'TBH Politoons'
Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Ben Tripp: November Prognostication: Republicans Sweep (smirkingchimp.com)
The Republicans won't gain any seats, but they're not going to lose more than a handful, either. Why not? Because of three very important things, or possibly seven very important things, of which I will enumerate the three I can remember.
Poll Shows Strong Republican Gains (makethemaccountable.com)
Following an "aggressive media blitz," a new Zogby poll "finds the standing of President Bush and congressional Republicans climbing as the November elections rapidly approach."
GWYNNE DYE: If 9/11 hadn't happened (nowtoronto.com)
... without 9/11 there would have been no governments justifying torture in the name of fighting terrorism, no "special renditions," no camps like Guantánamo. Tens of thousands of people killed in the various invasions of the past five years would still be alive, and Western countries with large Muslim minorities would not now face a potential terrorist backlash at home from their own disaffected young Muslims. The United States would not be seen by most of the world as a rogue state.
Susan J. Douglas: Plagiarists: Catch Your Own Clue (inthesetimes.com)
Plagiarism is on the rise, and it's not just about students' term papers. Consider the sordid case of Ann Coulter...
Will Durst: The Victims of 9/12
The people have had it with Bush and co.'s load of Iraq BS, and we ain't buying it anymore.
Michael Miner: Is Uglier Funnier? (chicagoreader.com)
What's behind the Onion's makeover.
Tim Harford: A Marriage of Convenience (slate.com)
How matrimony is alarmingly like coal mining.
Do women really want male lap dancers? (guardian.co.uk)
Lap dancing has been huge for years - so why is Britain's first male lap dancing club only opening now? And will it make any money? Ellie Levenson reports.
Jonathan Yardley: What's underneath the buttons on the button-down mind (washingtonpost.com)
Is Bob Newhart the funniest person on the face of the planet? Well, if your tastes run to a highbrow but low-key style of humor...
RICHARD ROEPER: Christie's star shines brightest in Toronto (suntimes.com)
At 65 and with her hair in curlers, Julie Christie in a hotel elevator is more stunning than Scarlett Johansson on the red carpet.
David Bruce: Wise Up! Names (athensnews.com)
When Shirley Temple first met Bill "Bojangles" Robinson, she asked if she could call him Uncle Billy. Mr. Robinson replied, "Why, sure you can. But then I get to call you darlin'." They made the deal, and they starred together in four movies.
Hubert's Poetry Corner
MY PALLID SALAD
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Still sunny & dry, but the heat & wind have calmed down.
Hotel Reopens
`Fawlty Towers'
The Gleneagles Hotel staged a gala reopening Monday, boasting of its reputation as Fawlty Towers, England's most frightful hotel.
"We decided Hotel Gleneagles is always going to be famous for inspiring `Fawlty Towers' so, rather than being embarrassed about what has happened, we have chosen to capitalize on it," said Brian Shone, co-owner of the hotel in Torquay, a sedate resort in the southwestern county of Devon.
The Gleneagles is not the building seen in the title shots of the 1970s TV series - that's the Woodburn Grange country club near London, which burned down in 1991.
John Cleese didn't attend Monday's reopening but Prunella Scales, who played Basil's wife, Sybil Fawlty, was guest of honor. Scales, who had never visited the hotel before, arrived in a replica of the bright red Austin 1100 that Basil thrashed with a tree branch in one episode of the series.
`Fawlty Towers'
British Stage Debut
Henry Winkler
Actor Henry Winkler will play Captain Hook in Peter Pan at London's New Wimbledon Theatre.
David Hasselhoff was originally offered the role but pulled out to appear on Simon Cowell's new US show America's Got Talent.
Winkler, 60, will co-star with entertainer Bobby Davro. The show marks his British stage debut.
Winkler is not the only US star treading the board in panto this Christmas. Dallas star Patrick Duffy is appearing in Cinderella at the New Victoria Theatre, Woking.
Henry Winkler
Unfinished Work To Be Published
J.R.R. Tolkien
An unfinished tale by J.R.R. Tolkien has been edited by his son into a completed work and will be released next spring, the U.S. and British publishers announced Monday.
Christopher Tolkien has spent the past 30 years working on "The Children of Hurin," an epic tale his father began in 1918 and later abandoned. Excerpts of "The Children of Húrin," which includes the elves and dwarves of Tolkien's "The Lord of the Rings" and other works, have been published before.
The new book will be published by Houghton Mifflin in the United States and HarperCollins in England.
J.R.R. Tolkien
Picks Up Two
USA Network
USA Network has picked up its oldest series, the drama "The Dead Zone," and its latest entry, the comedy-drama "Psych," for another season each.
"Dead Zone" will return for a 13-episode, sixth season in summer 2007, with star Anthony Michael Hall reprising his role as Johnny Smith, a man who awakens from a six-year coma with psychic powers.
"Psych," meanwhile, has received a 16-episode order for a second season to launch in summer 2007 as well. The pickup was a no-brainer given the show's strong rating performance behind the network's hit "Monk" on Friday night.
USA Network
Wedding News
Gibson - Shepherd
Mel Gibson's only daughter, Hannah, married blues-rock guitarist Kenny Wayne Shepherd this weekend. Gibson, 26, and Shepherd, 29, of Benton, La., exchanged vows in California on Saturday, People magazine reported on its Web site.
He proposed to Gibson on New Year's Eve 2004 in Rome, according to The Times of Shreveport, La.
Gibson, 50, and his wife, Robyn, have seven children. Hannah is their oldest child and only daughter.
Gibson - Shepherd
Cited For Possession
Willie Nelson
Willie Nelson and several members of his band were issued misdemeanor citations for drug possession early today during a traffic stop in Saint Martin Parish.
Trooper Willie Williams says troopers smelled a strong odor of marijuana when the driver opened the bus door.
During a search of the bus, Williams say approximately 1 1/2 pounds of marijuana and approximately 2/10 of a pound of mushrooms were located on the bus.
Willie Nelson
Assault Case To Grand Jury
Hank Williams Jr.
A grand jury will decide whether country singer Hank Williams Jr. will stand trial on misdemeanor assault charges filed after a cocktail waitress said he yelled obscenities and choked her at a local hotel.
Criminal Court Judge Gwen Rooks ruled Monday that probable cause was established and bound the case over to a Shelby County grand jury.
The waitress, Holly Hornbeak, testified that she had red marks and bruising on her neck and that she was hoarse the next day.
A private attorney hired by her parents demanded $250,000 from Williams two days later, but Hornbeak denied that the case was being driven by money.
Hank Williams Jr.
Selling Naming Rights
Shrine Auditorium
The Shrine Auditorium, whose Moroccan-style facade has been seen by millions as the home of the Emmy Awards and other glittering Hollywood events, could soon sport the name of a corporate sponsor.
The organization that runs the venue is hoping a single sponsor would be willing to spend anywhere from US$2.5 million to $4 million per year to place its name on the enormous facility.
The goal is to raise the Shrine's profile, pay for upkeep and needed improvements and, the owners hope, even lure the Academy Awards back to its stage.
The building is owned by the Al Malaikah Auditorium Co., a for-profit arm of the Shriners, a national fraternal organization. The company leases the Shrine for local as well as national events and is profitable.
Shrine Auditorium
Married Archbishop Says Vatican Threatening
Emmanuel Milingo
An African archbishop who scandalized the Roman Catholic Church when he was married by the Rev. Sun Myung Moon said Sunday that a top Vatican official has demanded he repent or his authority to celebrate Mass and perform other duties will be suspended.
Archbishop Emmanuel Milingo said that Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, head of the Vatican's Congregation for Bishops, has demanded that Milingo send a letter of repentance by Oct. 15 to Pope Benedict XVI or face "canonical suspension."
Milingo, the retired archbishop of Zambia, was in New Jersey with is wife, Maria, for a conference of priests and their wives organized by his new advocacy group, Married Priests Now!. Asked how he would respond to the Vatican, he said, "I will stay with them" - meaning married priests.
Before his marriage, Catholic officials accused him of promoting African indigenous beliefs by performing mass exorcisms and healing ceremonies. Then in 2001, the archbishop married Maria Sung, a South Korean acupuncturist Moon chose for him, at a mass wedding in New York.
Four months later, Milingo renounced the union, after a personal appeal from Pope John Paul II. But Milingo said he grew frustrated by restrictions on his ministry, so he fled Rome.
Emmanuel Milingo
A Roman Catholic archbishop in a non-church-sanctified marriage for 5 years?
And an appearance by the Rev. Moon, too. Sniff. Sniff.
In Memory
Robert Earl Jones
Actor Robert Earl Jones, a fixture in Broadway shows and movies and the father of actor James Earl Jones, has died. Jones, 96, died Sept. 7 at the Lillian Booth Actors' Home, according to the home and Dale Olson, his son's agent.
Jones was a third-grade dropout from Senotobia, Miss., who worked as a sharecropper, then became a boxer before arriving in New York City and taking up acting. The poet Langston Hughes cast him in an early role in the Harlem Suitcase Theatre.
Jones appeared as boxing champion Joe Louis in "Spirit of Youth" among other films and Broadway productions before his career was interrupted in the 1950s when he was blacklisted for refusing to testify before the House un-American Activities Committee.
His movie career resumed by the late 1950s. He had roles in films including "Odds Against Tomorrow," "Wild River," "The Sting" and "Witness" in a career that lasted into the 1990s. In all, he appeared in more than 20 films.
In addition to his acting, Jones ran marathons, including the New York City marathon in 1996.
Besides James Earl Jones, Robert Earl Jones is survived by son Matthew Earl Jones and a grandson. Funeral services were private.
Robert Earl Jones
In Memory
Mickey Hargitay
Mickey Hargitay, the actor and world champion bodybuilder who was married to 1950s sex siren Jayne Mansfield and whose daughter is Emmy-winning winning actress Mariska Hargitay, has died. He was 80.
Born Miklos Hargitay in 1926, he emigrated from his native Hungary to the United States after World War II. He became interested in bodybuilding in the 1950s and was named Mr. Universe, Mr. America and Mr. Olympia in 1955.
He parlayed his perfect physique into a performing career when Mae West tapped him to be one of the musclemen in her stage show.
It was there that Hargitay met Mansfield, whom he married in 1957. That same year, he made his big-screen debut in "Slaughter on Tenth Avenue." He went on to star opposite his wife in three films: "The Loves of Hercules," "Promises! Promises!" and "Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter?"
The couple had three children together before divorcing in 1964. Mansfield died in a car crash in 1967.
Hargitay's career continued following his divorce with appearances in a half-dozen Italian films and horror flicks. He even guest-starred in a 2003 episode of "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit," the show in which his daughter Mariska plays a leading role.
Besides Mariska, Hargitay is survived by his wife, Ellen, sons Mickey Jr. and Zoltan, and another daughter, Tina.
Mickey Hargitay
| CURRENT MOON lunar phases |
