Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Susan Estrich: The $3.5 Million Question (Creators Syndicate)
I don't think $3.5 million is a heck of a lot of money," Justice Antonin Scalia opined during arguments before the Supreme Court about whether there should be limits on how much money individuals can give to candidates for federal office.
Susan Estrich: This is Nuts (Creators Syndicate)
In the old days, the Republicans were the party of business, big and small. But this shutdown business is not good for business, and the business community seems to be recognizing, finally, that this is not the Republican Party that they've supported for years. "Who are these people?" people keep asking me, as if I know.
Froma Harrop: Party of Pain (Creators Syndicate)
Fans of representative democracy know that there are ways to advocate one's beliefs short of threatening and delivering harm to the larger society. It used to be that one could blame the parade of manufactured crises not on the whole Republican Party but on its unruly tea party faction. That's becoming less and less so as what remains of the pragmatic leadership caves in to the extremists' demands.
Mark Shields: Democrats, Don't Pop the Champagne Yet (Creators Syndicate)
Barely fifty years ago, three out of four Americans trusted their government to do "what is right" either "just about always" or "most of the time." This year only 22 percent of us express similar levels of trust in the public sector. Optimism is the parent of confidence and trust is confidence's offspring. We now have an acute national deficit of all three crucial characteristics.
Froma Harrop: The Grumpy Genius of Marcella Hazan (Creators Syndicate)
In an era of finicky foodies and celebrity chefs, Marcella Hazan never troubled herself with the rough-and-tumble of branding. Not sexy like Nigella Lawson, not colorful like Emeril Lagasse, not adorable like Rachael Ray - not even eccentric like Julia Child - Hazan nailed Italian cooking in a uniquely grumpy way.
Connie Schultz: "Dear Divorced Parents: Plan Holidays Now - For the Kids" (Creators Syndicate)
Usually, I wait until just before Thanksgiving to write my annual column encouraging separated and divorced parents to make peace over the holidays for the sake of their children. Really, that's too late.
Lenore Skenazy: Tricks for Dealing Treats (Creators Syndicate)
What's the scariest thing about Halloween? Is it goblins, ghosts or lots of pint-size Miley Cyruses running around? Well, yes, indeed, to the Miley thing. But this being a rhetorical question, the official answer is: No. The scariest thing is candy. Parents are terrified of it. They want it out of their homes almost as soon as it dances through the door, and they have come up with elaborate ways to make it disappear.
Henry Rollins: The One Thing I Got Right (LA Weekly)
It was 1970-something when I concluded that reality and I were not going to play well together.
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From The Creator of 'Avery Ant'
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Sunny and warmer.
Wrote Bryan Cranston a Fan Letter
Sir Anthony Hopkins
Sure, you made your own blue rock candy for the series finale and are meticulously grooming your facial fur to pull off an authentic Heisenberg for Halloween, but you still may not love "Breaking Bad" as much as Sir Anthony Hopkins does.
The "Silence of the Lambs" Oscar winner recently binge-watched all 62 episodes of the series - in two weeks, impressive - and was so captivated with the performances of star Bryan Cranston and his co-stars that Hopkins wrote Cranston an email praising the show and its cast and crew. Profusely.
"I have never watched anything like it," "brilliant," "your performance as Walter White was the best acting I have seen - ever," and "everyone gave master classes of performance" are among the accolades Sir Anthony dropped on Cranston and company in the missive, which "Breaking Bad" star Steven Michael Quezada (aka Steve "Gomey" Gomez) posted to his Facebook page.
Hopkins, universally recognized as someone who knows a thing or two about great acting, is also not someone given to fanboy-level expressions of praise of anything Hollywood-related (or, as he also writes in his letter to Cranston, "a good lung full of smoke blowing"). While promoting his 2012 biopic "Hitchcock," in which he played the titular director, Hopkins gave an interview in which he pooh-poohed Method acting, Hollywood awards, and even Hitchcock's late-career work.
Read the whole letter - Sir Anthony Hopkins
Show Must Go On
Liza Minnelli
The show went on for Liza Minnelli.
A spokesman for the 67-year-old entertainer said she performed Monday night with a broken wrist at a benefit concert in New York.
Minnelli broke her wrist in three places while rehearsing at home Sunday.
The "Cabaret" star performed with her sister, Lorna Luft. The event marked their first performance together in 20 years since their duet at the 1993 Tony Awards.
Minnelli returned to the hospital for further treatment immediately after the performance at the jazz club Birdland benefiting the Women's Health Initiative and the Dr. Philomena McAndrew Fund of Tower Cancer Research Foundation.
Liza Minnelli
Sells Art In New York's Central Park
Banksy
World-famous British street artist Banksy flogged original canvases for just $60 in Central Park over the weekend as part of a month-long residency in New York.
While his work can sell for hundreds of thousands of dollars, his website announced that minimal interest and sluggish sales resulted in takings of just $420.
The stall was set up on day 13 of his pop-up exhibition in New York, announced each day on the website www.banksyny.com and posted to his instagram account.
Banksy said the stall was a one-off that would not open again, likely to disappoint fans crushed at missing the chance to snap up an affordable original.
Banksy
Trolley Tours
'Breaking Bad'
A New Mexico trolley company that takes "Breaking Bad" fanatics on a tour around Albuquerque is lengthening its season.
The ABQ Trolley Co. says it has added new tour dates in October, The company will also offer tours of the sites where the show was filmed into the month of November.
"Breaking Bad" has wrapped up its fifth and final season filming in Albuquerque. The show followed Walter White, a struggling high school chemistry teacher who turns to a life of crime, producing and selling methamphetamine with a former student, Jesse Pinkman.
The trolley tours gives people outside views of the homes of Pinkman and White, a car wash, laundry, law office, restaurant and other filming locations.
'Breaking Bad'
Under The Radar Divorce
Joe Scarborough
MSNBC's "Morning Joe" host Joe Scarborough earns $99,038 PER WEEK from his show -- this according to divorce docs obtained by TMZ -- but the crazier part ... his soon-to-be ex-wife will only see a tiny fraction of it.
We broke the story ... the 50-year-old former Florida congressman quietly filed for divorce from his wife of 12 years Susan Waren back in September 2012. They have 2 minor kids (a 10-year-old and a 5-year-old).
But according to the divorce docs, Joe's pretty much making off like a bandit. For starters, the divorce docs state Joe will NOT be paying child support, and what his alimony amounts to is a morsel of his enormous salary.
According to the docs, Joe will fork over $30,000 per month for 5 years, then $25,000 per month for 2 years. Joe also gave her a lump sum of $150k, and he's paying the mortgage on their Connecticut home, and for the kids' schooling.
Couple of interesting clauses in the divorce papers -- Susan "acknowledges" Joe was faithful, devoted, and committed." A sentence perhaps intended to quiet allegations Joe was cheating.
Joe Scarborough
40th Anniversary Of UFO Incident
Pascagoula
Charles Hickson never regretted the notoriety that came his way after he told authorities he encountered an unidentified flying object and its occupants 40 years ago on the banks of the Pascagoula River. Until his death in 2011, Hickson told his story to anyone who would listen.
But Calvin Parker Jr., the other man present for one of the most high-profile UFO cases in American history, has never come to terms with what he still says was a visit with grey, crab-clawed creatures from somewhere else. He says the encounter on Oct. 11, 1973, turned his life upside down.
Parker was unnerved by initial crush of unwelcome attention, with newsmen and UFO enthusiasts overrunning Walker Shipyard, where he and Hickson worked. He tried to dodge the spotlight for decades, moving frequently before returning to Mississippi's Gulf Coast in recent years.
The incident made headlines, sparked a wave of UFO sightings nationwide and became one of the most widely examined cases on record. Skeptics ranged from the deputies who first interviewed the men to an author who sought to poke holes in the story, and Parker himself has had conflicting thoughts about whether he was visited by aliens or demons.
Pascagoula
Anniversary Bash
Mao
Celebrations costing $300 million to mark the birth date of late Chinese leader Mao Zedong, including mass singing and a noodle feast, have sparked popular anger amid a crackdown by authorities on extravagance.
The local government of Mao's birthplace said on Monday that the events on December 26 marking the 120th anniversary of his birth will include 10,000 people singing a song comparing the revolutionary leader to the rising sun. Another 10,000 will eat "auspicious" birthday noodles at various locations.
"Shaoshan is making the commemoration of comrade Mao Zedong's birthday the paramount political mandate that overrides everything," the city government of Xiangtan said on its Internet site.
Xiangtan, which administers the smaller city of Shaoshan, where Mao was born, said it had spent 1.95 billion yuan ($318.60 million) on the celebrations.
Mao
Reforms Child Arrest Methods
Israel
Israel's army has agreed to test alternative treatment for Palestinian children it arrests in the West Bank following international pressure to introduce reforms, the UN Children's Fund said on Monday.
UNICEF, which in a March 2013 report described mistreatment of children in Israeli prisons as "widespread," said in a statement that Israel was taking steps towards addressing that report's recommendations.
The measures being tested include the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) issuing summons for children instead of arresting them at night at their homes.
And a military order in April reduced from four days to 24 hours the amount of time a 12-13-year-old can be detained until being brought before a military judge.
UNICEF's March report, entitled "Children in Israeli Military Detention," said Israel was the only country in the world where children were systematically tried in military courts and gave evidence of practices it said were "cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment or punishment."
Israel
Experts Confirm Polonium On Clothing
Yasser Arafat
Swiss radiation experts have confirmed they found traces of polonium on clothing used by Yasser Arafat which "support the possibility" the veteran Palestinian leader was poisoned.
In a report published by The Lancet at the weekend, the team provide scientific details to media statements made in 2012 that they had found polonium on Arafat's belongings.
Arafat died in France on November 11 2004 at the age of 75, but doctors were unable to specify the cause of death. No autopsy was carried out at the time, in line with his widow's request.
His remains were exhumed in November 2012 and samples taken, partly to investigate whether he had been poisoned -- a suspicion that grew after the assassination of Russian ex-spy and Kremlin critic Alexander Litvinenko in 2006.
In the Lancet report, eight scientists working at the Institute of Radiation Physics and University Centre of Legal Medicine in Lausanne said they had carried out radiological tests on 75 samples.
Yasser Arafat
Giant Fish Species Discovered
Amazon
A new type of giant Amazonian fish - one for which only a single species was known for more than a century - has been discovered in Brazil, scientists say.
The fish is a new species of arapaima, which are huge freshwater fish native to the Amazon River in Brazil. The discovery suggests there may be important new conservation issues to consider, particularly with regards to overfishing and the region's expanding fish farming industry.
"Everybody for 160 years had been saying there's only one kind of arapaima," Donald Stewart, a professor in the department of environmental and forest biology at the State University of New York in Syracuse, said in a statement. "But we know now there are various species, including some not previously recognized. Each of these unstudied giant fishes needs conservation assessment."
In the mid-1800s, four species of arapaima were recognized. Then, in 1868, Albert Günther, a scientist at the British Museum of Natural History, published an opinion piece that lumped all arapaima into one species: Arapaima gigas. Günther's views eventually became the commonly accepted classification.
The new discovery means there are now five known species of arapaima. The fifth species was collected in 2001, and was found close to where the Solimões and Purus rivers link up in Brazil. The newly identified species, known scientifically as A. leptosome, has several distinguishing features, such as an elongated sensory cavity on the head, a sheath that covers part of the dorsal fin and a distinctive color pattern.
Amazon
Pink Diamonds Fetch Record Price
Rio Tinto
The annual sale of Rio Tinto's rare pink-hued diamonds attracted unprecedented interest with at least two of the stones fetching record prices of over $2 million, the mining giant said Monday.
The 2013 Argyle Pink Diamonds Tender of 64 red, pink and blue stones drew a record number of bids over $1 million from established markets such as Japan and Australia as well as emerging markets China and India.
The highlight was the Argyle Phoenix, a 1.56 carat gem and one of three Fancy Red diamonds on offer, which sold for more than $2 million to a Singapore-based jeweller, the highest per-carat price paid for any diamond ever produced from Rio's Argyle mine in Western Australia.
A pink diamond is usually worth about 50 times more than a white diamond, although a 118.28-carat white diamond broke a world record earlier this month when it fetched more than $30 million at a Hong Kong auction.
The Argyle mine produces virtually the entire world's supply of pink diamonds, with the red seen as the pinnacle of the colour scale.
Rio Tinto
In Memory
Maxine Powell
Maxine Powell, who was responsible for developing the charm, grace and style of Motown Records' artists during the Detroit label's 1960s heyday, died Monday at age 98.
Motown Historical Museum CEO Allen Rawls said Powell died of natural causes at a hospital in Southfield, Mich.
She didn't sing or write songs, but those associated with Motown say Powell was as essential to the label's operations as any performer or producer.
She directed the label's Artists Development Department, also known as "Motown's Finishing School." Through it, she emphasized to many artists - including Smokey Robinson and the Miracles, the Jackson Five and the Supremes - how they should carry themselves, treat people and dress.
Motown founder Berry Gordy said the training school was the only one of its kind offered at any record label.
Born in Texarkana, Texas, Powell was raised in Chicago, where she began her career as an actress. Powell later moved to Detroit. There, she opened the Maxine Powell Finishing School, where she trained African-American models. One of those models was Gordy's sister, Gwen, who was responsible for bringing Powell to Motown.
Once at Hitsville, she focused on polishing the young artists for their lives in the spotlight.
Some of the training included teaching Marvin Gaye to sing with his eyes open and having others balance books on their heads to improve posture. She also instructed artists on how to properly exit limousines.
Powell said in August that she would "teach until there's no breath left in my body."
Maxine Powell
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