'TBH Politoons'
Thanks, again, Tim!
Kerry and Imus in 2004?
Humor Gazette
from Mark
Another Bumpersticker
Reader Link
from Kim
Hey all,
You have got to see this, and remember, he's HUGE in Germany, which
leads me to believe that there's far too much beer drinking going on
over there.
Kim F
Thanks, Kim!
Back when I went to school in Heidelberg, the locals kept talking about the great American actor,
Lex Barker, but I only vaguely recognized the name as one of the Tarzans who sucked.
The locals knew him from Karl May (a German who wrote stories of the American Wild West) - based movies.
Years later, I realized Lex Barker was not only an ex-husband of
Arlene Dahl, but also
Lana Turner.
Here's a great picture of Lex Barker.
OTOH, beer drinking may have something to do with it - I remember we had a nightly ritual of making sure a liter or 2 (or 3) of the local brew thoroughly flushed our kidneys.
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Still warm, but pleasant.
The local ABC affiliate pre-empted 'Jeopardy' for the basketball game. Didn't get to see Al Franken win.
While at CostCo today I splurged on something I've wanted for a long time. They were having a stringed instrument sale, so I picked up a ukulele.
Later, have to pull out the banjo because I think the pitch pipe's in that case.
Musician Pete Seeger holds his banjo during a news conference celebrating the placement of his Hudson River sloop Clearwater on the national register of historic places, Thursday, May 13, 2004, in New York. He has taken the sloop, built by volunteers in 1969, up and down the Hudson, singing to raise money to clean the water and fight polluters.
Photo by Mary Altaffer
The Information One-Stop
Moose & Squirrel
LA & NY Dem Concerts
Fundraising
Barbra Streisand and Neil Diamond, who crooned the 1978 hit "You Don't Bring Me Flowers," will sing for John Kerry and the Democrats next month as a star-studded list of entertainers perform at two fund-raising concerts in New York and Los Angeles.
Streisand and Diamond will perform together for the first time in 24 years at the Los Angeles concert, the Democrats said. The concert also will feature country singer Willie Nelson and comedian Billy Crystal, a frequent host of the Academy Awards program.
New York's lineup includes comedians Robin Williams and Whoopi Goldberg, and singers Bette Midler, Jon Bon Jovi, James Taylor, John Mellencamp and Wyclef Jean.
The concerts will be at the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles on June 7 and at New York's Radio City Music Hall on June 10. Tickets for the New York concert went on sale through Ticketmaster Wednesday for $250, $500 and $1,000. The Los Angeles tickets were not yet available.
Fundraising
Blasts Makeover TV
Cameron Diaz
Cameron Diaz has branded the new trend of extreme TV makeover shows as "sick."
Following actress Kate Winslet's confession that she cried after watching a fan have plastic surgery to look like her, Cameron has blasted similar TV programmes, including 'Makeover' and 'The Swan.'
She said: "We have shows where women are cutting themselves open and people are watching it. These people are sick in their heads. It's reflective of our culture to say to be happy you have to look a certain way. No, that's not what makes you happy, it's so wrong."
Cameron Diaz
Show Must Go On
Jimmy Kimmel
Late-night TV comedian Jimmy Kimmel says it was too much Advil, not pride or fame, that went to his head as his face puffed up like a balloon on Wednesday night during the course of his show.
The 36-year-old host of ABC's "Jimmy Kimmel Live," which is actually taped an hour before air time each week night, visited a local emergency room immediately after the show and was treated for what was an apparent allergic reaction.
"I know this sounds like one of Courtney Love's stories," Kimmel said, alluding to the drug possession case pending against the grunge rocker, "but I took about eight Advil during the day yesterday -- about five too many -- and my head blew up like a float in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade."
Jimmy Kimmel
A sign announcing a 'Business Sucks Sale' is displayed outside the Generations Menswear store in New York on May 13, 2004. U.S. retailers saw sales slow in April, while wholesalers saw price pressures rise sharply, the Commerce Department reported on Thursday. The store's owner said business has improved since he put up the sign.
Photo by Peter Morgan
Charity Show in Rome
Quincy Jones
Producer Quincy Jones said putting together a lineup of performers and presenters for his upcoming benefit concert in Rome was "like trying to saddle a rat."
Norah Jones, Alicia Keys, Andrea Bocelli, Muhammad Ali, Angelina Jolie and Oprah Winfrey are among those expected to participate in the We Are the Future concert on Sunday. The four-hour event will raise money for child centers in Ethiopia, Eritrea, Sierra Leone, Afghanistan, Rwanda and the West Bank.
The concert will be held at the ancient Roman chariot track Circus Maximus. It will air live on MTV in Italy, and a shorter version will be broadcast at later dates in other MTV markets.
Quincy Jones
www.glocalforum.org
Applauds Canada's AIDS Battle
Bono
Rocker Bono visited Prime Minister Paul Martin to applaud Canada's increased funding to battle AIDS. Last week, Canada announced $73 million to fight AIDS, and on Wednesday doubled its contribution to the Global Fund to Fight HIV/AIDS to $51.1 million. The money will be used for technical assistance and cheaper AIDS drugs, Bono said.
The U2 frontman, sitting casually in Martin's office with his legs crossed and wearing his trademark dark wraparound sunglasses, said he wasn't in Ottawa to campaign for the prime minister, who is on the verge of calling a federal election.
Bono
Kirk Douglas Theatre
Michael Douglas
Actor Michael Douglas has donated $1 million US to the construction of a new theatre to be named after his father, Kirk Douglas.
The younger Douglas said he looked forward to seeing "exciting new plays and playwrights" coming from the 320-seat Kirk Douglas Theatre, which will open in October.
The non-profit Center Theatre Group, which presents plays at the Mark Taper Forum, the Ahmanson Theatre and the Ivy Substation, will work out of the new Culver City venue.
Michael Douglas
In The Kitchen With BartCop & Friends
'Dirty Shame' Gets NC-17 Tag
John Waters
Cult director John Waters' new film is too "Dirty" for Hollywood.
The appeals board of the Motion Picture Assn. of America, which oversees movie classifications, has upheld a decision to slap an NC-17 rating on "A Dirty Shame," starring British comedian Tracey Ullman as a working-class store owner who turns into a depraved sex addict following a concussion.
"A Dirty Shame," which also stars Johnny Knoxville, Selma Blair and Chris Isaak, is set up at Fine Line Features, the arthouse arm of New Line Cinema.
John Waters
Lunga Buthelezi bends her torso as part of the 'Twisted Sistas' contortionist act at the UniverSoul Circus during a performance in Newark, N.J., Wednesday, May 12, 2004. UniverSoul Circus, a traveling one-ring circus, was founded in 1994 to bring acrobats, high-wire walkers, clowns and other performers to urban audiences.
Photo by Mike Derer
Headlining Vietnam Peace Show
Gloria Gaynor
Gloria Gaynor, Lionel Ritchie and Hootie and the Blowfish will perform at the World Peace Music Awards in Vietnam next month.
The ceremony and concert, supported by the United Nations, is set for June 22 in Hanoi, Vietnam and will honor musicians who've contributed to world peace, including Bob Dylan, Joan Baez and Country Joe McDonald, according to a statement Wednesday from Gaynor's publicist, Webster & Associates.
Twenty-five artists from around the world are expected to participate. Proceeds will help victims of Agent Orange, a chemical defoliant used during the Vietnam War.
Gloria Gaynor
Rehearsals Draw Complaints
Paul McCartney
He may be one of the world's most popular musicians, but Paul McCartney failed to impress residents in a corner of east London when he began rehearsing nearby.
The former Beatle's raucous sessions in the Millennium Dome drew complaints from people living on the other side of the Thames River. Local officials have promised to monitor noise levels emanating from the site where McCartney, 61, is preparing for an upcoming tour.
Paul McCartney
Work Tops $5 Million At Auction
Roy Lichtenstein
A painting by Pop Art master Roy Lichtenstein topped an auction of postwar and contemporary art at Sotheby's on Wednesday, selling for $5.1 million.
Among Sotheby's most successful sales was a taxidermied horse, suspended in leather harness from the ceiling, by Maurizio Cattelan. Titled "The Ballad of Trotsky," it was expected to fetch between $600,000 and $800,000 but sold for $2.08 million, a record for the artist.
The 1961 Lichtenstein painting, "Step-on Can with Leg," was bought by an anonymous buyer on the telephone.
A painting by Clyfford Still, "1960-F," fetched a record $3.14 million, surpassing the artist's previous $1.91 million record. A work by Andy Warhol, "The Last Supper," sold for $2.92 million.
Roy Lichtenstein
Arraigned
Courtney Love
Rocker Courtney Love was arraigned on Thursday on assault charges stemming from a nightclub incident two months ago when she was accused of hitting a man on the head with a microphone stand.
Love, widow of late grunge rocker Kurt Cobain, followed her brief appearance in Manhattan Criminal Court with a rambling interview in a bathroom with a crowd of female reporters.
The singer and actress covered a wide range of topics in her diatribe, touching on her lifestyle and her image.
Love is scheduled back in court on June 28.
Courtney Love
Formerly 'The Vidiot'
Poodle News
British Bookmakers
British bookmakers are reporting a surge in bets that Tony Blair will leave his post as prime minister before the next general election, with his popularity sliding in recent months amid waning support for Britain's role in Iraq.
The popular London bookmaker William Hill was recently quoting odds of 14/1 that Blair would quit government in the coming 12 months, but on Thursday the odds had dropped to 8/1.
A poll published Tuesday in the London Times showed that Blair's Labour Party would take only 32 percent of the vote should elections be held now, which would be its lowest score in more than 17 years.
British Bookmakers
Archeologists Martha Espinoza and Julian Lopez observe figures representing skeletons found buried in the middle of the Pyramid of the Moon at the ancient Mexican ruins of Teotihuacan at Anthropological museum Thursday May 13, 2004, in Mexico City. The burials are considered a key discovery, given that the positions of some apparently represented nobility, rather than sacrificial victims, and funeral offerings found in the tombs suggest a link between the Mayan culture and Teotihuacan, hundreds ofmilesaway on high plateaus near Mexico City.
Photo by Jose Luis Magana
Concert to Aid Reservists' Families
Homefront Aid Foundation
A concert featuring country stars such as Hank Williams Jr. and Rebecca Lynn Howard is planned Labor Day weekend to raise money for families of military reservists who were called to active duty.
The proceeds will be distributed by the Homefront Aid Foundation to families who are having trouble meeting expenses because of the difference between reservists' military and civilian salaries. Money also will be used to pay education expenses for the children of soldiers killed in the war.
The concert will take place at The Fairgrounds in Hamburg, a site in suburban Buffalo roughly the size of three football fields. Concertgoers will be invited to pitch their tents or park their RVs.
As of Wednesday, there were 165,956 National Guard members and reservists on active duty, according to the Department of Defense.
Homefront Aid Foundation
www.homefrontaid.com
Finds Love at Last
Aging Octopus
It looks like J-1 is in love. After meeting the very fetching and slightly younger Aurora, he changed color and his eight arms became intertwined with hers. Then, the two retreated to a secluded corner to get to know each other better. We're talking about giant Pacific octopuses here.
Aquarists at the Alaska SeaLife Center introduced the 5-year-old J-1 to Aurora on Tuesday morning. The two really hit it off. Spermatophores were seen hanging from J-1's siphon.
Love almost passed J-1 by. At 5 years of age and 52 pounds, he's reaching the end of the line for his species, the largest octopus in the world. J-1 is in a period of decline that occurs before octopus die. His skin is eroding. His suckers have divots.
For the rest, Aging Octopus
www.alaskasealife.org
Preach To British
US Virgins
Thirty American virgins are on a mission to Britain to preach a stark warning to teenagers -- the only safe sex is no sex at all.
The virgin evangelists, part of an abstinence organisation called "The Silver Ring Thing," hope to persuade hundreds of their peers to swear a pledge to purity, put a ring on their finger to prove it, and ask God to help them remain chaste until marriage.
The Silver Ring Thing, which is partly funded by the U.S. government, will stage a seven-city tour of Britain and Ireland, beginning in Glasgow, Scotland on June 30 and taking in London, Leeds, Birmingham, Manchester Dublin and Belfast. The tour will be funded by donations and sponsorship raised in the UK.
US Virgins
Made To Cover Up
Naughty Gnomes
A man has covered up his lewd garden gnomes with painted-on swimwear after police warned him he faced arrest for causing public offence.
While most garden gnomes fish or enact scenes of bucolic tranquillity, ex-army sergeant Tony Watson's models in Barnsley, South Yorkhire, bared their breasts and buttocks, prompting complaints from the public.
"It is an offence to display something that is insulting or likely to cause distress," a police spokeswoman said on Wednesday.
Naughty Gnomes
A three-year-old male Indochinese tiger named Awang Relak, peers into his new exhibit at the San Diego Zoo's Tiger River habitat, May 12, 2004. The 240-pound tiger and a 4-year-old female Indochinese tiger named Mek Degong have joined the Zoo as its new breeding group. In the wild, Indochinese tigers are critically endangered due to deforestation and poaching.
Photo by Ken Bohn
'The Osbournes'
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