Maureen Dowd: A Tale of two Women (New York Times)
Rarely have there been two such intriguing women at the heart of such a dramatic true story. The first, a smart, prickly, compulsive C.I.A. operative in her 30s, is the real-life Carrie Mathison (minus the slutty behavior at work).
Froma Harrop: Crashing Federal Hypocrisy on Pot (Creators Syndicate)
Ah, the great American West, where man can generally breathe free and also inhale - woman, too. Thank you, thank you, voters in Colorado and Washington state, for legalizing marijuana. But will Washington, D.C., leave you alone? Attorney General Eric Holder said this week that the Justice Department will weigh its response to the state referenda.
Susan Estrich: David Geffen's Gift (Creators Syndicate)
Praising things associated with UCLA is not part of my usual repertoire. But giving $100 million so that 33 students in next year's class can graduate with no debt at all is a gift worth notice even by a loyal Trojan.
George Dvorsky: Why You Should Probably Stop Eating Wheat (io9)
For many, the thought of eliminating these staples from our diets seems wholly unreasonable, if not ludicrous. But a growing number of people are switching to wheat-free diets - and for very good reason. As science is increasingly showing, eating wheat increases the potential for a surprising number of health problems.
Dino Grandoni: Google Porn Just Got More Difficult To Search For (Huffington Post)
For years, even the most innocent of Google searches might have pulled up a naughty picture or link. But thanks to a new tweak to Google's search algorithm that seems to have taken effect on Wednesday in the U.S., your Google inquiries are totally SFW -- unless you don't want them to be.
The citron is a fragrant citrus fruit, botanically classified as Citrus medica by both the Swingle and Tanaka systems. The designation medica given it by Linnaeus is apparently derived from its ancient name "Median or Persian apple" that was reported by Theophrastus, who believed it to be native to Persia or the land of the Medes; there is no relation to medicinal uses of the fruit.
The citron has been cultivated since ancient times, predating the cultivation of other citrus species.
Source
Alan J was first, and correct, with:
Citron
Charlie wrote:
Citron (citrus medica)
The Citron's place of origin is unknown but seeds were found in Mesopotamian excavations dating back to 4000 B.C.
Spaniards probably brought the Citron with other Citrus species to St. Augustine in Florida but it survived there only in greenhouses. Today the Citron is grown in southern Florida only occasionally as a curiosity. Citron trees are not uncommon in some of the Pacific Islands but are rare in the Philippines.
Adam answered:
Citron.
Jim from CA, retired to ID, responded:
The citron has been cultivated since ancient times, predating the
cultivation of other citrus species
Sally said:
The citron has been cultivated since ancient times, predating the cultivation of other citrus species.
Doin' his thing...
PS: I too loved Ravi Shankar especially back in the George Harrison days... That being said, We all love Norah Jones, but Ravi had another daughter, Anoushka, who also plays the sitar. I once saw her play, and when she sits down on the floor, and takes up her instrument, she is makes a classical presentation, and her music is so beautiful, she takes your breath away. No joke.
Anoushka Shankar
Dale of Diamond Springs replied:
Probably the Orange. Not sure! There's a plethora of conflicting histories on which citrus fruit came first. And no, I not going to do images of naked famous fruits!
Some believe that citrus trees were first in Southeast Asia around 4000 BC, others feel that the trees Citrus medica L came from India and Alexander the Great introduced them into Greece, North Africa and Turkey around 350 B.C.
CBS begins the night with the chestnut 'Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer', followed by 'Yes, Virginia', then 'The Elf On The Shelf: An Elf's Story', followed by a RERUN'Blue Bloods'.
Scheduled on a FRESHDave are Samuel L. Jackson, Carrie Brownstein, Fred Armisen, Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit.
Scheduled on a FRESHCraig are Bradley Cooper and Wolfgang Puck.
NBC starts the night with the RERUN'Blake Shelton's Not So Family Christmas', followed by a FRESH'Take It All', then 'Dateline'.
Scheduled on a FRESHLeno are Bette Midler, Judd Apatow, and Pentatonix.
Scheduled on a FRESHJimmy Fallon are Christoph Waltz, Amy Sedaris, the guys from RecordSetter, and Martha Wainwright.
On a RERUNCarson 'The Scab' Daly (from 12/3/12) are Danai Gurira, Philippe Cousteau Jr., and Titus Andronicus.
ABC opens the night with a FRESH'Last Man Standing', followed by a FRESH'Malibu Country', then a RERUN'Shark Tank', followed by '20/20'.
On a RERUNJimmy Kimmel (from 11/15/12) are Mel Brooks, Jake Tapper, and Jason Aldean.
The CW offers the FRESH, but weeks old, and edited, 'Hollywood Christmas Parade'.
Faux has a FRESH'Kitchen Nightmares', followed by a FRESH'Fringe'.
MY has an old 'Monk', followed by another old 'Monk'.
AMC offers the movie 'White Christmas', followed by the movie 'White Christmas', again.
BBC -
[6:00AM] BBC WORLD NEWS
[7:00AM] BBC WORLD NEWS
[8:00AM] THE GRAHAM NORTON SHOW - Season 9 - Ep 2 - k.d. lang, Bill Bailey, Jennifer Hudson
[9:00AM] TORCHWOOD - Season 2 - Ep 12 - Fragments
[10:00AM] DOCTOR WHO - Season 2 - Ep 1 - New Earth
[11:00AM] BATTLESTAR GALACTICA - Season 3 - Ep 13 - Taking a Break From All Your Worries
[12:00PM] RAMSAY'S KITCHEN NIGHTMARES REVISITED UK - Season 1 - Ep 1 - Glasshouse
[1:00PM] RAMSAY'S KITCHEN NIGHTMARES UK - Season 3 - Ep 1 - La Parra de Burriana
[2:00PM] RAMSAY'S KITCHEN NIGHTMARES REVISITED US - Season 1 - Episode 1
[3:00PM] STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION - Season 7 - Ep 13 - Homeward
[4:00PM] STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION - Season 7 - Ep 14 - Sub Rosa
[5:00PM] STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION - Season 7 - Ep 15 - Lower Decks
[6:00PM] STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION - Season 7 - Ep 16 - Thine Own Self
[7:00PM] STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION - Season 7 - Ep 17 - Masks
[8:00PM] STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION - Season 7 - Ep 18 - Eye of the Beholder
[9:00PM] BATMAN RETURNS
[11:30PM] BATMAN RETURNS
[2:00AM] STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION - Season 7 - Ep 13 - Homeward
[3:00AM] STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION - Season 7 - Ep 14 - Sub Rosa
[4:00AM] STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION - Season 7 - Ep 15 - Lower Decks
[5:00AM] STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION - Season 7 - Ep 16 - Thine Own Self (ALL TIMES EST)
Bravo has 'Shahs Of Sunset', another 'Shahs Of Sunset', 'Real Housewives Of Atlanta', and another 'Real Housewives Of Atlanta'.
Comedy Central has last night's 'Colbert Report', last night's 'Jon Stewart', 'Tosh.0', another 'Tosh.0', followed by the movie 'The 40-Year-Old Virgin'.
FX has the movie 'The Other Guys', followed by 'UFC On FX'.
IFC -
[6:00AM] Whitest Kids U'Know
[6:15AM] 2001: A Space Odyssey
[9:15AM] Slayground
[11:15AM] The Good, the Bad, the Weird
[2:15PM] 2001: A Space Odyssey
[5:15PM] Star Trek: Nemesis
[7:45PM] Transporter 3
[10:00PM] Whisker Wars-The O'Connors Strike Back
[10:30PM] Portlandia-Winter in Portlandia
[11:00PM] Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter
[1:00AM] Whisker Wars-The O'Connors Strike Back
[1:30AM] Portlandia-Winter in Portlandia
[2:00AM] Transporter 3
[4:15AM] Whitest Kids U'Know
[4:45AM] Whitest Kids U'Know
[5:00AM] The Ben Stiller Show
[5:30AM] Whitest Kids U'Know (ALL TIMES EST)
Sundance -
[6:00A] FREAKS AND GEEKS - Dead Dogs and Gym Teachers (Episode 14, Season 1)
[7:00A] Change of Plans
[8:45A] Pablo's Hippos
[10:15A] Freezing
[11:45A] Change of Plans
[1:30P] Pablo's Hippos
[3:00P] Freezing
[4:30P] Blown Away
[6:45P] Broadcast News
[9:00P] RESTLESS - Part 2
[11:00P] Rosemary's Baby
[1:30A] Broadcast News
[3:45A] Blown Away (ALL TIMES EST)
SyFy has 'Syfy 20th Anniversary Special', followed by a FRESH'WWE Steroid SmackDown!', then a 'Haven'.
Eric Clapton performs during the "12-12-12" benefit concert for victims of Superstorm Sandy at Madison Square Garden in New York December 12, 2012.
Photo by Lucas Jackson
Carole King has a friend in the Library of Congress. She's the first woman to win the library's Gershwin Prize for Popular Song.
In her five decades of songwriting, King's hits have included "You've Got a Friend," ''So Far Away" and "(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman." The library said Thursday that King will be the fifth person to receive the prize. Prior recipients include Stevie Wonder and Paul McCartney.
King will receive the prize in the spring and says in a statement that she looks forward to performing in Washington. Honorees are typically saluted at the White House.
Danica McKellar attends the premiere of "This Is 40" at Grauman's Chinese Theatre on Wednesday, Dec. 12, 2012, in Los Angeles.
Photo by Todd Williamson
Nearly four in 10 U.S. residents say the severity of recent natural disasters such as Superstorm Sandy is evidence the world is coming to an end, as predicted by the Bible, while more than six in 10 blame it on climate change, according to a poll released on Thursday.
The survey by the Public Religion Research Institute in partnership with the Religion News Service found political and religious disagreement on what is behind severe weather, which this year has included extreme heat and drought.
Most Catholics (60 percent) and white non-evangelical Protestants (65 percent) say they believe disasters like hurricanes and floods are the result of climate change.
But nearly two-thirds (65 percent) of white evangelical Protestants say they think the storms are evidence of the "end times" as predicted by the Bible.
PRRI research director Daniel Cox said that some respondents - including 75 percent of non-white Protestants - believe extreme weather is both evidence of end times and the result of climate change.
For years, the somber fairy tale about a lonely candle who wanted to be lit dwelt in oblivion at the bottom of a box in Denmark's National Archives. Its recent discovery has sent ripples through the literary world because it is believed to be one of the first tales ever written by Hans Christian Andersen.
The famed Dane wrote nearly 160 fairy tales in his life, including classics such as "The Ugly Duckling" and "The Little Mermaid." The tale of the candle may have been written when he was still a teen, experts say.
Retired historian Esben Brage said Thursday that he found the six-page text on Oct. 4 while searching through archive boxes that had belonged to wealthy families from Andersen's hometown of Odense in central Denmark.
The handwritten copy of the tale, entitled "Tallow Candle," and dedicated to a vicar's widow named Bunkeflod who had lived across from Andersen's home, had been left seemingly untouched at the bottom of one of the boxes.
Actor Hugh Jackman (R), his wife Deborra-Lee Furness and children, Oscar Jackman and Ava Jackman, pose during ceremonies honoring Jackman with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in Hollywood, Thursday, Dec. 13, 2012.
Photo by Jonathan Alcorn
How did a right-to-work law pass in the union stronghold of Michigan?
Reuters credits a rookie Republican state legislator, who began his uphill battle nearly two years ago to pass the bill-signed into law on Wednesday by Gov. Rick Snyder-that is expected to dramatically curtail the power of unions in the state. The law makes it illegal to compel nonunion employees who benefit from a union contract to pay dues to the union.
State Rep. Patrick Colbeck, an engineer who took his seat in the Statehouse in early 2011, quickly attracted big-name Republican donors like the billionaire Koch brothers to his cause. Eventually, Colbeck persuaded some of his more union-friendly Republican colleagues to vote for the legislation. Snyder, who ran as a moderate Republican in 2010, said he would sign the bill if it passed, even though he didn't personally join the right-to-work campaign.
The law easily passed the Republican-controlled legislature earlier this week, as an estimated 10,000 people surrounded the Capitol in protest.
Right-to-work supporters also say the unions shot themselves in the foot when they tried to amend the constitution by ballot initiative in November to say the legislature cannot limit collective bargaining rights. The initiative failed and gave right-to-work supporters the impression that Michigan would be ready for the law, despite its deep union roots. The state is now the 24th in the union to have a right-to-work law on its books.
HarperCollins, a division of News Corp, has been accused by a conservation group of using materials sourced from Indonesia's endangered rainforests.
Independent forensic fiber tests commissioned by the Rainforest Action Network (RAN), showed that some of HarperCollins' children's books were printed with rainforest fiber.
Indonesia has some of the world's most biologically diverse forests and is home to endangered species such as the Sumatran tiger.
"No child or parent should become an unwitting participant in rainforest destruction this holiday season," said Robin Averbeck, a forest campaigner at RAN.
Averbeck called on HarperCollins not to do business with Indonesian paper firms Asia Pacific Resources International (APRIL) and Asia Pulp and Paper Co Ltd (APP). APP has been accused by other green groups of destroying rainforests.
Singer Bruce Springsteen performs with Jon Bon Jovi (R) and drummer Max Weingberg during the "12-12-12" benefit concert for victims of Superstorm Sandy at Madison Square Garden in New York December 12, 2012.
Photo by Lucas Jackson
Jackie Chan suggests in a recent interview that protests should be restricted in the freewheeling Chinese city of Hong Kong.
The action star lamented that Hong Kong has become a city of protest, where people "scold China, scold the leaders, scold anything, protest against anything."
"There should be regulations on what can and cannot be protested," Chan told the Southern People Weekly, which published his comments Wednesday. He didn't say what kinds of protests he thought should be restricted.
The star of movies such as "Rush Hour" and "Rumble in the Bronx" triggered a backlash three years ago with similar comments on the need to restrict freedom in his hometown.
Cast member Ava Sambora arrives at the premiere of the movie "This is 40" with her mother Actress Heather Locklear at Grauman's Chinese Theatre in Hollywood, California December 12, 2012.
Photo by Patrick Fallon
A Polish man who defaced a Mark Rothko painting in London's Tate Modern gallery with black ink to promote an obscure artistic creed was sentenced Thursday to two years in jail.
Wlodzimierz Umaniec, also known as Vladimir Umanets, was arrested after visitors discovered a scrawl across the bottom of Rothko's "Black on Maroon" on Oct 7.
The 26-year-old later said he had written the words "a potential piece of yellowism" on the abstract painting to draw attention to Yellowism, an artistic movement he co-founded. A manifesto on the website thisisyellowism.com expounds upon the terms "art" and defines the concept as "not art or anti-art."
Umaniec pleaded guilty to criminal damage over 5,000 pounds ($8,000). Prosecution lawyer Gregor McKinley said restoring the painting would cost around 200,000 pounds ($320,000) and take up to 20 months.
Passing sentence at Inner London Crown Court, judge Roger Chapple said it was "wholly and utterly unacceptable" to promote the movement by damaging a work of art that had been "a gift to the nation."
Hollywood Foreign Press Association President Aida Takla-O'Reilly (L-R), Actress Megan Fox, Actor Ed Helms and Actress Jessica Alba pose for photographers at the announcement of nominations for the Golden Globes in Beverly Hills, Dec. 13, 2012.
Photo by Phil McCarten
French actor Gerard Depardieu, accused of trying to escape the taxman by buying a house just over the border in Belgium, has put his sumptuous Parisian home up for sale.
Depardieu, the latest wealthy Frenchman to seek shelter from government tax hikes, is selling a vast early 19th-century manor house in the Saint Germain district of the capital, playground of writers, jazz musicians and art dealers over the decades.
His real estate agent declined to say how much he was asking for a property that is on a list of protected national monuments and, as well as the main house, has a swimming pool, landscaped gardens and an ultramodern annex that once served as a theatre.
News of the Parisian sale plan came a day after French Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault described Depardieu's behavior as "pathetic" and unpatriotic at a time when the French are being asked to pay higher taxes to reduce a bloated national debt.
Cast member Albert Brooks (R) and his wife Kimberly Shlain arrive at the premiere of the movie "This is 40" at Grauman's Chinese Theatre in Hollywood, California December 12, 2012.
Photo by Patrick T Fallon
The Top 20 Concert Tours ranks artists by average box office gross per city and includes the average ticket price for shows in North America. The previous week's ranking is in parentheses. The list is based on data provided to the trade publication Pollstar by concert promoters and venue managers.
1. (2) Barbra Streisand; $4,065,743; $263.52.
2. (1) Madonna; $4,003,712; $179.49.
3. (3) Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band; $2,649,287; $92.77.
4. (4) Justin Bieber; $1,217,217; $75.72.
5. (5) Peter Gabriel; $824,571; $97.30.
6. (New) Leonard Cohen; $802,626; $97.65.
7. (6) Red Hot Chili Peppers; $713,443; $57.27.
8. (7) Jason Aldean; $685,694; $37.79.
9. (8) Zac Brown Band; $671,272; $45.49.
10. (9) Brad Paisley; $586,944; $42.23.
11. (12) Journey; $518,869; $63.10.
12. (11) Carrie Underwood; $508,172; $58.84.
13. (10) Rascal Flatts; $495,683; $41.15.
14. (13) Bob Dylan; $396,183; $73.61.
15. (14) Luke Bryan; $368,597; $34.98.
16. (15) Eric Church; $312,442; $40.63.
17. (18) Train; $231,194; $48.46.
18. (17) Big Time Rush; $228,369; $43.63.
19. (19) Wiz Khalifa; $190,273; $40.64.
20. (20) Bonnie Raitt; $151,167; $59.23.
Polar bear cub Lomonosov (L) plays with his mother Uslada in Leningrad Zoo in St Petersburg December 13, 2012. Lomonosov, 1, born in St Petersburg, will be sent to Yakutsk zoo next week.
Photo by Alexander Demianchuk
You have reached the Home page of BartCop Entertainment.
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Go ahead, scratch it if it itches.
The idea is to have fun.
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How about a favorite TV show, movie, book, play, cartoon, or legal amusement?
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A box set the whole world should own?
Vile, filthy rumors about Republican hypocrites?
Just plain vile, filthy rumors?
wrote:
took the day off.
took the day off.
