The Weekly Poll
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The New Question
Has there been a particular book or movie that you can say truly changed your life?
Send your response to BadtotheBoneBob (BCEpoll (at) aol.com)
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Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Paul Krugman: The Widening Gyre (nytimes.com)
The troubles in the banking system, hedge funds and emerging markets are mutually reinforcing. Bad news begets bad news, and the circle of pain just keeps getting wider.
Paul Krugman: Desperately Seeking Seriousness (nytimes.com)
As the economic scene has darkened, Americans have rediscovered the virtue of seriousness. And this has worked to Barack Obama's advantage.
October 26, 2008 Michael Moore: No More Socialism for the Rich! (CNN; Posted on AlterNet.org)
"McCain is going to make sure the wealthy get another incredible tax break while everybody else suffers."
Neal Broverman and Kandice Day: "GLBT History Month: 31 Days, 31 Heroes" (advocate.com)
October is GLBT History Month, a national celebration of queer culture through the ages. To remind people of our achievements, the Equality Forum has honored a hero for every day of the month. Who made the list?
Oliver Burkeman: This column will change your life (guardian.co.uk)
Looking at original thinking as 'iconoclastic' turns out to be quite useful.
Fay Weldon: What I see in the mirror (guardian.co.uk)
I clear out all memories of what I looked like when I was 17, so as not to waste time shaking my fist at the heavens. I looked so much smoother then.
Talking with Girl in a Coma (afterellen.com)
The Texan three-piece discuss comparisons to The Smiths, working with Joan Jett, and their queer fan base.
Tony Barrell: Rock stars don't always rest in peace (entertainment.timesonline.co.uk)
Pop immortality cuts both ways. Fending off fans is part of the rock-star lifestyle - even when that star is dead.
On song (guardian.co.uk)
Tom Jones can't believe his luck. He's a belting balladeer rediscovered as cool, he's a womaniser with a lifelong happy marriage, and then there's the voice - good enough to tussle with Elvis. As the martinis flow, he tells all to Simon Hattenstone.
DANNY SANCHEZ: The Vivacious Viragoes of Virago (curvemag.com)
What comes to mind when you hear the word 'Virago'? "A lot of people know the name because Yamaha used to make a Virago motorcycle. That's how I first became aware of the word. I love motorcycles," reports Amy Schindler, the guitarist of the dynamic musical duo, Virago.
Hubert's Poetry Corner
Al-Qaeda on Attu I
Could future terror be buried in the past?
~ Tony In Philly 
responded:
Reader Suggestion
The Final Silent Debate
Marty,
The Final Silent Debate Obama vs McCain
Obama, McCain, Brokaw...
The last word on the Presidential race: no words at all.
Reader Comment
Hardeen H. Houdini
He Fooled the Magicians
The gentleman who joined Tippi Hedren, Jo Ann Worley, Penn and Teller, and Milt Larsen (co-founder of the Magic Castle) on Hollywood Blvd for the unveiling of the restored Houdini Star was not, as he claimed, Houdini's grandnephew. He is Donald Ferguson and he is not related to Houdini in any way. He calls himself Hardeen H. Houdini and his wife calls herself Cyrene Hardeen Houdini, but, these are stage names.
Patrick C
Thanks, Patrick!
Here's the picture - it's on
Sunday's E-Page.
Here's a link with more information on Mr. Ferguson.
Reader Suggestion
'The Future'
Marty
This is a quick little video about our future according to our stats now. Worth the look, very interesting information.
Reader comment
Re: Anne Pressly
Hi Marty,
In yesterday's offering, you noted the death of Anne Pressly: "She had a small role in the new Oliver Stone movie 'W,' which was filmed in Shreveport, La. She appears briefly as a conservative commentator Ann Coulter, who speaks favorably of resident Bush's 'Mission Accomplished' event on an aircraft carrier shortly after the start of the Iraq war."
I think that I speak here for your, 'readers' in saying that the death of this young actress is lamentable regardless of the role(s) she played. To die so violently is intolerable AWA deplorable - and a terrible legacy for her friends and family. God love them and bring them peace.
Thanks, Sally.
More people saw Ms. Pressly in her role as Ann Coulter than ever saw her work as a TV reporter.
I found it interesting that the media accounts were neglecting to mention her character's name in a major motion picture.
As lamentable as her death is, it wouldn't have gotten much traction without the connection to Oliver Stone's movie.
Besides, every actor I've ever known wants their credits listed in their obits.
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Sunny and a bit cooler.
'What We Could Have Done With the Money'
$1Trillion
When the Sunday morning political pundits began talking last year about the tab for the war in Iraq hitting $1 trillion, Rob Simpson sprang from his sofa in indignation.
So Simpson, 51, decided to embark "on an unusual but intriguing research project" to put the dollars and cents of the war into perspective. He hired some assistants and spent 12 months immersed in economic data and crunching numbers.
The result: a slim but heavily annotated paperback released, "What We Could Have Done With the Money: 50 Ways to Spend the Trillion Dollars We've Spent on Iraq."
He calculates $1 trillion could pave the entire U.S. interstate highway system with gold - 23.5-karat gold leaf. It could buy every person on the planet an iPod. It could give every high school student in the United States a free college education. It could pay off every American's credit card. It could buy a Buick for every senior citizen still driving in the United States.
$1Trillion
No on Prop. 8
Samuel L. Jackson
Samuel L. Jackson has joined the fight to keep gay marriage legal in California.
The Soul Men actor recorded a radio spot earlier today to urge voters to oppose Prop. 8, the ballot initiative seeking to overturn California's legalization of same-sex unions.
Jackson joins other stars who have taken a stand against Prop. 8, including Brad Pitt, Steven Spielberg, Ellen DeGeneres, Barbra Streisand, Molly Ringwald and Fran Drescher, as well as Pete Wentz and his Fall Out Boy bandmates.
Samuel L. Jackson
Climate Change Affecting Plants
Walden Pond
Naturalist Henry David Thoreau might well be surprised that while much of the land around Walden Pond remains undeveloped, many of the plants he knew so well are gone, probably a result of climate change.
Some 27 percent of the species documented by Thoreau in the mid-1800s have disappeared, researchers report in Tuesday's edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Science.
And as many as 36 percent exist there in such small numbers that their disappearance may be imminent, report researchers led by Charles C. Davis of Harvard University.
They found that plants that move to an earlier flowering time in warmer weather do well.
Walden Pond
Busy Schedule
Buffy Sainte-Marie
When she's not touring or teaching, Buffy Sainte-Marie likes to spend time in her mountain house on the Hawaiian island of Kauai, tapping away at three computers arranged in a semicircle.
"I might be working on a song and I'll turn around and work on a (digital) painting and I'll turn around and work on some curriculum," the legendary musician, social activist and educator who was born on the Piapot Reserve in Qu'Appelle Valley, Sask., said in a recent phone interview from her home.
Sainte-Marie has been using computers since the 1980s to create digital music, art and teaching tools. Yet many people don't realize the different ways she is using technology, she said, explaining why she's releasing the documentary "Buffy Sainte-Marie: A Multimedia Life" on DVD along with her new album, "Running For The Drum," this week. The two will be sold separately in the new year.
"I was not the barefoot folk singer in a granny dress - I was doing electronic music in the '60s," said the singer-songwriter with the distinct vibrato, noting she created the first-ever totally quadraphonic electronic vocal album in 1969 ("Illuminations") and founded the Cradleboard Teaching Project, a free online aboriginal American curriculum, when the World Wide Web was just starting up in 1996.
For the rest: Buffy Sainte-Marie
Photos Removed
Oleg Kulik
Police were sent to remove photos by the Russian artist Oleg Kulik from France's main contemporary art fair on the grounds they were zoophiliac, organisers and officials said Monday.
The Paris prosecutor's office dispatched a team of plain-clothes officers to the FIAC international art fair at the Grand Palais in Paris on Friday after it was alerted by customs officials to the nature of some of the works.
Some of the 30 incriminated pictures, taken in the late 1990s, show Kulik naked, appearing to simulate sex with animals.
A judicial official said the photographs -- which were later handed back to the FIAC organisers -- were unhooked on the grounds the show was accessible to minors.
"These images have an unquestionable artistic status since they have been shown, bought, exhibited and edited since the 1990s," FIAC head Bethenod said, adding that Kulik's work was represented in France's national art collections.
Oleg Kulik
Belt Tightening
ABC News
Divisions of ABC, including ABC News, are starting to make cuts as the worldwide economic gloom deepens.
ABC is the latest in a line of belt-tightening entertainment companies. NBC Universal recently underwent $600 million in cost cuts. ABC and ABC News are trying to limit expenses in an effort that has not yet resorted to layoffs.
In a memo to employees late last week, ABC News president David Westin asked executives to fly in cheaper classes and stay at cheaper hotels, canceled print publications and tightened regulations regarding convention attendance and business lunches. The company's holiday parties also have been canceled.
ABC News
How To Kill A Newspaper
LA Times
The Los Angeles Times plans to cut 75 jobs, or 10 percent of its news staff, a response to the world financial crisis that is exacerbating already painful advertising declines at U.S. newspapers.
The cuts are comparable in scale to some that the Times made on the business side of its operations last week, Editor Russ Stanton told employees in an e-mail message that the Times posted on its website on Monday.
It is the second round of news staff layoffs since a previous round was announced in July. The paper has offered buyouts and has cut back staff levels in its news operations from a high of some 1,200 a bit less than a decade ago.
The Times is the largest daily paper owned by Chicago-based Tribune Co, which also publishes The Sun in Baltimore, the Hartford Courant and the Orlando Sentinel. It also is one of the largest U.S. papers, with circulation of about 780,000 -- in the same league as The Washington Post, and closer to The New York Times and News Corp's Wall Street Journal than many other big-city dailies.
LA Times
Extend Las Vegas Run
Donny & Marie
Brother-and-sister entertainers Donny and Marie Osmond are extending their variety show at the Flamingo Las Vegas for two more years.
The hotel made the announcement Monday. Flamingo President Don Marrandino cited the success of Donny and Marie's 90-minute greatest-hits multimedia show, which opened September 9.
They will continue to appear at the Flamingo Showroom through October 2010. Financial terms weren't disclosed.
Donny & Marie
Movie Planned
Prophet Mohammad
A movie drama about the life of the Prophet Mohammad is to go into production soon, and will be only the second English-language film of its kind ever made, its producers said on Monday.
"The Messenger of Peace" will be a remake of Moustapha Akkad's "The Message," a 1977 Hollywood classic starring Anthony Quinn which is often applauded by Muslims as an example of how commercial Western cinema can respect Islam.
"We have only the utmost respect for Akkad's work but technology in cinema has advanced since the 1970s and this latest project will employ modern film techniques in its renewal of the first film's core messages," producer Oscar Zoghbi, who worked on the original, said in a statement.
Akkad, the Syrian-born executive producer of Hollywood's "Halloween" horror films, was killed in a suicide bomb attack by al Qaeda on a luxury hotel in Jordan's capital Amman in 2005.
Prophet Mohammad
10th Century B.C Mine Found
Khirbat en-Nahas
The fictional King Solomon's Mines held a treasure of gold and diamonds, but archaeologists say the real mines may have supplied the ancient king with copper.
Researchers led by Thomas Levy of the University of California, San Diego, and Mohammad Najjar of Jordan's Friends of Archaeology, discovered a copper-production center in southern Jordan that dates to the 10th century B.C., the time of Solomon's reign.
The discovery occurred at Khirbat en-Nahas, which means "ruins of copper" in Arabic. Located south of the Dead Sea, the region was known in the Old Testament as Edom.
Khirbat en-Nahas
Hero Dog
Leo
A dog was hailed as a hero on Sunday after it risked its life to save a litter of newborn kittens from a house fire, rescuers said.
In a case which gives the lie to the saying about 'fighting like cats and dogs', the terrier cross named Leo had to be revived with oxygen and heart massage after his ordeal. Fire broke out overnight at the house in Australia's southern city of Melbourne, where he was guarding the kittens.
Fire fighters who revived Leo said he refused to leave the building and was found by them alongside the litter of kittens, despite thick smoke.
The four kittens also survived the fire and Sunday Leo, who fire fighters nicknamed 'Smoky', was again back at the house.
Leo
In Memory
Tony Hillerman
Tony Hillerman, author of the acclaimed Navajo Tribal Police mystery novels and creator of two of the unlikeliest of literary heroes - Navajo police officers Joe Leaphorn and Jim Chee - died Sunday of pulmonary failure. He was 83.
Lt. Joe Leaphorn, introduced in "The Blessing Way" in 1970, was an experienced police officer who understood, but did not share, his people's traditional belief in a rich spirit world. Officer Jim Chee, introduced in "People of Darkness" in 1978, was a younger officer studying to become a "hathaali" - Navajo for "shaman."
Together, they struggled daily to bridge the cultural divide between the dominant Anglo society and the impoverished people who call themselves the Dineh.
Occasionally, he was accused of exploiting his knowledge of Navajo culture for personal gain, but in 1987, the Navajo Tribal Council honored him with its Special Friend of the Dineh award. He took greater pride in that, he often said, than in the many awards bestowed by his peers, including the Golden Spur Award from Western Writers of America and the Grand Master Award from the Mystery Writers of America, which elected him its president.
Although Hillerman was best-known for the Navajo series, he wrote more than 30 books, including a novel for young people; the memoir, "Seldom Disappointed"; and books on the history and natural beauty of his beloved Southwest.
He also edited or contributed to more than a dozen other books including crime and history anthologies and books on the craft of writing.
Born May 27, 1925, in Sacred Heart, Okla., population 50, Tony Hillerman was the son of August and Lucy Grove Hillerman. They were farmers who also ran a small store. It was there that young Tony listened spellbound to locals who gathered to tell their stories.
The teacher at Sacred Heart's one-room school house was rumored to be a member of the Ku Klux Klan, so Tony's parents sent him and his brother, Barney, to St. Mary's Academy, a school for Potawatomie Indian girls near Asher, Okla. It was at St. Mary's that he developed a lifelong respect for Indian culture - and an appreciation of what it means to be an outsider in your own land.
In 1943, he interrupted his education at the University of Oklahoma to join the Army. He lugged his mortar ashore at D-Day with the 103rd Infantry Division and was severely wounded in battle at Alsace, France. He returned from Europe a genuine war hero with a Silver Star with Oak Leaf Cluster, temporary blindness and two shattered legs that never stopped causing him pain.
He returned to the university for his degree and, in 1948, married Marie Unzer. Together, they raised six children, five of them adopted.
Hillerman is survived by his wife, Marie, and their six children. Services are pending.
Tony Hillerman
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