Urgent Bonus
Trouble in Dareland
By Michael Dare
'Best of TBH Politoons'
Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Mrs. Betty Bowers' Eulogy for Rev. Jerry Falwell: All's Well That End's Falwell (bettybowers.com)
Verily, I am crying as I type. You can imagine my shock in hearing that Reverend Jerry Falwell had been found dead, lying in a pool of his own gravy. First Anna Nicole, now Jerry. Frankly, the Lord seems to be on a fat, attention-whore killing spree! I'd stay indoors if I were Rosie O'Donnell. Well, on second thought, if I looked like Rosie O'Donnell, I'd be running through the streets screaming, "Here I am Lord! Come and get me!"
Tearful Sermon by Brother Harry Hardwick: Did He Not Do Enough to Please You, Lord? (landoverbaptist.org)
In Surprise Move, God Snuffs Out Jerry Falwell
Froma Harrop: Preachers Playing to the Press (creators.com)
It has long struck me how news folks delight in recounting Falwell's outrageous statements and questionable business practices - visions of Elmer Gantry dancing through their prose - without noting their own resemblance to another character in the book. I speak of Bill Kingdom, the "veteran reporter" at the Zenith Advocate-Times.
Jim Hightower: PAULA DEEN, COOKING FOR SMITHFIELD (jimhightower.com)
You can't get much syrupier or chirpier than Paula Deen. She's the ebullient celebrity queen of Southern cooking, with a buttery drawl, a downhome manner, and her own very popular TV show on the Food Network. These days, however, the temperature in Paula's kitchen has become red-hot, for she has cooked up a big ol' mess of political controversy for herself.
Froma Harrop: Wyden Health Plan Looks Really Good (creators.com)
The health-care issue is back and about to beat its hairy chest in the coming presidential campaign. A new CNN polls shows 43 percent of adults rating health care as "extremely important. But Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden doesn't want to wait until 2008. The Democrat's Healthy Americans Act is the first serious proposal for universal coverage in 13 years. Some business leaders and unions have blessed it, as has influential Republican Sen. Bob Bennett of Utah.
Michael Moore: "Sicko" Is Completed and We're Off to Cannes! (michaelmoore.com)
I was floored when our lawyers told me this. "Are you saying they might actually confiscate our movie?" "Yes," was the answer. "These days, anything is possible. ... So there we were last week, spiriting a duplicate master negative out of the country just so no one from the government would take it from us. (Seriously, I can't believe I just typed those words! Did I mention that I'm an American, and this is America and NO ONE should ever have to say they had to do such a thing?)
John Freeman: Howard Zinn: Where Are Book Reviews? (sacurrent.com)
The prominent historian on the disappearance of book reviews from American newspapers.
Josh Getlin: Battle of the book reviews (calendarlive.com)
A war of words breaks out between print and Internet writers as newspapers cut back coverage.
John Gravois: Think Negative! (slate.com)
Oprah, it's time to come clean about The Secret.
Jim Pappas: Shrek the Third (the-trades.com)
I am gratified to see a film as good as "Shrek the Third" is still something that is possible not only with the franchise, but within the creative community. There is something fresh and new about "Shrek the Third," despite being the third film of a series. It is arguably better than the 2 previous "Shrek" films, and the prospect of a fourth film seems appealing now. It opens everywhere on May 18th, so go see it as soon as you can.
Marco Lanzagorta: Dread Reckoning: The Unseen Masters of Horror (popmatters.com)
Fright fans love to praise the visionary efforts of their favorite horror directors. But behind every great terror auteur is usually an unsung macabre master.
Scott Burns: Retirement needs are not what they seem (dallasnews.com)
The most common urban legend in personal finance is a rule of thumb: the retirement income replacement rate. It says that most people, when they retire, will need 70 percent to 85 percent of the income they earn immediately before retirement. So if you are earning $50,000 at age 65, you'll need, say, $40,000 in your first year of retirement.
Free Hugs Campaign
Free Hugs Video
Numa Numa Video: O-Zone Live (Lip-syncing Anyway)
Reader Suggestion
Star Wars
May the farts be with you
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
The coastal eddy has settled in, so no sun til late afternoon. Very nice.
Added a new flag - Somalia
High-Wire 'Bee' Stunt
Jerry Seinfeld
For most Hollywood stars turning up in a eye-catching outfit is a tried and tested way to draw attention to a new movie. And, while Jerry Seinfeld's costume for a promotional appearance for his animated flick Bee Movie had a show-stopping effect, it broke with the more familiar glitzy frock routine. The comedy talent publicised his latest cinematic offering by launching himself off a Cannes hotel dressed as a giant honey gatherer.
"They tell me Scorsese did the same thing last year for The Departed," quipped the comedy talent during the acrobatic stunt.
Using a wire, Jerry abseiled off the roof of the Carlton Hotel high above the French town's famed Croisette Parade, all the while exchanging banter over a loudspeaker with his co-star who was supporting his pal from the relative safety of the beach below.
Jerry Seinfeld
Ashes Found
James Doohan
They beamed him up -- and on Friday, after a three-week search, they found the rocket that had carried ashes of "Star Trek" actor James Doohan briefly into space.
The remains of Doohan, whose "Star Trek" character Scotty inspired the television catch phrase "Beam me up, Scotty," were blasted off to the edge of space from New Mexico on April 29, two years after his death at the age of 85.
The payload also included ashes of astronaut Gordon Cooper, who first went into space in 1963, and another 200 people.
Organizers said the rocket and the individual capsules containing the ashes were in good condition and would be mounted on plaques and returned to the families.
James Doohan
Paparazzi Boo At Cannes
Pamela Anderson
Photographers at the Cannes Film Festival booed Pamela Anderson after she showed up late for a photo session Friday and only stuck around to pose for a few minutes.
Anderson was in town to promote her new movie, "Blonde and Blonder." Earlier in the day, she had complained to AP Television News about the paparazzi, saying that Cannes was "a frenzy, it's crazy, it's silly."
"Even watching it on television this morning, seeing these people, it's like the actors are prodded through like cattle, `turn this way, turn that way,'" she said, adding that Cannes was nonetheless "quite glamorous."
Pamela Anderson
Two Journalists Killed In Iraq
ABC News
Gunmen killed two ABC News employees in Iraq in the latest attack on journalists in the war-torn country, the U.S. news organization said on Friday.
The men were identified as cameraman Alaa Uldeen Aziz, 33, and soundman Saif Laith Yousuf, 26, ABC News said in a statement.
The two were returning home from work at the ABC News Baghdad bureau on Thursday when they were stopped by two cars full of gunmen and forced out of their car, the statement said. They were confirmed dead Friday morning.
The deaths brought the number of journalists killed in Iraq since 2003 to 104, making it the deadliest conflict for media in 25 years, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists.
ABC News
Wedding News
Winehouse - Fielder-Civil
Singer Amy Winehouse was married Friday in a private ceremony here, according to magazine reports.
The 23-year-old "Rehab" singer married Blake Fielder-Civil. The couple, engaged since April 23, were married in front of a few friends in an unannounced ceremony, Spin Magazine reported.
Winehouse was in Miami for a magazine photo shoot, according to Us Magazine.
Winehouse - Fielder-Civil
Can't Fire - Quits
Donald Trump
Donald Trump, whose low-rated reality show "The Apprentice" was left off the new prime-time schedule unveiled this week by NBC, says the network can't fire him -- he quits.
The real estate mogul issued a statement on Friday saying he has informed the U.S. television network he is "moving on from 'The Apprentice' to a major new TV venture," though he declined to elaborate.
Trump and NBC still remain in the beauty pageant business together. The two announced in March a renewed deal to keep annual broadcasts of the Miss USA and Miss Universe pageants, which Trump co-owns, on the General Electric Co.-controlled network through 2010.
Donald Trump
Can Keep Van Gogh Painting
Elizabeth Taylor
Actress Elizabeth Taylor can keep a Van Gogh painting that may have been illegally seized by Nazis, after a U.S. appeals court ruled on Friday the family who once owned it waited too long to ask for it back.
Taylor, 75, bought the 1889 painting "View of the Asylum and Chapel at Saint-Remy" at a Sotheby's auction in London in 1963 for 92,000 British pounds -- about $257,000 at the time. She keeps it in her Los Angeles-area home.
The Orkin family, South African and Canadian descendants of Margarete Mauthner, a Jewish woman who fled Germany in 1939, sued Taylor in 2004, claiming that Nazis forced the sale of the painting under duress and thus it should be returned to them under the 1998 U.S. Holocaust Victims Redress Act.
Elizabeth Taylor
Tentative OK For Settlement
James Frey
Readers who bought author James Frey's fabrication-filled memoir, "A Million Little Pieces," may get a refund following a judge's tentative approval of a settlement in the case.
U.S. District Judge Richard J. Holwell set a Nov. 2 date to consider final approval of the deal reached last year. On Monday, he gave his preliminary approval to the agreement, calling it "fair, reasonable, adequate, and in the best interests of the settlement class."
The agreement calls for the defendants, Random House Inc. and James Frey, to spend $2.35 million to fully refund readers who bought the best-seller before Jan. 26, 2006, the day Frey and his publisher acknowledged that he had made up parts of the book. Claims would have to be filed by Oct. 1.
James Frey
Drops Bid To Block Auction
Michael Jackson
Lawyers for Michael Jackson on Friday dropped an effort to block an auction of the pop star's personal belongings and other Jackson family items, including Jackson's gold record for his "Thriller" album.
Jackson didn't appear in a Las Vegas court where his lawyer told a judge that a confidential agreement had been reached with representatives of an auctioneer, the current owner of the materials, and a New Jersey man who claimed a warehouse full of Jackson memorabilia after a failed business venture wound up in bankruptcy court.
Lawyers declined to describe terms of the agreement, which settled an April 27 lawsuit.
Michael Jackson
Back On Auction Block
General Lee
After a nearly $10 million bid for a car made famous by "The Dukes of Hazzard" fell through, John Schneider learned his lesson: Sell only to pre-screened bidders.
In a new eBay Inc. auction set to begin Saturday, the orange coupe with "01" on the doors will be listed to bidders who must prove upfront that they can pay, the 47-year-old actor told AP Radio News.
"No one will be able to bid unless they've gone through pre-qualification," Schneider said. "They have to jump through several hoops, and their bank actually winds up being the ones that will be listed as the bidder, not the individual."
General Lee
Yields Estimated $500M Haul
Shipwreck
Deep-sea explorers said Friday they have hauled up what could be the richest sunken treasure ever discovered: hundreds of thousands of colonial-era silver and gold coins worth an estimated $500 million from a shipwreck in the Atlantic Ocean.
A chartered cargo jet recently landed in the United States to unload hundreds of plastic containers packed with the 500,000 coins, which are expected to fetch an average of $1,000 each from collectors and investors.
Citing security concerns, the company declined to release any details about the ship or the wreck site.
Shipwreck
Given $100 Million Art Collection
Colby College
Colby College in Maine is to receive a private art collection valued at US$100 million that includes works by such greats as Winslow Homer, Edward Hopper and Georgia O'Keeffe.
The 500 paintings, prints and sculptures from Colby supporters Peter H. and Paula Crane Lunder represents one of the most important collections of American art ever to be donated to a liberal arts college, said Colby President William D. Adams.
The 2,230 square-metre Colby Museum of Art, which was founded in 1959 and features a collection of more than 5,500 works focusing on American and contemporary art, will undergo an expansion to accommodate the gift from the Lunders.
The permanent wing for the collection will be completed in 2013, but the museum will celebrate its 50th anniversary in 2009 by exhibiting about 200 works from the collection.
Colby College
24,000 People Set Record
The Quadrille
Thousands gathered on Friday in the Slovenian capital and more than 40 other cities to dance the quadrille in a bid to set a new world record in simultaneous dancing, organisers said.
Some 24,416 participants from Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia, Bosnia and Macedonia blocked city centres at noon dressed in orange and black t-shirts and carrying white umbrellas. They danced the quadrille to music from Johan Strauss' Fledermaus.
The Quadrille Dance Parade, organised by Slovenian tourist and municipal authorities, was performed this year for the seventh time in a row. Organisers said it broke the record set in 2006 when 23,600 danced simultaneously in a total of 36 cities.
The Quadrille
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