The most ghoulish thing you will see all week:

“It is now time for those that have been helped by Sylvia or the philosophy that she has brought to this life to help her by donating to her church. On behalf of Sylvia and everyone at Novus Spiritus we thank you for whatever support you can provide during this time of extreme need.”

I will pass on this opportunity to provide aid to someone in her leather-faced and desperate hour of need. However, if you’re interested in lending a hand, all manner of credit cards are accepted.

Tags: announcements, health & medical by Michael Cade
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Tags: politics & government, terror & war by Alexander Thorburn Hoffman
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The Gulf full of oil. Radiation seepage in Japan. War in petroleum-rich countries. Mines collapsing. And the incessant, blow-by-blow, steady-drip news about all of it. [Read more →]

Tags: environment & nature, virtual children by Scott Warnock by Scott Warnock
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“We slept in a bungalow! On the floor!”

“After waiting in line for 3 hours, we were lucky enough to see a 30 minute comedy show…for free!”

“As far as the eye could see, there were free energy drinks…and boy did we drink them.  We drank them all.  We were sick as dogs.” [Read more →]

Tags: creative writing, mostly kidding by Matt Scottoline, music by Matt Scottoline
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This has been a trying week for people with the initials L.T. The former acting giant Liz Taylor is dead, but at least she’s gone to a better place (as a friend of Michael Jackson, she’s guaranteed immediate admission to that big Neverland Ranch in the sky). The former New York Giant Lawrence Taylor is alive, but he has to cope with being a registered sex offender, and all because he made sweet love to a prostitute who happened to be underage. [Read more →]

Tags: sports by Sean Cunningham
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The city of Hazelwood, Missouri has said that two girls are violating the home occupancy code by setting up a girl scout cookie stand in front of their home. Some brave anonymous neighbor complained about the increased traffic and dogs barking, or something, caused by the cookie stand.

Based on this complaint, the city of Hazelwood had to take action,” says spokesman Tim Davidson. He says it is also against city code to sell products from home.

And while he has heard some complaints from residents that Hazelwood is being too harsh on the teens, Davidson says others have pointed out that one tenet of the Girl Scouts is good citizenship.

“The fact that we did have this code in place, it’s the responsibility of every good citizen to respect the laws that we have,” said Davidson. 

Tags: on the law by Scott Stein
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Paula Holiday left the stress and grind of New York City for a “smaller and simpler life” in Springfield, CT. She runs a landscaping business, Dirty Business, helping realtors dress up the houses they’re selling and local businesses put in pretty patios. Her friend and client, Caroline Sturgis, has approached Paula about opening a business. The offer appears to good to be true and you know what they say about offers like that. When Caroline is arrested and “Monica Weithorn” is the name on everyone’s lips, Paula agrees to help get to the bottom of this identity mystery in Dead Head by Rosemary Harris. [Read more →]

Tags: books & writing, Lisa Reads by Lisa Hura
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Let’s retrace our steps a little. First the US wasn’t going to do anything in Libya because according to President Obama ‘organic’ revolutions are the most successful revolutions.

Of course that’s utter bollocks, and I’m assuming Mr. Obama skipped his elementary American history lessons. Because as everybody knows- the American Revolution, that is to say the most successful revolution of all time – well George Washington and his buddies kinda got some help from the French. Y’know. Like, a lot. And the Russian Revolution- well, it wouldn’t have got very far if the Germans hadn’t granted Lenin safe passage across military lines. And the Iranian Revolution? It sure helped Khomeini that Saddam Hussein was willing to let him broadcast his toxic blather from a safe position in Najaf. And so on. [Read more →]

Tags: terror & war, trusted media & news by Daniel Kalder
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One of my former students, an aspiring and rather talented artist, just posted this on Facebook: “ugh, taking art history next semester, someone kill me.” This sort of hit me sideways. It is the kind of thing that drives home the idea that one’s own set of parameters simply does not apply to everyone; the lens each of us sees through is different. What was a given to me as a young musician and writer — that the history of my arts was both essential and fascinating — simply does not fall into everyone’s conceptual parameters. Do we need, as artists, to study (and respect) the history of our respective arts in order to be our best? [Read more →]

Tags: artistic unknowns by Chris Matarazzo by Chris Matarazzo
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Entertainment Weekly has a photo of the costume to be featured in the new Wonder Woman television pilot, written by David E. Kelley.

For a tightly-controlled character with a lot of licensing on the line, it actually doesn’t look that bad — although, it doesn’t top this fan designed outfit:

Tags: books & writing, television by Ricky Sprague
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