The Monday Or Thursday Poll
The Current Question
The current question:
Famed Soviet dissident and Noble Prize winner Alexander Solzhenitsyn died this week in Moscow. Have you ever read any of his many books?
Send your response to BadtotheBoneBob ( BCEpoll 'at' aol.com )
BadtotheboneBob
Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Paul Krugman: Know-Nothing Politics (nytimes.com)
Know-nothingism the insistence that there are simple answers to every problem has become the core of Republican policy.
Mark Morford: Vote for Bush? Pay up (sfgate.com)
Did you help put America's worst prez into power? Time to make amends.
TOM DANEHY: Names like 'Moxie CrimeFighter' and 'Talula Does the Hula From Hawaii' can only lead to negative consequences (tucsonweekly.com)
I write a column about trying to talk one of my former ballplayers out of saddling her soon-to-arrive child with a weird name (July 31), and all of a sudden, I run across three articles on similar topics. It's an epidemic out there, and it's not limited to one group of people. That, of course, won't stop all of the guilty white liberals from writing in to call me a racist.
CATHERINE O'SULLIVAN: If plagues are any indication, then Tucson is surely God's country (tucsonweekly.com)
I knew an old cowboy from East Texas. He was always pining for home: the trees, the sky, the swamps, the water moccasins. Oh, he loved East Texas. Called it "God's country."
Jody Rosen: Dude, You Stole My Article (slate.com)
HOW I INVESTIGATED A SUSPICIOUS ALT WEEKLY.
A Review by Edward L. Glaeser: "Traffic: Why We Drive the Way We Do (and What It Says about Us)" by Tom Vanderbilt (powells.com)
Few if any man-made contraptions have shaped America as much as the internal combustion engine. Eighty-seven percent of American workers drive to their jobs, either alone or in a carpool. Eighteen percent of the average American family's spending goes to transportation, mostly for cars and gasoline. While Homo sapiens has spent most of its existence fighting to fill its belly, Americans today spend a lot more on cars than on food.
Heather Havrilevsky: Beijing reality show (latimes.com)
The TV pep rally that surrounds the Olympic Games could prove tricky for NBC this time.
Patricia Draznin: TV Watchers and the Watchers Who Watch Them (huffingtonpost.com)
Up until last Tuesday, I assumed that my cable service transmitted a signal that could detect WHEN I was watching, WHAT I was watching, what I was EATING, and that it was my third piece.
David Mesker: An Interview with Carter's Chord (bullz-eye.com)
"We always joke that we all kind of skipped the '80s. Our parents were really into the '70s and '60s. We love Leon Russell and Eric Clapton and Marc Cohn."
JOE TACOPINO: "Flight of the Dodos: An Interview with the Dodos" (popmatters.com)
With prog-metal meeting West Africa, Meric Long and Logan Kroeber disguise a world of influences in their surprisingly complex sound.
Which actor convinced Humphrey Bogart to marry Lauren Bacall, despite the age difference, by saying "Five good years are better than none!"?
I just did a show that featured the movie 'Werewolf in a Girl's Dorm' ....Nope , not a dorm at Vassar or Lotta.
Reader Contribution
Clearwing Moths
Hey Marty!
Clearwing Hummingbird Moths are terribly hard to photograph, they are just
so fast a regular camera can't freeze them. BUT, imagine my surprise when
I caught these two mating on my butterfly bush. They were still enough to
get a really good picture, since they were otherwise occupied!
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Sunny and uncomfortably humid.
Only Blacked Out In US
Olympics
The rest of the world might have been dazzled by the Beijing Olympic opening ceremony but angry US viewers clamoring for a glimpse of the spectacle on Friday were made to wait after a media blackout.
US network NBC, which owns exclusive rights to Olympics coverage in the United States, refrained from showing the opening ceremony live, preferring instead to delay coverage by 12 hours for a prime-time evening slot.
A spokesman for NBC, which paid nearly 900 million dollars for Olympic broadcast rights, said the decision was taken to maximize viewing figures.
Bizarrely, the co-hosts of NBC's breakfast television show barely mentioned the ongoing ceremony during their broadcast, which was reportedly pre-taped.
Olympics
Nutjobs Ain't Done Yet
Family Planning
Family planning groups said on Friday they were still planning to lobby against a proposed new regulation aimed at countering state laws that require certain health care workers to provide contraception to women.
Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt said the part that many groups objected to most strongly, which defined abortion to include most birth control pills and intrauterine devices, would not be included.
But Nancy Northup of the Center for Reproductive Rights said her group objected to other parts of the proposal.
"It broadly defines everyone who works at a healthcare establishment as being involved in doing procedures," Northup said in a telephone interview.
"It allows everybody, whether you are a receptionist or a maintenance person ... to object to doing their jobs because they object to abortion or sterilization," she added. "It puts women in the position of not knowing when they go to get healthcare if someone is going to say, 'I am not going to help you here."'
Family Planning
St. Louis House May Be Historic
Chuck Berry
A modest, one-story red-brick house that rock and roll legend Chuck Berry bought in 1950 will be considered for listing in the National Register of Historic Places.
Experts on St. Louis landmarks say Berry and his family lived in the home in the city's Ville neighborhood during his most productive early songwriting period.
It was in the house that Berry developed his distinctive guitar style, rehearsed, wrote and recorded many of his classic songs including "Maybelline," "Johnny B. Goode," and "Roll Over Beethoven." Berry sold the house in 1958.
On Friday, the Missouri Advisory Council on Historic Preservation recommended the house for inclusion on the National Register.
Chuck Berry
Baby News
Parker Foster Aiken
Former "American Idol" runner-up Clay Aiken is a father.
The 29-year-old crooner from Raleigh announced the birth of Parker Foster Aiken on his Web site's blog Friday
The baby's mother is Jaymes Foster, Aiken's friend and record producer whom he met while performing on "American Idol." Their son was born at 8:08 a.m. Friday, and weighed 6 pounds 2 ounces and was 19 inches long, according to the statement on the Web site.
Parker Foster Aiken
Wedding News
Kilcher - Murray
Pop singer Jewel eloped with her rodeo-star boyfriend in the Bahamas on Thursday, People magazine reported. The 34-year-old singer married Ty Murray, 38, during a private ceremony, the magazine said, quoting Jewel's publicist.
The pair, who live on a ranch in Texas, had been together for more than a decade. Jewel, whose last name is Kilcher, achieved fame in the mid-1990s with such pop-folk tunes as "Who Will Save Your Soul" and "Foolish Games." She recently released a country album and served as a judge on the TV talent show "Nashville Star."
Murray is a legend on the rodeo circuit, winning the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association's All-Around world championship title a record seven times.
Kilcher - Murray
Biker Brawl Blows Deal
A&E
A&E prides itself on its gritty, street-level reality shows. Now, the cable channel has gotten involved with an outfit that might be too hardcore even for the home of "Intervention" and "Dog the Racist Bounty Hunter."
The network recently shot a pilot for a new series with the controversial Christian motorcycle gang Set Free Soldiers, a group whose leader was arrested in Orange County Wednesday, along with six members, on suspicion of attempted murder.
The arrests stem from a July 27 double stabbing that occurred during a barfight in Newport Beach between the Anaheim-based group and members of the Hells Angels. The bikers were rounded up during a series of raids by SWAT teams and federal drug enforcement agents.
An A&E spokesperson said the pilot, with the working title of "Saints and Sinners," was shot a couple months ago and that the network doesn't believe that any of the bikers involved in the show were among those who were arrested.
A&E
Sues Father, Uncle
Richard Dreyfuss
Richard Dreyfuss is suing his father and uncle over an $870,000 loan he claims was never repaid.
The lawsuit centers around a loan Dreyfuss claims he made to his relatives in 1984, who owned an interest in a downtown Los Angeles office building.
Roughly 24 years later, Dreyfuss says that loan - and interest - remains unpaid.
Dreyfuss alleges his uncle, Gilbert Dreyfuss, and father, Norman Dreyfuss, have acted with "fraud" and "malice." He is seeking a repayment of the loan, plus interest and punitive damages.
Richard Dreyfuss
Sets Date With Ryan Seacrest
Dick Clark
Dick Clark is still Mr. New Year's Eve - but he'll be sharing the title with Ryan Seacrest.
Starting this December, Clark's longtime end-of-year special will be called "Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve With Ryan Seacrest," ABC and dick clark productions said Friday.
It was also announced that Seacrest will serve as co-host with Clark and as an executive producer on the broadcast for another three years, through the 2010 show ringing in 2011.
Dick Clark
Vampire Bats
Venezuela
At least 38 Warao Indians have died in remote villages in Venezuela, and medical experts suspect an outbreak of rabies spread by bites from vampire bats. Laboratory investigations have yet to confirm the cause, but the symptoms point to rabies, according to two researchers from the University of California at Berkeley and other medical experts.
The two UC Berkeley researchers - the husband-and-wife team of anthropologist Charles Briggs and public health specialist Dr. Clara Mantini-Briggs - said the symptoms include fever, body pains, tingling in the feet followed by progressive paralysis, and an extreme fear of water. Victims tend to have convulsions and grow rigid before death.
During a study trip Briggs and Mantini-Briggs made through 30 villages in the river delta, relatives said the victims had been bitten by bats. The couple have worked among the Warao in Delta Amacuro state for years and were invited by indigenous leaders to study the outbreak.
Mantini-Briggs, a Venezuelan former health official, said she was surprised to find many Warao villages now have cats - a new development. "The Waraos told us it was because there were too many bats that were biting the children," she said.
Venezuela
Little Snake - Big Debate
Barbados
A small snake has sparked a big debate in Barbados. Residents of the wealthy Caribbean nation have been heating up blogs and clogging radio airwaves to vent their anger at a U.S. scientist, who earlier this week announced his "discovery" of the world's smallest snake and named it "Leptotyphlops carlae," after his wife Carla.
"If he needs to blow his own trumpet ... well, fine," said 43-year-old Barbadian Charles Atkins. "But my mother, who was a simple housewife, she showed me the snake when I was a child."
Penn State University evolutionary biologist S. Blair Hedges recently became the first to describe the snake - which is so small it can curl up on a U.S. quarter - when he published his observations and genetic test results in the journal "Zootaxa." Full-grown adults typically are less than 4 inches long.
Hedges told The Associated Press on Friday that he understands Barbadians' angry reactions, but under established scientific practice, the first person to do a full description of a species is said to have discovered it and gives it a scientific name.
Barbados
Dogs Don't Matter
Berwyn Heights, MD
A small-town mayor whose dogs were killed in a drug raid was cleared of any wrongdoing after police had been reluctant to rule out his involvement in drug smuggling or apologize for the violent incident.
Prince George's County Police Chief Melvin High said Friday he called Berwyn Heights Mayor Cheye Calvo and his wife, Trinity Tomsic, on Thursday to say they were no longer suspected in a drug smuggling scheme.
Police now believe the drug delivery was part of a scheme that sent packages to the homes of unsuspecting recipients. The packages would then be picked up by someone else shortly after delivery. Two suspects have been arrested in the case.
High stopped short of apologizing for how the drug raid was carried out. He said the police department was conducting a review of the narcotics investigation that led to the raid. The county sheriff has said the dogs' deaths were justified, saying officers felt threatened.
I
Berwyn Heights, MD
Airlines Restricting Fuel
Pilots
Pilots are complaining that their airline bosses, desperate to cut costs, are forcing them to fly uncomfortably low on fuel.
The situation got bad enough three years ago, even before the latest surge in fuel prices, that NASA sent a safety alert to federal aviation officials.
The September 2005 safety alert was issued by NASA's confidential Aviation Safety Reporting System, which allows air crews to report safety problems without fear their names will be disclosed.
Labor unions at two major airlines - American Airlines and US Airways - have filed complaints with FAA, saying the airlines are pressuring members not to request spare fuel for flights.
Pilots
In Memory
Bernie Brillstein
Bernie Brillstein, a Hollywood talent agent, manager, producer and studio head who over half a century guided the careers of "Saturday Night Live" comedians and helped package a slew of TV and movie hits, has died. He was 77.
Brillstein helped guide the careers of John Belushi and Muppets creator Jim Henson. He also helped bring "Saturday Night Live" and "The Sopranos" to television.
With partner Brad Grey, he founded the influential management and production company Brillstein-Grey Entertainment in 1991, which later was named Brillstein Entertainment Partners.
Among the successful shows he helped bring to TV were the long-running variety show "Hee Haw" and "Alf." He was executive producer on the hit movie "Ghost Busters."
Brash, sharp and rotundly rumpled, Brillstein exemplified the old-school stereotype of an agent rather than the slick, corporate "Jerry Maguire" operator.
Born April 26, 1931, in New York, Brillstein was the nephew of successful radio comic Jack Pearl. He studied marketing and advertising in college before taking the mailroom job at William Morris, where he worked his way up the ranks, then left to join another agency and later formed his own management company.
One client in the 1970s was Lorne Michaels, who created "Saturday Night Live." Brillstein helped pitch the idea to NBC and credited Michaels with bringing him many clients from the show, including Belushi, Gilda Radner and Dan Aykroyd.
Brillstein worked with Hollywood agent Michael Ovitz in the 1980s but the two had a famous falling-out. Years later, Brillstein would refer to Ovitz in his autobiography as a scorpion and "gangster."
Brillstein, who was married several times, is survived by his wife Carrie; sons Michael Brillstein, David Koskoff and Nick Koskoff; daughters Kate Brillstein and Leigh Brillstein; and a grandson, Alden.
Bernie Brillstein
| CURRENT MOON lunar phases |
