Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Mark Morford: Oh my God you are so missing out (sfgate.com)
It slaps me particularly hard when I peruse the local foodie blogs, reading about the latest and greatest San Francisco bars and cafes, boutique coffee joints and tasty underground lairs, gourmet pig butchering classes and DIY absinthe workshops, any of a thousand funky foodie trucks stopping by innumerable hipster brewpubs to serve up dim sum, crab cakes and pho from a tiny shiny kitchen tucked inside a large shiny Ford.
Froma Harrop: The Real Illegal Immigration Story (creators.com)
Arizona commands front and center stage in the national drama over illegal immigration. But the real action lies elsewhere. For those who prefer dealing with the problem in a more humane way, the news out of backstage is encouraging.
Jim Hightower: A BITTER TASTE OF RACIAL DISCRIMINATION (jimhightower.com)
I don't know how the corn crop is doing this year, but Washington is producing a bumper crop of irony for America's black farmers.
Zac Bissonnette: The Student Loan Train Wreck: Why the Default Rate Is Just the Beginning (huffingtonpost.com)
New data obtained by the Chronicle of Higher Education reveals that of student loans that entered repayment in 1995, fully 20% have since gone into default.
Frank Cottrell Boyce: "The parent trap: art after children" (guardian.co.uk)
Is the pram in the hallway the enemy of good art? Frank Cottrell Boyce, novelist, screenwriter and father of seven, makes the case for chaos.
"The Losers Vol. 1 & 2" by Andy Diggle: A review by Spencer Dew
If the end of the Cold War represented a victory for capitalism, The Losers contemplates capitalism run amok, a world where insatiable greed is coupled with American military power and which no one is willing or able to police. It's in this world, not entirely unlike our own, that the eponymous Losers -- an "A-Team" of Special Forces agents betrayed by their superiors and supposedly dead -- set out first to clear their name and then, perhaps, do something more.
Ben Schumer: "Keep Me Away From the Present Tense: An Interview with Librarians" (popmatters.com)
West Virginia has not been the site of many positive things lately. Between Jamie Oliver's "Food Revolution" exposing the state's school cafeteria failings and the recent mining disaster, residents of the Mountain State could use a win wherever they can get it. Enter Morgantown, WV's Librarians, who recently released their sophomore LP, "Present Passed," an album that deserves to dominate ears this summer.
Jenny Colgan: How Kanye West gave one fan Twitter anxiety (guardian.co.uk )
The rapper is only following one person, who is now a rather stressed-out Twitter celebrity.
David Bruce: "The Funniest People in Neighborhoods: 250 Anecdotes"
A Kindle Book: $1.
TRIP GABRIEL: Plagiarism Lines Blur for Students in Digital Age (nytimes.com)
Many students simply do not grasp that using words they did not write is a serious academic misdeed.
David Hiscoe: An Academic Rip Van Winkle (chronicle.com)
Without much fanfare, I cashed out my stock options 18 months ago and quietly returned to the academy, after more than 20 years in devoted service to corporate interests.
The Weekly Poll
Update
I'll be back August 17th with a two week long Emmy Contest with a prize! Yes! A nice one, too! Details will be posted beforehand to whet yer interest, so stay tuned! Until then, thanks to all... Yer the Best!
BadToTheBoneBob
wrote:
answered:
From The Creator of 'Avery Ant'
Reader Suggestion
Michelle in AZ
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Lovely marine layer til noon.
I don't ever want to see the rinse water from the washing machine bubble up in the bathtub, followed by a toilet spewing, ever again. And what I'm calling 'rinse water' was way too chunky to really be 'rinse water', but sometimes I have to lie to myself.
2011 MusiCares Person of the Year
Barbra Streisand
Barbra Streisand will be honored as the 2011 MusiCares Person of the Year.
The Recording Academy and the MusiCares Foundation said Wednesday that Streisand will receive the award Feb. 11 at a dinner and concert in Los Angeles.
The annual gala is among the festivities that will lead up to the 53rd annual Grammy Awards on Feb. 13. The awards show will air on CBS.
The 68-year-old Streisand has won eight Grammy Awards. She is being honored for her creative accomplishments and philanthropic work.
Barbra Streisand
NY Library To Honor
Steve Martin
Steve Martin has been recognized in New York as a literary lion.
The actor-author-playwright was among five Library Lions announced Wednesday by the New York Public Library. Also cited were actor-author Ethan Hawke, authors Malcolm Gladwell and Zadie Smith and New York Public Library President Paul LeClerc.
The winners were chosen based on "their contributions to the world of ideas." They will be honored Nov. 1 at a black-tie gala.
Steve Martin
'30 Rock' Actor Speaks Up For Organ Donation
Grizz Chapman
Actor Grizz Chapman of NBC's "30 Rock" is serving as an advocate for organ donation, just a month after undergoing a kidney transplant.
Spokeswoman Anne Finn says Chapman will speak Thursday at New York's Montefiore Medical Center at an event observing National Minority Organ Donor Awareness Day. Chapman received his new kidney at that facility.
Chapman was diagnosed with high blood pressure a decade ago. He learned several years later that he was suffering from kidney disease. Until his transplant, he was on dialysis three times a week.
He and Kevin Brown, as the character Dot Com, appear as the two-man entourage for a hapless comedian played by Tracy Morgan on the "30 Rock" sitcom.
Grizz Chapman
She Said, She Said
Whoopi Goldberg
A spokesman says White House gatecrasher Michaele Salahi's visit to the ABC daytime talk show "The View" ended in a backstage shouting match with co-host Whoopi Goldberg.
Salahi went to the show Wednesday to promote her appearance on Bravo's "Real Housewives of D.C.," which premieres Thursday. Goldberg touched Salahi's back during an interview to get her attention and urge her to talk about the night she and her husband crashed President Barack Obama's state dinner last fall.
"The View" spokesman Karl Nilsson says after the show Goldberg and Salahi got into a "heated exchange" when Goldberg learned Salahi had accused the host of hitting her.
Whoopi Goldberg
Bumps Reality Show Hosts
Emmys
They're used to kicking out contestants, but reality-show hosts are none too happy now that they're getting the boot from the Primetime Emmy telecast.
Jeff Probst, who snuffs torches on "Survivor," told The Hollywood Reporter he's feeling burned by the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences' decision last week to consign the reality show host category to the Creative Arts Emmys event, which takes place during a low-key ceremony on August 21, eight days before the big show.
Probst won't attend the Creative Arts bash, but that's because he'll be in Nicaragua filming "Survivor." He had carved out time in the show's shooting schedule so he could attend the Primetime Emmys, "but it's too late for us to change our shooting schedule again," he said.
ATAS has defended its decision to drop the reality-host category, saying the Emmys will be particularly tight this time because the show will be replayed on the West Coast after its first-ever live airing, and is including a Bob Hope Humanitarian Award for the first time in six years. George Clooney will accept that award.
Emmys
Backhand Complement For Pete Rose
Ken Burns
Ken Burns makes sweeping documentaries on subjects including baseball. But he was concise in assessing whether Pete Rose should be in the sport's Hall of Fame.
Rose, who agreed to a lifetime ban from baseball in 1989 that stemmed from gambling, should be honored after he dies, Burns told the Television Critics Association on Wednesday.
"He deserves to be in the Hall of Fame. But he doesn't deserve to know he's in the Hall of Fame," Burns said. "But that's just one person's opinion."
Burns, whose films include "The Civil War" and "The National Parks," appeared at the association's summer meeting to promote PBS' "The Tenth Inning," a follow-up to his 1994 series "Baseball" that also aired on public TV.
Ken Burns
Judge Overturns
Prop H8
A federal judge overturned California's gay-marriage ban Wednesday in a landmark case that could eventually force the U.S. Supreme Court to confront the question of whether same-sex couples have a constitutional right to wed.
The ruling by Chief U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker touched off a celebration outside the courthouse. Gay couples waved rainbow and American flags and erupted with cheers in the city that has long been a haven for gays.
Walker methodically rejected every argument posed by sponsors of the ban in response to a lawsuit filed by two gay couples who claimed Proposition 8, the voter-approved ban, violated their civil rights.
"Proposition 8 singles out gays and lesbians and legitimates their unequal treatment," the judge wrote in his 136-page opinion. "Proposition 8 perpetuates the stereotype that gays and lesbians are incapable of forming long-term loving relationships and that gays and lesbians are not good parents."
Prop H8
Defends Revisionist Propaganda
PBS
PBS chief Paula Kerger says she doesn't regret airing a documentary series last month on former Secretary of State George Shultz that some critics argued was tainted by its funding.
Kerger told the Television Critics Association on Wednesday that the three-part film, "Turmoil and Triumph: The George Shultz Years," received money from a variety of sources, including people connected with Shultz.
But she says none of the donors controlled the documentary's content, adding that the film reflected public TV's effort to present a variety of viewpoints. Shultz served in the Reagan administration.
The PBS ombudsman said in July the series created "at least the appearance of a conflict of interest" because of its flattering portrait of Shultz and its funding.
PBS
Hold $150 Million In 'Unclaimed' Royalties
Hollywood Guilds
Hollywood's guilds, unions and collection societies are sitting on a gold mine of unclaimed residuals and royalties. They're holding more than $150 million for tens of thousands of actors, writers, directors and musicians they're trying to locate.
It turns out that SAG has more than $17.5 million in unclaimed residuals for 69,184 people they can't find. SAG has an entire department dedicated to finding them, but actors change agents, move, drop out of the business or die. And their residuals just keep piling up. During the past two years, SAG has distributed $20 million from this fund, but it just keeps growing. Last year, SAG located nearly 6,000 people on the list and expects to find that many again this year.
SAG also has a separate fund of nearly $19 million in foreign royalties that it's trying to give to members or their estates. So far, the guild has paid out more than $7 million from this fund.
Besides the $36.5 million at SAG, other guilds also have unclaimed residuals and royalties accumulating for their members.
Hollywood Guilds
'Blood Diamond'
Naomi Campbell
Naomi Campbell testifies on Thursday about a "blood diamond" at the war crimes trial of former Liberian leader Charles Taylor, who prosecutors say gave such a gem to the British supermodel.
The prosecution at the Special Court for Sierra Leone summoned Campbell to back their allegations that Taylor, 62, received diamonds from rebels in Sierra Leone, which they say he then used to buy weapons during a 1997 trip to South Africa.
Defense lawyers for Taylor tried to delay the testimony, arguing the ex-Liberian president's right to a fair trial was being denied because they had not seen the full intended statement by Campbell.
Late on Wednesday, the court dismissed the defense motion so that Campbell's testimony could go ahead as planned.
Naomi Campbell
Series Pulled From NBC Schedule
Tony Robbins
Tony Robbins' infomercial passing as a reality show has been pulled from NBC's schedule after just two airings.
The network says reruns of the game show "Minute to Win It" will claim the Tuesday-night slot vacated by "Breakthrough With Tony Robbins."
The Nielsen Co. says this week's airing of "Breakthrough" drew an audience of only 2.8 million viewers.
NBC said Wednesday that reruns of "Minute to Win It" will start next week.
Tony Robbins
Making Daddy Proud
Caroline Giuliani
Rudy Giuliani's daughter was arrested Wednesday on a misdemeanor shoplifting charge at a beauty supplies store after she was seen on security video pocketing makeup, police said.
Caroline Giuliani, a 20-year-old Harvard University student, was seen taking five items worth more than $100 at a Sephora store in Manhattan, New York Police Department spokesman Paul Browne said.
Store managers, after calling police, said they didn't want to press charges against her, Browne said. But police arrested her on a petty larceny charge, he said.
Giuliani, wearing black pants and a red sweater and with her arms folded, exited a police precinct Wednesday evening and quickly got into an SUV with a man and a woman. She did not respond to reporters' questions.
Caroline Giuliani
Leaving Milwaukee?
Harley-Davidson
It's the roar that made Milwaukee famous - the distinctive throaty rumble of a Harley-Davidson motorcycle. But that much-loved racket could be rumbling away to another state if the company cannot bring down its labor costs.
Harley-Davidson warned threatened employees in April that it will move its Wisconsin manufacturing operations elsewhere if it cannot cut millions of dollars at the factories that build the bikes known as "Milwaukee Iron."
Harley's corporate headquarters would remain here, but that's small consolation to a community that has already endured repeated blows to its civic identity.
Harley chief executive Keith Wandell said the company will make its decision on whether to move in the next two months. Harley executives are already scouting out other states, though Wandell will not say which ones.
Harley-Davidson
Loses Track Of Centenarians
Tokyo
Japanese authorities admitted Tuesday they'd lost track of a 113-year-old woman listed as Tokyo's oldest, days after police searched the home of the city's official oldest man - only to find his long-dead, mummified body.
Officials launched a search this week for Fusa Furuya, born in July 1897 and listed as Tokyo's oldest citizen, after it emerged her whereabouts are unknown.
Several other celebrated centenarians are also unaccounted for due to poor record-keeping and follow-up in a country that prides itself in its number of long-lived citizens but also frets about an unraveling of traditional family ties.
Officials updating their records ahead of a holiday next month honoring the elderly found that Furuya does not live at the address where she is registered, said Hiroshi Sugimoto, an official in Tokyo's Suginami ward.
Tokyo
Secret UFO Encounters
X-Files
The government released hundreds of previously secret "UFO files" on Thursday including a letter saying that Winston Churchill had ordered a 50 year cover-up of a wartime encounter between a UFO and military pilot.
The files, published by the National Archives, span decades and contain scores of witness accounts, sketches and classified briefing notes documenting mysterious sightings across the country.
Britain has been slowly releasing long-classified files related to sightings of mysterious craft in the skies above its cities, compiled and investigated by the MoD (Ministry of Defence) over past decades.
Some cases subsequently received rational explanations, such as meteors burning up in the atmosphere, but many are unsolved.
X-Files
Cable Nielsens
Ratings
Rankings for the top 15 programs on cable networks as compiled by the Nielsen Co. for the week of July 26-Aug. 1. Day and start time (EDT) are in parentheses:
1. "The Closer" (Monday, 9 p.m.), TNT, 5.11 million homes, 6.75 million viewers.
2. "Rizzoli & Isles" (Monday, 10 p.m.), TNT, 4.94 million homes, 6.54 million viewers.
3. "ICarly" (Friday, 8 p.m.), Nickelodeon, 4.83 million homes, 7.74 million viewers.
4. Auto Racing: Nascar Sprint Cup/Poconos (Sunday, 1:47 p.m.), ESPN, 4.35 million homes, 6.2 million viewers.
5. "Hannah Montana Forever" (Sunday, 8 p.m.), Disney, 3.86 million homes, 5.75 million viewers.
6. "Jersey Shore 2" (Thursday, 10 p.m.), MTV, 3.81 million homes, 5.25 million viewers.
7. "Burn Notice" (Thursday, 9 p.m.), USA, 3.64 million homes, 5.37 million viewers.
8. "Covert Affairs" (Tuesday, 10 p.m.), USA, 3.59 million homes, 4.83 million viewers.
9. "ICarly" (Friday, 8:30 p.m.), Nickelodeon, 3.56 million homes, 5.57 million viewers.
10. "Royal Pains" (Thursday, 10 p.m.), USA, 3.54 million homes, 5.06 million viewers.
11. "WWE Raw" (Monday, 10 p.m.), USA, 3.5 million homes, 5.31 million viewers.
12. "WWE Raw" (Monday, 9 p.m.), USA, 3.47 million homes, 5.07 million viewers.
13. "Good Luck Charlie" (Sunday, 8:30 p.m.), Disney, 3.41 million homes, 4.96 million viewers.
14. "Deadliest Catch" (Tuesday, 9 p.m.), Discovery, 3.34 million homes, 4.9 million viewers.
15. "True Blood" (Sunday, 9:03 p.m.), HBO, 3.28 million homes, 5.23 million viewers.
Ratings
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