Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Eric Adler: Google turns tables, changes name to 'Topeka' (McClatchy Newspapers)
When you live in the state known for Toto, tornadoes and Obama's mama, it pays to have a sense of humor.
Frances Moore Lappé: Why Are We Afraid of Saying "Socialism"? (alternet.org)
Knee-jerk reactions to words like "socialism" and "capitalism" get us nowhere. We need to first define the terms.
MICHAEL LUO: Overqualified? Yes, but Happy to Have a Job (nytimes.com)
Don Carroll, a former financial analyst with a master's degree in business administration from a top university, was clearly overqualified for the job running the claims department for Cartwright International, a small, family-owned moving company here south of Kansas City.
Laura Barnett: Chill out on the cheap (guardian.co.uk)
DIY techniques can beat stress as effectively as a costly massage.
Scott Burns: A Better Balanced Fund (assetbuilder.com)
Craig Israelsen has an interesting idea: Let's leave 1950 behind. The associate professor at Brigham Young University in Utah thinks it is time to include the world outside the United States, among other things, in our investments rather than just talk about it.
Meghan Daum: YouTube your way to college (latimes.com)
Students' 'infomercials' are the latest way to say 'pick me out of this crowd, please!'
Nat Hentoff: "Segregation 2010: Bloomberg's Schools" (villagevoice.com)
The mayor and his schools chancellor make their stand at the schoolhouse door.
Joseph Smigelski: A Superstitious Pigeon in English Class (huffingtonpost.com)
As a college English instructor, I am always looking for new and innovative ways to inspire my students and somehow nurture in them a desire--a drive--to be more expressive and creative.
This column will change your life: What's your problem? (guardian.co.uk)
We live in a self-help culture that encourages us to fix ourselves, says Oliver Burkeman, but are we sure we're really broken?
Thomas Goetz: Cancer Is a Preventable Disease -- So Why Don't We Prevent It? (huffingtonpost.com)
Cancer is perhaps the most frightening of all diseases we face. And the thing is, it's very often entirely preventable. If we simply made some different decisions, earlier, many cancers would never happen.
Marilyn Preston: Self-Care 101: Going Private with the Public Option (creators.com)>
The public - that's you and me and everyone in the country - must opt for a healthier, happier lifestyle or we'll go broke trying to keep up with demand.
That's the only Public Option you can really count on. For now, we the people need to choose the healthier options over the ones that make us weaker, sicker, fatter and less happy: Like eating more veggies and grains and going cold turkey on red meat, even if it's just for five out of 21 meals a week.
Daniel Gross: Just Call Him Axl (slate.com)
What Warren Buffett's Geico ad says about him-and about American CEOs.
31 Steps to a Financial Tuneup (nytimes.com)
Taking time out to put your personal finances in gear can reap both immediate and long-term benefits, from cashing gift cards to reallocating investments. This checklist can help you formulate a strategy, providing tips, the time needed to achieve them, and links to additional resources.
Request your free annual credit report (annualcreditreport.com)
The Weekly Poll
New Question
The 'Ten Little Questions' Edition
It's Census time again! (What? Already? Didn't we just do this 10 years ago?)
so, just fer fun, I'll add four of my own...
1.) Did you fill out your census form and send it back yet?
2.) If not, will you?
3.) Did you answer all the questions?
4.) If not, what questions didn't you answer and why?
(Warning! Big Brother says we have to fill it out and return it otherwise we'll get a knock on the door from the friendly Census Police politely asking us to do so...
Go easy on the poor bastards, eh? They're mostly unemployed people trying to make a few bucks and probably are scared to death that they're gonna get slammed. It's not their fault, OK?... P.S. you answers here are entirely confidential and will not be shared with ANYBODY, especially You-Know-Who...)
BadtotheboneBigBrother...er, Bob
Send your response to
responded:
From The Creator of 'Avery Ant'
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Michelle in AZ
Link from RJ
Lake Mono
Hi there
Happy Easter!
Thought you might be interested in this one. Thanks as ever for taking a look!
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Sunny, but cool.
Back To Hollywood
Kal Penn
Nine months after leaving Hollywood for the White House, the actor Kal Penn is returning to Tinseltown to reprise his most famous role, as the marijuana-loving "Kumar" in the raucous "Harold and Kumar" feature film comedies.
As Kalpen Modi -- Kal Penn is his stage name -- the 32-year-old actor has been working in the Obama White House since July as an associate director of public engagement.
The magazine "Entertainment Weekly" reported on its website on Friday that Penn was leaving to make a new Harold and Kumar movie, this one with a Christmas theme, which might be shot in 3-D.
One of the few Indian-American actors to make it big in Hollywood, Penn has said he was inspired to get involved in politics partly by his grandparents, who marched with Mahatma Gandhi in the Indian independence movement.
Kal Penn
Wins Jackson Poetry Prize
Harryette Mullen
Harryette Mullen has won a $50,000 Jackson Poetry Prize for being a poet of "exceptional talent who deserves wider recognition."
The nonprofit literary organization Poets & Writers Inc. announced Mullen as the winner of the fourth annual Jackson Poetry Prize on Friday.
The 56-year-old Mullen has written such books as "Recyclopedia," "Muse & Drudge" and "Sleeping With the Dictionary." Her socially and politically conscious verse is influenced by the feminist and civil rights movements.
Harryette Mullen
Leaving 'Law & Order'
S. Epatha Merkerson
S. Epatha Merkerson, the senior member of the "Law & Order" cast, is leaving after the show's current 20th season.
Merkerson, who joined the NBC drama in 1993 as New York police Lt. Anita Van Buren, has decided to exit after 16 years, according to a person close to the show who spoke on the condition of anonymity because that person wasn't authorized to speak about cast changes.
Merkerson, who held firm on a series that has seen literally dozens of cast members come and go, has played a strong, no-nonsense supervisor in a Manhattan police precinct, primarily overseeing two detective characters (currently played by her co-stars Jeremy Sisto and Anthony Anderson).
But this season, Van Buren's story line has taken a personal turn as she battles cancer, an illness that may figure into her departure from the show.
S. Epatha Merkerson
Weight Watchers Rep
Jennifer Hudson
Jennifer Hudson didn't gain a huge amount of weight when she was pregnant with her son, but it was enough to make her do a double-take when she saw a picture of herself.
"I didn't realize it was me," the singer and actress said Thursday. "I was like, 'Who? ... Oh, my God, this is me.' And now when I look back, wow, look at the difference from then to now."
Hudson, a former "American Idol" finalist who won a best supporting actress Academy Award for "Dreamgirls," has lost the baby weight and more, and she says it's because of Weight Watchers - for which she is the new spokeswoman.
Hudson said she has always been happy with her curves but after she gave birth to David Daniel Otunga Jr. last August she felt the need to take control of her body and her eating habits.
Jennifer Hudson
Death Threats Prompt Tighter Security
Erin Andrews
First she was secretly videotaped in the nude. Now she's receiving death threats. At least a dozen e-mails had been sent to a media outlet threatening ESPN reporter and "Dancing With the Stars" contestant Erin Andrews since September, her attorney Marshall Grossman said.
The messages discuss the case of Michael David Barrett, who was sentenced last month to 2 1/2 years in federal prison for secretly shooting nude videos of Andrews, her attorney Marshall Grossman said.
The e-mails were at first sexual, but the most recent were explicitly violent and "threatened Erin with murder," Grossman said. They also had details about location and method.
The FBI has been notified, Grossman said. He said the man's identity is known to law enforcement and is believed to live on the East Coast. An e-mail message left for an FBI spokeswoman was not immediately returned.
Erin Andrews
Archbishop of Canterbury
Rowan Williams
The Roman Catholic Church in Ireland has lost all credibility because of its mishandling of abuse by priests, the leader of the Anglican church said in remarks released Saturday. A leading Catholic archbishop said he was "stunned" by the comments.
The remarks released Saturday marked the first time Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams has spoken publicly on the crisis engulfing the Catholic Church. The comments come ahead of a planned visit to England and Scotland by Pope Benedict XVI later this year.
"I was speaking to an Irish friend recently who was saying that it's quite difficult in some parts of Ireland to go down the street wearing a clerical collar now," Williams told the BBC. "And an institution so deeply bound into the life of a society, suddenly becoming, suddenly losing all credibility - that's not just a problem for the church, it is a problem for everybody in Ireland, I think."
The interview with Williams, recorded March 26, is to be aired Monday on the BBC's "Start the Week" program as part of a general discussion of religion to mark Easter. But its publication ahead of the interview caught Catholic leaders off guard.
Rowan Williams
Bad Check Charge Dropped Against Teabagger
Nevada
Criminal bad check charges were dismissed Friday for a Tea Party of Nevada candidate seeking to unseat Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.
Scott Ashjian, 46, paid $5,575 to cover a disputed check and prosecution fees before Las Vegas Justice of the Peace Deborah Lippis approved withdrawing felony theft and bad check charges, court officials said.
Ashjian issued a statement later maintaining that he never bounced the $5,000 business check that was in dispute, and blamed the state Republican party for what he called "trumped up" charges brought by a prosecutor who used to be a county GOP party official.
Ashjian, a Las Vegas asphalt businessman, is one of 21 candidates including 12 Republicans seeking to challenge Reid in the November election. Reid is seeking a fifth term in the Senate.
The Tea Party Express faction of the national movement has distanced itself from Ashjian, who faces a separate civil lawsuit challenging his candidacy in state court in Carson City.
Nevada
Mystery Buried With Giants Stadium?
Jimmy Hoffa
As the story goes, former Teamsters boss Jimmy Hoffa has attended every event at Giants Stadium since 1976, buried in a final resting place somewhere under the west end zone.
More than 20 years after a self-described mob hit man set the rumor mill in motion with an interview in Playboy magazine, the question lingers: Is the answer to one of the enduring mysteries of the 20th century buried beneath the stadium - and about to be buried even deeper when the stadium is demolished this spring?
To one former law enforcement official who investigated the case in the 1980s, there is no mystery.
The FBI considered the Giants Stadium tale "a dead issue" by the time Playboy printed its interview with Donald "Tony The Greek" Frankos in late 1989, according to retired FBI agent Jim Kossler.
Jimmy Hoffa
Disappearing Bunnies
Central Park
If anyone knows why the bunnies have disappeared from Central Park, wildlife officials are all ears.
Though abandoned pet rabbits perennially turn up after each Easter in what's affectionately called New York's backyard, a wild cottontail hasn't been spotted in the park for about four years.
"I've been here for 17 years, and there were not many when I got here," Regina Alvarez, director of horticulture for the Central Park Conservancy, a nonprofit that manages the huge Manhattan park for the city, said in an e-mail. "But I would see them once in a while."
Only time will tell if they are gone for good, said Sarah Aucoin, director of Urban Park Rangers for the New York City Department of Parks & Recreation.
Central Park
In Memory
Caresse Henry
Caresse Henry, an entertainment manager who once guided the careers of Madonna, Paula Abdul and others, has died in California.
A statement from publicist and longtime friend Liz Rosenberg says Henry was 44. The Orange County coroner's office says she died of a self-inflicted gunshot at her home in Irvine, Calif.
The Los Angeles native managed Madonna for 10 years until the early 1990s. Rosenberg says Henry also managed Ricky Martin, Abdul, Andrew Dice Clay and others.
Survivors include her two children, a sister, a brother and her parents.
Caresse Henry
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