'Best of TBH Politoons'
Reader Comment
Protecting The Children
Massachusetts State Science Fair Folk:
Thank You, Thank You, Thank You for disqualifying those
two young miscreants, Nathan C. Woodard and Nathaniel A.
Gorlin-Crenshaw from the Massachusetts Middle School State
Science Fair!
As you know, in the 1960s (when I grew up), only 58% of
all elementary students and 31% of all Junior High
School students survived the dangerously permissive
official education policies of the day.
Several of my fellow students were killed daily from
shooting BB guns, carrying pocket knives, having photographs
of firearms in school, taking aspirins brought from home
without the supervision of a Board-certified Registered
Nurse, unsupervised play in woodlands, listening to radios
that plugged into the dangerous AC mains, and wearing
T-shirts expressing controversial ideas. The bodies
littered the gym floor. It's a miracle that any of us
lived to reproduce!
Thank God that today there are people like you to protect
the children from parent- and police-supervised study of
BB guns!
By the way, I see an oversight in your official rules.
While you state that the Middle Schoolers may not do a
project that involves "Nonhuman vertebrate animals", the
rules do not prohibit projects involving "Human (presumably
vertebrate) animals". I can see a project involving Human
Sexuality, in which two Middle-schoolers have sex in
alternate weeks and determine the exact moment of conception,
with video documentation. (A second pair of students will
use condoms, perhaps, as a control). This doesn't seem to
violate your published rules: perhaps a "no sex" rule is
called-for? Of course, you'll need to define what "sex" is,
in very explicit terms, so that the children will know what
you are prohibiting. http://www.scifair.com/middle/manual.pdf
Please enhance your protection of the children, and keep
up the good work!
(By the way, please tell Nancy G. Degon that a BB gun is *not*
a firearm. She sounds stupid when she says that.)
Jeff in Powell OH
Thanks, Jeff!
When I was in high school, we had to do 'demonstration' speeches.
One of the highlights was when Mickey Murray showed us how to pack shells for a 30.06.
Then there was the day Mr. Johnson snapped & pulled a pistol on Harv Davison.
Ah, memories.
Recommended Reading
from Bruce
FRANK RICH: Don't Follow the Money (NY Times)
THE morning the Deep Throat story broke, the voice on my answering machine was as raspy as Hal Holbrook's. "I just want you to remember that I wrote 'Follow the money,' " said my caller. "I want to know if anybody will give me credit. Watch for the accuracy of the media!"
Paul Krugman: "For Richer" (from 2002)
When I was a teenager growing up on Long Island, one of my favorite excursions was a trip to see the great Gilded Age mansions of the North Shore.
CLIVE THOMPSON: Not Ready for Their Close-Up (NY Times)
Cap Lesesne, a New York plastic surgeon, hears from a lot of women worried about aging.
Roger Ebert: Answer Man
The real usefulness of ... a book like "1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die," is that it provides good ideas for DVD rentals. I have, by the way, seen 943 of the 1001 movies, and am carefully rationing the remaining titles to prolong my life.
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Overcast & cool on the coast - +90° in the Valley.
The kid was home sick again today. His cold has taken up residence in his right ear.
Tonight, when Ahnold, the Austrian-passport-carrying $pecial Intere$t Schlampe stated "...relive the past all over again" we were trying to eat dinner.
He is calling a $pecial election that'll cost the state approximately $80 million to pay off his very $pecial Intere$t pal$.
His comment made me think of another Austrian carpetbagger who horned his way into Germany's government in the 1930s, and we remember how that ended up.
Yeah, let's relive that past all over again.
Announces Split to MTV
Destiny's Child
Staying together was not part of Destiny's Child's destiny - the multiplatinum group is splitting up.
In a statement released to MTV News, the trio of Beyonce, Kelly Rowland and Michelle Williams announced plans to disband after their world tour ends in the fall.
The breakup of the girl group, which first debuted as a teenage R&B foursome in 1997, isn't much of a shocker. Many critics didn't expect the group to exist at all after the multiplatinum solo debut of Beyonce in 2003. Her album, "Dangerously In Love," won five Grammys and solidified her as a one-name superstar apart from the group.
Destiny's Child
Stars Get Bonuses As 3rd Season Begins
'Nip/Tuck'
The stars of FX's drama "Nip/Tuck" are getting bonuses just in time for the start of production on the Golden Globe-winning series' third season.
Sources said Julian McMahon and Dylan Walsh have each received a paycheck in the $280,000-$320,000 range, with FX providing most of the money and producer Warner Bros. Television contributing a small portion.
The lump-sum bonuses would beef up McMahon and Walsh's per-episode fees to more than $60,000, according to sources. Co-star Joely Richardson is also said to have received a bonus going into the third season, which starts production today.
'Nip/Tuck'
Suit Drops Defendants
Notorious B.I.G.
Relatives of slain rapper Notorious B.I.G. have removed from their wrongful death lawsuit a man who had been accused of conspiring to kill the 24-year-old entertainer and also plan to remove another man, leaving the city of Los Angeles as the sole defendant.
The move follows a June 3 report by the Los Angeles Times that a paid police informant who told investigators that rap mogul Marion "Suge" Knight and a rogue police officer orchestrated the killing later admitted that most of the information was "hearsay."
Notorious B.I.G., born as Christopher Wallace, was gunned down March 9, 1997, after a music-industry party in the Mid-Wilshire district. The case remains unsolved.
His estate, mother, Voletta Wallace, and other relatives sued the city on allegations that Los Angeles Police Department officials covered up police involvement in the murder. The suit, which seeks unspecified monetary damages, is scheduled to go to trial June 23.
Notorious B.I.G.
Hawaiian Ukulele Star
Jake Shimabukuro
Hawaiian musician Jake Shimabukuro has the highest debuting instrumental album ever in Japan. But forget the guitars and pianos. He did it with a ukulele.
The Honolulu-native debuted at No. 15 on the Japanese album charts this week with his CD "Dragon," which went on sale here June 1. The CD is scheduled for release in the United States on Aug. 2.
"Dragon," a more rock-oriented collection than Shimabukuro's earlier, softer-sounding albums, has already sold 30,000 copies in Japan, according to Sony Music's Yuri Furukawa. She said his last album, "Walking Down Rainhill," sold 65,000, with sales roughly even in the United States and Japan.
Shimabukuro, whose unorthodox and energetic style has led some to call him the Jimi Hendrix of the ukulele, has a devoted fan base among the Japanese, who for decades have been enamored by virtually all things Hawaiian.
Jake Shimabukuro
Wedding News
Silverstone - Jarecki
Alicia Silverstone is, like, totally married. The 28-year-old "Clueless" star wed longtime boyfriend Christopher Jarecki at Lake Tahoe on Saturday, said Silverstone's publicist, Elizabeth Much, confirming a report in People magazine.
It's the first marriage for both Silverstone and Jarecki, lead singer of the band S.T.U.N. The pair have been together for eight years.
The wedding was held for 135 friends and family at a private lakeside estate. The couple exchanged vows while barefoot on the beach, People reported Monday.
Silverstone - Jarecki
Turns 25
'Airplane!'
Surely it hasn't been 25 years since the movie "Airplane!" debuted. But it has and "Don't call me Shirley."
Jewish Family Services plans an anniversary benefit celebration in honor of the volunteer service and philanthropy of Louise Abrahams Yaffe and her son Jim Abrahams, who wrote and directed "Airplane!" with fellow Shorewood High School and University of Wisconsin-Madison graduates David and Jerry Zucker.
A reception and dinner will be held Wednesday at the Pfister Hotel in Milwaukee and a red carpet screening will be on Thursday at the Pabst Theater. Jewish Family Services is a nonprofit social services group working in the Milwaukee area for more than 135 years.
'Airplane!'
Converting to Scientology
Katie Holmes
Katie Holmes says she's converting to the Church of Scientology, embracing the religion of her boyfriend, Tom Cruise.
Holmes, in London to promote her new film, "Batman Begins," said Monday that she's excited about her lessons in Scientology, a religion founded by science fiction writer L. Ron Hubbard.
The 26-year-old actress and Cruise went public with their romantic relationship in April. The former Catholic and star of television's "Dawson's Creek" grew up with a poster of Cruise on her bedroom wall and has said she grew up wanting to marry him.
Katie Holmes
Court Won't Review Lawsuit
Beastie Boys
The Supreme Court on Monday declined to consider whether a 1992 Beastie Boys song infringed on the copyright of a jazz flutist's recording.
Without comment, justices let stand a lower court ruling against jazz artist James W. Newton. Newton contended that the punk rappers' "Pass the Mic" included a sample from his musical composition "Choir" without his full permission.
The Beastie Boys paid a licensing fee for the six-second, three-note segment of Newton's work, but failed to pay an additional fee to license the underlying composition.
Beastie Boys
She Works Hard
Paris Hilton
Paris Hilton plans to give up public life for family life. The 24-year-old hotel heiress, star of "The Simple Life" reality series, tells Newsweek magazine that when she was younger, "I thought it was cute to play a dumb blonde. On TV, I do it because it's funny. I consider myself a businesswoman and a brand."
But Hilton says she plans to give up her public life in two years, by which time she expects to become a mother with her fiance, Paris Latsis.
"I don't enjoy going out anymore," she says in the June 20 issue of the magazine, on newsstands Monday. "It's such a pain. It's everyone saying, `Let's do a deal! Can I have a picture?' I'm just, like, `These people are such losers. I can't believe I used to love doing this.'"
Paris Hilton
Doesn't Like To Read
Paris Hilton
Pamela Anderson has revealed that Paris Hilton refuses to read restaurant menus for herself.
The stars were out dining together when Paris wanted a waiter to read out the menu contents to her.
According to The Sun online Pamela told GQ magazine: "She's funny.
"Last time I met her we were in a restaurant together - she slammed the menu down and screamed: 'I hate reading! Someone tell me what's on the menu!'
Paris Hilton
High Court Declines Challenges
Media Ownership
The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday declined to hear appeals by media companies challenging whether ownership restrictions are constitutional, leaving it up to U.S. regulators to decide the appropriate limits.
The high court turned down appeals by media companies, including Tribune Co. and Gannett Co. Inc., which have argued that the ownership limits the Federal Communications Commission set in 2003 violate free speech rights and a 1996 law they said ordered deregulation.
The Republican-led FCC eased several ownership limits, including lifting a ban that barred a company that owns a newspaper from also owning a television station or radio outlet in that market, known as cross-ownership.
Media Ownership
Rain Queen Dies
Makobo Modjadji
Makobo Modjadji, the famed rain queen of South Africa's Balobedu people, has died of unspecified causes after just two years in power, the Modjadji Royal Council said Monday. She was 27.
The queen was admitted to the Medi-Clinic in Polokwane on Friday with symptoms that included vomiting and died Sunday, council spokesman Clement Modjadji told the South African Press Association. He did not disclose the cause of death.
Modjadji, who was crowned in 2003 at the age of 25, was the tribe's sixth and youngest queen and the only one to be formally educated. The tribe is one of the few in Africa to have a leader who comes from a female line of succession.
H. Rider Haggard's classic novels "King Solomon's Mines" and "She" first drew the world's attention to the legendary rain queen in the 1880s.
Her power was so feared that the Balobedu were left in relative peace for centuries despite the wars that raged around the region.
Makobo Modjadji
'Iceman' Might Be Contaminated
Oetzi
Researchers suspect the corpse of a 5,000-year-old mummy frozen in the Italian Alps might have been contaminated by bacteria since its discovery in 1991, a doctor who cares for the body said Monday.
X-rays have shown bubbles in the bones that could be caused by bacteria, said Eduard Egarter Vigl, in charge of preserving the mummy at the South Tyrol Archaeological Museum in Bolzano, Italy.
The museum is trying to find local companies that can analyze the air in the sealed-off chamber where the mummy is kept to test for the presence of bacteria, Egarter Vigl said in a telephone interview.
He denied media reports that the bacteria could cause the disintegration of the Iceman, also known as Oetzi. But if bacteria are present, disinfection will be necessary to prevent possible damage to the man's remains, he said.
Oetzi
Rochester, NY
Frederick Douglass
The knock at Sherri Dukes' front door came years after her late husband, Lee, confided his secret to her: that he had seen the ghost of a studious black man seated at their bedroom desk.
At the door that day in fall 2003 was historian Jean Czerkas, on a mission to unearth remnants of anti-slavery crusader Frederick Douglass's links to Rochester.
Czerkas had already discovered the long-forgotten grave of Douglass's daughter, Rosetta Douglass Sprague, at the city's Mount Hope Cemetery, where the abolitionist author is also buried. And that led to records of a modest, two-storey house that once belonged to Douglass.
This was the house that Lee and Sherri Dukes bought on Hamilton Street in 1973, 100 years after Rosetta moved there with her family - her famous father listed as a boarder.
"Please come in! You're just the person I've been looking for," she told Czerkas.
For the rest, Frederick Douglass
