Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Paul Krugman: Appeasing the Bond Gods (nytimes.com)
The policy elite are making a strange argument in demanding that we engage in human sacrifices to appease the anger of invisible gods.
STEVEN KNAPP: Why Johnny's College Isn't What It Used to Be (nytimes.com)
Andrew Hacker and Claudia Dreifus have written a lucid, passionate and wide-ranging book on the state of American higher education and what they perceive as its increasing betrayal of its primary mission - for them, the teaching of undergraduates.
Froma Harrop: Washington Saved Our Economic Hide (creators.com)
Clarence the angel has a tough job in "It's a Wonderful Life." He must show the suicidal George Bailey what terrible things would have happened had he not been born. Two prominent economists are playing Clarence to the multitudes who believe that forceful government intervention during the financial meltdown should never have been.
Ed Pilkington: 'Half the Sky': how the trafficking of women today is on a par with genocide (guardian.co.uk)
The authors of a new book, 'Half the Sky,' say the slavery and abuse of women is the greatest moral outrage of our century
Jim Hightower: A GENTLER NAME FOR PSYCHIC WARFARE (jimhightower.com)
When running from the law, one common maneuver that criminals make is to change their names. Adopting an alias has also been tried as a public relations strategy by corporations...
James Rainey: On the Media: Goodreads.com founder pushes print on the Web, not on paper (latimes.com)
Book reviews in newspapers, well, those are gone," the young Web entrepreneur told me in the most matter-of-fact way. "Independent bookstores are almost gone. Chains will probably be gone soon. It's all happening online now."
20 Questions: Vikas Swarup (popmatters.com)
'Slumdog Millionaire' author Vikas Swarup's latest, 'Six Suspects,' is out in paperback this month. He confesses to PopMatters 20 Questions that he's sometimes stopped on the streets of the various countries he works in because people mistake him for James Bond.
"Super Sad True Love Story" by Gary Shteyngart: A review by John Strawn
So I don't risk burying my recommendation where an inattentive reader might miss it, let me say right upfront: Read this book -- it's great.
Susan King: Ray Bradbury's close encounters with W.C. Fields, George Burns and ... Bo Derek? (latimes.com)
Ray Bradbury has the most amazing dreams. "I write screenplays," he says with a wink, "in the middle of the night." When he wakes in the morning, he calls his daughter in Arizona and dictates his dispatch from the Land of Nod, the latest story in a life of imagination.
Matt Mazur: The Lady in Blue: Patricia Clarkson Romances Cairo (popmatters.com)
Moving stealthily between gigs in indies and studio films for more than a decade now, Clarkson talks to PopMatters about her newest challenge: top-lining her first-ever romantic lead in IFC's Cairo Time.
The Weekly Poll
EMMY CONTEST
The First Ever BadtotheboneBob's Emmy Contest!™
Well then, Poll-fans, here are the 21 categories and nominations. I would suggest a cut and paste action and then adding yer predictions... Best of luck be upon ya!
Drama
Drama Series
Breaking Bad • AMC
Dexter • Showtime
The Good Wife • CBS
Lost • ABC
Mad Men • AMC
True Blood • HBO
Lead Actor, Drama
Bryan Cranston, Breaking Bad • AMC
Michael C. Hall, Dexter • Showtime
Kyle Chandler, Friday Night Lights • NBC
Hugh Laurie, House • FOX
Matthew Fox, Lost • ABC
Jon Hamm, Mad Men • AMC
Lead Actress, Drama
Kyra Sedgwick, The Closer • TNT
Glenn Close, Damages • FX Networks
Connie Britton, Friday Night Lights • NBC
Julianna Margulies, The Good Wife • CBS
Mariska Hargitay, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit • NBC
January Jones, Mad Men • AMC
Supporting Actor, Drama
Aaron Paul, Breaking Bad • AMC
Martin Short, Damages • FX Networks
Terry O'Quinn, Lost • ABC
Michael Emerson, Lost • ABC
John Slattery, Mad Men • AMC
Andre Braugher, Men Of A Certain Age • TNT
Supporting Actress, Drama
Sharon Gless, Burn Notice • USA
Rose Byrne, Damages • FX Networks
Archie Panjabi, The Good Wife • CBS
Christine Baranski, The Good Wife • CBS
Christina Hendricks, Mad Men • AMC
Elisabeth Moss, Mad Men • AMC
Comedy
Comedy Series
Curb Your Enthusiasm • HBO
Glee • FOX
Modern Family • ABC
Nurse Jackie • Showtime
The Office • NBC
30 Rock • NBC
Lead Actor, Comedy
Jim Parsons, The Big Bang Theory • CBS
Larry David, Curb Your Enthusiasm • HBO
Matthew Morrison, Glee • FOX
Tony Shalhoub, Monk • USA
Steve Carell, The Office • NBC
Alec Baldwin, 30 Rock • NBC
Lead Actress, Comedy
Lea Michele, Glee • FOX
Julia Louis-Dreyfus, The New Adventures Of Old Christine • CBS
Edie Falco, Nurse Jackie • Showtime
Amy Poehler, Parks And Recreation • NBC
Tina Fey, 30 Rock • NBC
Toni Collette, United States Of Tara • Showtime
Supporting Actor, Comedy
Chris Colfer, Glee • FOX
Neil Patrick Harris, How I Met Your Mother • CBS
Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Modern Family • ABC
Eric Stonestreet, Modern Family • ABC
Ty Burrell, Modern Family • ABC
Jon Cryer, Two And A Half Men • CBS
Supporting Actress, Comedy
Jane Lynch, Glee • FOX
Julie Bowen, Modern Family • ABC
Sofia Vergara, Modern Family • ABC
Kristen Wiig, Saturday Night Live • NBC
Jane Krakowski, 30 Rock • NBC
Holland Taylor, Two And A Half Men • CBS
Miniseries or Movie
Miniseries
The Pacific • HBO
Return To Cranford (Masterpiece) • PBS
Made-for-TV Movie
Endgame (Masterpiece) • PBS
Georgia O'Keeffe • Lifetime
Moonshot • HISTORY
The Special Relationship • HBO
Temple Grandin • HBO
You Don't Know Jack • HBO
Actor, Miniseries or Movie
Jeff Bridges, A Dog Year • HBO
Ian McKellen, The Prisoner • AMC
Michael Sheen, The Special Relationship • HBO
Dennis Quaid, The Special Relationship • HBO
Al Pacino, You Don't Know Jack • HBO
Actress, Miniseries or Movie
Maggie Smith, Capturing Mary • HBO
Joan Allen, Georgia O'Keeffe • Lifetime
Dame Judi Dench, Return To Cranford (Masterpiece) • PBS
Hope Davis, The Special Relationship • HBO
Claire Danes, Temple Grandin • HBO
Supporting Actor, Miniseries or Movie
Michael Gambon, Emma (Masterpiece) • PBS
Patrick Stewart, Hamlet (Great Performances) • PBS
Jonathan Pryce, Return To Cranford (Masterpiece) • PBS
David Strathairn, Temple Grandin • HBO
John Goodman, You Don't Know Jack • HBO
Supporting Actress, Miniseries or Movie
Kathy Bates, Alice • Syfy
Julia Ormond, Temple Grandin • HBO
Catherine O'Hara, Temple Grandin • HBO
Brenda Vaccaro, You Don't Know Jack • HBO
Susan Sarandon, You Don't Know Jack • HBO
Reality and Variety, Music or Comedy
Reality Program
Antiques Roadshow • PBS
Dirty Jobs • Discovery Channel
Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution • ABC
Kathy Griffin: My Life On The D-List • Bravo
MythBusters • Discovery Channel
Undercover Boss • CBS
Reality-Competition Program
The Amazing Race • CBS
American Idol • FOX
Dancing With The Stars • ABC
Project Runway • Lifetime
Top Chef • Bravo
Host for a Reality or Reality-Competition Program
Phil Keoghan, The Amazing Race • CBS
Ryan Seacrest, American Idol • FOX
Tom Bergeron, Dancing With The Stars • ABC
Heidi Klum, Project Runway • Lifetime
Jeff Probst, Survivor • CBS
Variety, Music or Comedy Series
The Colbert Report • Comedy Central
The Daily Show With Jon Stewart • Comedy Central
Real Time With Bill Maher • HBO
Saturday Night Live • NBC
The Tonight Show With Conan O'Brien • NBC
Variety, Music or Comedy Special
Bill Maher "...But I'm Not Wrong" • HBO
Hope For Haiti Now • Tenth Planet Productions and MTV
The Kennedy Center Honors • CBS
Robin Williams: Weapons Of Self Destruction • HBO
The 25th Anniversary Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame Concert • HBO
Wanda Sykes: I'ma Be Me • HBO
Total correct predictions takes The Prize. Again, that would be a $50 VISA gift card mailed directly to you from 'yours truly'.
Also, again, ties will be resolved in a scientific manner involving the ever fabulous, Maddie Muffin (Future Nobel AND Pulitzer Prize winner, President of the United States AND General Secretary of the UN amongst other notable achievements to numerous to mention)...
"My Grampa is The Best!"
The 21 nominations/categories will run daily until August 28th.
Response cut-off time is 3pm EDT, Saturday, August 28th, and will be posted for all to see August 29th (Emmy Day).
The winner will be the one with the most correct predictions and will be announced Tuesday August 31st.
Oh, and please make it easy on me and don't wait until, like, the last minute and flood me with your predictions, eh? Good luck be on ya, Poll-fans!
Send your predictions to:
BadToTheBoneBob
Here's a complete list of all Emmy Nominations - 2010.
wrote:
answered:
From The Creator of 'Avery Ant'
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Still sunny, still hot.
To Honor Troops
Stephen Colbert
Stephen Colbert is dusting off his camouflage suit.
The comedian will broadcast two special episodes of Comedy Central's "The Colbert Report" to celebrate the end of combat operations in Iraq and to honor returning troops.
On Sept. 8 and 9, the show will fill its audience with Iraq War veterans and active duty service men and women. Others will be beamed in via satellite from Iraq, Afghanistan and the Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C.
"The Report," which likes to parody over-the-top cable news graphics, is calling the episodes "Been There: Won That: The Returnification of the American-Do Troopscape."
Stephen Colbert
London Apartment Open To Public
Jimi Hendrix
Jimi Hendrix's central London home will open to the public next month to commemorate the 40th anniversary of his death.
For 12 days only, Hendrix fans can tour the Mayfair apartment where he wrote, played and entertained.
The opening of the top-floor flat will be part of a wider "Hendrix in Britain" exhibition at the Handel House Museum, which includes a bright orange jacket and wide-brimmed hat worn by Hendrix in performance, and Hendrix's scrawled directions to the Isle of Wight Festival.
No. 23 Brook Street, now one property with No. 25, was previously occupied by composer George Handel, who wrote the Messiah whilst living there.
Jimi Hendrix
Britain Bids To Save Silent Thrillers
Alfred Hitchcock
Examining buckled film reels under a microscope, technicians pore over each precious original frame of Alfred Hitchcock's early movies as Britain bids to salvage the master's magic.
The delicate nitrate reel -- brown, brittle and shrunken -- is handled with extreme care as they scrutinise the opening credits of the 1927 film "The Lodger" for every minuscule scratch, blotch and speck.
The British Film Institute is undertaking a mammoth project to restore Hitchcock's silent movies to their former glory.
In a painstaking process, they are cleaning up and restoring his first films, creating a perfect-as-possible digital version to thrill audiences again. The BFI reckons viewers will be stunned by their clarity.
Alfred Hitchcock
Time Shrinks
DVD and VOD
The window between the average movie's DVD and video on demand release has shrunk to just five days, down sharply from the 30 to 45 days that were common a few years ago, according to broker dealer BTIG's media analyst Richard Greenfield.
Most movies are already being released day and date on DVD and VOD amid an accelerating shift over the past six months to DVD rentals rather than purchases, he said.
"The studios' willingness to collapse the VOD window is a clear sign to us that the industry is admitting that DVD purchasing is disappearing," he wrote in a note to investors on Thursday.
"Consumers simply do not need to own the overwhelming majority of content released by Hollywood, when that content is so readily available via rental platforms."
DVD and VOD
Onward, Chrisitina Soldiers
BarlowGirl
The Army said Friday it was investigating a claim that dozens of soldiers who refused to attend a Christian band's concert at a Virginia military base were banished to their barracks and told to clean them up.
Fort Eustis spokesman Rick Haverinen told The Associated Press he couldn't comment on the specifics of the investigation. At the Pentagon, Army spokesman Col. Thomas Collins said the military shouldn't impose religious views on soldiers.
Pvt. Anthony Smith said he and other soldiers felt pressured to attend the May concert while stationed at the Newport News base, home of the Army's Transportation Corps.
Smith, 21, was stationed in Virginia for nearly seven months for helicopter electrician training when the Christian rock group BarlowGirl played as part of the "Commanding General's Spiritual Fitness Concerts."
BarlowGirl
Urged To Look At Political Giving
Target
A few Target Corp. and Best Buy Co. institutional shareholders weighed in Thursday on the flap over the companies' political donations in Minnesota, urging the boards of both retailers to increase their oversight of campaign contributions.
Walden Asset Management and Trillium Asset Management Corp., both of Boston, and Bethesda, Md.-based Calvert Asset Management Co. filed shareholder resolutions with both companies. Together, the three firms control less than 1 percent of each company's outstanding shares - 1.1 million Target shares worth $57.5 million and 344,000 Best Buy shares worth $11.3 million - but they are moving the debate over the political giving to a new arena.
Target gave $150,000 and Best Buy $100,000 to a business-focused political fund helping a conservative Republican gubernatorial candidate in Minnesota, triggering a national backlash from gay rights groups and liberals. The companies made the donations after a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling freed them to spend corporate funds on elections. The candidate, state legislator Tom Emmer, opposes gay marriage and other rights for same-sex couples.
The shareholders said the donations don't mesh with corporate values that include workplace protections for gay employees and risk harming the companies' brands. Walden senior vice president Tim Smith said such giving can have "a major negative impact on company reputations and business."
Target
Sued Over "Material Girl" Clothing Line
Madonna
Madonna has been hit with a lawsuit over her new "Material Girl" fashion line for teenagers by a California clothing company that says it has been using the name since 1997.
L.A Triumph filed a lawsuit against the pop superstar in the California Central District court on Thursday, just two weeks after the Madonna line went on sale in Macy's.
The company said in its suit that it has been "continually selling similar clothes in similar retail outlets at similar price points under their Material Girl brand since at least 1997, and Madonna and her newfound company do not have the right to trade in the same space under this brand."
L.A. Triumph wants the judge to rule that Madonna's use of "Material Girl" creates "deception" in the marketplace. It is also asking for Madonna and her company to turn over all the profits from their line.
Madonna
Coast Show
Leno
Jay Leno will be doing standup to help the Gulf Coast.
The "Tonight Show" host and comedian will appear Saturday at the Beau Rivage Theater in Biloxi, Miss., in a benefit performance for residents who've been affected by the massive oil spill.
The appearance is billed as "Stand Up for the Gulf Coast: A Special Evening with Jay Leno to Benefit the Gulf Coast Community Foundation." Leno says the coastal fishing community and others need money, and he wants to help raise it.
Tickets for the benefit are $40, $80 and $150 each.
Leno
Concert Jumper
Swell Season
A 32-year-old man jumped at least 20 feet to his death onto the stage of a Northern California concert in front of hundreds of horrified music fans, the Santa Clara County Sheriff's Office said Friday.
The Swell Season was playing an outdoor show at the Mountain Winery in Saratoga in front of a crowd of about 1,900 when Michael Edward Pickels of San Jose jumped Thursday night.
Sheriff's spokesman Sgt. Rick Sung said the man left a friend in the audience around 10 p.m. and soon appeared on a roof that covers the stage. Witnesses say he jumped off the roof and landed on stage near the band's lead singer, Glen Hansard.
Hansard and singer-songwriter Marketa Irglova are known in part for the alt-rock band's role in the 2006 movie "Once." The group wrote and performed the movie's theme song, "Falling Slowly," which won the Academy Award for best original song.
Swell Season
Highest Earning Author
James Patterson
Bestselling thriller fiction author James Patterson topped the list of high-paid writers released on Friday by Forbes.com, earning $70 million, which includes his latest deal to pen 17 books by the end of 2012 for an estimated $100 million.
Vampire romance author Stephenie Meyer, whose "Twilight" series has been adapted into a top-grossing film series, earned $40 million despite not releasing a new book in the time frame of the Forbes.com survey. Her new 192-page novella, her first title in two years, was released in June.
Stephen King, the horror and suspense perennial bestseller, placed third with $34 million, including $8 million from backlist sales, according to the Forbes survey. His last novel, "Under the Dome", was released in November, selling 600,000 copies, according to Nielsen BookScan.
Coming in fourth place was romance writer Danielle Steel, who earned $32 million, followed by British writer Ken Follett, whose 1989 acclaimed novel "The Pillars of the Earth" has been adapted into a U.S. TV miniseries. He raked in $20 million.
James Patterson
Toilet For Sale
J.D. Salinger
A North Carolina collectibles dealer is hawking a toilet ripped from reclusive author J.D. Salinger's former home.
Rick Kohl of The Vault said Friday he bought the standard white porcelain fixture from a New Hampshire couple who owned a home where the author of "Catcher in the Rye" once lived.
To vouch that this is no phony, Kohl has a letter from the homeowner attesting that she and her husband replaced the toilet while remodeling, and that they knew the workmen who installed it decades ago.
The receptacle has an eBay asking price of $1 million, though Kohl says he's willing to see what the literary giant's home throne will fetch.
J.D. Salinger
In Memory
Lorene Yarnell
Lorene Yarnell, who with Robert Shields formed the mime-and-dance comedy team Shields and Yarnell, a familiar presence on television in the 1970s, died on July 29 after suffering a brain aneurysm at her home in Sandefjord, Norway. She was 66.
With Mr. Shields, her husband at the time, Ms. Yarnell starred in the variety show "Shields and Yarnell," broadcast on CBS in 1977 and 1978. She had originally trained as a dancer, he as a mime; after meeting in the early 1970s, each learned the other's art. Together they developed a style that was an amalgam of the two.
The result charmed many viewers, though not everyone. Reviewing the first episode of "Shields and Yarnell" in The Washington Post, Tom Shales wrote, "The premiere last week broke the scoop that even the Captain and Tennille can be out-cutesie-wootsie'd."
In 1981 Mr. Shields and Ms. Yarnell starred in "Broadway Follies," a musical revue at the Nederlander Theater in New York. The show received poor notices and closed after one performance.
Ms. Yarnell's other credits include the robot Dot Matrix (with a voice supplied by Joan Rivers) in "Spaceballs," Mel Brooks's 1987 film comedy.
Ms. Yarnell was born in Inglewood, Calif., on March 21, 1944. After she married Mr. Shields in 1972 - the ceremony was performed in mime - the couple worked as street performers in San Francisco before breaking into television as a duo.
Mr. Shields and Ms. Yarnell divorced in the mid-1980s. Survivors include her fourth husband, Bjorn Jansson, and a brother, Richard, The Los Angeles Times reported.
Lorene Yarnell
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