Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Marc Dion: Pimps up, Everybody Else Down (Creators Syndicate)
People who scream about the money-glorifying, gun-loving, death-hugging, punch-in-a-woman's tender face excesses of rap music oughta know the people on the bottom learned all that from the people on the top.
Lucy Mangan: Dearly beloved… fight! (Guardian)
Leave half a million pounds to a cat sanctuary? How I would love to have the courage.
Oliver Burkeman: Spam filter working? So why do you still feel deluged? (Guardian)
Self-help gurus urge us to eliminate the unimportant, and focus on what matters. Fair enough - but what if there are too many important things? Tougher choices may be required. Sorting the wheat from the chaff won't stop you getting stuffed too full of wheat.
Oliver Burkeman: "Spring makeover: decluttering" (Guardian)
Still, it's generally true that "outer order contributes to inner calm", as Gretchen Rubin, author of the bestselling book The Happiness Project, puts it, and judicious decluttering is likely to leave you feeling lighter.
Charlyn Fargo: Go Back to Those Three Square a Day (Creators Syndicate)
Is it better to eat three square meals or six smaller meals per day? Dieters have believed the six smaller will help them lose weight, but new research finds that eating fewer, regular-sized meals with higher amounts of lean protein can make one feel more full than eating smaller, more frequent meals.
Carolyn Kellogg: "Book review: '33 Revolutions Per Minute' by Dorian Lynskey" (Los Angeles Times)
Dorian Lynskey chronicles how pop songs have helped spur social protests. Songs by Billie Holiday and Bob Dylan are among those highlighted.
"Pleasure Bound: Victorian Sex Rebels and the New Eroticism" by Deborah Lutz: A review by by Chloe Schama
When "Walter," the anonymous author of the encyclopedic and pornographic Victorian memoir My Secret Life, propositioned a passing woman with the offer of a shilling, he tells us that within "half a minute," he had his "hand between her thighs." Would she go further, he wondered? "'Too glad,' said she....
Mark Olsen: Kevin Smith talks 'Red State,' Wayne Gretzky and why he's ready to leave filmmaking (Los Angeles Times)
Kevin Smith can talk. A lot.
Greg Kot: Jeff Beck is a guitarist on a mission (Chicago Tribune)
When Jeff Beck first heard the music of Les Paul, it set him off on a mission to master the guitar and in the process become one of the defining instrumentalists in British rock.
Jon Bream: Ex-Band leader Robbie Robertson releases first album in 13 years (Star Tribune)
"See the man with the stage fright," Robbie Robertson famously wrote for the Band. Well, he wants to make it perfectly clear: He's not the man with stage fright - he just no longer wants to perform concerts.
Jesca Hoop: 'I used to live under a tree' (Guardian)
Tom Waits's former nanny Jesca Hoop is as intriguing as her boss. Maddy Costa meets her.
John Jurgensen: Dave Grohl's Garage Memories (Wall Street Journal)
Foo Fighters' frontman reflects on songwriting, Nirvana and his new album, "Wasting Light."
David Bruce has 41 Kindle books on Amazon.com with 250 anecdotes in each book. Each book is $1, so for $41 you can buy 10,250 anecdotes. Search for "Funniest People," "Coolest People, "Most Interesting People," "Kindest People," "Religious Anecdotes," and "Maximum Cool."
wrote:
answered:
Reader Suggestions
Michelle in AZ
From The Creator of 'Avery Ant'
BadtotheboneBob
Michigan's Miss USA
Michigan's Miss USA goes from beauty queen to smackdown queen on new wrestling show
She's an F-bomb throwing, hot-tub bopping, body-slamming, drink-tossing party girl competing to become a professional wrestler on a reality TV show that debuted last week. "Yeah, I'm a beauty queen, but I'm (expletive) tough," said Dearborn's Rima Fakih, the reigning Miss USA, as she looked into the camera in the first episode of "WWE Tough Enough," a series that airs 8 p.m. Mondays on the USA Network. Fakih started her reign as the first Arab-American Miss USA with controversy, after photos of her in a pole-dancing contest surfaced. And she seems destined to end her reign on June 19 in the same manner, raising eyebrows and destroying stereotypes of beauty queens and Muslim women...
Michigan's Miss USA goes from beauty queen to smackdown queen on new wrestling show | Detroit Free Press | freep.com
I'd like to see a 'meet up' between her and Charlie Sheen, LOL!
BadtotheboneBob
Thanks, B2tbBob!
Reader Comment
Rick Santorum
My belief towards one Rick Santorum
I have noticed that your latest target is one Rick Santorum, who made history of his own some time ago with his remarks concerning gay marriage, likening it unto "man-on-dog sex"
My question to Rick Santorum is this - how do you know so much about man-on-dog sex in order to compare it to gay marriage? Please do not tell me what the Bible says, because that's not how you know, that's how the Bible knows. I'm not interested in how the Bible knows, I want to know how you know.
The way I see it, Mr. Santorum, the only way you would have any knowledge at all concerning man-on-dog sex in order to make your wild comparison is in the event you've been having sex with dogs yourself.
So tell me, Mr. Santorum, are you now or have you ever been having sex with dogs?
Do you mean to tell me that your little daughter was crying on election night 2006 because she found you in bed with a Rottweiller? And I don't mean any two-legged Rottweillers you know, sir.
That's all I ask. I thank the fine folk of Bartcop Entertainment for allowing me to speak of this here.
George M
Thanks, George!
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Suny but on the cool side.
22nd Annual Media Awards
GLAAD
"Glee," "Modern Family" and "Project Runway" are winners of the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation's 22nd annual Media Awards.
Prizes for outstanding comedy series and reality program were among those presented at the Westin Bonaventure Hotel in Los Angeles Sunday. Actor Sean Hayes presented entertainer Kristen Chenoweth with the Vanguard Award. Dolly Parton presented NBC Entertainment Chairman Robert Greenblatt with the Stephen F. Kolzak Award.
"Fort Worth Speech" on "The Last Word with Lawrence O'Donnell" was recognized as the year's outstanding TV journalism segment and "I Love You Phillip Morris" was honored as an outstanding film in limited release.
The GLAAD Media Awards honor media for accurate and inclusive representations of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender communities and the issues affecting their lives.
GLAAD
American Library Association
Challenged Books
In what's become a virtual rite of passage for young adult sensations, Suzanne Collins' novel has made its first appearance on the American Library Association's annual top 10 list of books most criticized in their communities. "The Hunger Games," the title work of Collins' series about young people forced to hunt and kill each other on live television, has been cited for violence and sexual content. In recent years, J.K. Rowling's "Harry Potter" books and Stephenie Meyer's vampire novels also have been on the association's list.
"Hunger Games" ranked No. 5 this year and was joined Monday by Meyer's "Twilight" (No. 10), which debuted on the list last year, and Sherman Alexie's "The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian," winner in 2007 of the National Book Award for young people's literature. Criticisms of Alexie's novel include language, racism and sexual content.
"It almost makes me happy to hear books still have that kind of power," Alexie said. He laughed at the idea his work might be harmful, noting that he receives fan mail every day from readers thanking him for his story of a bright but bullied teen estranged from his fellow Indians on the Spokane Reservation and from the rich white kids at the high school he attends.
Alexie acknowledges one disappointment; his book only ranked No. 2, trailing "And Tango Makes Three," a picture story by Justin Richardson's and Peter Parnell about two male penguins who hatch a donated egg and raise the baby penguin. It's the fourth time in five years "Tango" has been No. 1, with reasons for criticism including the book's discussion of homosexuality.
The library association reported 348 challenges to books in 2010 and at least 53 outright bans, with other challenges and bans likely undocumented. The ALA defines a challenge as an effort "to remove or restrict materials from school curricula and library bookshelves."
Challenged Books
Rocks Vietnam
Bob Dylan
After nearly five decades of singing about a war that continues to haunt a generation of Americans, legendary performer Bob Dylan finally got his chance to see Vietnam at peace.
The American folk singer and songwriter known for his anti-war anthems gave a special concert Sunday in the former Saigon, nearly 36 years after the Vietnam War ended.
Dylan, 69, jammed on stage in a black jacket, purple shirt and white hat in the warm evening air, singing favorites such as "A Hard Rain's a-Gonna Fall" and "Highway 61 Revisited."
Only about half of the 8,000 seats at RMIT University were sold to a mix of Vietnamese and foreigners who danced on the grass as Dylan played guitar, harmonica and the keyboard. With more than 60 percent of the country's 86 million people born after the war, many young people here are more familiar with contemporary pop stars like Justin Bieber.
Bob Dylan
Atlantic City Reunion
Partridges
And to think they did it without any help from Reuben Kincaid!
A mini-Partridge Family reunion was held Saturday in Atlantic City when David Cassidy and Danny Bonaduce played a song onstage together. They say it was only the second time in 40 years they've done so.
Bonaduce, a Philadelphia disc jockey, portrayed Cassidy's younger brother on the '70s TV hit, but lip-synched and only pretended to play the bass guitar on the show. On Saturday, after he did a standup comedy routine to open the show at Resorts Casino Hotel, Cassidy got him to play "Doesn't Somebody Want To Be Wanted." Bonaduce learned that song for real when they played it together last October in suburban Philadelphia.
Last fall, Cassidy, who has been touring regularly, told Bonaduce, "It's time you learned how to play the Partridge Family hits." Actually, he dared him.
Partridges
Prints Phone-Hacking Apology
Britain's biggest-selling newspaper publicly apologised Sunday for hacking into the voicemail of numerous top celebrities, in a scandal that has engulfed top politicians, royals and stars.
News of the World Rupert
As it sought to draw a line under the furore, the Rupert Murdoch-owned News of the World weekly tabloid begged pardon from its victims, saying its actions had been "unacceptable".
The Sunday paper said it had admitted liability in some cases and planned to pay compensation from a fund being set up, reportedly worth around £20 million ($33 million, 23 million euros).
However, several victims seem unlikely to accept the compensation offer, preferring instead to get the full extent of the phone hacking revealed in open court.
On Tuesday, its chief reporter Neville Thurlbeck and a former news editor, Ian Edmondson, were arrested on suspicion of having unlawfully intercepted mobile phone voicemail messages.
News of the World Rupert
Under Assault But Still Potent
DOMA
These are frustrating, tantalizing days for many of the same-sex couples who seized the chance to marry in recent years.
The law that prohibits federal recognition of their unions in under assault in the courts. The Obama administration has repudiated it and taken piecemeal steps to weaken its effects.
Yet for now, the Defense of Marriage Act remains very much in force - provoking anger, impatience and confusion among gay couples.
Because of DOMA, some binational couples still worry about deportation of the non-citizen spouse. Survivor benefits aren't granted after one spouse dies. And couples filing joint tax returns in the states allowing same-sex marriage must still file separately this month with the IRS.
When DOMA was passed overwhelmingly by Congress in 1996, and signed by President Bill Clinton, it was a pre-emptive strike. There were no legally married same-sex couples in the United States.
DOMA
Critics Fault Ethics
Sandra Day O'Connor
Retired Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor (R-Tip of the Iceberg)) continues to hear cases in U.S. appeals courts, while also playing a role in public policy issues. Her critics say she should do one or the other, but not both.
O'Connor, 81, was forced to apologize for 50,000 recorded telephone calls made to Nevada voters in which she supported a ballot measure to change the way state judges are selected. O'Connor said she did not authorize the calls featuring her recorded voice, much less their post-midnight delivery. But she also defended her involvement in the campaign that included her appearance in a television commercial.
In September, federal judges in Iowa stayed away from a conference on judicial elections at which O'Connor spoke in the midst of another campaign over ballot issues. The judges had received an informal opinion that their presence would violate the judiciary's ethics code.
Most recently, O'Connor hosted an after-hours reception at the court that was billed as a celebration of Bristol Bay in Alaska. But the featured speakers, other than O'Connor, were opponents of a proposed Alaskan copper and gold mine. They were in Washington to lobby lawmakers and regulators against the proposed Pebble Mine.
Sandra Day O'Connor
World Stumbles Toward
Climate Summit
Nineteen years after the world started to take climate change seriously, delegates from around the globe spent five days talking about what they will talk about at a year-end conference in South Africa. They agreed to talk about their opposing viewpoints.
Delegates from 173 nations did agree that delays in averting global warming merely fast-forward the risk of plunging the world into "catastrophe." The delegate from Bolivia noted that the international effort, which began with a 1992 U.N. convention, has so far amounted to "throwing water on a forest fire."
But the U.N. meeting in Bangkok, which concluded late Friday after delegates cobbled together a broad agenda for the December summit, failed to narrow the deep divisions between the developing world and the camp of industrialized nations led by the United States. These may come to plague the summit in Durban.
Generally, developing nations, pointing to the industrialized world as the main culprit behind global warning, want an international treaty that would legally bind countries to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions. Washington and others reject it, focusing instead on building on the modest decisions made at last December's summit in Cancun, Mexico.
Climate Summit
Denies Jamming German Radio Service
Ethiopia
Ethiopia denied Sunday it was jamming Deutsche Welle's (DW) local Amharic language radio shows, after the state-funded German broadcaster appealed for its signal to be restored.
Deutsche Welle issued a statement at the weekend saying its broadcasts in Amharic, the predominant language in Ethiopia, had been blocked since April 6.
"This has lead DW officials to believe that it is a concentrated effort to block critical international media," the statement said.
"The Ethiopian administration is apparently concerned that the so-called Jasmine Revolution in North Africa will spread into their country."
In March last year, two months before a disputed election result returned him to power, Prime Minister Meles Zenawi ordered the jamming of U.S.-funded broadcaster Voice of America (VOA) and sparked a diplomatic row.
Ethiopia
Found In Mine
Shark Fossil
A miner has found a fossil from a shark jawbone deep in a central Kentucky mine and now it is on display at the University of Kentucky.
The fossil was found in February in Webster County, Ky., where 25-year-old miner Jay Wright was working to bolt a roof 700 feet underground. The 300-million-year-old black jawbone is believed to be from a shark from the Edestus genus that once swam the seas over what is now Kentucky.
Wright said in an interview Friday with The Lexington Herald Leader that his first thought was "Gosh, what is this thing?"
Jerry Weisenfluh, associate director of the Kentucky Geological Survey in Lexington, said a fossil this large is rare. It's now on display in the lobby of UK's Mines and Minerals building.
Shark Fossil
Weekend Box Office
'Hop'
The good news for Russell Brand is that his animated comedy "Hop" remains the top movie for the second-straight weekend with $21.7 million.
The bad news is that his new live-action comedy "Arthur" could not jump as high as "Hop."
The Warner Bros. remake of Dudley Moore's 1981 romance about a rich, drunken man-child finally learning to grow up, "Arthur" was a distant second with a modest debut of $12.6 million, according to studio estimates Sunday.
Opening close behind at No. 3 with $12.3 million was Focus Features' "Hanna," the tale of a teenager trained as a killing machine that stars Cate Blanchett, Eric Bana and Saoirse Ronan.
Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Hollywood.com. Final figures will be released Monday.
1. "Hop," $21.7 million.
2. "Arthur," $12.6 million.
3. "Hanna," $12.3 million.
4. "Soul Surfer," $11.1 million.
5. "Insidious," $9.7 million.
6. "Your Highness," $9.5 million.
7. "Source Code," $9.1 million.
8. "Limitless," $5.7 million.
9. "Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules," $4.9 million.
10. "The Lincoln Lawyer," $4.6 million.
'Hop'
In Memory
Gil Robbins
Gil Robbins, a folk singer, guitarist and member of the early 1960s group the Highwaymen, has died. He was 80.
Robbins died Tuesday at his home in Esteban Cantu, Mexico, Tracey Jacobs said Saturday night in an email to The Associated Press. Jacobs is a publicist for Robbins' son, the actor and director Tim Robbins.
Shortly before Gil Robbins joined the Highwaymen, the group had a major hit with "Michael," its version of "Michael, Row the Boat Ashore." When Robbins joined in 1962, he took the group in a more political direction, playing and singing baritone on five albums until their 1964 breakup. (A country music supergroup with Willie Nelson and Johnny Cash later shared the same name.)
Tim Robbins, star of "The Shawshank Redemption" and director of "Dead Man Walking," said in a statement to the AP that Gil Robbins was "a fantastic father," "a great musician" and "a man of unshakeable integrity."
Father and son worked together on the 1992 film "Bob Roberts." Tim Robbins directed and played the title role of a right-wing, folk-singing U.S. Senate candidate from Pennsylvania. The actor's brother David Robbins wrote and recorded the film's ultra-conservative folk songs, and Gil Robbins was listed in the credits as a vocal coach and choral consultant.
Robbins was born in Spokane, Wash., and raised in Southern California, where he studied music at the University of California, Los Angeles.
Before joining the Highwaymen, he was already a well-known musician in the folk scene that surrounded New York's Greenwich Village as a member of the Cumberland Three and the Belafonte Singers, and as a friend to famous folkies like John Stewart and Dave Van Ronk, according to The New York Times, which first reported his death.
After the Highwaymen, Robbins managed the Gaslight Club on Greenwich Village's famously musical MacDougal Street.
Gil Robbins
| CURRENT MOON lunar phases |
