Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Tom Danehy: This year, our country marks the 150th anniversary of the shameful war over slavery (Tucson Weekly)
In Alexandria, Va., there is a bronze plaque that one would think should embarrass the residents of that city almost as much as the prominent statue of murderer Pancho Villa embarrasses us Tucsonans. And yet it doesn't.
Connie Schultz: America Has Unfinished Business With Agent Orange (Creators Syndicate)
After a year of research and reporting about the legacy of Agent Orange, I feel certain of one thing: We don't yet know the full extent of dioxin's harm.
Jim Hightower: THREE NEWS STORIES REVEAL AN UGLY TRUTH
In an editorial, the paper noted that after Wall Street crashed our economy, the Great Recession of 2008 caused another 1.7 million Americans to plummet into poverty. In 2009, though, even as joblessness soared, the poverty numbers did not rise. Why? Because President Obama's economic stimulus programs - including expanded unemployment benefits and an increase in food stamps - created a cushion that kept more people from dropping into poverty.
Hugh Muir: Hideously diverse Britain: The man who would be Robeson (Guardian)
Paul Robeson, the actor, singer and civil rights legend, is just the kind of role model we need today.
Mark Bittman: A Food Manifesto for the Future (New York Times)
What should be done about our unhealthful and unsafe diet?
Jeffrey Zaslow: Walking Away From a Fantasy (Wall Street Journal)
A look at how baseball players at fantasy camp age out of the game. Contemplating how they say farewell to their fantasies can offer the rest of us insights into the psychology of closing the door on our own dreams.
"Stephen King, The Art of Fiction No. 189": Interviewed by Christopher Lehmann-Haupt and Nathaniel Rich (The Paris Review; 2006)
"They did type me as a horror writer, but I have been able to do all sorts of things within that framework."
Roger Ebert: After 3D, here is the future of film
When I first saw it in 1999, Maxivision48 produced a picture four times as good as conventional film. It still does. With 3D fading and the possibilities offered by a new Red camera, its time may be here at last.
Richard Roeper: Are you ready for a remake of 'Annie'? Will Smith thinks so (Chicago Sun-Times)
This is why I'm so impressed by the folks at the Onion, "The Colbert Report," Second City and "The Daily Show." How can you consistently do quality satire when real life does it for you?
John Jurgensen: The Rehab Album (Wall Street Journal)
Sex, drugs and sobriety: How Eminem, Bonnie Raitt and others turned getting straight into a good career move.
Randall Roberts: John Lydon's latest noise (Los Angeles Times)
Music is in the background, but the former Sex Pistols singer has stories to tell.
James Eldred: A Chat with Girl Talk (Bullz-eye)
I have a whole way to organize things on my computer. That's a big component of making the music for me, actually being able to organize the thousands of samples and make a logical way to make connections with them.
David Bruce has 40 Kindle books on Amazon.com with 250 anecdotes in each book. Each book is $1, so for $40 you can buy 10,000 anecdotes. Search for "Funniest People," "Coolest People, "Most Interesting People," "Kindest People," "Religious Anecdotes," and "Maximum Cool."
said:
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From The Creator of 'Avery Ant'
Reader Suggestions
Michelle in AZ
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Sunny but brisk (for these parts).
Networks Counter-Program
Super Bowl
Not into the big game? Don't care about the commercials? Or just want to catch up the recent exploits of Snooki & Co?
New Jersey will be front and center on MTV and Style Network. MTV is airing a six-hour "Jersey Shore" marathon starting at noon ET/9 a.m. PT. The so-called Jersey Bowl will feature all of the third-season episodes that have aired so far along with a sneak peak at the rest of the season.
Animal Planet will feature the seventh edition of its annual Puppy Bowl, starting at 3 p.m. ET/PT. "Players" include a shepherd mix named Big Red and cocker spaniel mix named Brownie Sundae.
Syfy and Travel Channel are going the ghostly route. Syfy is airing a 12-hour "Ghost Hunters" marathon starting at 9 a.m., while Travel Channel is programing "Ghost Adventures" all day long from 9 a.m.
TNT and USA will duel with "Law & Order" marathons. TNT will show 13 hours of the original starting at 5 a.m., while USA's nearly all-day marathon of "SVU" starts at 10 a.m.
For more alternatives - Super Bowl
First Grammy Appearance
Mick Jagger
The Recording Academy is finally getting some satisfaction, with Mick Jagger's first appearance on the Grammy stage.
The Rolling Stones frontman will perform at the Feb. 13 ceremony as part of a tribute to soul great Solomon Burke, who died last year. The Rock and Roll Hall of Famer opened for the Rolling Stones several times during his career comeback late in life.
Jagger will perform with soul singer Raphael Saadiq during the 53rd annual Grammy Awards, which will air live on CBS from the Staples Center in Los Angeles (8 p.m. EST).
"We're thrilled, delighted, excited and very much looking forward to Mick doing his debut on the Grammy stage," said Neil Portnow, president and CEO of the Recording Academy. "It's extraordinary to many of us that the fact is, this will be the first time; he has never performed on the Grammy stage."
This won't be Jagger's first appearance on a Grammy telecast. In 1986, the Rolling Stones were given a lifetime achievement award by Eric Clapton, and they performed on the show by satellite.
Mick Jagger
New Museum
'Sesame Street'
"Sesame Street" will have an address near the nation's capital.
The group behind the popular TV show is teaming up with the National Children's Museum to create exhibits and bring Big Bird and Elmo to the museum's future home outside Washington at the National Harbor in Maryland.
Sesame Workshop, the New York-based nonprofit group behind the show, has created traveling exhibits before. But the partnership to be announced Thursday will be its first home at a museum.
The $182.6 million museum is slated to open in 2013.
'Sesame Street'
Renewed For 9th Season
'NCIS'
Television's top-rated scripted series, "NCIS," will be back this fall for a ninth season.
CBS says it's renewing the drama that stars Mark Harmon and an ensemble cast including Michael Weatherly, Rocky Carroll and Pauley Perrette.
"NCIS" has climbed steadily in the ratings since its 2003 debut, with this week's episode drawing the show's biggest audience ever, nearly 23 million viewers.
"NCIS" is a spinoff of the action-legal drama "JAG." It has proved popular in TV markets worldwide, which CBS and CBS Studio executives called a tribute to the series' compelling stories that combine intrigue and humor.
'NCIS'
Rock 'n Roll Hall of Fame To Honor
"Women Who Rock"
The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum says it will open the world's first exhibit devoted to rock's most influential female artists.
The show opening May 13 at the museum in Cleveland will feature women ranging from Billie Holiday and Aretha Franklin to Melissa Etheridge and Lady Gaga.
"Women Who Rock: Vision, Passion, Power" will spotlight more than 50 female artists and fill two floors of the hall with artifacts and video telling the story of how women have shaped the history of popular music. Throughout the year, the museum will offer educational programming on the role women have played in rock and roll.
A benefit concert is planned for May 14. Performers will include Cyndi Lauper and Wanda Jackson.
"Women Who Rock"
Hospital News
Riccardo Muti
Renowned conductor Riccardo Muti, the 69-year-old music director of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, fainted at Thursday's rehearsal and was taken to a hospital, a symphony spokeswoman said.
The conductor's condition was not immediately available. The symphony said in a statement that Thursday night's scheduled concert, which was to be conducted by Muti, will proceed, though with possible "program changes."
Muti arrived this week in Chicago before a huge snowstorm struck the city to begin his three-week winter residency. On Thursday, the city was gripped by freezing temperatures.
Muti signed on to lead the symphony last year to much fanfare -- 25,000 people attended his first public appearance in September at a free concert in downtown Millennium park.
Riccardo Muti
CBS Accuses Contestant Of Leaking Secrets
Survivor
Thanks to a lawsuit that was filed last year by "Survivor" executive producer Mark Burnett, CBS been able to identify Season 19 runner-up Russell Hantz as the alleged culprit who blabbed secrets about the long-running reality competition show.
The news was first reported by The Daily Beast, which points out that Hantz may now have to pay "liquidated damages" to producers of $5 million for breaching the non-disclosure clauses in his contract to appear on the program.
On November 13, Burnett's DJB Inc. filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in California against a "John Doe" who was claimed to have acquired and anonymously spread over the Internet sensitive information about "Survivor." The lawsuit alleged that someone had violated trade-secret laws and induced an inside source to breach his confidentiality agreement. The plaintiff asked for discovery so it could identify the man who was publishing the leaks.
After DLB filed its November lawsuit, a judge allowed it to pursue discovery, which lead it to identify Jim Early as the anonymous guy on SurvivorSucks.com who was disseminating secrets. Rather than fight, Early has handed over his source, allegedly Hantz, who has delivered a cryptic half-denial about the charge.
Survivor
Judge's Son Nabbed In Casin Heist
Bellagio
Police in Las Vegas arrested the son of a judge for riding a motorcycle up to the upscale Bellagio casino and stealing about $1.5 million in gambling chips, authorities said on Thursday.
Anthony Carleo, 29, son of municipal court judge George Assad, was charged with robbery and burglary with a deadly weapon, and was booked at the Clark County Detention Center, Las Vegas police said in a statement.
The arrest stems from the December 14 robbery at the Bellagio, when a suspect wearing a full-face motorcycle helmet walked up to a craps table, pulled out a pistol and gathered $1.5 million in high-value chips before fleeing on a motorcycle.
It said his arrest followed tips from members of the public, including a dealer at the Bellagio who spoke to him four days before the robbery.
Bellagio
Free Portals Not Unfair To Paid Sites
Porn
Entrepreneurs in the pornography industry aren't happy about the explosion of websites offering vast stores of free porn to Internet users.
In a lawsuit against RedTube.com - a site that resembles YouTube (except it's for… you know) - a number of adult entertainment players alleged the free site violated California's Unfair Practices Act, according to Ars Technica.
Unfortunately for pay-porn peddlers, a California appeals court dismissed the lawsuit and slapped the litigants, in more ways than one. The court ruled that the complaint was designed to stifle free speech. Cases like these are dubbed a strategic lawsuit against public participation or SLAPP.
While the court didn't side with subscription-based porn websites, it did agree with a former adult entertainment executive that members of the paid industry, in a manner of speaking, "have been brought to their knees."
Porn
Address Warehouse Empty
Internet
The global warehouse for Internet addresses has run empty.
The non-profit Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) doled out its last five batches of "IP" numbers that identify destinations for digital traffic.
"A pool of more than four billion Internet addresses has been emptied this morning," ICANN chief Rod Beckstrom said at a Miami press conference.
He brushed aside fears of modern life being devastated by an "IPocalypse," saying Regional Internet Registries (RIRs) worldwide will be doling out remaining addresses to support a shift to a bountiful new "IPv6" format.
"It is like running out of license plates," said Internet Architecture Board chairman Olaf Kolkman. "Driving on the road the next day would not change."
Internet
Slaughter Challenged
Bison
Dozens more wild bison were herded into corrals on the border of Yellowstone National Park to await possible slaughter Thursday, as a much-heralded initiative to expand where the animals can roam in Montana collapsed.
An estimated 368 bison have been captured over the last week while attempting to migrate to lower elevations in Montana in search of food.
Yellowstone workers and state livestock agents are trying to halt the animals' exodus from the snow-packed park under a controversial program meant to guard against the spread of the disease brucellosis to livestock.
Those involved in the legal effort said the chance of livestock being infected by bison is too low to justify the death of the iconic animals - the largest land animals in North America.
Bison
Wrestlers Confess
Sumo
At least three sumo wrestlers have admitted to being involved in fixing matches in the latest scandal to hit Japan's ancient sport, Japan's sports minister said Thursday.
Sports minister Yoshiaki Takaki told a parliamentary panel that the Japan Sumo Association said wrestler Chiyohakuho and coach Takenawa admitted to being involved in match fixing during emergency investigations held Wednesday by the JSA.
Lower-ranked wrestler Enatsukasa also admitted to fixing matches.
Police found text messages on confiscated mobile phones that implicate as many as 13 wrestlers in schemes to fix matches, the JSA said Wednesday. One reportedly went into detail about how he would attack and how he wanted his opponent to fall.
Sumo
Chess Pieces Unearthed
James Madison
Archaeologists at James Madison's country estate say they've unearthed fragments of a chess set they think Madison likely used in matches against another former president, Thomas Jefferson.
Archaeologists recently discovered fragments of two pawns during an excavation at the Orange County estate of the fourth president and architect of the Bill of Rights. They initially mistook the quarter-inch diameter tops for sewing bobbins, but subsequently determined they were fragments of chess pieces.
Matthew Reeves, director of archaeology at the rural, 2,650-acre estate, called the pieces "a treasure from the past reflecting James Madison's intellectual pursuits and social life."
The fragments provided enough detail for researchers to determine what Madison's chess set looked like. Curators then bought an identical 18th-century ivory chess set, which is now on display in Montpelier's drawing room.
Montpelier was Madison's lifelong home. He spent his childhood at the estate and retired there in 1817 after his presidency. He died in 1836 at age 85 and was buried on the grounds. The mansion underwent a $25 million architectural restoration starting in 2008 and is now complete.
James Madison
In Memory
Maria Schneider
Maria Schneider, the French actress who was Marlon Brando's young co-star in the steamy 1972 film "Last Tango in Paris," has died at age 58.
Schneider died in Paris on Thursday "following a long illness," a representative of the Act 1 talent agency said, but declined to provide details.
Schneider was 19 when she starred opposite Marlon Brando in Bernardo Bertolucci's racy "Last Tango in Paris." In it, she played Jeanne, a young Parisian woman who takes up with a middle-aged American businessman, played by Brando.
Full of explicit sex scenes, "Last Tango" was banned in Italy for obscenity for nearly two decades, returning to cinemas there only in 1989. In the United States, the movie still has an NC-17 rating for its sexual content, meaning it can't be seen by children under 17 years of age.
Though Schneider appeared in more than two dozen films throughout her career, none would bring her even a fraction of the success of "Last Tango."
In 1975, Schneider featured in Michelangelo Antonioni's "The Passenger," a wandering existential drama starring Jack Nicholson as a frustrated and erratic war correspondent. Her last movie, "The Key," by director Guillaume Nicloux, came out in 2007.
Maria Schneider
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