Recommended Reading
from Bruce
REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT AT DNC FUNDRAISER DINNER (andrewtobias.com)
"... are we ever fortunate to have this guy. I know we're out of practice, but it's really okay not to be cynical"--Andrew Tobias
William J. Quirk: Living on $500,000 a Year (theamericanscholar.org)
What F. Scott Fitzgerald's tax returns reveal about his life and times.
"The Book of Dead Philosophers" by Simon Critchley: A review by Alexander Provan
In December 2007, at the annual World Congress on Anti-Aging Medicine in Las Vegas, Suzanne Somers, the actress and bestselling author of Ageless: The Naked Truth About Bioidentical Hormones, delivered a rhapsodic keynote speech in praise of hormone replacement therapy.
Robyn Chelsea-Seifert: Interview with Meital Dohan (TheCelebrityCafe.com)
Meital Dohan is a tour de force. The Israeli-born actress received critical acclaim in her native country for her prestigious work both on stage and film. In 2000 she won the Israeli Theater Award for Most Promising Actress and two years later was nominated for an Ophir (the Academy Award in Israel) earning praise for her role in 'God's Sandbox.'
Carl Reiner's big break (latimes.com)
It was a tip from his older brother that helped steer the writer-director-actor toward a show business career. At 87, he has two new books out.
Joss Whedon to direct, Jonathan Groff to sing on 'Glee' (latimes.com)
The world of Whedon nerds and theater geeks will soon collide on "Glee."
Bill Murray: respect the oddball (timesonline.co.uk)
George Clooney says he's 'the best comic actor in the world'. But Bill Murray isn't all laughs, says Kevin Maher.
Moira Macdonald: 'Black Dynamite' inspired by '70s low-budget action, says actor-writer (The Seattle Times)
"Black Dynamite," the blaxploitation spoof now arriving in theaters, has a few mistakes in it - and the filmmakers left them in, on purpose.
Tom Danehy: The Pima County Sports Hall of Fame inducts a voice (tucsonweekly.com)
If you've lived in Tucson for any reasonable amount of time and are not a complete hermit, the chances are good that you've heard Dale Lopez's voice at one time or another. How's this for a partial résumé? He's been the public-address announcer for the various Tucson minor-league baseball teams for the past 25 years; he's also done Amphi football for more than 20 years, Pima College basketball for more than 20 years and Tucson High basketball for more than 10 years. He did a two-year stint with UA women's basketball and is currently the stadium voice for the UA baseball team.
David Bruce: Wise Up! Good Deeds (athensnews.com)
In June of 1991, Bella Freund heard shouts of "Terrorist" in a shopping center in Jerusalem. An Arab had used a knife to stab a Jewish boy, and now a mob of angry Jews was attacking the Arab. Bella was an Orthodox Jew, but she threw herself on top of the Arab to protect him from the mob. Why did she protect him? Her parents were survivors of the Holocaust, and she said, "I protected someone because he was a human being."
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Re: (Another) Blue Heron
My Uncle Bob, from behind the Orange Curtain, had a blue heron land in his backyard a few weeks ago.
From The Creator of 'Avery Ant'
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Sunny and a bit warmer.
Guantanamo Debate
Musicians
A coalition of mega-bands and singers outraged that music - including theirs - was cranked up to help break uncooperative detainees at Guantanamo Bay is joining retired military officers and liberal activists to rally support for President Barack Obama's push to shutter the Navy-run prison for terrorist suspects in Cuba.
Pearl Jam, R.E.M., and Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails are among the musicians who have joined the National Campaign to Close Guantanamo, which launched Tuesday.
On behalf of the campaign, the National Security Archive in Washington is filing a Freedom of Information Act request seeking classified records that detail the use of loud music as an interrogation device.
Based on documents that already have been made public and interviews with former detainees, the archive says the playlist featured cuts from AC/DC, Britney Spears, the Bee Gees, Marilyn Manson and many other groups. The Meow mix cat food jingle, the Barney theme song and an assortment of Sesame Street tunes also were pumped into detainee cells.
Musicians
Anti-Right-Wing Protest
BBC
Protesters broke into the BBC headquarters Thursday as a far-right leader made a controversial first appearance on the broadcaster's top political panel show.
Some 500 demonstrators chanted slogans and waved placards in rowdy scenes outside Television Centre in west London as British National Party (BNP) leader Nick Griffin went inside to film the BBC's "Question Time" show.
The BNP wants to "stop immigration" and its membership is restricted to "indigenous Caucasian" people, though that is set to change after a recent court battle which the party could not afford to fight.
The BBC insists it has the duty to hold all democratically-elected political parties up to scrutiny.
BBC
Joining Metallica
Ray Davies
Metallica have landed another big name bandmate for their upcoming Rock & Roll Hall of Fame show - The Kinks' Ray Davies has signed up to perform with the heavy rockers.
Ozzy Osbourne has already agreed to perform with Metallica at their upcoming New York concert to celebrate 25 years of the Hall of Fame.
The Enter Sandman hitmakers, who were inducted to the hall in April, are due to take to the stage at Madison Square Garden as part of a series of shows dedicated to the coveted musical institution.
U2, Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band, Simon & Garfunkel and Crosby, Stills & Nash are among the other stars who will come together on 29 October and 30 October for two unique concerts.
Ray Davies
Malawi Visit
Madonna
Madonna will visit Malawi on Sunday to lay the foundation stone of a multi-million dollar girls' school she is building, her charity Raising Malawi told Reuters.
The singer, who has adopted two children from the southern African country, is due to arrive on Sunday and attend a brick-laying ceremony in Lilongwe on Monday. The school is expected to cost about $15 million.
"She plans to meet the President Bingu wa Mutharika and together lay a foundation stone for her multi-million dollar girls school," a staffer at the charity, who declined to be named, said on Thursday.
Madonna
100,000 Women Get It
Berlusconi
More than 100,000 women have signed a petition saying they are offended by Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi - an initiative launched by a newspaper after the premier made a sexist remark to an opposition politician.
Berlusconi, 73, made the jab during a call in to a late-night talk show Oct. 7 that featured, among other guests, Rosy Bindi, a 58-year-old former minister who dresses conservatively, wears glasses and has short, gray hair.
"You are always more beautiful than intelligent," Berlusconi told her. She snapped back: "I'm not one of the women at your disposal."
Berlusconi's remark sparked outrage, and prompted three prominent Italian intellectuals to draft a petition stating that Berlusconi uses women's bodies for his political ends, denigrating women and democracy in the process.
Berlusconi
West Bank Version
Sesame Street
It's always a sunny day on Sesame Street in the West Bank, where the neighbors are friendly and the muppets never see an Israeli army checkpoint all day long.
The Shara'a Simsim version of the popular television program teaches Palestinian children they can achieve their dream of an independent Palestinian state through tolerance, education and national pride -- and not anti-Israeli violence.
"Our problem is that for so long we've been focusing on resistance and we gave up on other things like culture, education and tolerance," said executive producer Daoud Kuttab.
The fourth series, which airs on Palestine TV in January and has 52 half-hour episodes, aims to teach Palestinian children -- mainly boys -- non-violent ways of expression, by exposing them to empowered characters who serve as role models.
Sesame Street
McCain Caused Drop
Testosterone
Men who voted for Republican John McCain in last year's US presidential election saw their testosterone levels fall significantly when they learned he had lost to Barack Obama, a study showed Thursday.
Saliva samples collected from 163 men on the evening of the election showed that voters for both McCain and Obama had similar testosterone levels when polling stations closed on the east coast, but the levels in McCain backers fell when Obama was announced as the winner.
By contrast, testosterone levels among men who voted for Obama remained stable. Taking into account the fact that polls shut and results were announced at night -- a time when men's testosterone levels usually decline -- the study said the level was equivalent to a rise.
Supporters of McCain or Libertarian Party candidate Bob Barr -- who the study noted didn't have a hope of getting elected -- showed "significantly larger testosterone decreases" than Obama supporters from the time when polls closed to 40 minutes after Obama was declared the winner.
Testosterone
Stupidity Über Alles
Global Warming
Americans seem to be cooling toward global warming. Just 57 percent think there is solid evidence the world is getting warmer, down 20 points in just three years, a new poll says.
And the share of people who believe pollution caused by humans is causing temperatures to rise has also taken a dip, even as the U.S. and world forums gear up for possible action against climate change.
In a poll of 1,500 adults by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press, released Thursday, the number of people saying there is strong scientific evidence that the Earth has gotten warmer over the past few decades is down from 71 percent in April of last year and from 77 percent when Pew started asking the question in 2006. The number of people who see the situation as a serious problem also has declined.
The steepest drop has occurred during the past year, as Congress and the Obama administration have taken steps to control heat-trapping emissions for the first time and international negotiations for a new treaty to slow global warming have been under way. At the same time, there has been mounting scientific evidence of climate change - from melting ice caps to the world's oceans hitting the highest monthly recorded temperatures this summer.
Global Warming
Court Hearing Postponed
Adam Jasinski
A court hearing for a winner of the reality TV show "Big Brother" on drug charges has been postponed.
Adam Jasinski, of Delray Beach, Fla., is charged with attempting to sell 2,000 oxycodone pills. He was scheduled to appear in U.S. District Court in Boston on Thursday, but his detention hearing has been postponed until Oct. 30.
Jasinski was arrested in North Reading, Mass., last weekend after he allegedly showed a government witness two plastic bags filled with oxycodone.
Jasinski won $500,000 on "Big Brother 9" in April 2008. A federal drug agent says the 31-year-old told him that he had been using his winnings on the CBS reality show to buy thousands of oxycodone pills and resell them along the East Coast.
Adam Jasinski
Called A Bully
LA City Attorney
The owner of the Staples Center arena said the city attorney bullied and threatened him in an effort to recover millions of dollars the city spent to police last summer's Michael Jackson memorial.
The city attorney's office countered that Anschutz Entertainment Group, or AEG, is a political heavyweight that's used to getting its way and is simply upset at not getting a free ride.
"No one, no matter how much political pull you have in the city of Los Angeles, is above the law," City Attorney Carmen Trutanich (R-Self-Aggrandizing) told Los Angeles radio station KNX.
"He made it very clear, either you settle or I am going to go after you guys," AEG President and Chief Executive Tim Leiweke recalled. "I said, 'Fine. I'm sorry this didn't work out.'"
LA City Attorney
LA City Attorney
Roman Polanski
American prosecutors closely monitored Roman Polanski in Austria and considered seeking his arrest there days before the director's apprehension in Switzerland, documents obtained by The Associated Press show.
Los Angeles officials decided against filing a warrant for Polanski's arrest with the Austrian government after questioning how accommodating it would be to an extradition request. They also were concerned about the limited time available before Polanski left the country, according to e-mails obtained by the AP under U.S. public records request.
The e-mail exchange Sept. 23 came three days before Polanski traveled to Switzerland and was arrested Sept. 26 at Zurich's airport. It sheds new light on how closely U.S. officials were monitoring the 76-year-old director's movements after being tipped off that he was outside France, and why they chose to go after him in Switzerland, where they are now seeking his extradition for having sex in 1977 with a 13-year-old girl.
It is unclear from the e-mails why Los Angeles officials were concerned about Austrian cooperation on a Polanski extradition request. There was no reference to Polanski's history as a Jewish Holocaust survivor whose mother died in Auschwitz, or the sensitivities about having him pursued in the land of Adolf Hitler's birth.
Roman Polanski
$7.7M at NYC Auction
32-Carat Diamond
A square, 32.01-carat emerald-cut diamond that billionaire philanthropist Leonore Annenberg bought for her 90th birthday sold for $7.7 million at auction on Wednesday.
About the size of a walnut, the flawless, colorless diamond sits on a ring designed by Manhattan jeweler David Webb. It is flanked by two pear-shaped diamonds, one of them 1.61 carats and the other 1.51 carats.
The ring's pre-sale estimate was $3 million to $5 million. The previous auction record for a 30-carat square cut flawless, colorless diamond was $3.1 million, set at Christie's in Geneva in May.
The record for any diamond or jewel at auction is $24.3 million for the 17th century cushion-shaped grayish-blue 35.56 carat Wittelsbach Diamond. It was sold at Christie's in December 2008, topping the previous record of $16.5 million for a 100-carat diamond sold in 1995 in Geneva.
32-Carat Diamond
Former Nurse's Aide Becomes Ugandan King
Charles Wesley Mumbere
For years, Charles Wesley Mumbere worked as a nurse's aide in Maryland and Pennsylvania, caring for the elderly and sick. No one there suspected that he had inherited a royal title in his African homeland when he was just 13.
On Monday, after years of political upheaval and financial struggle, Mumbere, 56, was finally crowned king of his people to the sound of drumbeats and thousands of cheering supporters wearing cloth printed with his portraits.
At a public rally later in the day, Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni officially recognized the 300,000-strong Rwenzururu Kingdom. Museveni restored the traditional kingdoms his predecessor banned in 1967, but has been adamant that kings restrict themselves to cultural duties and keep out of politics.
The new King of Uganda's Mountains of the Moon has undergone many transformations - from teenage leader of a rebel force to impoverished student to a nursing home assistant working two jobs in the U.S., where he lived for nearly 25 years.
Charles Wesley Mumbere
In Memory
Collin Wilcox-Paxton
Actress Collin Wilcox-Paxton, who portrayed the false accuser in the movie classic "To Kill a Mockingbird," died of brain cancer just months after the diagnosis. She was 74.
Her husband, Scott Paxton, confirmed Thursday that she died Oct. 14 in Highlands in the southwest part of the state. No funeral was held. Instead, the family held a service before her death.
The actress played Mayella Ewell in the movie based on Harper Lee's Pulitzer-winning novel. Her role as the young white woman who accuses a black man of beating and raping her in her home was brief but memorable.
In the late 1950s and '60s, she had roles in several Broadway plays, making her debut in 1958 in the family drama "The Day the Money Stopped." While the production was short-lived, The New York Times said she "scatters little sparks of humorous vitality throughout her scenes."
She had guest appearances in many television series, indluding "Gunsmoke," "The Fugitive," "The Waltons" and "Little House on the Prairie."
Her roles in the 1990s included television series and movies that were filmed near her hometown in the North Carolina mountains. They included "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil," which director Clint Eastwood filmed in Savannah, Ga., and the inspirational TV series "Christy," about a teacher in the early 1900s in remote Appalachia.
She is also survived by her three children and three grandchildren.
Collin Wilcox-Paxton
In Memory
Soupy Sales
Soupy Sales, the rubber-faced comedian whose anything-for-a-chuckle career was built on 20,000 pies to the face and 5,000 live TV appearances across a half-century of laughs, has died. He was 83.
Sales began his TV career in Cincinnati and Cleveland, then moved to Detroit, where he drew a large audience on WXYZ-TV. He moved to Los Angeles in 1961.
The comic's pie-throwing schtick became his trademark, and celebrities lined up to take one on the chin alongside Sales. During the early 1960s, stars such as Frank Sinatra, Tony Curtis and Shirley MacLaine received their just desserts side-by-side with the comedian on his television show.
Sales was born Milton Supman on Jan. 8, 1926, in Franklinton, N.C., where his was the only Jewish family in town. His parents, owners of a dry-goods store, sold sheets to the Ku Klux Klan. The family later moved to Huntington, W.Va.
His greatest success came in New York with "The Soupy Sales Show" - an ostensible children's show that had little to do with Captain Kangaroo and other kiddie fare. Sales' manic, improvisational style also attracted an older audience that responded to his envelope-pushing antics.
Sales, who was typically clad in a black sweater and oversized bow-tie, was once suspended for a week after telling his legion of tiny listeners to empty their mothers' purse and mail him all the pieces of green paper bearing pictures of the presidents.
The cast of "Saturday Night Live" later paid homage by asking their audience to send in their joints. His influence was also obvious in the Pee-Wee Herman character created by Paul Reubens.
Sales returned from the Navy after World War II and became a $20-a-week reporter at a West Virginia radio station. He jumped to a DJ gig, changed his name to Soupy Heinz and headed for Ohio.
His first pie to the face came in 1951, when the newly christened Soupy Sales was hosting a children's show in Cleveland. In Detroit, Sales' show garnered a national reputation as he honed his act - a barrage of sketches, gags and bad puns that played in the Motor City for seven years.
He moved to New York in 1964 and debuted "The Soupy Sales Show," with co-star puppets White Fang (the meanest dog in the United States) and Black Tooth (the nicest dog in the United States). By the time his Big Apple run ended two years later, Sales had appeared on 5,370 live television programs - the most in the medium's history, he boasted. He had a pair of albums that hit the Billboard Top 10 in 1965; "Do the Mouse" sold 250,000 copies in New York alone.
Sales remained a familiar television face, first as a regular from 1968-75 on the game show "What's My Line?" and later appearing on everything from "The Mike Douglas Show" to "The Love Boat." He played himself in the 1998 movie "Holy Man," which starred Eddie Murphy.
He joined WNBC-AM as a disc jockey in 1985, a stint best remembered because Sales filled the hours between shock jocks Don Imus and Howard Stern.
Sales is survived by his wife, Trudy, and two sons, Hunt and Tony, a pair of musicians who backed David Bowie in the band Tin Machine.
Soupy Sales
Trivia Question of the Day - Soupy Sales
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