Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Roger Ebert: "Death Panels." A most excellent term
"Death panels" is such an excellent term. You know exactly what it means, and therefore you know you're against them. Debate over. This term more than anything else seems to have unified the opposition to the Obama health care proposals. It fuels the anger that has essentially shut down "town hall" meetings intended for the discussion of the issues.
Mark Morford: All depression to end by 2025 (sfgate.com)
Entire nation to be completely stoned, complacent, impotent "real soon now."
Bryan Appleyard: "Steve Jobs: The man who polished Apple" (timesonline.co.uk)
Chief executive of Apple Inc and owner of Jackling House changed the world and cheated death. So why the paranoia?
Eliot Spitzer: Still a Chump's Game (slate.com)
Is the stock market safe again for the small investor? Not by a long shot.
Germaine Greer: Desperate Romantics? The only desperate thing about the pre-Raphaelites was their truly bad art (guardian.co.uk)
While France was experiencing the dazzle of the impressionists, Britain applauded the false sentiment and fancy-dress of a dreary horde of pre-Raphaelites.
Author William Golding tried to rape teenager, private papers show (guardian.co.uk)
'Lord of the Flies' author's memoir describes how the attempted attack happened while he was on holiday during studies at Oxford university.
Portrait of the artist: Kiri Te Kanawa (guardian.co.uk)
'Opera is not elitist. Most of us are from very ordinary backgrounds.'
Clare Teal on big bands (timesonline.co.uk)
The jazz singer on her love of big bands, a hair-raising bus ride in Bulgaria, and a 'wild' night with one beer and a Kvit-Kvat.
GAIL COLLINS: To Be Old and in Woodstock (nytimes.com)
Forty years ago this weekend, I was at the Woodstock concert, and now I am getting alarmed about all the retrospectives. They're beginning to make me feel like Frank Buckles, the 108-year-old last surviving veteran of World War I. Although I will never come up with a line as good as Frank's secret to a long life. ("When you start to die, don't.")
A-ha: 'We were very reluctant pop stars' (guardian.co.uk)
They were pin-up boys for millions of girls in the 80s, but these days A-ha are more likely to be glumly discussing philosophy than chasing stardom, finds Decca Aitkenhead.
Fred Kaplan: Kind of Blue
Why the best-selling jazz album of all time is so great.
David Patrick Stearns: Musical white elephants brought out of the trunk (The Philadelphia Inquirer)
Every great composer has a white elephant - a piece as grand as it is unsuccessful, a flop that only genius can create, and all the more embarrassing for that.
The Weekly Poll
New Question
The "History's Mysteries' Edition
If you could find out the answers to three of the many historical mysteries that have puzzled and perplexed the world, what would they be?
1. ) ______________________
2. ) ______________________
3. ) ______________________
Send your response to
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Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Barely hit 70°!
Narrates UN Film
Roger Waters
The United Nations on Wednesday premiered a film narrated by former Pink Floyd frontman Roger Waters on the plight of Palestinians living in the shadow of Israel's controversial separation barrier tribute to the Warsaw ghetto.
The 15-minute film entitled "Walled Horizons" was made in honour of the fifth anniversary of the International Court of Justice's (ICJ) opinion that the barrier's meandering route through the occupied West Bank is illegal.
The film opens with a wide shot of Waters, the songwriter behind Pink Floyd's hit 1979 album "The Wall," walking along a towering concrete segment of the barrier beneath the painted silhouette of a giant lying on its back.
"The reason for walls is always fear, whether the personal walls that we build around ourselves or walls like this that frightened governments build around themselves," Waters says.
Roger Waters
Slams 'Useless' Politicians
Annie Lennox
Annie Lennox has slammed the 'uselessness' of politicians and told Sky Rupert News she is "deeply cynical" of them.
The singer who is a passionate activist and campaigner is urging people to take a more active role in politics and world affairs.
"When you feel like you are overwhelmed by the uselessness of politicians, don't just sit on the couch and complain - get on board, get involved."
Lennox attended the Edinburgh Festival of Politics this week where she declared Western governments were failing to do enough to deal with what she called the "devastating "impact of HIV and AIDS in Africa.
Annie Lennox
She's #1
Angela Merkel
German leader Angela Merkel and businesswomen dominate Forbes magazine's new list of powerful women, while First Lady Michelle Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton didn't break the top 30.
Merkel headed the list, published Wednesday, for the fourth year running, with the magazine highlighting her role as leader of the huge German economy and her likely re-election in September.
In second place came Sheila Bair, chairman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp, which insures US banks.
Third was Indra Nooyi, chief executive at PepsiCo, then Cynthia Carroll, the chief executive of mining giant Anglo American, and Ho Ching, chief executive at Singapore's government investment company Temasek Holdings.
Angela Merkel
BSO Donation
James Taylor
Singer James Taylor plans to donate his $500,000 in earnings from a five-day music festival at Tanglewood next week to the Boston Symphony Orchestra.
Taylor's association with the orchestra dates back more than 15 years. His wife, Kim, is a former public relations director and current trustee for the Orchestra.
Taylor tells The Boston Globe that he decided to donate his earnings because he and his wife are concerned about diminishing support for classical music. The newspaper reports that the couple also donated more than $700,000 between 2005 and 2008 to the orchestra, which makes its summer home at Tanglewood in western Massachusetts during the summer.
James Taylor
Jackson Portrait Sold
Andy Warhol
A New York art gallery has sold an Andy Warhol portrait of Michael Jackson, but won't reveal the purchase price or the buyer.
The Vered Gallery in East Hampton sold the 30-by-26-inch painting showing a smiling Jackson in a red jacket from his 1980s "Thriller" days to a buyer who requested anonymity.
The auction, which closed at 8 p.m. Tuesday, was conducted online, by phone and at the gallery. The seller is a private collector.
Gallery co-owner Janet Lehr would not disclose the final bid price, but did say it was more than a million dollars.
Andy Warhol
Reality TV Contestant Sought
Megan Wants a Millionaire
Police said Wednesday they want to question a reality television contestant about the death of a former swimsuit model found dead in a trash bin after a stormy relationship with the man.
Police say Ryan Jenkins may be heading to his native Canada after reporting the model, 28-year-old Jasmine Fiore, missing Saturday night to the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department. Jenkins, 32, appeared on the reality TV show "Megan Wants a Millionaire."
Lisa Lepore says her daughter Fiore married Jenkins in Las Vegas in March but had the marriage annulled in May. However, she says Jenkins convinced her daughter to take him back.
Fiore's nude body was found stuffed in a suitcase in a Buena Park trash bin on Saturday. Officials say she may have been strangled.
Megan Wants a Millionaire
We're
29 30 31 32?Life Expectancy
U.S. life expectancy has risen to a new high, now standing at nearly 78 years, the government reported Wednesday. The increase is due mainly to falling death rates in almost all the leading causes of death. The average life expectancy for babies born in 2007 is nearly three months greater than for children born in 2006.
Last year, the CDC said U.S. life expectancy had inched above 78 years. But the CDC recently changed how it calculates life expectancy, which caused a small shrink in estimates to below 78.
The United States continues to lag behind about 30 other countries in estimated life span. Japan has the longest life expectancy - 83 years for children born in 2007, according to the World Health Organization.
The nation's infant mortality rate rose slightly in 2007, to 6.77 infant deaths per 1,000 births, but the rise was not statistically significant. It has been at about the same level for several years.
Life Expectancy
Recipients Charged With Fraud
Oprah's Angel Network
Three women displaced by Hurricane Katrina have been charged with fraudulently collecting U.S. housing aid after television star Oprah Winfrey helped them buy new homes, the government said on Wednesday.
The victims of the deadly 2005 storm obtained rental assistance from the Federal Emergency Management Agency after having purchased new, fully furnished homes that were partly financed by Winfrey's charity, Oprah's Angel Network, according to U.S. Attorney Tim Johnson.
A spokeswoman for the Oprah's Angel Network, Angela DePaul, said the group was disappointed to learn of the grand jury indictments released Wednesday.
One of the women charged, Kiesha Murphy, received more than $17,000 (10,300 pounds) in legitimate disaster aid from FEMA, but continued to draw federal funds even after moving into a charity-financed home in July 2006, Johnson's office said.
Oprah's Angel Network
Banned In Britain
"Grotesque"
Britain's film board banned the sale of a Japanese horror DVD, saying Wednesday its violence is so extreme that it could cause psychological harm to audiences.
The film "Grotesque" devoted most of its running time to the sexual assault and torture of its two main characters, the British Board of Film Classification said.
The board has refused to classify the film, meaning it cannot be legally sold or supplied anywhere in Britain.
The board said the movie's nonstop scenes of torture - including amputation, eye-gouging, castration and evisceration - make it impossible to edit the film in a way which would make it acceptable for British viewers.
"Grotesque"
Rates Double
Boomers
Baby boomers, now well into middle age, are still turning on to illegal drugs, doubling the rates of illicit drug use for the older generation, according to U.S. government statistics released on Wednesday.
The rates of people aged 50 to 59 who admit to using illicit drugs in the past year nearly doubled from 5.1 percent in 2002 to 9.4 percent in 2007 while rates among all other age groups are the same or decreasing, the U.S. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration reported.
The data used in the study came from various surveys including 16,656 men and women participating in the 2002 through 2007 National Surveys on Drug Use and Health.
Boomers
In Memory
Don Hewitt
Don Hewitt, the CBS newsman who invented "60 Minutes" and produced the popular newsmagazine for 36 years, died Wednesday. He was 86.
Hewitt joined CBS News in television's infancy in 1948, and produced the first televised presidential debate in 1960.
He made his mark in the late 1960s when CBS agreed to try his idea of a one-hour broadcast that mixed hard news and feature stories. The television newsmagazine was born on Sept. 24, 1968, when the "60 Minutes" stopwatch began ticking.
"60 Minutes" won 73 Emmys, 13 DuPont/Columbia University Awards and nine Peabody Awards during Hewitt's stewardship, which ended in 2004.
A Sunday evening fixture, "60 Minutes" was television's top-rated show four times, most recently in 1992-93. While no longer a regular in the top 10 in Hewitt's later years, it was still TV's most popular newsmagazine.
Among his other jobs, Hewitt directed the first network television newscast on May 3, 1948. He originated the use of cue cards for news readers, now done by electronic machines. He was the first to "superimpose" words on the TV screen for a news show.
Before the 1960 presidential debate, Hewitt asked John F. Kennedy if he wanted makeup. Tanned and fit, Kennedy said no. Richard Nixon followed his lead. Big mistake.
Donald Shepard Hewitt was born in New York on Dec. 14, 1922, and grew up in the suburb of New Rochelle. He dropped out of New York University to become a copy boy at the New York Herald Tribune. He joined the Merchant Marines during World War II and worked as a correspondent posted to Gen. Dwight Eisenhower's London headquarters.
Hewitt was the subject of an unflattering portrait in the 1999 movie "The Insider," which depicted him caving to pressure from CBS lawyers and not airing a whistleblowing report about the tobacco industry. The full report eventually aired.
Although bitter at the former "60 Minutes" producer who became a hero of "The Insider" for fighting to air the story, Hewitt later said he wasn't proud of his actions.
Hewitt had four children. Survivors include his wife of 30 years, Marilyn.
Don Hewitt
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