Very Special Bonus!
Hempfest
I Was There and You Weren't
Now in its 17th
year, the annual
By
Michael Dare
You can ruin some things
by writing about them. When the editor of the LA Weekly asked me to contribute
to an article about the best driving shortcuts in the city, I said fuck no, as
soon as people start using my shortcuts, they wouldn't be shortcuts anymore.
The only thing that makes them shortcuts is there's less traffic. Why would I want
to deliberately ruin a good thing by telling every putz who picks up a Weekly
where my personal shortcuts were? I suggested an article called "Best
places in LA to be alone" so we could ruin the solitude for everybody. It
was then I realized that shit, man, journalism's confusing, and what's good for
the reading public ain't always good for the writer or the subject of the
story.
Which brings us to the 17th annual Seattle Hempfest, an event so unique in the world it outshines anything Denmark or Canada or any other liberated places have to offer, a cross between Woodstock in the 60s, Renaissance Faires in the 70s, and Amsterdam in the 80s,with nose-rings, bare midriffs, lower back tattoos, and dreadlocks galore,
a celebration of a plant
in every possible manifestation and, get this, the authorities let it
happen, which makes Seattle the most tolerant city on earth in its attitude
towards the insane global war against good medicine, pesticide-free clothing, fossil-free
fuel, formaldehyde-free building materials, and Bronner's soap.
August 16 & 17, 2008,
"Do not adjust your mind, it is reality that is
malfunctioning."
- Robert Anton Wilson -
Let's
say you were the lead character in a Twilight
Zone given the choice of destroying every plant on earth but one. What
plant would you choose to survive? A tree? Mankind is dead, construction materials
but not enough sustenance or medical use. Tomatoes? Dead, pasta sauce but no
pasta. Cotton? Nice clothes, starving dead bodies. I'm afraid only one plant
would provide sustainable energy, food, clothing, and medicine to keep mankind alive,
giving our species not only a chance at survival but a nice little buzz to keep
the day rolling. You can guess what it is. Any other choice would be specicide,
which is what we've got now, an entire species deliberately killing itself.
Like it or not, the scientific results are
in. Hemp is the most useful plant on the planet earth, providing clothing,
shelter, food, soap, and medicine of unparalleled quality and safety. The
argument isn't that it should be treated like any other addiction. The argument
isn't that it's harmless. The argument is that it's good for you in absolutely
every possible way. You should be wearing it, building things out of it,
washing in it, using it for fuel, eating it and smoking it - exploiting its
every potential - and anyone who says otherwise is either totally deluded, a
gullible idiot, or corrupt and on the take from the billion dollar a year drug
war industry.
You
don't hear all the good news because generally speaking, here's how it goes. Scientists
at the
The Feds don't want you to know there does
not exist a rational argument against this plant. If it were any better for you,
you'd have to hire someone to help you enjoy it.
The Hempfest is a magnificent blending of
music and politics and artisanship, "a pause for the cause because there's
flaws in the laws," says Hempfest director Vivian McPeak, the man who
actually signs the papers with the city that allows Hempfest to happen, and a
stark raving dreadnaughted bearded unapologetic hippie whose passion for this
cause has made him the most successful anti-drug war activist in America. He's
both ringmaster and tightrope walker in an annual sub-culture circus, bringing
together a spectacular array of diverse elements necessary to make it happen.
For more than a decade he's kept them all happy: police, sheriffs, firemen, the
various city departments, politicians, the Seattle Art Museum with the
sculpture garden at the entrance to the park, not to mention hundreds of
merchants and artisans who count on the fest to be their largest sales weekend
of the year, and the care providers and performers and political speakers, plus
all manner of other volunteers from around the world, or the thousands of
locals who attend every year expecting to get entertained and educated and high.
All happy. A miracle of diplomacy.
The Hempfest is not designed to be
experienced from one vantage point. Myrtle Edwards park is long and thin,
occupying a prime piece of waterfront north of the piers and downtown, blocks
from the Seattle Center, with spectacular views of the Puget Sound, the Space
Needle, Mount Rainier, Bainbridge Island, West Seattle, and the glorious Olympic
Mountain Range. Anyone bored with the fest can easily find entertainment just
sitting on a rock by the water and listening to the music while watching international
cargo ships pass by with the yachts and paragliders. Turn the other way and the
fest becomes something different, a vast parade of humanity.
Freak out as you discover the other
people at the Hempfest aren't just rejects from the Fabulous Furry Freak
Brothers but normal citizens out for a stroll through the park who just happen
to need a new bong. If these are the zombies pot is
supposed to turn us into, they're remarkable lively, a vast array of characters
from every walk of life, many of whom know each other, who've been doing this
for years, the core committee, a family reunion of free thinkers and smokers. Since
DNA proves we're all related, we're all invited to the annual reunion.
Nobody knows how many people attend,
and here's one of those journalistic moments where you have to weigh your core
beliefs against one another, where it's possible to hurt the very
cause you believe in by giving away too much. Next year's permits could be
withheld for any number of reasons, including the blathering of an idiot
journalist who puts things in just the wrong light to the wrong people.
I saw a beautiful woman with her
baby in a special stirrup, leaning over a table inspecting glass pipes with a
lot of other people, and considered taking her picture, but then I thought,
shit, taken out of context that picture could be used in a custody battle, she
could lose her kid because I took what I thought was a cute picture, so I took
this one instead.
Then let's say I saw fistfuls of
joints thrown out over a crowd who all lit up simultaneously creating a
powerful blast of smoke that could have freaked out the fire department. If
such a thing were true, and I'm certainly not saying it is, all I could do is
ruin it by telling the world. Damned if I'm ever going to have anything to do
with stopping the free distribution of pot, imaginary or not. As Vivian says,
"anyone who blows it makes it harder for all of us." This is a
festival that walks that tightrope, the largest anti-drug war rally on earth is
certainly not under the radar of the DEA, yet it happens every year as a
certified testimony to the power of numbers. They can't possibly arrest
everyone in Myrtle Edwards Park; the Feds would have to declare war against thousands
of people peacefully assembled in a public park obeying every local law.
Saturday, the first day of this year's
Hempfest, was so sunny a day for
"Should you have to get sick to
legally use marijuana?" asked horticultural guru Ed Rosenthal from Seeley
Stage, who knew just what to say to get a rousing cheer from the crowd. "I
use marijuana to enhance my life. Don't you? The medical marijuana cause isn't
enough to protect us from the criminality of police departments. Free marijuana
for ALL people!"
Recently, a medical marijuana
dispensary in
The
truth about marijuana is so opposite to common knowledge that many refuse to
take it seriously, like we're all a bunch of stoners who just want to lie under
a clear blue sky and celebrate every second and not merely out to save the
planet from destruction.
How many people were there? I ain't
saying and I sure wasn't counting. Estimates are from 100 to 150 thousand but nobody
wants to know. It's literally impossible to be sure since so many people are constantly
coming in and out from both ends. There are times when certain sections become
pretty tight, but the crowd keeps moving and it's never uncomfortable, there's
always a bench or a hill or a rock or a patch of grass to sit down and listen
to the live music and the speakers. It's probably reached the capacity to fill
the Convention Center, but Myrtle Edwards Park is just right, incredibly
beautiful surroundings, the
"They say the terrorists hate us for our freedom, so
give us more freedom and REALLY piss them off."
- Viv -
It took a very specific set of
organic circumstances for something as large as the Seattle Hempfest to
manifest itself. It started in 1991 as a wee little hempfest of a few hundred
people in
The focus this year was on industrial uses of hemp, where there is encouraging news in the worlds of textiles and building materials. A fashion show proved hemp material has grown way beyond the rough burlap it's associated with. Now it can be indistinguishable from silk, and new hemp T-shirts feel just as soft as cotton and rayon. There were bathrobes, teenage sweaters, a toque, bright earth colors, a waitress outfit, thin flimsy skirts, from hip-hop to Wall Street, normal Izod leisure wear, even a prom dress and suit that didn't betray their illegal origins in any way.
Chemical free hemp particle board and plywood proved itself more durable and esthetically pleasing than the real thing, making it just a little bit more irrational to ever cut down a tree for construction.
One speaker said the laws against hemp represented a "break in the natural order," and wondered why the tent of the Hemposium itself wasn't made out of hemp. "There's no long term planning. Until recently, industrial hemp was stuck in the last century."
"The DEA is rotting on the inside," said George
Rohrbacher, "like the
"We are the first responders," said David Frankel of votehemp.com at the Hemposium. "When we find something is harmful to the planet, we stop using it. When we find something is beneficial, we use it. Hempsters deserve respect. Farmers have had enough. There's a car with hemp fiber in the door panels that's as strong as steel. And Americans can't grow it?"
Apparently Sen. Leahy can change one single line in a current bill that will let the DEA give permission to farmers to grow it, even though there's nothing in any existing bill that specifically forbids them from doing so immediately. One might ask why the Drug Enforcement Agency is involved in any way in the struggle of farmers to grow material for car door panels.
"In
"I'm a travel writer," he continued. "High is a place and I want to go there. Don't hide it. Be proud of it. Politicians have got to know it's not political suicide to oppose the drug war. They're blowing billions of dollars to put 80,000 Americans in jail. Real people. The laws are causing more problems than the drug itself. One person in jail for marijuana is one too many. "
At 4:20 at the Share Parker Memorial Main Stage I helped pass out free water bottles to the crowd without bothering to be smug about it while the band Flowmotion blasted out a magnificent version of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, a brilliant choice, just what I wanted to hear, excellent lead guitar, we'd love to take you home tonight, we'd love to take you home, right into a little help from my friends of all persuasion.
Using my trusty official media badge and my
bogus "Local Crew - All Access" pass with the picture of planet
earth, I managed to pass the volunteer security guard into backstage at Seeley,
the northernmost stage with its own special ambience, surrounded by signs
saying "You are totally good" and "No prison for pot."
All backstage areas were cordoned off by
fences covered in black plastic inside and out, but the inside of the Seeley
fence was turned into an art gallery covered in the best tie dye I'd ever seen,
great place to hang out, breathe deeply, eat a banana and listen to Los Marijuanos, a perfect example of
cross-pollination in music, cholo rap, Mexican hip-hop, extolling us not to be
bendejos and "Fire it up," making me get up from my cozy chair, leave
backstage to see them from the front, bald, big, Chicano, black hempfest
T-shirts, giving away a bong to whoever came to the stage with the biggest
joint. Someone showed up with an enormous blunt, enough to last me a year. The
lead Marijuano said "Can anyone
beat this?" No one could so the guy walked away with the deal of the day.
Then Los
Marijuanos pulled off the most extreme cross-pollination of all, turning
into Allan Sherman, singing "Mr. Weedman, bring me some weed" to the
tune of "Mr. Sandman" while a woman dressed as a butterfly flitted
across the stage. They continued doing unlikely pot satires of songs across the
decades, cracking me up, distracting me from my one opportunity to talk to
Keith Stroup, the head of NORML, who was no longer backstage when I went back,
and thank God I did. Deborah from the kitchen served chili that was an 11 on
Nigel's scale of 1 to 10, which is one certain reason behind the success of the
Hempfest. Guests are never lacking in the creature comforts, good food, plenty
of drink, bathrooms, free massages, and wholesale congeniality.
Everyone's a volunteer, including the
bands, which is a pretty lame excuse for why major national acts aren't on the
bill. Many have been asked, and many have made promises to show, but none have
made it, and perhaps it's just as well. Hempfest works best as a venue for
local talent. If you're from out of town, you'll hear nothing but incredible
music from bands you've never heard of.
Though the atmosphere was definitely
pro-Obama, the only actual politician in sight was Paul Richmond, running for
Congress in the 6th congressional district. His open stance against
the Patriot Act, the war in
Just
as the NAACP helped rid
Blame it on the stigma of pot they
themselves created, the cartoon vision of Cheech and Chong, two cliché characters
invented by Cheech and Chong forty years ago, with the emphasis on invented.
Cheech and Chong are as accurate a portrayal of stoners as Laurel and Hardy are
of piano movers. Assuming that smoking the herb turns you into Cheech and Chong
is as ridiculous as assuming listening to rap turns you into Amos and Andy.
When real people get high, the only resemblance between them and Cheech and
Chong is a sense of humor that allows them to laugh at Cheech and Chong, who
can be pretty funny. Anything that increases the individual's sense of humor
should not be illegal, or so said Ms. Euro Kane Mybook, a speaker at this year's Hempfest.
Not that Hempfest lacked in comic relief, which was provided
by the cast of "Reefer Madness," a musical based upon the ludicrous
anti-marijuana film of the same name. If this was
Local reggae heroes, the Herbivores,
have played every Hempfest and are worth the trip themselves. Vains of Jenna, thin guys with their
shirts off, did a brain searing Jumpin'
Jack Flash, loud enough to be heard by passing cruise ships on their way
from
And then I met Violet Victoria the Clown who wants the
Actual overheard conversation next to a pile of horse droppings…
"Wow, the cops won't even clean up their own shit."
"That was me. Sorry, dude."
Sorry to say I didn't have the journalistic integrity to stand around and find out who finally cleaned it up. In any case, Segways for Hempfest cops instead of horses is my new motto.
"I'm not going to paint my balls black for no chick… ever again," explained Roland A. Dooby of marijuanaman.com. "I smoked pot in the 80s and I thought to myself, you know, this would be good at any temperature." Roland went on to tell us a surefire way of getting pot past the authorities. Just go out and buy a dildo, take out the batteries, put your pot inside, close it, smear chocolate sauce on it, put it in a plastic Ziplock bag and seal it. No security person on the planet earth is going to open that Ziplock bag.
If you were there when I was, you caught Tony B's Hip-Hop
Review from
My favorite bands were Impenetrable Scribble and Total Devastation, though I'm not sure if that last was a band or a bong.
There's a spot, a secret unofficial spot, a room, hidden from view, and you'd have to torture me to tell you where it is, and then I'd still have to kill you, where a certain genre of people aggregate and everyone's got a piece and a nug jug and they all get passed around to everybody, in a circle, in both directions, and when you leave you will never be the same. I would NEVER enter such a room, but if I did I'd have excellent conversations with total strangers.
In preparation for Hempfest going national, there's no doubt Wal-Mart and China have already got a 99 cent bong somewhere in the development pipeline, but till then Hempfest remains the premiere display of handcrafted masterpieces of the paraphernalia art, glass sculptures of complexity and originality masquerading as pipes longer than your body.
Among the more fabulous inventions on
display at Hempfest is alwaysLit,
a contraption that "keeps your lighter attached to your cigarette pack or
pipe at all times," with a retractable chord that guarantees you'll never
go flameless again during a smoke emergency. It means no one will ever steal
your lighter without also stealing your cigarettes or pipe and your alwayslit.
I had a serious theological question for
the inevitable Jesus freak telling us we were all going to hell.
"According to Genesis 38:6-10 and Deuteronomy 25:5-10, if a married man
dies without children, his brother is obligated to marry the widow. If he
refuses to marry his brother's widow or deliberately does not give her children,
he must pay a fine of one shoe. Now really, do you think one shoe is enough? I
mean ever since Wal-Mart made buddies with
And he looked at me like I was the
crazy one.
As soon as the Brothers of the Baladi started playing, I dropped what I was doing
and ran up front to find out who was making that insanely good world music, part
George Harrison, part Peter Gabriel, part Juluka,
Arabic, Indian, Turkish with a touch of Eurythmics,
spooky and sinuous rhythms, spiritual chants floating in and out of different
languages, with cosmic lyrics involving peace of mind and other unattainable
goals. Their version of
Backstage at the main stage was party headquarters, though I didn't know what to make of the silver bust of a boy with what I must conclude was a unicorn horn sticking through his forehead, unless the boy was me and the unicorn horn was that last bong hit, in which case it's brilliant, illuminating the momentary collapse of all synaptic barriers, sweeping me into the eddy of illusion, lashed to the creative unknown like a ghostbuster on steroids.
Salvation was on the way. You heard it here first. Pay attention Famous Amos, Mrs. Fields, and the Keebler Elves. From my taste buds to your ears, I was sitting backstage minding my own business when I was offered a "bacon chocolate chip cookie" (with a cinnamon glaze) made by Eileen that was out of this world.
If the Hempfest had never happened and they were to apply today for a permit for this brand new event in which thousands of hippies would play loud rock music in the park and openly get high and sell paraphernalia and dance and celebrate and give political speeches against the government, the city would probably laugh in your face. Hempfest could only have happened this way, in increments. It's the 17 year history of peaceful co-existence, slow and steady growth, each year pushing the limits a little further, plus Vivian McPeak's remarkable negotiating power, that keeps it alive. It could only happen here, the greatest political event of the year, the world's largest protestival and celebration of freedom masquerading as a mere hempfest.
And Viv's there every second, the MC of main stage, in T-shirt, utility belt and jeans, Rasputin the Plumber, reminding us why we're there and to clean up and donate and volunteer in between those tasty, sticky, gooey, pungent nugs of bright green enlightenment.
I learned from Vivian and all the
other speakers at hempfest that I never, ever, had anything to be ashamed
about, no reason to hide in the shadows while indulging secret smoke, what a
crock, forced to behave like a criminal because I do something that makes
me feel better, that makes pain go away, pain in every sense of the word. The
anti-drug war movement parallels the gay rights movement in that step one is
coming out and admitting your behavior, always difficult when your behavior could
bring social ostracizing, jail, a beating, or any combination of the above.
The Stephen Colbert
Report got it right, the movement has shifted from solidarity to
solitarity, millions of individual pods who'd rather link together than march
together. The political climate in the
"The first rule of being subversive is not letting
anyone know you're being subversive."
- Bob Dylan: Theme Time Radio Hour
#47 -
GUIDE TO NEXT YEAR'S HEMPFEST
Show up on Thursday or Friday and volunteer
to help set it up. Come on, it's just a day or two. What else do you have to
do? It's not all heavy lifting. You can be a traffic ogre and just stand there
waving people by, and you get a cool free T-shirt too.
Please oh please enter from the north and
avoid the mammoth crush of flesh at the south end. Park in any supermarket
parking lot in Ballard and take the 15 bus. Dress as freaky as possible and the
bus driver will surely know where you're going and ache to get rid of you.
Don't miss stonedhenge or the rose garden, great places for people watching,
just plant yourself somewhere and watch the parade while someone shouts from
the stage in totally justified anger over the continued exploitation of the
proletariat by the fuckin' bourgeoisie.
Stick around
Monday and Tuesday to help clean up. It's not all heavy lifting and you get an
entirely different cool free T-shirt.
Be observant
and absorbent. Just because the atmosphere is relaxed doesn't mean it's okay to
be stupid. No blowing pot smoke in the faces of cops, and if the guy riding the
horse that just plopped a Republican in front of your booth is wearing a
uniform, the proper response is "thank you, sir, may I have another?"
The national authorities might not be interfering, but two guys were definitely
watching with binoculars from a crane across the tracks from the park.
"The only people who've ever died from marijuana were
shot by a cop."
- Jack Herer -
The Weekly Poll
The current question:
Who would make the best Secretary of State when (not if) Obama takes the helm in January 2009?
A. Hillary Clinton
B. Zbigniew Brzezinski
C. Bill Richardson
D. Chris Dodd
E. Evan Bayh
F. Your choice
Send your response to BadtotheBoneBob ( BCEpoll 'at' aol.com )
Results Tuesday
Baron Dave Romm
Live from Mpls
Baron Dave Romm is an accredited journalist for the RNC!
Watch his LiveJournal for updates.
Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Associated Press: Military donations favor Obama
U.S. soldiers have donated more presidential campaign money to Democrat Barack Obama than to Republican John McCain, a reversal of previous campaigns in which military donations tended to favor GOP White House hopefuls, a nonpartisan group reported Thursday. Troops serving abroad have given nearly six times as much money to Obama's presidential campaign as they have to McCain's, the Center for Responsive Politics said.
Mark Morford: God ditches the GOP (sfgate.com)
This just in: Even the Lord has abandoned the desperate, shameful Right.
Jonah Lehrer: Daydream achiever (boston.com)
A wandering mind can do important work, scientists are learning - and may even be essential.
Connie Ogle: Fulfilled promise brings grandma's secrets to light (McClatchy Newspapers)
Sadia Shepard grew up just outside Boston with a Muslim mother and a Christian father in a household that celebrated Christmas and Ramadan. But at 13, she learned just how multicultural her family was. She discovered that her mother's mother, who "wore saris and cooked the same food as everyone else in the family," had been born Rachel Jacobs, a descendant of the Bene Israel, a small Jewish community whose members believe they are one of the lost tribes, shipwrecked in India 2,000 years ago.
Connie Ogle: Her Brazil has moral bandits and hard choices (McClatchy Newspapers)
Frances de Pontes Peebles would like us all to understand something about Brazil, where she was born: "It's not just samba and soccer and the Amazon."
Glenn Gamboa: "Squeeze play: After current tour, band members will go different ways" (Newsday)
No, Glenn Tilbrook says, he was never tempted. "There were a lot of offers for us to get back together," the Squeeze singer says, calling from his London home. "The money was tempting. But we didn't do it because we felt we were honoring the memory of the band.
Mark Edwards: "Meet Glen Campbell (again)" (timesonline.co.uk)
Many a pensioner pop star is rediscovering his mojo. Glen Campbell is releasing an album of covers songs by younger artists.
Shay Quillen: The Morning Benders surprised by warm reception for debut album (San Jose Mercury News)
While other high school kids in Santa Monica, Calif., were listening to Green Day and starting up garage bands, Chris Chu was immersing himself in the Beatles and the Beach Boys and educating himself in music theory.
Will Harris: A Chat with Pete Byrne, Naked Eyes singer (bullz-eye.com)
I used to love seeing a band play for 20 to 25 minutes. When you're just going out there to play a hits show, it's like you're being shot out of a cannon. You're out there, and, bang, everybody's going crazy.
Andrew Billen: "Johnny Rotten: Respect is my motto" (timesonline.co.uk)
He was an Antichrist. He was an anarchist. Now the combustible Sex Pistol John Lydon has turned his back on disrespect.
20 QUESTIONS: Handsome Dick Manitoba (popmatters.com)
Punk rock godfather and legend Handsome Dick Manitoba likes to kick back in the ol' Barcalounger and enjoy the comforts of home, as he reveals to PopMatters 20 Questions.
Dan Brown: Don LaFontaine, "The Voice" of Movie Trailers, Has Passed On at 68 (huffingtonpost.com)
Don LaFontaine, a man with perhaps the most widely recognized and imitated voice in the English-speaking world, has died. He was "The Voice" of over 5,000 movie trailers. [Be sure to watch the YouTube video.]
Reader Comment
'Melting Pot'
Marty,
With all due respect to my republican acquaintances: Is one greedy
bastard psyching up a convention full of other greedy bastards a
surprise????
This is news? Sounds like an Amway meeting. I never considered that
the term "melting pot" meant that we were aiming for the same IQ score.
Save us,
Willow
Thanks, Willow!
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
It's not the heat, it's the humidity.
New Film Online For Free
Michael Moore
Inspired by Neil Young and Radiohead, Michael Moore will release his new film online and for free.
The film, "Slacker Uprising," follows Moore's 62-city tour during the 2004 election to rally young voters. It will be available for three weeks as a free download to North American residents, beginning Sept. 23. An official announcement of the film is planned for Friday.
Moore said he considered releasing "Slacker Uprising" theatrically as "Michael Moore's big election year movie" as he did with 2004's "Fahrenheit 9/11," which was highly critical of resident Bush.
Instead, Moore opted for a symbol of gratitude to his fans as he approaches the 20th anniversary of his first film, 1989's "Roger & Me."
Michael Moore
Venice Film Festival
Obama
Filmmaker Kathryn Bigelow cast her vote for US presidential hopeful Barack Obama on Thursday as she presented her gut-wrenching Iraq war movie "The Hurt Locker" at the Venice film festival.
"I hope and pray" that US forces will be withdrawn "immediately" from Iraq, she said, adding: "And only one man is capable of doing that, and that's (US presidential hopeful) Mr. Barack Obama."
The comment came a day after compatriot Jonathan Demme said his film "Rachel Getting Married" reflected the multi-cultural "America that I love."
"That's the America I love," said the Oscar-winning director of "The Silence of the Lambs" (1991), adding: "I saw that America recently last week at Barack Obama's induction" as the Democratic nominee for president.
Obama
Memorabilia Sold
Jimi Hendrix
A guitar set alight onstage by Jimi Hendrix during a concert in London was sold at auction on Thursday for $497,500 to a U.S. collector.
The scorched Fender Stratocaster was the star lot at an auction of music memorabilia that also included The Beatles' first contract and a gun permit application made out by Elvis Presley.
Specialist auction house The Fame Bureau said Hendrix's guitar, which he set alight during a concert at London's Astoria in March 1967, was purchased by enthusiast Daniel Boucher, from Boylston, Mass.
A copy of The Beatles' first contract with manager Brian Epstein sold for more than $426,000, the auctioneers said.
Jimi Hendrix
'For Better or For Worse'
Lynn Johnston
For most of our lives cartoonist Lynn Johnston has had us hanging on every plot twist and complication she could pack into 29 years of "For Better or For Worse."
Take one of the biggest, longest-running ones: Would Elizabeth, seriously challenged in picking men, finally dump that silly helicopter flyboy boyfriend of hers and just marry Anthony, for God's sake? He'd been her sweetheart off and on since their grade-school days and had rescued her from the crazy would-be rapist she once worked with. So forget that the mustache Anthony grew in recent years made him look so much like a dork that even other comic strips began making fun of it. Life is, as Johnston would say, for better or for worse.
But then the cartoonist pulled the rug completely out from under us Sunday with a plot twist that made even the heartbreaking death of the Patterson family dog Farley (as he saved little April from drowning) seem pale in comparison. Even the comic strip that outraged readers by the thousands in 1993 when Lawrence acknowledged he was gay couldn't top this.
Lynn Johnston
Baby Daddy
David Spade
David Spade is the father of Playboy playmate Jillian Grace's newborn daughter, Spade's representative said Thursday.
The baby girl was born Aug. 26 in Missouri, and Spade plans to visit her on his first break from filming the CBS sitcom "Rules of Engagement," publicist Meredith O'Sullivan said.
The 44-year-old comedian told TMZ.com earlier this year that he had a brief relationship with Grace, and would accept responsibility if confirmed to be the father of her child.
David Spade
4 More Years!
Jack Abramoff
Jack Abramoff, the once powerful lobbyist convicted of illegally trading expensive gifts for political favors, was sentenced to four years in prison Thursday by a federal judge who said the corruption scandal Abramoff spawned had shattered public confidence in the political system.
Abramoff, who declared himself a broken man, appeared crestfallen as the judge handed down a sentence longer than even prosecutors had sought.
Still, Abramoff received a dramatic reduction in his sentence. U.S. District Judge Ellen Segal Huvelle could have sent him to prison for 11 years but she credited Abramoff with becoming the key FBI witness in his own corruption scandal. With his help, the Justice Department has convicted a congressman and several Capitol Hill aides and Bush administration figures.
Jack Abramoff
Wave Bye-Bye
New York Sun
The New York Sun, a daily newspaper launched six years ago as an often conservative-leaning alternative to The New York Times, may stop publishing by the end of September unless it gets additional financial backing.
The paper, which began publishing in 2002, has been losing substantial amounts of money, Sun editor Seth Lipsky wrote in a letter to readers published on the paper's website on Wednesday. The losses reflected advertising declines that are hurting nearly every U.S. newspaper amid wider economic problems such as the U.S. housing market slump and the global credit crisis.
The Sun is co-owned by Lipsky, Stoll and a group of investors whom Stoll declined to name. Previous reports have named hedge fund operator and philanthropist Michael Steinhardt as an investor, as well as Bruce Kovner, founder and chairman of hedge fund Caxton Associates LLC and chairman of conservative think tank the American Enterprise Institute.
New York Sun
Another Record!
Army
Soldier suicides this year could surpass the record rate of last year, Army officials said Thursday, urging military leaders at all levels to redouble prevention efforts for a force strained by two wars.
So far this year, there are 62 confirmed suicides among active duty soldiers and Guard and Reserve troops called to active duty, officials said. Another 31 deaths appear to be suicides but are still being investigated.
To try to stem the continuing high number of suicides, the Army continues to increase the number of staff psychiatrists and other mental health staff as well as chaplains, is issuing a new interactive video for troops and will be adding a new program to basic training starting in January, said Brig. Gen. Rhonda L. Cornum, an assistant Army surgeon general.
Army
Religiously Insane
Sister Sarah
Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin (R-Oil Industry) told ministry students at her former church that the United States sent troops to fight in the Iraq war on a "task that is from God."
In an address last June, the Republican vice presidential candidate also urged ministry students to pray for a plan to build a $30 billion natural gas pipeline in the state, calling it "God's will."
A video of the speech was posted at the Wasilla Assembly of God's Web site before finding its way on to other sites on the Internet.
"I can do my job there in developing our natural resources and doing things like getting the roads paved and making sure our troopers have their cop cars and their uniforms and their guns, and making sure our public schools are funded," she added. "But really all of that stuff doesn't do any good if the people of Alaska's heart isn't right with God."
Sister Sarah
We're Number 1!
Arms Exports
U.S. government-brokered overseas arms sales are expected to total about $34 billion in the current fiscal year, up more than 45 percent from the year before, the Pentagon agency in charge said on Wednesday.
"Our program is growing by leaps and bounds," Jeanne Farmer of the Defense Security Cooperation Agency told an international defense industry conference.
Among the biggest government-to-government buyers in fiscal 2008, which wraps up at the end of this month, were Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, Morocco, Egypt and Iraq, Farmer said.
Critics say booming sales reflect a failure of U.S. diplomacy and show a need for the United States to rethink how it handles foreign policy.
Arms Exports
Burning Down The House
Cats
Chattanooga firefighters rescued several cats during a house fire that investigators say was probably caused by the cats themselves.
Fire department spokesman Bruce Garner said firefighters responded to an alarm Thursday morning and found a fire in the kitchen. While no one was home, they found about 10 cats inside.
Capt. Lesley Morgan said the cause of the fire appears to be accidental and most likely from a cat knocking over an unattended candle in the kitchen.
Cats
Cable Nielsens
Ratings
Rankings for the top 15 programs on cable networks as compiled by Nielsen Media Research for the week of Aug 25-31. Day and start time (EDT) are in parentheses:
1. Democratic National Convention coverage (Thursday, 10 p.m.), CNN, 5.80 million homes, 8.06 million viewers.
2. "The Closer" (Monday, 9 p.m.), TNT, 5.54 million homes, 7.42 million viewers.
3. Democratic National Convention coverage (Thursday, 9 p.m.), CNN, 4.25 million homes, 5.53 million viewers.
4. Democratic National Convention coverage (Wednesday, 10 p.m.), CNN, 3.93 million homes, 5.38 million viewers.
5. Auto Racing: NASCAR Sprint Cup (Sunday, 8 p.m.), ESPN, 3.77 million homes, 5.64 million viewers.
6. Democratic National Convention coverage (Wednesday, 9 p.m.), CNN, 3.71 million homes, 4.93 million viewers.
7. Democratic National Convention coverage (Tuesday, 10 p.m.), CNN, 3.67 million homes, 4.80 million viewers.
8. "Saving Grace" (Monday, 10 p.m.), TNT, 3.41 million homes, 4.27 million viewers.
9. Democratic National Convention coverage (Thursday, 11 p.m.), CNN, 3.25 million homes, 4.32 million viewers.
10. Democratic National Convention coverage (Monday, 9 p.m.), CNN, 3.24 million homes, 4.53 million viewers.
11. Democratic National Convention coverage (Monday, 10 p.m.), CNN, 3.10 million homes, 4.24 million viewers.
12. NFL exhibition game: Seahawks vs. Chargers (Monday, 8 p.m.), ESPN, 3.043 million homes, 4.01 million viewers.
13. "The O'Reilly Factor" (Friday, 8 p.m.), Fox News Channel, 3.042 million homes, 3.91 million viewers.
14. Democratic National Convention coverage (Thursday, 10 p.m.), CNN, 3.040 million homes, 4.23 million viewers.
15. "Happening Now" (Friday, 12 noon), Fox News Channel, 2.95 million homes, 3.86 million homes.
Ratings
In Memory
Francoise Demulder
French war photographer Francoise Demulder, the first woman to win the prestigious World Press Photo award, has died aged 61, her friend US journalist Phyllis Sipahioglu said Thursday.
She died Tuesday of a heart attack at her home in the Paris suburb of Levallois, Sipahioglu and other friends said at the Perpignan photojournalism festival in southwestern France.
Demulder, known as Fifi to her friends and colleagues, covered many of the major wars of the latter part of the last century, and her pictures featured in magazines such as Time, Stern, Paris Match and Newsweek.
She won the World Press Photo prize in 1976 for a black and white picture of a Palestinian refugee woman pleading with a masked gunman in a war-ravaged district of Beirut.
She worked briefly as a model after studying philosophy in Paris but soon fell in love with Asia.
Demulder was one of a very small number of Western journalists in Saigon when communist North Vietnamese entered the city on April 30, 1975, marking the end of the Vietnam War.
Francoise Demulder
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