Recommended Reading
from Bruce
LEONARD PITTS JR.: Discrimination hurts -- more so in hospitals (miamiherald.com)
Your wife is dying. One moment everything was fine. You were in your stateroom on the cruise ship -- it was to be an anniversary cruise -- unpacking your things. The kids were in the adjoining stateroom playing with your wife. Suddenly, they banged on the door crying that mom was hurt.
Josh Marshall: Behold the Hypocrimap! (talkingpointsmemo.com)
It's one thing to accept money from a piece of legislation you campaigned strenuously against. But we're seeing more and more stories about Republicans who just got done trashing the stimulus bill in Washington and are now back in their districts taking credit for the spending programs contained in it. A lot of the stories have already been written up. But I think there are many, many more out there. So keep an eye on your local media for examples.
Paul Krugman: Who'll Stop the Pain? (nytimes.com)
The Obama administration's policy initiatives will help in this difficult period but they are intended to mitigate the slump, not end it. No doubt this recession will pass but how, and when?
Mark Morford: Smoke This Recession (sfgate.com)
It's simple: First we tax the booze. Then we legalize the pot. Done.
JOEL STEIN: A good man for a 'bad bank' (latimes.com)
Just show me which rathole the money goes down, and I'll get right to work.
MAX ROOSEVELT: Student Expectations Seen as Causing Grade Disputes (nytimes.com)
Prof. Marshall Grossman has come to expect complaints whenever he returns graded papers in his English classes at the University of Maryland.
SANDY BANKS: Ballet school loses its Prince Charming (latimes.com)
She heard new stories of small kindnesses from former students and their parents. But Steve's best-known act of generosity is the one that launched their family. The oldest three of their six children are former students whom Steve and Cindy rescued from an unstable family. "We didn't want them going into the system, so we got our foster care license so they could come live with us," Cindy said. Ultimately they adopted the girls, now 21, 18 and 16.
Rob Horning: In praise of Stephen Glass (popmatters.com)
I was sent down memory lane by this metafilter link to an archive of the work of the New Republic's comedic fabricator, Stephen Glass. I can understand why other journalists and pious publishing types vilify Glass, but he was an extremely engaging writer, and I can testify that his pieces single-handedly convinced to me to renew my TNR subscription back in 1998.
Jack Shafer: Not All Information Wants To Be Free (slate.com)
Inventing and refining the rich content that wants to be sold.
PAUL BOUTIN: Low-Tech Fixes for High-Tech Problems (nytimes.com)
BEHIND the cash register at Smoke Shop No. 2 in downtown San Francisco, Sam Azar swipes a customer's credit card to ring up Turkish cigarettes. The store's card reader fails to scan the card's magnetic strip. Azar swipes again, and again. No luck.
Michael J. Kavanagh: "What Are They So Scared Of? I'm Just a Little Old Lady" (slate.com)
His latest novel is not his first inspired by real life, but Chris Bohjalian knows it's a huge departure from his 10 other books.
Alison Des Forges, 1942-2009.
Connie Ogle: Author Chris Bohjalian puts spotlight on WWII Germans (McClatchy Newspapers)
His latest novel is not his first inspired by real life, but Chris Bohjalian knows it's a huge departure from his 10 other books.
Roger Ebert: Remembering Gene
Gene Siskel and I were like tuning forks. Strike one, and the other would pick up the same frequency.
Interview by Hannah Pool: Question time (guardian.co.uk)
Bollywood actor Anil Kapoor on why "Slumdog Millionaire" is a feelgood movie with a difference and why the future belongs to India.
wrote:
Reader Contribution
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Marty-
Reader Comment
Got Photo Op?
Got Photo Op?
Oh and nice job keeping a separation of church/state .
OK it is good gesture towards helping those in need but I just can't and won't trust her or her intentions.....bye the bye , I had a realization of late that when "Scary Sary" told reporters about "Bored, anonymous ,pathetic bloggers who lie ..." aside from the lying part she could be describing me. I certainly have been more than happy to funnel what info I could glean up here about her and all the state's repugs to Bart-Co and the other web-sites I frequent and contribute news to. OK enough self-agrandizing, back to working on my TeeVee show thingy.
Vic in AK
Thanks, Vic!
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Back to sunny and warm.
Razzies tonight,
Oscars tomorrow.
Treading Lightly
Cartoonists
Cartoonist Lalo Alcaraz was in front of a classroom full of black and Latino kids, drawing presidents. He sketched Bush, then Clinton. Next came his favorite, the man he voted for: Obama.
"Hey, those lips are big," Alcaraz heard a black girl say from the back of the room.
Alcaraz was disturbed. "I try to bend over backwards not to make him look like a cartoon stereotype," and certainly not a racial stereotype, he said.
Editorial cartoonists are bending over backwards a lot these days, as they try to satirize the nation's first black president. And when they don't, the result is the kind of outcry that erupted this week after a New York Post cartoon featured a bloody chimpanzee - intentionally or unintentionally evoking racist images of the past.
The problem is, cartoonists make their living by making fun of people - especially presidents - and exaggerating their features and foibles.
Cartoonists
Wins $1M Nilsson Prize
Placido Domingo
The late Swedish soprano Birgit Nilsson left a rich secret when she died in 2005 - her choice for the first winner of her $1 million dollar music prize, tenor Placido Domingo.
Nilsson, a great admirer of the Spanish singer since they first performed together in 1969, chose him as inaugural winner of the biggest prize in classical music for his "unrivaled" contributions to the world of opera, the award foundation said Friday.
Officials of the Birgit Nilsson Foundation said Domingo's name had been kept secret for nearly a decade. The reasons for that were not given, but plans for the creation of her posthumous Birgit Nilsson Prize were under way long before she died Dec. 25, 2005, at age 87.
Placido Domingo
Homecoming Queen
George Mason University
George Mason University senior Ryan Allen dresses in drag and doesn't mind being called a queen - homecoming queen, to be exact.
Allen, who is gay and performs in drag at nightclubs in the region, said he entered the homecoming contest as a joke, competing as Reann Ballslee, his drag queen persona.
But he considers the victory one of his happiest moments and proof that the suburban Washington, D.C., school famous for its run to the Final Four a few years back celebrates its diverse student body.
"I was very touched by how Mason was so supportive through the whole process of allowing a boy in a dress to run for homecoming queen," Allen said in a phone interview. "It says a lot about the campus that not only do we have diversity but we celebrate it."
George Mason University
Russia Rejects
Disney Channel
Russia's anti-monopoly agency on Friday blocked Walt Disney's local venture, derailing the media giant's plan to create a free-to-air channel for Russian families, local media reported.
In a statement, the anti-trust body said it rejected the venture after it was given false information by the parties applying to create Mo-Tv Holdings Ltd, which Russia's Interfax news agency identified as the Disney project, citing sources close to the deal.
The ruling is a setback to Disney's aggressive efforts since Chief Executive Robert Iger took over in 2005 to move into the Russian and Eastern European markets, which had been expected to buck the global economic downturn and offset slower growth in the company's more established markets.
Disney had been counting on the free-to-air television channel to raise brand awareness and support the local retail, theatrical distribution, licensing, mobile and Internet businesses it already operates in Russia -- a strategy it has employed successfully in China and India.
Disney Channel
Contract Talks Hit New Snag
Screen Actors Guild
The largest U.S. actors union and Hollywood's major studios on Thursday ended three days of contract talks without a deal when a new problem developed in their long and troubled labor negotiations.
The Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, which represents the studios, said in a statement that it had made six new concessions to "sweeten the final offer" for the roughly 120,000 members of the Screen Actors Guild.
Sources with knowledge of the talks said progress was made on key issues, including how actors would be paid for work distributed on the Internet. But a new problem surfaced when the two sides could not agree on the start date of a new contract.
The AMPTP said its new "last, best and final offer" would be left open for 60 days. SAG is expected to present the offer to its national governing board at a meeting on Saturday.
Screen Actors Guild
INXS Singer Broke, Homeless, Fired
J.D. Fortune
The lead singer of Australian rock band INXS, J.D. Fortune, who was picked to replace the late Michael Hutchence in a contest on a reality TV show, said he has been fired without warning from the band.
Fortune, 35, a Canadian rock singer, was living out of his car when he won the CBS network's 2005 reality TV series "Rock Star:INXS."
With Fortune, INXS released the album "Switch" and went on a world tour in 2006 and 2007 to promote the album that featured the singles "Pretty Vegas" and "Afterglow."
But Fortune told Entertainment Tonight Canada that INXS fired him literally with a handshake at an airport in Hong Kong, leaving the band without a frontman and with a new album on hold.
J.D. Fortune
'Roid-Dealer Actor Busted
'The Wrestler'
The actor who played a steroid dealer in the Oscar-nominated film "The Wrestler" was charged Thursday with being the real thing: Authorities arrested him in a large steroid bust that culminated in a violent chase.
Federal prosecutors in Manhattan also accused Scott Siegel of leading Drug Enforcement Administration agents and local police on a car chase worthy of an action flick.
Siegel, 34, was ordered held without bail on federal drug dealing and assault charges at a court appearance Thursday in White Plains, N.Y. The arrest and chase played out three days before the Oscars, where "The Wrestler" could garner an Academy Award for the lead actor, Mickey Rourke.
Prosecutors said investigators had seized 1,500 bottles labeled as anabolic steroids and tens of thousands of dollars in cash during searches of Siegal's home and that of his parents.
'The Wrestler'
Adequate Care
Peter Falk
A court-appointed attorney who has met with Peter Falk has issued a report stating that he believes the actor does not need to placed under a conservatorship.
In a report filed Thursday in Los Angeles Superior Court, Clark R. Byam wrote that he sees no need for Falk's daughter to be placed in control of the 81-year-old actor's estate.
Byam also details a visit with Falk in which he described the actor as "well-dressed, clean and composed." Falk is living in a one-story guesthouse that was once an art studio at his Beverly Hills home, Byam's report states.
Byam was appointed by a judge to evaluate Falk's status and represent his interests. His report states that he does not think a doctor's report on Falk's medical condition should be made public.
Peter Falk
New California Record
Chinook Salmon
A record-low number of chinook salmon returned to rivers in California's Central Valley last year, indicating that severe restrictions on salmon fishing are likely again this year, federal regulators said.
The Pacific Fishery Management Council reported this week that 66,264 natural and hatchery chinook or "king" salmon adults were estimated to have returned to the Sacramento River basin in 2008 to spawn, the lowest estimate on record.
The numbers are down from about 90,000 in 2007, which led to bans in 2008 on commercial and recreational salmon fishing off the coasts of California and most of Oregon. In contrast, more than 750,000 adult salmon were counted in the Sacramento River basin in 2002.
The Sacramento River chinook run serves as a bellwether for the Pacific's salmon fishermen - the run often provides the bulk of salmon caught off the coasts of California and Oregon.
Chinook Salmon
In Memory
Kelly Groucutt
Kelly Groucutt, former bass player with 1970s rock hitmakers ELO, has died at age 63.
Formed in Birmingham, England, in 1971 by local musicians Jeff Lynne and Roy Wood, ELO - short for Electric Light Orchestra - combined rock 'n' roll with orchestral arrangements replete with string sections, choirs and symphonic sweep.
Groucutt joined ELO in 1974 after leaving his previous band, Sight and Sound. He played bass and sang during ELO's heyday as one of the world's biggest rock acts. ELO had a string of British and U.S. chart hits during the 1970s and early 1980s, including "Livin' Thing," "Mr. Blue Sky" and "Don't Bring Me Down."
Groucutt left the band in 1983 but later toured with several successor acts, including ELO Part II and The Orchestra.
He is survived by his wife Anna and four children.
Kelly Groucutt
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