Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Joe Conason: Watching Bill Clinton work his magic at Davos (salon.com)
His rock-star status among world leaders, at a time when America's reputation is in tatters, shows the former president is a major asset to Barack Obama.
Mark Morford: Kiss my Boy Scout (sfgate.com)
Gays! Buddha! Stemware! Time to reinvent the Scouts for the new world.
"Stone the Crows: The Oxford Dictionary of Modern Slang" by John Ayto: A review by Caleb Crain
Like poetry and pornography, slang is easier to recognize than to define. Most of it is disapproved of by someone, but obscenity alone doesn't qualify. It isn't slang, for example, to refer to manure with a four-letter word. But if you put the article "the" in front of that four-letter word and equate the president-elect of the United States to it, then slang it is, and very complimentary. Further complicating matters, a great deal of slang is completely inoffensive. Journalists call the first sentence of an article the lede, the last the kicker, the motive for reading it the hook and the paragraph that encapsulates its argument the nut graf -- terms that might puzzle an outsider but won't scandalize anyone.
Bob Proehl: The Essential Dykes to Watch Out For by Alison Bechdel (popmatters.com)
The Essential Dykes to Watch Out For collects 25 years of Alison Bechdel's battle against patriarchy, heterosexual hegemony and most everything else.
Walter Tunis: "Singing a different tune: Welcome to Jessica Simpson country" (McClatchy Newspapers)
It wasn't the sort of career move anyone saw coming. Jessica Simpson: pop pinup, reality show princess, tabloid celebrity and country singer?
Christine Dolen: Meet Theodore Bikel, the man behind Tevye (McClatchy Newspapers)
Theodore Bikel, the multifaceted actor, singer and activist, has given more than 2,000 performances as Tevye, the beleaguered and beloved Russian-Jewish milkman in "Fiddler on the Roof."
Bill Gibron: "Kevin Smith: Not Quite Mainstream (Zack and Miri Make a Porno/ Sold Out!: A Threevening with)" (popmatters.com)
For Kevin Smith, it's all about the story. It's not about fancy camera angles, inferred symbolism, realistic special effects, thematic resonance, or the inevitable flights of filmmaking imagination. No, if it's not about the characters, their interaction, and the way in which said truth (sprinkled with occasional scatology) sells the narrative, he's history.
Luaine Lee: "Billie Piper: from Britain's sweetheart to 'Secret Diary of a Call Girl'" (McClatchy-Tribune News Service)
Though she didn't really plan it, actress Billie Piper shocked the stuffing out of Britain's stuffed shirts when she starred as the sexy prostitute in "Secret Diary of a Call Girl," now airing on Showtime.
Roger Ebert: In the sweet bye-and-bye
One is the loneliest number that you'll ever do. Or maybe it isn't. Maybe Zero is lonelier, because it doesn't even have itself for company. On the other hand, maybe Zero isn't really a number. Even if it is, let's not go there. Too deep for me. Let's start out easy, with One. Everybody on board? Good. If one is lonely, what is the cure? Two, obviously, even if Two the loneliest number since the number one.
David Bruce: Wise Up! Problem-Solving (athensnews.com)
* When Stan Lee came up with the idea for a superhero with the abilities of a spider - Spider-Man - he ran into a problem. His boss felt that people were afraid of spiders and so the superhero would not be popular. Mr. Lee decided to sneak a story about Spider-Man into the last issue of a comic book that had failed - after all, since the comic book had failed and would be discontinued, who would care what appeared in its last issue? Response to the new superhero - depicted on the cover - was both overwhelming and overwhelmingly positive, and Marvel had a new very popular superhero to bring it profits for decades to come.
The Weekly Poll
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Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Another too warm for the season day.
One of my old pals from the Pepperdine days tracked me down and we've been shooting the shit and comparing flashbacks.
'Borrowed' this picture from him -
Congress Approves Delay
Digital TV
The U.S. switch to digital television signals will be delayed four months until June under legislation that cleared Congress on Wednesday and now goes to President Barack Obama for his signature into law.
Obama supports the delay, sharing concerns that 20 million mostly poor, elderly and rural households were not ready for the congressionally mandated switch.
The bill delaying the changeover to June 12 from February 17 cleared the U.S. House of Representatives in a 264-158 vote and followed Senate passage last month.
Airwaves to be vacated by television broadcasters after the switch were purchased mostly by AT&T Inc and Verizon Communications Inc in an auction that raised about $19 billion for the U.S. government.
Digital TV
Collection For Sale
Forrest J Ackerman
He always vowed that he wouldn't die unless he could take it with him.
But now that Forrest J Ackerman really is gone, the grand old man of science fiction's memorabilia collection is on the auction block.
Thousands of items, including the Count Dracula ring worn by Bela Lugosi in the 1931 horror classic "Dracula," the vampire cape Lugosi wore for decades - even the actor's outfit from the "worst film ever made," Ed Wood's cheesy "Plan 9 From Outer Space" - are going up for bid.
So are such notable pieces as a signed, first-edition copy of Mary Shelley's novel "Frankenstein" and a first-edition copy of Bram Stoker's "Dracula" that was signed not only by Stoker but also Lugosi, Boris Karloff and numerous other horror film notables.
Ackerman, the science-fiction writer, editor and literary agent widely credited with coining the term sci-fi, spent a lifetime collecting tens of thousands of pieces, ranging from the junky to the very rare. He died last December at age 92.
Forrest J Ackerman
Recording New Material
Spinal Tap
Spoof metal band Spinal Tap, the subject of 1984 "mockumentary" This Is Spinal Tap, will release new music via download later this year followed by physical releases.
Band member Derek Smalls (aka actor Harry Shearer) told BBC Radio 5live: "It'll be for download as well as on conventional media later this year."
"We've never recorded the song we did at Live Earth [at Wembley Stadium in 2007], 'Warmer Than Hell,'" he said. "I think they [Spinal Tap] are trying to revisit their old success.
"Not that they were ever popular, maybe in their own universe. We'll do a song called 'Gimme Some More Money,' probably with some dubious results."
Spinal Tap
Goes Ahead Despite Problems
KaraFilm Festival
Pakistan's only international film festival opens on Wednesday even though Indian guests aren't coming because of tension after the Mumbai attacks and its main sponsor has withdrawn because of the economic downturn.
Since its launch, the festival has tried to promote better ties between India and Pakistan by screening Indian films and inviting Indian artists such as actor Ajay Devgan and director Mahesh Bhatt, who both attended the last festival in 2006.
But politics has cast a pall over the KaraFilm festival with tension between nuclear-armed India and Pakistan following the militant attack on Mumbai in November in which 179 people were killed.
The festival was launched in 2001 and was held annually until 2007, when it was postponed to early 2008 after a suicide bomb attack on former prime minister Benazir Bhutto's homecoming procession in Karachi killed about 140 people.
KaraFilm Festival
Three Named
Country Music Hall of Fame
Veteran entertainers Roy Clark, Barbara Mandrell and Charlie McCoy were named on Wednesday to the Country Music Hall of Fame.
The announcement was made by Tammy Genovese, head of the Country Music Association, who said the three would be inducted this spring at a date to be decided during a reunion for Hall of Fame members.
The Hall of Fame was established in 1961 and will have 108 members when the three newest are added.
Country Music Hall of Fame
Harvard Hasty Pudding Award
James Franco
James Franco, who won recent acclaim for playing both a goofy pot dealer and Harvey Milk's lover, has been named Harvard's Hasty Pudding Man of the Year.
Franco will receive the award at a roast Feb. 13 by the Hasty Pudding - the nation's oldest undergraduate drama troupe.
The 31-year-old actor was nominated for a Golden Globe for his supporting role in "Pineapple Express" and starred opposite Sean Penn in "Milk." He has appeared in TV's "Freaks and Geeks" and the "Spider Man" trilogy and portrayed James Dean in the TNT biopic.
Renee Zellweger will be honored as the Hasty Pudding Woman of the Year on Thursday. Last year's honorees were Christopher Walken and Charlize Theron.
James Franco
Closing Vegas Show
Elton John
Promoters say Elton John will close his Las Vegas Strip show, "The Red Piano," on April 22.
The show made its debut in February 2004 at The Colosseum theater at Caesars Palace. After initially signing on for 75 shows, John's engagement was extended.
The casino says the closing show will be the 241st performance.
Elton John
Wedding News
Torv & Valley
Life imitates art at the Fox series "Fringe," where co-stars Anna Torv and Mark Valley have wed. Torv's representative, Jen Turner, says the couple were married in December. She didn't provide any details. Torv, 29, plays FBI Special Agent Olivia Dunham on "Fringe."
Valley, 44, played Dunham's partner and secret lover, agent John Scott, when the series began last fall. But their relationship took a mysterious turn when Scott was seemingly killed and exposed as Dunham's apparent betrayer.
Torv & Valley
Makes Valid Points
Stephen King
Count Stephen King among those not swooning over Edward Cullen.
In what should have been a controversy-free interview with USA Weekend to promote his latest book, the horror master has slammed Twilight creator Stephenie Meyer's writing prowess...by flat-out saying she has none.
What started with an innocent question on the recent juggernaut success of fellow mainstream writers Meyer and J.K. Rowling quickly devolved into a full-scale denouncement of the former's skills.
"The real difference is that Jo Rowling is a terrific writer and Stephanie Meyer can't write worth a darn," he said. "She's not very good."
While King seemed to reserve his choicest words for Meyer, she wasn't the only best-selling author eviscerated by him. On the contrary, King declared Perry Mason author Erle Stanley Gardner "terrible," Dean Koontz "sometimes…just awful," and James Patterson "a terrible writer" who is nonetheless "very very successful."
Stephen King
Expanding Primetime
Emmy Nominations
Television actors will get an extra chance at a primetime Emmy nomination in the future, thanks to a decision to expand the number of nominees to six from five in the leading categories, the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences said on Wednesday.
A series of ties over the last three years along with what the Academy called "an extraordinary number of nomination-worthy programing and performances" led the primetime Emmy award committee to increase the slots in 10 categories.
From now on, there will be six nominations in the categories of best drama series, best comedy series, best actor and actress in a drama series, best actor and actress in a comedy series and best supporting actor and actress in comedy and drama series.
Emmy Nominations
Hosting GSN's `The Newlywed Game'
Carnie Wilson
Here comes the next "Newlywed Game" host.
Carnie Wilson, the Wilson Phillips singer who hosted her own talk show and appeared on VH1's "Celebrity Fit Club," is slated to host 40 episodes of a new GSN edition of the show where newly married couples answer questions to find out how well they know each other.
The new edition of "The Newlywed Game" premieres April 6. It will feature an updated set and a new bonus round with couples who have remained married since appearing on the show.
Carnie Wilson
Implausible Deniability
Vatican
The Vatican on Wednesday demanded that a prelate who denied the Holocaust recant his positions before being fully admitted as a bishop into the Roman Catholic Church. It also said Pope Benedict XVI had not known about Bishop Richard Williamson's views when he agreed to lift his excommunication and that of three other ultraconservative bishops Jan. 21.
The Vatican's Secretariat of State issued the statement a day after German Chancellor Angela Merkel urged the pope to make a clearer rejection of Holocaust denials, saying there had not been adequate clarification from the church.
The Holy See on Jan. 24 announced the rehabilitation of four bishops excommunicated in 1988 after being consecrated without papal consent.
Just days before, Williamson had been shown on Swedish state television saying historical evidence "is hugely against 6 million Jews having been deliberately gassed" during World War II.
Williamson has since apologized to the German-born pope for having stirred controversy, but he did not repudiate his comments, in which he also said only 200,000 to 300,000 Jews were killed during World War II and none were gassed.
Vatican
Another Compassionate Conservative
Legionaries of Christ
A staunchly conservative religious order favored by Pope John Paul II said Wednesday that there had been unspecified misconduct by its founder.
Legionaries of Christ's founder Marcial Maciel was a Mexican priest who was disciplined by the Vatican several years ago after allegations from former seminarians about sexual abuse.
In a report on its Web site, the National Catholic Reporter cited four unidentified former Legionaries or supporters of the order in the United States and Mexico as saying that the order had recently told current members and supporters privately that Maciel "apparently" fathered a child out of wedlock.
Chicago-based Legionaries spokesman Jim Fair declined to comment on specific allegations but said the order had learned "surprising" things about Maciel that were "not appropriate for a Catholic priest."
Legionaries of Christ
Deadly Disorder
Bats
A mysterious and deadly bat disorder discovered just two winters ago in a few New York caves has now spread to at least six northeastern states, and scientists are scrambling to find solutions before it spreads across the country.
White-nose syndrome poses no health threat to people, but some scientists say that if bat populations diminish too much, the insects and crop pests they eat could flourish. Researchers recently identified the fungus that creates the syndrome's distinctive white smudges on the noses and wings of hibernating bats, but they don't yet know how to stop the disorder from killing off caves full of the ecologically important animals.
Bats with white-nose burn through their fat stores before spring, driving some to rouse early from hibernation in a futile search for food. Many die as they hunt fruitlessly for insects.
White-nose syndrome spread fast last winter to dozens of caves in New York and southern New England, within a roughly 150-mile radius of the caves west of Albany, N.Y., where it was first found. Early observations show it has reached farther still this winter, even before cave inspections and bat counts begin in earnest this month.
Bats with white-nose syndrome were found recently in northern New Jersey's Morris County and in an old iron mine in Shindle, Pa., more than 200 miles away from the outbreak's epicenter. In addition, the Pennsylvania Game Commission on Tuesday said that hundreds of little brown bats, a species devastated by white-nose syndrome, were found dead from the disorder outside two mines in the northeastern part of the state.
Bats
Cable Nielsens
Ratings
Rankings for the top 15 programs on cable networks as compiled by Nielsen Media Research for the week of Jan. 26-Feb. 1. Day and start time (EST) are in parentheses:
1. "The Closer" (Monday, 9 p.m.), TNT, 4.63 million homes, 6.24 million viewers.
2. "Burn Notice" (Thursday, 10 p.m.), USA, 3.86 million homes, 5.37 million viewers.
3. "Monk" (Friday, 9 p.m.), USA, 3.72 million homes, 5.39 million viewers.
4. "WWE Raw" (Monday, 10 p.m.), USA, 3.69 million homes, 5.31 million viewers.
5. "WWE Raw" (Monday, 9 p.m.), USA, 3.46 million homes, 5.02 million viewers.
6. "NCIS" (Monday, 7 p.m.), USA, 3.31 million homes, 4.19 million viewers.
7. "NCIS" (Wednesday, 7 p.m.), USA, 3.22 million homes, 4.28 million viewers.
8. "NCIS" (Thursday, 7 p.m.), USA, 3.219 million homes, 4.15 million viewers.
9. "NCIS" (Tuesday, 7 p.m.), USA, 3.213 million homes, 4.21 million viewers.
10. "SpongeBob SquarePants" (Saturday, 9:30 a.m.), Nickelodeon, 3.16 million homes, 4.43 million viewers.
11. "The O'Reilly Factor" (Monday, 8 p.m.), Fox News Channel, 3.12 million homes, 3.96 million viewers.
12. "Psych" (Friday, 10 p.m.), USA, 2.98 million homes, 4.31 million viewers.
13. "The O'Reilly Factor" (Wednesday, 8 p.m.), Fox News Channel, 2.94 million homes, 3.89 million viewers.
14. "SpongeBob SquarePants" (Saturday, 9 a.m.), Nickelodeon, 2.93 million homes, 3.89 million viewers.
15. "The O'Reilly Factor" (Thursday, 8 p.m.), Fox News Channel, 2.92 million homes, 3.81 million viewers.
Ratings
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