Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Paul Krugman: Voodoo Economics, the Next Generation (NY Times)
Even if Republicans take the Senate this year, gaining control of both houses of Congress, they won't gain much in conventional terms: They're already able to block legislation, and they still won't be able to pass anything over the president's veto. One thing they will be able to do, however, is impose their will on the Congressional Budget Office, heretofore a nonpartisan referee on policy proposals. As a result, we may soon find ourselves in deep voodoo.
President Obama: "That's how we roll" (CBS News)
Why does the U.S. take the lead in world crises? "That's how we roll," says President Obama. "That's what makes this America."
Galaxy's guardians make the case: upgrade Pluto back to planet-size! (Guardian)
Eight years ago it was relegated to dwarf planet status. But Harvard astrophysicists are arguing that being small shouldn't disqualify it.
Amelia Gentleman: "Sex doesn't sell: the decline of British porn" (Guardian)
A visit to the beige, windowless rooms of the Xbiz adult industry conference reveals a business on its deathbed, agonising over regulations - and full of men who tell you they worry about what their children watch online.
James Whitbrook: Theatre owners are angry about Interstellar's 'Film first' initiative (io9)
As revealed at the end of last week's trailer, Cinemas capable of showing the movie in 70mm, 70mm IMAX or 35mm film formats will get access to the movie two days ahead of the November 7th release date.
Antonia Molloy: Australian woman Dana Vulin takes mask off to reveal face after being set on fire by woman jealous of her looks (Independent)
An Australian woman who suffered horrific burns after being soaked in methylated spirits and set on fire has revealed her new face for the first time.
Anne Penketh: Gerard Depardieu says his mother tried to kill him in womb with knitting needle in new book revelations (Independent)
Controversial actor's autobiography describes troubled childhood of prostitution and fighting.
Mark O'Connell: Martin Amis' Zones of Interest (Slate)
Critics want him to stop writing about the horrors of history. But his new novel suggests vicious satire might be an honest way to treat the deaths of millions.
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wrote:
took the day off.
is semi-retired.
Reader Suggestion
Michelle in AZ
David E Suggests
Dancing Babies
David
Thanks, Dave!
From The Creator of 'Avery Ant'
from Marc Perkel
BartCop
Hello Bartcop fans,
As you all know the untimely passing of Terry was unexpected, even by
him. We all knew he had cancer but we all thought he had some years
left. So some of us who have worked closely with him over the years are
scrambling around trying to figure out what to do. My job, among other
things, is to establish communications with the Bartcop community and
provide email lists and groups for those who might put something
together. Those who want to play an active roll in something coming from
this, or if you are one of Bart's pillars, should send an email to
active@bartcop.com.
Bart's final wish was to pay off the house mortgage for Mrs. Bart who is
overwhelmed and so very grateful for the support she has received.
Anyone wanting to make a donation can click on this the yellow donate
button on bartcop.com
But - I need you all to help keep this going. This note
isn't going to directly reach all of Bart's fans. So if you can repost
it on blogs and discussion boards so people can sign up then when we
figure out what's next we can let more people know. This list is just
over 600 but like to get it up to at least 10,000 pretty quick. So
here's the signup link for this email list.
( mailman.bartcop.com/listinfo/bartnews )
Marc Perkel
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Sunny and a bit cooler.
Newtie's Sugar Daddy
Sheldon Adelson
Las Vegas casino magnate Sheldon Adelson has put up another $1.5 million for opponents of a constitutional amendment that would let doctors prescribe marijuana for medical reasons in Florida.
Adelson had previously given $2.5 million to the Drug Free Florida campaign opposing a constitutional amendment on the November state ballot.
With his latest contribution, he has accounted for $4 million of the $4.7 million raised by opponents of the amendment, according to the group's financial reports.
Orlando trial attorney John Morgan has bankrolled the pro-amendment campaign with about $4 million of his own, and has estimated he will spend $6 million on it by Nov. 4.
Sheldon Adelson
Changes Name Of Holiday
Seattle
The Seattle City Council unanimously voted on Monday to redesignate the federal Columbus Day holiday as Indigenous Peoples' Day to reflect that Native Americans were living on the continent before Christopher Columbus' 15th Century arrival.
Mayor Ed Murray was expected to swiftly sign the measure, making Seattle the second major U.S. city after Minneapolis to mark Indigenous Peoples' Day on the second Monday in October, the same day as Columbus Day.
The legislation acknowledges that Native Americans were already living in the Americas before Columbus' arrival and says Seattle, named after a Native American tribal chief, was built atop indigenous peoples' homes.
Several states, including Alaska, Hawaii and Oregon, do not recognize Columbus Day, which became a U.S. federal holiday in 1937. The California city of Berkeley stopped recognizing the day in 1992. Minneapolis voted in April to replace Columbus Day.
Seattle
Disney Bails Out (Again)
Disneyland Paris
The operator of struggling Disneyland Paris, a top European tourist attraction, unveiled a billion-euro refinancing package Monday as it battles a drastic fall in visitor numbers and a debt mountain.
The news sent Euro Disney shares plummeting by as much as 21 percent on the Paris market. Its later recovered somewhat but the stock still closed down nearly 10 percent.
The plan, revealed at a crisis meeting early Monday before markets opened, includes a cash infusion of 420 million euros ($526 million) by US parent company Disney and a conversion of 600 million euros of debt owed to Disney into equity.
Once described as a "cultural Chernobyl" for its blend of French and US traditions, the park and adjoining hotel complex opened in 1992 on the eastern outskirts of Paris in a blaze of publicity.
Disney has come to the rescue of its European park twice before, in 1994 and 2004.
Disneyland Paris
Drought Worries Pool Industry
California
California swimming pool companies just regaining their financial footing after the recession are now facing a new challenge: a devastating drought that has put the state's ubiquitous backyard pools under the microscope.
More than three dozen water agencies and local cities are cracking down on water use in swimming pools with rules that range from requiring a pool cover to prevent evaporation to banning residents from draining and refilling older ones that need repairs.
So far, the rules implemented by water districts haven't put much of a dent in business, but those in the industry worry that could come if the drought lingers and restrictions tighten.
And, at a time when wells are running dry in some parts of the state and water-conscious homeowners are ripping out lawns, swimming pools have an image problem that could affect the business long-term if dry conditions persist. The uncertainty has pool builders looking at other bone-dry locales as far away as Australia for ways they can adapt.
Thirty-seven cities or water districts statewide have implemented some level of restrictions on swimming pools, said Jennifer Persike, spokeswoman the Association of California Water Agencies.
California
Former Whistleblower
Florida
An accountant who became an FBI whistleblower in a Medicare fraud investigation against a hospital chain spoke out on Monday, saying the company's former chief executive, Florida Governor Rick Scott, must have known about hundreds of millions of dollars in theft.
"Fraud was brewing in the DNA of Rick Scott's company from the very beginning, and he was the father of it," John Schilling said at a news conference organized by the rival gubernatorial campaign of Democrat Charlie Crist.
Scott, a founder of the hospital company Colombia/HCA, was ousted as its chief executive officer in 1997 but not charged in the case. The fraud led to $1.7 billion in federal penalties, which was then the largest healthcare fraud settlement in U.S. history.
Schilling, a Collier County Republican, said he shared in "whistleblower" rewards of about $100 million for exposing the padded billing, kickbacks to doctors and medical providers and improper expense accounting that led to the penalties against Columbia/HCA.
Schilling said he left the company in 1995 and went to the FBI, then returned as an informant, sometimes secretly recording meetings and confidentially reporting activities to federal investigators.
Florida
Coroner Gets Surplus Military Guns
Ozarks
Doug Wortham used a Defense Department giveaway program for law enforcement to stock his office with an assault rifle, a handgun and a Humvee - even though the people in his custody are in no condition to put up a fight.
They're dead.
Wortham is the Sharp County, Arkansas, coroner. He says the Humvee helps him navigate the rugged terrain of the Ozarks foothills, but he struggled to explain why he needs the surplus military weapons he acquired more than two years ago.
"I just wanted to protect myself," he said.
His office isn't the only government agency with limited policing powers and a questionable need for high-powered weaponry to take advantage of the program. While most of the surplus weapons go to municipal police departments and county sheriffs, an Associated Press review shows that a diverse array of other state and local agencies also have been scooping up guns and other tactical equipment no longer needed by the military.
Ozarks
It's Called Torture
Guantanamo
Lawyers for a Syrian prisoner at the Guantanamo Bay prison urged a U.S. judge on Monday to halt harmful force-feeding practices used on their client during a hunger strike.
Abu Wa'el Dhiab, 43, has been held at the Cuban prison without charges for 12 years and was cleared for release by United States in 2009. According to a military spokesman, Dhiab is among more than 100 prisoners who have gone on a hunger strike.
"His hunger strike is not just a disciplinary problem, it's a cry for humanity," Dhiab's attorney, Eric Lewis, said in the hearing, in U.S. district court.
Lewis said the practice of forcibly removing Dhiab from his cell, restraining him and feeding him through a nasal tube was illegal and abusive.
Dhiab's lawyers are seeking an order that would make the force feedings more humane by allowing Dhiab to use a wheelchair instead of being forcibly removed from his cell by guards.
Guantanamo
Pooti's Biker Fan Club
Night Wolves
Roaring through Moscow after dark with their big bikes, long hair and leather jackets, the Night Wolves could be Russia's answer to the Hell's Angels. But these are riders with a cause, and that cause is the motherland.
"Our values are quite simple: love your country, have faith and don't use or sell drugs," summed up Alexander Benish, second in command of the powerful motorcycle club whose members President Vladimir Putin calls his "brothers".
They may share a passion for the open road, but the Night Wolves -- "Nochnye Volki" in Russian -- reject the American biker label altogether.
"The biker lifestyle is anti-social. It's all about 'let's drink beer, break glasses, and if anyone has a problem with that, we beat them up'," said Benish, who at 46 has been a Wolf for two decades.
Their leader -- a bearded six-foot colossus who goes by the name of Khirurg, "The Surgeon" -- has been spotted riding in official parades beside the Russian president, who has often praised the club's patriotic credentials.
Night Wolves
Accepts 'Unfaithful' British Bishop's Resignation
Pope Frankie
Pope Francis has accepted the resignation of a British bishop who stood down after admitting to an affair with a woman, the Vatican said on Monday.
"The Holy Father Francis has accepted the resignation of Bishop Kieran Conry from the dioceses of Arundel and Brighton," a statement said.
Conry, 64, apologised in a letter to parishioners to being "unfaithful to my promises as a Catholic priest" but underscored his actions were not illegal and did not involve minors.
Conry, who was appointed by Pope John Paul II in 2001 as bishop of Arundel and Brighton in southeast England, has admitted to having a sexual relationship with a woman six years ago.
He resigned after a British press report that the estranged husband of another woman hired a private detective to follow his wife, who had slept at the bishop's house.
Pope Frankie
Estate Tax 'Windfall'
Pennsylvania
A whopping $100 million tax payment to Pennsylvania by the estate of a conservative billionaire is a welcome addition to the state's strained finances, state officials said on Monday.
The inheritance tax payment made by the estate of Pittsburgh's Richard Mellon Scaife, whose fortune was made in banking, publishing and oil, dwarfed any previous inheritance payments, they said.
Scaife, who died on July 4 at age 82, was a key donor to conservative political causes.
He owned the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review and bankrolled the American Spectator magazine, which accused President Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton of fraud in the Whitewater real estate deal, investigated Clinton's alleged affairs and claimed the death of former White House counsel Vincent Foster was a murder committed in a Whitewater cover-up.
Pennsylvania
Wrong Latin Motto
Moorestown, NJ
The Latin motto engraved on the wall of a new library in southern New Jersey got lost in translation.
Officials had thought the phrase "Nos Secundus Coniecto Omnia" meant "we confirm all things twice." But it actually means "we second-guess all."
Moorestown architect Rick Ragan tells the Burlington County Times he learned of the problem from residents who translated it online.
Ragan says he'll pay a stone cutter to change the phrase to "We encourage all." He'll also have the Roman numerals fixed to reflect the proper year.
Moorestown, NJ
In Memory
Marian Seldes
Actress Marian Seldes, the Tony Award-winning star of "A Delicate Balance" who was a teacher of Kevin Kline and Robin Williams, a muse to playwright Edward Albee and a Guinness Book of World Records holder for most consecutive performances, died Monday at age 86.
Marian Seldes made her Broadway debut in 1947 in a production of "Medea," starring the versatile actress Judith Anderson, and later appeared in hits such as "Equus" and "Deathtrap." Her most recent Broadway outing was in Terrence McNally's "Deuce" in 2007, starring opposite Angela Lansbury.
Seldes was nominated for a Tony five times, for her performances in "A Delicate Balance," ''Father's Day," ''Deathtrap," ''Ring Round the Moon" and "Dinner at Eight." She won in 1967 for "A Delicate Balance" and won her second Tony in 2010 for lifetime achievement.
Her collaboration with Albee included "Three Tall Women," which won the 1994 Pulitzer Prize for drama, "The Play About the Baby," ''Tiny Alice" and "Father's Day."
But she moved easily from role to role, from Chekhov's "Ivanov" to Peter Shaffer's "Equus," from Ira Levin's "Deathtrap" to Tony Kushner's "A Bright Room Called Day" and Tina Howe's "Painting Churches." Her off-Broadway credits also include "The Ginger Man" and "Painting Churches."
Seldes' reliability and professionalism sealed her place in the Guinness World Records for a time after playing every performance during the run of "Deathtrap" from 1978 to 1982 - a total of 1,809 performances. Her record as most durable actress has since been broken by Catherine Russell, who logged over 11,000 performances in the off-Broadway production of "Perfect Crime."
Seldes, the daughter of author and journalist Gilbert Seldes, was twice married, to novelist and playwright Julian Claman, a union that ended in divorce in 1961, and then to playwright Garson Kanin, who died in 1999.
From 1969 to 1992 she served on the faculty of the Juilliard School, teaching the craft of acting to such pupils as Kline, Williams, Patti LuPone, Laura Linney, Mandy Patinkin and Christopher Reeve.
Seldes also acted in film, in "Mona Lisa Smile," ''Home Alone 3" and "Celebrity." On television she appeared in "Nurse Jackie" and played Candice Bergen's aunt in "Murphy Brown" and Mr. Big's mother in "Sex and the City." She also wrote two books: a memoir, "The Bright Lights: A Theater Life," and a novel, "Time Together."
In 1995, she was inducted into the Theatre Hall of Fame, marking 50 years in the profession, but she missed the ceremony because - typically - she was on tour with "Three Tall Women" in Los Angeles.
Marian Seldes
In Memory
Geoffrey Holder
Geoffrey Holder, a Tony Award-winning director, actor, painter, dancer and choreographer who during an eclectic show business career led the groundbreaking show "The Wiz" to Broadway, pitched 7-Up on TV and played a scary villain in a James Bond film, has died. He was 84.
Holder died Sunday of complications of pneumonia at Mount Sinai St. Luke's Hospital in New York, according to Anna Glass, a producer and family friend.
The 6-foot-6, Trinidad-born Holder won Tonys in 1975 for directing and designing the costumes for his all-black retelling of "The Wizard of Oz." In 1978, he directed and choreographed the lavish Broadway musical "Timbuktu!" starring Eartha Kitt and earned another Tony nomination for best costumes.
On TV, Holder played roles on TV's "Tarzan," voiced the leader on the PBS Kids animated show "Cyberchase" and pitched 7-Up as "the un-cola" in a commercial in which he wore a white suit and hat, purring "maaarvelous" as he drank the soda.
During 1955 and 1956, Holder was a principal dancer with the Metropolitan Opera Ballet in New York. He also appeared with his troupe, Geoffrey Holder and Company and worked with the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Pennsylvania Ballet and Dance Theatre of Harlem.
His film roles include playing Punjab in the 1982 film version of "Annie," a role in 1967's "Doctor Dolittle" with Rex Harrison, opposite Eddie Murphy in "Boomerang," narrating Tim Burton's "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory," and playing the top-hatted voodoo villain Baron Samedi in "Live and Let Die" - the first of the 007 movies to star Roger Moore.
Holder co-authored and illustrated a collection of Caribbean folklore, "Black Gods, Green Islands" in 1959, and had a book of recipes, "Geoffrey Holder's Caribbean Cookbook" in 1973. He painted throughout his life and received a Guggenheim fellowship in fine arts in 1956.
He is survived by his wife, the dancer Carmen de Lavallade and their son, Leo.
Geoffrey Holder
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