Nurse Ratched Slept Here
Once a ‘Cuckoo’s Nest,’ Now a Museum
By KIRK JOHNSON
The movie “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” was filmed at the Oregon State Hospital in Salem. The new Museum of Mental Health honors the experiences of the patients who have lived there over the decades. More Photos »
SALEM, Ore. — Nurse Ratched slept here.
The punctiliously cruel psychiatric ward tyrant in the book and movie “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” was brought to cinematic life by the actress Louise Fletcher during filming here at the Oregon State Hospital in the 1970s.
But the melding of real life and art went far beyond the film set. Take the character of John Spivey, a doctor who ministers to Jack Nicholson’s doomed insurrectionist character, Randle McMurphy. Dr. Spivey was played by Dr. Dean Brooks, the real hospital’s superintendent at the time.
Dr. Brooks read for the role, he said, and threw the script to the floor, calling it unrealistic — a tirade that apparently impressed the director, Milos Forman. Mr. Forman ultimately offered him the part, Dr. Brooks said, and told the doctor-turned-actor to rewrite his lines to make them medically correct. Other hospital staff members and patients had walk-on roles.
Now jump cut to the present: the office and treatment rooms of the hospital, which opened in 1883, have been turned into a Museum of Mental Health — one of only a few around the world that are part of a still-functioning hospital, which sprawls behind the old brick structure.
Big Daddy Gates Bankrolling Development of Next-generation Condom
from International Business Times
A Brief History Of The Condom, From Tortoise Shells To Bill Gates
Bill Gates has already put some of his money toward building a better toilet, and now he’s turning his attention to another kind of bodily function. The Microsoft billionaire is putting up money through the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation in hopes of spurring enterprising inventors to make a better condom.
Though condoms are cheap to make and fairly reliable both for contraception and the prevention of sexually transmitted diseases, many men do not use them due to a perceived trade-off between protection and pleasure.
“Is it possible to develop a product without this stigma, or better, one that is felt to enhance pleasure?” the Gates-backed organization Grand Challenges asks. “If so, would such a product lead to substantial benefits for global health, both in terms of reducing the incidence of unplanned pregnancies and in prevention of infection with HIV or other STIs?”
Until May 7, Grand Challenges is accepting proposals for next-generation condoms. For winners of an initial $100,000 grant, there’s the possibility for an additional $1 million in funding later on.
“Condoms have been in use for about 400 years yet they have undergone very little technological improvement in the past 50 years,” Grand Challenges says.
Actually, the history of the condom may go back even further than four centuries.
Drag King Di In A Bar Full Of Hairy Gay Men
from Bang Showbiz via AZ Central
Freddie Mercury dressed Princess Diana as man for gay bar?
Bang Showbiz
Freddie Mercury once dressed Princess Diana as a man and smuggled her into a gay bar, it has been claimed.
The late Queen rocker and comedian Kenny Everett reportedly gave the British royal – who died in a car crash in Paris in 1997 – an army jacket, cap and sunglasses to wear for a night out in South London homosexual haunt the Royal Vauxhall Tavern in the 1980s, according to comedienne Cleo Rocos.
A piece in Cleo’s new memoir ‘The Power of Positive Drinking’ – which is serialized in the Sunday Times newspaper – explains: ”Freddie told her we were going to the Royal Vauxhall Tavern, a notorious gay bar in London. Diana said she had never heard of it and said she’d like to come.
”Now this was not a good idea. ‘It’s not for you,’ said Kenny, ‘It’s full of hairy gay men. Sometimes there are fights outside.’ This didn’t put her off in the slightest.”
Happy Easter
Chainsaw Man
The Whizzinator
Lake St. Louis Man Accused of Using Prosthetic Penis During Drug Test
ST. CHARLES. Mo. (KMOX) – A Lake St. Louis man accused of using a prosthetic penis to try to pass a drug test is facing criminal charges.
According to police, 34 year-old Sydney Levin was submitting a urine sample last week as part of his probation when an officer allegedly spotted him using a prosthetic penis, known as a Whizzinator.
The prosthetic is advertised as a discreet device way to use someone else’s urine.
Levin was charged with possessing a forging instrument. He was arrested and released after posting $25,000 bond. He pleaded not guilty Monday.
This is not a new scheme in 2005 TV action star Tom Sizemore passed several mandated drug tests using the Whizzinator, but was eventually caught.
The Power Of Six
THE POWER OF SIX… THE MERCEDES G63 6X6 AMG
Published On March 13, 2013 | By David | i-BLOG, Videos
I have a dream and that dream involves rocking up in Chelsea in a Mercedes G63 6X6 AMG. Range What!?
The ‘normal’ Mercedes G63 AMG is hardly a subtle vehicle. It’s a boxy four wheel drive with a twin-turbocharged 5.5-litre V8 under the bonnet which produces 544hp. Thankfully in some parts of the world more is most certainly more. Mercedes have recognised this and revealed the new G63 6X6 AMG. Yes that means three axles, six wheels, six wheel drive and hits sixty in under six seconds. This car could make Gok Wan seem manly and make a Range Rover look small.
Clearly this isn’t for our market, that is why Mercedes show it in the video below ploughing across deserts with no trouble at all. But what if someone did ask AMG to build them one in right hand drive. What would that look like on the streets of London? Would all of the Mums in their Chelsea tractors feel as safe if they knew this thing was prowling the streets?
To turn left, pee left … to turn right, pee right.
Minor League Baseball Team to Debut Urinal Video Games
Games feature “intuitive controls,” according to the company
A minor league baseball team in Pennsylvania will become the first professional sports franchise to offer urine-controlled video games in its restrooms when the season starts in April.
[PHOTOS: Baseball Spring Training 2013]
Pennsylvania’s Lehigh Valley IronPigs will debut the “Urinal Gaming System” in its men’s bathrooms—the custom urinals feature a “pee controlled” video screen that will entertain fans as they use the restroom.
The system is designed by a British company called Captive Media—in a demo for the urinal, the company shows a snowboarding slalom game in which the character is controlled by where the player pees.
“To turn left, pee left … to turn right, pee right,” the video says. At the end of the game (an average of about 55 seconds, according to the company’s research), players will get a code to put their score on a leader board.
Where In The World Is Pablo Picasso’s Penis?
Hedge fund billionaire buys Picasso’s Le Rêve for $155m – $16m MORE than the price he agreed on before previous owner tore a hole in it with his elbow
A billionaire hedge fund manager bought Picasso’s Le Rêve for $155million – t$16million more than he first agreed to pay right before its previous owner tore a hole in it with his elbow.
Steven A. Cohen, whose SAC Capital just settled two insider-trading lawsuits with the government for $616 million, bought himself the belated gift after first agreeing to but it for $139milllion in 2006 from Vegas mogul Steve Wynn.
The price is estimated to be the highest ever paid for an artwork by a U.S. collector.
But Wynn – former owner of the Bellagio and Mirage hotels in Vegas – put his elbow through the 1932 painting while he was showing it off to friends the day after the sale was agreed and caused a six-inch tear in it.
The hotelier agreed at the time to release Cohen – who is worth around $9.3billion – from the sale and repair it. Now he has sold it to Cohen for $16 million more than the pre-damaged price.
The painting – meaning The Dream – has since been restored to its original state.
The erotic content of the painting has been noted repeatedly, with critics pointing out that Picasso painted an erect penis, presumably symbolizing his own, in the upturned face of his model, who was his mistress at the time.
Piggly Wiggly for the Passive-Aggressive
Park Slope Food Coop and the Holy Kale: The alternative grocer, where celebrities can be spotted stocking shelves, has fed Brooklyn since 1973
Insiders dish on New York City’s most pretentious grocery that involves a strict, seven-step application process and enrolling everyone in the household. A member can, however, find wild boar for 20% less than the competition.
By Stan Sagner AND Nicole Lyn Pesce / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
A kale shortage incites widespread panic. A 4-year-old melts down when his parents won’t buy him dried papaya spears. And members debate natural childbirth while bagging nuts.
It’s tales from the front lines of the Park Slope Food Coop, temple to locally grown, antibiotic-free, passive-aggressive grocery shopping where you’ll find equal doses of corn and scorn.
“Do we have …” is a constant drone heard over intercoms the community market installed throughout the store so shoppers and employees can get info about product availability and pricing.
“There was a day when we ran out of kale and people were ready to burn the co-op to the ground,” one member tells the Daily News. Like other members we spoke to, he asked that we withhold his name for fear of being booted out of the cult-like co-op. “The intercom went crazy with ‘Do we have kale!?’ ‘Do we have kale!?’ ‘Someone needs to get fired!’ It was doomsday.”
The chaos extends deep in to the meat aisle, too.
“There is always a generally high level of neurosis regarding running out of anything,” one member shares under the strict condition of anonymity. The thirtysomething artist has been a member since 2010 and usually works in the cheese department or bagging nuts. “There was no brisket as of Friday. That may be an anxiety-volcano in the making.”
While working with a doula from California one shift, the subject of natural childbirth came up.
Huell Howser and Tony Danza Eating Pink’s
When Huell Howser Met Tony Danza
by Drew Mackie
One of the great things about Huell Howser’s interviews is that he didn’t have them edited to death. You can actually watch a conversation unfold naturally instead seeing it chopped up into something that’s different from how it actually happened. The clip you see here — Huell’s 1981 interview with Tony Danza at Pink’s Hot Dogs — is also presented mostly unedited, to the point that you hear Danza let slip a swear word that probably wouldn’t have made the cut for CNN.
Gravity Glue + The Ultimate Zen
Gravity Glue is designed to record and share Michael Grab‘s experience and journey through the art of Stone Balance. Gravity is the only “glue” that holds these structures in equilibrium.
Chinua Achebe Has Died
The Nigerian novelist Chinua Achebe has passed away. He was 82 years old.
Achebe wrote Things Fall Apart in 1958, his first novel and also his most well-known book. He also wrote Anthills of the Savannah, Arrow of God, and many other books. As a poet, he also released his Collected Poems. Exiled by civil war and politics, he spent many years teaching in the United States.
Former “doctor helping a patient… with a sexually sensitive area at the back of her throat” Harry Reems Gone
’Deep Throat’ porn star Harry Reems dies
Associated Press
SALT LAKE CITY — Harry Reems, the male star of the 1972 cultural phenomenon “Deep Throat,” which brought pornography to mainstream audiences, has died at age 65.
Reems became famous for his role in the adult-film classic “Deep Throat,” which drew middle class audiences to the theater and became a forerunner of today’s hardcore adult-entertainment industry.
Reems was born in in New York in 1947 as Herbert Streicher. He served in the U.S. Marines before he ended up in the entertainment industry in the 1970s. He aspired to become a serious actor but was thrown in front of the camera while working on the production crew for “Deep Throat.”
At the 2005 premiere of a documentary about “Deep Throat” at the Sundance Film Festival, Reems told The Associated Press that the film was the first to “drop any pretense that it had educational value.”
“There was no socially redeeming value, and so the word of mouth went out from people who saw it saying ‘This is just a comedy. It’s great. You’ve got to see this,’” Reems said.
When the original male lead didn’t work out, Reems, the lighting director, stepped in. He played a doctor helping a patient, played by Linda Lovelace, with a sexually sensitive area at the back of her throat. Lovelace died in 2002.
The movie, an unlikely box-office sensation, became a touchstone for obscenity laws and a target for anti-smut activists.
In 1976, Reems was convicted of obscenity for his role in the film and faced a potential five-year prison term. Celebrities including Jack Nicholson and Warren Beatty came to Reems’ defense, and the conviction was overturned.
G†ddammit why can’t you get grades like these kids, son!
Daily Variety Dead – Exex Across H’w’d Scrambling to Figure Out What To Do For The First Hour Of Each Day
End of an era for Daily Variety
Lots of Hollywood honchos need to change their reading habits: The Tuesday edition is Daily Variety’s last.
Daily Variety has been a print publication for almost 80 years. Above, a Studio City newsstand has issues for sale. (Anne Cusack / Los Angeles Times / March 18, 2013)
By Joe Flint, Los Angeles Times
Leslie Moonves has had the same morning routine for decades.
“The first thing I do after getting out of the shower is pick up Daily Variety and have a cup of coffee,” the CBS Corp. chief executive said. “It’s a 30-year habit.”
That habit is ending for Moonves and lots of other Hollywood power players, movie and television stars, producers and publicists and thousands of wannabes: Daily Variety is ceasing as a print publication after almost 80 years. Tuesday’s edition is its last.
The decision shows that Daily Variety has had to grapple with the forces reshaping the industry it covers. Just as the entertainment business has had to adapt to changing media consumption habits, so have the outlets that cover it.
“They’re getting out of the buggy whip business,” said Stan Rosenfield, a veteran Hollywood publicist whose client list includes George Clooney and Robert De Niro.
Lore on THE FALL OF FIVE
Pittacus Lore Answers: The Fall of Five
To celebrate the announcement of Book 4′s title, Pittacus Lore has answered one of YOUR burning questions about The Fall of Five!
When we asked for fan questions on our Facebook page, many of you wanted to know more about Adamus. What happened to him after The Lost Files: The Fallen Legacies? Will the Garde meet him in The Fall of Five?
Maple Brown Sugar Creme Brulee with Chocolate Bacon
Maple Brown Sugar Creme Brulee with Chocolate Bacon
From Carefree Station
1/2 cup pure maple syrup (not pancake syrup)
2 tablespoons maple extract
2 cups egg yolks (about 24 large yolks)
1 cup brown sugar
10 slices thick-cut bacon
1 cup melted dark chocolate
Strawberry and mint sprig, for garnish
In a large pot over medium, heat cream, maple syrup and maple extract. Remove pan from heat. Lightly beat egg yolks in a separate large bowl. A few tablespoons at a time, whisk cream mixture and brown sugar into egg yolks.
Preheat oven to 225 degrees. Place 8-10 ramekins in a large, shallow roasting pan. Add room-temperature water to the pan, filling to about halfway up the sides of the ramekins.
Pee-Pee Policia
Me against the world: Solo protestors clash with police
A protester urinates in front of a row of policemen during riots following the death of a 15-year-old boy in San Carlos de Bariloche June 18, 2010. According to local media, provincial government officials have confirmed that four police officers, involved in the incident which left the boy dead during an alleged robbery, have been removed from their posts. Three people died and at least 12 were injured during the clashes. REUTERS/Alejandra Bartoliche
Every novel to reach the number one spot on Publishers Weekly annual bestsellers list, starting in 1913.
100 years, 94 books
- 1913: The Inside of the Cup by Winston Churchill
- 1914: The Eyes of the World by Harold Bell Wright
- 1915: The Turmoil by Booth Tarkington
- 1916: Seventeen by Booth Tarkington
- 1917: Mr. Britling Sees It Through by H. G. Wells
- 1918: The U. P. Trail by Zane Grey
- 1919: The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse by Vicente Blasco Ibáñez
- 1920: The Man of the Forest by Zane Grey
- 1921: Main Street by Sinclair Lewis
- 1922: If Winter Comes by A.S.M. Hutchinson
- 1923: Black Oxen by Gertrude Atherton
- 1924: So Big by Edna Ferber
- 1925: Soundings by A. Hamilton Gibbs
- 1926: The Private Life of Helen of Troy by John Erskine
- 1927: Elmer Gantry by Sinclair Lewis
- 1928: The Bridge of San Luis Rey by Thornton Wilder
- 1929: All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque
- 1930: Cimarron by Edna Ferber
- 1931: The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck
- 1932: The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck *
- 1933: Anthony Adverse by Hervey Allen
- 1934: Anthony Adverse by Hervey Allen*
- 1935: Green Light by Lloyd C. Douglas
- 1936: Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
- 1937: Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell*
- 1938: The Yearling by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings
- 1939: The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
Metal Weiwei
Inspired by Elton John, Chinese Dissident Ai Weiwei Has Made a Metal Album
Chinese artist and political dissident Ai Weiwei / Photo by Getty Images
‘Divina Commedia’ will spoof life in Beijing
Multifaceted Chinese artist and political dissident Ai Weiwei has recorded an album of hard-rock songs, and he’s going to ask for Elton John’s help in releasing the thing. According to England’s The Times, the Beijing resident and occasional ward of the state has written nine songs parodying life in his country and he’s employed local rock star Zuoxiao Zuzhou to back his singing with some searing licks.
The album, which he’s calling Divina Commedia (after a little ol’ book by Dante Alighieri), was inspired by a trio of influences: the raucous opening ceremonies of the London 2012 Olympics; his 81-day disappearance following an arrest over possibly bogus tax evasion charges; and the “warm heart,” “passion,” and “expression” of John, who dedicated his February concert in the Chinese capital to Weiwei.
Devil’s Slide Returned To Paradise
Devil’s Slide tunnels along Highway 1 to open March 25
By Gary Richards
After nearly eight decades of dreaming and several years of digging, Caltrans announced Tuesday that the Highway 1 bypass at Devil’s Slide will open March 25.
This will be California’s first highway tunnel in nearly 50 years.
“Everyone is looking forward to the opening,” said state spokesman Bob Haus. “A lot of people have worked very hard for this day.”
The $439 million twin tunnels through the San Pedro Mountain are the first on a highway in California since the third bore of the Caldecott Tunnel in the East Bay opened in 1964. The area has been the site of eight landslides since Highway 1 opened in 1937, often closing the narrow two-lane road for months at a time and isolating motorists in Montara, Moss Beach, El Granada, Princeton and Half Moon Bay.
In addition, every year there are serious and often deadly accidents on the narrow roadway, which twists so sharply that safe drivers are forced to slow to less than 25 mph.
Most Prized Possessions
Photos of Children From Around the World With Their Most Prized Possessions
by AMANDA GORENCE on MARCH 12, 2013 · 327 COMMENTS
Chiwa – Mchinji, Malawi
Shot over a period of 18 months, Italian photographer Gabriele Galimberti’s projectToy Stories compiles photos of children from around the world with their prized possesions—their toys. Galimberti explores the universality of being a kid amidst the diversity of the countless corners of the world; saying, “at their age, they are pretty all much the same; they just want to play.”
Le papier ne sera jamais mort
The Internet In A Day
From Out of Nowhere It Flies By Earth
Watch Live: City-Block-Size Asteroid Comes Out of Nowhere and Flies By Earth
BY ADAM MANN
An asteroid roughly 64 to 140 meters wide — about the size of a city block — will be zipping past the Earth today, and you can watch a live show (above) of the event from the Slooh Space Camera consortium starting at 12:45 p.m. Pacific/3:45 p.m. Eastern.
The asteroid, officially called 2013 ET, was discovered only on Mar. 3. It will be coming within less than 1 million km of our planet, about 2.5 times the distance between the moon and the Earth. This distance means the object poses no danger but is a very close shave astronomically speaking.
The asteroid’s close approach barely a week after its discovery follows a busy month for things falling from the sky. On Feb. 15, the largest meteor to hit the Earth in a century exploded over Russia just as another asteroid made a record-setting close approach. With the world’s attention fixing more and more on space rocks, this flyby highlights how big and potentially deadly objects can appear without
(CSCO) (GOOG) (ADBE) (AAPL) (EBAY) (POT)
Silicon Valley Is High on Innovation. And Pot
Photograph by David Paul Morris/Bloomberg
Being a computer coder takes a physical toll. The long hours sitting at a keyboard can cause back and wrist pain. You can run to a pharmacy and pick up some Advil, or if you’re in Silicon Valley, you can drop by the Palliative Health Center for some Sour Diesel. Palliative Health is a medical marijuana dispensary, one of many in San Jose, Calif. Inside, iPads are mounted on pedestals so patients can scroll through and check prices and availability of Sour Diesel, Chem Dog, and a dozen or so other strains. The shop offers marijuana-infused sodas, muffins, and chocolates, and monthly classes on cooking with cannabis.
Around 40 percent of Palliative Health’s clients are tech workers, says Ernie Arreola, 38, the assistant manager. “We’re seeing people from some semiconductors, lots of engineers, lots of programmers,” he says. That makes sense, because the shop is an easy shot from some of the area’s biggest employers—Cisco Systems (CSCO), Google (GOOG), Adobe Systems (ADBE), Apple (AAPL), EBay (EBAY)—and a short drive from dozens more. Also, people in Silicon Valley do like their pot.
San Jose is the medical marijuana capital of the Bay Area. The city has 106 pot clinics (four are delivery-only)—more than four times the number in San Francisco, twice as many per square mile as Los Angeles, and, according to San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed, “many more than are necessary to meet the medical needs of our population.”
MOLACMA
Art marriage may yield L.A. mega-museum
LACMA makes a preliminary offer for taking over MOCA. Eli Broad might need to OK any merger.
Eli Broad, who is building a museum across from MOCA, agreed in 2008 to give the downtown Los Angeles institution a bailout valued at up to $30 million. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times / January 8, 2013)
By Jori Finkel and Mike Boehm, Los Angeles Times
The Los Angeles County Museum of Art has proposed acquiring the troubled Museum of Contemporary Art — a move that would combine the biggest art collection west of the Mississippi with one of the world’s most prestigious troves of contemporary art.
The acquisition could put to rest long-standing concerns over the financial viability of the Museum of Contemporary Art, or MOCA. But it also faces potential opposition from the region’s most influential art patron, billionaire Eli Broad.
In funding a 2008 MOCA bailout valued at up to $30 million, Broad won a stipulation that MOCA could not be acquired for 10 years by “any museum located within 100 miles of MOCA’s Grand Avenue facility,” excluding “educational institutions or museums affiliated with educational institutions.” Broad declined immediate comment Thursday.
PHOTOS: Arts and culture in pictures by The Times
The acquisition offer was made in a letter from the leaders of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, or LACMA, to the co-chairs of the MOCA board.
3 people (ages 63, 55 & 54) arrested after running aground in stolen yacht strewn with empty beer bottles, pizza boxes
Pacifica: Police arrest three on beach near where 82-foot stolen yacht ran aground
By Joshua Melvin
PACIFICA — Three people were arrested Monday after running aground in a stolen yacht strewn with empty beer bottles and pizza boxes, but not before a brief standoff with police in front of a boisterous crowd.
The 82-foot Darling disappeared from the Sausalito Yacht Harbor around 1:30 a.m. Monday and was spotted stuck in the sand just off Linda Mar beach shortly before 5:15 a.m. About 6½ hours later, a San Mateo County Sheriff’s Office rescue team shuttled two men and one woman to shore, where Pacifica police and handcuffs awaited.
A small cheer went up from the crowd of about 150 people when the woman, the last to go, was tossed aboard a watercraft by rescuers.
“Do it! Do it! Do it! Jump!” one woman chanted and laughed.
The suspects — Leslie Gardner, 63 of Gillette, Wy.; Dario Mira, 54; and Lisa Modawell, 55, of Aptos — were to be booked into San Mateo County jail on suspicion of grand theft and conspiracy, Pacifica police Capt. Joe Spanheimer said.
“The Goebbels of the war against women”
Larry Flynt’s Wild Life: Porn, Politics and Penile Implants
by Stephen Galloway
Frank W. Ockenfels 3
25 years after his landmark Supreme Court win over Jerry Falwell, the Hustler magnate opens up about plans to out a closeted GOP congressman, his sex life at 70 and the future of his empire.
Larry Flynt sits by the window of his sleek, black-and-gold G4 jet, with the letters “LFP” (for Larry Flynt Publications) painted on the tail, gazing out on the world 41,000 feet below, lost in thought.
Just getting here has been a mammoth task. Earlier, Flynt’s black Bentley (with a vanity license plate that reads “HUSTLR”) pulled up beside the plane at an airport in Van Nuys, Calif.; two pilots and a bodyguard eased the 70-year-old out of the car and into a specially designed, miniature wheelchair, before lifting him up the stairs (with a gold-plated ramp) and into his seat, while his regular, $17,000 gold-plated wheelchair was placed in the hold.
Despite running his empire with an iron grip, he went through all this without a word of complaint or irritation, keeping that, like so much else, to himself.
PHOTOS: Larry Flynt: The Inner Life of a Dirty Old Man
The self-described “smut peddler”; former jailbird, amphetamine addict and bootlegger; nemesis of feminists like Gloria Steinem (who called him “the Goebbels of the war against women”); multimillionaire; thorn in the side of the arch-right; and historic defender of free speech has a lot to think about.
It has been 25 years almost to the day since the Supreme Court made “this old pornographer,” as he calls himself, part of history when it handed down a key First Amendment verdict.