'Best of TBH Politoons'
Reader Comment
Re: Military Planning Precedent
Yesterday (Sep 14) was the anniversary of Napolean's bungled attack on
Moscow, made famous by Tchaikovsky's "1812 Overture". By the time he tried
to get his troops withdrawn the Russian winter shut him down.
Regrettably, I forgot to set speakers out on the front porch last night and
play it at 120 dB for the enlightenment of our neighbors.
For this e-mail only, I'm adopting the pseudonym:
'Carolyn Bells'
Thanks, 'Carolyn'!
And to some of a certain age, the words to 'The 1812 Overture' are: "It is the cereal that's shot from guns..."
Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Meg Cabot, Author of "The Princess Diaries," Writes About 9-11 (Very Highly Recommended Reading)
(Scroll down to "Sunday, September 11, 2005.")
It was impossible, after that, NOT to walk around crying. Everyone was doing it - so much so that the deli across the street put a sign in its window: "No Crying, Please."
Michael Moore: We've Raised a Half-Million Dollars and Sent over 50 Tons of Food and Water
Last week I closed my New York production office and sent my staff down to New Orleans to set up our own relief effort.
Patients put down (dailytelegraph.news.com)
DOCTORS working in hurricane-ravaged New Orleans killed critically ill patients rather than leave them to die in agony as they evacuated.
Nolan Finley: Bush's Katrina dawdling should offend conservatives (detnews.com)
Bush will try to spend himself out of this mess, burying the Gulf Coast in federal dollars in hopes the cash will make people forget that while he dawdled, people died.
Molly Ivins: The Graft Goes On
Michael ("You're doing a heckuva job") Brown liked to spread federal money around. In fact, Rep. Robert Wexler of Florida was so annoyed by Brownie's distribution of largesse in Miami after Hurricane Frances that he urged the president to fire Ol' Brownie last January. What upset Wexler about the $30 million in FEMA checks to cover new wardrobes, cars, lawnmowers, vacuum cleaners, furniture and appliances was that the hurricane did not affect Miami. It landed 100 miles away.
25 Mind-Numbingly Stupid Quotes About Hurricane Katrina And Its Aftermath
1) "I don't think anybody anticipated the breach of the levees." -President Bush, on "Good Morning America," Sept. 1, 2005, six days after repeated warnings from experts about the scope of damage expected from Hurricane Katrina
Hurricane Cindy Arrives at Camp Casey-Covington
Katrina relief effort gets a helping hand
Mark Morford: The Storm That Ate The GOP (sfgate.com)
Who will pity the soulless Republican Party now that Katrina is mauling their regime?
The Gay-Marriage Workaround (dailykos.com)
There are four of us involved, two same-sex couples. Two of us have no health care benefits; two receive them courtesy of the federal government. We've decided to marry each other's partners and claim what is should be rightfully ours. Since we're not doing it to skirt immigration laws, our attorney advises we're within our legal rights.
Roger Ebert: Toronto #5: A memorable film season
This is the best autumn movie season in memory. One film after another has been astonishingly good. Critics gathered in the hallways after the Varsity press screenings, talking in hushed tones as if witnesses to a miracle.
David Bruce: Letters
Screenwriters Ben Hecht and Charlie MacArthur once had a hard time dealing with their mail -- reading and answering it took too much time away from their work. Finally, they found a way to solve their problem. They hired someone to dump their mail -- still unopened -- into the fireplace each morning.
SF Gate Culture Blog
New Urban Legends (Including Katrina Truths and Legends)
Poetry Corner
The Son Also Raises
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Still cool, but pleasant.
Someone dumped a black & white kitten in the yard.
Anybody need a sweet little kitty?
Correction
Marion 'Pat' Robertson
Pat Robertson said that Hurricane Katrina was caused by God's anger over the selection of lesbian comedienne Ellen DeGeneres to host the upcoming Emmy Awards.
According to
Snopes the piece originated at
Dateline Hollywood, and was intended as satire.
Damn.
The Ideal Place To Get Shot
New Orleans
by Ray Davies
I spent the early part of last year in New Orleans recovering from gunshot wounds received as I was being robbed. It happened in the early evening as I walked down a quiet street with my girlfriend. There was a football game in town and the streets near the French Quarter were empty. The police presence was elsewhere. The incident itself was over in a flash but it plays over and over in my head and perhaps one day it will make sense to me.
I found out later that there were fewer than 2,000 police in New Orleans at that time and it reached such a point that there was talk of the city was importing officers from Cleveland. Anyway, thanks to someone's mobile phone, the police eventually got to the scene.
Later, as I was carried into the emergency room at Charity hospital, a doctor reassured me that "New Orleans really is the best place to get shot". They had, he explained, had plenty of practice.
The same week I was shot, I read that three other tourists were killed near to where I was attacked. Tourists were urged not to fight back after being mugged (I was continually reminded of this by the district attorney's officials, who were critical of the way I chased the man who robbed my girlfriend).
During my initial week-long stay in hospital and lengthy recuperation, I observed first-hand the bankruptcy of the New Orleans health system. Several doctors who treated me actually apologised for the low standard of healthcare in Louisiana. Even so, they gave me the best of what they did have, for which I am grateful.
For the rest, New Orleans
Publicity Makes New Book a Hit
Kurt Vonnegut
Thanks to a wave of media appearances, including interviews with HBO's Bill Maher and Comedy Central's Jon Stewart, Kurt Vonnegut is again a best seller.
The author of "Slaughterhouse-Five," "Cat's Cradle" and many other favorites has been promoting "A Man Without a Country," a collection of nonfiction that came out Thursday. The book has reached the top 10 on Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble.com, and publisher Seven Stories Press has already more than doubled its first printing, from 50,000 copies to 110,000.
Vonnegut said he no longer writes fiction, but he does contribute articles - some of them included in his new book - to In These Times, a liberal magazine based in Chicago.
"A Man Without a Country" is just under 150 pages, and includes criticism of the Bush administration ("George W. Bush has gathered around him upper-crust C-students who know no history or geography ...") and Vonnegut's characteristically dark, but humorous thoughts on the fate of the planet.
Kurt Vonnegut
Open Letter To Blair
British Celebs
The actress Julie Christie has sent an open letter signed by 100 other celebrities to British Prime Minister Tony Blair, demanding he pull troops out of Iraq by the end of the year.
The letter to Blair said the war had been an "unmitigated disaster".
Christie's letter told Blair that British soldiers who did not want to serve in Iraq had been killed, wounded or maimed since the March 2003 US-led invasion.
The letter read: "The United Nations mandate for the occupation of Iraq expires this December. We call on you to initiate the first steps to end this carnage by announcing that British troops will be brought home by the end of this year."
British Celebs
Cocoa Beach Salutes
'I Dream of Jeannie'
This city has been linked to "I Dream of Jeannie" ever since a jingle in the opening of the TV show's first season in 1965 told how a genie followed Capt. Tony Nelson "back to Cocoa Beach, a mythical town in a mythical state called Florida."
Now, in an arms-crossed nod and blink to its perpetuity in television reruns, Cocoa Beach's 13,000 residents are marking the 40th anniversary of the show's first episode with a celebration Friday. Although none of the cast members will attend, there will be two Jeannie look-a-like contests, music and the serving of a mixed drink with secret ingredients called Jeannie's magical potion.
All this, despite the fact that the show never was filmed in Florida and that its creators would have given a more accurate portrayal by setting it in Houston, where astronauts actually trained and lived.
For more, 'I Dream of Jeannie'
Closing On Broadway
'Lennon'
"Lennon," the musical about the life and music of former Beatle John Lennon that earned dismal reviews, will close just six weeks after it opened on Broadway, the show's producers said on Thursday.
Created with the help of Lennon's widow, Yoko Ono, the musical had a troubled road to Broadway that involved major rewrites after it was first produced in San Francisco.
The producers said in a statement "Lennon" would play its final performance on September 24, by which time it will have played 42 previews and 49 regular performances.
'Lennon'
Files Suit Against GM
Tom Waits
Singer-songwriter Tom Waits said Thursday he has filed a lawsuit against a unit of automaker General Motors Corp. and a German advertising agency for allegedly using a soundalike in a series of European ads.
The 55-year-old singer, whose distinct, gravelly voice has won him two Grammy Awards, filed the civil lawsuit this week with a state court in Frankfurt, listing Adam Opel AG and the advertising firm McCann Erickson as the defendants.
Andreas Schumacher, Waits' German lawyer, said the singer was approached numerous times about doing the ads last year, but declined, citing a policy of not doing commercials. He said the firm then hired a soundalike and the ads aired earlier this year in Sweden, Finland, Denmark and Norway.
Tom Waits
Unseen Photos Exhibited In Barcelona
Marilyn Monroe
Almost 30 previously unseen photographs of legendary US actress Marilyn Monroe went on display in a Barcelona gallery, taken shortly before her death by photographer Arnold Newmann.
The 29 black and white originals, which will be on display at Barcelona's Hartmann Gallery until October 24 date from January 1962, when Monroe was attending a gathering at the Beverly Hills villa of Hollywood producer Henry Weinstein.
Monroe is pictured surrounded by friends, including poet Carl Sandburg, in a series of stylised scenes.
Marilyn Monroe
Gets Prison In Photo Case
John Rutter
A Los Angeles photographer who was convicted of trying to sell topless pictures of actress Cameron Diaz after forging her signature on a contract was sentenced on Thursday to nearly four years in prison.
John Rutter, who prosecutors accused of trying to blackmail Diaz for $3 million over the steamy, bondage-themed photos taken before she was famous, was found guilty in July of attempted grand theft, forgery and perjury.
Rutter had asked Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Michael Pastor for probation, saying that the case was a misunderstanding and that he had never intended Diaz any harm. He faced a maximum term of five years behind bars.
John Rutter
Annullment News
Zellweger - Chesney
Bridget Jones is untying the knot. Renee Zellweger, who played the lovelorn Brit in "Bridget Jones's Diary," and country music star Kenny Chesney will have their four-month-old marriage annulled, Chesney's publicist, Holly Gleason, and Zellweger's Los Angeles-based publicist Nanci Ryder, confirmed to The Associated Press on Thursday.
The 36-year-old actress and Chesney, 37, wed in a small ceremony on the Caribbean island of St. John in the U.S. Virgin Islands. It was the first marriage for both.
Zellweger - Chesney
Ordered to Stay in Rehab
Tom Sizemore
Tom Sizemore was ordered Thursday to remain in a live-in drug rehabilitation program for another 30 days, but he can leave to work and attend charity events.
Sizemore has been living at Las Encinas treatment center in Pasadena for 72 days.
One of Sizemore's lawyers, Michael Rovell, asked the judge to allow the actor to leave the treatment center with a "sober companion" on occasion. The judge agreed but said Sizemore must have an immediate drug test each time he returns.
Tom Sizemore
Auction Draws Crowds
Dizzie Gillespie
Dizzie Gillespie can still draw a paying crowd. An auction of items from the late jazz legend's Englewood home drew musicians, former colleagues and Web site viewers from as far away as Switzerland.
Among items that were auctioned Wednesday was a gold-plated piccolo trumpet that fetched $1,200 and a dog license for the musician's pet poodle, Maestro, which sold for $90. Nearly 1,000 lots were up for bid.
Other items sold included a signed photo with a love message to Gillespie's wife, which sold for $12,000; letters from every U.S. president from John F. Kennedy to Bill Clinton; and a few campaign buttons from Gillespie's half-serious run for president in 1964, during which he drew attention to the civil rights movement.
Dizzie Gillespie
Adds Hurricane Channel
Dish Network
EchoStar Communications Corp. said Thursday it has added a channel dedicated to Hurricane Katrina relief efforts to The Dish Network satellite television service.
The Katrina Information Network, developed by Washington-based Flying Colors Broadcasts, will be available to Dish customers free while the Gulf Coast is rebuilding.
The channel broadcasts updates from relief agencies as well as key information such as telephone numbers and a survivors' list, EchoStar said.
Dish Network
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