Bill Maher's New Rules for Sept. 5

HBO television show Real Time with Bill Maher's New Rules segment for September 5. This week: Sarah Palin, John Mccain, Fred Thompson and Barack Obama

Bill Maher's New Rules for Aug 29

HBO television show Real Time with Bill Maher's New Rules segment for September 26. This week: Olympic medals, political conventions, Obama's family, banks and John Edwards

Smile of the Week

Without a doubt, one of the greatest moments in television history. Mooshi Mooshi
Barney Miller Season 3, Episode 11: Hash
Original Air Date: 30 December 1976

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The Toronto Star's 10 Things We Learned This Week

Yawning in front of a dog can cause it to yawn, too. Researchers believe this is the first hard evidence "that dogs have the capacity to empathize with humans."

The "cat nights" of summer begin today. The term denotes a time when cats yowl and witches prowl, and harks back to "the belief that a witch could turn herself into a cat eight times, but on the ninth time, Aug. 17, she couldn't regain her human form," hence the notion that a cat has nine lives. "

Octopuses don't have eight legs. Six of its tentacles function as "arms" and two as "legs."


Read the Toronto Star story.

Man Bought Farve Jets Jersey Six Years Ago

Joe Braun of Racine , Wisconsin thought he bought a Brett Favre Green Bay Packers jersey for his wife for Christmas six years ago. Instead he accidentally got a mostly green one with a New York Jets logo on the sleeve. But he and his wife Jeannette decided to keep it.

After retiring from the NFL, and then reinstated, Farve was traded to the Jets on August 7 after playing playing sixteen years for the Packers, which included a win at Superbowl XXXI.

Read the Green Bay Press Gazette story.

Morrissey: "Don't Buy My DVD"

Morrissey, the former lead singer of the Smiths, has not been too happy lately.

Not only has he canceled a couple of pending record releases for both Smiths and himself, but he is now urging people not to buy a new, live Morrissey DVD.

He is urging fans not to buy Live at the Hollywood Bowl, a concert DVD filmed last June, because it is being released against his wishes. He has issued a statement via the fansite True to You, insisting he is not involved with the release in any way, shape or form, and will not be collecting a pay cheque from the DVD sales.


Read the Exclaim.ca story

R.I.P Isaac Hayes

Soul legend Isaac Hayes has died.

Hayes was a longtime songwriter and arranger for Stax Records in Memphis, playing in the studio's backup band and crafting tunes for artists such as Otis Redding and Sam and Dave in the 1960s. In the 70's he would be remembered in pop culture by providing the music for the film and character "Shaft." The last decade brought Hayes a new audience as the voice of Chef on the animated television series Southpark.

On August 10, he was found at his Memphis home by his wife. He was 65.

You damn right!

Read the Time Magazine story

R.I.P Bernie Mac

"Actor/comedian Bernie Mac passed away (on August 9) from complications due to pneumonia in a Chicago area hospital," his publicist, Danica Smith, said in a statement.
She said no other details were available and requested that his family's privacy be respected.
Earlier this week she had said reports of Mac's serious illness were overstated and that he was expected to make a full recovery.

In recent years, Mac (real name: Bernard Jeffery McCullough) had battled an inflammatory lung disease known as sarcoidosis, which causes inflammation in the lungs, lymph nodes and other organs. It had been in remission since 2005, and Smith had said Mac's pneumonia was not related to it.

Read the Chicago Tribune story

Cousins

A brilliant scene from the Jim Jarmusch film Coffee and Cigarettes. Alfred Molina tells Steve Coogan that they are cousins.

The Toronto Star's 10 Things We Learned This Week

Some of the things we learned this week, according to the Toronto Star's weekly feature "10 Things We Learned This Week" includes:

Although technically a fruit, the tomato was deemed a vegetable in 1893 by the U.S. Supreme Court, which reasoned that because it's used more like a vegetable than a fruit, it should therefore have the former designation. The ruling was prompted by a legal challenge involving a tax on imported vegetables.


Botanically speaking, grains of wheat, corn and rice, as well as squash, peppers and eggplant, are all fruit – fleshy or dry ripened ovaries of plants, containing seeds. Vegetables, meanwhile, are the edible leaves, stalks, roots, tubers, bulbs and flowers of a plant.


Ketchup started out as a pickled fish sauce, ke-tsiap, in China, before being adopted by Malaysia (kechap) and Indonesia (ketjap). The British made it with pickled mushrooms, anchovies, walnuts and oysters, with tomatoes entering the brew in the 1700s.

Read the Toronto Star Story

http://www.thestar.com/article/475515

Scenario

From all the way back in 1991 - the closing track on A Tribe Called Quest's Low End Theory, featuring Leaders of the New School's Charlie Brown, Dinco D and Busta Ryhmes (giving, without a doubt, the best rap performance ever!)

Iggy and the Stooges' Equipment Stolen

Punk legends Iggy and the Stooges had their equipment stolen while in Montreal for the Osheaga Festival on August 4.

Stooges road manager Eric Fischer says their 15-foot rental truck was stolen on Monday outside the Embassy Suites hotel and contained all the group's instruments and stage gear.

The band's Toronto show, scheduled for August 6 will go as scheduled, using rented and donated
gear.

Among the missing equipment is a red Gibson 1963 EB-3 bass; a volcano black Reverend Flying V guitar; a Reverend orange guitar; two Marshall vintage amplifiers; several Marshall 4-by-12 cabinets; and a Gretsch silver sparkle Catalina drum kit.

Pictures of the stolen gear can be seen on bassist Mike Watt's Web site. Anyone with any information about the incident should contact Fischer at nycentral13@gmail.com.

http://www.billboard.com/bbcom/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003835169

Man Dials 911, Complains His Sub Had No Sauce

I'm speechless...

Florida man Reginald Peterson, called 911 twice after a sandwich shop left off the sauce for a spicy Italian sandwich. Peterson initially called the emergency number Thursday so that officers could have his subs made correctly, according to a police report.

Read the newsvine.com story.

Smile of the Week

Many people know that it takes a lot for me to really get into stand-up comedy. Only a handful of comedians can make me listen for more than five minutes without me wanting to stick a fork in my eye.

Richard Pryor was, and continues to be, the best of the best.

This clip should be offensive on every level, but g'damn, Pryor just kills it!

The Toronto Star's 10 Things We Learned This Week

Some of the things we learned this week, according to the Toronto Star's weekly feature "10 Things We Learned This Week" includes:


Ebsen, best known as Jed Clampett in TV's The Beverly Hillbillies, had to drop the role of Tin Man (eventually played by Jack Haley) in The Wizard of Oz because of a severe allergic reaction to the aluminum powder makeup.


Terry, the cairn terrier that played Toto in The Wizard of Oz, made $125 a week – more than many of the actors earned.


Read the Toronto Star story

Angry Landlord Posts Drugs & Sex Sign

An angry Ohio landlord, fed up with the criminal activity ouside of an apartment he owns, hung a sign up reading "Drugs & Sex For Sale 24/7" in hopes that Cincinnati City Council will clen up the area.

Read the Ledger story.

Boy Banned From Kindergarten For Long Hair

A Texas school board will soon decide if a boy's long hair should keep him from attending school.

The Needville Independent School District said 5-year-old Adriel Arocha's long locks violate school rules. Adriel's parents say long hair is a sacred tradition in their Native American culture.

Kenny Arocha, Adriel's father, said long hair is a religious symbol for the Apache tribe that should only be cut at the time of a life-changing event.

It's great to see Americans are finding reasons to keep children from attending school.

Read the 9 News Colorado story.


Photo courtesy of 9 News Colorado

Addictions and Bad Dreams

Current fixations:

The Wire. Without a doubt, the best show ever written for television. And although I obtained illegally sourced copies of the fifth and final season (it'll be available in stores next week), I don't feel bad about this at all. Shyeet.

Wordscraper. Well I am almost as addicted to this crossword-game Facebook application as I was to its predecessor Scrabulous, of which had to shut down in North America this week, due to a legal battle with Scrabble. Damn Lawyers.

Grilled cheese sandwiches. There are as many recipes for a grilled cheese sandwiches as there are people who love 'em. Lately, I have been heavily indulging in my weakness for smoked Provolone cheese, on multi-grain loaf from the Junction's Buskett Bakery. Lightly fried in a skillet with margarine. A dipping sauce of ketchup and Sarachi sauce.

Vonnegut's Eight Rules for Writing a Short Story

I found this post on my lovely friend Sofia Ramirez' Facebook page and thought, these are pretty much eight rules for living life. In his own words: "God Bless you, Dr. Vonnegut!"

1. Use the time of a total stranger in such a way that he or she will not feel the time was wasted.

2. Give the reader at least one character he or she can root for.

3. Every character should want something, even if it is only a glass of water.

4. Every sentence must do one of two things—reveal character or advance the action.

5. Start as close to the end as possible.

6. Be a sadist. No matter how sweet and innocent your leading characters, make awful things happen to them—in order that the reader may see what they are made of.

7. Write to please just one person. If you open a window and make love to the world, so to speak, your story will get pneumonia.

8. Give your readers as much information as possible as soon as possible. To hell with suspense. Readers should have such complete understanding of what is going on, where and why, that they could finish the story themselves, should cockroaches eat the last few pages.

A Lesson in Integrity

Tom Petty teaches an A&R exec what's what about honest music making.
A clip from the Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers documentary Running Down a Dream

The Toronto Star's 10 Things We Learned This Week

Some of the things we learned this week, according to the Toronto Star's weekly feature "10 Things We Learned This Week" includes:

The latest Guinness record to be adjudicated was the largest number of people dressed as Smurfs – there were 1,253 of them on July 18, in Castleblayney, Ireland.

British scientists who've been studying Blondie drummer Clem Burke and other rock and jazz percussionists for the past eight years say drummers have as much stamina as top-flight athletes.

The woman who played Judith Iscariot, the girlfriend of the messiah in Monty Python's Life of Brian, is the new mayor of Aberystwyth in Wales. Sue Jones-Davies promises to lift a three-decade local ban of the movie.


Read the Toronto Star story

World's oldest joke traced back to 1900 BC

The world's oldest recorded joke has been traced back to 1900 BC and suggests that toilet humour was as popular with the ancients as it is today. It heads the world's oldest top 10 joke list published by the University of Wolverhampton on July 31

Surprisingly, given the the antiquity of the joke, Robin Williams had absolutely nothing to do with it.

Read the uk.reuters.com story.