Recommended Reading
from Bruce
John Farrier: Clever Ad for a Zoo (Neatorama)
BBDO West designed this simple but eye-catching ad for the San Francisco Zoo. The sign says, "Meet a giraffe." Be aware that giraffes in stock at the zoo may look a bit different.
Susan Estrich: Child's Play (Creators Syndicate)
If the House Republicans were children, they'd surely be getting a "timeout." Are they really going to close down the government in a futile attempt to undo Obamacare? Are they really willing to risk the full faith and credit of the United States to score political points?
Henry Rollins: Chemical Weapons for Sale (LA Weekly)
When I was in Syria a few years ago, I wandered around Damascus. Besides the oppressive heat, I found the city to be beautiful and the many people I met to be friendly, curious and happy that I had come to their country. I would occasionally ask vendors, who would engage me in conversation, why there were so many posters of Assad everywhere. The usual reaction was silence or an immediate topic change.
Froma Harrop: Violence in Our Air (Creators Syndicate)
To the rising pile of shooting rampages, Americans can now add the rapid-fire murder of 12 people at the Washington Navy Yard. It is a sign of our remarkable times that this horrid deed seems to pale next to the massacre of 20 schoolchildren in suburban Connecticut last December.
Susan Estrich: Another Set of Lessons (Creators Syndicate)
While details are still emerging about Aaron Alexis, the man responsible for killing 12 people at the Washington Navy Yard, this much is already clear. This man never should have had a security clearance that allowed him to enter the Yard. And he never should have been permitted to buy a gun.
Froma Harrop: Saved From Larry Summers at Fed (Creators Syndicate)
[Last] week opened nicely with news that Lawrence Summers had taken his name out of the running for the Federal Reserve chairman job. We won't be subjected to the notoriously unpleasant Summers denigrating those who would distinguish between Wall Street's interests and the country's.
Connie Schultz: You Never Stop Being an Alcoholic's Child (Creators Syndicate)
If you are the adult child of an alcoholic parent, there's a lot I'm going to say here that you probably already know. Nobody needs to tell you how a nameless fear in childhood can fuel an obsession in adulthood.
Lenore Skenazy: Letting Kids Do Something - Anything - on Their Own (Creators Syndicate)
School has begun, which means that at least one group of sixth-graders is about to undergo an enormous, transformative experience. Hint: It does not involve filling in any bubbles with a No. 2 pencil.
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Reader Suggestion
Michelle in AZ
From The Creator of 'Avery Ant'
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Sunny and unpleasantly hot.
Vast Trove Unearthed
Folk Music
Detroit is famous for its music, from the Motown hits of the 1960s to the cutting-edge punk of Iggy Pop to the rap of Eminem. Little known, though, is that Michigan was also fertile ground for folk music, brought to the region by immigrants in the early 20th century and played in the logging camps, mines and factory towns where they worked.
Legendary folklorist Alan Lomax discovered the music in 1938 when he visited the Midwest on his famous 10-year cross-country trek to document American folk music for the Library of Congress.
A trove of his Michigan recordings is now being publicly released for the first time by the library, coinciding with the 75th anniversary of Lomax's trip. The release is causing a stir among folk music fanciers and history buffs.
Lomax, son of famous musicologist John A. Lomax, spent three months in Michigan on his research, which also took him through Appalachia and the deep South. He drove through rural communities and recorded the work songs and folk tunes he heard on a large suitcase-sized disc recorder powered by his car's battery.
The 250 disc recordings of about 125 performers, along with eight reels of film footage and photographs, reflect the rich mixture of cultures in Depression-era Michigan, where immigrants fleeing poverty and persecution in Europe and the South came seeking jobs.
Folk Music
Ratings Up
Emmys
The Nielsen Co. says Sunday's Emmy broadcast scored a one-third audience spike over last year.
Prelimary ratings figures indicate the 3-hour telecast on CBS averaged 17.6 million viewers, compared to 13.3 million viewers for last year's Emmy show on ABC.
It was the largest audience for the awards show since 2005.
Neil Patrick Harris was host of the 65th Annual Primetime Emmy Awards.
Emmys
Custom Phone Recordings
Autism Speaks
It may be one of the most boring lines ever - "Leave a message after the beep." But what if you managed to jazz up your phone's outgoing message with a celebrity?
The advocacy group Autism Speaks is offering just that: custom-recorded messages from "Batman" star Adam West, "Breaking Bad" star Bryan Cranston, singer Cher, actors Jack Black, Peter Dinklage, Jim Parsons, "Star Wars" star Mark Hamill, "Star Trek" actors Michael Dorn and Zachary Quinto, and broadcaster Vin Scully.
"We got a good mix and match," Ed Asner, the curmudgeonly Emmy Award winner of "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" and "Lou Grant," who dreamed up the unusual fundraiser with one of his sons, Matt, who works for Autism Speaks. "They've all been really happy to do it. And if they're not happy, I'll put a hit out on them."
From Oct. 7 to Oct. 13, a limited number of 20-second long MP3 messages you write will be recorded by each celebrity on a first-come, first-served basis for fans to do with as they wish. All requests must be of the PG variety and each costs $299.
Last year, the fundraiser created some memorable messages: Betty White warned listeners to one phone number, "If I have to tell you what to do at the beep, then you're an idiot and shouldn't be using a phone in the first place." Callers to another number got Will Ferrell saying, "Leave Jimmy a message while we eat some meatloaf." And Patrick Stewart lent his smooth British accent to one: "You could leave a message," he purred, "but we both know it would be nowhere as awesome as this greeting."
Autism Speaks
US Postal Service's 'Music Icons Forever'
Ray Charles
The U.S. Postal Service is planning to add soul singer Ray Charles to its "Music Icons Forever" stamp series.
Postal officials say the agency is releasing a stamp featuring the Albany, Ga., native on Monday along with one of the artist's previously unreleased songs.
Events are being planned in Atlanta and Los Angeles to celebrate Charles' inclusion in the series.
R&B singer Ashanti and the Morehouse College Glee Club are scheduled to perform at the Atlanta school's Ray Charles Performing Arts Center. And Chaka Khan is headlining an event at the Grammy Museum.
Ray Charles
Court Hears Arguments Over Photos
Robert Johnson
A Mississippi Supreme Court panel has heard arguments about who should make money from the only two known photographs of the late Robert Johnson, a bluesman who myth has it sold his soul to the devil for guitar prowess.
Johnson was destitute when he died in 1938 at age 27. His estate is valuable, partly because of a collection of his recordings that won a Grammy in 1990.
On one side are descendants of Johnson's late half-sister, Carrie Harris Thompson. Their attorney argues the photos were Thompson's personal property but that others profited from them.
On the other side are Sony Music Entertainment Inc.; Johnson's only heir, his son Claud Johnson; and a promoter who had a 1974 contract with Thompson.
Robert Johnson
25 Years To Life
Nicholas Brooks
An Oscar-winning composer's son was sentenced Monday to 25 years to life in prison after being convicted of killing his fashion designer girlfriend in a swank hotel room.
Nicholas Brooks, 27, was convicted in July of murdering 33-year-old Sylvie Cachay in December 2010. He was arrested while his father, Joseph Brooks, who wrote the 1970s touchstone torch song "You Light Up My Life," was himself facing criminal charges of mistreating women: allegations of raping or molesting 13 would-be actresses.
The younger Brooks and Cachay had a tumultuous six-month relationship, bolstered by obvious affection and mutual attraction but hampered by differences in age, attitude and ambition. Prosecutors said he strangled her because she was dumping him.
Joseph Brooks won the Academy Award for best original song in 1977 for "You Light Up My Life," sung by Debby Boone. Brooks wrote and directed the romantic comedy of the same name.
The 73-year-old Brooks killed himself in his apartment 2011, while he prepared for his Manhattan trial and his son was in jail awaiting his own.
Nicholas Brooks
Museum To Buy Ring
Jane Austen
A Jane Austen museum said Monday that it has raised enough money to buy the writer's ring back from pop singer Kelly Clarkson.
Earlier this year, the British government placed a temporary export ban on the gold-and-turquoise ring Clarkson bought at auction in the hope that money could be found to keep it in Britain.
Jane Austen's House Museum in southern England said it had raised 157,740 pounds ($252,436) - enough to keep the ring in Britain. The funds were raised in just over a month, and included a 100,000 pound donation from an anonymous benefactor.
The "Pride and Prejudice," author died at age 41 in 1817, and left the ring to her sister Cassandra. It had been in the family until the auction last year.
Jane Austen
Franco Victims Greet Probe
Argentina
Three people who claim they were tortured during Spain's Franco dictatorship said Monday they hope arrest warrants issued last week by Argentina will help bring some of the perpetrators to justice and finally open up a public debate on one of the country's darkest periods.
The three told reporters of routine arrests, beatings and torture during the near-40-year dictatorship that have never been investigated in Spain. One victim, Maria Rumin, 55, said she wanted "everyone to know who these people are and what they did."
The fact that Argentina got involved in this case appears to be another indication of how Spanish governments since Franco's death have adhered to a tacit agreement not to use this dark chapter in the country's history for political purposes. Some believe that has forced Spain to steer clear of measures that could have helped heal old wounds.
Their testimony forms part of an investigation of possible crimes against humanity by the dictatorship being conducted by Argentine Judge Maria Servini de Cubria , who last week issued arrest and extradition orders for four former Spanish police officers.
Argentina
Nazi Code In Musical Score?
"Marsch Impromptu"
It sounds like something out of a thriller from Hollywood's golden age. Or maybe an Indiana Jones flick.
Long ago, when Nazi Germany was on the verge of falling to the Allied forces, a large portion of the famed Nazi gold went missing.
What became of it has tantalized treasure hunters for decades. Now, according to a report in Spiegel Online, a Dutch filmmaker is claiming to have cracked a code that could lead to the gold.
According to Spiegel, Dutch filmmaker Leon Giesen examined an old musical score to "Marsch Impromptu" by composer Gottfried Federlein. The score was acquired by Dutch journalist Karl Hammer.
Giesen believes that hidden in the score are clues from Hitler's private secretary Martin Bormann. Those scribbles and scratches, Giesen believes, could lead to the infamous Nazi gold.
"Marsch Impromptu"
Dallas Zoo Gorilla
Patrick
A gregarious male gorilla at the Dallas Zoo will be sent to South Carolina for therapy after he bit one female gorilla and sneered at others, zoo officials said on Monday.
Patrick, a 430-pound (195-kg) Western lowland gorilla, will be moving to the Riverbanks Zoo and Gardens in Columbia, South Carolina, where he will live the bachelor life in his own digs.
Dallas Zoo officials said Patrick gets along fine with humans but not with other gorillas.
"It's not like we haven't tried, he's been here for 18 years" said Laurie Holloway, a spokeswoman for the Dallas Zoo.
Patrick
Starting Global Church
Atheists
Pope Francis is significantly upping the Catholic Church's buzz quotient, but another congregation is hoping to take America (and other countries) by storm. Like Methodism and Episcopalianism, the Sunday Assembly is a British import, but with a difference: This church doesn't believe in God. It's motto is "live better, help often, and wonder more." It's striving to be a global atheist religion.
Stand-up comedians Sanderson Jones and Pippa Evans started the original Sunday Assembly in a decommissioned London church in January, and there are now five congregations in the Sunday Assembly Everywhere (SAE) denomination: Three in Britain, one in New York, and one in Melbourne, Australia. Starting Oct. 22, Evans and Jones are starting a "global missionary tour" to visit the four branch congregations and set up new ones in 18 other cities in Britain, Scotland, Ireland, the U.S., Canada, and Australia.
The stated goal is to have "a godless congregation in every town, city, and village that wants one" - and hopefully 30 to 40 by the end of December. If they reach that goal, the Sunday Assembly says in a press release, "the 3000 percent growth rate might make this non-religious Assembly the fastest growing church in the world, catering to the fastest growing belief / non-belief group."
There are certainly enough atheists, agnostics, and humanists to fill up the pews, if they're interested. A growing number of Americans and Europeans fall somewhere toward the skeptical end of the organized-religion spectrum. And they're getting better organized, even aggressive.
Atheists
In Memory
Carolyn Cassady
In her book Off the Road (1990), Carolyn Cassady, who has died aged 90, charted her extraordinary life with the Beat writers Neal Cassady, her husband, and Jack Kerouac, her lover. Carolyn was an unlikely, and in many ways an unwilling, Beat icon herself. When she met Neal in Colorado in 1947, Carolyn was a student of theatre design at the University of Denver, having attended a smart east coast ladies' college; he was a car thief, an energetic seducer of women and occasionally men, and possessed of a restless, manic energy that had already bewitched Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg. He also had a teenage bride, LuAnne Henderson. Soon after they had begun their relationship, Carolyn crept into Neal's flat one morning to give him a surprise, only to find him asleep with LuAnne on one side and Ginsberg on the other. After Carolyn relocated to San Francisco, Neal followed her. They married in 1948.
Kerouac's novel On the Road (1957) was based on the cross-country dashes he made from New York with Neal (who became the wild-man hero Dean Moriarty in the novel) and LuAnne (who became Marylou, in the passenger seat in the book). Meanwhile, Carolyn - who had stayed at home, raising the first of her and Neal's three children - was portrayed as Camille, the symbol of all that was stable and decent (or, for the youthful madcaps with an interest in Rimbaud and Baudelaire, bourgeois).
Carolyn Elizabeth Robinson was born in Lansing, Michigan, the youngest child of five. Her father was a biochemist and her mother was a teacher. She moved with her family to Nashville, Tennessee, where she went to school, and then went to Bennington College, Vermont, at the time an all-female institution.
Humorous and level-headed about most things, she had a blind spot where Neal was concerned. On a gambling kick, Neal persuaded Natalie Jackson, a girl he lived with in San Fransisco during the late 1950s, to pose as Carolyn and draw out the family savings, which he lost at the racetrack. From almost the moment of their meeting, Neal was unfaithful to Carolyn, sometimes more than once a day. When his adventures - on the road, or in another's bed - had paled, she welcomed his return.
Kerouac, too, she defended against his detractors. Urged on by Neal, she and Kerouac had an affair. Neal had played the same game earlier, with Kerouac and LuAnne, which Carolyn described fondly in Off the Road. By contrast, Carolyn had little liking for Ginsberg whose lifelong claims on Neal (resembling, at times, the claims of a thwarted spouse) she resented deeply.
Carolyn claimed that her association with Neal "made my life", and his boisterous, carnal presence certainly made her book. Yet her memoir is so buoyant even in the darkest troughs of her recollections, or when she is excusing the inexcusable, that it seems a pity she did not write more. Her artistic interests led her towards the theatre, then to drawing and painting, and she took several of the most famous photographs of Neal and Kerouac in the 1950s.
Neal died in 1968, by which time he and Carolyn had been living apart for several years. Her memoir Heart Beat: My Life with Jack and Neal was published in 1976. She wrote the foreword to As Ever: The Collected Correspondence of Allen Ginsberg and Neal Cassady (1977). A collection of Kerouac's letters to Carolyn was published in 1983, and Carolyn wrote the introduction to Neal Cassady: Collected Letters, 1944-67, published in 2005.
In the film Heart Beat (1980), written and directed by John Byrum, Sissy Spacek played Carolyn and Nick Nolte played Neal. Some people encountering Carolyn in later life were surprised to discover that she was not more hip, more Beat, more turned-on. In the late 1990s, she was based in a cluttered flat in Belsize Park, north-west London. A quietly spoken grandmother, she enjoyed the cultural aspects of the city and her interest in drugs extended no further than a packet of menthol slim cigarettes. She was a follower of Edgar Cayce, a believer in reincarnation, whose homespun wisdom - "The stronger you are, the tougher the tests" - provided her with support in difficult times.
Cassady later settled in Bracknell, Berkshire. She is survived by her children, John, Jami and Cathy; and her grandchildren and greatgrandchildren.
Carolyn Cassady, writer, born 28 April 1923; died 20 September 2013
Carolyn Cassady
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