The Editorial We
The New L.A. Free Press
Never say "He showed satisfaction as he took possession of his well deserved reward."Always say "He grinned as he pocketed the coin."
'Best of TBH Politoons'
PURPLE GENE'S WEIRD WORD OF THE WEEK
DINGLEBERRY
"DINGLEBERRY"
ON LINE DEFINITION: A bulbous mass of fecal matter accumulating on the anal hairs.....an incompetent or stupid person.
ON THE STREET: A fetid and filthy fool who forgets to flush....and fails to wipe his own ass....leaving behind the fruit of his lax and heinous hygiene.
IN A SENTENCE: I've heard that Karl Rove's nickname was "Turd Blossom", but I know for a fact that his buddies really refer to him as the "Dangling Dingleberry!"
(Read BartCop Entertainment and learn a useless new word each Tuesday)
Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Ask Rockridge: Responding to Conservative Name-Calling (buzzflash.com)
We were recently asked how to respond when confronted with the attack, "Aw, you liberals just hate America."
Homophobes Disrupt Military Funerals (slate.com)
... Albert Snyder fought back, charging [Fred] Phelps and his church with invasion of privacy and intentional infliction of emotional distress. Although Phelps denied the allegations, last week a jury awarded the Snyder family punitive and compensatory damages of $10.9 million, an amount that will likely bankrupt Westboro Baptist. Unrepentant, Phelps says he will appeal the verdict.
Address by Mayor Ross C. "Rocky" Anderson on October 27, 2007
We must avoid the trap of focusing the blame solely upon President Bush and Vice-President Cheney. This is not just about a few people who have wronged our country - and the world. They were enabled by members of both parties in Congress, they were enabled by the pathetic mainstream news media, and, ultimately, they have been enabled by the American people - 40% of whom are so ill-informed they still think Iraq was behind the 9/11 attacks ....
Jim Hightower: THE LATEST FEMA FIASCO (jimhightower.com)
The only thing funnier than the fake news conference by top FEMA officials to praise their own work - is the dissembling by various officials to wash their hands of this embarrassment.
Beth Quinn: No underpants and other Xmas shopping rules (recordonline.com)
I've decided not to buy my boys underpants this Christmas. This is a huge break with tradition in our household. There's always been a little gift-wrapped box of underpants for each of them under the tree. But now that my oldest boy is approaching 40 and the baby is 33, I figure it's time they bought their own briefs - something I have actually suspected them of doing for years now, anyway.
Paul Krassner: Remembering Norman Mailer (huffingtonpost.com)
In The Naked and the Dead, Mailer used a euphemism "fug" for f***. When he met actress Tallulah Bankhead, she said, "So you're the man who doesn't know how to spell f***." With a twinkle in his eye, Mailer once told me he replied, "Yes, and you're the woman who doesn't know how to."
EVAN SAWDEY: Why Does the Music Have to End?: An Interview with Lou Reed (popmatters.com)
Three decades letter, Metal Machine Music gets a classical reworking. Lou Reed talks to PopMatters about this legendary album and Zeitkratzer's interpretation of it.
David Cohen: Review of "Otto Preminger: The Man Who Would Be King" by Foster Hirsch (popmatters.com)
When you're referred to as "Otto the Terrible" for much of your life, it's hard to posthumously become "Otto the Great."
David Bruce: Wise Up! Art (athensnews.com)
* Can part of a dilapidated house be a work of art? Yes. In North Kensington, London, author Germaine Greer once bought a dilapidated house in part because one of its walls had a graffito that she calls "magnificent." In foot-high block letters, the graffito read, "Boredom is counter-revolutionary." In addition to its being magnificent, Ms. Greer says that the graffito also states "an undeniable truth."
Another Free David Bruce Download: The Funniest People in Families, Volume 3: 250 Anecdotes
This book contains 250 anecdotes about families, friends, couples, pets, etc., including this one: Like heterosexual couples, gay couples have stories about how they got engaged. In 2004, on New Year's Eve, Amber and Carol were playing Trivial Pursuit with two friends. When the clock struck midnight, Carol knelt and tried to propose-she tried because in the middle of the proposal, Amber yelled, "You're doing it now? It's happening now?" Yes, it was happening, and yes, Amber said yes. Today, Amber and Carol share the last name of Dennis after getting married on July 4, 2006.
R.L. Stine: Official Website
Reader Comment
Re: Baron Dave
That Baron Dave is too much :)
He wrote:
"Dobie Gillis' theme song was a jazzy doo-wop of female singers (presumably representing his Many Loves)."
Thanks, BD for my laugh dejour!
Sally P
Thanks, Sally!
Purple Gene Reviews
'Joe Strummer: The Future is Unwritten'
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Sunny and warmer.
Promotes Youth Programs
Wyclef Jean
Wyclef Jean has announced the creation of several youth-based programs funded by his Yele Haiti charity.
"If you want to change a country, unfortunately, you're not going to be able to help 8 million people at one time," the 35-year-old singer told reporters. "But if you can get one or two or three and start to make that change, that will make the difference."
Jean, who was born in Haiti, arrived Saturday in Port-au-Prince. It was his first visit since being named a roving ambassador for the Caribbean nation in January.
Yele Haiti will provide computer labs, classrooms and counseling for jailed child gang members, help local women's groups sell food in the seaside slum of Cite Soleil, and establish a youth scholarship and soccer program, Jean said.
Wyclef Jean
News Writers To Vote On Strike
CBS
About 500 unionized news writers could soon join their creative colleagues on the picket line.
The writers, employees of CBS News television and radio, are expected to overwhelmingly approve a strike authorization. Represented by Writers Guild of America East, the writers were scheduled to vote Thursday.
WGA drama and comedy writers are entering the second week of an entertainment industry strike that has shaken network and cable television, threatening popular shows such as Fox's "24" and sending late-night talk shows, such as Comedy Central's "Daily Show with Jon Stewart," into unplanned reruns.
The CBS News television and radio writers have been working under an expired contract since April 2005, WGA East spokeswoman Sherry Goldman said.
CBS
Two-Year Renewal
`Damages'
Even after its season finale last month, "Damages" left viewers in suspense: Would this crafty legal thriller be renewed?
Fans were rewarded with good news Monday: The FX network announced it will bring the freshman series back for not one, but two more 13-episode seasons. Glenn Close, who stars as high-stakes litigator Patty Hewes, as well as Rose Byrne and Tate Donovan are signed to return as series regulars.
Production of the New York-based drama is scheduled to resume early next year, although the TV writers strike could delay that plan.
`Damages'
Westchester Philharmonic
Itzhak Perlman
Violinist Itzhak Perlman has been appointed artistic director of the Westchester Philharmonic, a coup for the 25-year-old suburban orchestra.
Perlman, 62, will conduct most of the orchestra's programs for the three years beginning in September and will perform occasionally, the orchestra said Monday.
The orchestra holds its principal concerts at the Performing Arts Center on the campus of Purchase College, about 30 miles from Perlman's New York City home. Its outgoing music director, Paul Lustig Dunkel, is a longtime friend of Perlman.
Itzhak Perlman
Baby News
Thomas Boone & Zoe Grace Quaid
Dennis Quaid and his wife, Kimberly, welcomed twins Thomas Boone and Zoe Grace on Thursday in Santa Monica, Calif., the actor's publicist, Cara Tripicchio, said Monday.
The couple are the biological parents of the twins, who were born to a surrogate mother. Thomas weighed 6 pounds, 12 ounces; his sister weighed 5 pounds 9 ounces, Tripicchio said.
Thomas Boone & Zoe Grace Quaid
Faces Possible New FCC Regulations
Cable TV
Cable television operators are scrambling to oppose a Federal Communications Commission proposal that could lead to tougher oversight of the industry, a source said on Monday.
The proposal by FCC Chairman Kevin Martin (R-Fox Guarding Henhouse) found that the cable TV industry has met the threshold in a 1984 U.S. law that gives the agency more authority over cable TV if the rate of cable subscription exceeds 70 percent of households where cable is available, according to a source familiar with Martin's proposal.
Martin's finding would give the agency broader regulatory authority over cable companies such as Comcast Corp. and Time Warner Cable Inc. It is part of an annual FCC report on competition in the pay television business, which is scheduled for a possible vote at a November 27 commission meeting, the source said.
Kyle McSlarrow, president of National Cable & Telecommunications Association, called the 1984 provision "a relic" and said several independent studies concluded that cable TV subscriptions fall well short of the 70 percent threshold.
Cable TV
Full-Page Ads
Producers
Producers took out full-page ads in Monday's trade papers to state their case in the strike by Hollywood writers.
In ads in "Variety" and "The Hollywood Reporter," studios emphasized that writers already get paid when TV episodes and films are downloaded from Internet stores such as Apple Inc.'s iTunes.
The ads from the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers also stated that writers get a fee, or "residual," when episodes or films are rented online.
Writers do not get paid when TV shows are streamed for free on advertising-supported network sites such as ABC.com or Hulu.com.
Producers
Former Pilots & Officials Call For New Probe
UFOs
Democratic U.S. presidential hopeful Dennis Kucinich may have been ridiculed for saying he had seen a UFO, but for some former military pilots and other observers, unidentified flying objects are no laughing matter.
An international panel of two dozen former pilots and government officials called on the U.S. government on Monday to reopen its generation-old UFO investigation as a matter of safety and security given continuing reports about flying discs, glowing spheres and other strange sightings.
The panelists from seven countries, including former senior military officers, said they had each seen a UFO or conducted an official investigation into UFO phenomena.
UFOs
Watch Sold At Auction
Empress Josephine
A watch that belonged to Empress Josephine, wife of 19th century French ruler Napoleon Bonaparte, sold in Geneva for more than 1.3 million dollars Monday, more than seven times its pre-auction estimate.
The watch, made in 1800 in gold and enamel and set with diamonds, went under the hammer at Christie's auction house for 1.5 million Swiss francs (914 million euros, 1.3 million dollars). Christie's had estimated the lot at 200,000 Swiss francs.
Josephine ordered the watch in 1799 for 3,000 francs. The diamonds were added in 1804 shortly after Napoleon was crowned Emperor of France, and a crown motif was added to reflect Josephine's new imperial status.
She subsequently gave the watch to her daughter Hortense, who married Napoleon's brother Joseph Bonparte in 1802. Hortense became Queen of Holland when Napoleon made his brother King in 1806, and the watch was then engraved with a capital 'H'.
Empress Josephine
Guns Auctioned
Pancho Villa
Three guns linked to Pancho Villa were auctioned for nearly $29,000, apparently less than what organizers expected the firearms tied to the Mexican revolutionary to fetch.
"That's the fun of auctions - sometimes you get bargains," said Amy McMurrough, a spokeswoman for the auction, which was held Saturday near San Antonio.
The prize of the auction - Villa's Remington single action revolver with his real name, "Doreteo Arango," engraved on the barrel - sold for $18,000.
A rifle that Villa reportedly dropped in the Rio Grande during a skirmish with opposition forces sold for $7,500, and a pistol owned by Villa's bodyguard was sold for $3,450.
Pancho Villa
Psilly Ducks, Too
Funny Bunnies
A 20-year-old man was arrested for allegedly selling hallucinogenic mushrooms hidden inside chocolate bunnies and ducks and other drugs, authorities said.
Rockdale County sheriff's deputies arrested a the man after a deputy spotted him allegedly selling a sheet of LSD and a chocolate duck containing psilocybin mushrooms for $650, Sgt. Jodi Shupe said Saturday.
Drug officers found 74 chocolate ducks and bunnies containing mushrooms in a cooler bag in the man's truck, along with $1,200 in cash in his pants pockets, Shupe said.
Funny Bunnies
Mystery $100M Donation
Erie, PA
Mike Batchelor invited the heads of 46 charities into his downtown office for one-on-one meetings to personally deliver the news. Nearby, on a small table, sat a box of tissues.
And then he proceeded: A donor had given a staggering $100 million to the Erie Community Foundation, and all of the charities would receive a share.
That was when the tears began to flow - and the mystery began - in this struggling old industrial city of 102,000 on Lake Erie, where the donor is known only as "Anonymous Friend."
Batchelor, president of the Erie Community Foundation, has been sworn to secrecy and will allow only that the donor worked with the organization for years to identify deserving recipients before the announcement over the summer.
Erie, PA
In Memory
Laraine Day
Laraine Day, who appeared in nearly 50 films including the Alfred Hitchcock thriller "Foreign Correspondent," has died. She was 87.
Day died of natural causes Saturday at her daughter's home in Utah, where she moved following the death of her husband of 47 years, producer Michel Grilikhes, earlier this year, said publicist Dale Olson.
Day starred opposite Joel McRea in 1940's "Foreign Correspondent" and also appeared in such films as "Mr. Lucky," "I Take This Woman," "The Story of Dr. Wassell," "My Dear Secretary" and "The High and the Mighty." She appeared in her last movie, "The Third Voice" in l960, the year she married Grilikhes.
In 1951, Day became one of U.S. television's first female talk-show hosts in "The Laraine Day Show."
Day penned the memoir "Day With Giants" in 1951 about life with baseball manager Leo Durocher, to whom she was married from 1947 to 1960, a period in which she was sometimes called "The First Lady of Baseball."
Day's first husband was singer Ray Hendricks.
Day is survived by her twin brother, three daughters, a son and numerous grandchildren.
Laraine Day
In Memory
Delbert Mann
Delbert Mann, who transformed Paddy Chayefsky's classic teleplays "Marty" and "The Bachelor Party" into big-screen triumphs and helped bring TV techniques to the film world, died Sunday. He was 87.
Mann's 1955 feature version of "Marty" won four Oscars: best picture and director, best actor for Ernest Borgnine and best screenplay for Chayefsky. The low-budget film with mostly little-known actors told the stark, poignant story of Borgnine's 34-year-old Brooklyn butcher who felt he was too ugly to find love. His life is changed when he meets an equally shy but sweet woman played by Betsy Blair.
Using techniques he brought from television, Mann took a mere 16 days to shoot the film version of "Marty," plus an additional three days for retakes. This compared with 45 days for typical features of that time, with epic pictures running far beyond that.
He followed "Marty" with 1957's "The Bachelor Party." They were some of the first examples of television's emerging role in Hollywood - not necessarily as a rival medium, but as a synergistic one.
Mann's other feature credits include "Desire Under the Elms" (1957), "Separate Tables" (1958), "Middle of the Night" (1959), "The Dark at the Top of the Stairs" (1960), "The Outsider" (1961), "That Touch of Mink" (1962), "A Gathering of Eagles" (1963), "Dear Heart" (1964), "Fitzwilly" (1967), "Kidnapped" (1971), "Night Crossing" (1982) and "Bronte" (1983).
Mann also directed a string of prestigious prime-time productions, including "Heidi" (1968), "David Copperfield" (1970), "Jane Eyre" (1971), "The Man Without a Country" (1973), "All Quiet on the Western Front" (1979) and "The Last Days of Patton" (1986).
A native of Lawrence, Kan., Mann received his first dramatic training at Vanderbilt University, graduating in 1941. He later attended Yale's School of Drama after a stint as a bomber pilot in World War II.
Mann's wife, Ann Caroline, died in 2001. In addition to Fred Mann, he is survived by sons David and Steven. His daughter, Susan, died in an automobile accident in 1976.
Delbert Mann
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