'Best of TBH Politoons'
Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Nat Hentoff: Putting God in His Place (villagevoice.com)
New Jersey student-warrior for the Constitution gets a death threat.
Editorial: A Heckuva Claim (washingtonpost.com)
Mr. Bush's op-ed included nice statements about bipartisan cooperation. But the Democrats would be more likely to cooperate with the president if he stopped making things up.
Andrew Tobias: Who was the MOST UNDER-RATED person of 2006? (andrewtobias.com)
PAT BUCHANAN answered: "Howard Dean really hasn't gotten credit for his 50-state strategy which quite frankly WORKED." To which ELEANOR CLIFT immediately responded - perhaps the only time all year she has agreed with Pat Buchanan - "Right. That's exactly my nomination. Kudos to Howard Dean."
Intensely local news gathered by pros is due for a comeback (seattletimes.nwsource.com)
Small-town newspapering - with high school box scores, police blotters and zoning news - is considered boring and unhip, but Danny Westneat believes it's the way to go. "I think intensely local, professionally gathered news is due for a comeback. It's the one thing you can't get anywhere else."
Charlie Brooker: This is not dumbing down - it's dizzying madness (guardian.co.uk)
If George Clooney called a globally televised press conference, then plucked out two of his eyelashes and announced he would donate them free of charge to the first viewer to turn round and murder their entire family, thousands would perish. Read that again. It is a fact.
Beauty marks (books.guardian.co.uk)
At December's book club, Lynne Truss suggested that the internet would ensure that the fine points of punctuation would be lost from collective memory. John Mullan, who was present, is slightly more optimistic.
Kaja Perina: Love's Loopy Logic (psychologytoday.com)
On a date you're a performer and a spectator in a two-ring circus, as you troll for wit, kindness, and curiosity. Oh, the loopy logic of love ...
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Sunny, windy, hot and dry.
Sunday afternoon, as usual, Baron Dave sent his column to several of my e-mail addys.
The copy sent to the AO-hell addy still hasn't shown up.
Yes, it was addressed correctly, and no, it's not in the spam bin.
Wonder where it is and if it'll ever show up.
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
Class Of 2007
Van Halen made a "jump" into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on Monday, along with Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five - the first rap act to be inducted into the hall - and R.E.M., the Ronettes and Patti Smith.
A panel of 600 industry figures selected the five acts to be inducted at the annual ceremony, to be held March 12 in New York. To be eligible, artists must have issued a first single or album at least 25 years before nomination.
The Rock Hall will also honor Ahmet Ertegun, the founder of Atlantic Records, who was a crucial figure in the careers of artists such as Ray Charles, Aretha Franklin and the Rolling Stones and one of the leading figures to help create the rock hall.
Class Of 2007
Playing China
Roger Waters
Former Pink Floyd front man Roger Waters will perform in Shanghai next month, with China's censors giving the green light to the ageing rocker's famous anti-establishment lyrics, promoters have said.
The 63-year-old veteran will perform one concert at the Shanghai Grand Stage on February 12 as part of his "The Dark Side of the Moon" tour, said Chinese organizer Shanghai Oriental Pearl Live Nation Entertainment and Sports.
Waters, who split acrimoniously from Pink Floyd in the 1980s but rejoined the band for a one-off Live-8 concert last summer, will be playing his own as well as Pink Floyd hits, local organiser Ramon Zhou told AFP Monday.
Roger Waters
Ratings Suck
'The Apprentice'
Real estate tycoon Donald Trump's relocation to the West Coast for his latest edition of "The Apprentice" did little to bolster sagging viewer interest in the corporate-themed reality show.
Despite all the publicity leading up to Sunday's relaunch of Trump's show, the 90-minute broadcast ranked third in total audience during its time slot, starting off behind even a repeat of the Fox cartoon "Family Guy," though his viewership did gradually climb during the evening.
NBC, a unit of General Electric Co., did better on Sunday with the debut of a new reality-contest show, "Grease: You're the One That I Want," featuring aspiring stage performers competing for the lead roles in a Broadway revival of the 1970s hit musical.
'The Apprentice'
Canned Hunting In Western PA
Dick 'Go Fuck Yourself' Cheney
Vice President Dick 'Go Fuck Yourself' Cheney was scheduled to be in western Pennsylvania Monday for a hunting trip.
Cheney was to fly into Arnold Palmer Regional Airport after his morning briefing in Washington, his spokeswoman, Lee Ann McBride, told the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review.
Cheney will hunt at the private Rolling Rock Club in Ligonier Township, about 45 miles east of Pittsburgh, where he has hunted several times in recent years for pheasants and ducks.
Dick 'Go Fuck Yourself' Cheney
Brit TV Drama
Tony Blair
The British TV channel behind "Death of a President" - a drama in which U.S. Resident George W. Bush was assassinated - is throwing a similar fictional spotlight on its own leader, Tony Blair: After retiring, the prime minister faces a possible war-crimes trial.
"The Trial of Tony Blair," which airs on Jan. 15, takes place in 2010: Hillary Clinton is the new U.S. president, and Gordon Brown, Blair's finance minister, has taken over as prime minister. Blair, haunted by the continuing carnage in Iraq, is tormented by an obsession with his legacy that blinds him to the looming threat of an indictment by the International Criminal Court.
Channel 4, the broadcaster that operates the digital channel More4, said the show was a "comedy-drama," which would have some light moments. But the message was meant to be taken seriously, spokesman Gavin Dawson said.
Tony Blair
Auctioneers Expect Record
Francis Bacon
Christie's auctioneers expect to achieve a record price for a work by Dublin-born painter Francis Bacon at a London auction in February, when his "Study For Portrait II" goes under the hammer.
A spokeswoman said the painting was expected to fetch about 12 million pounds ($23 million), which would easily eclipse the current record for the artist of $15 million set in November at Sotheby's in New York for the work "Version No. 2 of Lying Figure With Hypodermic Syringe."
Unlike his more dramatic "screaming Popes" from the early 1950s, the 1956 work on sale is a more sympathetic image of the pope as a tragic hero.
Francis Bacon
Controversial New Prize Cancelled
Sobol Award
The Sobol Award, a controversial new literary contest that offered agentless writers a $100,000 first prize and a contract with Simon & Schuster for the top three winners, has been cancelled.
Officials acknowledged that the prize's entry fee and other contractual requirements had deterred would-be participants.
First announced last September, the Sobol prize was immediately attacked by agents, bloggers and other critics for the entry fee and for requiring that Sobol officials serve as the winners' literary representative. Industry policy prohibits agents from charging money to read manuscripts.
Sobol Award
World's Smallest Country Up For Sale
Sealand
For sale: the world's smallest country with its own flag, stamps, currency and passports.
Apply to Prince Michael of Sealand if you want to run your own storm-tossed nation -- even if it is just a wartime fort perched on two concrete towers in the North Sea.
Built in World War Two as an anti-aircraft base against German bombers, the derelict platform was taken over 40 years ago by retired army major Paddy Roy Bates who went to live there with his family.
Calling it a cross between a house and a ship, the prince acknowledged it was not the world's most picturesque country, boasting as it does two large concrete towers with eight rooms in each tower.
Sealand
Actor In Court
David Gulpilil
Top Australian Aboriginal actor David Gulpilil, the inspiration for the award-winning film "Ten Canoes," appeared in court on charges of carrying an offensive weapon.
Gulpilil, 54, pleaded not guilty, telling the magistrate that the machete he brandished during an argument was carried for cultural reasons, such as making digideridoo musical instruments, art and bush tents.
The row erupted when the acting veteran, who began his film career in "Walkabout" in 1971 and went on to feature in hits such as "Crocodile Dundee," was staying at the home of a friend in this remote north Australian outpost in July last year.
Gulpilil said he had reached for the machete after Williams and a friend known as "Jungle Jim" armed themselves with a totem pole and a garden hoe.
David Gulpilil
Old Mail Finally Delivered
1954
A western Pennsylvania man is trying to solve a mystery that recently landed in his mailbox: a letter mailed more than 50 years ago and addressed to a Frederick Zane Yost.
The letter, with a 3-cent stamp and postmarked Oct. 26, 1954, was encased in a large Postal Service window envelope. There is a return address - in nearby Richland Township - but no sender's name.
Brian McAteer said that the letter appears to be sealed and has not been damaged, and that he will not open it. However, he hasn't had any luck finding Yost. Among his efforts have been to contact Yosts in the area, speak with longtime residents and search on the Internet.
The newspaper reported that its archives show Yost's parents, both of whom are dead, lived in Ferndale in 1954. His father was a sports editor at the newspaper, which reported that the younger Yost had moved to Florida.
1954
New Exhibit
Elvis-Nixon
The meeting between two of the most improbable cultural icons of the 1970s lasted all of 30 minutes, but it has fascinated the nation for years.
A photo of a cloaked and bejeweled Elvis Presley solemnly shaking hands with a grim-faced President Nixon remains the No. 1 requested document from the National Archives, nearly four decades after the secret meeting took place on Dec. 21, 1970.
Now, on what would be the King's 72nd birthday, the Richard Nixon Presidential Library & Birthplace is giving the curious public a good, long look at the relics of the coming together of The King and The President - and it's got Elvis fans all shook up.
The free exhibit Monday includes the outfit Elvis wore (a black velvet overcoat, a gold-plated belt and black leather boots); Nixon's outfit (a gray woolen suit, tie and size 11 1/2 black shoes); letters; and a World War II .45-caliber Colt revolver that Elvis gave to Nixon.
Elvis-Nixon
In Memory
'Sneaky' Pete Kleinow
"Sneaky" Pete Kleinow, a steel guitar prodigy who rose to fame as one of the original members of the Flying Burrito Brothers, has died. He was 72.
Kleinow, who also worked in film as an award-winning animator and special effects artist, died Saturday at a Petaluma convalescent home near the skilled nursing facility where he had been living with Alzheimer's disease since last year, his daughter Anita Kleinow said.
During a musical career that spanned six decades, Kleinow helped define the country-rock genre in the late 1960s and 1970s by taking the instrument he had picked up as a teenager in South Bend, Ind., to California. His prowess with the pedal steel guitar influenced a generation of rock-and-rollers, including the Eagles, the Steve Miller Band and Poco.
Besides co-founding the Flying Burrito Brothers with the Byrds' Chris Hillman and Gram Parsons in 1968, he enjoyed a steady gig as a session musician, recording with such singer-songwriters as John Lennon, Jackson Browne, Linda Ronstadt and Joni Mitchell and bands as varied as the Bee Gees and Sly and the Family Stone.
Kleinow's last public performance was at a 2005 tribute concert in Parsons' memory. He played and recorded regularly with Burrito Deluxe, a band he founded in 2000 following the rebirth of alt-country music and fronted until he was diagnosed with Alzheimer's.
Before, during and after his steady run as a Burrito Brother, Kleinow won acclaim as an animator, special effects artist and director of commercials in the television and film industries. His credits ranged from the original "Gumby" series - he wrote and performed the theme music as well as designed cartoons - and the relaunched "The Twilight Zone" to the movies "Under Siege," "Fearless" and "The Empire Strikes Back."
He won an Emmy award in 1983 for his work on the miniseries, "The Winds of War."
Kleinow is survived by his wife of 54 years, Ernestine, his daughters Anita and Tammy, and three sons, Martin , Aaron and Cosmo.
Plans for a memorial service to be held in Joshua Tree later this month are pending.
'Sneaky' Pete Kleinow
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