'Best of TBH Politoons'
M Is FOR MASHUP - October 3rd 2007
Pencils Ready-MASHUP QUIZ
By DJ Useo
Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Jim Hightower: TOY SELLERS CRY FOR GOVERNMENT HELP (jimhightower.com)
Don't mistake the industry's newly-found concern about toy safety for any real willingness to accept effective regulation. Rather than inspections by a public agency, for instance, the toy giants want to use private laboratories to check a certain percentage of the toys they import. And, of course, none of them are considering having their toys made in our country.
Will Durst: Absolute, 100 Percent, Unadulterated Free Speech
It doesn't matter which holes free speech is coming out from. Everybody gets to say their piece.
Sarah Linn: George Carlin says he's not angry - just disillusioned (McClatchy Newspapers; Posted on popmatters.com)
For entertainer George Carlin, comedy is a secret weapon. "Laughter is a completely Zen moment. When a person laughs, they're completely defenseless," he explains in his familiar soft, gravelly voice. "The laughter allows the idea to slip in, unrecognized, and then maybe it can have effect."
Robert Philpot: Bill Cosby reflects on humor, families and his new book (McClatchy Newspapers; Posted on popmatters.com)
When the phone rings, you don't expect the voice at the other end to say, "Hi, it's Bill Cosby." Sure, an interview with the comedian had been in the works. But it hadn't been nailed down yet, and even if it had, stars of much lesser caliber usually don't dial the phone themselves.
Tim Lusher: The bond girl who got away (guardian.co.uk)
When Moneypenny swapped 007 for sleepy Somerset.
My tastes they were a-changin' (guardian.co.uk)
As a show of photos inspired by Bob Dylan opens, Bill Drummond, co-founder of the KLF, recalls the happy day when he finally threw a Dylan cassette out of his car window.
Punk made my day (telegraph.co.uk)
Malcolm McLaren formed the Sex Pistols because he wanted to create chaos. Thirty years on, he explains why everyone should worship his genius.
Beth Quinn: The very curious case of the glove in the nighttime (recordonline.com)
Last Saturday morning, I woke to find that I had a glove on my left hand.
Loving Layla by Eric Clapton (entertainment.timesonline.co.uk)
His fans called him God, and he seemed to have it all - including a fairytale affair with the wife of a Beatle for whom he wrote the song Layla. But, as the rock star reveals in this extract from his autobiography, his real relationships with women had a much darker side.
David Bruce: Wise Up! Children (athensnews.com)
* Music critic Warren Zanes's son was greedy for mother's milk after he was born; in fact, Mr. and Mrs. Zanes referred to him as "The Milk Pig." They even speculated for a while that their son would devour his mother the same way that many people devour a chicken dinner -- they start with the breast.
Reader Suggestion
Re: Stone Skipping
Marty
There is a video of Russ Byars, who skipped the stone 51 times in your piece Tuesday, Oct. 2.
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Still sunny, but it feels like fall.
The Boss Gets His Own Day
Bruce Springsteen
It isn't just any Tuesday in Connecticut. It's officially "Bruce Springsteen Day" - according to Gov. Jodi Rell.
The Boss and his E Street Band open their first tour in four years Tuesday night at the Hartford Civic Center. They're promoting their new album, "Magic."
Rell issued a proclamation honoring the multiple Grammy winner for his contributions to American music and declared Oct. 2 as "Bruce Springsteen Day in Connecticut."
Bruce Springsteen
Group Renames Asteroid
George Takei
George Takei already had a place among the stars in the minds of millions of "Star Trek" fans. Now he's taking up permanent residence as the namesake of the asteroid formerly known as the 1994 GT9.
The asteroid, located between Mars and Jupiter, has been renamed 7307 Takei in honor of the actor, who is best known for his role as Hikaru Sulu in the original "Star Trek" series.
The celestial rock, discovered by two Japanese astronomers in 1994, joins the 4659 Roddenberry (named for the show's creator, Gene Roddenberry) and the 68410 Nichols (for co-star Nichelle Nichols, who played Lt. Uhura). Other main-belt asteroids are already named for science fiction luminaries Robert Heinlein and Isaac Asimov.
"It's in general considered quite an honor," Lars Lindberg Christensen, spokesman for the International Astronomical Union, said of the latest renaming, which was approved by the union's Committee on Small Body Nomenclature.
Unlike the myriad Web sites that offer to sell naming rights to stars, the IAU committee-approved names are actually used by astronomers, said Tom Burbine, the Mount Holyoke College astronomy professor who proposed the name swap.
George Takei
Kosovans Short Of Funds For Statue
Bill Clinton
A group of Kosovo Albanians appealed Tuesday for donations after they ran out of money to build a statue of former US president Bill Clinton.
"With this act we will express sympathy, love and respect to president Clinton," Agim Rexhepi, head of the Friends of America association, told reporters.
The three-metre (10-foot) tall monument is still under construction in a studio in the city of Podujevo, 40 kilometres (25 miles) north of the Kosovan capital Pristina.
Pristina already has a Bill Clinton Boulevard, which is graced by a 7.5-metre (25 feet) high mural of the former US leader.
Bill Clinton
Fall TV Season Claims First Victim
'Nashville'
Fox's reality series Nashville is the first casualty of the new fall season, the network has confirmed to E! News.
Nashville aired but twice. The show about twentysomethings trying to make it in country music was supposed to bring a Southern-style Laguna Beach vibe to Fox. Instead, it only brought low ratings. The show averaged just 2.5 million viewers in its two outings, placing 109th in the most recent Nielsen Media Research standings.
The show will be replaced on the schedule this Friday by a repeat of K-Ville, Fox's struggling, but more-promising new cop show.
'Nashville'
2 Renewals
Comedy Central
Comedy Central has renewed "Mind of Mencia" and the animated series "Lil' Bush."
The network has ordered 10 new episodes for the fourth season of "Mind of Mencia," featuring comedian Carlos Mencia offering his point of view on various topics, and is targeting a spring premiere.
Meanwhile, "Lil' Bush" will be back for a second season in the spring with 10 new episodes. The show features the future president along with such pals as Lil' Condi and Lil' Cheney as they terrorize the White House and solve the world's problems before bedtime.
Comedy Central
What Networks Are Charging
30 Second Commercials
For the fourth consecutive season, Fox's American Idol is network TV's highest priced regular series for advertisers. The cost of a 30-second unit for upcoming episodes (which begin in January 2008) is $700,000 for both the Monday and Tuesday installments of the program, according to media buying and network sources. The cost for the Monday installment is roughly in line with last year, while the Tuesday time slot is commanding a slightly higher rate, those sources said.
No other regularly scheduled show comes close to Idol's price tag. Behind the two nights of Idol, the third most expensive show for the new season is the ABC Thursday night hit Grey's Anatomy, which fetches an average $465,000 for each 30-second unit.
The series rounding out the top 10 most expensive programs across the five major broadcast networks are: Desperate Housewives (ABC), $378,000; Sunday Night Football (NBC), $350,000; Heroes (NBC), $330,000; The Simpsons and 24 (both Fox), both $300,000, and CSI (CBS) and House (Fox), both priced at $290,000.
30 Second Commercials
Music Download Trial Starts
Jammie Thomas
An amateur musician and 11 other jurors were seated Tuesday in the trial of Jammie Thomas, accused by the recording industry of sharing music online in violation of copyrights.
Thomas, a 30-year-old mother of two, is the first of 26,000 people sued by the industry whose case has gone to trial. An industry group and three recording companies claim she illegally offered 1,702 songs for free on a file-sharing network.
Her trial offers the first chance for both sides in the debate over online music sharing to show a jury its version of the facts. Opening statements were expected Tuesday morning.
Jammie Thomas
Ordered To Surrender Rolex
O.J. Simpson
O.J. Simpson must hand over a Rolex watch and other assets to satisfy a civil judgment that found him liable for the deaths of his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ron Goldman, a judge ruled Tuesday.
Any future royalties from a sports video game featuring Simpson also must be delivered to Goldman's father, Fred Goldman, Superior Court Judge Gerald Rosenberg ruled.
Simpson must also surrender any of the disputed memorabilia items recently seized by Las Vegas authorities that are found to be legally his.
The items would then be auctioned by the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department and the money they bring in given to Goldman. His attorney David Cook estimated the watch's value between $5,000 and more than $20,000.
O.J. Simpson
L.A. Professor Triggered Web Shutdown
Burma
A Los Angeles academic may have been a driving force behind the move by Myanmar's 19-year-old dictatorship to shut down Internet access after bloggers posted images of soldiers killing civilians.
A video of Japanese photographer Kenji Nagai's killing on September 27 was sent to Ryan McMillen, a professor of history at Santa Monica College, who then uploaded it to the I-Reporter service on CNN.com.
"The feeling of being just the conduit for a video of this power and importance -- a video which so starkly shows the depravity to which men will sink when compelled by a fascist state to follow orders -- was, truthfully, a feeling of power in itself," said McMillen, who was contacted by a CNN producer seeking permission to use the footage within five minutes of his post.
After the evidence leaked out, the already tightly restricted Internet was shut down to all in Myanmar but those few with a satellite connection by the junta that in 1989 jailed pro-democracy activist Aung San Suu Kyi for the first time.
Burma
Gave $1M To Miami Football
Dany & Dwayne Johnson
Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson's biggest contribution as a Miami football player might have come in a game against Florida State, when he sacked Seminoles' star Charlie Ward to spark the Hurricanes.
More than a decade later, Johnson is still helping his alma mater.
The 35-year-old wrestler-turned-actor and his wife, Dany Garcia Johnson, announced a $1 million gift Tuesday to Miami's football facilities renovation fund - the largest gift former Hurricane student athletes have ever made to the university's athletic department.
Dany & Dwayne Johnson
Confronts Intruder
Nicolas Cage
An intruder broke into Nicolas Cage's waterfront home near Los Angeles, and put on one of his leather jackets before he was confronted by the actor, police said on Tuesday.
No one was hurt in the incident, which happened early on Monday in Newport Beach, an upscale community 45 miles south of Los Angeles. Cage asked the intruder to remove the jacket, escorted him outside, and called a security guard.
Robert Dennis Furo Jr., 45, pleaded not guilty on Tuesday to a first-degree burglary charge. He was ordered back to court on October 10 for a pretrial hearing.
Nicolas Cage
First 4 Works Returned To Italy
Getty Museum
Four prized artifacts from the J. Paul Getty Museum in California returned to Italy on Tuesday, the first of 40 works to be handed over by the Getty as a result of Italy's efforts to recover antiquities it says were looted and sold to museums.
Culture Minister Francesco Rutelli announced that the four works, which he said were insured for about $425 million, would be distributed to Italian museums.
The delivery was the first since Getty Director Michael Brand signed a deal with Rutelli last week to return 40 contested artifacts from the Getty's Los Angeles collection that Italy says were looted from its territory.
The Getty has always denied knowingly buying illegally obtained objects, and Italy's deal with the museum includes no admission of guilt.
Getty Museum
Says Adios To Telemundo
Mirthala Salinas
A Spanish-language newscaster who had an affair with Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa while reporting on him parted ways with local Telemundo station KVEA-TV on the same day she was expected to start a new assignment following a two-month suspension.
Mirthala Salinas did not show up Monday for her first day of work in Riverside to cover the inland counties east of Los Angeles for Channel 52.
Salinas, 35, worked at the station for a decade. Her contract with Telemundo expires in December.
Three Telemundo employees also were disciplined. They included KVEA news director Al Corral, who was suspended without pay for two months, and the station's general manager, Manuel Abud, who was reassigned to another position. Ibra Morales, president of Telemundo stations, was reprimanded.
Mirthala Salinas
Built Secret Apartment In Mall
Artists
The leader of an artists' cooperative has been sentenced to probation for setting up a secret apartment inside a shopping mall's parking garage as part of a project on mall life.
Michael Townsend, 36, said he and seven other artists built the 750-square-foot apartment beginning in 2003 and lived there for up to three weeks at a time.
The artists built a cinderblock wall and nondescript utility door to keep the loft hidden from the outside world.
But inside, the apartment was fully furnished, down to a hutch filled with china and a Sony Playstation 2 - although a burglar broke in and stole the Playstation last spring, Townsend said.
Artists
Prime Time Nielsens
Ratings
Prime-time viewership numbers compiled by Nielsen Media Research for Sept. 24-30. Listings include the week's ranking, With viewership for the week and season-to-date rankings in parentheses. An "X" in parentheses denotes a one-time-only presentation.
1. (1) "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation," CBS, 25.22 million viewers.
2. (2) "Dancing With the Stars" (Monday), ABC, 21.25 million viewers.
3. (3) "Grey's Anatomy" (Thursday), ABC, 20.93 million viewers.
4. (4) "Desperate Housewives," ABC, 19.32 million viewers.
5. (X) "Dancing With the Stars" (Tuesday), ABC, 18.51 million viewers.
6. (5) "House," Fox, 18.31 million viewers.
7. (6) "Heroes," NBC, 16.97 million viewers.
8. (X) "Dancing With the Stars" (Wednesday), ABC, 16.81 million viewers.
9. (8) "Without a Trace," CBS, 16.68 million viewers.
10. (9) "CSI: Miami," CBS, 15.08 million viewers.
11. (6) "NBC Sunday Night Football," NBC, 15.01 million viewers.
12. (10) "Private Practice," ABC, 14.41 million viewers.
13. (10) "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition," ABC, 14.25 million viewers.
14. (12) "Survivor: China," CBS, 14.15 million viewers.
15. (12) "Bionic Woman," NBC, 13.91 million viewers.
16. (12) "NCIS," CBS, 13.89 million viewers.
17. (16) "Cold Case," CBS, 13.71 million viewers.
18. (15) "Two and a Half Men," CBS, 13.58 million viewers.
19. (17) "Brothers & Sisters," ABC, 12.83 million viewers.
20. (20) "60 Minutes," CBS, 12.82 million viewers.
Ratings
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