BY AMY Z. QUINN Like time, news waits for no man. Keeping up with the funny papers has always been an all-day job, even in the pre-Internets era. These days, however, it’s a two-man job. That’s right, these days you need someone to do your reading for you, or risk falling hopelessly behind and, as a result, increasing your chances of dying lonely and somewhat bitter. That’s why every week, PAPERBOY does your alt-weekly reading for you. We pore over those time-consuming cover stories and give you the takeaway, suss out the cover art, warn you off the ink-wasters and […]
CHINESE DEMOCRACY: Just Twitter It
LIKE WHERE’S WALDO? WITH TEXTING: Latest Twitters from Team Tibet, currently doing the protest slalom with the Olympic Torch out in San Francisco.
BILAL IS FREE: Iraqi Judge Dismisses Terror Charges
BAGHDAD (AP) — An Iraqi judicial committee has dismissed terrorism-related allegations against Associated Press photographer Bilal Hussein and ordered him freed after nearly two years in U.S. military custody. The decision by a four-judge panel says Hussein’s case falls under a new amnesty law and orders Iraqi courts to “cease legal proceedings.” The ruling says that Hussein should be “immediately” released if no other charges are pending. The ruling is dated Monday but AP’s lawyers were not able to thoroughly review it until Wednesday. AP President Tom Curley is hailing the decision and demands that officials “finally do the right […]
SCUM BAGGED: Mom Fends Off Baby-Beating Muggers
DAILY NEWS: She was born with the last name of Peace, but anything but that befell the young mother Monday night as she was walking to catch a SEPTA trolley at the 69th Street Terminal. Samara Peace, 18, of Sharon Hill [pictured below, with Upper Darby Police Superintendent Michael Chitwood], was carrying her 7-month-old daughter, Samya, close to her chest when, about 11 p.m., a young man later identified by police as Carlos C. Boothe, 19, of Upper Darby, approached her on Lennox Road near Penncock Avenue and asked for her phone number, she said. At the same time, a […]
CHINESE DEMOCRACY: Just Do It
Boy on his father’s shoulders, Paris, earlier today. [Photo by VESPA RIDING GRANNY] NPR: Police in the French capital said Monday that the last part of the Olympic torch relay in the city had been cancelled after they were forced to douse the symbolic flame several times and carry it in a bus to avoid anti-China protesters. The announcement followed a day in which the police were forced to play a game of cat-and-mouse with protesters in an effort to keep them at bay as the relay took place. Security officials in Paris extinguished the Olympic torch five separate times […]
ROB LOWE: Blackmail Is My Life
[portrait by ROB MUNRO] BY ROB LOWE FOR THE HUFFINGTON POST Harassment in the workplace, sexual or otherwise, is something I take very seriously. In my home and on the set, I have been surrounded for years by hardworking women (and men) whom I respect and whose rights are to be protected. But when people make false claims of harassment particularly for financial gain, it must be defended vigorously and openly, for it weakens the claims of legitimate victims. A former employee is demanding my wife Sheryl and I pay her 1.5 million dollars by the end of the week […]
WORTH REPEATING: The Inanity Of Evil
SALON: Here are the number of times, according to NEXIS, that various topics have been mentioned in the media over the past thirty days: “Yoo and torture” – 102 “Mukasey and 9/11” — 73 “Yoo and Fourth Amendment” — 16 “Obama and bowling” — 1,043 “Obama and Wright” — More than 3,000 (too many to be counted) “Obama and patriotism” — 1,607 “Clinton and Lewinsky” — 1,079 [MORE]
WORD: Of Chickenhawks & Hi-Tech Lynchings
[“The Negro Soldier” by THOMAS HART BENTON] By Lawrence Korb and Ian Moss April 3, 2008 [via THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE] In 1961, a young African-American man, after hearing President John F. Kennedy’s challenge to, “Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country,” gave up his student deferment, left college in Virginia and voluntarily joined the Marines. In 1963, this man, having completed his two years of service in the Marines, volunteered again to become a Navy corpsman. (They provide medical assistance to the Marines as well as to Navy personnel.) The […]
TONITE: O Brother, Where Art Thou?
TO MY GREAT CHAGRIN: THE UNBELIEVABLE STORY OF BROTHER THEODORE (2007, directed by Jeff Sumerel, 90 minutes, U.S.) Artlessly cobbled together, TO MY GREAT CHAGRIN tells us the story behind Brother Theodore, a one-of-a-kind act who delivered intelligently insane monologues in a ranting thickly-accented voice, most memorably on the NBC version of Letterman’s late night show. Brother Theodore never broke character on stage, so it does satiate the curiosity fans might have had about just who this madman really was. His story is stranger then you might imagine; once a German playboy, the son of fashion magazine magnates, WW2 took […]
WORTH REPEATING: When The Internet Disappears
[via THE CRAP I WAS THINKING] I’ve been without access to most of the web via my Comcast broadband service for about 5 hours now. This is an extra pain this weekend, because I need to log in to my work VPN to do some system maintenance, and I can’t get there from here. My wife, who never likes being without the web, called in to Comcast, and after an excruciating 40 minutes listening to the 20-second hold music loop, got a tech rep who said that the AT&T backbone is down for all of Pennsylvania. It does seem like a […]
TAWK RADIO: Q&A With WIP’s Anthony Gargano
[Illustration by ALEX FINE] PREVIOUSLY: “Just wanted to give a little positive feedback — amazing blog! I stumbled on to the site a little while back, and it’s very well done. I think the site is thoroughly enjoyable, creative and rich! I enjoy something that will make people think or explore, that will reach them on another level. I’ve always tought if you truly want to reach people and express yourself, why settle for the topical? Reach them in a place where you force them to think. I’m not talking negatively or positively — I’m talking both, talking inspiration, whether […]
PAPERBOY: ‘The Bitch Is Back’ Edition
BY AMY Z. QUINN Like time, news waits for no man. Keeping up with the funny papers has always been an all-day job, even in the pre-Internets era. These days, however, it’s a two-man job. That’s right, these days you need someone to do your reading for you, or risk falling hopelessly behind and, as a result, increasing your chances of dying lonely and somewhat bitter. That’s why every week, PAPERBOY does your alt-weekly reading for you. We pore over those time-consuming cover stories and give you the takeaway, suss out the cover art, warn you off the ink-wasters and […]
JUST DO IT: The Dissident Olympics
Beijing 2008 Olympics Live Video Coverage Uploaded by Podrovnik [Hat tip to KEIKO KETSUGO] CHINA ASKS U.S. TO PUBLICLY SUPPORT THE MILITARY CRACKDOWN IN TIBET BLOOMBERG NEWS: The U.S. should understand the real motives of protesters in Tibet and support China’s moves to control unrest, Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi said. Yang made the comment after meeting with U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson in Beijing, China’s official Xinhua News Agency reported late yesterday. China blames separatists backed by the Dalai Lama, Tibet’s exiled spiritual leader, for last month’s unrest in Tibet and neighboring provinces, the most serious protests in 20 […]