Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Joe Weider: Jamming in the Gym (creators.com)
Tip of the Week: It's better to feel good than to look good. Yes, I said it.
Froma Harrop: Rich Shouldn't Get Overwrought (creators.com)
Amid pleas to spare the rich, the right is accusing the Obama administration of waging vile class warfare. They envision wooden carts carrying the wealthiest 2 percent to the guillotine. Are the critics right? Only in the tumbrels of their mind.
Susan Estrich: March 7 (creators.com)
It has a way of sneaking up on me, like the unhappy anniversary it is. Who knew? The first March 7 was a Monday. I was a law student, and my father died in a hospital bed where he had been hovering between life and death for 10 terrible days.
Christine Dolen: Dame Edna's back - and she won't hear of depression (McClatchy Newspapers)
The hair is still a lacquered mauve, her face-furniture still gloriously ornate, her wicked wit something that trumps time and a global financial crisis. Dame Edna Everage, an Australian housewife-turned-megastar, is on the road with a show she's calling "Dame Edna's First Last Tour" - though she has had some second thoughts about the title (see below).
Is this the most important week ever for animal stories? (guardian.co.uk)
Lucy Mangan marvels at a short-legged pony, flossing monkeys, an amputee elephant and two gay ducks.
David Medsker: A Chat with Andy Burrows, Razorlight drummer (bullz-eye.com)
I think that musicians get worried that [calling one of their albums 'mature'] means you're elderly or you're appealing to old people. But I think it's a more mature record than previous records of ours.
Ben Rubenstein: Kids Listen to the Darndest Things (popmatters.com)
Like these kids, my enjoyment level has never been as high as it was for the crap I loved when I was 13.
20 Questions: Miranda Lee Richards (popmatters.com)
Q: What do you want to say to the leader of your country?
A: "You're doing a great job" or "Thank God you're president!"
Master of the universe (guardian.co.uk)
Christopher Potter's history of the cosmos has been hailed a masterpiece. But as he tells Stuart Jeffries, it took a breakdown to write it.
Robert Kahn: Duncan Sheik is in good spirits over new ghost story (Newsday)
With Broadway's "Spring Awakening," Duncan Sheik transformed himself from lite-rock crooner ("Barely Breathing") to Tony-winning composer. He's not done yet _ Sheik's new concept disc, "Whisper House," a World War II-era ghost story, could be headed to Broadway, too.
Roger Ebert: EXOTICA (R) (1994; A Great Movie)
Sex for money sometimes conceals great sadness. It can be sought to treat wounds it cannot heal. I believe that may happen less in actual prostitution than in the parody of prostitution offered in "gentleman's clubs." Whatever is going on is less about sex than psychological need, sometimes on both sides. Atom Egoyan's "Exotica" is a deep, painful film about those closed worlds of stage-managed lust.
Roger Ebert: Don't move. I want to move. Don't.
When Sydney Pollack was making "Out of Africa" in 1985, he considered the problem of how to film Meryl Streep and Robert Redford in love scenes that were not explicit, yet were erotic.
The Weekly Poll
New Question
The 'Wars and Rumors of Wars' Edition'...
President Obama, aka 'The Man', certainly has his hands full in the foreign affairs arena at the moment with the belligerent behavior shown by our fellow passengers on Spaceship Earth. Naughty, naughty, I'm sayin'... It's like, don't they realize he's trying to solve a world-wide financial crisis? Or what? Jeesh! That said, which one of these provocations is the most worrisome?
A. Russia's (the Putin Oligarch Soviet Republic) probing Canadian airspace in the Arctic with a long-range bomber coinciding with BHO's first official 'foreign' visit outside the US to Ottawa?
B. China's (Shylock and Landlord) playing 'tag, you're it' with an unarmed US Navy ship in the international waters of the South China Sea?
C. The 'Hive Collective' known as North Korea threatening a 'counter-strike' if their erstwhile 'satellite' long-range ballistic missile launch is interfered with. Yeah, like we want to limit their TV channels from two to their present one...
D. Iran's (R-Theocracy) hell-bent-for-leather pursuit of atomic weapons. Quit lying! Everyone knows you suffer from Israeli penis-envy...
E. Israel's (R-Rethug) trying to bully the US into letting them remake Iran into a glass covered nuclear iridescent parking lot?
This bullshit is getting tiresome, don't ya think?
Send your response, and a (short) reason why, to
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Reader Comment
Gecko
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Overcast and cool.
Teaches Civics Lesson
Steve Martin
Steve Martin has offered to pay for an off-campus production of his play "Picasso at the Lapin Agile," which the school board banned from La Grande High School because parents objected to what they called adult content.
The actor, comedian, art collector and banjo picker says in a letter to the community that he wants to keep the play "from acquiring a reputation it does not deserve."
Last month a parent objected to the production planned by teacher Kevin Cahill and gave school officials a petition signed by 137 people. The school board halted rehearsals.
Since then, plans have been afoot for the students to present the play instead at Eastern Oregon University in La Grande, with a Student Democrats group raising money.
Steve Martin
Wildfire Benefit Concert
Australia
Grammy-winning British rockers Coldplay and the recently reunited Midnight Oil rallied huge crowds Saturday for benefit concerts to raise funds for victims of Australia's deadly wildfires.
Tens of thousands turned out in Sydney and Melbourne, with organizers hoping to raise 5 million Australian dollars ($3.3 million). Fires ripped across southern Victoria state last month, killing at least 210 people and destroying thousands of homes.
Some of the money was also set aside for victims of recent devastating floods in Queensland state that left hundreds homeless.
Olivia Newton-John, who closed the night's entertainment in Sydney, said she felt compelled to return to her home country for the event.
Australia
Rare Comic Sells For $317,200
Superman
A rare copy of the first comic book featuring Superman has sold for $317,200 in an Internet auction. The previous owner of Action Comics No. 1 bought it for less than a buck.
It's one of the highest prices ever paid for a comic book, a likely testament to the volume's rarity and its excellent condition, said Stephen Fishler, co-owner of the auction site ComicConnect.com and its sister dealership, Metropolis Collectibles.
The winning bid for the 1938 edition, which features Superman lifting a car on its cover, was submitted Friday evening by John Dolmayan, drummer for the rock band System of a Down, according to managers at ComicConnect.com.
In addition to being a musician, Dolmayan is a dealer of rare comic books. The auctioneers said he acquired the Superman comic on behalf of an unidentified client.
Superman
First Bond Girl Promotes Osteoporosis Awareness
Ursula Andress
Ursula Andress achieved pop culture icon status when she dropped 007's jaw as she strode out of the surf in a bikini in 1962's "Dr. No."
"Daniel Craig is a very good actor," Andress said in an interview Friday. "Whatever he does, he does it very well.
"But my James Bond is Sean Connery."
The woman who made moviegoing men weak in the knees is campaigning to raise awareness about osteoporosis, a potentially crippling bone disease that strikes one out of four women aged 50 and more and affects about two million Canadians.
Ursula Andress
History Book Reference
Robin Hood
A British academic says he's found proof that Britain's legendary outlaw Robin Hood wasn't as popular with the poor as folklore suggests.
Julian Luxford says a newly found note in the margins of an ancient history book contains rare criticism of the supposedly benevolent bandit.
Luxford, an art history lecturer at the University of St. Andrews, in Fife, Scotland, says a 23-word inscription in a history book, written in Latin by a medieval monk around 1460, casts the outlaw as a persistent thief.
"Around this time, according to popular opinion, a certain outlaw named Robin Hood, with his accomplices, infested Sherwood and other law-abiding areas of England with continuous robberies," the note read when translated into English, Luxford said.
Robin Hood
Logs Seized
'Ax Men'
Washington state's Department of Natural Resources on Friday seized more than two dozen logs it says were illegally salvaged by a timber crew featured on the History Channel's reality show "Ax Men."
DNR officers served a search warrant on S&S Aqua Logging to retrieve timber the company had pulled from the Hoquiam River without a permit, said Larry Raedel, the agency's chief enforcement officer.
Officers were tipped off after watching the popular series, which chronicles the lives of Pacific Northwest timber cutters, including a father-son team from Aberdeen-based S&S Aqua Logging.
When "Ax Men" debuted last year, it became the History Channel's most popular series with more than 2 million weekly viewers. This season began airing March 2 and features two timber crews from Washington, two from Oregon and one from Montana.
'Ax Men'
Warrant Issued
Lindsay Lohan
An arrest warrant has been issued for actress Lindsay Lohan, possibly in connection with a 2007 drunken driving arrest after she crashed her Mercedes-Benz into a tree, police said Saturday.
The warrant was issued Friday by a judge in Beverly Hills Superior Court and carries a bail amount of $50,000, police Sgt. Mike Foxen said.
The Los Angeles County district attorney's office had not been formally advised that a warrant was issued, spokeswoman Sandi Gibbons said.
However, a Beverly Hills court hearing for Lohan is scheduled for Monday and it "apparently has something to do with Ms. Lohan's probation," Gibbons said. "We don't know exactly what it's about. The court contacted the defense directly, not us."
Lindsay Lohan
Treated At LA Zoo
California Condor
A California condor captured because it appeared sickly was found to not only be suffering from lead poisoning but also had been shot, animal experts said Friday.
Unable to eat on its own, the condor was under intensive care at the Los Angeles Zoo and its prognosis was guarded, said Susie Kasielke, curator of birds.
X-rays taken at the zoo turned up shotgun pellets embedded in its flesh, she said. Those wounds had healed.
It could not be determined if the pellets were lead or steel, but the poisoning was most likely caused by the bird ingesting spent lead ammunition in carcasses of animals that had been shot by hunters, Kasielke said.
California Condor
Battle Brews
Bush 'Library'
Former resident George W. Bush is preparing for one final struggle against the odds: raising $300 million for a presidential library, museum and policy institute at a time when dollars are tight and skepticism about his presidency runs high.
The former resident and first lady have already begun holding small private dinners to persuade wealthy friends to invest in a monument and incubator based on the values and events of his presidency. By this fall, he'll be armed with architect's renderings and will hold travel around the country to meet with groups and build support for the complex on the campus of Southern Methodist University in Dallas.
Some of his new neighbors are less than thrilled with the plan, with a handful of history and political science professors lined up to criticize it.. But SMU fought hard to win the library, as one of eight original bidders and then four semi-finalists for the honor.
Groundbreaking for the George W. Bush Residential Center is scheduled for the fall of 2010, with the grand opening expected in the spring of 2013. The center will have three parts - a library, where Bush's papers will be stored; a museum of exhibits; and a policy institute, with plans for such novel programs as conversations with retired international leaders about their time in office.
Bush 'Library'
Bolted Antlers On Dead Doe
Marcel Fournier
A man who bolted antlers to the head of a dead doe and posed for a photograph with the deer was fined $400 and jailed for game violations.
Marcel Fournier, 19, shot the deer the evening of Nov. 22 and used lag bolts and epoxy to attach a 10-point rack, officials said. He then checked in the kill as lawful game at Barnie's Market.
It's illegal to kill an antlerless deer, and it's also illegal to hunt at night.
The Concord resident admitted to the killing and led a game warden to the deer's remains after an anonymous caller alerted authorities. Fournier said he had "quite a time" drilling and fastening the antlers, authorities said.
Marcel Fournier
In Memory
Alan Livingston
Alan W. Livingston, the music executive who created Bozo the Clown and signed the Beatles during his tenure as president of Capitol Records, has died. He was 91.
Livingston began his multifaceted career in show business as a writer and producer of children's read-along record albums for Capitol Records. He came up with the Bozo the Clown character for the 1946 album "Bozo at the Circus," which became a hit and spawned a cottage industry of merchandise and the television series featuring the wing-haired clown.
When he moved into executive positions at Capitol Records in the early 1950s, Livingston signed Frank Sinatra, then at a low point in his career, and introduced him to arranger Nelson Riddle. Together, the pair produced "I've Got the World on a String" and "Young At Heart," which led to Sinatra's comeback.
Livingston left the record label in the late 1950s to work in television, where he produced the western series "Bonanza." He returned to Capitol Records as president in the 1960s, when he signed the Beach Boys and Steve Miller and the Band.
When Livingston heard the Beatles song "I Want to Hold Your Hand," he agreed to release the single and brought the Fab Four to the United States in 1964 to promote it. Capitol, which was partly owned by the Beatles' record company EMI in the United Kingdom, earlier had rejected the group's initial hit singles as unsuitable for the American market.
In addition to Lerner, Livingston is survived by his wife Nancy Olson, one son, one daughter, and another stepdaughter.
His late brother Jay Livingston, who died in 2001, was a composer who teamed with songwriter Ray Evans to produce such standards as "Mona Lisa," "Silver Bells" and "Que Sera, Sera (Whatever Will Be, Will Be)" and the theme music for "Bonanza."
Alan Livingston
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