Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Paul Krugman: The Truth, Still Inconvenient (New York Times)
So the joke begins like this: An economist, a lawyer and a professor of marketing walk into a room. What's the punch line? They were three of the five "expert witnesses" Republicans called for last week's Congressional hearing on climate science.
Paul Constant: A Letter to Our Readers About The Stranger's Exciting New Digital Pricing Initiative, Or: How You Learned to Quit Worrying and Love Our Paywall (Satire of 'New York Times' Paywall; The Stranger)
Robert Reich: "The Truth About the Economy that Nobody In Washington Or On Wall Street Will Admit: We're Heading Back Toward a Double Dip" (robertreich.org)
Why aren't Americans being told the truth about the economy? We're heading in the direction of a double dip - but you'd never know it if you listened to the upbeat messages coming out of Wall Street and Washington.
Joe Conason: Why the Reckless Republicans Win (Creators Syndicate)
Scarcely any news story induces sleep as swiftly and surely as congressional budget negotiations - a topic that features politicians bickering loudly over huge dollar amounts that lack meaning for most people, while their public posturing reflects little of what is actually going on in the back channels.
Scott Burns: Angel of Inflation No Longer Lives in Northern California (assetbuilder.com)
SANTA ROSA, CA. In the evening, as light fades, shadowy figures appear along downtown side streets. They are men carrying bulky plastic garbage bags, reminding you that life in California isn't all about people who spend their weekends sipping wine at their vineyard. It's also about people who are homeless.
Matt Miller: Is tax deferral dead? (The Washington Post)
I hate to toss a grenade into anyone's tax return preparations-and goodness knows the Lower Upper Class has enough to worry about, what with SAT prep getting insanely expensive for the kids, and exclusive resorts refusing to cut prices despite the sluggish economy-but tax deferral might be dead.
Jim Hightower: Class War Casualties
I recently joined hundreds of Texans in a "Day of the Fallen" protest. Leading our march to the State Capitol were people bearing 138 black coffins. This was not a war protest, not in the sense of a shooting war - but it was a protest about the senseless casualties in America's relentless class war. The caskets symbolized the 138 Texas construction workers who died on the job in 2009.
Interview with Sarah Hughes (thecelebritycafe.com)
Sarah Hughes won Olympic Gold for the United States when she competed in the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympic Winter Games. Since then, Hughes has moved on and graduated from Yale University, but she remains connected to the figure skating world. TheCelebrityCafe.com's Ellen Stodola talked to Sarah about how she will be honored at the upcoming Figure Skating in Harlem's Seventh Annual Skating with the Stars Gala.
"When Movies Mattered: Reviews from a Transformative Decade" by Dave Kehr: A review by Gerry Donaghy
In the not-so-distant past, film writers like Andrew Sarris, J. Hoberman, and Pauline Kael would indulge readers in long-form criticism, providing them with insights to a film in question, not merely settling the debate as to whether said film was worth seeing. And, despite the highbrow pedigree, these names could make or break a film (Kael's essay on Arthur Penn's Bonnie and Clyde is generally considered to have turned the film from box-office poison to must-see iconoclastic cinema).
Nathan Heller: "Super" (Slate)
This charming-looking indie comedy is nothing like what you expect.
Roger Ebert: Review of "Heart of Glass" (A Great Movie)
Some images are complete without translation into words. "Heart of Glass" strikes me as a film of such images. From it I get a feeling that evokes my gloom as I see a world sinking into self-destruction, and feel I am lucky to be old because there may not be another lifetime's length of happiness left for most people on this planet.
David Bruce has 41 Kindle books on Amazon.com with 250 anecdotes in each book. Each book is $1, so for $41 you can buy 10,250 anecdotes. Search for "Funniest People," "Coolest People, "Most Interesting People," "Kindest People," "Religious Anecdotes," and "Maximum Cool."
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Michelle in AZ
From The Creator of 'Avery Ant'
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Lovely spring day.
So, when we got home Ssturday night, the kid went to take a shower, but there was no hot water.
The water heater was replaced not quite 2 years ago, so I figured it wasn't a big deal. Just fire up the pilot light and we'd be back in business.
But the pilot light wouldn't stay lit, and on my budget, we don't call plumbers on the weekend.
The plumber showed up this afternoon, and it was nothing but bad news.
My not quite 2-year old water heater, a GE, needed to be replaced.
Here are some comments about the fabulous GE water heaters - it seems that GE water heaters are on par with the pumps they built for the Japanese nuke plants.
Between the cats, the car, and now the water heater, I'm beginning to feel like Joe Btfsplk.
Anyway, we have hot water again.
Digitizes Archives
The Onion
The satirical paper of record is dipping into its archives.
The Onion will announce Monday that it is publishing digitized versions of all its old print editions. Beginning Monday, TheOnion.com will begin posting a handful of old issues every week for the coming months.
Unearthed headlines include "Canada Signs Nonaggression Pact with the United States," "Dysfunctional Family Brought Together By Liquor" and "Everybody's Eatin' Bread!"
The Onion was founded in 1988 in Madison, Wis., by two students from the University of Wisconsin. Though it began as a local college newspaper, it became a national comedy institution and went online in 1996.
It has since developed a TV news parody, the Onion News Network, that has spawned several TV shows. Its paper is still distributed weekly in cities, but it has also embraced Twitter and on Friday launched an app for the iPad and other tablets.
The Onion
Looking Into Harry Potter E-Books
J.K. Rowing
J.K. Rowing's agent says the best-selling author is considering making the "Harry Potter" books available electronically.
Neil Blair, Rowling's agent, says the author is now "actively looking at all the various options" for launching the seven Harry Potter books in the e-book market.
Blair said Monday that Rowling has been watching the developing e-book market and waiting for the right moment to release her books in that format.
J.K. Rowing
Tentative Deal Could End Detroit Strike
Detroit Symphony
The Detroit Symphony Orchestra and its striking musicians said Monday that a tentative agreement reached following a weekend of lengthy talks could resolve a six-month walkout.
The deal, which was reached after a final day of discussions, is subject to a ratification vote expected this week, said musicians' spokesman Greg Bowens. If approved, he said Detroit Federation of Musicians union members with the nationally acclaimed orchestra could be back at work by next weekend.
"This is the first time that the (musicians') negotiating committee has actually hammered out an agreement that they feel they could take back to the members," Bowens told The Associated Press.
Orchestra spokeswoman Elizabeth Weigandt confirmed in an email to The AP that a tentative agreement was reached. She and Bowens both said details of the terms weren't being immediately released.
Detroit Symphony
Hospital News
Robin Gibb
Bee Gees singer Robin Gibb has canceled a series of shows in Brazil after he was taken to a British hospital with abdominal pains.
A spokesman for the singer says Gibb suddenly fell ill early Sunday, and that doctors have told him not to travel while they diagnose the problem.
The 61-year-old Gibb had to cancel traveling to Brazil for concerts in cities such as Sao Paolo and Brasilia. He also had to postpone a planned meeting with Brazilian President Dilm Rouseff.
The singer underwent surgery for a blocked intestine last year, but his spokesman said Monday he has been in good health since then.
Robin Gibb
Falls For Bogus Email
Conde Nast
All it took was one e-mail to swindle $8 million from publishing company Conde Nast.
Papers filed by U.S. prosecutors in Manhattan said the publisher of magazines Vogue, Vanity Fair and the New Yorker, was tricked into thinking it was paying its regular printing company but was in fact being billed by a man identified as Andy Surface in Texas.
The six-week scheme started in early November when Conde Nast received an e-mail purporting to be from Quad/Graphics, the company's usual magazine printers, asking for payment to a different account, the court papers said.
Conde Nast, the papers said, simply filled out the form in the e-mail, faxed it over, and began sending payments to the new account.
By late December, Conde Nast's real printer outfit contacted the publisher to say it had not received any payments, raising the New York-based media company's suspicions.
Conde Nast
Creator Regrets Outburst
"Glee"
Ryan Murphy's feud with Kings of Leon has taken on a life of its own since the "Glee" creator labeled the band "self-centered a--holes" and said "F--- you" for refusing to license their music to his TV show.
"I didn't speak with as much clarity as I would have liked," Murphy said on the set of "Glee" Friday, referring to his initial comments in January.
Last month, Foo Fighters frontman Dave Grohl sided with Kings of Leon, whom Murphy had chided for "missing the big picture: that a 7-year-old kid can see someone close to their age singing a Kings of Leon song, which will maybe make them want to join a glee club or pick up a musical instrument."
Said Grohl: "It's every band's right... F--- that guy for thinking anybody and everybody should want to do Glee."
"Glee"
Selling Historic Studio Home
KCET-TV
KCET-TV has had a rough time since leaving PBS at the start of the year. Ratings have plunged without fan favorites such as "Charlie Rose" and "NewsHour." Station officials have scrambled to develop a new programming lineup from scratch.
Now it looks as if the station is looking for a new home. KCET officials are in talks to sell the station's landmark Sunset Boulevard studio to the Church of Scientology, according to people who know about the pending deal.
KCET plans to move its operations to a smaller location, real estate brokers said. Station officials have been touring potential sites, brokers said.
Terms of the potential deal were unavailable, but the 4.5-acre property at 4401 W. Sunset Blvd. has an assessed value of $14.1 million, according to county records. Individuals inside the station and real estate consultants who were not authorized to speak publicly about the transaction confirmed the likely sale.
KCET-TV
Used To Lampoon Mexico's Slim
"The Simpsons"
Attacks on Carlos Slim's hold on Mexico's telecoms market intensified on Monday when a secret group opposed to the world's richest man rubbished his core business in a newspaper advert called "The Slimsons".
Drawn in the style of U.S. cartoon sitcom "The Simpsons", the full-page broadside against the 71-year-old tycoon ran in several of Mexico's biggest dailies, lampooning the cost, reliability and services of Slim's telephone networks.
Slim has become embroiled in a bitter feud with Mexican media moguls over his dominance of local telecommunications, which has spawned a series of attacks on his credibility on television, the Internet and now newspapers.
In the advert, four blue-faced characters in the clouds state respectively "In Slimlandia -- clients get 'quality service'", "telephone charges 'are low'", "connection speeds 'are infinite'", and "your mobile 'always works'".
Below, a sad-looking man with a pink face says: "Not in Mexico." Signed off by anti-Slim group calling itself "Todos los Mexicanos" (All the Mexicans), the advert adds:
"The Simpsons"
British Spy Files Shed Light
Nazi Saboteurs
The four men wading ashore on a Florida beach wearing nothing but bathing trunks and German army hats looked like an unlikely invading force.
Declassified British intelligence files describe how the men were part of Nazi sabotage teams sent to the U.S. in June 1942 to undermine the American war effort.
They were trained in bomb-making, supplied with explosives and instructed in how to make timers from "easily obtainable commodities such as dried peas, lumps of sugar and razor blades."
Fortunately for the U.S., they were also spectacularly unsuccessful.
A detailed new account of the mission - code-named Pastorius after an early German settler in the U.S. - is provided in a report written in 1943 by MI5 intelligence officer Victor Rothschild. It is one of a trove of previously secret documents which shed light on the Nazis' desire to use sabotage, subterfuge and even poisoned sausages to fight the war.
Nazi Saboteurs
Fiancee Converts To Catholicism
Prince Albert
Charlene Wittstock, the South African swimming champion fiancee of Monaco's Prince Albert II, has converted to Roman Catholicism ahead of their July marriage, his palace said Sunday.
"Miss Charlene Wittstock who professes the Christian faith has been admitted by free and personal choice into full communion with the Catholic Church," said a palace statement.
Wittstock, 33, who was born in Rhodesia (today Zimbabwe) was a Protestant, while Catholicism is the principality's official religion.
Albert II, 53, met Wittstock in 2000 when she came to take part in a swimming competition in Monaco.
Prince Albert
Women Take Centre Stage
Oh, Silvio
From the judge's bench to the witness stand, women are at the centre of a sex trial for Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi starting Wednesday that has breathed new life into Italy's feminist movement.
The trial revolves around allegations that Berlusconi paid for sex with an underage prostitute -- just 17 at the time -- and then committed abuse of office by getting her released from police custody in a separate incident.
The Moroccan girl, Karima El Mahroug -- stage name "Ruby the Heart Stealer" -- was questioned four times in mid-2010 by prosecutors in Milan and made compromising statements about parties held at Berlusconi's residence.
One of the organisers of the soirees was Nicole Minetti, a 25-year-old brunette and Berlusconi confidante who is accused in a separate case of incitement to prostitution of a minor and more than 30 other young women.
Considered by Milan prosecutors as a sort of madam working for 74-year-old Berlusconi, Minetti has had a meteoric career starting from when she was a dental hygienist and a starlet on one of Berlusconi's television channels.
Oh, Silvio
In Memory
Jose Arguelles
An art historian whose teachings about the Mayan calendar inspired the harmonic convergence event of 1987 has died at age 72.
The identical twin brother of Jose Arguelles confirmed Monday that his brother died in Australia, saying the information came from his brother's companion. Arguelles' publisher said he died March 23 of peritonitis.
On Aug. 16, 1987, thousands of new age adherents following the lead of Arguelles gathered at places they regard as significant, such as the red rocks of Sedona, Ariz., Serpent Mound in Ohio and the Arthurian town Glastonbury in England.
He said at the time their celebrations would "ground the new vibrational frequencies" and lead to human entry into "galactic civilization" in 2012.
Jose Arguelles
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