Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Video: Someone Who really Knows How to Parallel Park (YouTube)
Video: Two Women Who Really Know How to Parallel Park (YouTube)
Fast Parallel Parking (YouTube)
Parallel Parking Problem-Solving (YouTube)
Missing Iraq money may have been stolen, auditors say (Los Angeles Times)
U.S. Defense officials still cannot say what happened to $6.6 billion, sent by the planeload in cash and intended for Iraq's reconstruction after the start of the war.
Jim Hightower: "VERMONT: FIRST IN THE NATION"
"We have a problem, we need to solve it." This comment by House Speaker Shap Smith of Vermont reflects a no-nonsense, hands-on, can-do attitude you don't often find in legislatures these days.
Tom Danehy: The body governing Arizona high school sports is robbing small-school athletes of opportunity and hope (Tucson Weekly)
Imagine that you're engaged in an educational enterprise, and it is your responsibility to see to it that the young people who are involved have as equal of an opportunity as possible to participate and succeed. Heading in, you realize that there are two distinct groups of young people, so you want to keep an eye out for any discernible discrepancies in the outcome.
Joseph Epstein: Heavy sentences (New Criterion)
After thirty years of teaching a university course in something called advanced prose style, my accumulated wisdom on the subject, inspissated into a single thought, is that writing cannot be taught, though it can be learned-and that, friends, is the sound of one hand clapping. A. J. Liebling offers a complementary view, more concise and stripped of paradox, which runs: "The only way to write is well, and how you do it is your own damn business."
MICHAEL C. MOYNIHAN: You Only Live About 23 Times (Wall Street Journal)
James Bond's latest incarnation is a post-Ian Fleming, sensitive sort who worries about what bloggers will say.
Tono-Bungay
Michael Dirda on H.G. Wells's overlooked classic.
Barry Mazur: The Most Personal Stories of All (Wall Street Journal)
Country-music icon Rodney Crowell set off to do more than just write about his difficult childhood. In "Chinaberry Sidewalks," his mission is to make you fall in love with his late parents, faults and all.
"Walt Before Mickey: Disney's Early Years, 1919-1928" by Timothy S. Susanin: A review by Charles Solomon
When the extraordinary success of 'Steamboat Willie' made Walt Disney an overnight sensation in 1928, he'd already spent nearly a decade working in animation. During those years, he'd had successes and failures, as Timothy S. Susanin recounts in great detail in his new book 'Walt Before Mickey.'
David Bruce has 42 Kindle books on Amazon.com with 250 anecdotes in each book. Each book is $1, so for $42 you can buy 10,500 anecdotes. Search for "Funniest People," "Coolest People, "Most Interesting People," "Kindest People," "Religious Anecdotes," "Maximum Cool," and "Resist Psychic Death."
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Reader Suggestions
Michelle in AZ
From The Creator of 'Avery Ant'
Reader Comment
Keeping them dumb - re: Buzzflash article
Dear Bartcop Entertainment Guy
While overcrowded college campuses and soaring tuition may seem related to the consequences of crackpot economic theories and Wall Street control fraud, a plan to make college all but unattainable may have been in the works for a few decades already.
Holly Sklar published a book on Trilateralism back around 1980, Trilateralism: The Trilateral Commission and Elite Planning for World Management (1980)
And, yes, my tinfoil hat is on snugly, thank you.
That entity was organized by David Rockefeller for the purpose of forestalling destructive international competition.
At one of its first sessions, the group of international politicians and business leaders took the position that Democracy is an inefficient form of government for industrial countries.
That one even got brief mention in the media.
Another position focused on finite global wealth, and concluded that in the future it will be necessary to lower the expectations of the citizens of industrial countries.
Adlai Stevenson had once mentioned a Revolution of Rising Expectations, and it would now be necessary, in the eyes of the nre group, to reverse that trend.
One of the suggested means would be... RESTRICTED ACCESS TO HIGHER EDUCATION...
Did that happen? Was that said by the group? All I know is what's in Holly Sklar's book, as well as what is de facto occurring.
Brainpower needed by US corporations is available offshore, can be accessed by satellite, or can be imported after first advertising such jobs for Americans - in Hindi or Pinying.
And now the lower grades are being dumbed down by diversion from learning to many hours devoted to drilling for tests. There is also home schooling, which assures future dumbth.
James S
Alhambra
Thanks, James!
That makes me think of all the damage Raygun did to this state's school system - from closing school libraries to the dropping of art and music education.
My Uncle Jimmy's theory was they wanted to prevent left-brain thinking.
Kinda seems with the spiraling cost of college tuition - philandering Arnie with the Austrian passport tripled tuition in just 6 years - there's no need to restrict
access. Not that school loans are quite lucrative for banks, and we all know that the banks don't have lobbyists, who, in a just world would be considered agents of bribery and corruption, which in turn would give us
the best government money can buy.
OTOH, I have nothing but wonderful things to say about 99% of the kid's teachers.
His high school was built for 2000 students, but it currently has over 5000(!). There aren't half-enough seats in the
cafeteria, or auditorium, and the classrooms are dreadfully cramped and crowded, but the teachers persevere, and do a freaking phenomenal job.
Reader Recommendation
Garrison Keillor
Hi Marty,
Congratulations on your son's graduation! Yes, 1,122 names is a lot to sit
through!
Your anecdote about the graduation reminded me of something I heard last
month on "Prairie Home Companion" on the car radio while out doing errands.
I heard only a small part of it, but tracked it down on the internet.
Here's the link: Prairie Home Companion
I suggest listening to it, if possible on your computer, because the audio
version has even more to it than the written script.
Enjoy!
I continue to enjoy your website. In the last week or so, I have really
needed and appreciated the humor to balance out all the media coverage of
Anthony Weiner, Sarah Palin's bus trip and Sarah Palin's emails. Ugh!
Take care!
Barbara
Thanks, Barbara!
Will give it a listen once the house quiets down for the night. That's when I do my best listening.
The next 2 years will be a lot of fun with your son and school, but then, you're not so old as to have forgotten those years... ; )
For those keeping track, Barbara was both a roommate in LA, and a hausmate in Heidelberg, and helped this hick learn the ways of the big city (on 2 continents). : )
Reader Suggesstion
Go The F**k To Sleep
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Thick marine layer produced some drizzle, then stayed gray til nearly supper-time.
Launches New Harry Potter Website
JK Rowling
Harry Potter creator J.K. Rowling has launched a new website called "Pottermore," but fans of the boy wizard will have to wait to see what it entails as the entry page says simply "Coming Soon...."
The site, www.pottermore.com, was launched a month ahead of the release of the eighth and final Potter movie on July 15.
Some Potter fan sites, which have been instrumental in generating a large and loyal fan base for the movies and seven-book series on which they are based, were given a sneak preview of the mysterious new website.
A spokeswoman for Rowling confirmed that the site was genuine.
JK Rowling
New York Public Library Buys Papers
Timothy Leary
The New York Public Library has acquired the papers of LSD guru Timothy Leary, who coined the phrase "turn on, tune in, drop out."
The library announced Thursday that it purchased 335 boxes of papers, videotapes, photographs and other items from the estate of Leary, who died in 1996.
A trustee of Leary's estate tells The New York Times that the library paid $900,000 for the collection. Some of the money will be donated back to pay for the processing of the materials.
The collection includes letters from figures such as Allen Ginsberg, Ken Kesey, G. Gordon Liddy and Cary Grant.
Timothy Leary
Campaigns Sith Whoopi
Obama
President Barack Obama will travel to New York next week to raise money at two separate events, one featuring entertainer Whoopi Goldberg and the other with contributors from the gay community.
An Obama campaign official confirmed the June 23 fundraisers on condition of anonymity, because the official wasn't authorized to speak publicly about the events. The Goldberg fundraiser is for donors who give in smaller amounts.
Obama has been busy raising money since he announced his re-election bid in April. He held three fundraisers in Miami this week.
The gay community has become more enthused about Obama since he signed the law repealing the 17-year-old ban on openly gay service members and since he directed the Justice Department to stop defending the law that prohibits federal recognition of same-sex unions.
Obama
Loses Bid For Malibu Mansion
The Edge
A plan by U2's lead guitarist, the Edge, and his associates to build several mansions overlooking the Pacific Ocean was denied on Thursday by California officials, who said the project would be a visual blight on a pristine ridgeline.
The California Coastal Commission, which voted 8-4 to reject the controversial 156-acre project, also cited potential damage to native vegetation near the seaside enclave of Malibu.
The Edge, whose real name is David Evans, bought the ridge-top parcel of land for his proposed home in 2005 and has since been fighting to win approval for the development.
The Edge had touted the proposed complex of mansions as an environmentally sustainable undertaking that would boast such features as solar energy panels, a rainwater catchment system and on-site electric vehicle charging.
Officials with the California Coastal Commission argued the proposal was deceptively presented as five separate developments even though the Edge was the single driving force behind it.
The Edge
Keys To The City
'Hot in Cleveland'
The stars of "Hot in Cleveland" have received their own keys to the city where their sitcom is set.
More than 3,000 fans greeted Betty White, Valerie Bertinelli, Wendie Malick and Jane Leeves as Mayor Frank Jackson presented the keys and declared Thursday "Hot in Cleveland Day."
The Plain Dealer reports that the crowd cheered throughout the 20-minute program, with frequent chants of Betty White's name.
On Wednesday night, the cast members were greeted by fans and a red carpet when they attended a viewing party for the new season's premiere episode at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum.
'Hot in Cleveland'
Bolts NBC, Joins CBS
Norah O'Donnell
CBS News says Norah O'Donnell has been named its chief White House correspondent.
The network said Thursday that O'Donnell also becomes the principal substitute anchor for "Face the Nation," and will report for all CBS News broadcasts, including occasionally "60 Minutes."
She has been the chief Washington correspondent for MSNBC and a contributing correspondent for NBC's "Today" and "Weekend Today." She also appears regularly on "The Chris Matthews Show."
O'Donnell joined NBC News in 1999. Before that, she was a staff reporter for the Capitol Hill newspaper, Roll Call, and worked as a contributor and analyst for MSNBC.
Norah O'Donnell
Swan Song
"America's Most Wanted"
This week marks the final weekly airing of "America's Most Wanted" on the Fox network after 23 years and 1,153 fugitives nabbed.
"I don't think it's hit me yet," said John Walsh, the host and driving force of what he turned into a nationwide crime watch. "Saturday when I see the last show - that's gonna be painful."
But that broadcast, which airs at 9 p.m. EDT, is billed as the season finale - not the series conclusion - on the "AMW" website.
"America's Most Wanted"
Named Editor Of 'Huff/Post 40'
Rita Wilson
The Huffington Post is launching a new site aimed at the baby boomer generation, and Rita Wilson will direct its vision and content.
AOL Huffington Post Media Group President and Editor-in-Chief Arianna Huffington said Thursday that the actress and producer will be editor-at-large of "Huff/Post 40," which is set to launch in August. She says Wilson even came up with the name of the new site.
Huffington said in an interview that the new site is designed to appeal to men and women over 40 and it will be "both about news and about people sharing their own experiences about that stage in life."
She credited her and Wilson's shared Greek heritage for setting them up to value aging as a process that brings wisdom and new possibilities.
The 54-year-old Wilson, who is married to Tom Hanks, has acted in movies, on television and on Broadway. She has also written stories on style and health for O, The Oprah Magazine and Harper's Bazaar, where she has been a contributing editor since 2006.
Rita Wilson
Yearbook Porn?
Big Bear High School
Students at Big Bear High School have been ordered to return their 2011 yearbooks after a photograph depicting a male student with his hand underneath a female student's clothing at a school dance somehow managed to be published, officials said Thursday.
The students appear in the background of the photo and "are not the intended focus of the photograph," said Cindy Bachman, a spokeswoman for the San Bernardino Sheriff's Department. But officials said it still constitutes child pornography under state and federal law.
The students have not been identified, but Bachman said the boy is 17 and the girl is 15.
According to federal law, any visual depiction of a minor "engaging in sexually explicit conduct" can be considered child pornography. Because of this, officials warn, anyone who still has the photograph could face a criminal charge of possession of child pornography.
A statement from Bear Valley Unified School District said the photograph was discovered after yearbooks were handed out last week. Distribution was immediately stopped and a recall issued. Students were asked to bring their yearbooks to the school, where they will be edited to remove the page and then returned.
Big Bear High School
Lawyer Does Job
Tupac
A hip-hop mogul wanted by federal authorities on drug charges did not orchestrate a plot to ambush rapper Tupac Shakur outside a recording studio in the mid-1990s, his lawyer said Thursday.
The accusations against James Rosemond, owner of Czar Entertainment, were levied online and attributed to convicted killer Dexter Isaac, who is serving a life sentence in an unrelated murder-for-hire plot. Isaac says, according to the website AllHipHop.com, that he was paid $2,500 by Rosemond to shoot and rob Shakur.
Shakur was hit five times in the shooting at the Quad Studios in Manhattan in 1994. He survived but was later gunned down in Las Vegas in a slaying that remains unsolved.
The mystery surrounding Shakur's death has fueled interest in the smallest of details about his life, as well as the old-school feud between East Coast and West Coast rap that some say contributed to his killing.
Isaac stole jewelry off Shakur and handed over a diamond ring to Rosemond after the late-night ambush, the post published Wednesday reads.
Tupac
German Hackers Convicted
Lady Gaga
Two young hackers were convicted in Germany Thursday of stealing new songs from stars such as Lady Gaga and Mariah Carey and offering them for sale on the Internet, a court said.
The local court in the western city of Duisburg found the defendants, aged 18 and 23, guilty of dozens of counts of violating copyrights and hacking confidential data, a spokesman said. Their names were not released.
The teenager was handed an 18-month sentence at a young offenders' institute while the older defendant received an 18-month suspended sentence.
The two used Trojan horse software to gain access to the computers and e-mail accounts of the managers of high-profile artists, took unpublished songs and offered them for sale or download in 2009 and 2010.
In addition, the 18-year-old downloaded explicit private photos from Kesha's computer and blackmailed her to give him an audio "shout out" which he could use to boost his own status in the hacker scene.
Lady Gaga
Mexico's Crusading Poet
Javier Sicilia
It was well past midnight when Mexicans usually too afraid to venture out after dark streamed into Chihuahua's central square to hear a poet's call for an end to the country's destructive drug war.
Waving Mexican flags and holding photos of missing loved ones, residents who have seen their region ravaged by drug killings flocked to receive Javier Sicilia, who has become a symbol of national protest, as he led a peace caravan of some 500 people across northern Mexico last week.
Sicilia, an award-winning but little-known poet until gunmen killed his 24-year-old son in March, has given a voice to thousands of Mexicans suffering the chaos of the drugs war.
The death of Juan Francisco Sicilia with six of his friends in the city of Cuernavaca near Mexico City inspired the poet to start the most significant protest movement against a war that has exploded since President Felipe Calderon sent army troops into the fight when he took office in late 2006.
Javier Sicilia
Judge Delays Ruling
Michael Jackson
Lawyers for Michael Jackson's doctor and Sony Pictures aired some of their dispute Thursday over release of unused footage from the star's posthumous concert film, "This Is It."
But the judge presiding over the involuntary manslaughter case of Dr. Conrad Murray delayed ruling on the issue, citing confusion about exactly what the defense wants to see.
Lawyers for Sony said the defense request had "changed radically" in recent days, and the entertainment company wanted more time to research the matter and file additional legal briefs.
Sony attorney Gary Bostwick said the subpoena for raw footage has now changed to a request for film from two of Jackson's personal video cameras.
Superior Court Judge Michael Pastor said he was sensitive to whether the request is merely a fishing expedition. He said release of any footage would come with restrictions to prevent it from being disseminated on the Internet and elsewhere.
Michael Jackson
Not Chinese Porn
"3D Sex and Zen"
To address the elephant in the bedroom, "3D Sex and Zen: Extreme Ecstasy" certainly delivers the goods as far as quantity of sex goes. But the quality will leave some cold.
Director Christopher Sunhas opted for a lot of rubbing, pressing and bouncing, and the soundtrack is heavy with breathless, whiny squeaks and squeals from the girls, leaving one to wonder if anyone involved in the production has ever engaged in any form of sexual activity with real women.
Beating Italian soft-core pornographer Tinto Brass's 3D remake of "Caligula" to the screen by several months, if not years, this reboot of the Michael Mak erotic cult classic, "Sex and Zen as Extreme Ecstasy," comes with a curiosity factor that will take it far. "Extreme Ecstasy" has reasonably high production values despite its modest budget, getting maximum, uh, bang for its buck. It's a little bit of naughty Chinese eroto-comedy supported by some respectable period sets (both films were based on classic novel The Carnal Prayer Mat).
Chances distributors anywhere on the globe won't get caught up with the idea of 3D "porn" will be low. Ultimately "Extreme Ecstasy" will live and die by how audiences -- including distributors -- react to some of the film's more unsavory elements. Nonetheless the novelty should result in moderate releases in most territories.
"3D Sex and Zen"
Shreds Star
Black Hole
A monster black hole shredded a Sun-like star, producing a strangely long-lasting flash of gamma rays that probably won't be seen again in a million years, astronomers reported on Thursday.
That is definitely not the norm for gamma ray bursts, energetic blasts that typically flare up and end in a matter of seconds or milliseconds, often the sign of the death throes of a collapsing star.
"This is truly different from any explosive event we have seen before," said Joshua Bloom of the University of California-Berkeley, a co-author of research on the blast published in the journal Science.
Initially spied on March 28 by NASA's Swift spacecraft, which is trolling the universe for gamma ray bursts, this particular flash has lasted more than two months and is still going on, Bloom said in a telephone interview.
What makes this even stranger is that the black hole, located in the constellation Draco (The Dragon) about 4 billion light years, or 24 trillion miles (38.62 trillion km) from Earth, was sitting quietly, not eating much, when a star about the mass of our Sun moved into range.
Black Hole
Apocalypse Sect Threat?
Bugarach
The tiny southern French hamlet of Bugarach has drawn scrutiny from a government sect watchdog over droves of visitors who believe it is the only place in the world that will survive a 2012 Apocalypse.
A report by the watchdog, Miviludes, published on Wednesday said the picturesque village near Carcassonne should be monitored in the run-up to December 21, 2012, when many believe the world will end according to an ancient Mayan prophecy.
Miviludes was set up in 2002 to track the activity of sects, after a law passed the previous year made it an offence to abuse vulnerable people using heavy pressure techniques, meaning sects can be outlawed if there is evidence of fraud or abuse.
Surrounded in legend for centuries, Bugarach and its rocky outcrop, the Pic de Bugarach, have attracted an influx of New Age visitors in recent months, pushing up property prices but also raising the threat of financial scams and psychological manipulation, Miviludes said in its report.
Bugarach, with a population of just 200, has long been considered magical, partly due to what locals claim is an "upside-down mountain" where the top layers of rock are older than the lower ones.
Bugarach
Fire Sale In Vegas
Sahara
Hundreds of visitors lined up outside the once-iconic Sahara hotel-casino on the Las Vegas Strip on Thursday as it reopened for a liquidation sale to get rid of everything inside.
From $10 waste baskets, $3 decks of playing cards and $150 camel lamps, bargain-hunters searched every nook for tagged trinkets and furnishings that let them take home a piece of the iconic joint.
The Sahara closed last month after 59 years, as owner SBE Entertainment decided it couldn't keep the casino open given the tourism economy in Las Vegas.
Items for sale ranged from $25 toilets to large prints of famous faces in the House of Lords restaurant, including photos of the Beatles, the Rat Pack, and a $550 print of actors Cary Grant and Ray Bolger. Booth and table sets from the restaurant cost $1,225.
Sahara
In Memory
Bob Banner
Television producer and director Bob Banner, whose credits included the Dinah Shore, Garry Moore and Carol Burnett variety shows as well as the TV movies "The Darker Side of Terror," "My Sweet Charlie" and "Sea Wolf," has died at age 89.
Banner died Wednesday of Parkinson's disease at the Motion Picture & Television Fund retirement community in suburban Woodland Hills, family spokeswoman Lauren Cottrell told the Los Angeles Times.
Born in Ennis, Texas, Banner began his career in Chicago in 1948 as a production assistant on the children's puppet show "Kukla, Fran & Ollie."
In a Dallas Morning News interview in 2000, the Northwestern University graduate told of his initial embarrassment at working on the show.
"I didn't want to tell the people at Northwestern that I had been assigned to do a puppet show. ... A puppet show didn't seem quite like theater at Northwestern," Banner said.
When "Kukla" became a hit, however, Banner boasted of his role. "I went around Northwestern saying I was on `The Kukla, Fran & Ollie' show," he said. "This show I didn't want to admit I was involved with changed my life."
He later produced and directed "The Fred Waring Show" and went on to be a director on "Omnibus," hosted by Alistair Cooke.
Banner won a directing Emmy in 1958 for "The Dinah Shore Chevy Show."
Banner went on to produce Burnett TV specials, including "Julie and Carol at Carnegie Hall" and "Carol Plus Two," before he became executive producer of "The Carol Burnett Show."
Banner's executive producer credits also included "The Jimmy Dean Show," "Solid Gold," "Star Search" and "It's Showtime at the Apollo."
He was also executive producer of the 1988 AIDS benefit concert "That's What Friends Are For," hosted by Dionne Warwick.
Banner is survived by his wife, Alice, and sons Baird, Robert and Chuck.
Bob Banner
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