Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Mark Morford: The last hotbutton (sfgate.com)
What do Judy Blume, bleating bishops, and the Supreme Court have in common?
Nora Ephron: Addicted to Love (huffingtonpost.com)
In some fabulous way, Cheney's ubiquity is an ongoing reminder of the eight years he was the key man in the administration. He gives new meaning to the words "Never Again."
Ray Fisman: Comparison Shopping (slate.com)
The real reason CEO compensation got out of hand.
Ron Rosenbaum: The New Nuke Porn (slate.com)
Our nuclear fantasies have gotten more hard-core.
Ted Hughes - poet and eco warrior (guardian.co.uk)
Simon Armitage celebrates Ted Hughes' environmentalism on the tenth anniversary of his death.
JORDAN DAVIS: "Into the Wardrobe: C.S. Lewis's Narnia" (thenation.com)
Born in 1898 to a Belfast solicitor and his mathematics-trained wife, C.S. Lewis, or Jack, as he preferred to be called, was deemed by his tutor for the Oxford entrance exams to have been "born with the literary temperament," and "while admirably adapted for excellence and probably for distinction in literary matters, he is adapted for nothing else." It was true.
Laura Shapiro: Helen Gurley Brown's Sexy Mistake (slate.com)
She was obsessed with the wrong revolution.
Hadley Freeman: Schadenfreude celebrities: the end is nigh (guardian.co.uk)
A self-destructive nature has become the main selling point for some who lack any other talent.
Comedic curmudgeon (ffwdweekly.com)
Lewis Black is pissed off. He constantly looks as though he's a step away from a heart attack, or better yet, a stroke. He's a friendly curmudgeon - gruff, shaky, sometimes dishevelled. He rants like there's an ulcer screaming from the core of his being, yelling about the stupidity of the world - mostly the political world - around him, around us. He is a constant critic of life in the United States, with all its inherent contradictions, foibles and foolishness. And all that is a good thing.
From the valleys to Venice (guardian.co.uk)
The Velvet Underground's John Cale returns to his Welsh roots at the Venice Biennale. He talks to Jonathan Jones.
Brent Hartinger: 'M*A*S*H' actor David Ogden Stiers finally comes out (afterelton.com)
The actor who played Major Winchester and later did voice work for many animated Disney films has finally set the record "gay."
Wayne Fuller: GOSSIP BOY EXCLUSIVE! TELEVISION ICON DAVID OGDEN STIERS OFFICIALLY COMES OUT (March 11, 2009; gossip-boy.com)
Few would believe that the stodgy appearing actor David Ogden Stiers (DOS to many friends) is a flower child at heart. From his work and general appearance most would describe him as uptight, humorless, conservative, religious, cold, and judgmental. Now replace those adjectives with their opposite and you have the real DOS - fun loving, witty, liberal, atheistic, warm and accepting.
The Weekly Poll
Results
The 'Space, the final frontier' Edition...
Star Trek opened this weekend with strong reviews and grossed 76.5 million dollars.
Obviously, there is no lack of support for the Sci-If movie genre..
Set Phasers To "Ka-Ching" - CBS News
Meanwhile, with little notice or fanfare, the space shuttle Atlantis was launched Monday on what has been said is a critical and dangerous mission to repair the Hubble telescope in order to keep it operation for 5 more years until its replacement is ready. NASA's 2010 budget is 18.7 billion dollars which includes a 5% increase under Obama's stimulus plan.
High stakes in NASA's last visit to Hubble
Do you support continued space exploration programs?
Send your response to
replied:
Alan J A-13 | L-13
Charlie A-12 | L-13
DC Madman A-1 | L-1
Gary G A-0 | L-1
Jim from CA A-2 | L-2
Joe S A-13 | L-13
José-Ariel A-0 | L-1
MAM A-13 | L-13
Maria in Chicago A-8 | L-8
Marian the Teacher A-11 | L-12
Sally A-13 | L-13
Sandra in Maine A-0 | L-0
Tom B A-1 | L-1
Reader Comment
true knowledge
Marty;
Leo touched on the TQ extravaganza with a concern that is not too
dissimilar to my own, self-limited conundrum. The fact is, there are
some trivia contestants (yeah, you know who you are) who have more time
to research than others. Therefore, it's not that these better computer
owners actually have any prospective answer recorded in their biological
memory banks (except maybe SallyP[al], I think she may actually be
super-computer enhanced with multiple lifetime experiences ... ), but
instead, that they only have more time to Jeeves/Google/Clusty a subject
until some intertube sets them accurate.
If you could somehow make Entertainment's trivia contest a "closed book"
display of knowledge, I feel that you then maybe could even attract many
more "off-the-cuff" participants. Perhaps an honor system where
everybody first surrenders their "true-knowedge" guess, and then proffers
whatever research they've accomplished?
Elsewise, it will ever only be the most industrious who win ... and I
(undoubtedly along with most of the rest of Entertainment's more silent
majority) am an innately lazy(er) SOB.
Yeah, I know, it's naive.
(P.S., Sally, it's not criticism I snark about above, just jealousy.)
DanD
Thanks, Dan!
Cripes, it's just a freaking trivia question.
Doesn't really matter to me how anyone comes up with an answer. I put them out there, hoping someone will respond.
Guess I could get all puffy about it, but if I'm expected to play schoolmarm, then I'm gonna have to shave my legs &
put on a dress, and if I have to go that far, I'm gonna expect a paycheck.
A regular paycheck. With benefits. And a day off every now & then.
So, it is what it is.
Reader Comment
Re: Reader Comment
Marty
I don't feel that the contest is truly about winning or losing. It is about trivia, and I do love that. I have more useless info running around in my head that you can shake a stick at. Just play!
It is nice to get books, but the game is the thing! Just submit an answer and/or a comment. I love reading Sally's daily 'doings'!
MAM
Thanks, Marianne!
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Probably the last of the marine layer for a few days.
House Committee OKs Payments
Radio
Broadcast radio stations may finally be forced to pay music labels for playing their songs, as proposed U.S. legislation moved a step closer toward approval on Wednesday.
While newer media such as satellite, cable and Internet stations pay music companies to broadcast their music, terrestrial U.S. radio stations have resisted for decades.
The U.S. House of Representatives Judiciary Committee voted 21 to 9 on Wednesday to send the Performance Royalties Act to the full House for a vote.
"Corporate radio's days of hiding behind a loophole in the copyright law are over," said Jennifer Bendall, executive director of industry lobbyist musicFIRST Coalition, calling for similar pay-to-play contracts for all radio stations.
Radio
Dethroned Miss Nevada
Katie Reese
On Tuesday, Donald Trump said that Miss California Carrie Prejean's racy photos "were acceptable," and allowed her to keep her crown - but dethroned Miss Nevada Katie Reese said Trump's decision is a "huge double standard."
"Semi-nude photos are semi-nude photos," Katie told E! Online, comparing her own controversial pictures to leaked photos of Carrie, which showed the then-17-year-old model exposing her breast and flashing her underwear. In December of 2006, Trump stripped Rees of her title after he deemed her photos inappropriate.
"I don't know why I am the only one who was punished for their behavior," she said. "I was only 19 when those photos were taken of me, and it was me in my personal life, far before I was crowned Miss Nevada. Carrie actually posed for these professional semi-nude photos... I think that's worse."
"At least when those pictures of me came out, I admitted I was wrong and told young women in America how big of a mistake it was and to be careful because everything can affect your future," she told E!. "That's more than Carrie has done. She has lied about her age when she took the photos, lied about how many there were and hasn't acknowledged that she was wrong by breaking the contract. I don't think that is a good role model and I hope young women recognize that."
Katie Reese
Sticking Point For Movie Industry
3-D Glasses
More than a dozen 3-D films will hit multiplexes this year, and theaters are installing thousands of digital 3-D systems amid fervid public approval of the fledgling technology.
If the industry could only figure out how to pay for the 3-D glasses.
Complicated virtual-print-fee (VPF) agreements are in place to fund the rollout of digital hardware, enabling theaters to add the 3-D systems. But until reusable 3-D glasses come into greater use or the $1-per-pair cost for disposables is cut substantially, squabbling will continue over millions of dollars in costs tied to the extra-dimensional eyewear.
3-D Glasses
250th Anniversary Of Ireland's Black Stuff
Guinness
Black Eyed Peas, The Undertones and Kasabian are among the stars performing a series of gigs to celebrate Ireland's most famous beverage.
In honour of the 250th anniversary of Guinness, concerts will be held around the world, including Dublin on September 24 as well as New York, Lagos, Cameroon and Kuala Lumpur.
The Irish event will, of course, form the centrepiece with the main party at Dublin's legendary St James' Gate Brewery, where Arthur Guinness signed his 9,000 year lease a quarter of a millennium ago.
Guinness will also set up a 5 million euro (£4.5m) Arthur Guinness Fund for good causes to mark the milestone.
Guinness
Quits Film
Richard Attenborough
Veteran actor Lord Richard Attenborough has pulled out of his role in new movie Ironclad and put his film career on hold - as he is still in hospital five months after a fall at his London home.
The 85-year-old Oscar winner was admitted to St George's Hospital in Tooting, West London on 18 December after he fell and slipped into a coma.
He regained consciousness and was kept under observation by concerned doctors throughout the Christmas period.
Attenborough is still being treated at a South London medical facility, and a spokesman for the actor admits he hasn't regained his health and won't be taking on any more film roles until he has fully recovered.
Richard Attenborough
Pageant Official Quits
Shanna Moakler
Former Miss USA Shanna Moakler resigned as co-executive director of the Miss California USA pageant on Wednesday, saying she no longer believes in the organization because of pageant owner Donald Trump's decision to let the state's controversial title holder keep her crown.
After Miss California USA Carrie Prejean created a stir with her response to a question about gay marriage at last month's Miss USA pageant, questions about her work with gay marriage opponents and nearly nude photos taken of her when she was a teenager put her title in jeopardy.
At a news conference Monday, Moakler angrily accused Prejean of violating the contract she signed with pageant organizers, but Trump announced Tuesday that Prejean would keep her title.
"I cannot with a clear conscience move forward supporting and promoting the Miss Universe Organization when I no longer believe in it or the contracts I signed committing myself as a youth," she said in a statement issued by her publicist. "I want to be a role model for young women with high hopes of pageantry, but now feel it more important to be a role model for my children."
Shanna Moakler
Not A Neat Freak
Lindsay Lohan
A burglar alarm led police to Lindsay Lohan's house on Tuesday, where officers found evidence of a potential break-in and ransacking.
Turns out, the mess belonged to Lohan, not the burglars, police said.
An alarm company notified police that someone tripped an alarm at the house around 3 p.m. in Hollywood. Police determined no one entered the home and nothing was stolen, but the mess inside the starlet's home prompted officers to ask, "Is it normally like this, or did the intruders do it?" said Los Angeles police Officer Karen Rayner.
Lohan was not at home at the time.
Lindsay Lohan
Apologizes To James Frey
Oprah
Oprah Winfrey has apologized to author James Frey for shaming him on her TV chat show amid revelations he had fabricated parts of his memoir, her spokeswoman said on Wednesday.
Winfrey's apology was first reported on the Web site of Vanity Fair, with the author saying he felt "grateful" for Winfrey's gesture. The two have a tumultuous history.
Frey said Winfrey called him last fall to tell him "I felt I owe you an apology," and she explained that her lambasting of him sprang from her sense of feeling betrayed, according to the Vanity Fair report.
Angela DePaul, a spokeswoman for Winfrey confirmed that the chat show host had called to apologize.
Oprah
Birthday Surprise
Paulina Porizkova
Paulina Porizkova got a pink slip from "America's Next Top Model."
That's what the model-actress said Tuesday night on CBS' "The Late Late Show," dropping this bombshell to host Craig Ferguson: "Do you know why I'm in Los Angeles, besides seeing you? ... Because I'm looking for a job. Because I was fired by `America's Next Top Model' on my birthday."
Porizkova, who turned 44 on April 9, joined the judges' panel of the popular model-scouting series last year. Wednesday night's 12th season finale on the CW network marks her final appearance.
According to Porizkova, the firing happened over the phone.
Paulina Porizkova
Kimbell Art Museum
Michelangelo
The Kimbell Art Museum will soon be the only U.S. museum to display a Michelangelo painting after acquiring his earliest known work, a rare treasure that was tucked away and doubted as authentic for more than a century.
The museum declined to disclose how much it paid for "The Torment of Saint Anthony," a 15th-century oil and tempera painting on a wood panel that depicts scaly, horned, winged demons trying to pull the saint out of the sky. Experts believe he painted it when he was only 12 or 13 years old.
And only four such works - including this one - by the artist exist, and two of them are unfinished. Most of his paintings are frescos, the famous scenes on the ceiling and wall of Rome's Sistine Chapel.
The painting was exhibited as late as 1874 in Paris. But some questions about its authenticity had surfaced through the years, and after a London family acquired it in the 1900s, the painting was kept privately and largely forgotten in the art world, Eric M. Lee, the Fort Worth museum's director said.
Michelangelo
Cleanup Sends 7 To Hospital
Office Fridge
An office worker cleaning a fridge full of rotten food created a smell so noxious that it sent seven co-workers to the hospital and made many others ill. Firefighters had to evacuate the AT&T building in downtown San Jose on Tuesday, after the flagrant fumes prompted someone to call 911. A hazmat team was called in.
What they found was an unplugged refrigerator that had been crammed with moldy food.
Authorities said an enterprising office worker had decided to clean it out, placing the food in a conference room while using two cleaning chemicals to scrub down the mess. The mixture of old lunches and disinfectant caused 28 people to need treatment for vomiting and nausea.
Authorities said the worker who cleaned the fridge didn't need treatment - she can't smell because of allergies.
Office Fridge
Cable Nielsens
Ratings
Rankings for the top 15 programs on cable networks as compiled by Nielsen Media Research for the week of May 4-10. Day and start time (EDT) are in parentheses:
1. NBA Playoffs: Houston vs. L.A. Lakers (Wednesday, 10:43 p.m.), TNT, 4.78 million homes, 6.32 million viewers.
2. NBA Playoffs: L.A. Lakers vs. Houston (Friday, 9:51 p.m.), ESPN, 4.43 million homes, 5.95 million viewers.
3. "ICarly: I Date a Bad Boy" (Saturday, 8 p.m.), Nickelodeon, 4.37 million homes, 6.47 million viewers.
4. NBA Playoffs: Houston vs. L.A. Lakers (Monday, 10:46 p.m.), TNT, 4.07 million homes, 5.4 million viewers.
5. NBA Playoffs: Boston vs. Orlando (Sunday, 8:06 p.m.), TNT, 3.7 million homes, 5.08 million viewers.
6. NBA Playoffs: Boston vs. Orlando (Monday, 8 p.m.), TNT, 3.35 million homes, 4.35 million viewers.
7. "WWE Raw" (Monday, 10 p.m.), USA, 3.33 million homes, 4.79 million viewers.
8. NBA Playoffs: Atlanta vs. Cleveland (Tuesday, 8 p.m.), TNT, 3.32 million homes, 4.5 million viewers.
9. NBA Playoffs: Boston vs. Orlando (Wednesday, 8 p.m.), TNT, 3.31 million homes, 4.34 million viewers.
10. "SpongeBob SquarePants" (Saturday, 9:30 a.m.), Nickelodeon, 3.29 million homes, 4.07 million viewers.
11. "ICarly" (Saturday, 9 p.m.), Nickelodeon, 3.26 million homes, 4.58 million viewers.
12. "WWE Raw" (Monday, 9 p.m.), USA, 3.15 million homes, 4.48 million viewers.
13. "ICarly: I Date a Bad Boy" (Sunday, 8 p.m.), Nickelodeon, 3.11 million homes, 4.08 million viewers.
14. NBA Playoffs: Dallas vs. Denver (Tuesday, 10:51 p.m.), TNT, 3.07 million homes, 4 million viewers.
15. "NCIS" (Wednesday, 8 p.m.), USA, 3.01 million homes, 4.03 million viewers.
Ratings
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