The (Occasional) Weekly Poll presents...
New Question(s)
The "That was the week that was' Edition...
This past week we had a number of marvelously eclectic stories to captivate one's attention and give us some distractions to our otherwise hum-drum lives (haha) ...
Which, if any, of these stories piqued your interest the most this past week?
1.) Ah-nuld's 'Living Loving Maid' and 'Love Child'... (Why am I not amazed?)
2.) The Oprah 'I'll Always Love You' Fan-Fest count-down to her last show...(OMG! What to do? What to watch?... p.s. is she really a 'closet' Scientologist?)
3.) Saturday's 'Apocalypse Now' fizzle... (Good excuse fer a party, though, I'm sayin'...)
4.) Lizzie does Dublin... (No Sex Pistols singin', 'God Save the Queen', more's the pity...)
5.) Obama lectures Israel (Israel sez, "Get real, Dude") Obama then sings, 'We are Family' to AIPAC...
6.) 'When the Levee Breaks'..or, the Great American Flood, as it were...(Gators and snakes and bears, Oh My!)
7.) The 'Helter Skelter' hilarity of GOP presidential candidates doin' the 'You're Hot and then You're Cold' shuffle (featuring 'Newt the Hoot', so much the better...)
8.) Your pick... (Give us a thrill, would ya now, maybe?)
Well, then, Poll-fans... Have at it!
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Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Connie Schultz: "Dear Parents: Learn from Me" (Creators Syndicate)
By the time she was 14, she had already become an expert at throwing my words back at me. Don't you love how they do that? "You're the one who taught me to speak my mind!" she yelled from across the room. "You're the one who said I should give my opinion!" Grrrr. "Not with me," I shouted back.
Christa D'Souza and Lucy Mangan: Act your age - or your shoe size? (guardian)
Age-appropriate: it's a very modern buzzword. But what happens when you don't suit your years?
Jacob Weisberg: Fantasy Island (Slate)
Are Republicans losing their grip on reality?
Paul Krugman's Blog: Will Get Fooled Again (New York Times)
So what happens when this intense desire to find sensible Republicans faces the reality of a GOP gone bonkers?
Paul Krugman's Blog: Origins of the Crisis, Fake and Real (New York Times)
The whole "the government did it" claim is, in short, based on deeply misleading numbers - and it's hard to read this story without believing that these numbers were deliberately constructed to mislead.
Paul Krugman's Blog: Charlatans and Cranks (New York Times)
The 2010 election may, in retrospect, turn out to have been a disaster for the GOP: it empowered the extremists, leading them to believe that they could go the whole way and keep winning elections. I guess we'll see.
Bill Press: Democrats For Newt in 2012
… I am officially launching Democrats for Newt Gingrich in 2012. Newt's the one. Of course, I'll support Obama in the general election. But Gingrich has my support in the GOP primary, and I hope he'll have yours, too. Because he's the only Republican who speaks the truth.
Hector Tobar: Behind student success, an LAUSD librarian (Los Angeles Times)
Rosemarie Bernier, an LAUSD teacher-librarian facing layoff, teaches students to go beyond textbooks and "learn to stand on the shoulders of the great scientists, philosophers and mathematicians."
Clarence Page: Make college worth the cost
Future of the American dream is at stake.
Matt Miller: The Trouble with Men
The revelation that Arnold Schwarzennegger fathered a 10-year-old child with a household staffer (who still worked for the family until a few months ago-poor Maria!), plus IMF chief and "caviar socialist" Dominique Strauss-Kahn's alleged sexual assault of a young hotel maid, are just the latest reminders that there's something seriously wrong with at least a few members of my gender.
Teresa Amabile and Steve Kramer: Four Reasons to Keep a Work Diary (Harvard Business Review)
Question: What does Oprah Winfrey have in common with World War II General George S. Patton? Answer: Being an avid diarist.
Charlyn Fargo: Walnuts Top the Nuts Tree (Creators Syndicate)
You've probably heard that nuts are a good snack because of the antioxidants they contain. But a new analysis finds that walnuts may be the best nuts for you. Presented at the American Chemical Society National Meeting, a report finds that walnuts have a combination of healthier antioxidants and higher quality antioxidants than any other nut.
Chuck Norris: A Day to Remember (Creators Syndicate)
My father fought and was wounded in World War II in the Battle of the Bulge. I served in the U.S. Air Force in Korea. I am also an honorary Marine. My brother Aaron served in the U.S. Army in Korea. And our brother, Wieland, served in the U.S. Army as well in Vietnam, where he paid the ultimate price on June 3, 1970. (His name is etched among the 58,000 fallen servicemen and women on the Vietnam Wall Memorial in Washington, D.C.)
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."
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Reader Suggestion
Michelle in AZ
From The Creator of 'Avery Ant'
Little Ricky Update
Today's News
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Mostly sunny.
Capitol on 4th of July
Steve Martin
Steve Martin and his banjo are taking on the U.S. Capitol on July 4.
The 65-year-old entertainer is set to perform from the Capitol's west lawn during the annual "A Capitol Fourth" concert this year. Josh Groban, Little Richard, "Glee" star Matthew Morrison, "American Idol" winner Jordin Sparks and Broadway star Kelli O'Hara also share the bill.
Martin said his participation in the patriotic event inspired him to write a new song called "Me & Paul Revere," which talks about Revere's infamous ride from his horse's perspective. Martin will play the tune with his band, The Steep Canyon Rangers.
Jimmy Smits will host the Fourth of July concert, which will be broadcast on PBS, National Public Radio and the American Forces Network.
Steve Martin
Embraces Deep Personalization
Dilbert
The office life depicted in Dilbert often preys on real-life attitudes and fears. Now, readers of the character can swap places with the eternally befuddled office drone and his not-so-sharp cubicle dwellers.
Peanuts Worldwide, the marketing agent for Dilbert, says readers can now personalize up to 25 separate Dilbert comic strips with their own images and share them online with others.
Created by Scott Adams, Dilbert is carried by more than 2,000 publications worldwide, printed collections and was even an animated series.
Using technology created by PixFusion, readers can upload a photo to www.pixfusion.com, select an animated strip and personalize it with their own image, becoming Boss, Wally, Alice or Carol.
Dilbert
Against Labor Trafficking
Julia Ormond
Hollywood actress Julia Ormond pleaded with US lawmakers to pass a law halting the sale of men, women and children into forced labor.
Ormond told a panel of lawmakers how children are "chained, whipped and scarred for life while working on our carpets" and "Mayan agricultural slaves in Florida pick my tomatoes" just to keep prices down and profit margins high.
"Just as those forced into sex slavery, they deserve our compassion" and a federal law to protect them, said Ormond, who in 2007 founded the Alliance to Stop Slavery and End Trafficking (ASSET).
The British actress was testifying at a hearing of the House of Representatives' Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe, a leader in the US fight against human trafficking.
Julia Ormond
Nominations
Americana Awards
Robert Plant and Buddy Miller teamed up to top the list of nominees for the 2011 Americana Awards with three apiece.
Each was nominated Monday for artist of the year along with fellow three-time nominee Elizabeth Cook and teamed up for several nominations on their collaboration "Band of Joy."
The album earned the former Led Zeppelin singer a nomination for album of the year. His all-star group of collaborators, which includes co-producer Miller and is also known as The Band of Joy, earned a nod in the duo/group category at the Oct. 13 awards.
Miller is also up for instrumentalist of the year.
Americana Awards
Major Manuscript Up For Sale
Jane Austen
The only major Jane Austen manuscript still in private hands comes up for auction on July 14th, auction house Sotheby's said on Monday.
"The Watsons" by the prolific author of "Sense and Sensibility" is estimated by Sotheby's at 200,000-300,000 pounds ($323,800-$485,700).
"Probably written in 1804, this heavily corrected draft represents the earliest surviving manuscript for a novel by Jane Austen," Sotheby's said in a statement.
None of the manuscripts of Jane Austen's completed novels survive, with the exception of two draft chapters of "Persuasion" (at the British Library), Austen's juvenile work "Lady Susan" (at the Pierpont Morgan Library, New York) and the fragment "Sanditon" (at King's College, Cambridge), the only other autograph novel manuscript of comparable length.
Jane Austen
Showtime Orders Fourth Season
"Nurse Jackie"
Showtime has renewed Nurse Jackie for a fourth season.
The dark drama starring Emmy winner Edie Falco has averaged 2.8 million viewers a week during its third season.
The Monday night half-hour from creators and executive producers Liz Brixius and Linda Wallem draws 762,000 viewers on Mondays, with 71 percent of Showtime subscribers watching via On Demand, DVR and replays throughout the week.
The season three finale airs next month.
"Nurse Jackie"
Showtime Cancels
"United States of Tara"
U.S. cable network Showtime has decided not to move forward with "United States of Tara."
The Toni Collette comedy, which centers on a mom who suffers from multiple personalities, will be ending after its third season ends this summer.
Tara, created by Oscar-winning screenwriter Diablo Cody and executive produced by Steven Spielberg, premiered in 2009 to solid ratings, but began to diminish in viewership as seasons progressed.
It premiered its current season to 411,000 total viewers and a 0.2 rating in the adults 18-49 demographic, down significantly from its Season 2 launch, when it averaged 816,000 and a 0.4.
"United States of Tara"
Baby News
Cleo Buckman Schwimmer
David Schwimmer is now a father.
A spokeswoman for the 44-year-old actor and director says Schwimmer and his wife, Zoe Buckman, recently welcomed their first daughter.
Publicist Ina Treciokas says baby Cleo Buckman Schwimmer was born May 8.
Schwimmer was a star of TV's "Friends." He also lent his voice to the "Madagascar" animated movies.
Cleo Buckman Schwimmer
Sister Supports Book
Harper Lee
Harper Lee's sister says the author of "To Kill a Mockingbird" has indeed cooperated with a memoir about her. And the publisher has set a release date: fall 2013.
The law firm Barnett, Bugg, Lee & Carter had released a signed statement last month from Harper Lee disputing an announcement by Penguin Press that Marja Mills' "The Mockingbird Next Door" had been written with "full access" to the media-shy novelist.
But Alice Lee, Harper Lee's sister, is a partner in the firm and said in a signed letter dated May 21 and released Monday by Penguin that the statement was prepared without her knowledge and "does not represent" the feelings of either sister. A woman who answered the phone at Barnett, Bugg declined comment and hung up on a reporter seeking comment.
Harper Lee
Advertisers Stand By After Doping Report
Lance Armstrong
A day after a "60 Minutes" report claimed that Lance Armstrong took performance-enhancing drugs, Nike has released a statement supporting the cyclist.
A representative for Anheuser-Busch told THR that Armstrong will continue to be a spokesperson for Michelob Ultra.
"Lance has performed as an extraordinary athlete in a demanding sport, making him admired by millions who lead active lifestyles. That was our opinion when we signed him and that is our opinion today," the company says in a statement.
At least three of Armstrong's ex-teammates claimed the cyclist used PEDs. Tyler Hamilton, Armstrong's fellow cyclist for the first three of his seven Tour de France victories, said he even witnessed Armstrong inject the blood-boosting drug EPO.
Lance Armstrong
Heads To MSNBC
Michael Steele
After becoming famous (and infamous) for spouting off about politics, former Republican National Committee chairman Michael Steele is going to make a career out of it at MSNBC.
The network announced Monday via Politico that it's hired Steele as a political analyst and he will soon "regularly appear on the full lineup of MSNBC programming."
Since leaving the RNC, Steele has been shopping himself around as a political analyst. In the process, Steele has revealed he's even less willing to toe the party line now that he's no longer a party official.
Michael Steele
Radio Host Now Says October
The Rapture
California preacher Harold Camping said Monday his prophecy that the world would end was off by five months because Judgment Day actually will come on October 21.
Camping, who predicted that 200 million Christians would be taken to heaven Saturday before the Earth was destroyed, said he felt so terrible when his doomsday prediction did not come true that he left home and took refuge in a motel with his wife. His independent ministry, Family Radio International, spent millions - some of it from donations made by followers - on more than 5,000 billboards and 20 RVs plastered with the Judgment Day message.
But Camping said that he's now realized the apocalypse will come five months after May 21, the original date he predicted. He had earlier said Oct. 21 was when the globe would be consumed by a fireball.
It's not the first time the independent Christian radio host has been forced to explain when his prediction didn't come to pass. He also predicted the Apocalypse would come in 1994, but said it didn't happen then because of a mathematical error.
Rather than give his normal daily broadcast on Monday, Camping made a special statement before the press at the Oakland headquarters of the media empire that has broadcast his message. His show, "Open Forum," has for months headlined his doomsday message via the group's radio stations, TV channels, satellite broadcasts and website.
The Rapture
Man Fakes Mugging To Cover Failure To Get Tickets
Oprah
A 44-year-old Canadian man says he concocted a lie that he was mugged so he wouldn't have to tell his wife that he had no tickets to Oprah Winfrey's final show.
Robert Spearing faces felony charges for telling police that two men roughed him up in Chicago and took the coveted tickets.
According to local reports, he later confessed to making up the story because he was afraid to tell his wife that they had traveled all the way to Chicago without tickets. He told police he faked his injuries by cutting his own forehead with a rock and scraping his hands on the sidewalk.
Spearing was charged with one count of felony disorderly conduct for filing a false police report. He is due for another court hearing next Tuesday.
Oprah
Allende's Remains Exhumed
Chile
Chile on Monday exhumed the remains of former president Salvador Allende, hoping to finally determine whether he committed suicide or was murdered during a 1973 coup.
Officials hope that a forensic analysis of Allende's remains will resolve a decades-old controversy over his death in his presidential palace on September 11, 1973 in the midst of the coup that brought General Augusto Pinochet to power.
The official version was that Allende killed himself with an assault rifle -- a gift from Cuban leader Fidel Castro -- as the La Moneda presidential palace was being bombed by Air Force planes and besieged by tanks and soldiers.
But neither the weapon nor bullets were recovered following his death, and Pinochet's military regime prevented Allende's family from seeing his corpse after the coup. There was no criminal investigation into his death.
Chile
Guide Blind Horse
Seeing-Eye Sheep
Michelle Feldstein was prepared to provide special accommodations for the blind horse she recently added to the flightless ducks, clawless cats and homeless llamas inhabiting her animal shelter in Montana.
But nothing could prepare her for the 40-legged, seeing-eye entourage that accompanied "Sissy," a sightless, 15-year-old quarter horse.
"Sissy came with five goats and five sheep -- and they take care of her," said Feldstein, the force behind Deer Haven Ranch, a private rescue facility she runs with her husband, Al, on 300 acres north of Yellowstone National Park.
The seeing-eye sheep and guard goats are never far from the white mare, and they never lead her astray. They shepherd Sissy to food and water, and angle the horse into her stall amid blowing snows or driving rains.
Feldstein and her husband, a retired editor of Mad Magazine, underwrite their rescue operation. It can cost as much as $50,000 (31,030 pounds) a year for feed, veterinarian services, and winter-time heating of barns and water troughs for a total of 200 animals. The couple also run a guest house for humans whose profits are poured into the animal sanctuary.
Seeing-Eye Sheep
In Memory
Barbara Stuart
Barbara Stuart, an actress with a familiar if not famous face on television for half a century, who appeared on nearly 80 television series that spanned much of the medium's history, died on Sunday in St. George, Utah. She was 81.
Starting with I Led Three Lives"" in 1954 and concluding with the Showtime series "Huff" in 2006, Ms. Stuart never achieved stardom. Viewers with sharp eyes and good memories might recall her as Miss Bunny the long-suffering girlfriend of Sergeant Carter on "Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C.," or as Peggy Ferguson, McLean Stevenson's wife on "The McLean Stevenson Show," but her television appearances were notable more for their frequency than their visibility.
After appearing in the recurring role of Bessie, Gildy's inept secretary, on "The Great Gildersleeve," in 1955, she found steady employment for the next five decades, compiling a long list of credits that included shows both renowned and long forgotten. She appeared on the classic shows "The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show," "Rawhide," "The Twilight Zone," "The Dick Van Dyke Show" and "Taxi." Less celebrated were "Jefferson Drum," "Markham" and "Frontier Circus."
Although she had recurring roles on "Pete and Gladys," as Gladys's friend Alice, in the early 1960s, and on "Our Family Honor," as Marianne Danzig, the wife of a crime lord played by Eli Wallach, in the mid-1980s, she usually worked on just one or two episodes of a series.
She showed up on "Batman" in 1966 as Rocket O'Rourke, henchwoman to the Puzzler, for two parts of a linked episode and then vanished from the series, only to resurface as Goldie Miner on an episode of "T.H.E. Cat." This was the pattern throughout a career that extended from the kinescope era to cable.
Barbara Ann McNeese was born on Jan. 3, 1930, in Paris, Ill., and grew up in nearby Hume. After graduating from high school, she took acting classes at the Schuster-Martin School of Drama in Cincinnati and then moved to New York, where she studied with Stella Adler and Uta Hagen. To pay for her classes, she modeled on the side. For professional purposes, she took the last name Stuart, a family name.
Her first television role came in 1954, when she played Comrade Martine Fenton in the cold war spy drama "I Led Three Lives." After being cast in the national touring production of "Lunatics and Lovers," with Zero Mostel in the starring role, she was hired for "The Great Gildersleeve," and the television parts came rolling in.
Ms. Stuart, who lived in Toluca Lake, Los Angeles, appeared in a handful of films, including "Marines, Let's Go!" (1961), "Hellfighters" (1968) and "The Pterodactyl Woman From Beverly Hills" (1997). In the 1980 satire "Airplane!," she was the wife of Rex Kramer, the crack pilot played by Robert Stack. She was Tom Hanks's future mother-in-law in "Bachelor Party" (1984).
Her marriage to the actor Dick Gautier ended in divorce. In addition to her brother, Richard, of Santa Clara, Utah, she is survived by three stepchildren: Diane Christine Chormicle of Rancho Cucamonga, Calif.; Denise Michelle Gautier of Arcadia, Calif.; and Rand Robert Gautier of Santa Rosa, Calif.
Barbara Stuart
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