Recommended Reading
from Bruce
50th Anniversary of March on Washington (C-Span)
See all 4 hours and 33 minutes here.
Jennifer Lai: Judge Admits Blaming a Teen For Her Own Rape Was "Stupid," but Stands By Teacher's Sentence (Slate)
Judge G. Todd Baugh found himself in the headlines this week after he sentenced former high school teacher Stacey Rambold, 54, to 30 days in jail after he pleaded guilty to raping student Cherice Moralez. As lenient as the sentence was, it was Baugh's apparent rationale for handing it out that sparked outrage and anger from victims advocates and the local community.
Mark Morford: Doom, gloom, shut up and smile (SF Gate)
In the past 20 years alone, cancer rates are way down. Ditto teen pregnancy, smoking, rape, violent crime. Forests are recovering, often quicker and more dramatically than expected. Our personal technology has raced right past miraculous and is now well into OMG WTF incomprehensible.
Tom Danehy: Tom discusses the reaction to his remarks about high school Republicans, Elmore Leonard and more (Tucson Weekly)
… as the fringe-dwellers continue to use talk of impeaching President Obama to pull the Republican Party closer and closer to the edge (I'm betting that a substantial number of Republicans believe that the world does have an edge), a recent survey shows that 29 percent of Republicans in Louisiana blame President Obama for the slow initial response to Hurricane Katrina, even though it happened more than three years before Obama was first elected.
Eun Kyung Kim: Woman 'steals' her bike back from thief (TODAY)
Don't steal from Kayla Smith, because the Vancouver woman won't hesitate to steal right back.
Ryan Menezes: 5 Brilliant Uses of Humiliation to Fight Crime (Cracked)
#5. Colombia Dispatches Mimes to Shame Traffic Violators
Leo Robson: Eric Rohmer's influence on 2013 film, from Before Midnight to Frances Ha (Guardian)
Subtle irony, minimal plot - and plenty of couples debating the meaning of love. This summer's cinema has all gone a bit Eric Rohmer. So why do today's directors love the French auteur?
The Funniest Game Show Answers (YouTube)
15 minutes worth.
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Michelle in AZ
From The Creator of 'Avery Ant'
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Hotter. More humid.
Handles Hecklers
Dave Chappelle
Both supporters and critics of Dave Chappelle flooded social media sites with comments Friday, after he was heckled at a show in Connecticut and refused to perform his set.
The comedian was the headliner Thursday night at the Funny or Die Presents The Oddball Comedy & Curiosity Festival, which is touring the country and also features Flight of the Conchords and several other comedians.
Fans said Chappelle came out and told a few jokes but stopped because of the heckling. Video posted online shows Chappelle over the next 25 or so minutes sitting on a stool on stage responding to the hecklers, joking about the situation and even reading the first few sentences of an audience member's book.
It's also not the first time he has stopped performing his routine because of an unruly crowd. In Florida in 2011, he stopped performing at a charity event - checking his text messages and counting down the minutes onstage. He told a radio interviewer that in a performance in Oakland, Calif., he once lay on the stage for 10 minutes.
Dave Chappelle
Foam Finger Inventor
Steve Chmelar
The man credited with inventing the foam finger - like the one Miley Cyrus brought to the forefront of national attention at Sunday's MTV Video Music Awards - is not her No. 1 fan.
Iowa native Steve Chmelar, who created the foam finger prototype in 1971 (which Geral Fauss would later go on to mass produce in 1978), said he didn't like his invention's newfound infamy.
"She took an honorable icon that is seen in sporting venues everywhere and degraded it," Chmelar told FoxSports. "Fortunately, the foam finger has been around long enough that it will survive this incident."
Lisa Katnic, who designed Cyrus' particular spongy digit, was much happier with how everything turned out. She told Yahoo! Music that the prop was designed for an editorial shoot about a year ago, but it never saw the light of day until a brief appearance in Robin Thicke's "Blurred Lines" video, which Katnic styled.
Katnic said she created the exaggerated appendage with several options - French manicured or gold glitter nails, for example - but Cyrus chose the red ones. And, according to Katnic's comments on her Instagram account, Cyrus was such a fan of the finger that she took it home with her.
Steve Chmelar
Art Contest
Chimp Haven
A painting by a 37-year-old Louisiana primate who applies color with his tongue instead of a brush has been deemed the finest chimpanzee art in the land.
Brent, a retired laboratory animal, was the top vote-getter in an online chimp art contest organized by the Humane Society of the United States, which announced the results Thursday. He won $10,000 for the Chimp Haven sanctuary in northwest Louisiana.
Five other sanctuaries around the country competed, using paintings created during "enrichment sessions," which can include any of a wide variety of activities and playthings.
Chimpanzee researcher Jane Goodall chose her favorite from photographs she was sent. That painting, by Cheetah, a male at Save the Chimps in Fort Pierce, Fla., won $5,000 as Goodall's choice and another $5,000 for winning second place in online voting, Humane Society spokeswoman Nicole Ianni said.
Chimp Haven
Inflation
Tooth Fairy
Days of finding a quarter under your pillow are long gone. The Tooth Fairy no longer leaves loose change.
Kids this year are getting an average of $3.70 per lost tooth, a 23 per cent jump over last year's rate of $3 a tooth, according to a new survey by payment processor Visa Inc., released Friday. That's a 42 per cent spike from the $2.60 per tooth that the Tooth Fairy gave in 2011.
Part of the reason for the sharp rise: Parents don't want their kids to be the ones at the playground who received the lowest amount.
How much kids are getting from the Tooth Fairy depends on where they live. Kids in the Northeast are getting the most, according to the Visa study, at $4.10 per tooth. In the west and south, kids received $3.70 and $3.60 per tooth, respectively. Midwestern kids received the least, at $3.30 a tooth.
Tooth Fairy
Caught Lying, Again
O'Really
Fox News Channel's Bill O'Reilly has apologized for incorrectly stating that no Republicans were invited to participate in a ceremony this week marking the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington for civil rights and Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech.
In fact, Republican House Speaker John Boehner and Majority Leader Eric Cantor were invited but did not bother to attend. Former resident George W. Bush sent a statement in commemoration. O'Reilly had made the incorrect claim on Wednesday, the day of the ceremony.
"The mistake - entirely on me," O'Reilly said on his show Thursday. "I simply assumed that since all the speakers were liberal Democrats, Republicans had been excluded. So here's the tip of the day: Always check out the facts before you make a definitive statement and when you make a mistake, admit it."
O'Reilly said the Republicans made a mistake, too. He said they should have been there.
O'Really
She Forgot The Gun Was Loaded
Mrs. Nugent
The wife of rocker Ted Nugent arrested at Texas airport after handgun found in bag after a handgun was found in her carry-on luggage at an airport security checkpoint.
Police confirmed Friday that 51-year-old Shemane Ann Nugent was taken into custody at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport.
An incident report says Nugent told police she forgot the weapon was in her bag while trying to catch a flight Thursday to Fort Lauderdale, Fla. She told police she began carrying the handgun after receiving death threats. She's licensed to carry a concealed weapon.
She's been married to Ted Nugent since 1989. He's an outspoken supporter of gun rights.
Mrs. Nugent
DUI Arrest
Lamar Odom
Basketball star Lamar Odom was arrested for allegedly driving under the influence early Friday after a California Highway Patrol officer saw his white Mercedes-Benz travelling erratically on a San Fernando Valley Freeway.
The husband of reality TV star Khloe Kardashian was stopped shortly before 4 a.m. and was arrested after a field sobriety test.
The CHP said Odom's car was observed travelling in a "serpentine manner" before he pulled off the freeway.
"Mr. Odom showed objective signs of intoxication and was unable to perform field sobriety tests," the CHP said in a report. Authorities said he later declined to take a chemical test.
Odom, 33, was booked for investigation of driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs and jailed on $15,000 bail.
Lamar Odom
Unsettling Vision
Leith, N.D.
Life in the tiny farming town of Leith, N.D., was pretty peaceful until the neo-Nazis showed up. Or one neo-Nazi at least: Craig Cobb, 61, a self-confessed white supremacist who quietly appeared in the town last year, ostensibly looking for work in the North Dakota oil fields. At first, residents in the community about 60 miles southwest of Bismark thought little of their new neighbor. Little did they realize that he had big plans for their town.
As the New York Times reports, Cobb - who is wanted in Canada for promoting hatred via his white power blog - began stealthily buying up properties in Leith, and now owns at least a dozen plots, as well as a house that he bought on Craigslist (naturally). Armed with all that property, he now hopes to transform the community into a white enclave. He has already donated the community's former meat locker and creamery to the National Socialist movement, and is hoping that other supremacists will move to the area soon to help him realize his vision.
Cobb has shared his unsettling vision on white power message boards, including one in which, according to the Times, he talks of a colony where residents fly "racialist" banners, and where "leftist journalists" who "come and try to make trouble" will be arrested.
Unsurprisingly, Leith's residents are definitely not on board. In fact, they have a "doomsday plan" in place: If too many supremacists move in (though arguably one is already "too many"), they'll disband the town's government and turn over control to the county.
Leith, N.D.
Discovered In Indonesia
Bamboo Shark
A new species of shark that "walks" along the seabed using its fins as tiny legs has been discovered in eastern Indonesia, an environmental group said Friday.
The brown and white bamboo shark pushes itself along the ocean floor as it forages for small fish and crustaceans at night, said Conservation International, whose scientists were involved in its discovery.
The shark, which grows to a maximum length of just 80 centimetres (30 inches) and is harmless to humans, was discovered off Halmahera, one of the Maluku Islands that lie west of New Guinea.
Bamboo sharks, also known as longtail carpet sharks, are relatively small compared to their larger cousins, with the largest adult reaching only about 120 centimetres (47 inches) in length.
They have unusually long tails that are bigger than the rest of their bodies and are found in tropical waters around Indonesia, Australia and Papua New Guinea.
Bamboo Shark
Dawson City, Yukon
Sourtoe Cocktail
A man has left a Dawson City, Yukon, hotel in a bit of a toe jam.
The man was at the Downtown Hotel Saturday night drinking the infamous Sourtoe Cocktail, which involves swigging a shot of whiskey with a human toe in the glass and allowing the toe to touch the drinker's lips.
The hotel's so-called toe captain, Terry Lee, performed the drink ceremony, and said the man took the shot, gulped down the toe and then slapped $500 dollars on the counter, the fine for swallowing the appendage.
"He stands up, reaches in his pocket, and takes five $100 bills and slams it on the table and starts walking away. And I said 'Where's the toe?' And he said, 'I swallowed it,'" Lee said, describing the event.
Lee said the fine has since been increased to $2,500, to provide more of a deterrent because now the hotel only has one toe left.
The tradition started in 1973 after a toe believed to belong to a prohibition-era rum runner was found in a cabin by boat captain Dick Stevenson, prompting him to start the "Sourtoe Cocktail Club".
Sourtoe Cocktail
Top 20
Concert Tours
The Top 20 Concert Tours ranks artists by average box office gross per city and includes the average ticket price for shows in North America. The previous week's ranking is in parentheses. The list is based on data provided to the trade publication Pollstar by concert promoters and venue managers.
1. (1) Paul McCartney; $3,812,872; $127.84.
2. (2) Taylor Swift; $3,240,739; $86.74.
3. (3) Kenny Chesney; $2,247,437; $74.74.
4. (4) One Direction; $1,728,956; $65.83.
5. (5) Fleetwood Mac; $1,409,843; $106.97.
6. (6) Phish; $1,391,413; $48.76.
7. (7) Justin Bieber; $1,225,230; $80.77.
8. (8) Dave Matthews Band; $1,161,567; $55.05.
9. (9) Bruno Mars; $1,019,349; $70.50.
10. (10) New Kids On The Block; $791,588; $65.08.
11. (11) Blake Shelton; $672,657; $32.24.
12. (12) Tim McGraw; $615,468; $38.58.
13. (13) Rascal Flatts; $591,962; $38.75.
14. (14) Brad Paisley; $549,485; $36.36.
15. (15) Widespread Panic; $376,122; $47.11.
16. (16) Bad Company / Lynyrd Skynyrd; $311,304; $31.44.
17. (17) The Postal Service; $233,726; $41.30.
18. (18) Imagine Dragons; $210,740; $34.49.
19. (19) Hillsong United; $197,990; $31.04.
20. (20) Alice In Chains; $175,522; $49.24.
Concert Tours
In Memory
Seamus Heaney
Seamus Heaney, one of the world's best-known poets and winner of the 1995 Nobel Prize for literature, died on Friday after a short illness at the age of 74, his family said.
The Northern Ireland-born Heaney's poems evoke an Irish country childhood, with images of potato diggers and peat bog cutters, and echo the deep political splits that have divided the island.
His works include the 1966 debut "Death of a Naturalist", "The Spirit Level", "District and Circle" and an acclaimed translation of the old English epic poem "Beowulf".
Heaney was a rarity among poets, having won acclaim from critics while producing best-sellers. Born on a farm in Mossbawn, County Londonderry in Northern Ireland in 1939, his poems nostalgically recall the sights and smells of a country childhood.
The weaving of rural roots and modern realism helped him to become the most acclaimed Irish poet since William Butler Yeats, who was awarded the Nobel prize in 1923. Heaney was born in the year that Yeats died, and died in Dublin near the house where Yeats was born.
A tousle-haired figure with a shy and subtle manner, he hated media hype and publishers' publicity caravans even as he became one of Ireland's most famous figures. It once took him three hours to walk down Dublin's main street, pursued by autograph hunters.
He found recognition in academic circles, becoming Professor of Poetry at Oxford University and lecturing at Harvard University, and won the Nobel prize for his "works of lyrical beauty and ethical depth".
Heaney's life was a cultural juggling act that began with his childhood in a Northern Ireland riven by sectarian tensions between Protestants and Catholics. He left at the height of the conflict in 1972, his departure hailed by one Belfast Protestant paper which called him "the well-known Papist propagandist."
Settling first in the Wicklow Mountains and then in Dublin, his move to the Irish Republic made the headlines and those experiences allowed Heaney to bring a new sense of both the pain and passion of being Irish at a time when the island was torn apart by the Northern Ireland conflict.
Heaney always felt the tug of language between English and Irish and acknowledged the dichotomy in his acclaimed 1987 volume "The Haw Lantern," writing, "Two buckets were easier carried than one / I grew up in between."
He was acutely aware of the dilemma of being a "Green" Irish nationalist in a province ruled by the red, white and blue flag of the British monarchy and was once spotted in the bar on the Dublin-Belfast railway switching diplomatically from the Powers southern Irish whiskey to the northern brand Bushmills as the train crossed the border.
When a London publisher sought to put his work in an anthology of British poetry, he swiftly replied:
"Don't be surprised if I demur, for, be advised / My passport's green. No glass of ours was ever raised to toast the queen."
Seamus Heaney
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