Knights Templar and Jesus' bloodline, and revelations about the media-shy author and his wife Blythe.
The Da Vinci Code, one of the most successful novels of all time with sales of over 40 million copies, uses some of the same ideas as "The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail," a 1982 work of historical conjecture by Michael Baigent and Richard Leigh.
'Da Vinci Code'
Wedding News
Duane 'Dog' Chapman
It's the Year of the Dog - for three years running. Duane "Dog" Chapman and his tattooed crew return Tuesday for the third-season premiere of the hit reality show, "Dog the Bounty Hunter" (A&E, 9 p.m. EST).
Season three will feature everything from celebrity ride-alongs to Chapman finally getting married to his longtime sidekick and business partner, Beth Smith.
Chapman and Smith have two children together and have been together for 16 years. Chapman said he proposed last year in Vegas after a few drinks. And he doesn't drink.
Duane 'Dog' Chapman
'Chicago' Producer Sues Miramax
Martin Richards
A producer of the Academy Award-winning movie "Chicago" filed a $10 million lawsuit Monday against Miramax Films Corp., accusing it of failing to provide his company its share of hundred of millions of dollars the movie earned.
The Producer Circle Co. says in its lawsuit it is the owner of the film rights to the musical "Chicago," a Broadway hit of the 1970s that Miramax agreed to produce with PCC as a movie. PCC said it was to receive part of the film's gross.
Martin Richards, founder and principal of PCC, says in court papers he and Miramax founders Bob and Harvey Weinstein were producers of "Chicago." The movie opened in December 2002 and became "the highest grossing and most profitable movie ever released by Miramax," court papers say. It won six Oscars including best picture, with Richards collecting the producer award.
Richards says he and his company were victims of Hollywood-style accounting in which two types of accounting occur at the same time: One type is for financial reporting purposes, and the other is for calculating how much individuals will get.
Martin Richards
Reopening Postponed To 2009
Rijksmuseum
The pearl of Dutch art museums, the Rijksmuseum, is set to reopen in 2009, a year later than planned, to allow environmental checks on renovation plans, the culture minister said.
"If the process of granting permits proceeds well, the Rijksmuseum will reopen its doors at the end of 2009," Minister Reny van der Laan said in a letter to the Dutch parliament, referring to planning permission for the museum's renewal.
Security measures in the renovation plans have been reviewed following recent art thefts from several other museums and a study must also be carried out on the environmental impact of the work, the minister said.
Rijksmuseum
Dancer Sues After Firing
'Movin' Out'
A dancer-actress who says she was harassed for having large breasts and a serious toe injury is suing owners and managers of the touring version of Broadway's "Movin' Out" for more than $100 million.
Alice Alyse says in the lawsuit that she was repeatedly humiliated and intimidated in front of other cast members by the show's stage manager about an increase in the size of her breasts, which necessitated alterations to her costumes.
The lawsuit contends that Alyse was wrongly fired on Feb. 17 and that she was "intentionally intimidated, harassed and humiliated and discriminated against" in breach of her contract with the Tony Award-winning show.
'Movin' Out'
Ancient Sarcophagus Unearthed
Cyprus
A 2,500-year-old sarcophagus with vivid color illustrations from Homer's epics has been discovered in western Cyprus, archaeologists said Monday.
Construction workers found the limestone sarcophagus last week in a tomb near the village of Kouklia, in the coastal Paphos area. The tomb, which probably belonged to an ancient warrior, had been looted during antiquity.
Pavlos Flourentzos, director of the island's antiquities department, said the coffin - painted in red, black and blue on a white background - dated to 500 B.C., when Greek cultural influence was gaining a firm hold on the eastern Mediterranean island. Pottery discovered in the tomb is expected to provide a precise date.
Cyprus
| CURRENT MOON lunar phases |
