Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Mark Morford: "America: Arms dealer to the stars!" (sfgate.com)
Who's the number one weapons broker in the world, again? Take a guess.
Kevin Carey: College for $99 a Month (Washington Monthly; Posted on alternet.org)
The next generation of online education could be great for students -- and catastrophic for universities.
Gretchen Rubin: Why Might Small, Comfortable Changes Work Better than Radical Steps? (slate.com)
I'm surprised I hadn't known about kaizen before. The Japanese term kaizen is an approach of using small steps of continuous improvement to bring about change. Instead of pursuing radical changes - which are ambitious, difficult, and often don't succeed - you take small, comfortable steps. Maurer points out that although kaizen developed in a business setting, it also applies to individuals.
Kelly McEvers: Changing the Way Saudis Learn (slate.com)
Can Saudi Arabia remake itself by reforming its education system?
Brain food: The theory of lies (guardian.co.uk)
When' Vogue' model Liskula Cohen took Google to court, she cast light on the theory of lies, writes Aditya Chakrabortty.
Beth Schwartzapfel: Dairy Queen (advocate.com)
NYC's latest foodie obsession is frigid and flamboyant.
The Legend of Zelda (advocate.com)
The fearless contributions of one tough "mother."
STEPHANIE SCHROEDER: Art on the Fringe (curvemag.com)
Fringe festivals give female performers permission to experiment.
"The Hunter: Parker #01" by Darwyn Cooke: A review by Chris Bolton
In Roman Polanski's classic 'Chinatown,' Noah Cross (John Huston) tells detective Jake Gittes (Jack Nicholson), "Politicians, ugly buildings, and whores all get respectable if they last long enough." Screenwriter Robert Towne might have added pulp writers to that list.
Dan Deluca: What would they think if you sang out of tune? (The Philadelphia Inquirer)
The Beatles are coming! The Beatles are coming!
Glenn Gamboa: "Here comes the fun: 'The Beatles: Rock Band' is not just for kids" (Newsday)
The Beatles' history is intertwined with one pop-culture landmark after another.
David Medskar: A Chat with Marshall Crenshaw, Singer/songwriter (bullz-eye.com)
For better or for worse, the thing I really love is record-making. I just think it's a great art form. When it comes to the idea of making a record and creating a body of songs for a record, that's when I really get motivated.
The Weekly Poll
New Question
The 'So Says Michael' Edition
Capitalism is evil. That is the conclusion U.S. documentary maker Michael Moore comes to in his latest movie "Capitalism: A Love Story," which premiered at the Venice film festival Sunday.
Do you agree with his assessment? (No need to respond, SallyP(al), we KNOW what you think!... Well, OK, go ahead... But, try keeping it to no more than novella length, eh? LOL...)
Send your response to
wrote:
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 lasted til lunchtime.
Class Of 2009
Kennedy Center Honors
Actor Robert De Niro, musician Bruce Springsteen and funnyman Mel Brooks are among the entertainers whose careers will be celebrated at this year's Kennedy Center Honors Gala in December.
The honorees also include jazz pianist and composer Dave Brubeck and opera singer Grace Bumbry. They will be feted before America's entertainment and political glitterati on December 6 at Washington's John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.
President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama will host a White House reception for the honorees the day before the 32nd annual gala and sit with them during the awards program.
The Kennedy Center gala will be recorded and broadcast nationwide on December 29 by the CBS television network as a primetime special.
Kennedy Center Honors
Top Manglers
Plain English Campaign
Former US resident George W. Bu$h topped a poll of the worst examples of mangled English released Wednesday, followed closely by Arnold $chwarzenegger and Donald Rumsfeld.
French footballer-cum philospher Eric Cantona and former US president Bill Clinton also produced prime examples of gobbledegook, according to the online poll of 4,000 people inspired by the Plain English Campaign.
Notoriously language-challenged Bu$h romped to the top accolade for his: "Our enemies are innovative and resourceful and so are we. They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we." Second came bodybuilder-turned-actor-turned-California governor $chwarzenegger, who during an election campaign in 2003 minted the puzzling: "I think that gay marriage should be between a man and a woman."
The rest of the top 10 in the poll - Plain English Campaign
Hospital News
Garrison Keillor
Humorist Garrison Keillor still plans to start his new season of "A Prairie Home Companion" as scheduled in just over two weeks, despite suffering a minor stroke.
Keillor had the stroke and was admitted to Saint Marys Hospital at Mayo Clinic, said Karl Oestreich, a spokesman for the Rochester, Minn. facility. He will remain there until Friday for tests "and upon his release will resume his schedule as previously planned," Keillor spokesman David O'Neill said.
In a statement, Keillor said he was "feeling ill" on Monday morning and drove himself to United Hospital in St. Paul, where he lives, then was transferred to Mayo "simply because they know so much more about me down there."
"I am in the hands of smart and compassionate people and plan to get out on Friday and get right back to work," including the opening of a new season of "A Prairie Home Companion," Keillor said. "And that's the news from here."
Garrison Keillor
Baby News
Sparrow Madden
Nicole Richie and Joel Madden are setting their sights on Sparrow - not in the trees, but in the nursery.
The couple named their newborn son Sparrow James Midnight Madden.
Richie says on her Web site that the 7 pound, 14 ounce baby boy was born early Wednesday. Sparrow is the second child for Richie and Madden. Their daughter, Harlow, will be 2 in January.
Sparrow Madden
Competition For Pigboy
Mark Foley
There's a surprising new voice in the world of political talk radio as former U.S. Rep. Mark Foley returns to the spotlight three years after a lurid scandal ruined his congressional career.
Foley taped his first stint behind the mic for "Inside the Mind of Mark Foley" on Tuesday. It will air Sept. 22 on WSVU out of North Palm Beach, Fla. On it, he tackles topics such as the Securities and Exchange Commission and its role in the Bernie Madoff scandal.
Foley, who represented parts of Palm Beach County in Florida, resigned in 2006 after sending salacious Internet messages to male teens who had worked on Capitol Hill as congressional pages. Criminal investigations ended without charges.
His sexual orientation was a poorly kept secret, but he cloaked himself in a false public persona and kept his personal life hush. Upon resigning, Foley announced to the world he was gay.
Mark Foley
Pigeon Transfers Data Faster
South Africa
A South African information technology company on Wednesday proved it was faster for them to transmit data with a carrier pigeon than to send it using Telkom , the country's leading internet service provider.
Internet speed and connectivity in Africa's largest economy are poor because of a bandwidth shortage. It is also expensive.
Local news agency SAPA reported the 11-month-old pigeon, Winston, took one hour and eight minutes to fly the 80 km (50 miles) from Unlimited IT's offices near Pietermaritzburg to the coastal city of Durban with a data card was strapped to his leg.
Including downloading, the transfer took two hours, six minutes and 57 seconds -- the time it took for only four percent of the data to be transferred using a Telkom line.
South Africa
Congregate On Shore As Ice Melts
Walruses
Thousands of walruses are congregating on Alaska's northwest coast, a sign that their Arctic sea ice environment has been altered by climate change.
Chad Jay, a U.S. Geological Survey walrus researcher, said Wednesday that about 3,500 walruses were near Icy Cape on the Chukchi Sea, some 140 miles southwest of Barrow.
Animals the agency tagged with satellite transmitters also were detected on shore at Cape Lisburne about 150 miles farther down the coast.
Walruses for years came ashore intermittently during their fall southward migration but not so early and not in such numbers.
Walruses
Penfolds Wine Auction
Australia
An Australian wine that was once considered a non-collectable item has sold at a record price, surpassing the country's most acclaimed vintage as wine lovers target rare bottles from the last century.
At the annual Penfolds Wine Auction this weekend, the Penfolds 1957 Shiraz St. Henri was hammered off for A$8,110 ($6,991) a bottle, the highest price ever paid for a St. Henri.
Bottles of 1955, 1959 and 1971 St. Henri also beat the records for the same vintages of the famous Penfolds Grange, widely recognized as Australia's most coveted and expensive wine.
"The result is extraordinary, probably ten times what they expected to bring, we don't see that very often," Stewart Langton of Langton's wine auction house told Reuters.
Australia
Prime-Time Nielsens
Ratings
Prime-time viewership numbers compiled by Nielsen Media Research for Aug. 31-Sept. 6. Listings include the week's ranking, with viewership for the week and season-to-date rankings in parentheses. An "X" in parentheses denotes a one-time-only presentation.
1. (13) "America's Got Talent" (Tuesday), NBC, 12.81 million viewers.
2. (12) "America's Got Talent" (Wednesday, 9 p.m.), NBC, 12.39 million viewers.
3. (15) "NCIS," CBS, 10.1 million viewers.
4. (12) "Two and a Half Men," CBS, 8.46 million viewers.
5. (9) "The Big Bang Theory," CBS, 8.34 million viewers.
6. (13) "CSI: Miami," CBS, 7.88 million viewers.
7. (7) "Big Brother 11" (Tuesday), CBS, 7.79 million viewers.
8. (14) "The Mentalist," CBS, 7.73 million viewers.
9. (8) "Hell's Kitchen," Fox, 7.63 million viewers.
10. (8) "Wipeout," ABC, 7.62 million viewers.
11. (X) "NCIS,"(10 p.m.), CBS, 7.41 million viewers.
12. (X) "CMA Music Festival," ABC, 7.39 million viewers.
13. (12) "Criminal Minds," CBS, 7.3 million viewers.
14. (7) "Dateline NBC," (Friday), NBC, 7.12 million viewers.
15. (9) "Saturday Night Football: Alabama vs. Virginia Tech," ABC, 7.08 million viewers.
16. (14) "60 Minutes," CBS, 7.05 million viewers.
17. (7) "Primetime: Crime," ABC, 6.96 million viewers.
18. (7) "America's Got Talent: Recap," NBC, 6.96 million viewers.
19. (8) "Big Brother 11" (Thursday), CBS, 6.81 million viewers.
20. (15) "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation," CBS, 6.8 million viewers.
Ratings
In Memory
Jack Manning
Character actor Jack Manning, who acted in countless plays, movies and television shows over a long career, died Aug. 31, of natural causes, at his Rancho Palos Verdes home. He was 93.
He began acting while in college at the University of Cincinnati, and made his Broadway debut soon after graduating, in the hit comedy Junior Miss in 1941. He would appear in a dozen more Broadway productions, the last being the Stephen Sondheim musical Do I Hear a Waltz? in 1965, in which he played Mr. McIlhenny.
He was directed by Abe Burrows in Say, Darling; played opposite Robert Preston in The Tender Trap; was Tweedledee in Eva Le Gallienne's famous adaptation of Alice in Wonderland; was Roderigo in the 1943 Othello that starred Paul Robeson, Jose Ferrer and Uta Hagen; and appeared alongside Helen Hayes in the Elia Kazan-directed hit Harriet in 1943.
Mr. Manning's film career did not take flight until the 1970s, when he was in his mid-50s. He had parts in the films "Where's Poppa?," "The Owl and the Pussycat," "Melinda," "The Thief Who Came to Dinner," "Herbie Rides Again," "The Great Waldo Pepper," "Gus," and "Frances." Television appearances ranged from "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" and "Bonanza" to "Silver Spoons" and "The Paper Chase," in which he had a recurring role as Dean Rutherford.
Mr. Manning was born June 3, 1916, in Cincinnati. He and his wife moved to the South Bay in 1970. They lived in Hermosa Beach and Manhattan Beach before settling in Rancho Palos Verdes in 1980.
In addition to his wife, Manning is survived by a son, Colin of Silver Lake; two daughters, Brook, of Rancho Palos Verdes and Gale Nichols of Savannah, GA; three grandchildren; and one great-grandson.
Jack Manning
In Memory
Army Archerd
Army Archerd, whose breezy column for the entertainment trade publication Daily Variety kept tabs on various Hollywood doings for more than a half-century, has died. He was 87.
Archerd's wife, Selma, said he died Tuesday at UCLA Medical Center of mesothelioma, a cancer of the lungs strongly tied to asbestos exposure. She said the cancer was the result of his time spent in shipyards while serving in the Navy during World War II. She said he had become very ill over the last two years, especially in the last two weeks.
His biggest scoop came in 1985 when he was first to report that veteran leading man Rock Hudson had AIDS. It was the first time a major Hollywood star was disclosed to be an AIDS victim, and it helped break down some of the secrecy surrounding the disease.
Archerd - born Armand Archerd in New York in 1922 - also broke the story that Julia Roberts had jilted fiance Keifer Sutherland in 1991 and that longtime bachelor Warren Beatty had married Annette Bening in 1992. His source for the Beatty-Bening story was Beatty himself.
For more than 50 years, Archerd also served as the greeter-interviewer at the Academy Awards. Acting nominees and other celebrities were conducted to a platform alongside the red carpet for a brief chat with Archerd that was heard by the thousands of fans gathered outside the theater.
Archerd's columns were generally mild-mannered, although he could lash out at what he considered wrongdoing. After he excoriated Michael Jackson for including anti-Semitic remarks in his "HIStory" album, the entertainer apologized and took them out.
In 1953 he was chosen to write Daily Variety's "Just for Variety" column, which was required morning reading for Hollywood's movers and shakers. He later went on to become one of the first journalists to be honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
His marriage to Joan Archerd, which produced two children, Amanda and Evan, ended in divorce in 1969 after 25 years. He married his second wife, Selma, in 1970.
Archerd is survived by his wife, his son and two stepsons.
Army Archerd
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