'Best of TBH Politoons'
Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Jessica Heslam: Church fires photog over Scalia picture: Freelancer pays for 'right thing' (Scalia makes obscene gesture in church; bostonherald.com)
A freelance photographer has been fired by the Archdiocese of Boston's newspaper for releasing a picture of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia making a controversial gesture in the Cathedral of the Holy Cross on Sunday.
Bryan Collinsworth: Five Minutes With: Markos Moulitsas
Are there any right-wing bloggers that you kind of enjoy?
Oh my god, I don't I hate 'em all. Now, there are right-wing writers that I appreciate. A lot of the people over at the national review online I actually dig, people like Byron York. and I actually like Bob Novak. So there are conservatives I like, but the right-wing blogosphere is like the sewage of the conservative movement. They're all absolutely terrible.
Christina Hoff Sommers: Harvey Mansfield ponders the male of the species (weeklystandard.com)
ONE OF THE LEAST VISITED memorials in Washington is a waterfront statue commemorating the men who died on the Titanic. Seventy-four percent of the women passengers survived the April 15, 1912, calamity, while 80 percent of the men perished. Why? Because the men followed the principle "women and children first."
Stand up and be counted (atticuscircle.org)
"As a married mother of three children," says Atticus Circle founder and Texas family-law lawyer Anne Wynne, "I decided it was time to take a stand." She asks you to join her in supporting marriage equality.
Arianna Huffington: Slicing the Big Apple (huffingtonpost.com)
Greetings from New York, where I just arrived with my daughters to spend their spring break here. And maybe it's a coincidence, but just as I'm working on the chapter of my book (On Becoming Fearless) that deals with our fears about our physical appearance, I've noticed that, much to my consternation, it looks like the plastic surgery epidemic has moved from Los Angeles to New York.
Meg Cabot: Celebrity quote of the week (Quoting Matt Stone and Trey Parker on megcabot.com)
"So, Scientology, you have won THIS battle, but the million-year war for Earth has just begun. Temporarily anozinizing our episode will NOT stop us from keeping Thetans* forever trapped in your pitiful man-bodies. Curses and drat! You have obstructed us for now, but your feeble bid to save humanity will fail! Hail Xenu*!!!"
William Sleator: Oddballs (Short Autobiographical Humorous Stories)
Danny Sleator
Pat Bagley: Political Cartoons
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Cloudy & a bit of rain.
No new flags.
Fundraising for Liberal Candidates
LitPAC
Dave Eggers, Jane Smiley and Daniel Handler, aka "Lemony Snicket," are among those involved with the newly formed LitPAC, a coalition of authors that plans readings around the country to register voters and raise money for liberal candidates in this year's congressional elections.
"We feel we can raise $75,000 in hard money for congressional candidates, at $5,000 apiece," says LitPAC executive director Stephen Elliott, who has written four novels and a political memoir, "Looking Forward to It."
"We're not George Soros; we're not going to make a massive impact. But if you ask any non-incumbent candidate if $5,000 is a big chunk of money, they'll tell you it's a very big chunk of money."
Other LitPAC authors include Mary Gaitskill, whose "Veronica" was a finalist for the National Book Award, Tobias Wolff, Rick Moody and Anthony Swofford.
LitPAC
Greeted Guests
Nelson Mandela
Quincy Jones visited former South African President Nelson Mandela, but a meeting between Mandela and Naomi Campbell wasn't publicized.
Campbell was charged with assault in New York City last week for allegedly throwing her cell phone at a housekeeper. The 35-year-old supermodel was released on her own recognizance and allowed to keep her passport.
Campbell wasn't an official guest of UNICEF, spokeswoman Erika Vegter said Monday, but the agency knew of her visit. The Nelson Mandela Foundation declined comment.
Nelson Mandela
Fire Damages Director's Home
Ken Russell
A fire has severely damaged the home of British film director Ken Russell. Russell, 78, wasn't at home when the fire broke out at his thatched cottage in the village of East Boldre in the New Forest, southern England, on Monday morning, Hampshire Fire and Rescue said.
His wife, Elize, was alerted by a fire alarm and managed to get to safety, said a fire service spokeswoman. The spokeswoman wasn't identified, in line with fire service policy.
"Fire investigations are continuing this afternoon, but at this stage the fire is not thought to be suspicious," said the spokeswoman. "If it was not for the smoke alarm, there could have been fatal consequences."
Ken Russell
Guesting on 'Law & Order'
Jerry Lewis
Jerry Lewis' next acting gig is no laughing matter. This fall, the 80-year-old comedian will play the homeless uncle of Richard Belzer's police Detective John Munch in a guest spot on "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit," an NBC spokeswoman said Monday.
In the episode titled, "Uncle," detectives find Lewis' character living on the street and arrest him as a suspect in a murder case.
Belzer will lead a Friars Club celebrity roast of Lewis in New York on June 9.
Jerry Lewis
Feds Undermining 'Payola' Case
Eliot Spitzer
New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer accused federal regulators Monday of going behind his back to negotiate with radio companies caught in a "payola" scandal, undercutting his case.
Spitzer told The Associated Press that settlement figures being talked about in the federal negotiations "would be a substantial evisceration of the negotiations we're involved in."
Negotiations between radio companies and the Federal Communications Commission have included possible payments of about $1 million US per company, said one official familiar with the talks. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the talks are private and have not been finalized. Spitzer's lawyers, by contrast, have been seeking a figure closer to $20 million US from each company, the official said.
Eliot Spitzer
Director Charged In Pellicano Case
John McTiernan
John McTiernan, director of "The Hunt for Red October" and "Rollerball," was charged on Monday with lying to the FBI in the Hollywood wire-tap investigation surrounding celebrity sleuth Anthony Pellicano.
McTiernan, who also produced and directed "Die Hard 3," became the 14th defendant to face charges in a far-reaching federal case that has become a major Hollywood scandal and threatens to spill the motion picture community's secrets.
The two-page charging document accuses McTiernan of lying to the FBI when he told agents during an interview that "he had no knowledge of any wiretapping conducted by Anthony Pellicano and had never discussed wiretapping with Anthony Pellicano."
John McTiernan
60 Years Old
The Little Prince
He may have been around for 60 years, but "The Little Prince" is unlikely to grow old any day soon, with Antoine Saint-Exupery's tender tale of the power of love winning new hearts every year.
What began as a drawing on a paper napkin in a New York restaurant has to date sold more than 80 million copies around the world -- some 11 million in France -- making it the most popular French book in the world.
The book was first published in English and French in 1943 in the United States, where Saint-Exupery, a daring pilot, had sought refuge before once again taking to the skies against the Nazi occupiers of his native France.
His story was only published in France three years later in April 1946, but Saint-Exupery never lived to see the occasion after his plane disappeared over the Mediterranean in mysterious circumstances in 1944.
The Little Prince
Wedding Plans?
Holmes - Cruise
American actor Tom Cruise told Germany's leading tabloid in its Monday edition that he wanted to tie the knot this summer with fiancee Katie Holmes, after the birth of their baby and the upcoming release of his new film, "Mission Impossible III."
Cruise was in Germany to plug the film on the country's popular "Wetten Dass ..." ("I'll Bet ...") TV show. He said on the show Saturday that two pilots were at the ready to fly him home should Holmes go into labor.
"First the baby, then the film," he was quoted as saying. "Then, in summer, we want to get married. I won't let this woman get away."
Holmes - Cruise
Cast As Mother Teresa?
Paris Hilton
An Indian movie director said he hopes to persuade Paris Hilton to play the role of Nobel laureate and prospective Catholic Saint, Mother Teresa, in an upcoming film.
Filmmaker T. Rajeevnath said Hilton is on his shortlist after a computer-generated image showed a close facial match between the hotel heiress and the Albanian-born nun.
The 54-year-old director is well-known in India for his Malayalam-language films, including "Janani" (Mother) -- the story of seven nuns who care for an abandoned baby, which won a national award.
Paris Hilton
Books-From-Blogs
The Blooker Prize
An amateur chef's account of her attempt to cook celebrated U.S. chef Julia Child's recipes on Monday took home the first literary garland devoted to books based on blogs.
Julie Powell, a 32-year-old Texas-raised New Yorker, beat 89 other contenders for the first Blooker Prize and won $2,000 from the award's sponsor Lulu, a U.S.-based digital do-it-yourself publishing house.
Powell's "Julie and Julia: 365 Days, 524 Recipes, 1 Tiny Apartment Kitchen" chronicled her odyssey trying to cook every recipe in Child's classic "Mastering the Art of French Cooking."
Cory Doctorow, editor of the popular Boingboing blog and chairman of the three-judge Blooker panel, said Powell won because her approach was funny and engaging.
The Blooker Prize
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