Descendants of Margarete Mauthner allege "View of the Asylum of Saint-Remy" was taken from the German woman during World War II, and are demanding that Taylor returns the painting, which appraisers said could fetch $10 million to $15 million at auction.

Taylor, whose father bought her the painting at a London auction in 1963, has filed a lawsuit seeking a pre-emptive court declaration that she is the rightful owner of the painting, which hangs in the living room of her Bel-Air estate.

A robber probably figured he found an easy target when he saw a blonde in spaghetti straps walking alone in a Westport Plaza parking lot early Thursday.

But he picked the wrong woman.

The purse he snatched was tucked under the arm of an off-duty St. Louis County police officer who wouldn't let it go without a fight.

At least the Post-Dispatch didn't run it with the headline "Jobless Man's Kneecap Broken After Woman Is Mugged".

"You've got to closely watch what they do," a political consultant recently told me, adding that campaigns can't afford to adopt a casual approach to blogs that pop up during races. "Some of them are really crazy."

• Book deals with the rise of an educated upper class (and upper middle class) and how these new members of society alter the culture. It seeks to explain why so many people wear Birkenstocks and shop at Whole Foods and REI.
  
  
• The Bobos (Bourgeoius Bohemians) of which Brooks speaks tends to conmingle the baby boomers with geek culture. It's an interesting mix, and maybe he's onto something, but I think his generalization might be too hasty.
  
  
• The bit about intellectual life, wherein he describes how a person can become a public intellectual, was quite amusing.
  
  
• Book seems dated, particularly in political area, especially when one thinks of foreign policy questions that none of us really speculated in 2000.

The Oil Baron Rita

"Fourteen days without alcohol," said my racquetball buddy proudly as we toweled off in the gym.

"Wow," I said, genuinely impressed, trying to imagine a fortnight unlubricated, "that's impressive."

"Well," he said, a little abashed, "not consecutively."

The following is a partial transcript of that call. Items in bold appear to be the voice of the 911 dispatcher.

911 Office, Tammy.

Tammy, my ex-husband's here with a gun. He's in here. He's got a gun.

He's going to kill them, hurry.

He's got my kids, quick.

What's his name?

Parker Elliott.

(Quick, shallow breathing)

2005 Forrest Ridge Trail, Culleoka. We've got a male subject in the house with a weapon.

He just told my kids he's going to kill them if I'm on the phone. He's going to kill me.

I don't need you to hang up. Has he been drinking?

He's going to kill me. They're in the hallway with him, and I'm hiding in the closet.

(First shot is heard)

I'm hiding in the closet. I'm coming out 'cause he'd not going to hurt my kids. The kids are with him.

Can they get out?

I want to make sure he doesn't shoot my kids. The kids are with him.

They're deterring him. Please, please, he's going to kill them.

Has he been drinking?

He's got to be.

How long has he been out of the residence?

(Labored, quick breathing)

The kids are telling him I'm not here. He said if I'm here, he'll kill them.

He just shot the gun.

He hasn't seen you yet?

He's coming. He just shot the gun again. Please! Please!

What kind of a gun is it?

A handgun. He's going to the front door.

(Dispatcher to other emergency personnel) He's inside the house, shooting. He had two children and an ex-wife.

Oh, he hit one of them!

Stay in the closet. He doesn't know you're in the closet?

He can see the phone cord coming in. Oh! He hit one of them.

(Gunshots. Sound of girl screaming in the background)

They've got the gun. I think my kids have got my gun. I can't believe I forgot to get it.

I think one of my children has the weapon. He's shot five times. I'm hiding in the closet, and my kids are out there with him.

How old are the kids?

15 and 18.

(Gunshots and screaming)

He shot five more. Is that all of them?

Ma'am, I don't know what kind of gun he has.

He hasn't shot them yet. My kids are still OK.

(Labored breathing)

(Kids screaming)

He's going to kill me.

(Screaming)

He's coming to the closet! He's coming to the closet! He's coming to the closet!

(Kids screaming, shrieking)

He's at the closet. He's going to shoot me. Help me! He's here. He's gonna hit me with the gun.

(Children screaming in the background)

Calm down.

He's still shooting at the kids! Help me!

(Whimpering)

Be calm! They're getting there. They're coming.

He's beating on the doors.

(Loud banging)

He's still shooting.

Parker, don't!

Parker, no! Please, no!

He's going to beat a hole in the door.

Ma'am, calm down. What's your name?

Please! Freda! Freda!

(Yell heard from man in background)

Please, don't hurt my kids! Don't hurt my babies! Parker, no!

Where are they?

I don't know.

(Screaming)

Parker, please! Don't!

(Screams, screams, screams)

(Gunshots)

Don't hurt my babies!!

(Shrieks)

(Screams)

Freda, what's going on? Freda?

(Gunshots, gunshots)

Hello?

This is E-Com 720. We just heard two gunshots inside the residence. We heard a woman screaming. Now we've got dead silence.

10-4.

...20 percent of U.S. residents admit buying products from spam purveyors.

The US has a hardcore group of people who simply aren't interested in using the Internet. Around a third of US adults have rejected the Net, causing researchers to split them into two distinct groups.

• By 20 percent of U.S. residents, undoubtedly they meant respondents to the survey.
  
  
• It's unclear whether "spam" means opt-in e-mails and e-mails from companies with which the users already have an established relationship.

Now this is what a superhero movie should be. "Spider-Man 2" believes in its story in the same way serious comic readers believe, when the adventures on the page express their own dreams and wishes. It's not camp and it's not nostalgia, it's not wall-to-wall special effects and it's not pickled in angst. It's simply and poignantly a realization that being Spider-Man is a burden that Peter Parker is not entirely willing to bear.

"Many of you are well enough off that ... the tax cuts may have helped you," Sen. Clinton said. "We're saying that for America to get back on track, we're probably going to cut that short and not give it to you. We're going to take things away from you on behalf of the common good."

Then came the Parable of the Stairs, of course. My tiresome, shopworn, oft-told tale, a piece of unsupportable meaningless anecdotal drivel about how I turned my tax cut into a nice staircase that replaced a crumbling eyesore, hired a few people and injected money far and wide - from the guys who demolished the old stairs, the guys who built the new one, the family firm that sold the stone, the other firm that rented the Bobcats, the entrepreneur who fabricated the railings in his garage, and the guy who did the landscaping. Also the company that sold him the plants. And the light fixtures. It’s called economic activity. What’s more, home improvements added to the value of this pile, which mean that my assessment would increase, bumping up my property taxes. To say nothing of the general beautification of the neighborhood. Next year, if my taxes didn’t shoot up, I had another project planned. Raise my taxes, and it won’t happen – I won’t hire anyone, and they won’t hire anyone, rent anything, buy anything. You see?

“Well, it’s a philosophical difference,” she sniffed. She had pegged me as a form of life last seen clilcking the leash off a dog at Abu Ghraib. “I think the money should have gone straight to those people instead of trickling down.” Those last two words were said with an edge.

“But then I wouldn’t have hired them,” I said. “I wouldn’t have new steps. And they wouldn’t have done anything to get the money.”

“Well, what did you do?” she snapped.

“What do you mean?”

“Why should the government have given you the money in the first place?”

“They didn’t give it to me. They just took less of my money.”

That was the last straw. Now she was angry. And the truth came out:

“Well, why is it your money? I think it should be their money.”

It reminds me why Democrats are always at a disadvantage when butting horns against the Republicans -- Democrats think, and re-assess, and the notion of fairness at least floats somewhere in the background.

Bongiovanni saidticket sales went south about the middle of April, when shows already on sale dramatically slowed and new shows failed to ignite.

"Price has got to matter," he said. "Ticket prices are elevated to where they are not a frivolous expense." But industry insiders say it's not simply high ticket prices and a bad economy that caused ticket sales to drop, but a variety of larger issues, ranging from the lack of exciting attractions to a growing reluctance to patronize the suburban amphitheaters (called "sheds" in the business) where most of the summer tours play.

• Page xi, in the Preface and Acknowledgements, for crying out loud. Alterman acknowledges missing the works of Robert Caro as he (Alterman) pursues an advanced degree in history--so he (Alterman) listens to the complete works of Caro on tape. Cheez, Louise, Alterman, that's not scholarship, that's killing time. When you listen to books on tape, they flow past you in a stream of someone else's conscious narration, and once the words are past, they're gone; you're at the whim of the break in the tracks if you want to listen to a section over again, which is why I rarely do.
  
  Mostly I listen to books on tape to kill time on long drives to Milwaukee and back, or I used to do them when I had an hour long commute from work (or an hour and a half commute from work to my sweetie's home, a quarter of the way across the state. If you're listening to books for twenty minutes at a crack, you're not paying them much attention. Cripes, I would not dare try to impress upon my mind the serious works of Tacitus or Gibbons through books on tape; I'd require the opportunity to re-read sentences until I grasped their very meaning. Alterman admits he--in pursuit of a college degree, for crying out loud (or swearing out loud in my case)--did less. It's less respect to Caro on Alterman's part than I am paying to Alterman, but it's too late for me to borrow the abridged audio version of Alterman's work, so I am stuck with my dollar's worth (plus Quality Paperback Club's Postage and Handling) of print. Heaven help me, and you, gentle reader.
  
  Fortunately for the both of us, I skimmed the rest of the acknowledgements.
  
  
• pp1-2 in the Introduction, a lot of name dropping, but I disagree. Whereas Bernard Goldberg and Ann Coulter quote people to indicate bias and slander, Alterman quotes people who indicate there is not bias nor slander. Goldberg and Coulter's quotes represent primary sources, that is, indications that illustrate their points; when Alterman quotes sources who say there is no bias, it's the equivalent of hearsay, since he's not actually illustrating non-bias, but rather people saying there is not bias.
  
  
• p2 in the Introduction, Alterman quotes Pat Buchanan, for crying out loud, as though he (Buchanan) were a member of mainstream-right thought. Who are you kidding?
  
  
• p3 in the Introduction, Alterman refers to Ann Coulter as a blonde bombshell pundette. Ad homenim as Alterman points out that Coulter is an attractive (hem) woman, and hence should be judged lesser than, say, a homely man such as Alterman.
  
  
• p3 in the Introduction FIRST TOSSING POINT this comes a couple lines later:
  
  
  In recent times, the right has ginned up its "liberal media" propoganda machine. Books by both Ann Coulter, a blond bombshell pundette, and Bernard Goldberg, former CBS News producer, have topped the best-seller lists, stringing together such a series of charges that, well, it's amazing neither one sought to accuse "liberals" of using the blood of conservative children for extra flavor in their soy-milk decaf lattes. [Emphasis mine.]
  
  
  Got that? Alterman is saying that Coulter and Goldberg might as well have committed "blood libel." The tradition to which "Mister" Alterman alludes says Jews use the blood of Gentile/Palestinian children in Zionist rituals of some sort or another. It's often repeated these days in the Arab media to support the tradition of strapping explosives to Believers, women, and children to blow up Israeli civilians whose crime is stopping at a market or drinking coffee in a particular cafe. Damn you, Eric Alterman. I curse you only to the fate you deserve, whatever form it might take.
  
  I would like to take a moment to apologize to Ajax and Tristan, the felines scared when I flung this book from my hands (towards the door, not the labouriously-painted walls) and to my beautiful wife, whom I upset with my foaming-mouth invective for Eric Alterman. You all deserve a better refuge when trying to sleep. I shall try to read this book alone, with a schnucking hammer with which to beat it, in the future for your peace of mind.