These days, our teenage stars like to upload racy photos of themselves to their Myspace pages and get followed around by photogs while shopping for clothes they don't need. And none of them are blind singer/songwriter/musicians.

Not to make this an all-around gloomy morning (mourning?), but Bo Diddly, an American music legend, also passed away yesterday at the age of 79. Here he is performing in all of his glory on a '60s television show.

Forty years ago, a commission formed by Lyndon Johnson set out to examine racial inequalities in income, education and employment. The Kerner Commission's 1968 report was the first federal report that identified racism as a problem. The commission set goals for eliminating the inequalities detailed in the report, but the Eisenhower Foundation, which was organized back then to further the commission's work, says in a new report that America gets a D in reaching those 40-year-old goals.

The report finds:

•The poverty gap between blacks and whites has narrowed since 1968 as the percentage of blacks in poverty dropped from 35% to 24%. Still, blacks are three times as likely as whites — and Hispanics twice as likely — to live in extreme poverty.

•School integration has declined in the past two decades. Today, 27% of black students attend mostly white schools, up from 23% in 1968 but down from 37% during the 1980s.*

Well, it clearly is not 1968, anymore. But surely a lot of people back then thought that changes wouldn't take quite so long to happen. Or even worse, that the changes people fought for would begin to reverse. [USAT]

*If this continues to decline, we can thank the Supreme Court.

• NYC is shelling out $21 million in a class action settlement to black and Hispanic Parks Dept employees who say they were discriminated against during the Giuliani administration. Maybe the former mayor should donate the rest of his campaign funds to the city to help defray the cost. [NYT]

• Nice. We've been saying the same thing about media coverage of minorities since 1968. [AN]

• Honestly, if you don't have a gmail account by now… [PC]

• So, black people can swim? Wonders never cease! [CBS4]

• Can you imagine a convenience store with a sign out front that said "Only one University of Florida student at a time?" [EUR]

Partly because Diana Ross recently won a Kennedy Center Honor and partly because there was some sort of whiny, acoustic version of this song on last night's episode of The Hills (yes, I watch it. No, I'm not ashamed. Well, maybe a little.), this Supremes hit* was in my head when I woke up this morning. I chose this video, because, why watch D.R. and the Supremes stand on a stage in sequins when you can watch them playing ping pong? But really, I just had to share the cheesiest promotional video footage ever. What if record labels made girl groups do shit like that today? Instead, publicists leak who their clients are sleeping with to Us Weekly. So I guess it's not much better.

*The lyrics? Timeless.

Yesterday, I was sort of fondly looking back on Thanksgiving dinner and also sort of thinking about how silly the Soulja Boy, Aunt Jackie, and other new dance crazes are, when suddenly, those two thoughts merged together and I started singing Dee Dee Sharp's 1962 silly-yet-wildy-popular dance song "Mashed Potato Time." I was going to rejoice the fact that we've at least graduated from singing songs about carbohydrates, but then I remembered "Laffy Taffy."

Live from 1966 — The Temptations with "Ain't Too Proud To Beg." There's nothing to ease you out of your Halloween party hangover and back into the work week like an oldie but goodie. And some vintage choreography!